And the Wooden Spoon Goes to….

I mentioned in my last blog that I would be attending the Wargames Illustrated event ‘Saga Iron Man’ held at WI HQ in Nottingham. The Saga Iron man Tournament format was such that all you had to do was pay your entrance fee and turn up on the day. Everything that you needed would be provided, from well painted armies, tables and scenery through to the Saga dice and measuring sticks. Even refreshments and dinner was provided! To make matters interesting and to really test your knowledge of the game, the Armies would be assigned randomly on the day and each game would be played with a different army. There were to be four games for each player in total, each against a new opponent. The word ‘tournament’ usually has me running for cover. I’m not a tournament player and don’t really like the idea of competitive wargaming – it can bring out the worst in players and nothing is quite so sad as grown men arguing over toy soldiers – I speak from shameful experience here!

However, events held at Wargames Illustrated HQ have in my experience been extremely good-natured and thanks to the friendly, approachable nature of Danny, the owner of WI, the Event days are well worth attending. They are as much a social event and a chance to meet like minded people from across the hobby. I put aside any concerns and signed up for the day as a chance to play Saga with armies that I had not used before and an opportunity to learn more about the game. My expectations were happily fulfilled although at times, I was well away from my wargaming comfort zone! The battle scenarios were fairly straight forward. Each side had 5 points of troops and the idea was to kill as many of the enemy as possible. The player with the most points at the end the battle won the game and the player with the most points at the end of the day would be the Saga Iron Man. Here is an account of how the battles went.

Battle 1

Your Byzantine Army awaits you.

Your Byzantine Army awaits you.

Having drawn a random rune, which gave me my starting position, I moved to the relevant table to see which army I had drawn. Flipping ‘eck! I was playing Byzantines and my opponent was using Pagan Russ. Both armies feature in the Varjazi & Basileus supplement which I had not even read , let alone played the armies. Fortunately, my opponent, Nick Simmerson was almost as inexperienced as I was and was prepared to be patient as I blundered along trying to get to grips with my new battle board. Nick lived up to his deserved award of ‘Most Sporting Player of the day’ and patiently explained how he thought both armies would work and the best strategies to use. We got on with the game and thanks to some decent dice rolling I did manage to inflict some damage on my opponents army. At times,  the battle felt a bit like two drunks fighting in a darkened room as we got to grips with our respective battleboards. Nick used the Pagan Russ control of the weather to slow my army and limit the effect of any ranged attacks. However, as the two sides closed and went on to the attack, it was the Byzantine side that edged the contest and gained a narrow victory 11 points to 9 points. Still, a win was a win and feeling a bit more confident, I moved to the next battle, hoping that I would get something that I was familiar with.

The Pagan Russ advance into range

The Pagan Russ advance into range

Battle 2

My next force was the Strathclyde Welsh. Oh dear! I knew very little about this army other than the main advantage it had was that you could deploy off table and still use these units to score hits on your opponent. Furthermore, you could enter at any point to surprise your opponent and outflank him. My opponent, another Steve, was using Jomsvikings, with whom he seemed remarkably comfortable. It turns out that they are his army of choice…bugger! I decided to deploy a large unit of mounted warriors off table in the hope that I could outflank my opponent and roll up the wing of his army before he could react to the danger. With hindsight, I would have been better off splitting this unit into smaller units to gain more abilities from my battle board. I also underestimated the power of the Wrath of the Jomsviking. Initially, I was quite happy to let him build up his store of wrath, thinking that I would be able to punish him before it could be used. Oh boy, was I wrong about that as well. I had a big unit of Levy and for all the good that they did in the battle, I could have sacrificed these guys to keep the Jomsvikings quiet!

Strathclyde Welsh take the flank.

Strathclyde Welsh take the flank.

