Koyote's SAGA Britons, Irish,Late Romans, and Saxons

[Ogrob]

So much lovely stuff posted in the last week! The slingers are a very nice effective kitbash, certainly a testament to what is possible with the Late Roman range.

[.:Gunslinger:.]

These are imho the best part about the new archer and slinger Kit, the poses are nicely designed and it's something that wasn't available from other manufacturers before. Great idea with the helmets, swords and bucklers, they definitely look more elite. However I find them a bit too uniform. Maybe one without helmet but with the flat cap (and helmet on his belt) would bring a bit more variety.

I only noticed now that you removed the plastic puddles under their feet! Great idea, looks more natural!

[Koyote]

@Gunslinger: You make a good point. Let me see what I can do.

[OSHIROmodels]

Lovely work again 

[Koyote]

[.:Gunslinger:.]

Perfect now! Great little adjustments

[Koyote]

I finished my staff slingers, objective markers, and new display board just before leaving for Adepticon.

[Koyote]

Adepticon was a lot of fun. I normally try to play in at least 3 Saga tournaments, but I took it easy this year and played in only 2 (plus a mega-battle event).

The first tournament was Doubles Age of Melee (i.e. teams of two 4pt warbands from any book except for Age of Magic.). I brought my Irish and my buddy brought his newly painted Normans. The latter was a team effort with my buddy applying base coats and some shading and me finishing them off.  I put a lot of extra work on his objectives (which I also built) and his warlord. The end result was a handsome Norman warband.

.

Game 1 was a very strategic match up against Saga Thorsday Rodge playing Pagan Peoples and DJ playing Britons in a variant of the Old Feud.  My team got very lucky and we pulled out a win.




Game 2 was a match up against my buddy Seth playing Vikings and his buddy Dillon also playing Vikings. The scenario involved holding centrally located objectives.  Initially I thought that this game was going to be a breeze, but fighting against two players with Berserkers units and double-Odin, really F'd up our plans.  The game ended in a draw.




Game 3 was essentially a straight up massacre point game against a team comprised of Republican Romans and Italiote Graeculi. It was a fairly one-sided game, ending in a solid victory for the Irish and Normans.




We ended with two wins and draw and came in 5th out of 27 teams. Not bad.


That night my buddy and I played in The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains event. It was a 4 table mega-battle. On each table a team of players representing Rome and/or its allies teamed up against another team of 2 players representing the Huns and their allies. I played 4 pts of Romans and my buddy played 4 pts of Armoricans (Britons). Our opponents played Huns and Goths.

The scenario was a modified Change of Plans mission. We set up in a denied flank deployment, opposite the Huns. During the first turn or two we savaged the Huns, but when the Goths arrived they beat the sh*t out of my Romans. Fortunately, the Armoricans’ (Britons) warlord rode to the rescue and beat back the Goths. Our opponents conceded on Turn 4.

[Koyote]

As it turned out, I forgot to take photos of the AoV & AoI Singles tournament until the third round.

I started off with two solid wins, first against Normans and then against the Hun player which I had played in the mega-battle the night before. 

My third opponent, Shea, played Irish. I gave him a good game. The body count was high on both sides, but Shea did (almost) everything right and his dice were hot. Conversely, I made a few mistakes and my armor saves stank. The Irish ended up on top with a well deserved victory.

Our game secured Shea Best Overall (1st place).


 
I took 7th place and Best Painted.

As a painter/hobbyist nerd who spends hundreds of hours researching, curating models, converting, and painting each warband, it’s the best reward I could ask for.

[Pattus Magnus]

 Congratulations on winning Best Painted, it’s well deserved! That’s a beautiful army. It sounds like a series of good games as well.

[Ogrob]

Well deserved indeed! The romans on their display board look just incredible.

[.:Gunslinger:.]

Great to see all your work and research rewarded! The mega battle looks fun!

[RedRowan]

Congratulations on the win, the army on its display board looks amazing.

Steve

[syrinx0]

A well deserved win.  Fantastic army and board.

[Koyote]

I've received some questions on how to construct a display board.  Truth be told, it is surprisingly easy.  The most time consuming part of the project is time spent letting your texture and basecoat dry. 

Below is an example of how I do it.

I start with 18x18" artists wood panel. These can be purchased online or from an art supply store.  I tend to limit the size of my boards to 18x18" because this is what fits into my largest suitcase. Also, since transport my display base via my suitcase when I travel to Adepticon, terrain features like trees and structures are not glued onto the board itself, rather they are set into fitted recesses or simply placed on the board. For travel, everything gets wrapped in bubble wrap before going into the suitcase.

I begin by spray painting the sides of the wood panel flat black. Then I experiment with the placement of different features, creating multiple mock ups until I decide on their final placement.

Below, I used a 3D printed aqueduct, a couple of GW trees, and Plaster of Paris rocks cast using rubber molds made by Woodland Scenics.




I made fitted inserts for my trees to rest in by cutting out donut-shaped pieces from a sheet of thick styrene. I then glue the 'donuts' to the board and use Apoxie Sculpt to blend the styrene donuts into the surface of the board.




Once the Apoxie Sculpt has cured, I texture the base using Woodland Scenics' Fine Ballast and brushed on water-down white glue.




The next day, I dump off the excess ballast and touch up those patches missing texture and tape up the sides with painter's tape. Once the patches have dried, I paint the entire board a dark brown using slightly watered down cheap acrylic craft paint. Putting so much paint over the ballast can reactive the glue and cause the texture to shift around, so I always give the basecoat plenty of time to dry thoroughly before doing anymore work on it. Inevitably, I find tiny recesses between the ballast where the paint didn't stick, so I have to spend time touching up those areas with a smaller brush with a tip that will fit into the tiny recesses. Once the touch ups are done and dried, I drybrush my highlight colors.




Finally, I use watered-down white glue and static grass to add large areas of grass. The last step is to add flowers and grass tufts.  When I add tufts to areas covered by static grass, I dip the bottom of the tufts in little bit of glue to get them to stick. The tufts attached to painted areas generally don't require extra glue.




Voila!