Saga Welsh Warrior Unit

I finally finished the first of my Welsh Warrior units for SAGA. All the figures are Gripping Beast.

The remaining images are closer shots of them. I used Army Painter Dark dip, painting it on with a brush, and then spraying a matte varnish over that.

 I am still sitting on the fence with regards to the dip. On one hand it gives the models something they really need - a hard protective coating to resist greasy fingers from rubbing off the paint.

 I do wish it was more of a water based product however so that I could dilute it down so as not to have it at full strength all the time. There are some areas that just need a little shading, but overall after spraying the matte overcoat I am pleased with the final results.

I am now working on the next warrior unit. As well the Levies are almost all glued together & soon to be primed.

EWG Game Night

This evening we gathered for a running of Sharp Practice. The scenario was of a Colonial British Column attempting to cross the board unmolested with their mule caravan. Of course the Afghani's had other things in mind.

Dave played the British Convoy while Chen & I split the Afghani forces. Above we see the opening moves of the Afghani blinds moving up through the river valley. Will ran the game.

As Dave moved up the road, he was spotted from the force at the ford & had to deploy his lead elements, the Afghani's moved atop the hill & spotted the remainder of the column.

The force atop the hill was armed with mostly swords & had but 3 Jezzails amongst them. The rocks were their saving grace as it was nigh impossible for the British to remove them, but that didn't stop Dave from starting to whittle them down.

Unfortunately his lead unit was almost obliteratted by the combined fire of the main Afghani force at the ford and lost 6 of their 8 men. The last of the hidden Afghani swordsmen surged from out behind the hills towards the almost unguarded muletrain forcing the British to quickly maneuver to block them. At about this time we had to call it. The game was a test of the ruleset and thus we were all learning as we went. I am sure with more playing of this system things will move along more quickly.

Thanks for bringing it out Will

SAGA Warlord and Hearthguard

Well I have finally finished the first of my Welsh warband, the remainder have joined the production line and are in various states at this time.

Here is the Warlord and his Hearthguard. All the figures are from Gripping Beast and the shield patterns are from Little Big Men Studios.

Another shot of just the Warlord. The figures hands are all in a single pose...open, so that various weapons can be placed in them. This led to a small issue on the inside of his shield where I had to add a bit of greenstuff to appear as a strap. I think it worked well.

The shield patterns are too small for the larger shields and require a bit of touch up around the edges to complete. Not too big a deal & as its the first time I've used them, I am happy with the results. Lord knows I could never paint something that intricate!

The first two Hearthguard I tried doing some patterns on their tunics and cloak. I definately need to pratice this more. As for actual information on  clothing for the Welsh, there isn't really much available on the web. As they were somewhat poor, they tend to the unbleached, drab browns & grey.

The shield decal on the right hand figure (as you look at the image) seemed to have gotten a bit damaged when cutting the white background prior to placement...I must have cut thru the decal as well & it made a small area of overlap as well as a couple of wrinkles. Guess its something I need to iron out. On a good note, it blended with the other decor...whew!

Next on the table is the first Warrior Unit...

EWG Club night 6 Mar 12

This evening we gathered for a game of SAGA. We played a 4 player game with Will & I sharing a command of Welsh. The other players were Dave, Chen & Scott.

 Here is a shot of the battlefield, as it turned out, the battle had nothing to do with capturing the ruined tower.

The Welsh arrive and crest the hill to fact the Norman Knn-igits! Unbelievably the Welsh Levy held and pushed back the knights. The Knights had 18 dice needing 3's to the Welsh Levies 5 dice needing 5's. It was to be the way of things for the Normans this evening.
 

 The Norman Sergeants decide to try their hand against the Welsh Warriors and avoid the Levy.

This was the second game of SAGA I've played and there are still many nuances to figure out about playing with the battleboards. I've finally finished my Warlord & Hearthguard and this was their first blooding. I will post images later today.