Warlord Stands as Prizes for Advance the Colors Saga Tournament

    Warlord stand I painted as a prize for the Age of Medieval Saga Tournament at ATC 2025

Even though I am not playing Saga actively myself, nowadays, I want to support the community and the Saga Ohio folks out there running tournaments. So, I committed to donating a painted warlord stand for both their Friday Medieval Age tournament (Chivalry & Crusades) and their Saturday Age of Iron & Steel (all books except Ancient ones) tourney. After finishing up a couple batches of Orcs and the French & Indian War figs I needed for the first Sunday's game at the museum, I decided it was time to get cracking on them!

    Warlord stand I painted as a prize for the Age of Iron & Steel Tournament at ATC 2025

The central mounted figure for the medieval warlord is a Gripping Beast Mounted Breton War Banner Bearer. I converted his banner to a lance and gave him a foot standard bearer. It's an old Norman figure in padded armor that I've had in my unpainted lead stash for ages. The trumpet blower is from a group of Welsh/Briton figures that I've also had for a long time. Since this is the age of heraldry, I knew I should decided what the warlord's banner and symbols should be before painting them. I decided to go with a quartered banner, one half being checkered purple and white. The other half would be a white field with a black tower on it. When I was teaching History to 7th graders, every year I would have students use medieval heraldry to design their own knight's shield. The purple and white checkered ones always looked cool, so I decided to go with that (and it followed the rules of Heraldry!).

    I really like how the quartered purple and white banner came out on the medieval warlord

The central mounted figure for the Age of Iron and Steel warlord is a Gripping Beast Eastern Princes Warlord. He has enough of a Viking look that he would work for a Dark Age army, I felt. Equally, he could work for a medieval one, as well. I dug through my miscellaneous 28mm Dark Age figures and found one that would make a good standard bearer and another as an extra bodyguard. I think I have fully exhausted my supply of musicians, by now. So, he's just a third figure on the base doing his best to protect his lord. I thought about giving him a leash and painting up a dog, too, but wasn't sure there would be room on the base for it.

    I thought the black bear on a red field looked appropriate for a generic Dark Age warlord

As I usually do, I epoxied the riders to their mounts before priming them. I think by doing that, you make them more secure and less likely to pop off if dropped or grabbed the wrong way. All those layers of primer and paint are just more glue, the way I see it! I also based the foot standard bearers to the 60mm round stands first, as well. I like the brass wire standard to be drilled into the wood of the base and then also connected to the hands of the figure. Two points of contact are always more secure than one. Once this was all done, all of the figures received their Liquitex White Gesso primer.

    With this horn blower, I think I am all out of musicians for my warlord bases - I like the fancy horn!

I did the flesh first, using a craft paint flesh tone followed up after drying with the clay-colored watered down wash I apply to Caucasian figures. It usually does a nice job of settling into the crevices in the skin and darkening the too-pale craft paint flesh color. Next, since so much of these figures were armor, I did the Iron Wind Steel base coat for the metal armor and Bambi Brown for the padded armor. From this point on, it was the usual 28mm base coat of a color and then followed by a lighter, dry brush highlight added to the figures. I worked my way outward, with the tunics, sleeves, trousers, and such, step by step.

    With no musician for his stand, this Dark Ages warlord has to make do with an extra bodyguard!

The colors for the Dark Ages warlord ended up being a hunter green and dark red. I waited till late in the process to finally decide what to do for his banner and shield. In the end, I decided to go with the outline of a bear's head in black on a dark red field. Since the rules of Heraldry hadn't been invented yet, I felt okay breaking them with the black on red ("color" on "color"). I did fancy borders or decorations on the clothes of all six figures since these would be the wealthiest figures in the warband. Of course, this made the batch take longer. I think their time on my painting desk will likely be two weeks -- not counting waiting to do the banners. During this time, I wasn't working on them solidly and ignoring everything else, of course. I was mixing in time each morning on other stuff, as well. 

