Mongol Horde's Victory Appeases the Gods

Mongol warlord Budokhan surveys the battle as his men compete to bring him the skulls of his enemies

The Mongol khan stroked his mustache as he watched the Polish raiding force hurriedly organize themselves into a battle line. His Ordu had caught them by surprise as they were attempting to desecrate his Jurkin tribe's holy site. Doubtless, this was in response to the Mongol's own raid last month. He barked out deployment orders for his Mongols and immediately the air began to reverberate with the sound of kettle drums. His standard bearer lifted the great horse tail banner and swung it back and forth to indicate which formation Budokan's Ordu should take. Rapidly, the well-drilled Mongol warriors formed into a great line, overlapping the Polish raider's compact mass.

    My Mongol army's first game would be against Dan N's Polish army, also from the Age of Crusades

So, here it was. My Mongol warband's first game of Saga. I had spent many months painting them, detailing their pastel robes with various patterns. I had individualized the horses, switched out weapons, and mixed the different poses of 28mm Curteys Miniatures. I had been very happy with how the army had turned out. How would they perform on the battlefield, though? I had chosen the Mongols because I thought it would be a challenge to play a horse archer army on a usually terrain-cramped 3'x4' Saga battlefield. Would this be the start of a long, learning curve? Or would my previous game commanding the Mongols in a remote, game played via Skype (which had ended in a win) be a harbinger of victories to come?

    Dan's Poles deploy in a compact mass, ready for the trickery of the wily Mongol horse archers

My Mongols' opponent was a historical one, Dan N's Polish army. Dan had played them several times at our monthly Saga game days at the Guardtower East. He is a gracious opponent, enjoyable to play against, and accepts the vagaries of a game often decided by dice with equanimity. I was looking forward to getting in a game against his Poles because they are one of the more rare armies that are fielded from Age of Crusades. I believe Andy S has used his medieval figures to field Poles once or twice, but otherwise, Dan is the only Saga Ohio member to field an army of them. He's painted them historically, researching the heraldry of Eastern European nobility and they look resplendent on the tabletop.

    'Wrath of the Gods' features three objective markers representing pagan idols

Dan wanted a chance to practice the Wrath of the Gods scenario which we will be using in the upcoming Advance the Colors Saga Tournament, Oct. 8, at the Clark County Fairgrounds, Springfield, OH. I am very excited about what appears will be an incredible turnout. Nearly 30 players have committed to play, with several "maybes," as well. Dan will be one of the participants, and he was eager to practice this scenario, which was developed by Joe M from the Northern Tempest Saga Podcast. Opponents seek to control three objective markers roughly in the center of the table. For each pagan idol a player controls at the start of their turn, they can force their opponent to remove one of their figures. Scoring is done with standard Massacre Points, so the goal is still to defeat the enemy army. No points are awarded for controlling the idols (other than what you receive from the figures you've forced your enemy to remove).

    Action opens on the Polish left - Mongol horse archers fire volleys of arrows, slaying many sergeants

Dan was first player, so chose a Ruins to deploy in his left center, while I responded with a large, gentle hill in the center of the board. He then selected rocky ground for his right center. I chose to "pass" on a third piece of terrain, and instead pushed his ruins back against the base line. Dan placed the final fourth piece as a marsh on my half of the table, near my center. Predictably, the Polish army deployed both of their units of levy archers in the solid cover, one unit in the ruins and the other in the rocky ground. Surprisingly, he had a unit of mounted sergeants (warriors) far to the left, poised to take control of the leftmost pagan idol. His two small units of mounted knights sheltered between the terrain behind the line of warriors armed with heavy weapons.

    End of my turn 1, with most of my horse archers withdrawing to about the middle of the battlefield

I deployed my entire army along the back edge of the battlefield, knowing we had the mobility to gallop forward and skirmish with the enemy from great distances. Dan's Saga dice were not kind to him, and he did not receive either enough Rare or Uncommon dice to set up his most dangerous counter-strike, "Terror of the East" (which requires two Uncommon dice). This allows him to interrupt one of my moves with a mounted charge. Still, his mounted sergeants trotted far enough forward to take control of the pagan idol on his left. Those brave riders would be my Ordu's first target. With a pounding of kettle drums, the Mongol army galloped forward. One unit of horse archers seized the pagan idol on my left. Another moved towards the central one, and finally, two converged on the Polish mounted sergeants. We fired several volleys with our composite bows. I was rolling very good with my hits, but Dan was rolling well with his saving rolls, too. Finally, once the sergeants had been whittled down from 8 to 3 figures left, the two units Mongol horse archers withdrew and raced back to our lines.

