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Wednesday, June 7, 2017

A Viking reviews SAGA Aetius & Arthur

Stephen Holdeman III (aka Stephen the Viking) recently reviewed the new SAGA supplement Aetius & Arthur for our local SAGA Facebook group.  We've discussed collaborating on this blog so here is our first guest post.  Take it away, Stephen! 

To sum it up, it's an amazing supplement! Without a doubt, this is the most impressed I've been with an expansion. Our group loves how well things were done and the fantastically balanced boards! We've had a blast playing the 6 new warbands against all comers in our Kansas City group. In my opinion, the original charm of Saga is back in full force with A&A. Wonderfully useful mercenary units, unique board concepts, and of course access to models we've all been waiting to bring into the "Sagaverse."

There are probably more typos and grammatical mistakes in this supplement than the others but it doesn't affect readability. The new boards can be as simple or as complex as you like. The only section I wanted more of was content that "retrofits" existing armies to represent earlier versions of the same forces. This was a great idea to give life to factions without giving them entirely new boards, but unfortunately I think a lot of them are a swing-and-a-miss. Many of these offer little more than a new Special Character and don't quite offer changes to make playing the old factions exciting.

For those worried about balance or combining this with other supplements, every Saga supplement is tested against the original 4 warbands and each other! If you remove the historical aesthetic, you still have an amazingly balanced, competitive-as-you-like, fresh game that has no other comparison. The new factions fit so well into the game that it was like they intended to make them from the start. 
For those concerned with the chronological distance between factions, we already have a huge range with the first few supplements! Warbands are commonly going up against foes that are distanced by 300-400 years or from completely far off regions of the world, hidden from their own cultures until many years later. It would be a shame to separate such great boards from a system that was built to handle them! 
Stephen and his Dark Age crew


Stephen and I discuss editorial control of the blog

18 comments:

  1. And guess what arrived at my desk just the other day?
    : )
    Thanks for the time.y and perceptive review, Stephen, I am looking forward to trying some new warbands! Now if only I can get around to painting some of them...

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  2. I do want to give this a spin.

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  3. My copy arrived today. Looking forward to getting the troops painted.

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  4. I haven't bought this supplement yet. Almost scared to do so. So many cool minis and games out there right now. Trying to stay focused seems impossible.

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    1. My friend Hugh brings out a different set of rules and miniatures for each of our monthly game. I love them all! Wish I could take a sabbatical and game more.

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  5. Tell you what Monty, paint up a couple different Aetius & Arthur warbands and I'll play you with your minis. :)

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    1. On it! One down and I have a 2nd in the queue.

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  6. And there I am trying to resist the temptation... :D

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    1. Give in Gordon. Its a great and fun supplement. ;-)

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  7. Thanks all for your kind comments. Stephen is slammed with RL right now so I'll pass these back to him and one day, we'll do another guest post. THANKS Stephen!

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  8. Timely review. I was just considering this volume and now I'm sold. Thanks!

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  9. Nice review. We have played a few games and do enjoy the supplement very much!

    Romans- Very good on the defense
    Goths- A real clever board and lots of fun(my favorite)
    Saxons- Quite aggressive, but perhaps a bit underpowered?
    Britons- Flat out very good! Maybe even a little overpowered, but hey not surprised as it's Arthur after all.
    Huns- Haven't played yet, but looks very mobile and shooting orientated.
    Pics- Again haven't played, but would assume probably similar to other Pictish/Irish/Scottish boards with a combination of missile/ambush.

    Christopher

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    1. Fabulous, this is the genesis of a review on Bunker Hill!

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  10. Sounds fantastic...and Stephen is just perfect in this role!

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