In the second turn, I unleased my out flanking move by bringing on the large unit of warriors and supporting them with a unit of Hearth guard. The combat was a qualified success as I wiped out all of a warrior unit except one man – this turned out to be critical as the wrath of the Jomsvikings was now unleashed on my army. The counter attack saw the remains of my warrior unit killed out right as well as a unit of hearth guard. By protecting the last man in the Jomsviking warrior unit, my opponent still had his full quota of saga dice to roll, whereas by the end of this turn I had lost two dice and in effect half of my army. From there, it was all down hill as the wrath of the Jomsvikings built, I had very little left on my battle board to fight back with and so the Strathclyde were ground down until just the levy were standing. I conceded defeat and although my initial success had gained 8 points, my total for the morning had left me firmly in the bottom half of the tournament table. Surely things could only get better.

The last charge of the Welsh.

The last charge of the Welsh.

Battle 3

The Russ Princes face the Steppe Tribes onslaught

The Russ Princes face the Steppe Tribes onslaught

After a very nice lunch of meatball stew, potatoes, bread, cheese followed by a lemon meringue tart all washed down with a diet coke, my carb levels were restored and I returned to battle. Any optimism that I had quickly evaporated when I found that I would be commanding  a Russ Prince army and fighting the Steppe Tribes. The Steppe tribes are an official Saga army but their stats only appeared in Wargames Illustrated issue 311. To make matters worse, there was only one copy of the battle board so through out the battle I had no idea what was coming. To go back to my analogy of two drunks fighting in a dark room, it felt like I had one arm tied behind my back as well. To make matters worse, all of the good fortune that I had had with my dice rolling in the morning turned to bad luck. In three rounds of rolling saga dice I managed to roll all crosses, or the worst symbol on the board. If I had been playing yahtzee, my score would have been brilliant. I could barely get my units to move and  as for the abilities on the saga board, they remained a mystery. My combat dice were just as bad. If there was a prize for rolling 1’s, I would have won it in this game. It’s fair to say that I took a hammering and scored a mere 3 points.

Battle 4

I moved to the next table with some trepidation but cheered up a bit when I saw that I would be commanding Normans. They are an army that I have some familiarity with even though I have not played them. Even better, I would be facing the Anglo Danes, my army of choice and at least I knew exactly what they were capable of. Maybe now I could get some points on the table. That initial burst enthusiasm was some what tempered when I found that my opponent was Andy from Ainsty castings, the current Saga World Champion. I was about to get a lesson in how to manage a Saga army!

The normans confidently advance

The Normans confidently advance

Rather foolishly, I decided to take the fight to the Anglo Danes, although I tried to pull them out of position by attacking along the flanks. I underestimated just how effective levy slingers could be against mounted troops. Within a couple of turns, I had been badly mauled, losing hearth-guard to mere sling armed levy. The Anglo Danes were solid and were able to keep their defensive shape and resist any attempt to isolate a unit or charge it down. At this point, I realised that my own bow armed levy had the ability to double their range and that by using some of the other saga abilities on the board it could have been my archers that were whittling down the Anglo Dane army whilst they slogged across the table to me. Of course the other ability was that the Norman hearth guard could have been shielded behind the crossbow men and archers ready to charge through them at the right moment. This at least would have given me the initiative in combat. In the event, though, I was goaded into charging the very solid Anglo Dane line and it was again my misfortune to be on the wrong end of a beating! The Anglo Danes had a well prepared battle board and what ever small success I enjoyed was quickly punished by a fierce counter attack. My warlord was eventually pinned and over come by the Dane Axe wielding enemy hearth guard. Once again, I was nearly wiped out to a man but I did manage to score 9 points, a better haul than my previous two games.

The Norman Army attempts to pull the Danes out of position.

The Norman Army attempts to pull the Danes out of position.

Results

Unsurprisingly, I had accrued the least number of points on the day with the exception of one other player, Jon, who also had a total of 31 points as well. The winner, Andy, had 80 points so that will give you some idea as to how far behind the pack I had fallen. If this all sounds like a bit of a disaster, it wasn’t by any means. I had had a great day and whilst I had been on the end of three thrashings, the games were all very enjoyable and I had learnt a tremendous amount about the game of saga. I know have a basic working knowledge of six armies that I had never even considered using and I had been given a masterclass in how to use the battleboard to maximise an armies ability. Furthermore playing against four new opponents had given me a far greater insight into the way in which a Saga army could be deployed and used. Up until the day, I had always discounted levy as being a waste of points, particularly as they do not generate saga dice. I now know differently!

