A Crusading Clash - First Game of SAGA

A Syrian Emir prepares to lead his host to glorious victory over the Frankish invaders

Last week the Conscripts tried "SAGA: Crescent and The Cross" on the table for the first time.  I had completed a four-point warband of Crusaders back in the late winter of this year, and finished a four-point warband of Saracens to oppose them this fall.  It was time to get them on to the table for a showdown in the Holy Land, and last Thursday was the day!

Among our gaming group Byron is the only one who had any significant experience playing the unique "SAGA" rules, although he had not yet tried the "Crescent and The Cross". I was the next most-senior SAGA player - and I had tried it once, four or five years ago, with a game of Vikings vs. Saxons that my good friend Curt had hosted for me in Regina.  So safe to say that overall our group was still very new to the SAGA experience.

A view of the board at the beginning of the game - nobody wanted to touch the uneven ground in the wadi...the Saracens are on the left, and the Crusaders on the right.

And it is a unique gaming experience. SAGA fuses a basic and easy skirmishing system with an at-times-complex system of abilities and activations derived from a faction's "battle board".  Dice are rolled and allocated by players who must balance the use of the dice to activate the different elements of their warband with the use of special abilities that will help their warband succeed.  The "battle board" serves as a sort of dash board to command the warband.

Christian Knights move out...

Crossbows on the flank in cover, while stout spearmen hold the centre of the Crusader lines...

We lined up a very basic starting scenario, imagining a clash somewhere east of Jerusalem in the early 12th century. The victors would be the warband who gained more "slaughtering victory points" than the other. Sounds about right to me! Bill, Byron and Frederick played the Saracen warband, while Dallas, Mike and Dave V took up the Crusaders' cause.

Mounted archers ride forward on the Saracen flank.

While new to our group, I know SAGA is enormously popular in the gaming world, so folks reading this might chuckle that a pair of four-point warbands managed to occupy six gamers and one guy with charts. But given how new we were to the SAGA system, it worked out pretty well.  I certainly enjoyed watching the group planning discussions as the SAGA dice were rolled and decisions were made about which groups to activate, or which abilities needed to be used. Those decisions are the core of the game, and are where a lot of the fun lies.

Ghulams prepare to charge the Crusaders...

The Crusaders prepare to respond...

Bang! Lances are splintered, shields shattered etc...

The opponents opted for some careful missile fire early on, while maneuvering their Knights and Ghulams for charges to come later.  And charge they did! The Christian Knights crashed into the Ghulams on a couple of consecutive turns.  Blood spilled to the sand of the Holy Land as Knights and Ghulams fell in battle.  The Saracen horse archers, meanwhile, got the better of the Crusader crossbowmen, and the Crusader spearmen were not able to make much of an impression on the Saracen horse archers.

The forces clash! More fatigue tokens and fewer Knights are the result...

Ghulams holding the line...

The Warlord steadies his lines of Ghulams...

The Saracen players made the best of their battle board abilities, which seemed to me to be, in many cases, gambles of fate, which didn't always work out for them.  The Crusaders, for their part, tried to leverage their own powerful battle board, but found themselves restricted at times by the need to roll for "virtues" before getting access to some of the stronger capabilities.

Crossbows emerge to shower the Saracens with bolts...

But it doesn't seem to have an effect...

The Saracen spearmen stand ready, but were not required at the end of the matter...

In the end it was a narrow victory for the Saracen warband, and God was left to sort out the souls of the departed warriors...

I'm pretty sure we still screwed up some rules, but overall SAGA is a lot of fun. It is not (and does not try to be) an exacting or careful historical simulation.  It is more of a dramatic, story-driven clash. As I told the group last week, I have been wanting to play a miniatures game set in the Crusades for a long, long time, as the period is so fascinating for me. So it was a real thrill to finally see one happen! 

