POP!!! Goes My New Years Hobby Resolution

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Scorpius_GLC

As many of you are aware I am a magpie gamer, a hobby whore, whatever you want to call people who: COLLECT LOTS OF DIFFERENT ARMIES FOR LOTS OF DIFFERENT SYSTEMS!!!! What you may also know is that each year I make a New Years Hobby Resolution and each year since I left Games Workshop as a Store Manager this has been the same: Plan a new GW investment, work out its cost and then try to do 2 new systems/armies with a combined cost less than that of the GW investment. So we are now 6 months or half way into 2012 and I thought it about time I look at what I have done so far in 2012!

The Year so far:

I began 2012 with a catch up of my 2011 hobby resolution and the wonderful game of Dystopian Wars by Spartan Games. This was a total break from my plan but I needed to play games with my Prussian Naval Fleet, for this SteamPunk game, to finish off my previous years hobby resolution. A massive thanks to Ian Hill, Andie Harper, Edd Barfield, Dave Amos & Gordon Snellgrove for the company while doing this system, I had a Broadside Blast!!!

At about the same time:

I had the chance to paint up my Christmas presents from my brother….my MERCS USCR! I have yet to play a proper game of this system and as I didn’t buy them I can’t claim them as part of my New Years Resolution.

So by this point I thought it was about time to get on with my actual planned stuff for 2012 and the first being SAGA.

This is a really great game. It was not at all what I expected, I had images of historical wargaming and the quality of the models used for these games and these preconceptions were wrong. SAGA is a beautifully bloody, fast paced Viking-age skirmish game. I bought, built, painted and played with a Viking force. I planned out a 6pts army and have had an awesome time sending the enemy troops to the pile of the dead and wishing my battle brothers a safe journey to the gates of Valhalla! My gracious troop of fellow gamers collected themselves 4pts forces, 2 welsh warbands, a Scots warband, 2 Viking warbands, a Norman warband and a Joms Vikings! Thanks needs to go to Andie Harper for the AWESOME games on very late nights at Portal Wargaming!!

a little bit of this thrown in for the mix:

GRUNTZ is a 15mm Sci-Fi game that allows you to use any 15mm Sci-Fi models in your games and I decided to build a quick and easy force of humans from GZG and paint them up, don’t think I’ll actually get to play this game but I do enjoy painting 15mm models so it was a great experience!!!

and for the best part of the year I have anticipated and then rejoiced in the release of Empire of the Dead:

A total distraction from my New Years Hobby Resolution, I am totally in love with this game from West Wind Productions!!!! Victorian, Infernium fueled horror this game has absolutely everything you can want from a skirmish game! It is elegant, fast paced, fun whether you play it as one off games or link your games using the beautifully written Mordheim-esque campaign system!!! I have played so many great, memorable games of this that I have to say this has been my game of the year so far!!!! I have painted my way through 3 crews for this game and have a 4th waiting to go!! Thanks to Ian Hill, Andie Harper, Ben Cox, Edd Barfield, Stu Gadd & Damion Dakin for the great games so far and here’s hoping for many more throughout the year!

So what does the next 6 months have in store??

Later in the year I will be doing a Crusaders army for Warlord as planned but the title of the post you are reading is: POP!!! Goes My New Years Hobby Resolution so even though sticking with my Hobby Resolution was the plan, something has happened to make my pledge go POP!!!

It was pointed out to me that I haven’t actually done anything Games Workshop Since I left the company and have been focusing on mainly skirmish games, a rumour is spreading that I don’t have it in me anymore to paint more than a handful of models for a system and so I feel a challenge has been set and so it is time to break my Hobby Resolution and actually do some Games Workshop!!!

PROJECT ASTRAL IS ON THE HORIZON!!!

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SAGA Battle Report – Vikings -vs- Welsh

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Scorpius_GLC

After choosing SAGA as one of my 2 new games systems for 2012 I set about building & painting my new Viking Warband (more about this in other blog posts), then with this build up of excitement I talked about SAGA with my friends at Portal Wargaming and a few got excited and decided to join me as I delved into a historical skirmish game!

One of those friends is Andie Harper, who has joined me on my New Years Hobby Resolution before with Secrets of the Third Reich, Warmachine, Malifaux, Dystopian Wars and now SAGA, deciding to do a Welsh Warband (we both love finding new & exciting games to play). I am lucky that I have a small group within Portal Wargaming who like to follow what I am doing and join me along the way with my New Years Hobby Resolution! This is awesome as it actually allows me to play the new games with people as excited about trying something new as me!!

