Playtest 'Saga Lite' - Viking Raid

    Saxon forces advance against Viking raiders to protect their town from being looted

Ever since first playing Saga a number of years ago, I was struck by the simplicity of the "bones" of the game. You have just a handful of troop types, with each class being proportionally "better" than the others. The point system gives you fewer of these better troops and more of the lower class troops. I thought it would be a great game to teach folks quickly at a convention, except...! For when you put on the flesh and hair and everything on the bones, it does add a significant layer of complexity.

    Viking raiders were looking to loot the monastery (right), church (center) & livestock from the village

What if I strip that back off, though? Do I have a good, simple system for friendly multiplayer games or a convention to teach to new players? That's what this playtest was all about! I was considering running a Viking raid on an Anglo-Saxon village using "Saga Lite" at conventions this year. It gave me a chance to pull out my Saxon church, which I feel is probably still my greatest scratch-build, my monastery, and a host of Dark Ages buildings by Acheson Creations. 

    Viking archers advance through the town's fields, followed by the rest of the force coming ashore

The game would be set for three players per side, each controlling 4 points of similar troops in Saga. The Viking players would have one more unit of Hearthguard (elite warriors), while the Saxons would instead have an extra unit of Warriors. Twelve points of Vikings would face off against 12 points of Anglo-Saxons on a 6'x4' table. There would be no "Advanced Abilities" on the battle boards. Units activated could rest, move, shoot, or charge. I was also trying a suggestion from the Firelands Games Group of simultaneous Orders phases followed by alternating activations. Each Viking player would activate one unit, then each Anglo-Saxon player would do the same, alternating until all players had "passed" and were done.

    Allen's Vikings storm ashore and begin their advance towards the Saxon church in the center

Otherwise, all the normal Saga rules applied. How did it go? I think the only Basic Abilities and alternating activations worked well. In light of the alternating activations, I did change up the Orders Phase a bit. Players were free to leave all their Saga command dice rolled in the "Inactive Dice" section and simply assign one when it was their turn to activate. I felt that worked very well. One major effect I saw of this was the increased use of Combat Bonus. Players would answer their opponent's use of playing a Saga die on Combat Bonus with one of their own. This back and forth had a tactical component, too. More than one player would try to force another player to use his dice to even the score in Combat Bonus in the hopes of limiting how many dice their opponent would have left over when it came to Activations. 

    Mike S's Vikings begin their advance with their archers and lighter-armed warriors leading the way

Was that bad? No. It did slow things down a tad. However, stripping out all of the Advanced Abilities would doubtless cause more dice to be spent on Combat Bonus anyway, right? Since each player had one unit of Levy archers, managing their "Uncommon Dice" (which activate Levy troops) became a concern for players. All in all, I think the Saga Lite modifications flowed well. I don't think it unbalanced the game or slowed it down unduly. In fact, a three per side game of Saga Lite plays WAY faster than a corresponding one using Saga's own big battle, multiplayer rules.

    My warlord, left, watches the Saxon levy archers get into firing position, supported by warriors

As for the scenario, it was not the success that I was hoping it would be. I had created three looting spots for the Vikings to try to get to during the game. The church was in the middle of the board, the monastery on the Saxon left (capturing the monks and taking them captive), and the pigpen and stables for "animal loot" was on the Saxon right. I made the mistake, though, of putting them up against the Saxon baseline. As it turned out, there was simply no way the Vikings would be able to fight their way through the Saxon defenders and loot those spots. Each side had equal forces, so the Vikings would do well to simply inflict more losses on the Saxons (another victory point consideration besides the loot).

    My fellow Saxon Joel also pushes his troops forward on the left to delay the advance of the Vikings

We talked about it after we played the game and decided it we were going to re-run it, the loot spots should be put on the centerline of the table. Plus, perhaps the Saxons should have one point of troops less per player to give them a chance to drive off the defenders. In our game, the Saxons were actually winning and inflicting more losses. They knew they could sit back and simply wait for the Viking advance and use their Saga dice to shoot or charge them when they came close enough. 

    Keith, protecting his precious pigs, deploys his forces to guard the gaps between the homes

The game was fun, of course, but the Vikings had no chance of winning the way I had set it up. So, scrap the scenario for Saga Lite, but save the rules adaptions is my verdict! I actually have an idea of how to run a similar version of this scenario with a different set of rules. The players would ALL be Vikings, competing to garner the most loot, slaves, or provisions. I recently purchased Ganesha Games' Sellswords and Spellslingers for possible fantasy or semi-historical coop games next year. In this game, the opposition is played by the game's AI and cards. All the players are on the same side. 