    Polish bravery is legendary, and his mounted sergeants charge into my battlelines to prove it

I did screw up on my first turn, though. I was supposed to move forward my heavy cavalry hearthguard far enough so that my unit using the "Bow and the Lance" ability would end up next to them. I hadn't, so instead of just two fatigue markers, they came back Exhausted. Dan immediately took advantage of that and charged his depleted unit of sergeants forward to take out that unit. He caused 6 of 7 casualties, while my Mongols killed one of his remaining three. On our next turn, we would shoot the remaining two sergeants from their saddles, but Dan's counter-strike had caused me to also lose one of my Saga dice. As proof that my die rolling was exceptional today, Dan's foot archers launched a potentially devastating volley of 10 attack dice, causing 9 hits. I had played "Evasive Maneuvers," which allows me to re-roll any missed saves. I didn't have to re-roll any dice. All nine dice rolled 4+, saving against what should have been a withering volley.

    Horse archers fire volleys at the Polish levy archers, hoping to provoke the Polish knights to charge

My next target was his archers that had rolled so well. Our fire was not nearly as effective, but we began a steady process of whittling them down. I left one unit of horse archers out near the central objective marker, hoping to lure his knights out to charge them. His army doesn't have a lot of movement ability that would allow them to retire back to their lines after a charge. On turn 3, Dan finally rolled enough Uncommon dice to leave his "Terror of the East" ability queued up. This meant I had to be very careful. I brought my large, 11-man unit of horse archers up to fire at his levy again, hoping that would do it. He didn't take the bait. It was only when I declared a charge with my heavy cavalry that he launched his own countercharge against my smaller, "bait unit" of horse archers.

   The Polish foot sergeants advance, while the knights ensure they can counter-charge through the gap

Dan admitted he made a mistake when he placed the figures into contact with the doomed horse archers. The Polish army has the ability to launch deadly mounted charges, and he slaughtered the remaining figures easily. However, the slain horse archers were not close enough to my heavy cavalry to inflict a fatigue on them. This meant my charge against his foot sergeants could hit home. The Mongol mounted hearth guard have the ability to charge into melee with deadly effect. So, I figured it was time to use that weapon in my arsenal. 

Mongol heavy cavalry rest after their charge, slaughtering 6 foot sergeants at the cost of one horseman

We rode down all but two of the eight figures, and then, of course, withdrew backwards using "Hell for Leather." The big 11-man unit of horse archers then stretched itself between the knights and the rest of the army, and poured shots into the Polish nobility. As usual for this game, we rolled an above average number of hits. This time, though, Dan failed miserably on the saving rolls and all but one of the knights toppled from their saddles with a crash. To me, this was the moment when the Mongols won the game. He had simply lost too many figures, at this point.

Polish knights thunder forward, slaughtering horse archers, but not stopping my heavy cavalry charge

I think the part of commanding a Mongol army that requires the most skill is how to manage the movement of your forces so that the bulk of them are able to withdraw out of range of enemy counter-strikes. As I began to lose my smaller 7-man units of horse archers, the big "hammer" unit of 11 had to take over the role of screen. The good thing is it is large enough to stretch across my front and cover the heavy cavalry and both the warlord and kettle drummer. Plus, charging an 11-man warrior unit can be daunting for enemies -- especially if I leave "Master of Men" queued up on my board. This ability gives 4 bonus dice (either attack, defense, or a mix) if the unit is within Medium of the warlord or kettle drummer. The one remaining knight simply didn't have the gumption to do it. Dan pulled him back and then brought out the other levy unit to help screen his dwindling forces.

    My large horse archer unit screens the rest of the army, while pouring withering fire into the knights

By this point, I think Dan was feeling a little of the frustration of facing such an elusive foe. Doubtless, he was probably also frustrated by my consistently above average dice rolling. I was rolling well not only on shooting, but also in melee and on saving rolls! To add insult to injury, on the turn after he removed my third Saga dice due to losses of horse archers, I managed to go on a ridiculous run of Rare rolls which allowed me to use Activation Pool to stack my board with all 8 of my Saga command and control dice! Dan accepted it all with grace and shrugged off my apologies as unnecessary -- saying he was making good rolls, too.

    The Polish warlord rides to his doom, hurling himself upon the swarming Mongol horse archers

I think this was what lead him to strike his final blow of the game, though. He brought out his warlord and queued up his board with all of his deadly melee abilities. The warlord charged gloriously into the horse archer screen. Proving that he was having good rolls, too, the warlord cut down 9 of the remaining 10 Mongol horse archer! However, he ended up Exhausted, and stuck within range of my own warlord and heavy cavalry unit. It was only a decision in how to eliminate him. Loss of his warlord would seal the game, but if he took down an equal number of points, the score would still be fairly close. So, I used "Predators," which gives composite bow to my heavy cavalry. They galloped up, fired a volley, and the heroic Polish general fell to the ground. Meanwhile, another unit galloped over to his remaining two foot sergeants and slew them with archery, as well.

    The battlefield at game's end - the Poles with 2 units left, while the Mongols are also depleted

It was a good, hard-fought game. I felt like I was in control for most of it. I felt fortunate that I had to worry about his "Terror of the East" Activation/Reaction ability only once. If he'd rolled his Saga dice well enough all game long to have it queued up nearly every turn, I think the game might have turned out differently. Still, a charge during my turn by his mounted troops would likely end up with that unit also being either destroyed or badly damaged by my other units pouncing on the charger. 

