Lhe Basics

Luck is one thing, brave deeds another.

UN)[l['
In SAGA figures are arranged into units consisting of between
4 and 12 models. No unit can start with less than four figures
or more than twelve. We will see in the chapter dealing with
Movement how these figures rnove and behave as units.
Figures will need to be based. There are no fixed rules for
basing in SAGA. To be honest, during the developrnent of this
garne we ha ve used figures based on round washers, on square
1" bases and even sorne rnulti-based. Also there is no such
thing as facing in this garne, we assurne that the rnodels see all
around and don't suffer any penalty for fighting to their si des.
You shouldn't get any advantage frorn your basing, and, as a
rule of thumb, no base should exceed 3crns in length or width
(for mounted rnodels it should not exceed 6crns in length or
\vidth) although we allow Warlords to be based on larger bases
(up to 4crns for foot, 8crns for rnounted) as befits such larger
than life characters!

Grettr's Saga

Each figure has a class. There are four classes in SAGA, each
representing a different kind of warrior.
The four classes are:
Hearthguard: The most powerful retainers at your disposal,
usually the household troops of your lord such as AngloDanish Huscarls or Norrnan knights.
Warriors: The bulk of the fighting rnen gathering w hen t heir
lord asks for their service. They are usually non-professional
or part-time warriors and are less well arrned and trained
than the Hearthguard. As such, the terrn Warrior can cover a
wide range of troops such as thegns, ceorls or bondi.
Levies or peasants: Give thern a sling, a bow or even sorne
stones and you rnight be surprised. Might.
Warlord: Leading these warriors is the Warlord. Unlike other
rnodels, he is a unit in his own right and acts separately. He is
considered a Hearthguard, but has sorne special abilities and
irnproved characteristics.

See sorne examples of basing below:

Each class has two different characteristics: Movernent and
Arrnour. With a few exceptions, all figures that belong to a
single class will share the sarne characteristics. For exarnple,
an Anglo-Danish Huscarl ( frorn the Hearthguard class) will
have the sarne Movernent and Arrnour as his Viking Hirdman
counterpart. But we will see in due course that there are sorne
extra, faction specific rules that can make thern different, and
that they w ill behave slightly differently on the battlefield.

Movement is usually 1\1[ (see below what it means) or

JL for

mounted models. Armour goes from 2 to 6 and is the target

number that your opponent will have to score to hit yo u with a
ranged or hand-to-hand attack. An Armour value m ay never be
lower than to 2 or higher than 6, no matter the modifiers being
used.

lDlllTANCJE

TJHllETURN
The game turn alternates between each player. Turns can be
rather short compared to other games (at least once the pi ayer
are used to the mechanisms of SAGA) and the game should
keep a ni ce flow.
With the exception of the first action a player takes in his turn,
the turn structure is notas fixed as it is in many other wargames.
The turn starts with the pi ayer whose turn it is rolling their SAGA

As we mentioned earlier, there are four different measure

distances in SAGA. They are:
Very Short Distance, referred as V and that is 2" (scms) long
Short Distance, referred as and that is 4" (1ocms) long
Medium Distance, referred as 1\1[ and that is 6" (15cms) long
Long Distance, referred as JL and that is 12" (3ocms) long
We will use the abbreviations above in this rulebook so, if you
see that a bow can shoot ata maximum range of lL, it means
that it can shoot up to 12". lf we state that a Anglo-Danish
Hearthguard has a Movement of , his movement is actually
4" We cannot recommend enough that you use sticks ( either
self made or bought) as they are far handier to use than a tape
measure! See below an example of measuring sticks used
during the development of this game:
All distan ces can be meas ured at any time during the game.
Sometimes you will see written that a " unit must be within x"
("x" being either V,, Ml or lL). lt means that the

dice and then allocating the results to his Battle Board (this
phase is know as the Orders phase). After that, the pi ayer is free
to actvate his units and to use the abilities he has paid for with
his dice on the Battle Board in any sequence. When that player
has finished activating units and spent all the SAGA dice on his
Battle Board, his turn is over. His opponent then takes his SAGA
dice, ro lis them, and so on, until the game draws to an end.

lFRACTllON
At sorne point in these rules we refer to fractions, as 1/2. In all
these cases, the fractions are rounded up. So, for example, if
an effect says yo u lose 1/2 of your dice and you ha ve 5 dice, yo u
willlose 3 dice.

MUTlERllNG TJH[]E

~VARJB\ANlDl

The way that warbands are organised is dealt with in a

dedicated chapter although the principies are simple: you get a
number of points to spend on figures, you organize them into

aforementioned unit must have at least one model within X to

units and then you are ready to fight. For your first games, to

fulfil the requirement. You don't need to have all models

within "X", unless specifically written.

makes the learning curve easier, we suggest that yo u start with

the smallest format of four points (the standard format being
six points). As explained later, each point gives you a number
of figures, depending of the class of figure you bought (for
example, one point w ill give you 4 Hearthguards, 8 Warriors or
12 Levies). Then, you will be able to organise these models into

fighting units, between 4 and 12 models strong, all composed

of models of the same class.
When yo u have finished your choice of troops, yo u will get your
Warlord forfree, unless you choose to pick one of the Heroes of
the Viking Age, historical characters that we have shamelessly
shanghaied into our skirmish game.

Lhe RdeRS phase

The run of the game is decided by the first move.

A.GA D][CE & AJBJIJUTY JB\OXE

At the start of your turn, take your SAGA dice and roll them.
The number of SAGA dice to be rolled is equal to the number of
units you have on the table up toa maximum of six SAGA dice.
Levies do not count as units for this purpose and your Wa rlord
counts as two units.
Example: your warband is made of two units of Hearthguard, one

unit of Warriors, two units of Levies and your Warlord. You will
have five SAGA dice - one for each unit of Hearthguard, one for

the Warriors and two for your Warlord.

Usually, at the start of the first turn of the game, yo u w ill get to
roll six dice, but this number may decrease as yo u lose units.
After the dice are rolled, each one of them will show a symbol.
These symbols w ill be used on your Battle Board to "pay" for
the abilities that your Battle Board provides.
Let's take a look at one of the fifteen boxes that your Battle
Board displays. We call them SAGA ABILITIES:

EXHAUSTION
l

Fstbrceara's Saga

The ability says: Discard this die to target an enemy Exhausted

unit . Eliminate two figures from that unit. Then discard a
FATIGUE from that unit. You may not target a Warlord with his
ability.
What does that mean? Simple. During the Orders phase, you
may discard the die w ith the horse and choose an Exhausted
enemy unit (we will explain later what Exhausted means).
You then remove a FATIGUE (a token or marker indicating the
state of physical or moral exhaustion of a unit) and yo u kili two
figures. Warlords are not affected by this ability, it would be
too easy!
Sorne boxes have more than one symbol:

STUBBORNNESS
Melee
Discard this die. Gain one Attack
Die. Gain also one additional
Attack Die for every FATIGUE
the enemy unit(s) has (or have) .

Orders
Discard this die to target an enemy
Exhausted unit. Eliminate two
figures from that unit.
Then discard a FATIGUE from
that unit. You may not target a
Warlord with this ability.

lt means than you may use any dice with these symbols to pay
to actvate this ability.

Sorne Battle Boards have abilities with two symbols with a"+"
between them.

At the top of the box, in bold type, is the na me of the ability, in

this case EXHA.USTION .

TRAPPED
Orders

Below the name, in italics, is the phase in which the ability may
be played, in this case it is a Orders ability. lt means that it is
used during the Orders Phase.
Next to the wording of the ability you see the symbol t hat
matches one of the symbols on the SAGA dice, in this example
it is of the Westbury White Horse. lt means that should you
wish t o take advantage of the EXHAUSTION ability, you must
pay for it by placing a dice displaying the horse on this box. lf
you didn't roll a horse, y.u cannot usethis ability this turn.

Discard these dice.

Add one FATIGUE to three
different enemy units.

lt means that this ability needs dice with each of the symbols
displayed to pay for it. In the case of Trapped, yo u would need
two dice, each with a helmet to pay for the ability.

Now pick a Battle Board of any f action and six of its associated
dice. Roll them and use them to put on the board in appropriate
boxes. Look at the different boxes that are now active. lf you
are thinking right now, "lf 1 do that at the same time as this
and t his, it wil l be MASSIVELY POWERFUL!" you're in the right
state of mind to play SAGA. Being massively powerful is not
only a guilty pleasure, it is also a good way to achieve victory
in SAGA. Bribing the opponent is the other way, but it is much
more expensive.
At this point you may have spotted that there are two different
coloured boxes on your Battle Board.
Those with a darker background (forming the two right most
columns of abilities of your Battle Board) can only be activated
once per t urn (i.e. yo u can on ly pay for it with one die or set of
dice on the ability):

Orders
Discard this die to re-roll
any of your SAGA dice
OR choose one SAGA die
and change the side of that die
to any symbol you want.

The SAGA Abilities in the left hand column can be activated

more than once. This means that you may put there as many
dice (with t he relevant symbol) as you fancy (so long as you
have rolled them!) and hence, the ability may be used more
t han once per t urn.

ACTIVATION
POOL
Orders
Discard one die to roll
two extra SAGA dke.

This ability is interesting as it explains in itself why you have

eight SAGA dice and not only the six you usually roll at the
start of the turn. We will look more closely at it later, but in
the meantime, you just need to know t hat it can be used t o get
additional SAGA dice to rol! during your turn.
You get eight SAGA dice in a set and using more than these
eight dice is cheating. Basically, it means that at any point of
the game, t he maximum number of SAGA dice on your Battle
Board is eight. And no, yo u can't buy three sets of dice to useno one is THAT massively powerful.

Ragnar speaks...
What happens if, at the start of your turn, you still have sorne
SAGA dice on your Battle Board that have paid for abilities
but for sorne reason you did not use thern? You have a choice;
either you pick thern up and get thern back to roll again this
turn, or you can leave thern on the Battle Board. BUT, for each
die left on the board, you deduct one die frorn the dice pool
you should be able to roll. So, if you generate six dice for your
units and have two left on the Battle Board, you rnay only roll
four this turn.
Sornetirnes, especially with an ability that is difficult to pay for
(for exarnple TRAPPED displayed above) you rnight want to
leave the dice on the board, as if a Darnocles Sword hanging
over the head of your opponent. That is a part of the strategies
you w ill be able to explore with SAGA.

SAGA is about anticipation and

preparation. Think carefully about
what you want to achieve
during your turn AND during
your opponent's turn. Even a
Hearthguard unit wi/1 have a
hard time against a Warrior unit
boosted by a lot of abilities, so don't expect to
w in a game without a clever use of your Battle
Board. Other games are al/ about designing killer
armies prior to the game, but in SAGA this won't
help yo u much. Learning to use your Battfe Board
is m ueh more useful than trying to find foophofes
in the army fists!

-- ____

__,

When you ro JI your SAGA dice and put thern in the ability boxes
on the Battle Board, this is the ORDERS phase of your turn.
lf you study closely sorne of the Battle Boards you will see
that sorne effects are used during this Phase (for exarnple,
ACDVATION POOL or NOBLE LINEAGE above.)

111. 1ers SIIIOBIZelhls Challl8t.

At the start of the turn, you roll saga dice

The number of dice to roll is equal to the number

of units (levies do not count, warlords count as
two) you ha ve ( up to 6) minus any saga dice left
on the battle board.
You put the appropriate dice in the ability boxes
to pay for the abilities you may wish to use.
Sorne boxes may be only active once, sorne
others any number of times.

You have eight saga dice. You may not use more
than these eight during your tum.
All these parts of the game occur
in the orders phase.

A comp{ete oRdeRS phc\Se gatnp(e

Luck accompanies wisdom.

Let's go through a complete Orders phase example. Pick the

Anglo-Danish Battle Board and the appropriate set of dice, and
follow the step-by-step example below.
Fred starts his turn by checking how many SAGA Dice he w ill
be able to roll. He still has his entire warband on the table his Warlord (two SAGA Dice), two units of Hearthguards ( one
SAGA Die each, for a total of two SAGA Dice), three units of
Warriors ( one SAGA Die each for a total of three SAGA Dice)
and one unit of Levies ( Levies don't generate SAGA Dice). This
gives him a total of seven SAGA Dice. Because you cannot roll
more than six SAGA Dice at the start of your turn, he only has
six dice to roll. He also has a SAGA Die left on his Battle Board
f rom the previous turn, on the Shieldwall ability box. He can
either leave this die on the Battle Board and deduct one SAGA
Die from the number he would otherwise roll (ie he would
now roll five,) or take the die back and roll his full SAGA Dice
allocation. He decides to take it back and so rolls his six SAGA
Dice, obtaining:

0/af Haraldsson's Saga

Let's take a break and look at what available dice he has right
now:

His next choice is to use once again the Activation Pool ability.
As this ability is one of the abilities that can be used any number
of time in a turn, this is perfectly legal. He uses his laste to roll
two extra SAGA Dice: . . and '..~-

He puts nowthe ~1 on the Geburs ability box so he can actvate

his Levies later this turn. He puts the two . . o n the Hard as !ron
box, thinking to add a bit of resilience in melee either this turn
or during his opponent's turn. Finally, he puts his ~ and the . .
on the Huscarls Activation box, as he w ill need his Hearthguard
to be activated this turn. However, with no dice left, this leaves
his War riors with no activation this turn
Nota bad roll, as you w ill see!
He starts by putting the two

on the Trapped ability. As this is

an Orders ability, he can use these dice right now and unleash
the ability. He does so. This ability allows his to designate three
different enemy units that will each gain one FATIGUE. This
being done, he decides to use one by picking a~ and putting
it on the Noble Lineage ability. As this is also an Orders ability,
t his can al so be used right now. This ability allows him to choose
either to re-roll any number of SAGA Dice OR pick one die and
change its side so it displays the symbol he wants. He chooses
t he later option and picks a ,~ and changes it into a
Fred takes this newly changed die and he put it on the Activation
Pool ability. This ability is another Orders ability, that needs a

e.
e
e

and that allows him to rolls two SAGA dice. He discards the
die, takes two unused SAGA dice, and roll them, obtaining a
anda ...

So, with no dice left, he ends his Orders phase. You w ill have
noted that Fred has rolled a total of 10 SAGA Dice this turn. At
no point did he use more than the 8 dice of his set at once, so
this massive amount of dice rolled is perfectly legal! In a single
Orders phase, he put three FATIGUE on enemy units, activated
a powerful defensive ability and still had three dice t o actvate
his units.
Now it's tim e for Fred to start sorne serious business ...

Lhe activation phase

ACTJ!VATJ!ON AJBJUUTY JB\OXJE
All Battle Boards in SAGA have five similar Ability Boxes (the
ones in the left hand column of your Battle Board). We will take
a look at the ones you will use the most often, the Activation
Ability Boxes, shown below (for the Anglo-Danish in t his
example):

HUSCARLS
Activation
Discard one die to actvate
a unit ofHearthguard
or a Warlord.

All these abilities allow a player to activate a unit. Activating

a unit is the only way to have it move, enter melee or use its
ranged weapons (if it has them.).
You see that the three ability boxes are each related t o a
different type of unit: Hearthguard and Warlords, Warriors and
Levies_ Astute readers will have spotted that any SAGA symbol
will actvate Hearthguards or Warlords, that you need axes

CEORLS
Activation
Discard one die to actvate
a unit ofWarriors.

and helmets to actvate Anglo-Danish Warriors and horses and

helmets to actvate Levies. You will have noted that the Levies
are the most difficult to actvate: that is what happens when
you bring inexperienced farmers on to the battlefield!
During the Orders phase, SAGA dice m ay have been put in these
boxes. These dice can be discarded one at a time to activate a
unit. Let 's take an example:
You have two dice on the first box (Hearthguard), one on the

second (Warriors) and two on the last (Levies). Remember that

you can have ANY NUMBER of dice on these boxes.
You want to use the ability of the second box to actvate Warriors.

GEBURS
Activation
Discard one die to actvate
a unit of Levies.

lt says ' Discard one dieto actvate one unit of WARRIORS'. So you
just follow the instructions in the box: you piel< a die, discard it
from the box, and immediately you are allowed to actvate any
one unit of your Warriors.

Once the Activation has been resolved, you may actvate

another unit if you have dice in Activation Boxes, or use any
other ability that allows you t o actvate a unit.
The process of using the Activation Boxes is called the
Activation phase and it always comes after the Orders phase-

Ragnar speaks ..

ACTJIVATlNG UN][l['
Units may be activated in any sequence the player decides.
When a unit is activated, it has the choice between three
different actions:
Move
Shoot
Rest
M ove allows your unit to m ove about the battlefield. Movement

is explained in the next chapter.

Shoot is only available to units with missile weapons. In most

warbands, on ly the Levies have ranged weapons (real men

fight with spears, swords and axes!) but some factions have
more ranged weapons than others. There is a chapter on
Shooting later.
Rest allows you to discard a FATIGUE token. As we will see
later, FATIGUE is accumulated under some circumstances, such
as when a unit fights in melee. Remember, even the mightiest
warriors sometimes need to take a break.

A given unit may be activated ANY NUMBER OF TIMES in a turn,

so long as yo u have the dice to do so.

The Activation phase isn't brol<en

down into segments such as
charge, shooting or melee.
An activation is immediat ely
resolved before any further
activation is done. So if you
actvate to shoot, resolve the
shooting immediately befare
mal<ing any new activations. The same goes for
melee: if your movement ended in melee, that
melee is immediately resolved.

Be prepared to sweat in SAGA as sometimes

unexpected things happen. But as you learn the
game, hopefully you wi/1 gain control over the
events and dictate t he pace of game to your
opponent.

NO ACTJIVATXON LEJFTI
lf you can't activate any units because you have used all your
dice in the Activation Boxes, your turn is over.

Activation is done using the first three ability boxes

of the first column of abilities of your battleboard
Each box allows the activation of a specific unit type
(hearthguards, warriors or levies)
Some other ability boxes actvate units.
When a unit is activated, it can either rest

or move or shoot.

A given unit may be activated any number of times

in a single tum.
This is called the activation phase
When you have finished your activation phse,

ffiovemenr
Short is the hour for acting, and long the hour for feasting.

Hakon the Good's Saga

UNJ[T JFORMLA.1['J[ON

MOVlEMllENT lOlllTA\N<ClE

In SAGA, models of a given unit must stay within a reasonable

distance of their fighting brothers. This is called the Unit
Formation. The rule is simple: a model must always be within

All figures in SAGA ha ve a movement of 1\\1[ (except Mounted

models, see the chapter dealing with The Normans). This means
that when a figure moves, it can be moved up toa distance of 1\\1(.

a V distance of the nearest other model of his own unit. See

the picture below:

As Movement is always done by all the figures of the unit, all

members will move up to l\\1[and they mustfinish the movement
adhering to the Unit Formation rule described above.
lf at any point of its movement, one of your model moves
within V of an enemy model it must finish its movement in
base to base contact with that model. lf moving within V of
two or more enemy models at the same time, it must finish its
movement in base to base contact with any one of these models.
lf the figure does not have enough movement to end in base to
base contact with one of the enemies then the moving model
may not come closer than V to any enemy figure.
There are no exceptions to this rule. Yo u cannot voluntary move
a model so that it finishes out of formation, and if your unit
suffers casualties in melee or from shooting (or for any other
reason) the figure removal may not break the unit formation.

Finishing in base to base contact with an enemy figure is called

"engaging in melee". A figure in base to base contact with
an enemy figure becomes "engaged" and does not prevent
ene m y figures moving within V of it.

Note that as a Warlord is a unit of its own, he is exempted from

any unit formation. There is no such thing as a Warlord joining
a unit in SAGA.

