Old Ruins and a Muddy Field

More Saga suitable terrain pieces

Around 25 years ago I splurged out on a whole village worth of Armorcast buildings including some ruins.  The ruins had been sitting in the "too be completed one day" tub, when that day came around and I decided to whip them into Saga ruins.

I personally think that the ruin terrain piece is the best one in Saga.  Hard cover and difficult terrain that blocks line of sight, so what is there not to like, most of the time.  So I normally reach for the ruin first and if it is taken grab the rocky ground.  Most of the time it is to secure an important point on the field of battle, though sometimes it is just to remove it as an option for my opponent.

Whilst Armorcast still exists and still does the medieval buildings, my old ruins don't seem to be sold anymore. Plus it isn't easy to find in Australia any more.

Fig 1. Really old Armorcast Ruins 

So like all my other Saga terrain pieces, I have glued them on to regular-ish shaped bases that fits within the 20x20cm footprint and applied basic ground textures and flock.  In both cases I have added some additional rocks to reflect the ruins being spread a little wider.  I have been sorely tempted to try drilling out the arched window, but each time temptation arises, sanity comes following behind very quickly.

Fig 2. More really old Armorcast Ruins

These models are representative of their time and the early days of resin casting.  Stuff is much better now days, but I am still very fond of my old buildings, so much so I will probably give them a good touch up and refresh one day.  Fig 1 is a 4 part model and Fig 2 came in 3 parts.  the joins are at the corners and don't fit great.  I could have gone to the trouble to fill the gap with putty or bicarb and superglue, but since I like the look of moss and nature taking over, a simple line of PVA and flock hides the gap and looks the goods.

Whilst making the fields in my last blog, I also made a small muddy enclosure using some Renedra Wattle Fences.  I had used the rest of the sprue to make flexible fence lines, but had enough left over to make this square which fits nicely within the Saga terrain footprint around the same size as the ruins.

Fig 3. Muddy field with Renedra Wattle Fences

The fences come with small plastic stands, but I decided to tack the corners together with superglue and glue the fence directly to the MDF base.  By adding lots of PVA glue and sand along the fences edge, I am happy that I have achieved a strong bond.

I have had the pigs out playing in the pen and they have made as awful mess rooting out all the plants and leaving around a foot of mud and lots of pig shit!

All 3 pieces are still awaiting some tufts and clump foliage to finish them off, but I was keen to get them done in time for some gaming tomorrow.

Terrain building update

Spending time away from painting figures to build terrain.

I have playing around with building some basic terrain pieces for Saga.   Sometimes I need a break from painting miniatures and I have always found building terrain enjoyable.  I am also one of the organisers of Victory or Valhalla, which Melbourne's largest Saga tournament.  For my sins, or passion for playing on nice tables, I have taken on the task of organising all the terrain for the day.  So whilst we can rely on people bringing some of their own and using the venue's stuff, very little is Saga specific and therefore I am going to be building lots of new stuff.  As it is going to be a massive task, I will save this project for another blog.

So with the goal of having Saga specific terrain and trying out examples which can be mass produced for Victory or Valhalla, I have gone on a little building splurge.

Rocky Ground.  

I love rocky ground as it is difficult terrain and provides hard cover.  Always one of my first terrain choices if one is available.   Fig 1 was my first attempt at building really rocky, rocky ground. The rocks are really rocks, Woodland Scenics talus and sand which I glued to an MDF base.  Once dry I primed the base with brown and grey spray paint and then painted it up with highly thinned paint and dry brushing.  Then flocked and some home made tufts.  I was quite happy with this result only to have it thoroughly soaked by heavy rain after I had left it out to dry post varnishing.  However once the water was drained off I put the base in the oven at low temp and left it dry out.  There was very little warping, but some of the MDF did swell.  So I sanded the bottom flat with my belt sander and sealed it with Mod Podge, all good.  This is the photo after all the misfortune.

Fig 1

My next  piece of rocky ground (Fig 2.) still fits within the 20x20cm footprint for Saga terrain but is triangular.  This is mostly because it fit the MDF off cut I had to hand, but also I thought it would fit the rocks I had collected.  These rocks my youngest son and I collected whilst walking the dog in the woodland reserve before school.  These is a great selection of rocks on walking distance within a short distance of my house.  All different and I have started harvesting them so I gain a collection.  When I am out and about I am looking for large ones which are flat with lots of texture and smaller ones which can work as scatter. It is amazing how looking a rocks more closely shows the diversity of colour.  I can see the attraction of geology now, aside from the mining industry pay packet.

Fig 2

Like Fig 1. I glued the larger rocks down first, spacing them so I could still place miniatures so that the based could be filled and the figures wouldn't fall over.  Since the terrain provides cover I wanted make the cover seem obvious and not just difficult.  For Fig 1. I glued the large rocks down with tile adhesive (which I actually love using for surface terrain e.g. my 1:3000 scale WWII naval fleets) before using Mod Podge for the smaller stones and scatter.  However I found that the tile adhesive takes to long to set and I wanted to work on the terrain faster.  So for Fig 2. I glued the larger rocks down with 2 part Araldite 5 minute epoxy.  As the name says, you mix it up place it on the MDF, position the rock and 5 minutes later it is set.  I was therefore able to support the rocks into position so that they were more level during the setting process and move to adding the other rocks much faster.  

For this base I used a grey spray primer and then dusted the rocks with a white primer.  Then using a similar blend of washed out paint, inks and light dry brushing got the rocks looking pretty rock like.  My my kids question why I am spending all these time painting rocks to look like real rocks rather than just not painting them, I think that the technique must be working OK.

