More SAGA with a new Romano British Army

Been a busy few weeks with work travel but I have managed to complete the final touches on my Irish Warband for SAGA.  I am also about to be deployed for 3 months so not much looming on the hobby front unfortunately. I also moved house, just to up life's degree of difficulty a touch more.

My new mounted Hearthguard

I also had an impulse purchase the other day when a painted Romano-British warband popped up for sale. I've wanted a force for SAGA's Aetius & Arthur period for some time and this faction I quite like.  With no modelling time my focus is shifting to playing only so this was a good time to strike!  It was expressed posted to me, I picked it up at the Post Office on the way to the club, unpacked it onto the gaming table and put them directly into action! I was facing my SAGA Nemesis Alan, whom I have never beaten in the game in 5 years.  He pulled out a Saxon Army (beautifully painted like all his war bands) which he hadn't used for SAGA before either - the game was afoot!

2 Units of Warriors

My wily opponent with 3 other SAGA games in progress

What followed was probably one of the best night's gaming I've had in about a year, wth 4 games of SAGA in play at the same time.  Our game was very competitive in a really fun atmosphere as we both learned our armies, which were really well matched. I focused on a wide left sweep to isolate and kill Alan's Warlord.  He advanced on a broad front to catch and engage my supporting units.  I let him and after a massive all out effort I managed to dispatch his warlord...only to find out that the new SAGA v2 scenario isn't a Kill the Warlord for Victory game!  A tense last turn followed and in the end I mustered 21 slaughter points to Alan's 18: a pyrrhic victory by the slimmest of margins but a Victory nonetheless!

My mounted Hearthguard catch Alan's Levy Bowmen!

To inject a final bit of hobby happiness to the night, Slowpainter John brought us goodies from the latest shipments, including the new SAGA Age of Crusades book and Battlegroup Torch-  just in time to stock up my hobby reading materials before I ship off. Huzzah!

Now thats a good days' Hobby haul!

AHPC VIII Reflections - Part 2: the Pics

I've been all at sea lately (quite literally) but I've finally gotten to photographing my AHPC VIII totality.  Like many I suspect, it seems more when under the brush than when tallied, but regardless it is a satisfying chunk of hobby happiness.

 As you can see I embraced the new terrain category, finishing off a 15mm Russian village, a 6mm ECW castle and a 28mm bridge.  I got a good portion of my new DAK Army finished and managed to complete entries for all bonus rounds.  I started with a 500 point goal, extended it to 600 and finished up with 679pts - which I was very happy with noting that I was travelling for about 4 weeks of the challenge.

Last year I was thrilled to get a Bonus Round Runner Up spot - this year I managed to jag two!  The first was this really wonderfully sculpted One Man Dirigible which I had sitting around for about 4 years and which I entered for the Flight Round

My Second Runner Up placement was for my FIW Royal Artillery Piece in the BFG Round.  I really enjoyed building this small vignette for the FIW Army I built last year during AHPC VII.

Perhaps my favourite piece to work on this challenge was my Friekorps PanzerAuto (Armoured Car), which I did in January:

The Challenge was, once again, a tonne of fun for a LOT of fun amongst wonderfully productive and encouraging hobbyists. 
I hope to be back for AHPC IX!

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com.au/2018/04/paul-ogs-ahpc-viii-wrap-up.html

SAGA Redux

Its been some time since I opened my Dark Ages collection but the new edition of SAGA has piqued some interest at the club. Sufficiently so for me to get out my Irish Warband and finished them off.  They hit the table at Club night last week - I was frankly overwhelmed by trying to remember the game, understand the new game, and try to use a new warband.  I was also against my old Nemesis Alan who masterfully carved me into small parcels with his Scots without loosing a SAGA dice worth of casualties in return!

Alan's beautifully painted Scots

Alan's beautifully painted Scots repel yet another charge by the Irish!

Then on Good Friday, Slowpainter John treated us to a SAGA Bash at his place where 8 of us pushed lead around and got into the new rules with a "learn together" type approach.  There are lots of reviews on the net but suffice to say that the system is now more granular and I think has added tactical depth without significant complication.  Good stuff.

Pagan Russ arrayed for Battle 

Mounted Hearthguard secure the left flank of Izzie's Welsh battle line

Marty's Anglo-Danes and Aled's Anglo-Saxons clash

Alan's Russ Warlord seeks out a worthy opponent on the field of battle

I played my Irish again, this time against Aled who was using Alan's gorgeous Pagan Russ for the first time and took the mercenary Steppe Horseman too.  With some coaching assistance from the Dux I managed to pull off a win with my Warhounds being best on ground after they mauled the Steppe Nomans and then dragged down the Russ Warlord (reminiscent of Thulsa Doom's village attack in the opening scene of the original Conan the Barbarian!)

The Puppies in action, harrying and mauling the Horse Archers from the Steppe 

The dogs of war were indeed slipped - the enemy warlord was tasty!

I'll post up some pics of my Irish separately.

AHPC VIII Reflections - Part 1: Facts and Figures

Another Painting Challenge comes to a glorious end this week.  While there are still a few days to run, I've entered my last submission and its time for me to tally up:

AHPC VIII: Target Acheived!

Challenge target: 500 Initial, Stretched to 600
Total Points Achieved: 679 - Stretch Target Achieved!

I knew I would have difficulties this year with significant work travel scheduled for Feb-Mar, but preparations and a sensible total allowed me to crack it in AHPC VIII

Scale: Combination of 28mm and 15mm, with more of the latter.

Bonus Rounds: did them all, and got two Runner Up positions this year, making it a PB.

Genres: I took advantage of the new terrain category this year, with the remaining submissions mostly being WW2 (15mm DAK) with a touch of FiW and Fantasy thrown in.  I had prepared a stack of 28mm Fantasy figs but a last minute club focus to WW2 Western Desert gaming caused a mid challenge switch!

So that completes my fourth AHPC and brings my aggregate total throughout all four to 2817 points of a summed target total of 2350.  Yes, some individuals crack that for each challenge, which astounds me

And yes, I'm already thinking about what I might keep aside for AHPC IX!  :-)