Andie had pretty much finished his Welsh Warband and I had finished my Vikings so all we needed was a themed battlefield, luckily Portal Wargaming had bought a few items to allow us to do this and I had painted them up as part of #MiniatureMonday so on with the battle.…or so we thought!!

Arranging a game on your friends Wedding Anniversary = FAIL

I had arranged the game on Andie’s Wedding Anniversary and so the game was rightly cancelled….……until his wife, who was ill, told Andie to go to the club as she was going to bed!! The game now back on I hurriedly set up the battlefield and this is what it looked like:

With the battlefield set up and the forces selected as 4pts Warbands we eagerly deployed our units opting for an easy scenario of ‘kill the warlord’. It’s worth saying that this would be our first ever game and neither of us had fully read and understood the rules, this was going to be interesting!!!

We rolled off according to the Scenario and chuckled about the fact that on a draw the player with the most impressive facial hair wins! We then deployed as per the rules then the game was on!!

Turn 1-3: Turn 1 started with Andie, who had won the roll, getting to roll his SAGA dice and assign them to the Battle Board. This is a great mechanic for the game and as the first couple of turns is mainly movement it allowed Andie to store some dice for later in the game! I then got a chance to cast the Runes (Roll the Viking SAGA dice) for the first time, I too stored the dice for later opting to put dice that would allow me to change one of his shoot actions into a move action and gain extra armour against shooting and the rest of my dice went into allow my activations to move my Warband forward! Turns 2 & 3 were pretty much the same and so flew by and this was the scene going in to turn 4:

Turn 4: This was where I should have lost the game!

Andie activated his warrior unit, moved and threw javelins at my Warlord. They should have killed him as they landed 3 hits, 1 was cancelled from an armour check, 1 was cancelled from the warlords ability and as my Viking Warlord was too far away from the Hearthguard unit I couldn’t transfer the damage Andie let me nudge my Hearthguard into VS range and so I transferred the damage as we hadn’t understood the rules! My Vikings did some more movement (the joy of no shooting on your army!) and so it was on to turn 5

Turn 5: Andie moved his warriors away from the approaching Viking warriors and moved his Warlord & Hearthguard to behind the wall and moved his other warrior unit through the woods.

His levies declared a shoot action but I used an ability on my Battle Board that forced them to move instead with that the turn rolled on to my activations. I rolled pretty poorly on with my SAGA dice and so couldn’t activate everything and so my Berserkers moved into combat but couldn’t attack (a fatal flaw), one of my warrior units moved up towards the cowardly Welsh twice, the Warlord & Hearthguard moved towards the Welsh Warlord & Hearthguard and the other warrior unit got left behind

Turn 6: It was time to read up about combat as the Berserkers were going to get cut down!!

After a very uneventful (apart from the Berserkers dying) Welsh activation it was over to me and my Warlord and Hearthguard charged into combat cutting down some Hearthguard!!

After much reading of the cover rules and combat Andie found what he was looking for

Turn 7: The madness took over Andie as he had rolled well on his SAGA Dice and prepared to bring the pain on my Warrior unit with both his Levies & Warriors

The other Warrior unit took aim at my Warlord and successfully shot but the Hearthguard took the hits instead! Over to me and my Warlord charged in and cut down the Welsh Warlord!!

I immediately asked Andie for his opinion on SAGA as a game system first reaction:

Second reaction: “time for another game???”

I would like to thank Andie Harper as the best opponent possible & Gordon Snellgrove, Dave Amos and Stuart Gadd for being ace helpers in checking out the rules in the Rulebook!!!

HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING THIS AS MUCH AS WE ENJOYED PLAYING THIS!!! I CAN’T STRESS ENOUGH HOW BRILLIANT THIS GAME SYSTEM IS!!!

SCORPIUS GLC SIGNING OFF FOR NOW!!!

Saga – Skirmishes in the Dark Ages – A Review of Sorts

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Scorpius_GLC

As you will have gathered from my other posts I have decided that for my New Years Hobby Resolution I am going to start Saga as one of my 2 new game systems/armies for the year. I then had the joy of deciding on a faction, which I did without veiwing the Rulebook, deciding to go with my gut and as a fan of Viking mythology and lore I chose to go with Vikings! I ordered the required products and set about painting them in accordance with the rules of my New Years Hobby Resolution (more on which can be found in my other blog posts). Now the time has come to sit down with the rulebook, which I must admit I have already flicked through a couple of times soaking up the pictures within for insperation, and get reading the rules in preperation for the beatings…. I mean games at my Local Club. So while I was at it I thought I’d do a review of sorts and go through my feelings about the rulebook, etc.

So What Is Saga?