Both Fig 1. and Fig 2. were flocked in Woodland Scenics blended turf.  They are ready to go, but I will probably add some static grass tufts and clump foliage when I have time.

Fields.

These two fields are my first attempts at using teddy bear fur.  I was given some off cuts from a friend at the wargaming club who had made a lovely 6'x4' mat.  I was interested in see how it would work as Saga fields so I gave it a go.

Fig 3. was my first go.  I cut the fur closer with my dog clippers and scissors until it was not much higher than some of my static grass tufts.  The fur was a golden brown so I used a lot of different green and yellow poster paint to get it to this colour.  Using the brush and comb method I got the fur to a colour and texture I was happy with and then glued it to an MDF base.  I used contact adhesive, but didn't quite get it right and ended up using PVA glue around the edges.  I made the corner hedge with an old strip of Heki hedge I had in the bits bin and added clump foliage and coarse turf to make it leafy.  To get the course turf to hold I dropped on watered down Mod Podge with detergent (my normal flock sealing system) which worked fine on the hedge, but leeched under the fur, so it required careful grooming to stop it gluing flat.

Then I though disaster struck when this piece as also caught out in the same rain as Fig 1.  The fur soaked up everything and it was like a sodden dish cloth.  So very upset with myself I drained it off, patted out more water, combed the fur (yet again, but this time the colours had mellowed to the better) and stuff it in the oven.  The picture is of the end result and like Fig 1. I ended up standing late the MDF base (which was much worse than the rocky ground) and sealing it again.

Fig 4. was a very experiment in fields building.  I decided to make a large field using teddy bear fur again and enclosing it in a dry stone wall. Yes, I know that fields don't provide hard cover, but I am prepared for some artistic license if it looks good.  I made the walls by making Lego formwork and filling the space with small rocks mixed with Mod Podge.  After making the first side in a 100% Lego form, I used masking tape to hold the form directly to the MDF the other walls.  I also built the wall in layers of 2 Legos high the second time around so that the glue would dry faster.  I found that even though the top layer dried quickly the result seal and Lego walls meant that the bottom layers took ages to dry as they weren't exposed to the air.

Fig 4

Like Fig 3, I used the brush and comb method on this piece of fur, but I was lighter on the paint and also kept the length of the fur longer. I am happier with this result as I think it looks more later in the growing season, whereas Fig 3 looks more marshy.  I also got the gluing to the MDF down pat with the contact adhesive without any side effects or significant adhesion issues. The walls followed a similar painting technique to Fig 2 and both bases were flocked the same way.

Fig 5. was back to my tried and proven field method using a coir doormat.  These are dirt cheap to buy and once you have vacuumed up all the dust and trimmed away to loose pieces they are use to cut, glue down nicely and really durable.  You can even paint them up to make them more green and alive, but I have never really bothered, though maybe I should.  Since the coir mats I buy are stitched into rubber backing, they are very easy to cut and glue. So you can place the field, apply the texture around the outside and have it ready for painting really quickly.

Fig 5

That is enough for now.  As you can see there are some ruins in the background of the last picture, but I will save them up for another post.

Mounted Heathguard from Conquest and Fireforge

Since my last post I finished the four extra mounted heathguard made from Conquest and Fireforge sprues.

Fireforge Mounted Sergeants

These two knights are made using Fireforge horses and torsos.  To keep them in theme with the Norman/1st Crusades models in the warband, I used heads and shields from Conquest Games' Norman Knight sprue.

All the conversion work was done with a hobby knife and file. Whilst it isn't perfect, I am very happy with how I was able to match up the heads and neck onto the Fireforge torsos.

As the riders had sheathed swords I used a Fireforge mace and Conquest knights hammer for the weapons, rather than go the spear / lance route.  Unfortunately the sword sheaths are easily bent and I had to continually straighten them!!

To match the saddles of the rest of the knights, I cut down the saddle horns front and back so that they were not to obvious.

Conquest Medieval Knights

These use the horses and torsos from the medieval knights sprue.  Like the Fireforge figures I ended up using Norman heads and shields instead what was on the knights sprue.

I was surprised to find that the medieval knights used a different system for matching their heads to their shoulders than the Norman knights and infantry sprues.  So I used the same cutting and filing process as I used on the Fireforge figures.

 I also used one of the Fireforge swords arms which match up really with the Conquest torso.

Overall

I was pleasantly surprised with how well the figures and horses painted up.  The horses were very easy to paint and I think I preferred the plastic horses over the metal ones from a painting perspective. I will be more than happy to mix and match plastic and metal horses in future, including swapping riders over if they will fit.  The Conquest and Fireforge riders seemed interchangeable once the saddle was cut down, but I decided to keep them on brand.

Side by side I think that all four manufactures blend really well together. Aside from the missing shield bosses (which I may add in later), I would struggle to tell the difference on the gaming table.

I have the minis so can a build a combined Norman / Crusader warband

Every year I take an extended Christmas & New Year holiday.  So from mid-December to late-January I try and build and paint a new warband, plus other miscellaneous wargaming stuff.

2019/20's project was building a new Norman / Crusader warband using the variety of Norman miniatures I had in the lead and plastic pile.

First and foremost the aim goal of this project was to paint what I had rather than build a specific Saga warband.  So don't expect and optimised warband post.

Secondly this post is also about giving my thoughts on the miniatures I painted.

Crusader - Dismounted Norman Knights with Axes 

What is there not to like about heathguard with heavy weapons.  Hit hard, have full armour against shooting and die like flies (well when i play with them anyway).  

