SAGA - Viking army for SAGA

VIKINGS!

Specifically, my Viking army, built and intended for SAGA. But as with most historical miniatures, they can easily be used for other systems, possibly with some adaptation of the basing. Since it's intended for SAGA, I will mostly write about it in terms of SAGA, but with occasional notes as to what the figures are and how they can be fielded. It will obviously be easier to adapt it to skirmish wargames, where figures usually aren't fielded in closed ranks, due to the round bases.

People would usually argue that what you field in SAGA is not worthy of the term Army. And I would usually agree, what you're fielding is more of a raiding force. SAGA even uses the term "Warband" for your force, not something more grandiose. But with my vikings, I think they can rightfully be called an army, since I have so many of the buggers. Just look at the image above. Looks like an army to me, at least by miniature wargaming standards.

First up, and least impressive, are the Levies. Bow-armed thralls, old men and boys not yet grown up, fielded to make up manpower. More of an annoyance than a real force on the battlefield. Levies are a rare sight in Viking warbands, but they might be useful on occasion with that ability to reach out and touch someone, since they're the only viking unit with ranged weapons. Still, your often better of with a bundle of competent warriors that can charge in and hew to. A few of the old men might have their old maille, but they can be treated as unarmed.

Talking about those competent warriors, the Warriors. Farmers and other free adult men, Bondi in Viking terms, armed with a shield and a spear as a bare minimum. Spears may break, so they often carried an axe or (in case they were richer) a sword as a back up weapon. Most also had a helmet. A few of the richer ones may even have a coat of maille (mostly because I have more bodies in maille than I know what to do with).

These will make up the most of the viking troops, be they raiders or a more formal army in a shieldwall (never mind that vikings in SAGA does not have any ability evoking shield walls). Since at least SAGA doesn't differentiate between spears, swords or axes, slightly more than half of each unit is armed with spears, one guy has a sword (with possibly a second one with a scabbarded sword next to his spear) and the rest have axes (yes, a few have axes in their belts as well as spears)

Since I have three units of these, I need an easy wao to distinguish them. If one can read runes, one can tell that they're Bondi (it says so on the bases), but one might also need to distinguish between different units of Bondi next to each other. This is easily done by looking at the shields. Each shield has a unique-ish design, but the colours are the same throughout a unit. This makes one unit of blue and red shields, one of blue and yellow, and one of red and yellow. Most shields have simple geometric shapes, but two or three in each unit have more advanced shapes; a viking ship, a raven, a tree (intended to be an ash or oak tree and referencing Yggdrasil), or most commonly, a Valknut.

The Bondi, Warriors, however, do lack more formal training in warfare, and the usually don't have enough free time to master it. For that, you want something harder, the warlords sworn bodyguards, what the vikings called Huskarls or Hirdmen, in SAGA generally called Hearthguard. Bountifully equipped with maille, shields, swords and all they can want for, these are the elite of the elite. Spears are still plentiful, because the spear was the king of the battlefield, but every man also have a sword (and a fair few carry an axe, because you can never have too many weapons). Each unit also has one man with a banner, in case one wants to field such a thing.

Since I have two units of Hirdmen (as can be read on their bases by the rune-knowing), I need to be able to differentiate them. To tie them in with the Bondi, they all have three colours on their shields (red, yellow and blue, the three colours used on Bondi shields). The first unit has simple geometric shapes (and a few references), but the second unit is a bit more intricate. Each shield is divided into two fields, horizontally or vertically of different colours. Then a third colour is used to paint a figure or shape over those fields. Figures can be ravens, valknuts, ships or symbols from norse mythology (Thors hammer, Yggdrasil the Ash tree or Odins horse Sleipnir). In all, a mix of different stuff is attempted to avoid too regimental a look. The colours used remain red, blue and yellow.

If there is one viking word that everyone knows, it has to be Berserker. So of course I have a few figures for such. What exactly a berserker was, is not quite certain. Most agree that it was one kind of mad bugger that didn't care about his wounds all that much, though the exact mechanics of why differs. Interrestingly, a few sources seem to indicate that berserker can be used similarly to champion, with comparison to Charlemagne's paladins. In either case, among my vikings they are represented with guys in bearskin vests, ready to rend you into your constituent parts. In SAGA terms, they have an armour value similar to levies (so, no protective gear at all), but a buttload of attacks. I justify the shields by the fact that viking shields could also be used as a weapon by bashing people. The shields get three colours, since berserkers counts has Hearthguard in SAGA. Since neither the shields nor their bearers are expected to survive for long, they get somewhat simplistic designs, with runes to instill some extra semblance of power, one guy even evoking the Thurs rune (brave man, the Thurs, a.k.a. Jotunns a.k.a. Giants are not folks to summon lightly). In SAGA, they shouldn't really have two-handed weapons, but other systems often assume their counterparts do have.

They're quite possibly one of the most fun units in SAGA, even though they die very easily. Quite possibly, this is due to more often than not gutting an enemy unit as they die (the so-called semi-guided berserker missile), and if you're clever, you've designed your warband around the fact that they will die.

Finally, the boss, the big cheese, the Warlord himself Jarl Sigurd the Tall (it even says so on the base). Decked out in finest maille with a high quality sword at the ready. And, of course, the most intricate shield yet, granting that Odin Allfather himself will watch over him and behold his glory. Another brave man, but one does not lead Vikings while timid.

TO VALHALL!

All units are 12 men strong, the maximum allowed in SAGA, except the Berserkers (who can only be had in a unit of 4) and the Warlord (who is, naturally, alone), giving a grand total of 77 figures and 11,5 SAGA points.

/Fool out