Playtest 'Saga Lite' - Viking Raid

    Saxon forces advance against Viking raiders to protect their town from being looted

Ever since first playing Saga a number of years ago, I was struck by the simplicity of the "bones" of the game. You have just a handful of troop types, with each class being proportionally "better" than the others. The point system gives you fewer of these better troops and more of the lower class troops. I thought it would be a great game to teach folks quickly at a convention, except...! For when you put on the flesh and hair and everything on the bones, it does add a significant layer of complexity.

    Viking raiders were looking to loot the monastery (right), church (center) & livestock from the village

What if I strip that back off, though? Do I have a good, simple system for friendly multiplayer games or a convention to teach to new players? That's what this playtest was all about! I was considering running a Viking raid on an Anglo-Saxon village using "Saga Lite" at conventions this year. It gave me a chance to pull out my Saxon church, which I feel is probably still my greatest scratch-build, my monastery, and a host of Dark Ages buildings by Acheson Creations. 

    Viking archers advance through the town's fields, followed by the rest of the force coming ashore

The game would be set for three players per side, each controlling 4 points of similar troops in Saga. The Viking players would have one more unit of Hearthguard (elite warriors), while the Saxons would instead have an extra unit of Warriors. Twelve points of Vikings would face off against 12 points of Anglo-Saxons on a 6'x4' table. There would be no "Advanced Abilities" on the battle boards. Units activated could rest, move, shoot, or charge. I was also trying a suggestion from the Firelands Games Group of simultaneous Orders phases followed by alternating activations. Each Viking player would activate one unit, then each Anglo-Saxon player would do the same, alternating until all players had "passed" and were done.

    Allen's Vikings storm ashore and begin their advance towards the Saxon church in the center

Otherwise, all the normal Saga rules applied. How did it go? I think the only Basic Abilities and alternating activations worked well. In light of the alternating activations, I did change up the Orders Phase a bit. Players were free to leave all their Saga command dice rolled in the "Inactive Dice" section and simply assign one when it was their turn to activate. I felt that worked very well. One major effect I saw of this was the increased use of Combat Bonus. Players would answer their opponent's use of playing a Saga die on Combat Bonus with one of their own. This back and forth had a tactical component, too. More than one player would try to force another player to use his dice to even the score in Combat Bonus in the hopes of limiting how many dice their opponent would have left over when it came to Activations. 

    Mike S's Vikings begin their advance with their archers and lighter-armed warriors leading the way

Was that bad? No. It did slow things down a tad. However, stripping out all of the Advanced Abilities would doubtless cause more dice to be spent on Combat Bonus anyway, right? Since each player had one unit of Levy archers, managing their "Uncommon Dice" (which activate Levy troops) became a concern for players. All in all, I think the Saga Lite modifications flowed well. I don't think it unbalanced the game or slowed it down unduly. In fact, a three per side game of Saga Lite plays WAY faster than a corresponding one using Saga's own big battle, multiplayer rules.

    My warlord, left, watches the Saxon levy archers get into firing position, supported by warriors

As for the scenario, it was not the success that I was hoping it would be. I had created three looting spots for the Vikings to try to get to during the game. The church was in the middle of the board, the monastery on the Saxon left (capturing the monks and taking them captive), and the pigpen and stables for "animal loot" was on the Saxon right. I made the mistake, though, of putting them up against the Saxon baseline. As it turned out, there was simply no way the Vikings would be able to fight their way through the Saxon defenders and loot those spots. Each side had equal forces, so the Vikings would do well to simply inflict more losses on the Saxons (another victory point consideration besides the loot).

    My fellow Saxon Joel also pushes his troops forward on the left to delay the advance of the Vikings

We talked about it after we played the game and decided it we were going to re-run it, the loot spots should be put on the centerline of the table. Plus, perhaps the Saxons should have one point of troops less per player to give them a chance to drive off the defenders. In our game, the Saxons were actually winning and inflicting more losses. They knew they could sit back and simply wait for the Viking advance and use their Saga dice to shoot or charge them when they came close enough. 

    Keith, protecting his precious pigs, deploys his forces to guard the gaps between the homes

The game was fun, of course, but the Vikings had no chance of winning the way I had set it up. So, scrap the scenario for Saga Lite, but save the rules adaptions is my verdict! I actually have an idea of how to run a similar version of this scenario with a different set of rules. The players would ALL be Vikings, competing to garner the most loot, slaves, or provisions. I recently purchased Ganesha Games' Sellswords and Spellslingers for possible fantasy or semi-historical coop games next year. In this game, the opposition is played by the game's AI and cards. All the players are on the same side. 

