SAGA age of magic from studio Tomahawk breaks with the traditional historical setting of the saga universe and allows gamers to explore a more fantasy based battlefield using the saga rules. Those of you like myself who have been fans of the game for many years will have undoubtably seen fan made versions of battle boards for orcs and elves etc. This however is a supported book and introduces battle boards and dice. More importantly it introduces freedom to imagine.
The game is set in wherever you want it to be set and the factions can be interpreted very freely. This allows gamers a sandbox production of armies. You can also use old fantasy armies that have been gathering dust. The six factions in the book represent a range of themes and allow for monsters and magic.
For example, I have many dwarfs sat idle on my gaming shelf. A quick flick though the pages and I find The Masters of the underearth. A faction of miners or cave dwellers that use war machines. This would be ideal. I could also use it for rat men or goblin models. I could also find a home for my undead models in the cunningly titles The undead legions. My wood elves would fit in well with the lords of the wild and my chaos could match the otherworld well. This Is just a tiny example of the flexibility within the book.
The game works well with eight point lists and allows multiple options when list building. With a choice of sorcerers, monsters and war machines to match the normal options a list can be fielded in many styles.
The book also brings magic to the table to allow extra flexibility with a 6 lore’s. A player can chose between a number defined by the faction and will be allowed to select spells to best compliment their army or playstyle.
So for an example I decided to make an eight point list using the other world list.
I chose a warlord which I upgraded to the special character The arch demon. This also allows me some magic for the domain of Energy magic
I have a sorcerer. This will allow me some more magic from the domain of Energy and some from the domain of death
I cannot go without a monster of some sort in this list so I select a Behemoth and also some Quadruped creatures
I get 2 points of heath-guard which are represented by my pink horrors
Finally I finish the list with two points of warriors.
This is a simple list that I feel plays to the strengths of the army and the magic it can take. It also shows how old models from other systems can easily be adapted to fit with the book. There is also a growing range of minis from our good friends at Gripping beast.
Although this game is not really adaptable with regular saga books. I’m sure a home rule set would be able to merge the two systems for a fun game. However I would not expect to see them mixed outside the home for balance reasons.
All in all I enjoy Age of magic as much as the other systems. I would love to hear how other people have adapted models for the game and even see a few battle reports.
Mercian Explorer 