Saga LBMS Shield Decals

by Mike Wood

I recently purchased a number of shield transfers from LBMS as I wanted to give them a try. Previously I had used some Norman kite shield transfers and had some issues getting them to stay free of blemishes. The images on the interwebs of Saga figures with colourful designs and creatures look really great.

Here is one of  the sheets of transfers I purchased. You can source them here... Saga LBMS Shield Transfers

 These are my Vikings with very plain painted shields...

Joe Moore's Angry Pagan Rus Army!!!

By Joe Moore and Eric Lauterbach

After getting thrashed several times by Joe Moore's beautiful Rus Army I took some pics to show the SAGA crowd his great work.   I think I am total of 0-4 verse these guys but it has been a pleasure to watch his great looking troops work their Rus winter magic on my forces.  The army if you have never played it or against it makes your head spin with a what???  Eastern Anger can get real ugly when your whole army is close to the Rus Warlord.  What ever you do stay away from horses when you play against this army they are seriously hard on them.  So lets take a look at Joe's work.

Model Review: Gripping Beast Irish

by Mike Wood

I have a few packs of Gripping Beast Irish models to review. These are great for playing Saga as they include Champions and a Mounted Warlord option in their range. Lets take a look at each pack and see what they have to offer....

Gripping Beast Mounted Warlord SI01c (all models courtesy of Gripping Beast)

Irish Mounted Warlord SI01c

This figure came as a rider, mount, sword and plastic Renedra cavalry base.

The horse has long shaggy hair (mane and legs) and a sweeping tail that should add interest for the painter. The horse is more shaggy oversize pony befitting its origins rather than the larger continental Norman horse. There is a saddle and reins modelled but no other adornments. The horse model had a mould line running along its back that should clean easily with a blade or file with no impact. There seems to be a little flash on the underside of the horse near the join with the legs. This seems mild and easy to clean. The horse is mounted on its own solid base which needed a little cleaning on the underside to get it to sit comfortably on the plastic cavalry base.

The Jomsvikings

by Mike Wood

The Jomsvikings were a legendary band of roving Vikings from the 10th and 11th Centuries. They were supposedly a mercenary force for hire who worshipped Pagan Gods. Their homeland was a fortress called the Jomsborg and is reputedly located on the southern shores of the Baltic Sea possibly on Wolin Island. The founder of this fierce community may have been King of Denmark, Harald Bluetooth (father of Sven Forkbeard). Only men were allowed in the fortress to join this Brotherhood and even then they had to be proven in combat and strength. This legendary Brotherhood is said to have come to an end after defeats in battle.
Whatever the truth of this legendary warriors, they have been adopted in the Saga wargame as a very fierce band who use a mechanism called Wrath to gain their ends in Battle!

You can find their Rules in the Saga Supplement "Northern Fury".



Jomsviking Warlord! (all images Copyright Gripping Beast)



AAR: Scots vs. Vikings

Tom and I decided to get in a game of Saga this week to try out my new Scots from CGR Painters.  The models looked great, but I wanted to see how they did in bloody combat!  We decided to have a simple bloodbath, and lined up our guys on opposite sides of a lonely village to face off in manly combat!

The Viking Horde.

We decided on a 6 point battle.  Tom took a regular Warlord, 2 units of Heathguard, 3 units of Warriors and a unit of Levies with bows.  He decided to leave his units composed as-is to maximize his Saga Dice.

For the Scots, I took 4 units of Hearthguards and 2 units of Warriors.  I went ahead and put together the Hearthguard into two units of 8 each.  I gave up some dice, but decided that the big units were more important.  I have learned this lesson with my Vikings before.

Viking Levy Bowmen.