Lhe Basics Luck is one thing, brave deeds another. Grettír's Saga

UN)[l['§

In SAGA figures are arranged into units consisting of between

4 and 12 models. No unit can start with less than four figures

or more than twelve. We will see in the chapter dealing with

Movement how these figures rnove and behave as units.

Figures will need to be based. There are no fixed rules for

basing in SAGA. To be honest, during the developrnent of this

garne we ha ve u sed figures based on round washers, on square 1" bases and even sorne rnulti-based. Also there is no such

thing as facing in this garne, we assurne that the rnodels see all

around and don't suffer any penalty for fighting to their si des.

You shouldn't get any advantage frorn your basing, and, as a

rule of thumb, no base should exceed 3crns in length or width

(for mounted rnodels it should not exceed 6crns in length or

\vidth) although we allow Warlords to be based on larger bases

(up to 4crns for foot, 8crns for rnounted) as befits such larger than life characters!

See sorne examples of basing below:

Each figure has a class. There are four classes in SAGA, each

representing a different kind of warrior.

The four classes are:

• Hearthguard: The most powerful retainers at your disposal,

usually the household troops of your lord such as Anglo­

Danish Huscarls or Norrnan knights.

• Warriors: The bulk of the fighting rnen gathering when t heir lord asks for their service. They are usually non-professional

or part-time warriors and are less well arrned and trained

than the Hearthguard. As such, the terrn Warrior can cover a

wide range of troops such as thegns, ceorls or bondi.

• Levies or peasants: Give thern a sling, a bow or even sorne

stones and you rnight be surprised. Might.

• Warlord: Leading these warriors is the Warlord. Unlike other

rnodels, he is a unit in his own right and acts separately. He is

considered a Hearthguard, but has sorne special abilities and

irnproved characteristics.

Each class has two different characteristics: Movernent and

Arrnour. With a few exceptions, all figures that belong to a

single class will share the sarne characteristics. For exarnple, an Anglo-Danish Huscarl ( frorn the Hearthguard class) will

have the sarne Movernent and Arrnour as his Viking Hirdman

counterpart. But we will see in due course that there are sorne

extra, faction specific rules that can make thern different, and

that they w ill behave slightly differently on the battlefield.

Movement is usually 1\1[ (see below what it means) or JL for

mounted models. Armour goes from 2 to 6 and is the target

number that your opponent will have to score to hit yo u with a

ranged or hand-to-hand attack. An Armour value m ay never be

lower than to 2 or higher than 6, no matter the modifiers being

u sed.

lDlll§TANCJE§

As we mentioned earlier, there are four different measure

distances in SAGA. They are:

• Very Short Distance, referred as V§ and that is 2" (scms) long

• Short Distance, referred as§ and that is 4" (1ocms) long

• Medium Distance, referred as 1\1[ and that is 6" (15cms) long

• Long Distance, referred as JL and that is 12" (3ocms) long

We will use the abbreviations above in this rulebook so, if you

see that a bow can shoot ata maximum range of lL, it means

that it can shoot up to 12". lf we state that a Anglo-Danish

Hearthguard has a Movement of §, his movement is actually

4"· We cannot recommend enough that yo u use sticks ( either

self made or bought) as they are far handier to use than a tape

measure! See below an example of measuring sticks used

during the development of this game:

All distan ces can be meas u red at any time during the game.

Sometimes you will see written that a " unit must be within x"

("x" being either V§,§, Ml or lL). lt means that the

aforementioned unit must have at least one model within X to

fulfil the requirement. You don't need to have all models

within "X", unless specifically written.

TJHllETURN

The game turn alternates between each player. Turns can be

rather short compared to other games (at least once the pi ayer

are used to the mechanisms of SAGA) and the game should

keep a ni ce flow.

With the exception of the first action a player takes in his turn, the turn structure is notas fixed as it is in many other wargames.

The turn starts with the pi ayer whose turn it is rolling their SAGA

dice and then allocating the results to his Battle Board (this

phase is know as the Orders phase ). After that, the pi ayer is free

to actívate his units and to use the abilities he has paid for with

his dice on the Battle Board in any sequence. When that player

has finished activating units and spent all the SAGA dice on his

Battle Board, his turn is over. His opponent then takes his SAGA

dice, ro lis them, and so on, until the game draws to an end.

lFRACTllON§

At sorne point in these rules we refer to fractions, as 1/2. In all

these cases, the fractions are rounded up. So, for example, if

an effect says yo u lose 1/2 of your dice and you ha ve 5 dice, yo u

willlose 3 dice.

MU§TlERllNG TJH[]E ~VARJB\ANlDl

The way that warbands are organised is dealt with in a

dedicated chapter although the principies are simple: you get a number of points to spend on figures, you organize them into

units and then you are ready to fight. For your first games, to

makes the learning curve easier, we suggest that yo u start with

the smallest format of four points (the standard format being

six points). As explained later, each point gives you a number

of figures, depending of the class of figure you bought (for

example, one point w ill give you 4 Hearthguards, 8 Warriors or

12 Levies). Then, you will be able to organise these models into

fighting units, between 4 and 12 models strong, all composed

of models of the same class.

When yo u ha ve finished your choice of troops, yo u will get your

Warlord forfree, unless yo u choose to pick one of the Heroes of

the Viking Age, historical characters that we have shamelessly

shanghaied into our skirmish game.

Lhe ÜRdeRS phase The run of the game is decided by the first move. Fóstbrceara's Saga

§A.GA D][CE & AJBJIJUTY JB\OXE§

At the start of your turn, take your SAGA dice and roll them.

The number of SAGA dice to be rolled is equal to the number of

units you have on the table up toa maximum of six SAGA dice.

Levies do not count as units for this purpose and your Warlord

counts as two units.

Example: your warband is made of two units of Hearthguard, one

unit of Warriors, two units of Levies and your Warlord. You will

have five SAGA dice - one for each unit of Hearthguard, one for

the Warriors and two for your Warlord.

Usually, at the start of the first turn of the game, yo u w ill get to

roll six dice, but this number may decrease as yo u lose units.

After the dice are rolled, each one of them will show a symbol.

These symbols w ill be used on your Battle Board to "pay" for

the abilities that your Battle Board provides.

Let's take a look at one of the fifteen boxes that your Battle

Board displays. We call them SAGA ABILITIES:

• EXHAUSTION

l Orders Discard this die to target an enemy Exhausted unit. Eliminate two figures from that unit. Then discard a FATIGUE from that unit. You may not target a Warlord with this ability.

At the top of the box, in bold type, is the na me of the ability, in

this case EXHA.USTION .

Below the name, in italics, is the phase in which the ability may

be played, in this case it is a Orders ability. lt means that it is

u sed during the Orders Phase.

Next to the wording of the ability you see the symbol t hat

matches one of the symbols on the SAGA dice, in this example it is of the Westbury White Horse. lt means that should you

wish t o take advantage of the EXHAUSTION ability, you must

pay for it by placing a dice displaying the horse on this box. lf

you didn't roll a horse, yó.u cannot use·this ability this turn.

The ability says: Discard this die to target an enemy Exhausted

unit . Eliminate two figures from that unit. Then discard a FATIGUE from that unit. You may not target a Warlord with his

ability.

What does that mean? Simple. During the Orders phase, you may discard the die w ith the horse and choose an Exhausted

enemy unit (we will explain later what Exhausted means).

You then remove a FATIGUE (a token or marker indicating the

state of physical or moral exhaustion of a unit) and yo u kili two

figures. Warlords are not affected by this ability, it would be

too easy!

Sorne boxes have more than one symbol:

STUBBORNNESS Melee Discard this die. Gain one Attack Die. Gain also one additional Attack Die for every FATIGUE the enemy unit(s) has (or have) .

lt means than you may use any dice with these symbols to pay

to actívate this ability.

Sorne Battle Boards have abilities with two symbols with a"+"

between them.

TRAPPED Orders Discard these dice. Add one FATIGUE to three different enemy units.

lt means that this ability needs dice with each of the symbols

displayed to pay for it. In the case of Trapped, yo u would need

two dice, each with a helmet to pay for the ability.

Now pick a Battle Board of any faction and six of its associated

dice. Roll them and use them to put on the board in appropriate

boxes. Look at the different boxes that are now active. lf you

are thinking right now, "lf 1 do that at the same time as this

and t his, it wil l be MASSIVELY POWERFUL!" you're in the right

state of mind to play SAGA. Being massively powerful is not

only a guilty pleasure, it is also a good way to achieve victory

in SAGA. Bribing the opponent is the other way, but it is much

more expensive.

At this point you may have spotted that there are two different

coloured boxes on your Battle Board.

Those with a darker background (forming the two right most

columns of abilities of your Battle Board) can only be activated

once per turn (i.e. yo u can only pay for it with one die or set of

dice on the ability):

Orders Discard this die to re-roll any of your SAGA dice OR choose one SAGA die and change the si de of that die to any symbol you want.

The SAGA Abilities in the left hand column can be activated

more than once. This means that you may put there as many

dice (with the relevant symbol) as you fancy (so long as you

have rolled them!) and hence, the ability may be used more

t han once per t urn.

ACTIVATION POOL Orders Discard one die to roll two extra SAGA dke.

This ability is interesting as it explains in itself why you have

eight SAGA dice and not only the six you usually roll at the

start of the turn. We will look more closely at it later, but in

the meantime, you just need to know t hat it can be used t o get

additional SAGA dice to rol! during your turn.

You get eight SAGA dice in a set and using more than these

eight dice is cheating. Basically, it means that at any point of

the game, the maximum number of SAGA dice on your Battle

Board is eight. And no, yo u can't buy three sets of dice to use­

no one is THAT massively powerful.

What happens if, at the start of your turn, you still have sorne

SAGA dice on your Battle Board that have paid for abilities

but for sorne reason you did not use thern? You have a choice;

either you pick thern up and get thern back to roll again this

turn, or you can leave thern on the Battle Board. BUT, for each

die left on the board, you deduct one die frorn the dice pool

you should be able to roll. So, if you generate six dice for your

units and have two left on the Battle Board, you rnay only roll four this turn.

Sornetirnes, especially with an ability that is difficult to pay for

(for exarnple TRAPPED displayed above) you rnight want to

leave the dice on the board, as if a Darnocles Sword hanging

over the head of your opponent. That is a part of the strategies you w ill be able to explore with SAGA.

Ragnar speaks ...

SAGA is about anticipation and

preparation. Think carefully about what you want to achieve

during your turn AND during your opponent's turn. Even a

Hearthguard unit wi/1 have a

hard time against a Warrior unit

boosted by a lot of abilities, so don't expect to w in a game without a clever use of your Battle

Board. Other games are al/ about designing killer

armies prior to the game, but in SAGA this won't help yo u much. Learning to use your Battfe Board

is m u eh more useful than trying to find foophofes in the army fists! -- ____ __,

When you ro JI your SAGA dice and put thern in the ability boxes

on the Battle Board, this is the ORDERS phase of your turn.

lf you study closely sorne of the Battle Boards you will see

that sorne effects are used during this Phase (for exarnple,

ACDVATION POOL or NOBLE LINEAGE above.)

111. 1ers SIIIOBIZelhls Challl8t. At the start of the turn, you roll saga dice

The number of dice to roll is equal to the number of units (levies do not count, warlords count as two) you ha ve ( up to 6) minus any saga dice left

on the battle board.

You put the appropriate dice in the ability boxes to pay for the abilities you may wish to use.

Sorne boxes may be only active once, sorne others any number of times.

You have eight saga dice. You may not use more than these eight during your tum.

All these parts of the game occur in the orders phase.

A comp{ete oRdeRS phc\Se gatnp(e Luck accompanies wisdom.

Let's go through a complete Orders phase example. Pick the Anglo-Danish Battle Board and the appropriate set of dice, and follow the step-by-step example below.

Fred starts his turn by checking how many SAGA Dice he w ill be able to roll. He still has his entire warband on the table -his Warlord (two SAGA Dice), two units of Hearthguards ( one SAGA Die each, for a total of two SAGA Dice), three units of Warriors ( one SAGA Die each for a total of three SAGA Dice) and one unit of Levies (Levies don't generate SAGA Dice). This gives him a total of seven SAGA Dice. Because you cannot roll more than six SAGA Dice at the start of your turn, he only has six dice to roll. He also has a SAGA Die left on his Battle Board f rom the previous turn, on the Shieldwall ability box. He can either leave this die on the Battle Board and deduct one SAGA Die from the number he would otherwise roll (ie he would now roll five,) or take the die back and roll his full SAGA Dice allocation. He decides to take it back and so rolls his six SAGA

Dice, obtaining:

Nota bad roll, as you w ill see!

He starts by putting the two e on the Trapped ability. As this is

an Orders ability, he can use these dice right now and unleash the ability. He does so. This ability allows his to designate three

different enemy units that will each gain one FATIGUE. This

being done, he decides to use one by picking a~ and putting it on the Noble Lineage ability. As this is also an Orders ability,

t his can al so be used right now. This ability allows him to choose

either to re-roll any number of SAGA Dice OR pick one die and

change its side so it displays the symbol he wants. He chooses

t he later option and picks a ,~ and changes it into a e . Fred takes this newly changed die and he put it on the Activation

Pool ability. This ability is another Orders ability, that needs a e and that allows him to rolls two SAGA dice. He discards the

die, takes two unused SAGA dice, and roll them, obtaining a e anda ...

0/af Haraldsson's Saga

Let's take a break and look at what available dice he has right

now:

His next choice is to use once again the Activation Pool ability. As this ability is one of the abilities that can be used any number of time in a turn, this is perfectly legal. He uses his laste to roll two extra SAGA Dice: .. and '..~-

He puts nowthe ~1 on the Geburs ability box so he can actívate his Levies later this turn. He puts the two .. on the Hard as !ron box, thinking to add a bit of resilience in melee either this turn or during his opponent's turn. Finally, he puts his ~ and the .. on the Huscarls Activation box, as he w ill need his Hearthguard to be activated this turn. However, with no dice left, this leaves his Warriors with no activation this turn

So, with no dice left, he ends his Orders phase. You w ill have noted that Fred has rolled a total of 10 SAGA Dice this turn. At no point did he use more than the 8 dice of his set at once, so this massive amount of dice rolled is perfectly legal! In a single Orders phase, he put three FATIGUE on enemy units, activated a powerful defensive ability and still had three dice t o actívate his units.

Now it's time for Fred to start sorne serious business ...

Lhe activation phase ACTJ!VATJ!ON AJBJUUTY JB\OXJE§

All Battle Boards in SAGA have five similar Ability Boxes (the

ones in the left hand column of your Battle Board). We will take

a look at the ones you will use the most often, the Activation

Ability Boxes, shown below (for the Anglo-Danish in t his example):

HUSCARLS Activation Discard one die to actívate a unit ofHearthguard or a Warlord.

CEORLS

Activation Discard one die to actívate a unit ofWarriors.

GEBURS Activation Discard one die to actívate a unit of Levies.

All these abilities allow a player to activate a unit. Activating

a unit is the only way to have it move, enter melee or use its

ranged weapons (if it has them.).

You see that the three ability boxes are each related t o a

different type of unit: Hearthguard and Warlords, Warriors and

Levies_ Astute readers will have spotted that any SAGA symbol

will actívate Hearthguards or Warlords, that you need axes

and helmets to actívate Anglo-Danish Warriors and horses and

helmets to actívate Levies. You will have noted that the Levies

are the most difficult to actívate: that is what happens when

you bring inexperienced farmers on to the battlefield!

During the Orders phase, SAGA dice m ay have been put in these

boxes. These dice can be discarded one at a time to activate a unit. Let 's take an example:

You have two dice on the first box (Hearthguard), one on the

second (Warriors) and two on the last (Levies). Remember that

you can have ANY NUMBER of dice on these boxes.

You want to use the ability of the second box to actívate Warriors.

lt says 'Discard one dieto actívate one unit of WARRIORS'. So you

just follow the instructions in the box: you piel< a die, discard it

from the box, and immediately you are allowed to actívate any

one unit of your Warriors.

Once the Activation has been resolved, you may actívate

another unit if you have dice in Activation Boxes, or use any other ability that allows you to actívate a unit.

The process of using the Activation Boxes is called the

Activation phase and it always comes after the Orders phase-

ACTJIVATlNG UN][l['§

Units may be activated in any sequence the player decides.

When a unit is activated, it has the choice between three

different actions:

• Move

• Shoot

• Rest

M ove allows your unit to m ove about the battlefield. Movement

is explained in the next chapter.

Shoot is only available to units with missile weapons. In most warbands, only the Levies have ranged weapons (real men

fight with spears, swords and axes!) but some factions have

more ranged weapons than others. There is a chapter on

Shooting later.

Rest allows you to discard a FATIGUE token. As we will see

later, FATIGUE is accumulated under some circumstances, such

as when a unit fights in melee. Remember, even the mightiest

warriors sometimes need to take a break.

A given unit may be activated ANY NUMBER OF TIMES in a turn,

so long as yo u ha ve the dice to do so.

Ragnar speaks ..•

The Activation phase isn't brol<en down into segments such as charge, shooting or melee. An activation is immediately resolved before any further activation is done. So if you actívate to shoot, resolve the

shooting immediately befare mal<ing any new activations. The same goes for melee: if your movement ended in melee, that melee is immediately resolved.

Be prepared to sweat in SAGA as sometimes unexpected things happen. But as you learn the game, hopefully you wi/1 gain control over the events and dictate t he pace of game to your opponent.

NO ACTJIVATXON§ LEJFTI

lf you can't activate any units because you have used all your

dice in the Activation Boxes, your turn is over.

Activation is done using the first three ability boxes of the first column of abilities of your battleboard

Each box allows the activation of a specific unit type (hearthguards, warriors or levies)

Some other ability boxes actívate units.

When a unit is activated, it can either rest

or move or shoot.

A given unit may be activated any number of times

in a single tum.

This is called the activation phase

When you have finished your activation pháse,

ffiovemenr Short is the hour for acting, and long the hour for feasting. Hakon the Good's Saga

UNJ[T JFORMLA.1['J[ON

In SAGA, models of a given unit must stay within a reasonable

distance of their fighting brothers. This is called the Unit

Formation. The rule is simple: a model must always be within

a V§ distance of the nearest other model of his own unit. See

the picture below:

There are no exceptions to this rule. Yo u cannot voluntary move

a model so that it finishes out of formation, and if your unit

suffers casualties in melee or from shooting (or for any other

reason) the figure removal may not break the unit formation.

Note that as a Warlord is a unit of its own, he is exempted from

any unit formation. There is no such thing as a Warlord joining

a unit in SAGA.

1'vll0VJEMUENT AC1['J[VATJ[ON

A unit may move when it is activated, and if the controlling

player chooses a Movement action. We consider that all

members of the unit will move, so you cannot choose to have some figures in a unit moving and others shooting for example.

lf, after activating.tfií(unit for a movement, you finally decide

tbat""t he unit will AOt actually move, Jt is still considered as a

movement as th€' rmit wa$ activated tor a-movement. ·. ...

MOVlEMllENT lOlll§TA\N<ClE

All figures in SAGA ha ve a movement of 1\\1[ ( except Mounted

models, see the chapter dealing with The Normans). This means

that when a figure moves, it can be moved up toa distance of 1\\1(.