I am confident that should I get the opportunity to play in another such tournament, I would improve not only my points haul but also the way in which I manage my army. I think that I will be a much improved player! I guess the final thought is that if you play like General Custer: carry out insufficient recon; underestimate your enemy; split your forces; fail to capitalize on your strengths and charge in like a bull at a gate, you will get massacred!

Footsore Irish Slingers – Done!

The recent spell of hot weather hasn’t helped with my painting or modelling projects. Apart from the paint drying as fast as I could use it, it’s been too hot in my garage to sit with the lights on whilst painting for any length of time. Far better to sit in the garden with a nice cool drink! Despite that, I have completed the unit of Irish Slingers for my new Saga army, albeit with a bit of a rush to have them ready for this blog. I have finished these guys in some fairly earthy, drab colours and have not worried too much about any decoration or embellishments. I concluded that if all you had on the battlefield was a sling or in the case of some of these boys, a rock to throw, then they weren’t too far up the social ladder ( if even on it) and therefore their clothing would be pretty basic.

Irish Slingers ready for action

Irish Slingers ready for action

I used the Army Painter strong tone ink to get the shading and then highlighted using the original colour with some off white added. As for basing, I used the Sarissa 25mm round MDF bases. I have a general rule that I use MDF bases for Metal figures and plastic bases for plastic figures. There’s no real reason, Renedra plastic bases would be fine, it’s just a personal preference. Once I had glued the figures to the base, I used my new favourite thing to blend the figures to the bases – Vallejo dark earth textured paste. The next job was to paint the base and texture paste with a Chocolate brown and then highlight by adding Iraqi Sand to bring out the texture. Once dry ( which didn’t take long… see my comments above!) I used some watered down PVA to coat the centre of the bases around the figures and dunked them into my green scatter mix. The final task was to add some grass tufts. I decided to ‘road test’ the new range of Javis tufts the we have just started to stock.

The Irish like a bit of cover!

The Irish like a bit of cover!

I decided on the Autumn mix 6mm tufts, which are not too bright a green and blend well with my scatter base. My first thought was that they were a bit too big to use straight form the pack and so I cut one in half. However, on the next figure I used the whole tuft and decided that this gave a good effect. After all, the Irish in Saga like to operate near to cover! To brighten up some of the bases, I added some of the Flower mix 10mm tufts. I did cut these down and unusually for me used them sparingly on just four of the figures. Overall, I am quite happy with the effect and pleased to recommend these new tufts. So my first unit is ready for the table!

Get ready for action! He's rolling dice again!

Get ready for action! He’s rolling dice again!

So it’s onto the next unit. This time I’m going to have a go at the Footsore Irish Fianna with Dane axes. These warriors will hopefully cause mayhem as part of my Saga band and count as Hearth Guard, so eight of these will form a good part of my army. As the photo below shows, once the figures have been cleaned up, I attach them to a board using blutack and spray prime them. In this case I am still using Leather Brown. Blu tacking them to the board enables me to hold them at all angles to ensure that they are well primed. Next step is to put them on temporary bases, again using blutack and to get painting!

Fianna, Primed.

Fianna, Primed.

As well as working on the unit of Slingers, I have been ‘pimping’ a Sarrisa dark age A frame hut as the first piece of scenery for my Saga games. I have made some more progress but not quite finished it. With hindsight I should have made this as a step by step blog article in it’s own right. Here is the progress so far:

Sarissa A frame hut W.I.P.

Sarissa A frame hut W.I.P.

As you can see from the photo, I have highlighted the thatched roof by dry brushing it with Vallejo Desert Yellow first and then again by adding off white to the desert yellow. I’ve added some Vallejo Dark earth paste to the edges of the house to give it a rougher texture. Finally, I’ve base coated the timber that will show with chocolate brown. The next picture shows this a bit better.

timber base coated

timber base coated

As you can see, the paint does not cover the laser etching, allowing this detail to shine through. I will be doing a bit more work on this and I will show you progress in the next blog.

