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!

Eastern Princes Smashing Debut in Saga

    Jenny's new Saga army, Eastern Princes, charge into battle attempting to ride down Karen's Vikings

With a Saga tournament at Game Table Adventures the day before, we were not expecting a big turnout for our monthly Saga Sunday at Guardtower East. We had at least half a dozen who said they were unable to make it to the tourney but were interested in playing on our normal day, so we kept the day on the schedule. As it turned out, we had seven people show up.

    Jenny's Eastern Princes, bottom, face off against Karen's hearthguard-heavy Viking army

Jenny T was debuting her brand new army - Eastern Princes from Age of Crusades. Karen volunteered to take them on with her Vikings. Jenny and Karen decided to do the standard Clash of Warlords so that Jenny could focus on learning her new battle board without worrying about scenario conditions. Karen was showing off her brand new warlord figure that Dave E had painted up for her. It was a female warlord with a bird of prey perched on her upraised arm. Very cool figure conversion!

    Karen's female warlord figure was a conversion created and painted by Dave E

Although she stumbled on an advanced Saga ability or two, Jenny picked up using her new army very quickly. She ended up wiping out all of Karen's Vikings except for her warlord. She particularly liked Shooting ability called Crossfire which causes the opponent to reroll successful armor saves vs. shooting. That, and Ad Nauseum was another favorite of hers which gave one reroll of a melee miss for each successful hit. Jenny admitted her dice were hot in the beginning, but cooled off a bit towards the end. Jenny ended up winning the battle, 29-15, in a bloody scrum that saw lots of casualties. 

    Karen's warlord makes her last stand with her berserkers against Jenny's overwhelming numbers

On the table next to Jenny and Karen, Mike S squared off against his son, Jason. Mike was playing his Vikings while Jason had borrowed his Dad's Carthaginian army. They were playing Battle of Heroes (Chaos version). The battle saw them fighting across the width of the battlefield as each deployed on a side edge. Each was winning on the opponent's left. The Vikings eliminated the mounted right wing of the Carthaginians, while Jason whittled away at his dad's troops across the board. 

    Jenny and Karen square off in the foreground, while Mike and Jason battle in the background

Jason's elephant never got into the fray as the game ended early due to a die roll after 5 turns. Father and son counted up points and it turned out to be a 15-15 tie. Both said it was a good game, and Mike felt if it had gone one more turn he would have won. Jason would likely have disagreed, though!

    Jason S's Carthaginians, left, deploy for battle against Mike S's Viking warband

The third game of the day saw Lee P's Milites Christi waging battle against Dave E's Romans from the Age of Invasions book. I was watching and taking pictures, due to the odd number, so I paid close attention to this battle. I had just interviewed Lee for my Saga Ohio podcast (Episode 22) the weekend before. I wanted to see how his army performed in battle.

    Close up of Jason's Carthaginians and their shields

Things didn't start off well as he sent his 8-man mounted knight unit on a sweeping maneuver on the right wing against the legionary warrior unit that guarded Dave's left. Dave's dice were super-hot and the double strength hearthguard unit were repulsed by the lowly warrior unit. On his turn, Dave counter-attacked with Barratus and killed six of the eight knights, losing only three legionaries. Once again, Dave's dice were hot and things looked bleak for the Knights of St. John.

    The heart of the Roman battleline - two units of legionary warriors flank 8 hearthguard foot

Lee was able to pull the remaining two knights back behind the battleline so that they would continue to generate Saga dice. His crossbow tried to whittle away at the victorious legionaries, but couldn't seem to land hits consistently. As the Roman legion's battleline advanced, Lee had some serious ground to make up to be able to pull off a victory. In our interview, he admitted he likes to let opponent's come to him and use the counter-punch as his main blow.

    Towards the end of the battle, Knights of St. John sergeants charge Roman legionaries

Dave obliged and brought in his own right wing. Both his mounted hearthguard unit and a legionary warrior unit set up and charged in for successive attacks against a single 8-man warrior unit of Hospitaller sergeants. Lee had his battle board set up perfectly, closed ranks, and played Lions of War against the charging mounted legionaries. They drove them off, killing one and suffering no casualties. The Roman infantry were next, and they were also driven off at the cost of only one sergeant. Two legionaries fell, and it appeared the dice may be getting ready to swing in Lee's favor.