As Movement is always done by all the figures of the unit, all

members will move up to l\\1[and they mustfinish the movement

adhering to the Unit Formation rule described above.

lf at any point of its movement, one of your model moves

within V § of an enemy model it must finish its movement in

base to base contact with that model. lf moving within V§ of two or more enemy models at the same time, it must finish its

movement in base to base contact with any one of these models.

lf the figure does not have enough movement to end in base to

base contact with one of the enemies then the moving model

may not come closer than V§ to any enemy figure.

Finishing in base to base contact with an enemy figure is called "engaging in melee". A figure in base to base contact with

an enemy figure becomes "engaged" and does not prevent

ene m y figures moving within V§ of it.

Blue moves within VS of Red and Grey. He decides to engage Grey in melee, and m oves in base contact with him. He can ignore Red for this movement as he was within VS of both.

UNJEVJEN GROUND

Terrain is likely to slow down the movement of your figures. In

SAGA, we have kept things simple and neat. Terrain is either

open, u neven or impassable.

• Open terrain is landscape that is not covered by any scenery item except bridges and roads which are also considered

open terrain. Open terrain does not affect movement.

• Uneven terrain is any area covered by scenery that can be

moved into or crossed by figures but that would obviously

slow them down: woods, rocky ground, walls, a building, a

steep hill, or anything similar.

• lmpassable terrain needs to be identified as such by the

players prior to the game. lt can take the shape of a pond, a

deep river or a high cliff. The edges of the gaming table are

impassable terrain unless the scenario being played specifies

otherwise.

Sometimes, it will be convenient to define the boundaries

of a terrain area. For example, you can have a few trees on a

decorated base, and agree with your opponent that the whole base counts as uneven terrain. The same applies to features

such as fields of crops. These should have their limit clearly

marked on the table to avoid unnecessary discussions during

thegame.

lf during a movement activation, you start in, end in or go

through uneven ground, your whole movement is reduced to

§ . This affects the whole unit: if a single model of any unit starts,

ends or moves through such a terrain, the movement of ALL

models in that unit beco mes§ for that movement activation.

lmpassible terrain is, er, impassible. You cannot move into

such terrain. Any figure (even a friendly figure) is considered

impassable terrain. This means that you cannot move through

a friendly or enemy model. Furthermore, the gaps between

models of a unit are also impassable so you cannot move

through such a gap. See the picture below:

The blue model in this example is unable to move through the space between the friendly grey mode/s as it is considered impassable. lf Blue wants to occupy the ground in front of grey, he has to move round the position of that unit.

Ragnar speaks ...

In other games you have learnt

how to screen your best troops

with second rate units. In SAGA

you can do this, but usuafly

at the most inopportune

moment, you'll discover that

the aforementioned models

block the movement of your mighty boys. Once

again this is al/ about anticipation. lf an enemy

unit stands in front of your screen, and you can't

jump at his throat with your Warriors because

your Levies stand in the way, blame yourselt not

the game! In the Orders phase, you should have

put a die in the Levies Activation box to get them

out of the way.

Your movement is S UNLfSS all the movement is made in

MOVlNG MORE lrHAN ONCE

As we discussed in the preceding chapter, units can be activated

more than once during a single turn but this will generate

FATIGUE. Fatigue is covered in more detail in a forthcoming

chapt er, but there are further issues facing units making

multiple movement activations.

lf you are activating a unit (for a movement) for a second or

subsequent time this turn, and your unit has at least one model

within § of an enemy unit, yo u MUST engage in me lee with that

unit (if possible). You have no choice on that matter. lt can

happen that you are not able t o engage in melee w ith the unit

that is within §as, for example, sorne effects might reduce the

movement of a unit after it has been activated - FATIGUE for

example. lf so then your activation is simply not possible or it is

cancelled if it has already been declared.

Sometimes, you will be within § of more than one enemy

figure, each belonging toa different unit. In that case, yo u m ay

only engage in melee ~ith t he closest of the enemy units.

Here your unit (Grey) has models within S of two different enemy units (Red and Blue). lt wants to activate for a movement a second time. lt must engage in melee against one of these units. As Blue is the closest enemy unit, it must engage this unit in me lee and may not move to engage Red in me lee. Note that this is beca use it is grey's second or subsequent movement activation. tf it was it first movement activation of the turn it could engage Blue or Red, or move back in any direction.

A figure must always be within V§ of the nearest member of its unit.

Movement is done when a unit is activated for movement.

All foot models move M unless moving from, to or through any uneven ground.

When moving within V § of one or more enemy models, you must engage one of them in melee.

Starting with the second movement activatlon of a tum, if one of your unit stdrt5 wftllln S ofan enemyunit,,__._tD~IWI!I!l-1<;_

Shooring When men meet foes in fight, better is stout heart than sharp sword.

Volsunga's Saga

Arrows, bolts, javelins and stones are all used by the combat ants of SAGA when trying to kili their enemies at a distance. Many

call these shooters cowards ( or other insulting terms that we

won't reproduce here) but their importance and impact on the

game is real, as you might discover when your troops fall in

droves under a hail of arrows.

§HOOlLINGr A.CTJ[Vl\lrKON

To be able to shoot, a unit must have a ranged weapon. These

units, usually Levies, are indicated in the chapter about the

Warriors of the Viking age.

When such a unit is activated, you can actívate it to shoot. The

unit doesn't move and the shooting is immediately resolved. There is no specific shooting phase or shooting step in SAGA.

You actívate your unit, it unleashes its missiles, and then you

can continue activating units or using the abilities of your Battle

Board.

To be able to shoot, at least one model of your unit must have

a target unit in line of sight and w ithin range.

TARGIElr UN)[T

When activated, your unit will target an enemy unit. Shooting

is always resolved on a unit vs. unit basis, so models within one

of your units cannot target different units.

JUNJE OIF §J[GJH[ll

You must be able to draw a Une of Sight (LoS) between the

shooter and its target in order to shoot. A LoS is a straight

line running from your model to an enemy model that is not

blocked.

The LoS is blocked by:

• Any figure except friendly figures from the same unit.

• The spaces between models of a single friendly or enemy unit.

In other words, you can never shoot "through" a f r iendly or

enemy unit, even if the line of sight is drawn between two

models of that unit.

• Any scenery items higher than an average foot figure ( usually around 35mms if using 28mms models) usually referred as

High Terrain (see Terrain, page 30 ).

Une of sight is determined model by model, hence sorne

models will be able to shoot while others can't.

In this example, your Grey unit wants to shoot at the red unit. Two models can clearly shoot as they have a fine of sight on red models. One grey model cannot shoot as its line of sight cannot cross the gap between blue mode/s and the other grey model cannot shoot as its line of sight cannot go through the black building.

Note that in SAGA, figures see all around and the actual facing of the model is irrelevant.

JR.A\NGJE

Each ranged weapon has a range, that is the maximum distance

it can shoot. The distance between a model and the closest

visible model of the target enemy unit must not be longer

t han the range of the weapon used in order for that model to shoot .

Ranges are pretty simple, and depend on the weapon used:

WEAPON RANGE

Bow, sling or crossbow JL Javelin M

JH[O~V TO §JH(OOT

The following steps are resolved in t he order below:

1/ Target Determination and Attack Dice

Once the target unit has been declared, and the number of eligible shoot ing models of your unit determined, you can resolve the shooting.

First the player controlling the shooters (the Attacker) determines the number of Attack Dice he gets. This depends on the class of his unit as shown in the table below:

CLASS NUMBER OF ATTACK DICE FOR THE UNIT

Levies 1 per every two models

Warriors 1 per every two models

Hearthguard 1

Warlord 2

Hearthguards get one die per model and Warlords get two dice.

Note that you only take shooting dice for rnodels that are in

range and have a line of sight against at least one rnodel frorn

the target enerny unit!

2/ Attacker and Defender abilities

Once the nurnber of Attack Dice is deterrnined, the Attacker

rnay use any Ability frorn his Battle Board that rnight affect

shooting. These abilities have Shooting under their narne as

this one:

Shooting Discard these dice to re-roll any Attack Dice that failed to hit the target.

The Attacker is not lirnited to one ability, and can use as rnany

as he wants to affect this shooting. The only lirnit fixed is that

the final nurnber of Attack Dice rnay not exceed twice the

nurnber he had before using abilities. So if your unit generated

four Attack Dice, the abilities rnay add another four dice, but

not a fifth as it would exceed double the nurnber of dice you

originally had.

After the Attacker has determined the nurnber of Attack Dice

and the abilities that would affect this shooting, the player

controlling the target unit (the Defender) rnay use any ability

that affect the enerny Shooting. They are indicated on the Battle Boards as Shootíng/Reactíon under the title of the ability,

as this one:

ASGARD Shooting 1 Reaction Discard this die to gain one Arrnour against this Shooting.

Shootíng!Reactíon abilities rnay only be u sed when being shot

at. Sorne add a bonus to the targeted unit, sorne generate

an irnrnediate effect. When an ability gives Defence Dice to

the Defender, the player puts that nurnber of D6 in front of

hirn. They will prove useful once the Attacker has done his

Attack roll.

Ragnar speaks ...

You'/1 ha ve noticed that theabilities you use have been se/ected during the Orders phase. This highlights the need to have a plan. lf your opponent relies on shooting, as those nasty Normans might do, be su re to leave some Shooting/

Reaction abilities on your Battle Board at the end of your turn or run the risk of suffering heavy casualties from his shooting. You've been warned!

....... lt is during Step 2) that you wBI have to choose

which Saga abilities will atfect this c:ombGt, -.en if they wBI take effect In a further step (as In~ of Aimed Volley which onlytakes ~during Step 3).

3) Attack roll

The Attacker rolls the number of Attack Dice he has, and

compares each of the dice rolled to the Armour value of the

targeted unit. Each die that rolled equal or higher than the

Defender's Armour value (as indicated in the Warriors of the

Viking Age chapter) is a hit. A natural "6" rolled is always a

hit, even if it does not equal the Armour value of the target. A

natural "1" is always a failure. So me abilities (such as the Aimed

Volley) above, allows the Attacker to re-roll any die. Remember

you may never re-roll a die that has already been re-rolled and

must abide to the second score obtained. Others (such as

Asgard above) change the number required by modifying the

Armour of the target unit.

4) Defence roll

Now the Defender takes one Defence Die for every hit

obtained by the Attacker, and adds any bonus Defence Dice

granted by the abilities he used during Step 2). He rolls these

dice and every roll of 4 or more cancels a hit. You may never

roll more Defence Dice than twice the number of hits scored by

the Attacker. Defence Dice that exceed this limit are discarded

befo re rolling. So me abilities allows the Defender to re-roll any

die. You may never re-roll a die that has already been re-rolled

and must abide to the second score obtained.

5) Casualty removal

Finally, the Defender loses one figure for each hit not cancelled.

The Defender chooses which figure to remove and these can

be any figure in the target unit,..evefl figtJres that were out of

range or line of sight. Casualty removal may not break t he unit ~ ./

formation. ~

OOVJER

Sometimes a unitwill get protection from the terrain it occupies.

For example a unit behind a hedge will be more difficult to harm

with bow shots than one stood in the open.

There are two kinds of cover in SAGA:

• The first one is light cover. lt encompasses any cover unlikely

to fully stop an arrow. Hedges, small tress, bushes all come

under this classification.

• The other is a heavy cover. This is anything solid enough to

protect a warrior from an arrow ora bol t . A stone wall or the

door of a building for example.

To benefit from Cover a unit must ha ve at least 2/3 of its models

within or behind su eh a terrain ( compared to the position of all

the eligible shooters in the shooting unit).

Here at least two thirds of the Grey unit are behind the cover afforded by the hedge against any shooting from Red. The same is not true if Blue shoots, and Grey won't benefit from any cover against the shooting from Blue.

The benefits granted by cover depend of its type:

Light Cover allows the Defender to cancel each hit with a score

of 3 or more on his Defence Dice (rather than 4 or more as

usual) .

Heavy Cover allows t he Defender to cancel each hit w ith a

score of 3 or more on his Defence Dice (rather t han 4 or more

as usual) and gives him +1 Armour. ..

WEA\JPON§

We have seen above the ranges of the missiles. In addition,

javelins and crossbows have special rules described here.

Javelins may be used at the end of a Movement activation.

lmmediately after movement, if the unit has no figures engaged

in me lee with the enemy, the unit may perform Shooting as part

of that activation. This doesn't count as a separate activation,

and doesn't generate additional FATIGUE (see Fatigue chapter

for more details).

Ragnar speaks .. .

let's illustrate al/ this shooting with a simple example.

Take a unit of ten Norman Cross­bowmen targeting a unit of six Viking Warriors.

First step is to determine fine of sight and range. let's assume that

al/ these pesky Normans are in range and have a clear fine of sight, but consider that the Vikings are in a wood that provides them with light cover.

The Normans gather their Attack Dice. As Warriors, it's one per every two models. So five dice. They decide to use the Aimed Volley Shooting ability. The 1 Vikings react by using their Asgard abi/ity. Refer to the ability boxes above.

Now the Normans rol/ their Attack Dice against the Armour of the Warriors. Viking Warriors have an Armour of 4, reduced to 3 by the Norman crossbows. But Asgard adds one to the Armour of the Vikings, hence cancelling the benefits of crossbows.

The lucky Normans rol/ their Attack Dice and score four hits. The Vikings get four Defence Dice ( one per hit, and they don't have any Defence Dice granted by any ability) and they need to score 3s to cancel hits (normal/y they would have to rol/ 4s, but the Ught Cover means they only need 3s). They save three hits and must remove one figure from the unit.

S ven, see you in Va/halla!

Crossbows reduce the Armour value of the targeted unit by

one. For example a unit with an Armour of 4 would count as

having an Armour of 3 against the shooting of a crossbow

armed unit. Because crossbows are cumbersome and prevent

the use of adequate defensive equipment, any unit equipped

with crossbows has an Armour value reduced by one. This

reduction is permanent and impacts shooting and melee.

Hence a crossbow armed Warrior unit would have an Armour

value of 3 instead of 4 as usual.

t.werewai-III'I.IBailis: 111111 ...

Shooting is done by a unit against a target enemy unit

Only models in fine of sight and within range can shoot

The attacker gets attack dice dependlng on the number of models and their type. Attadc dice are compcued to the

annour of the targeted unit.

The defender gets one de(ence die per hit ac.hieved by the attacker. Defence dice cancel hlts on scores of 4 or more.

Cover gives benefits to the target.

Crossbows and javelins hcwe spedal rules.

OJe(ee Better to die with honour than live with shame. The Jomsviking's Saga

The melee rules are very similar to the rules for Shooting. They are at t he core of the SAGA, as it is quite un usual -if not exceptional- to finish a game without swords being drawn and the clash of steel ringing across the battlefield.

lENGAGl!NG MJEJLJEE

To be able to fight any enemy unit in close combat, you must engage in me lee. This is done as a Movement Activation and at least one of the models in your unit must be able to get into base to base contact with a model of the enemy unit (no line of sight is necessary as we assume that being close to the enemy, your troops will know where they are!). This means that the distance between the base of at least one figure in your unit and the base

of the closest enemy model must be equal to or less than your unit's Movement distance (usually M[, but sometimes reduced to § if crossing an obstacle or moving in an uneven ground). Once the distance has been checked, you must announce to your opponent your intention to bring your unit into melee. Sometimes this can trigger SAGA abilities. After any such Reaction abilities have been used, you can move the models of your unit, one by one, with each model respecting the following rules:

• Each model must m ove (if possible) into base to base contact with the nearest enemy model.

• Each model must move to contact by the shortest way possible avoiding any impassable feature (such as terrain or friendly models) or terrain that would slow him down IF (and only if) a reduction of movement dueto terrain would make contact impossible.

• A model may not engage an enemy figure that is already engaged by two of your models.

• lf the closest enemy model is airead y engaged by two of your models or it impossible to contact it for whatever reason, your figure will move to engage the next closest enemy model ( or the third closest enemy models if the two closest are impossible to contact, etc. .. ).

• lf an enemy model is deployed behind an obstacle such as a wall, a hedge or the window of a building, it is considered to have been contacted if you bring your model in to contact with the opposite si de of the obstacle. In other words, if yo u could contact the enemy m o del if the obstacle was not there, you can contact the obsta<::le and be considered engaged in me lee with the enemy model.

eo lf your model does not have sufficient movement to engage an enemy model in base to base contact, it must move as close t o t he enemy a~possible.

• After all movement into melee is complete, the unit must still adhere to the Unit Formation rule.

Note that the controlling player chooses in what order the models in his units are moved.

Remember that once an enemy model is engaged in me lee (i.e. in base to base contact with one of your model) it is considered engaged, and doesn't prevent your other models moving within V§ of him.

Another exception to the normal movement rule is that the gaps between enemy models of the unit you are engaging do not count as impassable for your unit.

See below sorne examples of movement to engage in melee.

In the example above, Grey has decided to engage in me lee with Red. After Red has hada chance to trigger any Reaction ability (which he doesn't,) Grey starts his moves to engage in mefee. He decides to start with A and move it in contact with the cfosest Red modef. Then he moves 8 against the same model. e has no choice but to go on the leftmost model as the other one is already in base to base contact with two models. Then D and E move, both against the same red model. F is moved in contact with the same model as C. G is the only one that hasn't got enough movement to end in base to base contact so it must move as cfose as possible to the nearest enemy model.

Here Grey wants to contact Red, the later being behind a hedge. Grey only needs to contact the hedge to be assumed to be in contact with Red, as shown here ...

1'\VllORlE lrlHll\\N ONE UNnr lENGAGlED J[N MJElLJEJE

Yo u m ay never engage two different enemy units with one of your unit. Never.

Also, the only way to engage a single enemy unit w ith more than

one of your units is by using the "Side by Side" Warlord special

rule. As this case is specific to Warlords, it is covered in the section

dealing with their special rules, page 36.

HOW llO JFJ[GJHllr

The melee is broken down into steps.

1) -Attacker and Defender determine their respective number of Attack Dice

The Attacker (the player that initiated the melee) and the

Defender (the player controlling the unit that was engaged in

me lee) will get a number of Attack dice that depends on the class

of their unit and the number of models el ose enough to the enemy

to be able to fight.

The table below indicates the number of Attack Dice for each

class:

CLASS NUMBER OF ATTACK DICE FOR THE UNIT

Levies 1 per three models

Warriors 1

Hearthguard 2

Warlord 5

Levies get one dice for three models (rounded up, so five Levies will give you 2 dice), Warriors get one die per model, Hearthguards get two and Warlords get five dice per model. Astute reader will have noted that the Warlord is a much better fighter than shooter!

To be able to contribute toward the pool of Attack Dice,

a model must either be:

• in base to base contact with an enemy model

• within V§ of an enemy model in base to base contact with

another model of its own unit.

Here is an example illustrating the number of Attack Dice a unit gets:

Grey engaged Red in melee. He has one model not in contact with the enemy, and that model is more than VS away from the nearest engaged Red model. Red has three models unengaged. Two of them are within VS of a Grey enemy that is in contact with a Red figure. The third unengaged Red model has no enemy figure w ithin VS.

lf both units were Warriors, Grey would get 5 Attack Dice and Red would get 6 Attack Dice (4 Dice for his engaged models and two for the models that are within VS of an engaged Grey enemy figure).

2) Defender may reduce his Attack pool

The Defender has now the option to reduce the number of

Attack Dice he has, favouring defence over aggression. lf he chooses to do so, he takes off half (rounded up) his Attack

Dice. For-eVéry two Attack Dice t aken off this way, he will gain

one ext~ Defence Dice to be rolled during step 4 (rounded up,

so three dicetaken away w ill ~ve t wo extra DefenceDice). Put

any Defence Die ~ai[led this way aside, t he,x will prove useful

during Step 4 of thecory}hat.