Crusader heathguard with heavy weapons (4 poses)

With lots of mail, helmets and axe heads there was a lot of metal and therefore quick and easy to paint. I hadn't worked out what the colour scheme would be before starting the project, but working my way through these it became red uniforms, with white highlights and blue leggings. Which has now continued across the whole warband.

Unfortunately there are only 4 poses because I really like these models.  The level of detail is crisp and simple, I like the shields and there was very little clean up required.  The only minus (and it is a very small one) is that the figures are a little chunky compared to some other manufactures, but not overly so.

Wargames Illustrated - Balian D'Ibelin

This is a limited edition figure which fortunately I got before it sold out.  He is my warlord when he decides to get off his high horse and hoof it with the infantry.

Giants in Miniature's Balian D'Ibelin (warlord)

I am very happy with how this figure turned out, especially since I am not fond of removing flash. This figure require more cleaning than I like and I end up sanding the whole face of the shield to get a smooth surface to paint.

The heraldry on the shield is from the GW Bretonnian knight transfers which I painted over. I liked the idea of a Saxon dragon since I think it suits my idea of a Norman lord wanting a tenuous relationship to a Saxon realm and ties into his retainers whether they be Norman or Crusaders. If the shield was not cast on to his arm I would have switched it out for a kite shield.  But I didn't want to risk butchering the model.

Wargames Foundry - Dismounted Norman Knights

Knights didn't always fight on horseback and there are times when you just have to get down and fight on foot.

Sculpted by Matthew Bickley, these miniatures are full of character with dynamic poses. These were very easy to clean up and the casting detail is crisp. Compared to the other manufactures in this warband there are more details to pick out on each figure which means they took a little longer to paint. However the extra effort was rewarding. Aside from the variations in armour on the figures, the facial expressions really stand out. The minis are charging full scream into battle.




The miniatures are also as chunky but this is offset by the obvious layering of the gambeson under the mail. I would love a few more.

Warlord Games - Heavy Infantry A

Every warband needs standard warriors and sometimes they are luck enough to have decent mail, even if it means they can't afford a horse to ride on.

Warlord Games armoured infantry warriors

These are part of the Colin Patton's Saxon Miniatures range that Warlord purchased a couple of years ago.  I have dozen of so of the Vikings in this range and they are lovely figures.  Like them you get 8 individual dynamic poses, so I was looking forward to painting these.

The unit didn't end up being 100% Warlord games.  I didn't want the round shields so swapped them out for a couple of plastic ones from Conquest Games and Fireforge kits.  The spears were North Star metals which glued into holes drilled though each hand (the ain't falling off).

They are nice figures, but not as nice as the Viking range.  Also compared to the Crusader and Wargames Foundry figures the casting wasn't as clean and whilst their wasn't a lot of flash they were more fiddly to prepare. The are also a leaner miniature compared to Conquest and Wargames Foundry, but no massively so.

Crusader - Unarmoured Norman Spearmen

Your more traditional warrior could afford a decent helmet a solid shield and not much else.

Crusader unarmoured infantry warriors (4 poses)

With no mail the Crusader spearmen are obviously less chunky and nicely proportioned.  The hands were large enough to be drilled out for wire spears which glued together nice and solid.

Having been painting lots of mail it was nice to paint plain red tunics.  The casting was clean and the model have sufficient detail to make layering easy and making our highlights.

Unfortunately there are only 4 poses, which given how spoilt we are for unique poses in many ranges nowadays is a shame.  But all things considered a different paint job on the shield and slight repositioning of the spear makes them different enough.

Crusader - Norman Knights in Chainmail with Swords

Most manufacturers of Normans have mostly spears, whereas I like to mix things up and use hand weapons too.  Hey, they must lose those spears in battle and it is hard to pick one of the ground when you are in the saddle. Crusader and Wargames Foundry sell their cavalry in blisters of 3. Which means you need to have some spares around to make a point of heathguard, buy another pack or get one of each in my case.

Crusader mounted knights or heathguard

Crusader makes nice horses, they are dynamic and generally have clean castings.  As I am not fond of painting horses anything that is quick and simple to get a decent outcome gets a big thumbs up from me.

The riders are heavily mailed so are easy to paint and highlight details.  What really stands out as an odd point in this range is how the rider have severely bowed legs as if they were sculpted on a piece of dowel.  As such the rider's saddles don't glue neatly to the horses bases which is a shame.

However once painted up and in a unit this is not immediately obvious and given how they paint up I see this as a minor issue.

Wargames Foundry - Norman Knights 1 

Foundry mounted knights or heathguard

Like the foot knights, these miniatures have lots of character. I especially like the one drawing his sword as that is unusual in most ranges.

The riders were sculpted to fit really well to the horses were a pleasure to paint.

However the horses were another issue.  One first look, the horses and poses looked great, but I found myself cutting and filing away lots of solid flash which seemed really out of ordinary based on past experience with Wargames Foundry figures.  Then I discovered that the one of the hindquarters of one the horses had failed to fill the mould fully and I needed to green stuff the muscle back in.

Conquest Games and Fireforge Games - Medieval Archers, Norman Infantry and Footsergeants

To keep with the red and white theme I need to paint up some more crossbowmen.  As there are no Norman specific plastic crossbow kits, I decided to mix and match pieces from Conquest and Fireforge plastic sets.  Whilst I was at it I also assembled another 8 unarmoured warriors as well.

Kit-bashed plastic Conquest and Fireforge crossbow warriors

The crossbows on the Fireforge sprue are great, both with and without arms attached. These would fitted to a 50:50 mix of Fireforge and Conquest torsos and then I added heads from Conquest's infantry and archers sets.  I felt that the Fireforge heads didn't fit the thematic look of the warband so they were left out.

