The Black Order - All Things End

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Love the new additions, especially the rework of the rework of Tyr 

...of the rework, of the rework...

 

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Finished off the eight shield-bearing knights to serve as Tyr's bodyguard in games of SAGA Age of Magic. I found that the Armour 5 on Hearthguard is really critical, especially in a melee-heavy list like the Horde.

[Cubs]

Niiice.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Finished off the eight shield-bearing knights to serve as Tyr's bodyguard in games of SAGA Age of Magic. I found that the Armour 5 on Hearthguard is really critical, especially in a melee-heavy list like the Horde.

Looking very nice.  Agreed on the armor 5 thing, really makes a big deal on the tabletop.

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Inspired by Koyote's wonderful SAGA threads, I started making counters to represent persistent SAGA advanced abilities. I figured the raising of a battle standard would be a good visual reminder for the 'For the Horde' ability, so threw this together! Can double as a themed objective as well.

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Couple updates. SAGA continues to impress, and adds to my pile of shame at approximately the same rate it detracts from it. 

Firstly, a completed Champion of the Black Order in SAGA: Age of Magic. I'm using The Horde battle board, so the Champion is a really nice opportunity to put together a model I've been meaning to assemble for ages. This big chap is heavily inspired by the Lawbringer from For Honor, and is the result of kitbashing some Fireforge and Mierce bits with a 3D printed helm and a sculpted fur pelt.

As you can see, he's a big lad!

Took him out for his inaugural game of SAGA today - we played Encounter in an Unknown Land and Old Feuds, with the Black Order going 1-1. The MVP was, of course, none other than Radomir himself - he wiped out a full unit of EIGHT mounted Hearthguard by himself, followed a few turns later by none other than the enemy Warlord riding a beast. He finished the day somewhat fatigued. 

(Before the Hearthguard charged in again, and a lucky roll saw Radomir fell them all - and then his one-on-one with the Warlord...)

Otherwise, I've started work again on my Undead. But before I go to update that separate log, here's what's next for the Order - a Journeyman and a casualty marker, which will likely serve as an event token or objective.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Outstanding work as usual mate, loving it!

[Darathar]

Now that's one scary MF'er perfect champion.

[Chillyray]

Hi Tyr, I found your posts yesterday. About five hours later I have to say thanks for making something truly inspirational! Your muted colour scheme reminds me of one of Leonardo`s unfinished early works, The adoration of the magi. In that work it was all about the tone and the colour was going to happen at the end. You are an artist who manages to create mood and atmosphere and narrative. I am completely hooked. Some of your little dioramas tell stories with drama and pathos, amazing! One question I would love to ask, it`s a hard one, in that old desert island scenario, where you can only choose one rule set, which one do you choose? This is my dilemma at the moment, with limited funds and a finite amount of time, which one do you go for? I have played Frostgrave, Rangers of Shadowdeep, Warmaster, Hordes of the things and have just gotten Oathmark. Trying to decide on base sizes etc. I would value your input on this thorny topic. Many thanks again for your sharing and many generous tips.

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Hi Tyr, I found your posts yesterday. About five hours later I have to say thanks for making something truly inspirational! Your muted colour scheme reminds me of one of Leonardo`s unfinished early works, The adoration of the magi. In that work it was all about the tone and the colour was going to happen at the end. You are an artist who manages to create mood and atmosphere and narrative. I am completely hooked. Some of your little dioramas tell stories with drama and pathos, amazing! One question I would love to ask, it`s a hard one, in that old desert island scenario, where you can only choose one rule set, which one do you choose? This is my dilemma at the moment, with limited funds and a finite amount of time, which one do you go for? I have played Frostgrave, Rangers of Shadowdeep, Warmaster, Hordes of the things and have just gotten Oathmark. Trying to decide on base sizes etc. I would value your input on this thorny topic. Many thanks again for your sharing and many generous tips.

Thanks, Chilly! That's very cool of you to say.

As far as choosing a game goes, my answer would always be what you know you can get a game of. If your local scene is getting more heavily into Oathmark, I'd go that way. At the minute, I'm getting more and more sucked into SAGA, which I probably like more than Oathmark, but it depends on what your local group is into. Rangers of Shadow Deep is a great "back-up" game as you can play by yourself if needed.

I've tried to keep my stuff mostly based on 20mm/25mm squares so I can use it across a wide variety of systems - that certainly seems to offer the most freedom, and with The Old World coming down the pipeline square bases will have their day again soon I think.

[Ogrob]

If I can pipe in as well, definitely agree with Tyr on the game systems. If people are playing something in particular, go with that. Second, there are a couple of ways to base that can fit all of SAGA, Rangers and Oathmark. All the bases sizes in Oathmark are legal for similar troop types in SAGA, so you could go with squares. Alternatively, you can go with round bases and if you end up playing Oathmark you can easily find movement trays that accomodate those and give you a roughly correct unit footprint.

Either way, any basing goes in Rangers of Shadow Deep and your monsters in Rangers can be used in your armies in either SAGA or Oathmark as both games allow creative army building instead of being stuck in traditional fantasy tropes.

And lovely work on the Champion Tyr, as always

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Fair to say it's been a slightly quiet period for the Order on the 28mm front recently. I've got a couple things planned in the pipeline, but what's exciting me at the minute is the Order's expansion into 10mm (and thread here https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=134758.0logging the progress):

But the most exciting of all is I'm planning to try and build a campaign map in 3D. This has long been a dream of mine - to build what is essentially a mini-map for a campaign taking inspiration from the Total War style of mapmaking, using all the modelling techniques we regularly use as wargamers.

To this end, I've purchased parts to build an Order chapter keep from Brigade Minis in their tiny 3mm scale:

These will be the army tokens I use on the campaign map (as shown in the 10mm thread) - with a Mighty Empires tileset as proof of concept:

[traveller]

Wow! 

[Reed]

I already liked everything you did, and now 10mm?? What a blessing!

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Thanks chaps!

SAGA has really bitten me, hard. I'm going to take part in Heerschau 2022:

https://stronghold-terrain.de/en/heerschau-2022-neue-armeen-braucht-das-land/?fbclid=IwAR30hcuoSZD_BTINgl26KzUldJ7MH_LjbiYDbhUuFcgh4ZwFII2Rsk6jenY

From the look of it, it's the perfect motivation to start a new Saga warband - and I think that's going to be a mixed Pagan Rus/Pagan People's warband, which could easily fit into the world of the Black Order or allow me to take part in historical Saga events. Very excited.

I'm also working like a demon to get my Saga cards printed out and laminated - starting with the Clash of Heroes cards: