Factions
Common (1-3)
Uncommon (4-5)
Rare (6)
The different factions available for SAGA.
The SAGA: Age of Vikings supplement has 12 different factions, some of which have subfactions (same battle board but different options for equipping units). The Crescent and The Cross is a standalone book with the rules and 6 factions. It is possible to play a game with a Age of Vikings warband against a Crescent and the Cross warband, but it will not necessarily be balanced.
The factions available in Saga: Age of Vikings are listed below.
|
Faction |
Play Style |
|
Anglo-Saxon |
Large units |
|
Welsh |
Skirmish / Hit & Run |
|
Normans |
Shooting + Cavalry |
|
Vikings |
Aggressive / Melee |
|
Anglo-Danish |
Defensive / Apply fatigue to the enemy |
|
The Last Romans |
Lots of shooters with a few melee units |
| Norse-Gaels | Aggressive |
| Irish | Skirmish / Shooting |
|
Pagan Rus |
Defensive / Control |
|
Scots |
Defensive |
| Carolingians | Reactive (abilities in opponents turn) |
|
Jomsvikings |
Defensive / Aggressive (wrath) |
The main difference in play styles of the different factions is a result of the battle boards unique to each faction. However, the different factions do also have access to different weapons or mounted options.
Different weapons or equipment can change the units armour rating from the default for that troop type. Armour is listed below as X/Y, where X is the armour in melee and Y the armour vs shooting. Unless listed otherwise in the table below it is assumed that the models will be infantry armed with sword, axe or spear..
|
Faction |
Elite (Armour 5/5) |
Warriors (Armour 4/4) |
Levy (Armour 3/3) |
|
Anglo-Saxon |
Optionally Mounted (Arm 5/4) |
|
Spears (Arm 4/4) or bows (Arm 3/3) |
|
Welsh |
Javelins (Arm 4/5) (Arm 4/4) |
Javelins (Arm 3/4)
Optionally Mounted with javelins |
Bows (Arm 3/3) or javelins (Arm 3/4) |
|
Welsh (Stratchclyde) |
Mounted; Javelins (Arm 4/4) | Mounted; Javelins (Arm 3/3) | Javelins (Arm 3/4) |
|
Normans |
Optionally Mounted (Arm 5/4) |
Optionally Mounted with javelins |
Bows (Arm 3/3) (or javelins) |
|
Normans (Bretons) |
Mounted; Javelins (Arm 4/4) |
Optionally Mounted with javelins (Arm 3/3) |
Javelins (Arm 3/4) (or bows) |
|
Vikings |
Optional unit of 4 berserkers (Arm 3/3) |
Bows (Arm 3/3) or javelins (Arm 3/4) |
|
|
Anglo-Danish |
Optionally heavy weapons (Arm 4/5) |
Bows (Arm 3/3) or slings (Arm 3/3) |
|
|
The Last Romans |
Mounted (Arm 5/4) Mounted with comp bow (Arm 4/4) Optional unit of Varangians (Arm 4/5) |
Optionally bows (Arm 3/3) |
Staff slings (Arm 3/3) or |
| Norse-Gaels | Optionally heavy weapons (Arm 4/5) |
Heavy weapons (Arm 3/4) or Javelins (Arm 3/4) |
Javelins (Arm 3/4) |
| Irish |
Mounted (Arm 5/4) or javelins (Arm 4/5) or heavy weapons (Arm 4/5) Optional Curaidh |
Javelins (Arm 3/4) Optional unit of Wolfhounds (Arm 4/3) |
Slings (Arm 3/3) or javelins (Arm 3/4) |
|
Pagan Rus |
Javelins (Arm 3/4) |
||
|
Scots |
Optionally Mounted (Arm 5/4) |
|
Bows (Arm 3/3) or javelins (Arm 3/4) |
| Carolingians | Optionally Mounted (Arm 5/4) |
Optionally Mounted (Arm 4/3) Optionally Bows (Arm 3/3) |
Javelins (Arm 3/4) |
|
Carolingians (Merovimgians) |
Optionally Mounted Javelins if mounted 9Arm 4/4) |
Optionally Mounted (Arm 4/3) Optionally Bows (Arm 3/3) Optional unit with Javelins (Arm 3/4) |
Javelins (Arm 3/4) |
|
Carolingians (Capetians) |
Mounted |
Optionally Bows (Arm 3/3) Optional unit of Crossbows (Arm 3/3) |
Javelins (Arm 3/4) |
|
Jomsvikings |
Optionally heavy weapons (Arm 4/5) |
Optionally heavy weapons (Arm 3/4) |
Not available |
Viking Berserkers have 4 attack dice per model rather than 2 attack dice per
model of normal Elites. However their armour value goes down from 5 to 3.
Anglo-Saxon levy with shields and spears have armour 4 and one attack per two
models.
Irish Curaidh are heroes and fight as single model units. They do not
generate Saga dice. Wolfhounds have a charge distance of L and are
unaffected by uneven terrain.
Carolingian Merovingian Saxon warriors have Armour 3 but each Saxon generates
one additional attack dice per model when the unit is engaged in melee (but not
when themselves engaged in melee).
Steppe Tribes use the Hun Battle Board from "Saga - Aetius & Arthur"
Nominally two types of dice are used in SAGA. Normal D6 are used for resolving combat. Specially marked SAGA dice are rolled and allocated to the factions battle board during the player's Orders phase.
These SAGA dice have symbols that can be considered as Common (1-3), Uncommon (4-5) and Rare (6). If you don't own the SAGA dice you could use normal D6, but the battle boards are labelled with the symbols from the SAGA dice.
There are 6 different sets of SAGA dice used for SAGA: Age of Vikings and are used by the following factions.
|
Factions |
Common (1-3) |
Uncommon (4-5) |
Rare (6) |
| Anglo-Danes / Anglo-Saxon |
|
|
|
| Norman / Carolingians | |
|
|
| Scots / Irish | |
|
|
| Viking / Jomsviking / Norse-Gael / Pagan Rus | |
|
|
| Welsh | |
|
|
| The Last Romans |
|
|
|
There are 2 different sets of SAGA dice for The Crescent and The Cross.
|
Factions |
Common (1-3) |
Uncommon (4-5) |
Rare (6) |
| Crusaders / Milites Christi / Spanish |
 |
 |
 |
| Saracans / Mutatawwi'a / Moors |
 |
 |
 |
The previous version of this page, for SAGA v1, can be found here.