Saga Sunday; Shieldmaidens v Saxons

Well, Vikings v Saxons really, but using my Bad Squiddo Shieldmaidens as the Vikings.

Owen and I played a few games at the club on Sunday afternoon. He hadn't played Saga 2 before, but it didn't stop him using his battleboard to the full, with his army being made up entirely of Warriors, grouped into four 12-man units, giving them access to some annoyingly useful abilities.

I started off with an army containing Thrall archers, as well as the usual Hirdmen and Bondi units, switching things around to give me an actual Shieldmaiden unit (led by a Valkyrie) after the first game. This is a useful addition, with eight attacks, plus a War Banner which allows the unit to remove a point of fatigue for free.

We ended up playing three games, all of them incredibly bloody encounters. We pretty much fought ourselves to a standstill in the first, I lost the second and Owen lost the third one, losing his Warlord in the process.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and here are some pictures of the action;

I have finally finished all my Freyja's Wrath shieldmaidens

Well, it has been a bit of a long job, mainly because I really wanted to do these lovely figures justice, but I have now finished them. I have enough for a Saga Viking warband, with some optional changes to the basic band.

Anyway, here are the final sets of figures. First, here are 12 archers, who will be classed as bow-armed Levies for Saga;

Next, eight unarmoured Warriors with axes;

And finally, eight unarmoured Warriors with spears;

Obviously, I will be fielding these as Vikings, but they could also serve as Anglo-Danes or Jomsvikings (without the archer levies).

Regarding the colour palette I used, once again, I wanted to keep a few unifying touches, therefore, the spear-armed shieldmaidens have predominantly black and yellow shields and the ones with axes have shields that are mostly red and black. I also kept to a basic set of three or four main colours for the clothing and I did a fair amount of dry-brushing to tone down the brightness of their appearance. I think that this has worked pretty well, they are not too subdued overall, but they are reasonably understated.

Now they are finished, I have a game of Saga arranged for next Sunday at the club.

These will also find a place in my Dragon Rampant plans for 2019.