3) Attacker and Defender abilities

Once the number of Attack Dice is determined, the Attacker may

use any Ability from his Battle Board that might affect melee.

These abilities have Melee under their na me, as in this example:

Melee Discard the dieto gain 3 Attack Dice ( 4 Attack Dice if a I±E ) was discarded). May only be used by a mounted unit. At the end of this melee, add a FATIGUE to your unit.

The Attacker is not limited to one Ability and can use as many

as he wants. The only limit is that the final number of Attack

Dice may not exceed tw ice the number he had before using

abilities. So if your unit generated four Attack Dice, the abilities

may add another four dice, but not a fifth as it would exceed

the number of dice you originally had.

At this stage the At tacker may also use the FATIGUE of the

enemy unit he is engaged with (see the FATIGUE chapter).

After the At tacker has activated any Abilities he will use

during this me lee, the Def ender m ay use his own Abilities. The

restriction to the number of Attack Dice gained using Abilities

is t he same as the Attacker; after using Abilities you may not

have more t han twice the number of Attack Dice t hat you

started w ith.

At this stage the Defender may also use the FATIGUE of the

enemy unit he is engaged with (see the FATIGUE chapter).

lt is during Step 2) thcrt you wilf have to choose which Saga abl1ities w111 affect this combcrt even if they

will take etfect in a further step (as in the example of Charge!, thcrt grants some extra Attack Dice in Step 4).

Once the Step 2) is finished, no player may actívate Saga abl1ities. lf a Saga ability cannot be used when it

should be (for example a Saga ability that grants Defence Dice when your opponent did not score any hits)

than all benefits are lost, but the Saga dice are not recovered.

As usual, you should anticípate the results to come to use your Saga Abilities at their best.

4) Attack rol/

The Attacker and Defender each roll their Attack Dice, and

compare each of the dice rolled to the Armour value of the

enemy unit they are engaged with. Each die that rolled equal

or higher than the enemy's Armour value (as indicated in the

Warriors of the Viking Age chapter) is a hit. Sorne abilities may allow re-rolls of the Attack Dice. Remember you may never re­

rol! a die that has already been re-rolled and must abide to the

second score obtained. Sorne abilities change Armour of the target unit and hence the number required to hit ..

5) Defence rol/

Now each player takes one Defence Die for every hit obtained

by the enemy, and adds any bonus Defence Dice granted by the

abilities he used during Step 3 or (for the Defender) by forfeiting

Attack Dice during Step 2. These dice are rolled and every 5 or

more cancels a hit. You may never roll more Defence Dice than

twice the number of hits scored by the enemy. Defence Dice that

exceed this limit are discarded before rolling. Sorne abilities allow

you to re-roll any Defence die. You may never re-roll a die that

has already been re-rolled and must abide to the second score obtained.

6) Casualty removal

St arting with the Defender, each side loses one figure for each hit

not cancelled. The owning player of the unit that has suffered the

casualties chooses which figure to remove and these can be any

figure in the target unit, even figures that were not engaged in

combat or did not contribute to Attack Dice in this melee. Casualty

removal may not break the unit formation.

7) Fatigue

Now, after the casualties are removed, each unit involved in this

melee gains one FATIGUE token to represent the exhaustion that

the melee produced in the combatants. See the Fatigue chapter

for more details about Fatigue.

8) Disengagement

Finally, ea eh pi ayer counts the number of casualties the enemy

ca u sed after step s. The pi ayer that inflicted the most casualties

is the winner of the melee, and the defeated enemy unit must

immediately disengage. lf both si des inflicted the same number

of casualties ( even if it is no casualties at all, you useless chaps!)

then the Attacker must disengage.

This disengaging movement is made by the controlling player

of t he disengaging unit and ea eh model is moved up to § away

from the melee. The models in the disengaging unit may not

finish their movement within V§ of any enemy model and

must end in Unit Formation. They must also finish as far away

as possible from the enemy models they were fighting against.

As long as these rules are respected, the movement of the

disengaging models is left to the discretion of the controlling

player.

lf t he disengaging unit cannot move all its models according to the previous paragraph then the winner needs to disengage

instead (though he wouldn't count as disengaging for the

purpose of any SAGA abilities). lf one side has been w iped

out entirely, the opposing side in this melee doesn't need to

disengage, even if it suffers more casualties than its opponents

in this melee.

COVER In melee we ignore light cover; only solid cover is usef ul and

then only to the Defender. To gain benefit from cover, at least

2/3 of the engaged defending models must have solid cover bet ween their bases and t hose of their enemy.

When a unit defends behind hard cover, it cancels all hits during

Step son se ore of 4 or more ra~er than S or more.

............. ~~. ...... ,. Movement into melee is subject to sorne limitations

You may only engage a single enemy unit.

8oth sides get attac:1c dice dependant on the m.anber and type of the models involved.

Only models in contact wfth an enemy rnodel or within VS of an enemy In contactare part oftlte me1ee.

Each attac.k die must score at least the annour value of the enemy unlt to score11 hit.

The defender may reduce hfsGttac:k pool ... defence dice.

J:arigue Falling in battle is the lot of brave men. Vatnsdcela's Saga

In SAGA we use Fatigue tokens (ref erred to simply as FATIGUE)

to represent t he exhaustion suffered by the fighters as the

battle wears on. These tokens not only represent the physical

fatigue, but also the stress and nervous tension that you

experience when your life is in the balance.

ACUMUJLATlNG JFATlGUE

Units gain FATIGUE through t heir actions. For each FATIGUE

gained, add a FATIGUE token behind or near the unit.

A unit gains one FATIGUE in the following circumstances:

• One FATIGUE is gained after a Movement if it was preceded by

a Movement ora Shooting this turn, i.e. the first Movement

or Shooting of the turn does not generate FATIGUE, but

any subsequent Movement generates one FATIGUE. lf the

Movement has been used to engage melee, the FATIGUE

is gained immediately after the movement, but before the

melee is resolved.

• One FATIGUE is gained after Shooting has been resolved

if it was preceded by a Movement or a Shooting this turn,

i.e. the first Movement or Shooting of the turn does not generate FATIGUE, but any subsequent Shooting generates

one FATIGUE.

• One FATIGUE is gained after each melee phase in which the

unit was involved, either as Attacker or Defender.

• One FATIGUE is gained by a unit w hen another friendly unit

is w iped out (that is, when its last model is removed as a

casualty) w ithin §

There is no maximum limit to the numberof FATIGUE a unit can

gain, but see below for the effects of too much FATIGUE.

Note that unless otherwise specified, movement and shooting

done during the enemy's turn (through the use of SAGA

abilities) do not generate FATIGUE.

Fatigue Example: A unit is activated for the first time this turn and is activated to M ove. No FATIGUE is gained as this is its jirst activation of the turn. The unit is then activated a second time this turn, this time to Shoot After the shooting has been resolved it gains one FATIGUE. The player then decides to actívate it once more, this time to engage in melee. After the movement to engage in melee is done, but before the melee is resolved,

the unit gains one FATIGUE. Once the melee has been resolved, the unit gains one more FATIGUE for having been involved in a melee. The unit ends the turn with three FATIGUE tokens.

RJE§TllNG

Ragnar speaks ...

Take care with FATIGUE as these can hamper the effectiveness of your units as you wi/1 see later. Each FATIGUE gained is a burden to the unit and expensive to get rid of. On the other hand, activating a unit more than once during a turn can be fruitful, so weight your decisions carefully.

To Rest is an action performed through an activation. After

spending an action to rest, a unit can discard one FATIGUE

token.

To Rest must be the first activation of the unit for this turn. lf

the unit was activated to move or to shoot prior this turn, it

forfeits any chance to be activated to rest.

Yo u may only rest once per tu m as your first activation of that tum.

Sorne SAGA abilities allow FATIGUE to be discarded. These

abilities do not count as rest actions, and are not subject to

the limitations highlighted above.

§PJENDllNG JFATllGUJE

First and foremost it is important to note that the FATIGUE

accumulated by your units w ill be spent by your opponent- yo u

will spend the FATIGUE t hat the enemy units generate.

To use an opponent's FATIGUE yo u must take one of the tokens

the enemy unit has, and discard it. The FATIGUE is said to have

been spent.

FATIGUE may be spent in the following different ways:

• When an enemy unit is act ivated to m ove, one FATIGUE

of that unit may be spent to reduce that unit's Movement by one movement band, ie from M[ to § (from lL to }..\1{ for

mounted models ). lf such a unit m oves in a difficult terrain, it would only move V§.

• When an enemy unit targets you w ith Shooting, you may

discard a FATIGUE fromthat unit dur ing Step 2 ofthe Shooting

to increase the Armour value of your target unit by 1.

• During a melee, one FATIGUE of the enemy unit involved

in this melee may be spent during St ep 3 to increase the

Armour va lue of your own unit engaged in this melee by +1.

When f acing more than one unit in me lee, this Armour bonus

only applies to the At tack Dice rolled by the enemy unit this

FATIGUE was taken from.

• During a melee, one FATIGUE of the enemy unit involved

in t his melee may be spent during Step 3 to decrease the

Armour value of the unit by 1.

Each ofthe above effects mayonly be used once per Movement,

Shooting or Melee. lt means that you cannot reduce t he

Movement of a unit f rom t\1[ to V§ by spending two FATIGUE.

The same applies t o the melee: you may only increase your

own Armour value by one against each enemy unit you

are facing and may only reduce the enemy Armour by

up to one.

JFATI GUJE JUMUfT

There is a limit of FATIGUE that units can

bear before being considered as too

exhausted to perform anyt hing. A unit is considered Exhausted when the number

of FATIGUE tokens it has equals or exceeds its Fatigue limit, as given in the chart

below:

Ragnar speaks ...

Yes thís means t hat if your Warlord ís engaging in melee alongsíde a unít wíth one FATIGUE, you are pretty sure to gíve a +1 Armour bonus to the opposíng side. Worse stíll, if both have FATIGUE (or íf one of t hem has two FATIGUE), not only wíll the enemy gaín one Armour,

but you wílllose one Armour.

Thínl< carefully at the pros and the cons of such a situat íon.

-~.

CLASS FATIGUE LIMIT

Levies 2

Warriors 3

Hearthguard and Warlord 4

A unit that has a number of FATIGUE equal to or higher than

its limit may not be activated to Move or to Shoot. When

activated it may only Rest. lf activat ed by such t hings as SAGA

abilities without t he possibility to Rest, the activation is simply cancelled.

An Exhausted unit that is engaged in melee loses half its Attack

Dice at t he end of Step 1.

lhe ........ EDill R. l'sllle laslillllesellles...

Your units gain one fatigue for every movement or shooting done in the tum, after their first.

At the end of each melee, evety unit involved gains one fatigue.

To rest allows the unit to discard onefatigue.

You may spend fatigue of enemy units toeitlier reduce their movement, increase your annour

in melee or shooting or reclucztheir armour mmelee. Once the fatigue on a unit equalsort~~~", ~ limit ofthe lri~ft~mmr not-i&fW:,

or move untiJ the fátjgue is1'1sifUcsd~~~ below

The reason why young men get nowhere is that they overestimate the obstacles every time.

Hrafnkel Freysgothi's Saga

Terrain is an important part of SAGA. lt w ill dictate your tactical

approach, will provide cover for your troops when arrows,

javelins and bolts are flying, and may, in sorne scenarios, be

part of the objective of the game.

lf ourcollections are anything tó go by, terrain pieces are almost

endless shapes and sizes so in SAGA we felt the need to deal

w ith them in a very generic (and, in sorne respect, abstract) way. The rules below have been designed to be simple, to

avoid endless discussion while playing, and yet still add tactical

considerations to the game.

Here Grey cannot see any Red modelas his Une of Sight may go entirely through the high area terrain in green.

DlElFllNlNG TlERlR.AllN

Terrain is defined by four characteristics.

Terrain type. This can be area terrain or linear obsta ele. Both are

pretty self-explanatory. Area terrain is any piece that covers

an area of the battlefield and should have a clearly defined

perimeter: a wood, a marsh, a patch of rocky ground ora field.

Linear obsta ele are pie ces such as walls, hedges or palisades.

Terrain height. This can be Jow or high. Low terrain never blocks

the Line of Sight. Line of sight may not cross a high scenery

item. In the case of area terrain, your line of sight may still go

into that area, but may not cross it entirely. See picture below:

Here Grey can see the models in red as his Une of Sight enters the area terrain but doesn't get entirely throughit.

For linear obstacles things are even simpler. Your line of sight

may not cross a high linear obstacle and is not blocked by a

low linear obstacle. High linear obstacles do not provide cover

as they block the line of sight so the cover in that case is

irrelevant.

The cover conferred by a terrain piece can be either soft or hard.

The difference between these two kinds of cover is explained

page 22 in the chapter dealing with shooting. In melee, only

hard covers will give protection to the defenders as explained

page 27.

A terrain piece can be either uneven or open. Uneven terrain

will slow down the figures as explained page 17 while open

terrain has no effect on movement. Open terrain scenery items

never provides cover so the cover is irrelevant in that case.

Example: a hill would be classified as a high open area terrain. A marsh would be a low uneven area terrain not providing any cover. A palisade would be classed as high linear u neven terrain.

lB U J[ JLJ[) H N G§

Buildings need sorne specific rules as they are often much more

tricky to define in game terms. Buildings are always high area

terrains that provide hard cover and count as uneven ground.

In SAGA buildings come in two sizes: standard and large

buildings. The size determines the number of models that can

occupy a building.

A large building m ay be occupied by up to 12 models. A standard

building can be occupied by up to 8 models.

A unit may only enter a building if it is not occupied by the

ene m y and may only do so if all its models are able to enter that

building with the same Movement activation (and of course if

there is enough room left in that building to accommodate all

the models of the unit!). Once a unit has entered a building, it may not move out of it in the same tum (i.e. you may not go

through a building in a single turn).

The positions of the models within the building is irrelevant.

We assume that they occupy itas best they can, protecting the

openings or setting up a defensive position like they would do if

protecting a hillfort. From now on, any movement done by the any model of a unit occupying the building is measured from

the outer walls of the building, and if they shoot, they can draw t heir line of sight and measure t he shooting distance from any

part of the building.

For the sake of simplicity, in our games it does not matter about

the exact locations of the doors and windows, but if yo u feel that

it is a bit much for yo u or your opponent, agree befare the game

to let the models move and shoot only through the openings.

When a building is occupied by the enemy, yo u need to engage

that building in melee if yo u want to fight the occupants. Treat

the whole building as t he enemy unit : yo u need to have at least

one model of your unit come in contact w ith that building in

order to engage in melee, and all your models within V§ of the

building are considered engaged.

lf a building occupied by more than one enemy unit, the

defender decides which of his units will defend the building

in melee. lt can be any of the units currently occupying the

building. All the models of that unit are considered engaged as

well and they benefit from hard cover in melee (see page 27).

At the end of the melee, if the building is still occupied by

enemy models ( e.g. you did not kili all models of the engaged

enemy unit or more than one unit occupied the building), the

Attacker needs to disengage, regardless of casualties.

When shooting at an enemy occupied building, you have t o

draw a line of sight to any part of the building. Unlike melee, the shooter gets to choose which unit inside the building he

wants to t arget.

No model may move within V§ of a enemy occupied building

unless engaging t hat building in melee.

Complete eptnp(e Of ruRn That which has a bad beginning, is likely to have a bad ending. Hen-Thorir's Saga

Ragnar speaks ... Now to make sure we've properly explained everything so far, let's take a walk through a complete play sequen ce.

The Vikings are about to start their turn, facing their arch-enemies, the Anglo-Danish.

We have the Viking Warlord, a unit of eight Levies and six Hirdmen. Facing

them are the Anglo-Danish Warlord, twelve Levies and four Huscarls, i.e. Anglo-Danish Hearthguard. The later have one FATIGUE left from their activity in the previous turn. Here we are assuming that the Levies al/ have an Armour of 3 and Hearthguard and Warlords have an Armour of 5- lt might change a bit when using the lists presented later, but for the sake of simplicity we assume that they are fa ir/y similar.

Here is how it is at the start of the tu m:

The Viking prepares to ro/1 his SAGA Dice and attribute them to his Battle Board (get the Viking Battle Board to help you fo/low this part).

Let's assume that he has three other non-Levy units on the board but that are not depicted here as they will play no part in this action. This will give the Viking player six SAGA dice. The Anglo-Danish players has left on his Battle Board the dice to pay for a Shieldwa/1 ability ( adds one Armour against shooting or during melee), and Lords of Battle ( adds a mix of three Attack or Defence Dice and the enemy unitgains two FATIGUE at the end of the melee).

After finishing the Orders phase, the Viking Battle Board looks like (do it with your own Battle Board as i/lustrated here):

O Still in hisOrders Pl'iase, the Viking player decides to use the die in theActivation Pool to immediately roll~more SAGA dice. With the results he gets, he adds one die in the Hirdmen bóx apd one in the Asgard box, preparing his board for the ne.it turn in case t~o-Danish snoot at so me of his units.

O The Vil<ing player now starts his Activation phase. He spends one Activation dice of the Levies box to activate the Levies unit and declares they will Shoot. Armed with bows they can target the Anglo-Danish Levies.

The shooting is immediately resolved. All the Vil<ing Levy models are in range, and they all have a fine of sight (remember that models of the same unit do not block the line of sight). He determines the number of Attacl< Dice he has.lt is 1 per 2 models (they are Levies) so a total of 4 Attacl< Dice.

The Vil<ing player decides not to use any abilities. Expecting a turn of frenzied activity, the Anglo-Danish also declines to use any of the abilities of his Battle Board, wisely saving them for his Hearthguard andjor Warlord.

The Vil<ing rolls his 4 Attacl< Dice, needing 3s to hit (the Armour of the target unit) and scores 3 hits (lucl<y boy!). The Anglo-Danish player must now roll3 Defence Dice (same number as hits sustained) and needs 4s to cancel each hit. He only cancels one hit, and so loses two Levies. The two rightmost Levies are tal<en out as casualties.

E) With the shooting resolved, the Vil<ing continues his Activation Phase by activating his Warlord. He decides to use the Determination rule and activates him for free As the Hearthguard is within S of the Warlord, it mayal so be activated using the "We obey'' special rule.

The Warlord is moved behind the Vil<ing Levies and the Vil<ing player announces that his Hearthguard are engaging the Anglo-Danish Levies in melee. The Anglo-Danish player hasn't any SAGA abilities that would atfect movement so the Vil<ing figures are moved:

Now the Vil<ing and the Anglo-Danish players determine the number of Attack Dice they have. All Viking models are either in base to base contact ( engaged) or within V§ of an enemy model himself engaged. The Anglo-Danish have only two Levies engaged and two models within VS of a model engaged.

Hence, the Vil<ing player gets 12 Attacl< Dice (two per Hearthguard model) and the Anglo-Danish player gets two Attack Dice ( one per three Levies, rounded up). During Step 2) the Anglo-Danish has the choice to reduce the number of Attacl< Dice to gain Defence Dice. tt is one Defence Dice gained for 2 Attack Dice discarded so by taking half his Attack Dice the Anglo-Danish player would gain one Defence Dice ( everything being rounded up ). Hoping to kili a Vil<ing with his attacl<s, the player declines todo so. During Step 3), the Attacker may use any SAGA abilities active on his Battle Board. The Viking, confident in his Hirdmen, declines. The Saxon player, seeing sorne usefulness for the Levies in a further tum, decides to use its Shieldwall SAGA ability. This adds +1 to the Levies Armour for this melee ( right, it's unlikely that these Levies have shields, but hey, let's consider that they adopta Saxon-ish defensive posture!).

