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Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Riders on the Storm

September 20th is the SAGA Storm, an all-day SAGA event at Fantasy Flight Game Center. Organizers Eric Hagen and John Stenz are porting their experience running Games Workshop events into SAGA and the results to date are impressive!
Eric created a game day T-shirt and dice. I'm in for both, of course. My only worry is that wearing a T-shirt will clash with my plan to dress Berserker-style for the day.  Eric is a master painter, battleboard creator and terrain guy. He's got 10 themed boards ready for the event, each for a specific scenario.  You might find your warband raiding or defending a Viking village, escorting livestock through the Scottish highlands or fighting on the shores of Normandy. That's only 3 of the 10 scenarios!

John and his wife are master tournament organizers. When I saw John's 40K tournament this spring, I was awed by it's size, professionalism and organization.  35 tables preset with wonderful terrain, pro-painted armies, close to 100 attendants, digital clocks, organizers on the floor and loads of swag. In contrast, we can hardly get 6-8 guys out for our historical game days. All the hard work is paying off as interest in the event is very high. All signs point to an amazing day of SAGA, great company and beer.  I can't wait!

I've been running my Norse-Gael warband to warm up for the big event.  In what may be a sign of things to come, I'm finding it hard to earn a victory with these barefoot fellows.  The NG battleboard requires good dicing during personal challenges to unlock many of their abilities. Clearly, I need to get my hands on Eric's new SAGA dice because the ones I have are broken.

There is nothing quite like a big event to power up one's painting mojo.  Even though I have WW II and Old West aging out in the queue, I'm sticking to my Dark Age painting for a bit longer.  For the last 16 Norman warriors, I chose a Reconquista color scheme.  That makes these a down payment on my future Spanish warband for Crescent & the Cross.



Just when you thought you couldn't possibly look at another Spearman, I've got an angry band of Flemish Mercenaries on the tabletop with a few Anglo-Saxon warlords thrown in.  There is a story behind that, and I'll save it for my next post.





33 comments:

  1. Sound like great event coming up - with a T-shirt too! Nice. I'm on the verge of getting back into Saga - courtesy the new Crescent and the Cross book (still to be ordered by me). Plus that box of plastic Arab infantry is very enticing. Hopefully, one of the lists in the C&C book allows Normans with Arabs. Best, Dean

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    1. While a bit of $, the new book is a great product and cleans up/clarifies the rules for the game. I'm looking forward to painting up an Arab warband myself!

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  2. Dammit, Monty, now I'm jealous! I've seen Eric's posts featuring his terrain, and I can say that I've seldom seen its equal. That, plus all those warbands, promises to be a real spectacle.

    Have fun storming the castle! (And post pics if you can!)

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    1. Evan! I've seen the events you fellows run. You guys live, eat and breath miniatures. I suppose a move is in order. ;-)

      There will be many pics, I'm sure!

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  3. Hey Monty,
    Great post and thank you Evan!

    Just to let you know John will be providing much of the terrain out of his workshop as well as couple other guys adding to the event. It should be quite a day with good looking battles.

    I'm really excited to shake hands with new opponents and see who's throwing dark age dice around the Twin Cities!

    Skol!

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    1. Eric! Thanks for setting the record straight and here's to many more games of SAGA down the line.

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  4. Nice T-shirts, sounds like a good event, and those Spanish look great too - I do like some of there abilities they have !.
    Have fun with the Norse Gaul warband, I have faced these guys a many time and they can be a tough faction.
    We have a small Saga event at the end of the month here in Upper Hutt NZ - about 14 players so far so looking like a good turnout - I might get to unleash my Pagan Rus force.
    Cheers Mark.

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    1. Cool! My buddy is bringing Pagan Rus. They look very interesting!

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  5. Looks like an awesome event indeed. Excellent T-Shirt.
    cheers

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  6. Sounds great, I'm all excited and I'm thousands of miles away! The spearmen are looking good. Maybe rip up the t-shirt a bit for that berserker look? :-)

    Best of luck with the Norse Gaels! Cheers, Paul :-)

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    1. Paul, you are Mr. Tournament so this is old hat to a fellow like you.

      Love the suggestion of roughing up the shirt!

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  7. That t-shirt is so cool and your figures look smashing. Have loads of fun!

    PS. I can't get that song out of my head now.

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    1. Anne, thanks! We've heard it more than a few times and that makes it easy to get stuck in our minds. ;-)

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  8. Sounds like a great event! Be sure to take some snaps of the armies and terrain for us other Dark Age nerds to pour over. Oh, and a picture of you in berserker outfit would be nice too ... ;)

    The Norman/Spanish spearmen look very striking indeed! I have pondered a project for this period for a while and you've really tempted me with these.

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    1. Thanks much Jonas! At the finish line, I was pretty tired of painting these monoposed fellows but it is done. There will be many pictures.

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  9. Another great looking unit. The SAGA event sounds great, I wish I could go.

    John

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    1. Thanks John! Sometimes, I wish I lived on the east coast. You fellows have a LOT of gaming and conventions going on.

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  10. The t-shirt and the dice are awesome. They should offer them as fan wear. ;-)
    However the event sounds like a bunch of fun and Erik's stuff is stunning.

    I whish you a lot of future fun with SAGA. Those Normans will do there best for that looking as excellent as your paintjobs usually do.

    Cheers
    Stefan

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  11. Sounds good! And these spearmen, well, another amazing paint job!!

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    1. Thanks Phil! Now comes the business of getting them ranked up on Warbases.

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  12. Excellent stuff! I really like that yellow / red sheme.

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    1. Thanks Moiterei, I do like the yellow and red combo as well.

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  13. Thanks everyone, and I don't want you to think I'm being lazy. Blogger won't let me open the Reply box under any of the remaining comments today. I've even reloaded with a different internet browser and they're locked. Sigh. I do appreciate the well wishes and comments.

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  14. Haven't seen the N-Gs on the table yet, Monty. How do the challenges work?

    FMB

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    1. In theory, they can work pretty well. The NG can put dice down on a box called How Brave are You? to get a +1 in the round of personal combat. They can also throw a SAGA die onto a box to get another die or 2 in the personal combat. If your opponent declines the personal combat, you get the ability automatically. If the ability is good, they're likely to accept the personal combat and then you dice it off, with high roll winning. Losing side takes off a figure, representing the poor fellow who lost.

      This has become as long as some posts!

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  15. Well executed and colorful! The red and combination certainly gives them a Spanish feel. I like them!

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    1. Coming from a fellow with Reconquista armies, I appreciate that Jonathan!

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  16. This sounds like one hell of an event to attend! Shame I do not live in your neck of the woods!

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    1. Thanks Burkhard! I've seen some of the events you and your club have put on, and on those days I wished I could drive to Germany.

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