Some time ago, I got a brilliant idea, of the kind that makes my wallet scream in terror and try to hide. Victrix makes some excellent kits, and their Gauls, with their chariots and all, could make an excellent Horde for SAGA: Age of Magic. And with the rumours going around at the time, that a "SAGA: Ancients" were in the works, this seemed like the perfect time to get a two-armies-for-one. And then the FLGS started carrying Victrix, so... said and done. Some off the cuff calculations (and a whole lot of looking at sprues over the 'net) said that just the Chariots and Warriors should get me enough for a warband, which would allow for more options "later", once the wallet dared out of the closet again.
All said and done, and off to gluing, basing and painting I went. And here we are, at long last. At least I didn't have to tear my hair out over the shields, as with my Vikings, I used shield decals.
First up is, as is traditional, the Warriors. 24, for 3 SAGA points, usually divided up in 2 units of 10 for punch, and a unit of 4, for some cheeky SAGA dice. Decent punch, the usual workhorse of SAGA warbands.
Then there is the Hearthguard. Nobles and trusted fighters, with more experience as well as heavier maille armour (incidentally, by most accounts an invention of the celts).
One fun thing with SAGA: Age of Magic, and especially the Horde, is the amount of heroes your warband can include. Here we have a Magician (druid from the Chariot kit, and I have two more I can do fun stuff with), a Lieutenant/Champion on foot (almost as dangerous as a Warlord, without having to risk your Warlord), and two Chariots (they hit hard, are surprisingly resilient, lightning fast... and an invitation to overreaching).
Finally, the Warlord (Warlady?) herself, available both on foot and on a Chariot (ruleswise, a "Beast", but more or less the same as a Chariot). For a challenge, I decided to paint her as close to exactly the same as I could in both versions, differing equipment aside. And I'll have to say that I succeeded.
All in all, it seems like quite a good warband, and I've already had some success with them.
And then SAGA: Age of Hannibal was announced, and gauls were included, and all felt good. And then we started getting sneak peeks as to what options they had, and suddenly, it wasn't quite as good any more. Chariots were no longer 1 point heroes, but just substitutions for 2 Hearthguard. And those Hearthguards were only available as mounted (or in chariots), as were the Warlord.
Well then. "Emergency" procurement of some Gallic Cavalry, some more gluing, basing, and painting, and here we are. 8 Hearthguard, and a mounted Warlord, just in case. And these are also the f---fellows that almost broke me. While the previous gauls had quite a lot of multi-colored trousers, shirts and cloaks, with some of them (especially the heroes and the Warlord) having plaid, for these, I somehow thought it would be a good idea to go almost all out on the plaid. Note to self, don't do that. At least I won't have to (hopefully) paint any more plaid for at least a year...
But with that, I now also have a finished warband for SAGA: Age of Hannibal. And just as the book is released, too. (I got a notification that the FLGS got the books in just as I was writing this, in fact).
And combining it all, shows a truly powerful force (nevermind that I'd never be able to field all of this in one go, but it gives plenty of options). Of course, as further things were revealed for SAGA: Age of Hannibal, I emergency speedbuilt some Levies with Javelins, too, although I haven't managed to speed paint them yet. So much for "no more plaid"... well, they're levies, they won't be getting any plaid. In fact, most of them will have to make do with single colour fabrics.
And I'm also considering how to expand things for Age of Magic. Right now, the force is quite mundane, crazy priests aside, but perhaps some creatures? I do have 3 riders left over from the Gallic Cavalry kit, I just need to find them something suitable to ride... and a unit of levies with bows could be useful, both for AoM and AoH... truly, no army is ever "finished".
And yes, the extra heads are kind of a theme among these fellows... but they do all look quite splendid.
/Fool Out
