SAGA - Battle Report

Hello folks,

A couple of weeks back I had the chance to get a game of Saga in with Duncan and Mike...it had been some time since I had put a warband on the table so I was pretty pumped to get my Crusaders into the field.  Similar to last time, my force looked great, but hit the field rather horseless...that's okay, I haven't had a serious go at trying to paint horses yet and given where my painting is at these days I am pretty happy with my current warband.

Anyhow, the game went pretty smooth, luckily for me the guys have a great grip on the ruleset and battleboard which let me focus on trying to relearn as much as possible and get engaged.  If I remember correctly, the scenario was the multi-player scenario from the book (I think there may only be one) and it came down to collecting as many points as possible...the warlord collected points by making charges (a little tough for grunts, pretty cool for horse soldiers), survivability, kill numbers, and killing the other warlord.

At the end, Duncan came in first, I was second, and Mike took final slot...to be fair, Mike did an excellent job of placing his troops in very accessible positions.  So yeah, he generously set up his force equitably...and Duncan and I may have made some liberties with that.

I'll do my best to write some narrative as the pics go by...but please enjoy them nonetheless.  Cheers.

Initial setup...ish.  This is near the beginning of our first turn.  Duncan has deployed to the left, Mike is at top of the field with some of his force, the remainder is in mid-field mixing it up with my Foot Soldiers.  They took an initial charge from Mike's cavalry and some hits between his archers and my crossbowman. 

bit of a close-up...lost a couple of men, took an archer or two with them...

The battle board...some very awesome abilities there...the board feels very crusadery...very apropos...

The Soldiers take another round of hits...Mike moves his troops forward, Duncan harasses his lines with charges and special moves 

Mike's archers finally fall to my crossbowman...his cavalry take a beating from Duncan...and I slowly move my grunts forward with my Warlord prodding them along.

My lone Soldier squares of against the galloping horde...dies a true crusader death...

My warriors move forward and have varied success mixing it up...

The rest of the force make their way to supporting my crossbowman...

 the crossbowman join their crusading brothers in the light...between the pics, Mike's troops are taken apart piecemeal by both Duncan and I, his Warlord goes out swinging, and Duncan and I start getting some close range contact.  AND then we run out of time.  All in all, an other excellent game.

First Painting Update of the Year

Howdy folks,

In the interest of getting eyeballs on figs, please enjoy this very short post...

As promised I am finally getting to putting up pics of the first painting update of the year.  While I have posted painting progress, it was just to close out some painting updates from the last year.  This post is certainly a mix of genres and miniature companies and all figs were completed by the end of January.

Hope you enjoy the pics...

These two figures were from a line called Ral Partha...I'm not very familiar with it and if I recall correctly, I purchased this pack of 2 Banditos in a clearance bin...maybe in North Bay.  They did paint up quite nicely and are a little on the 'epic-y' side of the scale, but they should fit in nicely with my other figs. 

 

 

I cannot recall where Clint came from...I remember getting a little plastic bag thrown my way from my buddy Mike, but other than that...that's all I got.  The figure is a little on the small side of 28mm, especially when compared with the two amigos above...however, just like them I elected to keep the basing fairly simple on this one.  For the most part, the inspiration for Clint's paint scheme came from the Good the Bad and the Ugly.

 

 

These two are from Hasslefree Miniatures from their human sci-fi range...inspired from the Battlestar Galactica reimagined series, I couldn't wait to get to these two.  Nailing the exact colour of their uniforms was a challenge as screen shots from the series shows a wide variance in tone depending on lighting conditions...I'm pretty happy with the results and can't wait to add some more of these BSG inspired models to the fray. 

 

Another Hasslefree figure, I bought this zombie Doc on a whim and figured that I could add him in wherever in my gaming 'verse.  I took a little extra time to get some shades on his labcoat and show some good 'zombification' on him...I also took some extra time on the basing to get the look of post-apoc...

 

Finally, the last two are remainders from another blister of knights from Crusader Miniatures that I used for my SAGA Crusader army; in this case I themed them rather generically and based them for some Frostgrave-y type locales.  I thought I'd try my hand at some sculpting of extras using milliput.  I also was curious how my new painting technique would look on these figures as my previous knights were painted when I relied heavily on a base coat and a dry brush.  I'm pretty happy overall with the results, I really like how the painting came out...and I know that I certainly need some more practice on sculpting, but with fairly non-critical additions like furs or bags, the sculpting can be pretty forgiving.

 

 

 

2019 Expedition up Mt. Lead.

Painted:
28mm          8 (+8)

Bought:       0

Progress:   +8


WHATS NEXT

1. some pics from a new game I just picked up...

2. a few pics trying out Warlord's Cruel Seas...

