Max and I are heading up to Sheffield tomorrow on the train for Joy of Six on Sunday. As I packed up our stuff, I realized it would be too heavy to carry everything. So, I decided to send the mat, trees, and elevation pieces in three parcels via Parcel Force. They were picked up yesterday for delivery by 1 PM today at Peter Berry’s Baccus offices. The parcels arrived today at Baccus—well, two of them did. The mat seems to be somewhere in transit.
Talking to Parcel Force, I discovered that next-day delivery before 1 PM excludes Saturdays. So even if they find the parcel, they can’t deliver it because Saturday delivery wasn’t an option for next-day services. “Can I pay for Saturday delivery?” I asked, feeling utterly frustrated. “Yes,” came the response, “but only if we attempt to deliver it.” “You mean on Monday?” I clarified. “Yes.”
“I need the item on Sunday,” I said, exasperated. “That’s why I wanted it delivered before 1 PM on Friday.”
“Can I go to the depot in Rotherhithe if the parcel shows up?” I asked in despair. “We don’t know where the parcel is right now,” the Parcel Force guy replied empathetically, reminding me of my old German teacher when I hadn’t read that week’s text. “But if you find it and it turns up at the delivery depot, can I pick it up?” I pressed on. “Only if we attempt to deliver it first,” he said, sounding like a Kafkaesque bureaucrat from the Paranoia RPG universe.
“You mean if you fail to deliver it on Monday?” I muttered under my breath. “For heaven’s sake, Parcel Force!” I screamed internally.
So now, I need to improvise a mat, roads, rivers, and other bits and pieces. It’s possible to pull off, but I’m really angry that I can’t take the work I’ve prepared and bring to the show.
Anyway the show must and will go on,
So we will be there, father and son ruling the galaxy well at least a small part of it, miniatures, trees, dice and hopefully still have jolly good time even without the mat.
See you Sunday,
I might try to talk some sense to them tomorrow but I already living in Plan B.
Anyway this was the idea, we will see what I come up with in the interim. Sorry for anyone who had looked forward to see it as intended.
This the first part of what became a 12 Part series of a Blog Post on doing Saga in 6mm. Hope you enjoy. If you have any comments or questions feel free to contact me through the blog or the Roll a One Facebook group.
In the text below it states “The game is more or less played as normal apart for some changes to distances (movement and range combat).” , however I kept everything as per the rules in the end. I just replaced the single miniature with the 25mm base (using inches, the same playing area and ranges, etc). Initially, as indicated, I was thinking about changing the range for Javelins as strictly speaking they are a little bit too long in relative terms using 6mm miniatures (I think that the Medium length at 6 inches is about 40 meters in 6mm “talk” – the effective combat range of a javelin is commonly understood to be about 20 meters). But Saga is more of a game than a historical simulation of combat – so we ignored this and to be honest it works. Perhaps one way to justify it (if you need one) would be that they rush forward, throw their javelins and then get back?
I have been putting up 6mm wargames tables at the Joy of Six for the last four years with the Wyre Forest Wargames club (WFWC). They have been depicting various battles from the Great Northern War (GNW). This year (to save me from tears) I have decided to do something else. The main reason was actually due to the fact that my good friend (and authority on all things warfare in general and the Great Northern War in particular) Nick Dorrell could not make this show and it felt strange not having his guiding hand to oversee the practical matters of running the game. But I hope we will be back with some GNW action next year and do the interesting battle of Lesnaya 1708 (but things have changed before). I will be back with some GNW postings once the Joy of Six 2016 and the 6mm Saga adventure have come and gone as there is still plenty to do before July.
Since Baccus released their early middle age range with Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans I have wanted to do a dark age project. I noted a mention on the Meeples and Miniatures page about doing Saga in 6mm – it made me think for a second or two. As many others I am better at buying figures than painting them and really wanted some kind of challenge and a clear deadline – so I decided to do Saga in 6mm. Here is my blur I submitted to the Joy of Six show just before Christmas last year.
“This participation game allows the player to try out Studio Tomahawks Saga rules in 6mm, using one of the 12 factions from the basic rules and the first two supplements (Anglo-Danes, Norman, Viking, Welsh, Anglo-Saxons, Irish, Strathclyde Welsh, Norse Gael, Bretons, Jomsvikings, Scots or Capetian Franks). The warbands are pre-selected and are all at 4 points. Each individual model from the normal rules are replaced with a 25mm square base with 3 to 10 models, depending on type of unit. The game is more or less played as normal apart for some changes to distances (movement and range combat). Prior knowledge useful but not required. We run each game to conclusion or an hour (whatever occurs first). We will play 3 or 4 games per table during the day – further details will follow. The terrain boards, although not historical, will be in line with what we normally do for the Great Northern War stuff. There will be a few hills, forests and a small Viking or Saxon settlement somewhere in the background.”
The Anglo-Danish Faction 4pt Starter Army
Since then I have completed all but one faction, done two 3 by 4 feet mats and have some terrain to complete. In future parts I will go through the factions and what models I used, how I painted them, how I made the terrain mats we will use on the day and some of the terrain pieces. All in all the project have resulted in 324 bases (the equivalent of over 100 Polemos bases) and a total of 2155 miniatures – they are small but many.
Being a long time listener of the Meeples and Miniatures Podcast and having had a chat or two with Neil Shuck over the years I decided to approach him and David Luff at Salute – knowing they liked the game. I asked them if they wanted to help out on the day and they said yes – I am not sure who was the happiest at the end of the day – my son who got to try out the new Halo Ground Command game or I.
The Young One directing the UNSC forces trying out the upcoming Halo Ground Command rules at Salute 2016
When Mike Hobbs (as documented in the Meeples and Miniatures Podcast No. 170) decided to join and help it really made my day. I just have to finish a few things and we should be good to go.
Please come back and have a look (or follow the blog), we aim to post something at least every Sunday.
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