Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a great New Year's Eve too!! Let's bring in 2016!!!

I hope whatever traditions you follow this winter are not disturbed and make you happy. I hope you get to do what you want to do and everything is good. If it's not may it be corrected by your own hand.

My current tradition is a movie Xmas Eve (tonight it's Star Wars… yeah that one). We'll go to the local place down the street from us, The Roseway. Dinner will get fit into there someplace, something simple. Then we'll go to bed to get some rest for the big day.

Xmas Day, though changed up a bit this year due to the family patriarch moving to Tacoma for work, is a busy day. It will start with an early rise and gifts at our home. Gretchen will make some breakfast and I will get a fire started in the fireplace. We'll feed the cats and open their stocking (cat nip and cat toys). This year, for our little trio, we got one big gift, a Playstation 4. This is the big family gift. Normally it's Jewelry for the Wife and clothes for the Kid. This year it's a PS4.

This year, due to my Brother In Law moving to Tacoma and other factors, the adults of the family drew names. This, frankly, allowed me to buy a PS4, a good one, as I am not made of money.

We will all gather at my Mother in Law's place at noon and do the big gift exchange and dinner there.  Dinner will be a roast, beef loin (NY Strip roast) I presume. I have offered to help pay for that. The name I drew was my Brother in Law and I got him a bunch of Thundercats stuff as he collects those things. I ordered a belt buckle, wall clock, and foam sword. The wall clock has not been delivered yet and it has been 2 weeks. The seller has been notified and my BiL will have to live with 2/3rds of his Xmas present for now.

For dinner it will be a prime rib roast and I'm planning on bringing some whiskey to share. By evening, hopefully, the cool games I want will have loaded onto the PS4 (Battlefront and World Of Tanks beta) and we will be home full of red meat and whiskey and I can play a game until the wee-hours (which is 10 pm now).

When I was young my Xmas was a bit different. My Mother was Thai and my Father decidedly anti-Xmas. I looked forward to New Year's Eve when we'd go to the restaurant and celebrate like good Asians do – gambling, kids serving grown-ups who were drunk and full of gambling money, some gifts, and a ton of Thai food. That was my Xmas… New Year's Eve. I'd always come out of NYE with a pocket of cash ($40-$60 - big money for the 80s) and a few gifts. I learned to play poker and blackjack this way too.

Today NYE is a bit calmer if not more austere. My Wife works at Starbucks and tends to work New Year's Day, like around 6:00 AM. The buses don't run well in Portland that early (all that "Portland Mass Transit is awesome" talk? Not true for years) so I give her a ride in. Normally I'd go to Percy's for Orchish Sabbath for the day – that's where the smoking, drinking, and gambling take place – this year I might stay in though. We will be doing our annual NYE Dinner at NoHo's. It's a local Hawaiian place that has been around for a while. The one on Fremont has an annual luau and an all you can eat dinner buffet.

The past 3 years I have taken time off on Xmas-NYE week, about a week and a half. I took Thanksgiving week off this year and the following week (2 week vacation) so I did not take off my usual. I also have caught a cold the last  3 years right on New Year's Day. This year I caught it a week early! Maybe I'll not be sick this New Year's.

In the wargaming arena things kind of slowed down post Saga Tournament in October for me. Not any kind of "lack of wanting to play" from me, far from that. My urge to play is stronger than ever. I just had a lot of stuff bump into that.

My aforementioned Brother in Law moving was one. I had some stuff in his basement in storage. He had to move and put his house up so my stuff had to go. My den looked like an episode of Hoarders

for a month. I had all my stuff in there and was going through it. Found some cool stuff and also threw a lot of stuff in the dumpster. Goodwill made out like a bandit too. This lead to my "Man-Corner" becoming a staging area and organization work bench for that month-long project.

Then there was 2 weeks of Thanksgiving vacation. A week in Orlando at Disney World and Thanksgiving and a week at home – that last week was spent cleaning and reorganizing my Man-Corner.

JUST got back into painting about 2 weeks ago. In the time off I had to reassess my time and whether I had things I need to do over things I want to do.

My Saga Scots were put aside over finishing my Lion Rampant Agincourt English retinue. Those English are first (and I'm down to my last unit of billmen).

I have not been very busy with Bolt Action play so my Finns got put aside. I can finish those in a week though; Just got some tank details and one last infantry squad to do there really.