    Saxon warriors and Viking hearthguard clash swords and shields as the battle is joined on the left

So, that's my thought going forward. Have all my players control a few Viking warriors or heroes and they're running around in a Saxon town fighting townsfolk, soldiers, guards, etc., to loot the place. Stay tuned and hopefully I will have a playtest of it before the end of the year. If it works out and is fun, I plan on running it at Cincycon, Drums at the Rapids and Origins Game Fair.

    Towards the end of the battle, the Viking "high water marks" is nowhere near the town's loot

In the meantime, stay tuned for a couple more updates. I am on to the flocking stages for both the 28mm Water Tower and my Rebel Alliance batch of figures!

    "LOOSE!" My Saxon archers in the center gave a good account of themselves, killing many Vikings

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 230  

    Allen in the center made a hard push towards the church, but the Norse dice gods weren't with him

Thracian Saga Army (finally) Complete!

    The last six figures for my 28mm Thracian Saga army from Crusader Miniatures

Just in time to participate in Adrian John and Jim Beegan's Saga tournament at DayCon 2024, I finished my final batch of Thracian infantry this week. I began playing this army before it was finished because it was easy to proxy my Dark Age Picts as Ancient Thracian barbarians. Both are known for their colorful cloaks and tribal look, so I figured it was a natural. Now, I finally have enough for six points of all Thracians with their equally colorful cloaks, beards, javelins, and huge chopping weapons known as rhomphaia. 

    A rhomphaia-armed warrior and a javelin man - I am not going to miss painting Thracian cloaks!

All of the figures from this army come from Crusader Miniatures, who have an amazing selection of 28mm Ancient miniatures. From my initial purchase, I have maybe 10 or so figures left unpainted. So, I am fairly confident that I am finally done painting for this army, though. My ratio that I have fielded so far for my Thracian warriors is 1/3 rhomphaia and 2/3 javelins. One day, I may paint up more of the choppers. However, I think it is easy enough to mix in a few javelin-armed figures into a mostly rhomphaia armed unit. Now, if the rules writers one day "nerf" javelin armed troops and I decide that I want more choppers in my list, I can always pick up another pack or two. The ever-friendly and convenient Badger Games shows up at many of the big events and carry Ancient Thracians (that's where I bought mine from!). They were very generous with their prize support for last year's Advance the Colors Saga tournaments, so I will continue to patronize them -- and encourage others to do so!

    I thought this final batch turned out nicely -- I particularly like the guy on the left

This batch contained my last three rhomphaia figures that I'd purchased and three of the unpainted javelin-armed ones. I thought about painting up some of the figures from the command pack, instead. However, I like to save extras of those for Saga warlord stands that I paint up and give away as prizes. Speaking of which, one of my projects in the near-future will be to paint up two command stands for the Saga tournaments that Saga Ohio is running at Origins Game Fair this June 19-23 in Columbus, OH. Thanks to Rusty Parker, Dan Neal, Joe Dihrkop, Lee Parker, and James Tolbert for organizing and running two tournaments there (Friday and Saturday -- and a teaching and open play session on Thursday).

I have less than a dozen figures left after painting this army, I probably won't do those...yet!

As usual, I replaced the lead spears with wire spears from Lon Weiss at Brigade Games. I also chose the javelin-armed poses that allow me to epoxy the butt of the spear onto the base of the figure, in addition to the hand. I feel that separate weapons should always try for two points of contact to get a good bond. I also shave off some of the left forearm with an X-acto knife to give a flat surface to epoxy the crescent shaped wicker shield onto. Once all the gluing was done, I brushed primed them white (as usual). As with the other Thracians, I chose mostly faded colors for the tunics. On the other hand, the Thracian cloaks are mentioned in Greek sources as being brightly colored and decorated with geometric patterns. So, I used bolder and darker colors for most of those. Having painted several dozen plus Thracian cloaks by this point, I was struggling for inspiration for these final patterns. I decided to Google "Greek" designs and scrolled through the patterns that came up. I used that for inspiration and am pretty happy with how these came out. I purposely did NOT go back and look at the figures I'd already painted. I figured I was only painting six miniatures in this batch, I could dig deep for fresh inspiration.

