Chariots are not new to SAGA but this brings in a new set of rules with their use. Finally War Pigs, flaming pigs were not new to armies of this period, classed as a unit of Mercenary Levies they consist of a unit of 8 pigs and a pig keeper they loose 2 pigs whenever they are used but according to the target can once per turn inflict between 1 and 3 automatic hits.. New ideas continue in the next chapter Ruses.
An optional element to the game, you may choose Ruses up to the points value of your warband. There are 4 main types of Ruse, each used in a particular circumstance or situation. The type is indicated by the cards background colour and the cost by the number of cost symbols on the card. The four types being Recruitment, Preparation, Veterans and Stratagem, some of the Preparation cards are used when setting up a game during placement and deployment.
Diodorus, suggests several ways these may be used to spice up a game, the advice being to wait until you have mastered your Battleboard before introducing this element to future play. The unique ruses available to each faction will be listed under each chapter, why not download them from the Studio Tomahawk site to see what each does.. Now on to the main thrust of the book by looking at the main protagonists. Here I will give a short summary of each faction and pick out a couple of the additional abilities available to each faction.
Carthaginians; these can contain a mix of forces from Carthage and allied cities and also some powerful contingents of mercenaries. A warband can contain a unit of Heavy Chariots but cannot field Elephants at the same time. Citizens of Carthage are your Hearthguard and as well as your Warlord you must also have at least 1 unit of Citizens,.
All other units are classed a contingents Warriors and Levy and this modifies some of the elements of you Battleboard when activated. Sacred Band is used in melee and here your opponent must re-roll 1 successful defence dice or three if the unit is made up of citizens, where Tenacity allows the re-roll of two defence dice that did not cancel hits, or 4 if a Contingent unit.
Republic of Rome; you start by determining if your Warlord is a Tribune or a Consul as this can modify the options you have when selecting your Warband and also has some special rules to be used when your band is led by a tribune. The Maniples rule also is interesting as it only affects Hearthguards or Warriors on foot who do not have the Mercenary rule.
This faction has some powerful options on the Battleboard, Ad Triaros Redisse, allows Hearthguard defenders to inflict 2 automatic hits on an opponent, 3 if outnumbered and Pilum, allows a shooting attack with a range of M also allowing a subsequent charge that does not cause a fatigue. Alternately it allows a unit to have a shooting attack against and opponent before their charge is resolved.
Gauls; Our Southern Gauls were formidable opponents and at this time as well as expert horsemen still used chariots. In this game the Hearthguard and Warriors also have an ability called Fervour, this represents different groups competing against each other to perform feats of courage. When you trigger an advanced ability from your Battleboard you can choose whether to trigger its Fervour effect or resolve the ability without triggering this effect.
Fervour when used is recorded by a marker placed on the unit and no unit can have more than three markers nor can you have more markers than your unit has figures. The ability Ritual Challenge, allows you to roll 1, two dice if your unit are Hearthguards. For each result of 4 or more the enemy unit takes a casualty but for every 1 rolled your unit takes a casualty. The Fervour option allows you to add 1 to the result of your dice.
Before the Wave allows a unit without ranged weapons to be activated and count as being equipped with Javelins during the move, the Fervour option adding and automatic hit during this attack. For the advanced abilities, Agema grants 3 bonus defence dice if the unit is a Phalanx otherwise 3 bonus attack dice in the ensuing melee when it has been activated for a charge and Hetairoi gains you 2 attack dice or 4 if your unit is mounted.
Iberians: These superb warriors fought both for and against both Carthage and Rome and can recruit Baearic slingers who count as warriors, one of the few factions that cannot field Elephants. Three of the advanced abilities use Guerilla markers although many add them, you cannot have more than 10 at any time and at the start of each turn turn unused ones are removed. Ambush grants you two attack dice an 1 Guerilla marker in a Melee whereas, Like Shadows allows you to spend 1 Guerilla Marker to discard two of your opponents attack dice.