I want to get started on my "Dark Ages Commons" line. Basically, I want to sell bondi/militia level Vikings and Saxons. Tunics, pants, spear, shields, maybe some axes and a helmet or 3. Speed-painted of course so no show pieces.  I think there is a niche to fill there for some pre-paints. Having painted that kind of stuff for the past few years I know I'd sure as heck buy some if they were available. Painting common spearmen is just boring and seems to be one of the stumbling blocks. I do not plan to take commissions as I want this to be off the shelf.

x12 Viking Spearmen (Bondi) for $60 sounds reasonable. No bases, buyer base on their own as to fit needs. Speed painted, "dipped" in Army Painter Quickshade, matte varnish. I'll have some out at Enfilade's Bring and Buy. Who knows I might even expand beyond the beaches of England and out of the Dark Ages.

Speaking of Scots I've just started a unit of Scots Lancers from Warlord Games for some English Civil War action! I've sourced my muskets and pikes and command already so those are a go. I just ordered some field guns, all I need is crew. After that I am fully painting Scots Covenanters for ECW via Pike and Shotte rule-set. Also getting ready for the Lion Rampant version for ECW skirmishing.

Romans! Who don't need Romans? I sourced (via Old Glory of course) 60 Caesar's Gallic Wars Legionnaires. The big plan is to have a good host of Romans ready for some big battle next fall in Salem. Or maybe not. I just think that having an army of Romans in 28mm sitting around is a good idea. It's like a requirement for your Grognard card 'aint it? Plus, since I decided on Romans it seems everyone else I play with is putting up barbarian hordes to go against them – big meanies!

Did you see Dragon Rampant is out? Cool. I got a gift card to my FLGS and am itching to spend it on Dragon Rampant if they have it. This means all my fantasy figures are now viable for some games.

Welp... I'll be getting back into the sing of things post Holidays here. Much to paint and my lead mountain has grown. Happy New Year's and thanks for reading y'all.

-Gabe

On my bench - post Rose City Saga Tournament, a break, and finishing what I started

I'll post a blog about it later but I hosted a Saga Tournament last weekend and it went very well. I enjoyed hosting it and hope all the players enjoyed playing.

Post tournament I took a break last week. Worked on nothing at my bench.

Today, Sunday, I went back to finish some things I started as I've some HYW English and ECW Scots coming down the pipe that I would like to get gong by end of year. What I have now are:

I point (x8) of Scots Warriors for Saga. I've already a point of Warriors and a point of Levy finished and 3 points of Hearthguard and a Warlord based and primed. I just drilled (add weapon) and based these last 8 figures and I will be off to the races! Old Glory 9th Century Scots with Spears and Command pack.

Bases are Last Stand Convertibles, OG minis glued on, Liquitex texture gel applied. Next step is to glue in spears and then prime them in some Army Painter brown or black base spray.

I'm finally finishing up these 4 figures, Bronze Age Female Vikings. I got them early this year and have not been in a rush to get them done. I am now though and I plan to throw them into the mix of my Viking Faction for Saga.

Also, a new procedure for me, I've been painting up shields en masse. I hate painting up a group of minis and getting close to finished just to realize I never did any shields. What? You've never done that? I do it all the time!

Anyways, I decided to paint up a dozen shields and just keep them on the shelf. I'll do another dozen next weekend. I find it a good place for left-over paint on your pallet when painting minis.

Dinner time! Then it's Walking Dead Night on AMC. I might even make some popcorn!

See you all next week maybe.

Sooner than Later

So, here's more pictures of current projects and a game last night.

"Cometh At Me Broeth!"... or how ever them Normans did all that talking.

Old Glory Norman Mounted Command pack. I painted it kind of simple, how I like my Normans and how they seem to be depicted anyways, and glued his kite shield to his back. On a 25mm x 50mm plastic base. I will be using him in Saga (Hearthguard or Hero), Lion Rampant, and Hail Caesar.

Also painted up:

Same pack as above. I added the banner (it came with the pack) and kite shield on his left arm holding the mace. Can be used in Saga as a Banner or Religious Advisor (both needed in Norman Warbands IMO).

Here's the finished figs that are those Norman Crossbowmen (Reaper Anhurian Crossbowmen and Ral Partha Dwarf Crossbowman). I think they came out pretty OK for a speed-paint.

A project with no real purpose other than "cleaning up the lead mountain" are these last 3 figures from my Old Glory Rus Command pack I bought over a year ago. I REALLY like these figures and hope to use them in things other than Saga and the Pagan Rus faction - which I kind of don't like to play ... sadness...