    This army certainly let me exercise my creativity with their colorful cloaks and shield patterns

The Thracian caps were done in a variety of browns and red-browns. Some sources say they were made from fox skin or fur. The boots were done in a range of leather colors, too, from light to dark. These six figures actually painted up very quickly. I knew I was on a time crunch to get them done by this weekend's tournament, so couldn't dally. One thing I did do differently was switch my black and brown wash I have been using for several years. Instead of using Vallejo clear matte paint with drops of brown or black, I am trying something new. I really like the Vallejo vehicle washes, and have been using the black a lot for my Sci-Fi troops. I decided to premix a bottle of each roughly 50/50 strength with water. Do I like it better? Not sure. The previous matte with color was getting decidedly "snotty" in texture and leaving a gray-like glaze. This new concoction seems to cover more unevenly, though, and give an almost cracked look under a magnifying mirror.

I'd be happy to hear from others if they see anything negative in the brown or black wash on these figures. Otherwise, expect another update soon with how things went in this weekend's tournament. I am taking the Thracians, of course. Many highly-experienced players have signed up, though, so I was not expecting a top tier finish. My guess was I'll end up 1-2 in three games. I am a little rusty on Saga at the moment, despite Jenny and my warm up game last weekend. Note: Just came home from DayCon. I ended up 2-1, losing to Bob Boggs' Successor army and defeated Lee Parker's Milites Christi and Jenny's Eastern Princes. So, a relatively successful outing for those six brand new figures and their compatriots...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 64
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 47

 

Three Warlords of Saga

 

    My first warlord prize stand for the Saga Age of Melee tournament, a "Welsh-style" general

Last year, I painted up a handful of warlord stands as prizes for the Advance the Colors 2022 Saga Tournament. I wanted to do the same thing again, but figured that doing them in several batches, rather than all at once, would be easier. I am running two tournaments this year, so picked out one batch of figures for the Ancients tournament and one for the Age of Melee (all historical periods). I would be painting at third warlord stand for myself at the same time. With three figures per stand, nine figures wouldn't be so bad, right?

    Using Gripping Beast's "Aetius" figure, I created a warlord stand for Roman-style armies

Wow...these three stands seemed to take FOR EVER...FOR EVER (channeling the movie "Sandlot")! Granted, the warlords themselves were mounted while their standard bearer and bodyguard were on foot. Still, that shouldn't take that much longer than a normal batch of 8 miniatures, should it? Apparently so. Being general or heroic figures, they did have a lot of detail. And being prizes, I wanted to make sure I did a bang-up job on them. How embarrassing would it be if the painted warlord stands were the last prizes chosen? Last year, they were some of the very first chosen, which I found gratifying. I received a lot of kind words and praises for them, so I had to make sure these were up to the same standard.

    I would have to say this stand is up there in my all-time favorite warlord stands I've painted for Saga

The Age of Melee stand would use as its base a mounted general from Gripping Beast (I believe), called "Mounted Welsh Warlord." It is an incredibly cool figure with scale armor and a dashing half-cloak over his shoulder. The horse is rearing majestically and it is simply a great pose. I decided to alternate silver and bronze scales, and was happy with how those turned out. I crossed my fingers and did a tartan for the cloak, which came out great, I felt. The yellow squares at the intersection of the blue and green "grid" really set it off. The shades of green and blue colors gives a nod to current Scottish tartans, so I felt they looked believable.

I added a bard figure to the stand that has been sitting in my unpainted lead drawer for more than a decade. I am no longer sure where this figure comes from, but it is a beautiful casting. I love his sweeping gesture as he points out the subject of his praise. I gave him lots of decoration so that he is dressed to befit his lord's status! The standard bearer was simply a well-armored dark age warrior who I thought fit the look of a Dark Age British style warlord. I want these stands to be relatively generic and useful for at least several or a handful of warbands. In that vein, I made the banner a Celtic-style boar which I found with a Google Image search. I put it in Photoshop and switched out some colors and added a nice border. I made it match the color scheme of the warlord and feel it really stands out.

