Not played Saga in a while, until Sunday ...............

................ so here is what happened.

I got totally annihilated.

So, I'll show you the pictures of my Bad Squiddo Shieldmaidens, acting as generic Vikings and then just chat about the game a bit.

OK, so what actually happened? Well, the simple answer is that I rolled rubbish dice over and over again. My Saga dice rolls only gave me the rare S-shaped Sol (Sun) rune once in the entire game and when I really needed to roll high in combat I invariably failed to do so, thus losing my Hearthguard and Warriors to little effect. I also failed to realise until it was too late that the brown felt square in the final photo represented an area of Hard Cover, which meant that my bow Thralls had difficulty in killing off any of their opponents, but the Anglo-Danish archers killed off my Shieldmaiden Legendary unit without any difficulties at all. Perhaps charging across the table with gay abandon wasn't a good idea in the first place. They disappeared almost as quickly as my Berserkers usually do.

It didn't help that my opponents were Anglo-Danes, who seem to always defeat my Vikings, even when I use the board to boost my attacks. It seems to be one of those cases where the two boards tend to cancel one another out, leaving the dice pixies to decide who wins.

Still, it was nice to see my Shieldmaidens on the table again, I really love these figures. I think I'll love them even more when I start using them in Saga: AoM, but I need to get my mounted Shieldmaidens painted first.

Demons .........................

...........or maybe Daemons.

I suppose it all depends on how you prefer to spell it. Personally, I prefer the latter spelling. Anyway, with the arrival of Saga: Age of Magic, I suddenly have a need for daemonic entities from a parallel universe, because the faction that I want to play is the Otherworld one. I really like the idea of entities from another dimension emerging from a portal into the world of mortals (which includes goblins, orcs, dwarves, elves and whatever else takes your fancy, including the no-longer living, recently-buried and not-exactly dead) to wreak death, destruction and evil designs upon the locals.

It took me a while to work out exactly what I wanted the force to look like, but I liked the idea of there being a human component, obviously members of a Cult dedicated to the worship of dark deities who need willing acolytes to open portals through which they can gain access to entry no normal space and time. Yes, I've been a huge fan of the works of H.P Lovecraft since my teens.

So, I need cult members to act as footsoldiers, lesser daemons, dread creatures, a monster, a sorcerer and a daemonic warlord.

I looked at a lot of possibilities, but kept on coming back to the Frostgrave plastic cultists box set, mainly on the grounds of cost, but also because they look really good. I love the hooded figures in their tattered robes, just the thing for arcane summoning rituals on a blasted heath somewhere, no doubt accompanied by the eerie cries of whippoorwills.

I've also decided that the Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago plastic Snakemen would work really well as lesser daemon troops, especially as I want to take a unit of Warriors upgraded to Hunters. Snakemen with shields or with heavy weapons would also make good Hearthguard.

While looking through the available monsters in the Frostgrave Bestiary on the North Star website I found a couple of figures I really liked and I bought them, together with the already-mentioned plastic box sets.

While working on my Bad Squiddo Dwarf Warrior, I also got working on a couple of major figures for my Daemonic Otherword warband.

First, the Warlord.

I did consider using him as a Behemoth (one of the Monster classes) but he isn't really big enough for that, but I reckon that he looks like a pretty good Warlord, and that sword definitely qualifies as a Heavy Weapon. He's clearly got the muscles to wave it about in a menacing manner, as his back shows. He's absolutely ripped;

The other creature that took my fancy was the Ghost Archipelago Hemata, a kind of Snakeman with four arms and a snake body instead of legs.

Now, he (or maybe she, it isn't easy to tell, really) could quite easily be the Warlord, but I also need a Sorcerer and I've decided that a snake daemon sorcerer would fit in well with the Snakemen component of the army, so this is going to be my warband's Magic user. Here is the rear view.

I am going to stick with a red-based colour palette for the daemonic part of the force, with the cultists in grey robes with some red bits to tie it all together. 

My warband is going to have a fairly standard composition;

Warlord

Sorcerer

6 Hearthguard

1 Behemoth

3 Creatures

2 groups of 8 Warriors

1 group of Hunters

It is the same line-up as the Black Dwarves of Neggaruth warband in the rulebook in terms of groups and individuals.

I have ideas for the creatures and the behemoth, which will be revealed in due course.

I'll also be able to use both of these in games of Frostgrave too, so it is a win-win for me.

