The Greatest Game

After a long hiatus international Rugby League returns to Wembley and to BBC on a Saturday afternoon.
England against Australia at Wembley - it doesn't get any bigger or better.
Lets hope young Master Tomkins can create something on a par wth this piece of wizardry from the legenday Jonathan Davies:



I was in the crowd that day. We beat Meningas team with only twelve men after Sean Edwards got himself sent off inside the first five minutes.Wish I could be there tomorrow, but as it is I'll be watching the BBC from around 3pm.
Before that I'm expecting one way traffic in the Wales NZ game, but I'm hoping the England Oz game is a classic.
Last game at Wembley for the one of the all time greats, Darren Lockyer too. I hope he has a good game, plays well. And ends up on the losing team.

(Rah-rah fans tuning in after their recent kick and clap shindig are warned to expect proper tackling, skillful passing and not much kicking into the stands. Oh and tries - you might not have seen many of them before.)

First SAGA Game Report

1068, England, just north of the Humber.
Jean Charretier, noble Norman Knight is engaged in a spot of extortio…err…tax collection on the lands granted to him by his lord in the aftermath of the great battle on Senlac Ridge. As Jean and his men go peacefully about their lawful business a band of Saxon anti-feudalist protestors emerge from the nearby woods. Their leader non other than Getwin Wefanson, one time overlord of this neck of the woods, apparently intent on a little robust Anglo-Norman interaction. Calling his men to order Jean mounts his warhorse and prepares to defend what is rightfully his…

This was our first game of SAGA and we each had a four point force.
As Lord of the Saxons I had:
Getwin Wefanson – Anglo-Danish Warlord
2 Units of four Thegns (sadly without Dane Axes)
2 units of 8 Ceorls

The Imperialist Norman lackeys included:
Jean Charretier – Mounted Norman Warlord
2 Units of Mounted Norman Knights
1 Unit of 8 Serjeants
1 unit of 12 Levy with bows

What follows is not exactly a "turn by turn" AAR. And may indeed be somewhat inaccurate in places, but it gives (I hope) the flavour of the game. I used the excellent Battle Chronicler software (it's free!) to make these images, but I'm not very good with it, so some of the pics may be a bit confusing. Sorry.

 

We deployed roughly as shown with the Norman Knights in the Saxon village, clearly engaged in a spot of light pillaging as the Saxons hove into view.

In theory we were playing Scenario One, Clash of Warlords but really we were just pushing soldiers around as we learned the rules.

The early turns

I went first and the entire Saxon line advanced. Cunningly I positioned them out of charge range of the Norman knights and prepared a shieldwall in case of shooting.
In their turn the Normans shot one unit of Ceorls and charged my other Ceorls through clever use of the Battleboard. The shieldwall prevented any shooting casualties, but the Knights and Warlord killed several Ceorls and sent them reeling back.

My Thegns and Warlord took advantage of the fact that Jean had burned all his dice leaving his knights a bit vulnerable. All four knights were duly wiped out, but Jean himself survived. The Left flank of the Saxons continued to advance but good arrows from the Levy killed 3 of the advancing Thegns (yikes!). The lone surviving Thegn threw himself at the Serjeants while the rest of the line re-formed.

Jean fled back to his lines and linked up with his remaining knights. The Serjeants duly pushed back my surviving Thegn before the archers finished him off.
At this point as the complexities of the rules began slowly to penetrate our dim, charge orientated minds it all calmed down for a few turns as we manoeuvred for position a bit.

The Mid-game period

Soon however type re-asserted itself and we got stuck in.
Jean led his remaining knights on a charge on the Ceorls who were pushed back. Frantically burning dice and piling up fatigue Getwin led his Thegns on a counter-attack that saw off the knights but left him with just two bodyguards. Charging the Norman Warlord it seemed certain the Anglo-Danes would triumph, but clearly Jean had purchased some very fine armour indeed, twice (!)  making five out of six saves to remain alive.

The end-game

On the left the Ceorls re-grouped and went after the levy, only just beating them in combat but using their Push ability to kill eight of them as they fled.

Finally, Jean having dispatched Getwin’s bodyguard, it came down to hardcore Warlord on Warlord action and the mighty Norman cut down the noble Saxon and claimed victory in the name of Duc William.

So What Do I think of SAGA
This was a good fun game and as others have pointed out SAGA is clearly easy to learn, but very hard to master. The early turns saw us jumping straight into combat and burning dice with no thought for combining abilities or planning for the future. As the turns wore on we got a bit more sophisticated - although those familiar with my gaming style will realise I can only take sophistication so far. As we both play in a similar, simplistic style we agreed we’d be fine as long as we only played each other – I suspect a skilled SAGAist would easily run rings around my poorly led force.
We got several rules wrong, learned some as we went along and played way more than the requisite 6 turns as we were having fun and wanted to kill a warlord.
The game played well and was great fun, my only criticism was that you seem to spend more time working out combos on your battleboard than you do pushing soldiers and rolling dice, but that may well change as one gets more familiar with the rules.
All in all we both agreed SAGA is a game we’ll happily play again and to be honest that’s all you ever really want from a game.
In fact we’ve got another game lined up for tomorrow night. I’ll try and take the camera this time.

