Habeo Id! Review of SAGA's Crescent & The Cross

Salvete,

Inspired by the accounts of the Crusade, I am here to offer up a little Latin and my first thoughts on the newly arrived copy of The Crescent & The Cross.

Quick Reference Sheet

The quick reference sheet is useful, but it should have been two sided.  That would have made it less "quick" I realize, but enough special units and new rules have been added to C & C.  Barring that, printing it on the same cardstock as the Battle Boards would also have been nice.

The Battle Boards

Six high quality boards on slightly heavier stock than SAGA's early releases.  All feature a parchment style background, but each faction has a unique iconic image in the bottom corner.  The Spanish have a helmet and crossbow, and the Saracens a jeweled dagger, for example.

The Book

Production Quality: - A nicely bound hardcover printed on quality paper stock.  The color printing is vibrant, but without the glare of a cheap magazine.  As with many recent game rules, a good portion of the pages are composed of generously sized pictures of miniatures.  This does increase the page count and production costs, raising the price of a not-inexpensive book even higher.  I am fine with this overall, for enough of the pictures are play examples.  The quality of the writing is much improved from early SAGA releases, with their the typos and translation difficulties. A humorous tone is maintained throughout, reminding the reader that this is a fun game, and not a serious simulation.

The Rules - The rules look like the SAGA we know and love, with the addition of a new narrator Hashim ibn Khalid ibn Abad.  Our old friend Ragnar shows up, most often when there is an addition or deviation from the previous rule set. One such addition I noted was the inclusion of the Priest.  Priests can be included with your Warlord, or they can be played as your Warlord.  Furthermore, there are three different types of priests to choose from.  This, along with the Dogs of War and weapon options allows players to customize their warband into their own thing.  With old SAGA, you knew what to expect if you were going against the Vikings, the Normans, the Welsh, etc.  With C & C, you might know the abilities of your Crusader opponent, but how about if your Crusader opponent was led by a warrior-priest with a troubadour, along with a unit of Turcopoles?  Something to think about.
     I really cannot criticize the rule changes or additions in C & C yet, especially without a fair number of play-throughs. The rules look good, and the success of SAGA should be assurance that QA is even tighter. What was missing or needed? I can see a case made for a campaign system, and this would have been the ideal time to release it.  However, those rules could be in a future expansion (you know they are coming) and I don't really hear a demand for it, at least from my small circle of fellow gamers.

The Factions - The layout and explanations are much improved.  The Legends choices are good, and I have to love El Cid and Rachid al Din (The Old Man of the Mountain).  The inclusion of some are a bit perplexing. Saladin is very well known of course, but if he was included, why wasn't Richard the Lionhearted?  Both probably should have been saved for a Third Crusade expansion.

Dogs of War - Bedouin scouts, Daylami, Foreign Mercenaries, Turcomans, Turcopoles, Naffata, Fanatical Pilgrims and the Troubadour.  So many options, so few miniatures.

Scenarios - disappointed in the lack of a proper siege scenario.  In the Crusades, fortresses, whether large or small, were an integral part of many battles.  An official siege scenario could have answered a lot of questions - does the defender get fewer points? How is scaling a wall accomplished?

The Dice - while not included with the book, two new sets of dice for the six factions were also released. Again, the fine folks at Studio Tomahawk released image files on their forum for those of us who prefer to homebrew our dice. Here are mine, with the images printed in color on waterslide paper on white dice.

Custom Dice Kickstarter

I am fairly cautious on the Kickstarter craze, having gone in for about 8 projects in two years, with good results on all but one.  This one with a few days remaining caught my attention and I decided to go in for it:

Custom Game Dice on Kickstarter

OK, if you dropped over and came back, you'll see that the creator plans to allow backers to submit image files and share those image files with other users.  Having made a few custom dice sets for SAGA using decals, the plan is to convert those into actual engraved dice.

I do have some concerns about the project.  Having done a small amount of graphics work, inexperienced users will have some problems in designing custom images. This could severely delay the project creator if he has to deal with numerous individual issues. Nonetheless,bringing on demand manufacturing to dice is a great idea and I hope it is successful.

So, if anyone's backing the Custom Game Lab Dice on Kickstarter, I am planning on creating the set of dice below for my planned Tang/Song Dynasty SAGA battleboard.  I've backed enough for multiple sets, so I might do a giveaway through the blog.

The three common symbols (1-3) are "soldier," the less common symbol is "sword" and the rare symbol (6) is "heavenly."

The nomads of the steppes spanned thousands of miles, from Eastern Europe to China, and frequently came into conflict with civilized (as in settled, not moral) society.  Similar problems create similar solutions, and the response of the Byzantines to nomadic incursions mirrored what China had already been doing.  Namely, play nomads against each other, co-opt their tactics (horse archery) and create mobile frontier armies.  My Chinese battleboard will basically be based on my old custom Byzantine board with a few changes to reflect Chinese medieval armies - such as the prevalence of crossbows.

