SAGA AAR: Late Romans vs Goths

c. 451, somewhere in Pannonia:

We had won the battle and pillaged the Hunnic fort; it was no longer the time of rage and death but the time of laughter and songs of victory. Anyway, that's how the evening should have been, but that doesn't take into account the pettiness of our allies, the cursed Goths... May God strike them down! The men had started to celebrate the victory when the time came for us warlords to divide the spoils. And then, what did I hear? That son of a bitch wants more than half the total? His men had only to kill some beardless shepherd while I faced, sword in hand, a Hun so evil that he might have been the scourge of God himself? So yes, faced with such dishonesty, I got a little angry and... killed him. Then, even though we were drunk like pigs, I ordered my men to slaughter them all! 

~

Last week we played a game of SAGA, the fast paced Dark Age wargame. We both used our armies from the late ancients. Barend commanded his Romans while I lead the rebellious Goths. 

Every faction in SAGA has a unique
Battleboard, here you see the Gothic one.

SAGA is an interesting skirmish wargame. While the mechanics do not exactly simulate realistic warfare like other more complex wargames might, the gameplay is truly a lot of fun. The most obvious part of SAGA which sets it apart from other wargames is it's use of Battleboards. Every turn you get a limited amount of dice to spend on your Battleboard. You use these dice to activate your troops or to give them certain bonuses or even special abilities. 
Because the dice are quite limited you always have to make compromises: Am I going to activate lots of men, or am I going to activate a single unit and give them as many bonusses as possible? 

Another interesting part of SAGA is it's fatigue system. Units build up fatigue which hamper their ability to fight or even move. You can also use your enemies fatigue points to give them all kinds of penalties. 

The scenario we played describes a camp brawl between two factions within the same army. In this case Romans and Goths, which actually sounds quite plausible, as Goths were regularly incorporated into the legions of the Roman Empire. 

The deployment rules for this scenario are interesting; as we're dealing with a camp brawl, we could effectively deploy our individual units anywhere on the table. So our initial deployment looked like this:

How both armies deployed.

My Goths we're the first to move. Since I had, rather visciously, deployed my mounted warriors directly behind the Roman archers, I was eager to charge them in the rear. This attack did not go as planned though, and I lost two of my four mounted warriors, while I only managed to kill three of his eight archers. Not a good trade! 

The sneaky Goths charge the Roman archers.

The horsemen retreated and I decided to save my activations for the next turn. This way I would have more dice to spent in the second turn.

Barend's Romans did much better. Or, to be specific, his Roman did much better. Indeed, the Roman warlord Julius Regina (not a historic Roman warlord) surged into my hearthguard of heavily armored footmen and killed two out of four, while my Goths couldn't even dent his gold plated mask. 

The Roman warlord Julius Regina charges forward.

Barend's incredible roll.

On the second turn I figured I'd teach Regina a lesson and I sent in another group of four mounted warriors to wipe that Roman smirk of his face. I used almost everything on my Battleboard to sent them into a shattering charge fueled by epic rage. But again, disaster struck. As if protected by divine intervention, Regina managed to fend of the attack. I bet the Goths started to seriously doubt if arianism was really the true form of christianity at this point... (In reality, Barend rolled an almost impossible amount of 6's, saving every hit.)

The mighty duel between Euric and Julius Regina

In the third turn the battle started to shift in favor of the good guys (the Goths, that is). A great duel commenced between my own warlord, the mighty Euric, and the honorless Julius Regina. Revenge was sweet when Regina's head finally fell to the ground. Now, blinded by my newfound confidence, I ordered Euric to charge for a second time, destroying three out four of Barends Roman hearthguard. While these warlords are evidently not to be messed with, Euric was now heavily fatigued at the start of the fourth turn. And so, the lone Roman legionary, taking his chance, used the last of his remaining strength to hurl his plumbata towards the Gothic warlord, hitting his mark and killing him instantly! So much for the warlords. 

The courageous legionary kills the Gothic 
warlord with a plumbata.

Meanwhile, my mounted hearthguard who deployed behind the Romans attack the archers once more. This time they kill two out of five with no casualties. There's no time to celebrate the victory though, Barend's Roman horsemen are on the way to have their revenge. Obviously outnumbered, I retreat and a chase commences. 

The lone Roman hero who killed my commander died in the fifth turn. Ruthlessly cut down by my mounted hearthguard. Victory on the battlefield seemed close. Hoping to completely wipe the Romans off the table, I ordered my eight Gothic warriors to charge the eight Roman warriors. This did not go well... the Gothic warriors we're probaby tired after a night of heavy drinking and only managed to kill three Romans in the charge, while suffering five casualties. 

Possibly still drunk warriors ready to charge into their doom.

In the sixth and last turn the chase between the two groups of horsemen ended with my two Goths eventually killing off the whole group of four Roman horsemen. Those Goths are a hardy bunch. After one last failed attempt by the Romans to kill the Gothic mounted hearthguard, the game ends. Goths win! The loot is ours! But at what cost?

Cheers,

Merijn

The end of the round.