Saga, Welsh vs. Normans, playing some new factions

Played some new factions Friday night. Spencer played his Welsh for the first time though unfinished paint jobs while I played my Normans for a second time. We played 2 games, 4 points, Clash of the Warlords, and gave ourselves plenty of time to figure out stuff with our new factions.

Terrain was standard from the book - both games resulted in the Welsh picking 6 and Normans picking 1 for a grand total of 3 pieces.

This will be less of an AAR with winners and losers (Normans were losers) and more about points we learned about the factions.

The first game started strong for the Normans and some bold opening moves. They played Warlord and 2 points mounted knights, 1 point of crossbow warriors, 1 point of mounted warrirors.

Welsh played 2 points of mounted warriors, mounted Warlord and Hearthguard, and a point of foot warriors.

Crossbows can be awesome as long as they are protected. In this pic you can see how the Normans moved up to the cabbage patch and fired into the Welsh mounted warriors, killing 4 of them. Crossbows get a +1 to attack while mounted figures get a -1 to armor from ranged attacks. This being Welsh mounted with javelins that is one less armor to boot. Warrior armor is 4. The equation: 4- (-1 mounted/ranged)-(-1 javelins)-(+1 for attackers) = pretty much Normans having to roll 1 or higher and that is an easy thing to do.

That said, crossbow warriors get a -1 to armor rating too and not as easy of a day against anything but mounted troops.

Ha! Look how many we knocked down!!

I try not to blame the dice but you know what makes it so awesome Norman crossbowmen can't be awesome? No activations. Pretty much the rest of the game resulted in no "common" dice being rolled (1-3) thus no activations for my Cabbage Patch Shooters of death. Any rares that came up were used to supplement Saga board abilities needed to increase effectiveness of Norman Knights. Usually, we have the opposite problem (too many commons).

Since we did so well let's just camp here in this cabbage patch and drink wine.

The first game went on pretty heavy on the Welsh losses but a final mistake made by me left my Warlord open and he got killed.

It became a fight about angles and inches and the Welsh were able to exploit the Norman mistake and pull a win.

Points:

• Norman Crossbow Warriors are pretty awesome. They just need the activations.
• Norman mounted warriors? Meh. What they have is mobility. What they lack is activations and punch. I'd only use them for specific scenerios where area and speed are needed - like Sacred Ground (to get to that far terrain piece) or even River Battle where you can get them across a bridge with haste.
• Welsh sure can avoid melee. You need ranged attacks to do anything to them. If I was running my Vikings? It would've been embarrassing.
• If you are playing Welsh and your opponent is playing something with ranged capabilities? Rethink mounted Welsh warriors. That said, Spencer just wanted to surprise me with whoopin' out 16 mounted warriors as he did not tell me he was working on those. Sneaky.

Game 2 was the same as above except the Welsh were all foot, including the Warlord. The Normans went with only 4 Knights and used the extra point to hire some Flemish Mercenaries!

In game 2 Spencer used the Hell out of Child of the Land Welsh Saga ability. He was moving unimpeded through terrain that also gave him cover. My mounted Warriors on my right were almost taken right out of the game by round 2 as his Welsh Warriors javelin-ed then closed on them killing 6 and leaving 2.

Flemish Swords For Hire are good at one thing, defensive turtle-up. They are Warriors that have an increased armor value of 5. When not initiating an attack they also have hard/heavy cover. It's an increase in armor value and increase save numbers. BTW, Saga core rules goes back and fourth on the term "hard cover" and "heavy cover". Both have the same value. What you get when you interpret the rules from French to English?

The problem with Flemish Swords For Hire is that they do not get to use any ability that your faction gets to use. They get one free activation per turn. Movement is down to S. There is no real way to increase their attack capability. I attacked with them a few times but they didn't really do much to nudge Welsh from the rocky outcrop they were dug into.

What I should have done here was attack. I did not.

Spencer and I deduced that a good way to use them would be to hold a bridge or some terrain feature that has soft cover. Or, as an incredibly powerful screen of some kind (that is slow though). Next time we play the bridge scenario I'm totally using the Flemish.