    Saxon warriors and Viking hearthguard clash swords and shields as the battle is joined on the left

So, that's my thought going forward. Have all my players control a few Viking warriors or heroes and they're running around in a Saxon town fighting townsfolk, soldiers, guards, etc., to loot the place. Stay tuned and hopefully I will have a playtest of it before the end of the year. If it works out and is fun, I plan on running it at Cincycon, Drums at the Rapids and Origins Game Fair.

    Towards the end of the battle, the Viking "high water marks" is nowhere near the town's loot

In the meantime, stay tuned for a couple more updates. I am on to the flocking stages for both the 28mm Water Tower and my Rebel Alliance batch of figures!

    "LOOSE!" My Saxon archers in the center gave a good account of themselves, killing many Vikings

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 230  

    Allen in the center made a hard push towards the church, but the Norse dice gods weren't with him

Year in Review: Three Threads for 2023

    One theme that remained constant in 2023 was work on my post-apocalyptic terrain

Three main projects dominated my painting and terrain building for this past year, 2023. One thread remained constant, though at times it faded almost completely into the background. The other two surged for awhile into the spotlight, in essence battling for my attention. The one that remained constant was my post-apocalyptic campaign. The other two that saw periods of intense focus were Ancient/DarkAge/Medieval Saga and Science-Fiction gaming.

Post-apocalyptic

The constant thread was my post-apocalyptic campaign. I entered the year with nearly all of my survivor gangs painted up, adding only one to the ranks in 2023. This occurred only as it became obvious that I might need to play occasionally to balance out the numbers in games. So, I reached into my Battle Valor Games purchases and created one more gang -- the Green Dragons. They first hit the table in February. They were an Asian-American gang, and saw action in the second scenario we played in the campaign, "I Smell a Rat." 

    

    I made some modifications to Monster Fight Club's chain fences (like the thin strand of barbed wire)

Most of my efforts on this project were in terrain building. From barbed wire compounds to burnt-out vehicles, I cranked out the tabletop scenery. Those were probably my two favorite additions to the scenery. The barbed wire compound was a store-bought purchase from Monster Fight Club scenery, using two of their "Chain Link Fences" boxes. Of course, being me, I couldn't just use them straight out of the box. I modified them fairly heavily and these are one of the best additions to my terrain collection this year, in my opinion. We have used it in two scenarios so far, "Searching an Abandoned Army Base" and the most recently, "Where the Dark Things Gather."

    I was really pleased with these die cast vehicles that had been set aflame turned out

I was also very happy with my addition of damaged and burnt out vehicles for the desolate urban areas in my post-apocalyptic world. I had done some research on how to get the effect of a burnt out vehicle and was shocked that the consensus was to actually set on fire die cast models. First, I used pliers and wire cutters to remove the wheels and much or all of the plastic. Then, on a warm April evening, I swabbed them down with rubbing alcohol and lit them on fire. Thankfully, no neighbors were outside to see what the amateur pyromaniac was doing. I was fairly happy with how they turned out. The ash-like char seemed to never be sealed in by numerous clear coats, though. So, I still have to handle them carefully. I would end up doing two more batches of damaged/burnt vehicles, but who knows? Maybe one day I'll make some more!

    My favorite Jarls Workshop building was the six-story corner ruin (with some of my own bits added)

I also constructed a number of new buildings for the an urban, post-apocalyptic battlefield. My favorites were the ones I bought from Jarls Workshop (Rusty Parker) at the previous year's Advance the Colors 2022. They turned out great, and I would end up buying more from him in October at the 2023 convention. My favorite was the six-story corner remnant that I jazzed up with wooden beams and bricks. I bought more of these this year, but have yet to assemble them and get them ready for the tabletop. They will probably be the first terrain that I create in 2024, though! Rusty's 3-D printed buildings paint up very quickly and I highly recommend them. 

