Koyote

I found the 2006 Salute model, Arthur & Mordred, on eBay. Below is a photo of the original green. The Mordred model is pretty cool, but of the two it's the Arthur model that really shines. I like this model so much that I'm torn between fielding an all-foot warband (if a Briton warlord is not mounted, then no mounted HG), and a the mix of infantry and cavalry that I'm using now. Of course, I can do both, but I can take only one of them to the Grand Melee. Perhaps I'll use one for the team tournament and a different one for the singles. Below is a pic of the WIP foot-Mordred and his Companions. If I go all-foot, I still want Mordred will be my Warlord, so took the head from the MM (FS) Mordred model, hollowed out the inside, and placed it on the base. I'll probably add some battle damage to the helm so it looks like Mordred took one to the melon and tossed off his damage helm. The model is sculpted so that it's looking down at the kneeling Mordred, so to raise up his eye line a bit, I put a stone under his right foot. The Companion on the left is (ironically) West Wind Productions' Mordred. There can be only one Mordred, so I replaced the Mordred helm with a different WWP head. Since taking this photo I've replaced the head with one that I like better. The Companioon on the right is Footsore Miniatures' Vortigen. The half drawn sword and the face are what drew me to this model.

...Any of you gleidr trolde interested in learning to play SAGA? If so, I'd be happy to demo the game Tuesday night. If two of your are interested, then I'll demo-referee and you two can play one another.

Great idea. The base will depict Guinevere being "escorted" to the altar by a priest and an armed guard.

CAUTION: MUCH NERDINESS AHEAD Okay, you've been warned... With much of my warband assembled, it's time to get to work on my baggage models. I'm going to stick with what worked for me in the past and use my baggage models as an opportunity to tell a story. This particular story depicts Mordred's plot to seize the throne of Britain. As the legend goes, Arthur and the bulk of his warriors have crossed the Oceanus Britannicus and landed in Gaul. Depending upon what version of the story you prefer, they are either pursuing Lancelot or fighting against the Romans for control of Gaul. Mordred, Arthur's nephew has been left in charge of the kingdom during Arthur's absence. Because Arthur is Uther's bastard son, born from rape, Mordred believes that his claim to the throne is superior to Arthur's. As such, Mordred has seized the throne and begun to consolidate his power. The first baggage model is titled, Merlin's Arrest. Mordred must silence Arthur's most trusted (and devious) advisor, so he has ordered his warriors to imprison or kill Merlin. The tree adds some height to the diorama and gives me a place to put an owl, which, like Merlin, is a symbol of wisdom and watchfulness. Merlin's magic is comes from Britain's pagan past, hence the rock with the Celtic swirl engraving. What's going on in second baggage model, titled The Death of Gawain, is much less obvious. Grievously wounded by Lancelot, Sir Gawain returned to Britain to recover, where he quickly learned about his brother's move to seize the throne. Gawain may be a paragon of knightly virtue, but the wounded knight is no match for Mordred, who slays him in a 'death duel.' In my version of the story, Mordred has had Gawain's head removed from his corpse and paraded about (à la Joffrey) to serve as a warning to others. The second baggage model shows one of Mordred's warriors holding Gawain's head aloft (which is an ironic nod to the story, Gawain and the Green Knight) and a gore stained axe. Gawain's sword, helmet and battered shield, are also on display. In the background a warrior holds aloft Mordred's banner and second warrior blows a horn to draw the common folk to the spectacle. According to the Inter-netz, Mordred's coat of arms depicted a double headed eagle. As a former 40K player, I have plenty of Imperial Eagle bitz collecting dust, so I had no trouble finding a good banner pole topper for Mordred's standard. Gawain's coat of arms is either a gold pentacle or , like his brother's coat of arms, a double headed eagle. So Gawain's heraldry isn't confused with Mordred's, Gawain's battered shield will display the gold pentacle. The third baggage model, will depict Guinevere's fate. In at least one version of the Arthur story, Mordred abducts Guinevere and forces her to marry him. In others, she evades capture and escapes to the Tower of London. Since I'm on Mordred's side here, she doesn't get away. Whether she's in chains or just under heavy guard will depend upon me finding just the right miniature for her.