    At left, Mike C maneuvers troops against Jim B in a Jomsviking civil war, while Dan N deploys

I felt that I did an okay job managing my moving forward and back with the Mongols. I took the suggestion of veteran Chicago Saga player Terry D how to organize my 4 points of mounted warriors. I used three units of 7 figures and one of 11. Typically, I would send forward two units against my selected enemy target. One of the smaller units would go up first and fire at the enemy. Then, the larger unit would go up and shoot, as well. That was typically when I would play "Short Range Volley," which forces the target to re-roll all successful saving throws against that shot. As amazing as it may seem, it is the ONLY shooting ability on the horse-archer heavy Mongol battle board.

   Jenny coaches two tables of relatively new players, from left Todd S, John B, and Randy W

We had a great turnout for the first week of September, too. Our game was only one of six. We had a dozen players show up, three of them relatively new. Thanks to Jenny T for shouldering the teaching duties this week. My Mongol army would NOT have been a good army to learn Saga playing against! Here are the results for the six games played:

• Jim B's Jomsvikings tied Mike C's Jomsvikings, 29-28, in Wrath of the Gods
• Mike D's Mongols defeated Dan N's Poles, 26-15, in Wrath of the Gods
• Joe M's Gauls defeated Dave E's Romans, 22-16, in Wrath of the Gods
• Adrian J's Anglo-Saxons defeated Karen C's Vikings, 24-25, in Wrath of the Gods
• Randy W's Vikings defeated Jenny T's Eastern Princes, 25-14, in Clash of Warlords
• Todd S's Anglo-Danes tied John B's Vikings in Clash of Warlords
  

    At left, Joe M and Dave E square off, while Adrian J prepares his assault against Karen C's Vikings

I highly encourage interested Saga players to show up for our tournament at Advance the Colors. A number of sponsors have promised prize support, including Gripping Beast, Badger Games, Game Table Adventures, and Jarl's Workshop. Saga Ohio will also be providing SIX painted warlord stands as prizes, too, with warlord, standard bearer, and musician or pet dog. If you are interested in attending, please contact me ahead of time so that I can have the appropriate number of tables set up. Hope to see you there...!

Mongol Horde Ready to Ravage the Saga Scene!

    More than 40 horsemen comprise my Saga army from 28mm Curteys Miniatures

My Mongol horde for Saga is done! I say "horde" because it felt like I was painting up a horde of figures. Lots of people joke about hating to paint cavalry, but there is no denying it takes longer to paint up a mounted 28mm miniature than it does for most foot figures. Looking back at my blog posts on this army, it not only felt like it was taking a long time, it DID! I began painting this army more than a year ago. The first blog entry for the Mongols I found was dated July 28, 2021. Wow!

    My Mongol warlord, Kettle Drummer, and half of the light cavalry horse archers

Now, I admit I worked on other things in the meantime, from terrain for the Advance the Colors Saga tournament (last year and this year's), to post-Apocalyptic figures, to demons for Reign in Hell rules. So, it was not literally 13 months of uninterrupted painting of this army. In fact, with my busy teaching schedule, there were long stretches of time when I did no painting whatsoever. On the other hand, I am not really done painting all the figures I want for this army. I plan to paint up one more batch of mounted, armored cavalry to give me some choice and variety in army composition. So, technically, I'm not really done...

Six armored cavalry and the rest of the light cavalry of my Mongol Ordu (where we get 'horde' from)

Nevertheless, I have 6 points worth of Mongols that I can begin playing with. The last two things I painted were the warlord's stand and the Kettle Drummer's stand. The Kettle Drummer is a 1/2-point "hero" stand that gives a free activation to all units within one Long distance of him and is indispensable to a Mongol general. As I plan on fielding my army, I am also taking 1.5 points of mounted hearthguard (armored cavalry) and 4 points of mounted warriors (horse archers). So, that's a total of more than 40 horsemen that I painted up for this army.

    Three different angles of the warlord's stand (with small pile of severed heads)

I like to paint up the warlord stand last when I do a new army. I think I will be more skilled at color combinations and looks for the army by that point, so I want to maximize on what I learned painting the rest of the army. I decided to mix things up from what my 28mm Curteys Miniatures cast for the army general. I mounted him on one of the armored horses rather than the unarmored one that came in his pack. I gave what was supposed to be his horse to the standard bearer. This included a very cool add-on - a pet leopard perched on the rump of the horse. This isn't fantasy, it is from an account written by Marco Polo from his visit to the emperor's court!

In addition to the spotted leopard riding shotgun with the standard bearer, I added in a stack of four severed heads to the base. I went through my unpainted (and unlikely to use) 28mm figures and found figures that would be easy to sever, and leave a nice, flat bottom to be glued in place. With the horse tail banner, leopard, and heads, I think the warlord stand turned out very nice. Especially considering the time I took painting the individual scales on the horse armor!

