Pagan Rus Tactica

The Pagan Rus are going to be the first faction I try to 'master' in SAGA v2 so I thought I would get some of my thoughts so far on the battle board down in the hope that this may crystalize the play style in my mind. Whilst I haven't managed to play a game this week I did host one for my brother and our friend John as a pre-football entertainment ( come on you Reds ! ).

Don't copy this, support a great ruleset and buy the books !

The new battleboards have the same layout as the Crescent & Cross boards with the multi-use abilities ( now called basic abilities ) above the name bar and the single use ( now called advanced ) abilities below the name. One mistake that got through the proofing stage is that the Levies should be called Slavs not Slaves.
In general the board retains the battlefield controlling abilities of v1 and adds an interesting mechanic for generating attack & defence dice. The boards big weakness is in shooting reaction / defence and the Pagan Rus look as though they will struggle to deal with mobile shooting based opponents.
The central mechanic for generating attack and defence dice is based on using the Wrath of the East ability. This requires a common and uncommon dice to activate and the Rus player will be looking to use this every turn they are going to be initiating a combat.

As an Orders ability it can only be used in your own turn and does not last into your opponent's turn, so you will need to rely on other abilities to generate dice then. The ability itself is a good way to generate extra attack and defence dice whilst using your melee abilities and of course also generates dice if your opponent changes your armour during the melee. One big change in SAGA v2 is that there is no limit to the number of defence dice you can generate so having lots of defence dice to roll is a great way of keeping your unit alive.

Vikings vs Ango-Danes Demo Game

Playing off Wrath of the East the Rus have three Melee abilities that change the armour value of the unit(s) in combat, Black Bears, White Wolves, & Blood Feud. You can also of course use your opponents fatigue to change your armour and they may also play a Melee ability that changes your armour. Each time that happens you get 2 attack & 2 defence dice, yummy !
The cheapest way to change your armour twice is to use Blood Feud and then Black Bears a combination that can be played for only 2 common dice and if used on Warriors nets you 4 attack & 4 defence dice for the cost of 3 dice ( can be a mix of attack & defence ) and leaves your opponent with one less armour. The order you play the abilities in is important due to the amount of attack/defence dice Black Bears costing you depending on your armour when the ability is played. White Wolves is slightly more expensive but comes with the bonus of generating attack & defence dice of its own as well as those generated by Wrath of the East. 
If you imagine a unit of eight Hearthguard starting with armour 5 and 16 attack dice who use White Wolves ( armour 4 and 22 AD & 6 DD ) then Blood Feud  ( armour 3 and 24 AD & 8 DD ) and then Black Bears ( armour 4 and 24 AD & 9 DD, used 2 AD & 1 DD for Black Bears ) and then if your opponent has any fatigue you can not only raise your armour but also gain attack & defence dice. The result of this should be that not only can you wipe out the enemy you charged but also you should be able to mitigate many of the hits coming back at you.

Khagan! looks to be an ability that will be easier to get off when you are on the defensive with it's range limit, but it is a cheap way to generate 3 attack/defence dice so leaving it to be used in your opponent's turn may be its best use.
In v1 The Long Winter was an infamous ability as it reduced everyone's movement and shooting range to 4" in both the Rus's and their opponents turn, basically turning the game into a slow grind. The new version is much better and whilst allowing units to move at full speed reduces the range at which the Rus's units can be engaged down to 6". This means that it is more likely that enemies will end up being in charge range after their turn and more effort will need to be put into dancing around a Rus army. Blizzard allows you to choose a unit at the end of opponents Orders phase that cannot be charged with a single activation by a unit more that 4" away, basically the chosen unit counts as if it is 2" within rough ground, bad news for your opponent if they have a cavalry army without shooting.

This leaves two abilities that allow you to mess with your opponent and one that I cannot see getting massive use. Frozen Wind is the only way the Rus can add fatigue to the enemy without going into melee and gets better the more your opponent groups up, this should encourage them to try and spread out a little so you may be able to use it to isolate units. Also as it is played during your opponent's Orders phase before they start activations it can be used to slow them down and force them to come even closer to be sure of getting in charge range / stop them from moving away as far.
Biting Cold allows you to lock down a unit once it has been activated for a move, charge. or shot, the unit gets to have one activation and then no more for the rest of your opponent's turn. If your opponent is planning on a big attack with one unit using a multiple activation then this will shut that down. If however you opponent has left themselves with a couple of units that could be activated to cause havoc then you can only shut one of them down.
The Pack looks like a very situational ability and not one you will be playing most games as Pagan Rus. Using a rare dice which would probably be better on White Wolves to get the fatigue loss bonus it also requires you to have units clumped up close to an enemy to get a decent amount of shooting dice so you may as well charge in and everyone knows the Gods do not smile on those who choose to fight from afar.

Overall the Pagan Rus player will be looking to get into melee and avoid a shooting match and once their they will rely on generating lots of attack and defence dice via armour value manipulation to not only cause damage but also to try and avoid losses.
Warband composition is something I'm still thinking about but I can see myself going for large units of Warriors to start off with, perhaps only using 1 point of Hearthguard to act as bodyguards for the Warlord and then 5 points of Warriors. A unit of 10 Warriors could get to armour 3, 17 AD, & 9 DD by using the big three armour changing abilities and still get better if the opponent has fatigue, not something to be taken lightly.