Saga: Rage of Vikings was a 1999 Real-Time Strategy released by Cryo Interactive. It's set on a High Fantasy world during the time of the vikings. You can play as Humans, Dwarfs, Elves, Ogres, Giants or Centaurs, sometimes with more than one race at the time.
What makes Saga different from most games is that is somehow more realistic, fighting against many traditions of RTS. When you collect a resource, you should have somewhere to store it; when you want to get food, you must harvest it; when you build a place, you should move the resources to that place before starting the construction and (perhaps the most particular fact about this game) in order to gain new troops you must make your troops reproduce… that's right, you NEED to make your troops reproduce. One male and one female in order to obtain a new troop. Aside from some restrictions, note , all races can make new troops with each other, meaning that you can have a mixed civilization.
Not to be confused with the SaGa series of RPGs by Square Enix.
This game provides examples of:
- Baseless Mission: There are no bases in Saga, but there is something similar. There is one mission where you should try to conquer the opponents with only ONE male dwarf. Remember that in Saga you need 2 troops to reproduce, so it's virtually impossible to do anythingnote . Of course, later you gain more people.
- Command & Conquer Economy: Except, when there's none left of a currently needed resource, troops will try to obtain it themselves (if they are capable). Sometimes annoying, actually, as that can lead them into enemy territory.
- Easy Logistics: You don't have to feed troops or give them a place to sleep. Food and houses are only required for reproduction.
- Instant Militia/Worker Unit: Some troops both fight and work (mostly male units); some only work (females, except centaurs and giants, which all fight though females are weaker than males), valkyrie (which is a potential spellcaster), and south peasant (worker unit)); and potential spellcasters (runemasters and valkyries) are limited in resource collecting and can construct only buildings unique to them (faction specific temple and dolmen).
- No Recycling: But pillaging is possible, and what can't be pillaged is pretty cheap anyway.
- Hero Unit: Most species have a magic unit, except for the Giants and the Centaurs. You can have only one magician / anti-magician at once, but he / she is expendable.
- Ridiculously Fast Construction: May be subverted. Seeing how much it takes troops to reproduce or how short years are, it's possible that time is not 1:1. So, those 60 seconds we see our units constructing the house might be days in game time.
- Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: New troops are born as adults.
