First games of SAGA

OK, i believe the hype now...
Last week Rene (his report is here) visited and we played two bloody games of SAGA . We picked the first scenario and settled for 4 points each to get familiar with the rules.
We kept thing very simple for these games so I played a Viking war band with Warlord, 2 groups of Hearthguard, 1 group of Warriors and my favorite unit of Berserkers. Rene brought his Anglo Danish with Warlord, 2 Hearthguard and 2 Warriors.

The clashing Warlords:

The two games were very close with a win for both. It passed the most important and maybe only test from turn on going forward: having fun. It's not a wargame as I know it and at times it felt we were playing a board game with miniatures. That's just fine. I's a game and a very clever one.

You immediately notice the difference in the factions and the possibilities on the different battleboards provided with the rules.  In no time you start to plan your cunning tactics to find out the dice gods are betraying you or your opponent was just a step ahead of you.  Getting an Anglo Danish Warlord out of action for example is no simple task. He is so resilient the second game he survived 3 ferocious attacks by clever use of the Battleboard, sacrificing Hearthguard and defensive play. Until the Berserkers got their chance and finished it with a combined attack with the Warlord. No time for a nap in this game, you need to be aware and plan your actions continuously.

It's all over now for the poor guy... Berserkers!!!

The other thing I liked about the rules is that they are easy to learn and well explained. We both had read the book once but during the game we only had to pick up the rules in the beginning to find out we did the right thing. No rule discussion during the day and after the games we did not have any open rules questions which is remarkable for me.

The first scenario is good to learn the game but I'm eager to play the other scenarios and get more points on the table. I was bit worried once you know your battle board well enough it becomes much of the same but I'm sure the scenarios, using more points, unit composition and bad dice rolling will prove me wrong. I'm really trying to find anything I disliked but apart from the fact that from the 4 different battle boards they sent me 2 of the same, wich leaves me without a Norman board, I have nothing to complain. Game deserves a good review..

SAGA will be a great addition for our group. Easy quick setup, not 100's minis to paint to get involved, colourful period and games can be played and finished in an evening. I know the others here will like it as well and maybe this will be something for a campaign later on. I've been following the excellent blogs of
Dalauppror and Lokis Great Hall and they have some great campaign material for inspiration.

Some pictures, I've uploaded all pictures of the day here

SAGA extras, baggage train and fatigue markers

Painted this baggage cart for SAGA's escort scenario which requires three bases of baggage or anything that deserves to be protected. Enough finished so it's time to get a couple of games and depending on how much fun we have I will do some more points or another Warband. First game end of the Month where I will be trashing Rene from Paint-In.

Models from Gripping Beast with the except for the Viking dragging the poor woman with him. I gave the celebrating drunk a small treasure chest I found in the lead mountain.

Fatigue Markers, with decals from Little Big Men Studios

Experiment with a different background, easy to do once you know the trick but I'm not sure I like it?

Vikings for SAGA point 6: Archers

Not overexcited with the idea of having to paint the archers I got the job done. While I have collected hundreds of Vikings over the years I had a hard time finding twelve archers I could use. This is a mix of 5 manufacturers and I ended up doing a very simple conversion on a Foundry Bondi figure giving him bow, arrow and a quiver to get to twelve.

Warband is done now and I'm currently painting a baggage train for one of the scenarios. At least one game of SAGA and an ACW battle this Month and I'm looking forward to that. Last week we had a WWI game using Mud & Blood which was great but unfortunately the pictures are unusable.

In the meantime the group decided to start yet another project so I'm currently in research mode for figs and history. This time we found another nice niche: Mexican American War in 28mm. We are fully aware of some great 18mm and 40mm ranges out there but because we have a lot of  unused scenery in 28 we decided to use what we have and stay with 28mm. We will use So Far From God by TooFatLardies as our ruleset for the period. Now let me see if I can find some cool figures I can use...

Viking Gallery

Vikings for SAGA point 5: More hirdmen

Another group of Hirdmen, this time led by a retired Berserker who likes his parties. I guess his well fed belly more than makes up for the extra armour point he gets leading these guys.
The Hirdmen are from Crusader, retired berserker from the Foundry Viking range. Shield transfers from Little Big Men Studios.

I've created a gallery with all Vikings here...

Vikings for SAGA, point 4: more Bondi

4 points finished and ready for a first game. Probably next week. Another point of Hearthguard and 12 archers (hopefully they are of any use, don't really like the idea of including them) on the paint bench before I move to the civilians, carts, casualties etc to enrich the gaming table.
Again a mix of manufacturers and the shield transfers from Little Big men Studios.

Vikings for SAGA. Point 3: Bondi

First of two (maybe 3)groups of Bondi. Next group will follow very shortly and then I have 4 points to put up a first test game to see if the game will live up to it's expectations.

In the meantime I'm recovering parts of this blog since a lot of the pictures went missing recently. With a nice piece of Apple's new hardware I decided to migrate to iCloud last week. Wrong decision. As a long time user of their products I also used their internet galleries. They announced these end of life last year but stated that you can use them until June 2012; also if you migrated. Well, not for me. Two days after my move to iCloud the galleries were deleted..Gone. Together with the pictures on the blog that were sourced from the galleries. Fortunately I quit using the galleries after 10 blogposts or so and I still have copies but it's time consuming to put them all back. In the meantime Apple support is working on it now but I don't think they will be able to get all the pictures back in a way they link back to the blog. Anyway, I'm frustrated and I rather paint or browse the blogs instead of this %$@.

Vikings for SAGA, point 2: Berserkers

Yesterday I realized it was exactly one year ago I started this blog. It's been really nice to see it slowly grow through the year and had good fun making new virtual friends with as one of the highlights a game with Blogosphere celebs Ray and Fran during my holiday in Kent.
Time for the hobby is a bit limited for me the next months but I will try to keep up the one post a week schedule. And I will keep them shorter :-)

Berserkers: two from Artizan, one Crusader and one unknown (Gripping Beast?)

My flesh recipe for the Berserkers:
Vallejo red leather basecoat. Highlighted Foundry expert Flesh B to E

Vikings for SAGA, point 1

The fist unit for my Viking SAGA warband. Easy first point with only 4 minis. Hope I get all 6 points and some extras done before the end of February. Models from Artizan except for the one swinging the Axe who is from Foundry. Shield decals are from the excellent Little Big Men Studios.

 

The next unit on it's way....Berserkers