The benefit of plastic is its ease of conversion as I was able to get everything together with just a hobby knife and a file. Whilst I prefer the aesthetic of metal miniatures I was pretty happy with the outcome of the crossbows.

Kit-bashed plastic Conquest and Fireforge unarmoured warriors

The unarmoured warriors were also assembled from components from all three box sets.

To provide additional variation I added swords and axes to the mix.  Keeping with theme, all bar one of the shields and heads came from the Conquest sprues.

These warriors have padded and leather armour and more layers than their Crusader counterparts. So they have a more varied use of the red and white uniform compared to the other units.

How do the scales compare?

Left to Right: Conquest, Foundry, Crusader, Warlord, Crusader, Fireforge

Overall the figures from the different manufactures fit together very well.  Yes there are some variations, but I consider this no more than what you see as normal height and weight differences in today's population.  To my eyes the Fireforge figures seem slightly weedier, and not being Norman specific don't fit in as neatly as the others.

As a whole I am very satisfied as how they fit together as a warband.  (Note to self, as some stage I need to sand a mm of the bases of the plastic warriors to even up the heights)

Left to Right: Crusader, Foundry, Crusader, Foundry, Crusader, Foundry

Like with the infantry, the cavalry figures scale and fit nicely together as a unit. If it were not for the obvious way in which the Crusader riders sat on their horses I would have trouble telling the ranges apart on the table top.

To finalise the warband and the range comparison I have 4 more mounted heathguard in progress built using Conquest Medieval Knights, Norman Cavalry and Fireforge Mounted Sergeants.  I will post them up once they are finished with another comparison photo.

Now For Something Different!

Eureka monk

Eureka Miniatures are based in Melbourne and it is always fun to drop in when they have their store front open and browse through the trays of minis to find something fun to paint.

 

Eureka horse holder and 3 horses

This is one of there generic robed monks, silently praying for victor and the safe return of the warband from battle.

And every Warlord needs a couple of remounts to keep them going.  So Patsy is keeping them safe whilst D'Ibelin goes off to battle afoot.

Late 2019 hobby resurgence

2019 was a busy year.  Lots of full on activity in the first quarter and then things slowed down due to family and work commitments.  So the hobby suffered over the southern winter.

But spring came and I got a new sense of hobby life.  It was time to pull out the painting gear and see if I could still use a brush.

Getting back into painting 1

Having sat in my pile of unpainted miniatures for around a year I decided to pull out the S-Culture Barbarian.  This was a figure I had collected for my old WHFB Chaos Warriors army, but had never got done.  So I thought it would be a great addition to my Saga as an Age of Magic hero or The Brute in the old feud scenario in the Book of Battles.

This figure was really enjoyable to paint.  It had a number of head and weapon options but I thought the combination of a bare head and huge heavy weapon suited my image of The Brute, especially since he would be close to 7' tall.

It was also a good excuse for me to get out the homemade static grass generator and make some more grass tufts.

Pleasantly surprised at the result I was motivated to pull out another miniature and paint away.

Getting back into painting 2

The second miniature I decided to do was the Robert Dux model from Conquest Games.  I got this miniature from Mike at Salute 2019. I was really taken with the miniature on the Conquest Games website and decided that it would be a good addition to my plastic Norman warband.  So I put it on a 60mm round base (this is my new go to for mounted Warlords) and started painting.  

Now painting horses has never been my favourite thing and historically I have painted horse and rider separately. So this time I decided to break the mould and glue the rider on first. Great decision as it allowed me to get a really good bond and fill out some of the gaps. I also decided to use a grey undercoat and Plastikote grey primer.  Normally I have no problems with this primer but I used it on a too hot day and ended up dusting the model and needed to sand some of it back.  No worries, all's well that ends well.

I really like this figure.  The horse is just brilliant, full of character and I found it easy to paint.  It was also plain with simple detail, which was great to get back into painting with.

The rider was also a simple sculpt but just looks right.  So I was very happy with the outcome.

Basing used my homemade tufts and some bark from my local park outside my back door.

The shield just sort of evolved and was happy at the time.  But I am going to repaint it now that I have built a new Crusader / Norman warband.  But more of that later.

Getting back into painting 3

After some gaming with friends we decided that Melbourne needed to be represented in the Australian Saga Grand Melee in Brisbane.  I thought that Anglo Saxons would be fun and 5 points of levy warriors could be accrued from my own collection and friends.  However to really make the warband mine I need to paint a Anglo Saxon warlord and Priest.

 The Priest is from Wind Wind's Burning a Druid at the Stake pack. It comes with a choice of heads and I think that the figure looked very suitable for a Priest accompanying the great fryd into battle.

Holding the cross and pointing made the figure suitably dramatic and painting a brown cassock was a new change.  I also found that I was replicating the techniques I had used on Robert Dux's horse which seemed both weird and satisfying at the same time.

I wanted the warlord to be suitably dramatic on the gaming table and given the amount of levy the idea of the warlord being accompanied by his war banner and bearer just seemed right.

The warlord is Gripping Beast's Alfred the Great figure and the banner bearer is Warlord Games' Eric the Red from the Viking range the purchased from Colin Patton.

The choose a white Saxon dragon for the banner and carried the red and white theme onto the shield.  

Because I won't always want the warlord to have a banner he is mounted on a 40mm base which inserts into a cut out on a 60mm base.

So these are the figures that got be back into the swing of things and motivated me to keep painting. So stay tuned to see the next project.

Societial Disorder is Situation Normal for the Great Kingdoms

Am I suffering from hubris or not? Of course not, I am one of the ruling class of a Great Kingdom. So get back in your box you miserable piece of dung and leave me to my business.

