Last night the Montréal Historical Wargaming Club held a monthly Saga/Age of Magic night at the Abyss. From the Age of Hannibal I choose Epirus as the city option for my Warband. I was faced with a Spartan warband from the Age of Alexander. In the words of my opponent we had a great lil brawl. Quick and brutal. At the end of the 4th round, Sparta had three saga dice remaining. Since I choose Pyrrhus I, king of Epirus as a legendary Warlord, I would still generate between four and six.
Finally started work on the Arthurian Warband. A WIP, I would like to finish the cavalry within the next two weeks.
Amongst the goodies I received from Graham on Sunday morning was the latest installment for my French Army for the French and Indian wars. Nine natives, painted to the standard for which Graham is known. IMO, they look fantastic.
The next Saga night in Montreal is Jan 22nd at the Abyss and one of the themes is Age of Invasions. These troops were painted by Garry of the Scarlet Lancer Painting Service late in 2024. They have yet to surface on the tabletop. When I asked him to paint the figures I ensured that the units had enough figures to be included in either a Lion Rampant or Dragon Rampant game (12 figure units vs 8 figure for Saga).
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| Mounted General |
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| 12 Mounted Warriors |
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| 12 Man Levy Archers |
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| 12 Man Levy Javelin Unit, 2 units of Warriors (12 figures available for each) |
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| Some Late Roman Artilley I painted years ago |
In the box I stll have two more units to paint. one unit of Levy Slingers and one unit of Archers. I suspect these will be good candidates for the current Analogure Hobbies Painting Challenge.
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.
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| 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.
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
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MTB02 - French Army - French and Indian Wars pack. |
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| 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)
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Command Elements |
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| 10 Warriors - Pike, LTS shield - Unarmored |
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| 6 Javelin men with Shield |
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| Ranks of Armoured Pike, LTS with Shield - 16 figures in total |
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| Greek Light Cavalry - Shield no armour - 8 figures |
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| Archers - Should be w/o shield - 8 Figures |
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| SAGA General on Foot with Four Hearth Guard |
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.
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| Bishop Odo and William the Conqueror |
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| Hearth Guard |
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| Mounted Norman Warriors |
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| Two units of Norman Warriors on Foot |
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| Levy Bowmen |
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| Levy Spearmen |
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| Levy Slingers - I need 4 more |
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.
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.
This will be the majority of mounted figures in my next Age of Chivalry Scots Warband. It was the Victrix Miniatures Medieval Knights package which contains 18 x Knights and fully barded horses. Again I am blown away by the scope of figures available in hard plastic. I still lean towards the choice of metal figures, however the pose and energy of these figures attracted me. I have three units of Levy Archers by Claymore casting, but happy to have them joined relatively inexpensively by 2 units of mounted warriors.
I purchased a box of Guards figures from the Wargames Atlantic Classic Fantasy line. I kept half the figures and swapped the other half with a buddy so I could obtain a sampling of the Villagers from the same line of figures. They still await treatment. As I stated before I am truly amazed by the breathe and range of hard plastic figures and am very happy with how this unit turned out.
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| The Night Watch originally designed for Guards of Traitor's Toll. |
Useful in both RPG fantasy game and they might even pass off as a SAGA unit of Levied city Militia. I really enjoyed the geese that can serve as a burglar alarm throughout the ages.
This is the third unit of 12 levy archers from Claymore Castings that I completed. They are for use with both my Age of Chivalry Scots or various English factions. I used some Kraurtcover Scenics Meadows of Purity and Army Painter Battlefields Highland Tuft for the bases. I am very happy with the look.
This afternoon on my Discord Paint and Chat I put the push on to produce a third unit of Levy Archers. They will be needed for next weekend's SAGA Grand Melee here in Montreal. The figures are from Claymore Castings.
Last year I purchased an unpainted Arthurian warband second hand. However it came without any horses for the calvary. I had tried various solutions including some Persian plastic horses that I had stored away but nothing meant with my satisfaction. In the end since the figures originated with Gripping Beast I wrote to the source and they were willing to sell me the horses separately. During today's Paint and Chat I initiated work on them.
As well this week I got another dozen trees based and ready for the tabletop. The forest is complete.
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| Since taking this photo the bases were completed. Brown texture paint, two types of flocking and some long grass tuffs were added. |
