Last fall I had one SAGA army, the Norse Gaels. I played with them a lot and then I began to plan for more SAGA armies. I think that’s the nature of the beast. The armies are small, there are five different period books. Lots of interesting possibilities and then I’m (speaking for myself) sucked into something else. Today I have three painted SAGA armies, the Norse Gaels, the Irish and last night I finished the last touches on the an Anglo Danish army. I have one more army, the Skraelings, which are not quite official, but their list and board was generated by Studio Tomahawk. I have also ordered the figures to fill out a Saracen army from the Age of Crusades, and those to add to the Anglo Danes to make an Early Saxon army from the Age of Invasions.

These are the Beowulf figures from Eureka Miniature. They are quite sturdy, which is just the way I like ’em. LBMS doesn’t make shield transfers for Eureka, so I painted ’em meself.

Lots to share on the Ango Danes. This is one of those projects in which I allowed the miniatures to own me. I rarely let that happen, but it did in this case. I’ve always been intrigued by the Beowulf range by Eureka miniatures, and I thought I could use these figures as warriors for an Anglo Danish army. So I ordered both of the two sets of miniatures.

Left, the Eureka beefy boys as hearthguard/huscarls. On the right, some Footsore dudes filling the same role.

That’s 30 figures, fifteen in a set of posing guys, and the other set of fifteen action figures. Some of the figures are a bit oddly posed and not terribly useful. Plus there’s the huge barechested warrior that didn’t really fit in. There’s also a 13th Warrior guy I did end up using. A few using swords or Dane Axes I made into a little hearthguard unit. I used the Great Thegn figure as my Warlord. So, all in all, 21 of the 30 figures made their way into my three units plus a leader figure.

I was interested in getting the Eureka Islemen figures to use as Huscarls/hearthguard, but when I ordered they were out of stock and back order was uncertain so I moved on. I added some Huscarls from Footsore miniatures. These are a bit less beefy than the Eureka guys, but they’ll do.

These two photos are of the Gripping Beast plastic Thegn figures from their Swordpoint range. These were great despite my fairly miserable assembly skills. they are actually quite nice, with just enough differences to be interesting. I painted the shields. Blame it on me.

So I had two warrior units, a few Huscarls, some bows and a leader. Five points plus a warlord, I just felt I needed more beef. So I broke down and ordered the Gripping Beast plastic Saxons Thegns from their Swordpoint range. I used these to build another four Saxon Warrior units. They work quite nicely. While I am not super adept at assembling plastic figures, they were relatively easy and they painted up well. Nice mix of figures too. Oh, and I made a little error in assembling one of them.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also blather about the two Legendary Heroes for the Anglo Danes. The first is Cnut the Great who really rescued the inhabitants of the Dane Law from oppression and oh by the way conquered England too. He’s a good get. However there is the matter of the mounted Cnut with Dane axe. Ahem. I also painted Harold Godwinson and his brothers because how could I not? In the rules they are simply nasty. Both are Gripping Beast miniatures, but honestly I’m not a huge fan.

So, the Anglo Danes are unusual because the figures came from every place. Some were a little better than others, but coming from a guy who started out painting strip Minifigs I’m not complaining. Well, I’m not complaining very loudly.

The best news is they are finished and I’m going to take a month’s break from painting SAGA stuff to work on my Camerone figures. It’s always nice for me to break things up a bit. I don’t paint anything that isn’t kinda fun to work on and let’s just say my den is packed with all kinds of fun.