The Warrior and the Priest...for Blood Eagle!

Brodir of Man 

Matt Slade recently finished a couple more figs to go with my Northmen (you can see the rest here and here). First of all, Brodir of Man from Gripping Beast...

This has to be one of my favourite minis ever! Bags of character! And then there is the Pagan Priest...

Another great sculpt with loads of character. I'm looking forward to making up a Blood Eagle warband around these chaps and hopefully getting our first game in next weekend!

New Christian Priests from Footsore Miniatures

And some more new releases. This time some superb Christian Priests from Footsore Miniatures. We seem to be spoilt for choice at the moment for Dark Age priests...but then one can never have enough priests for Dark Ages wargaming! These are going on the wishlist, too!

SAGA Celtic Priest and Ulf the Quarrelsome

Celtic Priest

Ulf the Quarrelsome

Gripping Beast have just posted up some pics on their Facebook page of some new releases due out at Salute. Superb figs...especially the Celtic Priest!

Pagan Priest

I have already picked up the Pagan Priest for my Vikings and the Celtic Priest will do perfectly as his Christian counterpart.

SAGA Invasions

Studio Tomahawk have posted up some news about their upcoming SAGA Age of Arthur game...now to be called SAGA Invasions.

Imagine 6 new factions, depicting the Britons, The Saxon Invaders, the Romans, the Huns, the Goths and the Picts. To lead them into battle, larger than life characters as Aetius, Attila, Arthur or Vortigern. A time when the Roman frontiers were hammered by the flow of barbaric invaders. A time when the civilisation of the past was about to be superceded by a new one.

New factions, new mercenaries to join your warband, a campaign system and a large figure range are all planned. 

Sounds exciting! Fortunately for my wallet it won't be out before the end of the year. You can read it in full on the Studio Tomahawk page here.

Advance copies of SAGA: Age of the Wolf available at Salute

Gripping Beast have just posted up on their Facebook page here that those of you attending Salute will be able to pick up advance copies of SAGA: Age of the Wolf...the rest of us will have to wait until May.

Here's the post:

SAGA: The Age of the Wolf is the forthcoming SAGA Dark Ages Campaign book. It contains an awesome new campaign system for two or more players in which rival Warlords lead their Warbands in a bloody struggle for land, wealth and reputation.

There are many ways to come out on top in the campaign and claim the crown. How you do it will be up to you and the motivations of your Warlord- unless, of course, your opponents have other ideas........

The Age of the Wolf will be released in May but you will be able to pick up advance copies at SALUTE only from the Gripping Beast mega stand TK13.

If you want to secure your copy for collection, please email us at TheBeast@grippingbeast.com or call us on 01386 761 511. Unlike our SALUTE releases, you will not be able to pre-pay or pre-order The Age of the Wolf on the website as it will be for sale at SALUTE as a special bonus ahead of its May general release.

Lucky chaps. I shall have to impatiently wait.

Age of the Wolf - SAGA

Lee Brady...on his excellent blog, Harold's Revenge...brought this bit of news to my attention. Not only are Gripping Beast going to be releasing Age of Arthur later this year but they will also soon be releasing a new SAGA campaign system for the Viking Age...Age of the Wolf!

With all these fantastic sets of rules and supplements on the horizon, this year is promising to be an expensive one!

SAGA Priests

I've just seen that Gripping Beast will soon be releasing some SAGA Priests...

Pagan Priest

Christian Priest

Islamic Priest

Superb figures...especially the Pagan Priest! Sigh! More minis to add to the already huge 'to-buy' list!

Upcoming SAGA Scenics Civilians and Livestock

Gripping Beast will be releasing some Civilians and Livestock as part of their SAGA Scenics range...

These look great! The Ecclesiasticals, in particular, are a 'must-buy' for me! They'll be available on September 21st (not Aug 21st as listed).

Gripping Beast is also running a 'write a scenario' competition:

Gripping Beast & Wargames Illustrated - SAGA Scenario Competition

On September 21st we are releasing three new SAGA Scenics sets and to mark the occasion we are running, along with our Top Chums at Wargames Illustrated, a competition to create a scenario for SAGA.