    I really like how the bodyguard's and standard bearer's shields came out on this stand

Next up was the warlord for the Age of Ancients tournament. I chose Gripping Beast's Aetius, Magister Militum figure for the general. Not only are there Roman armies in pretty much every Saga "Age of..." book, there are other warbands that might have Roman-style equipment in Age of Invasions that it could work for, I feel. Of course, since he is Roman style, I had to go with deep reds for the color scheme, with a dash of purple here and there. I went with a yellow cloak for contrast and think it works well overall with the banner and accents on the clothes. I Googled "Roman Legionary Banners" and sorted through the dozens of images before deciding on the rampaging bull. I added a border of tiny SPQR eagles around it, hoping that it wouldn't date the warlord to one particular period (such as Christian imagery might). You have to remember, Age of Caesars will be out before too long (hopefully), so I want him to be usable for that book's Romans, as well.

    Aethelflaed Alfreds-daughter, Lady of Mercia, is believed to have actually led armies

Finally, the third stand that was for myself -- Aethelflaed, Alfreds-daughter, Lady of Mercia! Ever since watching The Last Kingdom series on Netflix, I thought it would be amazing to have an Anglo-Saxon army with the redoubtable Aethelflaed as a warlord. This daughter of Alfred the Great was raised at court and is lauded by historians both modern and medieval. It is certainly within the realm of Saga to have her as warlord (perhaps even subbing in as a "Legendary Warlord" for her dad?). The miniature (I believe) is from Reaper Miniatures Bones line, but I had long since thrown away the box and had the figure sitting on my desk for years.

    I like this little diorama for Aethelflaed, and I think the plastic Reaper figure turned out well

Another touch I really liked was the Saxon warrior holding his shield over his head, blocking arrows from hitting his Lady. The Saxon comes from the Gripping Beast's Ceorl Shieldwall pack. When I saw the figure, I got the idea to use him as a bodyguard catching arrows intended for his lord (or lady). So, I saved the figure until I was ready to paint up Aethelflaed. Actually, I thought I had two, but could find only one. I originally wanted an arrow catcher on either side of the horse. I drilled out the Saxon's shield and pushed brass wire through. I added "green stuff" to the end of the wire as the arrows' feathers. It came out okay. I am sure others could do better, but I am still learning with green stuff. I wanted a royal deep red and dark blue color scheme for the Lady, and echoed it on her attendants. The casualty figure at her feet was actually a last-minute addition. I had painted it up for something else, but just loved how it looked, so placed it on the base during the flocking stage. As a final touch, I used Aethelflaed's supposed banner from the Bernard Cornwell novels of the goose holding a cross in its mouth.

All in all, I am VERY happy with how these turned out -- even though they took me about three weeks worth of work! Stay tuned for another batch of warlords over the next month...!

2020 - Gaming & Painting Year in Review

 Probably my favorite model I painted this year - my Moorish warlord (with bodyguard & pet cheetah)

I sit here in the sun room of my new house (moved in October 2020) and look back on the accomplishments of this past year. First and foremost is the new house, of course. Not only does it have the cozy sun room with its view of the neighborhood, but the new place also has a dedicated painting/crafting cubbyhole down in the basement. No longer do I have to use my desk in the office as a place to paint or organize my projects. What's more, the house has a huge finished basement with lots of room for gaming. That is, once face-to-face gaming starts up again! In fact, I just ordered two 8'x30" folding tables for that area, and there's room for even more gaming down there! I've joked that we can host an 8-player Saga tournament down there, and I think it is pretty close to true.

 Rival Samurai gangs battle it out in one of our last, face-to-face Sunday evening gaming sessions

Of course, year in review wouldn't be the complete without mentioning the 800-pound gorilla in the room: COVID. Our last Sunday evening, face-to-face gaming was on March 15, 2020, when Mike Stelzer ran a playtest of his Samurai miniatures rules he's writing. Yes, March 15...perhaps we should have followed the seer's advice to "Beware the Ides of March!"? Still, we met at our usual spot, my friend Mike's Brewpub/Basement (he usually has two of his homebrews on tap!). His wife, a nurse, had hand sanitizer on hand and we all made sure our grubby fingers were germ free. Allen resisted a bit, but knew we were serious, and after those preliminary precautions, we sat down to game. None of us knew that would be our last in-person Sunday night game session of the year. We were all worried about what was to come, and with good reason considering how this year played out!

Our Saga game days were one of the things COVID curtailed in 2020

COVID also clamped down on our twice-monthly Saga game days in Columbus and Dayton. After our meeting on March 1st, we didn't game together at the game store again till July. We were able to get in meetings until November, when the second wave once again closed the gaming areas of Guardtower East and Dragons Guildhall. I started 2020 off playing my Welsh warband in Saga, which had an amazing success record. I switched over to the Picts (Scots from Age of Vikings) partway through the year. I had a good run with them, too. On a whim, I tried the Carolingians, and enjoyed playing them well enough to pick up a 4-point army Gripping Beast army box from Game Table Adventures in Newark, OH. I also got in a game each with the Pagan Rus and Norse-Gaels using my Viking miniatures. I closed out the year playing my newest army, the Moors.

