Eastern Princes Hearthguards, Bannerman and Warlords

Eight hearthguard cavalry, two warlords and a bannerman for my Saga Eastern princes force. I've been running larger multi-player games using simplified battle boards lately. I call it 'simple Saga'. I picked these figures up on Ebay to bolster my Eastern Princes force.

These came mounted in two and three figure bases so I had to remove them all from their original bases and re-base for Saga. The figures got hit HARD in shipping. One horse was snapped off at the ankles. Most of the spears were broken off the figures, two riders were dislodged. I replaced all of the spears that were knocked off with steel wire spears. I repaired all of the other damage as well, the most challenging of which was repairing the horse that was snapped off at the ankles. I can say you probably cannot tell which one it was, so I think I did a passable job at that. 

These well-loved figures also needed a LOT of paint touch-ups including re-doing many hands due to the replacement of the spears. Still a good addition to my force at a decent price. I will be counting this as 11 stands re-based in my painting totals for the year. Re-basing always includes some repairs and touch-ups.

Finished! 28mm Gripping Beast Black Hoods Cavalry for Saga

After 23.5 hours painting this unit on my Twitch.tv stream I've completed my Eastern Horsemen 'Black Hoods' mercenary unit for Saga. I've painted this up for the February Saga Thorsday painting contest.

This unit can be fielded in both my Crusader and Eastern Princes armies, the latter being the more likely to use them on a regular basis. I've been using some Lithuanian medium cavalry as a stand in for this unit. When playing the plethora of Mongol opponents from my local club, I find the Black Hoods gives me an affordable mounted warrior option with my Eastern Princes army who otherwise would have to bring hearthguards if they wanted more horse flesh on the battlefield.

I have little to critique about the Gripping beast figures. They are well detailed and nicely cast. I always enjoy painting them. This unit came with only four horse poses, two of each pose, and I got an extra archer in place of the horn blower shown on their website. Both minor concerns. The only other minor complaint is all of the archers have the same body position. Some variance with these would have been nicer.

I took some extra time on this unit to practice some shading with a glazing technique I recently learned by watching other miniature painting streamers. Results are mostly subtle, so I think in the future I need to dial up the contrast in my color selection to '11'.  I'm particularly happy with the two mottled ponies I painted up ant the bone coloring on the skull totem.

I've been using a three-step process on flesh tones lately with a base color, P3 flesh wash, and a highlight of lighter flesh color. This combination was also used on these to good effect. In addition I added some eye detail to really make the faces pop. For shields and horse blankets I kept with the red theme that the Gripping Beast artist used on the web sample images. I also really liked the look of the totem bearer in the samples so I copied that fairly closely as well.

This adds sixteen figures to my annual painting total. Good progress to start the new year.

More 28mm Russian Militia Crossbowmen

This is the completed unit of Fireforge City Militia Archers that I converted to crossbowmen previously shown in a WIP post. These figures were painted for the Saga Thorsday painting contest announced in their most recent video.

These Fireforge resin figures gave me some trouble. Some of that was completely my fault and was a result of me being a very amateur sculpter and figure converter. If I had a chance to do this project again I would have made some different decisions in re-posing and re-sculpting the figures. The rest of the trouble was due to the texture and flaws in the resin. I normally do a process of base coloring, washes, then highlighting. For these figures I was afraid washes might bring out the wrong detail, so they were only used on the fleshy bits. Instead of washes I used more dry-brushing and intentional highlighting.

I'm super happy with the faces on these, and they look the part on the table. I'm proud enough with them to submit them to Rodge at Saga Thorsday for his contest. This adds twelve 28mm figures to this year's painting totals. Next up on the painting table are some Crusader Cavalry and a ruin terrain piece for Saga.

 

For the contest, here's the obligatory 'thumbs up' from Rodge photo!

