SAGA: Graeculi

 Over the last few weeks I've been playing as Syracusan Greeks against Mr T's Romans. These offer a different playstyle to the Carthaginians and rely mostly upon infantry in the open making use of Phalanx abilities. Units in uneven terrain cannot make use of Phalanx so you need to be careful with the terrain deployment otherwise you severely limit the power of the battle board.

Being able to activate multiple units for one dice is always good in SAGA so Implacable Advance is nice for the Greeks, as it gives you the option to move or charge. The caveat of this moves/charges all being in open terrain does slightly limit it's uses but as you want to stay in the open anyway it's not a massive disadvantage. 

The board does give the Greek general multiple ways of building a good defence in melee and Hammer & Anvil allows you to build on a solid defence. It is best used to absorb an enemy attack when they hopefully burn all their dice and then charge a fresh unit into that fatigued by the combat.

If you are lucky enough for an enemy to charge a unit near your Hearthguard block then you can unleash your main hammer unit when the enemy is least prepared to take a charge.

The board also offers ways to keep your levy skirmishers in the game when they may look like easy pickings. I didn't initially have any javelinmen painted up for the Greeks but in order to use these abilities I ordered some Victrix models and quickly painted them up.

Thureos is a nice little surprise for your opponent as they will need to re-roll all those lovely high scores, as you start with an armour of 4 for the levy javelinmen then this should save you a good few wounds.

If you manage to combine it with Aspis then you should have a really hardy block of infantry. Extra defence dice is always nice but being able to save on a 4 by closing ranks should make them into a decent anvil. You can't combine this with Hammer & Anvil as the levy cannot gain Phalanx but it is good for holding up a flank.

The Greeks don't have any abilities which allow you to cancel enemy activations but they do get one which allows you to give a unit Resilience (1) and also Wall of Pikes. This ability encourages you to keep your Warrior and Hearthguard infantry close together in order to cancel the maximum possible number of wounds. You should enjoy the look of disgust in your enemies eyes when they manage to sneak some wounds past your defences only to have them cancelled out. Combining this with Hammer & Anvil is a good move.

The Greeks do lack a few things from the battle board, most obvious is a way to cancel enemy activations and also shooting reaction for anyone who isn't infantry armed with javelins. You want to get into combat with the enemy and after absorbing the best they can give hit them back in their turn. You do get another ability (Hubris) which allows you to charge a unit which was a defender in a melee after the melee is over. That gives you up to 2 charges in the enemy turn, again these are best made once your opponent has burnt their dice. They also lack any ability to remove fatigue so you need to be careful not to let is build up too much.