Prizes for ATC 2026 Saga Tourney - 3 Knights, 3 Priests

    Here are the prizes that I painted up for this year's ATC Saga Tournaments - 3 Knights & 3 Priests

I have been painting up miniatures for prizes for the Advance the Colors Saga tournaments for a number of years, now. Even though I don't run or play in them anymore, I like to give back to the local Saga Ohio community because they're a great set of guys. Plus, I feel a wee bit guilty for helping building up the community, being "all in," then dropping the game a couple years ago. 

    Here are the 3 Priests (a type of mercenary hero in Saga) that they will be giving away as prizes

Anyway, one of the usual tourney directors, James T of Firelands Games, asked me if I would be willing to paint up some special figures instead of the usual pair of command stands. He wanted three priests and three mounted knights for use in the tourney and also to give away as prizes. I checked to make sure I had sufficient 28mm miniatures that could pass as these. I did, though my knights are earlier than the full plate armor era, being from the Gripping Beast Spanish Knights army box that I never painted up. The three priests are from a variety of sources. The one clutching the holy book to his chest has been in my unpainted lead for more than a decade. He's actually a Ral Partha figure. The priest reading from the book is a Reaper Bones miniature (Cultist with Circle). Finally, the one with the conical hat is a colonial or Pulp Egyptian. All of them looked like they'd pass the "close enough" test, so I told James I would do six individual miniatures this year instead of the usual two command stands.

    This priest is a Reaper Bones 'Cultist figure -- I tried to do an illuminated letter in his Bible

First, I made sure there were no special basing requirements. You know how those tournament games are picky about things like that! Anyway, I gave two of the knights swords (one from the box another from my unpainted lead collection). The third got a brass wire spear. Otherwise, none of these required any conversion other than with the paint brush. They sat on my desk brush primed with Liquitex White Gesso until recently when I had a "Holy crap -- the convention is next week!" moment...ha, ha! I was also painting a very large 3-D printed building for my friend Rich B of RRB Minis & More that also had to be done in time for the convention. Add that to getting my first batch of Mycenaeans done in time for this past Sunday, the deadline pressure was intensifying!

    This pose goes way back -- a Ral Partha figure I had in my unpainted drawer for years!

I painted the knights in a weird order for me. First, I did the chainmail (Iron Wind Steel with silver drybrush), then I switched to the mounts. I did their coloring and manes, reins, bridles, and straps before switching back to the riders. I was painting the fancy details (shield pattern and cloak) way earlier than I normally do. Usually, I save those things for last. For these three, who were being painted the same time as the priests, the boots or shoes were last! I had their eyes done before their footwear...ha, ha! I don't know if the deadline was making me panic or what, but the order that I painted their equipment was odd compared to the way I usually do.

    I figured I would paint one of the three so that he didn't necessarily have to be Christian priest

Part of the reason may have been that I wanted their cloaks to be done in their Heraldric colors. So, until I had a shield design -- or at least a color combination -- I couldn't get too far. Heraldry is fairly simple, as I taught my 7th graders many years in my History classes. You have two "metal" colors (Yellow and White), and five "colors (Red, Blue, Black, Purple, Green). The rule is you can't put a metal on a metal or a color on a color. So, a black hawk on a read shield would be "illegal" and wouldn't follow the rules of Heraldry. So, I chose my colors first, one would be yellow and black, another blue and white, and the final one purple and yellow. I ended up choosing a checkered pattern for the yellow/black one with a black cross inside the yellow fields. And as you can see, I chose not to go with madness and give him an entirely checkered cloak -- just the shield!

    Three 28mm Gripping Beast Spanish knights were my figure of choice for the Knight prizes

I "quartered" the blue and white one, with a white moon inside the blue field and a blue fish on the white field. Like the yellow/black knight, I went with a fancy border for the cloak rather than trying to do something decorative on the entire billowing cloak. The purple/yellow's shield turned out very nicely, probably my favorite. I divided it in half with a purple seahorse on the yellow field and two yellow crowns on the purple field. I gave in to the voice telling me to paint his cloak with horizontal purple and yellow stripes. All in all, he's probably my favorite of the three and I think he came out the best.

