November Update

I've been slow to update my blog for the past few months. I was able to do some hobby stuff in late October, but a recent setback in my cancer treatment kept me from doing much in November. I'm finally getting around to posting the photos of some troops I finished in late October. I was able to get out for a little while this weekend to see the NHMGS Game Day at the Museum of Flight. 

First up the painted troops. After some diversions, I finally finished the mounted troops for my Sage Norman army (I talked about the foot troops in this post). The mounted troops took me a little longer than normal because I seem to have trouble getting my horse colors to turn out right. But here they are finally done. 

Mounted Normans

The figures are from the Gripping Beast Saga Norman starter box. Here are some close-ups of the leader and two hearthguard units. The shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios.

Army leader

The first hearthguard unit

The second hearthguard

That gives me a 5 point Saga army. I would like to add a banner and maybe some mounted javelins. But it will probably be a while before I get those. Here is a photo of the whole army. 

Saga Norman army

As I mentioned above, I had to slow down in early November due to some treatment setbacks. After a few weeks of resting up and working to get back on track I decided I could use a short outing. I took the opportunity to spend a little time at the Seattle Museum of Flight for their hobby day, which included the NHMGS game day. It is always fun to see gaming under the aircraft at the museum. Here are a few photos I took at the event. 

Overview of the game and model areas

The DBA gamers were able to coax some museum visitors into trying out a game.

Maybe some new recruits?

The camp for the Jewish uprising army was some great eye candy too.

Romans Go Home!

There was also some air racing.

All bunched up on the last lap

And some other games ...

Northwest Indian Wars using the Brother vs. Brother rules

There was another gaming period in the afternoon, but I was already gone by then.  

It seemed like there were a lot of people stopping by to ask questions and take a look at the games. So I would say it was a successful event.

 

As always, thanks for looking in on my blog. Due to upcoming treatments, I don't expect to get up another post until the end of the year.

Saga Normans

In my previous post I mentioned that I had picked up a Norman army for Saga. I spent the better part of the month working on the troops and I finished basing up the foot units this weekend. The mounted units are still a WIP, but I wanted to put up a post to show that I am making progress.

I had purchased a Gripping Beast boxed 4 point and added a group of warriors. The army box comes with two mounted Hearthguard units (each with four figures), one warrior unit armed with crossbows (with eight figures), a 12 figure levy unit with bows, and a mounted leader. Here is a group photo of the foot units.

Norman foot units with crossbows (left), warriors (right), and levy archers (center forward)

Here are a few closer photos of the units. First up the levy archers. The Norman army looks to be a shooting and mounted charge type of army, so the archers will play a big role in a game.

Archers ready to use that Volley Fire action

The crossbowmen are included in the army and fit with the shooting style. But the rule that crossbows can't shoot without taking another action may limit their usefulness. Some of the stuff I've read online suggests that crossbows may not be the best choice in a low point game.

Crossbows ready to shoot, hoping the +1 shooting bonus is worth it

Finally, here is my warrior unit. This is not part of the 4 point army box, but most of the people in the area that play go with 5 or 6 point armies, so I thought I would add them in. They also gave me a chance to practice putting shield transfers on kite shields.

Warriors ready to mix it up

The shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios and are designed to fit on the Gripping Beast shields. The transfers look suitably battle-worn. I was really pleased with how they turned out.

I've still got some work to do to finish up the mounted figures, but they are close. I'll get photos of them up when they are done. Eventually I'll round out the army by adding a unit of mounted javelins and bannerman to go with the leader. But that will be a later project, since I have a couple other projects on deck. One is finishing up my Mexican troops for our group Mexican - American War project and the other is some 1/1200 ships. My friend Kevin recently came into possession of a plethora of Superior 1/1200 ships. So we are looking at doing some small night action battles in the scale. We'll see how that goes, but it did get me to order some 3D printed ships to go with the project. But more on that later.

Back to the shipyard!