New Painting Project: Carolingians for Saga

    The first batch of my 28mm Carolingian army -- Charlemagne's Franks

I'd been planning to get started on these guys for awhile, but had been putting them off to finish a few miscellaneous batches of Dark Ages figures. The intermission is over, though, and it is time to begin painting a new Saga army. The core of my Carolingian army is a 4-point Gripping Beast starter box. The box contains no bow-armed warriors, though, and my planned build calls for two unit's worth of them. Luckily, I have a lot of miscellaneous 28mm Dark Age archers in my unpainted bin. I sorted out 16 suitable looking figures and added them to my round metal tin where I'd dumped the Gripping Box figs into.

    Closeup of two of the riders showing the two-tone helmets and the iron scale armor

Where to start, though? I like to paint in batches of 6-8 figures, but a batch of 8 mounted is simply too large for my sakes. So, I broke the box's 8 troopers into two batches of four. Interestingly, exactly half of the riders are wearing scale armor and the other half chainmail. I chose to paint the scale armored guys, since it would be a change of pace. I did some research trying to decide whether the scales would be bronze or iron/steel. I saw images of both online, and ended up deciding to go with iron/steel. However, I remembered from my 15mm Ancients days how much I liked the look of Republican Roman legionaries who had bronze helmets but steel chainmail. I decided to recapture some of that look by painting their helmets as a bronze bowl with steel reinforcing sections.

    My dappled gray and brindle brown horses, taken from the online horse coloring guide I'd found

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Lately, for mounted figures I have been actually epoxying the figure to the horse before priming them. And I begin my painting with the horses, finishing them completely before starting on the riders. So, I looked at my chart of horse colorings that I'd found online and picked out four to paint. The chart is kind of cartoonish, but that's not really that bad of a thing considering we are doing a miniature adaption of horse colors. I picked out a nice looking one I'd never done before - brownish "brindle" color (yep, like dogs!), a really nice red bay, a dappled, gray "Chubari Spots," and a lighter brown "Red Dun." I have found that I like how my horses come out so much better since I started actually researching horse colorings online!

    The brighter colored noble cavalry of the Carolingian army in their red & green coloring

For the riders, I went with brighter colors than I would normally do otherwise for Dark Ages figures. These are the hearthguard -- the wealthiest of the warriors -- and should look the part of upper class Franks. Two of them had cloaks, which I painted a Yew Green and faded Red. Monty and Rodge of Saga Thorsday fame talk a lot about a common coloring system running through their excellently painted armies. For irregular Dark Age folks, that's not something I have done. However, with the Carolingians, we see the beginnings of a more professional army. So, I have decided that red and green will be the common colors running through the warband. By no means will every figure be in those colors. Instead, I will just shoot for more reds and greens than the others. For example, one of these riders is in blue, two in green, and the third is the faded red.

I lined their tunics and cloaks in contrasting colors and gave them suitably Frankish looking shields, I felt. I keep telling myself that "next" army I will follow the crowd and give shield decals a try. I have never successfully been able to use them, though I admit the only time I tried was long ago and in 15mm. So, for now, I will continue to hand-paint my shield designs. When flocking the figures, I decided I would do another "common look" bit to tie the army together (as Monty and Rodge would say). I'm going to put flower tufts on the bases of this army. I actually decided that as I was finishing up when I thought the bases looked a little plain. I'd put rocks and pebbles on the Moorish cavalry bases, so I thought I'd give the Carolingians a bouquet of flowers or two!

Hope you guys like them -- feel free to leave comments below (or follow my blog - it has pitifully few followers...ha, ha!). Next up? A point of Frankish infantry warriors! I actually just put the base coat on their tunics tonight, so who knows? Maybe they will follow these guys onto the field relatively quickly.

Trying Out Solo Saga Raid Scenario

    Half of the Saxon Raider force who were feeling very lucky that day apparently!

I am normally not the type of guy who plays solo wargames. Sure, I'll do a computer boardgame against the AI. But solo miniatures? I honestly don't think I've ever done that - mostly because I'm blessed with a regular gaming group. However, when Joe of the Northern Tempest Saga Podcast posted about a solo scenario for Saga, I was intrigued. 

My Britons' compact deployment to ensure all units were Galvanized & the Saxons opening rolls

As the defender, you are trying to turn back a raid. The raider's units use dice and the scenario rules to determine what they'll do. There is no battle board for the raiders. Instead, you roll a Saga die for each unit. A Common gives them one action, Uncommon two, and Rare two plus bonus attack dice when shooting or in melee. The defender (you) uses his battle board to the best of his ability.