Keep an eye out, and I will get the board out in early summer, as soon as I paint up some Essex and Assault Group figures sitting in my lead mountain.

New App Recommendation & Other Updates

While there has not been a great deal of posting lately here at Sea Kings and Horse Warriors, I promise I have been busy.  In late July, my armies of El Cid era Spain added 10 Andalusian cavalry, 25 Sudanese spearmen, a dozen slingers and some various Christian knights.

On the terrain front, I have built a stone Norman tower and most of a large Spanish church, both from Hirst Art blocks.  A lot of plaster has been poured in my garage recently.  Other terrain projects that have been completed are two farm houses, 4 lengths of wattle fencing and a small vegetable field. I will post some photos, but the Dullcote is drying slow in the rainy and humid South.

I have never reviewed or recommended a phone/tablet app, but this particular app seemed interesting.  I have never been a user of digital dice apps, preferring the primitive satisfaction of tossing the magical plastic onto a wood table, but at 50% off, Prime Dice D & D pro was in the impulse buy price range.  Of course, it has all of the D & D multisided dice, which can be rolled in various quantities and combinations.  Tapping on a single die rerolls that dice only.  It also supports multiple tables, so two players can roll their dice quickly by swiping horizontally from one background to the other.  There are some good stock backgrounds (pictured) but custom or personal backgrounds can also be loaded.  Even better, the dice themselves can be customized.  I immediately thought of the possibilities of story dice for my kids - loading images of dragons, castles, spaceships or dinosaurs. My first experiment was to create some virtual SAGA dice:

While not very practical (how can I put them on a battleboard?), I can see using the custom dice features in SAGA and other mini games for things such as random weather effects, civilian or livestock actions and other scenario specific situations.  

Prime Dice at the Google Play Store 

El Cid and King Alfonso VI

I thought the parallels between El Cid and King Alfonso effectively paralleled the often contentious relationship between the dukes of Normandy and their lords, the kings of France. The quickest and easiest way to get these two leaders of Spain into SAGA was to use current battleboards. El Cid and his great cavalry seemed a good match for the Norman battleboard. King Alfonso VI, who outmaneuvered his brothers and brought the force of Spain upon the fractured taifa kingdoms, should play the Frankish battleboard. To preserve game balance, El Cid and King Alfonso's abilities are closely modeled on William the Bastard and Charlemagne.  

Norman dice made for King Alfonso's Spanish warband

El Cid

Like many great heroes of the Dark Ages, there is much we do not know about the life of Rodrigo Diaz and what is known has become entangled with legend. The hero of the Poema de Mio Cid (The Lay of the Cid) was a valiant warrior whose tragic flaw was being right when his king was wrong. While more realistic in tone than many medieval epics, the Lay of the Cid has the protagonist and capturing lions barehanded. Historically, Rodrigo was certainly a great warrior who was respected by both Christians and Muslims in eleventh century Spain.  He also had a great many enemies, and was dismissed by some as a mercenary with little loyalty or conviction.  

  

He was born in 1143 or a bit later, in the village of Vivar, not far from the town of Burgos. This was during the reign of King Ferdinand, who united most of Spain before his death in 1065, and the division of his kingdom among his sons Sancho, Alfonso and Garcia.  As the son of a nobleman, Rodrigo was raised to fulfill the duties of a king's man on the frontier.  While in his teens, Rodrigo became attached to the household of Sancho and rose to the position of alferez, or armiger (Latin), the trainer of Sancho’s household troops.  He served Sancho for six years, until the King was killed outside of Zamora.  Sancho’s murder possibly involved his sister Urraca, as well as his exiled brother Alfonso.

After Alfonso’s ascension to the throne of Castile and Leon, Rodrigo took a position in his court, though not one as high as in Sancho’s administration.  After his unwelcome obstruction of a Christian led raid in a Muslim kingdom, Rodrigo was exiled by Alfonso.  He quickly took up employ in the court of al-Mu'taman of Zaragoza.    

Rodrigo later returned to the service of Alfonso, but his fame and independence made him a difficult vassal to the king.  Rodrigo later took the city of Valencia, and for the last years of his life, held the realm as an independent sovereign.    

Hero of the Reconquista: as a hero of Castile, Rodrigo generates three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, instead of the usual two for other Warlords.

Duelist: As a frequent champion for his lord, Rodrigo was a master of single combat.  When engaging in melee with another Warlord, El Cid gains an extra attack die, allowing him to fight with six attack dice, rather than the five of other Warlords.

Campeador: As a recognized leader of men, El Cid can attract a variety of units to his warband. Any Warriors or Hearthguard units in Rodrigo’s warband may have bows.  Bow equipped Warriors and Hearthguard have an armour characteristic reduced by one (bow equipped Warriors have an Armour of 3 and bow-equipped Hearthguards have an Armour of 4) due to their lack of protection.  These models may be fielded as Christian or Muslim, and generate SAGA dice as any other unit.  


