Saga Warlord Stands for ATC 2024 Prizes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

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