Saga in 6mm – Part 11 – The Joy of 6 2016

On 19/07/201620/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Games played, Saga, Shows, Terrain5 Comments

I have had a few busy days since returning from the Joy of 6 show and I suppose I need to write a summary of what happened on the day. In short it was an excellent day. We actually arrived the evening before and had the pleasure of doing the traditional stop in Broom Hill for an ale at the York and then a Curry at the Balti King with Peter Berry et al. It is a nice little preamble to the show and this year the discussions ranged from milk protein paint (looks interesting indeed) to kickstarters we had backed (seems like I am not the only one who has some big boxes of stuff at home).

The Sunday weather on offer was magnificent and I do not miss the old venue as it tended to get very hot inside. The new venue is superb and it is nice to see how the show grows every year and the selection of periods, game systems and style of presentation is very varied and makes the event well worth going to. It is also nice to meet up with some old friends, although the time for a chat is limited when you are running a participation game. Here are a few links showing off some of the stuff presented on the day (one, two, three, four).

Our two tables on the day. Note the Lewis chess set Queen overseeing the proceedings on the table. According to the British museum they are from the period 1150-1200 which is a little bit later than the 10th to 11th century of the Saga game – no one seemed to mind though.

I and Neil Shuck arrived at about 9am with the doors opening at 10am. Usually I have hundreds of Great Northern War units to put up which invariably I mess up giving me an headache in setting up – does the Kalmar regiment stand on the left or right flank?, is the Dorrellian Dragoons dismounted or on their horses? Instead I just rolled out the mats and placed the terrain and we were good to go. Neil umpired the Kings table where we had Normans vs. Strathclyde Welsh and I umpired the Queens table where we had Vikings vs. Anglo-Danes. You can read about Neil’s day on his blog here.

One of the first battles involved a lot of maneuvering in the forest areas. Note the canopies having been taken off leaving the darker tiles to represent the forest area. In later games I took away some of the forest areas to allow a more full on clash.

Neil, not just a smooth voice on the radio but a pro umpire, just got straight into it and had a father and son playing within minutes so I just had to get going. We ran 7 or 8 games over the day and we did not dramatically change (at least knowingly) any of the original rules – they (the rules) works very well as a 6mm game. And it gives a different feel to the warband than in 28mm of being bigger – but not big enough to be an army. The Saga rule set allow the person with the most impressive facial hair to go first in case of a tie in rolling for initiative – and on more than one occasion it was hard to tell the best beard of the day! What is great with Saga is that it takes a while to master each faction and I learn something new every time I play (or in this case watch others playing it).

Less forest and a more straightforward battle!

I think everyone who tried out the game enjoyed it and although I do hope it promoted the Saga rulesets per se I am more keen that it provoked some thought about using alternative scales for other games. This is not universal but applies to a lot of games – Mike Whittaker has posted some interesting things about ground scale and other considerations you may need to take (see his blog.). I have seen Flames of war in 6mm and it looks beautiful especially when there are many tanks on the table compared to 15mm, Chain of Command is based on a 15mm ground scale but perfectly playable in 6mm using centimeters instead of inches (but some consideration should be given to the basing of team instead of individuals).

Thanks to everyone who came by and asked about the terrain and how I had done this and that – it really makes my day! In addition a very big thank you to my daughter who helped out on the day and of course to Peter Berry and Wargames Emporium for putting on another fantastic show. I am also more than grateful for the support I have had from the Meeples and Miniatures crew in getting this done (Dave I hope your foot gets better soon and Mike we need to have a beer at some point) – so thank you Neil.

I am not 100% sure what to do for next year but I have some thoughts….

Battle_of_Lesnaya_1708_by_Larmessin — Maybe a proper GNW action like the Battle of Lesnaya 1708?

…or a Pegasus Bridge Chain of Command Scenario in 6mm?

I will discuss a few more Saga issues in the next posts, including some thoughts on other factions and what Baccus models to use. Then we may move on to something completely different – but more about that later.