The Great Kingdoms faction in Saga represents order, a strong ruling class and pretty much a desire to be left alone.  If you are out to conquer the known world, deliver rampage and mayhem then this is not the faction for you.  But if pristine ranks of beautiful equipped troops tickles your fancy then the Great Kingdom's might be the faction for you.

Great Kingdoms take on the Horde

My wargaming cabinet is full of Great Kingdom suitable armies from WHFB and playing ancients.  High Elves, Bretonnians, Dwarves (which we also covered with Masters of the Underneath), Caesarean and Early Imperial Romans and ancient Greeks. So my challenge is to find a few playable version of the Great Kingdoms rather than just a one size fits all list.

So what makes the Great Kingdoms faction great?

The Great Kingdoms have the Winged Mount option for all heroes and heathguard units, given then flying cavalry with the associated manoeuvre benefits counted by their inability to every hide without magic.

However being rather civilised and all that jazz, means that you only have access to a single unit of creatures (either biped or quadruped) and single monster. 

Flying Warlord, Static War Machine and other Troops

Your lieutenant options is the Captain who's special ability is to bully any heathguard, warrior or levy units into action with "we obey". Unfortunately creatures, monsters, war machines and other heroes think the captain is a self opinionated git and just ignore him.  However a captain in your warband means that you can keep one flank active whilst your warlord is off on the other.

The second special unit is the Paladin which effectively costs 1/2 a point (i.e. 2 x HG, 4 x warriors, 6 x levy or 1 creature.  You can have unto 2 paladins in your warband and have the Heroic ability. Heroic doubles the paladins aggression in melee (5 to 10) against any monsters or creatures, plus increasing its resilience from 1 to 2.  So the Paladin is primarily your monster/creature killer and therefore being mounted as normal or on a winged mount gives you are high threat range again monster creature intensive warbands, but with nothing special to offer if there are none of them around!

The Great Kingdom's sacred ground is the Memorial, which allows you to reroll one of your Saga dice in the orders phase so long as you have a unit of 8 figures or more within VS and no enemy within S.

Your sorcerers have access to Energy and Light magic which give you some interesting options to synergise with your battleboard and unit selection.

Warband Selection and how to make it both pretty and effective

I have primarily being using the Great Kingdoms for introduction games to Age of Magic with my Bretonnian miniatures. So I am 100% up front and honest when say that I haven't been looking at this list on a competitiveness first basis, but it has been fun to put on the table and play.

Warlord - Winged Mount

Lieutenant - Captain and Mount: Animal (1/2 point)

Paladin - Mount: Animal (1/2 point, so 1 full point on the Lieutenant and Paladin)

Sorcerer - Mount: Animal. (Bolt <energy>, Laying on Hands and Blinding <light>) (1 point)

6 x Heathguard - Mount Animal (1 1/2 points)

6 x Heathguard - Winged Mount (1 1/2 points)

12 x Warriors (2 points - cull 4 warriors for the war machine)

12 x Levy - Bow (1 point)

1 x War Machine - Static

Flying Heathguard down the flank

In general I see the Great Kingdoms faction as a bait, absorb and counter force.  It doesn't do shooting well enough to force your opponent to stand off.  Nor does it have the grunt and impact to charge overrun all comers.  It is definitely a combined forces warband and heavily reliant on your heroes to make it work.

The Great Kingdoms battleboard has 2 x Orders or Orders/Reactions, 3 x Melee or Shooting/Reaction s, 2 x Activations and 1 each of Melee, Activation/Reaction and Orders/Reaction. As only Legendary Hero (common+rare) and Last Defence (rare+rare) require 2 dice, it is a very easy battleboard to fill up and use with average or even less than average dice rolls.

The first principle of this warband placing defendable terrain and creating a clear field of fire for your levy and war machine.  

Levy bow have a range of L and because they have none of the hitting benefits of crossbows or firearms you want to ensure you get as many shots as you can. 12 bow levy in defensive terrain is tough to budge but also hard to ignore.  Positioning the Captain near your levy means it will always be able to shoot and maintaining a M+ gap between it and your war machine means you can use Enfilade (common) to shoot twice.  The key here is that you need to be able to shoot with both units in order to use Enfilade so you need to keep those levy within L.   The Static War Machine can target anywhere on the board it can see, so you also want to give it they best field of vision you can.  However this also means that it is generally in vulnerable position to chargers and therefore it is a must to ensure that you have it behind uneven terrain, as it means no-one can get to you without having to spend at least 1 turn within aggression 4 range.  As war machines count uneven and dangerous ground as impassable I play that you can't deploy in them either.

In addition to shooting, you can use your sorcerer's Blinding chance of cancelling an enemy units activation within L to slow down an advance and Bolt to inflict damage in addition to shooting.

The second principle is that you are going to have to draw them in and risk some pain first.

Repel the Shadows (any dice), Shield of Bravery (uncommon) and Exhortation (uncommon) are all abilities which give you defence dice. Against shooting or in melee, Repel the Shadows gives you 2 or 4 if the enemy has at least 12 attack dice with a +1 bonus if you use a Phoenix, and Shield of Bravery is a flat 3 defence dice.  Exhortation is an Orders or Orders/Reaction ability which gives all units within M of a hero 2 bonus defence dice at the cost of the hero taking 1 fatigue.  With dice on these abilities you can risk having your levy bow or warriors up in the front line as bait as 5-7 bonus defence dice dramatically increase the survival of these units.  Ideally you have your levy bow in ruins, rocky ground or even a marsh (using the fatigue your enemy will get on charging to buff your armour) and you warriors in a position to close ranks.  Your levy and potentially your war machine also have the opportunity to use Closing Fire (uncommon) which gives them a free shooting attack before melee is resolved.  