 Nechtan Mac Fergus' Picts racked up a phenomenal 8-0-0 record over their 2020 streak of games

It was a pretty successful year of generalship in the Saga games. Here was my record with the various armies I played over the course of 2020:

• Army  Wins-Losses-Ties
  
• Picts (Scots), 8-0-0
• Moors, 4-0-1
• Carolingians, 2-0-1
• Welsh, 1-0-0
• Pagan Rus, 1-0-0
• Norse-Gaels, 1-0-0

 I began 2020 playing Saga with my Welsh army, led by Lord Gwendawg, here

My run of success is probably in danger, as my luck can't go on forever! Seriously, I have really enjoyed the tactical challenge of playing Saga, though. Learning how to maximize the special abilities of my army, while simultaneously watching out for what my opponent's can inflict on me is a lot of fun. I like poring over a battle board and trying to think of combinations of abilities that can help bring victory on the tabletop. I usually type them into a Notes page on my iPhone and keep it pulled up during the game. Otherwise, I might forget to use a stratagem. 

 My Picts face Jeff F's Huns led by Attila -- a tough, tactical puzzle that solving makes Saga enjoyable

Still, winning at Saga is not all about using your battle board abilities. You need to have a plan for your army, and the ability to change plans in midstream. Two of my more challenging games this year were against Dayton area gamer, Adrian John. In both, he showed up with a superior tactical plan, in my opinion. My usual methods weren't bringing success and he was winning through the first three turns. However, I recognized that and changed tactics. I went with a backup plan (shooting with "Reach" with the Scots and charging home instead of skirmishing with the Moors). Both times, my halftime adjustments eked out a victory. So, Saga requires you to be flexible and adapt your tactics to your opponent and their army. 

 One of my first painting accomplishments of 2020: Finishing off my Pictish army for Saga

As far as painting miniatures in 2020, it was a moderately productive year. Ever since our school switched to online learning in April, and with my decision to teach the students whose families chose all online in the new school year, I have been incredibly busy. Adapting lesson plans to an online format is a constant process. This has impacted my painting time, of course. I kicked the painting year off last January by finishing up the Pictish infantry I needed for that warband. The army requires a LOT of infantry figures. I used four army points of warriors (32 figures), and 1 point of levy archers (12 more figures). Some were done already from our previous Dark Age skirmish games using both Song of Blades and Heroes and Tribal rules. However, a lot of the Pictish spearmen were newly-painted for the Saga force.

 The cover of my newest rules set - Mean Streets (inspired by the 1979 movie The Warriors)

I then switched modes back into terrain building for my gang warfare rules, Mean Streets. Another major accomplishment of the year was seeing them through to publication this past May. I created a number of things to fill my modern cityscape, including

• Wallace's Brewpub (named after our Sunday night host, of course!)
• O'Brian's Pot o' Gold Motel, a two-story motel (named after one of our Sunday members, Brian)
  
• Sidewalks and concrete medians to improve the look of my streets
• St. Jennifer's, a Gothic-style Catholic church (named after Jenny!)
• Two kiosks: Smith's Smoke Shack (after my friend Steve) and the Morning Crower newspaper stand
• Dumpsters and trash heaps (NOT named after anyone...)
  

 Wallace's Brewpub - named after one of our Sunday gamers - is one of the buildings I created in 2020

I did some other odds and ends, such as 28mm carts or wagons and their "loads" for Saga objective markers.  I also did some pack mules and handlers for my French & Indian War games with my Song of Drums and Tomahawks rules. I created some more terrain for Saga -- bogs or fens -- with material found inexpensively at Hobby Lobby. 

 The Indianola Mohawks was one of the two new street gangs I painted up this year

Inspired by March's successful final playtest of the Mean Streets rules at Cincycon 2020, I painted up two new gangs. The Indianola Mohawks were a "punk rocker" gang with colorful mohawk hairstyles, punk music t-shirts, and a good bit of black leather. The figures are from Casting Room miniatures, and I really liked them. I modified most, giving them weapons like chains and knives. This was also when I purchased the Wiz Kids gasoline station accessory pack, which you will see the Mohawks posed by if you click on the link. I bought this from Fun Factory Hobbies in Mt. Gilead, OH. Knowing how badly COVID was hitting game stores, I made it a point to buy things I might not have otherwise to help support them.

