Pillaging in the Dark Ages

With a couple of the club members picking up the Pillage rules, I decided to pickup the new starter set  and see what it was all about. I then remembered that I had some Vikings and Saxons from an old Shore raid game I did at the Border Reiver show about 20+ years ago. All they needed was some re-basing and a little touch up. 

They are a mix of Gripping Beast, Artizan, Foundry, and Blacktree. Not bad for being around 25 years old. I've got a few more unarmoured Saxons to re-base and the Vikings could do with a couple of archers. Now the starter set comes with a sprue each of Irish and Vikings. With already having plenty of Vikings I swapped these with Mitch for a sprue of Irish. I've added these to some figures I already had from Gripping Beast, including a couple of plastic figures. I have an order in for a sprue from Wargames Atlantic and some metal figures from Footsore to give me a few mounted figures and some armoured troops.

I've nearly enough painted for a 600 point starter force. Now I just need to see of blogger will update.

SAGA warbands

I was due to play my first game of SAGA on Thursday but due to the wife being unwell I was unable to make it. Still I did manage to put together a couple of warbands for the game, mainly from my existing collection, though I did paint up the huscarls with the 2H axes. First up my Anglo Danes.

Next up my Viking warband. I've got too many hirdmen, mainly due to the majority of my collection being armoured.

SAGA

I've taken the plunge and decided to by the SAGA rules from Gripping Beast along with the Viking dice set. Looking forward to receiving these as I already have quite a few left over plastic vikings that I can use. Of the vikings I already have painted these are based for WAB and can easily stand in during practice games.

Border Reiver Show Pictures

Just before my cameras batteries decided to pack up I did manage to get a few pictures of the Viking game we put on at the show. The game was well received by the public and we received a number of nice comments, which is very pleasing and a bit of a reward for all the effort Jon, harry and myself put into the game. The 2 longships and the construction of the terrain boards were common topics of discussion.

Layout of the game

The Saxon Village

Viking raiders launch their attack

Saxons move to block the viking advance

Saxon relief force begins to arrive


Vikings try their hand at shepherding

The vikings making their way towards the riches in the Church.

As for the show itself, it seemed to be well supported by both traders and public. There were a variety of games on show, Project X, 15mm Sci-fi. Medieval, ECW and a Sherlock Holmes game in the sewers of London (very nice terrain).

Fury of the Norsemen

Thought I'd post up some pictures of the finished vikings. There are still another 8 awaiting basing which will bring the force up to 68. I also have the last of the Saxon defenders to base to bring them up to 30 including civilians.

First up a couple of pictures of the battleline.

Beserkers ready for action

Vikings doing what they do best

Basing

Today I managed to finish painting another 4 vikings and a couple of vignettes. The other 56 vikings have all been based, i'll post some pictures after they have dried. I've also started basing the villagers and some of the saxons that are already painted. Hasn't been a very fruitful few days, I've been unable to get hold of some polystyrene sheets for the base board, bit of a concern when the show is only a month away. At the weekend will have to travel further afield to try and locate some.

Update

Last night I managed to finish off organising my army for the Big Blenheim game in 2 weeks time. Also placed them on the map and designated the set up areas for Andrew and Jan. Orders are written, just have to hope it all pays off on the day.

On the Viking front, hit a bit of a wall, struggling with the last 8 figures and 3 vignettes. Going down to the club today to start work on the boards, give them all a coat of PVA to protect against warping when all the pollystyrene is added.

Update

Just received a box of the Wargames factory plastic Germanic warriors. Not bad figures. The intention is to combine these qwith some of the spare heads and weapons from the gripping Beast plastic viking sprues to put together a couple of berserkers (using the bare chested bodies) and some bondi (mix of a couple of bow and javelin armed figures). Will post some pictures when I get all the figures put together. These should round off the viking force to 60 figures.

Progress report

A couple of photos of one of the vignettes. It still needs basing which will get done with the rest of the figures. I'm quite happy with how the model has turned out.



Some extra shots of the viking raiders. First some of the old vikings from the original Citadel fighter series (had these for about 20 - 25 years but still nice figures)


Next photo is of some of the plastic Gb Vikings. very impressed with these figures.

Lastly the start of the Saxon defenders. The local Thegn and some of the Fyrd. Notice GB are to bring out some plastic Thegns this summer, shame it will be to late for the show (still get some anyway).

Progress report

Well most of the painting has been completed, after my holiday will need to start sculpting the terrain boards.

Figures Painted so far
51 Viking warriors
10 Saxon warriors
2 shepherds
2 monks / priests
7 women
4 cows
10 pigs
1 Vignette

I also have the tower, church, 3 houses and the 2 pig pens completed.
Still to do
9 vikings
8 Saxon Warriors
4 cows
6 sheep
1 Viking long ship
3 Vignettes

That means I must be more than 75% completed, not bad going. Also no more purchases are required on the figure front. Just need to get in the supplies for the terrain boards so well on course to be ready for Border Reiver.

Viking Killers

Picked up the viking killer set from Gripping Beast, I've stuck them on some GW bases ready for undercoating. Should proove very useful for the game.


These got me inspired and so i decided to create my opwn using a plastic GB viking and a couple of casualty figures from Foundry. Quite pleased with the results though the pictures aren't the best. Can't wait to get them all painted.

scenic items update

Just added a couple of photo of some of the finished items, First the watchtower has been based, using a mixture of sand, flooor varnish and static grass. I have also managed to finish both pig pens and I'm quite happy with the results.





Made another small order with Gripping Beast for a large wattle & daub building to act as the Ealdormans home, some more highland cattle and a pack of vignette vikings.

Scenic items

Just starting on a couple of the scenic items for the Viking shore raid. First up is a couple of shots of the watch tower, currently in the process of being based (using the bottom out of an old set of drawers). This is an old Amazon miniatures model. I started off with a black undercoat and gave it 2 coats of a cream dry brush but didn't come out how I liked and ended up with a brown ink wash all over that seems to have done the trick. The ladder is from the Games Workshop LOT rings just chopped down to a suitable length.





The second piece is a pig pen, utilising the Gripping beast stone out building and some wattle and daub fencing rescued from my bits box, again I have used the bottom of a drawer as a suitable base. This is still in need of re-painting and basing. The intention is to complete 2 sets of these.