    My Mongol Kettle Drummer mounted on a camel and accompanied by a Shaman on foot

When I ordered my 28mm Curteys Miniatures from 1st Corps in the UK, I ordered quite a few extra packs. The main reason I chose Curteys was the huge variety of poses that they had in their Mongol line. One of those was a Mongol Shaman banging a large drum that I added onto the Mongol Kettle drummer's base. Perhaps the coolest part is that the towering kettle drummer figure is mounted on a camel. It's the only camel mount in the army - the rest are all on horses. The camel and the rider are also cast as a single piece. With all the other packs, the riders are separate from the horses. The kettle drummer actually painted up fairly quickly, at least compared to the horse archers, who are festooned with all kinds of equipment, bottles, bow cases, quivers, etc. With him wearing mail, there wasn't a lot to decorate on him - just his sleeves. So, I made up for it with the foot shaman, and gave him a patterned robe and decorated border and headband.

I really enjoyed painting up this army. The figures are a bit smaller in size than other 28mm mounted, but I am okay with that. Not only are all the figures in my army from the same manufacturer, cutting down on odd-looking size differences, I mounted them on taller bases so that they don't look too much smaller than opponents on the battlefield. I also used oval bases that were probably a bit narrower than most probably would have. This was purely for game purposes. I wanted the bases of the back rank figures to be able to project up in between the front rank for measuring range in Saga. The composite bow in the game shoots only 6", so the more I could scrunch them up, the easier it will be to move and fire my horse archers on the tabletop. I put lead sinkers as weights on the base to keep them from being top-heavy or (hopefully) from toppling over.

    Eight 28mm ravens as fatigue markers for my Mongol army - I like scenic markers on the tabletop!

The final touch was an addition at Historicon last month. I found a pack of 8 ravens from Bad Squiddo Games. I figured these would be perfect fatigue markers for Saga! I can use them for other armies, of course, but these will be the ones I put in the Mongol figure box. They were quick and simple to paint up, as nearly all of a raven except the legs are black. I based them on squares of magnetic material, flocked them, and now my horde is complete. It took my way longer than I would have guessed last summer when I started painting my Mongols, but I am very happy with how they turned out. Whew - finally done!

Mongol Heavy Cavalry - Wow, these took longer than I thought!

    Six 28mm Mongol armored cavalry from Curteys Miniatures took a bit longer to paint than I thought

Six armored cavalry...and hey! The mounts are mostly armored, too. These should go quickly, right? Right?? Well, no. That did not prove to be the case at all. Especially when you consider the armor is not chainmail (which would have been a simple drybrush), but lamellar armor instead. For those who aren't sure, lamellar tends to be tiny plates sewn into a coat. The plates can be metal, horn, or even leather. I did some research, and it appears Mongols used a number of different looks for their lamellar armor.

 

    I thought the alternating rows of silver and gold (or steel) horse armor turned out quite nicely

One source said they shined the plates to a high, almost mirror-like polish. Another seemed to imply it was lacquered leather. And when you consider the number of Mongol warriors at the empire's height, and the breadth of lands they conquered, all of these could quite possibly have found their way into use by a heavily-armored, Mongol horseman. Since it could be a variety of looks, I naturally felt the urge to do all of them. Some of my Mongols would have burnished steel armor. Some bronze. Some both in alternating rows. And some would have colored lacquered leather. Now, you are probably beginning to see why these six miniatures didn't paint up quickly.

    I used a mix of different looks for my lamellar armor to reflect a more Cosmopolitan later empire

The ones that were the easiest -- and look very nice, I think -- were the horses with silver or bronze armor. I painted the lamellar barding a base bronze or silver and then put two coats of a dark black wash over it. I then went back and dabbed tiny points of silver or bronze or gold over the high points of the armor to give it more depth. I really like the way they came out. For some, I did alternating rows of silver, bronze, or darker steel. I also thought the horse armor on those came out nicely, too. I painted the cloth or leather edging on the metal armor various colors, which ended up (of course) coordinating with the color that the rider would wear or be armored in himself. Once the horse was finished, I started on the riders.

    I also made my Mongol troopers match the trim colors for their barding and their own armor

For the rider's armor, I mixed in a few colored lacquer armor. I alternated painting each plate, sometimes in a checkerboard pattern. To be honest, I am not 100% crazy how these riders came out. They didn't look awful, but I like the look of the metal armor better. I actually have another batch of six armored troopers I will likely finish up. I will try to remember for those to stick to metal armor and ditch the colored lacquer. The bow cases and quivers I painted to match the previous light horse, decorating them with my Micron pens. 

    My four army points of Mongols finished so far...2/3's of the way there!

 At this stage, I have finished 4 army points worth of Mongols. I will likely do another batch of horse archers next. I noticed that of the current 21 light cavalry figures I have finished up, only about 1/3 are wielding bows in their hands. Most have swords, axes, maces, etc. Time to put more archers in my horse archer army, I guess! I am probably not going to dive right into my next batch of Mongols, though. I have one more team of post-Apocalyptic figures primed and ready to go on the painting desk. I also have four masked vigilantes I need to do for my Mean Streets at Drums. So, those will likely take priority. Stay tuned, though -- more blog posts are on the way!

