4 days and 12 hours till I travel to Chicago for Adepticon and the US SAGA Grand Melee. This year, I'm in 3 events and co-running a 4th. Thursday is a Legends of Camelot narrative organized and hosted by Joe Rogers of Saga Thorsday fame! Friday I'm co-running the Age of Vikings doubles. Saturday is the Age of Crusades and Sunday we finish with Age of Vikings. Sooooo excited! We have a bunch of regulars who turn out every year. This is my one opportunity to catch up and game with Sagamites from all over the US and abroad too.
The author of SAGA, Alex Buchel, will be attending this year! Each night, I'll be down in the Great Hall for Night Saga. Night Saga includes libations, chill games and loads of laughs.
Here's my Welsh warband on a new display board. It's a bit simple because I'm using it for 3 events and warbands. I'll use it for Bolt Action too. If you're attending Adepticon this year, pop into the Saga Great Hall and say hello!
Today's post is a quick bit of fun that turned out nicely! These are Gripping Beast's "Penda the Pagan" and his second. I based them up separately to run them as Hengist and Horsa for my early Saxons. The fellow with the spear was a bit boring until I dug up my "Murder of Crows" from Zombicide. Now I've got the "Raven Whisperer." The Viking Runestones are from Fenris Games. The Odin Berserker is an Isle of Lewis chesspiece from Etsy with an eye carved out. All in all, a nice bit of color.
This project started with 48 Footsore Arabs in my painting queue. I was looking for a way to put them on the table and looking through Saga's Age of Crusades book, I saw the Mutatawwi'a got a much-improved battleboard. I painted the warriors using the Andrea Color Black Set of 6 dropper bottles starting with black and 5 progressively brighter highlights. You don't have to use all 5 highlights. I used a black base and 2-3 highlights and highly recommend this set.
The 48 warriors in the center are all Footsore. I asked them for a specific mix of shield types in my order which they sorted at no cost. The shields are shield transfers by Little Big Man Studio. I originally painted the spears in a dark red but the monochromatic effect was bland. I repainted them with a bright red to give the army some pop. I had a bit of trouble photographing this bunch due to all the black. Take a look at how different they look under different lighting.
The 8 slightly large Hearthguard fellows in the front rank are Gripping Beast (GB) Mutatawwi'a. The warlord on foot is Footsore and the mounted warlord is Perry.
These 24 archers can be used as warrior archers or as 2 levy archer units for my Moors. They're a mix of GB Mutatawwi'a metals and their plastic Arabs. I greenstuffed face coverings to the metals here and elsewhere to keep a consistent, fanatical look.
GB Mutatawwi'a camel riders. In keeping with "taking the black," I did the saddle/pillow rugs in black. I do love the look of camels so after painting these, I bought some more.
Warlord Games Roman Imperial camel riders modified for the Crusader era. I dremeled away the Scutums and added appropriate Crusader-era shields.
12 hearthguard on camels plus a warlord too makes for a unique look for these Mutts. And I already got them on the table! Here at the finish line, I'm burned out on painting black and looking forward to my next project, Komnenian Byzantines.
Thanks to a persistent bout of bursitis, my hours at the painting table are way down this year. Lemons to lemonade, this is a good thing as I now pay attention to how long I sit and avoid it as much as possible. I've got a standing desk at work and another to replace my painting table. Being an "iron ass" and sitting for 6-8 hours in a stretch is not good for me, no matter how much I enjoy painting.
This project is a bit of a lark. When I saw the new Anglo-Saxon battle board for Saga, I realized an all levy warband could work. I went to Footsore and picked out 48 shield & spear levy along with 24 archers. Along with great sculpts, Footsore offers a massive variety of poses and figures. You can pick through this rabble and only occasionally find doubles. It's another reason why Footsore is my fav!
Most of these lads were painted with inks and washes over zenithal priming. I added a white drybrush over the zenithal to make my highlights pop. It is a speedy but nice effect and finished with the standard Foundry flesh 5A, B and C highlights. I mixed custom washes and inks to get more variety in this band.
The King is by Crusader Miniatures and from their El Cid line. I've had him for years and realized it might be clever to have a King leading an army made up of only farmers. All in all, I'm happy to now have a 2nd Age of Viking warband and they're quite fun to play!
Today I want to share my two favorite Saga shows. Whether you're just starting out or you've been playing SAGA for years, you'll learn loads from both of these.
Joe Rogers produces and hosts Saga Thorsday, a weekly Youtube show of all things Saga. Joe has a great wit and a deep love & knowledge of the game. He brings in a new guest each week to talk about the boards and game. You'll learn quite a lot by listening to how other people play the game. Check it out and subscribe! Shameless plug, I'm the guest for this week's show about the Welsh.
Joe, Jim and Chris produce the superb Northern Tempest podcast. You can access the shows via their FaceBook page here or the archives here. These lads are passionate about the game and very active in UK Saga community. I keep these queued up for my painting sessions and car trips. While listening to their show on my long drive back from the US Grand Melee, they persuaded me to paint and play Vikings for a time. Well done!
Both Northern Tempest and Saga Thorsday are great inspiration for planning and painting your warbands. And playing the game too. Check them out!
To wrap up, here's my current Saga project. 72 Anglo Saxon levy in the zenithal highlight phase. Now to put some paint on them.
Our TOs Eric and Paul raised the bar again at the US Saga Grand Melee.We've got a core group of 30+ folks who turn out each year. It's always great to catch up with old friends and make new ones.
Day1 in the doubles, I played Bill Thornhill and his lovely Goth army. Bill and Ryan were kind enough to share drinks with us over our game. That was a theme throughout the weekend and I never did get thirsty.
In the Singles, my Goths were a wrecking ball. With 5 games under my belt, I managed to finish 2nd only to Andy Lyons and his Picts. In a Saturday night game, I beat Andy's Picts in 2 turns! Coming in 2nd was grand but beating Andy was, how shall I say this...sublime. Over the long weekend, I got in a personal best of 14 games of Saga including a v2 game. My brain was quite tired and happy by the time I started my long drive home.
The rest of my post is a bit of a photo dump. My camera struggled this year so if your warband doesn't show up, apologies!