Saga Practice at Ed M's II - Revenge of the Horde

Friday night Ed M. of Ed M's Wargames Meanderings Blog and I were both were bachelors for the evening so we decided to give another go at Saga. Both of us brought the same armies, with different builds. Ed's Mongols brought one HUGE unit of hearth guards and an extra unit of mounted warriors. My Eastern Princedoms force ditched the fortified wagon for a unit of hearth guard, and instead of the lifeguards upgraded to the Legendary hero Alexander Nevsky. I also upgraded my Eastern horsemen to the Black Hoods....and then never used any of their Black Hoods special traits...but I digress. On to the game!

I ended up being 2nd player so was able to put an extra piece of terrain on the table. Ed started off with an open hill in the center of the table. I chose some woods and two hard terrain pieces. Ed's final choice was a field he moved to his baseline.

I deployed my crossbows and a unit of warriors in the woods opposite the field. The rest of my forces were set behind. My thoughts were I could react to the Mongol's first move with my reserves. My logic for this choice ended up being quite flawed and Ed's horde was upon me well before I could react and the terrain only hindered my ability to react.

Ed's deployment was in a solid block based around his war drummer and warlord. He had two small warrior units flanking. 

Ed's initial approach was to set up mostly opposite my battle line in the woods.

Ed's initial move was to use one of his warrior units to torch the woods using a special Mongol Saga ability that negated the woods terrain value and disordered my troops within. Note to self...woods vs. Mongols are not a good idea.

Ed followed this up with a revenge bow shot from his hearth guard unit on to my crossbows. Something personal about them knocking them out the previous game. The shot sent seven (7) of the crossbowmen to their graves. Not bad getting 7 casualties from an 8-die attack! Levy don't make very durable targets it appears.

I followed up with a counter charge by my warriors who threw all of their might (and Saga dice abilities) into a glorious charge into Ed's giant hearth guard unit. The warriors scored 4 hearth guard kills at the cost of three of their numbers. Pyrrhos would be proud.

My Black Hoods also picked off a couple of Ed's torch-bearing warriors with some accurate bow fire.

From here it was mostly mop-up duty for the Mongols. I made some desperate counter charges by my hearth guard and warlord, but they were futile. The numbers were so in favor of the Mongols, that even a huge roll from my warlord against Ed's warlord couldn't save the day as both Ed's warlord and war drummer got just enough saving rolls to escape the ordeal with just fatigue, no casualties.

My exhausted warlord and hearth guards were easy pickings. Ed sealed the deal with a tactical withdrawal at the end using his superior mobility to keep my remaining relevant forces at arms length.

I learned a lot, and Ed out played me handily in this game. Hopefully next time I will make better decisions and give my troops a fighting chance.

Saga Practice at Ed M's

Last Sunday Ed M. of Ed M's Wargames Meanderings Blog and I took advantage of the long weekend to play a game of Saga. We're both participating in our club's Saga game day and thought we could use the practice. Ed invited me to his gaming loft which, as you can see in the photos, is a nicely decorated and comfortable gaming space.

Ed was using his Mongol army which includes the beautiful hearthguard he recently completed and featured on his blog. Ed's army included the very effective war drummer, two six-figure hearthguard cavalry units, and sixteen mounted warriors in three units, one eight-figure and two four-figure units. Ed's army started with seven (7) available Saga dice.

I was using my Eastern Princes Russian crusader army. I fielded a lifeguard for my warlord, the war wagon, two eight-figure units of foot warriors, one twelve-figure crossbow unit and a mercenary unit if eastern horsemen. My Saga dice pool started with five (5) available Saga dice.

With hordes of mounted Mongols coming at me I picked as much terrain as the 'Clash of Warlords' scenario allowed. Ed picked a large open hill as his first choice reserving at least some cavalry friendly terrain. After placement I ended up with one area of scrub in my deployment area which I plunked my crossbows into. The rest of the defendable terrain was out of reach, and ended up mostly out of play for the game. Ed's hill choice here was a brilliant move.

Things went all Mongol early. Ed used his war drummer to good effect coordinating two charges on my exposed warrior unit. The combined attacks scored five hits. Five figures down, my warrior unit ended up limping to the rear to remain inactive until the last turn. I attempted to kill Ed's drummer with the eastern archers, but the drummer saved all hits. The eastern archers were chased away the next turn by Ed's five-figure warrior unit.

