Saga Terrain

A beautiful winter terrain set up for Saga Age of Magic which I poached from a Sage blog. Everything looks great, I see a forest, a low hill, as well as what looks like a marsh. 

I have been playing SAGA since it was first released in 2011, and I have played even more frequently since the second edition appeared in 2018. Over the past three years, SAGA has clearly become the most popular game at our historical wargaming club in Montreal. David K. has done a terrific job supporting the game, organizing two SAGA nights each month, an annual Grande Mêlée, and, most recently, a three-table Norman Invasion Day.

I enjoy SAGA, even though it is more of a game than a historical simulation. There is a great deal of fun in assembling warbands and working out the intricacies of each battle board. I am not especially good at mastering them, but I do manage to win the occasional game.

For me, SAGA has two downsides. The first is more my problem than a problem with the game itself: it can be extremely competitive, as demonstrated by the many SAGA tournaments held around the world. We have several very good players in our club, although I would consider only a couple of them overly competitive. That is perfectly fine, but occasionally you find yourself thinking before a game, “This may not be a fun night out.” On the positive side, it is still an evening spent with friends, and losing has never been a big concern for me.

The other weakness—and it does not affect every game—is the terrain. For me, much of the pleasure of wargaming comes from its visual appeal, and I enjoy putting attractive terrain on the table. With SAGA, however, this can be challenging. Accurate measurement is extremely important to some players, as it should be. I tend to take a more laissez-faire approach, although I am trying to improve.

Terrain with a vertical element, such as a hill, can make accurate measurement difficult. The same is true when trees or other features are permanently fixed to a terrain base. To solve this problem, many players use flat terrain pieces printed with images of woods, marshes, fields, and other features. This eliminates the difficulties associated with three-dimensional terrain, but, to be honest, it also detracts from the overall appearance of the game. I have noticed that this approach is particularly common at tournaments.

I therefore decided to see whether I could solve the problem—or at least solve it for myself. SAGA uses a standardized terrain setup, with maximum dimensions of approximately 30 × 30 cm for large terrain pieces and 20 × 20 cm for small ones. Smaller pieces can be used, but I think most players would consider doing so a significant disadvantage.

After giving the matter some thought, I designed both large and small terrain bases, along with separate three-dimensional pieces representing the different types of terrain used in the game. These features are not permanently attached, so they can easily be moved aside to allow accurate measurement and the convenient movement of troops. Most of the terrain components were produced using a 3D printer.

This is what I came up with.

The vertical pieces that block line of sight are all more than 35mm high.

Clockwise from the top; a large forest, a small marsh, a large hill, a large steep hill, a small scrub land, a small rocky ground with a small ruin in the middle. 

A recent game with the terrain pieces.

Well that is all, by no means does it look as good as modelled 3D terrain but it does work.

Wargaming Eras

 

One of our Wargaming Club members has put together an excellent overview of the historical eras explored by wargamers. It is one of the best summaries of historical wargaming I have seen, highlighting the most common types of games played in each period. As a bonus, he has included photographs of his beautiful miniature collection.

Well worth a look!

Wargaming Workshop

Five Parsecs from Home

 

Yes, this is an Historical Wargaming site. But I like Science Fiction especially Asimov, Heinlein and Bradbury. I have been looking for something to play solo here in Salem. Someone on our Wargaming Discord suggested Five Parsecs from Home. I had a look and said why not. I bought the rulebook, it is quite nice and detailed, but then I had to find some figures. 

For the crew, I decided to go with some retro figures and after a good look around with a lot of good advice from the members of the club, I decided on Hydra Miniatures. They had a lot of great figures but after a good look, I decided to go with the Retro Raygun Galacteers. 

For the enemy, I went with the Shasvastii from the Infinity Universe. I was hoping to buy them from the Abyss but they did not have this specific type in stock. They were a little difficult to assemble and paint in comparison to the Hydra Miniatures but it all ended up good.

And finally I needed some terrain. After a look around Battle Systems seem to have some nice kit so I bought Trader Encampment box set. The terrain is cardboard but was really of good quality and with that and the included map, I seem all set.

Here are some photos.

I have started my first adventure but more about that later.

Age of Invasions Campaign- Franks vs Saxons (S1,G2)

The second game in the first season of our Last Age of the Eagle campaign was played at the Abyss about 3 weeks ago. In this game, my Franks carry on after their minor defeat at the hands of some marauding Romans and move on to the island of Briton to do a Raid on the Saxons.