O The Viking player roffs now his Atta el< Dice against the Armour of the Levies (three, increased to four with the Shieldwaff ability). He needs 4s and with his 12 Attack Dice gets six hits, an average roll.

The Saxon player rolls his two Attack Dice simultaneously, needing ss. He scores one hit

Now both roll their Defence Dice. No side has any additional Defence Die or Defence bonus, so both need to roll 5s with the same number of dice as the number of hits taken. The Viking player cancels his hit, but the Anglo-Danish only manage to cancel two hits, so takes four casualties.

Four Levies are removed from the combat by the Anglo-Danish player and both sides take a FATIGUE. Now, beca use they lost, the Levies must disengage.

The activation of the Viking Hearthguard is now over, but not the tum!

You can see above the FATIGUE tokens that have been placed near the Vikings and the Saxon levies.

0 0 The Viking player is still in his Activation phase. Now he discards a die from his Hearthguard Activation box and announces that he activates the Hirdmen once again, this time to engage the Anglo-Danish Huscarls. The Anglo-Danish player doesn't see anything he can do to react so the Viking are moved in contact with the Huscarls and a new melee phase starts, with the following situation:

The Vikings get once again 12 Attack Dice, as all their Viking are engaged or within VS of an engaged Saxon. The Anglo-Danish have one model not within VS of an engaged Viking model so only have 6 Attack Dice. Their Warlord is within VS of an engaged Viking, but being a separate unit, does take part in the melee.

The Anglo-Danish player must now choose if he wants to reduce his Attack Dice to gain some Defence dice. He can take half his Attack Dice pool and get one Defence Dice per every two Attack Dice taken off. He chooses to reduce his Attack pool and gains two Defence Dice.

The Viking now unleashes his Battle Board ability. He starts by using the FRIGG SAGA Ability and discards the relevant die. This gives him one extra Attack Die and removes one FATIGUE from his unit Well done! He then uses the UUR ability, that will allow him to re-roll any failed Attack Die Finally, he spends the FATIGUE token of the Huscarls to gain one Armour for this melee

Now the Anglo-Danish player uses his Battle Board abilities. lt is the time to use that lords of Battle ability. He can choose to receive Attack or Defence Dice, or a mix of both. Fearing the Fury of the Northmen, he goes for the three Defence Dice (he put these three dice near him to remind him to add them to his Defence roll.) The Anglo-Danish player doesn't want to use the second FATIGUE of the Hirdmen, as he is confident that his Huscarls are more than a match for the Vikings as it is now. Also burdened by a FATIGUE, the Vikings will be vulnerable when it comes to the Anglo-Danish player's tu m

8oth players roU their Attack Dice. The Viking player scores only three hits with his thirteen dice against the Armour of 5 of the Huscarls, who themselves seo re one hit with their four Attack Dice against the Armour of 6 of the Vikings (five increased to six with the spent FATIGUE). But the Viking gets a re-roU of the failed attacks, and this time, scores another four hits, for a result of seven hits.

O They must now defend themselves. The Viking gets one die saving a Hirdman on a roU of 5 or more, and the Anglo-Danish get 12 dice (7 hits + 2 defence dice from sacrificing Attacks + 3 defence dice for Lords of Battle) to cancel hits on ss. The Viking fails to cancel the hit, and the Anglo-Danish cancels five hits resulting in one casualty for the Vikings and two for the Anglo-Danish. 8oth take one FATIGUE, and the Anglo­Danish have been pushed back. O

The Viking has one aetivation left and moves his Warlord doser to the fight safely behind his Hirdmen, preparing his next tum. This is the Warlord's second activation this turn and so he gains one fatigue. With no activation left, his turn is now finished with his Hearthguards dangerously close to the Anglo-Danish Warlord. But that is another story.

Ragnar speaks ...

Hey, come back! Didn't you see that the Anglo-Danish player could have avoided O he casualties suffered in melee? lf he had spent the FATIGUE of the Hirdmen when they were aetivated he could have reduced their Movement to S and so prevent them from engaging in melee! werr done if yo u have spotted that ...

The Viking pi ayer could have done better too and 1 have some ideas on what 1 would

have done in that situat ion to inflict much more decisive casualties.

What would YOU have done if you were the Viking player? Deploy some figure on your tab/e and play the situation as if you were the Vikings and Jet us know on www.studio­tomahawk@free-forum.com

OJusreRing rhe w&Rband The cattle are like their master. Viga G/um's Saga

Now that you have a firm grip on the way the rules work, it's

time t o learn a bit more about the warbands t hat you w ill lead on the path of glory. This chapter deals with t he organisation of

your band of w arriors, t heir w arlord and how to ha ve balanced games.

YOUR ~V.ARJB\A\ND

Your warband is the collection of figures that you will play with

on the table. They are bought using points. The standard size

of a warband in SAGA is 6pt s, meaning that you w ill have six

points t o spend on your figures, which translates on t he table

to a force between 25 and 73 models strong. Each point will

give yo u a var iable number of models t hat depends on the class

of figures that the point has been spent on.

For your first games, we st rongly recommend you to start

playing w ith smaller 4 points w arbands. These smaller f orces

will familiarize yo u w ith the handling ofthe units at yourdisposal

and make getting to gr ips with the rules easier. Once yo u ha ve

played a couple of games with these smaller warbands, you

w ill be ready to move on to games using standard 6 point s

warbands.

Your warband must belong to a faction. In this rulebook we

have the rules for four factions: the Vikings, t he Normans, the

Anglo-Danish and t he Welsh. Each faction has its own set of dice

plus a Bat tle Board and sorne special rules for their fighters. We w ill be publishing Warbands for new factions in the future,

delving f urther into the age of Vikings.

YOUR W.ARJLORD

At the head of your warband stands your

Warlord. As your alter-ego in the game, he

comes free and doesn't cost any points,

unless yo u select one of the legendary leaders

described in the He roes of the Viking

Age chapter (page 45 ).

As we explained earlier,

the War lord counts as a Hearthguard for the sake of

act ivation, and if you read

the chapter dealing with

melee you will have noticed

that he is t he best fighter that

you will command! But beware,

the death of your Warlord often

heralds the end of the game, so

use him carefully and wisely.

Warlords have an increased Armour against shooting, representing their better armour, equipment and general

unwillingness to die by javelin, arrow or stone!

Warlords have a Movement of M , an Armour of 5 in Me lee and an Armour of 6 against Shooting attacks. Also they count as two units for the purpose of generating SAGA dice

at the start of the turn.

All Warlords also have a set of special rules that are described

below for the sake of convenience.

RESILIENCE

Warlords are hard nuts to crack, and will endure punishment beyond any otherwarrior. Usuallythey are al so accompanied by retainers ready to sacrifice themselves to protect their lord and quite rightly too.

To represent this, Warlords ignore the first non-cancelled hit they suffer in each shooting attack or melee phase. That means that to kili a Warlord, yo u must inflict at least two hits on him in a single phase. Note that the first one is ignored in EACH shooting or me lee activation. lf yo u Warlord is shot at and suffers only one hit, he is safe. lf later in the turn he is shot at again and again suffers one hit, he is not removed as casualty. The two un-cancelled hits must be inflicted by the same source in the same activation.

Also, if a Warlord suffers two or more hits in an activation either by Shooting or in Melee (and hence should be removed as a casualty,) you may eliminate a friendly non­Levy figure within VS of the Warlord instead of taking out the Warlord as a casualty. This represents the loyal retainers jumping in the way of the missile, or pushing the Warlord aside at the last minute and dying a martyr. Or, given the way so me people play, the Warlord taking one of his soldiers

and putting him in harm's way!

Example: your Warlord is shot at by sorne nasty crossbowmen. He suffers four hits and only rnanages to cancel one of them with his Defence roll. lhe first of these three hits is autornatically cancelled by the Resilience ability, but if he wants to live another day, your Warlord will have to find two non-levies figures within VS. One won't suffice! Somedays, it's a hard job to be the retainer of a boldWarlord!

DETERMINA TI ON

We expect Warlords to be the most active combatants of their warbands, leading their m en to victory ... or death!

Once per turn a Warlord can be activated for free, and t hat activation doesn't consume any SAGA dice. This free activation can be combined with the "We Obey" special rule below to activate a unit with the Warlord.

WEOBEY

Warlords are charismatic characters who lead their men to glory or to death, and as befits such leaders, Warlords benefit from the following special rule in SAGA.

Once per turn, when a Warlord is activated, if you chose a Movement activation, you may also simultaneously activate any one f r iendly unit within S of the Warlord. That unit must then be activated for Movement and may not use this "free" activation to shoot or rest.

lt doesn't matter if the unit has already been activated. lt just counts as a new Movement activation (andas such will generate FATIGUE, see the Fatigue chapter).

A Warlord can only use the 'We Obey' rule once per turn, during any of his Movement activations ( even t he free one afforded by the "Determination" special rule.) Note that the unit the Warlord activates may move freely and end its movement more t han S of the Warlord.

SIDE BYSIDE

By using the "We Obey" special rule, it is possible to engage an enemy unit simultaneously with your Warlord and the unit he has activated with him. This is the only way to engage a single unit with two of your units in SAGA.

In these instances, always move the Warlord first as we assume that his men are follow ing his lead.

The ensuing melee is resolved like any other melee except for the following specific rules:

• The Warlord and the accompanying unit generate their own separate Attack Dice.

• The SAGA abilities played on one of them do not affect the other. They are still two separate units.

- Befare rolling his Attack Dice, the enemy unit must divide them between the Warlord and his accompanying unit. No more than half its Attack Dice may be directed against the Warlord (but there is no mínimum amount of Attack Dice that must be directed against him). Warlords are not restricted by this rule: they may always allocate all their Attack Dice against the enemy Warlord. The exact positions of the engaged units is irrelevant in that case, as we assume that melee is a swirling action. SAGA abilities that affect the Attack roll are applied to all attacks made by that unit during this melee regardless of the unit it is targeting with its attacks.

- The Warlord may use his Resilience rule to save himself in melee if he has a friendly Hearthguard or Warrior figure within VS. The casualties taken by the accompanying unit are always taken out iirst, befare the Resilience rule can be used. So if you have been iighting side by side with four Warriors that suffered four un-cancelled hits, they are removed BEFORE you may use your Resilience, in this case leaving no one to stand between your Warlord and the mighty axe directed at his skull. lt's a good idea if your Warlord has at least a couple of friendly figures within VS if yo u want to avoid nasty surprises!

Ragnar speaks ...

Using the "Side by Side!" rule to join forces between your Warlord and a unit gives a huge boost to the slaughtering , capabilities of your units, but presents somerisks.

With the Warlord's five Attacks and the unit al so generating its own A ttack Dice, the amount of punishment dea/t on the

enemy can be terrific!

Be careful though, a we/1 prepared opponent might have sorne nasty Battle Board surprises for you.

Also, as some might te/1 you from the Otherworld, it is not a good idea to ha ve your Warlord jighting in me lee alongside a unit of Levies. Levies cannot be sacrificed using the Resi/ience rule - they just don't have it in them .. And someone will remind you for years that your Warlord fe// while fighting si de by si de with LEVIES ...

WARLORD'S PRIDE

YourWarford has been brought to the battleiield to defeat the enemy leader. During the Dark Ages, religion, codes of honour and cultural norrns all meant that great attention was given to proper behaviour and heroism was a unequalled virtue.

In SAGA this translates as the following rule:

lfwhen yo u actívate yourWarlord fora Movement and he is able to engage the enemy Warlord in melee with that movement, he must do so. You have no choice on that matter.

_,

Ragnar speaks ..•

The Warlord is the best jighter at your disposa/. He aetivates for free, he endures pain like no other, he is obeyed when ordering his so/diers to follow him and he wi/1 jump at the throat of the enemy Warlord as soon as possible. You feel powerfu/ don't you? We/1, just remember that in sorne scenarios the

death of your Warlord ends the Game .

And l'm pretty sure that if you forget that, your opponent will be al/ too ready to remind it to you ...

' .

YOUR RJETAJNJER§

Now that you have your Warlord ready for action, it is about

time to get him a retinue of faithful followers.

Retainers, as we collectively call them, come in three different

classes: Hearthguards, Warriors and Levies.

Hearthguards Hearthguards are of course the most powerful retainers you will ha ve in your warband, but they are a rare breed of m en, so don't expect to ha ve many of them.

Hearthguard have a Movement of Mandan Armourof5.

Warriors Warriors form the bulk of the forces of the Viking Age and, when properly led, can be tough fighters. They widely available so what they lack in t raining they make it up with numbers.

Warriors have a Movement of Mandan Armourof4.

LEVIES

Levies are usually only called on in t ime of emergency, though sorne Warlords like their shooting abilities. Usually Warlords do not muster them, but when that happens they are so happy to serve that they gather in masses -yo u can have plenty of them if that's your kind ofthing!

Levies ha ve a Movement of Ml and an Armour of 3· They never count as units for the purpose of generating SAGA dice at the start of the turn.

As the authors of SAGA are very respectful of their readers

and f uture gamers, we have kept the rules for building your

warband as simply as possible. That way, instead of spending

hours w restling with army lists and building killer armies that

do nothing but lose, you will actually have more time to paint,

play t he game and rib your opponent in the pub.

Basically, each point gives you a variable number of models,

depending on the class yo u have spent this point on. Of course

each point may be spent on a different class, giving you sorne

variety on your force or yo u might just choose to spend all your

points on a single class.

One point gives you 4 Hearthguards OR 8 Warriors OR 12

Levies. lf yo u are mathematically inclined, he re is the formula:

1pt = 4 Hearthguards = 8 Warriors = 12 Levies

Remember that we told you that a warband was made of

between 25 and 73. Twenty five models is when all points are

spent on Hearthguard and seventy three when they are all

spent on Levies. The last model being of course the Warlord!

Ragnar speaks ••.

As you might have guessed by now, am the Warlord of a mighty warband of Warriors of Odin. l've got my six points

to spend on Norwegian retainers and 1'11 have to se/ect them carefu//y if 1 want my SAGA to be fegendary ...

The first point spent wi/1 be spent on Hearthguards. This gives me 4 of them.

Not enough! You can't go raiding the coasts of Britain with such a fimited number of professional fighters. So 1 spend two more points on Hearthguards to get 8 more of them for a total of 12 Hearthguard. M u eh better .. .

The four and fifth points are spent on Warriors, foyaf Bondi. Two points gives me 16 Warriors, that's p/enty of rowers for my Longship.

The fast point wi/1 be spent on sorne bow-armed Levies. Just

in case we need sorne missifes real/y. One point gives me 12

Levy modefs.

A bit too many for my taste, but we can stilf fet them starve if they pmve too annoying.

Th is gives me 40 Retainers for my warband. Nota bad start,

now it' s time to feave my hall and take to the sea ...

Once you have selected the figures that will f orm your

Warband, the last step is to organise them into fighting units.

Your retainers may be split into units with the follow ing

restrictions:

- No unit can have less than 4 figures.

- No unit can have more than 12 figures

- All models within a unit must be of the same class.

- lf a choice of equipment is available, all models within a

single unit must have the same equipment (see the chapters

detailing the Warriors of the Viking Age).

- The Warlord is always a unit of his own and may not be

included in any other unit.

- Sorne lists offer sorne options to certain classes and it is at this

point that you choose which option you w ill take advantage of.

Ragnar speaks ...

We get back to my 40 Retainers (12 Hearth­guards, 16 Warriors and 12 Levies).

1 decide tosplit m y Hearthguard into three units, each of them 4 models strong. One of them wi/1 be upgraded to Berserkers as the faction rules for Vikings al/ow. 1 want to field a large unit of Warriors, so 1 go for a unit of 12 Warriors and a

smallish one of 4 models that wi/1 be kept in reserve to fi/1 the gaps in the line should a problem occur. The Levies wi/1 be split into two units, with six mode/s in each of these units and despatched to the flanks. 1 end up with eight units (myself included). But for the sake of SAGA dice, the rubbish Levies do not count l've sti// got m y fu/1 al/ocation of six SAGA Dice to start with (actual/y l've got seven, but the author of these rules stated that 1 could only rol/ 6 of them at the start of ea eh tum), but should /lose two units ( except Levies) my SAGA pool wi/1 be reduced!

You will see that the way that your models are organised is

very important in SAGA. Big units are usually more effective in

combat, and you will need less SAGA dice for your activations

but too few units and that can leave you w ith less SAGA dice

to roll at the start of the turn. Al so yo u w ill start to lose SAGA

dice as you lose units. In the end, it depends on your gaming

style and experience. So me players will prefer large units while

others will go for loads of small ones. The choice is yours.

'Che p~ctions: Vikings

The Vikings (from the Old Norse Vikingr) is the 'catch-all' na me given to the inhabitants of the three main kingdoms of

medieval Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The

Scandinavians had always been travellers and traders and their

superior naval technology and navigation talents let them

travel not only the length and breadth of Europe but also into

Russian and Asia. But trade was not the only thing that drove

these men of the the North as they were al so keen plunderers

with a fierce warrior culture. Where trading prospects were

good or at vital points along trade routes, the Vikings would

often establish colonies. All these activities had a single aim:

afla sér fjár (acquire wealth in O Id Norse).

At the head of each Scandinavian kingdom ruled the King. His

authority was relayed by Jarls who ruled part of the country in

his name, or Hersirs who were military commanders. Usually

your Warlord will be a Jarl ora Hersir.

Your Hearthguard will be drawn from the Hird. Hirdmen were

the armed companions in the Viking Lord's household and can

be considered among the finest professional soldiers of the day.

Sorne Hirdmen were Berserkers or Úlfhédnar, perhaps members

of religious cults dedicatd to Odin. These fearsome warriors fought

in a frenzied state and were regarded with awe and suspicion by

their comrades and with abject fear by their opponents.

Your Warriors may be members of the militia of freemen that

all Lords had access to or they may be sailors and traders

accompanying your Lord.

Finally, the lowest social component of the Norse society was

made of the Thrall, an unfree servant ora slave. They make the

Levies of your warband.

JFACTJlON RUJLE§

One unit of Viking Hearthguard exactly 4 models strong may

be designated as Berserkers. Each Berserker model generates

4 Attack Dice in melee (instead of 2 for other Hearthguards)

but has their Armour reduced to 3·

Viking Warriors and Warlords have no special rules.

Vikings Levies are armed with bows or slings.

'Che plctions: NoRmc\.ns

The Normans are the inhabitants of Normandy, a Duchy in north­

westem France, created in the 10th century when Viking settlers

were granted lands by the Carolingian King, Charles the Simple. The

name "Norman" comes from "Nortmanni" which is the Frankish

word for Norsemen. As with most Viking colonies, the new anivals

'integrated' freely with the locals and within two generations, the

colonists were undistinguishable from their Frankish neighbours.

Viking traditions did still survive though in many of the laws of the

Duchy and in its language. lt is said that the Normans kept too

their lust for new land and conquest, witness their expeditions in

England and Sicily.

The Duchy was ruled by a Duke, the first being Rollo. They were assisted by Comes ( Counts) and Barones (Barons,) and below them

a large assortment of different feudal titles that encompassed all

land owners. The Comes and Barones were the military commanders

of the Norman armies, and your Warlord will be such a nobleman.

The lords had at their disposal fighters who could also be senior land

owners of their own, or household soldiers. We call them knights, and they usually fought on horseback, armed with the lance or

spear. They are your Hearthguard.