1'vll0VJEMUENT AC1['J[VATJ[ON
A unit may move when it is activated, and if the controlling
player chooses a Movement action. We consider that all
members of the unit will move, so you cannot choose to have
some figures in a unit moving and others shooting for example.
lf, after activating.tfi(unit for a movement, you finally decide
tbat""t he unit will AOt actually move, Jt is still considered as a
movement as th' rmit wa$ activated t or a-movement.

...

Blue moves within VS of Red and Grey. He decides to engage Grey in melee,
and m oves in base contact with him. He can ignore Red for this movement
as he was within VS of both.

UNJEVJEN GROUND
Terrain is likely to slow down the movement of your figures. In
SAGA, we have kept things simple and neat. Terrain is either
open, u neven or impassable.
Open terrain is landscape that is not covered by any scenery
item except bridges and roads which are also considered
open terrain. Open terrain does not affect movement.
Uneven terrain is any area covered by scenery that can be
moved into or crossed by figu res but that would obviously
slow them down: woods, rocky ground, walls, a building, a
steep hill, or anything similar.
lmpassable terrain needs to be identified as such by the
players prior to the game. lt can take the shape of a pond, a
deep river or a high cliff. The edges of the gaming table are
impassable terrain unless the scenario being played specifies
otherwise.
Sometimes, it will be convenient to define the boundaries
of a terrain area. For example, you can have a few trees on a
decorated base, and agree with your opponent that the whole
base counts as uneven terrain. The same applies to features
such as fields of crops. These should have their limit clearly
marked on the table to avoid unnecessary discussions during
thegame.
lf during a movement activation, you start in, end in or go
through uneven ground, your whole movement is reduced to
. This affects the whole unit: if a single model of any unit starts,
ends or moves through such a terrain, the movement of ALL
models in that unit beco mes for that movement activation.
lmpassible terrain is, er, impassible. You cannot move into
such terrain. Any figure (even a friendly figure) is considered
impassable terrain. This means that you cannot move through
a friendly or enemy model. Furthermore, the gaps between
models of a unit are also impassable so you cannot move
through such a gap. See the picture below:

The blue model in this example is unable to move through the space
between the friendly grey mode/s as it is considered impassable. lf Blue
wants to occupy the ground in front of grey, he has to move round the
position of that unit.

Ragnar speaks...

In other games you have learnt

how to screen your best troops
with second rate units. In SAGA
you can do this, but usuafly
at the most inopportune
moment, you'll discover that
the aforementioned models
block the movement of your mighty boys. Once
again this is al/ about anticipation. lf an enemy
unit stands in front of your screen, and you can't
jump at his throat with your Warriors because
your Levies stand in the way, blame yourselt not
the game! In the Orders phase, you should have
put a die in the Levies Activation box to get them
out of the way.

Your movement is S UNLfSS all the movement is made in

MOVlNG MORE lrHAN ONCE

As we discussed in the preceding chapter, units can be activated
more than once during a single tu rn but this will generate
FATIGUE. Fatigue is covered in more detail in a forthcoming
chapt er, but there are further issues facing units making
multiple movement activations.
lf you are activating a unit (for a movement) for a second or
subsequent time t his turn, and your unit has at least one model
within of an enemy unit, yo u MUST engage in melee with that
unit (if possible). You have no choice on that matter. lt can
happen that you are not able t o engage in melee w ith the unit
that is within as, for example, sorne effects might reduce the
movement of a unit after it has been activated - FATIGUE for
example. lf so then your activation is simply not possible or it is
cancelled if it has already been declared.
Sometimes, you will be within of more than one enemy
figure, each belonging toa different unit. In that case, yo u m ay
only engage in melee ~it h t he closest of t he enemy units.

Here your unit (Grey) has models within S of two different enemy units
(Red and Blue). lt wants to activate for a movement a second time. lt must
engage in melee against one of these units. As Blue is the closest enemy
unit, it must engage this unit in melee and may not move to engage Red in
me lee. Note that this is because it is grey's second or subsequent movement
activation. tf it was it first movement activation of the turn it could engage
Blue or Red, or move back in any direction.

A figure must always be within V of the nearest

member of its unit.
Movement is done when a unit is activated
for movement.
All foot models move M unless moving from,
to or through any uneven ground.

When moving within V of one or more enemy

models, you must engage one of them in melee.
Starting with the second movement activatlon
of a tum, if one of your unit stdrt5 wftllln S

ofan enemyunit,,__._tD~IWI!I!l-1<;_

Shooring
When men meet foes in fight, better is stout heart than sharp sword.

Volsunga's Saga
Arrows, bolts, javelins and stones are all used by the combat ants
of SAGA w hen trying to kili their enemies at a distance. Many
call these shooters cowards ( or other insulting terms that we
won't reproduce here) but their importance and impact on the
game is real, as you might discover when your troops fall in
droves under a hail of arrows.

Une of sight is determined model by model, hence sorne

models will be able to shoot while others can't.

HOOlLINGr A.CTJ[Vl\lrKON
To be able to shoot, a unit must have a ranged weapon. These
units, usually Levies, are indicated in the chapter about the
Warriors of the Viking age.
When such a unit is activated, you can actvate it to shoot. The
unit doesn't move and the shooting is immediately resolved.
There is no specific shooting phase or shooting step in SAGA.
You actvate your unit, it unleashes its missiles, and then you
can contin ue activating units or using the abilities of your Battle
Board.
To be able to shoot, at least one model of your unit must have
a target unit in line of sight and w ithin range.

TARGIElr UN)[T
When activated, your unit will target an enemy unit. Shooting
is always resolved on a unit vs. unit basis, so models within one
of your units cannot target different units.

In this example, your Grey unit wants to shoot at the red unit. Two models
can clearly shoot as they have a fine of sight on red models. One grey
model cannot shoot as its line of sight cannot cross the gap between blue
mode/s and the other grey model cannot shoot as its line of sight cannot go
through the black building.

JUNJE OIF J[GJH[ll

Note that in SAGA, figures see all around and the actual facing
of the model is irrelevant.

You must be able to draw a Une of Sight (LoS) between the

shooter and its target in order to shoot. A LoS is a straight
line running from your model to an enemy model that is not
blocked.
The LoS is blocked by:
Any figure except friendly figures from the same unit.
The spaces between models of a single friendly or enemy unit.
In other words, you can never shoot "through" a f r iendly or
enemy unit, even if the line of sight is drawn between two
models of that unit.
Any scenery items higher than an average foot figure ( usually
around 35mms if using 28mms models) usually referred as
High Terrain (see Terrain, page 30 ).

JR.A\NGJE

1/ Target Determination and Attack Dice

Each ranged weapon has a range, th at is the maximum distance

it can shoot. The distance between a model and the closest
visible model of the target enemy unit must not be longer
t han the range of t he w eapon used in order for that model to
shoot .

Once the target unit has been declared, and the number of
eligible shoot ing models of your unit determined, you can
resolve the shooting.

Ranges are pretty simple, and depend on the weapon used:

WEAPON

Bow, sling or crossbow

Javelin
JH[O~V

RANGE

JL
M

TO JH(OOT

The following steps are resolved in t he order below:

First the player controlling the shooters (the Attacker)

determines the number of Attack Dice he gets. This depends
on the class of his unit as shown in the table below:
CLASS

NUMBER OF ATTACK DICE FOR THE UNIT

Levies

1 per every two

models

Warriors

1 per every two

models

Hearthguard

Warlord

Hearthguards get one die per model and Warlords get two dice.

Note that you only take shooting dice for rnodels that are in

Shootng!Reacton abilities rnay only be used when be ing shot

range and have a line of sight against at least one rnodel frorn

at. Sorne add a bonus to the targeted unit, sorne generate

the target enerny unit!

2/ Attacker and Defender abilities

an irnrnediate effect. When an ability gives Defence Dice to

the Defender, the player puts that nurnber of D6 in front of
hirn. They will prove useful once the Attacker has done his

Once the nurnber of Attack Dice is deterrnined, the Attacker

Attack roll.

rnay use any Ability frorn his Battle Board that rnight affect
shooting. These abilities have Shooting under their narne as
this one:

Ragnar speaks ...

Shooting
Discard these dice to re-roll
any Attack Dice that failed
to hit the target.

The Attacker is not lirnited to one ability, and can use as rnany
as he wants to affect this shooting. The only lirnit fixed is that
the final nurnber of Attack Dice rnay not exceed twice the
nurnber he had before using abilities. So if your unit generated

You'/1 have noticed that theabilities

you use have been se/ected during
the Orders phase. This highlights
the need to have a plan. lf your
opponent relies on shooting, as
those nasty Normans might do,
be su re to leave some Shooting/
Reaction abilities on your Battle
Board at the end of your turn or run the risk of
suffering heavy casualties from his shooting.
You've been warned!

.......

four Attack Dice, the abilities rnay add another four dice, but
not a fifth as it would exceed double the nurnber of dice you
originally had.

lt is during Step 2) that you wBI have to choose

which Saga abilities will atfect this c:ombGt,-.en if

After the Attacker has determined the nurnber of Attack Dice

and the abilities that would affect this shooting, the player

they wBI take effect In a further step (as In~

ofAimed Volley which onlytakes ~during Step 3).

controlling the target unit (the Defender) rnay use any ability
that affect the enerny Shooting. They are indicated on the
Battle Boards as Shootng/Reacton under the title of the ability,
as this one:

ASGARD
Shooting 1Reaction
Discard this die to gain one
Arrnour against this Shooting.

OOVJER
Sometimes a unitwill get protection from the terrain it occupies.
For example a unit behind a hedge will be more difficult to harm
with bow shots than one stood in the open.
There are two kinds of cover in SAGA:
The first one is light cover. lt encompasses any cover unlikely
to fully stop an arrow. Hedges, small tress, bushes all come
under this classification.
The other is a heavy cover. This is anything solid enough to
protect a warrior from an arrow ora bol t . A stone wall or the
door of a building for example.
To benefit from Cover a unit must ha ve at least 2/3 of its models
within or behind su eh a terrain ( compared t o t he position of all
the eligible shooters in the shooting unit).

3) Attack roll
The Attacker rolls the number of Attack Dice he has, and
compares each of the dice rolled to the Armour value of the
targeted unit. Each die that rolled equal or higher than the
Defender's Armour value (as indicated in the Warriors of the
Viking Age chapter) is a hit. A natural "6" rolled is always a
hit, even if it does not equal the Armour value of the target. A
natural "1" is always a failure. Some abilities (such as the Aimed
Volley) above, allows the Attacker to re-roll any die. Remember
you may never re-roll a die that has already been re-rolled and
must abide to the second score obtained. Others (such as
Asgard above) change the number required by modifying the
Armour of the ta rget unit.

4) Defence roll
Now the Defender takes one Defence Die for every hit
obtained by the Attacker, and adds any bonus Defence Dice
granted by the abilities he used during Step 2). He rolls these
dice and every roll of 4 or more cancels a hit. You may never
roll more Defence Dice than twice the number of hits scored by
the Attacker. Defence Dice that exceed this limit are discarded
befo re rolling. So me abilities allows the Defender to re-roll any
die. You may never re-roll a die that has already been re-rolled
and must abide to the second score obtained.

5) Casualty r emoval
Finally, the Defender loses one figure for each hit not cancelled.
The Defender chooses which figure to remove and these can
be any figure in the ta rget unit,..evefl figtJres that were out of
range or line of sight. Casualty removal may not break t he unit
~
./
formation.
~

Here at least two thirds of the Grey unit are behind the cover afforded
by the hedge against any shooting from Red. The same is not true if Blue
shoots, and Grey won't benefit from any cover against the shooting
from Blue.

The benefits granted by cover depend of its type:

Light Cover allows the Defender to cancel each hit with a score
of 3 or more on his Defence Dice (rather than 4 or more as
usual).
Heavy Cover allows t he Defender to cancel each hit w ith a
score of 3 or more on his Defence Dice (rather t han 4 or more
as usual) and gives him +1 Armour.

..

WEA\JPON
We have seen above the ranges of the missiles. In addition,
javelins and crossbows have special rules described here.
Javelins may be used at the end of a Movement activation.
lmmediately after movement, if the unit has no figures engaged
in me lee with the enemy, the unit may perform Shooting as part
of that activation. This doesn't count as a separate activation,
and doesn't generate additional FATIGUE (see Fatigue chapter
for more details).

Ragnar speaks.. .

t.werewai-III'I.IBailis:

let's illustrat e al/ this shooting with

a simple example.

111111 . . .
Shooting is done by a unit against a target enemy unit

Take a unit of ten Norman Crossbowmen targeting a unit of six

Viking Warriors.

Only models in fine of sight and within range can shoot

The attacker gets attack dice dependlng on the number

of models and their type. Attadc dice are compcued to the

annour of the targeted unit.
The defender gets one de(ence die per hit ac.hieved by the
attacker. Defence dice cancel hlts on scores of 4 or more.
Cover gives benefits to the target.

First step is to determine fine of

sight and range. let's assume that
al/ these pesky Normans are in range and have a
clear fi ne of sight, but consider that the Vikings are
in a wood that provides them with light cover.
The Normans gather their Attack Dice. As Warriors,
it's one per every two models. So five dice. They
decide to use the Aimed Volley Shooting ability. The
Vikings react by using their Asgard abi/ity. Refer to
the ability boxes above.
Now the Normans rol/ their Attack Dice against the
Armour of the Warriors. Viking Warriors have an
Armour of 4, reduced to 3 by the Norman crossbows.
But Asgard adds one to the Armour of the Vikings,
hence cancelling the benefits of crossbows.
The lucky Normans rol/ their Attack Dice and score
four hits. The Vikings get four Defence Dice ( one per
hit, and they don't have any Defence Dice granted
by any ability) and they need to score 3s to cancel
hits (normal/y they would have to rol/ 4s, but the
Ught Cover means they only need 3s). They save
three hits and must remove one figure from the

unit.
Sven, see you in Va/halla!

Cr ossbows reduce the Armour value of the targeted unit by

one. For example a unit with an Armour of 4 would count as
having an Armour of 3 against the shooting of a crossbow
armed unit. Because crossbows are cumbersome and prevent
the use of adequate defensive equipment, any unit equipped
with crossbows has an Armour value reduced by one. This
reduction is permanent and impacts shooting and melee.
Hence a crossbow armed Warrior unit would have an Ar mour
value of 3 instead of 4 as usual.

Crossbows and javelins hcwe spedal rules.

OJe(ee
Better to die with honour than live with shame.
The melee rules are very similar to the rules for Shooting.
They are at t he core of the SAGA, as it is quite un usual -if not
exceptional- to finish a game without swords being drawn and
the clash of steel ringing across the battlefield.

lENGAGl!NG MJEJLJEE
To be able to fight any enemy unit in close combat, you must
engage in me lee. This is done as a Movement Activation and at
least one of the models in your unit must be able to get into base
to base contact with a model of the enemy unit (no line of sight
is necessary as we assume that being close to the enemy, your
troops will know where they are!). This means that the distance
between the base of at least one figure in your unit and the base
of the closest enemy model must be equal to or less than your
unit's Movement distance (usually M[, but sometimes reduced
to if crossing an obstacle or moving in an uneven ground).
Once the distance has been checked, you must announce to
your opponent your intention to bring your unit into melee.
Sometimes this can trigger SAGA abilities. After any such
Reaction abilities have been used, you can move the models of
your unit, one by one, with each model respecting the following
rules:

The Jomsviking's Saga

After all movement into melee is complete, the unit must still
adhere to the Unit Formation rule.
Note that the controlling player chooses in what order the
models in his units are moved.
Remember that once an enemy model is engaged in me lee (i.e.
in base to base contact with one of your model) it is considered
engaged, and doesn't prevent your other models moving
within V of him.
Another exception to the normal movement rule is that the
gaps between enemy models of the unit you are engaging do
not count as impassable for your unit.
See below sorne examples of movement to engage in melee.

Each model must m ove (if possible) into base to base contact
with the nearest enemy model.
Each model must move to contact by the shortest way
possible avoiding any impassable feature (such as terrain or
friendly models) or terrain that would slow him down IF (and
only if) a reduction of movement dueto terrain would make
contact impossible.
A model may not engage an enemy figure that is already
engaged by two of your models.
lf the closest enemy model is airead y engaged by two of your
models or it impossible to contact it for whatever reason,
your figure will move to engage the next closest enemy
model ( or the third closest enemy models if the two closest
are impossible to contact, etc. .. ).
lf an enemy model is deployed behind an obstacle such as a
wall, a hedge or the window of a building, it is considered to
have been contacted if you bring your model in to contact
with the opposite si de of the obstacle. In other words, if yo u
could contact the enemy m o del if the obstacle w as not there,
you can contact the obsta<::le and be considered engaged in
melee with the enemy model.
eo

lf your model does not have sufficient movement to engage

an enemy model in base to base contact, it must move as
close t o t he enemy a~possible.

In the example above, Grey has decided to engage in me lee with Red. After
Red has hada chance to trigger any Reaction ability (which he doesn't,)
Grey starts his moves to engage in mefee. He decides to start with A and
move it in contact with the cfosest Red modef. Then he moves 8 against
the same model. e has no choice but to go on the leftmost model as the
other one is already in base to base contact with two models. Then D and
E move, both against the same red model. F is moved in contact with the
same model as C. G is the only one that hasn't got enough movement to
end in base to base contact so it must move as cfose as possible to the
nearest enemy model.

To be able to contribute toward the pool of Attack Dice,

a model must either be:
in base to base contact with an enemy model
within V of an enemy model in base to base contact with
another model of its own unit.
Here is an example illustrating the number of Attack Dice a unit gets:

Here Grey wants to contact Red, the later being behind a hedge. Grey only
needs to contact the hedge to be assumed to be in contact with Red, as
shown here...

1'\VllORlE lrlHll\\N ONE UNnr lENGAGlED

J[N MJElLJEJE
Yo u m ay never engage two different enemy units with one of your
unit. Never.
Also, the only way to engage a single enemy unit w ith more than
one of your units is by using the "Side by Side" Warlord special
rule. As this case is specific to Warlords, it is covered in the section
dealing with t heir special rules, page 36.

HOW llO JFJ[GJHllr

The melee is broken down into steps.

1) -Attacker and Defender determine their respective

number of Attack Dice
The Attacker (the player that initiated the melee) and the
Defender (the player controlling the unit t hat was engaged in
melee) will get a number of Attack dice that depends on the class
of their unit and the number of models el ose enough to the enemy
to be able to fight.
The table below indicates the number of Attack Dice for each
class:
CLASS

NUMBER OF ATTACK DICE FOR THE UNIT

Levies

1 per three models

Warriors

Hearthguard

Warlord

Levies get one dice for three models (rounded up, so five Levies w ill give
you 2 dice), Warriors get one die per model, Hearthguards get two and
Warlords get five dice per model. Astute reader will have noted that the
Warlord is a much better fighter than shooter!

Grey engaged Red in melee. He has one model not in contact with the
enemy, and that model is more than VS away from the nearest engaged
Red model. Red has three models unengaged. Two of them are within VS
of a Grey enemy that is in contact with a Red figure. The third unengaged
Red model has no enemy figure w ithin VS.
lf both units were Warriors, Grey would get 5 Attack Dice and Red would
get 6 Attack Dice (4 Dice for his engaged models and two for the models
that are within VS of an engaged Grey enemy figure).

2) Defender may reduce his Attack pool

The Defender has now the option to reduce the number of
Attack Dice he has, favouring defence over aggression. lf he
chooses to do so, he takes off half (rounded up) his Attack
Dice. For-eVry two Attack Dice t aken off this way, he will gain
one ext~ Defence Dice to be rolled during step 4 (rounded up,
so three dicetaken away w ill ~ve t wo extra DefenceDice). Put
any Defence Die ~a i[led this way aside, t he,x will prove useful
during Step 4 of thecory}hat.

