SAGA nights

Hi all

The title says it all, doesn't it? No it's not a new service for the over 50's! It was the first meeting of the "Nerd Herd" of 2017.  We managed to persuade Chris (it literally took no persuading at all!) to come down to Kent and play some SAGA.  Hosted by Rich for the first time, we spent a very enjoyable evening playing a 2 vs 2 last man standing game with 4 points of troops each.  

Damon and I took the Scots (Damon) and Anglo-Danes (me) vs the Normans (Rich) and Vikings (Chris).  Sadly it wasn't our night as the Brits got kicked all over the park by the filthy foreigners - no I haven't turned into a Farage fanboy!  I did, however get to try out my river for the first time and it looked proper job!

hope you enjoy

dGG

Saga - Tale of 4 Gamers - the battles

Hi all

Welcome to my battle report for the series.  This was our second game ever of Saga and would pit the Anglo-Danes played by Andy (i.e. me) and the Normans played by Rich.

The scenario that Rich and I randomly generated was “The Escort”.  The objective of this game is for the defending player (which would be me) to get 2 out of 3 of his baggage wagons from his deployment zone across the board and exiting from the attacker (Rich) table edge.  If I did this the Anglo-Danes would win, any other result and The Normans take the victory.  The baggage can take damage like any other piece on the board and is treated like Hurscarls for to-hit/damage purposes.  They can move every turn without Saga dice and move up to “M” like infantry.  This game should play to the strength of the Normans with a solid base of bows/crossbows and fast moving knights.  I on the other hand had to slog across the battlefield with foot troops.

Deployment

As the defender I deploy and go first.  Before this though we needed to roll for terrain with 3 bits being chosen, I chose 2 of the terrain pieces  and took two wooded areas and Rich took a hill.  With all of the ranged weapons the Normans could muster plus their mounted troops, I needed to take advantage of the cover in order to get across the board.

**Note** for those who play Saga regularly there were some rules violations in this game, these were our first games and as such we were getting a feel for the whole battleboard concept and it took us until the very last game and the debrief after to fully get to grips with the way the game works. Also we had to proxy a baggage train so we had barrels and logs as well as a horse and cart – oops!

Waelwulf "the fierce" scowled as the sluggish moving wagons bumped and dragged tortuously slowly along the worn track.  The supplies they carried were desperately needed by the main forces camped out in the next village, Waelwulf had been entrusted to escort the precious vittles to the Army from the supply depot in Blokstuft some ten miles east.  The stands of trees that screened the track to the west looked ethereal in the morning mists.  It was these mists that cause Waelwulf's scowl to deepen further, he knew the Norman scouting parties were nearby, able to travel quickly due to the huge warhorses they insisted on riding.

A jingle of tack against armoured leg confirmed his fears as did the snort of a nearby destrier, the bastard French were here. "Form up lads!" he bellowed "We have company."  With a well practised ease the hurscarls of his personal slung their huge shields and hefted the long Dane axes that they preferred.  his warriors scampered ahead to form a screen to protect the wagons from the cowardly crossbow armed Normans.  The sound of whirring began as the Geburs tested their slings in anticipation of the coming fight....

Waelwulf looked around at his warband and nodded his approval "right lads, lets show them what we've got. For England!"

Turn 1

This was very much just a march forward for the Anglo-Danes as my slingers were out of range and I just needed to get across the board.  My Hurscarls that occupied the Left flank were behind the hill in cover but also placed to keep an eye on the Norman cavalry that would no doubt skirt around the hill and woods to attack the baggage train from the rear.

The Norman knights on the right flank surged forward as expected.  The rest of the warband stayed put and unleashed a storm of arrows/bolts at my warriors who were leading the escort decimating the unit, reducing them to half strength.

pic is actually half way through turn 2

Turn 2

We got the turn sequence a little turned around and Rich went first this time – oops!

Rich attempted to cut the rest of the warriors down and I used a battleboard ability to intimidate the Normans into not firing their crossbows.  Again we (meaning me!) got the rules a bit mixed up and I stopped them with the same ability again (should only be used once per turn).  He then uses his bow armed troops to cut down 3 of the last 4 warriors down.

I move the warrior away from the front line in order to preserve the amount of Saga dice my warband generate.  The rest of the army advance if they can, however I angle the Hurscarls in an attempt to cut off the  flanking knights advances. 

Turn 3

Rich advances his flanking knights ever closer, just far enough away that my Hurscarls cannot charge them.  His other knights accompanied by his warlord edge forward to try and cut off the baggage trains advance – this proves to be the turning point of the game….  The Norman levies shoot and kill 3 of the Anglo-Dane slingers.  The xbow troops can’t fire again due to “Intimidation”.