    We got in four games over the course of 2023 of my post-apocalytpic campaign

Finally, we got in four post-apocalyptic games over the course of the year. That was way under what I was hoping, but it did remain constant throughout the year. I am happy with how the Wiley Games Core Rules are working out for these skirmishes. Each player selects four characters for that scenario from the 7-8 that I had created for their survivor gang. Sometimes, characters who are wounded have to miss the following scenario or die of their wounds (only one character so far...sigh, mine!). The players have gotten the hang of using Renown Points to purchase new Traits and upgrade their force. I am having fun with running the scenarios, and will probably step back from playing in them with the Green Dragons unless we have a very small turnout. Look for more games in the coming months -- especially during January and February when our usual Sunday evening host will be out of town.

Science-Fiction Gaming

As the year closes, Sci-Fi gaming is the one I am focused on, now. It was also how I began 2023. I'd picked up Space Station Zero from Snarling Badger Studios, intrigued by the possibility of co-op skirmish as crews explore a derelict space station on the edge of the galaxy. I went all in for a few months, creating a playing surface of metallic looking tiles. I also made various bits of Sci-Fi scatter terrain that would work great for either the interior of a space station or on a planet's surface. Some were store-bought from Mantic Games, Acheson Creations, while still others were scratch-built from wooden pieces at craft stores. Jazzed up with metallic paints and various metal scatter consoles from RRB Minis & More, they set the stage for a new period of gaming in a new year.

    Our one and only game of Space Station Zero (so far, to be fair) using my game mat tiles & terrain

Except it never really went very far. Jenny and I played one scenario of Space Station Zero. We had fun, but after playing, I felt that its scope and scale wouldn't fit in as well for our Sunday evening gaming sessions. Even switching from co-op to competitive play mode in the rules, I felt that we'd struggle with so many players to have a game session for what was originally designed as a solo miniatures gaming adventure. Jenny and I swore we'd play the next scenario some winter evening when we had nothing else to do, but never got around to it. I'd painted my crew -- Dave and the rest from the spaceship Jupiter in 2001: A Space Odyssey -- but it looked like the Jupiter was grounded back here on Earth.

    JS Wargamer Printing 'Machine Wars - Exterminators' very cool 3D printed Terminators

In August, Sci-Fi gaming showed another flicker of life. Keith ran a Star Wars scenario using Wiley Games Galactic Heroes rules. He had a lot of the Wizards of the Coast pre-painted Star Wars figures. I was intrigued. We knew the rules. Both Keith and Mike S had tons of figs, but school had just started up again and I was hitting my busy point in the year. Sci-Fi gaming seemed to be an empty void once again until just last month. I decided to paint up one of my purchases from CincyCon 2023, JS Wargamer Printing's 3-D printed Terminators. This, and the purchase of rules books from the "Rampant" series at Advance the Colors 2023, convinced me to give Xenos Rampant a try.

    I was really pleased at how these various robots and droids came out with their metallic paints

This is a bigger size game than either Space Station Zero or Galactic Heroes. Each player will likely control 4-6 squads of figures, making it just a bit under Saga sized force, in my planned scale. Since then, I have been busy cranking out sets of Sci-Fi miniatures. After the Terminators (for a Machines force, of course), came a couple batches of droids or robots. I continued on with some 3-D printed space marines bought from Wiley Games. I called them the Bronze Legion, and bought and painted up a second squad's worth of the figures. And, for those who follow my blog regularly, you know that has continued apace with some Blue-skinned aliens and a squad of Star Wars B1 Battle Droids.

Aliens from the Strargrave Mercenaries box and actually painted to match one of my survivor gangs.

I'm anticipating my first game of Xenos Rampant in January. If not, at least by February. It's kind of cool that I started and began 2023 with Sci-Fi. I'm a big fan of the various Star Wars streaming series, so it is almost unusual that it hadn't found its way to the tabletop for me.

    It seems I never choose a simple army to paint, and that was definitely the case for 2023's Thracians!

 

Saga Ancients/Dark Ages/Medieval Skirmish

The third thread of my year of gaming was playing Saga, the skirmish miniatures game from Studio Tomahawk. In fact, it took over the majority of my painting and gaming from about late summer through Advance the Colors 2023. Two main reasons for this was that I had undertaken painting a new army, the Thracians. Also, I was painting up prizes and prepping for my two tournaments I was going to run at ATC 2023. I had queried local and regional Saga groups and they gave a thumbs up to adding a Friday Age of Ancients tournament to my 3rd annual Saturday Age of Melee one. Ancients includes the six armies each from Age of Hannibal and Age of Alexander. 

    At least the Thracians had only one unit of mounted -- unlike an entire army with the Mongols!

