SAGA: That Awesome Moment When…

...you discover from out of the blue that you have an entire army that is 90% ready to go. Having knocked over another 16 proper Vikings I wanted to give a bit more time and thought to my next SAGA fantasy force. I was looking at my LOTRO models and in particular thinking that my 20ish fully painted Moria Goblins would make a fine start for a Anglo-Saxon horde. Sure, I’d need to buy a few more and paint a lot more, but it was a start and the theme was pretty easy to match with the models.

Then I did some cleaning out in the shed and uncovered an entire WFB army that hadn’t seen daylight for over a decade. They are a perfect. Undead are a classic ‘horde’ style army and the specifics of the Anglo-Saxon faction match up beautifully with my rediscovered models.

Behold! Excavated from the depths of the study and dusted off, a full 7 pts of ‘Anglo-Skeletons’.

Let’s start with the Warlord. I really like this model. It’s a wraith from the original line of models for Confrontation (that red thing is his hand is a heart). The Anglo-Saxon board offers a nice thematic fit for the sheer difficulty of killing such an obviously powerful supernatural creature. He will tower, accordingly IMO, over the rest of his warband and most adversaries

Two units of zombies as levy (24 models). Honestly, I am not too happy with the extreme green flesh on these guys, but at the end of the day they are just too good a fit as Anglo-Saxon levy. According to the rules, A/S levy may be armed with spears and shields instead of the traditional sling/bow. Running with that option improves both their melee capability and armour beyond that of normal levy. Thematically, as you can see, the majority of the models have long weapons of one kind of another. Yes, they lack shields, but zombies are notoriously resilient so I think it keeps to the theme out just fine.

Next up, three units of skeleton warriors as warriors (24 models) and one unit of mounted skeletons as mounted warriors (8 models). These models work so well in their intended role that there really isn’t much more to say about these guys.

Finally, The mounted hearth guard. Now I admit these guys are a bit of a stretch, but the models look cool and will be rebased onto cavalry bases. I think they easily look like something that would be both extra dangerous and fast.

 (Note - those are 40mm square bases)

As with the Aegyptus-Danes, I consider thematic consistency and the ability to very easily explain the force to my opponent as a critical factor. And as with the Aegyptus Danes, this force meets those requirements very well. When I put it on the table I can tell my opponent that the warlord is big, obvious and the only model on a 40mm base. That all skeletons (be they mounted or infantry) are warriors and all the zombies are levy. That just leaves the very distinctive bats on cavalry bases to remember as mounted hearth guard. Furthermore, I can tell my opponent that the lack of ranged weapons on the models is 100% accurate within the list.

So there you go. I need to rebase the giant bats onto cavalry bases and I’ll probably just go ahead and rebase everything else as well. I could use them on their current bases (SAGA does not dictate round or square bases), but aesthetically I very much dislike using square bases for skirmish-game models. Plus, having basically gone from zero to a fully painted force I reckon it’s only fair that I spend at least a little time on them.

I have to admit I don’t like this force as much as my Aegyptus-Danes, mostly it comes down to the fact that these old GW models are more ‘cartoony’. However, once again, I am seriously happy to be able to repurpose and give ‘new life’ to models so old I had literally forgotten about them. Bottomline, it's hard to complain about finding an entire warbands worth of game-ready models  :D