The bulk of the army was made of freeman, obliged to serve their

liege-lord in what was already a feudal system of govemance. The

duchy of Normandy made great use of professional mercenary

soldiers from France , Flanders, ltaly or Spain. They were usually

called sergeants, and the mustered freemen and mercenary

sergeants collectively form the Waniors of your force.

Finally, in time of needs, the lowest social classes of the society could

be called to arms, They were generally tlie poorest ofthe NormC!ns,

aod were used as sk~rmishE7f$. These P._easants are the Levies of a Norman warband.

1FAC1LJ[0N RULlE§

Most Normans units may be fielded mounted. Mounted units are subject to the following special rules:

- The Movement of mounted units is increased to lL but reduced to § when moving from, through or into an u neven ground.

- Mounted units may never enter a building but they can engage in melee any unit occupying a building in t he normal manner.

-The Armour of mounted units is reduced by one when they are the target of a Shooting attack.

- Mounted units never benefit from any kind of cover, in melee or shooting.

Apart from the restrictions mentioned above, mounted units

behave like ordinary units. lf a unit starts the game mounted,

it must remain mounted for the whole game and may never dismount.

Norman Warlords, Hearthguard and Warriors may be mounted.

lf not fielded mounted, one Norman Warriors unit ( up to 8

models strong) may be equipped with crossbows. All other

Norman Warriors fighting dismounted have the same Movement

and Armour than all other Warriors (see page 39).

Norman Levies are equipped with bows.

"Che plctions: Anglo-danish

In the early years of the 11th Century, England carne to be ruled by Sven Forkbeard, king of Denmark and Norway. He was succeeded in 1016 by his son, Cnut The Great. During his reign, Cnut managed the relationships between Viking and Saxon extremely well and made great play of cult ural bonds between the two peoples.lt was a period of great integration and England beca me the centre of a powerful North Sea empire.

At the top of the new Anglo·Danish aristocracy were the King and his household plus the Earls and their households who ruled great tracts of England and Scandinavia in the King's na me. Your Warlord would most likely be from one of t hese households.

One dominant feature in the households of Lords such as your Warlord were the Huscarl retainers, a development of the Hirdmen concept from Scandinavia. These men were highly trained prof essional soldiers, many of whom had earned land through their dedicated service, who in times of peace would act as bodyguards to their Lord and perform trusted tasks such as collect ing taxes, and in times of war would form the elite of the army. Huscarls of the prosperous Anglo-Danish kingdom were characterised by their use of the latest military equipment; long mail hauberks, the fearsome Dane Axe capable of severing a horses head with one blow, and, of course, the magnificent moustache. lt is these t roops t hat form the Hearthguard of an Anglo-Danish warband.

Lower ranked landowners such as the Thegns, many of whom were old Saxon aristocracy, would form the better troops of the bulk of any Anglo-danish force. Taking the field alongside them would be the bett er trained elements of the Fyrd, the name given to all Saxons while undertaking their obligated military duties. lt is from the ranks of these troops that your Warriors 'The Ceorls' are drawn.

Poor farm-workers and peasants did receive t raining under the Fyrd system but in practice t hey were often sent home to tend the fields and livestock. When called upon to serve, they were used as skirmishers and these poor combat ants are the Levies at your disposal.

lFACllllON RUlLJE§

Sorne Anglo-Danish units may be armed with double handed Dane axes. They are subject to the following rules

- When engaged in melee, a unit with double handed Dane axes will not use its shields and so suffers a - 1 penalty to its Armour value. Hence, if t he unit has an Armour of 5, it counts as having an Armour of 4.

- Attack rolls made by a unit equipped w ith double handed Dane axes gets a +1 bonus. To hitan Armour 4 unit, you'll only need 3s. This makes the enemy easier to hit in melee.

Anglo-Danish Warlords have double handed Dane axes.

Anglo-Danish Hearthguard may be armed with double handed Dane axes. The models should actually be equipped with large double handed weapons as to make it clear to your opponent! They are considered to fight w it h their axes at all times, so the benefits and drawbacks highlighted above apply all the time. lf they are equipped w ith spears, swords or any other weapons, they are not subject to any special rules.

Anglo-Danisn Warriors have no special rules.

Anglo-Danish Levies are equipped wit h bows or slings.

The plctions: Wclsh

The Welsh of the Viking Age are

descended from the celtic and

Romanised Britons, pushed west

by the invading Germanic tribes

between the sth and 7'h centuries.

In Germanic, 'Welsh'

' foreigners.' The Welsh called

themselves 'Cymri,' meaning 'fellow countrymen' which is

slightly ironic as Wales was made

up of many, fiercely independent

sub-kingdoms and only united

under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in the 11m century.

The Welsh found t hemselves constantly under attack in the

Viking Age. Pressure from the Saxons to the east was constant

and their coast was f requently raided by Norse-lrish from

Dubl in, lrish pirates and Vikings from Mann and the lsles. In

their defence, the Welsh developed a much looser fighting style

than their contemporaries and made great use of the terrain to

keep invaders and raiders at bay.

At the head of each Welsh kingdom reigned a king whose

power was rarely f elt outside the boundaries of his kingdom.

The kingdom was divided in a patchwork of clans, each rivall ing

for the favours of the king. Such a king or one of his brethren is

likely to command your warband as Warlord.

Below the king we found the Uchelwyr, who are the aristocracy

of the Welsh, clan patriarchs and landowners. They were second to none except the King and his bodyguard, the Teulu,

kinsmen who swore t o give their life for their lord and were

usually drawn from his own family. They were usually the only

Welsh troops with any mail, helmet or leg protection and not

all of them would be rich enough to afford a complete set of

armour. They would often fight mounted, hurling javelins at

their enemies. Teulu or Uchelwyr are t he Hearthguards of your

warband.

The bulk of the Welsh fighting force was made of Priodaur,

meaning freemen, with only the wealthier individuals bringing

much in t he way of equipment. These troops relied on javelins

ano hit ano run tactics to achieve their goals, could fight

mounted and are generally considered as undiscipl ined. These

clansmen are Warriors.

At the bottom of -thé military hierarchy are the Bonnedig -

uotried youths and·peasants. They could be used to harass the

enemy and acquire eJCQer{ence without risking their life in hand

taiJand combat. Thesec~e_asant free m en are the Levies in your

force.

JFACTION RUJLJES

Most Welsh units will have the option to be fielded mounted.

Mounted units are subject to sorne special rules that are described here for convenience:

- The Movement of mounted units is increased to L but reduced toS when moving from, through or into an u neven ground.

- Mounted units may never enter a building but they can engage in melee any unit occupying a building in t he normal manner.

- The Armour of mounted units is reduced by one when resolving a shooting attack targeting them. So any unit targeting a mounted unit will hit them easier.

- Mounted units never benefit from any kind of cover, in me lee or shooting.

Apart from the restrictions mentioned above, mounted units

behave like ordinary units. lf a unit starts the game mounted,

it must remain mounted f or the whole game and may never

dism ount.

Welsh Warlords are equipped with javelins. They may be

mounted on horses (ponies actually, but only their opponents

w ill call them that.)

Welsh Warriors and Hearthguard are equipped w ith javelins,

but dueto their lack of armour and protection, they have their

Armour value reduced by one against enemy shoot ing (Welsh

Hearthguard count as having an Armour of 4 against shooting,

and Welsh Warriors count as having an Armour of 3 against

shooting).

Welsh Warriors and Hearthguard may be mounted on horses

(and this would also decrease their Armour against shooting by

one, for a final Armour against shooting of 2 for Warriors and

3 for Hearthguard).

Welsh Levies are equipped with bows, slings or javelins.

e Roes Of r-he viKing age Numbers cannot skill withstand; Ha raid Hardrada's Saga

The chronicles of the Age of Vikings are filled with accounts of the heroic deeds and treacherous behaviour of the mighty heroes of the period. Sorne of them achieved a fame that made them semi­legendary figures in their own right, sometimes mixing history and mythology. SAGA as a game wouldn't be complete if it did not offer the players the opportunity to field these larger-than-life characters on the table. We do not planto accurately represent these warriors and generals, instead we want to be inspired by their deeds, and their appearance on the battlefields of a skirmish game like SAGA should be seen as a tribute to them rather than a va in attempt to accurately reproduce their achievements.

VllKlNG§

When mustering your warband yo u m ay choose to select one of the Heroes of the Viking Age as your Warlord and they will replace the anonymous Warlord that usually leads your retainers. But fielding such mighty heroes comes at a price. lt will cost you one point to have such a Warlord, meaning that in a standard game, only five points will be left to spend on troops.

Unless otherwise specified, the Heroes of the Viking Age have the same characteristics as other Warlords: an Armour of 5, increased to 6 against shooting, they generate five Attack Dice, etc... They also have access to the same options as the Warlords of their related factions. William the Conqueror could be mounted, Harold Godwinson has a double-handed Dan e Axe, etc... Each He ro of the Viking Age has a set of special rules that are unique to him and will offer new perspectives to players of that faction. Sorne of these rules have a deep impact on the gameplay. What else would you expect from a Warlord that costas much as four Hearthguard? We suggest that if you wish to use a Hero Of The Viking Age as your Warlord it would be polite to seek your opponent's permission befare the game.

There are two Heroes for each faction in the rulebook. Two players can face each other with the same faction, led with the same Hero of the Viking Age without problem. Obviously one of them will be an impostor, but the Judgement of God will decide which one it is!

At end of this chapter you will also find a Sword to Hire. These characters can be recruited by any faction as they are mercenaries only driven by greed and bloodlust. By paying the appropriate cost, any faction can field them in their warband, and they benefit from their own set of special rules.

Harald Hardrada, King of Norway

Harafd Sigurdsson, known as Harald Hardrada was the King of

Norway until his death at the Battfe of Stamford Bridge. In his youth he travefled to the fands of the Rus and took part in the war against The Potes befare moving to Constantinopfe where he served the

Emperor in the inner circle of his bodyguard, the Varangian Guard. In 1042 he returned to his homefand to claim his title of King of Norway and waged war until the crown befonged to him. Driven by a cfaim on the English crown, in 1066 he invaded Engfand and faced Harofd

Godwinson at Stamford Bridge. There he met his fate, and his death herafded the end of the Viking Age.

Hero of the Viking Age: as a respected leader, Harald Hardrada generates three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of the usual two for other Warlords.

Bodyguard: Harald Hardrada belonged to the personal bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperor and has an unequalled fighting experience. He has an Armour of 6 in both Shooting &Melee.

The Varangians: one unit of Hearthguard (of up to 12 models) in Harald's warband may be upgraded to Varangians, former companions of the King of Norway when he was serving in Constantinople. These Hearthguard have an Armour of 6 in both shooting and melee and not 5 as other Hearthguard.

Dane Axes: Harald and his Varangians may be equipped with Dan e axes that are double handed weapons as described in the Anglo-Danish faction list.

Ragnar Lothbrok, King of Sweden and Norway

Ragnar Lothbrok ( afso spefled Lodbrok) befongs to myth as much

as to history. A raider much more than a king, he cast a shadow

on Western Europe where his raids were feared and anxiousfy awaited. He was very keen to make churches and eccfesiastical

bui/dings as targets of his raids, claiming to be the son of Odin. lt is said that he died in England, after an unsuccessful raid and

captured by a Saxon Earl.

Hero of the Viking Age : as a legendary warrior, Ragnar generates three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of the usual two for other Warlords.

Son of Odin: Ragnar claimed to be the son of Odin. His death song ends with: "The days of m y life are ended. llaugh as 1 die". As a formidable hero, he cancels the first two hits suffered in each melee or against each shooting action (and not just the first one as other Warlords)

The Raider: a smart leader, Ragnar knew how to deal with his enemies-and especially which ones he should not :fight. At the • start of each turn, he may decide toJ,oll only half t()e ~8GA dice he is entitle'\;to roll. lf he chooses to do so, alf uñits in his warband will have a tur~, t.b,e need to spend any SAGA die.

ANGrlLO-DANJ[§H

Harold Godwinson, Last Anglo-Saxon King of England Harold Godwinson was Ear/ of Wessex when Edward the Confessor died. The Witan supported his claim to the throne and proclaimed him King of England. This coronation was the spark

that put frre to England, triggering two invasions, one from the North by the Norwegians and one from the South by the Normans. After defeating the Vikings at Stamford Bridge, Harold moved south and faced William the Bastard at Hastings, where he was killed, by an arrow in the eye according to the legend and Norman propaganda.

Hero of the Viking Age : as a beloved ruler, Harold generates three SAGA dice at t he start of each t urn, instead of two as usual for other Warlords.

The Godw inson brotherhood: Harold forms a unit with two of his brothers, Gyrth & Leofwine. They form a single unit and Harold does not benefit from the Side by Side special rule of other Warlords.

Gyrth & Leofwine have an Armour of 5, increased to 6 against Shooting. They each generate three dice in me lee and the whole unit (Harold and his brothers) is considered as a Hearthguard unit equipped with double handed Dane axes.

Harold is always the last model removed (and two hits are needed to take him out as a casualty, dueto his Resilience rule). You cannot remove Harold until his two brothers have been removed. lf this is not possible because of unit coherence, exchange Harold wit h another of the models befo re removing casualties and so maintain unit formation.

The Determination special rule applies to the unit Harold forms with his brothers.

Bravery: the first FATIGUE Harold and his Brothers should take during every turn of the controlling player (not the turn of his opponent) is ignored.

Cnut the Great, first Anglo-Danish King of England

A Christian King, Cnut reigned over Denmark, Norway and England. He is one of the lesser known though most important figures of the early middle-ages. He instigated the rise of the Huscarls, importing the military traditions of the northern kingdoms into Englapd.

Hero of the Viking Age : as one of the greatest Kings of the Viking Age, Cnut generates three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of t he usual two for other Warlords.

The Great: As long as Cnut is leading your warband, you can roll up to seven SAGA dice at the start of each turn (if the units on the table generate enough dice) instead of the usuallimit of six. You are stilllimited to a total of eight SAGA dice in total to use every turn. Cnut may be mounted on a horse, or, if dismounted, may have a double handed Dane axe (see Anglo-Danish special rules page 43).

The Over-King: As long as Cnut is on the table, you may use both the Viking and the Anglo-Danish battleboards. At the start of each turn, you may chose what mix of SAGA dice to roll between Viking and Anglo-Danish SAGA dice. Viking SAGA dice may only be used on t he Viking Bat tle Board and Anglo­Danish SAGA dice may only be used on the Anglo-Danish Batt le Board.

NORMA\N§

William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy

William was the only son of of Robert 1, Duke of Normandy and although illegitimate was designated as heir of the Duchy. At the death of his father he struggled against potentia/ usurpers but demonstrated quite early a maturity in judgement and política/ skills that let him secure his position against his rivals, even the King of France. He claimed he was promised the throne of England by the exiled king Edward, and upon Edward's death , William decided to c/aim the kingship. He built a fleet to invade England and take the crown from the head of Harold. At Hastings in 1066 he frnally fulfrlled his destiny.

Hero of the Viking Age : as t he conqueror of England, William generates three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of the usual two for other Warlords.

The Bast ard: William as Duke of Normandy established his rule in the blood of his rivals and is respected and feared. lf he uses his We obey special rule, he may actívate two units within S, but if he activates two units, none of them will be able to engage melee with this activation. Also, any unit activated by his We obey rule may use this activation to Shoot or Move (remember that normally you may only M ove with the activation generated by the We obey rule).

The Tactician: William used elaborate tactics during his battles. Any Warriors or Heartguard units in William's warband may have bows. Bow equipped Warriors and Hearthguard have an Armour characteristic reduced by one (bow equipped Warriors have an Armour of 3 and bow-equipped Heartguards have an Armour of 4) dueto their lack of protection.

lvo Taillefer

lvo Taillefer both stepped out onto and disappeared from the stage of History quite quickly. At the battle of Hastings, he asked William if he could be the one to give the first strokes to the English. William agreed and Taillefer galloped off in the direction of the English line, singing the Song of Roland. Apparently this sight provoked the Saxons and a challenge was called out. The warrior that went out from the shieldwall was quickly killed. Taillefer then charged the mass of startled Saxon warriors, and for a short time breached the shieldwall befare being dragged from his horse and hacked to pieces.

Herald, minstrel or jester, Taillefer is to this day a symbol of bravery.

Hero of the Viking Age: as a brave knight, Taillefer generates three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of the usual two for other Warlords.

The Song of Roland: Taillefer is immune to FATIGUE. He will never suffer any FATIGUE and any FATIGUE given by any gaming effect is cancelled without further effect. In addition, at the start of the Norman player's turn, before SAGA dice are rolled, all friendly units within Mor Taillefer discard one FATIGUE.

Foolishly brave: Taillefer may never use the Si de by S id especial rule. lf he engages combat, it must be alone.

Skilled rider: lf mounted, Tail lefer m ay during the SAGA abilities st ep of each melee, spend any SAGA die on the Norman battleboard in the Activation boxes (Knights, Sergeants and Peasants) to gain one Attack Die and one Defence Die. He may do this as many times as he wants in a single melee though he remains limited to the usual Attack and Defence dice limits.

WIEJL§JH[

Maredudd ab Owain, King of the Britons

Maredudd ab Owain was king of Deheubarth and conquered Gwynedd and Powys. For most of his reign, he fought against the Viking invaders and launched raids against his Mercian neighbours. History remembers him for his habit of paying a ransom of a penny for each head of his subjects that was cap tu red by the Vikings.

Hero of the Viking Age : as a king, Maredudd generates three SAGA dice at the start of ea eh turn, instead of t he usual two for other Warlords.

The penny: Maredudd is likely to have paid the opponent's retainers. During the first turn of the game, his opponent only ro lis a third (rounded up) the number of SAGA dice he is entitled to roll normally. In the second turn he may roll half (rounded up) the number of SAGA dice he is entitled to roll normally. Starting w ith the third turn, his opponent may roll his normal number of SAGA dice.

Raider: As a raider, Maredudd is famous for his swift actions. All units in Maredudd warband can be activated with any SAGA die, regardless of their class as long as Maredudd is alive.

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, the High King

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was the only Briton to ever rule over al/ the Welsh kingdoms in the early medieval period - quite a feat if we consider the turbulent history of Wales. He had to battle for a long time against his fellows, but as he said about the wars he had to wage against the other Welsh kingdoms: Speak not of killing; 1 but blunt the horns of the offspring of Wales lest they should injure their da m.

In the last years of his life, he was at war against Harold Godwinsson and was forced to flee. During his exile, he was killed by sorne of his own retainers who were avenging their family members Gruffydd had killed during his accession to the throne ofWales . .

Hero of the Viking Age : as the High King, Gruffydd generates three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of the usual two for other Warlords. In addition, up to three SAGA dice may be re-rolled once during the Orders Phase as long as Gruffyd is alive.

Scouts of Deheubarth:. All Levies in his warband generate SAGA dice as if they were Warriors.

Archers of Powys: any Warrior unit in Gruffydd's warband may exchange javelins for bows. Bow-equipped Warriors only have an Armour of 3, against me lee attacks and when shot at.

Spearmen of Gwynedd: any Warrior or Hearthguard units may give up their javelins. These units don't suffer any Armour reduction against shooting.

