SAGAing away

I realise that the blog has been quite quiet lately, and that is very much a side effect of lots of work, the impending Yule-pocalypse and the resultant decision to spend spare time painting and gaming rather than blogging.

Nevertheless, things have been happening. First up, my Anglo Danes for SAGA are now a complete 6 points. I played a battle against Michael a couple of weekends back and we had a leisurely enjoyable game. He played Welsh and used the Arthurian Romano-Brits as stand-ins.

Nice shot this one. Victory conditions were to get as many units to the other side of the river as possible. Obviously this led to battles on bridges!

'Right lads, if we just stand here, we lose - but if we charge across we will win eternal glory! Oswic - you go first, we'll follow!'

'I hit something! I hit something! Oh, wait, no I didn't.'

'Get off the bridge you twits! I don't want to sit and have arrows shot at me all day!'

'Right behind you, Oswic!'

I won the battle by getting two units across the river - we won't talk about how many imaginary men were killed in the making of this victory. Needless to say my Warlord didn't need to set too many places at the banquetting table that night.

Then we moved on to a game of Lord of the Rings. Adam has collected and painted lots of little men for this, and we finally got some of them on the table for a small scenario. I played Orcs and Adam played Rangers. Basically we just had to kill each other. I devised a cunning battle plan of running into his men with my men and hacking them up. Such subtlety is what makes me a fearsome general...

My Orcs charging onto the table. Everyone is always in such a hurry in Middle Earth - they run everywhere!

Orcs closing in on a Ranger. This was only ever going to end one way.

Oh yeah baby. Ain't no party like an Orc party!

Ummm. Aren't the good guys supposed to win?

The answer is, of course, no. So two games and two victories. Freddy Mercury's lifting vocals soar in the back of mind as my self-esteem takes a welcome boost due to the antics of little lumps of lead and plastic.

So what is coming off the painting table at the moment?

'Let's conquer England and give them words like mutton, beef and rendezvous!'

That's right, I'm in the process of putting together a Norman warband for SAGA. Well my Anglo-Danes have to have someone to fight.

'Bloody Normans!'

'Oi, you! Bugger off back to Normandy!'

'I'm the boss!'

'I hope he doesn't whack me with that bloody stick again.'

'If I get this flag in the right place you won't need to look at his ugly mug anymore.'

The Normans are Conquest Games plastics, and I really enjoyed painting them. They have good detail. I was a bit annoyed at having to cut the bosses off the round shields and glue them to the kites, but it worked OK. I've read the rationalisation for going without the bosses, but I would have liked it if they had come with optional glue-on pieces, because no matter what research has revealed, the fact is that the Bayeux Tapestry has shield bosses and that is the 'classic' Norman look for 1066.

The two foot figures are actually from the Black Tree Designs 2nd Crusade range and I've had them floating around for the last 5 years, though they fit in well nonetheless - but no bosses once again. Never mind, they share their base with their boss (thank you, I'll get my hat).

'Look, I've been pointing in this direction for bloody ages and you still haven't taken the hint!'

I realised that I haven't posted my upgraded Warlord with a standard bearer, so here he is.

My final photo is a Legolas that I've painted up for John as a Chrissie present, as he has been inspired by Adam's collection to go mad and buy a whole pile of second hand LotR figures. I'm also painting up the four hobbits of the fellowship for him at the moment (along with another 2 points of Normans).

'I'm in the Hobbit movies too, you know.'

Have a great Xmas everyone.

Nate