 Julio is the leader of the final (and 9th) gang I've painted, The Santanas (using Casting Room Minis)

When I ordered the figures from Casting Room Miniatures for the Mohawks, I ordered three packs total, which I had planned into using to create two different gangs. The second gang was your classic, leather-jacketed gang of street punks. Since I am trying to be ethnically inclusive in my portrayal of street gangs, this one would be my first Hispanic gang - the Santanas. I really liked how these came out, though they ended up being the last street gang that I'd paint for the year. With nine gangs painted up, I had enough for about as big of a game as I wanted to run.

Some foot from one of the 3 remaining 15mm armies after my selloff, Caledonian/Pict (still for sale!)

In July, I made a major decision to hone down my miniatures collection. I decided to put all of my 15mm Ancients and Fantasy armies up for sale. I post them here on my blog, and then also took them up to the Fort Meigs flea market, where unfortunately, none sold. However, I began to have success selling them online by posting them in various Facebook groups. The biggest score was when a single buyer purchased all of my remaining fantasy armies (built years ago for Hordes of the Things, which we didn't play anymore). I had been saving them in case we got back into it or a new set of rules took off, but we simply didn't play them for years. It was the same for my Ancient armies. I had been saving the Fall of Rome collection of DBA armies. However, with Saga taking off and me building armies in 28mm, it simply didn't make sense to keep storing them in my closet. I sold a number of them, but still have three left, if anyone is interested (Pictish/Caledonian, Germanic Barbarian, and Briton/Celtic). The Picts in particular are some of my best 15mm work ever, I feel!

It took me 5 months of 2020 to complete my latest army for saga, The Moors

July was also the month I began painting my newest Saga army, the Moors. I ended up completing 24 archers, 16 spearmen, 20 cavalry, and a command stand. I know I talked about this before on my blog, but this army was one that gave me faith in my painting skill, again. Prior to that point, I was honestly feeling that my skills were deteriorating. I felt I had passed my peak, and that the eyesight and hand steadiness needed to do superb work was no longer within my range. I made a commitment with this army, though, to using the lighted magnifying lamp I have attached to my painting desk. I bought new brushes with finer points. And much to my surprise, I found my hands could be steady when I held the figure under the lamp. One thing that help was cutting half of the stem off of my fine-point brushes. That way, I didn't have to deal with the tip banging against the top of the magnifier. Holding this golf pencil sized brush was much easier, and I found I could paint very interesting and colorful patterns for the robes of my Andalusians. I finished the army just a few weeks ago, which brings us up to present.

 Berserkers! The first of the figures from my Viking interlude after finishing my Moors

Although I have a Carolingian Saga army waiting in the wings to be painted, I decided to sneak in some other things I felt I needed. I had no berserker figures in my Viking army, so I painted four fantasy figures up for them. On my table right now, is the second half of 12 Viking archers. My Viking army is probably my most popular loaner army. I had a limited number of archers, so if more than one of my armies was being loaned out, I was scrambling for figures. This should solve that problem. I will also do a couple units of unarmored warriors from the Anglo-Saxon Gripping Beast box that I bought. I have plenty of infantry in chainmail -- which I like to use for hearthguard in Saga. I just don't have many unarmored Saxon/Viking ones, which I like to use for warriors. And speak of Saga, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Saga Ohio Podcast which I began late this year! In homage to the wonderful Northern Tempest Saga Podcast and the Saga Thorsday video blog, I interview and discuss Saga with one of our players. We talk about their favorite army, analyze the special abilities of the battle board, and future plans for other Saga armies. Give it a listen on either Spotify, Anchor, Google Podcasts, or several other platforms!

Other bits of 2020: 28mm Iron Wind Metals Policemen and a Miniature Building Authority dumpster

But wait a minute, this was supposed to be a year in review article! Here I am, discussing future plans!! All in all, I felt 2020 was a productive year in both terrain making and painting miniatures. I had hoped to get more time to work on the next supplement for Song of Drums and Tomahawks (covering Hernando de Soto's march through America), but writing and research was only just underway when prepping for school sucked away nearly all of my free time. Another First Command Wargames product that I had planned to start in 2020 that did not get done was the aerial supplement for the rules. I am pretty happy with the helicopter rules as they stand. I think the fixed wing aircraft rules need a little more work, though. I want to include shoulder-fired Surface to Air Missiles to the rules. That will require a lot more playtesting, which of course, is exactly what COVID conspired to limit this year.

