SAGA Rampant! or "The miniatures went in 2 by 2"

This is one of those things that has ben floating around in my head for a while, and I figured I would try and make some sense of my jumbled thought process on the matter, and hopefully it is of some use to the people out there in internetland.

So, what exactly is SAGA Rampant?

Well, at a basic level, it is a plan borne from my endeavours to paint up "double-duty" miniatures.  A double-duty miniature being one that can be used for something besides it's intended purpose/system, and by way of example, I'm going to use my Conquest Normans.  Now, these were originally painted up for SAGA, but, having had a look over the books, I figured that I can easily adapt them to Lion or Dragon Rampant, hence the term SAGA Rampant.  Using these as I find Saga to be enjoyable for someone like myself who really isn't in to Historical gaming, it has enough of that Herohammer vibe about it with the Warlords generally being beasts in combat, and the various special abilities on the battle boards, and the Rampant games, as I really like the whole "wargaming lite" vibe of the Osprey books, and see them as a good entry point into various periods/styles of play (hence my plan to paint up a force for every one of them, but that's a different story.  Or blog post)

The basic foundation for this is how the armies are put together, Saga has 4/8/12 model units (at the basic level) and the Rampant series follows a 6/12 model/wound unit.  Looking at it, it is quite easy to plan out a 6pt Saga army that will translate directly to one of the Rampant games, as opposed to the "paint up some random stuff" approach I had originally had.

So, let's see how this works.

Generic Norman Army 6pts

Warlord
4 Mounted Hearthguard
4 Mounted Hearthguard
8 Warriors
8 Warriors
8 Warriors
12 Levy

OK, so it probably isn't the most optimal list, there's none of those lovely crossbows, whatever...  but we'll go with it.  So, breaking it down, we have

Chief dude
8 figures on horses
24 infantry with (most likely) spears and shields
12 infantry with bows.

Grabbing Lion Rampant and flipping to the Mustering your army section, we can immediately see we have enough mounted figures for a 6 model unit of Mounted Men-at-arms or Serjeants, let's put them down as Mounted Serjeants just now, for a 4pt spend.  Moving on to the infantry, our 24 warriors with spear and shield conviniently (amazingly so) split perfectly into 2 12 model units of Foot Yeomen at 3pts each (Total spend so far 10pts) and similarly, that 12 man levy unit becomes a 4pt Archer unit.

So thats

Mounted Serjeants - 4pts
2 x Foot Yeomen - 6pts
Archers - 4pts

So far, we've spent 14/24pts, and have 3 figures left spare right now, it's not enough for another unit, and 10pts is a lot to spend on upgrades.  But you can still play Saga, right?  Looking at it, painting another unit of Mounted Hearthguard for Saga would give you the option of adding a second unit of Mounted Serjeants (2 spare + 4) for another 4pts, taking you to 18/24pts, I guess you could spend 6pts on upgrades, or, being a dastardly Norman playe, you probably want to get those Crossbows on the field, so, add them to your Saga force, and assuming you can get a spare 4, that's another 4pts spent on Cossbowmen taking it to 22/24pts, and giving you 2pts for upgrades.

Lion Rampant Normans

2 x Mounted Serjeants - 8pts
2 x Foot Yeomen - 6pts
Archers - 4pts
Crossbowmen - 4pts
Upgrades - 2pts

Working it back, it translates to 8pts for Saga, so enough for a fully playable force with options.  There is also a sample Norman retinue in the book, classing the mounted models as Mounted Men-at-Arms, which eats up more points, and the Levy as Bidowers (although you are only using 6 of them), you'd still need 12 crossbowmen, but at a push, you could get away with painting the 8 you'd want for Saga and filling out the unit with 4 of the spare Levy.  Just make sure they die first.

Maybe it takes a little bit of fudging, but it's not a huge task to turn that Saga army into a playable Lion Rampant force.


Moving on to Dragon Rampant, it should be, if anything, easier to translate, as the Reduced model unit rules allows you to allocate multiple hits to a model and field less figures.  Let's be honest, you could drop every unit to a single figure with 6 or 12 wounds and play with about 6 models a side...  but it's not gonna look great, but it could be a handy way to get a handle on the rules.

