Who Are the Byzantines?
The Byzantine Empire stretched from Southern Italy across Greece and Türkiye at its height. Within Saga Age of Crusades, the Byzantines represent the Eastern Roman Empire, present from approximately the 4th century to the 15th century, ending with the fall of Constantinople. Age of Crusades is set within a narrower window, with many of the choices drawing from later in the empires history.
You’re likely already familiar with a great deal of the aesthetics and iconic units of the empire, with the heavily-armoured Kataphraktoi being chief among them. The Byzantine force of Age of Crusades recruits troops from across the empire and beyond. While you might choose to represent your Hearthguard as Kataphraktoi, and it’s the reason I chose Byzantines myself; they could just as easily be bow or lance-armed mounted mercenaries from further west or north of the empire.
Editors note: It’s SAGA Summer! Enjoy our coverage during the raiding season as we take a look at the factions, miniatures, and everything else you need to get started playing SAGA and earning massacre points.
Why Play Byzantium?
You enjoy a mobile force with a focus on combined arms and harassing enemy units to weaken them before devastating charges. Your Hearthguard and Warriors, outside of Varangian Guard, are all mounted and armed with either composite bows or lances. If you like setting up cunning traps and a layered defence, the Byzantines might be for you.
Plenty of manufacturers have plastic Late Romans available, and with a bit of mixing and matching you can create a balanced force. The selection of plastic kits available now has grown since I gathered my own force, and it’s never been easier. Fireforge provide an excellent base for collecting, with several plastic kits available. Many companies also have pewter and resin offerings, and my own Warlord is composed of the Byzantine command from V&V Miniatures. While the unit profile mentions your Warlord being mounted, I really like the space you’re given to create a small diorama. By using the full command group and a spare horse, it still fits the bill while standing out from the rest of the warband.
How Do They Play?
Several of your Byzantine battle board abilities rely upon units being within S of other friendly units, representing the coordination and combined arms approach of the force. You have a number of strong defensive abilities, with Face the Barbarians and Our Comrades’ Shields both requiring friendly units within S.
When it comes to striking back, you can leverage units of Levy armed with spears to make ranged attacks using Mixed Formation to potentially catch your opponent off guard. Following up with a charge from your Hearthguard using Athanatoi you can continue to lean in to the boards theme of excellent defence and armour.
Flexibility comes from making the most of Strategikon and Mixed Formation. If you’re keeping your units within S, and you have that spicy rare dice available, your ability to remove fatigue when an opponent activates movement or shooting allows you to either remain mobile or squeeze off an extra ranged attack with your Levy. Removing fatigue in reaction will free you up to get an extra move (or two!) to set up for a devastating, and unexpected, attack.
When you’re lucky enough to hit the dice for Constantinople, you have the opportunity to really leverage your Levy. Adding two extra dice to your Warrior or Hearthguard pool may not feel like much, but taking your Levy from 4 dice to 6 has the potential to make a huge difference for your attack and defence pools. This is before we get in to all of the previously mentioned abilities to further push your defence pool. If you do happen to have the spare dice for Last Defence or Face the Barbarians, then there’s a good chance of your Levy holding their own against much more valuable units. Even if you’re not looking to cause problems for your opponents Warriors and Hearthguard, they will make for an incredibly durable anvil while you position your Hearthguard for a charge.
How to Start Collecting and Playing
While there are many potential builds for this force, leaning in to the mobility given by your mounted Hearthguard and Warriors will be key if you want to make the most of your battle board. A fairly balanced force will contain around 50 models taken from a number of different kits. While this is a more involved project, you’ll be left with a warband that can act as the foundation of a Late Roman force for Age of Vikings.
- Warlord
- 2 pts Hearthguard (x8)
- 2 pts Warrior (x16)
- 1 pt Levy with Javelins
- 1 pt Levy with Bows
For this list, I’ve drawn from the V&V Miniatures Byzantine Command, Victrix Late Roman Armoured Cavalry, Victrix Late Roman Horse Archers, and Fireforge Byzantine Auxiliaries kits. The Victrix kits will give you a total of 24 horses, so you can use four models from the Armoured Cavalry kit to fill out the Warriors with bows from the Auxiliaries box. If you really want to lean in to what your battle board has to offer then bringing Levy without special equipment, that is no bows or crossbows, allows you to make the most of abilities like Our Comrades’ Shields and Mixed Formation. You’ll be relying on your Warriors and Hearthguard for your ranged punch but as a result will have a much more durable Levy presence that still has some utility.
Like every faction in Saga, you also have a number of Legendary Units available, and provided your opponent is happy for you to bring them they can add a great deal to your force. The Varangian guard were composed of Nordic and Western European warriors who had settled in Eastern Europe. Famous for their martial prowess they come armed with either Heavy Weapons or a mix of weapons and shields to represent their diverse background. With heavy armour and Stubborn Defender they can face down charges with ease potentially securing a flank with little support. While this might not be the easiest warband to start building, pulling from a variety of kits across a number of ranges, it does give you a decent based to branch out in to the Late Roman faction from Age of Vikings, provided you’re not too fussy about the shields.
Reading Byzantines
If you’d like to pick up not just an army of organised, coordinated Byzantines, but also a fair bit of knowledge about the period, we’d recommend picking up Judith Herrin’s Byzantium. It’s a great intro and general history of the Byzantine Empire from creation to destruction (and the short lived ressurection and final fall). It’ll give you a great look into the background of your SAGA force and fill you in on all the terminology, organisation and colour schemes you could use to sound, look and play like a real Romioi.
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