My movement took my warlord ever closer to Rich’s knights and his warlord.  My slingers fire is totally ineffective. The Hurscarls with Dane Axes close the gap with the flanking knights again blocking their advance with a double layer of elite troops!

Turn 4

Rich  chooses to use his Saga dice to activate his archers who concentrate their fire on the baggage wagon (logs) that is on its own.  This tactic pays off as he destroys the draft animals and their handlers in a flurry of xbow bolts and arrows.  However it does leave his warlord vulnerable as he is within movement distance of my warlord and must move into combat to fight him, as he no longer has Saga dice left his knights cannot accompany him and my warlord brings him down!

Waelwulf and Hugh face off, with the Anglo Dane collecting another head for the pile...

The storm of arrows that fell from the sky thudded all around the panicking oxen and their drivers, cries of agony split the air as many bolts pierced the bodies of the baggage teams.  Waelwulf cursed as spilt sacks of grain tumbled to the ground, spoiling the precious supplies.

Ahead of him a small line of knights, their large mounts stamping iron shod hooves and snorting great plumes of steam from their nostrils in the cool morning.  Among them a man bellowed orders to the rest, clearly the leader of this raiding party. Waelwulf slung his shield over his shoulder and ran a calloused thumb down the keen blade of his enormous axe, opening up the skin with ease.

"Norman!" he shouted, "come face my blade, cowardly fool." With a start the mounted noble looked over at the burly Dane, his expression quickly becoming a disdainful sneer. 

"Come William the Bastard's little turdling, let us fight like men if you can muster the courage!" Waelwulf taunted.  The Norman's sneer became a scowl and he drew his sword, kicking his mount into a canter.  The nobleman's retinue were caught off balance and had not moved an inch by the time he was a few spear lengths from the Dane who hefted his axe in preperation for the clash.

Holding his sword like a lance the Norman warlord bore down on Waelwulf, angling the blade for a devasting cut at the Anglo-Danish noble.  With a speed that belied his considerable size, Waelwulf sidestepped the charging horse and with a mighty swing, brought down the axe blade in an unstoppable blow aimed at the horses shoulder.  With contemptuous ease the blade parted muscle and bone, half severing the poor animals head in a spray of arterial blood.  The Norman, cried out his surprise as he was thrown over the top of the dying horse to land in a crumpled heap some distance away, his right leg held out at an unnatural angle.  With a practiced shrug Waelwulf pulled the axe from the animal and advanced toward the stricken French noble, this would be too easy....

My remaining baggage moves toward the far corner of the board with the Hurscarls with hand weapons moving into a screening position with the help of Saga dice.

Turn 5

Reeling from the loss of his warlord, Rich is in dire straits, his Saga dice pool is reduced by 2, severely limiting his options.  His only hope is to destroy another baggage cart. desperately he tries to get his warriors to shoot at the hurscarl screen but intimidation prevents that from happening.

In response the Hurscarls charge into his knights and kill 3 for 1 loss in return, forcing the remaining knight to withdraw.  The Andlo-Dane slingers twice try to destroy the last man but fail to kill him off and becoming fatigued in the process.

Turn 6

The writing is on the wall and Rich concedes.....

Conclusion

To be honest this game was a bit of a mess.  We got a bit turned around on the turn sequence and use of our battle boards was incorrect at times and down right useless at others.  The key to this game is the clever use of your battle board and to fatigue your opponent.  As it was only our second game it was inevitable that we wouldn't be using the boards in the best way, this combined with the loss of his warlord led to Rich's downfall and my victory.

The sounds of the taunts thrown by his men at the retreating Norman scum was music to Waelwulf's ears. Following the death of their leader, the Frenchmen had lost heart pretty quickly and had fallen under the spears of his bodyguard with ease.  Freki, his favourite hound chased the frightened horses, almost playfully scattering the remaining knights to the four winds.  Looking around he could see the peasantry raising their heads to the sky and praising their "nailed god" for HIS victory.  Snorting in disgust he muttered his own thanks to Odin and Thor for giving him the strength in battle to defeat the Normans
"come on then lads" he bellowed, "lets get these supplies to the army and then we can find the rest of these perfumed fools and send them back to France!"

Saga - The Games!

Hi all

So we come to the last few posts of the Saga "Tale of 4 Gamers" series involving my gaming buddies from the Nerd Herd - Chris (Vikings), Damon (Scots) and Rich (Normans). A couple of weeks ago we all met up at Chris's house where in his loft he has his gaming table and it is huge!  We were able to have two Saga boards side by side and all four of us would be able to play at the same time.  there would be many battles, there would be much tension and there would be highly competitive games but most of all there would be lots of fun! (oh and a bbq and beer!!!)

