Now im not big on reviews but I have to say this game is engaging fun and while the combat system is simple the complexity is the battle boards.
The game is pretty straight forward - roll your saga dice - allocated dice to the board to complete actions - these can range from simple actions such as being able to activate different types of units to completing complex attacks or forcing your opponent into making challenging tactical choices.
Each faction has its own board and the range is expanding, whats more according some of the demo game in the UK the game can be scaled up to large battle games so I will be very interested in how that goes once the collections get bigger.
The game includes a very unique system of fatigue which i think add a great element of risk calculation - your first move of any unit does not cause any fatigue but from then on any additional moves or combat accumulates fatigue. Fatigue levels allow the opposing player in combat to make it easier for them to hit your units or improve other aspects of the round.
This means you cant just charge off with a super unit and win everything - if you over extend then the unit become very vulnerable- not just from being able to be focused on but they will be weaker in combat as well- so you need to manage your advance and pick your fights and work to keep your troops fresh- but at times you will need to risk things to gain the advantage- a brilliant system from that point only.
The other element that impinges on command and control is the saga dice- different results on the dice will impact your ability to do things but add to that as you lose units your pool of dice reduces as well.
So add all these elements into the game and it become very challenging and there is so many options to think about, balanced with a simple combat system.
So as you can see hooked, and accepting the challenge wants more and whats more its historical.
What I love about Saga is the flexibility of the Battle Board system - all you have to do to create a new army is work out some appropriate actions for them. There have been some great variants published in Wargames Soldiers and Strategy for colonial and ancient roman games which I want to try. For me, Saga looks like being the historical system of choice.
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