SAGA Skirmish: Gripping Beast Vikings vs Saxons!

Had a chance to finally squeeze in some action with an introduction game of SAGA to some new converts. Using Gripping Beast Plastic Viking Hirdmen and Saxon Thegn boxed sets to build the forces, we once again, put them to the test. Here at the opening gambit, the viking line surges forward from the left to attack the Anglo-Saxon defenders.

The Saxons in a bold move rushed the Viking Ulfhednar and wiped the berserkers out. In turn their warriors were cut down by the Viking Warlord and his warriors.

After some crushing skirmishes, the Anglo-Saxons retreat. The Viking Warlord sends his warriors in to attack the opposing Warlord and his last two remaining Hearthguard who are defending from behind a stonewall.

Refusing to be defeated the Anglo-Saxon Warlord stands defiant! The Viking warlord joins his warriors in the attack!

The viking warriors jump the wall and attack and slay the last remaining Saxon Hearthguard....

leaving the Saxon Warlord to be surrounded and slain.

A great night of introducing SAGA to new players who in turn brought additional recruits to the miniature wargaming hobby!

Have a Great Battle!
The Old Crow

New Release: Dark Age Warriors from Gripping Beast Plastics

Gripping Beast has put out another Dark Age plastic box set of warriors perfect for your SAGA warband. These Dark Age Warriors may be used to represent almost any unarmored European warrior from the Late Antiquity to the Early Medieval period. This will be a splendid addition to the Saxon Thegns and Viking Hirdmen already available.

They might be found in the Auxillary of Justinian's Byzantines, in the Goth hordes that fought across Europe in the twilight years of the Roman Empire, lining the Shieldwall at The Battle Of Hastings, supporting the Thegns of Alfred The Great or the Hirdmen of his Viking enemies, or even raiding unsuspecting villages and monasteries throughout this period.

In this Gripping Beast Plastics box set you'll find parts to assemble 40, that's right, 40 finely-detailed Dark Age Warriors. Each Warrior can be armed with a spear but for extra flexibility, the set also contains additional parts for you to make up to 8 of these warriors with swords and 8 with hand axes. If  you prefer pelting your enemies from afar, up to 32 can be outfitted with slings or up to 16 with javelins.

The figures are flexible enough to add to most any SAGA warband. There are also parts to create horn-blowers and as always, plastic bases for all the figures.

With all these figures, we're sure you'll have a great battle!

The Old Crow

Viking Shield Design for our SAGA Warband and Painted versus Unpainted

Finished of the Gripping Beast Viking Hirdmen for our SAGA warband with shield designs. Here's the lot. Another point of warriors ready to rumble. Having fully painted figures on the gaming table does make for a great game and nice photos too!!

Every club is different and some require painted miniatures in order to play. We can go either way on this one. It does make for a better "Wargame Experience" when the battleground is stocked with great miniatures all colorful (like these guys) and not gray! On the other hand, getting your figures all painted takes time. What if you want to try out a new faction in Saga? How about game testing your new Warhammer Fantasy Empire army? Should you take a canon and unit of spearmen or hellblaster volley gun and handgunners? It's nice to have a place to try these variations without having to paint them.

How about cardboard tokens? Anybody else ever try gaming like that? We've play tested a few things with squares on the table, it was not very exciting or appealing but it did get the job done. Let us know your thoughts on this one. In the mean time, here's our viking shield designs.

There are great transfers for shields out there, but we tend to do our own designs. As you can see, they can range from simple colors to the elaborate knot work.

You can halve or quarter the shield for easier patterns, break it into eighths with alternating colors or add a twist to the lines like the viking on the left.

Animal designs and patterns are big in the viking age. Do a bit of research on the internet or local library for historical icons you could use. Here we used a bear claw, fire worm and crow.

Don't forget to let us know what your club does for gaming, painted or unpainted!

Have a Great Battle!
The Old Crow

More Gripping Beast Viking Hirdmen for SAGA

We had a good day painting these Viking Hirdmen from Gripping Beast Plastics. These guys will be an additional point of Warriors for a SAGA Viking warband.

The shields were primed later so they still need finished but we wanted to share these guys with you for now!

Lot's of great poses and accessories available from the box set we reviewed early last month.

Have a Great Battle,
The Old Crow

Gripping Beast Plastics Viking Hirdmen for SAGA - FINISHED!

We had started with a review back in June on the Gripping Beast Plastics box set of Viking Hirdmen and promised photos of the finished figures. Here they are, ready to raid the coastal villages!

Well final touches were added to the four Viking Hirdmen who will become a point of Hearthguard for our SAGA Viking Warband.

Shields were completed with hand painted icons and basing was done with a mixture of blended turf, medium grey ballast and Italian spices! Small rocks were added for a bit of realism.

Here's Olaf One Eye, with his red dragon emblem

Bolverk longs for the sea, thus the viking ship on his shield, and wields axes.

