Saga Warbands - Viking Warband of Asger Sturluson

Well, I've had the excellent Dark Age 'fun' ruleset Saga from Gripping Beast and its expansion Northern Fury for a fair while now, so it's about time I got my finger out and painted some stuff up.  


The plan is to get two warbands to about 4 pts (the points system is explained a bit more below but you really need about 4 to 6 pts for a game).   I'm planning on getting the age-old enemies - Vikings and Anglo Saxon warbands to fight one another.

The army lists for Saga are pretty simple:

The Warlord

You have a warlord base (bases themselves can be any shape and size and lends itself to a bit of modelling) that is free.  He's the boss and he gets a couple of wounds.  He can also attach himself to other units to help them fight better (other units have to stay within their class).  Your warlord is free.

Hearthguard

These cost 1 point, normally for 4 men.  These are the best fighting unit you have (other than your warlord).  Heathguard can form up into a big unit with other hearthguard (to a max of 12 men) but no other unit types.  For example, Viking hearthguard are called Hirdmen.  1 point gets you 4, but you can buy more and have them as small units or lump them together in a combination you choose.   Viking are notable as they have another type of Hearthguard, the Ulfwerners - berserkers.



Warriors

These are the bread and butter troops of a warband.  Normally they would be semi-professional or enlisted from other professions as and when needed.  1 point gets you 8 of them.


Levy

The peasantry.   1 point gets you 12 men but they're pretty crap!  They often have slings or bows.


This is a pretty basic overview as some factions have minor upgrades or specialised units (like Norman crossbowmen), but you get the drift.  It is all simple and easy to pick up.

Then comes the Saga dice!  The composition and number of units that you have (levies not included) affects the number of Saga Dice you get to roll in a round.  The opportunity-cost of small units is a lot of saga dice but these units are then smaller and less effective in combat (and will die quicker!).  Anyway, the dice are cool (if pricey!):




These dice are rolled and the top facing icon means you can use certain activation abilities on your faction specific board, like so:



And this is where the skill comes in - the faction boards add the flavour to the game.  Many abilities can cancel out other's abilities and some combos can be extremely powerful if used properly.   I don't know what they are yet - I've not played a game!!

So, on to my vikings!  All inspired by Joe Abecrombie and his Northmen and Bernard Cornwell's the Winter King!


The Warband of Asger Sturluson.

Hearthguard (1 pt) - Bondi (Named men!) - Svein the Red, Torstein Gunnhild, Vagnar Vigdis and Ulf Sternaxe.






The shields depict crosses, makng the warband as ostensibly Christian.  The Chi-Rho Christograms suggest a connection with orthodoxy and Byzantium, possibly marking them out as ex-Varangian Guard.

They were painted with Army Painter and the shields were from the brilliant Little Big Man.

I say 'ostensibly Christian' as the warband clearly clings on to some of the old ways, as the Úlfhéðnar berserker hearthguard unit demonstrates:





3 more of these to follow to complete the unit!

I'm also trying to get a bit of themed scenery done for every army I make now, so here's a small, overgrown, roadside Christian shrine for the warband to defend/attack!:









It's a small resin piece I picked up for a couple of quid from Salute.  Pretty pleased with how it's turned out.

They look really good. Am listening to the winter king again at the moment, inspiring stuff! Like the thought you have out into stuff. You really need to join a club or something similar, all these different systems you are interested in, you could get to play them! What's next?

I know, I need someone to play regularly. There's no clubs around here as far as I can see.

I think next might be some 10mm stuff!

Oh, and I'm getting back in the WFB groove an' all.

Supaglue wrote:

I think next might be some 10mm stuff!

I meant for this system!!!

Lol! Ah, I see...

I've got to finish the beserkers (3 more, which are based and undercoated and ready to go) and I'm halfway through the warlord himself (but I'm not too sure of the colour scheme, so I may repaint him).

Then there's another 4 Bondi hearthguard undecoated and based that shouldn't take too long.

I might make a start on the Anglo Saxon warband then. I'm also planning on painting up 12 levies generically for either side - Geburs or viking levies, I think peasants were just peasants all over in them days!

One of the big attractions of the game is you only need a relatively small amount of figures to play.

Supaglue wrote:

One of the big attractions of the game is you only need a relatively small amount of figures to play.

Dunno, seems like you need quite a few for a skirmish game. Obv not as much as wfb but sounds like it will end up at 20-30 men.

What factions can you do?

Yeah, I guess. I suppose it depends what you buy for your force: 4 pts of levies would be 48 men! Although you'd have hardly any saga dice as Levies don't give you them. Alternatively, 4 pts of hearthguard would be 16 men.

Not sure how either of the above play, but I suspect they'd be unbalanced, so yeah, it's a fair few more figures than say Malifaux or Infinity.

The factions are:

Anglo-Danish
Normans
Viking
Norse-Gael
Welsh
Anglo-Saxon
Bretons
Jomsvikings
Scots
Franks
Irish
Strathclyde-Welsh
Pagan-Rus
Princes Era Rus
Byzantines
Skraelings (American native Indians)

There's also Crescent and Cross, which is the crusades and they've got Islam and crusader factions but it's kind of a separate game.

And here is Asger Sturluson himself, with his brother and personal bodyguard, Hagal. Again the Chi Rho shield design can be seen, suggesting a Byzantian connection.




So he is the warlord and leader of the warband. He's the only model (other than special characters) that has two wounds and can join any unit he wants.

The fact there are two models makes no difference in the game - it is, in effect, the base itself as a kind of unit that counts. Also worth noting perhaps that there are no standardised basing requirements in the game, so you can run wild with dioramas if you wanted.


No entirely happy with the model actually. I know a bad workman and all that, but the casting wasn't great - The boss is a Gripping Beast metal figure I got from Salute earlier in the year. I like the character of the model, but it was a bit chunky, it had a lot of mould lines and a little miscast on the hands. The axe was seperate too and didn't fit into the hand very well (I've also missed a mould line but I'm not saying where!).

As for painting, it's army painter again. I've tried to imitate that harsher contrast style used for historical battles miniatures I've seen at the shows that really seem to pop at arm's length (but perhaps not as much close up). Not a complete success but getting the knack slowly.

Next up, 4 more hearthguard.

Nice. Yeah, you can notice that his axe doesn't quite sit perfectly, but that aside he looks good.