My First Command as Khan of the Mongols

 

    Much earlier than I expected, I got a chance to command a Mongol army in Saga recently!

Part of the reason that I chose to paint up a Mongol army and play it in Saga was because I felt it would be a difficult challenge. An all-mounted army is going to face serious issues on a tabletop battle board that includes significant amounts of terrain. In a standard "Clash of Warlords" game, the opponent will be able to place at least three pieces of terrain. They can also likely make them large and either "Uneven" or "Dangerous" terrain, which disadvantage mounted troops. On top of that, the composite bow (which more than half of my troops will use) is not exactly a world-beater in Saga. So, I was expecting some losses early on in my games.

    My own miniature Mongols have 21 completed of the 40+ figures I need to paint

Since I was less than halfway through the painting of my Mongol army, I figured the challenge was still a a ways off. Much to my surprise, it actually occurred on my birthday last month (Feb. 21). Graham of Graham's Wargame Vault invited me to play a game against him on Zoom. He's in the U.K., and I had interviewed him recently for Saga Ohio about one of his favorite armies, the Norse-Gaels. We had talked about doing a Zoom game then, and he reached out to me a few weeks ago to set it up. We picked Monday, Feb. 21, which I had off from school for President's Day.

    A screenshot of Graham's and my deployment from his YouTube video (Mongols at top)

Joining Graham was his friend and boon Saga companion Wayne. He would roll my dice, move my troops, and offer tactical advice. The banter between Wayne and Graham in their YouTube recordings of their games always keeps me chuckling, so I was looking forward to joining in the razzing back and forth. They both have a great sense of humor, so I was sure it would be a lot of fun. 

The game lived up to my expectations on all levels. Controlling the Mongols was difficult. There are so many "moving parts" with learning a new army's battle board. The advanced Saga abilities interact in many unique ways and even simply the sequencing of which abilities you want to use when and in what order can take awhile to master. So much more so in my first game! I did have the advantage of recently interviewing Chicago Saga player Terry Doner about his Mongols, and we had talked about this sequencing quite a bit in my podcast. In addition, I had the challenge of seeing the board in two dimensions on a laptop screen. I know I asked Wayne a number of times to measure things for me during our game.

    Graham sets up a tray so that viewers can watch the dice rolls and cheer or groan along with him

The game was a blast, of course, with groans and cheers for the die rolls. Graham's rolling started out hot but was eclipsed partway through by Wayne's run of a number of great rolls. There was a turning point when a 4-man unit of Graham's Baltic crusader mounted hearthguard charged a unit of my mounted warriors. Wayne saved above average against their attacks then proceeded to kill 3 of the 4 on my counter-strike. From that point on, Genghis Mike and Kettle Drummer Wayne took over the battle. We even eschewed my final turn of the game, as it was obvious the Mongols were going to come out on top.

Apparently, Graham enjoyed the banter and tactical discussion enough to not edit it down to fit one episode. He uploaded our game in two parts. I encourage everyone to check it out. Graham does a nice job on his YouTube uploads of his Saga games. See if you can spot when the momentum shifted in my favor! Thanks Graham and Wayne for a great birthday present of the transatlantic Saga game!!

I had not commanded Mongols before, but I had interviewed veteran players about them on Saga Ohio

 

Here are the links to watch the game:

• Part One: Saga Transatlantic, Mongols vs. Baltic Crusaders
• Part Two: Saga Transatlantic, Mongols vs. Baltic Crusaders
  

Mongols & New Objective Markers to Desecrate

    My latest batch of 5 Mongol light cavalry in 28mm from Curteys Miniatures

 Progress on my Mongol horde is moving at a very un-Mongol like pace. I just finished off a batch of five light cavalry that has been on my painting desk for at least three weeks, I swear. I need to paint 32 figures of Mongol "warriors" for my 6-point Saga army (that's not counting the six heavy cavalry "hearthguard," the Kettle Drummer's stand, and the Warlord's stand. After doing the first two batches in groups of eight, I thought I would do the remaining 16 figures in three separate batches. Thus, my group of five figures that seemed to take every bit as long as the eights did! Maybe it was a bad call, but it is better than burning out, I guess.

    More Mongol horsemen for my next Saga army, which is progressing at a very un-Mongol like pace!

One of the great things about the 28mm Curteys miniatures I bought for my Mongol army is the sheer variety of poses. That helps keeps it interesting and different. Four of these five figures were all armed with hand weapons instead of bows, and the fifth had a horn. I start off painting the horses, as usual, referring to the horse chart that I use to ensure variety and a bit of realism in my paint jobs. I finally got smart and began marking on the paper which ones I've used so I don't have to agonize over which styles of horse colorings that I have painted already. I liked how these horses turned out, but I was perhaps a little heavy on the brown tones. I did decide to epoxy the riders onto the base first before priming or painting them. I know I was debating on which course of action to take in one of my previous blog posts.

    I am not sure the batch of 5 figs went that much faster than my previous batches of 8!