    An omen of things to come - Saxon archers defy odds and hit 5 of 6 times and I save only 2 of 5

On the face of it, that sounds easy, right? You can make plans, but the raiders must follow a predetermined series of actions that you know will happen. However, Joe didn't make it THAT easy for you! The raiders have significant advantages in this game. Number one is there is no terrain on the smaller, 3'x3' board. They deploy 12" forward, so they're more than 1/3 of the way across already. The defender can't deploy within a Short of any edge, so no hiding on the base line, either. What else? All raiders clear one fatigue marker at the start of their turn for free. Anything else? Do they NEED anything else??

End of Saxon half of turn 1 -- they are already in my face and ready to continue their havoc

I decided to handicap myself even more, choosing to play a new army -- Britons from Age of Invasions. After my recent guest (Adrian) on the Saga Ohio podcast said they were way under powered, I sensed a challenge (and a chance to prove him wrong?). So, I was playing a new board. Also, the battle is a 4-point one rather than the usual 6 points. I had never played a 4-point battle. I did study the Briton board and thought I'd come up with a number of great defensive combinations for them. One problem, though. A number of the abilities on the Briton battle board require two dice, and also a Rare die. My 4-point warband would generate only four Saga dice. Wait a minute...does it sound like I am making excuses before giving my report??

  My 6 mounted hearthguard launch their spoiling charge on a Saxon warrior unit on my turn 1

My plan was to take advantage of the special "Galvanized" ability for the Britons. They are considered Galvanized when they are within Very Short of their Warlord. I also took advantage of the Companions rule, which lets two hearthguard join the warlord and form a Heroic unit. So, I chose two units of 8 foot warriors, 1 unit of 6 mounted hearthguard, and then the Warlord's Heroic unit. I deployed the two foot units side by side up front, with the mounted hearthguard and Warlord directly behind them. All were within Very Short of the Warlord. All Galvinized...all doomed, haha!

    The result of the charge - even though loaded up, I lose 3 troopers while the Saxons lose only five

Two of the Saxon units (foot hearthguard and levy archers) rolled Uncommons, the rest rolled Commons. Raider units activate in order of largest unit first, then next largest, and so on. The levy were out of range (I was just outside of Long), so they advanced then fired at my right hand foot warrior unit. At this point, I should have realized something was about to go wrong - very wrong! The levy scored 5 out of 6 hits (needing a 4+ on 1d6). I failed 3 of 5 saves (needing the same 4+). First shot and one of my units is almost at half strength. Note that there is nothing you as defender can do defensively on turn one -- you haven't rolled any Saga dice. 

    Things look bleak for this Briton warrior unit, facing off against Saxon warriors and hearthguard!

Both warrior units advanced towards my block of Britons, followed by the hearthguard who went screaming across the table with two advances, ending close enough to my warriors to smell their breath! At this point, I realized this wasn't going to be easy. I rolled my four Saga dice and scored 3 Commons and 1 Uncommon. A terrible roll, really (again?). Too many of the good Briton abilities require either a Rare or Uncommon. I decided to use my mounted hearthguard to do a spoiling attack on the oncoming Saxon warrior unit on the right. I essentially gave them all four dice -- the Uncommon for Brittania! (which activates them to charge and gives them 3 bonus attack dice, plus makes them Galvanized for the melee). I also used two of the Commons for No Pity, which gave them +1 to attack, and meant they would discard one defense dice that saved a hit. Surely with 15 dice I would eliminate the 8 figures in the Saxon warrior unit? 

    The warriors close ranks against the second charge and will end Saxon turn 2 with one figure left

Once again, the Saxons were on fire with their die rolling, and mine was terrible. They lost only five figures while I lost three! The fourth die on my board was to pull them back after the combat, which I did, stunned that one of my most powerful units was brought down to half strength while barely making an inferior unit slightly less than half. Uh-oh, this wasn't going to be good! The Warlord used his We Obey order to send the shot-up warrior unit away from the center and the impending charge of the Saxon hearthguard. The Warlord's Heroic unit also pulled back so that they couldn't be hit by less than two moves. That was it for my first turn. I was down 3 hearthguard and 3 warriors, and the Saxons had lost only 5 warriors.

