Saga “The Old Worldish”

So, my next job was to build my Hearthguard. 4 pts which will be represented by my Bestigors.

Being old school, I am always going to build a champion, musician and standard bearer. Now these have no effect in SAGA, well you can make someone a banner bearer but I haven’t got to those rules yet and so I am going to keep it simple, but what is a Unit without these three. Plus, it will give me a chance to do something interesting on the banner.

OK, it’s probably a GW Heroic scale thing but I just tried to put my beastmen on 25mm bases and they are far to small.

I was annoyed but then thought, well I’m the one playing, it’s my train set, why am I upset? So who cares.

28mm bases are the way forward.

I thought it was goldilocks…

• 20mm too small
• 32mm too big
• 25mm just right…

So that’s what I thought I had done. Started putting things on round bases, which is not everyone’s cup of tea but my preference (when line of arcs aren’t a thing).

Had 20mm, too small. Had 32mm, too big. So the one in the middle must be 25mm. Let’s get the glue.

When did 28.5 become a base size???

Well today was a good day!

It seems that I was visited by the Hobby Gods themselves in their terrestrial form in the Unofficial Hobby Hangout, which was a really nice surprise. Especially as I had only ever watched one Unofficial Hobby Hangout before which was last week to fill the weekender hole in my life and now, I have another one to watch!

And to add to beneficence of our Hobby Gods… “Brewer’s Big Box of Beastmen” was waiting for me on my desk when I returned from what was, I am told was an important meeting which “which have an impact on the future of the company”. Can’t remember was the meeting was about to be honest.

Hobby energised I rushed home to put my bounty together. But had to stop myself.

I had a half-painted model on the desk, my Bray Shaman, and I want to make sure that I don’t do what I usually do… put it to the side, promising myself I will go back to it, never going back to it.

The base coating had been done and I want to keep motivation going. Finish something and move on. I’ve already started to be distracted by ideas for other forces so keeping the mojo going on the painting side is really important to me. Afterall, I want an army I have painted. Its always been a goal, and this could be my chance to do it.

Speaking of finishing things…

…well aside from the basing. Agrax earthshade is marvelous thing!

Which means one thing…

Having worked out exactly what I needed I wanted to buy them in the most efficient way possible. To recap I required:

• 1 box of Ungors (10 models)
• 1 box of Gors (10 models)
• 1 box Bestigors (10 models)

Now after looking at the prices on GW buying them separately was going to be a bit of an expense:

• Ungor = £20.00
• Gors = £22.50
• Bestigors = £32.50

Taking my total to £75. All in all, not bad for an army. Unfortunately using a third-party seller would not have saved me much as the Ungors and Bestigors are direct only and so no discount.

While looking I noticed that there was a Vanguard: Beasts of Chaos box which wasn’t direct only so I could get a discount on it and contained:

• 1 box of Ungor (10 models)
• 1 box of Gors (10 models)
• 1 box Bestigors (10 models)
• 1 box Dragon Ogors (3 models)
• 1 Bray Shaman (1 model)

GW price it at £85, and most third part sellers are selling it for around £68. However, shopping around I managed to find for £53… so out the gate a saving of £22.

My plan is to sell the Dragon Ogors and Bray Shaman on eBay. The Dragon Ogors seem to be going for on average £30 for 3 or £15 individually. And the Bray Shaman for around £12.

So, in short, if all goes to plan (and I have not done a Lloyd and just purchased one sprue) I may be able to make most of the expenditure back.

Though in all honesty I do not think I am the first one to have had this idea as the marketplace seems quite busy for these particular models. Still no harm trying!

With my list put together it is now time to gather the suitable miniatures. Well, mentally gather – still a few days until payday.

Warlord taken care of, aside from basing which I think I will do as a single hobby task with the rest of the Army.

It’s actually been quite easy when it comes to selecting what will represent what…

It’s the berserkers that are proving to be elusive. Looks like perhaps a kit bash with the all of the spare parts.

It’s a shame that they don’t do Pestigors or Khorngors anymore as these would have been great. Again I will check on eBay but I can see the words “rare”, “oop” firmly placing these out of my budget…

So I have been tryng to do a little bit on my warlord each time I had some energy. And aside from the basing I am calling it a day.

I am honestly really chuffed with what I have done and as mentioned this is the first model I have painted end to end in many a year!

So I tried a couple of different things on the model, utilising contrasts over colours in the case of the bones and the flesh and then washes on other parts.

I was particulary pleased as to how the goregrunta fur went on over the German Camouflage Pale Brown and the same with the Sekeleton Horde over the bleached bone.