I am painting my Mongols up in kind of mid-empire phase, when they have conquered part of China and have access to colorful silks. This allows me to choose from a wide variety of pastels or a mix of bright and darker hues. I continue to use the Micron pens for most of the decoration on the robes, but I do brush paint an occasional one. If it is just a border with dots or something like that, it is actually easier to do it with a paint brush than a pen. The pens excel when doing patterns or swirls or a series of dots. I also use the pens for fine details on shields now. No tattoos in the Mongol army, of course, but from now on, any miniature that requires tattoos will definitely be done using the Micron pens!

    A Mongol warrior gallops past a scratch-build shrine (Objective marker for Saga)

In the background of these pictures are my new Objective Markers for scenarios of Saga -- the miniatures rules I am using for my games. Some scenarios require players to destroy an objective marker in the opponent's area (for example, "Desecration" from Book of Battles). Sure, I could use the treasure chest or animals I have painted up, but that doesn't seem to fit the theme of the scenario as well. You want to destroy it, after all -- not snatch it up and steal it! So, I decided to paint up some religious shrines, statues, or whatever to make something more "desecratable"! I will probably do another batch like this soon, since these came out well, I think. 

    How's the army progressing? A group shot of all 21 of my 28mm Mongols painted so far

The statue of the Greek or Roman god is from the Reaper Ruined Temple terrain box that I bought at the Guardtower East. I decided NOT to glue the statue into place, rationalizing it would take up space the miniatures may need in a game. The two rather demonic (or pagan?) looking ones are from the Reaper Bones Harrowgate Shrines pack that I also bought at the local store. The last two were scratch built using various Hirst Arts stone blocks leftover from previous projects (thanks again, Zeke!) and a random Celtic cross I'd found a craft store long ago.

The Objective Markers are on 1.5" wooden discs from Hobby Lobby. I purchased metallic base bottoms from Litko Enterprises to stick to the bottom of them. I spray painted them black, then applied a 50/50 mix of water and craft black paint to them to sink into all the crevices. Then I gave them a couple progressively lighter shades of gray (not quite 50) dry brushing, flocked them, and voila! Done in little to no time at all! I always like to make purchases at the local stores when we have our game days at them, so it is satisfying to get these recent purchases based up and ready for the tabletop.

For my next batch of miniatures, I am taking a quick break from Mongols to do another batch of post-Apocalyptic figures. As mentioned in a a previous post, I may have found a rule set to try out in lieu of writing my own. We usually have six players on Sunday nights, so I need at least one more team. So, look for more updates soon!

Mongol Cavalry - 2nd Batch Completed After Long Gap!

    Another troop of Mongol cavalry gallops out from the steppes to raid their neighbors - 28mm Curteys

It was midsummer when I painted my first batch of Mongol cavalry. Now, snow covers the ground and I am just finishing the second batch. I know that painting mounted troops takes longer than foot, but this was ridiculous! To be honest, I have not spent the last six months on these figures. Rather, the Mongols were pushed to the back burner and I didn't begin my second batch till a couple weeks ago. The intervening time was spent painting figures and terrain I would need to host the Saga tournament at Advance the Colors 2021, as well as some demons for Reign in Hell, and a couple batches of post-Apocalyptic miniatures.

    I tried a new method of painting the robe patterns on these miniatures - color Micron pens!

One of the things I like about these 28mm Curteys miniatures is that there is so much variety in poses. I'd ordered a good number of packs when I bought the figures for the army from 1st Corps. So, it was fun to pull out the previous eight that I had painted and look through the packs and pick out the miniatures that I wanted to paint. I like to mix in a pack of four horse archers with one of the many command packs they produce. This gives not only a nice variety in poses, but also in weaponry. After painting this batch, I am definitely making a change for the rest of the army, though. Eight mounted 28mm miniatures is simply too big of a batch for my tastes. I prefer painting in smaller groups of figures. I don't know whether it is because I get bored doing that mean reins, saddle straps, etc., all at once, or if I like to progress more quickly. Either way, the biggest batch I'll do from this point is five or six.

    Lots of patterns to do on these figs - from the dappling on the horses, to the robes, quivers & shields

Another change I'm going to make is chocking up something I was trying with this army up to a failed experiment. After cleaning the flash from the figures and gluing on any shields, I used white glue to attach the rider to a wooden peg. In the past, I would epoxy the riders to the mounts before priming and painting. However, while painting the Carolingians, I got annoyed by how hard it was to get in behind the shield of the rider. So, this would allow me to turn the figure to any angle necessary, I thought. It DOES make painting all parts of the rider easier. However, there's a problem. Not all riders fit securely onto all the horses. Some had huge gaps between the saddle and the bottom of the rider. For about half of the finished riders and mounts, I had to fill in the gap with green stuff and paint more. I have had this occur with other miniatures, so I don't think it is a particular problem with 28mm Curteys. I think it is even MORE annoying to have to go back and fix the miniatures after they're painted than it is to get my brush in behind any shields. So from now on, I am back to attaching the riders to the horses before priming and painting!