All the very best

Saga in 6mm – Part 8 – Real Estate

On 26/06/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Buildings, Painting, Saga, Terrain2 Comments

There are a fair number of companies selling 6mm buildings and terrain out there. Previously I have used buildings from Baccus, Total Battle, Irregular Miniatures, Magister Militium and Timecast for my 18th century GNW stuff. For this project (with the exception of the palisade walls of the second village that are from Irregular miniatures) I used the excellent buildings from Leven Miniatures. Leven has a very extensive range of buildings and fortifications in 6mm for all kind of periods. They will also attend Joy of Six in July together with Baccus, Total Battle and Timecast.

Big Village/Settlement

Some Anglo-Saxon manning the walls of the Settlement.

For the first village/settlement I wanted to create the feeling of a slightly larger settlement continuing off-board. I did a base to place the buildings on top to allow the ability to make it look more like paths between the buildings instead of putting them directly on the bare mat (with the perusual cocktail of some brown sand, chocolate brown paint, acrylic sealant topped up, when dry, with some dry brushing). The buildings are from Leven and are the Saxon great hall, round houses and cottages. The walls and the gatehouse is from the upcoming Palisade Fortifications set (accidentally it works very well to place my 25mm bases on top of the walls). I could have built the walls myself but really liked the Leven model and could not resist it for very long. Note the well that is from Perfect Six (you may recall from a previous posting that I got the Irish war dogs from there too). The same type of well was used in the second village (as they come in a pack of two).

gggg — The full Palisade set from Leven.

Small Village/Settlement

For the second village I used buildings from Leven’s Viking settlement range with the palisade being formed by a combination of the walls and gates from a wild west fort from Irregular Miniatures but with the corners replaced by 3 no. Leven Viking watch towers and one of their fantasy watchtowers. Again on top of a base dry brushed and with grass to make the buildings blend in.

Longboats

I got the longboats from Heroics and Ros. They come with the option of having the shields hanging on the outside and there are rowers and crew as well. However, I wanted to show them as being left whilst the warband is rolling Saga dice on land. They look a little bit plain, but I am not sure what the final configuration will be – so I will leave them like this for the moment and probably for the show too.

Next time I will show some “in-action” pictures from some of the games we have played. Looks like Neil and Dave are getting ready for the event as well, over at the Meeples and Miniatures “island“!

/ Take Care

Saga in 6mm – Part 7 -Terrain

On 19/06/201620/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Painting, Saga, Terrain10 Comments

Terrain Modelling – approach

As discussed in the last entry I use a base colour (chocolate brown) and dry brush 3 colours on top and then apply two different types of grass for my miniature bases. I use exactly the same approach on my terrain pieces (more or less). For me the aesthetic side is important as it helps the immersion in the game. I do not mind playing with pieces of felt but it is relatively easy and cheap to achieve something slightly more pleasing to the eye and where the pieces interplay to create a (in my opinion) more pleasant experience. For me the game itself includes the terrain and the miniatures – but I know that is not an universal opinion. [I will not drift away talking about preferring to sit in my comfortable sofa, as opposed to a camping chair, whilst watching a good movie.] By using a consistent approach you can use the terrain pieces you make for most of your game and scales. This is not a step-by-step guide but more a high level discussion/presentation with some links to sources. If you have any questions just ask here or come to Joy of Six on the 17th July 2016.

In action 2 — Our first test games of Saga in 6mm were held in Normandy, France. My Vikings were beaten twice by my Norman opponent. I am sure that his French version battle board had some in-built favouritism (C’est une blague). An improvised table with whatever we had available on top of an old but still serviceable mat from Terrain Mat including some Memoir ’44 river and forest tiles! – the game was brilliant but I felt that the terrain needed to take a step up!

1st table — One of the two set-ups to be used at Joy of 6! A step in the right direction….

Battle Mat(s)

As we will use two tables for the Saga demonstration game at Joy of 6 I needed two 3 by 4 playing surfaces. I normally use terrain boards but wanted to allow more flexibility in setting up and the mats (as opposed to boards) are taking less space. I got inspired by this posting on the Meeples and Miniatures blog on making your own wargames mat using acrylic sealant and canvas. I followed the approach as described but (i) applied the static grass after it was all dry (this allowed me to drybrush the mat before grass was put on top – using my three colours) and (ii) made the acrylic mix dark (chocolate brown) using Brown acrylic sealant and dark chocolate brown emulsion, (iii) used plastic backed drop sheets instead of canvas, and (iv) spread the mix with an old plastic VHS tape cover. I am happy with the results. It is easier than it looks and make sure to secure the sheet when you do it with clamps as it does shrink a little.