The other thing I learned by this last game is that it does not pay to have an aggressive faction (like Normans) and not go for it. You really got to look at combos and using your units as a team. I was failing at that. By round six the Welsh were dug in well and ahead by 3 victory points and my options were few. I rolled my Saga dice and saw I did have the opportunity to send my Warlord in, take a lot of the Welsh warriors protecting the Warlord, and hit the Welsh Warlord with a Dex Aie. That's right... the Norman Nuke that uses 2 rare dice to activate.

It almost worked too but there were just enough warriors left over from my first attack that my 9 hits were soaked/saved by the Welsh and one of the Welsh Warlord's hits got through and took my Norman Warlord down. It was a tight game. One Warrior or Hearthguard with me may have saved my Warlord and, as I killed a bunch of Welsh Warriors, I may have won on VPs as I got 4 of them taking out his last band of Warriors.

The Welsh are wiley. Seemed to be on the ropes the whole time in both games but Spencer's skill and abilities always pulled through for his Welsh.

The main thing I need to do now is to seize the initiative and recognize those moments I have the aforementioned initiative.

Edit: It was pointed out that I had the activation dice wrong for my crossbow warriors. They are "Warriors" and activate on common or rare Saga dice. It was the common die, 1-3, that were not coming up for me. The correction has been made above.

Saga Varangians half done

Here they are... well, half of them...

Old Glory Viking Command and a Gripping Beast Harald Hardrada.

Ready for the table. With this I can run one Hero of the Viking Age (Harald) and 4 Hearthguard. I'm about 75% done with the other 6 and my juggernaut of Harald and 12 Varangians with Dane Axes will be ready to go.

This is how they looked 2 weeks ago.

 Looking forward to getting a game going soon though my full Varangian unit may not be ready until next week.

I just ordered Bondi Archers from Old Glory and I should get them next week. Next month I will be ordering Norse spear men to fill up my warrior ranks. Then, this winter, I will be working on Rus factions.

Also, with a copy of Warlord's Pike and Shotte in my hands, I am looking at some Italian Wars armies.

I'm interested in French and around the 1510s. Seems I can get both Swiss and Landsknechts that way.

Going to busy painting through 2015!

Heavy week last week

Coming out of a funk.

Last week was a tough one starting Tuesday and ending Friday. Had some follow through over the weekend.

First, the Telling Project. One of our cast members is telling her story and word got out among some outside group of "concerned people", that I found out to just be a bunch of Army groupies, and some Hell has broken loose. An ex-cast member leaked our private e-mails and private promotional pictures of us (and I am assuming our script) and we got harassed and spammed by the Army groupies. It got ugly. I am only involved via being another person telling their story of military service on stage. I have not met most of these other people in my entire life.

I was hurt myself. There is a reason I don't do a lot of organized Veteran stuff ; because of bullshit like this. I mean, really, how dare someone involve me in something that I have nothing to do with especially while I am in the middle of a project where I am opening myself up emotionally and quite publicly. On top of that, this person gave out my e-mail address, pictures of me, and a script containing information about myself. Some pretty deep shit too.

Then, there are the women who e-mailed ME with convictions so strong they felt they were justified in using my private information to involve me in something that amounts to a fucking love-triangle and pretty-princess syndrome.

To add salt to the wound these people are all involved in Veteran's health non-profits. Un-kickable like a box of kittens. Good job.

Anyways, the show goes on.

Then, I got news of 2 campers lost in the Tillamook forest. Sadly, quite common here. Found out later one of them is an old buddy of mine, Justin Norton. Justin hired me at Dantes when I needed some work after getting fired at The Crystal Ballroom. I was still kind of wound up from that... my thing, not anyone elses... and Justin gave me a good talking to and a chance to redeem myself. He was a good man that way. I felt I did right by him and moved on to the law-firm job i have now. We talked about going into business with each other but I chose the relative safety of a 9-5er.