In fact, the Thracians I was painting up were from the Alexander book, and had caught my eye for their interesting "Loot" mechanic. They were also an army almost no one was talking about, and I enjoy painting the fringe armies. Greeks and Macedonians were sure to be popular choices from that book, but I wanted to do something a bit different. Naturally, if they're an army that I am picking they MUST have complex patterns or something to make them a challenge to paint, right? Of course! Greek pottery gives us a wealth of primary source material on the geometric (and assumed) colorful cloaks that the Thracian warriors wore. I borrowed my friend Mike's Osprey book on the army and sketched out about a dozen simplified versions of the patterns to use on my own miniature Thracians. With 28mm minis, we want to give the effect of something -- not necessarily a 1:1 recreation of it. Too much often ends up being, not surprisingly, too much.

    One of my three victories with the Picts at CincyCon 2023 - this one against a Norman foe

As December comes to its end, I am not strictly done with the Thracians. I have about one batch of javelin-armed warriors to paint up. I also have yet to do the custom fatigue markers I will create for this army. I borrowed some spare heads from friends who have plastic kits (where they provide options for players to use). I will mount these heads on the markers because the Thracians were known as a head-hunting tribe. Luckily, I already had suitable markers created for the loot tokens from a past gaming project.

View of the action at ATC 2023 weekend, which saw more than 30 participants from near & far

Our monthly Saga Sundays at the Guardtower East continued, but attendance seemed to die down a bit, this year. We were down from 12-16 attendees to the 6-10 range, most months. Unfortunately, the trips to Beavercreek and the Dragons Guildhall also decreased, on my part. I probably made it only about 4-5 times this year instead of being a regular. Honestly, the reason for this was likely the increase in the number of tournaments we had in the area. The year started off with a Saga tournament run in Ft. Wayne, IN, in February. The tournies continued in March with Cincycon 2023 -- where my Picts were victorious overall. I did not make it to Adrian John's next tournament at DayCon, but did actually participate in a small one at Historicon in July. In September, I also drove north to Port Clinton, OH, for Rusty and Jim's Hold the Line convention. That was followed by the success at Advance the Colors, with 14 players in my Ancients Saga tournament and 24 on Saturday. So, lots of tournaments probably meant fewer people at our monthly game days, I imagine.

    One of the six warlord stands I painted up and gave away as Saga prizes in 2023

One thing that my friend Mike has cautioned about is getting to the "burn out" stage with these rules, like we eventually did with DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis). This is my fifth year of playing Saga. We played DBA for a couple decades, so it is nowhere near the same longevity. However, I do see a similar vibe with a tournament at every convention beginning to happen with me and Saga. I have also noticed my enthusiasm for hosting new episodes of my Saga Ohio Podcast waned over the course of the year, too. Mostly, this is because school is always so busy -- "180 days of triage", I call the school year. Possible burn out IS something to keep an eye out for when scheduling my gaming and painting, though.

Obviously, this isn't every bit of gaming that I did in 2023. It is a good sampling to reflect upon, though, and I hope readers enjoyed it. As we head towards 2024, my production seems to be picking up speed. What will 2024 bring? Hopefully, more faithful readers of my Lead Legionaries blog like yourselves! Happy New Year!! 😃

First Test of Battle for the Republic's Legionaries

    My new Republican Roman Saga army faced a stiff first test in a civil war against Late Romans

I had to skip our Saga game day in June, so I was really looking forward to July’s game day at the Guardtower East. I hadn’t played Saga in awhile, and was eager to roll some dice and try out my new Republican Roman army. We had 10 players show up, another good thing, as it meant I wouldn’t be “odd man out." Once we were sure we had everyone, I let folks choose their matchups. I ended up squaring off against veteran Ancients gamer Bob B, who I always have close, gripping matches with. This one would prove no exception.
    

    My Roman army hides in the shadow of gentle hill, trying to avoid 2 bolt-shooters behind the bog

Bob was fielding his Age of Invasions Romans, so we had a civil war, of sorts. My Republican Roman list is quite different, though. Most of my faction’s advanced Saga abilities are usable only by the heart of the army, the legionaries. In fact, only ONE of the 10 abilities does not specify which of your units can use it. They go from being as permissive as “Infantry” (two abilities), to as restrictive as Hearthguard defenders. Most abilities specify as being usable only by Maniple units, which are Roman warrior or hearthguard  infantry in units originally of eight figures or less.