My Britons are ready for their first test-game on Tuesday. I'm going to give the Companions a go, so two of the Hearthguard (front row), will be sitting on the sidelines during Tuesday's game. Also, while I suspect that I will select (Cymry) Guides over Sea Wolves, I'm going to test out Sea Wolves on Tuesday. Before I can start putting paint on these fellows, I have to figure out exactly what I'm going to do with their bases. In keeping with my Autumn theme, I was going to add some GS pumpkins to some of the bases, but after a bit of research I learned that like the time traveling potatoes that the Irish kids are throwing during the Sons of Dana order, pumpkins didn't arrive in Europe until after the "discovery" of the New World. Alas, no pumpkins for Mordred. My plans for Mordred's individual display base involve a leaping mastiff and a hapless Saxon -both have been ordered. I also need to do some GS work to add a few details and to repair the spear hands damaged when I drilled through them with my pin vise. For those of you thinking about using metal spears, blunting the tips is quick and easy. Before trimming the spears to length, hold them in your hand like pencil and spread them out so they form one row. Then brush them back and forth against a file. As you do this, keep the spear shafts pointed up, at a fairly high angle, so the file's teeth are blunting the spear tips, not sharpening them. By slightly rolling the row of spears between your fingers in between brushes against the file, you can rotate the spears in order to ensure that you file down the tips evenly. Using this method I was able to blunt 30 spears in a matter of minutes.

My cavalry pill-shaped bases (made by LITKO Game Accessories) arrived in the mail yesterday, so I spent last night's hobby-time moving my cav to their permanent bases. The bases look a bit thin in the photo, but they're actually the same thickness of the Renedra & Renedra-style bases that I mount all of my SAGA minis on. Like my Irish, all of my Britons will be mounted on magnetic bases. The magnets that I inserted are glued to both the surrounding wood and the bottom of the metal horse base, so hopefully they won't pop out. Despite the fact that all of these minis were originally made by Musketeer Miniatures (now Footsore Miniatures), King Arthur's horse (now Mordred's horse), is noticeably smaller than the other MM horses. I can't have my Warlord being dwarfed by his men, so I used pieces of styrene sheeting to give Mordred a little boost. The Companion to the left of Mordred is the bannerman from King Arthur set and the Companion to the right is from Late Roman Cavalry Command set. I'm still not 100% sold on Companions, but I need the models for play-testing. I don't like using duplicate models in a warband, but I really like the overhand pose of one of the Late Roman Heavy cavalry models. I solved this problem by twisting the model's head so that it's pointed to the model's left rather than to the right. White metal has some give to it, so you can do a certain amount of bending and twisting without breaking the model. The challenge is to twist the head without crushing its features or putting pliers shaped grooves in its head. My solution is to use a small piece of cork sheeting to cushion the teeth of the pliers (SEE below). I used the same technique on the crested helmeted model, third from the left. I moved the head from facing left to facing forward. One of my frustrations with two part, metal cavalry models is that they rarely sit on the horse properly. I always end up taking my hobby knife to the horse's saddle and rider, but even then the fit is far from perfect. To get the fit just right, I stick some GS to the bottom of the rider, wet the saddle with some water, and then gently place the model on its mount. Once seated, I apply a little bit of downward pressure to get the model seated just right. Then I remove the model from the horse and use a clay shaper and hobby knife to clean things up. It may require multiple seatings to get the right fit. Since you want the GS to conform to the shape of the horse's back and keep that shape when the rider is removed from the horse, you may want to stick the GS to the bottom of the rider and then let it cure for a short while. Partially cured GS is less viscous than newly mixed GS, so it's less likely deform while it cures.

Studio Tomahawk has released changes and clarifications for priests, composite bows, and war banners. LINKY

Part 1 of SAGA Thorsday's coverage of the Adepticon 2017 SAGA warbands.

Last night's hobby time was spent arming and (re)equipping Morgan Le Fay and the dreaded Sea Wolves. I think Morgan looks much better with a shield. The Sea Wolves are Footsore Miniatures' Early Saxon Infantry and their leader (the guy with the axe) is this year's Adepticon SAGA mini, which is made by Gorgon Studios. The FS Saxons came with small shields (I put one on Morgan), but since I picture these guys a proto-Viking mercenaries from Juteland or Frisia, I want their shields to look cruder and a tad bit larger, so I replaced their original shields with shields that came with my FS Irish.

