The Saga of Symbaroum

If you don’t like using miniatures in RPGs, look away now…

There’s a few characters that have been requested for the next RPG session, although a couple of them will actually find their way into my Saga Warbands.

The first character is Captain Lindra of the Queen’s Rangers. Now, bear in mind because of spoilers I don’t know anything about these characters beyond a loose physical appearance. I know very little about who they are or what their motivations are. Captain Lindra, I was informed, is a large, gruff looking female and also a bit of a grizzled veteran. I was also asked to make her slightly more heavily Armoured than the rest of the rangers. This was a really hard miniature to find and I scoured every range of fantasy miniatures I could think of, although I deliberately avoided both Reaper and Dark Sword because the scale is not appropriate to the rest of the collection. Dark Sword are much closer to 32mm scale and Reaper are all over the place. But I looked at the Oathmark, Frostgrave, Bad Squiddo and many more that I simply can’t even remember. There didn’t seem to be any female miniatures that had the medieval look I wanted in that sort of middle ground of armour. They were all either unarmoured or lightly armoured rangers, full plate knights, classic era looking greeks or viking shield maidens. Eventually I ended up getting this from the most unexpected of places – Wargames Illustrated. She’s part of the Giants in Miniature range and she’s listed as “Female Warrior”, but from the webstore image, she’s quite clearly Brien of Tarth from the HBO Game of Thrones show. She has some sort of plate Armour on her upper torso but over the legs she only has her gambeson. With a little greenstuff I added a cloak and voila a captain for the Queen’s Rangers. Being a captain and a veteran it makes a certain amount if sense that she might have earned enough money to invest in some plating but that she wouldn’t go for a full suit of plate Armour for traipsing around the forest. I painted the model in similar colours to the rangers and opted to paint the armour plates in purple, similar to the Pansars’ (Queen’s Guards) breastplates but as with the rangers, I mixed a little brown into the base colour. The rest of the model is painted with the same colour palette of dull browns and a forest green cloak.

The next on my list is Captain Marvello and I do have a little information about him. Formerly a captain in the Thistlehold Town Watch he has recently taken up a position in the Queen’s Army. How or why I don’t know but I do know that he wasn’t a particularly nice individual and was more than happy to leave more dangerous tasks to private citizens (i.e. us, the player party) rather than actively deal with problems himself. He’s a soldier though and needed a soldiers miniature. Rather than buying anything new, I used this which coincidentally is also from Wargames Illustrated’s Giants in Miniature range. I have had this sat around for several years and decided to use it for Symbaroum. The actual miniature is supposed to be Orlando Bloom’s character, Balian, from the film Kingdom of Heaven and the heavy, thick chainmail that he’s wearing along with the surcoat are just a perfect fit with what I am looking for in the Queen’s Army. Scale wise he is actually a tad large, especially stood next to some of the Footsore Miniatures, but I don’t really mind that. He’s a character model and sometimes a slight increase in the scale of the model actually helps to draw attention to them, a sort of manifestation of their larger personality/presence. This model will also work quite nicely as a dismounted warlord for the Saga army so it will have a longer term use.

The next item on my list was “a female elf mystic”. Literally that was all I got. As is so often the case, fantasy Miniatures can be hard to find. If you do a search for things like “Elf Mystic” or “Elf Sorceror” the overwhelming majority of matches look like they’ve stumbled out of Age of Sigmar, D&D or World of Warcraft. They are very stylised and that’s really not what I was going for. Even the GW Middle Earth Range was quite limited, not least because quite often with the characters they come as a pack of three or you end up with one on foot and one mounted and you have to pay for a load of stuff you don’t really want. Also, I couldn’t find an elf that looked suitably “mystical”. I actually have the old metal Galadriel and Celeborn set that comes with the mirror, but I didn’t want to break into that set and repurpose a third of it, essentially making the rest useless. So I turned to my 3D printer for a solution. I found this, aptly called “Elven Witch” by The Printing Goes Ever On”. This is an interpretation of Galadriel as she responds to Frodo’s offer to give her the one ring, and I think the pose is perfect. She looks mystical and powerful in her posing, slightly elevated from the ground but also grounded and believable in her appearance wearing a simple dress with relatively little affectation added to it. To emphasise the levitation, I actually drilled a hole into the bottom of the model and pinned her to the base using roughly 1cm of brass rod. Colours wise I wanted to keep in theme with the rest of the Iron Pact, because again she will be used as part of that warband. In the RPG I believe she’s actually a leader but in Saga she might end up being relegated to a Sorcerer instead (because it doesn’t seem to easily facilitate Sorcerers also being your warlord). The main colours for the Iron pact are gold Armour with green and brown clothing, with the cloaks of the Hearthguard being a deep green. So I decided that green is going some kind of important colour to the Iron Pact, a mark of status or other significance so I gave her a green dress. I added some gold coloured trims to it, such as the belt and around the neck line and then to maintain the colour trio I gave her ted hair. I couldn’t resist blue glowing eyes to reinforce the idea that she’s currently in the middle of casting a spell that’s going to make someone’s day much worse than ot otherwise might have been. Unfortunately, I ran out of spray varnish and it would seem that my MicroFlat brush on varnish is not very flat at all and is, in fact, quite glossy… I may remedy that when I finally get hold of some varnish from somewhere as there seems to be a shortage around the local area right now.

