Fall-In 2012 Report 2 of 2: Fanticide, Saga, Bolt Action & WWPD

 In addition to running my one game, which took up most of Friday, I was able to do a lot of fun things at Fall-In including participating in some of the demo games of Fanticide with Ernie and his crew at Alien Dungeon.  Fanticide is a fantasy skirmish game that was designed by Rick Preistly and Alessio Cavatore, Skye Chaney and Ernie.   It's best described as "whimsically grim" and it's a hoot to play.  More importantly, it has Flying Monkees - 'nuff said.  I played the Liberi (Centaurs with a Native American theme) against the Fae.  I lost a very close game but it was a lot of fun.

 Here's a picture of Ernie running another demo of Fanticide - I've never been able to get a clear photo of Mr Baker in the wild as he is in constant motion.  I think it's a good sign for the game that everyone who participated in the demo's came by the booth later to buy a the book and some minis.  As Mikey is implored on the old Life cereal commercial "Try it, you'll like it".

 I managed to get into the vendor hall early on Friday to say hi and was promptly put to work by Ernie building one of the new 4-Ground laser cut building kits.  I had no tools except glue application sticks from the cast-off wood from the frames.  I managed to complete the kit in 30 minutes which demonstrates how great these little kits are.

 Saturday morning was occupied by the SAGA tournament.  The tournament was very well run and had a simple scenario for all games - first player to loose 2 saga dice due to causalities looses the game.  Warbands were 5 points and I brought my Normans who consisted on 4 mounted Hearthguard and one levy archer.  My first game was against Mike who had Anglo-Danes and was very adept at using there "Intimidate" feature which allows them to build up Fatigue on opposing units.

Here's a picture at the end of our game.  It was a very close game but I managed to win but it could have gone either way.  Mike was very fun opponent.

At this point, for some reason, I forgot I had a camera on my I-Phone and stopped taking pictures for the rest of the con.  I'm afraid the rest of this report will just be rambling prose...

My second game of the Saga tournament was against Tom K and his Welsh Warband.  The Welsh can be very challenging opponents given their javelins and ability to fly through terrain.  I played Tom before in the Historicon Saga Tournament (I lost!) and he is a real pleasure to game with.  This game went well for me as my archers managed to wipe out a hearthguard unit on the first turn and take another done to one figure on the second.  I won the game very quickly but think the scenario design tipped the balance in favor of fast / "shooty" warbands like the Normans.

I decided to skip the third round of the tournament in favor of participating in one of the Bolt Action demo games put on by the WWPD Bolt Action crew (Dano and Judson).  I had a great time and really liked the ruleset.  The rules as best described as "Saga for WWII".  The armies are relatively small (30-40 figures plus the odd tank) and the rule mechanics simple.  There is a good feel for the benefits of combined arms and it's just a lot of fun.  Dano and Judson did a great job as GM's/Emcee's and I pretty sure they have honed their joke delivery skills in the finest dives along the catskill mountains - I could swear I was hearing rim-shots after each punchline!  It was a very fun event.

After the Bolt Action demo I grabbed a quick dinner and sat in on the WWPD podcast - and won a free T-Shirt in the drawing!  Next up was a game of X-Wing where I was piloting a target drone oops I mean Y-Wing.  It was a great game but lets just say I let the rebellion down that evening!  It was fun getting some time to chat with Steve M and the WWPD crew during the con.  By the way, Luke really gets into playing the board game "Spartacus" - it was really neat to see someone having that much fun with a game.  The WWPD crew did a great job with their podcast/game night and I had a blast.

As for "loot", I really didn't buy much from the 'con.  A few odds and ends for Saga from Architects of War, some Byzantine figs from Age of Glory and a few rulesets to read.  The big purchase from the con was a 5 point Viking Saga warband that I won in the "Toys for Tots" silent auction.  I'll post a picture of those figs in a future post.

4Ground Medieval Dwelling

 My first purchase from Historicon to get onto the workbench is this laser cut MDF Medieval cottage from 4Ground Miniatures.  I purchased the kit from the Age of Glory booth.

I must say that I am very impressed with the overall quality of the kit and how easy it was to put together.

 The MDF cuts that come with the kit provide both interior as well as exterior details.  While not as nice as the Architects of War Medieval resin structures these are still very nice kits and extremely good value for the money.  The kit comes with a basic pre-paint of white for the exterior and interior walls with the exposed timbers being laser cut and browned.

Total assembly time was less than 15 minutes excluding the drying time for the teddy bear fur "thatched" roof.  I'll be adding a packed dirt floor and some other interior details but this structure will make a nice addition to my Saga tabletop.