Each of us was tasked to write up one of the games that we played as an AAR so that no-one had to do it all and we could all enjoy the day.  We would all play against each other using 4 point Saga warbands, the same warband throughout, using random scenarios.  The last game would be the "Feast of Crows" where we all fight together! (It was pretty brutal)

Each game would add points for the the players as follows

3 for the win

1 for the draw

0 for the loss

Points that the gamers received in the painting/modelling part of the series would be added together and the winner would get 4 points, the second highest - 3, third highest -2 and the lowest scoring - 1.  These scores would be added to the days tally to come up with a final score and a series winner

As a recap these are the points scored by each player for the painting/modelling part 

                   Painting                                   Fluff                                             Total

Andy -        5 + 4.5 + 4 + 4 + 5 = 22.5      4 + 4 + 4 + 3 = 15                       37.5

Chris -        5 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 4 = 20            0 + 4.5 + 4 + 4 = 12.5                 32.5

Damon -     4.5 + 4 + 3 + 4 + 3 = 18.5      4 + 4 + 3 + 3 = 14                       32.5

Rich -         5 + 5 + 3.5 + 4.5 + 4 = 22      4.5 + 4 + 4.5 + 5 = 18                 40

So a clear winner was Rich who scores 4, then me for 3 and Rich and Damon joint third they both get 2 each for that.  Chris clearly suffered from a lack of "fluff" in his last post and could have pulled ahead of Damon causing him to drop a point.

Bring it on!!

Rich (L) and Chris (R) face up first

with Damon and I squaring off on the other board!

next up the reports
hope you enjoy
dGG

A Tale of 4 Gamers - part 5

Hi all

My apologies for the missed deadline yesterday, this was my fault not the other gamers as I have been in a state of shock since yesterday's announcement in the UK, but this a wargaming blog not a political one and so that is all I intend to say on that.

So this is the last part of the collecting and painting segment of our "Tale" based on the White Dwarf series of the same name.  For the last 2 months we have collected and modelled our warbands showing first the warriors and the levies working our way up the foodchain to the Hurscarls and Hithguards and now it's time to show the last pieces, the main man himself - the Warlords!!

This is the last chance for you guys to score our efforts, every point counts as we move from the painting table to the gaming table next time. Scores out of 5 please for both painting and the fluff provided by the gamers.

Andy's Faction

Waelwulf "the Fierce" stood by the doors of his Meadhall, built by him and his retainers with there own hands and standing as a show of his power and a mark of his lordship.  Here he dispensed justice in the view of the old Gods of his ancestors and away from the prying eyes of the Christians, who insisted he worship their weakling "Nailed God" blindly and with no thoughts of the old ways. 

Waelwulf spat his derision of the fools who prayed on their knees in their precious churches, looking to prayer to protect them when what they actually had was strong men like Waelwulf and his like, manning walls and hefting spear and shield.  He would show them what good their prayers were in the face of Viking axes and Norman lances.  He would take the war to the invaders, aye and the raiders from beyond the northern wall too and he would slaughter them, drive them from his shores and back to the rocks from which they crawled under.

Beckoning to Edgar to hoist his banner, he whistled for Freki - his massive hunting hound and strode across the bridge that bordered the edge of his lands and marked the outskirts of his small army's camp.  Seeing their lord coming toward them, the sergeants gathered their men into their units, bullying them into some sort of order with threats and blows.

"Men" he bellowed to the mass of hulking warriors.  "We are the sons of Danes but we are not Northmen, we are protectors of this land, this England but more importantly we are Men of Kent and we will defend our homes to the last drop of blood, we will sweep the vile invaders from our country and destroy their armies. We will crush them underfoot and their women and children will weep for their loss, but we will not stop until we once again stand as the masters of our land. For Kent, for England we will be victorious!"

So at last we come to the boss.  For me I could not wait! I wanted Waelwulf the Fierce to be a centre piece for the warband, something that drew the eye.  According to the rules he can be mounted on a larger base 40mm compared to the 25mm for normal warriors, so thats what he was going to come on, initially I was going to put other minis on the base with him but decided I wanted him front and centre all on his own, his retainers would be seperately mounted (but not contributing to the base size for gaming purposes).  My warlord was from the Gripping Beasts plastic model range that can be used for either Anglo-Saxons or Anglo-Danes, I wanted him to sport the enormous axe that he came with but bizzarely there was no way to attach it to his hand (which came with a sword !?!) so I had to use the hand that came with the standard bearer, for the base I used some zombie heads from a wargames factory sprue for severed heads and some broken weapons and a shield to give it a bit of a feel.  The hound is from Warlord games and was liberated from my Ancient Celts army and painted up.  The standard bearer now sans arm needed a minor conversion to swap out the warlords sword for the standard pole and was good to go.