I plan to put these 3 together in some kind of vignette/command model.

And the final product for my Scots Levy (Old Glory Irish Kerns). I used random shields to give them a peasant levy look.

Edit: Forgot about the games I played last night. Went to Spencer's and got 2 games in - My Vikings vs. his Anglo-Danes... just like the olden days!

First game was Clash of the Warlords and pesky ANglo-Danes won it in a open field game.

Second was Clash but we mixed it up with a shallow river (rough terrain) and single bridge in the middle. Vikings one that one with a bit of subterfuge... as much as one can get away with in Saga.

Lured the Anglo-Danes onto the bridge by baiting with an easy to kill Levy and wiped out the Anglo-Dane huscarls. Above you see all Anglo-Danes on the bridge, Viking hirdmen and bondi in foreground, sneakier bondi in the background as they crossed the river with precision timing. Sven Svensson the Viking chief and his bard in lower left corner.

The Viking bondi running across the river worked! Pulled Anglo-Dane forces off the bridge. Vikings then crossed and closed in. Harold Godwinson of the Anglo-Danes and his brother finishing off my bondi.

Looking grim but much closer than this picture makes it out to be.

On My Bench

Wow, I've really started slacking on the blogging!

Some reasons why, none of them major or dramatic:
Laziness.

What once was content for me is not now.

Some technical issues.
Reading other's blogs and thinking "Why should I blog it if they are already doing it and better?"

I'm on Facebook. I do this thing I call "speed updates" on my wall where I boil down 8 things into a sentence each and blurt it out – like:

Raiders yeah!
My garden has failed basil but the beets are going strong.
My kid is a high school Freshman!
Happy birthday to my cat.
Loving the show The Last Ship!

I will follow that format here but with pictures and focused on gaming!

On my workbench now:

Old Glory Irish Kerns WOR-19   Not painted as Kerns. I split a pack of these guys with Spencer earlier this year. They will form the beginnings of my Saga Scots Faction playing the part of my Scotts Levy. Spears are Old Glory Short Thrusting Spears. I hate putting them together and drilling out the minis to fit them but when I am done that hate turns into a satisfaction. The extra headache and work really pays off.

Though built to be Scots Levy for Saga I will also use them, if needed, whenever I need "cannon fodder" type troops for Lion Rampant.

They were painted in my usual technique of speed painting:
Glue to base

Base layer of Army Painter leather brown primer (from rattle can)

Skin

Tunics

spears

Hair

Quickshade with Army Painter strong tone

Matte

Glue on shields (painted the same way but separately)

Flock bases with some of that green stuff and watered PVA glue

The picture posted was pre quickshade phase. These are all done now.

Reaper Anhurian Crossbowmen. I have 8 of these painted up a few years ago (as per my blog here) and have used them well in my Norman Faction for Saga. They are Reaper so "Heroic" in scale and 32mm vs. the 28mm figures from others. They do look huge. No one has complained and I am fine with that.

I wanted 12 crossbowmen for Lion Rampant though. I had 3 more Anhurian Crossbowmen in my fantasy figure lead mountain (what happened to that 12th I have no idea). I needed one more crossbowman and found some older Ral Partha dwarven crossbowmen I have had laying around for over a decade. One of them is now painted up and will be a very short Norman!

Maybe someday I'll get some actual Norman Crossbowmen from Old Glory but that is real low on my list right now.

I saw Mad Max: Fury Road last May. It was awesome. Everything I dreamed it would be. I then remembered I had the reaper "Mad Max" mini… I forget it's product name … unpainted in that same lead mountain. I also had picked up a female modern hero type (this one is a rendering of Matrix-like character) last year in need of more heroic female minis with guns. Further, the guy in the long coat was a mini that my wife found in the vacuum cleaner last month! He's one I put together from Wargames Factory Apocalypse Survivors: The Men series.

Needing to whittle down that lead mountain some I decided to paint them too.

These were all done over Labor Day Weekend. Mostly on Labor Day.

Also spending time on lots of terrain and getting ready for the Saga Tournament I am hosting at Guardian Games, 12 noon, Saturday, October 3rd, 2015. I will, totally, Blog about that.

Terrain piece - marsh... the beginnings of

Also from Old Glory, this, my favorite mini of all time (almost), a mounted Norman I call "Get Some Bro!"

It's all painted now and I will share that one with you on my next post.

