Starting a New Saga Army - Thracians!

    Thracian mounted warriors from Crusader Miniatures -- my newest Saga project!

I'm a bit behind in posting pictures of my newest Saga army that I am in the process of painting up. In fact, some of these figures already have a couple games under their belt! I was prompted to choose Thracians from the newest Saga world book, Age of Alexander, for several reasons. The first was watching a battle report on Graham's Wargame Vault when his "outrageous" buddy, Wayne, thrashed him in a game using Thracians. They seemed like an interesting army, watching the battle board's abilities he was using and the effects they had on the game. The next reason is because of the sheer color of this army. Thracians are known for their patterned cloaks, so this would give me a chance to create another visually appealing army for the tabletop. Finally, after proxying my Picts as Thracians, I discovered they were very fun and tactically challenging to play.

    One reason painting Thracians is appealing is their famed colorful cloaks with geometric designs

Being a metal miniatures guy, I knew there were quite a few options. The Age of Alexander has been a cornerstone of the 28mm Ancients period for decades. There are LOTS of figure manufacturers who have produced Thracians over the years. Unlike many of my contemporaries playing Saga, I am not really a fan of the plastic sets where you glue the arms, heads, torsos, and such all together. I still prefer the weight and completeness of a metal miniature. For my Thracians, I decided to go with Crusader Miniatures because the wide variety of packs they have in their line. 

    My Thracian mounted figures drawn from their command and mounted tribesmen packs

I ordered them from their website and they arrived VERY quickly -- excellent service. I did screw up a little, though. For some reason, when I was reading the Saga book's description and troop list for the Thracian army, I thought that they could field foot hearthguard armed with the two-handed chopping weapon, the Rhomphaia. I based my purchase on that, only to find that hearthguard can only be mounted in this list. D'oh! Long story short, I didn't order enough figures! Well, I should be able to solve that when I go to Historicon next month. Badger Games carries Crusader Miniatures, so I will pick up some more packs of figures to be able to finish out this warrior heavy, hearthguard-less, force.

    The deadly rhomphaia was a feared and famous Thracian two-handed cutting weapon

When I unpacked the miniatures, I decided that I would first paint up all those rhomphaia armed troops. I could continue proxying my Picts for the javelin-armed troops. I was using a hodge-podge of other miniatures for the heavy weapon rhomphaia men, so this would make the proxy army look a bit nicer and more consistent on the tabletop. Many of my Picts are armed with javelins, and they also have colorful cloaks -- though mostly checks, tartans, and stripes instead of geometric patterns.

    I really like how the shields came out on my 1st batch of Thracian infantry - more micron pen work!

One issue that arose, though, was that I had ordered a variety of Thracian types from Crusader. Thracian tribesmen are known for their wicker crescent shaped shield. However, as they became more established as mercenaries, they began to use the oblong "Greek peltast" shield. I wanted my warriors to have the crescent ones, as that is the period of the Saga list. I swapped some out, though, with the cavalry, who I gave the oblong shields to, instead. Hopefully, this will work out well.

    Thracian warriors are often depicted using a wicker, crescent-shaped shield

I thought the poses for the Thracians armed with rhomphaia were pretty cool. I mixed in some from various packs and painted up a group of eight that you see pictured here on this blog post. I was very happy with how they came out. I borrowed my friend Mike's Osprey book on the Thracians to make sure that I was doing a somewhat historical job of them. We are fortunate with the Thracians that they were regularly depicted in Greek art, whether on vases, frescoes, or in other places. This means we have actual patterns for the Thracians' "geometric designs" on their cloaks. I looked through the Osprey book and picked out a handful that I thought I could reproduce with either a paintbrush or my Micron pens. Yes, this is yet another army that will be using the micron pens!

    Crusader Miniatures makes both Thracian mercenary type figures and 'tribesmen' poses

One thing that I have found with the pens is that you have to be careful to keep them from smearing later  when you apply a wash on the figure. I have begun to apply my first spray clear coat before the wash, and this seems to do a good job of eliminating problems with the ink running. As I may have mentioned before, the pens work best on smoother surfaces. If you have a cloak that has deeply-sculpted folds or ripples, you are going to struggle to get the head of the pen down into the bottom of the folds. In these cases, I go Old School and use a small brush to do my patterns. So, maybe plan out your more complicated decorations on the figures with smoother areas and the simpler ones on the others?