The three new sets are:

• SAGA Civilians – Peasants and Townsfolk (contains 4 shepherds, 5 women, 4 kids, 4 peasants & 4 traders)
• SAGA Civilians – Ecclesiastical (contains 12 monks, a Bishop & his attendant plus 4 Defenders of the Faith (armed monks!))
• SAGA Livestock (contains 4 cattle, 4 sheep, 2 lambs, 4 pigs, a riding pony and a pony with panniers)

SAGA is great system and lends itself to all sorts of scenario shenanigans without the need to fiddle with the core mechanisms and rules. When designing your scenario, don’t make it over complicated but do think outside of the box. The best scenarios are the fun ones which, as soon as you have finished, you want to swop sides and play again straight away!

Design a scenario for SAGA using the following guidelines & restrictions:

• The scenario should be based about the contents of at least one of the forthcoming new SAGA Scenics boxes; SAGA Civilians – Peasants & Townsfolk, SAGA Civilians – Ecclesiastical or SAGA Livestock.
• The scenario should be a two player scenario.
• The scenario should be playable with as wide a range of the officially published Warbands as possible. If there are restrictions, they should be as minimal as possible and please give the rationale behind the restriction.
• Any scenario rules or restrictions should be made clear and explained to the player so they can understand and get the most out of the game.
• You may specify Warbands of between 4 point and 8 points.
• The scenario will be played on a table 48” x 36”.
• The scenario must have a high repeat play value.
• Feel free to include flavour text although this is not necessary.

The winner will have their scenario published in Wargames Illustrated and receive one each of the new SAGA Scenic boxes; SAGA Civilians – Peasants & Townsfolk, SAGA Civilians – Ecclesiastical or SAGA Livestock.

The competition starts NOW and closes when Lord S goes home on Monday 5th October.

The winner will be chosen by Lord S and his decision is final. After due deliberation, he will announce the winner on Monday 19th October.

Please email your entries to TheBeast@grippingbeast.com

After the competition, the winning scenario becomes the property of Gripping Beast Ltd (GB) but the author (or authors!) will be credited whenever it is published. GB may make changes to the scenario to suit future publications but the author will still be credited.  By entering the competition, you demonstrate your agreement with this.

More Northmen!

More Vikings have arrived!

Matt Slade has done another brilliant job painting up these Artizan figures for me...plus an armoured Eowyn! I figured she could be a Lagertha/Earl Ingstad.

Matt's avoided green with this lot and given them a subtle blue colour scheme to differentiate them from the the first lot which did the reverse...but the colour schemes are subtle enough that they'll blend well together should I want to field them together as one big army.

So I now have enough for a couple of small Dark Age Lion Rampant retinues as well as two SAGA warbands. SHIELDWALL!

Earl Ingstad and her Hearthguard

Hirdmen

Bondi

Skirmishers

Earl and Hearthguard

Hirdmen

Bondi

Bondi

Warband

Chieftain's Hall from Adrian's Walls

I recently took advantage of Adrian's Walls' Anniversary Sale and picked up their Dark Ages Chieftain's Hall and Wattle Fencing and Pen Pack to go with the Saxon Church I got a while back. I'm really pleased with everything! It all looks fantastic on the table...well, I shall let the pics do the talking!

My son and I should be having our first game of Dark Ages Lion Rampant (using the Dark Ages modifications from WI 331) together this weekend!

The Coming of the Northmen!

My Vikings have arrived! Painted by the inimitable Matt Slade who has, as always, done a brilliant job of bringing this bloodthirsty Artizan lot to life!

Command and Characters

Command and Characters

Command and Characters

Hirdmen

Hirdmen

Hirdmen

Skirmishers/Bidowers

Bondi

Bondi

There should be enough here for a SAGA faction or Lion Rampant army. Matt has avoided blue and given them a subtle green scheme. This is because I have another lot of Artizan Vikings of much the same size (due next month) which I want to use as opponents, so he'll paint those with a subtle blue colour scheme. The idea is that the colour schemes will be subtle enough that I can put them together to make one much larger army.

Not long now and I'll be able to introduce my son to Lion Rampant and have my first game of SAGA!