The banners themselves were designed in Photoshop, resized, and then put on a USB drive to take to Office Max to print out with their color laser printer. I cut them out, coated the back with white glue, and then wrapped it around the spear pole making the sides match up as best as possible. I immediately reshaped it while the glue was still wet, giving a blowing in the wind look. After the banners were dry, I painted the white edge of the paper that was showing to match the banner.

    I also like how the medieval warlord's saddle cloth game out -- nice understated decoration, I felt

I really like how these two warlord stands turn out, and I hope the players in the Saga tournaments do as well! I'm also glad I didn't flirt with deadline pressure, as the tournaments are still about 3 weeks away. And if you look below, you will see these two stands of figures put me at the 200 miniatures painted for the year! As I'm typing this, it is the 265th day of 2025. That's less than one figure a day, but still not bad, eh? So, what else am I working on? You will see very soon my next batch of figures for my Dragon Rampant orc & goblin army. They are in the flocking stage and will likely be posted soon. For terrain, I've finally figured out how I am going to do rice paddies and bamboo for my 28mm Vietnam project. I purchased most of the material I need for them today, but still have a couple more things to pick up. 

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 288
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 200

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 40
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 61

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 200

DayCon 2025 Purchases

DayCon is a smaller, regional convention that I've been attending regularly since Randy and Angel Miller began running it. A few years ago, it expanded from a Saturday game day to a Friday and Saturday weekend convention. Like last year, I decided to drive over for just Saturday, though. I would be running my Viking Town Raid game in the afternoon slot. I also was bringing a large amount of Saga terrain to sell to Fireland Games. When I stepped back from running tournaments, they asked if I would be willing to part with some of the terrain that I had made for the tourneys, and we agreed upon a price.

With a nice wad of cash in my wallet, you knew that I would not be able to resist picking up some things from the vendors. One vendor in attendance was Sword & Scabbard Games with a lot of their 3-D printed terrain. I picked up the above wooden ruin because it was different. I have lots of stone ruins, but no wooden ones. Plus, I knew I would be able to paint it up quickly. Primer, base coat, wet brush, and dry brush and it will be done. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks all painted up -- it looked great on their vendor table! It reminds me a lot of an Acheson terrain piece in style and heft.

I also picked up this piece of terrain from Sword & Scabbard. It is a nice flat ruins piece representing the floor of a temple or other columned building. I keep telling myself that I need to scratch build some flat ruins pieces to fill in the spaces between my ruined buildings. I saw this and felt it would work even for modern or post-apocalyptic games. Many government buildings in Europe and America have Greek style columns. So, this should be fairly versatile, too. Plus, like the wooden ruin, it should paint up real quickly. Although, as Scott Gray and I sat there talking, he suggested that you could even do a mosaic like pattern with the tiles. That may add an extra step or two if I try it.

My friend Abel had picked up one of these earlier in the day and showed it to me. It is a 3-D printed turn marker, intended for Saga, but could be used for any game where you need to keep track of turns. I always try to support the vendors at our regional conventions, so added it to my purchase from Sword & Scabbard. I think I will paint the seated king as a stone statue to make it go quicker. I like the way it looks and will be fun little turn marker to have on the board.

I have always had a soft spot for gnolls since way back from the D&D days. When I dropped off the Saga terrain with James of Fireland Games, I saw this box sitting on the dealer table. One of the things James and Rusty from Fireland do is sell individual sprues. They will open a box and sell you just one sprue if you want. Since gnolls are basically hyena men, I thought they'd fit in with my Sellswords & Spellslingers solo games. Rather than just pick up one, which would have been enough for that, I decided to pick up three -- thinking ahead to one day playing Dragon Rampant (2nd Edition coming soon, by the way!) and having enough for a 12-figure unit.

I still prefer metal miniatures over plastic. However, I have found that the Frostgrave/Stargrave figures go together well enough that even a super-glue incompetent like me assemble. Have the legs and torso come together makes it doable. I just have glue on the arms (the harder part) and the head (usually the easy part), and then glue it to its base. In fact, these will probably be easier than the Stargrave figures I have glued together because you don't have to somehow match the shooting right arm exactly up with the supporting left hand. All of the weapons the gnoll arms are holding appear to be one handed.

