AAR: Franks v Welsh in Champions of God

I managed to get a very quick game of SAGA in recently. Four points of Franks (all mounted) versus four points of Welsh Warriors.

Four pieces of scenery were chosen and placed on the table. The mission selected was "Champions of God". The objective is for one side to get 3VP's more than the enemy (Slaughtering Victory points) at the end of six turns.

The Franks won the first turn, the Welsh got to roll three Saga dice to put on their battleboard at the start of the game. Then the Franks got to roll their six Saga dice....

Setup:

Speaking Frankly...

If there is one faction that is hard to pin down and say "why should I run these?" then surely it must be the Franks.

Why would anyone want to run a faction that doesn't have any overt Combat abilities?

SAGA - Official UK Grand Melee - October 2015

The UK SAGA Grand Melee will be held on October 3rd and 4th this year.

Make sure you don't miss this event!

Here is a link to the official announcement... link
 

What makes a good Saga army?

Now there's a question!

Each faction has its own unique flavour, typified by Battleboards, but what about the general makeup of an army for Saga? Is there a "best approach"?

Review: Gripping Beast plastic Arab Cavalry

Gripping Beast were kind enough to supply a box of each of their new plastic cavalry offerings for "Saga: The Crescent & the Cross".

So what's in these two new boxes.... let's take a look....

What is it about SAGA anyway?

Having seen the posts rolling up on the WWPD Saga forum over the last couple of months I have been trying to work out what attracts people to the Saga wargame.

I wanted to try and find out why and invite some discussion.

Assembling the C&C Spanish plastic army

Following on from my previous article, I have now assembled and undercoated my Saga plastic Spanish army.

There are: one mounted Warlord,  2 points of Hearthguard (8 mounted Knights), 2 mounted warrior units (16 mounted spearmen with shields), 1 point of foot Warriors (various weapons and shields) and 1 point of levy (unarmoured javelinmen). Plus one spare foot figure with armour (you never know when you need a foot figure!!)

New Releases for Saga from Gripping Beast..

We are fast approaching one of the UK's premier wargaming events, Salute, in London.

To coincide with this event, Gripping Beast are making some new releases for Saga...

A C&C Spanish army in plastic

Gripping Beast will soon have a Spanish army in metal for the SAGA "Crescent and Cross" game. You can see a picture of it below... it looks excellent from the picture. Are there any alternatives you can use?

Gripping Beast Spanish starter warband - link

Looking in my bitz boxes I came across a number of leftover Conquest plastic Knights and some foot soldiers. Can you use them to make a Spanish army? Read on....

AAR: Welsh v Irish in The Escort

Setting:

A six point Dark Age setting game using "The Escort" scenario from the Saga rulebook (this has been errata since publishing).

Each side secretly bid for Defender. The Irish went five, the Welsh six.

Irish: basic Warlord and 5 points of Warriors (including a unit of Wolfhounds).
Welsh: basic Warlord, 1 point mounted Hearthguard, 1 point foot Hearthguard, 3 points Warriors, 1 point Levy bow.

The Irish became guardians of the baggage and got to deploy their five points of troops and baggage first then got to move first in Turn 1. The Welsh got the advantage of seeing where the enemy had deployed. Seems quite balanced in that respect.

First thoughts: The Irish have lots of potential Saga dice points (11!), the Welsh much less (7) so cannot afford to lose units. The Welsh put their archers in the centre behind cover, the Irish put two baggage on table side, the other on its own with their foot troops spread across the table.

The Table: (we chose to go with 6 terrain items and kept them M from every other item, one item touching a long table edge)

Note: Apologies for washed out images. The room seemed a lot brighter than the camera has been able to capture.

Baggage for "The Escort" scenario...

Some time ago I started to produce some baggage items to use in "The Escort" scenario for Dark Age Saga.

A while back I found some items had disappeared while out and about with my models and terrain. I decided to get what was left into shape and used.

Four of the Best... a newsy item

There's always something happening in the Gaming World and Saga is no exception...

Here are four things you may not have known about.... read on....

First up... The WWPD Saga Painting competition - yes it's on now and you can take part. It's your chance to win the Gripping Beast Mutatawwi'a starter set.... it really is a great set and would look great on your battlefield. What's more, the faction has some nifty rules to boot in the Crescent and Cross book!

All you have to do is paint a Saga unit of 4 to 12 models and post it up on the WWPD Saga Forum (see the link!)

Details are here.... LINK.

One of the Warlords from the 2013 competition... link

Model Review: Gripping Beast Milites Christi

It's time to take another look at some more models from Gripping Beast. This time those great folks at Beast towers have provided some 28mm metal Milites Christi models. Great for SAGA or any Crusader project!

Gripping Beast's Milites Christi 4 point Starter Warband

SAGA Painting Competition!

It has been a while since the last painting competition (almost 2 years!) and as part of this years WWPD4Vets charity efforts I want to announce something new!

All you Sagamites get your SAGA units out and start painting! Those lovely guys at Gripping Beast have sponsored a prize.

Read on for more....

Joe Moore won last time...

Terrain for Saga

This article isn't going to be a tutorial on making terrain. There are plenty of those around on various sites!

I wanted to take the opportunity to show what other people have done to make terrain suitable for Saga and to also show you what is available for purchase that looks good and may not break the bank.

Anglo-Saxon Abilities

-- by Mike.

Anglo-Saxons seem to be a popular choice of factions for Saga. Why? Well, the colourful outfits and plenty of Warriors or Levies on the battlefield could be one answer.

Another answer could be the interesting battleboard mechanic this faction has.

Let's take a look at what the Anglo-Saxons can do and what makes them unique in the Saga wargame.

Above - Gripping Beast Anglo-Saxon Levy

Review: Gripping Beast Houses and Hovels

Something different from Gripping Beast this month. that's right - they don't just make figures!
Here are four buildings from their resin range.... all can be used on your Saga Wargame Table.

BUL3 Medium Wattle & Timber dwelling.

BUL5 Stone & Thatch outbuilding.

BUL6 'A' Frame building.

BUL7 Small Thatched outbuilding.

Read on for more....

Four Houses and Hovels from the Gripping Beast Resin range...

AAR : Vikings v Irish in Champions of God

This weekend I managed to get a quick game of SAGA in and took plenty of pictures too!

I recently finished an Irish Wolfhound Warrior unit and a couple of champions and wanted to use them in a battle. Who better to fight than the Vikings. Good times about to roll? I hope so!

This was a 6 point Vikings versus Irish battle using mutually agreed terrain on a standard 3 x 4 foot table.

Here's the battle report, using images as the guide...

2014 recap and 2015 welcome...

I haven't really done an editorial before for the sagatapestry website but I thought the crossroads of 2014/2015 made the ideal time to put finger to keyboard.

2014 saw big things happening for the SAGA wargame. Fans of Saga finally got to see and own copies of the long-awaited "The Crescent & the Cross". This was not just an expansion to the other Dark Age supplements but took the game into the early Crusades along with the full game rules and seven new scenarios. A review of "C&C" on this website saw some 2,300 views in 24 hours. It seems fans of Saga couldn't get enough!

At the end of 2013 the lovely guys at Gripping Beast kindly started sending models to me for review for the sagatapestry. The quality of the products seen has been very high.

2014 saw the release of the plastic Arab spearmen and archers box set from Gripping Beast - a great addition to support C&C. You can see our review here.

Other Vendors products have been covered as well - we would welcome more items for review. You can contact us at WWPD - see the About page on the www.wwpd.net website.

So, what else has gone on and will be going on?