My Morgan Le Fay and wire spears have arrived. Morgan is a Bad Squiddo Games mini and the wire spears are Gripping Beasts' SC57 Wire Spears. Morgan's sword was way too long, so I cut it down some. The sword and breastplate balanced against the long dress and cloak gives her just the right balance of martial prowess/war leader and the femininity typically ascribed to a non-combatant seductress and sorceress. Yes. I know. I think about this kind of stuff way too much. If your minis are armed with spears, I highly recommend 'wire spears' (which is a misnomer because they are made from thin metal rod, not flexible wire). Spears made from white metal (the metal metal minis are cast from), are too bendy and typically so thick that they look kind of ridiculous in the mini's hand. Plastic spears are better than white metal spears, both aesthetically and in the bendy-department, but they can break if the model takes a tumble or you snag the spear on something. Wire spears do not break and they fit nicely in the hands of 28mm models. If you purchase wire spears, be mindful of the thickness. I ordered some wire spears from Arcane Scenery & Models, but I failed to read the description of what I purchased. The diameter (thickness or gauge) of the spear shafts is tiny (about 1mm). If cut down to the right length they'd made good arrows for 28mm minis or perhaps good spears for 15mm minis, but they don't work as spears for 28mm minis. Doh!

I still don't know if I want to play an all-infantry Briton warband, but since my Irish were all-infantry, I'd be a nice change to put some horseys on the table. Selecting my mounted Warlord was an easy choice. Footsore Miniatures' King Arthur model is fantastic, plus using an Arthur model as the foundation for my Mordred model is apropos. One of my favorite features of the Arthur model is the helmed head, but sadly this just won't work for my vision of Mordred. So, in the words of the Queen of Hearts, it was "off with his head." I began with a simple head swap. I removed the helmed head from the Mordred model and placed it on the Arthur model. And while I really like the look of the head on the original Mordred model, on the Arthur model's shoulders it's not quite right. It looked to me like a Romanized Darth Vader on a horse. This got me rummaging about my bit boxes and sprues, where I found a very nice helmeted helm with a face mask. The head comes from an Imperial Roman Veteran sprue, It looks like it was based upon the the British Museum's Romano-Britsh Ribchester cavalry helmet. Below is the model in its current state. I had to do a deep v-cut to remove Arthur's head without damaging it (pro tip: if you can reuse a bit that you cut off a model, save it), so I had to rebuild the neck and the fur trim around the head with GS. I also used GS to make his right foot a bit larger. This model, like many historical metals, suffers from small-footitis. I like that the new head's engraved laurels give it a bit of regal look, while the expressionless face mask makes the model look cold-hearted. Both are attributes that fit my vision for Mordred. Overall, I don't feel that the model is quite as cool as the original, but by making these simple changes I've made it my own.

Despite a poor to middling performance on the table (we went 1-0-2 in the doubles tournament and I went 2-1-3 in the Grand Melee), I had a great time. Apparently, my Irish warriors are lovers, not fighters. It was a fun, relaxed atmosphere, well run and attended. I will definitely be returning next year to defend my title of Master of Runes.

I still have to do a lot of work on these models before they are ready for paint, but I have six points assembled well enough for some play-test games. Warlord -mounted 4 Hearthguard -mounted 8 Hearthguard 8 Warriors 8 Warriors 8 Sea Wolves or Guides If the death of Arthur and the Saxon conquest of Britain can be though of as the Britons symbolic winter, then the fallout with Lancelot and the rise of Mordred is it's autumn. As such, I've decided to go with an autumn theme for my bases. I wish Skullcraft was still in business. They sold a very nice Autumn basing kit.

Anyone interested in playing SAGA? I'd love to give my Britons a test run. I don't have to play against an Aetius Arthur warband, but if anyone wants to test out one of the Aetius Arthur warbands (Britons, Romans, Saxons, Huns, Goths, & Picts), let me know and I can text you photos of the battle board and warband specific rules. Aetius Arthur includes rules for 5 additional AA era warbands that use existing battle boards. This lets players use some of their Dark Age armies (with a few tweaks) in AA. Salian Franks (Franks) Eastern Romans (Byzantines) Scotti (Irish) Art Clut & Manaw Gododdin (Strathclyde) Cymry (Welsh)

The muster of the Britons has begun.

I'm going to use Great Invasion era Briton models, but I want to add some Monmouth and Mallory to the warband's backstory. This will add some flavor to the warband and guide my modeling and theme. Rather than build a Briton warband around a heroic Arthur-like character, I want to build it around the infamous Mordred. I also want Mordred's mother to be present in the warband. Like many modern adaptations of the Arthur story, I am going merge Mordred's mother, Morgause, with her sister, Morgan Le Fay, making them one in the same. To add some variety to my Warband, I'm thinking about inclufing a unit of (Saxon) Sea Wolves or (Cymry) Guides. Mordred aligning with these foreigners could be evidence of his treacherous nature or simply the product of Mordred's desperation to take back a throne that is rightfully his. If I don't incorporate Morgan Le Fay into one of my Baggage vignette models, I may add her to the unit of Sea Wolves or Guides. Do they fight for coin or because Sorceress has beguiled them with her magic? My inspiration for building a Warband around Mordred comes from my fondness for Footsore's (previously Musketeer Miniatures') Mordred model. It's not a grandiose or an especially regal model, but there's just something about it that I really like. The downside of using this model as my Warlord is that I won't be able to field any Briton cavalry. Then again, a Briton Warlord on foot does have some advantages. Hmm?

