Jomsvikings – SAGA Abilities

Analysis and learnings’ from the JomsVikings’ battle board and SAGA Abilities

Twelfth in my series, the others I have done so far are.

• Carolingian Franks
• Anglo Saxons
• Vikings
• Anglo Danes
• Welsh
• IRISH
• Normans
• Scots
• Last Romans
• Pagan Rus
• Norse-Gaels

Carrying on with the original format for these we start with –

Quick Overview of Faction

So what can we take with Jomsvikings as a warband.

They also have the choice of 2 Legendary Units – Sigvaldi Strut-Haraldsson and Vagin Axxesson

Both are replacement warlords

SAGA Abilities

So onto the battle board.

Basic SAGA Abilities

The JomsVikings unlike the majority of battle boards in the Age of Vikings only have 2 basic abilities which activate units based on unit type e.g. hero, hearth guard or Warriors. As they don’t have levies there isn’t one to activate levies.

These 2 basic activation abilities are –

• JOMSVIKINGS – Activate a hero, or a unit of hearth guards
• DRENG – Activate a unit of warriors

They also have APPEAL TO THE GODS – this is also an ACTIVATION phase ability – it also introduces the Joms Vikings unique element – WRATH (See page 88 of Age of Vikings for intro to Wrath). It allows the player to spend 1-3 WRATH tokens, for each token spent the player takes one of their available SAGA dice, roll it and place it on your battle board.

COMBAT BONUS

The Joms Viking have a twist on the standard COMBAT BONUS in that you can either gain a mix of attack and defence dice totalling up to 2, or 1 WRATH token – the twist is that the opponent decides.

ACTIVATION POOL FURY OF THE PAGANS

So the Joms Vikings do not get an Activation Pool instead they have FURY OF THE PAGANS, this for the cost of 1 SAGA dice allows you to activate up to 3 of your units, each of these can be cancelled by your opponent if they give you 1 Wrath Token.

Advanced SAGA Abilities

As with all the Age of Vikings battle boards there are 10 Advanced SAGA Abilities.

• 5 are triggerable during a Melee activation,
• 3 is triggerable during the Activation Phase
• 2 are triggerable during a Shooting/Reaction activation,
• 0 is triggerable during the Orders/Reaction Phase,
• 1 are triggerable during the Activation/Reaction Phase
• 0 are triggerable during a Shooting activation,
• 1 are triggerable during the Orders Phase,

So no Order/Reaction or Shooting abilities.

Lets take the most prevalent first, Melee abilities.

ARMOUR OF THE PAGANS – this can also be taken as a Shooting/Reaction – when activated your opponent – yes you read that right – your opponent choses if your units armour increases by 1 or you gain 2 wrath tokens.

HOLMGANG – when you activate this you can choose to spend 1 to 6 Wrath Tokens, for each you spend you gain 1 attack or defence tie, and your opponent discards a die of the same type.

PAGAN FAITH – this is also a Shooting/Reaction, again your opponent chooses , you either get 3 attack or defence dice or 2 Wrath tokens. If you used the Rare symbol you get to activate this twice.

JOMSBORG! – this is another chance to spend 1 to 6 Wrath tokens, for each token spent you can re-roll 2 dice during the melee. You can choose either attack or defence dice to reroll.

HAMMER OF THOR – this ability can only be activated for hero’s. It is another chance to spend Wrath tokens – this time between 1 and 4 – for each spent you can either inflict an extra hit on the enemy or cancel a casualty suffered on your Hero – the rub here is – all tokens must be spent the same way and you cannot mix and match the effects.

Lets see the abilities triggerable during the Activation phase

A STORM RISES – this is another chosen by your opponent – and they either let you remove a fatigue from 1 or 2 separate units or gain 2 Wrath tokens.

NORDIC TEMPEST – your opponent chooses either to resolve a shooting action against an enemy unit with 3 additional attack dice, or gain 2 Wrath tokens. During the shooting action no additional SAGA abilities can be triggered.

SONG OF STEEL – time to spend Wrath tokens – between 1 and 6 – for each token spent you get to activate, fatigue free, one friendly unit to move, the units also count as being armed with javelins just for this activation allowing the units to shoot following the move, as per the standard rules.

Lets see the abilities triggerable during the Shooting/Reaction phase, we have already looked at ARMOUR OF THE PAGANS and PAGAN FAITH so none left to look at.

Now the abilities triggerable during the Orders Phase.

LEGENDS – this is the most expensive Wrath activated ability- it will cost 6 Wrath tokens. All units gain an Armour of 6 against melee and shooting attacks until the start of your next turn, it also stops the opponent from forcing you to gain Wrath token when you activate a SAGA ability. So this is a really powerful ability.

Activation/Reaction phase abilities.

PUNISHMENT – this kicks in after the opponent triggers an activation ability but before they resolve it. The opponent can choose to either cancel their SAGA ability or give you 4 Wrath tokens.

And that’s it for the abilities, so what have we learned about the Joms Viking?

1. Its all about WRATH
   1. All of the Advanced Abilities and 3 of the Basic Abilities either generate or allow you to spend Wrath tokens
      1. 2 basic abilities make the Opponent either allow you to take a beneficial activity or gain Wrath tokens – COMBAT BONUS and FURY OF THE PAGANS.
      2. 5 advanced abilities make the Opponent either allow you to take a beneficial activity or gain Wrath tokens – PUNISHMENT, A STORM RISES, ARMOUR OF THE PAGANS, NORDIC TEMPEST, and PAGAN FAITH.
      3. 1 basic and 5 advanced abilities allow you to spend Wrath tokens – APPEAL TO THE GODS, HOLMGANG, JOMSBORG!, HAMMER OF THOR, SONG OF STEEL and LEGENDS
      4. Don’t forget that LEGENDS removes ability of the Opponent to force you to take WRATH tokens.
   2. To maximise you benefits of this board – you need to purposefully activate abilities early on to get your opponent to give you wrath tokens.
2. There are some great opportunities for ability chaining –
   1. If you manage to accumulate 12 tokens, you can trigger LEGENDS, to get 6 armour for all you units, then trigger SONG OF STEEL to allow up to 6 units a free move and shoot activation, and use HOLMGANG and JOMSBORG! on the critical MELEE of the round increasing your dice and reducing the opposing units and allowing you to reroll misses.

Hope this was interesting/useful, so that is all the battle boards covered, I may now go on to look at AGE OF MAGIC battle boards. I am also contemplating looking at merging AGE OF MAGIC with KINGS OF WAR, as I really love the battle boards but also love the multi-base options of KINGS OF WAR.