Take care, have fun, be safe!

Saga Tips For Noobs IV: 12 Hearthguard

The Deathstar, Fire Blossom… some of the names I've seen for the 12 figure Hearthguard unit. For this I will call it x12 HG.

"Hearthguard" denotes, historically, your professional warriors. Bodyguard, the chief's friends, Ring Wearers, Wyclef's men in the movie The Thirteenth Warrior. These guys usually formed the core of a Dark Ages fighting group. They would have fine spears and axes made for war. Decorated helms, shields, and byrnies for armor. Saxes made for fighting in the shield wall and maybe even swords. They were trained and experienced as fighting was their job. Gold, silver, and bronze rings adorned their arms denoting prestige and accomplishments.

NOTE:

I talk a lot about winning and losing and some may construe this as a focus of mine when I game. It is not. I game for many reasons, the same as anyone else. I do like competition and feel winning and losing is part of that tally. As an ex high school jock one thing I learned is that even if you lose a lot you need to improve. Recognizing your weaknesses and improving them is part of that process and I do this when I game. I like to be able to put up a good game, win or lose, a the least. I like to overcome my own obstacles as well as those of my gaming mates.

Over the last few years I've played a bit of Saga. I've lost most of my games. Earlier this year I kind of turned a corner and started winning a bit more and the biggest change I made was mustering a x12 HG unit.

My first experience was running Harald Hardrada and x12 Varangians. That cost an extra point for Harald though. Still viable (and I've seen it called The Panzer) but effective as you can give them armor 6 or give them two-handed axes and armor 5. I would never run that one "right" though and my Varangian Panzer Tank was always out of position. My last game with them against Welsh though shined a light on how effective they COULD be if at full strength and in the thick of battle*.

* I had 7 Varangians left by the time I got them into the grill of the Welsh and those 7 did some serious damage.

Then there was my Vikings vs. The Welsh in a game of Escort where my opponent put down a x12 HG of mounted figures and swept my Vikings up good.

Later, quite by accident, I set up my Pagan Rus Faction with a x12 HG (meaning to set up a x12 Warrior unit) and did not know I did it until after dice were rolled. I went with it and that unit did real well though I lost a Saga Dice.

This sheds light on why I was NOT running x12 HGs – Saga Dice. One of the things running through my mind all the time was maximization of Saga Dice. I was also getting killed in most of my games. Relation? Who knows? I'd always try to get more Saga Dice slots by mustering small but many units thinking, "I'm going to lose units thus Saga Dice – I better bolster that up so losing units doesn't take away from rolling 6 dice per turn."

Well, that did not seem ot be a problem when I did run x12 HGs so I started running my Vikings with that. Here is my typical list –

Vikings 6 Points:

Warlord

Hearthguard>

Hearthguard> x12 HG

Hearthguard>

Warrior

Warrior split in to 2x4 units

-Gives me 6 Saga Dice

I've been adding a bard lately. Gives me a Saga Dice and some other abilities. This is still new to me though.

Depending on scenario and terrain my usual deployment is a x12 HG as core, screens forward of Warriors x4 and backed by the Warrior x8. Warlord leading the x12 HG either from front or rear depending on scenario.

My focus with this unit is to get into the ranks of my opponent and tear them up, regardless of scenario. My signature Viking Board ability to bolster them in a fight is Ullr – re-roll misses. Been pretty effective so far.

Pretty much the same with my Pagan Rus (bolstered by Standing Like Bears) and will be soon for my Normans… my beleaguered and hard-working but fragile Normans.

Here is a list of pros and cons. I hope that this list will highlight why it works:

Pros –

Activates on all Saga Dice.

Hits Hard (24 attack dice).

Highest, unmodified, armor.

Longevity and resilience.

Most Saga Abilities are usable by them.

Cons –

3 points to muster.

1 Saga Dice.

Harder to paint (they need to look good in my book!)

Easy to shut down if you don't care for them.

That last point is the kicker. Welsh can call them out and move them when you don't want them too if they are too close. Anglo-Danes can hit them with one of their fatigue bombs if you don't screen them and shut them down for a turn or 3. Pagan Rus will exhaust them and then you'll lose figures if you have them M or more from another unit. Vikings can just hit hard with either a x12 HG or 'Serkers and throw 36 Attack Dice at you. << these have happened or I did it. I'm sure other factions have nasty little tricks also. All of them can be mitigated though if you watch and plan for them. KNOW THE OTHER FACTIONS!!