My terrier Spencer is exhausted from all of the gaming action, so he takes a nap on the floor :)

Hopefully we can try SAGA again in the future. In the interim, I'll try and bulk out the warbands a little bit, as six-point warbands would fill the table up a little more, and give the players some different options in terms of structuring their warband units differently (like a 12-model unit of warriors, for example).

Thanks again to everyone for coming out to play and try the new (to us) rules!

Saracen Flag Bearer for SAGA

"Saracen" war banner bearer for my SAGA warband

This is a bit of an extra for my Saracen warband in "SAGA: Crescent and the Cross".  This is a flag bearer, which I believe can be swapped in among the hearthguard to help lower fatigue levels of the warriors in the game.  My Crusader warband has a battleflag bearer, so I thought it would be good to do one up as well for the Saracen warriors.

Beautiful, fluid feeling of movement to these incredible Perry sculpts

As with the other figures, this is a 28mm sculpt from the Perry twins' First Crusade range. I will again rave about just how gorgeous these sculpts are.  They are just lovely and a lot of fun to paint. I even enjoyed hand-painting the shield this time - perhaps a sign that I am getting into a bit of a groove when it comes to painting historical warriors.

Charge!

The flag itself is a banner from Maverick Models.  I believe, strictly speaking, it is actually a Mahdist banner from the uprising in Sudan, 800 years or so after the First Crusade, which is a fairly significant historical whiff on my part, but I needed an arabic-looking, basic banner and this seemed to work, so I'm going with it for now...I can always cut it off and replace it later.

As with the other "Saracen" figurs, I tried to work some bold and brighter colours into the mix

In addition to some bonuses for his fellow Saracen warriors in SAGA, this figure will also be able to join a command group in a game such as "Hail Caesar", which I still harbour dreams/notions/delusions of playing in 28mm some day.  With nine arab heavy cavalry models already painted for the SAGA warband, it would not be a stretch to add a musician and a few more warriors to make a heavy cavalry unit for "Hail Caesar" (or a couple of more "points" for SAGA, for that matter).

So the two rival warbands are ready for SAGA action. Considering I ordered the figures back in January that isn't a totally terrible turnaround time.  Hope to put them into action on the Fawcett gaming table this fall!

In terms of what's next for painting (because I must always be painting something, or I'll lose my mind), I will be turning next to another historical subject, one that has been absent from my painting table for quite a while...stay tuned!

More Arab Heavy Cavalry - First Saracen Warband Completed!

Arab heavy cavalry in 28mm, sculpts from Perry Miniatures (and they are AMAZING!)

After returning from the lake this summer, and following a good long streak of general focus on 30k and science fiction painting, I resolved to try and finish a basic, four-point Saracen Warband for "SAGA: Crescent and the Cross".  The warlord had already been painted, but he was all alone, so throughout September I concentrated on the fighting elements for the warband.  I am excited to share that, with the completion of these four figures, I have completed the basic warband!

Ready to repel the Frankish invaders!

These four figures are, once again, from the Perry Brothers incredible 28mm First Crusade collection.  They are beautiful sculpts.  These four mounted warriors represent one "point" of hearthguards in the SAGA game.  These warriors are armed with bows in addition to their lances, so will provide some flexibility for the Saracen player on the table.

Colourful AND heavily armed and armoured...a challenge to paint, but lots of fun when they are finished!

I have been griping about painting shields throughout this process, but in this case I was a little smarter with the shields I selected.  I made sure I had some flat ones for this group, and that meant I could use the amazing transfers from LBMS on a couple of them. Yay!

These fellows carry bows as well, a little more flexible in terms of fighting options on the table, I think

So with these fellows completed, that's a four-point warband, ready for action on the gaming table. I'm pretty happy with how all of the different colours look on these different warriors.  The Perry sculpts are just amazing, with incredible detail and an impression of motion that I find so suitable for the period. It's also been fun to overcome a bit of a mental block in terms of tackling a new period for historical gaming that I hope to dive further into going forward.

