Odds and Ends, Vikings and Pilgrims

This past week I have been attacking the pile of unpainted figures.  The pilgrims were an impulse buy, and I cannot explain why I keep purchasing Vikings...maybe some secret desire to do the Great Pagan Army in 1:1.

First, here are some Perry Brothers pilgrims from their First Crusade line.  While not planning on any Crusade era battles, I always need more civilians. These pilgrims could easily fit in an eleventh century Spanish or Byzantine scenario.

The Perry Sculpts are excellent, as their reputation suggests. While slightly thinner and more truly proportionate, they are not out of place with my Gripping Beast and Crusader Miniatures.

Speaking of Gripping Beast, here are some random Vikings from GB and Wargames Foundry, I think.

Finally, in trying to come up with some more uses for my sprues of Wargames Factory Numidians is this Dark Age Irish Warrior.  It is a Numidian Body and a Gripping Beast plastic head.  It was thrown together fairly quickly as a test to see if it was feasible to put together an Irish warband for SAGA.

Saxon Church

The  church was central to village life in the Dark Ages and so it is an almost mandatory element of a town game board.  I have already built a small stone chapel, and I was interested in a larger piece that could hold about two dozen figures, possibly large enough to have a portion of the combat inside the church.

Small early medieval churches that are still extant are rare, and rarer still are those that have been unaltered in subsequent centuries.  Nonetheless, a general purpose church for western Europe is not hard to put together. The basic elements are a rough stone walls, and a small tower of stone or timber frame.

For this church, the stones are cast from Hirst Arts, mostly molds #70 and 71.  The tower is made of foam core and craft wood, and the removeable shingled roof is from premade plastic sheets used by model railroaders.  

The good Brother points out a roof in need of repair to the local noblewoman, hint, hint...

For the interior, I am looking at purchasing an altar/pulpit and benches from some fantasy makers. Temporarily, I might go with some papercraft furniture.  

I am make no claims of full authenticity, but it fits in with the period.  Some research I did (post construction) showed that most of the pre-Norman invasion Anglo-Saxon period churches used double windows on the belfry tower and more rounded windows. A link to the article (with illustrations) is below: 

http://www.medievalists.net/files/08100408.pdf 

Game Day at Giga Bites

I took SAGA to the big city yesterday (11/2), the big city being Marietta.  Giga-Bytes is a combination game store/cafe that I read about on The Miniatures Page recently.  There was some coordination with Two Fat Lardies, with a Chain of Command official demo on a beautiful North African desert board. A diverse gaming crowd showed up with a  mix of games - mostly science fiction & fantasy but also some WWII and even an 18th Century naval combat game.  Devlen and I showed up with six points of Vikings and Normans to play the Homeland scenario, Vikings attacking of course.

Above, the Vikings deploy, as blisters of Dark Age and Malifaux look on.  Below, the Normans rush out to protect their village.

Above, two groups of Knights slam into some Bondi and Beserkers.  Below the knights are eliminated, but with a high loss of Norsemen.  

Here, the Normans make a strategic movement to the rear.  The Dropzone Commander game that emerged on the adjacent table makes an interesting backdrop to the medieval village.  Great bunch of guys who gave me a quick primer on the game.     

Two unit of Sergeants (crossbowmen and spearmen) remain to protect the village.  Below, a group of Viking archers sprint to the closest building in the last turn, barely fulfilling win conditions.  

Most of the people who stopped by the table had heard of SAGA, but none had ever played it. Hopefully, we drummed up some interest for the game, and we exchanged some emails to arrange future matches. 

Giga Bites is a must visit gaming venue if you find yourself in the north Metro Atlanta area.  A gaming store that brings great sandwiches to your table sounds like a double win to me even if it is almost an hour's drive for me.