I'd see Justin about once a year after 2003 and he'd always recognize me. I felt respected by him and thus I respected him.

Justin and his friend were found Friday night. Both were deceased. They had crashed their truck down a 200' cliff and were killed.

Then, I got news of Pink Martini percussionist Derek Rieth passing away. I went to school with him and, though not best friends, we were friends. His younger sister was in a German class with me and I considered her my own sister.

Again, while working at the Crystal Ballroom in 2003, Pink Martini was doing a show there. I had no idea Derek was in Pink Martini... Hell, he was a founding member. They were loading in and I was at the door when Derek walks up and recognizes me. We talked for about 30 minutes catching up since high school in 1989. Still, he did not mention he was in Pink Martini the whole time. He then said, "Well, I better go. Let's hook up and hang out man." and he walked in the door I was watching. I stopped him and that is how I found out he was in Pink Martini. I felt dumb and he apologized for assuming I knew.

I saw him next at our 20 year high school reunion.

Me, Stephanie Vlachos, Derek Rieth, Ryan Kruse - Fort Vancouver class of '89

After that, I was able to go to a Pink Martini show and got good seats up front and close. I took a plutonic lady friend with me but did not mention I knew Derek. Right after the last song he recognized me and said hello. My lady friend had been crushing on him all night and was impressed that I knew him. For what it's worth it made me feel good.

Derek is a good man.

Then, I learned that someone that is a part of my early life, high school, was just picked up by the feds for child porn. He was a friend, and I am sure his life is Hell right now but I can't say I have his back. Out of respect I will not name him. I'll let the Feds and media take care of that business as it 'aint mine. It pains me people were hurt in such a way.

Now, I understand that none of these things fit directly into my life. Bad news is just that, bad news. Still, things can get painful though.

In light of all that I had a good weekend. My wife made breakfast Saturday morning and I got some sleep. My rehearsals were decent and I got an offer for some mentoring from a writer and stage director. We got in a good War of the Dead game with Brandon, Jason, and Karen. Me, Wife, and kid went to the Jade District Night Market Saturday night and we got good bahn mi and the kid got her face painted. After that we went to our friend Andrice's b-day party and saw a lot of friends. My friend Emily bequeathed to me her Husband Dylan's heavy metal CD collection of over 200 CDs and I was honored to take it.

I promise my next blog post will be less emo.

Three Day Weeekend - rehearsals, mini painting, some wargaming, and a cold.

This weekend was supposed to be a 4 day weekend for my family and I. We had planned to go up to Seattle and hit up the Viking Fair we went to last year when we came back from our vacation in Leavenworth, WA. This did not happen.

I had committed myself to The Telling: Oregon - a spoken word performance I am doing with 7 other vets in September. My weekends are now dedicated to rehearsals for this performance. Mini-vacation cancelled. I still took today (Monday) off.

Plus, my wife and child are getting over colds. Somehow, I never caught the full virus. Feeling lucky, I'm usually the sick one in the family.

Sunday is a five hour group rehearsal and it was our first where all the cast were present and our stories we are telling of our military experience fully realized. Our stories are rough, quite emotional and very powerful. It was also emotionally draining.  I was pretty pooped by the time I got home yesterday and needed some quiet.

It's nice to have a day with barely any plans. What DID I do? Painted minis of course. Here's what I did today:

Egil Skalligrimsson, not speed-painting this one. Getting close to done, just need high-edge highlights.

Harald Hardrada, same as Egil above. Three color highlighting going on here.

For contrast, the Gripping Beast Harald mini in it's three stages so far.

My wife Gretchen is in a gaming group that is playing a Lahnkmar campaign. She is a noble elven knight. She got a mini for the game as well as one for Angelique, her buddy, that is playing an elven rogue type charged with making sure the elven knight comes to no harm. I had them primed this morning and here they are currently:

Initial base-coats. An obvious parallel to Fafnrd and The Grey Mauser. 

Final base-coats down, the rogue decided to go blond instead to match the knight.