    I really like how the purple seahorse & 2 crowns came out on this knight's shield

Without horses, the priests went much faster. The Egyptian one was almost completely done before I got past the base coat of the Reaper cultist figure. He was probably the simplest to do, with nothing in his hands and no equipment. I made sure to give him a nicely decorated robe with intricate hem designs along the bottom and cuffs. I think his face is the best of all six. I jokingly called him Father Fistbump while I was painting them for his raised hand...ha, ha! Of course, once I said that I couldn't "unsee" him raising his fist in a hipster greeting!

    I really like how the banner sets the figure off and compliments how I painted his heraldry

The Reaper cultist looked like a relatively boring figure until I got done with the robe and hood. After the medium gray dry brush to make the folds stand out against the black robe, I noticed all of the other detail. He ended up becoming the most elaborate of the three. Yes, the circular badges with crosses inside obscure skulls and other occult symbols that the figure was designed with. I really liked how his book was turning out, so I decided to go one step further. I painted black scribbles for the lines of text and gave a large, boxed illuminated letter like you see in medieval bibles to start off one page. His face is a little odd, seeming to being caught in mid-snarl. Makes sense for a cultist, of course, but for a priest? Well, maybe he is calling down God's curses on his enemies!

    I tried to give a fancy cloak & shield design for each knight -- hope whoever wins them likes them!

The final figure is amazingly a very old Ral Partha one -- probably at least three decades or more old. I'm sure I picked him up in a flea market. I had in a bag labeled "Bizarre Religious Figures" or something like that. I never noticed his bible had a raised Christian Chi-Rho symbol on it -- a pre-cross symbol used by early Christian communities. So, he ended up being even more appropriate of a choice of figures than I initially thought! His size is a bit slighter than the more modern figures, but not ridiculously so. I own some Ral Partha 25mm figures that look like 20mm minis next to today's figs, but this one I think fits in well.  

In the rush to get everything done, including the building, I fell down on my attempt to paint my own two-story building step for step alongside Rich's larger one. The interior got finished, and about a third of the exterior, but finally I had to give up on it to focus on getting the "commissions" done. Just because I did these two things for others, though, doesn't mean I'm going to go back to my college days and paint commissions. Heck no! I have PLENTY of my own stuff to paint to keep me busy!! And thankfully, even though I am retired, I am not short on funds. So, I don't need to earn extra money to pay for my hobby.

So, what will be next, then? I think I will do some of the newer miniatures I bought for my Devilry Afoot campaign set in frontier America. Since these three knights and priests were all "old" miniatures, I need to do something "new" to maintain my system. I am also getting closer and closer to evening up my Miniatures Painted to equal or exceed my "Acquired." Stay tuned, though, and see what's next!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 217
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 211

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 14
• Terrain painted in 2026: 36

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 34
• Scatter painted in 2026: 75

After Years on the Shelf, My Moors Take the Field Again

    One of my units of Moorish horsemen in their usual spot -- sheltering behind the infantry shieldwall

I'm on a group text chat with the Saga Ohio guys who meet weekly at the Guardtower West in Columbus. They were short one player and reached out to me to see if I could come so they would have an even number. I had a very boring week, sitting at home while repairmen tried a couple times to get installing a new water heater right. Jenny said I deserved an evening out of the house, so I drove off to meet Dan N, Joe D, and Janner H for a game of Saga. It was only my second time playing in more than a year, so I would definitely be rusty.

    From left, three of the regular Thursday crew - Dan, Joe, and Janner (Bob B couldn't make it)

The guys were wanting to practice Age of Crusades armies for an upcoming tournament, so I brought my Moors -- one of my favorite armies to play. They're probably the best looking Saga army that I've painted, in my opinion. Everyone insisted that I match up with Janner, who was trying out the Medieval Spanish list. We would be fighting one of the battles of the Reconquista -- a thematic historical battle (for a change...ha, ha!). Janner had never played the army before, and it had been several years or more since I played the Moors. Both had been vastly changed  or "nerfed" by the all-too-frequent Studio Tomahawk updates. In fact, the copy of the 2024 FAQ for the Age of Crusades army wasn't even the most recent -- there had been another one this year. 

