Jim's Wargames Workbench

I was given a book token for my birthday a few weeks ago and, while browsing in Waterstones, I decided to use it to buy a new hardback copy of Max Adam's book on Offa of Mercia. It covers a lot more than that to be fair, going all the way back to Penda and forward to the ascendancy of the West Saxon kings, so very much worth getting hold of. I'll be reading it in the Easter holidays when I'm off to France again.

I got a Gripping Beast SAGA 4 point Anglo Saxon warband for my birthday at the weekend, which will give me a perfect starting force or two for Ravenfeast. Although I have a Foundry Viking collection I quite like the idea of putting together one or two mid-Saxon skirmish forces, one of which would be West Saxon and the other possibly Mercian, pitching things in the early ninth century. This was the time of the West Saxon expansion into the South West, which I wrote my undergraduate dissertation on many years ago, so a subject of long term interest for me. I've already picked up some Gripping Beast plastic archers and shield transfers from eBay and so I'm thinking that this would be a cracking project for next month?

This year I'm aiming to not start any new projects, apart from the Winter Hammer one, but instead work on things I have already begun, if possible with a new twist to make them more interesting. The focus is on small, solo friendly projects with simple rules and a minimum of terrain, figures and cost.

One idea I've been mulling over is to finish some 28mm Viking figures I've had in a box for years, at least since 2010 or so. These are Foundry figures and were originally destined for SAGA. I have played a few games of SAGA with my Norman warband and enjoyed the rules, but they're not designed for solo play.

Instead, I'm going to use the free Ravenfeast rules which require fewer figures, are simple but also good for solo games, and also need a minimum of terrain as games are played on a roughly four foot square area. The warbands, for want of a better word, are about a dozen figures each, which is just about covered by the ones I've already based, perhaps with a handful of extras like bowmen and berserkers. 

I like the sound of this a lot and may even make it next month's land based skirmish project. It will make use of some stuff I've already got, won't take a lot of time to set up and the figures should paint up nicely, being full of character. It's also scalable and I could even use the rules for larger battles with smaller scale figures, possibly even in 6mm or 2mm. 

I decided to sell off my unfinished Norman warband for SAGA earlier this year but have now changed my mind and will hold on to it instead. I have three points worth of hearthguard and warriors, with another three points of figures based and undercoated, ready for painting at some point. This would be a good rainy weekend mini-project, so I might as well keep them rather than flogging them off, especially as I have more time now to get them sorted.

I'm thinking about a Lion Rampant plastic production line project for the summer holidays, if we end up going across to Brittany for August, rather than being stuck at home. I've done this several times before, taking an army to assemble and base while I'm away from the workbench, with one or two o them eventually ending up being painted and, believe it or not, actually ending up being used for a game. 

This time round, it's a toss up between the War of the Roses using Perry Miniatures plastic figures, or a mid to late twelfth century feudal retinue using the Conquest Miniatures plastic figures. I already have a four point 28mm Norman warband for SAGA but that's as far as it goes, so the plastic pile is free to be plundered for other purposes and as the basis of a larger skirmish themed army, keeping the cost down to an affordable level but building units that aren't just a handful of figures. 

As part of this, I've been doing some more background reading, with the latest book from Chris Peers on the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda. It's clearly written from a military history brief and has lots of wargaming relevant content, which is hardly a surprise given the author's rules writing side line. It's definitely worth a look if you are interested in the period.

This set of three cavalry command figures by Tanatus Miniatures was on sale on the Northstar website, so I ordered a pack to use as a warband leader for SAGA. I have a Gripping Beast mid-Saxon warband which I originally collected together for Shieldwall many years ago, but it was missing a decent, charismatic leader figure. I think this mounted figure and his standard bearer will do the job very well, perhaps even representing King Egbert c838, when the West Saxons fought against the Cornish and their Viking allies. 

I finally bit the bullet and have sold off my incomplete SAGA Norman warband, which I've only used a couple of times and really didn't feel like finishing. I was never happy with the painting, which I did over the holidays with a very basic set of paints, although the basing wasn't bad. I've sold them to a chap at the club, so they'll be used there rather than re-sold on eBay, which is a good result and may well lead to some more SAGA games. I'll now have to paint a new army which I'll try to do at some point this year, based on the Gripping Beast Welsh warband that I bought ages ago, with some extra figures to bulk it up to a full six points.

