The Fog Lifts

It's been almost two months since I have got down to some serious hobby painting. It's not for a lack of material, there are piles of stuff here that are half-painted, or almost finished, or just primed, or even (turn off now if you are easily shocked), assembled but not primed. The summer weather and holiday break is partly responsible, but mostly it's down to me not being sure about where I want to concentrate my efforts. Hence the hotch-potch of figures painted over the past few months.

However, I have finally made my decision. A couple of months ago I started playing Saga and got very excited about the possibility of building a viking warband. I dug out some old metal vikings and pondered the merits of the current crop of plastics available. I played a few games and enjoyed it, but I wanted to try out some other warbands before I committed. Vikings are agressive and quite easy to play, whereas other warbands had me pondering over how best to use them. I enjoy this thinking side of the game, so I decided in the end to plump for Saxons/Danes. At some point I know I will add vikings into the mix, but fist things first, I am happy to be settled on Saxons.

I have ordered some Wargames Factory Saxon fyrd to build up some units of warriors. In Saga, warbands are based on a very simple points system, whereby 1 point equates to 4 elite troops, or 8 standard troops, or 12 poor quality troops. Each warband has unique qualities/strategies dictated by the use of Saga dice and battle boards. The Saxons have a fair few of these which work best with units of 10 or more, so numbers count. Thus, my first task is to paint up 3 points of standard troops, that is, 24 Saxon fyrd. I will most likely play them in two units of 12, but that's a story for another time. For now, it's just an impatient wait to get my hands on the plastic and turn them into something like this.