    Janner wanted to test out the Medieval Spanish board and proxied his Ancient Iberians

This would cause some confusion for both Janner and I, as abilities we thought were very deadly and to watch out for ended up being not so scary. I understand avid tournament players want balance and updates to be made as some armies or abilities end up being too overpowering. However, the problem is the changes often radically redefine how the army plays. It was certainly the case for my Moors. One battle board ability that I relied upon regularly is called "Torrent of Iron." It was certainly weakened in the FAQ, and other board abilities were changed, as well. For Janner's Spanish, there was an ability that allowed his javelin-armed horsemen to move and shoot for free which frankly terrified me. Turns out, it terrified Stuido Tomahawk upon retrospect, and the "nerfed" version ended up being watered down enough that Janner never even used it.

    The two armies deployed, my Moors at the bottom, bunched up with flanks guarded

I deployed and moved first, decided to not advance and instead reinforce and wall off my right flank which was being held by only one unit of spearmen. Janner began a general advance with his army, but held off sending his cavalry too far forward. I rolled my best "Saga dice" at the start of turn 3, with 3 Rare dice. I loaded up my battle board with particularly lethal abilities, pulled the screen of spearmen aside in the center, and dashed both of my units of horsemen forward. In the old days, I would send them forward, have them throw their javelins, and then dash them back behind my infantry battle lines. However, the Moorish army has been reconfigured by the FAQ's into a charging army -- not a javelin tossing army.

    Worried about the free-moving Spanish (an ability which had actually been 'nerfed') I redeploy

Since only one of the two Moorish cavalry was in javelin tossing range, I said "What the heck?" Let's charge them in with the nerfed version of Torrent of Iron. The first unit plowed into his large unit of warrior missile men. I played all of my tough abilities, expecting to destroy the unit. I scored 14 hits, and with saving throws only on a 5 or 6 on 1d6, I expected carnage. Janner had his own amazing roll, saving seven of those, and killing two of my horsemen in return. NOT as good as I'd hoped! I decided to charge in the other unit into his javelin-armed horsemen. Once again, Janner's saves were amazing (6 of the 10 hits on a 1/3 chance!). Two more of my horsemen died. When I went to pull back my fatigued horsemen, he shortened one of the unit's move by using my fatigue, leaving them "hanging" out, unsupported and tired. Even though my two charges had reduced his two units badly, my two "hammers" were down to 2/3's strength.

    The Spanish had moved up, so I dashed my two units of heavy cavalry forward and charged

Lady luck helped me a little on the next turn. His horsemen rested and then charged in to mine, buffed up by his Saga abilities. He'd used a board trick to give my Moorish horse an additional fatigue before that. Amazingly, we won the battle, killing 4 of 5 of his horsemen and losing only one of ours. On my next turn, I pulled back both of my horse units behind my infantry battle line, resting them up. We wouldn't have long to recover, as Janner hurled his other cavalry unit, supported by a large infantry unit, towards my once again depleted right flank. The Moorish infantry held firm, though, and battered his cavalry while taking only one casualty ourselves. His infantry followed up and charged the same unit. Once again, the Moorish infantry on the right hurled the enemy back. They were definitely the heroes of the game, so far!

    You can see at the top my horse have pulled back, their targets depleted but not as bad as I'd hoped

Meanwhile, I began moving my rested units (and the rest of the army) towards the right to help out. Before they got there, Janner tried an interesting (and risky) gambit. He sent his general in to charge the same spearman unit that had been holding up his attack. This time, they were reduced to just three figures. Janner decided to pull his general back behind his cavalry unit we'd fought earlier. My second unit of infantry arrived and charged into those cavalrymen, shattering them. On our next turn, we charged his infantry unit that had been pushed back and reduced them, too. 

    Spanish are massing on my right, time to pull the horsemen back (if I can) to reinforce that flank!