In short you want your opponent to charge your.  They probably don't want to so you shoot them instead until they do, and if they don't then you are probably doing more damage any way and keeping them out of your kingdom so it is still a win!

The third principle is to hit them when then bounce and to hit them hard.

Your captain is there to ensure you can shoot, take fatigue through Exhortation on defence and with Inspiration in attack. So you want to position him so he can be within M, but also move M+M to support the counter attack.  You don't want your captain in melee.  However your Paladin is another matter entirely and you want to ensure that he is in a position to intercept or countercharge any creatures or monsters.

Your flying heathguard and warlord are able to fly over your own troops or terrain to countercharge.  This means you can engage in melee with already fatigued and/or depleted enemy units. Your mounted heathguard don't have the same flexibility as the flying HG but should also be positioned on a flank to engage too.

Banish Evil (all) and Inspiration  (common) both add attack dice and Warcry (common or uncommon) is a great activation ability which forces the charged unit to close ranks and discard 2 attack dice every time it uses a Saga ability or fatigue.  This is great to use when you opponent has that full battleboard awaiting to crush you only to face a damn or be damned dilemma.

Final musings.

I have chosen Laying on Hands (2 dice) as the ability to remove fatigue from your heroes maybe critical during the game, especially given the fatigue generating abilities of the battleboard or the option of using Legendary Hero. 

This is only one way of playing Great Kingdoms, e.g. if I had more flying troops and heroes then this list could easily be tweaked into a "Flying Circus" switching out Laying on Hands for Mists as it will need increase protection from shooting.

The above list is probably the most mobile of my options, but I look forward to trying out other options.  I have so many figures to use it would be a shame not to bring them out to play.

The Otherworld in Saga Age of Magic

Things that go bump in the night, the monsters under your bed and the night terrors that the worst of dreams are made of.

The Otherworld faction in Saga represents the creatures and beings which live outside the mortal world.  Behind the curtain of reason live the horrors of the mind, both real or imagined, the rapacious, the beguiling, insanity and torment, lust and murder and…. well, anything which just isn’t normal and not quite right.

Back in the early 2000's I played WHFB Chaos Daemons. 100% Tzeentch my army was full of horrors, flamers, screamers and associated greater daemons and princes etc… Whllst I also have some khorne, slannesh and nurgle troops, they have been sitting in the unpainted lead pile and I need to see if I have enough of them in multiples of 4 to be useful and add some additional options to this faction.  

So my challenge is to see who we can morph them into an effective warband from the Otherworld.

So what is the Otherworld like?

An Otherworld warband is a little different in that you don't have the Mount:Animal option for any unit.  instead the faction has the special rule Winged which will give any Hero, Heathguard or Warrior units Flight.  This is fluffy and interesting but gives some interesting tactical considerations which we will discuss later.  

You don't have access to levies or war machines, but you can recruit up to 3 monsters (although no titans) and 2 creatures.  This fits in with the Otherworldly theme of big nasty scary things from beyond the real world nicely.

The faction has the choice of Death and Energy spells and your Lieutenant has the Conjuror special rule which allows them to sacrifice a friendly figure within VS to take two available Sage dice, roll them, choose the best one and add it to your pool of inactive dice.  So you want to keep a warrior unit close as you can use Conjuror ability for 4 turns (without losing a unit generated Saga die) to add an addition die to you pool each orders phase with an additional chance for a Skull (Activation Pool or Portal etc..) or to give you 2 extra magic dice via Magic Pool.

You can convert unto half of your warrior units into Hunters on deployment which makes them Aggression 2 in any combat they initiate and a change distance of L for loss of the ability to close ranks and gaining Primitive. I am not sure that I have the figures to take this as an option currently

Finally the Sacred Ground for the Otherworld is the Unstable Portal.  At the end of every turn (both yours and your opponents, any unit within S will suffer a casualty on a roll of 6 on a D6. Like all pieces of sacred ground, effectively placing this terrain piece will be critical to have any chance of it occurring during the game, but it can force your opponent to clear an area, deploy where you really want them or be used to protect a unit with its 3 x S effective circle. 

Tactical thoughts, OK lets be honest, do I want to play the fluff and to hell with it discussion:

In my previous faction reviews, I have done the musing after looking at the battle board. But with Otherworld I want to consider my available models and how they may play first.

• To go monster heavy or not? I can field 3 daemonic monsters so this an option. 3 flying or even 2 Scourges flying L and breathing M with 4 ranged attacks and defending with aggression 10 and resilience 2 is not to be sneezed at. Plus it would look really cool.  The downside is that they are monsters and I am going to need a Banner or Skull to activate each of them. on the plus side I am unlikely to try and activate them multiple times which will be good for fatigue management.
• To go flight heavy or not? Flight gives you increased manoeuvrability and none of the fatigue issues of cavalry, but have no option of hiding behind terrain.  Given that my model selection is Tzeentch flavoured, the idea of everything but my horrors flying around the battlefield sounds really good to me, regardless of whether it is tactically smart or not.
• Or should I do both?  Well, in for a penny in for a pound sounds like the fluffy way to do it.

Composition:

Having convinced myself that I am fluff driven first and foremost my warband composition is easy.

Warlord - Winged.  Lest just call him mounted but better and I am going to need the We Obey with all the monsters.