    A ray of sunshine in dice luck when 3 warriors drive off the Saxon warlord with no losses!

Turn 2 began equally well for the Saxon raiders. The levy shot again at the unit they'd savaged last turn, causing two more casualties. The full strength warrior unit had rolled an Uncommon, so they raced forward and slammed into my full strength warrior unit. Since the battle turned on Survival Points, I decided to close ranks. It didn't matter. Once again, the Saxons rolled great and the Britons poorly. We lost four figures (I failed 4 out of 5 of my 50/50 save chances -- 4+ when closing ranks), and caused no casualties. Then the Saxon hearthguard followed up and slammed into the remaining four Briton warriors. We closed ranks again, and were left with one figure left, once again causing no casualties. Um...Joe? This was not going well!

    After resting up, the mounted troopers charge back into the fray to pick off a lone Saxon warrior

And then the dice gods sent me a ray of light and hope. The Saxon warlord charged the arrow-riddled Briton warrior unit. Once again, we closed ranks. It has to work sooner or later, right? It did! The Saxon warlord hit with only two of his eight dice (we missed, of course). We actually saved both, and he recoiled a Short distance away. What?? A paltry, three warriors stood up to the Saxon warlord? They weren't out of the woods, yet, though. The Saxon unit that had been attacked by my mounted troopers of course had rolled an Uncommon, allowing them to charge my Britons in a three-on-three, warrior fight. The dice continued to wink at me, and we scored two hits to their one, pushing these Saxons back, as well. It was the end of Saxon turn 2, and we were down a total of 12 warriors and 3 hearthguard. They were down 6 warriors. I would need a lot more than a nudge, nudge, wink, wink from the dice gods if the Britons were going to prevail!

    Towards the end game - I have one mounted hearthguard and one warrior left

For my second turn, I was down to just 2 Saga dice. I rolled a Rare and a Common. I was very tempted to reroll my Rare to give me a third dice. However, one of the fiercest attacking threats on the Briton board is the Warlord. I placed the Rare on Pendragon, which allows the Warlord to reroll all 1's or 2's in melee. Then the common went on Dux Bellorum, which for a single die allows the Warlord to activate as many times as he wants till he's Exhausted. I figured if the troops weren't doing the job, it was up to the Warlord to inspire them.

I charged the Saxon hearthguard first. Even after my rerolls, I had four misses. The Saxons were unable to save enough times, though, and their unit was eliminated. Woo-hoo! This caused a fatigue on the nearby Saxon warrior unit, giving it its second fatigue. I had lost one of my hearthguard from my heroic unit, and had a fatigue from the combat. Still, I slammed into the Saxon warriors next. I had used one of their fatigue to raise my Armor to 6, which SHOULD mean I would take, at most, one or two hits. What did the Saxon bastards roll? Four sixes! Although I whittled them down to one figure, my remaining hearthguard died and my Warlord was left hanging there, Exhausted. I had planned on NOT being Exhausted, and activating again to move close enough to my double-fatigued mounted hearthguard and Rest them. No dice, though...I was in a bad place for turn 3 with my two toughest units loaded up with fatigue!

Apparently, I was so depressed with how things were going I forgot to take pictures of Saxon turn 3. As expected, my warlord was charged by the Saxon warriors and I was unable to make my saves. The levy shot and destroyed my small warrior unit, but little else happened. On my turn 3, I was down to a single Saga die (my 3 mounted hearthguard). I decided to rest them and hope they could do more again on turn 4. The dice gods tried to say they were playing fair when the Saxon levy followed up and unleashed a volley at my remaining warrior guy. I made all three saves.

On my turn 4, my mounted hearthguard charged the single Saxon warrior and killed him. This put a fatigue on their warlord, who we also charged. The Saxon warlord killed two of the mounted troopers and easily survived, driving them off. At this point, it was all over but the shouting. The archers finally killed my last warrior, and my warband ended the game with a single mounted hearthguard. I had whittled the Saxons down to their warlord and the 12 levy archers. So, after an abysmal start, I guess that is some compensation. The Saxons won, 6-1, on Survival Points.