My reformed and rested (but depleted) cavalry units were waiting, behind the infantry, ready to exploit. Janner and I looked at the board and agreed to call it, though. His forces were depleted to the point that he had only one full strength infantry unit far away across a steep hill, and his general, to contest the battle on the right. Barring some crazy dice rolls (which we had seen, granted), the Moors looked like they would carry the day. It was fun to get the Moors out on the battlefield, again. Janner was not particularly thrilled with the Medieval Spanish battle board. He declared it a one-shot wonder, and that he wouldn't be playing it again. Dan and I both quipped that it was no loss, as the figures he'd been using in our game were Spanish for the Ancient Iberian list. He could still use them to play that board!

    Until help gets there, the infantry are on their own against Spanish horse and infantry behind them

Does this mean I will be returning to Saga regularly? No. I don't mind an occasional friendly game. It is still fun to play. I have no desire to return to the tournament scene, though. Saga has such a high learning curve and the constant changes are difficult to keep up with and frankly frustrating. I painted an entire Mongol army only to have Studio Tomahawk "nerf" it, and drastically change how it plays. I'm done with that "now you know your army, now you don't" aspect of their regular FAQs. Even the upcoming release of Age of Caesars book will not be drawing me back in. I much more enjoy playing games of Lion or Dragon Rampant. Much more relaxed. Much more simple.

    Help is on the way in the form of one of my cavalry units and my intrepid general

Still, it was fun to sit down with some great guys and roll dice (mine did eventually get better, and gave Janner a taste of his own medicine towards the end). I expect I will make it out to Guardtower West again, especially if they play some American Revolutionary War like they are currently building forces for. If you have Thursdays open, reach out to Dan or Joe to find out what they're doing that week. They typically meet around 4pm. Good times are guaranteed (good dice...well, that's up in the air...ha, ha)!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 176
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 91

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 7
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 25

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 17
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59 

    Another unit of infantry joins in, as well, and leads the way to counter-attacking the Spanish thrust

    With 'Janner-like' rolling, the infantry turns back and breaks the Spanish attack, winning the battle

Warlord Stands as Prizes for Advance the Colors Saga Tournament

    Warlord stand I painted as a prize for the Age of Medieval Saga Tournament at ATC 2025

Even though I am not playing Saga actively myself, nowadays, I want to support the community and the Saga Ohio folks out there running tournaments. So, I committed to donating a painted warlord stand for both their Friday Medieval Age tournament (Chivalry & Crusades) and their Saturday Age of Iron & Steel (all books except Ancient ones) tourney. After finishing up a couple batches of Orcs and the French & Indian War figs I needed for the first Sunday's game at the museum, I decided it was time to get cracking on them!

    Warlord stand I painted as a prize for the Age of Iron & Steel Tournament at ATC 2025

The central mounted figure for the medieval warlord is a Gripping Beast Mounted Breton War Banner Bearer. I converted his banner to a lance and gave him a foot standard bearer. It's an old Norman figure in padded armor that I've had in my unpainted lead stash for ages. The trumpet blower is from a group of Welsh/Briton figures that I've also had for a long time. Since this is the age of heraldry, I knew I should decided what the warlord's banner and symbols should be before painting them. I decided to go with a quartered banner, one half being checkered purple and white. The other half would be a white field with a black tower on it. When I was teaching History to 7th graders, every year I would have students use medieval heraldry to design their own knight's shield. The purple and white checkered ones always looked cool, so I decided to go with that (and it followed the rules of Heraldry!).

    I really like how the quartered purple and white banner came out on the medieval warlord

The central mounted figure for the Age of Iron and Steel warlord is a Gripping Beast Eastern Princes Warlord. He has enough of a Viking look that he would work for a Dark Age army, I felt. Equally, he could work for a medieval one, as well. I dug through my miscellaneous 28mm Dark Age figures and found one that would make a good standard bearer and another as an extra bodyguard. I think I have fully exhausted my supply of musicians, by now. So, he's just a third figure on the base doing his best to protect his lord. I thought about giving him a leash and painting up a dog, too, but wasn't sure there would be room on the base for it.

    I thought the black bear on a red field looked appropriate for a generic Dark Age warlord

As I usually do, I epoxied the riders to their mounts before priming them. I think by doing that, you make them more secure and less likely to pop off if dropped or grabbed the wrong way. All those layers of primer and paint are just more glue, the way I see it! I also based the foot standard bearers to the 60mm round stands first, as well. I like the brass wire standard to be drilled into the wood of the base and then also connected to the hands of the figure. Two points of contact are always more secure than one. Once this was all done, all of the figures received their Liquitex White Gesso primer.