Of course, my purchases mean I keep throwing off my Painted vs. Acquired ratios...ha, ha! I'm actually ahead on Terrain painted, though, and within sight of catching up on Scatter. However, I'm in the red significantly on Miniatures, though -- especially with my huge 28mm Vietnam purchase. I've picked up some other figures here and there, too (like these gnolls). On the bright side, though, it is only April. I have till December to catch up! Plus, spring is always a busy convention season around here, so that means more opportunities to support the dealers!  

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39

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

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!)
  

Two Warlord Prizes for Origins 2024 Saga Tournaments

    One of the two warlords I painted up as prizes for the Saga tournaments at Origins Game Fair 2024

When some of the Saga Ohio guys decided to run events at Origins, I promised to paint up some warlord stands to give away as prizes. That's becoming a signature prize in my tournaments, and from what I hear from players, the warlord stands are appreciated. Since one of the tournaments is Dark Ages and the other is Medieval, I figured it made sense to paint up one of the appropriate theme for each.

    A side view of the Gripping Beast mounted "Brian Boru" that I used for the general figure

I dug through my unpainted lead, looking for suitable miniatures. Awhile back, I'd purchased a mounted Brian Boru (famous Irish who fought back against the Vikings), and knew it'd be perfect. Typically, I have a mounted general on my warlord stands, but a foot standard bearer. That way, whoever wins the prize can deploy it as either mounted or foot -- at least that's how I look at it! The third figure on the circular base is sometimes a musician, bu this time I decided to go with a dog (or dogs, plural). For the standard bearer, I found a foot figure holding his arm out that would be work well to attach a banner against. The figure also had a tunic and cloak, like the Brian Boru figure.

    A close up of the 28mm wolf figure that I used for the general's pet

For the dog, I decided to use a 28mm wolf and paint it up as a wolf/dog hybrid. I used Google Image searches till I found one whose color I liked. It somewhat matched the general's horse color and the standard bearer's tunic, so I went with it. I used a green and blue color scheme for the mounted general, going with lighter sleeves and paints and a darker cloak. The tunic is a medium blue, and I repeated those colors in the decorations on the hems and headband. I really like how his light reddish hair and beard came out, too.

    The Medieval general used a Teutonic Knight figure, a mailed foot soldier, and two 28mm dog figs

For the crusader figures, I believe I chose a Teutonic Knight general figure as the mounted warlord. It is a big, beefy figure with a mailed horse, large cloak, and big triangular shield. There are lots of pieces of equipment fastened to the figure, so this one was more time consuming than you might think. Of course, the decorations along the hem, chest, and horse added to the work, too! I was happy with how the tiny white dots turned out inside the red cross blazoned across the general's chest. I think his auburn hair and beard look nice, as well.

    The banners for my warlord stands are all designed in Photoshop using clipart and then printed out

The standard bearer is a typical mailed infantryman that I felt I could pose his hand to be holding a banner. I gave him some extra decoration along the hem and a fancy white cross on a red shield to go with the general's white wolf design. He was probably the easiest figure (beside the dogs) to do on the two warlord stands. Most of his body is covered in mail, which I do with a base coast of Iron Wind Metals Steel and dry brush of silver.

    This warlord is accompanied into battle by his loyal Norwegian Elkhounds

I decided to give this general a pair of dogs using some of the many 28mm dog figures that I have collected over the years. With their size and look, I felt they'd fit well as Norwegian Elkhounds. I did my usual Google Image search to get the coloring as close as possible. I really like how they turned out.

