Saga Storm 2015

A beautiful day for Saga!

(Lot of pics!  Click on 'em to make them bigger)

Last Saturday (September 12th) we had our second annual Saga Storm event.  Just like last year (Coverage for Saga Storm 2014 is HERE) it was all day open Saga gaming with ten tables set up from 10 am until 5 pm.  Just grab a partner and battle!  At 5 pm we started to set up for the mega Feast for Crows battle and then had bonfire to cap the day off until the park closed at 10pm.

This year's logo

 Did I mention the horn blowing??

Park?!  Yes, as the pictures show, we held Saga Storm outside this year at Ham Lake Park in Ham Lake, Minnesota.  It was a beautiful site and the weather was gorgeous.  We had about 22 players show up (3 from Wisconsin) and play during the day with 14 staying to fight in the mega battle.

Awesome people, minis, terrain, game... AWESOME DAY!

Sorry Bob, looks like Tim (and his beard) win the tie breaker...

What else... we had t-shirts and dice made up just like last year.  Twice during the day we had our chance to try our hand at the Scottish hammer throw. (ouch!)  We had a very successful pot luck/cook out in the afternoon as well.  Just an awesome day full of good times.  The day flew by so quick.  My only regrets is not getting the chance to visit with everyone that came.

The Feast!

Grillin' & Cillin' (?)

 Eric and John, thanks again guys!

John Stentz is a Ham Lake resident so he was able to reserve the pavilion and help organize the event.  Eric Hagen provided the terrain, most of it from the Grand Melee at Adepticon earlier in the year.  Thanks to those guys for a great event for the second year in a row.  Playing at the Fantasy Flight Game Center was nice in 2014, but I think we found our new home.  :-)

Are you issuing a CHALLENGE!!!!

I ended up playing four games with my Vikings including the mega battle.  Not having played in a long time I got to play Monty Luhmann, Eric Hagen, and John Stentz which were all great learning games for me.  The last one against John had a few distractions and was a bit rushed with the mega battle looming.  So I'm looking forward to giving him a proper challenge in the near future. ;-)

Hammer throw!

Last but not least, the day was a great one for families.  I know that at least John and Eric's families stopped by during the day.  Both my parents and my sister's family live in Ham Lake, so the event was also a great opportunity for them to come and check out Uncle Jason's hobby in a not-so-nerdy environment.  It definitely made the day a bit more special.  Thanks again guys, I really appreciate it!

 Mega battle!

Nothing else to say really...  Enjoy the pics!!

Good times, bring on next year!

Finally we tell our war stories and say our goodbyes around the bonfire.

(The majority of these photos were taken by members of the local Saga Storm group on Facebook.  (Mine were mostly rubbish)  Picture credits go to Bob Seabold, John Stentz, Eric Hagen, Richard Viner, and Monty Luhmann.  Thanks a lot guys!)
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Saga Vikings - Jarl Wulfric

Jarl Wulfric (and friends)

Finished up my Viking Warlord just in time for our annual Saga Storm event on Saturday (12th).  Busy week, so I haven't had the chance to post until today.  I plan to share some Saga Storm coverage later in the week.

I've always loved this particular Wargames Foundry model, and he certainly has the command pose down.  I've seen the fig used for a warlord a lot on the Internet, but not locally.  The standard bearer comes from one of the mounted packs, which is nice since I plan to convert a mounted version of Wulfric for the general of my eventual Viking Army for Hail Caesar.

Although this mini has a great command pose, a few vikings in the line still tower over him.  The rock I used was originally used ages ago when I first painted up Logan Grimnar for 40k.  Left in my bits box for some reason, but it worked great here.  I also sliced off a wolf skull from some Space Wolf bit, and together with a little green stuff made the helmet a bit more ornate.  With the figures sorted, the rest of the ensemble came to me by pure chance.

 Some WIP pics

The dog came in a bag of free "thank you" bits when I ordered some Dark Age buildings from Stronghold Terrain (more on that sometime later).  And just last week I stumbled on the little bird/raven and it fit on his shoulder perfectly.  I'm pretty sure it's a bit from the plastic Warhammer giant kit.

The banner was made with help from my friend Eric.  Back in 2001 when I first rolled with WF Vikings for Warhammer Ancient Battles, I bought a Norse wolf necklace.  I saw the same wolf symbol used in a commercial for one of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories books.  Eric was then able to work his magic.

Hopefully I'll get some Bondi painted up later in the week, but for now, here's a picture of my Saga Viking warband so far.

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Saga Vikings - Hearthguard Complete

Coming to a Saxon village near you!

The first four points of my Saga Viking warband are now complete.  Finished up the bases, completed the last few shields, and added a bit of blood.  Next up is the Warlord and the Bondi.  Not much else to say that has not already been said.  For the curious, those details can be found in previous posts HERE.

I already spoke at length about shields HERE, but I thought I'd revisit the subject briefly.  As I mentioned before, I decided to go with a limited black and white scheme specifically for this warband.  As you'll begin to see in future posts, these vikings are also part of a larger army for the game Hail Caesar.  As I paint the rest of the army, the rest of the shields will be done in the typical colorful viking way.  These figure then can blend in separately amongst the other units.  They can also be brought back together in one unit where their unique shield color scheme can help designate an elite unit or mercenaries.
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