Thoughts on Saga and Casual Gaming

Arrr!  Who's winning?

Some friends of mine and I played Saga the other night.  None of us were terribly familiar with the rules.  I'd played a few games.  So had one of the other players.  But we still had to look up basic rules mechanics.  This was an interesting change of pace from Flames of War or 40k where the game rules are just ground into my bones, and most games involve pushing them for maximum benefit.

Saga is quite an interesting game: each faction is described by a "battle board" of abilities.  The players use a special set of dice to generate resources that activate these powers.  Unlike other game, where you can calculate the balance of power mathematically, by comparing game statistics and point costs, in Saga the balance of the factions depends on whether the battle board abilities of each faction are roughly as powerful as each other.  I have not played enough games to form any kind of conclusion about what's the best faction, or whether any of them noticeably stand out from the others.  I just play Vikings, because, well, I like Vikings.

This made me realize that games can (and should) be fun at all stages of learning and mastery, and part of the joy is just pushing painted figures around the table.  Indeed, this is the core element of wargaming, existing above or below whether the rules are actually any good or not.  (A humbling thought.) 

I'm not sure what the moral is.

Still writing the Free Martians book.