I’m not sure about the Black Templar Contrast over the GunMetal, wasnt quite what I intended, but did give that classic Chaos metallic black look.

Like the war on terror I thought we had beaten Covid. What else have I been misled about?

This absolutely knocked me for six. I could barely keep any focus and made the decision to try and doing a little bit as opposed to storming on all guns blazing and realising post fever dream I was on the wrong track. So what has been happening?

As mentioned I want to keep a record of what paints I uses and may make these a spereate entry as i go foward I so it’s easier to kee track of.

• Weapon Handles: Black (72.051)
• Red Bag: Bloody Red (72.010)
• Fur: German Camouflage Beige WWII (70.821)
• Human head skin: Cadian Fleshtone
• Human hair: Desert Yellow

I need to where I am going from here. All over washes or individual coloured washes. Or Dipping.

Well, that was a journey! A great thing about this great hobby is how it takes you down some wonderful historical rabbit holes.

What started as a pleasant reading of the rules with a glass of wine while waiting for my friend down the pub ended up taking me from the Lower Paleolithic area to the modern-day Olympics as well as learning the Norse for Javelin – which is frakka.  I found this fascinating, she less so.

Looking at the rules I believe that the advantage of bows are range (Long as opposed to Medium for javelins) and stopping power and the advantage of javelins are manoeuvrability and better in melee if it comes to it. Just a quick aside there are only 4 measurements in SAGA:

• Long
• Medium
• Short
• Very Short

Now, there is nothing on Viking Battle Board that is going to help my shooting in anyway, but that being said, the idea of any army without some sort of missile weapon sits ill with me. Now the Vikings did have bows but when I think of Viking Hordes (Hollywood Vikings at least) I don’t think of bows. I do however think of spears. And you can throw spears so let’s go with Javelins.

To be fair if you are strong enough you can throw most weapons. Probably not recommended however as you will quickly find yourself disarmed… followed rapidly by dismembered and disembowelled.

So, I was kindly given my first Viking utilisation tips from a member of the OTT SAGA Pantheon (who probably started playing SAGA before Llyod but maybe not Ben). In short, don’t just put your Berserkers front and centre but use them like a “Scud Missile” on an already weakened unit.

As the berserkers are unarmoured because they berserkers – though reading about this it seems to be a misconception brought about by that rascal Snorri Sturluson who misheard bear for bare. An easy mistake to make I am sure you will agree, but I digress. Anyway, I was thinking of using the javelin levy to soften up a unit and then charge in with the Berserkers. I need to read up on whether you can charge through friendly units in SAGA as ideally, I would use the levy as a screen.

So I think I am going to set my goals for tomorrow so I can crack on without losing valuable hobby time to such things as thinking or indecision.

So in no particular order (and having just noticed the bullet point function which means I may go back and re-edit previous posts) and a mixture of “physical” and “virtual” hobby goals:

• Finish the base coats on my Warlord (physical hobby).
• Read up on javelins vs bows and make a decision (virtual hobby).
• Put together a purchase plan. What models are going to represent what (virtual hobby).

I am going to start small and aim for the recommended 4 point starter army, and to add perhaps a “Sword for Hire” option to each force to give a bit more character and tie into the fantasy tropes I am going for. I think that this will allow me to build up some interesting skirmish forces.

One of the reasons I am enjoying SAGA is that the army composition is relatively simple. As a rule, each warband has access to the same 4 basic units, on top of that there may be some specific faction units or units unlooked by Legendary Units upgrades.

For the Vikings you have the standard 4 units:

Warlord – This is the boss obviously.

Hearthguard – Your elite troops.

Warriors – Good old-fashioned rank and file.

Levies – Scum.

Each cost 1 point except for the Warlord, who is free. Which is nice.

Now the Vikings have access to a single special faction unit “Berserkers” and a unit of “Varangians” which are unlocked by selecting Harald Hardrada. The unit’s cost, you’ve guessed it, 1 point each. As does upgrading your Warlord to a Legendary Unit.

For now I am going to ignore the Legenday Units unless I feel that there is something they bring which will really tie in with the Fantasy Race who is representing their Historical Counterpart. So for now no Varangians.

Definately having berserkers. Because Vikings.

Right ho, 4 points. Warlord who as mentioned I won’t be upgrading is 0 points. Berserkers, a must I feel. Thats 1 point. Another unit of Hearthguard. Another point. Unit of Warriors? Sure. So, 3 points down.

Now for my thinking hat for my final point. Its’ a nice hat if you are interested, has a bobble on it and everything. Well not everything. Just a bobble. Sometimes less is more.