I'm reading this at the moment, as a bit of background for my Saga revival project, which is scheduled for the new year. I live in Winchester so the subject of this book is very close to home. It's written in a slightly unusual style but it is still readable and has some very interesting angles on the period which I hadn't been aware of before. 

I now have the second edition Saga rules, which I bought new and the Age of Vikings supplement, which I bought second hand but 'as new' for twenty quid, which is a bargain. I'll do some reading around the rules when the the Age of Vikings book arrives later this week, as I've also unearthed a load of Gripping Beast mid-Saxon metal figures that I'd forgotten about, so could do a West Saxon ninth century warband instead of the Welsh. In the meantime, I have some other plans designed to get me up to speed with 28mm figure painting, as I definitely need a refresher course! (more about that later today).

I've been thinking of using 1p coins as bases for my new SAGA Welsh warband for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I like the idea of using magnetic basing for storage, so 1p coins would make this easy, with one of those RUB inserts from Charlie Foxtrot taking 104 figures. As all of the units would be foot, apart from the warband leader, this would be ideal. Secondly, the Gripping Beast figures have a smaller footprint on average than the Crusader Miniatures figures I've based in the past, so they actually fit on a 1p coin. However, my old Norman warband is based on 25mm mdf circular bases and these do look good when textured and decorated. If I end up keeping the Normans I could also use them against the Welsh, assuming I finished off the last two units of spearmen and archers. Perhaps 25mm bases would be the better option after all?

I have had some inspiration for an Autumn project, following a very interesting chat with some of the SAGA enthusiasts at the club last night. It seems that the Second Edition of SAGA is well worth a try, so I've decided to dig out my dusty Gripping Beast 4 point Welsh starter army, although it's got some extra bits to make it up to a 6 point warband, so that I can paint it up for a game or two.

https://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2016/01/saga-west-welsh.html

I don't have the rules or the supplement yet but, as it's not exactly cheap, I'll fund the project by selling off my old Norman 4 point force on eBay, which seems like a good way to kick start the project and clear the decks a bit. The Sandbox Skirmish project will be put back on the shelf in the meantime but will no doubt resurface at some point in the future.

I made a rare if fleeting visit to the local club this evening, unfortunately not to play a game but to drop of number one son so he could play 40K. I did get a chance to have a chat with the regulars, however, which was really good and about time, as I've been away for far too long. It was also a good opportunity to find out a bit more about the new edition of SAGA, which is a definite improvement on the old version according to the usual suspects. 

I have a Norman army for SAGA but haven't used it for more than a couple of games way back in the distant past, primarily due to the fact that I was disappointed by the paintwork I inflicted on the figures, which are all lovely Crusader Miniatures and otherwise undeserving of my sloppy brushwork. In fact, only today I was thinking of sending them off to eBay to raise some cash for other projects. I may well do this but instead to fund a second edition of the rules and the (very expensive!) Age of Vikings supplement.

This would mean a new army would be needed, which isn't a problem as, guess what, I have a whole load of plastic and metal figures in the lead pile including a very nice Gripping Beast Welsh 4 point starter force, lots of plastic Anglo Saxons and other assorted early medieval sword fodder. These have been gathering dust but would be a great way for me to get back into SAGA after my abortive first edition efforts. I need to have another chat with the SAGA experts at the club first, but I think this would be a lot of fun!

I've decided to not take part in the SAGA campaign at the club this summer, as I just won't be able to spare the time next month and will be away for several weeks after that. I don't want to be put in the position of not being able to play out games against opponents, so will let the other players crack on without me. I'm frustrated by this but can see no way round it in the foreseeable future. I'm hoping another campaign might take place at some point as I'd still love to join in with my Normans or Welsh, once the latter get painted. All in all this year is turning out to be pretty rubbish. I hope it get's better sooner rather than later, as I'm really fed up with the whole thing already and it's only June!

The up and coming SAGA campaign at the club means I will have to pick up my Norman warband were I left off and finish at least one unit to complete a four point force. This will be a twelve man levy unit of archers, as they are an essential element of a Norman warband and pop up all over the battle board, which means that I will lose out big time if I don't have one. I have them undercoated and ready to paint, along with an eight man unit of warrior spearmen, which may or may not get painted along the way. The deadline is the beginning of July, so I better get cracking!

