Saga “The Old Worldish”

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)