Sigvaldi carries his hatchet and throwing spears. He has the crow on his shield

and last, Halldor carries Thor's Hammer on his shield!

If you're interested, we uploaded several different views of each figure on flickr. Let me know if you like that or would prefer to see them all in the blog post.

Have a Great Battle,
The Old Crow

Gripping Beast Viking Hirdmen for SAGA Hearthguard!

If you recall from our last post, we had 4 of the Gripping Beast Viking Hirdmen ready to be painted for a point of Hearthguard in SAGA. Well, Here they are so far!

No basing or shield designs yet but coming together nicely!

Individually these guys have some character..

Great helmet and pose...

Gotta love the braided beard!

My favorite, ready for action with the evil eye and all!

Should have final photos soon!

Have a Great Battle
The Old Crow

Viking Hirdmen from Gripping Beast Plastics - Review Part 2

Late last year we did a review on the Grpping Beast Plastics Saxon Thegns and neglected to follow up with the Viking Hirdmen! This is another great set which is very economical. As in the Saxon Thegns box, you get 44 Viking Hirdmen figures, warriors of Odin, and the components for a  variety of weapons including the fearsome 2 handed Dane Axe.  You also get parts to turn up to two of your warriors into Viking Lords and two into horn-blowers.

Each of the four sprues is packed with various arms and hands with everything from swords to axes to spears. There are plenty of extras including heads to keep the variety going. A great component is the shield with spears or javelins. This is fantastic for having your hirdmen ready to hurl additional implements of destruction!

The command sprue, as mentioned above, contains parts for making a Viking Warlord and horn-blower to lead your warband.

We would have liked to see a standard on the sprue too, but with the number of extras provided you can easily create a standard bearer.

If you're interested in getting into the Viking Age skirmish game SAGA, this box set would allow you to easily build an entire warband.

There was very little flashing on the sprues so not much time was needed cleaning the figures. We completed a dozen figures in about two hours. Eight are armed with spears which can make a point of warriors for your SAGA Warband...

(Lots of extras added to these viking warriors!)

...and these four axe wielding  warriors of Odin will be used as a point of hearthguard for the same warband. That would be half of your 4 point starter warband built in a short period of time! We'll get them painted and post the final products soon!





If you're trying to decide what to buy next, we'd recommend this fine box set. You can't beat the value, for approximately $32-36.00 dollars in the states, you are paying less than one dollar per figure!

As always, have a great battle
The Old Crow

How to Build a Viking Lodge or Trading Post for SAGA, Warhammer, Lord of the Rings or Historical Wargames

It seems like it's been a good bit of time since we showed you a "how to build" something, so here's a great Viking lodge for or trading post SAGA!

You can use it with any other historical wargames like Hail Caesar or Clash of Empires or break into the fantasy genre with Warhammer or Lord of The Rings.

The materials we started with were a piece of polystyrene for the base, some card stock for the basic structure, heavier cardboard for the roof, craft sticks and a small wood dowel for the columns.

We first built the four walls from the cardstock and glued it together. The base was cut to size and a step notched from the front. The dowel was cut into two in order to create columns for the overhang in the front.

The structure was glued to the base and the roof was cut to size from the cardboard. Besides the overhang, two other supports were cut for the roof. We want it to be removable so figures can be garrisoned inside to defend it. We used hot glue on the roof supports.

We carved beams with a little style for the front and back to add support and enhance the buildings appearance.

With the roof fitted on, it was time to start the walls.

We had pieces of craft sticks, or as we called them "pop-cycle" sticks, left from previous projects so just trimmed them up and glued them to the side walls with white craft glue. Spaces were left for two windows on each side.

The back wall was the full height so needed sticks cut to size. Tape the sticks together and draw your back wall onto them so you can make precise cuts. The tape should hold them together so they can all be cut at one time.

Once you've glued the back on too, you structure should be starting to firm up.

The front has a low wall like the sides and the front overhang. Cut a triangle template to get it sized correctly, cut the sticks and glue it all together.

Now we turned our attention to the base. We wanted the building to be on a stone platform. This would have been done to keep goods up off the wet earth. Starting in the front and working around, we "carved" grooves in the base to simulate the blocks of stone.

You can use an old ball point pen, an expensive carving tool or a toothpick like we did!

The final touch was a few flagstones cut out of a heavy weight paper. These will add dimension to your finished trading post. Everything was then primed with black. Be careful as some spray primers will dissolve the polystyrene.

The walls and columns were painted with burnt umber, coffee bean and then drybrushed with barn wood. This should give you a nice weathered and rustic feel.

The base was given three shades of grey and then some slate was added to a few stones here and there to spice it up. For the roof we used craft fur. You should hot glue it to the roof because you'll want to apply some watered down craft glue to matt it down and create the appearance of straw or thatched roof.

And there you have it! Add some extras and miniatures to dress it up and you have a snazzy centerpiece for your gaming table.

Have a great Battle!
The Old Crow