Saga Night-War of the Roses

This past Thursday, we had our monthly Saga Night at the Abyss. It was another good turn out with 12 players. Several new warbands appeared on the tables from the Age of Chivalry. Germans, Bretons, Scots, Flemish, English, Ecorcheurs, French and Venetians were represented. Myself and Rob, however,  played the War of the Roses factions, a first for our Saga Nights!

Yorkists (Rob)

Warlord

Mount Hearthguard

Foot Hearthguard

Warriors

Handgunners

Levy Bowmen(1.5)

Cannon

Lancastrians (John)

Warlord

Mounted Hearthguard

Foot Hearthguard

Warriors

Levy Bowmen (2)

We used the Chaos set up. Although I have played many games using this method, it always gives you a different game.

Scenario

Scenery-Uplands

Deployment-Pincer Attack

Game Length-Pitched Battle

Special Rule-Forced March

Victory Conditions-Target

Game Photos

Initial Setup

This ended up being a big mistake for me, with my WL and HG deployed together although I should say the scenario conditions forced me to split my warband in 2.

Other unit in my deployment.

Keep the bowmen in the forest

The Yorkist right flank.

The Yorkist left flank.

Well it seems that the Cousin's War will end up going on, as we had a draw with less than a 3 point margin of victory. It was quite a bloody battle with both of us losing most of our HG, the Yorkists had 2 left and I had just one lone mounted HG. The only reason that I was able to eke out a draw, as I was quite a bit behind going into turn 5, was to charge my WL into 12 levy, luckily for me this worked out but it could have gone either way. 

What I found interesting is that the Yorkists have a complex BB which is quite different then the English BB, while the Lancastrian BB is quite similar to it!

Medieval Warriors

 

Here are the last 3 units I have painted for Saga, Age of Chivalry. there are 2 units of warriors with bills and one of a unit with spears. They are mostly painted in English livery but they are varied enough so they can be used in any warband.

That will be it for a while. I think I did pretty well for about 10 weeks of painting with the following units:

• Crossbowmen Levy (1 unit of 12)
• Bowmen Warriors (3 units of 8)
• Pikemen Warriors (3 units of 8)
• Foot Knights Hearthguard (3 units of 4)
• Mounted Knights Haerthguard (1 unit of 4)
• Mounted Warlord
• Foot Warlord
• Mercenary Knight

79 figuresin all !

Swiss Pikemen

 

Next up, and I am almost there in describing my Age of Chivalry units, is some Warrior Pikemen. They are for my Swiss warband but certainly can act as foreign mercenaries for other countries. The Swiss Warband is unusual in that they do not have a Warlord. 

I have painted 3 units of 8 but will probably play them as units of 12. Banners represent the cantons of Berne and Uri. There are 4 metal figures mixed withe the Perry Plastics.

Just one more unit type to photograph and that will be it!

Levy Crossbowmen

 

This is the first unit I painted for Age of Chivalry. I still had not really learned how to assemble plastic figures and you can see this with some of the unnatural poses. I decided on a blue and white scheme but I also struggled with that as you can see. But once they came together, I believe they look ok. They were primarily painted for my Swiss Warband, and they are the only warband that are classed as Levy, in most cases they are classed as Warriors. I painted 13 figures as I wanted to add a banner man, and of course from the blue-white scheme they will be recognised as being from Zurich.

Saga Night- English vs Swiss

Last Thursday we had our monthly Saga Evening. This was quite well attended as usual with 6 games being played, 3 each from Bothe the Age of Vikings and the Age of Chivalry.

I again brought my Age of Chivalry English and took on Michel's Swiss warband. This was the first time I encountered the Swiss and I was quite curious as I also have a Swiss warband done and I was curious to see how they played.

We play the Clash of Warlords scenario from the main rulebook, this was a novel experience for me as well as I usually play the Chaos method from the Book of Battles.

English (5 Saga Dice)

Warlord

2 units of Foot Hearth Guard

1 unit of Foot Warriors

3 units of Warrior Bowmen

Swiss (6 Saga Dice)

Warlord

2 units Warrior Pikeman

2 Unit of Foot Warriors

2 Units of Levy Crossbowmen

This was a very carefully fought battle with both sides being slow to engage in combat but initially relying on shooting.

Initial Positions

The game flipped to the English left flank which slowed down moving into combat. I had to swing around my 8 man Hearthguard to take on the rapidly approaching Swiss Pikemen.

Finally some combat with the Swiss Pikemen taking on the English Heart Guard

Interesting game which ended up in a tie with the Swiss scoring 12 points and the English scoring 11. I believe I might try the Swiss in our next SAGA night.

Mounted Knights

Next Age of Chivalry units are the Mounted Hearthguard, as well as a Warlord. These are all Perry Plastics aside from one figure which is from their metal line.

Again these were a lot of fun to paint. I have started with a unit for the Yorkist faction in a War of the Roses game. The Warlord is based on one of the numerous Nevilles who fought for and against Edward IV. I have hand-painted the livery's on the other knights representing some of the minor aristocratic characters who supported the Yorkist faction.

This chap was given to me by Helge, one of the members of our club. As mentioned above it is a Perry Metal Character from the Agincourt range; Le Comte de Vendomme. He will be used as a French Warlord or more likely the Mercenary Knight for AoCh.

Foot Knights!

 

Next up to be photographed are the Foot Knights for my Age of Chivalry Warbands. These again are all Perry Plastics and I actually found them quite easy to paint. That is aside from adding heraldry!

Three units of Hearthguard with Sir Richard Ratcliffe, a English Warlord.

English Knights

French Knights

Knights for all sides

Again a lot of fun to paint.

English Long Bowmen

 

Over the last 6 weeks, I have been painting figures for SAGA Age of Chivalry. It has really caught on at our historical wargaming club in Montreal. At our monthly SAGA nights we usually having 10-12 players.

After some research, I decided to go with Perry Plastics for my figures. This ended up being a good choice as they are a good price, easy to assemble and a lot of fun to paint. I am also starting to appreciate that they are quite light weight in comparison to metal figures. I have designed and printed round 25mm bases and oval 25x50mm bases for my SAGA armies. These are all magnetised with a 1x10mm magnets, the fact that they are plastic helps with this and they certainly seem to be easily transported with metal boxes.

I know a lot of players finding the exact armour and accruements for the time period, and I do appreciate the medieval age was a period of rapid change of armour and weapons. I elected to do my best to be accurate but especially in respect to head wear I might be a little off for specific countries.

I decided to build armies for the English, Swiss and Yorkists first as they are quite different in organisation. Of course a lot of these figures can be used for other countries but I felt it important to put a couple of forces the table as quickly as possible. I think I have painted 12 units so far but I will start with my English Long Bowmen.

The Long Bow was integral to the English army during this period. They are also relatively unique in SAGA organisation to the English. They can also be hired as mercenaries by some other specific factions. I did do quite a bit of research on how to paint them and generally what I found it could be quite varied but I decided to go with basic colours of the time but adding several figures in the livery of the Yorkist faction of Edward IV. I also decided to do one specific faction in the livery of Sir Richard Ratcliffe. 

Three units of Long Bow Armed Warriors

In the Red and Blue livery of the Yorkist faction.

The Black and White livery of Richard Ratcliffe

Non specific but uniform clothing but with a touch of red and blue to keep them English. I will use this unit as my mercenary bowmen for other countries.

The figures are from the English Agincourt box in the first 2 groups and the last unit is from the War of the Roses box. I have to say that the War of the Roses figures are quite nice and I prefer their styling.