Review of Saga supplement Varjazi & Basileus

Having got my copy of the latest Saga supplement Varjazi & Basileus I wanted to give those who are considering purchasing an overview. I won't go into full detail of battleboards and history here. Mike Haught did an excellent job of covering the Pagan Rus Battleboard in his recent article so I won't go over that here either.

more SAGA!

So, what do you get for your money? The main booklet is 16 pages cover to cover, thin by previous standards. It also comes with a colourful folder that becomes a wallet for storing all your supplements and Battleboards. This is a nice feature that helps makes up for the fact that this book contains only three factions, one of those being a reprint of a magazine article.

However, those things aside, this supplement has the usual glossy, colourful and easy to follow style of its predecessors. My biggest issue is trying to pronounce the title which does not trip off the tongue (!)

The Battleboards are still nice and solid with clear text. There are no special features of the Battleboards (no Wrath or similar). I only spotted one minor typo on these boards (what's an ordres phase...?)

Review: Black Tree Designs Norman Knights

During the last round of Black Tree Design 50% sales, I picked up three bags of Norman Knights.  One command pack and two packs of armored knights with swords.  The command pack included a nobel with a sword, a musician and a standard bearer.

Homeland AAR: Normans v Anglo-Danes

After his recent success near the Fjord, Baron Harry lacked the men to continue on toward the Anglo-Dane village and sack it. He turned and headed back to his camp to collect reinforcements. Sadly, he no longer had all his Knights to choose from and so chose from what forces he had available.

At the village, Meikson had received news of his fathers death at the hands of the Normans. Now being the new Warlord, he would not let his village be sacked. Hastily sending to his Uncle Alfarr for reinforcements, he then sent the peasants to the hills and waited for whatever men he could gather to his banner. Would they arrive before the Normans? One thing was sure, the Normans would pay dearly to take this village!

Note: in order to keep the narrative going, we decided to run a modified Homeland scenario. The Anglo-Danes were automatically the defenders with one point less than the Normans to reflect the situation and the Homeland rules on defending. As the Normans had recently lost so many Knights, we decided to run with 4 point forces (3 for the Danes) and making use of the troops leftover that were not used in the first game.

Special Rules: "War Banners" were used from the Raven's Shadow supplement. The optional rule on the second player having 3 Saga dice to start with was used (Raven's Shadow page 26).


Anglo-Dane Forces:
Meikson, eldest son of Meik (Warlord)
Hearthguard (8 with banner)
Hearthguard

Norman Forces:
Baron Harry the Youthful (Warlord)
Mounted Knights
Warriors (spear and shield)
Warriors (crossbows)
Levy (bows)

Deployment:

Normans prepare to sack the village.... maybe there is someone at home to defend it though?

Focus On: Pagan Russ

I was fortunate to get a copy of the latest SAGA supplement: Variazi & Basileus. I'd like to have a closer look at the Pagan Rus from a stricly gaming perspective. I won't go to deep into the history because, frankly (no pun on powerful French kingdoms intended) I don't know much about these people or their story. So I'll leave you in the capable hands of fellow Sagamites, the internet, and books to help fill you in there.

In the meantime, fellow blogger Dux Homunculorum has done a great job reviewing the Pagan Rus and some of the other new factions in the game. If you don't follow his site already, you should!

Let's look at their abilities. I've paraphrased them to avoid tedious copying, but let me know if I've misinterpreted anything!

Norman Crossbow Conversion - Part 2

Some time back I put an article together about converting plastic Norman infantry to be crossbowmen. You can find that article here.

Having recently completed my Norman army I wanted to finish off the crossbowmen modelling project with my end result. So, here are the long awaited crossbows....

On the command... fire.....

Clash of Warlords AAR: Normans v Anglo-Danes

As sunlight streamed over the hill, light glinted off the fast running but shallow river. The Dane Warlord surveyed the scene, knowing that the Normans would most likely cross at the ford in front of him then follow the road to his village. He and his grim faced Hearthguard were not about to let him sack their village. They were all prepared to die to stop the advance..... then the click of hooves and the glint of sunlight on armour. The Knights had arrived on the opposite side of the field.....

This was a four point Saga AAR to really get the feel of the rules. I had just finished 6 points each of Danes and Normans so we chose from what was available:

Anglo-Dane Forces:

Meik the Grim (Warlord)

Hearthguard

Hearthguard

Hearthguard

Hearthguard (Dane axes) 

Norman Forces:

Baron Harry the Youthful (Warlord)

Mounted Knights

Mounted Knights

Mounted Knights

Crossbow Warriors

Deployment:

Normans win the deployment roll but end up putting down their troops before the Anglo-Dane Hearthguard-only warband! Sometimes, it pays to be the best.

The Dead Do Tell Tales.

I picked up Old Glory's "The Slain Casualty Pack SVS-10" to add some flavor to my SAGA battles.  I really like the pack which goes for $25 USD without discounts and you get 20 figures and Shields.  I love the look of casualties on the table it really makes for a great pictures. My idea when I purchased them was to use them as fatigue markers but what I will do next is print them on paper and scatter them as the battle goes.  I do not mind if you do the same as well I have attached pics of them below.  Make your own WWPD pizza markers.