    These figures came with the oblong 'peltast' type shield, but I swapped out crescent ones for them

The figures in Crusader's "mercenary peltast" boxes tend not to have cloaks. In this case, I gave them simpler geometric patterns, stripes or borders on their tunics. Y9ou can see that in the figures above, and I think they give a nice effect. Many years ago, I painted Scottish highlanders for the Jacobite Rebellion (in 15mm, no less!). I found when doing that army that you are shooting for a visual effect. You don't need to have every article of clothing in a pattern. One per figure tricks your eye into seeing a consistent, pleasing effect. So, for the tribesmen who do have cloaks, I don't decorate the tunics with anything more than a border.

    This pairs of warriors shows the difference between Crusader's "peltast" and "tribesmen" figures

With me being behind on posting pictures, my last batch of rhomphaia men are actually primed and on my desktop ready to follow. With this batch, I will also be painting up the warlord's stand. Typically, the warlord's stand contain the last figures I paint for an army. I assume that I will be well versed in painting that nationality by then, and have a good idea what color combination will look good after doing the rank and file. My idea for the Thracians, though, is to play them AS I paint the army. So, I think it will add to the effect on the tabletop to have the correct general. Not that there is anything wrong with the Republican Roman general that I have been using (other than he's the wrong figure and the banner is a legionary one!)...

    Two of my mounted warriors for my Thracians -- my most recent Saga army to hit the tabletop

There is going to be only one mounted unit in this army -- at least how I plan to field six points of Thracians for Saga! I decided I should get them done relatively quickly, too. The proxying of Roman cavalry with Dark Age cavalry bugged the historical miniature gamer in me, so I wanted to get these done early. After painting my Mongols last year, doing one batch of eight mounted figures was nothing...ha, ha! Speaking of which, I actually pulled out my Mongols, looked through them, and selected eight horses that I liked best to use for the colors and markings of the mounts. Why do the same job over and over? When I had done my research on Mongol horse colors I found nothing to indicate that their horse colorings were anything unique in the Ancient world. So, it was kind of nice to have a template for the horses and made it go quick, I feel.

    I think the oblong shields look good for the mounted figures, and am pretty happy with how they look

The armor and equipment for the mounted figures was kind of a mixed bag on the Crusader poses. Some had what looked like Linothorax -- the white linen type armor that Alexander the Great is often depicted as wearing. Others looked like they were wearing a bronze cuirass, while others appeared to have no armor protecting their torso at all. Although some parts of Thrace coalesced into a kingdom during the Ancient period, the Saga list intends to represent them mainly during their tribal phase. So, it makes sense that armor is very individual, making the variety work in my favor here.

    I like this cast-on metal standard the left hand figure is carrying - the severed heads are a nice touch!

I decided to put the mounted standard bearer from the command pack in with the unit of 8 warriors.  I like the look of a foot standard bearer next to a mounted general for my warlord stands. That, and I was being cheap -- typical of me! The Crusader mounted packs contain three figures. So, I ordered three packs, giving me nine figures (8 for the warrior unit and one for the warlord stand). Thus, the mounted standard bearer and the horn blower were drafted into the warrior unit! I really like the severed heads handing from the standard, too. In fact, I am tempted to make my custom fatigue markers severed heads, as well. So, if anyone reading my blog has extra heads that come with plastic kits that they're not using, I'd be interested in getting about 10 or so from you. Let me know in the comments, or if you have may email or FB Messenger address, send me a message!

    The standard bearer on left was also given one of the fancier cloaks - I'm happy with how it looks!

All in all, I feel that I am off to a good start with this army. Two batches of eight done and one of those being the army's only mounted makes me feel progress is definitely being made. Once I finish the next batch of 5 rhomphaia men and the warlord's stand, I will have only three more batches to do. My plan is to field the army in the following way:

• Mounted warlord
• 8 mounted warriors
• 13 foot warriors armed with rhomphaia (one unit of 6 and the other of 7 figures)
• 27 foot warriors armed with javelins (three units of 9 figures)

I'll split the 27 foot warriors into three batches of nine, so who knows? Maybe this army will be done much quicker than you might think with all the fancy cloaks. I hope so! Stay tuned and see...!!   

    Many Thracian "tribesmen" type figures have the fox-skin hoods that Thracians were known for

    Some of the mounted figures came with round shields -- once again, more variety is good!

    I try to give each Saga army a consistent look for flocking, too, with the Thracians' including flowers

    With these two batches of miniatures painted, I am about 1/3 of the way done with this army!