3) Attacker and Defender abilities

Once the number of Attack Dice is determined, the Attacker may
use any Ability from his Battle Board that might affect melee.
These abilities have Melee under their na me, as in this example:

Melee
Discard the dieto gain 3 Attack
Dice ( 4 Attack Dice if a
was discarded). May only
be used by a mounted unit.
At the end of this melee,
add a FATIGUE to your unit.

IE )

The Attacker is not limited to one Ability and can use as many
as he wants. The only limit is that the final number of Attack
Dice may not exceed t w ice t he number he had before using
abilities. So if your unit generated four Attack Dice, the abilities
may add another four dice, but not a fifth as it would exceed
the number of dice you originally had.
At this stage the At tacker may also use the FATIGUE of the
enemy unit he is engaged with (see the FATIGUE chapter).
After the At tacker has activated any Abilities he will use
during this me lee, the Def ender m ay use his own Abilities. The
restriction to the number of Attack Dice gained using Ab ilities
is t he same as the Attacker; after using Abilities you may not
have more t han twice the number of Attack Dice t hat you
started w it h.
At this stage the Defender may also use the FATIGUE of the
enemy unit he is engaged with (see the FATIGUE chapter).

lt is during Step 2) thcrt you wilf have to choose which

Saga abl1ities w111 affect this combcrt even if they
will take etfect in a further step (as in the example of
Charge!, thcrt grants some extra Attack Dice in Step 4).
Once the Step 2) is finished, no player may actvate
Saga abl1ities. lf a Saga ability cannot be used when it
should be (for example a Saga ability that grants
Defence Dice when your opponent did not score any hits)
than all benefits are lost, but the Saga dice
are not recovered.
As usual, you should anticpate the results to come
to use your Saga Abilities at their best.

4) Attack rol/
The Attacker and Defender each roll their Attack Dice, and
compare each of the dice rolled to the Armour value of the
enemy unit they are engaged with. Each die that rolled equal
or higher than the enemy's Armour value (as indicated in the
Warriors of the Viking Age chapter) is a hit. Sorne abilities may
allow re-rolls of the Attack Dice. Remember you may never rerol! a die that has already been re-rolled and must abide t o the
second score obtained. Sorne abilities change Armour of the
target unit and hence the number required to hit ..

5) Defence rol/
Now each player takes one Defence Die for every hit obtained
by the enemy, and adds any bonus Defence Dice granted by the
abilities he used during Step 3 or (for the Defender) by forfeiting
Attack Dice during Step 2. These dice are rolled and every 5 or
more cancels a hit. You may never roll more Defence Dice than
twice the number of hits scored by the enemy. Defence Dice that
exceed this limit are discarded before rolling. Sorne abilities allow
you to re-roll any Defence die. You may never re-roll a die that
has already been re-rolled and must abide to the second score
obtained.

6) Casualty removal
St arting with the Defender, each side loses one figure for each hit
not cancelled. The owning player of t he unit that has suffered the
casualties chooses which figure to remove and t hese can be any
figure in the target unit, even figures that were not engaged in
combat or did not contribute to Attack Dice in t his melee. Casualty
removal may not break the unit formation.

7) Fatigue
Now, after the casualties are removed, each unit involved in this
melee gains one FATIGUE token to represent the exhaustion that
the melee produced in the combatants. See the Fatigue chapter
for more details about Fatigue.

8) Disengagement
Finally, ea eh pi ayer counts the number of casualties the enemy
ca used after step s. The pi ayer that inflicted the most casualties
is the winner of the melee, and the defeated enemy unit must
immediately disengage. lf both sides inflicted the same number
of casualties ( even if it is no casualties at all, you useless chaps!)
then the Attacker must disengage.
This disengaging movement is made by the controlling player
of t he disengaging unit and ea eh model is moved up to away
from the melee. The models in the disengaging unit may not
finish their movement within V of any enemy model and
must end in Unit Formation. They must also finish as far away
as possible from the enemy models they were fighting against.
As long as these rules are respected, the movement of the
disengaging models is left to the discretion of the controlling
player.

lf t he disengaging unit cannot move all its models according

to the previous paragraph then the winner needs to disengage
instead (though he wouldn't count as disengaging for the
purpose of any SAGA abilities). lf one side has been w iped
out entirely, the opposing side in this melee doesn't need to
disengage, even if it suffers more casualties than its opponents
in this melee.

COVER
In melee we ignore light cover; only solid cover is usef ul and
then only to t he Defender. To gain benefit from cover, at least
2/3 of the engaged defending models must have solid cover
bet ween their bases and t hose of their enemy.
When a unit defends behind har d cover, it cancels all hits during
Step son se ore of 4 or more ra~er than S or more.

............. ......,.
~~.

Movement into melee is subject to sorne limitations

You may only engage a single enemy unit.

8oth sides get attac:1c dice dependant on the m.anber
and type of the models involved.
Only models in contact wfth an enemy rnodel or
within VS of an enemy In contactare part oftlte me1ee.

Each attac.k die must score at least the annour value

of the enemy unlt to score11 hit.
The defender may reduce hfsGttac:k pool . . .
defence dice.

J:arigue
Falling in battle is the lot of brave men.

In SAGA we use Fatigue t oken s (ref erred t o simply as FATIGUE)

to represent t he exhaustion suffered by the fighters as the
battle wears on. These t okens not only represent the physical
fatigue, but also the stress and nervous tension that you
experience when your life is in the balance.

Vatnsdcela's Saga

Ragnar speaks...

Take care with FATIGUE as these

can hamper the effectiveness of
your units as you wi/1 see later. Each
FATIGUE gained is a burden to the
unit and expensive to get rid of. On
the other hand, activating a unit
more than once during a turn can
be fruitful, so weight your decisions
carefully.

ACUMUJLATlNG JFATlGUE
Units gain FATIGUE through t heir actions. For each FATIGUE
gained, add a FATIGUE token behind or near the unit.
A unit gains one FATIGUE in the following circumstances:
One FATIGUE is gained after a Movement if it was preceded by
a Movement ora Shooting this turn, i.e. the first Movement
or Shooting of the turn does not gener ate FATIGUE, but
any subsequent Movement generates one FATIGUE. lf the
Movement has been used to engage melee, the FATIGUE
is gained immediately after the movement, but before the
melee is resolved.

RJETllNG
To Rest is an action performed through an activation. After
spending an action to rest, a unit can discard one FATIGUE

One FATIGUE is gained after Shooting has been resolved

token.

if it was preceded by a Movement or a Shooting this turn,

i.e. the first Movement o r Shooting of the turn does not
generate FATIGUE, but any subsequent Shooting generates
one FATIGUE.
One FATIGUE is gained after each melee phase in which the
unit was involved, either as Attacker or Defender.
One FATIGUE is gained by a unit w hen another friendly unit
is w iped out (that is, when its last model is removed as a
casua lty) w ithin
There is no maxim um limit to t he numberof FATIGUE a unit can
gain, but see below for the effects of too much FATIGUE.
Note that unless otherwise specified, movement and shooting
done during the enemy's turn (through the use of SAGA
abilities) do not generate FATIGUE.
Fatigue Example: A unit is activated for the first time this turn and is
activated to Move. No FATIGUE is gained as this is its jirst activation of the
turn. The unit is then activated a second time this turn, this time to Shoot
After the shooting has been resolved it gains one FATIGUE. The player then
decides to actvate it once more, this time to engage in melee. After the
movement to engage in melee is done, but before the melee is resolved,
the unit gains one FATIGUE. Once the melee has been resolved, the unit
gains one more FATIGUE for having been involved in a melee. The unit ends
the turn with three FATIGUE tokens.

To Rest must be the first activation of the unit for this turn. lf
the unit was activated to move or to shoot prior this turn, it
forfeits any chance to be activated to rest.
You may only rest once per tum as your first activation of that tum.
Sorne SAGA abilities allow FATIGUE to be discarded. These
abilities do not count as rest actions, and are not sub ject t o
the limitations highlighted above.

Ragnar speaks ...

Yes ths means t hat if your Warlord
s engaging in melee alongsde a unt
wth one FATIGUE, you are pretty
sure to gve a +1 Armour bonus to
the opposng side. Worse stll, if
both have FATIGUE (or f one of
t hem has two FATIGUE), not only
wll the enemy gan one Armour,
but you wlllose one Armour.

PJENDllNG JFATllGUJE
First and f oremost it is important to note that the FATIGUE
accumulated by your units w ill be spent by your opponent- you
will spend the FATIGUE t hat the enemy units generate.
To use an opponent's FATIGUE yo u must take one of the tokens
the enemy unit has, and discard it. The FATIGUE is said to have

Thnl< carefully at the pros and the cons of such a

been spent.

situat on.
FATIGUE may be spent in the following different ways:

-~.

When an enemy unit is act ivated to m ove, one FATIGUE

of that unit may be spent to reduce that unit's Movement
by one movement band, ie from M[ t o (from lL to }..\1{ for
mounted models). lf such a unit m oves in a difficult terrain, it
would only move V.
When an enemy unit targets you w it h Shooting, you may

CLASS FATIGUE LIMIT

Levies 2
Warriors 3
Hearthguard and Warlord 4

discard a FATIGUE fromthat unit dur ing Step 2 ofthe Shooting

to increase the Armour value of your target unit by 1.
During a melee, one FATIGUE of the enemy unit involved
in this melee may be spent during St ep 3 to incr ease the
Arm our va lue of your own unit engaged in this melee by +1.
When f acing more than one unit in me lee, this Armour bonus
only applies to the At tack Dice rolled by the enemy unit this
FATIGUE was taken from.

A unit that has a number of FATIGUE equal to or higher than

its limit may not be activat ed to Move or to Shoot. When
activated it may only Rest. lf activat ed by such t hings as SAGA
abilities without t he possibility to Rest, the activation is simply
cancelled.
An Exhausted unit t hat is engaged in melee loses half its Attack
Dice at t he end of Step 1.

During a melee, one FATIGUE of the enemy unit involved

in t his melee may be spent during Step 3 to decrease the
Armour value of the unit by 1.
Each ofthe above effects mayonly be used once per Movement,

lhe ........

Shooting or Melee. lt means that you cannot reduce t he

Movement of a unit f r om t\1[ t o V by spending two FATIGUE.

EDill R. l'sllle laslillllesellles...

The same applies t o the melee: you may only increase your
own Ar mour value by one against each enemy unit you
are facing and may only reduce the enemy Armour by
up to one.

JFATI GUJE JUMUfT

There is a limit of FATIGUE that units can
bear before being considered as too
exhausted to perfor m anyt hing. A unit is
considered Exhausted when the number
of FATIGUE tokens it has equals or exceeds
its Fatigue limit, as given in the chart
below:

Your units gain one fatigue for every movement or

shooting done in the tum, after their first.
At the end of each melee, evety unit involved

gains one fatigue.

To rest allows the unit to discard onefatigue.

You may spend fatigue ofenemy units toeitlier

reduce their movement, increaseyour annour
in melee or shooting or reclucztheir armour mmelee.

Once the fatigue on a unit equalsort~~~",

~ limit

ofthe lri~ft~mmr not-i&fW:,

or move untiJ the ftjgue is1'1sifUcsd~~~

below

The reason why young men get nowhere is that they overestimate the obstacles every time.
Hrafnkel Freysgothi's Saga
Terrain is an important part of SAGA. lt w ill dictate your tactical
approach, will provide cover for your troops when arrows,
javelins and bolts are flying, and may, in sorne scenarios, be
part of the objective of the game.
lf ourcollections are anything t go by, terrain pieces are almost
endless shapes and sizes so in SAGA we felt the need to deal
w ith them in a very generic (and, in sorne respect, abstract)
way. The rules below have been designed to be simple, to
avoid endless discussion while playing, and yet still add tactical
considerations to the game.

Here Grey cannot see any Red modelas his Une of Sight
may go entirely through the high area terrain in green.

DlElFllNlNG TlERlR.AllN
Terrain is defined by four characteristics.
Terrain t ype. This can be area terrain or linear obsta ele. Both are
pretty self-explanatory. Area terrain is any piece that covers
an area of the battlefield and should have a clearly defined
perimeter: a wood, a marsh, a patch of rocky ground ora field.
Linear obsta ele are pie ces such as walls, hedges or palisades.
Terrain height. This can be Jow or high. Low terrain never blocks
the Line of Sight. Line of sight may not cross a high scenery
item. In the case of area terrain, your line of sight may still go
into that area, but may not cross it entirely. See picture below:

Here Grey can see the models in red as his Une of

Sight enters the area terrain but doesn't get entirely
throughit.

For linear obstacles things are even simpler. Your line of sight
may not cross a high linear obstacle and is not blocked by a
low linear obstacle. High linear obstacles do not provide cover
as they block the line of sight so the cover in that case is
irrelevant.
The cover conferred by a terrain piece can be either soft or hard.
The difference between these two kinds of cover is explained
page 22 in the chapter dealing with shooting. In melee, only
hard covers will give protection to the defenders as explained
page 27.
A terrain piece can be either uneven or open. Uneven terrain
will slow down the figures as explained page 17 while open
terrain has no effect on movement. Open terrain scenery items
never provides cover so the cover is irrelevant in that case.
Example: a hill would be classified as a high open area terrain. A marsh would
be a low uneven area terrain not providing any cover. A palisade would be
classed as high linear uneven terrain.

lBU J[ JLJ[) HN G
Buildings need sorne specific rules as they are often much more
tricky to define in game terms. Buildings are always high area
terrains that provide hard cover and count as uneven ground.
In SAGA buildings come in two sizes: standard and large
buildings. The size determines the number of models that can
occupy a building.
A large building m ay be occupied by up to 12 models. A standard
building can be occupied by up to 8 models.
A unit may only enter a building if it is not occupied by the
ene m y and may only do so if all its models are able to enter that
building with the same Movement activation (and of course if
there is enough room left in that building to accommodate all
the models of the unit!). Once a unit has entered a building, it
may not move out of it in the same tum (i.e. you may not go
through a building in a single turn).
The positions of the models within the building is irrelevant.
We assume that they occupy itas best they can, protecting the
openings or setting up a defensive position like they would do if
protecting a hillfort. From now on, any movement done by the
any model of a unit occupying the building is measured from
the outer walls of the building, and if they shoot, they can draw
t heir line of sight and measure t he shooting distance from any
part of the building.
For the sake of simplicity, in our games it does not matter about
the exact locations of the doors and windows, but if yo u feel that
it is a bit much for yo u or your opponent, agree befare the game
to let the models move and shoot only through the openings.

When a building is occupied by the enemy, yo u need to engage

that building in melee if yo u want to fight the occupants. Treat
the whole building as t he enemy unit : yo u need to have at least
one model of your unit come in contact w ith that building in
order to engage in melee, and all your models within V of the
building are considered engaged.
lf a building occupied by more than one enemy unit, the
defender decides which of his units will defend the building
in melee. lt can be any of the units currently occupying the
building. All the models of that unit are considered engaged as
well and they benefit from hard cover in melee (see page 27).
At the end of the melee, if the building is still occupied by
enemy models (e.g. you did not kili all models of the engaged
enemy unit or more than one unit occupied the building), the
Attacker needs to disengage, regardless of casualties.
When shooting at an enemy occupied building, you have t o
draw a line of sight to any part of the building. Unlike melee,
the shooter gets to choose which unit inside the building he
wants to t arget.
No model may move within V of a enemy occupied building
unless engaging t hat building in melee.

Complete eptnp(e Of ruRn

That which has a bad beginning, is likely to have a bad ending.

Hen-Thorir's Saga

Ragnar speaks ...

Now to make sure we've properly
explained everything so far, let's take a
walk through a complete play sequen ce.
The Vikings are about to start their
turn, facing their arch-enemies, the
Anglo-Danish.
We have the Viking Warlord, a unit of
eight Levies and six Hirdmen. Facing

them are the Anglo-Danish Warlord, twelve Levies and

four Huscarls, i.e. Anglo-Danish Hearthguard. The later

have one FATIGUE left from their activity in the previous
turn. Here we are assuming that the Levies al/ have an
Armour of 3 and Hearthguard and Warlords have an
Armour of 5- lt might change a bit when using the lists
presented later, but for the sake of simplicity we assume
that they are fa ir/y similar.

Here is how it is at the start of the tum:

The Viking prepares to ro/1 his SAGA Dice and attribute them to his Battle Board
(get the Viking Battle Board to help you fo/low this part).
Let's assume that he has three other non-Levy units on the board but that are
not depicted here as they will play no part in this action. This will give the Viking
player six SAGA dice. The Anglo-Danish players has left on his Battle Board the
dice to pay for a Shieldwa/1 ability ( adds one Armour against shooting or during
melee), and Lords of Battle (adds a mix of three Attack or Defence Dice and the
enemy unitgains two FATIGUE at the end of the melee).
After finishing the Orders phase, the Viking Battle Board looks like (do it with
your own Battle Board as i/lustrated here):

O Still in hisOrders Pl'iase, the Vikingplayer decides to use the die in theActivation
Pool to immediately roll~more SAGA dice. With the results he gets, he adds
one die in the Hirdmen bx apd one in the Asgard box, preparing his board for
the ne.it turn in case t~o-Danish snoot at some of his units.

O The Vil<ing player now

starts his Activation phase. He spends

one Activation dice of the Levies box to activate the Levies unit
and declares they will Shoot. Armed with bows they can target the

Anglo-Danish Levies.

The shooting is immediately resolved. All the Vil<ing Levy models are
in range, and they all have a fine of sight (remember that models
of the same unit do not block the line of sight). He determines the
number of Attacl< Dice he has.lt is 1 per 2 models (they are Levies) so
a total of 4 Attacl< Dice.
The Vil<ing player decides not to use any abilities. Expecting a turn
of frenzied activity, the Anglo-Danish also declines to use any of the
abilities of his Battle Board, wisely saving them for his Hearthguard
andjor Warlord.
The Vil<ing rolls his 4 Attacl< Dice, needing 3s to hit (the Armour of
the target unit) and scores 3 hits (lucl<y boy!). The Anglo-Danish
player must now roll3 Defence Dice (same number as hits sustained)
and needs 4s to cancel each hit. He only cancels one hit, and so loses
two Levies. The two rightmost Levies are tal<en out as casualties.

E) With the shooting resolved, the Vil<ing continues his Activation Phase

by activating his Warlord. He decides to use the Determination rule and

activates him for free As the Hearthguard is within S of the Warlord, it
mayalso be activated using the "We obey'' special rule.
The Warlord is moved behind the Vil<ing Levies and the Vil<ing player
announces that his Hearthguard are engaging the Anglo-Danish Levies
in melee. The Anglo-Danish player hasn't any SAGA abilities that would
atfect movement so the Vil<ing figures are moved:
Now the Vil<ing and the Anglo-Danish players determine the number
of Attack Dice they have. All Viking models are either in base to base
contact (engaged) or within V of an enemy model himself engaged.
The Anglo-Danish have only two Levies engaged and two models within
VS of a model engaged.

Hence, the Vil<ing player gets 12 Attacl< Dice (two per Hearthguard
model) and the Anglo-Danish player gets two Attack Dice (one per three
Levies, rounded up). During Step 2) the Anglo-Danish has the choice to
reduce the number of Attacl< Dice to gain Defence Dice. tt is one Defence
Dice gained for 2 Attack Dice discarded so by taking half his Attack Dice
the Anglo-Danish player would gain one Defence Dice (everything being
rounded up). Hoping to kili a Vil<ing with his attacl<s, the player declines
todo so. During Step 3), the Attacker may use any SAGA abilities active
on his Battle Board. The Viking, confident in his Hirdmen, declines. The
Saxon player, seeing sorne usefulness for the Levies in a further tum,
decides to use its Shieldwall SAGA ability. This adds +1 to the Levies
Armour for this melee (right, it's unlikely that these Levies have shields,
but hey, let's consider that they adopta Saxon-ish defensive posture!).