What did I think? Joe has designed a fierce Raider force that will be quite a challenge to defeat. I wouldn't mind taking them on with an army that I am more practiced at...maybe even my Moors, next. To analyze it a bit, I think any battle board that depends on two Saga dice abilities is going to struggle in a 4-point game. I found that I definitely don't like 4-point games as well as 6-pointers! I think that in future games I will not deploy in a solid block and try to stretch all of my units back as far as I can. That way, maybe I can have turn one to build up some Saga dice on my board. I'm looking forward to trying again. Thanks, Joe -- I like how you made this tough and no cake walk! By the way, this is the first game of Saga that I have lost in awhile. So, congratulations on commanding these Raiders in spirit for your victory!

Anglo-Saxon Huscarles Finish off Intermission

    Four 28mm Anglo-Saxon huscarles from Gripping Beast to complete my 6-point Anglo-Dane army

With this small batch of four Anglo-Saxon huscarles ("hearthguard" in Saga), I am now finished with the intermission between the completion of my Moorish warband and the start of my next painting project: Carolingians. These were the four armored figures in the Gripping Beast 4-point Anglo-Saxon starter box that I bought from Game Table Adventures in Newark awhile back. I now have more than enough figures in that box for a loaner army of Anglo-Danes or Vikings. That was my goal when I started this painting intermission -- fleshing out my 6-point armies so that I didn't have to swap figures back and forth to field an army. That brings me to a total of five separate 6-point armies: Moors, Picts (Scots in Age of Vikings), Welsh, Vikings, and Anglo-Danes.

    My two favorite from this batch of four - I love how the dusty purple and faded dark green came out

I like these four poses - they are all significantly different, with their own helmet styles, tunic lengths, and way they are wielding their weapons. These were cast "open handed" -- which I prefer. So, I chose to give two axes and two swords. To this day, epoxying weapons into hands is probably my weak point in modeling. If you look closely, you can see they're not perfect fits, but I hope that the overall look of the figures stands out more than the figure's sometimes awkward grip. For three of these, the shields were cast on. The fourth (with the maroon and yellow cross shape), I needed to glue on. I substituted an Anglo-Saxon style, rimmed shield divided into eight sections. Seemed a perfect fit for Anglo-Saxons.

I used brighter or richer colors in general for these wealthier Saxon nobles

I wanted the colors to be a bit brighter than the faded colors I have been mostly painting on the warriors. I used the "Yew Green" (darker pine green), dusty purple, blue, and a striped red and green for the tunics. I normally avoid stripes, but since most of the tunic was concealed by their armor, I figured I could handle doing their arms and the fringe peaking out beneath the chainmail skirt. Each tunic got a contrasting or matching edging, too -- I particularly like how the green one's decorated border turned out. All of the sield designs are hand-painted to give the effect of ones I found researching Anglo-Saxon shield patterns on the web. They turned out okay -- certainly not my most impressive.

    My next project: Carolingians -- the army of Charlemagne!

As I mentioned above, I begin my Carolingian army next. The 4-point Gripping Beast starter box will be the core of my army. However, I dug through my unpainted lead drawer and found a bunch of Dark Ages archers to use to supplement the box (which contains 8 mounted troopers, 16 foot, and one mounted general). I use two points of warrior bow in my Carolingian army, so I would need 16 of these, as well. Some of the archers look like Franks, others more like Vikings or other random Dark Age figures. However, Charlemagne's empire was very cosmopolitan, so a mix of clothing and armor styles seems a good fit. I am starting out with a small batch of four mounted troops, and I just finished painting the base color on the horseflesh before starting this update. 

So, look for more updates soon (hopefully) -- especially if we get that snow the weathermen are forecasting.

Anglo-Saxon Warriors Ready to Take the Field

    Eight 28mm Anglo-Saxon warriors from Gripping Beast to augment my Saga forces

My painting intermission between finishing my Moorish army and beginning my Carolingians is nearing its end. The next-to-last step was the completion of 8 Anglo-Saxon warriors from the 28mm Gripping Beast 4-point starter pack. I had purchased the box because I was short of unarmored Dark Age infantry, which I use as "Warriors" in Saga. I like to use the guys in chainmail as "Hearthguard," if possible. When I started playing Saga, I had lots of armored guys, but few unarmored ones.

    Each of the figures in the box had a nice variety of poses, clothes, and overall looks.

