Reply To: Saga… why?

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@commodorerob

I hear what you’re saying and you have a lot more rulesets under your belt than I have. I agree with what your saying, but chose to add another slant along side that to sell myself on the game.

The abstract nature feels like an easy way to avoid just having the enemies smash together in the middle of the table and chuck dice, rinse and repeat. This can still happen, but the luck of the battleboard and clever use of fatigue can make the chaos of war element mean a touch more than I threw more ones than you did this turn. The abstract bizarrely also actually puts me more into a Dark Age mindset rather than break the immersion. The superstition and pagan faith and customs have changed so much since then that I forget how unlike modern soldiers and modern people they were. Some skirmishes were carried because someone rocked up and said we can’t lose today. “A raven ate my breakfast and told me so.” Sometimes when everyone was armed and armoured very similarly a more determined force would win the day and a confidence boost or a superstition manipulated on the day is the flavour of the battleboard.

I love Bernard Cornwell books and the Uhtred stories. A game with just man Vs man emphasis would be good and I am sure there are ways around the historically accurate, but potentially predictable, scrum, dice roll and pack away.

Cheers for sharing.