    With this horn blower, I think I am all out of musicians for my warlord bases - I like the fancy horn!

I did the flesh first, using a craft paint flesh tone followed up after drying with the clay-colored watered down wash I apply to Caucasian figures. It usually does a nice job of settling into the crevices in the skin and darkening the too-pale craft paint flesh color. Next, since so much of these figures were armor, I did the Iron Wind Steel base coat for the metal armor and Bambi Brown for the padded armor. From this point on, it was the usual 28mm base coat of a color and then followed by a lighter, dry brush highlight added to the figures. I worked my way outward, with the tunics, sleeves, trousers, and such, step by step.

    With no musician for his stand, this Dark Ages warlord has to make do with an extra bodyguard!

The colors for the Dark Ages warlord ended up being a hunter green and dark red. I waited till late in the process to finally decide what to do for his banner and shield. In the end, I decided to go with the outline of a bear's head in black on a dark red field. Since the rules of Heraldry hadn't been invented yet, I felt okay breaking them with the black on red ("color" on "color"). I did fancy borders or decorations on the clothes of all six figures since these would be the wealthiest figures in the warband. Of course, this made the batch take longer. I think their time on my painting desk will likely be two weeks -- not counting waiting to do the banners. During this time, I wasn't working on them solidly and ignoring everything else, of course. I was mixing in time each morning on other stuff, as well. 

The banners themselves were designed in Photoshop, resized, and then put on a USB drive to take to Office Max to print out with their color laser printer. I cut them out, coated the back with white glue, and then wrapped it around the spear pole making the sides match up as best as possible. I immediately reshaped it while the glue was still wet, giving a blowing in the wind look. After the banners were dry, I painted the white edge of the paper that was showing to match the banner.

    I also like how the medieval warlord's saddle cloth game out -- nice understated decoration, I felt

I really like how these two warlord stands turn out, and I hope the players in the Saga tournaments do as well! I'm also glad I didn't flirt with deadline pressure, as the tournaments are still about 3 weeks away. And if you look below, you will see these two stands of figures put me at the 200 miniatures painted for the year! As I'm typing this, it is the 265th day of 2025. That's less than one figure a day, but still not bad, eh? So, what else am I working on? You will see very soon my next batch of figures for my Dragon Rampant orc & goblin army. They are in the flocking stage and will likely be posted soon. For terrain, I've finally figured out how I am going to do rice paddies and bamboo for my 28mm Vietnam project. I purchased most of the material I need for them today, but still have a couple more things to pick up. 

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 288
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 200

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 40
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 61

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 200

DayCon 2025 Purchases

DayCon is a smaller, regional convention that I've been attending regularly since Randy and Angel Miller began running it. A few years ago, it expanded from a Saturday game day to a Friday and Saturday weekend convention. Like last year, I decided to drive over for just Saturday, though. I would be running my Viking Town Raid game in the afternoon slot. I also was bringing a large amount of Saga terrain to sell to Fireland Games. When I stepped back from running tournaments, they asked if I would be willing to part with some of the terrain that I had made for the tourneys, and we agreed upon a price.

With a nice wad of cash in my wallet, you knew that I would not be able to resist picking up some things from the vendors. One vendor in attendance was Sword & Scabbard Games with a lot of their 3-D printed terrain. I picked up the above wooden ruin because it was different. I have lots of stone ruins, but no wooden ones. Plus, I knew I would be able to paint it up quickly. Primer, base coat, wet brush, and dry brush and it will be done. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks all painted up -- it looked great on their vendor table! It reminds me a lot of an Acheson terrain piece in style and heft.

I also picked up this piece of terrain from Sword & Scabbard. It is a nice flat ruins piece representing the floor of a temple or other columned building. I keep telling myself that I need to scratch build some flat ruins pieces to fill in the spaces between my ruined buildings. I saw this and felt it would work even for modern or post-apocalyptic games. Many government buildings in Europe and America have Greek style columns. So, this should be fairly versatile, too. Plus, like the wooden ruin, it should paint up real quickly. Although, as Scott Gray and I sat there talking, he suggested that you could even do a mosaic like pattern with the tiles. That may add an extra step or two if I try it.