    The Knights of St. John's Grand Master even got into the battle, charging Roman Palatina elites

Lee's counter-punch proved as effective as he'd said in our interview, as the mounted troops were destroyed and the foot legionaries cut down to two figures remaining. Dave was relentless, though. He kept advancing, charging with fresh units of warriors or legionaries. The Hospitallers were a rock on defense, though. They survived the legion's blows, and their return blows whittled down the enemy's numbers. I'm not sure Dave realized that he was actually playing into Lee's strategy by charging him when he had Lion's of War and Beaucamp queued up.

    Another look at the father-son struggle between Jason and Mike, as their battlelines prepare to clash

The battle ground on, with both warlords getting involved, but the Knights of St. John continuing to hold the upper hand. In the end, Lee had not only made up the lost ground from turn 1, but triumphed fairly comfortably, 26-13. They had been playing Clash of Warlords, with the Grand Master of the Order winning the struggle despite his early losses.

Mike and Jenny offered to play another game so I could get one in, but none of the others could stay. So, I declined, and we called it a day early on. Hopefully, now that all the tournaments are done for awhile we can start to get our normal size turnouts at our game days. Our next game day is in Beavercreek, OH, at the Dragons Guildhall on March 20. Join us there for more Saga fun!

Back to the "old place" for Old West Miniatures

    The balcony of Andy's MDF Saloon was where Mike W's "Gamblers" set up to gun down all comers

It had been awhile since we did miniatures gaming on Sunday night at our regular spot (which I call Wallace's Brewpub). With Covid dialing down, host Mike W felt good about us gaming in persons again at his place. His basement is spacious, well-lit and includes two of his home brews on tap -- so, I missed gaming there for more reasons than the camaraderie! 

    Joel's gang set up a couple doors down from the saloon in Andy's Old Western town

The game for the night was Old West miniatures, run by Andy S. He's been collecting buildings for 28mm Old West and has a good selection of miniatures already painted up. We kind of nudged him into running a bit earlier than he was planning. Keith promised he'd bring along terrain to supplement what Andy had so far, so the slight arm twist worked. Andy set up a very intro level scenario with each of us controlling three figures from a faction -- townsfolk, in my case. Mike W played the Gamblers (or as Joel called them, the professional assassins!), and Mike S the Ranchers. Now that I am writing my report, I don't remember what Joel and Keith's factions were called! Andy had given figures the weapons the miniature had cast on and a skill for one or two of the miniatures in the faction. Everyone was basically equal, though.

    The last mistake Mike S's Rancher made was peeking around the door to shoot at the Gamblers!

We talked about it and decided to have Andy secretly write who each faction had a score to settle with. Two of the other four opponents were written on your roster, and my Townsfolk were supposed to go after Mike S's Ranchers and Mike W's Gamblers. This didn't necessarily mean they were out to get me, though. We had no idea who was gunning for who. In the end, the only other faction I ended up shooting at was Keith's because it seemed obvious to me that he was coming after me. Mike S's faction wasn't deployed far from mine, but he went out of the other entrance of the barn onto the main street, fairly far away from Ma, Pa, and Jeb's house my figures were deployed in (I felt I had to name them!).

    Another dead Rancher - this one the lone figure killed by accumulating three wounds

The main street was the location of the Swingle Saloon (yes, Andy had the MDF sign made for him!). Upstairs, the Gamblers were deployed and immediately stepped out onto the balcony and began blazing away at Mike S's Ranchers. Mike earned his "assassin" nickname honestly, quickly taking out two of Mike S's figures. Andy was running Fistful of Lead rules, which are a fast, beer and pretzels set. When you hit an opponent's figure with a shot, you roll another 1d10. On a 1-5, you pin the enemy (which they have to roll to recover from on their turn). On a 6-8 you wound them (three wounds and you're dead). On a 9-10, they're killed immediately. Want to guess what Mike W was rolling a LOT of...??

    Jeb peers around the family home sensing trouble as furtive shapes are seen moving his way

I thought the rules worked out well, but I was a little bothered by the high amount of insta-kills that we had. What's the point of having a rules mechanic where you take three wounds if all but one of the figures gunned down were killed by a roll of 9-10? I think the rules show good potential for a quick skirmish, but I was a tad concerned whether this was a die rolling anomaly for the evening or how most games of Fistful of Lead progress. Ever the wiseacre, Keith replied to my comment that it was an anomaly, kind of like the way I roll dice but in reverse!

