From Pete F, Docherty's Dock- The Mutatawwi'a - Has Anyone Seen My Camel? (75 points)

SAGA is one of my favourite wargames. You don't need a giant warband but it gets enough troops on the table that they stand out on a 4'x3' table. It's truly a skirmish as opposed to a scuffle with 40-50 figures per side. Most of my games have been from the "Age of Vikings", but I bought the "Age of Crusades" some time ago and have been admiring the Gripping Beast Mutatawwi'a faction for a while. Because of the camels.

They had a 30% off Black Friday sale (Gripping Beast also don't charge us foreigners VAT and shipping is reasonable) so I was unable to resist. I thought it would take a while to get to the Mutatawwi'a because I have Normans and Anglo Danes in the pipeline and most of my opponents field Dark Ages armies. But Doherty's Dock provided a compelling reason to paint my first ever camels and get this warband started.

Camels were fun to paint - the distribution of light/dark on their fur is very different to horses. Like donkeys, camels have a lighter underside which lessens the absorption of reflected heat and allows them to be a little cooler in desert conditions.

I'm not sure about my basing, which ended up on the busy side. I went all in on different techniques using the GW technical Agrellan Earth to get the cracked surface effect as well as various bits of rock and sand, applying a wash, dry brushing and pigments. Too much going on.

I took inspiration from Little Bigmen Studios Islamic shield transfers for the shield designs.  I went for more elaborate shield designs for these four as they are hearthguard - the elite of Saga. The warriors got plain fabrics and a green/yellow/white colour palette.

The Mutatawwi'a faction doesn't really reflect my usual play style. They are good at running in fast and furious - and have lots of ways they can deal out additional damage by accepting more damage themselves. I get the impression that there will be few survivors on either side after a clash with the camel riders and their warband,

I generally love Gripping Beast sculpts - these ones had more flash and mold lines on them than usual - and I didn't spot all of the problems in the preparation phase. Bah! I also screwed up drilling one of the hands (the casts have to be drilled to fit spears) which will need a complete replacement at some stage. I'm not sure about the size of the dudes compared with the size of the camels... the animals seem on the small side in relation to the figures compared with camels I've seen in real life.

We have a SAGA tournament in Portland OR this weekend - the Mutatawwi'a won't be ready so I'll be fielding a Jomsviking warband. Gripping Beast were kind enough to send us a few blisters as prize support - very generous of them since it's a small tournament and the organizer would gladly have paid for them.

4 mounted 28mm and the Docherty's Dock (The fourth area I have explored) bonus come to 70 points. I'm not going to claim the bonus 5 points even though that's supposed to be Millsy in the turban.

From DaveD - You have broken you camel cherry YAY! (thats sounds so wrong!) . They are fine beasts - i have some of the same to do somewhere. That is some nice detail in the shields and covers  too - and there is an uncanny likeness to Millsy in there somewhere - 2nd  camel on left maybe.... - lets make that 75 points! Fine start to your warband.