Koyote's Age of Magic -SAGA

[Ajax]

Always interesting topic to follow. There are so many good ideas!

[Koyote]

I have a confession to make. I f*cking hate the blue that I used to paint my Desert Nomads/Moors warband. Also, I am not particularly fond of the Gripping Beast plastics Arab infantry and Araby heavy cav models (although the horses themselves are quite nice).

To set these hobby wrongs right, I'm going to remodel and repaint much of the warband.  I'm also going to add new units and new 'equipment' choices. 

I replaced the Gripping Beast Arab Infantry with Perry Miniatures' Afghan Tribesmen. Additionally, the blue that I hate will be replaced with some more muted colors.




I replaced the original, fully veiled Footsore archers with different Footsore archers. The unit leader is a converted Brother Vinni model and the standard bearer is a Perry Afghan.




I repainted the waist sashes on my javelin Levy and added shields.




I repainted the blues on my Biped Creatures and did some more work on their skin.  I also added a Quadruped Creature option.






I did a bit of work on my Djinn's (Monster) flesh.  I still have to add another layer of highlight to the highest points on the Djinn's smoke.




I repainted the blues on a unit leader model and rebased it so that it can serve as a Warlord on foot. I still need to paint the mounted Warlord model.  The hated-blue doesn't look too bad on my Sorcerer model, so I may leave well enough alone.




Still on my To-Do list for this warband is:

- Repaint the blue on my Perry Berber cav, so I can play my Warriors as infantry or cav
- Paint Warlord on camel
- Paint 4 HG on camels
- Paint 4 HG on foot
- Paint a second Monster so I have the option to field a Scourge (flying Monsters) or a Behemoth or Titan

[marianas_gamer]

The djinn and the sorcerer are masterful painting!

[Grumpy Gnome]

I quite liked the blue for a Tuareg vibe but your new color palette works too. I am quite keen on your painting style.

[Koyote]

If time allows, I want to put paint on an alternative Monster.

In Saga you declare how many points you spend on each unit type, but you aren’t required to declare how your units are equipped until it’s time to deploy that particular unit. If you have the available models, this lets you fine tune your warband to you opponent, the scenario, and the terrain set up.

In the case of Monsters or Creatures, there are 3 varieties of Monsters and 3 varieties of Creatures -each with its own strengths and weakness.  Flying Monsters, like my Djinn, are the most mobile and have a short range shooting attack, but they are the weakest in melee and since they are flying, they cannot be screened from shooting attacks by other units or terrain. This makes them an easy target for static warmachines, which have an unlimited range. Thus, if my opponent fields a warmachine, it will be nice to field my Monster as one of the two non-flying varieties.

I got a good deal on a giant snake made by Steamforged Games. To rebase it, I had to chisel the snake and terrain bits off the original base using a screw driver and hammer. I made the base out of a 0.04” thick styrene sheet and Apoxie Sculpt.

[Plisken]

I do enjoy the humor of putting Indy's hat on the base there but it does limit the use some and your rebasing is great.

[Koyote]

Still on my To-Do list for this warband is:

- Repaint the blue on my Perry Berber cav, so I can play my Warriors as infantry or cav
- Paint Warlord on camel
- Paint 4 HG on camels
- Paint 4 HG on foot
- Paint a second Monster so I have the option to field a Scourge (flying Monsters) or a Behemoth or Titan

I finished my To-Do list with 2 days to spare.  On October 1st, I'm going to take my LotW Deep Desert Normads to a Saga, Age of Magic tournament, about one hour north of me, in Langley B.C.

First up is a giant serpent that will serve as either a Behemoth or Titan.




Next are 10 mounted Warriors that I can swap out for 10 foot Warriors, depending upon the mission and my opponent's faction.




Next are 4 mounted Hearthguard and 4 Hearthguard on foot.  Once again, painting two units gives me the option to play my HG mounted or on foot.






Finally, here's my mounted Warlord and two versions of the LotW's Lieutenant, which is called a Ranger.  These models give me the option to equip my Ranger with a bow or with no special equipment.

[Dean]

Stunning work!  Love the strategic thinking too, best of luck at the tourney!

[Grumpy Gnome]

Loving the additions mate!

[blacksoilbill]

What a superb force!

[Old Hob]

This is a wonderful thread. Going back a couple of posts - that flying carpet is insanely good. Wow.

[Little Odo]

Fantastic looking warband - the paint work is sublime 

[Koyote]

The hard work paid off.  My Lords of the Wild -Deep Desert Nomads, made a good showing of themselves at Sunday's tournament.  Turnout was modest, but you couldn't ask for a better bunch of guys to game with. I look forward to their next tournament.

I took a couple of pics during my first game (vs Undead), but then entirely forgot about doing so in games #2 (vs Otherworld) and #3 (vs Lords of the Wild).




I played very conservatively in my first two games.  Since my third game was against another LotW player, I had no choice but to drive forward and really mix it up. My LotW opponent is a good player and lost more models in my game against him than my first two games combined. Game number 3 was, by far, my favorite match of the event.

And while I did take best overall and best painted, this must be tempered by the fact that the tournament had a modest turnout (8 players) and there was no painting requirement for attendance.  It's my understanding that this club has a stronger Saga historical player base, and is still building its Saga Age of Magic player base.  As such, this inaugural AoM event was intended to be more of a casual affair, aimed at growing and cementing its AoM player base.




Here's a group pic. The board is a bit crowded because I included all of the optional models.




Ironically, I spent a lot of time painting my HG cavalry and repainting parts of my 10 Warrior cav, but didn't use either option in any of my games. My HG and Warriors stayed on foot during all 3 games. 

I did utilize both Monster and Creatures options. I found the flying Monster the most useful, but this is because I used it primary to harass and distract my opponents.  I used both the Giant Wolves (quadruped) and the Ogre (biped) options, but aside from one charge taking out 9 levy in one go, my creatures didn't do much.

I equipped the Ranger with a bow in all 3 games. In Game #1 he didn't do anything. In Game #2, he turned a large area of uneven terrain into open terrain for my warband. This was crucial in allowing me to achieve the scenario objective.  In Game #3, I used him to counter my opponent's Ambush ability and he killed off my opponent's last two mounted HG with a single volley.

[syrinx0]

Glad to hear it was a fun tournament. No matter how big the turnout your well painted force certainly would have been in contention.  Great picture of the entire force.