I also finished off the last unit of Hurscarls I had knocking about for a a full 6 points worth of troops, these bad boys are metal sculpts from Gripping Beast, there were a bit meh! to paint but in the end turned out fairly nice, including hand painting on two of the shields.

Finally here is a shot of the entire Warband....

Chris's Faction

So the last two units of the warband.......for now. Firstly 8 Hearthguard, the elite of the warband. These are Gripping beast plastic Viking Warriors. Nicely sculpted models but really not quite on a par with Victrix or Perry. A lot of mould lines and things like shoulder joints not fitting easily and requiring some work....and tree trunk axe handles. The minis themselves are however easy to paint. These are all mail clad. Now my usual technique fir mail is a black undercoat and build up layers of metallics and silver with dry brushing. However as the rest of the army has been done with army painter I needed it to tie in. So usual white undercoat. Gun metal for the chain and the usual paint palette for the clothing. Nice touch on these minis is the Thor's hammer necklaces. Bit more colour in the clothing. I'm actually very pleased with the AP effect on the chain especially after varnishing. For the Warlord I wanted a small vignette with a Raven banner. These are Foundry miniatures. Again these were simplicity to paint. Base colours, a bit more colour and patterning on the Jarls clothing. I used the same tan colour for his bearskin cloak to tie him in with the Beserkers. The hound came with the pack and was just too nice a figure not to include. Only figure in the warband not done with Army Painter, just dry brush and highlights over black. So all told I am very pleased with this warbabd which will sweep all in front of them into oblivion. The GB plastics sculpting I'm going to give 6/10....good but room for improvement. Foundry 10/10. All told this took me about 10 days to complete from start to finish. I'm pleased with the AP on these. They look much better in the flesh than photos and to turn out gaming quality minis that look good en mass and quickly it can't be beaten, once you've learnt it's subtleties and limits and enhancing with some little highlights. I'd recommend it to anyone. Jarl Ingulf Thornisson's Warband Warlord 8 Hearthguard 4 Beserkers 24 Warriors 6 points with enough figures left over to increase up to 8 points

Damon's Faction

Bjarke looked around at his captors talking in their strange tongue trying to recall the battle. He remembers clashing with the scots as they came charging down the hill in their skirts, remembers the bersekers, Ake, Colburn, Gunnar and Gosta fall under a hail of spears then nothing, "I must have been clouted from behind and now here I am tied to a tree" he thought to himself. A large scot walked towards him and spoke to him in his tongue.

Lachlan smiled as he saw the shock on the vikings face as he spoke in their language. "Tell me again where your ship is" The viking just spat at his feet so he drove the point of his spear though his calf muscle. Smiling at the screams that came forth from the vikings mouth. "I can cause you so much pain, tell me where it is and I swear on my honour I will give you a warriors death" Confusion crossed Bjarke's face so Lachlan continued " tell me where your ship is and I will free you, put a sword in your hand and if you kill me you can walk free" "This is the only chance I will give you to enter Valhalla"

Bjarke looked long into the eyes of the man in front of him and realised that he saw a kindred spirit deep within them, starring back and knew he was telling the truth. Looked at his bleeding leg and back at Lachlan. As if reading his thoughts the man known as Lachlan in front of him says " I'll get you patched up whilst my scouts check out your story so you'll be fighting fit by the time they get back and if you've told the truth you get the sword if you've lied I'll gut you like a pig"

I apporached my next unit of hearthguard (Toisech) in the same manner and again I have surprised myself again. Out came the magnifying glass again and I went for the tartan again. I was a bit more brave with the tartan as you can probably see from the pics. I am especially please with the bluish cloak and the red tartan I feel I've kicked it up a wee notch. Again each tartan took more than one attempt and a lot of patience. I have persevered with the eyes and again this is paying off as I feel their better again. I ended up mixing my colours as they were too bright or dark. The red I dulled down with a little brown and the blue i lightned with a little white trying to match the colours I found on the web. I really am enjoying this painting lark.

Rich's Faction

The tournament was well into its second day, Hugh had so far taken part in four Jousts and one them all. His men cheered and congratulated him each time but Francois and the other knights had looked on stern faced.

Hugh had always had to fight twice as hard as his brothers growing up. Without his fathers attention his solace had been days and days practicing with the men at arms and learning all he could. Maybe being the youngest son was not so bad. Maybe his destiny had always been this way. Maybe be was meant to win this tournament and head to Caen as a man with a reputation. Maybe that would bring him to the attention of the Duke, all he had to do was win one more joust.

Hugh fancied his chances, the Dane was all strength and bluster. He had won his four jousts up to now before the horses had began to move. Each of his opponents was intimidated by his size and his growling. Hugh saw how he ducked and leaned into the lance as impact was made. Hugh was subtle and skilful and he knew just how to beat the Dane movement and deft touch was the key.