    I am a fan of the sheer variety of poses in the 28mm Curteys Mongols - different poses and weapons

I did something brand new on this batch that I am extremely pleased with. Instead of using my 10/0 brush to paint the patterns, I purchases a pack of colored Micron pens. I fought it is MUCH easier to draw designs with a pen than it is with a brush (for me, at least!). The pack had a half dozen different colors, which gave me a lot of leeway on color combinations to use on the patterns. I had previously experimented with a black Micron pen for tattoos, lettering, and stuff, and considered it a success. Why not take it to the next level, I thought? You DO have to be careful about doing a wash or anything over top of the ink in the pens. It will run if it isn't completely dry. However, I found that waiting a couple days was enough. I may also try on the next batch to seal the miniatures with clear coast before doing my black or brown wash over the figure. I am very happy with how the robe patterns came out on this batch of eight.

 

    Lots of equipment on these minis, some of which gets its own pattern like these quivers & bow cases

Painting these miniatures are very time coming -- especially in batches of eight! Even so, there are weapons, quivers, bow cases, saddle pouches, drinking gourds, extra weapons, and more festooned all over these riders. I have been putting patterns on the quivers and drinking gourds, too. There is definitely a "too much" line you have to be wary of crossing when doing miniatures like these. Painting every article of clothing or every piece of equipment with its own pattern would be too jarring to the eyes, most likely. So, it is a kind of "less is more" effect. I suppose very subdued patterns might lessen the jarring effect. Frankly, though, it is a good thing not every piece of equipment is decorated!

    Step 1 to making the figures less top-heavy -- gluing on lead sinkers from a fishing supply store

One potential drawback to the 28mm Curteys miniatures for some is that they are noticeably smaller in size than other ranges. However, I made it a point to compensate for that with a taller oval base (ordered from Litko Game Accessories). I also ordered the matching magnetic bottoms to stick to my tin-bottom trays. I have to be honest. I ordered about the smallest oval base I thought the figures could conceivably fit on. Why? Welllll...in Saga, Mongol mounted warriors are armed with composite bow, which has a 6" range. Huge bases would simply make it harder for a back rank of figures to get within range. Smaller bases can squeeze together more closely, plus the base's shape should allow the back rank can interlace with the front some. Yes, I know that seems "gamey." However, I honestly think it will be a challenge to do well with a horse archer army in Saga. It is so easy to load up a board with terrain, and the composite bow doesn't seem like an overpowering weapon for most of the army to armed with it.

    Step 2: Paint the base with 50/50 brown paint and white glue and dip into fine, brown ballast

This solution to basing lead to another potential problem. Would the figures be too top-heavy? The smaller footprint of the bases meant this might be an issue. How to counteract that? I got the idea to buying lead "sinkers" from a fishing equipment store and glueing them along the base. I wasn't 100% sure a cluster of 8-10 of these would make a difference, but I was willing to give it a try back when I did my first batch this past summer. After the figure is epoxied onto his base, I squirt Tacky glue around the edge of the figure's metal base. I then push in as many of the tiny sinkers as I can.

    Step 3: Paint base in 50/50 white glue & water, then dip into Woodland Scenics Blended Turf

Once dry, it is now time to cover up these little bumps with flocking. I begin by painting the base and sinkers with a 50/50 mix of brown paint and white glue. I then dip the base into fine brown railroad ballast from Woodland Scenics. Once that is dry, I cover the base with a 50/50 mix of white glue and water. I then dip the base into Blended Turf from Woodland Scenics. Next, comes the first spray coast of clear matte. Once that is dry, I paint blotches of white glue onto the base, covering it up with Blended Grasss from the same manufacturer. While still wet, I add in a handful of tufts, and the bases are complete. I was very pleased to see that the figures DO seem very bottom-heavy now. Was the sinkers? All the flocking? Not sure, but I'm happy my base experiment seems to be a success with the Mongols.

    The final product - a rounded, hopefully natural looking base that blends in well with the tabletop

So what's up next for me? Well, I got a group of Pictish crossbowmen to add to my Picts Saga army. So, I am squeezing that in first, before working on more Mongols. I promise it won't be another six months before I paint up my next batch!

The Mongols Approach! My first batch of Mongols for Saga

    My first batch of 8 Mongol mounted warriors gallops through an enemy village on a lightning raid

I had no intention of starting on my next Saga army so soon after finishing up the Carolingians. However, Rodge from Saga Thorsday announced a painting contest. The rules were simple -- paint at least one point of a Saga army (but you could enter more, even an entire army). It had to be all new paint jobs -- nothing you'd finished prior to the start of the contest. I honestly have never entered a painting contest, so figured why not? 

    My 28mm Mongols are from Curteys Miniatures, carried by 1st Corp in the UK

I'd purchased these Mongols awhile back from Curteys Miniatures, which is carried by 1st Corp in the UK. I'd picked them for their incredible variety of poses and packs. Their price is also very good. Even including the shipping costs, these came out to be very affordable. One drawback that I read about on the internet was their smaller size. I figured since the entire army was going to be from the same manufacturer, I didn't have to worry about them not sizing up with other miniatures. Plus, Mongol horses and Mongols themselves tend to be a bit shorter than Westerners. So, no problem with being a little short, eh? They're Mongols -- they'll make up for it with attitude.

