SAGA: Norman Warlord and Knights

Having got a few games of SAGA under my belt  my fancies turned to expanding out the game a little and trying something new. With that in mind I decided that a new war-band was in order,and so I have started a Norman war-band. Bearing in mind that it took me two years to paint the Vikings and the Anglo-Danes, this is likely to be one of my slow boil projects. 

These figures are plastic ones made by Conquest Games  (confusingly, not Conquest Miniatures, which is a different company). I painted them for the first round of the Lead Painters League competition  run by the Lead Adventure Forum. This is the third year I have entered the LPL and I'm trying really hard to up my game and produce high quality figures. I think I have been guilty of taking a few short cuts to get figures finished recently  and that shows in the photos on the blog. That stops now, and it's back to basics, with good highlighting and blending. 

Due to the rules of the competition I will only post my pictures on the blog at the end of the weeks voting, so as not to unduly influence the votes. I have to paint at least 60 minis in 10 weeks, so it's something of a marathon rather than a sprint. The standard of the competition is always rather high, so wish me luck. 

SAGA: Another Clash of Arms

Leon (Pulp Citizen) and I managed to get in another couple of games of SAGA as we try to get our heads around the rules. I have added another unit to each of the warbands, making it up top 5 points each. My Anglo-Danes have a levy of 12 bowmen, while Leon opted for a rock-hard 4 hearthguard for his Vikings. 

My New Levy Archers Scrambling Through the Ruins of a Roman Temple

The first battle proved be be something of a none event. Leon was concerned about the Anglo-Danes ability to liberally scatter fatigue markers over the Vikings, and held back, playing too cautiously and thus playing into the Anglo-Danes hands. He tried a suicidal charge with his bezerkers against my warriors, which was predictably lethal, but that proved too late to inflict a decisive victory.

The Viking Invaders Form a Ragged Shield Wall

What followed was a debate about the Anglo-Danish battle board, and wither it had rather too many ways to add fatigue compared to the Viking's abilities to remove it. In order to try to resolve the debate we switched sides, so that I played the Vikings. 

The Anglo-Danish Shield Wall

In the second battle I went for it- rapidly moving my warlord and his berserkers towards the Anglo-Danish flank. My heathguard and warriors followed in his wake. I tried to ignore the fatigue markers Leon was sprinkling like fairy dust over my horde, and closed onto the Anglo-Danes. The battle was brutal and viscous:  Bezerkers are great for pulverising a unit, even if few make it through the battle. Leon's archers also nearly made my Warlord into a pin cushion but I managed some lucky saves. 

Berserkers Clash with the Anglo-Danish warriors and Cut Them Down!

In the end his warlord was cut down in battle, granting me victory. It was messy and not as decisive as I would have liked, but I think I proved that it is much better for the Vikings to get stuck in as fast as they can rather than hang back, especially when facing Anglo-Danes.

SAGA: Anglo-Danish Levy

The Anglo-Danish thane has called the levy to arms. From all across his lands the common men gather, ready to defend their homes from the marauding Viking raiders. 

This is the start of the next unit for my Anglo-Danish SAGA army- a levy of twelve bowmen. These figures are generic dark ages and first crusade era archers form Black Tree Designs  I picked them up in one of their wonderful 50% off sales. Cheep as chips an lovely models to paint. I have opted for dowdy greys and greens to make them stand out from their betters. 

First SAGA Game

Leon and I got together last week for a bit of a go at SAGA, the rules all the cool kids have been playing last year. Being something of a fashion victim/trend-setter and while I have had the rules for ages but this was actually the first time we have played the game as it has taken me about two years to get my warbands ready.

We found SAGA to be lots of fun- it is a radically different game to any others we have played, and it is fast pace and fun. We played with four point warbands, and found that we could easily get through a game in an hour, and that is with a rules set we are still leaning!

Combat was suitably brutal and short affair, and usually decisive one way or another. In the first game Leon's Viking berserkers cut a bloody swathe through my ranks. 

It strikes me that SAGA is one of those games that is easy to learn but difficult to master. There are lots of tactical decisions to be made, and that keeps it lively and fresh.

By the end of the day what had we learned? SAGA is a lot of fun, for sure, and I can see why it has become an instant hit in the gaming community  It is brutal, quick and bloody, which is the way I like my Viking action. Berserkers are REALLY scary and need to be managed (i.e. quickly killed) if you are fighting against them. We also need more units and more options. Four points is the minim sized war band recommended in the game, but I think another unit or two for either side would be great. I also plan to do some Normans, while Leon is going to do a Jomsviking warband. This will give us four different warbands, which will greatly increase the variation. In the mean time, we can carry on trying to master the subtle variations of the Viking and Anglo-Danish warbands, and once we have dome that we can swap armies and do it all again. I think there is a lot of life left in this game and we will defiantly come back to it!

Alfred Grey-beard looks out at the approaching Viking raiders.

"Sound the horn- let battle begin!"

 The Viking Warriors advance- eager for battle and plunder!

The Vikings sneak through the ruins of a Roman temple to out-flank the Anglo-Danish army

Anglo-Danish warriors from a shield wall- ready to meet their enemy. 

SAGA Warbands!

After many months of inconsistent progress I have finally finished two four point SAGA warbands, ahead of this weeks game. These are the minim size needed to play a reasonable game and, assuming I like the game, I will add some more troops at a later date. But for now, here they are...

 Alfred Greymane and his horde of (mostly) Christian Anglo-Danish warriors, ready to bravely defend England from marauding northmen. 

