vendredi 16 novembre 2012
Strathclyde and Irish
With some delay, here are the last two previews of Raven's Shadows. In English this time, they will get translated in French in due time.
These reviews are written by no one else that the admirable Mike Hobbs, co-developper of Saga.
These reviews are written by no one else that the admirable Mike Hobbs, co-developper of Saga.
The Strathclyde Welsh
The Kingdom of Strathclyde came into
existence in the 5th Century after the departure of the Romans, and
lasted until it was absorbed into Scotland in the 12th Century.
During this time the kingdom which had lands in modern day Cumbria and Lower Scotland;
had many names, early records show it being called Alt Clut which is linked to
its then capital of Dumbarton Rock; in 870 the Vikings sacked Dumbarton and the
capital was moved to Govan and after this the area became known as the kingdom
of Strathclyde.
The term Strathclyde Welsh may be
misleading as the men of this kingdom had no real links to the Welsh kings in
this period, however they shared a bond of language and were a Celtic region as
opposed to an Anglo-Saxon one. So it is
safe to say that the peoples of Wales and the peoples of Strathclyde would have
traded with each other and formed links that way.
By AD 1054 the kingdom became part of Scotland;
however how and when it happened is not really known and open to a lot of
debate.
Sources describe how the Strathclyde
warriors would fight often on horseback using the tough hill ponies that were
native of the lands, they would often use hit and run tactics to attack the
many enemies they faced, use of the land was key to their success in battle and
they would often attack from nowhere before disappearing back into the mist of
the Cumbrian hills.
In Saga the Strathclyde Welsh give players
a new tactic to use in their games, that being the ability of having “Off-Table”
reserves.
All Strathclyde Hearthguards and some of
the warriors may be mounted and these mounted figures can be kept off table
during the setup phase and only brought on by use of one of the Saga abilities,
but more of that later.
The Strathclyde are a cavalry based
faction, with the Warlord and Hearthguard only available as mounted units,
warriors can be mounted or unmounted and as we would expect levy are always
unmounted but do have javelins to assist them in harassing the enemy. Although
the Strathclyde were believed to be generally armed with javelins, historically
it appears they would ride close to the enemy and use them as a close range
weapon so in our games they are not deemed to be armed with javelins.
It is the use of off table units that sets
the Strathclyde apart from other factions as small units (no bigger the 6
figures) can be left off table during setup and brought on during the game,
imagine the look on your opponents face when a unit of mounted Hearthguard
suddenly appears behind him; trust me it’s great.
One other thing to mention with the
Strathclyde Battleboard is some of the abilities can only be used by mounted
troops, so you need to think about how you put your army together
So at this point it seems like a good idea
to highlight some of the abilities the Strathclyde get.
First up is the ability “Flanking
Manoeuvre” which is the key ability when it come to bringing on off table
units, for 2 dice you get to nominate an off table unit and a point on any
table edge and the unit will move on from that point. One added benefit to this
ability is it cannot be affected by some of the Activation/reaction abilities
as technically the unit is not on table when activated, sorry Anglo-Danish
players you can’t use intimidation against them, however you can’t move within
S of any enemy unit during the move onto the table so you can’t move directly
into melee.
Next up is an ability called “The
Doomriders” this is a melee ability which gives an extra attack and defence
dice in combat, but also if you are within L of a table edge you also gain
extra Attack and Defence dice for each unit you have off table, which is handy.
Finally let’s have a look at an ability
called “Harassment” this is another one that uses off table units to good
effect. When played you designate an enemy unit that is within L of a table
edge and carry out a shooting attack against them, with the number of attack
dice generated depending on the number of units you have off table.
Are you starting to see a pattern here?
The strength of the Strathclyde Welsh is
not in the way they can stand and fight against opponents but the way they will
force an enemy to stay in the relative safety of the center of the table,
because whenever they stray out of that area the Strathclyde can attack out of
nowhere.
Oh one final thing to remember, if a unit
is still off table when the game finishes they count against you when working
out victory points so don’t leave them off table for too long eh.
Right let’s finish up by looking at one of
the Heroes of the Viking age for the Strathclyde Welsh Owen I, King of
Strathclyde.
Owen is an interesting character who formed
an alliance with Olaf III of Dublin and Constantine II of Scotland against the
Anglo-Saxon King Athelstan. The 2 armies met at the Battle of Brunanburh which
was one of the most important battles of this period, but unfortunately for
Owen that day was his last as Athelstan’s forces were victorious.
If you use Owen in your force you can
really confuse your opponent as Owen allows the Strathclyde player to use
unmounted Hearthguards but still have access to the abilities that are normally
only available to mounted ones. You may
be wondering why do this when the strength of the Strathclyde Welsh is in
mobility, well to be honest in some scenarios (like Homeland) having a pure
mounted force can be a drawback so by using Owen you can play with an infantry
based force for a change.
