Dark Ages Pit House finished.

Last week I finished a model that I started a couple of weeks ago. Somehow with terrain building I'm even slower than with painting. Anyway finally The pit house for my Dark Ages village is completed:

It's one of the wonderful resin kits Stronghold Terrain produces. Elmar and Mirco have an excellent range of buildings which were modelled on buildings within a German outdoor museum.

The kit includes a solid and wonderfully sculpted baseplate, the six or seven part building and two straps of teddy fur to tile the roof with. All the pieces were cast crisp and clear and needed literally no cleaning. They fitted very well and I used two-component adhesive to glue everything together. Except of the roof to simplify putting figures inside.

As usual I painted the house with Vallejo Model Colors. Afterwards I applied different sorts of static grass, flowers and clumb foliage to top the base off.

Judge the result yourselves but I'm pretty satisfied with it. It's a nice company for the Dark Ages cottage I built last year and most likely I'll add some more buildings to the village. Momentarily I've got other projects to bring forth but at least a wonderful furnace is lurking around my lead pile...

Challenging warlords and tasty Federweißer --- A SAGA game report.

A couple of weeks- actually months - ago my friend Christian and I met to have a game of SAGA. Although it is widely known as a nice beer and pretzel game we decided to follow an old German tradition and had Federweißer (young wine) and Zwiebelkuchen (onion pie).

Federweißer is a delicious, sweetish, slightly sparkling, young wine which is available in October. It has very little alcohol and is very palatable. It's traditionally accompanied by Zwiebelkuchen which is a kinf of pie or pizza with steamed onions. For me a must have every autumn and a sure sign that winter is coming. Most of the time Mrs Monty and me combine this meal with a gathering of friends and so this time Christian showed up and brought his SAGA warband.

This time we decided to play the Challenge scenario and set up the table in cooperation rather then using the rules from the rulebook. Once more I noticed that I really have to improve my terrain stock:

Anyway the stage was set and thus both warbands entered the field. Five points each because I haven't managed to finish another unit of warriors yet.

Immidiately after the game started both warbands strove to the middle of the battlefield. First our warlords clashed in close combat and we gathered the first victory pouints. By the way we interpreted the scenario in the way that the warlords aren't removed as casualties but deliver victory points for each unsaved wound they suffer.

However Christians Anglo-Saxons rushed forward with all their power but I held back my Vikings slightly. Actually I wanted to bring the berserkers into his flank and see how much grief they could sow there.

The first units that clashed were warriors. Christian chose to field his warriors in two units of 12 men rather then three units of 8 and so they were hard nuts for my smaller units. But my boys made him pay too dear and caused more casualties then they suffered.

Only his second large unit was able to erase the remaining warriors of this unit.

During the next turns the game wobbled hither and thither. My bowmen prickled his levies and on the other flank my berserkers and my second warrior unit advanced.

Finally Christian sicked his warriors on my warlord and collected a lot of victory points. Actually I thought that might be the decision...

But I was able to strike back during the last turns of the game. First my berserkers rushed out of the woods and hit his warriors hard. Although two of my daring followers fell they were able to slay five Saxons.

Afterwards Christian slaughtered the two remaining berserkers with a warrior unit which was in the majority.

But the decision came in the very last turn of this exciting math. Christian was in the lead with one point and there was a heavily battered warrior unit of his which was in movement range of my warlord and which was wirth one and a half points (three warriors worth half a point each). Thus I staked everything on one card and let my warlord rush into melee once more. Luck was with me and so he smote all three opponents with his sword. The day was mine by an eyelash !

As for the game and the evening I must say it was gorgeous. As for the scenario I'm a but undecided. On the one hand it is a good choice for people want to come into the SAGA rules. It has no game ending conditions and you can try all the basic rules and become familiar with your battleboard. But on the other hand it was rather unusual for me to play without a real mission...

Anyway we had a great time and I'm looking forward to our next SAGA match. Maybe I'll manage to have some more terrain finished to garnish my rather empty board.

SAGA - Starting a Norman warband

For a couple of months I was pondering about painting some miniatures to start a Norman warband for SAGA. After I read Curt's bonus themes for this year's painting challenge I decided that the second round "Mount(s) and Rider(s)" is the perfect moment to do so.