So taking that original Saga force, it breaks down to

Heavy Riders - 4pts (6 wounds)
2 x Light Foot - 6pts (24 wounds)
Light Missiles - 4pts (12 wounds)

Again, coming in at 14/24pts and leaving the same 3 figures spare.  So, how do we make up those 10pts (other than upgrades).  The easiest thing is to class Mounted models as 2hits apiece, meaning your 6 mounted figures can actually be used as 2 units of Heavy Riders, immediately adding another 4pts, taking you to 18/24, from there, the quickest addition would be to paint up a mounted Warlord for Saga, and add him to the 2 remaining Hearthguard to form a 3rd unit of Heavy Riders taking you to 22/24pts, or class his unit as Elite Riders for 6pts and that takes you up to 24pts exactly.  Probably good news for those that don't want to sully their armies with fantastical rules and dirty great monsters.

Warlord and 2x Hearthguad or Elite Riders and 2x Heavy Riders?  Why not both?

Working it back, you've got exactly the same army as you started with for Saga, but now you have a mounted Warlord option too.  Bonus.


And that, is basically the gist of it, paint an army for a game, and with a few additions, you get options for the original game, or enough figures to play something else.  If you don't like playing something else, you haven't really lost anything other than a couple of hours, and you still have options for your original army.


So this is the plan I am following when it comes to painting up new stuff, aiming for a Saga style build to begin with, that can be expanded towards the Rampant games.  4-8 models is a pretty good number for batch painting, 12 can be a slog, but you can always break it down to 2x6.  It doesn't have to be strictly historical stuff either, I made a start on the Oathmark Dwarfs a couple of months back, with the idea that they would be a good "Counts as" Saxon or Viking force for Saga until the Fantasy sourcebook is released.

Dwarf Hearthguard.

Dwarf Warlord

Dwarf Priest

On a similar note, skirmish games gives you a start into building up units for more massed battles, the Dacian Warband I am painting up for Broken Legion's, using the Frostgrave Barbarians can be expanded into Fierce/Bellicose Foot for the Rampant games (mixed weaponry won't really matter) or a more Hollywood style Viking force for Saga.  They'll also be great for playing Blood Eagle, which just adds to the options I have for games.

3 Men short of a Saga Warrior unit.

It's not just limited to 28-30mm scale stuff either.  I recently threw out a challenge to the 15mm Fantasy Gaming group to do a slo-gro "fantasy" Saga army over 6 months, and make it a playable Dragon Rampant army by painting up enough spare models to bulk out the units.  It was more a personal project, but I opened it up to the group to get others on board.  I had originally planned on doing a mostly mounted force using the Copplestone 15mm Barbarians and Northlanders, but settled instead for Dwarfs, using the awesome 4a Miniatures ones (which Andy still doesn't have up on the webstore, but has at shows, so bug him about it to get them up there if you want some) 

Blame these guys for the change of plan.

 Seeing as there isn't a book to go by for Fantasy Saga, it's basically paint 4/8/12 models a month to count as something for Saga until we have a book.  I'm going with the Dwarfs being Vikings, because it is the most generic list in my opinion, but I also get to go a bit wild with some Berserker types.  Painted up my Counts as Warlord last month, one of the Blighthaven Dwarven Warmachine models (without the crew) and I have 3 packs of the 4a Dwarfs to get started.  Hopefully there will be some new releases by the time I get them done.

I'm just a warmachine, painted for fantasy, give me a kiss or 3, and I'm fine...

Of course there are plenty of other games out there beyond Saga and the Rampants, I know I'll revisit God of Battles once the Dwarfs start piling up, and that will probably prompt painting up a second army...


So yeah, that's basically the whole thought process laid out, paint 4/8/12 models at a time for Saga, either a real force or proxy/count as models, and see about expanding them into usable units for other games.  It's never an excessive amount of painting breaking it down into chunks like that, and you can slowly build up your forces and options to play multiple games.  It's not going to be for everybody, but, if you are stuck in a rut, or don't know where to aim for next in your hobbying, it might be worth a try.

Productive painting and happy gaming until next time,

Cheers,

John.

#workbenchWednesday 21/03/18

That time again then.  Workbench is relatively quiet, just 2 minis on it at the moment.

Reaper Bones - you get what you pay for, right?

