Don's Dark Ages

[DonVoss]

I collected some dark age miniatures over the years, but was not sure what to rules to play.
WAB semmed boring to me, DBA all blades seem not too much fun either.
So the miniatures layed in the leadpile for some time, till the SAGA-thing came along...

So I painted some of the stuff, to get into it. And here is the first impression of it:

A good friend came over with his vikings and we builded a welsh warband of my miniatures.
Before the game started the witches cursed my dice: never rolled up something usefull...



Here you can see, the peacefull village...



Marketday is on its way and the first villagers are on their feet.



But in the center of the village a duell is on its way: the mighty Mog un Mog, leader of the welsh, is going to fight a nameless viking jarl. The better warlord will win the day (each warlord starts with fantastic 12 livepoints, who has more lifepoints at the end of round 7, is the winner).



But the viking traitor did not came alone, he brought his whole raiding party with him. Good for Mog und Mog he was not so foolish, to come to the duell alone...



So the fight was on its way. Brawling and fighting till turn 7.
Congrats to my partner, who won 7:4. Not too bad for the welsh, who are not the best close combat fighters...



Liked the rules in the first impression.
A few nice mechanics and fun to play. Perhaps a little expensive for a softback...

DV

[tomek917]

Nice terrain and miniatures! Thanks for sharing!

I've only played SAGA a few times but really like the rules, they give a really nice flow to your battles.

[aircav]

Fantastic Stuff 

I know what you mean about the price of Saga

[DonVoss]

Thanx, glad you like it...

btw, here are few pics of my dark age collection.

My vikings. All foundry with a few additions from other companys. Get them at a very reasonable price...



And my civillians and a few animals. Mainly gripping beast.



Cheers,
DV

[Poiter50]

Then you will like Too Fat Lardies Dux Britanarium when it comes out (June of July this year). 

Nice table.

[Paul]

Lovely stuff. great set up..

[Little Odo]

Wonderful gaming table and figures.

[cram]

I as yet have'nt looked into the Saga rules. I have a collection of Dark Age figures which I'm adding to all the time, but no where near big enough to make an army out of yet.  I could do with a set of rules for this period that works well for smallish skirmishes, lets say a dozen men defending a village from a slightly larger Viking raiding party, that sort of size. would Saga work for this?

[DonVoss]

With that small numbers I would go for Songs of Blades and Heroes...

SAGA is for slightly bigger forces:
Small games are 4pts giving you a warlord (free) and 4 units. The smallest size a unit can have is 4 men, so you need at least 17 men.
But the 4-men-units are elite and other units are a bigger (8-12). So I would go for 2 small units and two medium sized, for 25 miniatures (including the warlord) in total.

DV...

[War In 15MM]

Good looking stuff.  Really enjoyed the pics.  Thanks.  Richard

[cram]

Thanks for the feedback DV.

[Colonel Tubby]

That's a really nice collection of figures & terrain.

[Marine0846]

You have a really great collection of figures.
Enjoyed the game report.
Excellent terrain.

[DonVoss]

Played two games of SAGA today...
First an introductory game for a friend.
I had streamlined the battleboard with just 6 abilities for each faction. So my friend could get familiar with the rules...

Anglo Danes vs. Vikings.

I decided to use the challenge-scenario and shorten it: just a warlord with 6 hitpoints and two hearthguard for each player.
The story behind it would be: two warlords trying to negotiate an alliance. They meet in the great hall with their bodyguard drinking and eating. But all too soon they find out that they hate each other to the death, and that the only solution is destruction...

Here you can see, the starting of the clash...
Warlords in the middle between the two tables.

The board measures 40x50cm.



All danes are LotR-Dunelanders on GW-bases and the vikings are from foundry.



In the first two rounds I tryed to inflict some damage on the viking warlord, but all hits where repelled...



Then the viking lord would fight back. Slaughtering all my bodyguards and finally my warlord in a very viking-like style...



Here you can see my dane-lord all alone.



And here he gets its final bashing, getting him to zero hitpoits; the viking lord stayed at 4 hp.



The game was great fun.
Due to lots of fantastic redvine I wasn't able to shoot more pics...

Cheers,
DV

[aggro84]

What a fantastic project! 

I love it all! 

Wonderful miniatures and scenery! I love the mead hall.