I am thinking levies as they are the only shooting option for the Vikings. But I am uncertain as to whether to pick bows or javelins. Think I will sit with a cup of tea and read up. Still the list is complete.

1 Warlord – 0pts – 1 model
1 Unit of Berserkers – 1 pts – 4 models
1 Unit of Hearthguard – 1 pts – 4 models
1 Unit of Warriors – 1 pts – 8 models
1 Unit of Levies – 1 pts – 12 Models

4 points in total and 29 Models. I can live with that. A not insurmountable number of figures to paint and less than single regiments in some games.

Onto Goal 2, decide on furrage (which is not a phrase you should enter into google I feel).

As I mentioned in the earlier entry, I really like the GW beastmen aesthetic (not the Minotaurs) but have never played or collected beastmen. So why beastmen?

Well in researching the colours I came across an advert in White Dwarf 129 of the Marauder Miniatures Beastmen Regiment. I was instantly transported back to when I first saw these models as a young chap and how much I liked them and planned to buy them with my pocket money but never did.
These were not the satyrs or fawns of mythology but bestial (strangely) and violent and just awesome. I distinctly remember how cool I thought the leader looked; I still do (for all its bow leggedness).

This then took me down a twisted pathway of reminisces about having the Realms of Chaos books and reading them, half remember some of the stories which I hadn’t thought of for 20 plus years which were about the Beastmen, and I think one about Minotaurs and bray stones. Must dig them out of the loft!

So that’s Goal 2 squared away! This is proving to be a productive lunch break.

So, Goal 1 of the day completed. Update on yesterday’s progress uploaded to the project system. I even included a list of the paints used, which is one of the valuable aspects of the Project System, I think.

I have tried to keep track of what paints I have used on models before, but these inevitably get misplaced, destroyed, paint on them or I disagree with them. Recording them here gives me a handy list to go back to and one which I hope to keep up.

Oh, if anyone has read the previous entries where I shut down the Xbox and say, “Those villagers will have to look after themselves” and is wondering if those villagers could indeed look after themselves. The short answer is no. No, they couldn’t. They rather spectacularly failed to look after themselves.

I am not going to get any “hands on” hobby done today so have decided to set myself a few “virtual hobby goals.”

The first was to update on yesterday’s progress.

The second is to decide on the fur scheme of my warlord.

The third is to put together my Viking list and post it. In the hope that some experienced saga player may take pity on me and offer suggestions before I commit to buying anything more.

I’m proud of myself. Yes, it’s only half the base colours down but just cracking on is a real win for me.

I’ve not decided on what paint method to use yet, Army painter, GW, or a mix of the above. The goal is to get the base colours blocked out and then decide.

I was unsure as to what to do the skin tone as I wanted to try and distinguish it from the fur and the legs, but painting flesh scares me. Or rather did till I was thinking back to the XLBS last week with Mr Soule when he was talking about NMM and highlighting and that its all the same but in different colours (I paraphrase of course and that may not be what he meant, but that is what I have taken from it). I wouldn’t be nervous about painting orc flesh so why should I be worried about man flesh?

So emboldened I commenced with that well known skin tone… German Camouflage Pale Brown. And honestly it was better than I could have hoped. I started with the skin as it was the lowest point of the model. That’s probably the wrong phrase, what I am trying to say is that everything else is placed on top of it – armour, fur, horns etc. So, working form the inside out.

Next was the leather areas, then the metals, then the bone elements and then the cloth.

So, paints used:

Undercoat: Halford Grey Primer

Skin: German Camouflage Pale Brown (70.825)

Leather: Leather Brown (70.871)

Metal (silver): Gunmetal (72.054)

Metal (gold): Polished Gold (72.055)

Horns, bones and weapon cloth wraps: Bone White (72.034)

Cloth: German Fieldgrey WWII (70.830)

I’ve been looking forward to getting some paint on the models all day. Checking YouTube guides at lunch and reading the Saga rules on my “lunch”.

Get in, quick dinner and into the fray!While my meal is cooking, I’ll just pop the x-box on as I don’t want to be interrupted when I settle into the painting. I’ll just finish this quest. I can eat while I game, so I’ll just do that. Oh, this is a daily quest, so I better do that… wait why is the Alarm going downstairs?

I know what I am like, so I have constructed a future James who does helpful things like setting the alarm on the other side of the house in the Kitchen downstairs so I must get up, may as well take the dirty plates to the kitchen, and wash up, and switch it off. Which takes me past the snug, which has my paints and brushes all set up.

PAINTING! Thats what I should be doing. That’s what I have been looking forward to all day. Those villagers will have to look after themselves.

Nice one future James.