Saga is a 28mm Skirmish Game set in the Viking Age, an age of endemic warfare that saw mighty Warlords at the head of their Warbands struggle for power, wealth and glory, writing their legends with steel and the blood of their enemies! Dark times that brought us the tales and deeds of legendary heroes like Harold Godwinson, William the Bastard or Ragnar Lothbrok. You, as a Warlord, Cheiftain or Legendary Hero of the Viking Age get to lead a Warband of fighting fit soldiers and levies from one of the main factions of the Viking Age.

So Where Do I Start?

Currently available is the Main Rulebook from Studio Tomahawk & Gripping Beast. This book includes the Game Play Rules and the Faction Specific Rules for the Anglo-Danish, Normans, Vikings & Welsh.

The forhtcoming Expansion Book (Available 3/4/12) – Northern Fury adds 4 New Warbands to the mix – the Anglo-Saxons, the Bretons, the Jomsvikings and the Scots!

The Main Rulebook is what I am going to talk about in this post so here we go:

The Rulebook itself is priced at around the £25 mark and has been available, then out of print and is now avaialble again! Some might say this is a good average price for a Miniature Wargame Rules Set and to a degree I agree however it is worth stating that the Rulebook itself is a paperback book that has a page count of only 74 (that includes 2 pages of Photocopy Templates and Counters). HOWEVER it redeems itself by being in full colour and full of beautiful artwork, Diagrams and Photos! It also has a very straight forward rules set that only requires it to be 74 pages and as it is set in a historical setting all the backgroud material is available elsewhere and so the book isn’t 1/3rd rules 2/3rds fluff like some other Rulebooks. It comes with 4 Full-Colour Card Battleboards (1 for each faction represented in the rulebook) for use during the game (these form a Key part of the game), these Battle Boards are of a High Quality!

Pages 4-5 is a little bit of fluff about the Viking age setting of Saga
Pages 6-29 the How to Play Saga Rules (yes a rule set that is only 23 pages)
Pages 30-31 is clarification on Terrain
Pages 32-35 is an example of a turn
Pages 36-48 is all about Mustering a Warband (including specifics for the factions)
Pages 49-58 explains the Saga Abilities, for each faction, in more detail
Pages 59-69 is where you’ll find the Scenarios
Pages 70-72 is a section of Design Notes and Overlooked Rules
Pages 73-74 is a section of Tokens and Templates for use in the game for you to photocopy

I like the way in which this Rulebook has been presented overall!

I like the summary and Ragnar Speaks sections that summarises, in a short paragraph of info, the Phase/Page/Chapter which will make referencing much easier!

The Diagrams are very simple but precise and because of this it makes understanding what they are trying to portray very easy!

The addition of a Reference Sheet on the inside back cover is very good and is laid out in a very simple manner.

I think this game DESERVES some Love & Attention!!

This game, from reading the Rulebook, seems simple to learn and will be a pleasure to play! This is because the core rules are concise and simple (a man with a sword and shield is the same as a man with an axe and shield, etc), there are no 8 or 9 stats to remember for each different unit entry (just movement, armour and number of attacks which are dependent on the unit type!) and there are only 4 different unit types: Warlords, Hearthguards, Warriors & Levies!

THIS DOESN’T MEAN THAT THE GAME IS SO SIMPLE THAT IT ISN’T CHALLENGING -

on the contrary with the addition of the Saga Dice and the Battleboards it adds a random element to the game and so mastering your Warband and getting it to do everything you want each turn isn’t guaranteed. This means that in Saga there is no Killer Army Lists/Combos because they can all fall apart if you have no luck with the dice!! The game also has another variable…..FATIGUE! This is a wonderful addition to the rules and how your opponent uses your fatigue against you could bring an end to best laid plans!!

Modelling & Painting with Saga?

As an historical wargame Saga taps into the wealth of 28mm historical miniature manufacturers which means that even making a Warband from metal casts you never need to have the same looking model twice! There are also companies out there producing some excellent plastic miniatures in 28mm so the options are astounding! The quality of these models can vary greatly and are not on par with the Games Workshops or Privateer Press’ but on a whole are very pleasing to look at and paint (some examples of Gripping Beast’s Viking models can be seen on my other blog posts!) The game also has no strict basing requirements just a suggestion that your Warlord is on a larger base than a trooper! Official Saga & Gripping Beast models are supplied with round Renedra bases but pictured in the rulebook are square and the lipped Warmachine bases that I have opted for! All in all this makes creating a Warband easy and allows those who plan to create (or who have already got a) Viking Age army to use models based for other systems!

I will be able to confirm my feelings about game play once I have managed to get some games in. Hope you have enjoyed the read!!

Scorpius GLC out for now!!

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