Actual tactics, strategy being too strong a word in this case, used would depend slightly on scenario but is pretty straight forward:

Using Saga Abilities and smaller unit screens (levies and small warrior units) you move your x12 HG into a targeted area and start rolling dice.

In Clash of the Warlords this leads to killing figures and hopefully the opponent's Warlord.

In Fords this leads to a weak defensive and crossing force for your opponent and you crossing the bridge with a tough to route force of high-scoring Hearthguards.

Escort - cripple the defense and the Baggage has no chance.

Sacred Ground - if you don't have a lot of minis, because that dang x12 HG killed them all, you won't score a lot of points.

You get the point?

The 12 Figure Hearthguard unit - it's what I suggest to all new players.

Bolt Action - forward progression with my Finns

 I challenged my buddy (that taught me Bolt Action) to a game at Historical Wargames Day at Guardian on the 27th of June. 500 points of Finns vs. his Soviets. Not sure if we'll play a 500 point skirmish or a scenario from Ostfront that is 1000 Soviets vs. 500 Finns. Whatever it is here is what I have "finished" up to today:

(see what I typed? "Finished" haha!)

 The Command:

2nd Lt Niva and his NCO

Rifle Squad:

1st Squad

Weapons Support:

Add caption

MMG Team

"Nelli" the anti tank gun

Some of those infamous Finnish Snipers

Coming down the pipe are another rifle squad, a recon squad, and if I've time a anti tank rifle team.

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend coming up.

.

Saga - Tips for the Newbie Player III. Terrain

This post I'm going to cover terrain.

III. Terrain

Some would say this is not required and they'd be right. You don't need to have terrain - especially if you belong to a club or have a local game shop or space. Lot's of places have bins of trees, hills, and rocks.

Having some of your own is important though. You may be running a faction that may benefit from some terrain. Welsh have all kinds of terrain-based abilities so a  Welsh player may want some woods and marsh terrain. Everyone can benefit from a building. Some scenarios require roads, rivers, bridges, and carts.

Saga has mechanics for placing and using terrain. It can be a very important aspect of a game and a player's strategy. With that in mind it seems, to me, to be almost as important as miniatures. In many scenarios specific terrain is required (river and bridges for Fords, buildings for Homeland, etc.).

Not to get into minutiae of rules but, as an example of how important terrain is let's look at Normans. Normans are a very shoot-y and horse-y. Two major restrictions for those is line of sight and rough ground, things provided by terrain An opponent to Normans would bid high in the beginning to put down as much terrain as possible between them and Normans. Normans would bid low on terrain to keep the field clear and/or keep the terrain out of the way of lanes of attack. That's all part of the meta.

Earlier I mentioned that there are 2 sizes of terrain in Saga, M and L (6" and 12"). Saga Core has a chart in it that tells you what size specific terrain an be and what effects they have on play. Other than that it's pretty loose. I like to base my Saga terrain like miniatures as the rules tend to favor that, though not hard-wired. The edge of the MDF base = the edge of the terrain feature. Your figure is either on it or not. No gaming it. I just make sure that the terrain feature befits the size - I'm not going to glue a pebble on a 12" board and call it "rough ground".

My first building, thatched roof a-frame (cardboard, fur for thatch, and coffee stir sticks).

My first attempt at terrain bases - I found that cutting some MDF down to 12" squares is most versatile.

The craft of terrain making is vast and varied. Ridiculously so. Not having a ton of experience myself I'm a bit overwhelmed. There are SO MANY WAYS to make a hill.

As I have done you can scratch build a lot of terrain. I found that with limited space on my work bench (and time) sometimes just buying some pieces works out fine. That can get expensive though. My bar there is if I can't make it well the first time out and I can purchase it easy that that's what I'll do. I found things like fences from Renedra Plastics (Warstore on line), vacuum formed river and general terrain from Amera, plenty of resin in various states of finish from many manufacturers.

Here's some stuff I've learned:

• Any kind of aresol spray will destroy foam. Even spray-on gesso <<this I just learned last month.
• You can buy pink insulation foam at Home Depot in 2'x2' squares, very handy!
• Resin can get expensive but it's nice. Look for "seconds" if you can. I know, hard to do on the nets.
• "Buy in Bulk" if you need some epoxy style putty. "Green Stuff" is pretty costly on a terrain-level.*

*Actually, when it comes to sculpting and putty for terrain there are a ton of good options. Most of them are in your hardware store and very cost-efective. Caulk, drywall paste, plaster, plumber's putty... I've seen it all used to good effect. There is no right or wrong there. I just used up the last of my Miliput and have A-Poxy now.