    Facing off against the Republican legion in the center are a large unit of legionaries & cataphracts

So, the Roman battle board pushes its players to use small units of legionary infantry. I conformed to this historical list building and had four units of 6-man warrior Hastati or Princeps infantry and one unit of 8 figures. I also had one unit of 4 Triarii (hearthguard foot), and one of 12 levy javelinmen known as Velites. There were no mounted troops in this army. Instead, only lots of plodding heavy foot.

    As historically, the Roman Velites skirmishers screen the advance the army against missile fire

Examining the advanced abilities revealed they have excellent defensive capabilities. However, crucially those defensive abilities work ONLY in melee. Their anti-shooting abilities were weak, being limited to one ability which was usable only by Maniples. So, what did Bob field with his variety of Romans? LOTS of shooting capability! The Age of Invasions Romans are known for their ability to field a manuballista, or artillery bolt shooter. Most players take the ballista, but Bob decided to up the ante and fielded two! In addition, he fielded his legionary foot in two large, 10-man units to take advantage of the Plumbatae ability. This represents the small javelins thrown by late Roman legionaries. Plumbatae allow Romans to fire 1:1 with these, which means he’d be rolling 10 attack dice on his shots with them.

    The Velites place themselves between the bolt shooters and the heavy infantry, taking casualties

So, my number one goal would be to not have my heavy foot shot to pieces as we closed with his battleline.  Bob was 1st player, and surprisingly, placed a large, gentle hill in the center right of the battlefield. I had already been planning on playing a hill to block the line of sight of his ballistae, so deployed a large steep hill in the left center. This gave me two tall pieces of terrain to hide behind, at least on my initial advance. Next, Bob placed a marsh towards his center. With three pieces placed already on the board, I could eschew placing another one and instead move one of his. I chose to scoot his bog towards his baseline so he couldn’t hide the ballistae behind it. Bob’s last name IS Boggs, so he placed a second marsh on his left for his ballistae to hide behind, after all. Our battlefield was now set.

    Bob's cataphracts open the melee portion of the battle, hurling back a unit of legionaries

In the Clash of Warlords scenario, the 1st player deploys half his troops. Then the 2nd player deploys his entire army, followed by the 1st player setting up his remaining troops. Luckily, Bob deployed both his ballistae in the first half - behind the marsh, as I’d suspected. Unfortunately, their 24” range on a 4’x3’ battlefield would allow the artillery to shoot just about anywhere they wanted that was not blocked by the hills. Now, I could have sat back on my baseline, out of his range, and said, “Come get me!” There are Saga players who would do this. My number one goal, though, is to have fun. That would NOT be a fun game. So, I bunched up my army in the shadow of the gentle hill, preparing to march down the valley between the two hills. Bob deployed one of his large legionary units near his baseline opposite the valley, backed up by a 6-man unit of mounted cataphracts. Cataphract armored cavalry is an excellent troop type added in the Age of Invasions book. They are slower in “Moves” (but not “Charges”) than traditional mounted hearthguards. However, they are one better armor class. This would be a key point as my Velites javelinmen would try to harass them through a good half the game.

    Late and Republican Romans charge and countercharge, while another tries to circle the steep hill

In Republican Roman legionary tactics, the Velites are the screen - deployed out front of the heavy infantry to absorb enemy missile fire. That would be their job in the opening phases of this game, too. They absorbed volleys from both ballistas and one of Plumbatae from the enemy legions. When they were reduced from 12 to six figures, I scurried them away from the center and screening role and onto the slopes of the steep hill. They would remain out of range of the ballistae for the remainder of the game — barely. However, they would toss javelins from the slopes at the enemy horsemen whenever they got a chance.

    Bob's left wing finally arrives with a thundering charge by barbarian cavalry Foederati

Speaking of those cataphracts, Bob opened up the hand-to-hand portion of our battle with a charge from them against one of my small units of legionaries. A wily general, Bob had noticed I had queued up two abilities (Close Formation and Tenacious) which grant me attack or defense dice when outnumbered by the enemy. It’s the whole reason that many Republican Roman Saga players go with 6-figure units. However, his cataphracts were also six figures, which meant I couldn’t really use either of those. I was taking advantage every turn of Exhortation, which gives every friendly unit in melee within a Long distance of my warlord two bonus defense or attack dice. Once again, NOT against shooting, which was where Bob would do at least half of his damage in this game. I was finding that our late Roman cousins were NOT a good matchup for my Republican Romans!