I love the variety of poses in this pack. I've yet to see a duplicate model, all of them have noticeable difference. The eight figures I chose to paint out of this box all were bareheaded. I'd used the guys with helmets as Vikings in the previous batch. Like I tell a lot of people starting to get into playing Saga, many Dark Age warriors looked somewhat similar. In fact, these figures were going to be part of one of my loaner armies which could be fielded as either Vikings, Anglo-Danes, or heck, why not Pagan Rus? Most of them I armed with spears, although there was one guy who looked better suited to holding a sword. Thankfully, the Gripping Beast box contained a handful of swords and axes I could use. The spears were the normal wire spears I used from North Star.

    I painted the warriors in muted or faded colors, such as these faded greens

I painted them in a variety of dull, faded, or muted colors. I know that I am in a minority in using craft paints as opposed to the hobby varieties out there. I really enjoy the huge amount of choice in tones and shades in greens, blues, reds, yellows, purples - you name it. And at only $1 or so a bottle, I can afford so many more shades than my usually cheapskate nature would let me purchase if I used Vallejo or some other manufacturer. Of course, each base color gets its dry brush to make it look more faded and worn. In fact, I have steadily expanded the parts of figure that gets a dry brush. It used to be just the main areas, such as tunics, cloaks, etc. More often now, just about everything except a tiny bag or pouch will get dry brushing or highlighting. Once the lines of the dry brushing are muted by the brown or black wash I apply, I really like the effect.

    I really like the action of the pose stabbing with the spear

There were a couple poses that I'd picked out that were stabbing with their spears held two-handed. I could have put a shield on their back, but liked the variety they gave to this batch. One of my favorites of the batch was the guy above stabbing overhand with his spear. As another example of the variety, this guy was shoeless, but had leather wrapping around his legs. I've always been amazed by the idea of ancient or medieval warriors running around barefoot like Hobbits. I can't imagine the effect of stepping on an unseen rock might have as he was charging into combat!

    The guy in the pale blue was one of my favorites from this batch -- I really liked his facial features

Of course, all of the shields were hand-painted. One of these days, I'll get around to trying decals, again. I thought these attempts turned out okay. I didn't try anything particularly fancy with these - they were common, run-of-the-mall warriors, after all! I did cheat and mix in a couple Foundry (I think) shields with this batch from my large supply. All in all, it was a fast and easy group of miniatures to paint up. I highly recommend this box to anyone looking for some Dark Age warriors.

Next up? Four chainmail armored hearthguard to finish off the 6 points (plus) for this army. And then, finally, the Carolingians!

More Viking Bondi (Warriors)

    8 Viking Bondi (warriors in Saga) using 28mm Gripping Beast Anglo-Saxon figures

In anticipation of face-to-face gaming (and our Saga game days) resuming eventually, I have been filling holes in my loaner armies. Previously, it was a struggle to field both Vikings and Anglo-Danes (or a second Viking warband). I didn't have enough unarmored warriors, though I had plenty of armored troops to use as Huscarles, or hearthguard as they are known in the rules. Thus, the purchase awhile back of Footsore unarmored Vikings. And more recently, the 4-point Gripping Beast starter box of Anglo-Saxons.

    The kneeling guy with the shield was on of my favorite poses - I also like the shield pattern I painted

The good thing about Dark Ages is that one warrior often looked a lot like another. So, two Germanic/Teutonic warriors aren't that different when it comes to either equipment or clothing. So, I sorted through the Gripping Beast box and chose out 8 figures that looked particularly "Viking-ish." I enjoy Gripping Beast metal 28mm figures. The shields are often cast on and the hands are usually open to glue in the weapons. Contrast this with Footsore, where you must drill out the sometimes too small fists to accept weapons (which are purchased separately). Footsore figs are lovely, but I like to minimize assembly when it comes to my miniatures!

    Another of my favorite poses is the guy with the leveled spear...not so much his partner, though!

All but one of the figures I picked out to become Vikings had steel helmets. They also tended to have short sleeve tunics with long sleeve shirts and long pants underneath. I tried to streamline my painting with this batch. After doing the flesh, I did all the base coat on all three of the above articles of clothing instead of one at a time, followed by its dry brushing. Thus, I did all three base coats in one setting and all three dry brushing sessions on those colors in a second setting. I did have to "erase" with water the odd bit of splash over from time to time, but for the most part, it worked great. I will be doing this more in the future!