These seven Normans are the start for my Norman warband for Saga. The guy on the large round base shall serve as my warlord while the other six knights will be his loyal hearthguard.

The miniatures:
There are a lot of nice miniatures for the dark ages in general and suitable Normans specifically. But since I’m a great fan of the Perrys’ style of sculpting and their slender figures I decided to use their early crusaders for my warband. The warlord on the rearing horse is from the character pack while the knights are from two of their mounted crusaders packs.
As for the quality of the figures I wasn’t disappointed at all. They are exelently sculpted and cast. There was little flash to clean away and the usual mold line. Especially the shields are very nice because Alan and Michael made three different shape so you can mix them a bit to avoid a too uniform look.

The colours:
As usual I employed Vallejo Model Colours to paint the tiny fellows. Most of them is covered with chainmail which was done rather easily and quickly. For the other parts I tried to use different not too bold colours. For the shields I used transfers from Stephen Hales’ awesome Little Big Men Studios range.

Basing:
Actually nothing special, only my usual mix of sand, gravel, static grass and modelling flowers. I chose the warlord’s base larger than the usual 25mm x 50mm because I wanted to have him stand out. Thus he is occupying a 50mm circular base.

Levy bowmen for Saga

Another product of my latest efforts are 12 levy bowman for my Saga warband. Actually I've been working on them for some weeks but finally last week I managed to finish the bases.

Three kneeliong bowmen.

The figures are from Gripping Beast's excellent Saga range. As usual for GP metals they have open hands to have the bows glued in. A bit fiddly but it works.

Cloaked bowmen. Front...

The pack consists of 12 levies in 4 different poses so it's three pieces of each. Of course more variety would have been great but actually I don't know any producer who has twelve variation of the same type of soldier...

... and back.

All in all the figures are sculpted very well. Kind of old school style as usual at Gripping Beast but chracterful as well. Unfortunately there's a nasty flesh running over the face which I didn't recognize when cleaning or priming the figures. It didn't show until I started to highlight the faces so decided to let it be. Afterall they're only a couple of slaves but I'm a bit annoyed anyway. Silly me!

Standing bowmen, version 1, front...

For the first time I tried to emulate bowstrings. I used plastic bristles from cheap broom and the result is rather alright I think. But this work is so fiddly I wouldn't do it for larger units.

... and back.

As usual I painted the figures with Vallejo Model Colours and some Armypainter Quickshade for the darker parts. Since those levies are kind of slaves I decided not to paint any ornaments and used rather simple designs for the shields. As for the hearthguard and warriors I used the excellent decals from Little Big Men Studios.

For the bases I used my usual colours as well as some sand, static grass and clump foliage.

Next unit for my Saga Vikings will be another eight warriors. They're cleaned and primed already but I'm not sure when I'll paint them.

Now for something completely different:

Burkhard from the DHC wargaming blog is celebrating his blog's birthday and several milestones he reached recently. 

In the unlikely case that you don't know his excellent blog, then have a look there. Burkhards presents a lot of nicely painted miniatures there and from time to time some good pictures from wargaming or history related events.

Wattle Fences done

Last week I finished some wattle fences for my Dark Ages village but because of the longish post about the Roman festival I haven't presented them yet. So here we go...

Current status of the village...

At present the core of the village is the Dark Ages cottage. While I have some older terrain parts like walls and hedge the wattle fences are the second larger part. A kind friend of mine presented them to me when he got aware that I was looking for some. He found them years ago by chance on a show and bought them. Luckily for me he's been doubting now whether he'd ever use them...

Some of the longer pieces.

Anyway the pieces are very nice and clean resin casts. I washed them with warm water and washing-up liquid. Afterwards primed them with Vallejo Model Colour paints and some Armypainter Quickshade Dark Tone.

Some of the shorter pieces.

Unfortunately I don't know the maker of those nice pieces but I could use some more, especially gates. If anyone regonises those bits please let me know the manufacturer.

By the way on the picture above you see the Saga levies I finished last week as well. More on them in my next post...