Steve over that the WWPD Saga website, Tapestry has a review of another of the 4Ground Medieval cottages.

Historicon Day 1

The first day of Historicon consisted mainly of the Saga tournament.  This was my first tournament experience and it was a blast - I had a respectable 1-1-1 showing and I really enjoyed it.

This was a six point, no heroes tournament and I fielded a Norman force made up of 3 Mounted Hearthguard, 1 Foot Warrior, 1 Warrior with Crossbows and 1 Levy Bowman.  There were a lot of Normans and Welsh war bands at the tournament.

As usual I didn't take many pictures except the a handful of my first game, which I lost to Tom 14-13.  Tom fielded Welsh who have a deceptively weak look about them but have lots a javelins.  Javelins equals dead Normans!

Tom was a great guy to play against and made a great recovery after I got lucky and wiped out his mounted unit.  Those Javelins are mighty painful when used properly.  Give the win to Tom at 14-13, close but no Cigar.

My second game was against a gentlemen named Walt who fielded Vikings.  I adjusted my force to field the 12 mounted Hearthguard into 1, 8 man and 1, 4 man unit.  I found that the combined might of the 8 figure Hearthguard more than compensated for lost SAGA dice.  Given my mobility advantage, Walt took a defensive strategy.  I did foolishly charge some Warriors in Heavy cover and that didn't work out so well but in the end managed to eek out a 9-7 win.  It was a great game and Walt lives near my in Maryland, so hopefully future games await us.

The last game was "The Escort" scenario and I played against Bill and his wonderfully painted Normans.  Out game was a Norman civil war.  I decided to play the game very aggresively and charged his crossbowmen on the first turn and managed to wiped them out.  Bill responded with equal vigor and charged his warlord and a 6 man hearth guard unit into my center and quickly killed two of the three baggage units I had, which meant I could only play for a tie.  On the next turn my warlord and the 8 man hearth guard unit charged into the center and took out Bill's warlord and 6 mounted knights.   Loosing a Warlord is a killer because you loose both his special abilities and two Saga Dice.  Over the next few turns, I used my numerical superiority in both troops and SAGA dice to greatly reduce the rest of Bill's forces and eek out a tie by exiting the baggage cart.  I was extremely lucky to get the tie but this was a very fun game.

All three of the guys I played were class acts and very helpful for a new SAGA and new tournament player.  I'll be running some demo SAGA games Saturday night at the con so hopefully I'll get a bit more experience.

More Saga Normans and No Power

 Due to a freak thunderstorm last friday night, most of the region is still without power and that's impacted my prep for Historicon.  I don't have power / access to my workshop so terrain making for the Historicon game is on hold for now.

I've switched to focusing on fleshing out my Norman Saga war band which will compete in the Saga tournament at the con.  Recently completed are 1 unit of 4 mounted hearth guard (first picture).

 The second unit completed is a 12 figure bowmen levy unit.  This brings my Nroman's up to the six points that are needed to compete.  The war band consists of:
- 3, 4 man mounted Hearthguard units
- 1, 8 figure warrior spearmen unit
- 1, 8 figure warrior with crossbows
- 1, 12 figure Levy bowmen
+ my Warlord who lacks a suitable silly name as of this moment

I'm debating replacing the either the levy bowmen of the warrior spearmen with a second unit of warrior crossbowmen - ahh decisions, decisions.

As for the Hail Caesar game - the base for the Roman Onager was finished and sealed so that unit's good to go.  I still need to test play the scenario a bit but I think it's in good shape.

SAGA Norman Warband Completed

 My Vikings now have a foe for the tabletop - a 4 point Norman War-band, which consists of a Mounted Warlord, 2 units of Mounted Hearthguard, a unit or Warriors with spears, and a second unit of Warriors with crossbows.  These gents should pose a good challenge to my Vikings.  All of the mounted figures are plastics from Conquest Games.  The foot figures are metals from Gripping Beast.  Sorry for the bad lighting in the photos.

 The unit of spear -armed Warriors look dashing sporting their Little Big Man shield transfers.  Some of you may remember the rather questionable attempt at hand painting shields with my Viking War-band - the figures just look so much better with the LBM transfers.  They are well worth the cost.

 Some crossbowmen to pepper and annoy my plucky Vikings.  Wow designer shields AND annoying crossbow bolts - those Vikings are really going to hate theses guys.

 The first of two units of mounted hearthguard.  I really like the Conquest Plastics.  The LBM shield transfers required just a bit of trimming along the bottom to fit the Conquest figures but that wasn't too hard.