    Poor Ma...she spent the entire game dashing around trying to draw a bead on someone but never did

On my turns, I sent Jeb and Ma to sneak alongside or through the buildings to get an eyeball on the action in the main street. By the time we got close, most of the Ranchers lay bleeding in the street and the Gamblers had pulled back inside the building from the balcony. Two of Keith's figures were headed my way, so I pulled Jeb back to help Pa. Pa was my "Deadeye," but I think Andy meant to write "cross-eyed." As Keith had mentioned, my die rolling was poor and Pa's shots were going alarmingly awry. Keith felt so confident that he could rush up on Walleye Vision Pa that he ran right up to the first story window of Pa's house. Pa dashed downstairs (without falling) and blazed away through the window (pronounced "winnder"). To everyone's shock, Keith's gunfighter fell dead. I theorized that the distortion of the window pane meant Pa hit where he wasn't aiming and actually nailed the guy. With an "immediate kill," of course, as the theme was for the night.

    "Walleye Vision" Pa finally hits something -- one of Keith's gunfighters through the window

That was most of my action. Ma was having a hard time getting into position to take a shot and ended up never firing the entire game. Jeb fired once and missed -- proving that he was his father's son. In other action, Keith traded gunfire with Joel for most of the evening with (I believe) each losing one. Keith had deployed in the Gentleman's Club, and we assumed when his remaining guy withdrew from the fight, it was actually his "turn." He put away his pistol and pulled out his...well, you can figure out where our banter was headed.

    Another look at "Swingle's Saloon" as the action unfolds, and guns begin to blaze away

I think everyone enjoyed the game. It was great to be back together pushing minis across the tabletop and rolling dice. I can normally take or leave Western games (not my favorite type of movie either), but Fistful of Lead is quick and simple. I like that there is enough chrome to customize figures and give them some personality. I will probably end up buying the PDF from Wargame Vault, just so I can tinker with them, too. I have been wanting to find something to play some beer and pretzels Pulp style games with, and these may work. We'll see. Hopefully, we will also see if the immediate kills were an anomaly or if that is indeed how the rules play out. It would be easy enough to adjust the rolls down to 6-9 is wounded, and only a 10 is a kill.

    These were the rules we used for the evening and they provided a fun, fast game

In the meantime, it gives me fresh incentive to work some more on my post-Apocalyptic rules. I even came home Sunday night and fished through my drawer of unpainted lead and pull out the figures for the next faction I plan to paint up. So, maybe look for those soon on here, along with another batch of Saga Mongol cavalry that is nearing completion!

Picts Outmaneuver Vikings in Battle of Heroes

 

    My Picts and loaned-out Vikings clash in Battle of Heroes at our February Saga Game Day

We had a light turnout -- only six players -- for our February Saga Game Day at the Guardtower East in Columbus, OH. It was so light that we decided to postpone the next turn of the Strongholds & Realms campaign and just play one-off games. Mike K had messaged to say he would be running late, so I volunteered to wait on him and let the other four get started. Bob B and his Age of Invasions Romans matched up against Mike S and his brand new Avar army. They were playing Battle of Heroes. Dave E also ran AOI Romans against Jenny T's Vikings. They also decided to play Battle of Heroes. In fact, all three games that we played this month were that scenario from Book of Battles. Doubtless, all three were different with the random aspect of Terrain, Deployment, Victory Conditions, Special Rules, etc.!

When Mike arrived (6 players -- three Mikes!), I loaned him my Viking army and we got set up. He had not played Saga since October, so I tried to help him through selecting his army and terrain set up. Mike went with my standard Viking army -- warlord, two units of 6 hearthguard, two units of 8 warriors, and one unit of 12 levy archers. I explained that he'd be facing my terrain-dependent, Pictish army of three units of levy (one javelin, one bow, and one of my brand new crossbowmen) and three units of ordinary foot warriors. He won the roll to be first player and I talked him through the choices available in Battle of Heroes. He chose Terrain and Special Rules, hoping to limit my terrain and missile power.