Saga AAR - Caroligians vs. Vikings

Recently a friend and me met at Monty's for a little Saga game. Just a small 4 points game but a good opportunity for me to present my slowly growing stock of terrain and for my friend Auld Nick to give his Carolingians their baptism of fire.

The battlefield with my Vikings in front of us and the Carolingians approaching from the other side.

We played with two rather simple warbands. Besides my Warlord Gudmund the Dauntless I fielded a unit of 4 hearthguard, 4 berserkers and two units of 8 warriors. Niclas brought his mounted Warlord accompanied by two units of 4 mounted hearthguard and two units of 8 warriors on foot. Nick's miniatures weren't completely finished since he hadn't painted the bases and the shields so far but that didn't bother us too much.

Finally we decided to play the simple "Clash of Warlords" scenario from the core rulebook.So my Vikings started their advance towards the cottage. During this early stage of the game it was my idea to get into a position where the Carolingians couldn't take too much advantage from their speedy mounted troops.

Gudmund and his men approaching...

As I feared the horsemen attacked quickly and four mounted hearthguard chased one of my warrior units.

First blood...But my warriors survived...

But they underrated the sturdiness of the norsemen. Although I lost four warrior afterwards three Carolingian hearthguards lay dead.

The Viking warriors sneering at the fleeing Carolingian knight

Fearing for one of his Saga dice Nick withdrew the last had the survivor turn tail. Visibly impressed he even stopped the charge of his second hearthguard unit and lead them back to the center of the battlefield.

Meanwhile I occupied the cottage with eight of my warriors.

Carolingians regrouping and my Vikings taking the center.

Now the game seemed to falter slightly. I tried to reposition my left flank while Nick gathered his troops for an attack on the cottage.

The Carolingian milites turning to the cottage.

But after having refused the first attack on the cottage my warriors made a sally and snatched Nick's warlord who was the actual target of the game.

The Carolingian leader cutting down my warriors.

But against all odds he won the melee which brought me into severe trouble.

The Carolingians taking the initiative.

While I lost my units man by man Nick sounded the charge onto my warlord. He outflanked my few survivors and involved Gudmund the Dauntless in a bloody melee.

Gudmund surrounded by enemies.

But like his antagonist before he fought bravely and turned down the attackers. Afterwards the field was rather empty. With my very last turn I managed to sicced my berserkers on Nick's warlord. The second time during this game he was bound in melee and finally met his fate.

The Carolingian warlord meeting his fate.

After all it was an excellent game. Although I won by taking out Nick's warlord the game was extremely close on points. Anyway we both enjoyed it and crowned the time with a very special drink:

Altbierbowle

It's a punch based on Altbier (a top-fermented dark beer from the Rhine area) which is mixed with fruity ingredients. In our case we added strawberries, peaches and a good dash of raspberry syrup. Well chilled it's a delicious, refreshing drink for warm spring or summer days.

Altbierbowle and Vikings. What could one wish more?

With a little barbecue in the evening it was just a perfect day.

Not to forget the cheering fans at the sideline:

Dark Age Cottage finished !

After an enjoyable saturday with a great game of Saga (AAR will follow soon) I found some time on sunday to sit down at the painting table and work a bit on my Dark Ages cottage. For some time I had both unexpected and appreciated help:

Viktoria will turn 4 this August and seeing me at the painting desk has been fascinating for her since her youngest days. She always wants to "help" me or paint some figures on her own and with some old remains of my lead mountain I let her do as she wants. Anyway she helped me with some terrain pieces already and spread sand on them or easy tasks like this. But this weekend we took the gloves off. First I let her slather the teddy fur for the roof of the cottage with white glue and on sunday she helped my to put a dark brown whash (Armypainter Strong Tone) on the coloured fur. Of course I'm still carefull which tasks to grant her but this weekend our joint work went really good.

So only a few finishing touches for me to do. Actually I stuck to Mirco's excellent painting tutorial for the Dark Age barn, at least as close as possible. Teddy fur was a completely new material for me so this it has been an interesting experience to work with this stuff. Actually it is much easier to use than I thought.

Besides this I didn't use anything too special: As always the reliable paints from Vallejo's Model Colour range, some Armypainter washes, pigments, my homemade terrain colour and different grass tufts, moss patches, some clump foliage and some static grass.