Finally I needed a Barbarian war leader, both for the RPG session but also Saga. This is the war leader for the northern confederation (Enoai, Gaoia and Godinja clans) and I have painted him in similar colours to the Godinja clan. I was asked for a Barbarian Leader with a 2 handed warhammer, but that was proving very difficult to find without going down the furry underpants barbarian route (and even then I would have had to 3D print one). So I used some creative license and found this guy with a two handed axe. Officially the model is Ariovistus, a Germanic warrior from ancient times, by Warlord Games so he’s from the right barbarian culture to go with the German/Dacian mix of the Godinja. I actually quite like this model, it’s got a certain sort of old school charm to it, being a single piece. It was a lot of fun to stick some paint on him although there are a few areas on the model (luckily they’re hard to see) where the model is a little messy.

As well as the basic troops, I also had a command sprue, which allowed me to make 5 armoured nobles. These will likely be used as Hearthguard in the eventual warband. I really like these models, I just think they really tie the Godinja clan to the lore. I stuck with the same colour scheme as the rest of the troops, although I applied more of a uniform: brown trousers, green tops and gold undershirts. I also went with gold Armour, again mimicking the Elves although this armour is obviously nowhere near as splendid

As with the Gaoia nobles, I designed alternative shields using Tinkercad for the Godinja nobles. The basic shield was relatively simple to make, it’s just a hex shaped stretched and squashed to the right dimensions with some semi-spheres stuck on top for a shield boss. The designs were obtained from Thingiverse, literally just 3D tribal designs, which again I just shrunk, stretched and squashed to the right shape. I tried to find two different tribal shapes that compliment each other and then just arranged them on top of the shields. The designs aren’t necessarily Dacian or Germanic but then again, this is fantasy and I felt justified in taking the liberty here.

That’s pretty much all I have at the moment for the northern clans.  Initially these were bought for the RPG but I think I have definitely given myself a lot of food for thought.  The other exciting part about the northern clans is that they’re the ones most likely to have “fantasical” elements to them, being much people of the forest than their southern peers.  The Enoai capture poisonous spiders which the hurl their enemies, so there’s scope there to include spider swarms in the list.  The Gaoia are known to tame the rage trolls (semi-intelligent, human sized trolls) that inhabit the forest and use them as guards, so again, there’s scope for including those as a unit as well.  I definitely see the northern clans as a coalition army with elements of all three clans bolstered by some of the creatures of the dark Davokaar, the deepest part of the forest.  I think these will be the polar opposite of the Queen’s Army, who are suspicious of anything that comes out of the forest Davokaar.

In terms of army archetypes I am debating between The Horde (which seems designed for barbarian armies) or Lords of the Wild. Lords of the Wild allows me to field swarms as levies, which have some really cool special rules and really fit with the idea of the Barbarians throwing spiders at their opponents. It also allows for Levies to have Javelins, which are quite a thematic weapon type. On the other hand only the Hearthguard can field heavy weapons, meaning there will be less of the iconic Falx weapons knocking around. Conversely the Horde allows warriors to be armed with heavy weapons so I can field the Falxmen and also the Rage Trolls as warriors if I wanted. Currently I am undecided on this, and in theory there’s nothing really preventing me from choosing which one I want before each battle, but that’s not really how my mind works. I want to decide which archetype matches each army best and then develop the theme with the right models. Regardless of what happens, I likely need to expand the number of archers and slingers I have to either 8 (Lords of the Wild) or 12 (Horde) as the army is very light on those and I don’t have enough to make a full unit. Beyond that, it really depends on the archetype as the options for warriors and Hearthguard in the two are quite different.