In my turn I tried to counter-attack with my warlord and lifeguard. I was rolling to hit on 3 or better and I got the above dice, plus three that scored 3 hits on Ed's large warrior unit. Ed's warriors withdrew, still able to generate a saga die. My warlord, with a fatigue on it, was counter-charged and lost a lifeguard figure and became exhausted. Ed also charged my war wagon with one of his hearthguard. He eliminated the wagon at a cost of one hearthguard figure.

As the action heated up I forgot to take some photos. Turn three I finally got my crossbows into action. They used a Saga ability to launch a very effective volley against Ed's warlord, eliminating it. In Ed's turn he consolidated his forces hoping to have enough damage secured to hold onto a win. I advanced with my crossbows and eliminated Ed's damaged hearthguard unit. Ed's fresh hearthguard counter-charged my crossbows killing seven figures, pushing it away easily without receiving any damage himself.

In turn six I counter-attacked Ed's hearthguard with my remaining warrior unit to good effect, eliminating three figures, suffering no hits myself. In the center the pesky eastern archers finally finished off Ed's war drummer. Ed's half of turn six included a rush from the flank by one of his four-figure warrior units attempting to finish off the remaining three figures of warriors from the unit that was gored in turn one. Ed almost got it, killing two of the three figures.

The game ended with me edging Ed out for points. I think it was partially due to not having any hearthguard that I was able to suffer nearly equal figure losses, but still come ahead on massacre points.

Lessons learned:

1. The war wagon was fun to paint, and may be fun for a casual game, but it's not a very competitive unit in terms of effectiveness per army point spent. I think I'd rather have something else.
2. Crossbows are really good if you can use them with the Crossfire battle board ability. 
3. Crossbows are very vulnerable outside of terrain
4. Lifeguard are fun, but I think for 1 point I'd rather have a whole unit that generates a Saga die. They might be worth it if you chose a legendary hero?
5. You can weather a bad swing of dice and still win in Saga if you make solid choices throughout the game.
6. 1 on 1 games are a lot of fun with a good friend to play with. We play a lot of many vs many games and less 1 on 1. I'm thinking with the right opponents and gaming systems I may want to play more head to head games.

Thanks again to Ed for hosting. I look forward to the next game!

Recently Painted Figures and Terrain

I like to take my photographs outside on an overcast day. Winter and early spring here in New Hampshire haven't been kind to going outside to photograph toy soldiers. Spring has finally sprung, so here are a few items that got finished this spring. First up eight hearthguard for my Russian Princdoms Saga army. These are meant to represent the Samogitian Nobles and carry two-handed axes classified as 'heavy weapons' in Saga. These are Gripping beast figures. I modified them by replacing the axe handles with steel wire requiring some fancy drill work in the hands and axe heads to get everything assembled.

Two incendiary pigs to be used with my Eastern Princes army when using it to play Warlord Games fantasy rules "Warlords of Erehwon".

Final addition to convert my Eastern Princes to Warlords of Erehwon - a Cyclops toy purchased from Amazon pre-painted. Required minimal touch up and basing. I'll count this as one 'Terrain/Misc' in the painting totals.

Warlord Games 28mm Stone Bridge - I've given this one my lead shot treatment to make it a bit heavier, then painted with liberal dry brushing, two color stone work and some muddy wheel tracks to make it lived in. Nice easy terrain piece and looks great on the tabletop.

Total effort in this post: Ten 28mm painted figures and two terrain/misc items.

28mm Eastern Princes Warriors for Saga

I'm a big fan of warrior units in Saga. I like the balance of durability, offensive power and number of figures. My Eastern Princes box set only came with one unit of eight warriors. This is a second unit that I made up by converting some Gripping Beast Pagan Rus warrior figures. Some only required a shield swap. Some required carving off the rectangular shields more characteristic of the Pagan Rus and some were used as-is. Decals are more LBMS from the same batch as my other figures.

Next up on the painting table, some German WWII armor. They've been on the table since before I started the Saga figures, but were stalled due to me needing to order some air brush parts. Now that the parts have arrived, the armor should be next to finish.