§~VORD§ JFOR JH[J[]PUE

Jarl Sigvaldi and the Jomsvikings

The Jomsvikings are a band of flerce pagan Viking mercenaries famous in the Norse sagas. They were ski/Jed warriors, highly disciplined and served different masters during their history, sometimes switching sides in the midst of battle. The Jarl Sigvaldi Strut-Haraldsson is one of the most renowned of the Jomsviking Jeaders. He attacked Norway in the 10th century, but was forced to flee the battle that ensued. later, he fought at the naval Battle of Swold (or Svolder) but betrayed the King of Norway in the heat of battle, Jeading to t he dismembering of the Kingdom of Norway.

Recruiting the Jomsvikings: it costs 2 points to add Sigvaldi and his Jomsvikings t o your Warband. Sigvaldi and his Jomsviking may not be included if the warband is led by a Hero of the VikingAge.

Band of Jomsvikings : Jarl Sigvaldi comes with three other Jomsvikings and they form a unit of four models. Jarl Sivaldi does not count as a Warlord, he is merely a named figure within your warband (and does not benefit from any Warlord special rules.) Sigvaldi and his three Jomsvikings count as a Hearthguard unit of four models, that cannot be joined by any other models. The Jomsvikings have an Armour of 4, and generate one Attack Die in melee. Sigvaldi has also an Armour of 4, but generates three Attack Dice in melee. Hence the four models of this unit generate six Attack Dice. They al so generate two SAGA dice each turn, like your Warlord.

The leader: within the unit, Sigvaldi is always the last model of his unit to be removed. You cannot remove Sigvaldi until all other models ha ve be en removed. lfthis is not possible w ithout breaking unit coherency, exchange Sigvaldi with another of the models of his unit before removing casualties and so maintain unit formation.

Wrath of the Jomsvikings: The unit Sigvaldi forms with his Jomsvikings is not activated like regular Hearthguards. They may never benefit from any SAGA abilities from your batttleboard or be activat ed by the We obey special rule of your Warlord.

lnstead, during the Orders Phase, you may put any of your SAGA dice rolled this turn near the unit, with up to three SAGA dice dedicated to the Jomsvikings. At the end of the Orders Phase, discard all these SAGA dice and rol! 1 D6 for every die put near the Jomsvikings. The unit receives for this Activation phase a number of f ree activations (that do not consume any SAGA die) equal to naif the highest D6 rolled (rounded up ).

In addition, they will benefit f rom a number of effects indicated by the chart below and according to the score rolled with the sum of the D6s. All effects are cumulative (so if you rolled a 12, you will get ALL the beneñts from the first six lines). You will find on our website markers to download and print that summarize the benefits of the Wrath of the Jomsvikings.

DICE ROLL « WRATH OF THE JOMSVIKINGS »

1 None ..

2-3 All models in the unit generate an additional Attack Die and gain one Armour. This effect lasts until the start of your next turn.

4-6 The whole unit gains an extra Defence Dice during the SAGA abilities step of each melee until the start of your next turn.

7-9 The whole unit gains two additional Attack Dice during the SAGA abilities step of each melee until the start of your next turn.

10-11 The whole unit gains two extra Defence Dice during the SAGA abilities step of each me lee until the start of your next turn.

12-13 The whole unit gains two additional Attack Dice during the SAGA abilities step of each melee until the start of your next turn.

14-15 The unit discards any FATIGUE it has, and the ñrst FATIGUE taken this turn is immediately discarded w ithout effect.

16 All models gain one Armour and the unit may re-rol! f ailed Attack and Defence Dice during each melee unt il the st art of your next turn.

17-18 Sigvaldi and his men betrays their employer! They are not activated this turn and do not enjoy any beneñts from the above effects. At the start of you opponent's turn, t hey become a part of his warband, and he may spend SAGA dice to use the Wrath of the Jomsvikings as yo u have done so far.

Saga abitities Fear not death, for the hour of your doom is set and none may escape it. Volsunga's Saga

In this chapter we w ill take a closer look at the SAGA abilities

described on the Battle Boards of the tour factions included in

the main rules. Hopefully, they will answer any questions you

may have and explain how these abilities are used. During a

game, if you have any doubt on the way a SAGA ability should

work, refer to this chapter.

WHJEN ARJE §AGA AliUJUTIJE§ U§JED?

Under the title of the SAGA ability is indicated the phase or step

during which it is used:

Here are the different possibilities:

Orders abilities are used during the Orders Phase, when

allocating SAGA dice to the boxes. Unless labelled as Orders

1 Reaction these abilities may only be used in your own turn.

Usually they have some lasting effects during yourturn, or alter

the SAGA dice themselves, for example by allowing a re-roll or

changes to the faces of the dice. Some of these abilities are

indicated as Orders 1 Reaction. lt means that these abilities

may ONLY be used during the enemy turn during their Orders

phase.

ORDERS abilities may only be used during your own turn.

ORDERS 1 REACTION abilities may only be used during the enemy's turn.

Activation abilities are used in the Activation Phase. Unless

labelled as Activation 1 Reaction these abilities m ay only be used

in your own tum. They usually actívate units, or produce some

effects involving the activation of units. Activation 1 Reaction

abilities may ONLY be used during the enemy turn during their

Activation phase. Usually these abilities will indicate to you

exactly when they can be used.

ACTIVATION abilities may only be used during your own turn.

ACTIVATION 1 REACTION abilities may only be used during the enemy's turn.

Shooting abilities are used during Step 2) of the Shooting

procedure (when Attacker and Defender use their SAGA

abilities). Shooting abilities may only be used when you are

resolving a ranged attack w ith one of your units, and Shooting

1 Reaction abilities may only be u sed when one of your units is

targeted by an enemy unit.

SHOOTING abilities may be used during a ranged attack made by one of your units.

SHOOTING 1 REACTION may only be used when targeted by shooting.

Melee abilities are used during Step 3) of the Me lee procedure

(when Attacker and Defender use their SAGA abilities). Melee

abilities can be used either during your turn or the enemy's

t urn.

MELEE abilities may be used either during your turn or your enemy's turn.

Just in case you wondered, SAGA abilities may not be played

in a melee that you are not involved in. lf you are playing a

three player game, and the opposing players are resolving

their me lee, you may not use your own SAGA abilities to affect a melee not involving your t roops. The same goes for shooting.

lf you are neither the shooter nor the target, you cannot use

SAGA abilities during the resolution of that shooting.

Saga abiCities descRiption Let another's wounds be your warning. Njal's Saga

Gr lENJERll C AlB\lUUTlllE§

These abilities, in boxes of this colour, are shared

1 by all factions. They may be used more than once,

~ i.e. have more than one die placed in their box. All

i of them are used by discarding one die from the

box and immediately resolving the effects.

Activation abilities

All factions have three boxes that allow them to actívate

respectively Hearthguard/Warlords, Warriors or Levies. They

are used during the Activation phase, by discarding one die

f rom the box and immediately activating one of the relevant

units to Rest, M ove or Shoot.

Activation Pool

All factions have this box. lt is a useful tool to prepare for a

turn of intense activity. To be used, place one die in this box.

This die is always the rarest symbol. During any Order Phase,

including the one in which the die was placed he re, the die may

be discarded to roll two extra-dice, resulting (if your maths are

not too rusty) in a net gain of one SAGA die. Doing this twice

could se e yo u using all eight available SAGA dice.

Combat Pool

All factions have this box, though under different names. Each

die placed in this box may be discarded to add dice when

fighting the enemy. Some factions may only use these dice

in Melee, others may use them in Melee or during a Shooting

action (indicated in the later case as Melee or Shooting). Also

the text in the ability box indicates if the gained dice are Attack

Dice or Defence Dice or if the choice is left to the player. You

will ha ve noted that the effects of this ability depend on the si de

of the dice that was discarded, with so me symbols generating more Dice than others.

lFACTllON §Jp>JECJUFllC j AlfUlUTlllE§

All these abilities, in boxes of this colour,

1 may only be used once per full game turn

i (that is your game turn and your opponent's

turn). lt means that you may only place the

combination of dice needed to actívate it on

the board once, and when it has been use

during a turn, you may not actívate it until the next turn. Each faction has his own set of nine specific

abilities that dictate the way your warband will behave on the

battlefield and the tactics that you should use.

VJ[JKlNG 1\JB\J[JLJ[l['J[]E§

Njord U sed during your Activation Phase.

When you wantto usethis ability, simply discard the die. Remove one FATIGUE from your Warlord and one FATIGUE from every

unit within Ml of the Warlord's figure. To be considered within

M of the Warlord, the unit just needs to ha ve at least one figure

within ML No line of sight is required.

Quite useful either at the end of an activation phase, or after

Movement activations and just before jumping into melee!

Frigg U sed during Step 3) of any Melee.

This ability will drive your enemy mad! During the SAGA

abilities step of the me lee, discard this die, gain one Attack Die

and immediately remove one FATIGUE from any one of your

units engaged in this me lee. lf you are the attacker, bingo! The opponent won't be able to spend that FATIGUE point. lf you

are the defender, it is less useful but at least you won't finish

that melee with a big pile of FATIGUE.

Heimdal Used during Step 3) of any Melee.

This ability can be triggered using any die making it quite easy

to actívate. When you discard the die, you gain three Attack

Dice. Four if the discarded die was the one shown in this ability

text on the Battle Board. But it comes at a price as the unit

that gained these Attack Dice has its Armour reduced by one

until the end of this melee. Not complicated nor subtle, but still

highly effective. A real piece of Viking poetry!

Odin U sed during the enemy's Activation Phase, when he activates a unit to Shoot.

This one will save your retainers more than once. When your

opponent spends the dice to actívate a unit, and announces

his intention to shoot, you may discard these dice to force

him to change the activation to a Movement. lt means that no

shooting will take place, and that your opponent will have to

m ove his figures instead. But even if he doesn't move his figures

at all, it still counts as a Movement activation for the purpose

of FATIGUE or anything else (like the Warlord's Pride special

rule!). Note that you can't affect a unit shooting with javelins

as shooting with javelins is part of a Movement activation and

not a Shooting one.

Asgard Used during Step 2) of the resolution of the enemy's Shooting

As sorne Vikings are quite vulnerable to shooting (Berserkers

anyone?) this ability is quite useful to protect your beloved

retainers. Spend the die during the SAGA abilities step of the

shooting, and immediately add one Armour to your unit until

the end of the shooting, thus making it harder to hit. Useless

on your Warlord (Armour cannot exceed 6) unless the enemy

has somehow reduced his Armour already.

Thor Used during Step 3) of any Me/ee.

Useful if you want to put pressure on your puny opponent.

Discard this die during the SAGA abilities step of the melee.

Then continue the melee's resolution until you arrive at the

end of Step 6) after the casualty removal. Then simply go

back to Step 1) and resolve another melee, up to the end of

the whole melee procedure. Any other SAGA abilities played

during the first round cease to apply unless they would affect

an unresolved step of melee (like an effect impacting FATIGUE

or triggered by one unit disengaging). Though two rounds of

melee were resolved it still counts as a single melee, so each

participating unit w ill only gain one FATIGUE.

Ullr U sed during Step 3) of any Melee.

Another simple SAGA ability. Discard these two dice during

the SAGA abilities step of the melee phase. When it comes to

rolling to hit, you will be able to re-roll any die that failed to

score a hit. Basic. Neat. Simple. Viking.

Loki U sed at any time during your Orders Phase.

As treacherous as its name suggests. Discard the two dice at

any point during the Orders Phase, target an enemy unit of

Warriors or Levies reduced to three figures or less, and remove all the surviving models from the game. This unit does not count

as having been killed in melee for the sake of the attribution of

FATIGUE. Quite useful to get rid of that tiny Warrior unit that is

lurking bebi1:1d a wood!

Val halla U sed during Step 3) of any Melee.

Really a ladder to the dining hall of the Otherworld for sorne

of your retainers! During the SAGA abilities step, sacr ifice up

to three of your models (Warriors or Hearthguard as the Gods

do not carea damn about Levies) and immediately gain three

Attack Dice per sacrificed model (f our if the die discarded was

the one shown on this ability text on the Battle Board). These

models will already have generated their Attack Dice earlier in

this phase, and their sudden sacrifice doesn't mean that you

will lose the dice they generated! Don't go mad with this ability as you are still limited to a number of bonus Attack Dice equal

to the number the unit generated dur ing Step 1) of the Melee.

Models sacrificed count as casualties inflicted by your opponent in melee to determine which side will have to disengage.

Ragnarok U sed at any time during your Orders Phase.

Potentially the most devastating ability on the Viking Battle

Board but al so the most expensive so should be used carefully.

Usually useful when most of your units are el ose to the enemy and you want to play a decisive turn.

Discard these dice at any point during your Orders Phase. For

the rest of your turn, all enemy units ha ve their Armour reduced

by one (although you may not lower your opponent's Armour

below 2,) against shooting and in melee. Expensive if yo u have

only one unimportant melee planned, devastating if most of your units are able to engage in melee this turn!

Ragnar speaks ...

There are two things that the Vikings \1 are good at: crushing the skulls of their ••

enemies with bags fu/1 of Attack Dice and getting rid of Fatigue. Without any real ~ reacting or manoeuvring SAGA abilities

at their disposal they usual/y prefer quick games, rushing their enemies using their FATIGUE removal abilities

befare engaging in melee. lf the game ' lasts for too long, especially against missile heavy warbands, they wi/1 suffer the consequences, and won't be able to pick fights on their own terms.

Noble Lineage U sed during your Order Phase.

This ability can be used with any die. This might not grab your

attention at first but it is one of the most useful abilities an

Anglo-Danish player has! Basically, it allows you to re-roll any

or all SAGA dice you rolled this turn (apart from, that is, the

dice paid to actívate this ability.) Hence it should almost always

be the first ability you will use during your Order Phase. Say

you have rolled a disappointing set of SAGA dice. Simple, you

re-roll them and hopefully will get the symbols you need to

actívate powerful SAGA abilities. This re-roll might generate

helmets which can then be used to get more SAGA dice using

the Activation Pool ability. Alternatively, you may discard this

die to choose one of the other SAGA die rolled this turn and

change its faceto whatever symbol you want, allowing you to

easily get that combo yo u were looking for!

lntimidation Used during the enemy Activation Phase, just after he has activated a unit.

Another perfidious but useful ability. Asan Activation/Reaction

ability it may only be used during your opponent's Activation

Phase. By discarding the die you cancel his Activation. You

must cancel it immediately after he spends the die (or dice) to

actívate the unit, you may not choose to wait to see what he

plans to do with the activation and ask him to go backward to

be able to cancel it! Simply said, your opponent spends his die

or dice to Actívate his unit and in reaction you discard your die

and tell him with a grim smile that it is cancelled.

Note that you only cancel the activation of a single unit but

that this activation doesn't necessarily have to come f rom the

activation boxes of the battleboards (i.e. you can cancel the

activation resulting from the use of a SAGA ability). In the case

of a SAGA ability that activates more than one unit ( e.g. the

Norman Storm of Arrows) it w ill only cancel t he activation of

one of the units benefiting from the ability.

Also, you won't cancel the other benefits of the ability (there

is no Activation ability that gives other benefits for the time being, but who knows what future holds?).

Finally, you won't be able to cancel the activation done with the

Determination rule of the Warlord, as that activation doesn't

requires dice t o be spent.

The Push Used during Step 3) of any Melee.

This time we have a typical Anglo·Danish fighting ability. You

spend the dice during the Abilities step of the Melee and it has no immediate effect. But, if at the end of the melee (after

FATIGUE has been attributed) youropponent has been defeated

and f orced to disengage, you roll one D6 f or every model that

has disengaged ( except Warlords as they are immune to this

abilit y). For each dice rolled t hat exceeds the opponent's

unmodified Armour (against me lee attacks,) remove one of the disengaging unit's models.

Example: your Huscarls have been engaged by a band of Bondi.

The 7 surviving Bondi have disengaged and you have used The

Push in Step 3). Now, you roll seven dice, and each die w ith a

result of 5 or 6 kills a Bondir.

Shieldwall U sed during Step 2) of the resolution of the enemy's Shooting or during Step 3) of any Melee.

A simple but highly efficient ability. lt gives a one point bonus

to the Armour of your unit, either when shot at by an enemy,

or fighting in me lee. Remember that 6 is the maximum Armour

a unit can have.

Unforgiving Used during Step 3) of any Melee.

This is quite illustrative of the mid-term abilities of the Anglo­

Danish. lt won't be that helpful right after being used, but

will prove fruitful in t he forthcoming turn(s) as it can severely

handicap the enemy. You use it at the same time as all your

other Melee abilities, and its effects are resolved right after

t he melee. lt adds one additional FATIGUE (two if you used a

helmet to actívate it) to all enemy units involved in this melee.

Trapped U sed during your Order Phase.

An expensive ability, but its use can be decisive and provide

a pivotal point of the battle. You discard t he two dice and

immediately place one FATIGUE onto three different enemy

units of your choice on the board. No unit may receive more than one FATIGUE w ith this ability, but it is still especially useful

if you planto engage these units in melee as this FATIGUE will

be available to be used during the turn. -

Hard as lron Used during Step 3) of any Melee.

This ability needs two axes to be activated. During Step 5)

of the Melee, the Anglo-Danish player will be able to re-roll

any die that did not cancel a hit (so dice with results below 5 if his unit was in the open, 4 if in cover)_ lt might appear a bit

expensive but if this abilit y saves the lives of a couple of your

Huscarls, you won't think that again!

Stubbornness U sed during Step 3) of any Melee.

An ability that only needs one die to be activated, and is

potentially very effective. When you use it, you immediately

gain one Attack Die. Then for every FATIGUE on the enemy

unit(s) you gain an additional Attack Die. lf facing more than

one unit (saya Warlord and another unit) you will gain one die

per FATIGUE on these units (so if the enemy Warlord has one

FATIGUE and the other unit has two, you will gain three dice,

four dice if we take into account the first one granted by this

ability). The FATIGUE may still be used as usual, as this ability

doesn't spend any fatigue. Very useful as a lot of Anglo-Danish

abilities can put FATIGUE on enemy units!

Exhaustion Used at any point during your Orders phase.

A nasty one! Basically it consumes a die to kili two enemy

figures. But the unit must be Exhausted (i.e. have reached its

FATIGUE limit). This is not easy, as a clever opponent willlimit

Activations to avoid unit Exhaust ion. Fortunately, the Anglo­

Danish are quite good at exhausting their foes. You need to

plan ahead. At the end of your turn, ensure to ha ve a couple of

abilities ready that will add FATIGUE to the enemy (Unforgiving,

Lords of Battle). When me lee starts use these abilities toen su re

that your opponent will be punished this turn. Avoid spending enemy FATIGUE where possible. For example, if you are fighting

an enemy unit, and use the Unforgiving ability -with a helmet­

the unit w ill gain three FATIGUE in a single round of melee.

Any unit except Warlords and Hearthguard will be exhausted

by a single round of melee. Then in your turn use Exhaustion

to kili two figures. Might be a bit pricey for simple Warriors or

Levies, but killing two Hearthguarás with a single SAGA die is

just brilliant!

Please note that you cannot remove more than one FATIGUE

from a unit to kili more than two figures. This is a one shot ability: one FATIGUE, two kills. Period (until the next turn!).

Sorne Anglo-Danish players think that this ability, if properly

used, can win battle on its own. Well, we will let you decide

that for yourself!

Lords of Battle U sed during Step 3) of any Melee.

Now it starts to look really serious. Expensive, but highly

flexible, Lords of Battle is simply the best combat ability of t he

Anglo-Danish. Played during the SAGA abilities pha'Se, it allows

the player to chose how many Attack and Defence Dice he

wants from a pool of three. Need to protect your unit? Then

increase your chance of survival with three Defence Dice.