The Godinja (I think it’s a soft J, because the makers are Swedish) Clan are the southern most of the three “northern clans”. However they’re still far enough away from the Ambrians that their influence has not really touched on them. The Godinja are renowned as craftsmen and in particular make fine jewelry and ornate masks that many barbarians treasure. They also claim Elven heritage and it is claimed that their current clan chief has Elvish blood in his veins.

To try and maintain consistency with the previous two clans (Enoai and Gaoia) I wanted another classical era civilization to use as an inspiration and also something I could source miniatures for relatively cheaply. Initially I started with some plastic Germanic tribesmen from Victrix. Aesthetically, before you apply any colour, they’re not dissimilar to the Gauls, the only real differences being the hairstyles and the shield shapes (although the shield bosses are pretty much the same style and shape). However it quickly became apparent that there wasn’t actually a great out there in terms of variety of miniatures. But I also happened upon the Dacians on the Victrix website. They had a similarity to the Germanic warriors about them and it turns out that it was not uncommon for Dacians to be found fighting alongside Germanic tribes against Rome. So I bought a sprue of Dacians off eBay and also one of the command sprues with the Armoured bodies. The Dacians also come with the Falx as well as shorter curved swords (or sica) which helps to separate them from their fellow northern tribes. Another interesting coincidence is that the general look of the falx is not a million miles away from the style of the middle earth Elvish swords which really helps bring some of the lore to life. It stands to reason that a clan claiming Elvish heritage might also indulge in some mimicry as well. Another thing that I like about the Dacians is the incredibly ornate helmets, again playing into that idea of the Godinja clan being artisans.

For painting I went with greens and golds this time, and I mixed a small amount of blue into the green to change the tone a little. I also used dark brown on some of the cloaks and trousers, it’s a nice neutral tone that just fades into the background without spoiling the contrast of the two primary colours. It also breaks up the over all look of the models and stops them being a mass of colour. Within the set of models there really are two extremes. On the one hand there are some rather sensibly dressed fellows, all wearing nice hats. At the other end of the spectrum there are some semi-naked, borderline feral looking individuals and I tried to maintain the colour scheme even in these weirdos.

The Rangers are an arm of the Ambrian military. Where the regular army is operated much like most medieval armies, the rangers are a small, entirely professional force. Although they fall under the command of the field marshall, they have their own hierarchy and structure, separate from the rest of the army. They recruit separately from the regular army and there’s no “blood” requirements for joining. You don’t need to be a noble or wealthy, you just need to be competent. The primary purpose of the rangers is to patrol the Queen’s highways around Ambria and also to patrol the forest of Davokaar. Entry into Davokaar is very strictly controlled by the Ambrians. To travel in the forest you must have a permit, to seek treasure you must have a different permit that allows you to remove artefacts from the forest. Ostensibly these permits are to try and prevent, or at least reduce the risk, of people bringing back dangerous artefacts or starting trouble with the Iron Pact. In reality they’re a way for the tax man to make some extra coin. The Rangers patrol the forest to ensure that travellers have the correct permits. In addition to this role, they also act as scouts for the army in times of war.

When I was looking for miniatures for this faction I had initially looked at the Rangers of Ithilien from Games Workshop (albeit with a different colour scheme). But the new boxes are sold in twenties and I didn’t really need 20 of them. I was looking around for something to use as an alternative and I found these from Medbury Miniatures, a digital model seller. These are outlaws but they are quite a good match for the rangers. I have only printed 6 for now, with a leader model on the way, because that’s all I need for the RPG.

Colour wise, I wanted them to still feel like they were part of the queen’s army, but obviously being Rangers they couldn’t be wearing the bright purple. I was also conscious of making them look too much like the Elves or the Yedessa barbarians (for which I am actually just using my Rohan models) by going with green and brown. So I experimented with a few mixes and I settled on using Hive Dweller Purple speed paint darkened with a bit if Dark Wood to produce a darker purple tone. I then used Sand Golem Speedpaint on the facemasks and the mantles they’re wearing over their necks and shoulders. Those two colours bear a resemblance to the main army with its purple background and golden lion coat of arms. The rest of the colours were then picked to suit the environment they operate in. They’re wearing Camo Green cloaks and their trousers and other garments are dark brown. I actually really like the final result, even though I think that the colours are bit of an odd combination (the purple and the green), they have a practicality about them. I think the fact that the purple was dulled down with brown actually helps make this work in a way that a full on bright purple probably wouldn’t have.