Ragnar the Fell Handed, bloody scourge of the seas, and his Viking raiders. 

Leon and I are going to get a game in on Friday- our first outing of the SAGA rules.  I will let you know how it goes!

Viking War-band

Following my trip to the Beast Towers (Gripping Beasts HQ in Evesham) for the VBCW Big Game 5, I felt very inspired to paint my SAGA Viking war band. Gripping Beast produce a wonderful range of Viking Age miniatures, and they had display cabinets stuffed with countless beautifully painted (and slightly dusty) Vikings, Saxons, Normans and Crusaders. 

 I bought the plastics for this last year when I went to BG4, but apart from putting them together I havn't made much progress since. Determined to get a four point war-band together to face my Angle-Danish Warband, I finally made some progress. I have a few Work-In-Progress too, so I should finish my war-band by the end of the week, and be able to schedule in a game or two soon. 

Viking Warlord Ragnar the Fell-Handed

Ragnar's trusted battle-brothers (and his wolf-hound Fenris)

Wild-eyed Berserkers

Ragnar is a West Wind model with a head-swap for a plastic Viking head by Gripping Beasts. The Battle-Brothers are (left to right) Wargames Foundry, Gripping Beast, Crusader and perhaps Crusader. The Berserkers are Black Tree Designs. 

SAGA Vikings

Having finished four points worth of Anglo-Danish (which is the minim army for Tomahawk Studios SAGA game) I have started on my Vikings. In order to make my Vikings look a bit different form my Anglo-Danes- because lets face it, there's not that much differences- I have opted to make sure all the Vikings have big bush blond beards.

This photo shows four Viking Berserkers, and one Viking warrior. I painted them for the Lead Painters League. In SAGA a group of warriors are found in groups of four, eight or twelve, but you need a minimum of five for the LPL, which explains why there are four berserkers and a an odd man out. 

The berserkers are made by Black Tree Designs, although one had a weapon swap from a sword to an axe. In SAGA it doesn’t really make a difference which hand weapon you opt for, but I though that aesthetically having them all wielding axes just worked better.  The man in mail is a Gripping Beast Plastic Viking Warrior

Warlord for my SAGA force

While it has been a long time in the creation, I have finally finished my Warlord and his Huscarls for my SAGA Anglo-Danish force, meaning I now have a small force of hairy men.
I bought the Gripping Beasts at the Wolverhampton Show last year without any real plans to use them for anything in particular. When the nice (if slightly odd) folks at Gripping Beasts brought out their new SAGA rule I knew I had to have a warband-two actually, as I am starting my Viking one next.
SAGA's rather elegent points based system lets me field either 4 Huscarls, 8 Warriors or 12 Levey for each point. I have a four point warband (4-8 points per side is recommend) consisting of my warlord, Four Huscarls with Dane Axes, Four Huscales with swords, and Two bands of eight Warrioirs with spears.

Here is my Anglo-Danish warlord and the Huscarls with dane axes. The horn blower is my West Wind, but the other figures are by Gripping Beasts. To my my warlord stand out a bit I have mounted him onto a 40mm square base with a horn blower/spear carrier as a companion. The horn blower will not add anything to the game, but looks cool. I am going to do the same for my viking warlord too.
These were my Lead Painters League entry for the last round- I didn't win, but I didn't do badly.

Saxon War Band Grows

Gripping Beast, who are hosting the VBCW game in Evesham, are perhaps better known for their range of Dark Ages miniatures. They have just brought out an exciting new skirmish level game for this period called Saga.

In preparation for my forthcoming purchase of the Saga rules when I down to Beast Towers, I have been adding to my nucleus of a Saxon war band, with the addition of these stalwart defenders of England.

Here's a picture of my completed-to-date shieldwall. I recon I am about half way there, and then I have got to start on their foes- the dreadful Vikings (to be commanded by my old chum Leon- he has no taste for this Dark Ages nonsense but has agreed to play if I paint the figures).

The figures are Gripping Beasts excellent plastic 28mm Saxons. The guy without a helmet has a head off a Warlord Games British Tommy.

Shield Wall

No posts for the last couple of weeks because I have been enjoying the sunny climate of Orlando, FL, and the general madness of Disney. I have, however, continued to post entries in the Lead Painters League, having been painting like a furious monkey prior to going away. Week six saw me post something a little different, namely a dark ages shield wall. I am not generally a player of historical war games (VBCW being something of a exception, because it is part-fictional and part fact based) but I really enjoyed an article in Wargames Illustrated which described making a scenic base for you figures, and fancied giving it a go. I love the Gripping Beast Saxons, and as I am a big fan of Bernard Cornwall's Warlord Chronicles trilogy, I thought why not?

I know me old pal Leon was a bit suspicious of the Saxons. Perhaps it's because he's half Finish, so there for something of a Viking himself, or perhaps he thinks I will be lured away to the dark side of historical wargaming. Anyway, he needn't worry, because although I enjoyed painting these guys, I think I have got it out of my system, for now at least.

I have painted them to represent a mixture of Pagan and early Christan Britons, circa 5-6th century (the so called Age of Arthur). I know they might not be historically accurate, but I don't care that much. I based them individually on the usual 20mm bases, but then made a scenic tray 11cm x 6cm, which is an odd size, but happens to be the size of the unit bases in Games Workshops War of the Rings. I figured if I ever get round to painting up more I could use that rules set, and it has the added advantage of giving me loads of room to artistically pose my miniatures on the base.

Anyway, I hope you like them. I really enjoyed making and painting them.