    I was really drawn to the variety of poses and expressive faces that were cast on these miniatures

This first batch was of eight miniatures, which is normally larger than what I like to paint for mounted troops. However, Rodge's rules were clear. I had to paint a full point, and one point of Saga warriors is eight miniatures. After this batch, I will likely paint in smaller groups. I selected one pack of light horse archers and one of the several command packs that I purchased. Interestingly, the horse archers came in three parts while the command pack came in two (horse and rider). The archers' lower bodies had to be glued to their upper half. I'm not 100% sure why, though. Maybe to give even more variety? However, the lower halves were very similar and I didn't think it made much difference. The different headgear did a better job of providing variety.

    I mixed a pack of horse archers and a command pack for my first batch of 8 miniatures

Looking at the sculpts closely, I really liked the expressive faces. I liked the headgear, but boy did they have a lot of equipment festooned on them! Most had a bowcase, quiver, sidearm like axe or sword, ceramic jug, and some other bag-like piece of equipment I didn't recognize. These were all attached to the lower half of the rider (or rider himself, in the case of the command pack) -- not the horse. The horses were okay sculpts - not the strongest part of the casting, but acceptable. They were actually where I started, once I'd assembled the figures and primed them. I decided to glue the figure to the horse before painting, unlike I had done with the Carolingians, recently. I was worried about fitting the riders to the horse and wanted to be sure I could ensure the fit was good before applying paint.

    My favorite robe was the dark, blue-green one worn by the standard bearer

I wanted these horses to stand out since I was painting this batch for a contest. So, I pulled out all of my 28mm Dark Ages cavalry figures and picked out the horses that I liked best. I set my favorite eight out on my desk than placed the primed miniatures up next to them, side by side. Sometimes I had to scratch my head to figure out what paint color I had used on the figure I was using as a model, but for the most part I was able to match the previously painted ones. I used a mix of grays, tans, browns, chestnut reds, and such. Previously, I had done research to see what colors Mongol ponies (who aren't actually ponies, but just small, hardy horses) actually were. Everything I read made it appear that their horses are the same variety of colors we see elsewhere in the world.

    I'm very happy with how these figures came out, with decorated robes, bowcases, and quivers

 For most horses, this meant there was a base coat and lighter shade of it drybrushed over top. Then I used two to three colors to give the fading to darker colored legs, noses, or whatever coloring the horse had. The manes were also painted a base color and dry brushed. I used a couple different color combinations of leather -- a darker one and lighter one. Each set of reins, bridle, etc., was done in two colors - a darker base coat and a lighter highlight color painted full strength (not dry brushed) atop. Once the horses were done, it was time to figure out what color to paint the rider's robes.

    The standard was modified, chopping off the metal top and placing it one wire spear

Another decision that I had to make was what skin color to use for my Mongol army. I don't have a jar of paint that says "Asian flesh" or similar. I went online and looked not only at historical images painted of the Mongols (such as Japanese or Chinese paintings), but also at photographs of modern Mongol herders. I then opened up each of my bottles of paint, finally settling on a Delta Ceramcoat paint called Khaki to use as the base. Honestly, I think it is far too dark to be what I consider khaki, but I liked its tanned flesh look. I added in standard Ceramcoat ruddy flesh until I came up with a mixture I liked. It was still a little light for my tastes, so I put on two rather than one coat of brown wash and was finally satisfied with the result. I had created my own Mongol flesh tone. I then used a plastic bottle to mix a big bottle of it up so that I didn't have to worry about matching the color with each batch of figures (like I had done for both my brown and black washes).

I rationalized that my Mongols were representing a period after the Mongol conquests had begun. So, they would have access to Chinese silks and Middle Eastern fabrics. Most source books like Osprey that I had perused also showed Mongols in brightly-colored silks. I took that as a go ahead to paint the riders much like I had done the Moors -- probably my favorite 28mm army that I have ever painted. I looked up at my paint rack and picked out base colors. Next, I decided what kind of pattern I would have on the robe. As always, I use the cardboard base that I glue my unpainted figures on to write notes, drawing sketches of the patterns, and so on. My favorite of the robes was the standard bearer, who has a dark blue-green robe with a sky blue pattern of dots. Not everything was a dots, I also painted little crescents, hollow circles, and more. I was really happy with how the patterns turned out.

Once the flesh and robes were done, it was time to delve into the plethora of equipment the riders were wearing. I pulled out about 7-8 bottles of paint that would fit in the linen-leather-brown spectrum. I picked up a figure and painted its bowcase, quiver, ceramic bottles, and bag all at the same time. I didn't want a bland look of everything being the same color, but I also didn't want a jarring rainbow of colors. I made sure the equipment gave a pleasing tonal range but still looked like something a tribal culture would produce with hides or ceramics. 

All in all, I was very happy with how this first batch turned out. Next batch, I will talk about the basing with the oval bases and the decisions I made on why and how I did that.