Note: Buy the acrylic sealant (sometimes called adhesive) from places like Screwfix at about £2 or less per 310ml to use in an applicator gun (silicone based sealants do not take paint well so avoid these). Use cheap paint. Allow a weekend for this project, do not apply to thick and make sure there is sufficient amount of sand to create some graininess without making it to dry when you mix it. Also vacuum clean the mat when dry to get rid of excess static grass.

Roads, Rivers, Marshland and Shoreline

To create roads, rivers, marshland and shoreline I use “Nylon Adhesive tile planks”. They are normally 3′ (90 cm) long and allows you to create continuous looking pieces for terrain. I bought mine from Wickes. I use acrylic sealant mixed with brown paint and sand that I spread all over the road (and then use a plastic fork to create a wagon trail), create banks for the river and to do the land for the shoreline piece (work on the sticky side).

I paint the edges of the road in the normal three dry brush way, as well as the banks and the shoreline land. I painted the river and the ocean in shades of blue with some white detailing and applied Gloss Mod Podge carefully on top to create some structure as well as a gloss shine to the water. I applied the same process for the marshland, but use a darker green-blue shade for the water.

Note: Be careful with these long pieces as they snap easily if you bend them too much. If you have no space to store them make smaller lengths instead.

Hills

I use Styrofoam that I cut out and shape to taste, brown acrylic mixed with sand on top and then the normal procedure. There must be thousands of tutorials on making hills out there – pick your favourite.

Forest Sections

Mailed Fists wargames group put on a great looking participation game at JOS 2015 called “The Hungry Legions” that had some nice forest tiles that allowed the creation of pieces of forests as opposed to trees (the bases could “hide” under the trees). After some searching on the net I found something very similar here. As always I did make some changes:

(I) Instead of the Woodland scenic foliage I decide to do my own as I recalled a youtube video on making your own foam foliage that you can find here. Great stuff and cheap. I bought a budget range mixer for £10 and got a £5 bag worth of upholstery off cuts, some cheap green emulsion and mixed with some brown colour to create different colours for each little batch I made. Most blenders are designed to run for about 2 minutes continuously – any longer and they may overheat and possible stop working. Be careful and take small breaks. It needs to dry for some time so this is a slow project is terms of waiting time. It will take days for it to dry so plan for it accordingly.

(ii) I opted for removable tree trunks instead of building them into the base or the canopy. This makes it less bulky to store as well as the ability to make stumps for different scales. I did mine 30mm that will work even with the mounted based for this project. If I would use these for another scale I just need to check my tallest model that will be used and adjust the tree trunks accordingly. The tree trunks are twigs mounted on 20mm penny washers using putty pellets from poundland – I made 39 treestumps with a pack!. I also made the forest tile slightly darker than the the mat itself – i.e. more dark static grass.

Bridge(s)

I wanted bridges that could allow the 25mm square bases to sit comfortably on the top and to work with my river tiles. I could not find anything so I made some from a lolly pop stick, matches and spaghetti – “Cheap as spaghetti as they may say in Italy!”. They look alright and make a great story. The final result can be see in the picture of the river above.

Fields

I have some rectangular fields that I bought a few years back that are ok but put together on a table they look too similar and unnatural for my taste. I wanted to create some funkier looking fields and did some odd shaped nylon tiles with fields all over the place. To avoid the problem of floating bases on top of high coir mat sections (that can look a little bit overwhelming in 6mm scale) or needing to remove sections I just used different colours of short static grass. I applied a layer of browned acrylic sealant and shaped ploughed fields with a plastic fork, then let it dry and put some pva on top of the furrows (leaving a few gaps here and there) and use a different colour every day for a few days (to allow the pva glue to dry between grass applications) and you end up with some funky looking field tiles (me thinks!). Then I add some borders (brown acrylic) and brushed them up with the three colours and decorated with some static grass and tufts. Does it for me.

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None of these projects are difficult if you plan carefully and take your time. Next time I will discuss the “terrain items” I did not do from scratch and where I got them from – the villages and viking ships. Bye.

Roll a One – Wargaming Blog

Category: Terrain

Saga in 6mm – Part 11 – The Joy of 6 2016