Lieutenant - Conjurer and Winged. Because I can (though it may not be smart) and think I am going to need that extra dice during the game for either abilities or magic boosts. (cull two HG)

Sorcerer - Winged. (Ritual <death>, Mists and Bolt <energy>) (1 point)

6 x Heathguard - Winged and there to make use of all the melee abilities (2 points)

8 x Warriors  (1 point)
2 x Flying Creatures (1 point)
2 x Flying Creatures (1 point)
1 x Scourge Monster (1 point)
1 x Scourge Monster (1 point)

What are the potential synergies with the Otherworld battle board and spells:

So now I have chosen who I am going to play, what do I need to look for on the battle board and spells. To start with, the Otherworld battle board has no shooting or shooting reaction Saga abilities instead you have four Melee, two Activation with the rest a mix of Orders and Orders/Reactions.

• For spells I am looking for ones which are going to protect my flying troops until they get to dictate shooting and melee on their own terms.  For this I like Mists which restricts LOS until the start of my next turn.  It takes 2 magic dice with the basic ability limiting LOS to L, a Common and Uncommon reducing it to M and Ultimate Power restricting it to VS.  I really want to get the mid level effect and reduce LOS to M whenever possible, so I am going to pair it with Ritual from the Death spell deck.  Ritual's base level allows you to re-roll up to 2 magic dice on my next spell, the mid level allows me to take a fatigue and choose the facing for one die instead of rolling and the highest level means you just get to choose what want instead.  To use Ritual and Mists in the same turn I am going to have to use the Conjurer and the Magic bonus to get those additional 2 magic dice.  My final spell is Bolt as it gives me that additional ranged attack option since the Otherworld doesn't have a lot of ranged options. for 6 magic dice I can cast Bolt, then Ritual and then throw 3 dice with 2 re-rolls to hopefully get that common plus uncommon combination.
• Portal (is one rare) is a great ability as you get to place a unit without fatigue anywhere on the table in open terrain at least M away from an enemy unit. Although you can't activate to move afterwards you can Shoot.  So you have the option to pair this with Rift (one common) and/or Abyssal Breath  (one of any dice) to deal out some ranged damage. So place my heathguard unit and get 6 shooting attacks, or move in a Scourge who gets their free Breath attack for no fatigue and can then use Abyssal Breath for an additional attack for a fatigue. Of course using portal puts your unit within M of your target and potentially a charge or shooting target.  
• Dominant Position (one uncommon) played on this unit as an orders/reaction will prevent any unit charging it until they are within S.  Meaning that any unit that wants to get you will need to move once in order to charge and therefore enter melee with a valuable fatigue for you to play with.
• Astral Bond (uncommon) and Flood of Power (uncommon or rare) are also great defensive spells played as Orders or Orders/Reaction. Astral Bond increases your resilience by 1, fancy attacking a resilience (3) scourge? Whereas Flood of Power increase the units army by 1 for the next melee in the turn.  
• If by chance you have left a non monster unit vulnerable to a decisive melee charge then Doppelgängers (2 uncommon) will turn all your opponents attack dice into defence dice.
• And finally, the any dice Supernatural Stature will give all your defence dice a +1 bonus so long as you score 3 hits (which of course your heathguard, warlord or creatures should do) and Might (common or uncommon) allows you to re-roll unto 3 attack dice with your heroes and creatures gaining an addition 3 attack dice as well.

Further tactical musings:

I have come to the realisation whilst writing this (and having played a couple of games) that I am not sure if the Otherworld fits within my playing mentality; and I am a great believer that you always play better with armies that match your personality.  So whilst I can be a comfortable with multiple personalities, the Otherworld leaves me a little dumbfounded.

• I think you need to be aggressive given that you have no long range shooting abilities and being imposing and/or flying all round means there is nowhere to hide.  So you can't afford to sit back and bid your time against any shoot warband unless you have Mists up all the time.
• Terrain is a tricking one as it basically doesn't do anything positive for you but can be damned nuisance.  So will be temped to place the Unstable portal early and centrally in your opponents DZ and use this to either fracture their forces, risk the chance of losing figures or refuse a flank. I also think that you want to deny your opponent of good pieces which will do you more harm than good if they have them, such as ruins and large woods.  
• That said how you place terrain for a shooting heavy opponent is going to be totally different for a melee heavy cavalry force.
• Hiding the 8 warriors with your Lieutenant in a wood or ruin seems like a good idea as it protects them and we recognise that they only exist to provide that extra saga die each turn.
• 5 units with a charge range of L that ignore terrain and have the potential to shoot as well is scary.  Not as scary as the Horde may be, but still scary.
• Board management looks really important and rolling 3 uncommon early to place on Dominant Position, Astral Bond and Flood of Power looks to be critical because you don't really have the hitting power to destroy units and the Otherworld really looks like it is going to have that punch, counterpunch, attrition feel too it.  Which I am just not sure that I am going to be up to with my warband as designed.

Some thoughts about The Horde

Saga Age of Magic is now out in Australia and a few people have been asking about the different factions and how they play.

So this is my first attempt at a faction review and/or play guide.  I hope you find it interesting.

The Horde, what are they like?

The Horde is the faction most associated with the idea of barbarian warbands, the mass of unruly blood crazed warriors and races such as orcs and goblins. Regardless of the miniatures you choose and your flavour of fantasy I see them as the charge and bash faction.

The warband is combat driven, with regular heavy weapons or mounts being the core options and you shooting limited to levy bow, mounted composite bow warriors, Scourge monster, a single war machine and javelins on war chariots.

The Horde battle board only has one shooting ability, but since everything else is mostly movement and melee based, you are going to want to build a melee oriented warband.