Alfonso VI

The second of three sons, Alfonso inherited the heartland of his father's kingdoms. An uneasy peace existed between the three brothers, but when their mother died in 1071, open warfare broke out.  At first, Sancho and Alfonso allied together and split Garcia's lands of Galicia and Portugal.  After turning on each other, Sancho defeated Alfonso and exiled him to Seville.  While dealing with an uprising in Zamora (not far from Seville, it should be noted), Sancho was murdered and Alfonso took the throne, declaring himself emperor of Spain in 1077.

Alfonso was a strong and effective ruler, and although he was dedicated to the reconquest of Spain, he did not believe in persecuting his Muslim subjects. He also cultivated close ties with France and brought to Spain Cluniac monks to standardize religious practices and rites. He died in 1109, leaving no male heir.
Hero of the Reconquista As the heir of his father Ferdinand and ruler of Spain, Alfonso must lead a Spanish warband and generates three SAGA dice at the start of each turn, (not two as other Warlord).  Alfonso may be represented as either mounted or on foot.  Any warband led by Alfonso must include at least one point of mounted Hearthguard.

King of Castile and Leon: Alfonso only generates four Attack Dice in melee and not five as other Warlords. His subjects expect him to lead the army, not exchange blows with the enemy.  While recognized as a capable warrior in his own right, he may not voluntarily engage in melee combat with enemy unless accompanied by friendly units.

Charisma: When Alfonso uses his We Obey special rule, he may activate up to three friendly units (if on foot) or two friendly units (if mounted).  The range of his activation is extended to M, and not S as with other Warlords.  

Alfonso, from Crusader Miniatures, warriors from Gripping Beast

In a few days, a battle report El Cid v. Alfonso will be posted, along with my reactions from my first play-through on the Frank's battleboard. 

SAGA Dice Redux

After painting a box of Conquest Norman infantry some Song Chinese crossbowmen last week, I have been giving my increasingly older eyes some rest. So I played a game of SAGA (Normans v. Saxons) and a new card game with my eight year old daughter. In Timeline, players are dealt a certain number of cards, and must discard all of their cards by placing them on the table in the correct order.  As more cards are correctly discarded, the complexity of the timeline increases.

The enthusiasm my daughter has shown for the game was very rewarding, and its a great way to teach  the history of technology.

I also stripped off the paper stickers from my homebrew SAGA dice and replaced them with waterslide decals in color.

Overall, the look is much better than the black and white versions, although a few dice faces show some fuzziness, either from too thin a sealer on the waterslide paper, or too much submersion in water before applying.  

Dice Decal Giveaway

I have made a big pile of custom dice lately, and ended up with some extra sheets of decals.  Therefore, as a way of both saying thanks and avoiding waste, I am giving away six sets (three Byzantine, three Skraeling) on a first come, first serve basis.  Each sheet has enough decals to make 4 dice, blank dice not included.

Just be a subscriber to  my blog, and post a comment indicating which one you prefer.  I will respond back by email to get addresses.  I will probably be creating some new decals in a couple of months, so expect another giveaway of extras then.

Printing and Finishing Custom Dice

My previous homebrew SAGA dice have been printed on decal paper or on regular paper and affixed with spray adhesive.  I am now working on something a little more professional looking, waterslide decals.  This paper can be obtained fairly reasonably from a variety of sources, I found mine on eBay years ago for a guitar related project. At any rate, I have about a dozen sheets left, great for a variety of uses.

I create my custom pictures using a freeware program calked PhotoFiltre, or use the image files on the Studio Tomahawk forum.  The SAGA community should be really thankful that the game designers have opened so much of the game up to fan experimentation.

I tried to put as many decals as I could on a page.  The decal paper is not very expensive, but I hate to waste space, and I could always make extra dice for friends I am trying to hook on SAGA.

Spray the printed sheet with a glossy sealer, let dry for several hours.

Carefully clip and dip your decals in a cup of water for about 30 seconds.  You want the decal to slide off the paper and onto the surface of the die. Too much submersion and most of the adhesive is leached away, too little and the decal will not come loose from the backing.

SAGA Dice for Woodland Indians or "Skraelings"

Finally, I sprayed the gloss sealer on the dice, a couple of coats to get all the sides.  All together, it is not terribly expensive to produce a set of dice this way, but it is time consuming.  Of course, one could always use regular d6, but without getting too pretentious, part of the appeal of rolling dice in general and SAGA dice in particular is its connection to ancient ritual behavior.  The earliest dice to prehistoric and ancient men were "knucklebones," or the anklebones of livestock or hoofed game like deer.  Symbols and runes were marked on the sides for use in shamanistic rituals...or mostly gambling.  Symbol dice seem to carry greater significance than just a number of dots.   

SAGA dice for the Scots faction

New Dice Symbols

Woodland Indian dice symbols added to the Downloads page for use with Skraelings.  My next custom battleboard will be Woodland Indians later this summer.

The official SAGA battleboard for Skraelings is fun and unique with its use of imitation and elimination of your opponent's abilities, but what if two Indian warbands face each other?  More traditional shooting and melee  abilities will be necessary.