O The Viking player roffs now his Attael< Dice against the Armour of the
Levies (three, increased to four with the Shieldwaff ability). He needs 4s
and with his 12 Attack Dice gets six hits, an average roll.
The Saxon player rolls his two Attack Dice simultaneously, needing ss.
He scores one hit
Now both roll their Defence Dice. No side has any additional Defence Die
or Defence bonus, so both need to roll 5s with the same number of dice
as the number of hits taken. The Viking player cancels his hit, but the
Anglo-Danish only manage to cancel two hits, so takes four casualties.

Four Levies are removed from the combat by the Anglo-Danish player
and both sides take a FATIGUE. Now, because they lost, the Levies must
disengage.

The activation of the Viking Hearthguard is now over, but not the tum!
You can see above the FATIGUE tokens that have been placed near the
Vikings and the Saxon levies.

The Viking player is still in his Activation phase. Now he discards a die
from his Hearthguard Activation box and announces that he activates
the Hirdmen once again, this time to engage the Anglo-Danish Huscarls.
The Anglo-Danish player doesn't see anything he can do to react so the

Viking are moved in contact with the Huscarls and a new melee phase
starts, with the following situation:
The Vikings get once again 12 Attack Dice, as all their Viking are engaged
or within VS of an engaged Saxon. The Anglo-Danish have one model
not within VS of an engaged Viking model so only have 6 Attack Dice.
Their Warlord is within VS of an engaged Viking, but being a separate
unit, does take part in the melee.
The Anglo-Danish player must now choose if he wants to reduce his
Attack Dice to gain some Defence dice. He can take half his Attack Dice
pool and get one Defence Dice per every two Attack Dice taken off. He
chooses to reduce his Attack pool and gains two Defence Dice.
The Viking now unleashes his Battle Board ability. He starts by using the
FRIGG SAGA Ability and discards the relevant die. This gives him one
extra Attack Die and removes one FATIGUE from his unit Well done! He
then uses the UUR ability, that will allow him to re-roll any failed Attack
Die Finally, he spends the FATIGUE token of the Huscarls to gain one
Armour for this melee
Now the Anglo-Danish player uses his Battle Board abilities. lt is the time
to use that lords of Battle ability. He can choose to receive Attack or
Defence Dice, or a mix of both. Fearing the Fury of the Northmen, he
goes for the three Defence Dice (he put these three dice near him to
remind him to add them to his Defence roll.) The Anglo-Danish player
doesn't want to use the second FATIGUE of the Hirdmen, as he is
confident that his Huscarls are more than a match for the Vikings as it is
now. Also burdened by a FATIGUE, the Vikings will be vulnerable when it
comes to the Anglo-Danish player's tum

8oth players roU their Attack Dice. The Viking player scores only three
hits with his thirteen dice against the Armour of 5 of the Huscarls, who
themselves seore one hit with their four Attack Dice against the Armour
of6 of the Vikings (five increased to six with the spent FATIGUE). But the
Viking gets a re-roU of the failed attacks, and this time, scores another
four hits, for a result of seven hits.

O They must now defend themselves. The Viking gets one die saving a
Hirdman on a roU of 5 or more, and the Anglo-Danish get 12 dice (7 hits
+ 2 defence dice from sacrificing Attacks + 3 defence dice for Lords of
Battle) to cancel hits on ss. The Viking fails to cancel the hit, and the
Anglo-Danish cancels five hits resulting in one casualty for the Vikings
and two for the Anglo-Danish. 8oth take one FATIGUE, and the AngloDanish have been pushed back. O
The Viking has one aetivation left and moves his Warlord doser to the
fight safely behind his Hirdmen, preparing his next tum. This is the
Warlord's second activation this turn and so he gains one fatigue. With
no activation left, his turn is now finished with his Hearthguards
dangerously close to the Anglo-Danish Warlord. But that is another

story.

Ragnar speaks ...

Hey, come back! Didn't you see that the
Anglo-Danish player could have avoided
he casualties suffered in melee? lf he
had spent the FATIGUE of the Hirdmen
when they were aetivated he could have
reduced their Movement to S and so
prevent them from engaging in melee!
werr done if you have spotted that ...
The Viking piayer could have done better
too and 1have some ideas on what 1would
have done in that situat ion to inflict much more decisive
casualties.
What would YOU have done if you were the Viking player?
Deploy some figure on your tab/e and play the situation as
if you were the Vikings and Jet us know on www.studiotomahawk@free-forum.com

OJusreRing rhe w&Rband

The cattle are like their master.

Viga G/um's Saga

Now that you have a firm grip on the way the r ules work, it's

For your first gam es, we st rongly recomm end you to start

time t o learn a bit more about t he war bands t hat you w ill lead
on the path of glory. This chapter deals with t he organisation of

playing w ith sm aller 4 points w arbands. These smaller f orces

w ill familiarize you w ith the handling ofthe unit s at your disposal
and m ake getting to gr ips with the r ules easier. Once yo u ha ve
played a couple of games with these smaller war bands, you

your band of w arriors, t heir w arlor d and how to have balanced

games.

YOUR

~V.ARJB\A\ND

w ill be ready to move on to games using st andard 6 point s

warbands.

Your w arband is the collection of figures that you w ill play with
on the table. They are bought using points. The st andard size
of a warband in SAGA is 6pt s, meaning that you w ill have six

Your warband must belong to a faction. In this r ulebook we

have the r ules for four factions: the Vikings, t he Normans, the
Anglo-Da nish and t he Welsh. Each faction has its own set of dice

point s t o spend on your figures, which translates on t he table

to a force between 25 and 73 models strong. Each point will
give yo u a var iable num ber of models t hat depends on the class

plus a Bat tle Board and sorne special rules for their fighters.
We w ill be publishing Warbands for new factions in the f uture,
delving f urther into the age of Vikings.

of figures that the point has been spent on.

YOUR W.ARJLORD
At the head of your warband stands your
Warlord. As your alter-ego in the game, he
comes free and doesn't cost any points,
unless yo u select one of the legendary leaders
described in the He roes of the Viking
Age chapter (page 45 ).
As

we

explained

earlier,

t he War lord counts as a

Hearthguard for the sake of
act ivation, and if you read
t he chapt er dealing with
melee you will have noticed
t hat he is t he best fighter that
you will com mand! But beware,
t he death of your Warlord often
heralds the end of the game, so
use him carefully and wisely.

Warlords have an increased Armour against shooting,

representing their better armour, equipment and general
unwillingness to die by javelin, arrow or stone!
Warlords have a Movement of M , an Armour of 5 in Me lee
and an Armour of 6 against Shooting attacks. Also they
count as two units for the purpose of generating SAGA dice
at the start of the turn.

All Warlords also have a set of special rules that are described
below for the sake of convenience.

RESILIENCE
Warlords are hard nuts to crack, and will endure punishment
beyond any otherwarrior. Usuallythey are al so accompanied
by retainers ready to sacrifice themselves to protect their
lord and quite rightly too.
To represent this, Warlords ignore the first non-cancelled
hit they suffer in each shooting attack or melee phase. That
means that to kili a Warlord, yo u must inflict at least two hits
on him in a single phase. Note that the first one is ignored
in EACH shooting or melee activation. lf yo u Warlord is shot
at and suffers only one hit, he is safe. lf later in the turn he is
shot at again and again suffers one hit, he is not removed as
casualty. The two un-cancelled hits must be inflicted by the
same source in the same activation.
Also, if a Warlord suffers two or more hits in an activation
either by Shooting or in Melee (and hence should be
removed as a casualty,) you may eliminate a friendly nonLevy figure within VS of the Warlord instead of taking out
the Warlord as a casualty. This represents the loyal retainers
jumping in the way of the missile, or pushing the Warlord
aside at the last minute and dying a martyr. Or, given the
way so me people play, the Warlord taking one of his soldiers
and putting him in harm's way!
Example: your Warlord is shot at by sorne nasty crossbowmen. He suffers
four hits and only rnanages to cancel one of them with his Defence roll. lhe
first of these three hits is autornatically cancelled by the Resilience ability, but
if he wants to live another day, your Warlord will have to find two non-levies
figures within VS. One won't suffice! Somedays, it's a hard job to be the
retainer of a boldWarlord!

DETERMINA TI ON
We expect Warlords to be the most active combatants of
their warbands, leading their m en to victory... or death!
Once per turn a Warlord can be activated for free, and
t hat activation doesn't consume any SAGA dice. This free
activation can be combined with the "We Obey" special rule
below to activate a unit with the Warlord.

WEOBEY
Warlords are charismatic characters who lead their men
to glory or to death, and as befits such leaders, Warlords
benefit from the following special rule in SAGA.
Once per turn, when a Warlord is activated, if you chose a
Movement activation, you may also simultaneously activate
any one f r iendly unit within S of the Warlord. That unit must
then be activated for Movement and may not use this "free"
activation to shoot or rest.

lt doesn't matter if the unit has already been activated. lt

just counts as a new Movement activation (andas such will
generate FATIGUE, see the Fatigue chapter).
A Warlord can only use the 'We Obey' rule once per turn,
during any of his Movement activations ( even t he free one
afforded by the "Determination" special rule.) Note that
the unit the Warlord activates may move freely and end its
movement more t han S of the Warlord.

SIDE BYSIDE
Ragnar speaks ...

By using the "We Obey" special rule, it is possible to engage

an enemy unit simultaneously with your Warlord and the unit
he has activated with him. This is the only way to engage a
single unit with two of your units in SAGA.

Using the "Side by Side!" rule to join

forces between your Warlord and a unit
gives a huge boost to the slaughtering
capabilities of your units, but presents
somerisks.

In these instances, always move the Warlord first as w e

assume that his men are follow ing his lead.
The ensuing melee is resolved like any other melee except
for the following specific rules:
The Warlord and the accompanying unit generate their
own separate Attack Dice.
The SAGA abilities played on one of them do not affect the
other. They are still two separate units.
- Befare rolling his Attack Dice, the enemy unit must divide
them between the Warlord and his accompanying unit. No
more than half its Attack Dice may be directed against
the Warlord (but there is no mnimum amount of Attack
Dice that must be directed against him). Warlords are
not restricted by this rule: they may always allocate all
their Attack Dice against the enemy Warlord. The exact
positions of the engaged units is irrelevant in that case, as
we assume that melee is a swirling action. SAGA abilities
that affect the Attack roll are applied to all attacks made
by that unit during this melee regardless of the unit it is
targeting with its attacks.
- The Warlord may use his Resilience rule to save himself in
melee if he has a friendly Hearthguard or Warrior figure
within V S. The casualties taken by the accompanying unit
are always taken out iirst, befare the Resilience rule can
be used. So if you have been iighting side by side with
four Warriors that suffered four un-cancelled hits, they
are removed BEFORE you may use your Resilience, in this
case leaving no one to stand between your Warlord and
the mighty axe directed at his skull. lt's a good idea if your
Warlord has at least a couple of friendly figures within VS
if yo u want to avoid nasty surprises!

With the Warlord's five Attacks and the

unit also generating its own A ttack Dice,
the amount of punishment dea/t on the
enemy can be terrific!
Be careful though, a we/1 prepared opponent might have
sorne nasty Battle Board surprises for you.
Also, as some might te/1 you from the Otherworld, it is not a
good idea to have your Warlord jighting in melee alongside a
unit of Levies. Levies cannot be sacrificed using the Resi/ience
rule - they just don't have it in them .. And someone will
remind you for years that your Warlord fe// while fighting
side by side with LEVIES ...

WARLORD'S PRIDE
YourWarford has been brought to the battleiield to defeat the
enemy leader. During the Dark Ages, religion, codes of honour
and cultural norrns all meant that great attention was given to
proper behaviour and heroism was a unequalled virtue.
In SAGA this translates as the following rule:
lfwhen yo u actvate yourWarlord fora Movement and he is able
to engage the enemy Warlord in melee with that movement,
he must do so. You have no choice on that matter.

_,
Ragnar speaks ..
The Warlord is the best jighter at your
disposa/. He aetivates for free, he endures
pain like no other, he is obeyed when
ordering his so/diers to follow him
and he wi/1 jump at the throat of the
enemy Warlord as soon as possible.
You feel powerfu/ don't you? We/1, just
remember that in sorne scenarios the
death of your Warlord ends the Game .

And l'm pretty sure that if you forget that, your opponent
will be al/ too ready to remind it to you...

'.

YOUR RJETAJNJER
Now that you have your Warlord ready for action, it is about
time to get him a retinue of faithful followers.
Retainers, as we collectively call them, come in three different
classes: Hearthguards, Warriors and Levies.

Hearthguards
Hearthguards are of course the most powerful
retainers you will ha ve in your warband, but
they are a rare breed of m en, so don't expect
to have many of them.
Hearthguard have a Movement of Mandan
Armourof5.

Basically, each point gives you a variable number of models,

depending on the class you have spent this point on. Of course
each point may be spent on a different class, giving you sorne
variety on your force or yo u might just choose to spend all your
points on a single class.
One point gives you 4 Hearthguards OR 8 Warriors OR 12
Levies. lf yo u are mathematically in clined, he re is the formula:

1pt = 4 Hearthguards

=8 Warriors = 12 Levies

Remember that we told you that a warband was made of

between 25 and 73. Twenty five models is when all points are
spent on Hearthguard and seventy three when they are all
spent on Levies. The last model being of course the Warlord!

Warriors
Warriors form the bu lk of the forces of the
Viking Age and, when properly led, can be
tough fighters. They widely available so w hat
they lack in t raining they make it up with
numbers.

Ragnar speaks.
As you might have guessed by now,
am the Warlord of a mighty warband of
Warriors of Odin. l've got my six points
to spend on Norwegian retainers and 1'11
have to se/ect them carefu//y if 1want my
SAGA to be fegendary...

Warriors have a Movement of Mandan

Armourof4.

LEVIES
Levies are usually only called on in t ime of
emergency, though sorne Warlords like their
shooting abilities. Usually Warlords do not
muster them, but when that happens they are
so happy to serve that they gather in masses you can have plenty of them if that's your kind
ofthing!
Levies have a Movement of Ml and an
Armour of 3 They never count as units
for the purpose of generating SAGA dice
at the start of the turn.

As the authors of SAGA are very respectful of their rea ders

and f uture gamers, we have kept the rules for building your
warband as simply as possible. That way, instead of spending
hours w restling with ar my lists and building killer armies that
do nothing but lose, you will actually have more time to paint,
play t he game and rib your opponent in the pub.

The first point spent wi/1 be spent on

Hearthguards. This gives me 4 of them.
Not enough! You can't go raiding the coasts of Britain with
such a fimited number of professional fighters. So 1spend
two more points on Hearthguards to get 8 more of them for
a total of 12 Hearthguard. M ueh better.. .
The four and fifth points are spent on Warriors, foyaf Bondi.
Two points gives me 16 Warriors, that's p/enty of rowers for

my Longship.
The fast point wi/1 be spent on sorne bow-armed Levies. Just
in case we need sorne missifes real/y. One point gives me 12
Levy modefs.

A bit too many for my taste, but we can stilf fet them starve
if they pmve too annoying.
Th is gives me 40 Retainers for my warband. Nota bad start,
now it' s time to feave my hall and take to the sea...

Once you have selected the figures that will f orm your
Warband, the last step is to organise them into fighting units.
Your retainers may be split into units with the follow ing
restrictions:
- No unit can have less than 4 figures.
- No unit can have more than 12 figures
- All models within a unit must be of the same class .
- lf a choice of equipment is available, all models within a
single unit must have the same equipment (see the chapters
detailing the Warriors of the Viking Age).
- The Warlord is always a unit of his own and may not be
included in any other unit.
- Sorne lists offer sorne options to certain classes and it is at this
point that you choose which option you w ill take advantage of.

Ragnar speaks ...

We get back to my 40 Retainers (12 Hearthguards, 16 Warriors and 12 Levies).
1decide tosplit my Hearthguard into three
units, each of them 4 models strong. One
of them wi/1 be upgraded to Berserkers
as the faction rules for Vikings al/ow. 1
want to field a large unit of Warriors,
so 1 go for a unit of 12 Warriors and a
smallish one of 4 models that wi/1 be kept in
reserve to fi/1 the gaps in the line should a problem occur. The
Levies wi/1 be split into two units, with six mode/s in each of
these units and despatched to the flanks. 1end up with eight
units (myself included). But for the sake of SAGA dice, the
rubbish Levies do not count l've sti// got my fu/1 al/ocation of
six SAGA Dice to start with (actual/y l've got seven, but the
author of these rules stated that 1could only rol/ 6 of them
at the start of eaeh tum), but should /lose two units ( except
Levies) my SAGA pool wi/1 be reduced!

You will see that the way that your models are organised is
very important in SAGA. Big units are usually more effective in
com bat, and you will need less SAGA dice for your activations
but too few units and that can leave you w ith less SAGA dice
to roll at the start of the turn. Al so yo u w ill start to lose SAGA
dice as you lose units. In the end, it depends on your gaming
style and experience. Some players will prefer large units while
others will go for loads of small ones. The choice is yours.

'Che p~ctions: Vikings

The Vikings (from the Old Norse Vikingr) is the 'catch-all'

na me given to the inhabitants of the three main kingdoms of
medieval Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The
Scandinavians had always been travellers and traders and their
superior naval technology and navigation talents let them
travel not only the length and breadth of Europe but also into
Russian and Asia. But trade was not the only thing that drove
these men of the the North as they were al so keen plunderers
with a fierce warrior culture. Where trading prospects were
good or at vital points along trade routes, the Vikings would
often establish colonies. All these activities had a single aim:
afla sr fjr (acquire wealth in OId Norse).
At the head of each Scandinavian kingdom ruled the King. His
authority was relayed by Jarls who ruled part of the country in
his name, or Hersirs who were military commanders. Usually
your Warlord will be a Jarl ora Hersir.
Your Hearthguard will be drawn from the Hird. Hirdmen were
the armed companions in the Viking Lord's household and can
be considered among the finest professional soldiers of the day.
Sorne Hirdmen were Berserkers or lfhdnar, perhaps members
of religious cults dedicatd to Odin. These fearsome warriors fought
in a frenzied state and were regarded with awe and suspicion by
their comrades and with abject fear by their opponents.

Your Warriors may be members of the militia of freemen that

all Lords had access to or they may be sailors and traders
accompanying your Lord.
Finally, the lowest social component of the Norse society was
made of the Thrall, an unfree servant ora slave. They make the
Levies of your warband.

JFACTJlON RUJLE
One unit of Viking Hearthguard exactly 4 models strong may
be designated as Berserkers. Each Berserker model generates
4 Attack Dice in melee (instead of 2 for other Hearthguards)
but has their Armour reduced to 3
Viking Warriors and Warlords have no special rules.
Vikings Levies are armed with bows or slings.

'Che plctions: NoRmc\.ns

The Normans are the inhabitants of Normandy, a Duchy in north-

1FAC1LJ[0N RULlE

westem France, created in the 10th century when Viking settlers

were granted lands by the Carolingian King, Charles the Simple. The
name "Norman" comes from "Nortmanni" which is the Frankish
word for Norsemen. As with most Viking colonies, the new anivals

Most Normans units may be fielded mounted. Mounted units

are subject to the following special rules:

'integrated' freely with the locals and within two generations, the
colonists were undistinguishable from their Frankish neighbours.
Viking traditions did still survive though in many of the laws of the

- The Movement of mounted units is increased to lL but

reduced to when moving from, through or into an uneven
ground.

Duchy and in its language. lt is said that the Normans kept too
their lust for new land and conquest, witness their expeditions in
England and Sicily.

- Mounted units may never enter a building but they can

engage in melee any unit occupying a building in t he normal
manner.

The Duchy was ruled by a Duke, the first being Rollo. They were
assisted by Comes (Counts) and Barones (Barons,) and below them

- The Armour of mounted units is reduced by one when they

are the target of a Shooting attack.

a large assortment of different feudal titles that encompassed all

land owners. The Comes and Barones were the military commanders

- Mounted units never benefit from any kind of cover, in melee

or shooting.

of the Norman armies, and your Warlord will be such a nobleman.