Kirsten knew he could not beat the Norman in a joust. As a mercenary man who had stayed alive against the odds all his life he knew when he saw a more skilled opponent and he knew when to walk away. He had come to Normandy as a captured man and had fought for his maters entertainment earning his freedom after years of killing.

Kirsten needed to be part of the invasion but the Norman lords would not take a Dane with them not unless they thought it was to their advantage. If he could win here at Nee and go to Caen as a man who had beaten all of the Local lords the duke might see his value and let him come to England.

All that stood between Kirsten and England was one Norman. But this Norman was unusual he could actually fight. Kirsten Deathbringer would bring Death today but not with a Joust in his arm.

As the men faced off and assumed the couch position, Joust under arm as the horses faced off and snorted their challenges at each other the Dane suddenly screamed allowed. “ Are you a girl Norman!” Hugh was shocked what was this, this was not tournament etticate where was the respect. Hugh said nothing and faced his challenger waiting for the squires to drop the flags to signal the engagement. But they were hesitating and looked confused by this outburst. “ I said are you a girl Norman, or will you fight like a man today” The crowd were mumbling and looking at each other wondering what was happening the squires didn’t know what to do. “Fight me as a man Norman, fight me as the gods intended, fight me with axe and steel!” Kirsten dropped his joust and from his back drew his mighty fighting axe.

As Hugh breathed in to shout his protest to the tournament squire he caught Francois eye, the look the man gave Hugh was stern and questioning. Hugh knew what the look meant. He knew he had to fight and win today to win his knights respect. He knew he had to fight with steel as a man. He paused, his horse turned 360 in its hesitancy and confusion as he came round to face the Dane again Hugh shouted back. “Very well Dane I will fight you with steel,” then as Hugh drew his sword and held it aloft he shouted something else, “ but let it be to the death!. Francois looked satisfied and re took his seat. Hugh knew this was the gamble of his life. But he was a man of Destiny, and the Dane just another step in his path to glory.

Hugh kicked his spurs into the sides of Damascus his mighty white charger and time slowed.

The Dane had lost the initiative as the Norman began to move, he smiled and kicked his heels into his all black steed. The two men charged headlong the horses seemed to understand what was at stake and both were moving faster than they had ever moved before, the impact was going to be mighty.

Sword and axe raised high in mighty dual as in days of old the two men bore down on each other this was going to be headlong neither horse would be bowed neither man would shirk.

Within a few metres of each other now the Dane drew back ready to strike, as he did so his horse lowered his head to make room instinctively for his masters blow. The Norman knew this was his chance the Dane would be expecting his opponent to lower his sword and aim but Hugh held high as he recognised his moment he steered Damascus straight the horse was his weapon first and foremost the lowering of the black horses head had left an opening and the Norman charged straight for it. As the axe was descending to strike into Hugh’s side Damascus’s head hit home square into the chest of the Dane pushing him back in his Saddle and taking his axe arm backwards. As the momentum pushed the two men apart the sword came down. It was perfection it was instant and it was death. What had felt like minutes had been over in less than five seconds. The Dane was strewn on the floor sword buried through his neck. Kirsten Deathbringer had found his Death. Hugh Fitz Baldrick was now a legend to his men. He stopped and turned in his saddle looking to his retainers. Catching Francois eye he calmly formed his words. “Come my men we ride for Caen, and after that you will follow me into Hell” Turning he rode away his men scrambling to catch up. Destiny awaited.

This time I only had one figure to paint, my mighty Warlord Hugh Fitz Baldrick.

I decided to give it my best efforts. I was really excited by this weeks challenge as the other guys know Batch painting drives me mad its so boring, I have always preferred one figure to paint a time.

I decided I would forgo my normal approach of base, wash and layer and this time avoided the wash sticking to using more layers for a more gradual finish between layers.

I am extremely pleased with the result especially the free hand shield and helmet having never attempted anything free hand before.

In future I will use even more layers for an even more gradual highlight but for my first effort at a blended style I am happy.

Hope you all enjoy , now boys bring on the battles!

so that's it for this segment of the "Tale of 4 gamers" all four warbands have been collected, modelled and painted for your delight....ahem.

i'm glad i've been able to showcase the other members of the Nerd Herd's painting skills including the fledgling like emergence of Damon's new found interest in painting miniatures (and I hope to showcase more of his work as he progresses).  i hope you've enjoyed this part as much as we have.  Monday we meet for the first time since Salute in April (Chris being in Sussex makes it difficult to meet regularly) and we are going to be playing against each others warbands in a round robin style, each of us will write up one of the battles as an AAR and these should be featured on this blog as a conclusion to the series.

hope you enjoy
dGG

A tale of 4 gamers part 4

hi all

Welcome to the 4th part to our recent series of blog posts by the "nerd herd", my gaming group consisting of Chris, Rich and Damon as well as myself.  We have over the last few weeks been collecting and painting miniatures for our warbands using the Saga ruleset from Gripping Beast Wargames and then Blogging about it in the style of the White Dwarf series of the same name.