Now, I have a tonne of Reaper Bones, the original ones, all of the first Kickstarter and some of the second.  Let's be honest, they aren't amazing.  Now, don't get me wrong, the price is fine, but the material leaves a lot to be desired, like, I'd rather have 10% of these minis in metal, than a pile waist high that I'll probably never touch.  The clean up isn't fun, the fact they move when painting them isn't fun, and the fact they can still be "sticky" years after priming them isn't fun.  Still hasn't stopped me considering the newer Frost Giants for Blood Eagle though.  Seriously though, I'm not really a fan of the Bones material, it's way down the list for preferred mediums for me, alongside Chinese hard plastic and just above the original Finecast.  Having said that, I've noticed that some of them seem a lot firmer than others, and the Griffon's wings seem a lot firmer than the body.  The Wolf wasn't too bad, so, hopefully I can get these done without hating them too much, and maybe work on more stuff from the pile.

The Griffon is intended for Dragon Rampant and I had planned on putting a spare Conquest Knight onto it, to represent a flying Hero type, then realised that I had used him for my Mounted Warlord for Saga, so that can wait until I get another box, which I need to fill out a unit of Mounted Warriors, as I'm only using the bodies without chainmail.  Hell, Bones are cheap right, I could just grab another Griffon too...  The Wolf is planned for a Blood Eagle Jotun Warband, so will be painted to match the bluish fur I've used on my Frostgrave minis.  I had considered doing him kinda polar bear colours, but I'll save that for if/when I get some suitable bear miniatures.  Pretty sure he can also pull double duty in IHMN Gothic, Empire of the Dead, Witchfinder General, or any of the other Gothic style rules I have.  Both are on round lipped bases naturally as they just look better, the Wolf is 50mm and the Griffon is 65mm, which I found Stateside.


So, what was I up to prior to this point?

Thursday and Friday was spent finishing off the Levy unit for my Saga Normans.  I kept the grey cloth more muted on them in the end, seems to have worked.

12 model units.  Fun.  I could have 3pts of Hearthguard in the same time...

What a difference a day makes.

Really pleased with how these guys turned out.  Pleased enough that I would consider building the rest of the box to give me another unit.  Not immediately, but at some point.

Saturday was given over to the necessary evil of adding basing texture to the growing pile of assembled miniatures I had going on.   The remainder of the Frostgrave Barbarians box, half the Cultists, a few more Soldiers, another Wizard and Apprentice, the Oathmark Dwarf metals and 4 plastics, the new Dracula's America Werewolves, a Faceless Horror, the Lucid Eye Corelocks, a pair of Foundry Elven Revenants (Vampires) plus the Bones figures I am currently working on.

All your base are textured by us.

Sunday, I started cleaning up some Warmahordes minis, turns out when you run events, you are the main person to ask to borrow minis from...  So, a unit of Farrow Valkyries, a Circle Orboros Blackclad Wayfarer Solo and Woldwarden Heavy Warbeast hit the table.  Plus I dunked a part painted Celestial Fulcrum Battle Engine I picked up in a trade into some Tesco All Purpose Value Cleaner to get rid of the naff brown and black primer.  Hit 11 weeks of #hobbystreak today as well, so was feeling pretty good about things.

Honestly not a chocolate cake.

Monday.   Hmmmm.   Monday was a bit of a lost cause.  See, I spent 4 hours in A&E overnight after picking up a concussion at work, so, between painkillers and dozing on and off, whilst being wide awake and exhausted at the same time, I didn't get anything done.  Thankfully I had my arranged game of Frostgrave at the club to carry me over.  Then that got cancelled due to a family emergency on my opponent's side, but, I managed to get in on a pick up game of Zombicide Rue Morgue, so, managed to add to both my board games played and new opponents played tally for the year.

I mean, that's not even a lot of Zombies.

We played 7 survivors vs. the horde, and ultimately escaped intact, with only one Survivor wounded.  It was touch and go for a while after we cleared our way to the escape zone, but the Abomination spawned behind us, and we had to double back to take it out.  We had a choice of areas to engage the horde, and settled on one with good firing lines, but further from the escape, and risked the chance of the Abomination respawning whilst we made a break for it.  Thankfully, that didn't happen, and we escaped safely.  Was a good game with Sarah, Martin and Stephen.