The completed four-point Saracen warband, ready for a basic SAGA game

The Saracen warlord in the middle, surely thrilled to have some warriors to command in his struggle against the Crusaders....

Even better, they will be able to tangle with the Crusader warband I finished earlier this year. Hopefully we will be able to share some SAGA gaming on the tables of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts later this fall!

Saracen Heavy Cavalry for SAGA

Saracen heavy cavalry for SAGA

More progress on my 28mm Saracen Warband for "SAGA: Crescent and the Cross".  This is to be a basic four-point warband, and I have manged to finish the first two "points", eight spearmen and eight mounted archers.  That left two "points" worth of figures to go, and these would be the "hearthguards", which in the Saracen warband are represented by heavy cavalry.  These are 28mm metal castings from the Perry brothers' incredible First Crusade range.

Taken as a youth from Russia or perhaps somewhere around the Crimea? Who knows?

As the hearthguards are made of tougher stuff than the warriors, a "point" of them gets you correspondingly fewer models, with four models per "point".  Mounted on fine horses, sporting heavy armour and an assortment of lances and other nasty weapons, these heavy cavalry will fight to the last in defence of their Emir and his lands.

That warhammer doesn't look so big, but I bet it hurts...

As with the mounted archers, I have found that there seemed to be no specific, formal uniform for these warriors, and some could be equipped in very colourful garb beneath the chain mail and lamellar armour, so I tried to put a nice variety of colours on these warriors.  I also tried to paint a hint of a pattern here or there on some of the clothing to show its fine work, but that manner of painting is mostly beyond my skills so the efforts on that score were limited.

Hand-painted shields are so fun...NOT.  Oh well, they kind of blend together from two-feet away, which works for me.

As before, the shields make me mental, but I've got some decent momentum rolling along on this project so I'm able to tune out the frustrations and just power through.  And I was able to get an LBMS transfer on one of the warriors, which is a nice touch!

A different angle showing some of the horse furniture and different clothing and equipment

Some of the warriors may have been slaves, "Ghulams", so I painted one warrior with blonde hair, representing a warrior who may have been taken from somewhere in Europe as a youth and found his way down the retinue of an Emir, having grown into a loyal warrior in service of his Lord.

Ready for the charge!

With these painted, I have only one "point" of hearthguards to go before the basic warband is complete.  I hope to share those final figures shortly!

Saracen Horse Archers for SAGA

"Saracen" horse archers in 28mm for SAGA. These are 28mm sculpts from the Perry twins.

My efforts to complete a 28mm Saracen warband for "SAGA: Crescent and the Cross" continue.  I had finished the Warlord for the warband back in the late winter, during Curt's most recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Now that the fall season is here, I really want to finish a four-point warband for him to lead into battle.  I started with the spearmen first, as they were relatively easy, and now I have a second "point" to share - eight mounted horse archers.

The Perrys are incredible sculptors, and they knocked it out of the park once again with these Seljuk archers - I love the fluid energy in the poses - you can imagine them riding circles around hapless Crusaders, filling the air with deadly arrows...

These are 28mm metal figures from the Perry brothers' amazing First Crusade range.  They are Seljuk horse archers. When I imagine the "saracen" warriors who confronted the Crusaders, I think of troops just like these, swirling and colourful horse archers boldly riding in daring-yet-evasive formations, loosing deadly arrows at the relatively slow Crusader forces.  I'm pretty pleased to have this group of eight mounted warriors (good for another "point" in SAGA) to add to my small collection of Saracens.

The single LBMS shield I managed is visible on the left of this photo - wish I could have done them for all the shields, but having one really nice one is still a great accent for the unit

I like to paint in a process-driven fashion, but I doubt painting any of the Saracen/Caliphate etc forces will ever allow for much of that, and these colourful figures are a good example.