Jean Charretier wiped the blood from his sword and returned it to his side, pausing only to spit on the body of the Saxon at his feet. With the death of their leader the remaining warriors had melted back into the woodland. He suspected they’d be back, and when they were he’d be ready for them. But for now there was some serious pillaging to be done!

Perry ACW Confederates Dipped

I did worry that dipping one model would put me on a slippery slope....

Same recipe as the ECW fella in the previous post.
Fans of "proper" painting needn't worry, I've finshed some more Ogres and made good progress with some more Late Romans. Oh and some horses. And To-Me-Ku-Pa.

Doing the Dirty Dip

I'd always looked askance at the idea of dipping. I saw it as "not proper painting". More specifically it generally seemed to be aimed at the type of wargamer who saw having a painted army as a necessary evil, rather than a thing of joy in its own right. Promotion for dipping always seemed to emphasise that it was all about speed and getting an army on the table fast, and made reference to "tabletop standard" - all of which seemed to me to aim it squarely at people who actually don't like toy soldiers very much. An example would be the recent article about a Viking army in WI, an article which (to my eye at least) did little to show either the Army Painter products or the Gripping Beast models in a very good light. Yes it was quick, but it looked it. And I happen to know that Bo is a very talented painter and that the GB Vikings are nice models. Maybe it was the photography but I remained unconvinced.

To me it's the soldier that's the important thing, I like how they look and feel and appreciate the skill and talent that goes into making a good one. Therefore my object in painting it is to enhance that beauty and lavish such skill as I possess to make the model look as good as I possibly can.

However some other painters began to give me pause for thought. Scrivs has been churning out some lovely armies at an alarming rate, and Saxon Dog has had some great results too. However both of these guys have been doing more than simply "dipping" the model. They've gone back and added highlights and the like, all of which seems to move right back to “proper" painting and be pretty much the same as the more traditional basecoat, wash, highlight method that I already use, with the added complication of having to use a "wash" that needs 24 hours to dry. So you’re left with a method that's either quick and looks a bit nasty, or the same as traditional painting but more complicated.

Then, last week I bought some cheap grey primer (I was making a Gandalf costume for my son to wear on Book Day at school) and I began to think about my "stalled" ACW project and my "not even off the starting block" Napoleonic project. Couple that with suggestions from the Warhammer forum that cheap proprietary woodstain was the same as the Army painter stuff and I was ready to experiment. Spray Grey, a few other colours and then dip might give me something I could live with. Had to be worth a go, right?

So I grabbed one of the Warlord ECW figures I got in my grab bag at the Derby show and set to work.

Here he is sprayed with cheap Grey Primer from the £1 shop, then painted with Tallarn Flesh, Bestial, Khemri and Calthan Browns, Mechrite Red, Skull White, Boltgun Metal and Dheneb Stone.

Next Stage was to Dip. I took some Wilko's own brand Walnut Woodstain and applied liberally. Then left it to dry for 24 hours:

Uurgh shiny!

So I followed the prescribed method and sprayed with Army Painter Matt Varnish:

 

Much better.

And so finally I based him:

 

 

I'm actually reasonably happy with him as a test model. The face in particular has come out well. Cheap, and although the individual took as long as a regularly painted model once I start doing batches it'll be quick, and  think I can live with that as a standard for my ACW models - though I suspect characters and the like will get more attention.

Ironguts WiP(3)

Pretty much finished now, bar basing.

Flesh: Highlightwith Kommando Khaki/Charadon Granite mix
Teeth/Bone: Snakebite Leather then Bleached Bone
Rock: Drybrush Fortress Grey then Skull White

I'll base them when I've got a few more finished (and I've bought some more static grass)

Ironguts WiP (2)

Got some more work done on the big fellas.

Flesh: Overbrush Charadon Granite/Kommando Khaki mix
Trousers: Highlight Black/Bleached Bone mix
Stone: Drybrush Codex Grey (and a Badab Black wash on the club head)
Shoes: Highlight Scorched Brown/Bleached Bone mix
Teeth: Bestial Brown

A Berber Building

My scenery building continues apace.
This is a simple "Arab/Berber" building for use in El Cid or Crusaders games. Probably do for Darkest Africa, Back of Beyond or Nothwest Frontier, should I ever give in to my many urges in those directions. Or as a 40K Ork hut if you fancy.

Simple Foamcore construction, it was then covered with a mix of  PVA, filler and very fine sand before I added a scored balsa wood door and trapdoor.
The walls were then painted with a pot of Wilkinsons Emulsion sampler (Crushed Almond) then washed with Gryphonne Sepia, before drybrushing with the basecoat and then white.
Wood was Charadon Granite, Overbrush Graveyard Earth, Drybrush Bleached Bone.
It's quite small,which I like as it doesn't have too big a footprint. I did build one more "in scale" with my models, but it just looks "too big" to my eye.

Here are the plans if you want to make your own:

 

Obviously you'll need two of each side.
Cut a door and window in one and two windows in the other of the long sides. Then stick the two short walls inside the long ones and let dry before fitting the roof. You may have to trim the roof depending on the thickness of your foamcore, mine was 5mm thick, so the plan above worked fine (more or less). I glued the roof level with the dotted line on the above plan, which meant it gave a small wall for protection and cleared the top of the windows.