• Utility Brushes! Get some. Don't use your minis brush.
• Teddy bear fur fabric, easy to find at the craft or fabric store. Great for long grass effects and thatched roof houses.

Funny anecdote time:

Spencer and I were playing at our FLGS one day. We wanted some forest terrain so we grabbed some off the shelves. The stuff we made was at home. The FLGS had some Battle Field In A Box terrain on the shelf - forests. You'd get a base that was flocked with dirt and tufts... and the trees were separate! You could move them around! WE NEVER THOUGHT OF THIS STRANGE TECHNOLOGY!  From that day fourth we never permanently affix trees to large area coverings.We all know it's woods and the trees do not get in the way of your figs.

Anyways, I suggest players that want a good smattering of terrain to get:
Woods
Hill
Building
That'll give you a good base to play with.

Saga - Tips for the Newbie Player I and II

I've been playing Saga for a year and a half now. I've got a lot of games under my belt and have learned a lot. If I were keeping score of my games I'd say my record is under 50%. Literally, I've lost more than half the games I've played.

I'm a slow learner and I best learn by doing. That means anything new I try I will have to fail at it a lot before I start to not fail. This isn't good for many things in today's world but it is what it is and I've been able to make due at 44 years of age.

Also of note, as I have mentioned I am new to wargaming. I started a few years ago and Saga is my 2nd wargame.  Today that list is longer - All the King's Men, Saga, Bolt Action, Pike and Shotte. All of those I have played more than once and have miniatures for. I'm still pretty new at this.

Quantifiers stated, I'm going to put out some tips, things that I wished we knew when we first got into this a few years ago. I'm absolutely sure these are all debatable and subject to a player's taste. All I know is that what I put on the table in my first game is 100% different than what I put on the table in my last game last week.

I. Sourcing

I started with plastics for Saga. Wargames Factory Dark Ages - Viking line. After putting them together and playing with them I found them to be a bit fragile, especially the weapons. I have since tried out Gripping Beast Plasitcs and found them to be more robust and easier to put together. My core 16 Viking Warriors are GBPlastics. Plastics get you good bang for the buck though and $40 will get you right into the game with plenty of options.

My Norman Knights are also plastic - Conquest Norman Knights. I am very pleased with these and they have held out very well in the more than 1 year I have been playing with them.

I've since migrated to metal. I decided this would be a "major" hobby of mine and joined the Old Glory Army and made monthly orders from them. I'm very happy with that choice. I've also picked up smatterings of other brands - some Gripping Beast, some Artizan, and a Reaper here and there to fill a small niche. All are fine choices for my needs.

Saga has special dice - Saga Dice. These an be expensive. $15-$20 expensive. You need Saga Dice though. Fortunately you can find and print off a pdf of the symbols and stick them on dice. StudioTomahawk and Gripping Beast actually supports this as you can find one pdf on their forums for your use. Many of the guys I play in Portland have home-brewed their own dice and they work perfectly. I've home-brewed my own dice as a matter of fact, my Anglo-Dane set is from a PDF. Research the way to do it as there are many. That said I've bought 3 sets of official dice.

Look for sales and support your FLGS. I'm lucky and have a few local stores but neither are "historical wargaming" centric. I do go to them first when looking for something than go online when I know they don't have nor can easily order something I want. When I e-shop my go to is FRP and Amazon.

Saga has a simple mechanic for terrain the basis of which is you've 2 sizes, M(6") and L(12"). I've found that having MDF bases for terrain based off those sizes is key. No question whether you're in contact with that terrain or not. I've gone to Home Depot and bought a 4x8 sheet of MDF and had them cut it down to 12"x12" squares (the last row a little short due to cut loss). A stack of 32 of these cost me $12.

Bases - I've used them all!! One inch works best for me (or 25mm which is a tad under 1 inch). I've used washers, plastics, slotted, beveled, resin, round, square, wood, MDF, ... all of them. I found I like to use a metal washer for plastics as it gives them some "heft" and body. For metal figures I like to use plastics, my current favorite being a 1 inch slight beveled edge with inset. Washers are cheap, under $10 for 100 of them. The plastics I use now are x25 for $11, a bit pricey. If they were more available I'd always get Renedra's round 25mm plastics. Those are cheap but only on the net and half the time are sold out.