Well that really sums up this review, the
Strathclyde welsh are an interesting faction to play and some people will
really dislike them, but others will love the abilities and the style of play
they give you, as for me I love them; but I am biased.
The Irish
In AD 432, St Patrick arrived in Ireland with
the task of converting the Pagan Irish to Christianity, the land he found
(especially in the West) was ruled by many leaders and tribes which held
influence over smaller areas. Gradually the Pagan religion died out and
Christianity became the de-facto religion in the majority of the country. In
the 7th century the first of the High Kings of Ireland were said to
appear and these were credited with bringing a semblance of unification to the
native Irish.
In AD 795 the Vikings arrived and founded a
settlement in what is now known as Dublin, this settlement flourished and
became an important trading area as well as a base for the Vikings to launch
attacks and raids against the rest of the population.
In AD 1014 the battle of Clontarf took
place between the Irish high King Brian Boru and Máel Mórda mac Murchada the
King of Leinster, this second force was mainly made up of Viking mercenaries
under Sigtrygg. This battle was fought all day and ended in a rout of the Máel
Mórda's forces, along with the death of Brian Boru, this meant the Vikings were
now a weakened force but the Irish had lost a strong leader and so the quarrels
that epitomised earlier Irish history now resurfaced.
In battle the Irish were known to be quick
moving and aggressive, armour was not common and only the very rich could
afford it. Feats of arms were encouraged in the tribes and the strongest were
often rewarded by the leaders of a tribe, the best were known as Curadh or
Tribal champions and these men would stand at the front in battle and challenge
the enemy to combat often mid battle. The Irish were also well known for using
large wardogs to disrupt enemy shieldwall’s and bring down stragglers fleeing
combat.
In Saga the Irish faction gives a few
interesting tweaks to other factions you may have seen before, firstly the lack
of armour means Irish Hearthguard units are weaker against missile fire than
normal, however they can be mounted so are more mobile in games. Secondly you
can upgrade 2 Hearthguard figures and designate them as Curadh, these are units
on their own and can be seen as mini warlords as they share many of the
abilities that warlords use (full rules for them are given in the Ravens Shadow
supplement). Thirdly the Irish can field a single unit of wardogs, this is a
warrior unit of up to 8 figures which have superior movement to normal and can
cross uneven ground without penalty, they have less armour then normal warriors
but hey; they are dogs and will scare the bejesus out of your enemies.
Other faction rules for the Irish will have
to stay under wraps as we don’t want to spoil all the surprises for you.
Looking at the battleboard, there are a few
abilities that are interesting to use;
Sons of Dana is a great ability and will
help to keep your opponents in open ground, basically any enemy unit that is
either within S of uneven terrain or even inside uneven terrain takes a
shooting attack with the attack dice worked out at half the figures in the unit
being targeted, you don’t have to a unit in Line of Sight to the enemy it just
happens. Maybe it’s some local kids, who are hiding in the undergrowth and are
lobbing stones at the enemy, or maybe it’s something else, either way it’ll
make your enemy think twice about hiding in terrain, the Welsh in particular
will hate this ability.
Talking of shooting abilities one thing
that is clear from reading the Irish battleboards is the amount of shooting
based abilities the Irish player has to use, there are 4 abilities that are
related to shooting attacks or used as a defence against shooting so use of
javelins is recommended when putting your faction together, oh didn’t I mention
that all Irish foot troops can have javelins? Silly me
Another ability of interest for Irish
players is Sidh, this is another terrain specific ability and means that in
melee all enemy figures that are within uneven terrain have to take a test to
see if they generate attack dice in the melee. This ability is a melee/reaction
ability which is a new concept in Saga, full rules for using melee/reaction
abilities are given in the rule book but in short they are abilities that are
played before step 1 of a melee and can therefore change the amount of attack
dice a unit generates at step 1.
The word you are looking for is “Nasty”
As always we have 2 Heroes of the Viking
age for players to use in their games, for the Irish we went for 2 people who
lived at the same time in fact they are brothers.
They are of course Brian Boru and his
brother Ulf, each will give an Irish warband a different feel when used in
battle. Brian Boru was an old man at the battle of Clontarf and so his
abilities are not based around his own prowess in battle but rather he gives
benefits to the whole army that he leads, he is a leader that you need to
protect in a game otherwise you may have problems. Ulf on the other hand was
younger and by all accounts nastier then his Brother Brian, however Ulf is a
bit different to normal Heroes of the Viking age, in fact he is not even a
warlord and you can only use Ulf if your army is lead by Brian. Ulf is a Curadh
and when used he will be your only Curadh, he is a one man killing machine who
strikes fear into the enemy, so use him wisely
Well that about wraps up my review of the
Irish faction, in the playtesting we did for the supplement the Irish were my
favourite faction to use and I love the way they play in the game, you have to
think long and hard about the best way to use the Irish in your games but they
will always give you a good game.
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