We're really starting to get to the core of our warbands now, the elite of the elite, the right hand men to our warlords, bodyguards and drinking buddies - the Hurscarls.  These warriors are often landowners in their own right, they are certainly professional fighters and the most trusted members of a warlords retainers. 

Remember to score each faction out of 5 for the fluff provided and 5 for the painting standard, sit back and enjoy our tale......

Andy's faction

Thunk!! The sound of the long handled "Dane Axe" splitting through the torso of the foolish Norman who had charged at Signar, reminded him of the familiar noise of felling trees in his sulung back in Ciollodene. With a practiced flick of the wrist he freed the blade from the bloodied remains of the French slug's pelvis and turned to face the next foe. Across the muddy tracks that split the half dozen or so houses of this tiny hamlet, a visibly shaking crossbowman lifted his cowards weapon and aimed it in Signar's general direction.

"Ha!" spat Signar, he was a Hurscarl, sworn man to the eternally angry Waelwulf the Fierce, armoured in the best chain mail and helm and armed with a monstrous axe that was easily as tall as himself and capable of rending these Norman swine in twain in a single stroke.  He had no fear of a french peasant with a girl's weapon who had already pissed his breeches.

With a roar Signar ran full pelt at the fool, axe held over head, the blood of the last Norman streaming off the polished steel like a macabre pennant fluttering in the wind. The frenchman tried to steady his aim in the face of the fierce warrior in gleaming mail bearing down on him and even pulled the trigger, the bolt speeding across the short distance between them and burying itself in the loose dirt just in front of Signar.  Gulping he dropped the crossbow and reached for the long dagger at his hip just as Signar swung the axe hand over hand.......Thunk!!

So this post and the next we are painting and showing the elite fighters of our warbands before the last one featuring the big man himself, of course there will follow after some articles regarding games that we are fighting, but that should bring each of us up to the required 6 points.  So onto my additions for this post, I have been busy painting Hurscarls and to this end I produced a couple of units.  Now the elite troops come in units of 4 fighters, although they can be banded together to make bigger units.  These first 2 units are from the plastic Anglo-Danes 4 point army boxset from Gripping Beast and I put them together with a mix of armaments.  What i wanted in the first unit was some Dane Axes - the large two handed great axe that were reported in the Bayeux Tapestry as being able to sever a horses head in a single blow! yes please! Disappointingly this option wasn't available in the box set (what the hell GB, sort it out!) so I had to make some myself.  Taking the spear armed models I lopped off the spear head and replaced it with the hand axe heads that were supplied and voila

now what you get is some vicious looking weapons!  all of the models are wearing chainmail and helmets to reflect their richer status as well individual shields to represent their own "coats of arms" as wealthy landowners in their own right.

The second unit was a mix of hand weapons just to be a bit different, with the paint jobs I stuck to limited palette to reflect a uniform of sorts as I wanted them to look more professional which more fits the ethos of a standing army of professional soldiers as opposed to the Fyrd who were only recruited in times of need. Plus to reflect their wealth they have a gold trim to their helms.