Numidians: Last but not least by any means this faction has no Hearthguard as Merecnaries were always recruited to take on the role of shock troops. As the main supplier of Elephants during this period they will always along with excellent cavalry have plenty to call on. Their advanced abilities include Born Horsemen which allows a mounted unit to move with 3M rulers instead of 2 until the end of the turn and Incapacitating Shot which allows to to re-roll any attack dice which roll 1s or 2 and if you inflict at least three casualties the target unit also receives a fatigue after the shooting is resolved.
Mercenaries: This chapter outlines the mercenaries available to each of the factions in table form and includes any special rules associated with each type. Epic SAGA: forms the final chapter of this book, this variant of the rules can be used with any of the SAGA Universes to allow for games of 12 and 18 points with one or more players on a side.
All the original rules apply but this provides options and a new structure to stand beside the standard rules. Each force consists of three warbands of between 3 and 8 points totalling up to the maximum for the game. Changes are made for the allocation of scenery and the table size now becomes 3ft by 6 ft, army composition, sequence of play, sharing of Battleboards, demoralisation and routing are also covered.
There are also 9 inspiration abilities which can be available to your Warlord , allocation of these and the cost of them are also covered and these abilities along with being in the book are also downloadable. Like the other Universe books you will need a copy of the Saga rulebook to use this supplement. I now realise that Aetius and Arthur was not to be my final foray into the world of SAGA and anticipate that there will be new Universes to explore in the future.
Before then my next submission will be in the form of a suggestion for a campaign system that can be used for a competitive or friendly group of players, written primarily for SAGA but easily adaptable to other rules and periods. Uncle Ken. As promised here is my idea for setting up a SAGA campaign, not just for SAGA though as the table arranging the games can be used for a campaign in any period and the setting up and victory conditions could also be modified.
The rest of the method table would remain the same. It takes the form of a suggestion for a campaign that can be played over several months that will also allow participants to take part in other games at the same time would be a round-robin, with up to 8 players, all get to play each other over a period of say 7 months the duration will be decided by the number of participants.
It is a system that is adaptable to the number of players and if required I will rearrange the matches to suit so please let me know via the comments, if you are interested. However, it will be difficult to feed someone into the campaign once it has commenced unless another member drops out or unless we leave a couple of places vacant from the start.
Scoring will be as follows a Win, 3 Points or a Draw 2 Points 1 point for taking part. No points for a missed battle. If a player does drop out without being replaced I will award a Bye and 1 point for each future match they were anticipated to take part in. Setting up of the scenario, will be as per the Book of Battles with all conditions selected according to the methods table on page See below; the descriptions of each entry are as per pages 12 to 14 inclusive.
That wonderfully fulfilling moment of seeing your strategy succeed at littering the battlefield with an entire army of deceased knights and peasants, all your hard work, micro-management, and scheming paying off as your forces march off to burn down the nearest town center. Age of Empires II mastered that triumphant moment of careful planning and unleashing a well-balanced army on your opponent, and it's that timeless feeling that Age of Empires IV seeks to capture while paying homage to its past.
While it does succeed at evoking nostalgic memories of unloading a heavily-armored Persian pachyderm war machine deep in the heart of enemy territory, Age of Empires IV doesn't make much of an effort to venture out of its comfort zone either.
It's confident but familiar, relying on what works without blazing a new trail in the strategy genre. Relic Entertainment and World's Edge's sequel to the long-running real-time strategy series thankfully skips some of the unnecessary complexity of Age of Empires III. Instead, they bring the game back to a successfully proven formula of managing limited resources, tactical scouting, and slowly transforming your hamlet from scrappy upstart into a world-conquering feudal superpower across several ages.
That core loop of churning out dozens of villagers, researching new technologies, and building a formidable army, is a strong reminder of just how timeless a well-executed gameplay system can be, and will be instantly recognizable to any Age of Empires veteran.
The campaigns take place across four noteworthy eras of human development, shining a spotlight on the English, French, Mongolian, and Russian civilizations. In addition to that, there's also the standard Skirmish mode and Art of War tutorials that teach you the finer details of the game, although at the time of writing, a dedicated scenario and map editor has yet to be added to the package.