I have always enjoyed having a lot of broad guidance on what I'm painting, particularly when it comes to historical subjects. This might be from books, or friends, or both. But seeing as the Crusades started over a thousand years ago, there is just not that sort of "certain" historical reference that I can get with WW2 or even Napoleonics or the War of Spanish Succession etc uniforms.  At some point you need to have enough confidence to just...start winging it...within some broad, accepted boundaries of course, but still winging it...there is no "codex" for the forces from a thousand years ago. So that's what I did here, just started picking different colours to see what might work.

Hence the quite diverse colours on these fellows.  It does not seem like there was a "uniform" of any sort for the Turkish horse archers.  The closest thing seems to be an arm band that many of the Islamic warriors wear - but these also seemed to be multi-coloured.  I'm cheating and using them as a unit identifier - they are all yellow on this group, while the other colours are generally all over the place. I don't know if that is correct, but I'm going with it.

And who knows? Maybe they never wore red caps? Or white coats? I don't know. I was guessing here for just about all of this stuff.  But I'm still pleased with the overall effect - they look colourful, swift and brave.

The purple outfit is one of my favourites - when you are dressed the well, you are probable and amazing shot with the bow and arrow!

As with the infantry, I struggled with the shields on these figures.  While LBMS makes amazing shield transfers for these round shields, most of the shields themselves have studs on them which render the transfer process beyond reasonable in terms of hobby complications. That is why you only see one really nice LBMS shield in the bunch, the rest are hand-painted.

The Saracens set off in pursuit of the foolish Crusaders...

I f*****g hate painting shields, and it has been a major stumbling block in the way of my oft-stated-pledges to Curt and Dallas to finally paint some figures from this period.  But to not lose interest, I am compensating by listening to differing inspirational music, ranging from random collections of medieval harp music on I-tunes to the very mystical and excellent Loreena McKennit. And there is always the awesome "Horse Soldier" by Corb Lund - I never get tired of it, and it makes me want to paint a regiment of cavalry every time I hear it!  And besides, once its painted, hey - looks OK to me. The music did the trick here.

The starting warband I have planned for the Saracens will have a total of 25 models.  With these fellows completed, that is 17 painted so far, accounting for the warlord and two "points" of warriors.  The final eight models will be hearthguards, which in the Saracen warband are represented by fearsome Ghulam warriors.  Hope to have some progress to share on them soon!

And go listen to Corb Lund! Just typing that makes me want to paint cavalry!

Saracen Spearmen for SAGA

"Saracen" spearmen in 28mm for SAGA: Crescent and The Cross - figures by Perry Miniatures

I'm taking a bit of a break from 30k painting, and my hobby focus is shifting back about 29,000 years or so to the era of the Crusades.  These are 28mm arab spearmen, metal castings from Perry Miniatures.  The spears are steel spears which the Perrys once sold as well (but no longer appear to).  These eight figures are meant to serve as one-point-worth of warriors in a Saracen warband for the game SAGA.

As I needed to paint the shields, I opted for very, very basic-looking patterns

Back in February, during Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I got started on a Crusader warband for "SAGA: Crescent and the Cross".  During the Challenge I managed to complete a four-point warband for the Crusaders.  Each "point" in SAGA is a variable number of models, depending on whether you have hearthguards (four figures per point), warriors (eight figures per point) or levies (12 figures per point).  In this case it was two points of hearthguards and two points of warriors for the Crusaders, so twenty-five models once the warlord was included.

I used steel spears from Perry miniatures, and I absolutely love them - unfortunately the Perrys don't seem to stock them anymore?

Of course the Crusaders would need some figures to Crusade against, and I intended to finish a Saracen warband to oppose them, but I only ever finished a single model for them - the mounted Warlord figure. The poor Saracen warlord would not last very long in the face of 25 Crusader attackers...if I ever want to finally getting around to trying "Crescent and the Cross" with the group the Warlord was going to need his own warband too!