 The second unit of mounted Hearthguard.  All of the figures in each unit sport the same tunic color to help tell them apart on the table top.

 A close up of the shields - I here they're all the rage on the Paris runways this year....

Lastly, here is the Norman Warlord.  I think he came out "OK" but will likely switch him out for a metal version that will look a bit more heroic.

SAGA: Painting Progress on the Normans

 There was some progress on the Norman Warband today - most of the block painting was completed today (some after this photo was taken).  The Normans should be completed by next weekend.  You can see there future opponents above them casting derision on their unpainted state.

To be honest, I had hoped to get a bit more done today, but our cat, Oliver, had other plans.  I was working in my office when he decided my lap look comfortable and hopped up and went to sleep.  Not knowing what to do, I promptly drifted off also.  Oh well, maybe more painting progress next weekend.

SAGA: Normans Assembled

 Yesterday, I finished assembling a 4 point force of Normans to go against my recently completed Vikings.  The first picture shows the whole force which consists of a Warlord, 2 mounted units of Hearthguards (elites) a unit of Crossbowman (warriors) and a unit of Spearmen (Warriors).

 A close up of the crossbowmen and one of two mounted Hearthguard.  The crossbowman are from Gripping Beast and all the mounted figures are the plastic Mounted Normans from Conquest Games.  As you may know I'm a bit of a miniatures apostate as I actually prefer plastic figures over metal.  The Conquest figures are very nice and you have a lot of options in terms of weapons and shield style.

 Here are the Spearman (Gripping Beast figures) and the second unit of mounted Hearthguard.

Lastly, a picture of the warlord.  I managed to pick up some of the Little Big Man shield transfers and flags for both the Normans and Vikings from Ernie over at Architects of War.  The Norman flags are really nice so I plan on replacing the plastic flag stand on the figure with some brass rod to allow for a bigger flag.

Later in the day, I primed all the figures in white and have set them out to dry for a few days.  Hopefully in a week or so I'll have the Normans complete!

Viking Saga Warband Complete

 I managed to finish up a small (4 point) Viking Warband to use with the Saga ruleset.  This force consists of a single Warlord, 3 units of Hearthguard (elites) and one unit on Bondi Warriors (Regulars). I have another unit of Bondi Warriors to add to the force at a later date.

 Here's the first unit of Hearthguad - all plastic Gripping Beast Vikings.  I tried my hand at painting shields and lets just say I need some more practice.  I did check with Ernie and Barb at Architects of War and they just got in some more Little Big Man transfers - whew!  I did try to keep the shield designs the same for each unit to help keep things organized on the tabletop.

 My second unit of Hearthguard are Viking Beserkers, all metal Gripping Beast models.  Beserkers get extra attack dice but at a cost of lower armor values.

 The third and last unit of Hearthguard, also Gripping Beast plastics.

 Here's the big man himself, my warlord.  I have yet to settle on a fittingly blood curdling name, but don't worry one will be found in good time.

Lastly, the 8 figure unit of Bondi Warriors (Gripping Beast metals).  I like the stark black and white shield design.

I'm looking forward to trying these lads out on the tabletop in the next week or so.  Now it's on to their Norman foes!

Progress on a Viking Warband for "Saga"

A short progress update on my Viking Warband for use with the new Saga ruleset.  Saga uses a simple point system where each force is worth one point and the quality of the troops drives the number you get per unit - Hearthguard (elite) have 4 figures per unit, Warriors (average) have eight and Levies (poor quality) have 12.  My Viking Warband will feature 3 units of Hearthguard, including one of beserkers and a unit of warriors.  I'm not sure how the unit will do on the table top but it should be fun to field.

Here's a shot after a few hours of painting.  I still need to do the details, including shields and straps but there was some good progress this morning.  The figures are a mix of Gripping Beast metals and plastics.  I'm planning to use some of my Dacians as stand in for a test game next week.

SAGA - Yet another project?

On a whim, I decided to pick up the new Medieval Skirmish ruleset "SAGA" from Ernie over at Architects of War.  I must say after a quick read that the rule system is very intriguing and the activation mechanism very clever.

The game revolves around war bands of 30-40 figures that are organized into units of 4 to 12.  There are currently four nationalities (Vikings, Saxons, Welsh and Normans) each with there own unique characteristics.

Yet another project and wargaming period may be daft but I am very tempted to paint up a Viking Warband since I already have a box of the plastic Vikings from Gripping Beast.

These rules seem really promising....

Must stay focused, ships to  finish....

Wow Vikings are cool....

Must stay ummm what was that?...

Oooohhhh Shiny