Tuesday, still wasn't feeling 100% so wasn't in the mood for painting, and couldn't really focus on any one thing.  I did get both the Bones figures hand primed, and then started my normal procrastination/organisation thing of re-arranging the cabinets in the games room.  It;s something I tend to do when I am at a loss for how to progress, a way of "controlling the chaos" if you will, imposing some sort of order onto 1001 projects.  It does prompt some crazy ideas however, like, "I should inventory my entire miniatures collection" and that sort of nonsense.  I dunno, sometimes there is a sense of despair, that I won't ever get around to painting all these cool minis that I want to paint, and always add more to the pile.  It's oppressive in a way, and is sometimes a sharp reminder of the ceaseless advance of time...

And on that gloomy note, I did take some shots of the cabinets once I'd moved things to where I want them, more or less, there is still some stuff to change, but for the moment, my newer and current projects have moved up from floor level, and it looks a lot better to me, as there are more painted minis on display when you walk into the room.  The top row is all my Warmahordes stuff, the next row is mainly "army level" games, along with Sarah's Menoth and Mike's Farrow whilst I finish them off.  The third row is mainly Skirmish level games, and the bottom layer is the hidden assembled and part painted minis.  Here's a selection of some of them -

Guildball Butchers.  Awaiting the final 3 figures.

Saga Normans.  8pts painted plus Warlord options.  Still need to add Crossbows.

Mike's Farrow army.  Just a few Razorboars and Carver to add.

Frostgrave stuff, plus Broken Legions and Rocks.

Death Guard starter.  Awaiting reinforcements.

Copplestone 15mm Hordes of the Things Picts.  Over 24pts, reinforcements incoming.

Living Circle Orboros stuff for Hordes.

Gremlins for Malifaux.  Plus a Guild dude I need to finish that box and punt it.

Microworld 6mm Beastmen.  Based for Warmaster.  Over 2000pts.  Needs more Chariots.

Construct Circle Orboros stuff for Hordes.  Needs more clump foliage.

Well, that's all for now folks, hopefully head is cleared up now and can get back to being productive over the next week.

Cheers,

John

#workbenchWednesday 28/02/18 and Month in Review February 2018

That time again huh?  Another double-whammy post kicking off with the obligatory workbench shot.

They don't take up mushroom.   Baddum Tish.

Just a few pieces of Fungi scatter terrain I picked up a while back from Ral Partha Europe, who don't seem to stock them any more, but they can be found on the Scotia Grendel website.  I figured they would be relatively quick to do.  And any excuse for loads of tufts and clumps is a good one, right?

Been a busy week since my last update, part of which you will have seen from yesterday's post, and here is how it went.  You did read yesterday's post right?  Because apparently almost 800 people have already, which is equal parts amazing and humbling.

Thursday - Continued working on the Frostgrave Barbarians for my Dacian Broken Legions warband, and also grabbed a Foundry Monk that I was planning for SAGA that was part done, as I was using the same colours.  Finished the Monk as it was really just a few highlights he needed and got him varnished.

Also spent most of the day through at Common Ground Games for WTC practice which went well, trying out new list ideas.

Cheated with a Veni Vidi Vici shield transfer.

Friday saw me finish painting and varnishing the Barbarians, and basing them up along with the Monk.  I also cleaned up and assembled the first 4 plastic Oathmark Dwarfs to use for Dragon Rampant/Fantasy SAGA, with hand weapons and shields to represent Hearthguard.  Finally I primed the first 4 Warband Elements for my Hordes of the Things force, painted the earth around their feet, and made a start of the Tiny World's rock piles I posted up yesterday.

Impressive, right? 

Really love the fur, so, here's an extra picture of it.

So long, and Falx for all the fish.

He is Dabbing according to kiddo number 3...

On Saturday I assembled the last 7 models from the Frostgrave Barbarian box, along with all 3 blisters of Savage Core Corelocks I had picked up at Vapnartak.  I switched out the base on the leader for a 40mm one, as he looked just a bit cramped on a 30, and it shouldn't have a huge difference in game.  Also inked and did some drybrushing on the rock piles.