At the moment I don’t really know how these will fit into the Saga warband.  The Ambrian faction is without doubt best suited to the Great Kingdom archetype, the problem with that is only the Levy are allowed to be equipped with bows.  The Rangers are certainly not levy troops, they are warriors at a minimum and one could make an argument for them being a form of Hearthguard.  The Sapphire Elves warband could be used in a pinch, allowing warriors to be equipped with bows, however it also gives them special rules around magic that don’t really fit with the Queen’s Ranger.  I suspect that it would make more sense to turn the Rangers into a warband of their own, perhaps even using the Lords of the Wild as a template. There are a few companies out there making digital ranger miniatures as well as the Games Workshop plastic ones.  There’s also some really good cavalry options as well so I think it’s definitely a viable option for a Saga Warband, it’s just a case of trying to figure what archetype to use.

The Iron Pact is an organisation, not exclusively but certainly predominantly, made up of Elves. Elves have a much longer lifespan than humans and thus their memories and cultural memories are much longer. The Elves remember the fall of the Empire of Symbar and it’s cause, or at least they claim to. They also claim memory of a pact between the human and the Elves in the wake of the collapse of the first empire whereby the humans granted dominion over the deep forest to the Elves and promised never to enter. They claim that the pact was sealed by the human rulers by gifting the Elf lord Eneàno six thousand rings of iron which is where they now draw their name. The Iron Pact feel that the humans, and in particular the Ambrian invaders, have reneged on that pact. They act overtly, attacking travellers, settlements and Barbarian holdings within the forest and also covertly via their diplomats, spies and agents in the Human settlements. They are viewed with great suspicion by the humans who oftentimes feel the Iron Pact leans far too heavily on events from a distant past that no human can remember and that the Elves could easily be twisting to their own ends if not fabricating the entire story.

As these are required in a little over 3 weeks, I have accelerated plans to paint some Elves.  The Elves of Symbaroum are a little different to the elves that we might recognise from many Tolkien-esque works of fiction.  Much like Tolkien Elves, they are incredibly long lived (although not necessarily immortal) but during that time the change, grow and evolve.  In an attempt to put the life of an Elf into terms the inhabitants of Symbaroum can understand, the Elvish life cycle has been likened to seasons.  Elves start as “Spring Elves” (or Faeries) during which they are, much like humans, juvenile growing to no more than 4′ tall.  They are playful, curious but also slightly ferral (The Ordo Magicka often likens them to kittens).  They are well known to play cruel (and often lethal) pranks on human travellers in the forest of Davokar and even their older relatives.  However Spring Elves are also cautious, almost never leaving the forest  and somewhat cruelly, if captured they can fetch a high price in Thistlehold.

After around 50 years, they then enter a period of hibernation, known as a dormancy, and those who awake from this transition into Summer Elves (or Elflings).  Growing to around 5′ 5″, Summer Elves are notoriously hot-headed and with a life of around 150 years, have a lot of time to train.  Notoriously aggressive, preferring to attack rather than defend, they are generally lightly armoured and favour the use of bows but if necessary they will fight with spears and other reach weapons.  Summer Elves are the backbone of the Iron Pact forces and are generally led by an Autumn elf.  However it is not uncommon for bands of Summer Elves to abandon the leadership of a more sensible elder and raid towns and villages outside of Davokar, rather than the more usual Iron Pact targets of forest outposts and settlers or trade caravans.

After around 150 years, Summer Elves enter a second dormancy which may last for up to 50 years, after which they become an Autumn Elf (this the Elf’s true, adult form).  Autumn Elves are much taller than humans, standing around 7′ tall.  They are much more even tempered than younger elves and are generally considered to be leaders and diplomats due to their age, wisdom and temperament.  The younger elves simply cannot be relied on to interact with the wider world without descending into violence.  An Autumn elf will live for around 400 years

Finally, there is the concept of a winter elf.  There have been no sightings of winter elves and the Iron Pact do not speak of such beings;  however rumours of their existence persist.  If they do exist, they would be beings of immense power and wisdom.

