My parting opening shot for this year's Challenge is a first group of Moor archers for a 4-points Saga warband that I'm about to complete now. The unit can be used either as part of an Iberian Peninsula Reconquista game (either in a taifa kingdom army or as a mercenary contingent in a Christian warband) or in a wider Arab invasion campaign.
Since the end of the summer, I have been mainly playing Saga games. Not exactly the most "historical" set of rules, but easy, fast, bloody and perfect for a Sunday morning game at the club. I wrote a few days ago a post in my blog explaining in detail the pros and cons of Saga if you are interested.
These are 28 mm plastic models produced by Gripping Beast, owner of the Saga franchise. Here I have combined parts from two different sets: the Dark Age Archers and the Arab Spearmen and Archers boxes to get a wider variety of poses and models.
The Gripping Beast plastic boxes are one of the best value for money offering currently in the market if you are in the late Roman Empire to the El Cid/Normans period. Good level of sculpting and 30 to 40 multipart and multipose models in the infantry boxes and 12 models for horse mounted boxes for a price below €30.
Parts are also interchangeable between boxes; this combined with lack of uniformity in the period, means that you have an almost infinite variation potential for your armies with 3 or 4 boxes.
Scoring: 5 x 28mm model @5 points each = 25 points.
I also score 1 point in the Squirrel Duel Challenge.
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Lovely work Benito. Your efforts here offer a great testimony to Gripping Beasts plastic sets. I love the variation of both the poses and clothing on these fellows. Great brushwork! I'm definitely going to check out your blogpost as I've a real soft spot for SAGA, and I'm thinking our group should bring it out again for a revisit.
Welcome back to the Challenge!
- Curt
Good looking group, Benito! I need to take a look at your Saga post, Daga has been "on the edge" for me a while.
ReplyDeleteBeing myself a deep-history related wargamer, Saga is an odd choice... but I got hooked by the simplicty of the rules and, what the hell, they are fun!
DeleteThese look great. Gripping Beast do some great models and you've done them well.
ReplyDeleteAgree, very effective models indeed and the variety is impressive
DeleteNice work on these
ReplyDeleteThank you, Martin
DeleteLovely archers, Benito! :)
ReplyDeleteI think you meant "opening shot" - a "parting shot" is what you do as you are leaving.
Your are completely right Tamsin! I got wrongfooted by one of those "false friends" words in Spanish ("partida" which means "initial") Thanks for the correction
DeleteLovely looking figures - the mix of colours and their slightly muted tones are great. I enjoyed reading your blog post. I love Saga, and agree with you that it seems most believable in settings like the Dark Ages with irregular groups - the thought of bringing an elephant or a pike phalanx to a Saga game stretches my imagination a bit too much.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading the post
DeleteAlways good to see more archers (see what I did there? 😬). But they look very good Benito, and I will check out your post as I have the rules and some unpainted figures, some of which may make an appearance yet. A fine start to your Challenge!
ReplyDeleteThank you
DeleteNice brushwork Benito - I'm a big fan of Gripping Beast plastics and of SAGA - a fun game with interesting mechanics and a great excuse to paint all sorts of armies. Happy painting!
ReplyDeleteJust discovered the GB plastics recently this year and already a fan
Deletegreat work as always Benito!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sander
DeleteThey look wonderful Benito, your kit bashing was inspired. I agree with you on the value of GB plastics.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter
DeleteThose a re really nice, presumably can be used for Sicily and Crusades as well so very versatile as well
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! All these dark ages units are widely polivalent. More coming
DeleteVery nice. I'm thinking of getting the plastic Arabs box for conversions as well.
ReplyDeleteNice work, Benito! I like the colors and the the extra flourish you added to them!
ReplyDelete