My friend Abel had picked up one of these earlier in the day and showed it to me. It is a 3-D printed turn marker, intended for Saga, but could be used for any game where you need to keep track of turns. I always try to support the vendors at our regional conventions, so added it to my purchase from Sword & Scabbard. I think I will paint the seated king as a stone statue to make it go quicker. I like the way it looks and will be fun little turn marker to have on the board.

I have always had a soft spot for gnolls since way back from the D&D days. When I dropped off the Saga terrain with James of Fireland Games, I saw this box sitting on the dealer table. One of the things James and Rusty from Fireland do is sell individual sprues. They will open a box and sell you just one sprue if you want. Since gnolls are basically hyena men, I thought they'd fit in with my Sellswords & Spellslingers solo games. Rather than just pick up one, which would have been enough for that, I decided to pick up three -- thinking ahead to one day playing Dragon Rampant (2nd Edition coming soon, by the way!) and having enough for a 12-figure unit.

I still prefer metal miniatures over plastic. However, I have found that the Frostgrave/Stargrave figures go together well enough that even a super-glue incompetent like me assemble. Have the legs and torso come together makes it doable. I just have glue on the arms (the harder part) and the head (usually the easy part), and then glue it to its base. In fact, these will probably be easier than the Stargrave figures I have glued together because you don't have to somehow match the shooting right arm exactly up with the supporting left hand. All of the weapons the gnoll arms are holding appear to be one handed.

Of course, my purchases mean I keep throwing off my Painted vs. Acquired ratios...ha, ha! I'm actually ahead on Terrain painted, though, and within sight of catching up on Scatter. However, I'm in the red significantly on Miniatures, though -- especially with my huge 28mm Vietnam purchase. I've picked up some other figures here and there, too (like these gnolls). On the bright side, though, it is only April. I have till December to catch up! Plus, spring is always a busy convention season around here, so that means more opportunities to support the dealers!  

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39

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

Saga Warlord Stands for ATC 2024 Prizes

    The warlord stand that I painted up as a prize for the ATC 2024 Age of Ancients tournament

I recently turned over running Saga tournaments in the Columbus area to other members of our group here in Ohio. However, I am keeping alive the tradition of painting up a prize for each tourney. Since Joe and Lee are running Age of Ancients and Dark Ages tournaments at Advance the Colors 2024, I decided to match what I painted up with the theme of the competition. I am really happy with how these two stands turned out, and it will be a shame to give them away. But that's the whole idea of painting up a prize, though! Isn't it?

   The warlord stand I painted as a prize for the Dark Ages Saga tournament

The Age of Ancients warlord stand was the hardest to find figures for in my unpainted lead pile. I decided to go with a Reaper Bones figure for the big man himself. It is a classic Ancient Mediterranean looking figure with a Corinthian helmet, sweeping cloak, and leaf shaped sword. I'm sure it is supposed to be a Greek of some sort, but you could easily use it for many of the Graeco-Roman cultures. The armor is a tad bit fantasy and a bit less historical, I felt. However, I did my best to tone down the crazier parts and make it simply look like a heavily armored warrior. The shield is interesting, with its almost figure eight design. I'd picked the figure up at the Guardtower East when I was planning to paint my Thracian army as the shape is almost like it is from that culture. I ended up not using the figure, though, so had no problem donating it to be a prize.

    A good look at the ancient standard bearer, a Crusader miniatures Thracian

The standard bearer is one of my leftover 28mm Thracian figures from Crusader Miniatures. He is holding his hand up in the air, which I felt would make him look like a perfect standard bearer. He is also more Greek and less Thracian looking, which make him a good fit for a warlord stand that I am purposely painting up to be "generic Ancient Mediterranean." His Corinthian helmet matches the general's, so even though he is smaller in height, this is mitigated a bit by the uplifted army and the banner he is holding. 