 Owner Steve of Smith's Smoke Shack seems unimpressed by The Santanas anger at his prices

Still -- nothing wrong with a few unfinished projects at the end of a year, right? For such an awful year that COVID-ravaged 2020 ended up being, hobbywise, it could have been a lot worse. How was your hobby year? Feel free to add your comments below -- I'd love to hear!

Count Drogo Clashes with a Crafty Roman Commander

Count Drogo, the Frankish warlord, urges his archers forward to engage the enemy

The monthly Saga Game Day at the Dragon's Guildhall in Beavercreek, Ohio, was moved up a week due to a conflict with another event. Nevertheless, six warlords were on hand to marshal their troops and wage battle. I brought Count Drogo, the bastard son of the Frankish king, leading a Carolingian warband. For the first time, my opponent was Bob B -- we had yet to play in all the various game days. He was fielding a "Last Romans" warband. On the other tables, Aaron J's Normans and Jim B's Vikings squabbled over loot in Feasting & Pillaging. Adrian ran his Anglo-Saxons against Jenny's Vikings in a variant Clash of Warlords where all uneven terrain was dangerous.

The deployment, with Franks in blue and Romans in purple

Bob and I were playing the standard Clash of Warlords. I loaded up the field with a medium sized woods on either flank and a field of scrub brush in my center. Bob placed a gentle hill in his center, but most of the terrain shifted towards my side when I rolled the diagonal "Method B" deployment. As first player, I wasn't sure how aggressively Bob would move his mostly mounted force. His army was definitely one of the smallest I have every played against, in number of figures. Besides his mounted warlord, he fielded the legendary unit Klibanophoroi 8-man cataphract unit (3 points -- half of his force value!). He also fielded two other mounted hearthguard units, one a 4-man horse archer unit with composite bows and the other a standard mounted unit. His remaining unit was 8 foot warriors with bows. 

A Frankish warrior unit hurries towards to woods to engage the Roman archers

I deployed cautiously towards the rear of my zone, occupying the center scrubland with one unit of foot warriors with bow. The other foot archers were in the woods on my left. Both units of warrior spear were on my right, poised to enter the right flank woods where Bob's archers would end up going. Both of my 4-man mounted hearthguard units were held back in reserve in the center, as was Count Drogo. Bob deployed his two smaller mounted units in the center, while the Klibanophoroi were poised to circle the woods on my right flank. Seeing this, we hurried one of the warrior spear units towards the woods, hoping to be able to drive his archers out of it. We also wanted to get into the woods where we thought we would be safe from the Klibanophoroi.

Just as the Franks are about to contact the Romans, they scamper out of the woods!

I put two of my three Saga dice I rolled as first player into my Proelium section on the board (the third would go in on turn two), using the other on the advancing warrior spear unit. Bob sent his Klibanophoroi around the woods, while the horse archers galloped forward to shoot at my warrior spear before retiring. The foot archers also shot a volley at them, but (as a rarity in this match) I saved well, losing only one figure. When my warriors entered the woods on the next turn and advanced to within charging range, Bob pulled the archers out of the woods before I could contact them. Then he really surprised me by charging the Klibanophoroi into the woods. They came in with two fatigues, but that didn't matter, as he completely wiped out my remaining warriors (who'd taken two more losses from horse archery) to a man. I was stunned that a mounted unit could so easily charge foot in the woods. This was a legendary unit that cost him 3 points, though, so I guess they should be fairly powerful.

I think I was as surprised as my warriors when the Klibanophoroi charged into the woods!

Meanwhile, Count Drogo had ordered the Frankish archers out of the terrain and hurried them towards the enemy. We used Ardor and ordinary Saga dice to pepper the Klibanophoroi with four shots. Bob saved every hit -- even the four automatic hits I got from using Vinco and Domine on my board! He then withdrew the Klibanophoroi out of the woods (and out of sight) of my archers. His own archers advanced and shot at my mounted hearthguard on the left flank, who rolled atrociously, and lost two of their four figures. This encouraged Bob to send his own small mounted hearthguard unit to charge them. He had finally rolled well enough with Saga dice to use Strategos, so his unit had 12 dice to my 4. However, I used his fatigue to raise my armor class to a 6, and Bob rolled only one "6". Did I save that hit and drive back his charge? No, of course not! 