I tried some vague-looking arabic script on a couple of the shields to add some flavour to the warriors

The Challenge finished in March, and I never got around to finishing the Saracen warriors. Indeed, I don't think I've painted anything other than 30k in one scale or another since then! Its been power armour and bolt guns since then.  After I got back from the lake this year, I thought it was time for a change, to freshen things up and hopefully try and get some momentum behind this project.

The Saracen warlord appears, overjoyed that a few warriors have decided to join him!

While the clothing of these warriors is somewhat straightforward, one of the greatest deterrents I find to actual painting and collecting figures for ancient warfare of any sort is the shields. While LBMS does make some amazing shield transfers, there is a bit of a gap when it comes to the arab shields for the Perry range (I could not find Islamic LBMS transfers for the kite-shaped Perry shields).  So these were hand-painted, and while they are pretty basic, the painting of shields remains a big mental hurdle I need to clear when painting these figures (which are just marvelous sculpts, by the way). 

For a skirmish game, I would prefer to have these guys on round bases.  But I am also harbouring ambitions of playing "Hail Caesar" one day, and that calls for formed units.  When I did my crusaders, I based the infantry on square bases in the vain notion that they might join a larger, formed "Hail Caesar" unit.  While my ambitions to ever get a "Hail Caesar" force of any sort together continue to fade the more I consider it, I still wanted the Saracens to match the look of the Crusaders base-wise, so that is why they are on square bases too. 
     

The Saracen warband to date - nine figures painted, another 16 to go...and all of them mounted!

For years and years and years I have aspired to game in the setting of the ancient and medieval world, particularly in the Crusades.  I have always been fascinated by that period of history, and the notion of gaming in that setting is super intriguing. But man, my momentum dies every time I start in on the shields (I HATE painting shields).  There are other drags too - trying to source spears etc, never mind the complexity of the uniforms and armour for different Islamic warriors, tribes and factions.  The more I try to do this stuff, the more it seems it's just one of those areas where I don't think my interest will ever translate into the outcome from the painting table.

Having said that, I'm determined to stick it out, however, and at least get this Saracen warband finished!  That's nine figures finished from a final total of 25...hopefully I can build up some momentum and keep it going! The "Hail Caesar" game may never happen, but hopefully I can get some SAGA skirmish games in sometime this fall.

Painting Challenge Wrapped Up - Epic Warlord Titan and SAGA Warlords

The seventh edition of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has concluded.  In fact, in concluded, like, nearly a month ago, on March 21st...man time flies! Anyway, after a slight delay caused by real life etc. here are the concluding submissions I made to the Challenge.

SAGA Warlords

These figures were submitted as part of the final theme round - which if I recall correctly was "characters from a movie, book, TV or song" or something along those lines.  Anyway, if anyone out there has listened to "Horse Soldier" by Corb Lund, you will recall some lyrics referencing the opponents of the Crusades.  This lined up nicely with my SAGA project, so I did two warlords - one for the Crusaders and the other for the Saracens.

These are 28mm figures from the Perry's incredible First Crusade range. The shield decal on the Crusader Warlord is from LBMS. These shield decals are a total life-saver, as there is just not enough time in the world to be painting all of the shields...

Warlords for my SAGA Crusade warbands...Crusader on the left, Saracen on the right, both 28mm figures from Perry Twins' amazing range of First Crusade castings

Completed four point SAGA Crusader warband

The Crusader warlord figure finished off my four-point SAGA warband for the Crusaders.  The Saracen warlord is the first figure I have painted for that warband, and while I'm keen to get that finished, the Saracens are at the back of the priority list again for now as I try and track down some different figures, and the general waxing and waning of different painting interests. You know how it goes...

Anyway, for the second year in a row I managed to submit something for every theme round, and that worked out rather nicely!

Epic Warlord Titan - "Curtgeld"

Warlord Titan, old school style!!

