SAGA - The Irish

This week Stuart popped over for a game of SAGA and to give his Irish a run out. This would be his second SAGA game and the first time either of us had used the Irish. As he has already rushed to press with a report I thought I would have a quick look at the Irish board and offer a few thoughts. This also allows me to spot the things that we played incorrectly.
An initial bit of advice would be that when playing a board new to both players it is probably wise that they both have a copy as often two sets of eyes and minds are better than one.

The Irish Board. Support SAGA and buy it!

The v1 Irish board as considered to be very strong and the popular 'Internet' opinion is the the v2 board is still rather good. The unique selling point for the Irish is the ability to purchase 2 Curaidh Heroes for 1 point who can benefit from some of the abilities on the board.

The Irish HG & Levy with a Hero

The main ability the Curaidh tie into that saw use is The Old Way that allows you to activate as many units as you have Heroes with a single dice as long as that unit has a melee armour of 3 or less. This means you can activate your Warriors or Levy, so a Levy heavy army is a real possibility with the Irish.
They also can make use of Blood Of Kings and Irish Hearts both of which bolster the Resilience of the Hero allowing them to charge in and create havoc. As Blood of Kings also lasts through the opponents turn it can also protect against a counter attack.

Irish Warriors & Hero

An Irish player will want as much uneven terrain out as possible due to the defensive bonus that Spirits of the Land gives and also the threat that Sons of Dana provides. The wording for Sons of Dana is interesting in that it only applies to units that moved with Short of the terrain so charging into range does not allow the ability to be activated, also standing still or resting does not allow it to be activated. This is an important limitation on the ability especially in games like Holy Ground that require you to occupy an area that is often uneven ground. It should also be noted that no other abilities can be used with Sons of Dana so it will always be 4 attack dice.

The Two Sides Clash

One thing the Irish can bring in large amounts is shooting and setting up Sidhe on a unit which can then be subject to concentrated fire gives the potential for large amounts of casualties. Making use of the firepower of the Warlord who generates 4 attack dice on his own along with the Fir Bolg ability to turn 5's & 6's into two hits ( on a target with Sidhe ) means units can easily generate 7 attack dice with the potential to cause upto 14 hits, ouch !

Warlord Stuart in Action

As far as melee is concerned the Irish options are pretty slim with all the abilities being concentrated on defence rather than offense. Moment of Truth is a powerful defensive ability against armies that require several Melee abilities to be used to reach full potential. Thinking of the Pagan Rus who need to chain 3 abilities together to get the most out of a melee this would severely limit the combat effectiveness of a Pagan Rus charge. The downside is the cost of 1 rare on a board that has several good abilities that need one as well.

The Pagan Rus Pork Chop Hill

One thing the board lacks is a reaction ability that lets you keep your enemies at distance which can be found on others boards like the Normans or Welsh. This means that in theory the Irish are more likely to be on the receiving end of a charge or shooting attack than some other shooting heavy armies.
I could see the Irish having more of a struggle against mounted armies which are happy to charge in unless they get a good terrain deployment to channel the enemy into areas where fire can be concentrated. Sons of Dana would add an extra terror for mounted troops trying to get around and past uneven terrain and Heirs of Mil would mean the opponent would have to end a move within Short of a unit in uneven terrain they wanted to charge or shoot and thus open up a Sons of Dana shot.

Irish HG Advance

During our game the Irish won out though a few factors did go in their favour especially when I managed to roll no common dice for two turns which meant I could only activate one unit of Warriors via We Obey in an army fielding 5 points of Warriors. We also played The Old Way incorrectly making it even better than it already is.

The Irish Press Onwards

The key to playing the Irish would seem to be taking the Heroes out of the game early on ( As Ragnar suggests ) to limit the use of The Old Way which then forces the Irish to spend dice on moving which of course leaves them less dice to spend on other abilities. The other thing to keep in mind is trying to limit the influence that areas of uneven terrain have on the game, in this instance hills are your friends and using them to create areas clear of uneven terrain helps out.

Rus Warlord Absorbs Concentrated Fire

Overall it was a good game and it is always nice to mix up the armies & generals you face and it was good to see all painted armies on the table.
Now to put my thinking cap on for the next time !