Really I like the result of my humble work. But that's mostly due to the excellence of the kit. The parts were well cast, needed only little cleaning and fitted very well. Actually there was no need to fill any gaps or to correct warped pieces. The resin was excellent to paint which can sometime be a problem.

All things considered the kit is really worth the 36€ Stronghold Terrain is charging for it. For value you get a great kit which is not only technically done well but historically accurate. Remarkably Mirco and Elmar sculpt their models strictly after examples they found reconstructed in open air museums. So I will gladly build up my Dark Ages village with some of their nice houses. Next on my workbench is the pit house which I bought earlier this year. My charming apprentice and I already started...

Saga 18mm Fantasy AAR - A song of swords and pointed ears...

At our latest bi-weekly meeting in the club HQ we tried something special: Saga with 18mm miniatures.

Main cause was that one of our club fellows owns an excellent terrain board for medieval or fantasy games with 15mm to 18mm miniatures. It's a complete set of terrain tiles with a river, some woods and a scratchbuilt early medieval village. After he as well as our mates Holger and Michael fell under the spell of Mark Copplestone's current 15mm fantasy range (especially the barbarians) they wanted to field their boys as Saga warbands. So we created a small game with two 4 pt. warbands and had barbarians (Holger / Georg) meet some Elves (Robert / Kalle).

We played the rather basic Clash of Warlords scenario from the basic rules. Since it was the first game of Saga for some of the players we wanted to keep things simple. Here's the board:

The complete board. Well... The angle is a bit strange, but you see Elves from the north and barbarians in the village.

The barbarians started on the side with the - their - village which was attacked by a force of Elves from the nearby Woodland Realm. While the barbarians used the Vikings' battleboard the Elves had one of the unofficial fantasy battleboards.

For now it seems quiet in the sleepy village...

The game started with the barbarians choosing their village to be their zone of entry. They fielded the warlord accompanied by one unit of hearthguard (Yetis), three units of warriors and a unit of levies. Most of them were placed in or besides the village and they seemed ready to face the Elvish charge.

Some of the guarding barbarians...

Not wanting to remain inflexible the barbarians marched forward during their first turns but trying to respect the speed of the Elvish cavalry.

Levies lurking in the woods. Soon they'll be suppressed by an Elvish rain of arrows.

One the other side the Elves unfolded their array. The advanced with their cavalry (two six men units of hearthguard) on their right flank where the terrain seemed rather open and directed two units of warriors (one with bows, one with shields and spears) to the left to counter the barbarian bowmen.

Two units of Elvish bowmen near the river banks.

And they achieved success!
After the first barbarians died by deadly arrow fire the warlord of the norse became fickle. He just didn't find a key to unlock the Elvish barrage and remained motionless for a turn or two.

Middle of the game: The right wing gets stuck while the game focusses on the right wing.

So the first melee actions took place on the barbarians' left flank:

Elvish cavalry approaching...

... and clashing into the barbarian hearthguard.

After a bloody exchange of blows the Elvish hearthguard cavalry prevailed and the barbarians decided to abbreviate the front. So they evaded into the river to negate the Elvish advantage of speed and tried to regroup near the village.

Some tough barbarians trying to secure the ford while the bowmen remain near the woods... Still.

But it was too late. The barbarians had lost their heartguard in the Elvish cavalry charge and lost a unit of warriors that tryed to defend the ford. So the number of Saga dice decreased dangerously. At the end their warlord wasn't able to direct his troops as he wanted or grap the initiative again.

The final melee

So the Elvish warlord crossed the river at the ford and cut off the barbarians' line of retreat. They charged the norse near the river banks and decided the game finally.

Overall it was a very interesting game for me as visitor. Both sides played rather well and the norse died hard. The key to the Elvish success were their deadly archers who temporarly pinned two barbarian units and their fast cavalry which was able to outflank the norse.

But after the meeting some strange fellows met on a hill near the battlefield. Malicious gossip has it that maybe more than just bad luck unfluenced the barbarian dice...

It's a kind of magic... Gathering of Elvish nobles near the battlefield.