For mounted units I use rectangular 25mm x 50mm. I sourced a bag of 100 of those for cheap, clearance at one of my FLGS. I'm set for a few years on these.

For my Warlords and Heroes of the Viking Age characters I use either some 40mm round bases I've had laying around over the years and ... well... I found a pile of old poker chips. They are fake "clay" (plastic) but are thick and very well suited to be a base for a Warlord or Hero. I like to give them a bigger base to better ID them as a Hero or Warlord. 40mm (or a bit under 1 3/4") is the perfect size for this. 50mm/2inch is just too big. Since these poker chips were obviously played with for years prior to me finding them I like to imagine they've some good gaming "ju-ju" in them.

Female Viking (Bronze Age Miniatures) on a 1", inset, quasi beveled base whose manufacturer I am forgetting the name of. On the right is "Gunnar" a Hero of the Viking Age (Old Glory Rus Spearmen) on a poker chip AND rock.

Rule books:
You've got Saga Core which contains the basic rules of the game and the core scenarios. All your games will be based off this. Also included are the rules for the 4 base factions and the corresponding Saga Battle Boards for Viking, Anglo-Dane, Norman, and Welsh.

Then come the Supplements:
Raven's Shadow - contains rules and boards for  The Franks, Irish, Norse-Gaels and Strathclyde. 
Northern Fury - contains rules and boards for Bretons, Jomsvikings, Scots, Anglo-Saxons.
Varjazi & Baileus - contains rules for Pagan Rus, Rus Princes, Byzantines.

Last Fall Crescent and Cross was released, this encompasses the post Norman Conquest era with Crusdaers and Saracens and such. C&C is a rules update to the core rules linked above. It is fully compatible the the first 4 books. You can have Crusader vs. Scots games. I have all the books except Crescent and Cross.

Battleboards are not sold separately. You must buy the book that has the faction you are interested in to get the Battle Board. You cannot run a faction without it's Battle Board.

II. Painting

I'm no pro. I never will be either. I'm pretty sure that I will also never be in a contest. I've been painting minis since 2001 and in 14 years my progression has indicated that I will never grow to be a kind of painter that people will Oooo and Awwww over. I am confident that my minis look good on that table though and that is what is important to me.

Also, over the years. I have tried all kinds of painting techniques with various results. My top 3 now are:
"Speed Painting"
1-Color Up
3-Color Up
... and I like to speed paint and here is my technique"

Wash and finish mini.
Base and add texture gel.
Base coat in a colored primer - I use Army Painter colored primer.
Unless base coat is black, ink in "strong shade".
Paint "inner to outer" or "flesh, hair, clothes, armor, gear, weapons".
Determine if I need more ink to shade and blend.
Gloss than matte finish.

If I want to go even faster (2 day turn-around) I will skip the inking and shading and just "dip" the minis - brush on Army Painter Quickshade.

One thing to consider - Saga is "historical" so one may want to pay attention to a Dark Ages Palette. What this boils down to is lighter color clothing (instead of blue go light-blue), brighter colors for higher rank, NO BLACK clothing, no uniforms except Byzantium related factions. In the end this has zero bearing on the game. Further, same goes with your choice of minis.

Viking Levy (Old Glory Bondi Archers) speed painted. Lot's of browns and naturals with some blue.

Egil Skallagrimsson (Gripping Beast), 1 Color Up, got some bright blues and reds and jewelry going on befitting his status.

Re No Uniforms: Historically there were very few "uniforms" in the Dark Ages. People wore into battle what they had:

• Levy, peasants: natural color shirts and pants.
• Warrior: same as above but some cloaks, some light color (blue and pink), shields and basic weapons like spears. Throw in a helmet or 2 also.
• Hearthguard: Pros at war - trimmed and bright tunics and cloaks, chain shirts, swords and axes. These are the "Warlord's Men" so they get some nice stuff. 

History aside, it's nice for you and for your opponent to be able to identify what's on the table though. Be a good sportsman and such. This could be hard in a Dark Ages Era game. The Vikings I play with now look like this:

• Levy aka "Old Men With Bows": Mostly natural colors with some blue and yellow tunics thrown in for variance. As prescribed by Saga rules they are all armed with bows. No shields
• Warrior: These are my freemen or Bondi. Called forth from good farms to fight. All with Spear and Shield. No armor but more variance in tunic color. Salmon, darker blue, green, orange. Shields are pretty solid in color with "one detail" e.g. solid color or a stripe of different color at most.
• Hearthguard - the Warlord's Retinue! Chain byrnies, gleaming helms, bright blades, some bronze or silver buckles and chapes. Shields will have multiple colors and be painted in quarters or more. Sometimes even swirls! Good dark blues, bright and deep reds, purple, and sunny yellows.