    A Roman saying says that a battle is a grim one when the Triarii veterans have to enter the fray

Bob’s charge shattered my legionary unit, who recoiled away onto the hill slopes where the cavalry would be unlikely to follow. However, this finally brought two of Bob’s units (the legionaries and the cataphracts) in range of my legionaries’ charges. Up to this point in the game, we were suffering the casualties and the late Romans were the ones dishing them out. I launched a very disappointing charge against his big legionary unit (13 dice causing only two casualties). This established a new theme for the second half of the game: Bob’s saving rolls. To this point, I had been rolling above average saving rolls against his shooting. However, Bob would prove to roll incredibly well in melee saves. His shooting may be subpar, his melee rolls were about average, but he shone all game in saving rolls.

    Bob's sole remaining cataphract won him the game with his heroic saving rolls against all odds

For several turns, we traded charges, Bob chewing up my small legionary units (always softening them up with their Plumbatae missile attack). I was simply not doing enough in return on my counter-strikes, though. He was winning the war of attrition. The Velites were slowly but surely whittling down the enemy horsemen with their javelins. I thought the cataphracts would finally be eliminated when they charged my Trairii. I rolled four casualties in melee against their two remaining horsemen. In Saga, you save against melee hits only on a 5 or 6 (1/3 chance). So, how many of those four hits did Bob save? Three of four — 75% of them!

    We had 10 players show up for our July Saga game day fielding 9 different types of armies

Still, when he charged in his mounted general to finish off one of my legionary units, I thought I had a way of winning the game. If I could kill that last cataphract, its loss would inflict a fatigue on three of his units, including his general. I could then charge in my fresh, 8-man legionary unit against his general  and hopefully kill him, too (as he would have two fatigues). How did it work out? Bob proceeded to roll a half dozen saving rolls in a row for the lone cataphract, effectively clinching his victory.

    Jenny's war wagon in her Eastern Princes army takes a historical opponent in Dan's Poles

When we counted up the points, it would have been a Draw if I had killed that last cataphract. However, since I couldn’t take him out, Bob eked out a victory. We both agreed that that horseman would be awarded medals and honors for his heroic stand. I had lost, but honestly, I felt I did as best I could with a brand new army and a matchup that was disadvantageous. Whereas before I felt that the Republican Romans were somewhat weak against enemy shooting, I think this game confirmed it is worse than I thought. They are highly vulnerable to enemy shooting. I think I am going to have to rethink my army composition against “Shooty” armies. It may be time to hire some mercenary Cretan archers or even recruit another unit of Velites. With an armor of 4 and my small unit sizes, I can foresee bad things happening against our missile-rich Numidian, Carthaginian, and Spanish enemies in the Age of Hannibal book. And that doesn’t even factor in all of the ahistorical Shooty armies like my own Moors. Or the Irish. Yikes!

    Dan's Polish knights resplendent in their individual medieval heraldry triumphed over their foes

Still, solving tactical puzzles is one of the strengths of Saga as a game. I will have to figure out a way to overcome that, just as the actual Roman generals did two millennia ago when they conquered the Mediterranean and built an empire.

Here were the results of the games from our July Saga game day:

• Bob B's Romans (AOI) defeated Mike D's Rep. Romans in Clash of Warlords, 16-11
• Andy S's Rep. Romans defeated Mike C's Jomsvikings in Battle of Heroes, 10-0
• Lee P's Milites Christi defeated Tyler P's Irish in Battle of Heroes, 23-13
• Dan N's Poles defeated Jenny T's Eastern Princes in Clash of Warlords, 16-12
• Mike S's Vikings defeated Tom G's Welsh in Clash of Warlords, 19-11
• (Rematch) Tom G's Welsh tied Mike S's Vikings in Clash of Warlords, 22-22 

Viva Roma - Republican Roman army

    My newest painted Saga army - Republican Romans - is a milestone on several levels

Forty-three years ago, I was a 16-year-old kid playing role-playing games once a week at a city recreation center. I made a trip across town on a bus to the one and only game store in town that catered to these different kind of games. It was called The Soldier Shop, and it was an eye-opening experience walking up and down its aisles. I am fairly sure I bought some miniatures for our fantasy role playing games, but on one of the trips, I also picked up a set of rules for ancient miniature battles. I read through them and was like, "Wow! You can fight with whole armies?"

