Swords for Hire: Steppe Nomads

The recent Saga supplement Varjazi & Basileus contains an interesting little unit available to some of the factions.These Steppe Nomads are an upgrade that can add some flexibility.

Steppe Nomads - Swords for Hire (Copyright GB)

Steppe Nomads were tribes of peoples moving across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Their skills and abilities with bows and horses along with a cruel nature made them ideal mercenaries for various armies, including the Rus and the Byzantines.

You can take these Pagan Rus, Rus Princes and Byzantine factions as long as they are not commanded by Harald Hardrada or the Basileus.

So what do you actually get for your money....

A nomadic horseman

At a cost of one point you get an eight man mounted unit of Levies.  They don't generate any Saga dice, but that is par for Levies. In return you can activate them with any appropriate abilities.They have Armour 3 for melee and shooting. They are worth a half a victory point per model, like Warriors.
As expert horsemen they get an extra S (4 inches) to their Movement which is not affected by terrain OR any fatigue spent. They are equipped with a short bow (counts as a javelin) that can be used at the start OR at the end of movement. This makes them highly prized as a hit and run force with a long reach. To back that up, {EDIT: for a rules change] they also get to re-roll 1's for shooting Attack dice rolls.

The Rus Princes faction can upgrade a unit of Steppe Nomads further to Chernye Klobuki (the 'Black Hoods') for an extra point. In addition to the above rules, this special unit count as Warriors. They generate a Saga dice and the get an armour of 4 (3 versus shooting). In melee combat they generate one Attack dice each. For purposes of activation and using Saga abilities they count as Hearthguard (Druzhina).

All in all, a very valuable asset to your arsenal, especially against foot based forces who can't attack back at range with cavalry. Personally, I would like to see them versus Normans even if it is not very accurate historically!