I am at the Wargames Illustrated Saga ‘Iron Man’ day this weekend. I have low expectations as to how well I will perform in a tournament. I don’t really like Tournament wargaming, I’m not comfortable in taking the hobby too seriously and worry that I might…. However, The Wargames Illustrated days have in the past managed to create a nice relaxed atmosphere and I hope that I will learn a great deal and meet some like minded people from the world of wargaming. Read all about it in the next Blog!

An Irish Saga

My output continues to be slow and steady but this week I have made a start on my new Saga Warband, the Irish. I am using the Footsore figures that are available from my shop as I really like the sculpting and the poses of the figures. Even better, Footsore have a ready made 4 point Irish War Band that will form the core of my army. That said, I have decided to add in some Irish Slingers and some other extras so that I can field at least 6 points, possibly more. I have also decided to make some scenery specifically for my Saga games. The ideal outcome of all this will be that I have a Saga ‘kit’ of a couple of boxes containing my army, rules & dice and the scenery that I need to play a game. Well that’s the plan! With this in mind, I have started to ‘pimp up’ some Sarissa Dark Age buildings, well one at the moment. So here is my progress so far. Last week, I showed that I have primed and prepared the Irish Slingers ready for painting. I had also painted the flesh using Vallejo dark flesh. Rather than use my usual method of block painting and quick shade, I thought that I would try a variation and use ink and highlighting to see if I could get a slightly better finish. Unlike my Napoleonic figures, I wanted each figure to look more individual.

Irish Slingers from Footsore primed with leather brown and Flesh added

Irish Slingers from Footsore primed with leather brown and Flesh added

Having spent so long painting Napoleonic troops where every figure pretty much has the same uniform, I find it quite difficult to paint a batch of figures where they all are clothed differently. I have been tempted to paint them one at a time but this will be an even slower job for me and will waste paint, as I inevitably squeeze far too much out on my pallet! The solution for me is to use a limited range of colours and vary them across the figures. As you can see from the next picture, I have chosen a batch of earthy and drab colours and this is how the figures look once they have been block painted and washed with strong tone Army painter ink.

Irish slingers block painted & ink washed. Colours used in the background.

Irish slingers block painted & ink washed. Colours used in the background.

The next stage is to repaint the colours, leaving the shadows created by the ink and to create highlights by adding a bit of either off white or Iraqi sand to the original colour. I also used normal flat flesh to highlight the skin.

Figures repainted & highlighted

Figures repainted & highlighted

The lighting makes it all look a bit harsh. I hope that this picture shows them in a better light!

Irish Slingers in cover

Irish Slingers in cover

As you can see these are not properly based yet. I will finish the next six figures and then base the whole group in one go so that they look similar. It is also a chance to correct any obvious errors – the camera is good for spotting these as you can see…. Whilst they wont win any painting competitions, I’m sure that they will be ready for the table soon.

In between painting the Slingers, I have been attempting to add some detail to the sarissa Dark Ages A frame hut. I thought that I would add some teddy bear fur roofing as a start.

teddy bear fur roofing being glued in place.

teddy bear fur roofing being glued in place.

The first job was to cut the fur to shape using kitchen scissors ( don’t tell the wife!) and then to stick it into place using PVA glue. The clamps are just holding it whilst the glue dries.

Roof coated in glue & primed

Roof coated in glue & primed

The next stage was to coat the teddybear fur in watered down PVA glue, wait for it to dry ( two days!) and then I have sprayed it with Army Painter brown primer ready for a coat of paint. I’m not sure whether to paint the roof grey as this is the actual colour that thatch goes as it weathers or a light brown or straw colour as this is the colour that seems to be used more by modellers. I’ll show you progress in my next post.

Finally, with all of this dark age stuff on the work bench, I did finally find the time to order my flags for the Cornwall regiment that I finished some months ago. The flags are from GMB, my favourite flag supplier and they certainly improve the regiment. Here are the command stands.

