28mm Gallic Warband - Saga

My first entry for the 2026 Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge are twenty Gallic Warriors. This is a unit purchase from Black Tree Design that has been sitting in my pile of lead for somehere between 15 and 20 years. The unit deals, and even the Gauls are no longer available on the BTD website.

20 x 28mm BTD Gaul - Warriors

These are an easy additional to my SAGA Gallic Warband but are displayed here on prototype movement trays for a concept test for Infamy Infamy. Graham, a fellow gamer here in Montreal created these 3D prints for use with Sharpe's Practice. 

On New Year's Eve I discovered I had no shields for these figures, which I imagine are lost in the mists of time. I placed an order to Warlord Games for shields that I hope will work with these figures. I ordered a unit of 16 Javelinmen at the same time. 

MTB02 - French Army - French and Indian Wars

On the 27th I was at the Abyss for a game of Sharpe's Practice. This was a play test of a scenario for the upcoming Fèves au Lard, the first-ever “Lardy Day” in Montréal, which will be held on January 17th, 2026. Graham took the opportunity to delivery to me the first figures from the following 

 MTB02 - French Army - French and Indian Wars pack.

I received the first 7 Franches Marines painted

The French Army contains of the following 

1x Compagnies Franches Officer

1x Compagnies Franches de la Marines unit (8 figures)

2x Indian Units (one 4 figures, one 6 figures)

2x Canadian Militia Units (Two 6 figure units)

Clash of Spears/ SAGA Age of Alexander Later Macedonian or Helenistic Greek Warband

 Yesterday afternoon I went to the Abyss to play my second game of Clash of Spears. The dice gods were not with me and my opponent and his Carthagians suffered a major victory at the hands of my dice. 

Luis and our armies early in the game.

However since I had to pop open the Warband it seemed appropiate to record it on my blog.

The overhead view after the carnage. I had lost half my figures, including two complete units. Luis might  have lost 3 Figures by this point in the game.

The three circular command units on my side were from the rebasing of my WRG Greeks for ADLG.

Command Elements

10 Warriors - Pike, LTS shield - Unarmored

6 Javelin men with Shield

Ranks of Armoured Pike, LTS with Shield - 16 figures in total

Greek Light Cavalry - Shield no armour - 8 figures

Archers - Should be w/o shield - 8 Figures

SAGA General on Foot with Four Hearth Guard

There is a lot going on with this warband, I have another 10 Cavalry figures and 8 foot figures to paint,  in addition to a War Elephant and the Goddess Athenia, with some other pieces and figures. This was an excellent deal when I acquired the figures early last spring. Glad to finally have them out of their box.

15mm Japanese Mythic Army

 IMO Alternative Armies offers some fantastic deals to help boost your 15mm DBA armies into the world of HOTT.  In one case, the HOTT1022 Evil Japanese Mythic Army offers a total fantasy army in itself, instead of the Epic Japanese Army listed in the rule book. I found the army sitting in a storage box that it shared with the HOTT1023 Xmas Army. The Christmas army came out of the living room window this morning, and the Japanese came out of the box. This post will only contain the figures that were started and never completed. The Goblins, and Oni will be presented after they have been entered into the Analogue Painting Challenge. 

HOTT1022 Evil Japanese Mythic Army Consists of

Warband (General) @ 2AP 1 (3 Centipede Demons) (D1) SGF30 Centipede Body with SGF39 Snake Head

Lurkers @ 1AP 1 (3 Kappa) (C1) SGF11,12,15 Kappas 

Warband (General) - Centipede Demons and Lurkers (Kappa)

Warband @ 2AP 1 (4 Snake Devils) (D1) SGF31 Snake Body with SGF36 Human Body with Sword (2) and  SGF32 Snake Body with SGF38 Human Body with Sword (2)

Snake Devil Warbands

Behemoth @ 4AP 2 (2 Oni Ogres) (B2) SGF04 Oni, SGF05 Oni, SGF06 Oni, each with two creatures

Shooters @ 2AP 2 (4 Goblins) (D2)

Spears @ 2AP 2 (4 Goblins) (E2)

Sneakers @ 3AP 1 (3 Rokurokubi) (D1) SGF23 Rokurokubi (3)

Dec 31st 2025 Year End Game

William and I played two games of DBA 2.2 yesterday afternoon. A great way to end the year. It has been a while since I had the troops out on the table. First match was a Western Cho Other Chinese Army (I/32C) vs Mongol Conquest (IV/35). 