The Horde's sorcerers have access to Earth and Metal magic, which buff the Horde battle board and troop types really well.  With right spell selection and the full battle board, the Horde are very fast, hit hard and can deal out a lot of damage very quickly.  The have some defensive abilities which reduce the likelihood of taking casualties in return, but overall you can expect that unless you can significantly reduce your opponents Saga dice generation abilities early, there counter attacks are going to hurt.

The Horde's special rules include

• a lieutenant upgraded to a aggression 6 Champion with Pride.
• War Chariot heroes which hit hard with javelins and have double aggression if starting melee with no fatigue.
• and, a Sacrificial Stone as their Sacred Ground which imparts a bonus attack die to all Horde units within S in melee.

Battle board and spell synergies:

• for a rare dice, For the Horde (Orders) increases your charges over open terrain by S and your fatigue can't be used against you.  This means you can camp outside of shooting or cavalry charge ranges with mounted units or outside of the foot unit charge range and initiate charges from far away.  This makes me want to take lots of mounted units and quadruped creatures.  Combined with the metal spell Stoke Fury, you now have a mounted unit capable of charging L+S+S or a monster charging M+S+S.  This is potentially brutal.
• Me First (Orders) stacks well with either of the above to give you 4 bonus attack dice, if your first activation for the turn is a charge.  Play this on your Behemoth and it enters melee with 16 dice.
• Domain of Metal spells are particularly useful for the Horde as they give bonus dice when calculating your initial attack dice pool.  So you get to max out your monster in combat despite not being allowed to use advanced saga abilities and your other units can use Rage and Prayers to the Old Gods to their best effect.
• Let the Blood Run gives you two charge activations for the price of one so long as you have no more than one fatigue.  With For the Horde up this gives you the opportunity to charge in and then use Let the Blood Run to finish off small units etc...

Tactical thoughts:

• Having played a handful of games with the Horde, I like the fact that they are fast, really fast if you let them.  I think you need to be patient and wait the right time to unleash their charges.  If you get that rare sage dice early, I think you need to place it on For the Horde as it is only to screw with your opponents mind early on.  You can fill your battle board over a couple of turns knowing that if your opponent wants to stand off you can use manoeuvre to close to just outside of L.  If you get a second rare, placement on Activation Pool means that you are guaranteed two extra saga dice on your charge turn to ensure you have all the activations you need.
• If you take only one sorcerer then my spell choice is Chrysalis (Earth), Stoke Fury and Rites of Battle (both Metal).  Chrysalis is so you can re-roll one magic die per spell cast, which gives you two chances to get the +2 bonus attack dice on Stoke Fury and range L with Rites of Battle. On the turn you charge you want to have both of these off if possible and you need Rites of Battle up to give you extra hitting power during your opponents counter attack.
• Placing the Sacrificial Stone early and in your opponents deployment zone sounds like a good idea as clearly indicates to your opponent that you are coming to get them.  Uneven terrain is your enemy, so you also want to place these out of the way and limit the amount of terrain on the board as early as possible.
• To mount of not to mount.  Given that your strike range can be L+S, I think that it is feasible to have an all mounted melee warband. A mounted sorcerer enables you to maximise the Rites of Battle bubble and ensure you get Stoke Fury on the right unit.

Composition:

Disclaimer, I am playing Age of Magic so I can bring out all my old fantasy armies. Given the size of my collection I can pretty much take any combination units I want and I have so far.  But based on my games so far this is what I will be taking next.

Warlord - Mount: Animal

Lieutenant- Mount: Animal (cull 2 HG)

War Chariot (1 point)

Sorcerer - Mount: Animal (Chrysalis, Stoke Fury and Rites of Battle) (1 point)

6 x Heathguard - Mount: Animal (2 points)

2 x Quadruped Creatures (1 point)

2 x Quadruped Creatures (1 point)

8 x Warriors - Mount: Animal or with Composite Bow (1 point) 

1 x Behemoth Monster (1 point)

Little Wars Melbourne Preparations

Saga Suitable Miniature Display

As part of the Saga Demonstration and Participation table at Little Wars Melbourne we will be displaying Saga suitable miniatures from:

1. 1st Corps
2. Aventine Miniatures 
3. Bad Squiddo Games
4. Conquest Games
5. Crusader Miniatures
6. Drabant
7. Eureka Miniatures
8. Fireforge Games
9. Footsore Miniatures
10. Gorgon Studios
11. Gripping Beast
12. Magister Militum
13. Newline Designs
14. Old Glory UK
15. Shieldwall Miniatures
16. SHQ Miniatures
17. Steve Barber Models
18. Stronghold Terrain
19. V&V Miniatures (hopefully, still checking the post office daily)
20. Wargames Foundry
21. Warhansa
22. Warlord Games
23. West Wind

In addition to I have some terrain and accessories from:

1. Ainsty Castings
2. Battlefield Accessories
3. Knights of Dice
4. Renedra

The purpose of this display is to enable you all to see the quality of sculpts, casting, scale and style of different companies before committing a a sight unseen purchase online. 

All the companies above have kindly donated examples of their ranges covering Age of Invasions, Age of Vikings and Age of Crusades periods.  I have had the opportunity to meet and talk to many of owners of these companies.  All of them are extremely passionate about wargaming, making miniatures and it is truly fantastic that they have all been able to pursue their passion and receive an income from it at the same time.

Work in progress and there are still more to go.  Resin, plastic and different types of white metal as well.

I have been chipping away at the miniatures every evening, driving my family made as it has taken over half the kitchen table.  Still got quite a few to go but everyone who stops by our Little Wars stand will get to see at least 200 miniatures.  If I have enough time, bases and space left, I might get to include some Age of Magic Undead miniatures too.