    Picts & Vikings deploy fighting across the width of the table in the special rules for Battle of Heroes

Things didn't work out as well as he might have hoped on terrain placement. I still got a large forest in the center of the board, a small one on the left, and he placed a marsh in his left rear. I placed one final seet of fields before the die roll said we were done with terrain. However, Mike caught a small break with the Refused Flank setup, which shifted board 90 degrees and had us fighting with the short edges as our baselines. This took my woods out of easy reach and left me with only the marsh and fields on my side of the table. Our victory condition rule was "Target," which allowed us to nominate an enemy unit after deployment that would count as bonus points for killing those figures. He chose my levy bow, while I chose one of his 6-man hearthguard units. Since each figure counted as double for Massacre Points, I figured one point doubled to two would give the most bang for the buck, so to speak.

We are also using "Night Fight," which meant any unit without another friendly unit within Short at the start of the player's turn would receive a fatigue. I deployed my levy as far forward as I could so we could be fighting around the large woods as quickly as possible to take advantage of our special abilities on the Pictish battle board. Deployed about a Medium back from the levy was the second line of three warrior units. I planned to shoot, shoot, and shoot again at the Vikings as they advanced. If any charged and pushed back my levy units, I would counter-attack with my warriors.

    Pict crossbow and javelin men veer left around the woods to get a clear shot at the Vikings

On Turn 1, I sent my crossbowmen, who had been in the center opposite the large woods, to the left. They and the javelin levy advanced as far as they could with one move, hoping on the next turn to get a shot at the hearthguard unit we'd picked as our Target. The bowmen, knowing they had a bullseye painted on their chest, scooted to their left to shelter behind the woods. They loosed a volley on the first turn killing one of the Viking archers. That would be the sole contribution of those two units to the entire battle, as it turned out!

    Little happened on the right flank, as my warriors held back and the bowmen sheltered behind trees

The action looked like it would take place on my left, as I'd hoped. Mike bravely advanced his hearthguard that I'd targeted alongside a warrior unit and the warlord. I had made sure my levy ended slightly more than a Long away, so he would have had to use three movement activations to charge them, so was unable to do so. On our half of turn two, I loaded up more Saga dice in my Levy Activations slot than I ever had before -- 4 dice! Both my crossbow and javelin levy fired twice (the crossbowmen having to sandwich the shots with a move partially into the woods, as per the Saga rules). With 27 shooting dice we managed to kill only three of the six hearthguard. Our rolls, especially considering the +1 for crossbow, were quite poor and his saves were spectacular until the final shot.

    Crossbow bolts and javelins flew to try to cut down his hearthguard, but the dice said otherwise

Still, three hearthguard are nothing to sneeze at and they charged into the levy javelinmen, killing eight of them and hurling them backwards. Mike had loaded up his battle board abilities to augment the charge, more than compensating for our Feint ability, which allowed the levy to save on 4-6 on 1d6. What's worse, is we didn't kill a single figure with 8 attack rolls. Dice were definitely NOT going our way, early on! He advanced his warriors to attempt to screen his hearthguard from my retaliatory shooting. However, the crossbowmen moved up further along the woods edge and fired a shot into them, killing two this time and bringing our targeted unit down to one figure. That was better! We followed this up with a warrior charge into the screening unit of Viking warriors. The Norsemen closed ranks, and did a great job saving against our hits. We each took two hits, which meant my warriors fell back.

    Pictish and Viking warriors clash, Celt against Norseman, and fight to a draw

At this point, Mike began to get a little nervous about his warlord's position commanding a dwindling flanking force. He moved him back behind the woods to join the other hearthguard unit, who began to march into the woods towards the crossbowmen, but couldn't reach them. On the Pictish half of the turn, we shot down the sole survivor of our targeted unit, then the crossbowmen beat feet by playing Scouts. I used this Long move to withdraw them out of the woods. Meanwhile, a fresh unit of warriors charged in and massacred the remaining Viking warriors on the left flank. At this point, I knew the game was won on points. I invoked the end of game special rule, which allowed either player after four turns to call a premature end to the game, with their opponent getting only one turn. 

    The Picts pour in more reinforcements against the Viking thrust and begin to wear it down

Mike gamely sent his hearthguard forward to charge into my victorious warrior unit, cutting down more than half of them. His archers lobbed their first shot of the game, but caused no casualties. When counting up the points, the Picts were clearly ahead, 19-8. In retrospect, I pointed out he probably should have played Odin at least once or twice in this game. It is the Viking's best defense against shooting, and though he had it queued up towards the end of the game, he never played it. Exhausting one of my shooting units would have been a big benefit to him -- especially if he followed up on his half of the turn with a charge into those exhausted levy! I really liked the addition of the crossbowmen to the army. Being able to hit hearthguard on 4-6 is nice, and adds another threat to the Pictish arsenal. 