First Clash

 

The Cho Victorious

The 2nd match was two Chinese armies (2x I/32C) vs Mongols (IV/35) and Seljuq Turks (III/74). William had the first victory of the day and I the final. Our second game involved a river crossing, his choice of the terrain.. The Mongols found out the hard way you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them cross the river.

Played on the Steppes, the terrain was very minimalistic. We had the river, a hill and a rocky patch. The Steppes was a GF9 Flames of War gaming mat, and the river was by Armourcast. The figures were mostly 15mm Essex Miniatures. 

28mm SAGA Warband - Age of Vikings - Norman

Thursday night was the first time in almost a year that I had my Norman Warband in action. Since they were readily available  I was able to photograph the units for the Blog. The Calvary were Black Tree Design Miniatures that I repurposed for SAGA. They were originally based for DBX games. The figures of Bishop Odo and William the Conqueror are from Footsore Miniatures and Games. The remaining infantry are from various manufacturers. Some were purchased 10 or 12 years ago and I simply don't remember where they were from.  

Bishop Odo and William the Conqueror

Hearth Guard

Mounted Norman Warriors

Two units of Norman Warriors on Foot

Levy Bowmen

Crossbowmen 8 Warrior or 12 Levy

Levy Spearmen

Levy Slingers - I need 4 more

All the infantry figures were painted between Sept 2023 and early 2024 in order to get this Warband onto the tabletop. Meeting up with the  Montreal Historical Wargaming Club put a focus back into my painting which had been dormant for almost two years.

MTB05 - British Regular Army (French & Indian War) Part 3

 Thursday evening Graham popped by to SAGA night to make his deliveries. I received my final group of redcoats, an officer and eight men. Again Graham puts my painting to shame.

This is part of  the 15th Regiment of Foot. 15th Foot – Buff facings, white lace. (Louisburg, Plains of Abraham, Montreal).  The reason I selected the 15th was they were garrisoned in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the start (1758) of the French and Indians wars.   

Last Saga Night of 2025

Last night was the last SAGA meet-up for 2025 by the club. For the evening we returned to the Age of Vikings and I dug out my Normans, lead by Bishop Odo. I was matched against Eric and his Norse Gaels. It was a fairly bloody affair with the game declared a draw, 21 vs 20 points. 

Crossbowmen anchor the line. Bishop Odo on foot between two units of warriors.

The battle lines are drawn. The setup was diagonally across the board. 

Both sides received an extra SAGA die each turn. Brutal.

Saga Arab/Saracen/Moors Warband

 This was a SAGA warband that I picked up in November 2024 on the Facebook Marketplace. I have been meaning to rebase some of my own DBX based Saracens to provide greater flexibility, due to the revisions between the older Cross and Crescent and the more recent Age of Crusades supplements. Based upon the troops mustered this warband looks like it was for the earlier supplement. I just need to paint up or rebase some more cavalry figures.  The figures themselves are a mix of Victrix and Gripping Beast hard plastic miniatures.

My Tabletop Limits

 I have set up my tabletop in the anticipation of having a game over the holidays. My table is slightly only 31 inches wide, and almost 5 feet long (59 inches). It looks like I will be able to get some 15mm troops into action, but 25mm large scale affairs might be a thing of the past. Not that I have had too many in this city.   

15mm Mike's Models carrying out exercises