The lords had at their disposal fighters who could also be senior land
owners of their own, or household soldiers. We call them knights,
and they usually fought on horseback, armed w ith the lance or
spear. They are your Hearthguard.
The bulk of the army was made of freeman, obliged to serve their
liege-lord in what was already a feudal system of govemance. The
duchy of Normandy made great use of professional mercenary
soldiers from France , Flanders, ltaly or Spain. They were usually
called sergeants, and the mustered freemen and mercenary
sergeants collectively form the Waniors of your force.
Finally, in time of needs, the lowest social classes of the society could
be called to arms, They were generally tlie poorest ofthe NormC!ns,
aod were used as sk~rmishE7f$. These P._easants are the Levies of a
Norman warband.

Apart from the restrictions mentioned above, mounted units

behave like ordinary units. lf a unit starts the game mounted,
it must remain mounted for the whole game and may never
dismount.
Norman Warlords, Hearthguard and Warriors may be mounted.
lf not fielded mounted, one Norman Warriors unit ( up to 8
models strong) may be equipped with crossbows. All other
Norman Warriors fighting dismounted have the same Movement
and Armour than all other Warriors (see page 39).
Norman Levies are equipped with bows.

"Che plctions: Anglo-danish

In the early years of the 11th Century, England carne to be ruled

by Sven Forkbeard, king of Denmark and Norway. He was
succeeded in 1016 by his son, Cnut The Great. During his reign,
Cnut managed the relationships between Viking and Saxon
extremely well and made great play of cult ural bonds between
the two peoples.lt was a period of great integration and England
beca me the centre of a powerful North Sea empire.
At the top of the new AngloDanish aristocracy were the King
and his household plus the Earls and their households who ruled
great tracts of England and Scandinavia in the King's na me. Your
Warlord would most likely be from one of t hese households.
One dominant feature in the households of Lords such as your
Warlord were the Huscarl retainers, a development of the
Hirdmen concept from Scandinavia. These men were highly
trained prof essional soldiers, many of whom had earned land
through their dedicat ed service, who in times of peace would
act as bodyguards to their Lord and perform trusted tasks such
as collect ing taxes, and in times of war would form the elite of
the army. Huscarls of t he prosperous Anglo-Danish kingdom
were characterised by t heir use of the latest military equipment;
long mail hauberks, the fearsome Dane Axe capable of severing
a horses head with one blow, and, of course, the magnificent
moustache. lt is these t roops t hat form t he Hearthguard of an
Anglo-Danish war band.
Lower ranked landowners such as the Thegns, many of whom
were old Saxon aristocracy, would form the better troops of the
bulk of any Anglo-danish force. Taking the field alongside them
would be the bett er trained elements of the Fyrd, the nam e
given to all Saxons while undertaking their obligated military
duties. lt is from the ranks of these troops that your Warriors
'The Ceorls' are drawn.

Poor farm-workers and peasants did receive t raining under the

Fyrd system but in practice t hey were often sent home t o tend
the fields and livestock. When called upon t o serve, they were
used as skirmishers and these poor combat ants are the Levies
at your disposal.

lFACllllON RUlLJE
Sorne Anglo-Danish units may be armed with double handed
Dane axes. They are subject to the following rules
- When engaged in melee, a unit with double handed Dane
axes will not use its shields and so suffers a - 1 penalty to its
Armour value. Hence, if t he unit has an Armour of 5, it counts
as having an Armour of 4.
- Attack rolls made by a unit equipped w ith double handed
Dane axes gets a +1 bonus. To hitan Armo ur 4 unit, you'll only
need 3s. This makes the enemy easier to hit in melee.
Anglo-Danish Warlords have double handed Dane axes.
Anglo-Danish Hearthguard may be armed w ith double handed
Dane axes. The models should actually be equipped with large
double handed weapons as t o make it clear to your opponent!
They are considered to fight w it h their axes at all times, so t he
benefits and drawbacks highlighted above apply all the time. lf
they ar e equipped w ith spears, swords or any other weapons,
they are not subject to any special rules.
Anglo-Danisn War riors have no special rules.
Anglo-Danish Levies are equipped wit h bows or slings.

The

plctions: Wclsh

The Welsh of the Viking Age are

descended from the celtic and
Romanised Britons, pushed west
by the invading Germanic tribes
between the sth and 7'h centuries.
'Welsh'
In
Germanic,
'foreigners.' The Welsh called
themselves
'Cymr i,'
meaning
'fellow countrymen' which is
slightly ironic as Wales was made
up of many, fiercely independent
sub-kingdoms and only united
under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in the
11m century.
The Welsh f ound t hem selves constantly under attack in the
Viking Age. Pressure from the Saxons to the east was constant
and their coast was f requently raided by Norse-lrish from
Dublin, lrish pirates and Vikings from Mann and the lsles. In
their defence, t he Welsh developed a much looser fighting style
than their contemporaries and made great use of the terrain to
keep invaders and raiders at bay.
At the head of each Welsh kingdom reigned a king whose
power was rarely f elt outside the boundaries of his kingdom.
The kingdom was divided in a patchwork of clans, each rivall ing
for the favours of the king. Such a king or one of his brethren is
likely to command your warband as Warlord.
Below the king we found the Uchelwyr, who are the aristocracy
of the Welsh, clan patriarchs and landowners. They were
second to none except the King and his bodyguard, the Teulu,
kinsmen who swore t o give their life for their lord and were
usually drawn from his own family. They were usually the only
Welsh troops with any mail, helmet or leg protection and not
all of them would be rich enough to afford a complete set of
ar mour. They would often fight mounted, hurling javelins at
their enemies. Teulu or Uchelwyr are t he Hearthguards of your
warband.
The bulk of the Welsh fighting force was made of Priodaur,
meaning freemen, with only the wealthier individuals bringing
much in t he w ay of equipment. These troops relied on javelins
ano hit ano run t actics to achieve their goals, could fight
mounted and are generally considered as undisciplined. These
clansmen are Warriors.

JFACTION RUJLJES
Most Welsh units will have the option to be fielded mounted.
Mounted units are subject to sorne special rules that are
described here for convenience:
- The Movement of mounted units is increased to L but
reduced toS when moving from, through or into an uneven
ground.
- Mounted units may never enter a building but they can
engage in melee any unit occupying a building in t he normal
manner.
- The Armour of mounted units is reduced by one when
resolving a shooting attack targeting them. So any unit
targeting a mounted unit will hit them easier.
- Mounted units never benefit from any kind of cover, in
me lee or shooting.
Apart from the restrictions mentioned above, mounted units
behave like ordinary units. lf a unit starts the game mounted,
it must remain mounted f or the whole game and may never
dism ount.
Welsh Warlords are equipped with javelins. They may be
mounted on horses (ponies actually, but only their opponents
w ill call them that.)
Welsh Warriors and Hearthguard are equipped w ith javelins,
but dueto their lack of armour and protection, they have their
Armour value reduced by one against enemy shoot ing (Welsh
Hearthguard count as having an Armour of 4 against shooting,
and Welsh Warriors count as having an Armour of 3 against
shooting).

At the bottom of -th military hierarchy are the Bonnedig uotried youths andpeasants. They could be used to harass the
enemy and acquire eJCQer{ence without risking their life in hand
taiJand combat. Thesec~e_asant free m en are the Levies in your

Welsh Warriors and Hearthguard may be mounted on horses

(and this would also decrease their Armour against shooting by
one, for a final Armour against shooting of 2 for War riors and

force.

Welsh Levies are equipped with bows, slings or javelins.

3 for Hearthguard).

eRoes Of r-he viKing age

Numbers cannot skill withstand;
The chronicles of the Age of Vikings are filled with accounts of the
heroic deeds and treacherous behaviour of the mighty heroes of
the period. Sorne of them achieved a fame that made them semilegendary figures in their own right, sometimes mixing history and
mythology. SAGA as a game wouldn't be complete if it did not offer
the players the opportunity to field these larger-than-life characters
on the table. We do not planto accurately represent these w arriors
and generals, instead we want to be inspired by their deeds, and
their appearance on the battlefields of a skirmish game like SAGA
should be seen as a tribute to them rather than a va in attempt to
accurately reproduce their achievements.
When mustering your warband yo u m ay choose to select one of the
Heroes of the Viking Age as your Warlord and they will replace the
anonymous Warlord that usually leads your retainers. But fielding
such mighty heroes comes at a price. lt will cost you one point to
have such a Warlord, meaning that in a standard game, only five
points will be left to spend on troops.
Unless otherwise specified, the Heroes of the Viking Age have the
same characteristics as other Warlords: an Armour of 5, increased
to 6 against shooting, they generate five Attack Dice, etc... They
also have access to the same options as the Warlords of their
related factions. William the Conqueror could be mounted, Harold
Godwinson has a double-handed Dane Axe, etc... Each He ro of the
Viking Age has a set of special rules that are unique to him and will
offer new perspectives to players of that faction. Sorne of these
rules have a deep impact on the gameplay. What else would you
expect from a Warlord that costas much as four Hearthguard? We
suggest that if you wish to use a Hero Of The Viking Age as your
Warlord it would be polite to seek your opponent's permission
befare the game.
There are two Heroes for each faction in the rulebook. Two players
can face each other with the same faction, led with the same Hero
of the Viking Age without problem. Obviously one of them will be
an impostor, but the Judgement of God will decide which one it is!
At end of this chapter you will also find a Sword to Hire. These
characters can be recruited by any faction as they are mercenaries
only driven by greed and bloodlust. By paying the appropriate cost,
any faction can field them in their warband, and they benefit from
their own set of special rules.

Ha raid Hardrada's Saga

VllKlNG
Harald Hardrada, King of Norway
Harafd Sigurdsson, known as Harald Hardrada was the King of
Norway until his death at the Battfe of Stamford Bridge. In his youth
he travefled to the fands of the Rus and took part in the war against
The Potes befare moving to Constantinopfe where he served the
Emperor in the inner circle of his bodyguard, the Varangian Guard. In
1042 he returned to his homefand to claim his title of King of Norway
and waged war until the crown befonged to him. Driven by a cfaim
on the English crown, in 1066 he invaded Engfand and faced Harofd
Godwinson at Stamford Bridge. There he met his fate, and his death
herafded the end of the Viking Age.

Hero of the Viking Age: as a respected leader, Harald Hardrada

generates three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of
the usual two for other Warlords.
Bodyguard: Harald Hardrada belonged to the personal
bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperor and has an unequalled
fighting experience. He has an Armour of 6 in both Shooting
&Melee.
The Varangians: one unit of Hearthguard (of up to 12 models)
in Harald's warband may be upgraded to Varangians, former
companions of the King of Norway when he was serving in
Constantinople. These Hearthguard have an Armour of 6 in
both shooting and melee and not 5 as other Hearthguard.
Dane Axes: Harald and his Varangians may be equipped with
Dan e axes that are double handed weapons as described in the
Anglo-Danish faction list.

Ragnar Lothbrok, King of Sweden and Norway

Ragnar Lothbrok ( afso spefled Lodbrok) befongs to myth as much
as to history. A raider much more than a king, he cast a shadow
on Western Europe where his raids were feared and anxiousfy
awaited. He was very keen to make churches and eccfesiastical
bui/dings as targets of his raids, claiming to be the son of Odin.
lt is said that he died in England, after an unsuccessful raid and
captured by a Saxon Earl.

Hero of the Viking Age : as a legendary warrior, Ragnar

generates three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of
the usual two for other Warlords.
Son of Odin: Ragnar claimed to be the son of Odin. His death
song ends with: "The days of m y life are ended. llaugh as 1die".
As a formidable hero, he cancels the first two hits suffered in
each melee or against each shooting action (and not just the
first one as other Warlords)
The Raider: a smart leader, Ragnar knew how to deal with his
enemies-and especially which ones he should not :fight. At the
start of each turn, he may decide toJ,oll only half t()e ~8GA
dice he is entitle'\;to roll. lf he chooses to do so, alf uits in his
warband will have a
tur~,
t.b,e need
to spend any SAGA die.

ANGrlLO- DANJ[H
Harold Godwinson,
Last Anglo-Saxon King of England
Harold Godwinson was Ear/ of Wessex when Edward the
Confessor died. The Witan supported his claim to the throne and
proclaimed him King of England. This coronation was the spark
that put frre to England, triggering two invasions, one from
the North by the Norwegians and one from the South by the
Normans. After defeating the Vikings at Stamford Bridge, Harold
moved south and faced William the Bastard at Hastings, where
he was killed, by an arrow in the eye according to the legend and
Norman propaganda.

Hero of the Viking Age : as a beloved r uler, Harold generates

three SAGA dice at t he start of each t urn, instead of two as
usual for other Wa rlords.
The Godw inson brotherhood: Harold forms a unit with two
of his brothers, Gyrth & Leofwine. They form a single unit and
Harold does not benefit from the Side by Side special rule of
other Warlords.
Gyrth & Leofwine have an Armour of 5, increased to 6 against
Shooting. They each generate three dice in me lee and the whole
unit (Harold and his brothers) is considered as a Hearthguard
unit equipped with double handed Dane axes.
Harold is always the last model removed (and two hits are
needed to take him out as a casualty, dueto his Resilience rule).
You cannot remove Harold until his two brothers have been
r emoved. lf this is not possible because of unit coherence,
exchange Harold wit h another of the models befo re removing
casualties and so maintain unit formation.
The Determination special r ule applies to the unit Harold forms
with his brother s.
Bravery: the first FATIGUE Harold and his Brothers should take
during every turn of the controlling player (not the turn of his
opponent) is ignored.

Cnut the Great,

first Anglo-Danish King of England
A Christian King, Cnut reigned over Denmark, Norway and
England. He is one of the lesser known though most important
figures of the early middle-ages. He instigated the rise of the
Huscarls, importing the military traditions of the northern
kingdoms into Englapd.

Hero of t he Viking Age : as one of the greatest Kings of the

Viking Age, Cnut generates three SAGA dice at the start of each
turn, instead of t he usual two for other Warlords.
The Great: As long as Cnut is leading your warband, you can roll
up to seven SAGA dice at the start of each turn (if the units on
the table generate enough dice) instead of the usuallimit of six.
You are stilllimited to a total of eight SAGA dice in total to use
every turn. Cnut may be mounted on a horse, or, if dismounted,
may have a double handed Dane axe (see Anglo-Danish special
rules page 43).
The Over-King: As long as Cnut is on the table, you may use
both the Viking and the Anglo-Danish battleboards. At the
start of each t urn, you may chose what mix of SAGA dice to
roll between Viking and Anglo-Danish SAGA dice. Viking SAGA
dice may only be used on t he Viking Bat tle Board and AngloDanish SAGA dice may only be used on the Anglo-Danish Batt le
Board.

NORMA\N
William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy
William was the only son of of Robert 1, Duke of Normandy and
although illegitimate was designated as heir of the Duchy. At the
death of his father he struggled against potentia/ usurpers but
demonstrated quite early a maturity in judgement and poltica/
skills that let him secure his position against his rivals, even
the King of France. He claimed he was promised the throne of
England by the exiled king Edward, and upon Edward's death ,
William decided to c/aim the kingship. He built a fleet to invade
England and take the crown from the head of Harold. At Hastings
in 1066 he frnally fulfrlled his destiny.

Hero of the Viking Age : as t he conqueror of England, William

generates three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of
the usual two for other Warlords.
The Bast ard: William as Duke of Normandy established his rule
in the blood of his rivals and is respected and feared. lf he uses
his We obey special rule, he may actvate two units within S, but
if he activates two units, none of them will be able to engage
melee with this activation. Also, any unit activated by his We
obey rule may use this activation to Shoot or Move (remember
that normally you may only M ove with the activation generated
by the We obey rule).
The Tactician: William used elaborate tactics during his battles.
Any Warriors or Heartguard units in William's warband may
have bows. Bow equipped War riors and Hearthguard have an
Armour characteristic reduced by one (bow equipped Warriors
have an Armour of 3 and bow-equipped Heartguards have an
Armour of 4) dueto their lack of protection.

lvo Taillefer
lvo Taillefer both stepped out onto and disappeared from the
stage of History quite quickly. At the battle of Hastings, he asked
William if he could be the one to give the first strokes to the
English. William agreed and Taillefer galloped off in the direction
of the English line, singing the Song of Roland. Apparently this
sight provoked the Saxons and a challenge was called out. The
warrior that went out from the shieldwall was quickly killed.
Taillefer then charged the mass of startled Saxon warriors, and
for a short time breached the shieldwall befare being dragged
from his horse and hacked to pieces.
Herald, minstrel or jester, Taillefer is to this day a symbol of
bravery.

Hero of the Viking Age: as a brave knight, Taillefer generates

three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of the usual
two for other Warlords.
The Song of Roland: Taillefer is immune to FATIGUE. He will
never suffer any FATIGUE and any FATIGUE given by any gaming
effect is cancelled without further effect. In addition, at the
start of the Norman player's turn, before SAGA dice are rolled,
all friendly units within Mor Taillefer discard one FATIGUE.
Foolishly brave: Taillefer may never use the Si de by Sidespecial
rule. lf he engages combat, it must be alone.
Skilled rider: lf mounted, Tail lefer m ay during the SAGA abilities
st ep of each melee, spend any SAGA die on the Norman
battleboard in the Activation boxes (Knights, Sergeants and
Peasants) to gain one Attack Die and one Defence Die. He may
do this as many times as he wants in a single melee though he
remains limited to the usual Attack and Defence dice limits.

WIEJLJH[
Maredudd ab Owain, King of the Britons
Maredudd ab Owain was king of Deheubarth and conquered
Gwynedd and Powys. For most of his reign, he fought against
the Viking invaders and launched raids against his Mercian
neighbours. History remembers him for his habit of paying a
ransom of a penny for each head of his subjects that was cap tu red
by the Vikings.

Hero of the Viking Age : as a king, Maredudd generates three

SAGA dice at the start of ea eh turn, instead of t he usual two for
other Warlords.
The penny: Maredudd is likely to have paid the opponent's
retainers. During the first turn of the game, his opponent only
ro lis a third (rounded up) the number of SAGA dice he is entitled
to roll normally. In the second turn he may roll half (rounded
up) the number of SAGA dice he is entitled to roll normally.
Starting w ith the third turn, his opponent may roll his normal
number of SAGA dice.

Raider: As a raider, Maredudd is famous for his swift actions.

All units in Maredudd warband can be activated with any SAGA
die, regardless of their class as long as Maredudd is alive.

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, the High King

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was the only Briton to ever rule over al/ the
Welsh kingdoms in the early medieval period - quite a feat if we
consider the turbulent history of Wales. He had to battle for a
long time against his fellows, but as he said about the wars he
had to wage against the other Welsh kingdoms: Speak not of
killing; 1 but blunt the horns of the offspring of Wales lest they
should injure their da m.
In the last years of his life, he was at war against Harold
Godwinsson and was forced to flee. During his exile, he was killed
by sorne of his own retainers who were avenging their family
members Gruffydd had killed during his accession to the throne
ofWales . .
Hero of the Viking Age : as the High King, Gruffydd generates
three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of the usual
two for other Warlords. In addition, up to three SAGA dice may
be re-rolled once during the Orders Phase as long as Gruffyd is
alive.
Scouts of Deheubarth:. All Levies in his warband generate
SAGA dice as if they were Warriors.
Archers of Powys: any Warrior unit in Gruffydd's warband may
exchange javelins for bows. Bow-equipped Warriors only have
an Armour of 3, against me lee attacks and when shot at.
Spearmen of Gwynedd: any Warrior or Hearthguard units
may give up their javelins. These units don't suffer any Ar mour
reduction against shooting.

