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ah so that’s how you found my video.
AoM, okay there are a few things about list building. There are 6 factions to choose from, these are coupled to lists, so even though you may play the same board as your opponent the build of your list will define how you play. A chaos list could be based on Great Kingdoms, this will play differently than a gun heavy Empire army also based on Great Kingdoms. Each faction also has the option to pick from 2 different spell lists. On top of these each faction has 2 unique lists at the end that change up how you build your force. Each unit costs 1 point, regardless of options or equipment used, so building a list for an 8 point game is incredibly simple.
Play can be divided into two phases, Battleboard and tabletop. As you learn your battleboard and what works best this can be time consuming and has the most drag time, the activations and gameplay on the tabletop moving much faster once you’ve decided on your plan. While your opponent can interrupt or counter your activations and abilities with their own boards it’s very much an IGO-UGO game. It can be picked up quickly but takes time to master. It will be the most expensive to get into even if you don’t bother with the dice and cards, you’ll need the rules, universe book and I would recommend the battle book as well for the scenarios and additional terrain rules.
WoE, so list building for Rick’s game you have, currently, a choice of 11 factions to pick from with a 12th that I’ll discuss at the end. Regardless of the faction you choose there is a greater degree of granularity, with individual points for additional unit members and weapon options. Depending on the faction you may find there are differing restrictions on some choices. So the 11 factions are an unusual set including gnolls in among the usual suspects like elves and dwarfs. Rick has said that he will do some more, in fact Samurai is finished but not released yet, but he has made it clear he may never get to some armies and made it clear that this was never the plan and for people to adapt their own lists. This brings me to the 12th list which is monsters, he didn’t want to include it but dropped it in at the end. He has stated that it’s not a game written for monsters but for warbands of infantry and cav. So don’t be surprised if the monsters are unbalanced to the rest of the game.
Play wise it works off the dice draw mechanic so random pulls from the bag determine who will activate next, the system itself is d10 based so it has a better spread than Bolt Action to account for racial variations. There have been complaints that because it uses a system designed for bolt action, shooting is broken you may find house rules are needed to fix that if it becomes an issue. I personally suspect that less open Battlefields and scenarios would deal with that. The rules themselves are self contained, barring any future army lists that will be free downloads, other wise you have the rules, spells, scenarios, and lists in one hardback book.
In summary, I like Saga: AoM because it’s mostly about the getting in and fighting, magic and shooting are good but not game breakers. Most importantly because I play two other eras of it it means I’m used to the rules as are my opponents and I don’t have to worry about learning a new set of rules from scratch. The game is best played with 8 points which means between 30 and 96 minis, and most lists will be at the lower end of that scale once you start including monsters and wizards.
WoE plays best at around 1000 points, so ~90 minis it can scale up larger but the dice draw mechanic will slow you down although there are options online for large BA games, so they can be used to make it viable.
They’re both very different feels of games and I’m torn, however as an easy game to get a lot of people into I would suggest WoE over AoM. One copy of the book is all you need and you’re good to go. WoE may require some more work and houserules but Rick never wrote it to be a tournament game and it shouldn’t be viewed as such.