So for Saga, it is unlikely that there will be any need for Spring Elves, only the Summer and Autumn Elves.  Furthermore, it is unlikely I would need more than a single Autumn Elf to act as a leader.  I have, so far, opted to use almost exclusively Middle Earth SBG Elves for the Summer Elves.  The main reason for this are:

• They’re the right scale
• They’re relatively cheap
• I have a selection already at home unpainted
• They strike a perfect balance between looking grounded in reality and also looking suitably other worldy to be fantasy

In addition to the Elves I have in my collection, I have found a couple of 3D model makers who have lots of nice alternative Middle Earth Elves (Medbury Miniatures, Davale Games to name a couple) so I can flesh this out with new units and even cavalry in the future without having to rely on Games Workshop.

I have painted enough Elves now for a 5 point warband:

• 8 Early Summer Elf Archers
• 8 Early Summer Elves at Arms
• 4 Late Summer Elf Archers
• 4 Late Summer Elves at Arms (swordsmen)
• 4 Late Summer Elves at Arms (spearmen)

Saga Age of Magic doesn’t really have set armies, it gives you archetypes and you can choose pretty much any archetype you wish for your army.  Obviously some archetypes are going to look a little strange used with certain miniatures but it really is down to the player what they want to use.  For the Iron Pact the Lords of the Wild archetype seems like a good match, however the Great Kingdom archetype also contains a Legendary Warband called the Sapphire Elves. This warband cannot take Levy units but their Hearthguard and Warriors may all be armed with bows so that is another possibility.

I decided to use gold for the armour to symbolise the Sun of summer and then use warm greens and browns for the clothing to tie them to the forest.  The warm colours also tie in nicely with the theme of Summer

I haven’t got an Autumn Elf Leader yet – I wasn’t asked by our GM to source one.  Which is good because I haven’t managed to find a model that I am happy with yet to represent one.  I have got an “Elven Witch” (I can’t believe it’s not Galadriel) that I could probably scale up a bit and use as an Autumn Elf, so I might do that.  But I would like to also have a more militaristic looking one too, so I can choose on any given day what my warband might look like and why they might be fighting

While many clans are nomadic, the Enoai tend towards small settlements that they build in the roots and branches of the giant trees found in deep Davokaar. The seat of the current chief, Karona, is the village of Enovak which is a village of around 50 households all build on or under a single giant pine. The Enoai are also renowned as troll tamers and they often tame the fearsome Rage Trolls found in the forest and utilise them as guards.

For the Enoai I have decided to go for Dark Age Irish. The idea is to try and make the 3 most northern clans look the most like barbarians of Old without ending up looking too Roman/Greek. The Dark Age Irish actually fit quite nicely into that mold as Ireland remained relatively poor throughout the Dark Ages (and in many ways beyond that). The clothing and equipment looks similar enough to ancient Celts that you can imagine a shared culture but distinct enough to identify these as a sub-culture of their own. There’s also another interesting reason why Dark Age Irish are a good fit – dogs. There’s loads of models out there for wolf hounds and pack masters. While the Enoai don’t necessarily use hunting dogs, they do tame the Rage Trolls that live in the forest and use them as guards. So I can very much see a herd of Rage Trolls being coaxed into battle by a pack master. Rage Trolls are generally human sized, maybe slightly bigger, but with a much lower intellect and a much high constitution (likened in the lore to that of a bear). The downside to using the Dark Age Irish is that there simply aren’t many miniatures out there that look particularly “elite” from a fantasy perspective. So producing Hearthguard or even Wrathguard from the Enoai could be quite difficult. I am definitely open to suggestions though, if people think they know of some models, from any range (although 28mm historical scale is definitely preferable) please comment here and let me know. They don’t necessarily need to be Irish, but they do need to at least fit with the Aesthetic of Dark Age Irish. Or maybe I just accept that there won’t be any Enoai Hearthguard but instead they will help supply some of the heavier units in the form of their Trolls?