~VORD

JFOR JH[J[]PUE

Jarl Sigvaldi and the Jomsvikings

The Jomsvikings are a band of flerce pagan Viking mercenaries
famous in the Norse sagas. They were ski/Jed warriors, highly
disciplined and served different masters during their history,
sometimes switching sides in the midst of battle. The Jarl Sigvaldi
Strut-Haraldsson is one of the most renowned of the Jomsviking
Jeaders. He attacked Norway in the 10th century, but was forced
to flee the battle that ensued. later, he fought at the naval Battle
of Swold (or Svolder) but betrayed the King of Norway in the
heat of battle, Jeading to t he dismembering of the Kingdom of
Norway.

Recruiting the Jomsvikings: it costs 2 points to add Sigvaldi and

his Jomsvikings t o you r Wa rband. Sigvaldi and his Jomsviking
may not be included if the warband is led by a Hero of the
VikingAge.
Band of Jomsvikings : Jarl Sigvaldi comes with three other
Jomsvikings and they form a unit of four models. Jarl Sivaldi
does not count as a Warlord, he is merely a named figure
within your warband (and does not benefit from any Warlord
special rules.) Sigvaldi and his three Jomsvikings count as
a Hearthguard unit of four models, that cannot be joined by
any other models. The Jomsvikings have an Armour of 4, and
generate one Attack Die in melee. Sigvaldi has also an Armour
of 4, but generates three Attack Dice in melee. Hence the four
models of this unit generate six Attack Dice. They also generate
two SAGA dice each turn, like your Warlord.
The leader: within the unit, Sigvaldi is always the last model
of his unit to be removed. You cannot remove Sigvaldi until all
other models have been r emoved. lfthis is not possible w ithout
breaking unit coherency, exchange Sigvaldi with another of the
models of his unit before removing casualties and so maintain
unit formation.
Wrath o f the Jomsvikings: The unit Sigvaldi for ms with
his Jomsvikings is not activated like regular Hearthguards.
They may never benefit from any SAGA abilities from your
batttleboard or be activat ed by the We obey special rule of
your Warlord.
lnstead, during the Orders Phase, you may put any of your
SAGA dice rolled this turn near the unit, with up to three SAGA
dice dedicated to the Jomsvikings. At the end of the Orders
Phase, discard all these SAGA dice and rol! 1 D6 for every die
put near the Jomsvikings. The unit receives for this Activation
phase a number of f ree activations (that do not consume any
SAGA die) equal to naif t he highest D6 rolled (rounded up ).

In addition, they will benefit f rom a number of effects indicated

by the chart below and according to the score rolled with the
sum of the D6s. All effects are cumulative (so if you rolled a
12, you will get ALL the benets from the first six lines). You
will find on our website markers to download and print that
summarize the benefits of the Wrath of the Jomsvikings.

DICE ROLL WRATH OF THE JOMSVIKINGS

1 None ..
2-3 All models in the unit generate an additional Attack Die
and gain one Armour. This effect lasts until the start of
your next turn.
4-6 The whole unit gains an extra Defence Dice during the
SAGA abilities step of each melee until the start of your
next turn.
7-9 The whole unit gains two additional Attack Dice during
the SAGA abilities step of each melee until the start of
your next turn.
10-11 The whole unit gains two extra Defence Dice during the
SAGA abilities step of each me lee until the start of your
next turn.
12-13 The whole unit gains t wo additional Attack Dice during
the SAGA abilities step of each melee until the start of
your next turn.
14-15 The unit discards any FATIGUE it has, and the rst
FATIGUE taken this turn is immediately discarded
w it hout effect.
16 All models gain one Armour and the unit may re-rol! f ailed
Attack and Defence Dice during each melee unt il the st art
of your next turn.
17-18 Sigvaldi and his men betrays their employer! They are
not activated this turn and do not enjoy any benets
from the above effects. At the start of you opponent's
turn, t hey become a part of his warband, and he may
spend SAGA dice to use the Wrath of the Jomsvikings
as yo u have done so far.

Saga abitities
Fear not death, for the hour of your doom is set and none may escape it.

In this chapter we w ill take a closer look at the SAGA abilities

described on the Battle Boards of the tour factions included in
the main rules. Hopefully, they will answer any questions you
may have and explain how these abilities are used. During a
game, if you have any doubt on the way a SAGA ability should
work, refer to this chapter.

Volsunga's Saga

Activation abilities are used in the Activation Phase. Unless

labelled as Activation 1Reaction these abilities m ay only be used
in your own tum. They usually actvate units, or produce some
effects involving the activation of units. Activation 1Reaction
abilities may ONLY be used during the enemy turn during their
Activation phase. Usually these abilities will indicate to you
exactly when they can be used.

ACTIVATION abilities may only be used during

your own turn.
ACTIVATION 1REACTION abilities may only be used
during the enemy's turn.

Shooting abilities are used during Step 2) of the Shooting

procedure (when Attacker and Defender use their SAGA
abilities). Shooting abilities may only be used when you are
resolving a ranged attack w ith one of your units, and Shooting
1Reaction abilities may only be used when one of your units is
targeted by an enemy unit.

SHOOTING abilities may be used during a ranged

attack made by one of your units.
SHOOTING 1REACTION may only be used when
targeted by shooting.

WHJEN ARJE AGA AliUJUTIJE UJED?

Under the title of the SAGA ability is indicated the phase or step
during which it is used:

Melee abilities are used during Step 3) of the Me lee procedure

(when Attacker and Defender use their SAGA abilities). Melee
abilities can be used either during your turn or the enemy's
t urn.

Here are the different possibilities:

Orders abilities are used during the Orders Phase, w hen
allocating SAGA dice to the boxes. Unless labelled as Orders
1Reaction these abilities may only be used in your own turn.
Usually they have some lasting effects during yourturn, or alter
the SAGA dice themselves, for example by allowing a re-roll or
changes to the faces of the dice. Some of these abilities are
indicated as Orders 1 Reaction. lt means that these abilities
may ONLY be used during the enemy turn during their Orders
phase.

ORDERS abilities may only be used during

your own turn.
ORDERS 1REACTION abilities may only be used
during the enemy's turn.

MELEE abilities may be used either during your turn or

your enemy's turn.
Just in case you wondered, SAGA abilities may not be played
in a melee that you are not involved in. lf you are playing a
three player game, and the opposing players are resolving
their me lee, you may not use your own SAGA abilities to affect
a melee not involving your t roops. The same goes for shooting.
lf you are neither the shooter nor the target, you cannot use
SAGA abilities during the resolution of that shooting.

Saga abiCities descRiption

Let another's wounds be your warning.

Njal's Saga

Gr lENJERllC AlB\lUUTlllE
These abilities, in boxes of this colour, are shared

1 by all factions. They may be used more than once,

~ i.e. have more than one die placed in their box. All

of them are used by discarding one die from the

box and immediately resolving the effects.

Activation abilities
All factions have three boxes that allow them to actvate
respectively Hearthguard/Warlords, Warriors or Levies. They
are used during the Activation phase, by discarding one die
f rom the box and immediately activating one of the relevant
units to Rest, M ove or Shoot.

Activation Pool
All factions have this box. lt is a useful tool to prepare for a
turn of intense activity. To be used, place one die in this box.
This die is always the rarest symbol. During any Order Phase,
including the one in which the die was placed he re, the die may
be discarded to roll two extra-dice, resulting (if your maths are
not too rusty) in a net gain of one SAGA die. Doing this twice
could se e yo u using all eight available SAGA dice.

Combat Pool
All factions have this box, though under different names. Each
die placed in this box may be discarded to add dice when
fighting the enemy. Some factions may only use these dice
in Melee, others may use them in Melee or during a Shooting
action (indicated in the later case as Melee or Shooting). Also
the text in the ability box indicates if the gained dice are Attack
Dice or Defence Dice or if the choice is left to the player. You
will ha ve noted that the effects of this ability depend on the side
of the dice that was discarded, with some symbols generating
more Dice than others.

lFACTllON Jp>JECJUFllC
AlfUlUTlllE
All these abilities, in boxes of this colour,

1 may only be used once per full game turn

i (that is your game turn and your opponent's
turn). lt means that you may only place the
combination of dice needed to actvate it on
the board once, and when it has been use
during a turn, you may not actvate it until
the next turn. Each faction has his own set of nine specific
abilities that dictate the way your warband will behave on the
battlefield and the tactics that you should use.

VJ[JKlNG 1\JB\J[JLJ[l['J[]E
Njord
Used during your Activation Phase.

Asgard
Used during Step 2) of the resolution of the enemy's

Shooting

When you wantto usethis ability, simply discard the die. Remove
one FATIGUE from your Warlord and one FATIGUE from every

As sorne Vikings are quite vulnerable to shooting (Berserkers

anyone?) this ability is quite useful to protect your beloved
retainers. Spend the die during the SAGA abilities step of the

unit within Ml of the Warlord's figure. To be considered within

M of the Warlord, the unit just needs to ha ve at least one figure
within ML No line of sight is required.

shooting, and immediately add one Armour to your unit until

the end of the shooting, thus making it harder to hit. Useless
on your Warlord (Armour cannot exceed 6) unless the enemy

Quite useful either at the end of an activation phase, or after

Movement activations and just before jumping into melee!

has somehow reduced his Armour already.

Thor

Frigg
Used during Step 3) of any Melee.
This ability will drive you r enemy mad! During the SAGA
abilities step of the me lee, discard this die, gain one Attack Die
and immediately remove one FATIGUE from any one of your
units engaged in this me lee. lf you are the attacker, bingo! The
opponent won't be able to spend that FATIGUE point. lf you
are the defender, it is less useful but at least you won't finish
that melee with a big pile of FATIGUE.

Used during Step 3) of any Me/ee.

Useful if you want to put pressure on your puny opponent.
Discard this die during the SAGA abilities step of the melee.
Then continue the melee's resolution until you arrive at the
end of Step 6) after the casualty removal. Then simply go
back to Step 1) and resolve another melee, up to the end of
the w hole melee procedure. Any other SAGA abilities played
during the first round cease to apply unless they would affect
an unresolved step of melee (like an effect impacting FATIGUE
or triggered by one unit disengaging). Though two rounds of
melee were resolved it still counts as a single melee, so each

Heimdal

participating unit w ill only gain one FATIGUE.

Used during Step 3) of any Melee.

This ability can be triggered using any die making it quite easy
to actvate. When you discard the die, you gain three Attack
Dice. Four if the discarded die was the one shown in this ability
text on the Battle Board. But it comes at a price as the unit
that gained these Attack Dice has its Armour reduced by one
until the end of this melee. Not complicated nor subtle, but still
highly effective. A real piece of Viking poetry!

Odin
Used during the enemy's Activation Phase, when he

activates a unit to Shoot.

This one will save your retainers more than once. When your
opponent spends the dice to actvate a unit, and announces
his intention to shoot, you may discard these dice to force
him to change the activation to a Movement. lt means that no
shooting will take place, and that your opponent will have to
m ove his figures instead. But even if he doesn't move his figures
at all, it still counts as a Movement activation for the purpose
of FATIGUE or anything else (like the Warlord's Pride special
rule!). Note that you can't affect a unit shooting with javelins
as shooting with javelins is part of a Movement activation and
not a Shooting one.

Ullr
Used during Step 3) of any Melee.
Another simple SAGA ability. Discard these two dice during
the SAGA abilities step of the melee phase. When it comes to
rolling to hit, you will be able to re-roll any die that failed to
score a hit. Basic. Neat. Simple. Viking.

Loki
Used at any time during your Orders Phase.
As treacherous as its name suggests. Discard the two dice at
any point during the Orders Phase, target an enemy unit of
Warriors or Levies reduced to three figures or less, and remove
all the surviving models from the game. This unit does not count
as having been killed in melee for the sake of the attribution of
FATIGUE. Quite useful to get rid of that tiny Warrior unit that is
lurking bebi1:1d a wood!

Val halla
Used during Step 3) of any Melee.
Really a ladder to the dining hall of the Otherworld for sorne
of your retain ers! During the SAGA abilities step, sacr ifice up

Noble Lineage
Used during your Order Phase.

to three of your models (Warriors or Hearthguard as the Gods

do not carea damn about Levies) and immediately gain three

This ability can be used with any die. This might not grab your
attention at first but it is one of the most useful abilities an

Attack Dice per sacrificed model (f our if the die discarded was
the one shown on this ability text on the Battle Board). These
models will already have generated their Attack Dice earlier in
this phase, and their sudden sacrifice doesn't mean that you

Anglo-Da nish player has! Basically, it allows you to re-roll any

will lose the dice they generated! Don't go mad with this ability
as you are still limited to a number of bonus Attack Dice equal

you have rolled a disappointing set of SAGA dice. Simple, you

re-roll them and hopefully will get the symbols you need to
actvate powerful SAGA abilities. This re-roll might generate

to the number the unit generated dur ing Step 1) of the Melee.
Models sacrificed count as casualties inflicted by your opponent
in melee to determine which side w ill have to disengage.

or all SAGA dice you rolled this turn (apart from, that is, the
dice paid to actvate this ability.) Hence it should almost always
be the first ability you will use during your Order Phase. Say

helmets which can then be used to get more SAGA dice using
the Activation Pool ability. Alternatively, you may discard this
die to choose one of the other SAGA die rolled this turn and
change its faceto whatever symbol you want, allowing you to

Ragnarok
Used at any time during your Orders Phase.

easily get that combo yo u were looking for!

Potentially the most devastating ability on the Viking Battle

lntimidation

Board but al so the most expensive so should be used carefully.

Used during the enemy Activation Phase, just after he has

Usually useful when most of your units are el ose to the enemy
and you want to play a decisive turn.

activated a unit.

Disca rd these dice at any point during your Orders Phase. For
the rest of your turn, all enemy units have their Armour reduced
by one (although you may not lower your opponent's Armour
below 2,) against shooting and in melee. Expensive if you have
only one unimportant melee planned, devastating if most of
your units are able to engage in melee this turn!

Another perfidious but useful ability. Asan Activation/Reaction

ability it may only be used during your opponent's Activation
Phase. By discarding the die you cancel his Activation. You
must cancel it immediately after he spends the die (or dice) to
actvate the unit, you may not choose to wait to see what he
plans to do with the activation and ask him to go backward to
be able to cancel it! Simply said, your opponent spends his die
or dice to Actvate his unit and in reaction you discard your die
and tell him with a grim smile that it is cancelled.

Ragnar speaks...
There are two things that the Vikings
are good at: crushing the skulls of their
enemies with bags fu/1 of Attack Dice and
getting rid of Fatigue. Without any real
reacting or manoeuvring SAGA abilities
at their disposal they usual/y prefer
quick games, rushing their enemies
using their FATIGUE removal abilities
befare engaging in melee. lf the game
lasts for too long, especially against missile heavy warbands,
they wi/1 suffer the consequences, and won't be able to pick
fights on their own terms.

Note that you only cancel the activation of a single unit but
that this activation doesn't necessarily have to come f r om the

\1
~

activation boxes of the battleboards (i.e. you can cancel the

activation resulting from the use of a SAGA ability). In the case
of a SAGA ability that activates more than one unit ( e.g. the
Norman Storm of Arrows) it w ill only cancel t he activation of
one of the units benefiting from the ability.
Also, you won't cancel the other benefits of the ability (there

'

is no Activation ability that gives other benefits for the time

being, but who knows what future holds?).
Finally, you won't be able to cancel the activation done with the
Determination rule of the Warlord, as that activation doesn't
requires dice t o be spent.

The Push

Unforgiving

Used during Step 3) of any Melee.

Used during Step 3) of any Melee.

This time we have a typical AngloDanish fighting ability. You

spend the dice during the Abilities step of the Melee and it
has no immediate effect. But, if at the end of the melee (after
FATIG UE has been attributed) youropponent has been defeated
and f orced to disengage, you roll one D6 f or every model that
has disengaged ( except Wa rlords as they are immune to this
abilit y). For each dice rolled t hat exceeds the opponent's
unmodified Armour (against me lee attacks,) remove one of the
disengaging unit's models.

This is quite illustrative of the mid-term abilities of the AngloDanish. lt won't be that helpful right after being used, but
will prove fruitful in t he forthcoming turn(s) as it can severely
handicap the enemy. You use it at the sa me time as all your
other Melee abilities, and its effects are resolved right after
t he melee. lt adds one additional FATIGUE (two if you used a
helmet to actvate it) to all enemy units involved in this melee.

Example: your Huscarls have been engaged by a band of Bondi.

The 7 surviving Bondi have disengaged and you have used The
Push in Step 3). Now, you roll seven dice, and each die w ith a
result of 5 or 6 kills a Bondir.

Used during your Order Phase.

Shieldwall
Used during Step 2) of the resolution of the enemy's
Shooting or during Step 3) of any Melee.
A simple but highly efficient ability. lt gives a one point bonus
to the Armour of your unit, either when shot at by an enemy,
or fighting in me lee. Remember that 6 is the maximum Armour
a unit can have.

Trapped
An expensive ability, but its use can be decisive and provide
a pivotal point of the battle. You discard t he two dice and
immediately place one FATIGUE onto three different enemy
units of your choice on the board. No unit may receive more
than one FATIGUE w ith this ability, but it is still especially useful
if you planto engage these units in melee as this FATIGUE will
be available to be used during the turn.

Hard as lron
Used during Step 3) of any Melee.
This ability needs two axes to be activated. During Step 5)
of the Melee, the Anglo-Danish player will be able to re-roll
any die that did not cancel a hit (so dice with results below 5
if his unit was in the open, 4 if in cover)_ lt might appear a bit
expensive but if this abilit y saves the lives of a couple of your
Huscarls, you won't think that again!

Please note that you cannot remove more than one FATIGUE
from a unit to kili more than two figures. This is a one shot
ability: one FATIGUE, two kills. Period ( until the next turn!).
Sorne Anglo-Danish players think t hat this ability, if properly
used, can win battle on its own. Well, we will let you decide
that for yourself!

Lords of Battle
Used during Step 3) of any Melee.

Stubbornness
Used during Step 3) of any Melee.
An ability that only needs one die to be activated, and is
potentially very effective. When you use it, you immediately
gain one Attack Die. Then for every FATIGUE on the enemy
unit(s) you gain an additional Attack Die. lf facing more than
one unit (saya Warlord and another unit) you will gain one die
per FATIGUE on these units (so if the enemy Warlord has one
FATIGUE and the other unit has two, you will gain three dice,
four dice if we take into account the first one granted by this
ability). The FATIGUE may still be used as usual, as this ability
doesn't spend any fatigue. Very useful as a lot of Anglo-Danish
abilities can put FATIGUE on enemy units!

Exhaustion
Used at any point during your Orders phase.
A nasty one! Basically it consumes a die to kili two enemy
figures. But the unit must be Exhausted (i.e. have reached its
FATIGUE limit). This is not easy, as a clever opponent willlimit
Activations to avoid unit Exhaust ion. Fortunately, the AngloDanish are quite good at exhausting their foes. You need to
plan ahead. At the end of your turn, ensure to have a couple of
abilities ready that will add FATIGU Eto the enemy (Unforgiving,
Lords of Battle). When me lee starts use these abilities toen su re
that your opponent will be punished this turn. Avoid spending
enemy FATIGUE where possible. For example, if you are fighting
an enemy unit, and use the Unforgiving ability -with a helmetthe unit w ill gain three FATIGUE in a single round of melee.
Any unit except Warlords and Hearthguard will be exhausted
by a single round of melee. Then in your turn use Exhaustion
to kili two figures. Might be a bit pricey for simple Warriors or
Levies, but killing two Hearthguars with a single SAGA die is
just brilliant!