Sunday saw me finish off the rock piles (this was when I realised that I had only done 7 of the 8 from the set) and got the 20 picts painted for my Warband elements.  I also cleaned up and primed a spare figure to use as a Hero (along with another standing stone) as well as 2 spearmen (spearPicts?) and 4 more Heresy Giant Slugs (which were metal when I picked them up) to use as Beast elements.  Thinking behind this was it was less work than cleaning up the next 20 for Warband elements, and would push the army over the 24 AP mark.  One thing to note was that this marked my completion of 8 weeks of #hobbystreak activity.

The colour scheme is so simple it almost feels like cheating.  Almost.

Monday was spent texturing and inking the Hordes of the Things bases, doing the highlights on the Hero and Beasts, basecoating the last rock pile as well as the last Hidden Lairs from Copplestone, and then heading to the club for a game before work.  

Doesn't look as much when you get 5 on a base...

Sarah and I dropped in on Sharp Practice, to get a feel for the rules, expertly umpired by John E, with me taking command of the main French line, attempting to burn out a village in the search for a British commander, being protected by a band of Guerrillas played by Sarah.  John P took command of the French reinforcements, and the Guerrilla's were backed up by Peter's British, who were also hunting for their injured leader.  We had to bow out early to get to work, but the AAR basically came down to "France wins by way of not having to endure Sarah's janky dice skills " or something to that effect.   I enjoyed the game (as I tend to do with all John's umpired excursions) and it was a definite change of pace from what I normally play, whilst still being well paced and not the 14 day extravaganza my mind imagines when I think of proper historical gaming.  I guess it is more "Napoleonics Lite" in that it is more based on novels and television than actual historic events.  Which is probably best for someone like me, who has always been mainly interested in the fantastical side of the hobby.

Napoleonics.  Apparently it's bad for to ask for coffee instead of tea mid game...

Tuesday was spent finishing off the 7 various Hordes of the Things elements, the 3 pieces of scatter terrain. and writing up my blog post about it.  So, yeah, got another project crossed off the list and a project that wasn't even on it to begin with...

Full army shot.

Well, they fit the bill for a mass of warriors.

Holding out for a Hero...

Not sure there is a best end to be stood at...

Today, well, I just wrote this.  No plans on what I am going to do exactly, might assemble some more Oathmark Dwarfs, or make a start on another unit for SAGA, seeing as the Bishop put me to 5pts fully painted.

Which only really leaves me to go over how February panned out as a whole.  Well, at time of writing, and bearing in mind I might get more done today, here is how things currently look on the progress list.  Despite knocking off two projects, the numbers are still pretty small, mainly because the paint transfer and selling stuff is such a big number combined.  Guess it is time to raid the lead pile for stuff to shift...  Overall, #hobbystreak has been a success, having continued up to 58 days straight and I've played 7 games, with at least 1 new ruleset and opponent, painted 52 miniatures or elements (pretty good for the shortest month) as well as 10 pieces of scatter terrain.  Blog has been kept updated, and am down to 8 WIP models on my workstation, along with 3 pieces of scatter terrain.

Amount	Task	Completed
517	Transfer Paint to dropper bottles	8	2%
1	Run April Fuel Daze 2018	0	0%
500	Make £500 selling old models	0	0%
61	Maintain Blog	10	16%
2	Go to 2 shows or conventions	1	50%
6	Play 6 New Opponents	2	33%
100	Play 100 Games	13	13%
6	Play 6 different Boardgames	2	33%
3	Play 3 New Games (or new editions)	1	33%
29	Paint 4+ points of Saga Normans	1	3%
3	Paint Guildball Butchers	0	0%
49	Paint remaining Deathguard	0	0%
26	Paint Waiqar starter for Runewars	0	0%
14	Paint 15mm army for HotT	14	100%
65	Paint 75pt Warmahordes list	0	0%
6	Paint Malifaux Crew	6	100%
1388		4.18%

#workbenchWednesday 21/02/18

That time again folks, how's the workbench looking?

Got my Northstar Frostgrave Barbarians as Dacians for Broken Legions coming along nicely.  Still have to layer up the flesh, metal, hair and wraps/straps/details, but getting very close to being finished.  Fur took a while, 3 layers of highlights after the wash, so...  the next 15 should be fun...


Just off the back of a 5 night stint at work, so not managed to get any games in the last week, but, painting progress has been pretty good.

Thursday I finished up Ironskull's Boyz for Shadespire, figure I'll pick up the dice and card sleeves as a wee treat for getting them done, I should probably pick up the base game at some point, as I fancy painting up the Stormcast Eternals, but I'm also tempted by the new Fyreslayers warband. 

