To accompany my growing SAGA collection, I got myself some simple MDF buildings. A bit of texture and fur, and they made a nice dark age village for Vikings to raid.
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SAGA Buildings
Tag: SAGA
Egil and some Viking Hirdmen.
Here comes the core of the Vikings. Two units of Bondi. I went with axes mostly to visually separate them from the spear-armed Anglo-Saxons.
Good King Harald Hardrada and some Varangian Guards.
Some objectives for SAGA games (or any other generic pre-modern game really…).
Some Geburs with Spears – using bucklers to distinguish them from the Ceorls – and assorted generic Levies with bows, slings and javelins. This should cover most warband types!
Again, I am behind in posting (and photographing) models. I have now completed the rest of the Anglo-Saxon Warband with the addition of two units of Hearthguard and a generic Warlord. I will be painting some of the special leaders later, as well as adding a generic pool of peasants from which different warbands can draw their levy contingent.
The models are a mix of metal and plastic as usual. At the very bottom are some fatigue markers using the wooden dial bases that I use for other games (not sure how useful it will be as the dials go from 1 to 12 which seems overkill for SAGA – I might replace them with simple “chip” style fatigue markers later).
Well, I my have gotten carried away a bit again. “Making a few SAGA warbands” turned into “Buy the entire Gripping Beast line-up plus all available plastic boxes from all manufacturers”. So the last couple of months were devoted to cleaning up models, basing everything and generally breathing in lots of metal dust. But that’s done and finally it is time to paint. I give you my first step into the world of SAGA: three units of Anglo-Saxon Ceorls!
Pretty standard models – a mix of plastic and Gripping Beast metal models thrown in for variety.
With the Warmaster High Elves completed, I am turning my ambitious eyes towards the SAGA system for Dark Age historical battles. As you can tell from the blog, I am usually building armies around Games Workshop rule systems which offer a single source of models. Historical 28mm models for the Dark Ages on the other hand come from tons of different manufacturers. Not really knowing where to start, I used my common approach of “buy everything” :).
So a while ago I received a bunch of boxes from the main manufacturers: Gripping Beast, Wargames Factory, Wargames Foundry, and Conquest Games. I basically bought one box of every Dark Age/Ancient plastic set these manufacturers offer as well as a few metal models (mostly Gripping Beast character models and a 6 point Jomsviking warband do cover their distinct style). That yielded over 400 models of mostly interchangeable styles – enough to build a few warbands surely!
The plastic kits are all pretty nice but I have to admit that I was disappointed that the models in the Wargames Factory “Saxon Fyrd” and “Viking Bondi” box are the same (except some weapon choices maybe). I bought one of each to get more body variety but alas that is not to be. Fortunately, I can mix them with Gripping Beast Bondi and Fyrd, and probably mix in some of the Celtics/Ancient Germans from Wargames Factory. Should be ok.
The plan is to build 3-5 points per warband of “distinct” units and then have a generic pool of common levy to draw from (they all seem to look the same). Visual distinction is tricky for Dark Age forces so I will try to use some simple archetypes to keep the forces apart. For the more “civilized” warbands we will go with chainmail for the hearthguard and clothing for warriors. Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Saxons will get mostly spears with Christian symbols on their shields. Vikings will get mostly axes and pagan/viking symbols. For the wilder nations, such as Scots, I am tempted to go with mostly naked torsos from the Wargames Factory Ancient German/Celt sets. Probably not historically accurate but “Hollywood approved” and the only way to visually distinguish them from the other warbands.
With that thought, here is the plan:
Anglo-Danes
Warlord with Dane Axe
Cnut the Great
Hereward The Wake
Brodir of Man
8 Huscarls with Dane Axes
4 Huscarls with Spears
24 Ceorls with Spears [shared with Anglo-Saxons]
Anglo-Saxon
Warlord with Sword
Warlord with Sword and Horse
Harold Godwinson
Alfred the Great
Athelstan
8 Thegns with Spears
[24 Ceorls with Spears shared with Anglo-Danish]
12 Geburs with Spears
Vikings
Warlord
Ragnar Lothbrok
Harald Hardrada
Gunnar Hamundarson
8 Hirdmen
4 Berserker
16 Bondi
Jomsvikings
Warlord
Wardlord with Dane Axe
Sigvaldi Strut-Haraldsson
Vagn Akesson
16 Jomsvikings
8 Jomsvikings with Dane Axes
16 Dreng
Normans
Warlord on Horse
William the Bastard
12 Milites on Horse
4 Milites with Spears (on foot)
16 Spearmen
8 Crossbowmen
Scots
Warlord
Kenneth Mac Alpin
Macbeth
4 Thanes with Spears
4 Thanes with Spears on Ponies
16 Soer-Chele with Spears
12 Doer-Chele with Bows
Generic Pool of Levy
24 Archers
24 Slingers
12 Javelineers
12 Naked Javelineers
I might do some more “naked” armies – maybe some Irish or Welsh – but let’s see how will it goes with this lot. The first step will be an orgy of sprue clipping and inhalation of plastic cement fumes… More to come soon.
Wargaming Workshop 