It's almost dinner and I have blogged enough. I'm off to water what's left of my flowers.

Sagas - Vikings lose to Anglo-Danes over a farm

Played at Guardian with Kyle. He and his Anglo-Danes and me with my Vikings. Six points and Clash of the Warlords scenario.

The farmers of the stead were busy in the fields while Halfdan and his warriors took to their daily duties. THEN THE ANGLO-DANES CAME!!

Those evil Anglo-Danes coming upon a peaceful Viking immigrant farm from the north, OH NOES!! Viking defenders form up in the foreground, l-r farmhands with slings by the pig pen, Halfdan and his bodyguard, the infamous Val'Serkers who were visiting for the weekend, and 2 units of experienced shield-warriors.

Kyle's ADs moved into the farmer's house with his archers. Warriors moved to the right while the AD Warlord and his 2 retinues (one bristling with hard hitting axes) moved to the left from behind the farmhouse.

Halfdan and his bodyguard shifted left towards the pig-pen while the farmhands climbed into it to calm the pigs and take some cover as the Anglo-Danes were coming at them and arrows were coming from the house. The warriors on the right formed up about the cabbage and berry patch.

The ADs decided to focus their attack at the pig-pen. The farmhands held bravely but finally gave it up. Two of the brave farmhands, Ortlieb and Svar-Dan, doughty and strong of back, died but took an Anglo-Dane axeman with them. A few more fell to arrows.

Halfdan and his Vikings moved in to spill AD blood at the pig-pen. The pigs had all escaped already as the Anglo-Danes not only killed farmhands but vandalized the fence and knocked a chunk down (actually, I did that when I picked it up and put to much pressure on it.... but the Danes did it!). The fight at the pig-pen was furious resulting in pushing the ADs back and on the defensive. The AD warlord lost all his Axemen and the warlord himself moved back to the remaining 4 warriors he had, his remaining forces far to the right squaring off with the Viking shield-men by the cabbage/berry patch.

THEN the Val'Serkers showed up! (a bit late as Kyle had used AD Intimidate to hold them back a round).

 

Kyle had a tough decision and did the unexpected... he  full-attacked with everything he had on my Viking warlord. I, mistakenly, thought he would retreat. His desperate attack paid off and got him a win. He loaded up his board with bonus attack dice and used his Warlord's determination, we obey, and side-by-side. It worked out for him as my warlord could only use 2 of his retinue to take hits.

My loss did not sting as I played it well and had Kyle on the ropes by round 2. He said that he was desperate and it worked out in his favor.

In other news we are looking at holding a regular Saga game day at Guardian Games. This might turn into a regular historical day. Who knows? Not going to push it, just going to go play Saga and let things happen. 

A lot of people came by our table to watch us play. Many questions were asked and answered. There is a lot of interest in Saga. 2 of the guys there have rulebooks and minis already just didn't know there were players.

Miniatures and Role Playing

Played Brandon's Savage Worlds: War of the Dead campaign last Sunday and had a lot of fun. We had dinner too, Jason and Karin cooked up some chicken on the grill, Gretchen and I brought corn and salad. Grown-up time!

The game saw our group trying to get the passenger ship running again as it was dead in the water with it's 3000+ passengers and crew. Things went down hill from there and the "disease making people crazy" is spreading fast. We did find some military guys on board though - not on leave but on a mission. Why? Don't know... as we got mobbed by a jillion "sick people". So we all ran away. As we left it we are barricaded in a theater on the ship. We'll take a breath here and figure out what is going on and then we can find our way back to shore and get some help.

All we need to do is get back to the shore... everything will be OK then...

Anyways, got some painting going here:

l-r: base-coated Varangian in "disco" configuration (Old Glory Viking Command 25mm), HassleFree bikini lady, Gripping Beast Harald Hardrada base-coated, GB Egil Skallagrimson base-coated.

This Saturday, after rehearsals, I'm playing Saga with Kyle at Guardian Games. We've got a table for a few hours and will probably get 2-3 games in.