3. a Star Wars Legion update...

 

Vikings!!

Evening everyone,

Hard to believe that February is nearly at the half-way mark...wow! Over the past couple of weeks, I have been at work prepping, basing, and painting a mixed array of Crusader Miniatures, Gripping Beast, and Artizan Vikings for: 1) personal shits and giggles, I wanted another warband for SAGA, and 2) for our clubs SAGA Age of the Wolf campaign.

So far, I am up to 4 points...and if I remember correctly, I think we're going up to 6 points for the campaign.  I chose the Vikings because there is a plethora of figures to choose from, I was able to find a couple of packs at North Bay Hobbies on clearance (Artizan figs, thank you Terry), I could have Berserkers, there was some great reference material (if I ever didn't want to read, I could just turn to the History Channel and watch Vikings...thank you Katheryn Winnick ), and hey, they're Vikings!!

For Christmas, I did get an awesome reference book which has come in very handy, The Vikings by Rene Chartrand has a great mix of overview and artwork that works for me right now.

Ok, so here's the Warband so far...4 points along with Ragnar leading the crew.

the Ragnar figure is from Crusader Miniatures adventurers 1 pack.

 

The warband...I am trying a new lighting setup...for the longest time I never wanted to use my flash, but in my latest attempt it sure makes a difference for me.

 

 

I have to admit, the Berserkers were a HUGE draw for me...I couldn't wait to paint them up...they were the first ones of the Warband that saw the brush...these are from Gripping Beast.

I chose to paint these fellows up in mid-combat pose with various wear and splatter that comes with close quarter axe combat...

The flash did a great job of showing the skins...

 

and a great job of showing the splatter and painting...I'm very happy with how they turned out.

VERY HAPPY!!

 

These Hearthguard figues are from Artizan...I really enjoyed the chance to paint up some great colours...I elected to go with 2 hearthguards...the difference between them is that one has capes/cloaks...and their base work has different coloured rocks.

I really like the variety in armour that these Hirdman are sculpted with...

 

I also took the opportunity to show some wear on the cloaks of the white rock Hirdman...I like the weathering effect and am pretty happy with the results.

 

 

Finally, rounding out my 4 pointer, I went with a group of Bondi...these guys have a great mix of armour, heads, and poses...the shields I attempted to freehand and keep them individual yet trying to have some common element amongst them...

 

My latest flash attempts are certainly growing on me...

 

Enjoy folks...more Viking goodness to come in the future.

 

Painted Totals:

 

28mm: 20

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some Frostgrave Focused Painting...

Howdy folks,

Just a quick post today...

If you've followed the previous postings, you know I did a little p'ing and m'ing about the lead up to this years Cangames.  Because we were also supplying warbands, that meant that I had to do up some figures to fill out a couple of adventuring warbands.

So, enjoy a couple of pics of the various pieces I managed to finish in a 2 week period prior to the convention while completing the finishing touches on the library.

Take care.

Bones Reaper figure...Mr. Bones to be exact...this little dude took me 2 nights to complete...the majority of the time was spent making the base and getting the main colours of the base and Mr. Bones down, the second night was highlight and wash time.  He was a very fun figure to paint up...he can easily serve as scatter character or apprentice...

Here's a side view of Mr. Bones with the master, The Necromancer formerly known as @#!...in the background.

 

I painted this Bones crypt out of curiosity and for scatter terrain... 

 

The White Gorilla from North Star painted up so nicely...it's a great looking figure and was a lot of fun to finish...I think this one only took me 1 night to paint and then I washed the next night... 

 

Every dingy old castle/library/keep needs a spider or two...for these spiders from Reaper, I did a quick google search for some Northrend examples of ice spiders from World of Warcraft...these guys I did the night before the convention so they didn't get as much love as I'd like...but they are a nice simple model that can paint up really quick. 

 

My Necromancer also comes from Reaper...I can't remember his Bones name...however, decked out in his purple leisure cloak, the Necromancer formerly known as @#! is a pretty daunting character.  I actually had this figure on my workbench for a few months in the painting penalty box...I originally had him in red, but it just didn't look right...finally he spoke up and we were able to figure out what colour to go with.

 

A little out of place, but fierce nonetheless, Ragnar from Crusader Miniatures was another really fun figure to paint up...he is literally loaded for bear with axe, sword, and bow, so he can fit any role required in your warband/adventurer company...you can always tell Ragnar because the ground literally melts and sprouts green beneath his feet... 

 

Finally, I thought I'd post the treasure pieces that I built for the game...the books are hand sculpted from Fimo/Sculpey by the Misses...the gold figures are a couple of misplaced 15mm figures from Splintered Light Miniatures.