Count Drogo urges his troops forward to contact the elusive Romans

Still, Bob had exhausted his Saga dice and his surviving three hearthguard ended their turn within range of my archers. I spent all of my dice to power my two archer units -- Ardor, Vinco, Domine, Potentia -- every ability the Carolingian battle board had to improve its shooting. The Roman cavalrymen were wiped out to a man, and an additional shot savaged his foot bow unit, too. While my attention was focused on shooting, Bob was able to rest his exhausted Klibanophoroi and move them around the woods towards where my remaining Frankish spear and mounted hearthguard watched our right flank. 

"Fire!" Drogo roars, as the Romans are finally within range of Frankish bows

At that point, I decided to gamble. Knowing that his battleboard was empty, and that when HE charged, whoever they hit would be likely wiped out, I decided to charge him first. I loaded my battleboard up with my combat abilities -- Fortis (which gives me 3 dice and takes 3 away from him), Potentia (allowing rerolls of up to six misses), and for the first time ever, Damnatio -- which gives +1 attacks against the declared enemy unit. He would have 14 dice, minus the 3 Fortis would take away, giving him 11. I would have 8+3 = 11. But he had a fatigue, which I used to make my armor a six. So, 11 vs. 11, and I hit him on 4's (with rerolls of up to six misses), while he hit me on sixes. It should go my way, except the Klibanophoroi's pesky Resilience (1), which meant he could convert the first three casualties into fatigue.

Stung by a couple turns of Frankish archery, the Romans rally near the right flank woods

The Frankish nobles shouted their warcry and charged in! I rolled a total of 7 hits (probably one or two under average). However, Bob saved rolled 5's or 6's on four of his seven dice. NO CASUALTIES! Meanwhile, I had lost two killed (my saves remained abysmal). Since this as Turn 5, I was pretty sure that meant Count Drogo would lose this contest. On his half of turn 5, Bob killed the remaining two hearthguard with shooting and then withdrew as much of his force behind the woods as he could to avoid my shooting. 

"Well, that didn't work out like planned!" The Frankish nobles' charge caused no kills

As the final turn of the game dawned, I noticed that Bob's warlord had advanced far enough around the woods that my one of my archer units could draw a bead on his with a full advance. I used all of my dice to give them two maximized shots with Vinco and Domine, hoping that Bob's deep well of good saving rolls would run dry at this critical moment. After the first shot, his warlord was exhausted. The second shot (with Domine allowing me to replay Vinco for two more automatic hits) came up all misses. He still had to save vs. the two auto-hits, though. This time, the Roman warlord failed, and he fell from the saddle pin-cushioned. Bob tried to exact revenge on the archers with a Klibanophoroi charge, but I was able to use his fatigue to prevent him from making contact. 

The Roman warlord advances just a bit too far around the woods, opening him up to bowfire

It was time to count up points. Would the death of his warlord be enough to make up for Bob's lead? As it turned out, Bob score 15 points and I got 14. However, in Clash of Warlords, you have to beat the opponent by three or it is a draw. So, Count Drogo had narrowly avoided defeat against a very crafty Roman warlord. Bob played masterfully with his small, mobile force. He continually avoided my archery fire, keeping distance enough from me or using the terrain to mask his forces from my arrows. I was impressed. In hindsight, I made a serious mistake taking on the Klibanophoroi. I should have backed away to draw them within range of my archers. I think they are one of the few answers the Carolingians have against them. Even then, their Resilience (1) means they can take fatigue instead of hits till they're exhausted. If I face a similar legendary unit in the future, I will be more cautious, and make sure both archer units are in position to cover all approaches.

Jim B's Viking warlord takes control of a loot token in his battle against the Normans

In the other battles, Aaron's Normans swiped most of the loot tokens and defeated Jim's Vikings, 26-19. In the remaining game, Adrian's six points of Anglo-Saxon levy overwhelmed Jenny's Vikings. Jim B was his usual generous self and bought gift cards for all participants so we could go home with goodies from the store, in addition to the normal good time playing Saga. I picked up a new pin vice, as mine is getting old and stripped. Thanks to Jim and Adrian for hosting, and to Bob for a great, challenging game. Good times, as usual, playing Saga!

Adrian's Anglo-Saxons hordes about to overwhelm Jenny's sorely-outnumbered Vikings