Tag Archives: SAGA

Sometimes The Stars Just Align

Welsh Infantry by Footstore. Really nice figures, but I’m doubtful about the heater shields. I was perplexed about painting them, believing the average Welsh soldier probably wouldn’t have a heraldic symbol on their shield. I divided them between the cross of St. George and the cross of St. David.

After sitting relatively fallow the past ten years, my Hundred Years War project is simply beset with activity. I made up my mind as 2024 was nearing its end that I was going to re-base my singly mounted figures to my preferred 3-3-3-2-1 for Lion Rampant. Why? Fewer figures are falling down in boxes, and it’s faster to move five bases than twelve. Is it a pain? Well, yes, but I have a system that allows me to remount a unit a night if I want to. Typically I don’t, but so far in January I’ve remounted 11 longbow units, so I’m make good progress. Altogether I’ve remounted 262 figures, with many more left to do.

Archers in the “dunk tank” awaiting rebasing. These guys will actually be rebased on round bases for SAGA.

I’ve also had this rash of scenario ideas. Some old and some quite recent that should be fun to play. I think I’ve posted about a game for Blanchetaque Ford in 1346. I probably can’t do that until the remount is finished and I see where I am and what, if any figures I’d need. It is a game that is process driven more than fought. The French are relatively few in number but can drive the English crazy as they try to frantically get their army across the very wide Somme River before the tide comes in.

Recent adds to my bookshelf. Mostly Shrewsbury related, but I’m barely knee-deep in the final Sumption volume which will take weeks to finish.

I’m also really interested in fighting Shrewsbury 1403. Fascinating battle between the royal forces of Henry IV and the rebel forces under Sir Henry Percy (Hotspur). Both sides are blessed with large numbers of longbowmen, and Lion Rampant is quite effective at simulating longbow death. Even though missile fire is a super important feature of Shrewsbury, the battle is decided by armored knights and men-at-arms clubbing each other with large, heavy two handed weapons. Percy died and King Henry did not.

I’ve got a couple more old chestnuts for Lion Rampant, but the even bigger news is that I’ve received the Age of Chivalry expansion for SAGA. I enjoy SAGA. I only have painted armies for the Age of Vikings, but I’m looking forward to doing something a little different. The armies for this volume are really aimed at the Hundred Years War and the later middle ages. The designers really encourage the use of more generic troop types because so many armies use them. Generally I’d spit on that idea, but in this case I get it. Not quite sure how far I’d tread down that path but I’m intrigued. Needless to say, I’m looking at the English army first. I have tons of unpainted figures, but I’m also really interested in looking at the painted figs I might remount for SAGA just to get something on the table. Any way you look at it, we’re just not talking about a lot of figures.

If this isn’t enough, I am also anxiously awaiting the release of Guy Bowers’ new book “A Wargamer’s Guide to the Hundred Years War.” Supposed to have some good stuff for scenarios and building armies for the period. I met Guy at Enfilade a number of years back. Seemed a good fellow and he is a regular contributor to Wargames, Soldier and Strategy, so I’m interested to give it a look. It was supposed to be released in December and I pre-ordered from Blackwells. Alas it was not. Scheduled to come out at the end of this month, but I’ll wait until it’s a for sure deal.

This is the year of the Hundred Years War to be sure, if for no other reason than getting my figures painted and on the table in one form or another. I’m working on it. But not to the exclusion of other things. I’ve also made a little progress on my Cuban Rebellion figures. Well, one unit. Before January is over I also plan to finish my last two units of Rohan cavalry, which will complete my Rohan army for MESBG.

The year’s big project

Enfilade made it official last week and announced the theme for the 2015 convention.  It will be Raids.  Not really much of a raids person, though I could imagine a few raids that might be worth gaming.  I’ve painted some figures for raiding the frontier during the American Revolution.  Maybe, we’ll see.

Actually I’m fibbing.  Daveshoe and I have long discussed the possibility of gaming the St. Nazaire Raid of 1942. This raid was carried out against the Normandie docks, the only one on the Atlantic coast capable of hosting the German battleship Tirpitz.  In a daring land/sea expedition elements of the Royal Commandoes and Royal Navy destroyed the docks and important infrastructure in St. Nazaire’s maritime/industrial region. Unlike lots of games, there aren’t a couple hundred 28mm figures that will need to be painted.  Instead, we’ll be modeling the game table for a 1/600 scale coastal action.  I have many of the British gunboats already built and painted, but I have eight more to go.  There will buildings galore to paint, felt game space to construct and etc., etc., I’ll keep you posted on the project as we proceed.

I’m currently painting my Fife and Drum British Guards from the American Revolution.  These are exquisite 28mm figures, with just the right amount of detail.  They were sculpted to model troops for the 1777 campaign.  Though their coats are a bit long, they’ll do for Guilford Courthouse as well.  They are very nice, but a little on the small side. Smaller than Perry’s 28mm AWI, and even a little smaller than Old Glory figures.  I’m working on a 24 figure unit and making steady progress.  I hope to have them finished by the end of the week.

What then?  I have fourteen singly mounted militia and civilians I want to paint for the AWI frontier scenarios I mentioned earlier. These are all Perry figures that I expect to paint up very quickly.  They’re nice figures, a good variety of men, women and children.

I proposed to do some role playing with my son and friend David, and promised to take on the role of game master.  I asked Casey what kind of role playing he would most be interested in, and he thought it would be fun to do some swashbuckling along the lines of the Three Musketeers.  I thought that was a great idea because it gives me an excuse to pull out my Eureka 40mm And All For One figures.  They are unpainted, but I think they’ll take the next place in the painting queue.  I’ve been re-watching my copy of the Richard Lester stories (The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974) are by far the best versions of the Dumas story; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.) I’ve also checked out the BBCAmerica The Musketeers series for story ideas and I’m anxious to get started.  I’m likely to use Fudge as the rules set but am consulting the ancient GDW EnGarde rules as well as Ganesha Games Flashing Blades for ideas as well.  I have the original nine figure set Eureka issued a while back, and I’ve ordered a couple more of the assassin type figures, and I’m looking out for where I might be able to pick up a few more additional figure types for the era.

Finally, there’s been an increasing amount of talk about the SAGA rules for some quickly small action gaming.  I have 25 painted Vikings and was pawing through my piles of unpainted lead hoping to find a few more.  Indeed I discovered another 20+ miniatures which I want to paint.  That way I can join the cool crowd too.  I would guess I’ll work on these while I’m painting my Musketeers.

In any case I’ve got lots on my plate to keep me busy.  I can assure you I’ll do my very best to make it a good time.