Now it starts to look really serious. Expensive, but highly

flexible, Lords of Battle is simply the best combat ability of t he
Anglo-Danish. Played during the SAGA abilities pha'Se, it allows
the player to chose how many Attack and Defence Dice he
wants from a pool of three. Need to protect your unit? Then
increase your chance of survival with three Defence Dice.
Wants to crush your enemies and hear the lamentation of their
women? Three Attack Dice are what you need. You can also go
for a bit of both, with say one Attack Die and two Defence Dice
or vice versa.
Asan added bonus (and what a bonus) your opponent will take
two additional FATIGUE at the end of the melee, that come of
course in addition to the usual FATIGUE taken at the end of
each melee.
lf this doesn't do the trick for you then it's time to chop wood
and not heads.

Ragnar speaks...
The Anglo-Danish are not poor in combat
abilities, but they do excel in defence.
Using their abilities to pi/e up FATIGUE on
their enemy's units, they generalfy start
the game quite passively, waiting for
their opponent to make mistakes that
they wi/1 exploit. An unaware opponent
wi/1 soon find that his units are getting
Exhausted at a pace that he can't control,
and it is usualfy the perfect time for the Anglo-Danish to
/aunch their counter-offensive and shatter their foes when
they are at their weakest. Hurrah!

Terrified
Used during your Activation phase.

Charge!

This ability can shift the balance in a melee in your favour.

Used during Step 3) of any Melee involving one of your

mounted units.

These dice are discarded to activate a mounted unit (hence al so

A cheap yet effective ability only usable by mounted units (i.e.

Norman units that have chosen to be mounted as per their
factions options). Discard the die placed in this box to gain three
Attack Dice (four if the discarded die w as the one shown on your
Battle Board). After the melee, the unit gains one additional
FATIGUE, that comes, needless to say, in addition to the regular
FATIGUE all units involved in a melee gain. Yet, even at this price,
f ew Battle Boards offer such a bargain of three combat dice for
a sing le SAGA die.

Aimed Volley

paying for the activation of that unit) and if your unit engages
in melee, the enemy engaged immediately gains a FATIGUE.
This FATIGUE is gained once the movement to engage melee is
resolved, i.e. when your models have finished their movement.
This is especially useful if this FATIGUE exhaust s the enemy unit,
as Exhausted units only generate half their normal number of
Attack Dice.
Please note that you do not need to designate any enemy unit
when you activate your unit, just tell the opponent which of your
units will be activated by the Terrified ability and let him react if
he can with so me Activation/Reaction abilities.

Used during Step 2) of your Shooting

Like any activation ability, the opponent is able to react to this

activation, and can cancel it (with lntimidation f or example). lf

A good ability as the Norman can have quite a few units equipped

your unit is notable to engage any enemy unit in melee, then the
FATIGUE is not added to the enemy unit.

with ranged weapons. The dice are discarded during the SAGA
abilities step of shooting, and when it comes to rolling Attack
Dice yo u will be able to re-roll any die that failed to hit its target
(i.e. rolled less than the Armour of the targeted unit). The ability
is not the cheapest one, but shooting isn't risky and you won't
lose any figures in the process, unlike melee. Using this ability
on your 8 model strong crossbowmen unit will bring tears to the
eyes of your opponent.

Crushed
Used during Step 3)

of any Melee.

A terrifying ability. Discard t hese dice during the SAGA ability step
of the melee. Then resolve the melee as usual. lf at Step 4) of the
melee (attack rolls) your unit has inflicted at least twice as many
hits than it has taken, each hit it has scored against an enemy
unit becomes two hits on the target unit (basically doubling the
number of hits inflicted).
Only the hits inflicted and suffered by the unit this ability is
played on count. So if you are fighting side by side with another
of your units, the hits taken and inflicted by your other unit are
disregarded in this calculation.
Al so don't forget this is hits not kills. Nasty.

Gallop
Used during your Activation phase.
A simple ability that can shatter all your opponent's best laid
plans. The dice are used to pay for the activation of a mounted
unit w hich can then Move with that activation. For t his
movement,) he unit gains an extra distance of move (that still
applies ifthe unit moves in uneven ground) and can go through
friendly models and the gaps between friendly mod~s that are
usually impassabe. This movement mayalso be us~to_-engage
an enemy unit in melee. ...
/ -

Massed Volley

Pursuit

Used during your Orders phase.

Used during Step 3)

mounted units.

A good shooting ability. This die is discarded during the Orders

phase. During your whole turn, bows (but not crossbows!) have
their range doubled ie it is increased to 2x lL (so two lL, or 24"
if you prefer). Useful if yo u want to keep a large Levies unit a bit
behind and still take part in the fight, orwhen a sneaky opponent
is trying to avoid combat.

of any Melee invo/ving one of your

Discard the die during the Abilities step of a melee and hope
that the combat ends with the enemy disengaging. lf an enemy
unit is forced to disengage then one of your mounted units in
the melee can be immediately activated for a movement. This
activation does not generate a Fatigue and is ideal to pursue
your opponent and even to engage in another melee.

Storm of Arrows
Used during your Activation phase.
Force your opponent to fight in the shade. The ability looks very
expensive, but depending on the composition of your warband
it can become very handy. lt activates ALL your units equipped
with ranged weapons and they immediately perform a Shooting
activation. When this ability is used, you may activate the
relevant units in any order, and do not need to announce what
their targets will be. Just pick one, resolve its shooting, then
m ove to another one, etc. .. As an added benefit the units that
are activated will not take any FATIGUE for this activation, even
if it is not their first movement/shooting of the turn.

DexAre
Used during Step 3) of any Melee invo/ving your Warlord
A terrific ability that will need your Warlord to join the Melee.
During the SAGA abilities step of the melee, discard this dice to
gain five Attack Dice and allow your Warlord to re-roll any missed
Attack ro lis. As the Warlord generates five Attack Dice this ability
alone means that he will reach his maximum amount of Attack
Dice (as you can not gain more additional Attack Dice than you
have basic attacks.). This powerful ability comes with a price:
your Warlord will gain three FATIGUE during the melee, during
Step 7) and that comes in addition to the normal FATIGUE gained
during a me lee. But who ca res if the enemy Warlord is dead?

Stamping
Used during Step 3) of any Melee involving one of your
mounted units fighting only against enemy foot Warriors
or Levy.
Another ability that may only be used on mounted units. These
dice are discarded during Step 3) of the melee. lmmediately
eliminate one Warrior or two Levies amongst the models you
are engaged against. Quite a good way to ensure that you will
kili all enemy models in this fight!

Ragnar speaks ...

The Normans are a mixed bag. They exce/

in shooting abilities and they have some

great combat ones, especial/y for their
mounted units. They perform real/y
well when using these advantages in
tandem. Usual/y, you wi/1 see them

forming a batt/e/ine of shooters with

their cavalry waiting some paces behind, t
ready to catch any enemy daring to approach the bowmen.
Their main prob/em resides in the fact that most of their
aggressive abilities have so me cost in FATIGUE, meaning that
they won't be able to sustain a prolonged fight. But if done
properly, the fight won't last long as the enemy should have
a/ready been diminished by clouds of arrows.

~VJEJL JH[

AJB)][JLJ[1['J[JE

Hit and Run

Used during your opponent's Activation Phase.

Children of the Land

Used at anytime during your Orders Phase.
The basic Welsh ability, likely to be u sed almost every turn. Yo u
just discard the die, and for the whole turn, none of your foot
units (not mounted ones!) will suffer any movement reduction
for any reason. This includes moving in uneven ground, crossing
obstacles, or the opponent's using your FATIGUE. Nothing
will prevent your foot units moving at their full movement
allowance.

A Holy Ground

When an enemy unit is activated, but before that activation is

resolved, you may discard this die to activate any one of your
units that has at least one model within M of the enemy unit
just activated. Your unit may immediately perform an activation
out of sequence. This can be Movement, Shooting or even a
Rest but can never be used to engage melee with an enemy
unit. Quite useful when you are unsure of the intent of the
opponent, and want to keep him on his toes during his turn.
Using this activation to m ove away from him as he approaches
to engage you might not be very brave, but will save your
retainers t o fight another day!

Used during your opponent's Activation Phase.

A perfidious ability. When a enemy's foot unit is activated
for a Movement (this ability won't affect any unit mounted
on horses ), yo u m ay discard this die to reduce its movement
allowance by one band. A unit moving L would now move
M, if it was allowed to move M it would only move S and a
moving unit would move V. Even with this ability, a unit
would still be able to move at least V.
Note that other movement reductions might apply: FATIGUE
can be used and moving in a uneven ground would reduce it
f urther.

Strength lies in numbers

Used during Step 3) of any Melee.
A good combat ability, that may be the bane of the enemy
Warlords. When used during the SAGA abilities phase of melee,
you count the number of models fighting on your side and the
number of models fighting on the enemy's side. lf you have more
models in this melee than the enemy, the unit that this ability
was played on gains one Attack Die for every extra model.
Piease note that the unit to which models belong is irrelevant:
for example, if you have your Warlord and six Warriors facing
four Hearthguard, and yo u play this ability on your Warlord, he
would gain three Attack Dice (seven Welsh minus four enemy
Hearthguards). Try using this ability on a 12 strong levy unit f or
a nasty surprise ...

The Rising Out

Used at anytime during your Activation Phase

The Deadly Strike

Used during Step 2) of a Shooting by one of your javelin

A good ability that w ill save you loads of dice for your other
abilities. When discarded these dice actvate ALL your units of
Warriors and Levies, though non e of them can engage me lee
with this activation. The activation is mandatory, so for each
one you must decide if it is going to move, shoot or rest. You
cannot decide not to actvate one of these units for w hatever
reason. You choose the order in which these activations w ill be
resolved and they all count as standard activation for the sake
ofFATIGUE.

equipped units.
A powerful ability. Discard this die duringthe SAGA abilities step
of a shooting activation to reduce your target enemy's armour
by one and then get to reroll any failed Attack Die (i.e. that
did not roll at least equal to the enemy's modified Armour.) lt
may only be used by a unit with javelins. After shooting, the
unit gains one FATIGUE, that comes in addition to any normal
FATIGUE this activation could have generated.

WarDance
Used during Step 3) of any Melee.
Flexible, the War Dance ability lets you chose how many bonus
combat dice you want. During the SAGA abilities step of the
melee, you may add up to three FATIGUE to the unitto gain one
Attack and one Defence per FATIGUE added. Really effective as
few combat abilities grant Attack AN D Defence Dice. The risk is
you may finish the melee with an exhausted unit.

Ambush
Used during Step 3) of ny Melee.
Very effective, this ability may only be used when all models of
your unit are in uneven ground. The unit gains three Attack Dice
and three Defence Dice, making that ability one of the most
powerful combat ability in SAGA. But because your opponent
will see this ploy coming, you won't use it that often. Usually,
the ability being active (with dice placed in the box) means that
the enemy won't engage any of your units in uneven ground,
leaving yo u more time to harass him w ith your pointy javelins!

Answering the Call

Used at anytime during your Activation Phase
Another mass activation ability, this one will actvate ALL units
w ithin JL of your Warlord, including the Warlord himself. As
w ith the Hit And Run ability, you may notengage in me lee with
this ability. You decide in what order these activations will be
resolved but this one has an added bonus: these activations do
not generate FATIGUE at all.

Taunting
Used at anytime during your Activation Phase
At first sight this ability won't be that effective. Basically it
activates an enemy unit (nota Warlord though) and that unit
must move to get as close as possible to one of your units,
engaging it in melee if possible. Yo u might as k why the hell yo u
would actvate an enemy unit?
Well, think of a nasty band of Huscarls sitting behind a wall
(heavy cover). You did not achieve anything with your javelins
(well with an Armour of 6 against shooting and cancelling the
hits cm 3s, no surprise -here). Perhaps you can taunt them out
- oL their nice safe "j)OSitlon? What about taunting them into
.... ......
sorne uneven gro.und

(... :.lJ

Ragnar speaks...

The Welsh won't be at their best in a head

to head stand up fight. They are good
at a guerilla style of warfare: moving,
shooting, running away when needed,
slowing down the enemy and forcing
him to chase them into difficult terrain. ,
Against a foolish Warlord who lets them
dictate the pace of the game they are '
almost unbeatable. Against smarter ones, 'f
they've still gota full bag of tricks to help win the game.

the scenc\Rios

A head to head fight against an enemy Warlord is only one of

the situations that may occur when that we set up a game of
SAGA. Once you get accustomed to t~e rules, you will want to
explore different unconventional situations and experiment
with other gaming environments. This chapter deals with such
scenarios. All scenarios give different games, offering varied

Length of the game tells you what conditions end the game.

This is dependant on the objectives of the scenario, or give an

amount of turns to be played.
Deployment indicates the way the units are deployed on the

table and any specific rules governing deployment.

objectives and will put your tactical ski listo the test!

Victory Conditions tell you what your aims ar e. This section

You will find six standard scenarios, numbered from one to six,

should be read carefully and kept in mind as in the heat of

combat, we have seen more than one experienced Warlord

w hich broadly speaking range from the more conventional to

the quite surprising. Bef ore the game, you should agree w ith
your opponent on what scenario you w ill use, though hot
blooded Warlords w ill go for the randomness of a D6 rol!!
We have also included one special scenario designed t o be
played by three or four players. These chaotic pit fights are
huge fun and a good w ay to introduce new players to SAGA by
throwing them in the midst of a terrible combat!
All scenarios list the following information:
Layout explains any special rules that should dictate t he layout
of the battlefield. When nothing special is indicated, please

ref er to the section "Setting the scenery" below.

.....

forget about their objectives!

Unless otherwise specified in tfle victoly condltlons,

the death ofa Warlonl~notendthegmne
Inthese~

JETTlN<Gr THJE CJENJERY

The Type explains how the terrain item is dealt with (se e Chapter
30, Terrain). The Maximum number, as its name suggests, is the

Scenery can be either laid out in a mutually agreeable manner,

laid out by a third neutral party or by using the following
steps:

maximum number of different pieces of this type that will be

used. Size is the maximum size of the item. lts length or width

- Each pi ayer starts by determining how many terrain pieces he

- Starting with the player that has the most scenery items to
lay out (in case of tie, each player rolls a die and the highest

wants by w r iting down a number included between 1 and 5

- Players reveal their number simultaneously, their chosen
numbers being added together and then divided by two
(rounded up as usual). This gives the number of terrain pieces
to use for the game.
- Each player will set up a equal number of scenery pieces. lf
the number of scenery pieces is odd, then the piayer who has
chosen the highest number of elements in the first step gets
the right to layout the most scenery items.
- Starting with the player that has the most scenery items to
lay out (in case of tie, each player rolls a die and the highest
scoring player goes first), each player determines what his
scenery items will actually be, picked from the chart below:
Scenery
tem

Type and Cover

Max
Number

should broadly not exceed the indicated size.

scoring player goes first,) each player rolls a D6 for each

scenery item and places it on the table according to the table
below:

06

Location

1-2

With at least a part of the scenery within L of one of

the four corners of the table.

3-5

No part of the scenery item w ithin L of any table

edge.

ltem is deployed exactly on the centre of the table,

unless a previously deployed scenery item occupies
the centre of the table. In that case, discard this
item without effects, leaving the first placed terrain
feature in place.

Size

Wood

High Area Terrain, 5oft

Cover, Uneven Ground

lL

Brushes &
cropfields

Low Area Terrain, 5oft

Cover, U neven Ground

lL

Rocky
Ground
orStone
circle

Low Area Terrain, Hard

Cover, Uneven Ground

Building

High Area Terrain, Hard

Cover, Uneven Ground

Ml

Large
Building

High Area Terrain, Hard

Cover, Uneven Ground

lL

Elevation

High Area Terrain, no Cover,

Open

IL

Steep
Elevation

High Area Terrain, no Cover,

Uneven Ground

lL

Marsh

Low Area Terrain, no Cover,

Uneven Ground

lL

Please note that any scenery that cannot be deployed on the table is
discarded without effect

Example: Darren and Andy are ready for ther weekly grudge match.
They both secretly wrte down how many terrain features they want for
the game. Darren goes for three and Andy fortwo, leaving us with a final
result of three scenery items (the average result between ther choces,
rounded up). Darren gets to chose two of these items and Andy one.
Darren starts by deciding what scenery features he wants. He goes for
a Large Building and a Wood. Andy would have /iked to pick a Large
Building but as they are limited to one, he has a moan and then has to
chose another tem, final/y deciding on a patch of rocky ground.
Darren starts by rolling 106 for his first tem. He ro//s a 2, meaning that no
part of the building may be set withn L of any table edge. He places the
church somewhere in the middle of the table, as, so far, the deployment
zone have not been rolled for. Then he takes hs second tem and ro//s a
1 for t, meaning that the wood wi/1 be deployed within L of one of the
four comers of the table. He puts t somewhere on the rightmost comer
of the battlefield.
Now ts final/y Andy's tum for his scenery pece. He ro//s a 6, meanng
that the rocky ground wi/1 st rght in the mddle of the battlefield.

The terran s now set up, and the players wi/1 rol/ to determine who wi/1
be able to chose the table edge for his deployment

VJICTORY JPOl'NT
So me scenarios needs to determine how many Victory Points
players have scored. Victory Points (VPs) are awarded for
killing enemy figures and for so me specific scenario objectives.
The later are always covered by the scenario, so we will only
loo k here at how many VPs are awarded for slaughtering the
enemy.
VPs you have gained are based on the number of enemy
figures yo u have killed at the end of the game.
For every Hearthguard you have killed, you earn one VP.
- For every two Warriors you have killed, you earn one VP.
- For every three Levies you have killed, yo u earn one VP.
- lf the enemy Warlord has been killed, you earn three VPs,
four VPs if it was a Hero of the Viking Age.
Note that the Levies orWarriors do not need to comefrom the
same unit. You just add up the number of Levies or Warriors
you have killed in total to determine the VPs they give you.
Killing five Levies will only give you two VP, as would killing
three Warriors
As usual all fractions are rounded up.

Example:. lf you end the game having killed nine Warriors, ten Levies
and three Hearthguard, you have scored 12 VPs (jive for the Warriors,
four for the Levies and three for the Hearthguard).

Ctash Of waR(oRds
A battlefield ... Two mighty Warlords eager to settle their dispute with steel. Rivalry,
honour, greed or vengeance, the reasons for this quarrel have been lost in the mists of time.
Who cares? SAGAs are writ ten by the winners ...

DEPLOYMENT

LAYOUT
The game is played on a 48" x 36" t able.
The scenery is arranged according to the
rules described in t he introduction of t his
chapter.

Roll to see who starts deployment (in case of a draw, the player wit h the
most impressive facial hair wins.) The winner deploys his Warlord within lL
of a long table edge of his choice. His opponent then deploys his Warlord
within JL of t he opposing table edge followed by his Levies, again within lL
of t hat table edge.
The first player then deploys his Levies and then all his Warrior units within
L of his table edge. His opponent then places all his Warriors and then his
Hearthguard units within L of his table edge.
Finally the first player deploys his Hearthguard units within
opposing table edge.

of the

The pi ayer that scores the highest result on a D6 now starts the game.

LENGTH OF THE GAME

See Victory Conditions.

VICTORY CONDITIONS
A player wins if he kills the enemy Warlord. lf both Warlords are taken out as casualty at the same time (as can happen in a
melee) the game ends with a draw. lf six turns have been played without a Warlord being killed, tot al up Victory Points (as
described in the introduction of this chapter). The pi ayer with the higher score is the winner. lf both players have the same total,
the game ends with a draw.

Bate ar- the fORd

Between the warbands stands a river. Fighting for the control of fords or bridges
play an important part of the SAGAs of the Viking Age.
And today tradition will be enforced and the river will flow
with the blood of the defeated ...

LAYOUT

DEPLOYMENT

In the middle of the table, running f rom a short table edge to the opposite short
table edge runs a river. lt should be between and Ml in w idth.

Roll to choose a long table edge

(in case of a draw, the player with
the most impressive facial hair
w ins.) The winner chooses one of
the long table edges as his starting
table edge and deploys at least
half his figures w ithin lL of t hat
table edge.