In each edition of the Painting Challenge Curt will ask participants to submit a figure in line with a theme that strikes his whimsy as he organizes the proceedings.  These figures have come to be known as "Curtgeld". There was a twist this year as he asked for participants to work together - the Curtgeld had to be some kind of joint effort between at least two of the Challenge participants.

WIP photo - you can see all of the black sections and the unfinished base...that would fall to Iannick to complete!

Challenger Iannick suggested we team up for an "all-Canadian" Curtgeld. After we bounced a few ideas back and forth we settled on doing an old-school plastic Warlord Titan from the original "Adeptus Titanicus" game.  Curt loves Epic and loves the old school GW models, while both Iannick and I are big fans of the Horus Heresy, and Iannick is a recent convert to the madness that is Epic 30k.  I was pretty psyched about the project.  Fortunately I had a few of these lovely old plastic models still on their sprues in my hoard, so I dug one out and got to work on it. 

These classic models lend themselves very well to the unique challenge of sharing the painting duties on a single figure. The pseudo-medieval markings used by the Titan Legions, and the style of armour plating they wear, make a divided/reverse marking pattern possible.  It's still tricky, but possible.

I did the basic assembly, priming and metal components, and painted the purple "half" of the armour sections.  Iannick painted the other half of the armour, and finished off the ground work, completed the base (which included the old void-shield-counter wheel!) as well as the Marines on the base, which add a lovely sense of proportion to the machine.

In our hobby-ing I think we have all, at some time or another, over-painted, re-painted or heavily updated a model or figure that we either received second-hand or just wanted to re-do. In fact, as you can see elsewhere in this blog, my good friend Dallas is quite the master of that kind of project.  But jointly finishing the painting of a single figure would be really tricky, and I have to credit Iannick for the outstanding results, because he had the hard part - the finishing!  He did a great job with the bands on the leg armour, the colour and the basing. The model benefits tremendously from his smooth, careful painting style.

The photos of the finished model are so nice thanks to Iannick and his hipster light box.  He did a very helpful set of tips on miniature photography as well, so go check that out on his blog.  You will also see cool halflings, hilarious theme submissions, and more Epic 30k awesomeness, and that is just from the recent Painting Challenge. In fact, Of Marauders and Citadels is a blog you should add to your list!

Great work Iannick - this was a lot of fun!  Your painting skills are tremendous!  Thanks very, very much!

It will also be great fun to light this thing up on the table during a game of Epic sometime...

The Missing Curtgeld...

I was also collaborating with former Conscript Sean M on a Curtgeld, but Canada Post did us in, as Sean's work did not arrive at my place for completion until the day after the Challenge was finished. I have committed to Sean that I will finish it regardless, so watch this space for progress on that score - before the summer I hope. Life has kept me away from the painting table for a few weeks, but I hope to be back at it soon.

***

The seventh edition of the Painting Challenge was a real blast. I had a great time in my side duel with Iannick, Jaime and Alex, particularly because I was successful! While it was a lot of fun to send a figure over to Jaime's collection last year, I had been plotting for revenge for nearly a year, so it's nice to see a plan come together!

The best part of the Challenge, however was the spirit of fun and encouragement that built between the participants, and letting your own priorities and focus be tested (and bested) by inspirational jolts which come courtesy of the other submissions.  While I did finish a lot of 30k stuff (yay!) I also ended up dusting off and painting up figures from my Warmaster Collection as well as ending up dipping into a new game and period (SAGA Crusades).   It's more than my own fiddly attention span - it's also the excellent and inspiring work of the other participants!  And while the others continue to inspire my wandering, it is also a lot of fun to see some of the settings and scales which I am so keen on spreading among other participants.  I expect next year will see even more 30k, and particularly Epic 30k, even as I'm already plotting some kind of "Hail Caesar" insanity...

A number of the very talented participants in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge will be testing their skills in the "Lead Painters' League" as well, so be sure to check that out.  If you can sort out the Lead Adventure Forum and the League's byzantine rules etc. you can even vote for them!