Recently I've been painting some Bolt Action Finnish Army. WHOA! They are in uniform and, pretty much, all look the same!! That is so very different than painting Dark Ages warriors. You can keep it simple and faster by just grouping your minis and picking a few colors. For example - when I painted my first 8 Viking Warriors I chose yellow, grey, light blue as my 3 colors and split up the 8 figs in 3, 3, and 2 to get those colors. The real differentiation was in shields and hair/cap color.

When I base them I first spread on some texture gel prior to base coat. I glue on the mini and then add the layer of gel. It helps secure the mini with the glue and also obscures the "baseball mound" effect from the mini's base. The gel I use is a fine grit so it also adds a dirt effect while the dried gel itself also adds to the natural ground effect. Texture gel takes some work (adds a step) and is barely noticeable in the end but it's a detail I enjoy - you can skip this one 100%.

Well, this got long. I will blog next "III Saga Tactics" and I know that one will get long winded as there is some stuff to type. Until then, happy gaming and thanks for reading. I hope I was helpful.

Saga Tournament Enfilade 2015

I was in the Saga Tournament at Enfilade this year. Then I won it. As awesome as that sounds there is some background to it.

This year's tournament was split up into 3 "phases". 2 on Friday and one Saturday morning. A player scores points by achieving scenario objectives and kills. You join a phase, play 3 games, generate your score. Pretty simple.

I played in Saturday morning's Phase 3. Had the most opponents.

We were allowed to bring an unlimited list but only one faction. 6 points on the table obviously. I brought some pretty vanilla Vikings:
Warlord
Bard
3x12 Hirdmen (hearthguard) - single unit
1x8 Bondi (warrior)
1x8 Bondi (warrior)
...and depending on situation alternating...
1x4 Val'Serkers (berserkers)
or
1x12 Old Men With Bows (levy)

Legendary Old Men With Bows! Staying at the stead and taking care of business while the Val'Serkers and Hirdmen head out to make war.

Unfortunately my Old Men With Bows saw no action in my 3 games. I would have traded them in if my opponent had cavalry or Anglo-Danes. This did prove my undoing in my last game against Franks and their cavalry in reserves which we'll get to.

My first opponent was Jesse from here in Portland. We've played each other many times so we have a good measure of our abilities and factions. The scenario was Homeland, Vikings (me) vs. Crusaders (Jesse) and Jesse was stuck with defending with just 4 points of Crusaders. 

I, immediately, launched my Viking Hirdmen x12 into his larger house full of crossbowmen. I screened my Hirdmen with Bondi as the Crusaders had a reaction force of a Warlord and Hearthguard outside. The resulting fight was brutal but I had some good Saga dice lined up on my board and a lot of killing happened.

After the first few engagments and right before I took the house and killed the Crusader Warlord.

I won it by victory and objective points.

My second game was against Ambrelle and her Vikings, Battle of the Fords rules.

Bondi first, then send the Hirdmen across!

This game went the full 6 rounds and I squeaked by with a Warlord kill and objective points (figures across the river). My second win of the day. 

My third opponent was against a Frank faction, "Castle" scenario invented by Sven Lugar (tournament organizer). 

I was attacking again and sent my Viking Hirdmen up the left to take the castle with a Bondi escort. I held back the Val'Serkers and Bondi escort. Part of the scenario rules is the defender gets a reserve unit from off board at round 3. This proved to be my undoing (and when I should have put my Old Men With Bows off the bench ... sorry guys).

When the Frank reserve came it hit hard and fast. Fortunately my left nearly took the castle but it was not enough in the end as time ran out (around round 4 of 6). Franks won it by a few points.

Record 2-1, total score was 68 points. Pat Lowager and his Byzantines - who I ended up never playing - scored 69 points. I was pretty dang happy with the second place win when Sven explained to me that Pat, being the sportsman that he is, forfeited 1st place as one of his opponents was disqualified giving him the win. His forfeiture gave me the 1st place.

I graciously accept it and will be sure to pass on the sportsmanship to others displayed by my opponents and Pat... what a guy! Skol to him.