    This was my first army I had ever sent off to someone to be painted, and Ted did a great job on them!

None of my friends were interested in that, but I picked up a few packs of 15mm Heritage Miniatures Republican Romans. I put a note in our little newsletter one of the members of our role-playing group cranked out intermittently, seeing if anyone else was interested. Larry Connor, now sadly passed, called me up and said he also owned the same rules. Slowly, I began painting my first-ever miniature army under his coaching.

    I touched up both general figures with extra details, and the standard bearers were painted by me

That is world's away from the current gaming scene, but there was an interesting convergence. For Ancients, I play Saga now instead of Wargames Research Group rules (my entry into the field). I recently bought figures for those same Republican Romans more than a year ago when Saga released Age of Hannibal. Still, as months passed, the army seemed to get no closer to the front of the painting queue. I decided to do something I had never done before. I sent the miniatures off to be painted by someone else, paying them $220 to do so. For years, I would say that I would never do that. I enjoy the painting part of the hobby too much, and besides, I'm too much of a cheapskate! 

    Ted did a great job on the cavalry, too - though I did add in the shield design in micron pens

However, I decided to break new ground and do that mainly because of the painter: Ted Bender. One of our board members in HMGS Great Lakes, Ted recently retired from his job and was essentially painting full-time. I thought I could throw a little business his way. Plus, it seemed a perfect fit. My very first army I ever painted was Republican Romans. The first army I paid Ted to paint was Republican Romans (though 28mm, not 15mm). A weird convergence, 43 years in the making, and now those Romans are ready to take the field.

    Ted used shield decals I'd provided for the legionaries and they turned out great, I think!

I do have to be honest. I touched up both the foot warlord and mounted warlord figures. I wanted them to be a little more ornate and their armor a little more fancy. And then it hit me: I hadn't sent away any standard bearers (mainly because I didn't own any). Crap! There was no way I was going to put my Roman warlords on their own bases. I normally have 2-3 figures on my Saga warlords' bases (and often dogs or some other pet, as well). Meticulously, I went through my unpainted 28mm Ancient and Dark Age figures looking for something I could convert into a Roman standard bearer. I found some 28mm Navigator Greek Hoplites in linen cuirass. They would be easy to convert to standard bearers! Plus, both warlord figures were also wearing linen armor. Perfect!

    My 'jazzing up' of the warlord was adding details to the linen armor and a pattern to the cloak

So, technically this army is not entirely painted by someone else. Still, for all intents and purposes, it is. The Romans also fulfill that vow I'd made to eventually use shield decals for my "next" army. Ted is a whizz at using shield decals, so I purchased a variety of ones to match the Gripping Beast figures and sent them away with the miniatures. The funny thing is, I tried to use the leftovers that Ted sent back on the standard bearers (who I had given extra Roman shields I had). I STILL can't seem to get the knack of shield decals and gave up. I even watched a YouTube video on applying waterslide decals. Fail!

    For my veteran Trairii legionaries, I used the kneeling figures and switched to wire spears

But hey, in one fell swoop my Republican Roman Saga army was done! I did have to base and flock the army, of course. That was a fairly big undertaking, but I was determined to do it all at once. I used my normal method, painting the edges of the base first, then painting the base with a 50/50 mix of white glue and brown paint. The stand is then dipped in fine brown ballast. After drying, I dab the top of the base with 50/50 white glue and water. I sprinkle on Woodland Scenics blended Turf. The next step is to put the first clearcoat spray using Testor's Dullcoate. 

    The 'Levy' of a Republican Roman army are the javelin-armed youths known as velites

Once dry, I dab the turf with three irregular shapes of full strength white glue. I sprinkle it with Woodland Scenics blended grass. I add a couple tufts that I buy at the local hobby stores, and the base is ready for its final spraying of Dullcoate. And the legion is ready to take the field now. Perhaps now, all these decades later, my imagination is jaded and not as fired as that 16-year-old's was when he commanded his first Roman legion. Still, I look forward to taking the field with my Romans. It is still my favorite civilization from History to read about. Hopefully, the legion's battles will write new sagas of wargaming that bring back some of that spark I got from painting my first Romans all those years ago.

    The other half of the Velites, which are normally depicted with animal headdresses

    More 'Hastati' or 'Principes' legionaries carrying the heavy throwing weapon called a pilum

    I organized my legionaries in groups of six with one leftover group of eight

    There are a LOT of legionaries in a Roman army!