Wants to crush your enemies and hear the lamentation of their

women? Three Attack Dice are what you need. You can also go

for a bit of both, with say one Attack Die and two Defence Dice

or vice versa.

Asan added bonus (and what a bonus) your opponent will take

two additional FATIGUE at the end of the melee, that come of

course in addition to the usual FATIGUE taken at the end of

each melee.

lf this doesn't do the trick for you then it's time to chop wood and not heads.

Ragnar speaks ...

The Anglo-Danish are not poor in combat abilities, but they do excel in defence. Using their abilities to pi/e up FATIGUE on their enemy's units, they generalfy start the game quite passively, waiting for their opponent to make mistakes that they wi/1 exploit. An unaware opponent wi/1 soon find that his units are getting

Exhausted at a pace that he can't control, and it is usualfy the perfect time for the Anglo-Danish to /aunch their counter-offensive and shatter their foes when they are at their weakest. Hurrah!

Charge! Used during Step 3) of any Melee involving one of your mounted units.

A cheap yet effective ability only usable by mounted units (i.e.

Norman units that have chosen to be mounted as per their

factions options). Discard the die placed in this box to gain three

Attack Dice (four if the discarded die w as the one shown on your

Battle Board). After the melee, the unit gains one additional

FATIGUE, that comes, needless to say, in addition to the regular

FATIGUE all units involved in a melee gain. Yet, even at this price,

f ew Battle Boards offer such a bargain of three combat dice for

a single SAGA die.

Aimed Volley Used during Step 2) of your Shooting

A good ability as the Norman can have quite a few units equipped

with ranged weapons. The dice are discarded during the SAGA

abilities step of shooting, and when it comes to rolling Attack Dice yo u will be able to re-roll any die that failed to hit its target

(i.e. rolled less than the Armour of the targeted unit). The ability

is not the cheapest one, but shooting isn't risky and you won't

lose any figures in the process, unlike melee. Using this ability

on your 8 model strong crossbowmen unit will bring tears to the

eyes of your opponent.

Terrified Used during your Activation phase.

This ability can shift the balance in a melee in your favour.

These dice are discarded to activate a mounted unit (hence al so

paying for the activation of that unit) and if your unit engages in melee, the enemy engaged immediately gains a FATIGUE.

This FATIGUE is gained once the movement to engage melee is resolved, i.e. when your models have finished their movement.

This is especially useful if this FATIGUE exhausts the enemy unit,

as Exhausted units only generate half their normal number of

Attack Dice.

Please note that you do not need to designate any enemy unit

when you activate your unit, just tell the opponent which of your

units will be activated by the Terrified ability and let him react if

he can with so me Activation/Reaction abilities.

Like any activation ability, the opponent is able to react to this activation, and can cancel it (with lntimidation f or example). lf

your unit is notable to engage any enemy unit in me lee, then the

FATIGUE is not added to the enemy unit.

Crushed U sed during Step 3) of any Melee.

A terrifying ability. Discard t hese dice during the SAGA ability step

of the me lee. Then resolve the melee as usual. lf at Step 4) of the

melee (attack rolls) your unit has inflicted at least twice as many

hits than it has taken, each hit it has scored against an enemy

unit becomes two hits on the target unit (basically doubling the

number of hits inflicted).

Only the hits inflicted and suffered by the unit this ability is

played on count. So if you are fighting side by side with another

of your units, the hits taken and inflicted by your other unit are

disregarded in this calculation.

Al so don't forget this is hits not kills. Nasty.

Gallop U sed during your Activation phase.

A simple ability that can shatter all your opponent's best laid

plans. The dice are used to pay for the activation of a mounted

unit w hich can then Move with that activation. For t his

movement,) he unit gains an extra§ distance of move (that still

applies ifthe unit moves in uneven ground) and can go through

friendly models and the gaps between friendly mod~s that are

usually impassab¡e. This movement mayalso be us~to_-engage an enemy unit in melee. ... / - =

Massed Volley U sed during your Orders phase.

A good shooting ability. This die is discarded during the Orders

phase. During your whole turn, bows (but not crossbows!) ha ve

their range doubled ie it is increased to 2x lL (so two lL, or 24"

if you prefer). Useful if yo u want to keep a large Levies unit a bit

behind and still take part in the fight, orwhen a sneaky opponent is trying to avoid combat.

Storm of Arrows U sed during your Activation phase.

Force your opponent to fight in the shade. The ability looks very

expensive, but depending on the composition of your warband

it can become very handy. lt activates ALL your units equipped

with ranged weapons and they immediately perform a Shooting

activation. When this ability is used, you may activate the

relevant units in any order, and do not need to announce what

their targets will be. Just pick one, resolve its shooting, then

m ove to another one, etc. .. As an added benefit the units that

are activated will not take any FATIGUE for this activation, even

if it is not their first movement/shooting of the turn.

Stamping U sed during Step 3) of any Melee involving one of your mounted units fighting only against enemy foot Warriors or Levy.

Another ability that may only be used on mounted units. These

dice are discarded during Step 3) of the melee. lmmediately

eliminate one Warrior or two Levies amongst the models you

are engaged against. Quite a good way to ensure that you will

kili all enemy models in this fight!

Pursuit U sed during Step 3) of any Me lee invo/ving one of your mounted units.

Discard the die during the Abilities step of a melee and hope

that the combat ends with the enemy disengaging. lf an enemy

unit is forced to disengage then one of your mounted units in

the melee can be immediately activated for a movement. This

activation does not generate a Fatigue and is ideal to pursue

your opponent and even to en gag e in another melee.

DexAre U sed during Step 3) of any Me lee invo/ving your Warlord

A terrific ability that will need your Warlord to join the Melee.

During the SAGA abilities step of the melee, discard this dice to

gain five Attack Dice and allow your Warlord to re-roll any missed

Attack ro lis. As the Warlord generates five Attack Dice this ability

alone means that he will reach his maximum amount of Attack

Dice (as you can not gain more additional Attack Dice than you

have basic attacks.). This powerful ability comes with a price:

your Warlord will gain three FATIGUE during the melee, during

Step 7) and that comes in addition to the normal FATIGUE gained

during a me lee. But who ca res if the enemy Warlord is dead?

Ragnar speaks ...

The Normans are a mixed bag. They exce/

in shooting abilities and they have some

great combat ones, especial/y for their

mounted units. They perform real/y

well when using these advantages in

tandem. Usual/y, you wi/1 see them

forming a batt/e/ine of shooters with their cavalry waiting some paces behind, t

ready to catch any enemy daring to approach the bowmen. •

Their main prob/em resides in the fact that most of their aggressive abilities ha ve so me cost in FATIGUE, meaning that

they won't be able to sustain a prolonged fight. But if done

properly, the fight won't last long as the enemy should have

a/ready been diminished by clouds of arrows.

~VJEJL§JH[ AJB)][ JLJ[1['J[JE§

Children of the Land U sed at anytime during your Orders Phase.

The basic Welsh ability, likely to be u sed almost every turn. Yo u

just discard the die, and for the whole turn, none of your foot

units (not mounted ones!) will suffer any movement reduction

for any reason. This includes moving in u neven ground, crossing

obstacles, or the opponent's using your FATIGUE. Nothing

will prevent your foot units moving at their full movement allowance.

A Holy Ground Used during your opponent's Activation Phase.

A perfidious ability. When a enemy's foot unit is activated

for a Movement (this ability won't affect any unit mounted

on horses ), yo u m ay discard this die to reduce its movement

allowance by one band. A unit moving L would now move

M, if it was allowed to move M it would only move S and a

§ moving unit would move V§. Even with this ability, a unit

would still be able to move at least V§.

Note that other movement reductions might apply: FATIGUE

can be used and moving in a uneven ground would reduce it

f urther.

Hit and Run U sed during your opponent's Activation Phase.

When an enemy unit is activated, but before that activation is

resolved, you may discard this die to activate any one of your

units that has at least one model within M of the enemy unit

just activated. Your unit may immediately perform an activation

out of sequence. This can be Movement, Shooting or even a Rest but can never be used to engage melee with an enemy

unit. Quite useful when you are unsure of the intent of the

opponent, and want to keep him on his toes during his turn.

Using this activation to m ove away from him as he approaches

to engage you might not be very brave, but will save your retainers t o fight another day!

Strength lies in numbers Used during Step 3) of any Melee.

A good combat ability, that may be the bane of the enemy

Warlords. When used during the SAGA abilities phase of melee,

you count the number of models fighting on your side and the

number of models fighting on the enemy's side. lf you have more

models in this melee than the enemy, the unit that this ability

was played on gains one Attack Die for every extra model.

Pie ase note that the unit to which models belong is irrelevant:

for example, if you have your Warlord and six Warriors facing

four Hearthguard, and yo u play this ability on your Warlord, he

would gain three Attack Dice (seven Welsh minus four enemy

Hearthguards). Try using this ability on a 12 strong levy unit for

a nasty surprise ...

The Deadly Strike Used during Step 2) of a Shooting by one of your javelin equipped units.

A powerful ability. Discard this die duringthe SAGA abilities step

of a shooting activation to reduce your target enemy's armour

by one and then get to re·roll any failed Attack Die (i.e. that did not roll at least equal to the enemy's modified Armour.) lt

may only be used by a unit with javelins. After shooting, the unit gains one FATIGUE, that comes in addition to any normal

FATIGUE this activation could have generated.

Ambush U sed during Step 3) of ány Melee.

Very effective, this ability may only be used when all models of

your unit are in u neven ground. The unit gains three Attack Dice

and three Defence Dice, making that ability one of the most

powerful combat ability in SAGA. But because your opponent

will see this ploy coming, you won't use it that often. Usually,

the ability being active (with dice placed in the box) means that

the enemy won't engage any of your units in uneven ground,

leaving yo u more time to harass him w ith your pointy javelins!

Taunting U sed at anytime during your Activation Phase

At first sight this ability won't be that effective. Basically it

activates an enemy unit (nota Warlord though) and that unit

must move to get as close as possible to one of your units,

engaging it in melee if possible. Yo u might as k why the hell yo u would actívate an enemy unit?

Well, think of a nasty band of Huscarls sitting behind a wall

(heavy cover). You did not achieve anything with your javelins

(well with an Armour of 6 against shooting and cancelling the

hits c¡m 3s, no surprise -here). Perhaps you can taunt them out

- oL their ni ce safe "j)OSitlon? What about taunting them into .... -sorne uneven gro.und ......• (... :.lJ

The Rising Out U sed at anytime during your Activation Phase

A good ability that w ill save you loads of dice for your other

abilities. When discarded these dice actívate ALL your units of

Warriors and Levies, though non e of them can engage me lee

with this activation. The activation is mandatory, so for each

one you must decide if it is going to move, shoot or rest. You

cannot decide not to actívate one of these units for w hatever

reason. You choose the order in which these activations w ill be

resolved and they all count as standard activation for the sake

ofFATIGUE.

WarDance Used during Step 3) of any Melee.

Flexible, the War Dance ability lets you chose how many bonus

combat dice you want. During the SAGA abilities step of the

melee, you may add up to three FATIGUE to the unitto gain one

Attack and one Defence per FATIGUE added. Really effective as

few combat abilities grant Attack AN D Defence Dice. The risk is

you may finish the melee with an exhausted unit.

Answering the Call U sed at anytime during your Activation Phase

Another mass activation ability, this one will actívate ALL units

w ithin JL of your Warlord, including the Warlord himself. As

w ith the Hit And Run ability, you may noten gag e in me lee with this ability. You decide in what order these activations will be

resolved but this one has an added bonus: these activations do

not generate FATIGUE at all.

Ragnar speaks ...

The Welsh won't be at their best in a head to head stand up fight. They are good at a guerilla style of warfare: moving, shooting, running away when needed, slowing down the enemy and forcing him to chase them into difficult terrain. , Against a foolish Warlord who lets them dictate the pace of the game they are ·'

almost unbeatable. Against smarter ones, 'f

they've still gota full bag of tricks to help win the game.

the scenc\Rios

A head to head fight against an enemy Warlord is only one of

the situations that may occur when that we set up a game of

SAGA. Once you get accustomed to t~e rules, you will want to

explore different unconventional situations and experiment

with other gaming environments. This chapter deals with such

scenarios. All scenarios give different games, offering varied

objectives and will put your tactical ski listo the test!

You will find six standard scenarios, numbered from one to six,

w hich broadly speaking range from the more conventional to

the quite surprising. Bef ore the game, you should agree w ith your opponent on what scenario you w ill use, though hot

blooded Warlords w ill go for the randomness of a D6 rol!!

We have also included one special scenario designed to be played by three or four players. These chaotic pit fights are

huge fun and a good w ay to introduce new players to SAGA by throwing them in the midst of a terrible combat!

All scenarios list the following information:

Layout explains any special rules that should dictate t he layout

of the battlefield. When nothing special is indicated, please

ref er to the section "Setting the scenery" below.

Length of the game tells you what conditions end the game.

This is dependant on the objectives of the scenario, or give an amount of turns to be played.

Deployment indicates the way the units are deployed on the

table and any specific rules governing deployment.

Victory Conditions tell you what your aims are. This section

should be read carefully and kept in mind as in the heat of combat, we have seen more than one experienced Warlord

forget about their objectives! ..... Unless otherwise specified in tfle victoly condltlons,

the death ofa Warlonl~notendthegmne Inthese~

§JETTlN<Gr THJE §CJENJERY

Scenery can be either laid out in a mutually agreeable manner,

laid out by a third neutral party or by using the following

steps:

- Each pi ayer starts by determining how many terrain pieces he

wants by w r iting down a number included between 1 and 5·

- Players reveal their number simultaneously, their chosen

numbers being added together and then divided by two

(rounded up as usual). This gives the number of terrain pieces

to use for the game.

- Each player will set up a equal number of scenery pieces. lf

the number of scenery pieces is odd, then the pi ayer who has

chosen the highest number of elements in the first step gets

the right to layout the most scenery items.

- Starting with the player that has the most scenery items to

lay out (in case of tie, each player rolls a die and the highest

scoring player goes first), each player determines what his

scenery items will actually be, picked from the chart below:

Scenery Type and Cover

Max Size

ítem Number

Wood High Area Terrain, 5oft 3 lL Cover, Uneven Ground

Brushes & Low Area Terrain, 5oft 2 lL cropfields Cover, U neven Ground

Rocky Low Area Terrain, Hard 1 lL Ground Cover, Uneven Ground orStone circle

Building High Area Terrain, Hard 2 Ml Cover, Uneven Ground

Large High Area Terrain, Hard 2 lL Building Cover, Uneven Ground

Elevation High Area Terrain, no Cover, 1 IL Open

Steep High Area Terrain, no Cover, 1 lL Elevation Uneven Ground

Marsh Low Area Terrain, no Cover, 1 M Uneven Ground

The Type explains how the terrain item is dealt with (se e Chapter

30, Terrain). The Maximum number, as its name suggests, is the

maximum number of different pieces of this type that will be u sed. Size is the maximum size of the item. lts length or width

should broadly not exceed the indicated size.

- Starting with the player that has the most scenery items to

lay out (in case of tie, each player rolls a die and the highest

scoring player goes first,) each player rolls a D6 for each

scenery item and places it on the table according to the table

below:

06 Location

1-2 With at least a part of the scenery within L of one of the four corners of the table.

3-5 No part of the scenery item w ithin L of any table edge.

6 ltem is deployed exactly on the centre of the table, unless a previously deployed scenery item occupies the centre of the table. In that case, discard this item without effects, leaving the first placed terrain feature in place.

Please note that any scenery that cannot be deployed on the table is discarded without effect

Example: Darren and Andy are ready for theír weekly grudge match.

They both secretly wríte down how many terrain features they want for

the game. Darren goes for three and Andy fortwo, leaving us with a final result of three scenery items (the average result between theír choíces,

rounded up). Darren gets to chose two of these items and Andy one.

Darren starts by deciding what scenery features he wants. He goes for

a Large Building and a Wood. Andy would have /iked to pick a Large

Building but as they are limited to one, he has a moan and then has to

chose another ítem, final/y deciding on a patch of rocky ground.

Darren starts by rolling 106 for his first ítem. He ro//s a 2, meaning that no

part of the building may be set withín L of any table edge. He places the church somewhere in the middle of the table, as, so far, the deployment

zone have not been rolled for. Then he takes hís second ítem and ro//s a

1 for ít, meaning that the wood wi/1 be deployed within L of one of the

four comers of the table. He puts ít somewhere on the rightmost comer

of the battlefield.

Now íts final/y Andy's tum for his scenery píece. He ro//s a 6, meaníng that the rocky ground wi/1 sít ríght in the míddle of the battlefield.

The terraín ís now set up, and the players wi/1 rol/ to determine who wi/1

be able to chose the table edge for his deployment

VJICTORY JPOl'NT§

So me scenarios needs to determine how many Victory Points

players have scored. Victory Points (VPs) are awarded for

killing enemy figures and for so me specific scenario objectives.

The later are always covered by the scenario, so we will only

loo k here at how many VPs are awarded for slaughtering the

enemy.

VPs you have gained are based on the number of enemy

figures yo u ha ve killed at the end of the game.

· For every Hearthguard you have killed, you earn one VP.

- For every two Warriors you have killed, you earn one VP.

- For every three Levies you have killed, yo u earn one VP.

- lf the enemy Warlord has been killed, you earn three VPs,

four VPs if it was a Hero of the Viking Age.

Note that the Levies orWarriors do not need to comefrom the

same unit. You just add up the number of Levies or Warriors

you have killed in total to determine the VPs they give you.

Killing five Levies will only give you two VP, as would killing

three Warriors

As usual all fractions are rounded up.

Example:. lf you end the game having killed nine Warriors, ten Levies and three Hearthguard, you have scored 12 VPs (jive for the Warriors, four for the Levies and three for the Hearthguard).

Ctash Of waR(oRds A battlefield ... Two mighty Warlords eager to settle their dispute with steel. Rivalry,

honour, greed or vengeance, the reasons for this quarrel have been lost in the mists of time. Who ca res? SAGAs are writ ten by the winners ...

LAYOUT

The game is played on a 48" x 36" t able.

The scenery is arranged according to the

rules described in t he introduction of this

chapter.

LENGTH OF THE GAME

See Victory Conditions.

DEPLOYMENT

Roll to see who starts deployment (in case of a draw, the player wit h the

most impressive facial hair wins.) The winner deploys his Warlord within lL of a long table edge of his choice. His opponent then deploys his Warlord

within JL of t he opposing table edge followed by his Levies, again within lL of t hat table edge.

The first player then deploys his Levies and then all his Warrior units within

L of his table edge. His opponent then places all his Warriors and then his

Hearthguard units within L of his table edge.

Finally the first player deploys his Hearthguard units within L of the

opposing table edge.

The pi ayer that scores the highest result on a D6 now starts the game.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

A player wins if he kills the enemy Warlord. lf both Warlords are taken out as casualty at the same time (as can happen in a melee) the game ends with a draw. lf six turns have been played without a Warlord being killed, tot al up Victory Points (as described in the introduction of this chapter). The pi ayer with the higher score is the winner. lf both players have the same total, the game ends with a draw.

B Batúe ar- the fORd Between the warbands stands a river. Fighting for the control of fords or bridges

play an important part of the SAGAs of the Viking Age.

And today tradition will be enforced and the river will flow with the blood of the defeated ...

LAYOUT

In the middle of the table, running f rom a short table edge to the opposite short

table edge runs a river. lt should be between § and Ml in w idth.