   The Viking warriors and hearthguard eliminated, the Picts begin to pull back, confident of victory

In the other games, it was Rome victorious. Bob chased the Avars off of the board, demolishing them 32-12. Dave was also victorious, with his 8-man hearthguard unit leading the way to a 23-14 victory over Jenny. As a recap, the games were:

• Bob B's Romans (AOI) defeated Mike S's Avars in Battle of Heroes, 32-12
• Dave E's Romans (AOI) defeated Jenny T's Vikings in Battle of Heroes, 23-14
• Mike D's Picts defeated Mike K's Vikings in Battle of Heroes, 19-8
  

    There was one last Viking charge made, but it could do little to stem the tide of the Norse defeat

In a couple weeks, we have a double bill of Saga here in Ohio (see our Saga Ohio Facebook page). On Saturday, Feb. 19, there will be a Saga Tournament at Battle at the Crossroads convention in Cambridge, OH. The next day, Adrian will be hosting a Saga Game Day at the Dragons Guildhall in Beavercreek, OH. Unfortunately for me, I will be busy both days with my student Model United Nations club, so won't get to attend either. Hopefully, others can make it and both days will be a success!

Pictish Crossbowmen for my Saga army

    My final addition to my Pictish Saga army - 12 levy crossbowmen from Gripping Beast

I had been using my 28mm Pictish figures as Scots for quite some time before the new Saga: Age of Invasions book came out. Its appropriate, as the medieval Scots were an amalgam of the Pictish kingdoms and the immigrant Scots kingdom of Dal Riata. Together, they formed Alba, or Dark Age and medieval Scotland, which is the period the Age of Vikings book covers. Naturally, when Age of Invasions came out, I was interested in trying out the retooled Pictish battle board. I had never played the other one, content to wait for the new one I'd heard was on the way.

    There were four poses in the 12 figures, but with the tartan and checkers, they look varied enough

Troop-wise, the one thing I needed to get to really take advantage of the new list was a unit of Levy crossbowmen. There is both archeological and pictoral (no pun intended) evidence of the Picts utilizing an early crossbow. The weapon is effective in the Saga rules, and would be a great option to add when selecting my army. Previously, when fielding levies for the Picts, I was using bow or javelin-armed troops. My plan now that I have this batch painted is to field one of each weapon type.

    The checkers and tartans I 'painted' with Micron pens, while the other patterns were done by brush

I got the figures from Gripping Beast. Last summer, I had entered 8 Mongol cavalry figures in the Saga Thorsday painting contest. I was the "random" winner -- not the entry they chose as best painted, but one they picked as a consolation prize, of sorts. I held off for a couple months ordering anything, and Andy from Gripping Beast was patient and said take my time. Once Age of Invasions came out and I got a chance to play the Picts, I knew that was what I wanted. So, I ordered it, and they shipped it quickly from England.

    I found it easier to draw the lines of the tartans with the pens than I have in the past with a brush

The Gripping Beast Pictish crossbowmen are cleanly cast, and consist of four poses. That means there is a repeat of three of each pose in my unit of 12. That's not a problem because I planned on painting them up in a variety of colors, each with their individual tartan, checkered, or cloak pattern. After painting up my previous batch of miniatures (Mongol cavalry), these seemed to go SO fast. There is a minimum of equipment on these -- cloak, tunic, belt, quiver for their crossbow bolts, and the crossbow. I decided that I wanted to keep the cloak colors on a woodland scheme -- contemporary accounts say the Picts were great at concealment and hiding in ambush. So, no really bright colors. I also went with dun to light brown tunic, undecorated. And I decided to use my Micron pens to do the lines and checkers for figures who had a tartan or checker pattern. I wasn't sure how it'd work out, but I was VERY happy with how they ended up looking. These are better than my more recent attempts at checkers or tartans with a brush, by far. The ink in the pens should probably be left to dry on the figures for a couple days before doing a wash over them. I had one that ran a little bit when I washed it the next day.

    This pack of six Micron pens cost about $20 at Hobby Lobby

I also decided to put some flower flocking on the bases, like I did with my Carolingian army. I figured it would make differentiating the crossbowmen from the archers easier when I was pulling miniatures out of the box. Finally, I painted them up in two batches of six. Hope you like how they came out -- I know I did!

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!