The Battle

Scenario: Scared Ground

 Post Battle Sequence

That was a tough game but on to Season 2!

Full Nelson Playtest

One member of our wargaming club in Montreal has signed on as a play tester for a new set of Age of Sail rules from Too Fat Lardies. Graham has had one game with Pierre-Yves with v1 of the rules but since then v1.1 has been released so myself and Graham decided to have a go. 

Since these rules are not yet in public release, I will be limited in what I say in respect to the rules themselves. I do understand the rules writer Charlie Walker has been working on these rules for years as an alternative to the older TFL set Kiss Me Hardy.

We played with a frigate and a brig each, and I have to say these rules are very nice indeed and very easy to pick up. We made a few errors especially in respect to movement and I can say that the general mechanic of the game is somewhat similar to What a Cowboy in activation. I will leave it there but I am really looking forward to my next game.

 

Age of Invasions Campaign: Romans vs Franks (S1,G1)

One of the Saga players in our club has put together a campaign for Age of Invasions incorporating the Age of the Wolf and Saga 2. Robbie has put an enormous amount of work into the campaign and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. Five players have signed up for the campaign for season 1 but I see the Welsh have showed up for season 2.

We played the first season in the month of July, the Franks decided to go on a Raid specifically across the water into the lands of the Saxons. Unfortunately on their way before they crossed the sea, they ran into a warband of Romans, who had decided to Campaign against them.

So my first encounter in the campaign was an Ambush against Gavin's Romans.

The Battle

Scenario: Turning of the Tides

Well it was closely fought but a clear victory for the Romans. They were much better at capturing objectives and keeping them.

Post Battle Sequence

Storming the Citadel-Game 5

We played the 5th game in our Storming the Citadel campaign several days ago at the Abyss. This was on table 6 as Graham (Soviets) had made a decision to withdraw from table 5 without defending it. This allowed him to get a new platoon and consolidate his forces. This gave him an extra section automatically as well as his supports. I decided to bring on my second platoon as well. The scenario was Attack on an Objective and was played as laid out in version 2 of the Chain of Command ruleset with the only limitation being the supports as laid out in the campaign.

Here are the JOPs with the PMs still on the table. This is looking from the German left flank with the German entry in the farground. My JOPs were all in the rough ground. You can not see it but the Soviets had a JOP behind a hill in near right on the table.

Forces

Germans (FM 10)

1942 Panzergrenadier Platoon (no. 2)

Supports 12

PGB
SdKfz 251
SL
PZII
Kublewagon

Soviets (FM 8)

1942 Soviet Rifle Platoon (no.2) with extra infantry section

Supports 9

Marsh
DSHK HMG Tm
Flame Thrower Tm
ATR

Game

I believe I might have been a little aggressive in this game when I deployed. I had 3 mobile units with the plan to advance them rapidly and capture the JOP behind the hill. I was able to do this with a team in the Kubelwagon (this should have just been a scout team). The PzII and the 251 both also deployed early to lay down fire. I placed all my squads also down into the 2 areas of rough ground. Graham was cautious in deploying his sections, I should have waited and I am not sure in retrospect if my approach should have been on my left flank. Notwithstanding the Soviets deployed a section which quickly destroyed the LMG team in the Kubelwagon. At this point my FM was better then the Soviets and I had lost about the same amount of men but my initial plan had failed. I felt it best to withdraw ceding victory to the Soviets. I had reach table 6 in 5 turns and I felt I had time to reassess my plan of attack.

Summing Up

What a Cowboy: High Noon

I recently put on a game of What a Cowboy at one of our club meetings. There does not appear to be a lot of interest in western skirmish games at our club although three of our members have put on regular games at our club as they have both the terrain and the figures. Several games of Deadman's Hand as well as What a Cowboy have been put on in the past.

I did feel fortunate to attract both William and Gavin to have a game, neither do I think have played this genre before. I put together 2 posses consisting of 2 characters each, Blondie led one posse while Tuco lead the second. I made the characters vanilla and there was one gunslinger with a Six Shooter and one Shootist with a Winchester per side. 

I just took a couple of photos, we played out in the desert and took the High Noon scenario. 

I think the game went pretty well, I was a bit rusty on the rules, as aside from one game which I was a participant in a couple of months ago, I had not put a game on in a couple of years. I am hoping Gavin and William had a good time they both said that they will play the ruleset again. I think with 2 players, I would go with 4 characters per side next time. I had a good read of the rules the day after the game and I had done better than I thought I would. Most mistakes were made with the dodging rules and I really did not have a good handle when characters are forced off the table.