Starting a new Saga: Age of Magic faction

I’m no expert when it comes to Saga but I think there’s a lot to love about this brilliant skirmish game. I started playing the fantasy version (Age of Magic) after the pandemic as a result of having a bunch of interesting miniatures painted up, but no specific game in mind with which to use them.

There are a couple of things that really appeal to me about the game. The first is that it’s very different to the sort of games I usually play where every unit will get to do something every turn. The second is probably the more important, for me, the game has a mere 6 factions, that somehow manage to cover just about every fantasy faction ever created. It’s an impressive feat, and one that I’ve only recently been getting my head around as I realise I can use the same army list to run Dwarfs, Goblins and anthropomorphic rats.

Not surprisingly a lot of the decisions about how the factions get represented on the table come down to players, as there are no official miniature lines. I think this can sometimes be a bit of a double-edged sword as being able to do whatever you want can sometimes be as much of a challenge as hating a model range that supports a faction that interests you narratively.

Through playing a few games with my initial force I’ve arrived at a bit of an impasse. There are different units I want to explore, but I can’t find a way to represent them that fits with the aesthetic of the bulk of the army. So, I decided to have a root around and see if there was something I could throw together for the event in November.

After a bit of mixing and matching I think I’ve found something I’m excited about. There are a number of Games Workshop models I have that I really love, but don’t often get to use. Predominantly these are Stormcast models that have come out very nicely through the painting process, although a few demons and some Fireforge knights have also made the mix.

Models found I then had a good think about the faction that would accommodate these miniatures. After a lot of thought I have gone for The Otherworld, which I would interpret as a demon faction, however because the game is so beautifully open there is no reason it couldn’t represent angels instead which is a great fit for my centre piece model.

The absolute best thing about the list I’ve put together is that there isn’t much to be done in the painting department, although some basing is required to bring the faction together, and then there is the narrative. Currently there are a few ideas in the mix, but for now I’ll leave to with a shot of the warband in it’s current state and check back in when it’s all done (hopefully before November).