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;

The Shieldmaidens are in action. Two Saga AARs

On Sunday I finally got my Bad Squiddo Freyja's Wrath Shieldmaidens onto the table in an all-Scandi pair of battles against Clive's Anglo-Danes.

In the first game my force was as follows;

Freyja (War Leader)

One group of 4 Berserker Hearthguards

One group of 8 armoured Hearthguards

Two groups of Warriors

One group of Shieldmaidens (4 warriors led by a Valkyrie, plus a warrior with a War Banner)

My lack of ranged attacks left me at a clear disadvantage and my plans were massively disrupted by losing all my Berserkers to archery. From then on, I just had to attack, using Ullr and Thor abilities to maximise my hits. Unhappily, Clive was able to use the defensive abilities of the Anglo-Danes to pretty much negate my ability to score hits.

Net result: a win for the Anglo-Danes. Here are the pictures of the first battle. i think, from looking at these that my initial deployment was terrible.

Here are my short-lived and ineffective Berserkers.

Some spear-armed Warriors.

My main strike force. desperately trying to get into a better position.

With the Berserkers gone, Clive's defensive line starts to look like a problem.

My large Hearthguard unit gets ready to attack.

The Shieldmaidens led by the Valkyrie are completely useless here.

After two rounds of combat, my Hearthguards vanquish one of Clive's groups of 6 Hearthguards, but I am left in a weak condition in a dangerously exposed place.

Clive's bow-armed Levies and a group of Warriors combine to cause havoc to my spear-armed Warriors. After six rounds of play, I am defeated.

Here is the second game. I decided to replace the Berserkers with 12 Levies with bows.

I have retained the Shirldmaiden unit and have two groups of Hearthguards, one of 4 and the other of 8.

My other unit is one of 8 Warriors.

Things start off much more equally, with my archers targeting one of Clive's groups of Warriors.

I send my Warriors into melee with the archers. This is quite a success, forcing them to retreat.

Elsewhere, the two battle lines watch each other warily, no doubt exchanging insults and expletives.

My Warriors were attacked by Clive's Warriors. I use Ullr and am victorious. His Warriors are destroyed, but once again, I am left weakened and in range of the bow-armed Levies.

Battle is soon joined in the centre. My large group of Hearthguard charge in and destroy one group of Clive's Anglo-Danish Hearthguards, but are then themselves wiped out. 

I send in the Shieldmaidens, who are all killed except for the Valkyrie. However, they have weakened Clive's line. My smaller Hearthguard group charges, but is defeated. The battle is over. The Vikings have lost again.

I wasn't too upset at losing both games, because they were fun to play. The Vikings really do have to attack and try and cause maximum damage, which I generally managed to do quite regularly, but the real strength of the Anglo-Danes comes from their abilities to roll a lot of Save dice, which they also managed to do pretty regularly.

My main mistake was the way I used the Loki ability. I kept on forgetting to make it the first ability, but when I did, it really helped make a difference in melee.

These two armies are pretty much two sides of the same coin. One attacks ferociously and the other defends doggedly.

Freyja's Wrath - armoured Shieldmaidens and more

Well, I've made excellent progress with my lovely Bad Squiddo Shieldmaidens and I am really happy with the results. If I use these for Saga, they are all going to be classed as Hearthguards. I've tried to stick to a relatively simple colour palette, with the same few colours being used across all the figures, including on their shields. 

First, here are four Shieldmaidens with axes. I really love the one with the chainmail veil over her face. She looks like she is ready to dish up some serious trouble to someone.

Next, here are four Shieldmaidens with spears. These make a nice contrast, being bare-headed.

Next, here are the rest of the armoured Shieldmaidens. These are brandishing swords.

So, these 12 figures will probably be my default 3pts of Hearthguards for Saga, but I also have the option of fielding a group of four Berserkers, and here they are, wild women clad in animal skins and waving some big choppers about. I really love these figures, really dynamic. I suppose they could also be used as a Reduced Unit of Bellicose Foot in Dragon Rampant, with each figure having 3 lives.

Finally, here is my other Thorrun mini, painted to fit in with the colour palette of my Shieldmaidens, together with Morgana, who I see as a magic user, but who my partner described as "that weird nature priestess". I think that Morgana is a really terrific figure. I love her staff, and I've tried to paint it as though it contains some kind of captive Green Man spirit entity. To keep the nature/fertility theme going, her base has actual tufts plus a lighter green flock with coloured bits that (to my eyes, at least) looks like a carpet of young grass and tiny flowers.