The Gall-Gaedhil at the Burgh

No, not a Gaelic folk band playing at some bohemian festival. You really wouldn’t want these gentlemen in your band. They’d intimidate the audience. Or worse. No, these are Norse-Gael mercenaries for SAGA, brought in under the Swords for Hire option.

Dance of Power

Over the last couple of weeks I've been busy behind the scenes organising yet another campaign. I've somehow managed to persuade seven fellow players to join me in our very first Age of the Wolf SAGA campaign!

Backs to the Wall

My Scots SAGA war band were in action yesterday against the Anglo Saxons using a scenario called 'Backs to the Wall'. 

With a game arranged at my local club, I decided to have a rummage on the interweb for new scenario ideas and chanced upon The Tapestry where member Mike Wood had posted this interesting battle.

Claymore 2015, a rusty robot and Deadwood Weekend

On Saturday just gone I made my annual pilgrimage to Claymore 2015 in Edinburgh. As ever, a well organised and attended wargames show organised by South East Scotland Wargames Club. 

With plenty of free parking at the venue - Granton Campus, Edinburgh College - and spread over two large calls with a varied mix of traders and demonstration games it's always a pleasure to visit.

Weekend roundup: A Feast For Crows and World War 1 aerial aces

Weekend roundup time, as I sit her with a nice glass of red and chilling after a good few hours hillwalking with my wife in the sunny, but windy, local Pentland hills . Which inevitably means that my long list of modelling and painting projects did not progress any further again this weekend. 

I expect I'm like most in our hobby, experiencing  fluctuating periods of enthusiasm and productivity when it comes to the more creative aspects of wargaming. With limited time, the opportunity to actually game always comes first with me. Which is why the Dompfaff seems to taking an ages to paint. I'm in the painting doldrums. I can understand why pre-painted gaming systems such as X-Wing are popular!  It will surely pass though, and I usually bounce back with a surge of painting and modelling. Which is just as well, as I've got lots to do for the In Her Majesty's Name campaign!

SAGA Revenants

There was an intriguing teaser the last couple of days on the Gripping Beast web site (recently refurbished) regarding a new faction for SAGA , Revenants. Yes, it looks like the undead fashion never, um, dies. 

SAGA has always been a very historical-lite skirmish game, with no pretences to be otherwise. But with this announcement I was wary of the direction Gripping beast are going with this. Not that I have any problems with it, being a fantasy player too, and I suppose this adds flexibility for a wider range of players, having a foot in both the fantasy and entry historical arenas.

"...this faction is not part of the main SAGA canon and as such is not for tournament play. It is designed to give you something different and fun to play between friends or at friendly club meetings. We hope you enjoy it!"

The blurb says it's based on the "...myths, legends, sagas and superstitions of the Early Middle Ages" and is certainly coincidental for me having just read 'The Enterprise of Death' by Jess Bullington, (adults only), which was set in the late 15th century and indeed centred around necromancy and the undead, or revenants. It'll probably cause some noise on the forums, but hey, anything new always does. Some will love it, some hate it and many will be ambivalent. Each to their own is my motto.

Click on image below for full details...

Plaid Wars

Another week and another visit to the so called 'Dark Ages' with my Scots SAGA war band, this time having a 'kilt-off' with the Irish.

Never walk away from home ahead of your axe and sword

The test of steel is underway. The Warlords are facing each other in a duel. Their retainers are fiercely fighting to decide the day.

A sizable force of Jomsvikings have been spotted off the north-western Scottish coast and a local warband has been despatched to intercept before the brutal pagans can push inland and plunder the peaceful villages in the vicinity. Late in the day, on a clear patch of scrubland under a leaden grey sky with a persistent, cold drizzle soaking leather and fur, the warbands finally faced off. Both sides have similar numbers and no useful terrain advantage either way and so the rival warbands embarked  upon a protracted exchange of insults and crude mimicry.  

Wrath of the Jomsvikings

Jomsvikings fighting in a hail storm at the Battle of Hjörungavágr.

It’s official. I hate the Jomsvikings. Icelandic mercenaries as notorious as their Scandinavian cousins. Their tactics and abilities are suspiciously close to Dark Arts as far as I’m concerned.

I can’t be the first Saga player to have faced the Jomsvikings and their unique Wrath system for the first time, experiencing a look of total ‘WTF?!’ after being on the receiving end of withering Wrath-boosted abilities such as Jomsborg! Holmgang, Hammer of Thor, Dance of Steel or the frankly supercilious We are Legends?