At lL at from the right of the centre of the river there is a ford ora bridge, betw een § and Ml wide.

At lL at from the left of the centre of the river, there is a second ford or bridge,

between § and Ml wide.

The river is impassable except at the fords/bridges which count as open terrain. See picture below

1

1~(--~): L

~~(---~) 1

1 The rest of the scenery is arranged according to the rules described in the introduction

of this chapter. No scenery may be placed w ithin § of the river or the fords/br idges.

Scenery that may not be placed dueto this restriction is discarded without effect

LENGTH OF THE GAME

~ne game lasts for 7 complete game turns.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

DEPLOYMENT

Roll to choose a long table edge (in case of a draw, the player with

the most impressive facial hair

w ins.) The winner chooses one of

the long table edges as his starting

table edge and deploys at least

half his figures w ithin lL of t hat

table edge.

His opponent then deploys all his warband within lL of the opposite

table edge.

Finally the first player deploys the rest of his warband w ithin lL of his

table edge.

The player that scores the highest

result on a new 06 roll starts the

game.

At ::he end of the game each pi ayer counts his Victory Points. Unlike other scenarios, VPs in t his scenario are not scored for killing enem) figures, but f or your figures that are on the opposite side of t he river at the end of the game.

Eacn model that is on the other side of the river (in t he enemy half of the table) counts as scoring VPs, based on the scoring system described page 61 (Le. your Warlord gives you 3VPs. each '-'earthguard 1VP, one VP f or every two Warriors, etc ... ).

The Warlords stand on sacred ground. No matter the cost, toda y will be a demonstration of strength and the victorious

Warlord will be the overlord ...

LAYOUT

The game is played on a 48" x 36" table.

In the centre of the table deploy a hill (that may not

exceed JL in length or width).

Then each player chooses any one piece of scenery

(from the list page 6o) that may not be a building and

places it between JL and 2x!L from any long table edge

( each player must chose a different long table edge)

The scenery ítem must be entirely deployed within JL and 2xlL of the table edge.

There is no other scenery deployed on the table in this scenario.

LENGTH OF THE GAME

The game lasts for 8 complete game turns.

DEPLOYMENT

Roll a 06 to see who goes first (in case of a draw, the player

with the most impressive facial ha ir wins.) This player chooses

one of the long table edges as his starting table edge and

deploys one unit within Ml of that table edge.

His opponent then deploys one unit within Ml of the opposite

table edge.

The players alternate deploying a unit one at a time until all

units from the opposing warbands have been deployed.

The pi ayer that finished his deployment first starts the game.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

At the end of each player's turn, his opponent counts the number of VPs he scored this turn. The number of VPs is based on

the figures that are in any of the three terrain pieces placed on the table and according to the instructions on page 61 (i.e. your Warlord gives yo u 3VPs, each Hearthguard 1VP, one VP for every two Warriors, etc. .. ). For example, if at the end of your

opponent's turn you ha ve two Warriors in the first terrain, four Levies anda Hearthguard in the second and nothing in the third, you score 4 VPs (1+2+1=4).

The number of VPs gained each turn is added to the VPs scored in previous turn (note them dow n at the end of each players turn ).

At the end of the 8th turn, the player that seo red the most VPs wins the game.

'Che cha{{enge The test of steel is underway. The Warlords are facing each other in a duel.

Their retainers are flercely jlghting to decide the day.

LAYOUT

The game is played on a 48" x 36" table.

The scenery is arranged according to the rules

described in the introduction of this chapter

except that no scenery may be deployed within

M of the centre of the table. Any terrain feature

that should be deployed in the centre of the

table is discarded without any further effects.

LENGTH OF THE GAME

The game lasts for 7 complete game turns or until one of the Warlords is killed.

DEPLOYMENT

The player rolling the higher score on a 06 (in case of a draw, the

pi ayer with the most impressive facial hair) deploys his Warlord in the

centre of the table. Then his opponent deploys his Warlord within §

of the opposing Warlord.

Then, both players roll another 06 and starting with the pi ayer rolling

the higher score on a 06 (in case of a draw, the player with the most

impressive facial hair,) each pi ayer chooses a different long table edge

and deploys one unit within M of that table edge.

The players then alternate deploying their units, one ata time, until all

units are deployed.

The pi ayer that finished his deployment first starts the game.

SPECIAL RULES

In this scenario, Warlords are not killed if they take two hits by shooting or in me lee. Each Warlord starts with 12 Wounds in t his

scenario. Each non-cancelled hit sustained by the Warlord reduces his Wounds by one. When a Warlord is reduced to o Wounds,

he is kili e d. All other Warlord rules still apply including Resilience.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

lf your Warlord is killed the game ends and you lose. lf both Warlords are killed simultaneously, the game ends with a draw.

lf at the end of the seven turns, no Warlord has been killed, the player controlling the Warlord with the most Wounds wins the

game. lf both Warlords have the same number of Wounds, its a draw!

·,.,.. - -.,., ,. - . - .• • -!' - ~" > - / ,.,.. - - • - ·' - - -. ., • • •• - •••• -:. •• • - - ··" •

,,·, -; ~ . f.((.-.. ~-- . - . ... "-• ' ' -· - ' ( - ' ) r;,_

¡,. - ..

. l ' ..

• homcland A warband approaches an enemy settlement.

Tonight, they will dine in their enemy's great hall, served by their enemy's widows, drinking from their enemy's skulls. Or not.

LAYOUT

The game is played on a 48" x 36" table.

The Def ender places t hree buildings ( one of these buildings may be a large building) w ithin M and lL of any long table edge and at least L away from any side table edge. No building may be placed w ithin Ml of another building.

The Attacker may then deploy up to two other scenery features ( see the chart page 6o, but no buildings may be placed by the attacker,) at least L from any building.

LENGTH OF THE GAME

The game lasts for 6 complete game turns or until the attacker's Warlord is killed.

SPECIAL RULES

DEPLOYMENT

The defender starts by deploying all his models within L of the same table edge where he deployed the three buildings. His units can start within the buildings or outside.

The the attacker deploys all his models on the table, no closer than IL of any building or enemy unit.

The attacker starts the game.

In this scenario, one of the players will defend his village and the other player will be the attacker. Each pi ayer secretly bids how many Warband points (between 2 and 6) he thinks he needs to defend the village. Both players simultaneously reveal their bid. The pi ayer that is ready to defend t he village with the least points becomes the defender and his opponent the attacker. lf the players tie for the bids, rolla 06 and the highest roller becomes the defender and his opponent the attacker.

The defender will only play this scenario with the number of points he has writt en down. lf the defender has already prepared his Warband, he might have to remove models from his Warband to fit the number of points he has specified on his bid. The attacker gets his regular 6 points Warband.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

lf the attacker's Warlord is killed, the game ends immediately with a victory for the def ender.

lf at the end ofihe s~{urns, there is at least one defender within one of the building, the defender wins the game.

Lhe escoRr A warband is escorting so me precious goods through enemy territory.

Prospect of loot, plunder and mayhem has drawn a rival Warlord on the battlefield.

LAYOUT

The game is played on a 48" x 36" table.

The scenery is arranged according to the rules described in the introduction of this chapter.

LENGTH OF THE GAME

The game lasts until either two baggage units have left the table or all baggage pieces have been destroyed.

DEPLOYMENT

The escorting warband starts by deploying all his models (including the three baggage pieces) within L of a long table edge he has chosen.

Then his opponent deploys all his models on the table, within lL of the opposing long table edge.

The escorting player starts t he game.

SPECIAL RULES

For this scenario you will need three baggage pieces : carts, herds of sheep, bands of civilians, barreis of ale or anything that deserves t o be protected by one of the warband involved. Each of these baggages should be based singly, on a base at least

~

4cm x 4cm and up to scm x 10cm.

Each baggage counts as a unit of his own. lt is activated like a Hearthguard unit, has an Armour of 5 in melee and an Armour of 6 against Shooting and cancels the first hit suffered during a shooting ora melee in the same way as the Warlords do with their Resilience rule. lt ro lis three Atta e k Dice in melee and may never benefit orbe targeted by SAGA abilities. They move M like foot units and may never enter u neven ground or buildings.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

tf the escorting player manages to move at least two baggage pieces off the table vía the long table edge opposite to his own starting table edge, he wins. To leave the tablea baggage piece just needs to finish its Movement in contact with the table edge.

tf the opposing pi ayer manages to destroy all three baggage pieces, that player wins. Any other result is a draw.

• A ¡:eML fOR CROWS This is a special scenario designed to allow SAGA to be played by three or four players.

Expect sorne chaos, frustration but lot of fun! We recommend to limit the size of the warbands to 4 points, especial/y if four players are involved.

LAYOUT

The game is played on a 48" x 48"

table.

Roll a 03 (a 06 divided by two and

rounded up) and add 3 to that rol l. This is the number of scenery items

that will be placed on the table. For

each ítem, each player rolls 206 and

the highest scoring player decide

what this ítem will be and rolls to

place it on the table, using the table given page 6o.

DEPLOYMENT

Each player rolls a die and the highest

scoring player (re-roll in case of tie)

deploys his Warlord exactly at Ml from

any table corner as clase as possible to

the centre of the table. Once this is done,

the second highest scoring player chooses

another table corner and deploys his own

Warlord within M[ of that corner, again

as close as possible to the centre of the

table. The other(s) player(s) do the same.

Here is a diagram showing the way the

Warlords should be deployed:

~ •

¿_·

¿e •

L L

L L

Once this is done, the player who deployed his Warlord first deploys all his units.

All units must have at least one model within M of the Warlord, and no model

may be further away from the table corner than JL. The two or three other players

then deploy their own units with the same restrictions, in the same order that they

deployed their Warlords.

LENGTH OF THE GAME ANO SPECIAL RULES

The game lasts for seven turns. The turn sequence is modified to speed up the game, and ensure that no player slows down

the game too much. At the start of each turn, all players roll their SAGA dice and do their Orders phase simultaneously. Once all

the players ha ve done their Orders phase, each pi ayer ro lis a dice. The highest scoring player starts the turn with his Activation

Phase. Once he has finished, the turn goes to the player sitting on his left and so on to the last player. lf there is a tie on the

dice roll to determine who is going to take his Activation Phase first, it goes automatically to the pi ayer sitting on the left of the previous turn's first player.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

When a player kills an enemy figure during the course of the game, he places that figure in front of him (there are rumours about

hardcore SAGA players who actua!ly keep the figures killed during Feasts for Crows but we suggest you return the figures to

their owners at the end of the game ). At the end of the seventh turn, each pi ayer counts his VPs based on the number of enemy

figures killed using the.standard VPs. Note that in the case of Warriors and Levies, the two or three figures that score a point can

belong to different warbands.

Clash Of SLed

Sorne players might feel the urge to put more figures on the

table than afforded by the six points of the standard game.

Though SAGA is aimed as being a skirmish game with only

dozens of figures on the table, there is no reason it should

not work with larger forces. The details below gives you

the adaptations required to play larger games based on the number of points being u sed to build up the warbands. We do

not recommend playing multi-player games with more than six point warbands.

§ JP>OllNT§ l~ATTJLJE§

The size of the table needs to be increased to 64" x 36".

Each player may only field a single Warlord. The maximum number of SAGA dice a player gets at the start of its turn is stilllimited to six.

Each turn, the Warlord may used his "Determination" and " We O bey" special rules twice and not once as in a six points standard game.

Special scenario rules (scenarios not mentioned remain unchanged):

Battle at the Ford: a third ford should be deployed, exactly in the middle of the table, at IL from the bridge and lL from the ford.

Homeland: the Defender may deploy four buildings and not three as described in the scenario.

The Escort: the Defender gets a fourth baggage. Victory conditions are unchanged.

Jto JPOllNT§ JB>ATTLE§

The size of the table needs to be increased to 76" x 36".

The maximum number of SAGA dice a pi ayer gets at the start of its turn is now limited to eight. The Activation Pool ability appearing on the Battle Boards is ignored and has no effect onthe game.

Any warband may include a second Warlord for 1pt. This second Warlord doesn't benefit from the "We Obey" and "Side by Side" special rules and may never be a Hero of the Viking Age. lt is not considered as the Warlord of your warband for the sake of scenario victory conditions, and is only worth two victory points if ki lled.

Special scenario rules (scenarios not mentioned remain unchanged):

Battleat the Ford: a third and fourth fords should be deployed. Starting with the player that rolls the highest result on a D6 one player deploys a ford anywhere on the river. Players alternate deploying fords, until all four have been deployed. No ford may be deployed within IL of another ford.

Homeland: the Defender may deploy five bui ldings and not three as described in the scenario.

The Escort: the escorting warband gets five baggage elements. Victory conditions are unchanged.

1'2 POJ[NT § JB>ATTLE§

The size of the t able needs to be in crea sed to 76" x 48".

Each pi ayer may field up to three Warlords. The fi rst is free as usual, and the other two cost one point ea eh and may never be Heroes of the Viking Age.

The maximum number of SAGA dice a player gets at the start of its turn is now limited to eight.

One of the Warlord must be designated as the General. lf a scenario mentions a Warlord as being the objective, you should understand that the scenario speaks about the General and not other " lesser" Warlords. NB All Warlords enjoy all the Warlord special rules.

Special scenario rules (scenarios not mentioned remain unchanged):

Battle at the Ford: a third and fourth fords should be deployed. Starting with the player that rolls the highest result on a D6 one player deploys a ford anywhere on the river. Players alternate deploying fords, until all four have been deployed. No ford may be deployed within L of another ford.

Homeland: the Defender may deploy six buildings and not three as described in the scenario.

The Escore the escorting warband gets six baggage pieces. The escorting player needs to move out thr~e baggage elements in order to win.

Discard one die to actívate a unit ofHearthguard or a Warlord.

Discard one die to actívate a unit of Levies.

Discard one die to roll two extra SAGA dice.

Discard one die to gain one Attack or Defence Die (two

Attack or Defence dice if the discarded die was a '7 )

Discard this die. Discard a FATIGUE from your Warlord and from all units within Mofhim.

Me lee Discard this die to immediately remove one FATIGUE from any one of your units engaged in this melee. Gain 1 Attack die.

Discard this die to gain 3 Attack Dice ( 4 if the die discarded was a '7 )

Activation/Reaction Discard these dice when an enemy unit is activated for Shooting. Change that activation into a Movement activation.

Shooting 1 Reaction Discard this die to gain one Armour against this enemy Shooting activation. ~

this die. At the end of the melee, before any FATIGUE is added or any unit disengages, immediately resolve another melee with the surviving figures.

Discard these dice to immediately remove from the game one enemy unil ofWarriors or Levies with 3 models or less.

Discard this die and elimina te up to three of your Warriors or Hearthguard engaged in this melee. Gain 3 Attack Dice per figure removed ( 4 Attack Dice if the discarded die was a '7 ).

these dice. AH enemy Armour values are reduced by one until the end of the turn.

Discard one die to actívate a unit ofHearthguard or a Warlord.

Discard one die to actívate a unit of Levies.

Discard one die to roll two extra SAGA dice.

Discard this die to gain one Attack or one Defence Die

( two dice if the discarded die

wasa e )

Discard this dieto re-roll any of your SAGA dice OR choose one SAGA die and change the si de of that die to any symbol you want.

Activation 1 Réaction After an opponent has spent dice to actívate one or more units, d iscard the die in thls box to cancel the activation of one unit.

After the melee, if your opponent was forced to disengage, roll one D6 for each non-Warlord

Discard these dice to increase the Armour value of your unit by one.

Discard this die to add one additional FATIGUE (after melee resolution) to all enemy units involved in this melee.

dilferent enemy units.

iscard these dice. You may re-roll any of your Defence Dice that failed to cancel a hit.

Discard this die. Gaín one Attack Die. Gaín also one additional Attack Die for every FATIGUE the cnemy unit(s) has {or have).

Discard this die to target an enemy Exhausted unit. Eliminate two figures from that unit. Then discard a FATIGUE from that unit. You may not target a Warlord with this ability.

these dice to gain th ree Dice. These three dice may be any mix of Attack and Defense dice of your choice. At the end of the melee. each enemy unit involved takes an additional two FATIGUE.

Discard ooe die to actívate a unir of Hearthguard or a Warlord.

Discard one die to actívate a unit ofLevies.

Discard one die to roll two e.xtra SAGA dice.

Discard one die to gain one Attack. Die ( two Attack

Dice if the discarded die wasa Hi )

!

Discard the dieto gain 3 Attack Dice (4 Attack Dice if a Hi) was discarded). May only be used by a mounted uoit. At the end of this melee, add a FATIGUE to your unit.

Shooting Discard these dice to re-roll any Attack Dice that failed to hit the target.

Discard this die. Activate a mounted unit. If that unit engages an enemy unit with this activation, this enemy unit immediately gains one FATIGUE.

Discard these dice. If you inflict at least h'>'ice as many hits with your unit than it sulfers in this melee, each hit it scored against an enemy uoit becomes t\vo hits.

Activation Discard these dice. Activate a mounted unit for a movemeot This movement gets an extra S movement distance and can be freely made through friendly models and units.

Discard this die. Until the end ofyour turn, the range ofyour bows is doubled (i.e. 2xlL).

these dice to immediately activare all your units equiped with ranged weapons. They may o o! y Shoot with this activation. No unit gaios FATIGUE for this activation.

Discard this die. If your engaged unit is mouoted and is fighting a dismounted unit, immediately eliminate one enemy Warrior or two enemy Levies that are engaged in this m elee.

Discard this die. If at the end of the melee the enemy unit(s) are forced to disengage, immediately activate for a movement one of your mounted units engaged in this melee. This movement does not generate any FATIGUE.

Discard these dice. Your Warlord gains five Attack Dice and may re-roll any failed to hit attack die. Al the end of the melee, add three FATIGUE to your Warlord.

Discard one of these die to actívate a unit of

Hearthguard ora Warlord.

Discard one die to actívate a unit of Levies.

Discard one die to roll two extra SAGA dice.

Discard one die to gain one Attack Die (two Attack

Dice if the discarded

diewasa ~)

CHILDREN OF THE LAND

Discard this die. During this turn, all your foot units do not suffer any movement reduction for whatever reason.

Activation 1 Reaction Discard this die when an enemy foot unit is activated to reduce its movement (from L to M, M toS, Sto VS). You cannot reduce a movement below VS.

Activation 1 Reaction Discard this die when an enemy unit is activated. Before the enemy activation is resolved actívate one

your unit within M of the activated enemy unit. You may not engage melee with this activation.

STRENGTH LIES IN NUMBER

Discard this die. If you have more models engaged in this melee than enemy models, gain one Attack Die per every friendly model tbat outnumbers enemy models.

THE DE'ADLY STRIKE Shooting Discard this die. May only be used when shooting "~th javelins. Reduce the enemy Armour by one, and re-roll any Attack Dice that fail to hit. At the end

of the Shooting add one FATIGUE toyourunit

Discard these dice in a melee involving one of

your foot unit that has all its models in uneven ground. Gain 3 Attack Dice and 3 Defence Dice.

this die and designate an enemy unit that may not be a Warlord. That unit is activated

for a movement. It must move as close as possible to the closest ofyour units, engaging it in melee if possible.

Discard these dice to actívate al! your foot Warriors and Levies. They may not engage melee with this activation.

Discard these dice. Add between one and three FATIGUE to one of your engaged units. Gain one Attack Die and one Defence Die per FATIGUE added.

ANSWERING THE CALL

Discard these dice to actívate your Warlord and al! units within JL of him. Yo u m ay not en gag e melee with these activations.