    These two warlord stands will be given away as prizes at the Origins Game Fair tournaments

Finally, the banners are all designed using clipart found on the internet and Adobe Photoshop. I like how it lets you select a color and change it to whatever. you choose. Speaking of color, I probably should have made the Dark Age warlord's green banner a little lighter. Well, it LOOKED lighter in Photoshop, but once printed out on an Office Max laser printer, it seemed darker. I'll try to remember that in the future to go lighter if there is a question. All in all, I'm happy with both warlord stands and hope the players who win them will be, too. If you're a Saga player in the area, you really should come to Origins Game Fair, June 19-23, 2024. Dan Neal, Lee Parker, Joe Dihrkop, and Rusty Parker have collected a LOT of prizes and set up some really fun events. There is a "Learn to Play"/open play on Thursday, a Medieval tourney on Friday, and a Dark Age one on Saturday. 

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 64
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 74

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

 

Severed Heads on Posts (fatigue markers for my Thracian army)

    Some fatigue markers for my head-hunting Thracian army for Saga

One of Saga's game mechanics is fatigue on a unit. I'm a big fan of making any markers required on the tabletop "scenic." When I started playing the Dark Ages skirmish game a few years back, my first fatigue markers were extra shields I painted and glued to a flocked, circular base. As I kept playing, I have tried to get more creative or make the markers match the army in some way. For my latest army, the "barbarian" Thracians from the Hellenistic era, I decided to play off of the fact they were known in some sources as headhunters. So, why not severed heads on poles?

    Steps 1, 2, & 3: magnets on bottom of bases, glue carpet tack upright, and then first layer of flocking

Luckily, with the proliferation of plastic kit boxes for miniatures these days, the ancient wargaming world seems to rolling in extra heads. My friend Joe sent me about a dozen and they sat unused on my desk for about six months. This month, I finally decided to finish off the Thracian army and made the fatigue markers priority #1. After that, I would do the final half-dozen figures so that I don't need to proxy Pictish figures. Thanks to Joe, I had my heads, but now what do to with them?

   Step 4: Paint ballast with 50/50 white glue and water and then dip in Woodland Scenics blended turf

At Historicon last year, I bought a bunch of small circular bases to use as fatigue markers. Since I didn't have any magnets specially sized for them, I had to cut some from an adhesive magnetic sheet I'd purchased at Hobby Lobby. Once those were popped onto the bottoms, I then glued carpet tacks to the center of each. These small black nails have a rough, fluted surface that would dry brush well as wood. I used tacky glue to affix them, knowing that I'd have a couple layers of flocking on top of them to help keep them in place.

    After drilling out the bottom of the heads with a pin vice, they were glued onto the carpet tack

Next, I painted white glue onto the top of the base around the nail. I swished it around a tub of brown fine ballast from Woodland Scenics. After it was dry, I brushed on a 50/50 water and white glue mixture and sprinkled Blended Turf from the same company. Next, the markers received their first spray sealant coat. Now, it was time to affix the heads to the nails. I used a pin vice to drill out the bottom (neck area) of each head, starting with a smaller pin and then widening the hole with a bigger one. Once all heads were prepared, and one -- sadly -- was lost to the wilderness of my 1970s shag carpet in my painting area downstairs, I was ready to go.

I used model cement to attach each head to its post, not worrying about any excess dripping down the nail. That could be well, gore...right? Anyway, this went easier than I thought it would. I was worried about losing another head to the shag carpet demons! Once the heads were atop their posts, I brushed primed them white. From there, it was a simple matter to paint each head and then paint the post itself, too. I did leave out the pupil in my normal method of painting eyes, theorizing the eyes would have rolled back into the head. At least that's the way art seems to always depict severed heads.

    Finished and ready for the tabletop -- severed heads on posts as fatigue markers for Saga!

I really like the way these turned out. To anyone thinking of replicating the process, I would suggest finding heads that have their mouths open, appear to be shouting, or whatever. Mine look entirely too contemplative and philosophical about their fate as a fatigue marker. So, there you go! Progress on my Saga Thracian army AND a little tutorial on creating colorful, scratch-built fatigue markers. Feel free to take my idea and run with it...just watch out for runaway heads trying to escape to the shag carpet when prepping them!

 What's up next? Expect some Sci-Fi scatter terrain as I get prepared for my first game of Xenos Rampant (soon, I hope!)...

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 64
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 41 (note - severed heads not included in this total...ha, ha!)