These particular Miniatures are from Wargames Atlantic, which I can’t recommend highly enough. Much like Victrix or Gripping Beast, you can really bulk out an army for very little cost while the built models are of a very high quality. Because the Enoai are a forest dwelling clan, even going so far as to build settlements in the branches or under the roots of giant trees I opted for more muted tones. I used lots of greens and browns here to try and create a feeling of the deep forest. Their shields are bronze/copper to compliment that. I also put some blue warpaint on their skin. I know it’s a bit ‘braveheart” but it’s a very easy effect to do, it really helps create that warlike, barbarian appearance and it’s another way that I can help link three otherwise disparate clans into a more cohesive army.

While this didn’t start as my main target or project for 2022, I have devoted way more time to this that I predicted. Something about it just drew me in and the more I worked on it, the more excited I became about it. I think working on the Queen’s Army has helped because in many ways it’s a Bretonnian army by another name and I was always a huge fan of Bretonnia. But probably more fun was trying to give visual identities to the various Barbarian Clans and that’s a journey that really has only just started. While the basics of the clans are there, the fantasical elements certainly are not. This is absolutely a project that will continue into 2022, not least because at the moment I only have one army painted and I require at least 2 for a game. The world of Symbaroum is kind of pushing me towards that second army being a barbarian army and, in all probability, a “coalition” army of the northern clans. These are the clans that are probably most “backwards” in relation to Ambria but also the ones that have the most scope for including fantasy creatures such as Trolls and Giant Spiders.

I was also thrilled to see that I was mentioned as a runner up in the 2022 community awards. That actually brought me quite a lot of validation, not for the work itself because my own enjoyment of the hobby is all the validation I need. But it certainly validated the continued effort of maintaining the project, that my ideas are being seen and enjoyed by people and who knows perhaps even inspiring people? I had considered stopping posting updates in the project system, I have noticed that receiving a golden button seems to cut engagement with the project quite significantly as it is relegated lower down the landing page. This is something I have seen with nearly every project I have made that earned a Golden Button, the views and votes just tail off. However I guess I have at least a couple of dedicated followers so I shall continue to chart my journey and we shall see where it takes us.

A happy new year to all.

The Queen’s guard, formally known as the Pansars, only fight in the army of the Grand Duchy of Yndaros, the Queen’s personal fiefdom.  The Pansars are a highly trained and disciplined fighting unit equipped with the finest Armour and Weapons  Ambria can muster.  While all Duchies likely have access to soldiers so armed and equipped, only the Queen’s Army has what might be described as a regiment or an order of them and it is that organisation that makes them so deadly.  In most Duchies, the wealthiest nobles might purchase such equipment and take the field in small groups on an ad-hoc basis but the Queen has a regiment of several hundred at her disposal should she call on them.  While small numbers of them may be sent into battle alongside any part of the Queen’s army, when the Queen herself marches to war the whole order marches with and their combined might and strength of arms are a force few in Symbaroum can stand against, as the Barbarian clans have found many times to their cost.

For the Hearthguard I needed  heavier looking set of models than the knights that I already used as the warriors.  Bearing in mind this is Fantasy, not history, I decided to take some liberties and purchased some 14th century foot knights from 1st Corps Miniatures wearing full plate.  Plate Armour is available in the Symbaroum game but it’s uncommon and limited only to the wealthy so it makes sense that for the Hearthguard, the elite Warriors of Saga armies, to be equipped with such armour.  This is especially true in the Queen’s Army which is obviously armed and equipped by the most powerful noble, or rather royal, in Ambria.  To stop them looking like a shiny, metallic mess I opted to paint the breastplates in the Royal colour of white with a purple trim, the colour of the army.  In general I will be painting miniatures with any level of importance in white and purple, regular soldiers/knights in purple and the levy/conscripts in purple and gold. In a previous entry I have painted a model for the Queen herself (or rather her younger self) and she is clad in pure white with only a small purple trim. For the knights with hand weapons I also purchased a set of lion shields from FireForge games which was the closest match I could get to the Queen’s shield.

These two units are the last of the Infantry miniatures I currently have.  I am currently 3D printing a model I can use as a warlord which I got from Medbury Miniatures.  I could use the queen but I’m actually saving that as a gift for the GM of our Symbaroum game.  Plus I feel like Saga as a game doesn’t have the scale for the Queen herself to be leading the battle.  I also have a mounted priest and a mounted wizardess as well as a unit of mounted Hearthguard.  All in, I think that I can push the army to about 9 points using the Age of Magic rules which means I can play the large 6 point game variant and still have plenty of options