Ogrob's medievals for SAGA. V&V and Victrix muslim heavy cav compared 21/9

[Ogrob]

Got completely side tracked. I am going to be demoing some SAGA at a local convention in a couple of weeks with a friend. We had been planning Age of Vikings and Age of Chivalry, with the classic Anglo-Dane vs Vikings matchup, plus French versus English for Chivalry. However, after a few games with them we've come to the conclusion that the English are a bit tricky to play and the French if given mounted knights can probably wipe out several points worth right from the start of turn 1 if deployment is not done well. So had to rethink that plan. Still want to demo AoCh, but perhaps a more even matchup. I also don't really want to risk my 3D prints at an open demo convention.

So to that end, some inventory was done in the sprue pile, and I turned up several sprues worth of Perry WotR english, European Mercenaries and late 15th century men at arms. I set to building, and this was the result:
A point of men at arms in full harness, two points of warriors (english bill, but surely they can be continental too, and the two pikes will be banners)


And then while I was at it, I used a load of arms from the Agincourt knights set to kitbash a point of more skirmishing warriors too:


For the demo, I will probably use the scottish in France option for these, but in the end I think I want this collection to represent several continental factions, such as HRE, Hussites, Condottiere and perhaps even Swiss. To that end, I will need a bunch of pikes, some pavise and some crossbows, plus cavalry of course. That will all come later.

Any suggestions for a nice colour scheme? I prefer to keep one "army" in one scheme, rather than a perhaps more historical approach of different retinues or companies. Considering a black and gold scheme.

[Captain Blood]

Hurray 

[Ogrob]

Had the weekend to myself, so managed to finish these Lithuanian Nobles as well. 3D prints by Black Knight miniatures in case I hadn't mentioned before. I still have four of these left to paint, including a pair of more leader-looking fellows, a banner and a hornblower.

Should have enough painted now to try out the Lithuanians in SAGA, but not sure when I will have time. Need to soldier on with the Perry plastics to get redo for convention demos.



What do you think?

[LouieN]

They look wonderful.  A nice warm image. 

[Ogrob]

Bouncing between projects here, but I will try to stay on Age of Chivalry until the Easter weekend when the demo games are happening.

Last post on building Perry plastics was scrounging from whatever I had left from old projects, mostly Sludge kitbashes. I ordered another pair of kits, one War of the Roses English and one European Mercenaries, and started building out the force the other day. For the demo game, I just need a leader, four knights, two more billmen and some archers, but for the whole 15th century project I am planning on building a lot more. These boxes should in fact give me all the infantry I need.

From the 72 infantry bodies (+1 spare on the old sprues) in the two kits I plan to build the following:
18 pikes
6 bill
12 crossbow
12 bow
8 handgun
2 banners, 2 musicians
12 pavisiers (spears+pavise, will need kitbashing)

With some banners and commanders I can field up to 24 warriors with pikes or regular equipment, plus the pavisier option tends to be limited to max one unit for most factions anyway, so I will have plenty of the for SAGA very important warrior class troops.

So with that plan in mind, I had a bit of a build session today and assembled the following:

Warlord (European mercs commander with a head from the mounted men at arms), plus the six additional billmen to bring me to 20.


A banner bearer for the warlord, they will share a sabot base, and four additional knights (aka hearthguard in SAGA) on foot. Decided to use all four barbute helmets from the European kit, as I love how they look.


And finally 12 bowmen. I need these for the demo, but don't imagine they will see much play otherwise. Most factions rely on crossbow levy. I might use them as English archer mercenaries. I used some heads from Oathmark light human infantry for these as I didn't want any helmets for the levy.


What do you think?

[Hu Rhu]

Nice kitbashes and good use of the different sprues.  Certainly makes an interesting set of figures.

[Ogrob]

Chugging along with building the infantry for this force. Only pikes, pavises and command figures to go now.

I quite enjoyed the Oathmark heads on the bow levy, so did the same thing for the crossbow unit. Stuck to the less armoured bodies on these as well to further reinforce their peasant status.


Handgunners however are Warrior-class mercenaries, so these fellows have proper helmets plus swords and bucklers ready to fend off any attacker.

[Mikai]

It is a really well working kitbash, a good idea with the Oathmark heads on the levy! How big are the Oathmark heads compared to Victrix sets?

[Ogrob]

It is a really well working kitbash, a good idea with the Oathmark heads on the levy! How big are the Oathmark heads compared to Victrix sets?

These are from the Light Infantry set, very close in size, perhaps a smidge bigger but also with a bit better definition in the details.

[Ogrob]

And another little kitbash. Victrix arms on Perry bodies to make melee pavisiers (I know this is a debated question, but the SAGA authors have gone with pavises on melee troops to a greater extent than crossbows). Fortunately a spear is a spear, so the dark age weaponry shouldn't be too obvious on the figures.

[fred]

These are so great kit bashes - shows the versatility of the Perry figures with some different arms or heads it really can change the look of them

[Ogrob]

Thank you fred!

In between building all the infantry I could possibly think of, I did manage some painting. In fact, I am nearly done with the demo force, which is a good thing since the convention is less than 10 days out.

For the colour scheme, I went with a green and yellow scheme. Not going for any particular historical heraldry, just something that looks nice. I prefer to paint a uniform paint scheme over a multitude of colours, so I will go with variations of green and yellow across the whole force. There is a lovely dark green and a warm yellow in the Army Painter John Blanche sets, and they figure heavily here. Unlike the Lithuanians, I am allowing myself to use other colours as well.

I finished these 20 warriors with standard equipment - aka billmen.



Plus four hearthguard with standard equipment - aka men at arms on foot.


I also bashed together some command figures, these will allow me to flexibly change the size of warrior units regardless of equipment.


What do you think?

[Pattus Magnus]

I think they look great! The yellow and green palette works well and I like the variety in the unit. It looks battle worn to me.

[LouieN]

Really good work

[commissarmoody]

Well Done. They look great.