Chris's Faction


Olaf paced in front of the shield wall. His chants and praises to Thor and Odin getting louder and more frenzied. His excitement and exhilaration growing. This is what he lived for. In the centre of the shield wall the Jarl smiled to himself. He knew what was coming, the poor band of Saxons in front of them had little if any idea of what was about to be unleashed on them. Three days since they had landed. Three days without being challenged, although the small hamlet inland had provided milk, cheese and eggs and .....entertainment. The jarl could still smell the smoke on his cloak....and hear the women's screams. He grinned again. This morning the small band of Saxons, some thirty spears had blocked the road. There they were still. Some hundred paces ahead of them. Hunkered down behind the interlocking shields, spears bristling like some bizarre hedgehog. All morning they had stood there. Fine so be it. The Jarls warband had tucked into liberated eggs and cheese, whilst members of the warband had tormented the Saxons, showing them trophies taken from the wretched hamlet. Throwing a girls head at them had caused consternation and the shield wall had buckled and stretched before order was restored. They would break the Jarl knew and when it gave the slaughter would commence in earnest, and he had just the men to break it. Now rested and fed the Viking shield wall faced off against the Saxon. In between stood Olaf the Ugly and his three companions. Slowly the strange dance of the beserkers rose in pitch and energy. Pacing up and down between the shield walls, chanting to the gods, cutting themselves with their axe blades till blood ran freely. Intimidating the Saxon shield wall over and over. Slowly as they reached the end of the line they would turn and head back towards the other end of the shield wall, but with each turn they moved a pace or two closer to the Saxons and the Viking shield wall would move subtlety a pace forward. The Jarl had seen this game before. Despite the apparent madness and growing frenzy, the Jarl knew what Olaf was looking for, the first sign of fear, the first sign of a gap in the shield wall, a way in. Louder, faster and more violent the dance became, closer and closer it edged........then without braking stride Olaf was tearing towards the shield wall...the fourth shield from the left had dipped and slipped out of alignment, just one step back. One step that would spell death for all. Olaf had seen it and launched himself towards it, ignoring the half hearted spear thrust, the weight of his body impacting on the wavering shield, pushing it back another pace, right arm bringing his axe straight onto the shoulder of the neighbour, severing the arm, the shield falling to the ground, it's owner howling in pain and stumbling forward out of line, only to receive an axe in the head from the next beserker. Soon all four Beserkers were inside the rapidly expanding breach, a whirling, howling frenzied but calculated circle of violence. Soon the shield wall began to buckle, these Norsemen seemed impervious to pain, their strength inhuman. "Demons! Save your souls!" was the Saxon cry. But salvation would not come, only death for the Viking shield wall had moved up behind the frenzied charge. Measured and irresistible like a Phalanx from centuries before, only breaking its formation as impact neared. But by then the Saxon wall had disintegrated........

So now onto the elite troops of Jarl Ingulfs warband. Vikings may upgrade one unit of Hearthguard (Hirdmen) into Beserkers. No Viking army is complete without these. They are the point of the blitzkrieg, the Norse shock and awe! How do I view these guys? Well take the kamikaze, mix with giant slayer, cross breed with gobbo fanatics, add some illicit substances, shake, stir, bring to a rapid boil and then unleash. I don't expect them to live but I do expect them to kill. These guys can deliver phenomenal amounts of damage...up to 32 attack dice in SAGA......come on you girly Normans! To be honest a late Viking army circa 1066 shouldn't really have Beserkers...the cult was outlawed in 1021 but they are so unique I'm having them. Tough. It's my party and you will cry when they hit you. The figures I went for were Wargames Foundry. I love foundry figures especially the early Perry sculpts. They are pricey but worth it. Every other manufacturer just didn't cut it. I wanted these guys in bear skin capes. Makes the mini bigger and far more imposing. Painting again was fairly simple once they'd been prepared. White undercoat. The flesh was army painter barbarian, bear skins were foundry tan triad, base coat and dry brushed and a cream for the lining of the bearskins. I kept hair predominantly yellow to make a contrast from the browns and used foundry lemon. Leather and gold jewellery and stripey breeches for one. The biggest dilemma was the bearskin claws. In reality they should be black. I tried this but there was just not enough definition to them. So I went with an off white in the end.....assumption is the wearers have repainted them. I may go back and add some colours to the claws to reinforce this idea. Not sure. Then they were painted in Army Painter medium dip and once dry highlights were added. I left the flesh unhighlighted. I'm actually really pleased with the way AP worked on large areas of skin. I had thought about tattoos but the Vikings used potash to tattoo with and I thought black tattoos would just dull the flesh down and add no real benefit. In all I'm really pleased with them. Phenomenally easy to paint and let's just hope the gods are with them.

Damon's Faction


The Toisech came running back into the camp. Mungo walked over to Lachlan and started talking in a low voice, he joked that they had spent the afternoon laying down watching a bunch Sassenach & Norman scum kill each other. Munglo reported that just over 3 miles away was a village and the Sassenach had taken it from the Normans. 

Lachlan smiled and shouted to his men " Gather round". Once he had the attention of everyone he shouted "Tonight we feast over the bodies of those dirty Sassenach!" He was greated with shouts and cheers and the chant "Lachlan Lachlan Lachlan" rose in volume to you would think they would wake the old gods from their slumber.

Lachlan gazed across the fields at the village, the dirty Sassenach were celebrating after their victory over the Normans. It would be short lived. He crawled backwards down the mound and turned to his Toisech and growled "we'll take the Sassenach and show them the way to hell" His Toisech murmered ascent knowing that if they cheered it would alert the Sassenach.

Lachlan beckoned Douglas, Dougal, Mungo and Sholto over his most trusted Toisech and told them to flank round to the left and take the barn back from those dirty Sassenach and try to keep the livestock alive, don't let them burn the barn down"

"The rest of you sorry bunch of miscreants follow me and lets kill us some Sassenach and send those dirty barstards back to the hell they came from."


I approached these 4 heathguard with trepidation. I knew I had to do tartan so out came the magnifying glass and away I went. I am really pleased with the result to be fair and I love Mungo (who would've guessed that Mungo would have been a gaelic Scottish name, classic) with his bald head and grey hair showing your never too old to kick butt.


Each tartan took several goes to get it right. A mistake here and there meant re-doing it but the easiest way was to paint one colour and then paint another over thinner over the top. I have looked at pics online but not watched any tutorials I just went with my gut feeling and I am really pleased with the result. I have persisted with the doing the eyes and these look a lot better then my previous efforts.

Rich's Faction

Hugh was proud, as he arrived at the outskirts of Caen he stopped to rest, and as he did so he gazed at his fighting men who were with him. The peasant archers whilst not skilled were immensely loyal to their new master, he knew when he asked them to fight for him they would do so and readily die if need be. Gerald and his men would be there when Hugh called.

With the money he has stolen from his fathers tax haul he had recruited or rather bought men who were trained soldiers skilled with the sword and more importantly the crossbow. These men had travelled from the Norman provinces in Italy to join the rumoured and now certain to happen invasion of England.  They had been happy to accept Hugh’s coin and whilst he couldn’t perhaps trust their loyalty yet the way he trusted Gerald’s he could trust in their skill and experience.

But it was not enough, Hugh knew he needed warriors, knights who would ride into battle with him, and that was why they had stopped here outside Caen at the Town of Nee. There were knights in Nee, they had gathered for the tournament, one of the many springing up around Caen with so many fighting men gathering in one small area.

Hugh had been put in contact with one such Knight named Francois Pinochet, Francois was a disaffected man his master had some how died on the road to Caen the rumour was his men had killed him after being embarrassed by his cowardice, whilst jousting he had lost, embarrassing enough for his loyal knights but worse Brave Sir Robin had run away! Chickened out and Buggered off when his opponent a Mercenery Dane named Kirsten Deathbringer had knocked him from his horse and approached him with his axe swinging high for the kill.

As Hugh and Pinochet spoke they discussed payment and terms. Hugh needed these men and they knew it and Pinochet needed Hugh to be able to get a ship to take them to War. They spoke for a while and agreed terms. As the men shook hands Pinochet spoke again. “So my lord you have won our swords and spears with your coin, I wonder will you win our respect ?”

“ A master should have his men’s respect without question,” replied Hugh. But the look in Pinochet’s eyes made Hugh realise he had to earn it by his sword.

“what would you ask of your master, Pinochet ?”

“My lord we will follow you to battle without question, but beat the Dane and we will follow you to the Gates of Hell themselves!” The gathered knights cheered as one as Pinochet raised his voice to be heard by all.

“Very well,” said Hugh confidently,” I will fight this Dane, after all any good Norman should beat these foreign scum with ease. Your master was truly a coward to have run away”

“A coward he may have been my lord, but maybe you should wait until you have seen the Dane fight before you comment more.”

“My boys,” Hugh paused as he framed his words, “I will fight him, I will kill him, and then we will ride for Hell!!!”

Wow! I have finished them, I knew this last two weeks would challenge me to the limits as a painter. I wanted to give them a good paint job and I knew that I would need time so I approached this last two weeks with a plan.

Not only had I got to paint my Hero’s I had to paint them on Horseback too, I have only limited experience painting horses and knew I would need to give myself plenty of time to have a chance of hitting Andy’s deadline.

So with several painting sessions planned into my schedule I got to work. Unlike Chris and Andy I like painting horses so I decided to try some different colour schemes, Tan, Black, Dark Browns, Grays and even a Dapple . I also wanted to paint some markings on their noses heads and legs. I hope you enjoy how they have turned out I am pretty pleased with the result although another week would have allowed me to really go to town with layering etc. In the end I did have to rush things a little and I think that does show through. My biggest regret is not having time to paint the shields freehand. I really wanted to try this but it just wasn’t possible. However with the final part of my army the mighty Hugh himself left to paint I hearby promise you all dear readers to expect a freestyle shield.

Hopefully with only one miniature (or maybe two, if you read my fluff you can probably guess who!) to paint this time I will give it my all to come up with a really good paint job.

Hope you like them.

Rich – nerd4life

So that's it for another fortnight, I hope you're enjoying these posts and the eye candy that the nerds have offered up for you.  Next time we have the last of our elite units and then the main man himself.  Hopefully what follows is a summer of gaming with our warbands and of course you guys will have the batreps/results for them (if all goes well!)

don't forget to leave your comments, i'm sure the rest of the "Nerd Herd" are itching to hear what you think (there's a cream for that....)

hope you enjoy
dGG