Saga West Welsh

Well, it's been a total washout this month as far as wargaming is concerned, so I'm planning something for February to make up for the lack of anything tangible over the last three weeks. I really enjoyed the Saga game at the club this month, so have decided to put together a second Saga army in the shape of a Welsh warband. This was already on my list of things to do in 2016, so it's all going in the right direction.

To make this a bit different, I'm going to design my warband as a Cornish force - the West Welsh - who fought a border war against the West Saxons in the 800's. They allied with the Danes on a number of occasions, so I'm going to make at least one of the units a Viking contingent, using the standard Welsh battle board as it is. The rest of the warband will be mostly lightly armed warriors and levy with pointy sticks but will also have a core of hearthguard to give it some 'oomph'.

I have the Gripping Beast 4 point starter army and have added a second four man unit of teulu plus a second twelve man unit of javelin armed bonnedig, to fit alongside the archers from the starter set . This should round out the warband to six points and makes the most of the skirmishy shooting attributes from the battle board. I've also replaced the foot warlord with the mounted Strathclyde Welsh version, as it's a cracking figure. All I need now are some bases before I can get going.

I'm not going to start on this project for another week or two but will get the units based and undercoated over the half term holidays. We're off to Cornwall for the week so I'll have plenty of time to get the warband ready for painting then. I'll also be doing some fieldwork in the local area to re-visit the battlefield of Hingston Down (838) and King Doniert's Stone, which records the death of Dumgarth the last King of Cornwall (c875), both of which are just a few minutes away from home.