As I expected, there's a move afoot to have a casual SAGA campaign at the club based around the Age of the Wolf supplement. I'm really pleased about this, as it will mean that I have a good reason to finish off my Norman 4 point warband with the last unit that has remained unpainted for far too long. It also means that I now have a painting project for the Summer holidays, which may or may not be a second SAGA army, this time the Cornish or 'West Welsh'.

I set out to do this way back in February, so it's about time I got on with it, avoiding the mistakes I made the last time I tried painting an army in the Summer holidays abroad, which was the Norman war band funnily enough. I'm pretty sure I know what I did wrong then (wrong paints, poor lighting, bad approach), so this time it should be a better end result...fingers crossed!? It does all depend on when this campaign will run, however, as I'm away in August so wouldn't be able to take part then.

This campaign supplement for SAGA is coming out in May, which gives me a few weeks to sort out my West Welsh warband before someone at the club bites the bullet and suggests a SAGA campaign might be fun. It looks like this will be really neat addition to the SAGA system, which is already a very enjoyable set of rules, especially as it's an ideal period for skirmish campaigning. I'll need to get some more practice games in first, though, otherwise I'll get slaughtered by the experienced SAGA veterans at the club. 

I've been pondering how to go about representing allied contingents in Saga, in other words, mixed forces from two or more factions. The reason for this is that I'd like to field an allied Danish contingent in my Cornish warband, as this is historically valid for the early to mid ninth century. In 838AD the West Welsh joined forces with the Danes who had been raiding up and down the coast, to combine their strength against a mutual enemy, the West Saxons under King Ecgbert..

The first idea I had was to add a couple of units of hearthguard or one of warriors to the Cornish army, then just use the equivalent slots on the Welsh battle board to handle both the Welsh and the Danes. This would be the easiest option and would let me keep the numbers down, incorporating the Vikings into the Cornish army as a couple of points in a six point standard sized force. This would mean, however, that the Viking attributes wouldn't be represented, which seemed a bit of a shame.

I think a better approach would be to use two battle boards instead of just the one, with four points worth of Danes and four points worth of Welsh, under a unified Cornish warlord's command. This would be an easy way to keep the best of both worlds without having to do too many units or paint too many figures, especially if the Danes were entirely hirdmen, rather warriors or levy. This might limit their battle board options but it would be easily manageable and a little less flimsy.

There are rules for eight point a side battles in the Saga main rulebook as well, which gives the whole thing a sprinkle of legitimacy. I quite like the idea of fielding a composite eight unit allied warband, as it would really look impressive and should be interesting to play with, combining the Welsh skirmish and missile characteristics with the melee abilities of the Vikings. I think it would look good too. It's the Welsh / Cornish first though before I get carried away.

This finishes off my shopping list for the Saga West Welsh, with a selection of shield decals from Little Big Men Studios for the Gripping Beast six point Cornish warband. They don't have many units with shields anyway but I thought it would be nice to deck out the Teulu with some decent patterns to give the warband a bit of colour. I've chosen a mix of the Arthurian and generic Dark Age designs but will decide which ones to use once I've assembled the units.

I've decided to go all out on the basing for the Saga West Welsh having seen other players at thr club using skirmish style multiple bases with removable stands, rather than just juggling with individual figures. The place to go for these is Warbases who have a range of what they call 'Zombie' bases that are ideal for the purpose. I've gone for  mix of four, six and eight hole bases, so that I can group heartguard, warriors and levy together and also combine some of them to make larger units if required. I've also gone for the 2p sized slots, although I'll be using 2p sized mdf  circles rather than coins, as I prefer them for some inexplicable reason. I'm hoping this will all look pretty good?

I now have a copy of The Raven's Shadow to add to the main rules and the first supplement which I already own. I'm not thinking of adding any of the various forces from this supplement at the moment but the rules for using war banners will be useful for my West Saxon and Cornish war bands, along with the extra scenario material. I'm surprised that there isn't a list and battle board for a Pictish war band as this would seem to be an obvious thing to include?