Miniatures - Tying up more miniature projects

Finished up my Norman Knights I painted a few months back - just needed to flock bases and give a dull coat to them. All done.

Warlord and Banner Bearer.

Finished up some EXTREMELY speed-painted zombie for a game on Sunday, that game being Brandon's Savage Worlds: War of the Dead. It'll be our second session and we are looking forward to it.

These are all Wargames Factory Vixens and Zombie Hoard.

Base-Coated some Old Glory Space Mercenaries (the free pack you get for joining the Old Glory Army). I wanted to do some "desert troops" that could be used for any fictional "soldier" modern to future/sci-fi.

I base-coated them in Armyh Painter Army Green colored primer. I painted the boots, armor and helmets in a mix of Vallejo cork brown and golden yellow to get a tacticool "coyote". Goggles and guns in Vallejo German grey. That ought to be enough other than skin colors. Next I will quick shade them and finish the bases in some way. I might add some detail to show that one is an officer.

These are some extras I had on my table. I decided to work on some darker skin, which 4 of these are. The guy on the bottle cap (Reaper) may be my future character in the SW: War of the Dead game. We'll see how that plays out. I thought the female fig (Hassle Free) was a good candidate for a darker skin. Then the last 3 of my Old Glory Space Mercenaries. I'll do these in a "urban" theme and give them black and grey high-lights maybe.

Last but not least I finished  up this Hassle Free Miniatures bikini lady. I'm trying to figure out what to do about the base... sandy beach?

I had this figure lying around for over a decade. He was part of a Ral Partha "Beowulf and Grendel" set. I used the "Beowulf" for an NPC in my Doomhounds D&D (3.0 and 3..5) campaign I ran for 7 years. He was an NPC named Besso that was a friend of one of the player's characters, Otis' "Kronnic", that turned on them due to evil influence of an evil artifact. I never used the "Grendel" half.

I based it in white primer, base-coated in Vallejo aqua marine. Dry brushed on some AP necro flesh... dipped in in AP quick shade Dark Tone... and I got this:

I also detailed out the severed leg in Vallejo medium flesh. From naked mini to this in 24 hours total. It can be a troll or something.

Saga - current painting projects: Normans and Varangians

Just a quick one here - finished up 8 Norman infantry, speed-painted of course. This will fill out my Norman Faction Ranks to 7 points. Many tournaments want you to have 7 points, 1 point being put aside as a sideboard.

These Normans are from Old Glory, "Heavy Norman Infantry". I could also use them as Flemish Mercenaries which I do not have the rule-set for right now.

Old Glory Heavy Norman Infantry 25mm. Mounted on 1" steel washers.

Base coat is Army Painter Platemail.

"Dipped" (literally) in Army Painter Quickshade Dark Tone.

Hand-Painted shields. I'm no pro. Don't drink too much coffee before you do that. 

Next series are the bare beginnings of  Hero of the Viking Age Harald Hardrada and his bodyguard of 12 Varangian Guardsmen. Harald is the Gripping Beast model. The Varangians are Old Glory Viking Command 25mm minis.

Harald Hardrada re-based on some rocks. He was already a head taller than the Old Glories so I said screw it, let's make him grand.

Harald and some of his Varangians.

Old Glory Viking Command as Varangians. Mounted on 1" steel washers.

Closer look.

I ordered a pack of OG Viking Command as they have some utility use as opposed to the OG Varangians they have available. Harald can have up to 12 Varangians and they, in turn, can be armed with either Dane Axe or standard. As per the Saga rules Dane Axes improve hitting but lower armor. As is the legend with Old Glory it's just hard to see the sculpt details... trust me they are good. Rather "old school" as opposed to more modern miniatures but I think they look great and with my discount for being in the "Old Glory Army" are quite affordable. 

By the end of the year I plan to also be fielding Pagan Rus and Rus Princes factions and hope to be able to supplement them with some Steppe Rider mercenaries. I'm pretty much planned out for the rest of 2014!

WASSAIL!!