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Welcome to the site where the story of the battle is as important as the battle itself. Here we will focus on men thrust into extraordinary situations of life and death. They must lead other men with duty and honor to meet their countries objectives. Some will be blessed with great skill, some will carry great shortcomings. No matter what nation, no matter what war, no matter what theater, they are all called to move their Platoon or Squadron forward!

These are their individual stories as played out using my various campaign rules . Hopefully these stories will entertain and inspire you to use your own troops, airmen and sailors to accomplish your own great heroics.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Chariots in SAGA

Sorry for the delay in posting.    Real life has kept me busy.   Have gotten in a few games of Wing Leader and am still enjoying it.  Have been painting up some Picts for Saga.  [ for those of you that are waiting for modern stuff, I have on my table 3 East German T-55s but my first attempt at East German camouflage looks off so I am trying to figure out why.] 
Back to SAGA.  I wanted to incorporate chariots as more than just taxis.  Earlier in Britain and Gaul they gave the Romans some problems and they look cool.  In my reading it appears the light chariots would ride up and harrass the legions with javalins and this was very effective.  When both sides closed the primary would dismount and fight on foot.  If he needed to escape the chariot would magically arrive to wisk him away.  Caesar accounts that the chariots were good in all kinds of terrain and could charge up hills with ease.  Now before someone shouts, "ahistorical" may I remind you that SAGA currently has rules for packs of trained attack dogs!  My thoughts on rules for chariots with SAGA:
1.  Costs 1 point and you get an elite unit of 4 chariots.  They are armed with javelins but are trained in melee as well.  They move as mounted units but suffer no adverse affects from uneven terrain similar to camels.  A warband is limited to 1 unit of chariots.
2.  AC is 5 for shooting and Melee.
3. They generate 2 dice in melee and 1 for shooting.  If they shoot the target unit will automatically sustain 1 fatigue regardless of casualty generation ( or not).  [ This simulates their tactics of softening up the Romans with javelins which apparently was unnerving.]
4.  If the chariots disengage from melee they get to move "L".

So... how did it go?

5 point battle with Picts engaging the Romans at the edge of a settlement.  Also wanted to use my Maniballista.  Here I changed a rule so it activates as an elite unit but takes 3 fatigue to exhaust as do all units. ( SAGA v2)

Star of the show for today!  4 chariots is too crowded so each stand counts as 2.

Co-star of the show.  Rocks are my fatigue markers. 
Picts advance while the Roman cavalry move up to try to neutralize the chariots. 
With the Romans jittery the Picts attack.  they are slightly embarrassed that their bases aren't painted yet.  The result is mutual destruction.

The Roman Calvary drive off the chariots; destroying one.  [ actually the soldiers are dismounting here to fight but it is more practical to just leave the chariots on the table.]

Unfortunately for the Romans, the Pictish horsemen are fresh and destroy the Romans! 

The Romans are now left with one group of legionaires (warriors) some skirmishers and their cool big crossbow.  ( which actually did well as it was able to fire at the advancing Picts because we gave it a good long field of fire.}  The Picts still have 3 chariots which can run circles around the legion, horsemen and 1 group of warriors...

This is not good!!!



I thought the game played well.  SAGA is always fun; it clearly is a game not a simulation. My modern squads would love to have the command and control that my SAGA commander has.   Since I know little about the dark ages it doesn't bother me. 
I think the chariot rules worked well and they are not too strong.  I like that they generate the fatigue as it is different and I believe it reflects what occurred.  Once you get them in melee they are nothing special.  Couple more plays will tell.  If anyone else uses these rules please give me some feedback.

Promise I will get to either Europe or Iraq soon!

Enjoy

Joe



 




2 comments:

  1. Not sure that it works.

    Basically you took a unit of mounted hearthguard with javelins. Then you eliminated all of their negatives ie. no down 1 for being shot at, no penalties for uneven terrain. Finally you gave them a big bonus of adding a fatigue against anything they hit in shooting. By putting a fatigue on the opposing unit that makes the chariots armor effectively a 6. Yet this super unit of Hearthguard is still pointed the same as any other hearthguard.

    Maybe give each chariot 3 attack dice in melee and 2 shooting dice, but only use the two chariots. This makes then tough but very brittle as they only take 2 hits to destroy.

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  2. I like your suggestion of dropping it to a 2 figure unit. Will try that. I disagree that placing fatigue makes their armor effectively a "6". In the above game they were attacked by the roman cavalry; their armor remained at "5".
    Thanks
    Joe

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