32nd Cornwall Regiment now with flags!

32nd Cornwall Regiment now with flags!

A rest is as good as a change!

I’ve had a very relaxing week away on the beautiful island of Skiathos in Greece. Time to catch a few rays and take a break from the usual routine and recharge my batteries. As well as taking a break for work I also stayed away from my hobby. So no packing up soldiers to paint for me – I even resisted taking my usual historical fact and fiction reads. Instead, I made do with a Lee Childs thriller  ‘Gone Tomorrow’ and the latest page turner, ‘Girl on a train’ by Paula Hawkins. Both exceptionally good reads. I did backslide a tad, in that having burnt through those two paperbacks I found that I had ‘Woe to live on’ by Daniel Woodrell on my Kindle. I came across it by accident and didn’t realise that I had it or even what it was until I started the introduction. It’s a terrific read and a tale of the American Civil War, in particular the war in Missouri and the conflicts between the Jayhawkers and Bushwackers, culminating in the raid on Lawrence in Kansas. The Film ‘Ride with the Devil’ is based on the book and I can recommend both if you are at all interested in the American Civil war period.

I hadn’t done any research on the Island of Skiathos itself. Being in Greece and close to the mainland , you would assume that there would be plenty of history to see, so to speak, but apart from a couple of Monastery’s the Island doesn’t seem to have much in the way of antiquity to see.  So, I hadn’t planned on any Historical research or visits to historical sites. In fact, the only excursion that we had planned was a boat trip to the neighbouring islands of Scopelos and Allonissos. The purpose of which was to do a bit of Dolphin spotting, sample the local food and of course visit some of the locations that the film ‘Mama Mia’ was filmed at – more of interest to my wife than myself.

Pirates weapons on show at the museum at Allonissos

Pirates weapons on show at the museum at Allonissos

As it turned out, on one of the islands, Allonissos, there was quite a good little museum to visit. Billed as a ‘pirates’ museum, it actually had quite a nice exhibition of both pirates weapons as well as other weapons from the Greek war of independence, WW1 and more recently, WW2.

Yet more weapons!

Yet more weapons!

This little museum turned out to be a bit of a treasure trove of interesting exhibits and had I had more time, I would have spent much longer investigating the exhibits and taking notes for future research. As it was, we had agreed to meet back with the ladies and so time was at a premium. It also didn’t help that the museum had a superb balcony bar with the best views of the harbour! So I spent more time nursing a cold glass of beer looking out over the bay, enjoying the cool breeze than I did on any serious research…

The view over the Harbour from the Museum balcony bar.

The view over the Harbour from the Museum balcony bar.

All in all, the museum is well worth the 4 euros entrance fee and is a nice diversion on a very relaxing holiday. Back in the UK for the weekend I found that I was ready to pick up my paint brush again and for the last couple of days I have cracked on and finished my next regiment of Portuguese infantry. It has now been confirmed that they will be appearing in Wargames Illustrated Magazine so if you would like to know how I have painted them ( and indeed why I have chosen certain options when doing so) you will have to purchase the magazine. The regiment is the 11th Penamacor from the Central Division and according to my references, would have been brigaded with the 23rd Ameida Regiment ( which is the featured in the WG article)

11th Penamacor Regiment

11th Penamacor Regiment

I’ve taken a liberty with the unit size as really the regiment would have consisted of two battalions, the first Battalion having the main colour, the second Battalion having the secondary colour, in this case the red flag. So it would be more accurate to have a regiment of 48 figures in two separate battalions of 24, each with their own command and just one colour.

Command Group 11th regiment

Command Group 11th regiment

I may yet revert to this configuration. It will be easy enough to do as I have put each ensign on a different base, so it would just be a case of painting the extra figures and finding some extra officer figures or musicians to make up the command group. I say easy, it does mean painting another 24 figures in the identical facings and I am sorely tempted to paint the next regiment with the yellow facings just to be different. For now though I am having a break from Napoleonics and next up on the work bench are some Footsore Irish Slingers for my new Saga band!

Irish Slingers from Footsore

Irish Slingers from Footsore