Saga – What to do with The Pagan Rus?

Two years ago, still figuring out how to play Saga in general, I had a “Big Plan” to paint up Pagan Rus and destroy all my opponents with this awesome war band. A few months after that, start of 2015, I had them all painted up with snow flocked bases and set about with my wintery domination. All I did was sit around and piss off my opponents and freeze up games. Either that or got crushed as I had no idea what to actually do with all the Saga board abilities.

Put them aside, got interested in Scots (which are much fun-er, at least with the one game I have played) and didn’t think about them much. Kind of sad as I really like the sculpts of the minis comprising my Pagan Rus (Old Glory Rus line of minis) and the overall aesthetic is my favorite one of all my Dark Age 28mm models.

Spencer’s Friday Night Game will be the new re-release of my Pagan Rus. Some experience under my belt, some thoughts and opinions developed, I think I can play them now without folding like a paper airplane or pissing off my gaming buddy and forcing the Most Boring Game Ever.

What will I do?

First, the list and deployment:
Warlord

Hearthguard x4, Hearthguard x4, Hearthguard x4, Hearthguard x4

Warrior x8, Warrior x8

Deployment:

2 Hearthguard units of 8 figures each (and banner per unit)

2 Warrior units of 8 figures each (maybe banners?)

Warlord right in the middle, Hearthguards up front

This allows me 6 Saga Dice, has my heavy hitters up front where they need to be, warriors in reserve to react/fill holes, and Warlord in range of all of them to use We Obey.  I plan to move them up to the fight/objective, engage (per scenario) immediately, and then get defensive.

Eight Hearthguards hit pretty hard at 16 attack dice. The banner takes it down to a serious 14 attack dice with some fatigue mitigation. My plan is to lay into the opponent’s lines and try to break the units apart, split them up, maybe even leave one cut off … like what the Finns did in WWII against Russian invaders (motti). If I’ve the dice I will use Standing Like Bears (C, UC discard attack dice for armor) and For the Kaghan! (C, UC, R add attack dice) boosting armor and keeping my dice up to 14. 

For defense I might use Cold Winds (UC, R if opponent is shoot-y in any way – fatigue for any 5s or 6s rolled in shooting).

For battle field control I have frozen (C cancel second activation of a unit) and, of course, Great Winter (C+C)…. which I hate to use. I have not seen the advantage yet. At the very beginning of your turn you play it (Orders phase) and it is in effect until the beginning of your next turn. All movement reduced to S, all shooting reduced to S.

I’d like to note that many PR players as well as the book with Pagan Rus rules explicitly state the Pagan Rus are a defensive faction. I’ve also seen that about Anglo Danes (who the Rus are compared to often). I think this is wrong. I plan to prove it to myself and then, via this blog, to you brave reader!

An after game report is coming as soon as I finish this game.