Sounder, I leave for Adepticon on Thursday, the 23rd, so I won't be in Tuesday the 21st. I don't know if I will be in following Tuesday either. I'll let you know. Anyone else up for a game of SAGA this Tuesday?

Christian, you, me, 6 points of Anglo-Saxons vs Irish. Tuesday. You needn't bring your A game, because at best, I'm a B- SAGA player. I've never played The Escort scenario and I will be playing it in the Grand Melee at Adepticon, so do you mind trying this out with me? I have painted baggage models.

SAGA!

I will be there with my SAGA stuff. I believe that I have a game scheduled with Sherbert, but if anyone else wants a go afterwards, that'd be great. I need to refamiliarize myself with the rules before Adepticon. I'll bring my Aetius Arthur SAGA supplement with me. Anyone interested in Great Invasion Age (i.e. Late Roman) SAGA warbands should take a look.

RL continues to conspire against my attendance, but I will be there next week. If anyone is interested in playing SAGA, please let me know. Adepticon is quickly approaching, and I'd like to get in some games to re-familiarize myself with the rules. Thanks.

SAGA Dark Age Skirmishes plus all of the current FAQs & Errata will provide you with a complete, updated set of the core rules. If you buy the 3 paperback supplements and download the Steppe Tribes and Skraeling rules, you will have all of the rules for the Dark Age factions. To complicate matters even further, there are a number of Swords for Hires (mercenaries) and Heroes of the Viking Age (special characters) that are not in any of the books. Thse must be downloaded (for free) from Studio Tomahawk or, in some instances, if you purchase the Gripping Beast models, the blisters contain a small rule card. A couple of years ago, Studio Tomahawk released SAGA: The Crescent & The Cross. This book contains a compete, updated set of core rules, plus the rules for all of the Crusades equipment, units, and factions. Last year, Studio Tomahawk release SAGA Age of the Wolf. This book contains campaign rules for playing in a Dark Age setting and some new scenarios but no core rules or new units. SAGA Aetius & Arthur is brand new. This book contains the rules for a Roman vs Barbarians mini-campaign and all of the rules for Great Invasion equipment, units, and factions, but no core rules.

My copy of Aetius Arthur arrived in the mail yesterday. I've only had time skim through it, but I love what I've seen so far. They've done some really clever stuff and added some fun new units and rules. Basic Rundown: Aetius Arthur includes 6 all new factions: Romans, Britons, Huns, Saxons, Goths, and Picts. They've also included 5 additional factions that, with a few tweaks, use Viking Age faction rules and battle boards. These are the Salian Franks (Franks), Eastern Romans (Byzantines), Scotti (Irish), Art Clut & Manaw Gododdin (Strathclyde), and Cymry (Welsh). AA also introduces 3 types of new equipment: the Francisca (Frankish throwing axe), War Chariots ( Scotti and Picts), and the Manuballista (Romans). The new Mercenary units are the Steppe Warriors, the Foederati (barbarian auxiliaries), the Sea Wolves (Scotti, Frank, and Saxon raiders), Hounds (yes, everyone now gets doggies), Vascone Scouts (mountain scouts). Guides (locals who know the lay of the land), and Deserters (ex-Roman soldiers turned to banditry). The campaign rules are designed for two players, one plays a Roman garrison on the frontier, and the other represents the barbarian invaders. For this book, the special characters are called Heroes of the Invasion. And yes, if you play Britons you can play Arthur Pendragon. His army may include only Hearthguard and may not include Mercenaries. There are some abilities on the Briton battle board that can only be used by units within 2" of the warlord. Arthur removes the 2" requirement. As a beloved chief, each model sacrificed by Arthur's Resilience rule absorbs 2 wounds instead of 1. Arthur's skill and "supposed magic sword" grant him 6 attack dice and prevents enemies from using Arthur's fatigue to increase the enemy's Armor value. The Designers Notes are quite interesting. Aetius Arthur was not written by the regular Tomahawk guys, but instead the authors are SAGA fans who had made their own rules for this period and were approached by Tomahawk to turn those rules into an official supplement. My guess is that this introduction of new blood into the SAGA design is why this book feels to me like such a big leap forward in design and flavor.

She sounds like a keeper.