    The "strawberry blonde" hair of the guy on the right is one of my more recent hair colors I've used

I use mostly Ceramcoat craft paints, supplemented by Howard Hues and Iron Wind Metals acrylics. I've collected quite a palette of colors. For Dark Age miniatures, I prefer faded hues like "Wedgewood" blue and green. For what would be brighter colors, like red, I will often use an earthier, red-brown tone. Naturally, I work in various tans and grays, as well as dull yellows. I reason that people in the Dark Ages didn't have closets full of clothes like we do, wearing the same clothes day in and day out. That, combined with their method of washing, would tend have a dull down any brightness of colors over time.

    I like the intricate, Viking borders I've been putting on figures lately - such as this guy on the left

As with the earlier batch of Viking archers, I worked in decoration and ornamentation here and there on the figures, too. Slight more than half had bands or decorated hems. Those that didn't were more likely to receive a decorated sword sheath. Obviously, I don't want my Dark Age warriors to be as brightly and colorfully patterned as, say, my recently-finished Andalusian Moorish army. I want the decoration to be subtle, and show up mostly when you focused on a single figure.

With this batch, I'm done with Vikings for now. I have started 8 more figs from the Gripping Beast box, but these will be for my Anglo-Dane (or second Viking) army. After those, I will likely pull out the handful of armored figures in the box and supplement my true Anglo-Saxon hearthguards with those. Then...FINALLY...I will be on to the Carolingians!

Viking Archers by the Dozen!

 A dozen 28mm Gripping Beast Viking archers - my first batch of painted figures in 2021!

My first batch of painted miniatures for 2021 was a group of 12 Viking archers. I picked them up last year at one of our Saga game days at the Dragons Guildhall in Beavercreek, OH. Not only did I want to support the store by making a purchase, I realized I needed more Dark Age archers. My Viking, Saxon, Pict and Welsh Saga armies were all sharing archers from the same pool of figures. This would go a long way towards making sure I could field these armies without swapping figures back and forth between boxes.

 I used faded colors for my palette, but with a little bit of decoration that the Vikings were know for

I have since tossed the packaging that these figures came in, but I am pretty sure that these are 28mm Gripping Beast miniatures. The bows needed to be epoxied into the archers' hands, but otherwise no assembly was required. That's one of several reasons why I prefer metal miniatures over the new wave of plastic which require the gluing together of arms, torsos, heads, and so on. I've said it before (and close examination bears this out), I am not that good at supergluing or epoxying things together. So, less of that I have to do the better!

 The pose variety of headgear was great - archers in helmets, knitted or fur caps or bareheaded

The variety in the package was marvelous! A little less than half the figures had metal helmets, others were bareheaded or had fur or knitted woolen caps. There was also some variety in the posing, with archers leaning back, forward, kneeling and even running. I highly recommend theses figures. There was very little flash, they are clean and easy to paint without too much equipment festooned over them. 

 Many of the tunics were painted with fancy borders even if the material itself was a faded color

I mixed in faded colors -- gray greens and blues, dun yellows -- along with a few brighter reds or blues. In Saga, the Viking archers are typically considered Levy troops (which would be the poorest members of society). However, I think that is an oversimplification because archery was a valued skill in Viking training for war. So, I made sure my Viking archers had a splattering of fancy borders on their tunics. They were a colorful group of people known for their love of fine clothing, good grooming, and wearing their wealth. So, I even decorated some of the quivers with stripes, swirls, and runes.

 I think the detail on the borders and quivers balances with the solid color tunics, shirts, and pants

Although I am posting all 12 archers at the same time, I divided them into two batches of six when painting them. I usually divide my painting into batches of six to eight figures. That way, I don't get bored painting huge numbers at the same time and feel like I am making progress as I finish them more quickly. I also base, flock, and seal the figures as I finish them. There's something satisfying about incrementally watching your army of usable figures grow that keeps me inspired...usually!

 The home page for Saga Ohio on Spotify, one of a number of platforms you can listen to it on

What else have I accomplished in 2021? Well, my Saga Ohio podcast just published episode 4, yesterday. The podcast is available (free, of course) on various platforms, including Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, and more. In my latest episode, my guest was Jim Randall - a local Saga gamer and big fan of the Byzantine Empire. I like the format, talking to my guest and getting them to explain to listeners how they field their army, what tactics they use, and how they best take advantage of the army's special abilities. I find listening to a podcast (or something similar) is a great thing to do while painting miniatures. I eagerly look forward to the newest episodes from my favorites -- Northern Tempest Saga Podcast and Saga Thorsday. If you haven't done it before, cue up one of these (or if I may be so bold, Saga Ohio!), next painting session and give it a try!

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!