    Close up of the priestess figure on the Ancients prize, and the Gamers Grass columns

I went back and forth over the third figure for the warlord's base. Typically, I choose a musician or sometimes even a pet dog. Dig as I might through my unpainted lead pile, I couldn't find anything that looked like an appropriate ancient trumpeter or other musician. So, I expanded my search through the Dark Ages figures, but likewise came up blank for a Greek-ish warlord stand. I kept going into my Pulp figures, which is where I found this priestess in a dress. I was actually looking for a Reaper Socrates figure I bought years ago (but never did find!). I thought she would be a cool addition to the stand -- the priestess of Apollo (or some other god) giving the omens of battle to the general! She was easy to paint up. I really like her braided hair with streamers attached, and the wreath around her head. 

    A nice look at the Medusa banner I created from Google Images using Photoshop

I had a wealth of choices for the Dark Age warlord. I have been regularly buying Gripping Beast general packs from Cotton Jim's clearance bin at Historicon. Looking through the giant ziploc bag with Dark Ages generals, I didn't have any mounted figures generic enough. So, I decided to go with an all-foot warlord stand for this one, too. This figure (I believe) is from their Varangian Guards pack, but I could be wrong. I love his balding head, drooping mustache, and relaxed stance with his helmet tucked under his right arm. His left hand was open and I went back and forth about what to put in there. I decided to go with an upright sword. I figured that would look more inspiring than a grounded ax or similar. I chose brown for the fur cloak over his shoulders as it would contrast better with the chainmail armor. The bright red (but not too bright) cloak and dark blue sleeves show his wealth in poorer and less fancy age.

    Zooming in on the three figures that make up the Dark Ages warlord base

His standard bearer is about as generic as you can get for the early Medieval period. His conical leather and banded steel helm, chainmail, and round shield strapped to the back made him an obvious choice, as well. I decided to go with a faded blue tunic and sleeves. In fact, both these warlord stands seemed to have its share of blues! I really like how his Raven shield design came out. I used a black micron pen to do the wings, tail, and head. It didn't stand out as much as I wanted, so I added the streaks of light blue and that really made the design pop. I decided not to put any other weapons in his hand, but considered a sword for awhile. I didn't like how it looked with the pose, so kept it simple.

    A nice look at the Viking runic stone, which I added to the base to set it off a bit

The final figure was another easy choice, a chainmail armored musician with a sweeping cloak. Since blue seemed to be the theme, I gave him a medium blue cloak. I was happy with how the colors came out on both stands. As I was finishing them up and eyeballing the 60mm round stands, it looked like both needed something else to make them come to life. I looked in my closet and picked out one of the 3-D printed Viking runic stones that I'd picked up from Scott Gray at Sword & Scabbard Games. I am going to have to get around to painting up the rest of these runic stones (I bought two packs!). They were easy to do and look great! For a Dark Ages general, it really makes the vignette pop. Scott will be at ATC 2024, so pick some of these up from him if you will be there! I also added a couple more small boulders to complete the stand! 

    A look at the raven banner I created in Photoshop, and the standard bearer's shield

For the Ancient stand, I remembered that I bought two packs of Gamers Grass Ancient ruins from Michigan Toy Soldier and Figure Company at Historicon 2023. Scale-wise, they probably would work better with 15mm figures. However, they have such a great variety of broken and complete Greek or Roman columns that I was able to figure out a combo that looked nice. In addition, I added a chunk of plaster cobblestones to the blank area in the middle. All together, the vignette worked out really well. 

    A final look at the Ancient warlord, with a close up of the Reaper Miniature's shield

The banners I did in my usual method. While painting the miniatures, I had decided that I would use a medusa for the Greek standard and Raven one for the Dark Ages. I spent about a half hour looking through various Google Image searches until I found the ones I liked best. Next, I found fancy square and rectangular borders to go around the images. I imported them into my venerable version of Photoshop on my MacBook from two generations back. I manipulated the colors and sizes, then put them on a USB drive and took it up to the local office supply store. I prefer using their color laser printers for my banners. You do have to paint the edges after you cut the banner out and glue it around the brass wire pole. Otherwise, the white paper shows through noticeably. 

All in all, I think these two stands came out to be a...shall I say it...a "winning" pair??

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 170
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 170 (I'm back to even again!)