Each of the four campaigns runs for a decent number of hours, with sharp documentary-like videos filling in the gaps between each mission. They're exquisitely produced snippets of history, detailing the road to war that notable figures such as Genghis Khan, William the Conqueror, and Ivan the Terrible embarked on to secure the legacy of their nations.
Even better, completing a mission unlocks more short videos that further detail aspects of those cultures and their approach to warfare, such as the time-consuming creation of chainmail, the thoroughbred beauty of Mongolian horses, and the game-changing impact of the trebuchet in siege warfare.
That outsider approach to the Age of Empires IV narrative does at times feel like a missed opportunity considering that Relic Entertainment is at the helm of this game. Relic's Dawn of War games had fantastic storytelling, but Age of Empires IV leans hard into its documentary influences, conveniently glossing over the horrific acts that these nations committed to emerge triumphant over the centuries of conflict, terror, and genocides that defined these nations during the Dark Ages.
From having to take control of the French forces during the siege of Paris to drawing a line in the sand against Mongol invaders on a warpath to Moscow, Age of Empires IV has a campaign that constantly throws a variety of challenges at you. Where Age of Empires IV truly shines, though, is with its selection of civilizations that you can experiment with in its campaign and skirmish modes. While a mere eight options for a feudal fight club might make veterans scoff when they compare it to the dozens of civilizations that can be chosen in the Definitive edition of Age of Empires II, Relic's approach makes each nation a blast to play.
The bones of base-building and resource gathering creates a workable foundation, and each culture feels unique in other meaningful ways. Where Age of Empires IV truly shines is with its selection of civilizations that you can experiment with in its campaign and skirmish modes. Mission objectives are highlighted on the minimap and the goals are clear, which is desirable in any strategy game.
There is also a skirmish mode for single- and multiplayer games against computer and human opponents. The problem is that quantity doesn't make up for a lack of quality.
Even if you disregard the historical inaccuracies for example, the game places Parmenio in India, even though historians like Arrian tell us that Alexander had Parmenio executed well before then , the actual storytelling and gameplay are still poor. There are numerous spelling errors, shoddy writing some archers are described as being the "same as the other archers" , technical issues, and occasionally horrible controls.
All this seems to indicate that the game was rushed to meet a deadline that would coincide with the movie's release, which is unfortunate because the developer, GSC Game World, has produced good strategy titles in the past. Real-time strategy basics apply where peasants construct buildings and harvest resources, which are then used to create military units.
However, GSC games are rather unique in that there is a very high population limit and units are created quickly. This makes battles more intense because there can be literally thousands of units fighting on the map. Fortunately, you can arrange units into brigades, which can be controlled as a single unit.
Brigades also confer stat bonuses and can be arranged into preset formations based on their behavior. The large amount of units are nice, because the scale of warfare feels more realistic than the average strategy game, which usually only has dozens of units onscreen. However, it's not always so nice when the units are difficult to control. The inherent problem with the game is that units often disregard orders.
Units will gleefully run into battle on the aggressive behavior setting as you'd expect, but oftentimes they will ignore your order to retreat. You can sometimes get them to retreat if you change their behavior to defend; but even if it does work, it's annoying to have to do this.
It's especially frustrating when hero units run into battle, won't retreat when you give the order, and subsequently die, forcing you to restart. Another issue is that cavalry and infantry will move at the same speed when grouped, but siege equipment will not.
Somehow siege equipment will move faster than foot soldiers. However, looking past that issue, it's troublesome when siege units get ahead of your army and are then destroyed.
That's assuming the units move in the first place, as your units often won't move at all. You may tell a large group of units to move, yet a few of the brigades will mysteriously sit there and do nothing. All of these glitches make it very difficult to control the flow of the game, which is obviously important in a strategy game where you need to quickly order units to key locations.
For what it's worth, there are some good qualities here.
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