At lL at from the right of the centre of the river there is a ford ora bridge, betw een
and Ml wide.
At lL at from the left of the centre of the river, there is a second ford or bridge,
between and Ml wide.
The river is impassable except at the fords/bridges w hich count as open terrain. See
picture below

~(--~):

~~(---~)

His opponent then deploys all his

war band within lL of the opposite
table edge.
Finally the first player deploys the
rest of his warband w ithin lL of his
table edge.
The player that scores the highest
result on a new 06 roll starts the
game.

The rest of the scenery is arranged according to the rules described in the introduction
of this chapter. No scenery may be placed w ithin of the river or the fords/br idges.
Scenery that may not be placed dueto this restriction is discarded wit hout effect

LENGTH OF THE GAME

~ne

game lasts for 7 complete game turns.

VICTORY CONDITIONS
At ::he end of the game each pi ayer counts his Victory Points. Unlike other scenarios, VPs in t his scenario are not scored for killing

enem) figures, but f or your figures that are on the opposite side of t he river at the end of the game.
Eacn model that is on the other side of the river (in t he enemy half of the table) counts as scoring VPs, based on the scoring
system described page 61 (Le. your Warlord gives you 3VPs. each '-'earthguard 1VP, one VP f or every two Warriors, etc... ).

The Warlords stand on sacred ground. No matter the cost,

toda y will be a demonstration of strength and the victorious
Warlord will be the overlord...

DEPLOYMENT

LAYOUT
The game is played on a 48" x 36" table.

Roll a 06 to see who goes first (in case of a draw, the player

In the centre of the table deploy a hill (that may not

exceed JL in length or width).
Then each player chooses any one piece of scenery
(from the list page 6o) that may not be a building and
places it between JL and 2x!L from any long table edge
( each player must chose a different long table edge)
The scenery tem must be entirely deployed within JL
and 2xlL of the table edge.

with the most impressive facial ha ir wins.) This player chooses

one of the long table edges as his starting table edge and
deploys one unit within Ml of that table edge.
His opponent then deploys one unit within

Ml of the opposite

table edge.
The players alternate deploying a unit one at a time until all
units from the opposing warbands have been deployed.
The pi ayer that finished his deployment first starts the game.

There is no other scenery deployed on the table in this

scenario.

LENGTH OF THE GAME

The game lasts for 8 complete game turns.

VICTORY CONDITIONS
At the end of each player's turn, his opponent counts the number of VPs he scored this turn. The number of VPs is based on
the figures that are in any of the three terrain pieces placed on the table and according to the instructions on page 61 (i.e.
your Warlord gives yo u 3VPs, each Hearthguard 1VP, one VP for every two Warriors, etc. .. ). For example, if at the end of your
opponent's turn you have two Warriors in the first terrain, four Levies anda Hearthguard in the second and nothing in the third,
you score 4 VPs (1+2+1=4).
The number of VPs gained each turn is added to the VPs scored in previous turn (note them dow n at the end of each players turn).
At the end of the 8th turn, the player that seored the most VPs wins the game.

'Che cha{{enge
The test of steel is underway. The Warlords are facing each other in a duel.
Their retainers are flercely jlghting to decide the day.

DEPLOYMENT

LAYOUT
The game is played on a 48" x 36" table.
The scenery is arranged according to the rules
described in the introduction of this chapter
except that no scenery may be deployed within
M of the centre of the table. Any terrain feature
that should be deployed in the centre of the
table is discarded without any further effects.

The player rolling the higher score on a 06 (in case of a draw, the
pi ayer with the most impressive facial hair) deploys his Warlord in the
centre of the table. Then his opponent deploys his Warlord within
of the opposing Warlord.
Then, both players roll another 06 and starting with the pi ayer rolling
the higher score on a 06 (in case of a draw, the player with the most
impressive facial hair,) each pi ayer chooses a different long table edge
and deploys one unit within M of that table edge.
The players then alternate deploying their units, one ata time, until all
units are deployed.

LENGTH OF THE GAME

The pi ayer that finished his deployment first starts the game.

The game lasts for 7 complete game turns or

until one of the Warlords is killed.

SPECIAL RULES
In this scenario, Warlords are not killed if they take two hits by shooting or in me lee. Each Warlord starts with 12 Wounds in t his
scenario. Each non-cancelled hit sustained by the Warlord reduces his Wounds by one. When a Warlord is reduced to o Wounds,
he is kili ed. All other Warlord rules still apply including Resilience.

VICTORY CONDITIONS
lf your Warlord is killed the game ends and you lose. lf both Warlords are killed simultaneously, the game ends with a draw.
lf at the end of the seven turns, no Warlord has been killed, the player controlling the Warlord with the most Wounds wins the
game. lf both Warlords have the same number of Wounds, its a draw!

,.,..

,,, -;

-.,., ,. - .

- . -!'

~"
~

>

' ( -

,.,..

'

-.

.,

'

,.

) r;,_

-:.

f.((.-.. ~--

. -.

"

... "-

' ' -

..

l ' ..

homcland
A warband approaches an enemy settlement.

Tonight, they will dine in their enemy's great hall, served by their enemy's widows,
drinking from their enemy's skulls. Or not.

DEPLOYMENT

LAYOUT
The game is played on a 48" x 36" table.
The Def ender places t hree buildings ( one of these buildings may be a
large building) w ithin M and lL of any long table edge and at least L away
from any side table edge. No building may be placed w ithin Ml of another
building.
The Attacker may then deploy up to two other scenery features ( see the
chart page 6o, but no buildings may be placed by the attacker,) at least L
from any building.

The defender starts by deploying all his

models within L of the same table edge
where he deployed the three buildings.
His units can start within the buildings or
outside.
The the attacker deploys all his models on
the table, no closer than IL of any building
or enemy unit.
The attacker starts the game.

LENGTH OF THE GAME

The game lasts for 6 complete game turns or until the attacker's Warlord
is killed.

SPECIAL RULES
In this scenario, one of the players will defend his village and the other player will be the attacker. Each piayer secretly bids how
many Warband points (between 2 and 6) he thinks he needs to defend the village. Both players simultaneously reveal their bid.
The piayer that is ready to defend t he village with the least points becomes the defender and his opponent the attacker. lf the
players tie for the bids, rolla 06 and the highest roller becomes the defender and his opponent the attacker.
The defender will only play this scenario with the number of points he has writt en down. lf the defender has already prepared
his Warband, he might have to remove models from his Warband to fit the number of points he has specified on his bid. The
attacker gets his regular 6 points Warband.

VICTORY CONDITIONS
lf the attacker's Warlord is killed, the game ends immediately with a victory for the def ender.
lf at the end ofihe s~{urns, there is at least one defender within one of the building, the defender wins the game.

Lhe escoRr
A warband is escorting so me precious goods through enemy territory.
Prospect of loot, plunder and mayhem has drawn a rival Warlord on the battlefield.

LAYOUT

DEPLOYMENT

The game is played on a 48" x 36" table.

The escorting warband starts by deploying all his models (including the three
baggage pieces) within L of a long table edge he has chosen.

The scenery is arranged according to the

rules described in the introduction of
this chapter.

Then his opponent deploys all his models on the table, within lL of the
opposing long table edge.
The escorting player starts t he game.

LENGTH OF THE GAME

The game lasts until either two baggage
units have left the table or all baggage
pieces have been destroyed.

SPECIAL RULES
For this scenario you will need three baggage pieces : carts, herds of sheep, bands of civilians, barreis of ale or anything that
deserves t o be protected by one of the warband involved. Each of these baggages should be based singly, on a base at least
~
4cm x 4cm and up to scm x 10cm.
Each baggage counts as a unit of his own. lt is activated like a Hearthguard unit, has an Armour of 5 in melee and an Armour of
6 against Shooting and cancels the first hit suffered during a shooting ora melee in the same way as the Warlords do with their
Resilience rule. lt rolis three Atta ek Dice in melee and may never benefit orbe targeted by SAGA abilities. They move M like foot
units and may never enter uneven ground or buildings.

VICTORY CONDITIONS
tf the escorting player manages to move at least two baggage pieces off the table va the long table edge opposite to his own starting
table edge, he wins. To leave the tablea baggage piece just needs to finish its Movement in contact with the table edge.
tf the opposing pi ayer manages to destroy all three baggage pieces, that player wins. Any other result is a draw.

A :eML

fOR CROWS

This is a special scenario designed to allow SAGA to be played by three or four players.
Expect sorne chaos, frustration but lot of fun!
We recommend to limit the size of the warbands to 4 points, especial/y if four players are involved.

DEPLOYMENT

LAYOUT
The game is played on a 48" x 48"
table.
Roll a 03 (a 06 divided by two and
rounded up) and add 3 to that rol l.
This is the number of scenery items
that will be placed on the table. For
each tem, each player rolls 206 and
the highest scoring player decide
what this tem will be and rolls to
place it on the table, using the table
given page 6o.

Each player rolls a die and the highest

scoring player (re-roll in case of tie)
deploys his Warlord exactly at Ml from
any table corner as clase as possible to
the centre of the table. Once this is done,

the second highest scoring player chooses

another table corner and deploys his own
Warlord within M[ of that corner, again
as close as possible to the centre of the
table. The other(s) player(s) do the same.
Here is a diagram showing the way the
Warlords should be deployed:

Once this is done, the player who deployed his Warlord first deploys all his units.
All units must have at least one model within M of the Warlord, and no model
may be further away from the table corner than JL. The two or three other players
then deploy their own units with the same restrictions, in the same order that they
deployed their Warlords.

LENGTH OF THE GAME ANO SPECIAL RULES

The game lasts for seven turns. The turn sequence is modified to speed up the game, and ensure that no player slows down
the game too much. At the start of each turn, all players roll their SAGA dice and do their Orders phase simultaneously. Once all
the players have done their Orders phase, each pi ayer ro lis a dice. The highest scoring player starts the turn with his Activation
Phase. Once he has finished, the turn goes to the player sitting on his left and so on to the last player. lf there is a tie on the
dice roll to determine who is going to take his Activation Phase first, it goes automatically to the pi ayer sitting on the left of the
previous turn's first player.

VICTORY CONDITIONS
When a player kills an enemy figure during the course of the game, he places that figure in front of him (there are rumours about
hardcore SAGA players who actua!ly keep the figures killed during Feasts for Crows but we suggest you return the figures to
their owners at the end of the game ). At the end of the seventh turn, each pi ayer counts his VPs based on the number of enemy
figures killed using the.standard VPs. Note that in the case of Warriors and Levies, the two or three figures that score a point can
belong to different warbands.

Jto JPOllNT JB>ATTLE

Clash Of SLed
Sorne players might feel the urge to put more figures on the
table than afforded by the six points of the standard game.
Though SAGA is aimed as being a skirmish game with only
dozens of figures on the table, there is no reason it should
not work with larger forces. The details below gives you
the adaptations required to play larger games based on the
number of points being used to build up the warbands. We do
not recommend playing multi-player games with more than six
point warbands.

JP>OllNT l~ATTJLJE

The size of the table needs to be increased to 76" x 36".

The maximum number of SAGA dice a pi ayer gets at the start
of its turn is now limited to eight. The Activation Pool ability
appearing on the Battle Boards is ignored and has no effect
onthe game.
Any warband may include a second Warlord for 1pt. This
second Warlord doesn't benefit from the "We Obey" and
"Side by Side" special rules and may never be a Hero of
the Viking Age. lt is not considered as the Warlord of your
warband for the sake of scenario victory conditions, and is
only worth two victory points if ki lled.
Special scenario rules (scenarios not mentioned remain
unchanged):
Battleat the Ford: a third and fourth fords should be deployed.
Starting with the player that rolls the highest result on a D6
one player deploys a ford anywhere on the river. Players
alternate deploying fords, until all four have been deployed.
No ford may be deployed within IL of another ford.

The size of the table needs to be increased to 64" x 36".

Homeland: the Defender may deploy five bui ldings and not
three as described in the scenario.

Each player may only field a single Warlord. The maximum

number of SAGA dice a player gets at the start of its turn is
stilllimited to six.

The Escort: the escorting warband gets five baggage

elements. Victory conditions are unchanged.

Each turn, the Warlord may used his "Determination" and

" We Obey" special rules twice and not once as in a six points
standard game.
Special scenario rules (scenarios not mentioned remain
unchanged):
Battle at the Ford: a third ford should be deployed, exactly
in the middle of the table, at IL from the bridge and lL from
the ford.
Homeland: the Defender may deploy four buildings and not
three as described in the scenario.

The Escort: the Defender gets a fourth baggage. Victory

conditions are unchanged.

1'2 POJ[NT JB>ATTLE

The size of the t able needs to be in crea sed to 76" x 48".
Each piayer may field up to three Warlords. The fi rst is free as
usual, and the other two cost one point ea eh and may never
be Heroes of the Viking Age.
The maximum number of SAGA dice a player gets at the start
of its turn is now limited to eight.
One of the Warlord must be designated as the General.
lf a scenario mentions a Warlord as being the objective,
you should understand that the scenario speaks about the
General and not other " lesser" Warlords. NB All Warlords
enjoy all the Warlord special rules.
Special scenario rules (scenarios not mentioned remain
unchanged):
Battle at the Ford: a third and fourth fords should be deployed.
Starting with the player that rolls the highest result on a D6
one player deploys a ford anywhere on the river. Players
alternate deploying fords, until all four have been deployed.
No ford may be deployed within L of another ford.
Homeland: the Defender may deploy six buildings and not
three as described in the scenario.

The Escore the escorting warband gets six baggage pieces.

The escorting player needs to move out thr~e baggage
elements in order to win.

Discard one die to actvate

a unit ofHearthguard
or a Warlord.

Discard this die. Discard a

FATIGUE from your Warlord
and from all units within
Mofhim.

this die. At the end of

the melee, before any FATIGUE
is added or any unit disengages,
immediately resolve another
melee with the surviving figures.

Me lee
Discard this die to immediately
remove one FATIGUE from any
one of your units engaged in this
melee. Gain 1 Attack die.

Discard one die to actvate

a unit of Levies.

Discard this die to gain

3 Attack Dice (4 if the die
discarded was a

Discard these dice to

immediately remove from the
game one enemy unil ofWarriors
or Levies with 3 models or less.

'7 )

Activation/Reaction
Discard these dice when an enemy
unit is activated for Shooting.
Change that activation into a
Movement activation.

Discard one die to roll

two extra SAGA dice.

Discard this die and elimina te

up to three of your Warriors
or Hearthguard engaged in
this melee. Gain 3 Attack Dice
per figure removed (4 Attack Dice
if the discarded die was a

'7 ).

Shooting 1Reaction
Discard one die to gain one
Attack or Defence Die (two
Attack or Defence dice if the
discarded die was a

'7 )

Discard this die to gain one Armour

against this enemy Shooting activation.

these dice. AH enemy

Armour values are reduced by one
until the end of the turn.

Discard one die to actvate

a unit ofHearthguard
or a Warlord.

Discard this dieto re-roll

any of your SAGA dice
OR choose one SAGA die
and change the side of that die
to any symbol you want.

dilferent enemy units.

Activation 1Raction

Discard one die to actvate

a unit of Levies.

Discard one die to roll

two extra SAGA dice.

Discard this die to gain one

Attack or one Defence Die
( two dice if the discarded die
wasa e

After an opponent has spent dice

to actvate one or more units,
d iscard the die in thls box to
cancel the activation of one unit.

iscard these dice. You may

re-roll any of your Defence Dice
that failed to cancel a hit.

After the melee, if your opponent

was forced to disengage, roll one
D6 for each non-Warlord

Discard this die. Gan one Attack

Die. Gan also one additional
Attack Die for every FATIGUE
the cnemy unit(s) has {or have).

Discard these dice to increase the

Armour value of your unit by one.

Discard this die to target an enemy

Exhausted unit. Eliminate two
figures from that unit.
Then discard a FATIGUE from
that unit. You may not target a
Warlord with this ability.

Discard this die to add one

additional FATIGUE (after melee
resolution) to all enemy units
involved in this melee.

these dice to gain th ree

Dice. These three dice may be any
mix of Attack and Defense dice of
your choice. At the end of the melee.
each enemy unit involved takes an
additional two FATIGUE.

!
Discard ooe die to actvate
a unir of Hearthguard
or a Warlord.

Discard the dieto gain 3 Attack

Dice (4 Attack Dice if a
was discarded). May only
be used by a mounted uoit.
At the end of this melee,
add a FATIGUE to your unit.

Hi)

Discard this die. Until the end

ofyour turn, the range ofyour
bows is doubled (i.e. 2xlL).

Shooting

Discard one die to actvate

a unit ofLevies.

Discard one die to roll

two e.xtra SAGA dice.

Discard these dice to re-roll

any Attack Dice that failed
to hit the target.

these dice to immediately

activare all your units equiped
with ranged weapons.
They may o o!y Shoot with
this activation. No unit gaios
FATIGUE for this activation.

Discard this die. Activate a

mounted unit. If that unit
engages an enemy unit with
this activation, this enemy
unit immediately gains one
FATIGUE.

Discard this die. If your engaged

unit is mouoted and is fighting
a dismounted unit, immediately
eliminate one enemy Warrior
or two enemy Levies that are
engaged in this m elee.

Discard these dice. If you inflict

at least h'>'ice as many hits with your
unit than it sulfers in this melee,
each hit it scored against an enemy
uoit becomes t\vo hits.

Discard this die. Ifat the end of the

melee the enemy unit(s) are forced
to disengage, immediately activate
for a movement one of your
mounted units engaged in this melee.
This movement does not generate
any FATIGUE.

Activation
D iscard one die to gain
one Attack. Die ( two Attack
Dice if the discarded
die wasa Hi )

Discard these dice. Activate a mounted

unit for a movemeot This movement
gets an extra S movement distance and
can be freely made through friendly
models and units.

Discard these dice. Your Warlord

gains five Attack Dice and may
re-roll any failed to hit attack die.
Al the end of the melee, add three
FATIGUE to your Warlord.

CHILDREN
OF THE LAND
Discard one of these die
to actvate a unit of
Hearthguard ora Warlord.

Discard this die. During this

turn, all your foot units do not
suffer any movement reduction
for whatever reason.

Discard these dice in a

melee involving one of
your foot unit that has all its
models in uneven ground.
Gain 3 Attack Dice and
3 Defence Dice.

Activation 1Reaction
Discard this die when an enemy
foot unit is activated to r educe its
movement (from L to M,
M toS, Sto VS). You cannot
reduce a movement below VS.

this d ie and designate

an enemy unit that may not be
a Warlord. That unit is activated
for a movement. It must move
as close as possible to the closest
ofyour units, engaging it in melee
if possible.

Activation 1Reaction
Discard one die to actvate
a unit of Levies.

Discard this die when an enemy

unit is activated. Before the enemy
activation is resolved actvate one
your unit within M of the
activated e nemy unit. You may not
engage melee with this activation.

Discard these dice to actvate al!

your foot Warriors and Levies.
They may not engage melee with
this activation.

STRENGTH LIES
IN NUMBER
Discard one die to roll
two extra SAGA dice.

Discard this die. If you have more

models engaged in this melee than
enemy models, gain one Attack Die
per every friendly model tbat
outnumbers enemy models.

THE DE'ADLY
STRIKE
Discard one die to gain
one Attack Die (two Attack
Dice if the discarded
diewasa ~ )

Discard these dice.

Add between one and three
FATIGUE to one of your
engaged units. Gain one
Attack Die and one Defence Die
per FATIGUE added.

ANSWERING THE
CALL

Shooting
Discard this die. May only be used
when shooting "~th javelins. Reduce the
enemy Armour by one, and re-roll any
Attack Dice that fail to hit. At the end
of the Shooting add one FATIGUE
toyourunit

Discard these dice to actvate

your Warlord and al! units within JL
of him. Yo u m ay not engage melee
with these activations.