Sunday 6 September 2015

SELWG 2015 Preparations

South East London Wargames Group will be holding their annual show on Sunday 11th October 2015 at Crystal Palace.

 

 

The Friday Night Fire Fight Club will be there with a couple of games and one of these will be run by yours truly, ably assisted by Mighty Kyle. Our table features a SAGA participation game that is based on the Revenant scenario Back to the Longship.

Viking raiders have sacked a Saxon church and are making off with the loot when dead grasping hands rise from the marshes and undead forms slowly emerge from the mist...

Kyle and I have had lots of ideas about the game. Kyle will be playing the Revenants and has acquired a dodgy horned Viking helmet (I know...) from Lindisfarne. Apparently he intends to mock whoever is brave enough to play the Vikings by making them wear it!

SAGA is a great game, but one that can perhaps lack something on the terrain front. Things can be a bit clinical with set sizes for terrain and rules for placement etc. So I've decided to spice things up a bit. Although we'll be using the existing terrain rules (more or less), I want a bit more colour on the table. So they'll be a few more scenic items - that may or may not be important to the game...

Of course, I've been working on all of this for a while, but not actually tested it out together yet. The image in my head may not make it to SELWG in exactly the form I intend, but I'll be giving it a good go.

So on to a few spoilers. Here are some of the Saxon warriors from Curteys Miniatures that came to the monastery's defence, but were cruely slain.

 

 

It would be unfortunate if Kyle's Necromancer was able to reanimate them using foul magic...

 

No Viking raid would be complete without a dead monk, some plundered loot and a rather elderly maid being led off to an uncertain fate...

 

 

 

 

These Viking Raiders come as a set from Wargames Foundry (who will have a stall at SELWG so you can buy your own - I should be on commission). I intend to have these positioned 'atmospherically' near the monastery. I've bought some flickering Halloween tea lights and if I can work out how to do it, I intend to have the roof ablaze - well, adorned with suitably painted and flickering cotton wool anyway.

There will be other stuff as well. I've just finished varnishing the marshes, next step is pouring some realistic water. Never used this stuff before so wish me luck!

Since we only have so much time for each game, we'll be using four(ish) points a side. My Oldhammer zombies will once again make an appearance as the Revenants and I'm currently painting up the Necromancer (from Gripping Beast's box set). That just leaves the remaining Viking warband. And guess what? I'm painting those up as well! I'm aiming to have six points completed (to provide more choice), but may only finish four in time for SELWG. We'll see...

I'll post more photos as stuff is completed.

 

 

5 comments:

  1. Lovely figures which will certainly add plenty of atmosphere! It's details like these that really bring a table to life!

    I should be getting my Revenants painted up over the next couple of months and am looking forward to finally being able to give SAGA a go using the exact same scenario with my Adrian's Wall Saxon Church!

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    1. Thanks Gordon. Of course this scenario wouldn't be complete without you know an actual longship! It's possible, just possible that one will be making an appearance (courtesy of Paul from the club). I'd better get making a river for it to sail up...

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  2. I wasn't aware of the Saxon casualties from Curteys Miniatures. If you are ever looking for a larger collection then the Old Glory pack SVS-10 "The Slain" is very good [http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/proddetail.asp?prod=SVS-10].

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    1. Thanks, they do look good but my painting queue is pretty full now... Three points of Vikings are on the final stretch and I'm considering painting up my bag of angry monks! I've also just cut some wood for a nice tidal creek that the Vikings will sail up. There aren't enough hours in the day!!

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