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

[Koyote]

Saturday, I brought my Romans to the Vancouver Grand Melee 2024. I played 3 great games against three great opponents. Since it was an "Age of Melee" event, players were permitted to play any faction from any Saga Universe book except for Age of Magic. Consequently I played against a Crusader (Baltic) in the first round, Anglo Saxons in the second round, and Ordensstaat in the third round.  I went 3-0 and took Second Place overall.

[Basementboy]

Fantastic stuff as usual! Looks like a great game, congrats on the deserved win

[syrinx0]

Fantastic as usual!  Great description of the troops.

[Atheling]

A fine display indeed 

[Curis]

That is a brilliant looking force.  I love the way you evoke the feel of the era with the aquaduct on the display base being ruined, but also a direct tie in to the actual history.

[Codsticker]

Damn, I was at Trumpeter's that weekend; I wandered through the Saga event a couple of times. If I had known you were there I would have tracked you down and said 'hello'. 

[Koyote]

With Beowulf being the most famous of all the Jutes (some argue he was a Jute not a Geat), even if he is just a myth, he will make a fun subject matter for objective markers. Each objective can be a mini diorama depicting a different part of the epic poem.  As with my Briton baggage markers, I can use the objective markers that tells a story that straddle the line between myth an history.
...

As I use GS to fill in the gaps and bulk up the shoulders of my Jutes (Saxons), I've been taking breaks to work on my Beowulf themed objective markers. Since my Saxons are not a fantasy (Age of Magic) warband, as with my Briton warband, I want the objectives to symbolically represent that fantastic events. Thus there will be no slain dragons or dead trolls in my markers.

The objective marker on the left is the slain King Beowulf. In the poem, Beowulf eventually becomes king of the Geats and rules for fifty years until a slave awakens and angers a dragon by stealing a jeweled cup from its lair. When the angry dragon mercilessly burns the Geats' homes, Beowulf vows to fight and kill the monster personally. During the fight, Beowulf's sword, Naegling, snaps in half and dragon fatally wounds the king with a venomous bite to the neck. Here, the cup at his feet and coins symbolically represent the cup that started the whole matter and dragon's hoard.

The objective marker on the right depicts Beowulf's fight with Grendel's mother. After realizing that his magical sword Hrunting cannot pierce the skin of Grendel's mother, Beowulf tries to fight the sea-witch using only his bare hands, but she matches him blow for blow. Eventualy, he notices a sword hanging on the wall, an enormous weapon forged for giants. Beowulf seizes the huge sword and swings it in a powerful arc. The blade slices cleanly through the Grendel’s mother’s neck.  Here, the mushrooms and scattered bones represent the Grendel's underground lair, littered with detrius and the many bones of Grendel's victims.




For the last marker I plan to use another Medbury 3D print. Right now, my plan is to bulk up the model's beard to better match the beard in the other objective markers and replace the raised left hand with a hand holding a large severed arm. This will represent Grendel's arm, which Beowulf tore off the beast in the fight in the mead hall, Heorot.

[Dean]

Inspiring and magnificent as ever mate

[macsen wledig]

WOW!

[Koyote]

I hadn't planned this, but each objective not only portrays Beowulf at different part of the story and after defeating a different foe, but each objective also depicts a different sword. The broken sword in the dead Beowulf vignette is Naegling. In the Grendenl's Mother vignette, Beowulf is holding the giant's sword. In the Grendel's arm vignette, he is holding sword Hrunting, which is lent to him by Unferth, one of Hrothgar's thegns.

[Basementboy]

Oh don’t go telling us you didn’t plan it… this was your opportunity to come across as a mastermind and floor us all
Looks great either way though

[macsen wledig]

Swoons...

[Koyote]

My Saxons are currently 1/2/0 vs my buddies Goths. I'm still learning my board and experimenting with different builds. My one victory occurred when I played my Saxons as Germanic Peoples from Age of Vikings. When played as the Germanic Peoples (i.e., Dark Age continental Saxons) they use the Saxon board, but the warband's WL and HG have the mounted option and the Levy can be armed with bows or javelins. During my last game I proxied the mounted WL, kept my HG on foot, and proxied the javelin Levy.  In honor of my victory I built a proper mounted Germanic Peoples Warlord using Victrix Late Roman Armored Cavalry kit and bits from Victrix Early Armored and Unarmored Saxon sprues. The problem is, I cannot decide on head for my WL, so I took photos of my top 5 choices. Hmmm?

[Advario]

My favorite is definitely 2 here. A warlord needs to show his face, and the face reminds me of Theoden

[Ogrob]

2 or 3 in my opinion. The one you don't use can go an a personal champion.