Ironskull's Boyz (Shadespire)

Friday, Saturday and Sunday was spent painting a full unit of Trenchers, 3 Weapon Attachments and the Unit Attachment, along with sorting out all the Copplestone Picts for my Hordes of the Things Warband Elements, and the first 4 have been cleaned up and glued to lolly sticks for priming.

Good to go Tabletop - not bad for about 8hrs.

Monday saw me hit day 50 of my #hobbystreak, and I was really keen to have something finished to mark the occasion, so I put some time into finishing off the Reaper Ghoul I am planning to use as a Strigoi in my Dacian Warband.   I really like the sculpt, the exaggerated features and "chunkiness" of the model really complement my painting style, and I've been looking for an excuse to paint her up since I picked up the model.

03453 - Ghoul Witch on Cauldron (Reaper Miniatures)

Tuesday and today were spent working on the Barbarians, and I'm hoping to have them finished off in the next few days.  Got a WTC training session tomorrow at Common Ground Games, so, at least I can bump up games played.

As an aside, I'm really enjoying the whole #hobbystreak movement, my desk hasn't looked so clear in ages, currently down to these 5 guys mid paint, and 8 on the sideboard.  I have 9 models to assemble for the Farrow army, and most of my painting projects for the year are all assembled, and in a lot of cases primed, with the exception of the last few HotT Elements, and my Warmachine list.

Until next week then, unless I have something exceptional to talk about.

Cheers,

John

#workbenchWednesday 14/02/18

Back again, and updating on time this week!

So, how's the workbench looking?

Ironskull's Boyz Shadespire Warband is basecoated and inked ready for layers and highlights.  I'd started with a silver primer, black washed the entire model, then added the basecoats before washing black again, making the metal really dark.

Basecoats done, before black wash.

After black wash.

I've been particularly productive since my last update, now up to #hobbystreakday45 which is keeping me ticking over.

Friday, after my last update, managed to squeeze in a game of Warmachine (12/100) and finished painting and basing Dr. Arkadius for Mike's army.  So, really, it is a playable force now that I've added in a Warlock, and with the units finished last week, I'm getting closer to the finish line on this.

"Rick?  Never heard of him?  Must be a new guy..."

Farrow army coming along nicely.

Saturday and Sunday saw me tackle the Rider and Shooter elements for my Hordes of the Things army, which is basically just washes over primer, and a few highlights.  Finished up all 4 elements on Sunday evening before work, meaning I just have 8 elements of Warbands to assemble and paint now.  It was also my 6 week straight Hobbystreak, so was good to actually finish up models for that.

Not sure Worms make the best mounts.  Probably quicker walking.

Coming together nicely. 

Monday was basically catching up on sleep, and I'd grabbed the Foundry Minotaur as I hadn't drybrushed his base at the same time as the Barbarians for Broken Legions, and, I just went with it and got him finished up too.   he was real fun to paint (except the horns) and as well as being an encounter for Broken Legions, could probably find himself pulling double-duty for some Fantasy Saga, Dragon Rampant or Frostgrave.

Bull in sheep's clothing...

Don't mind me big man, just out for a new cloak.  Hold still would ya?

Tuesday saw me finish up Nora, the Female Sole Survivor from Fallout: Wasteland Warfare (look out for a review of her soon), so I won't say too much about her now, save, it was a lot easier to get her done once I'd dug out a decent brush.  Most of the brushes I use regularly are anywhere from 5-20 years old...   but having something that wasn't designed for drybrushing or painting tanks meant I could work quickly without worrying about paint slopping everywhere (YMMV).

Vault you lookin' at?

So that's it for another week.   Been a rather hefty photo-dump considering I'd posted late on Friday last week, but it has been good to clear a lot of the WIP models from the side of my workstation.   Down to about 14 now.  Planning on getting the Shadespire guys done over the next few days, then probably back to more Farrow if my hand allows it.  Changed blade in my scalpel meant I slit the end of my thumb open cleaning up a mini.  Doesn't hurt, but it is right through, and manual work has left the edges ragged as it is healing.  Not really big on Health & Safety, but I don't particularly want it full of metal filings either...


Catch you next week, with hopefully another productive update.