Revenants: Something Different for Saga

You just can't keep a good zombie down…

Revenants, if you didn't already know, are raised, recently-dead, warriors - in this case, zombie Vikings, if you like. Quite a few of the sagas, in particular the older ones, relate tales of undead warriors risen from the grave fighting for some nefarious, evil purpose. And this is just what the Revenant faction represents.

I wasn't able to make it to Salute earlier this year but that didn't stop me sending one of my minions to get hold of one of the new limited edition boxes of Revenants for Saga from the nice chaps at Gripping Beast.

The box set come with 48 Revenants (four units), two grave markers, a necromancer, bases, special rules, battleboards and a set of eight unique Revenant Saga dice. It's all very nice indeed.

The figures are well designed, in the style of the Gripping Beast Dark Age figures but with (I think) added sense of humour. The necromancer is particularly nice. Very much an evil fantasy wizard, he is made special with his skeletal dragon staff and the raising gravestone he is standing on.

As I write this I see there has been a very positive review of this set in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine. This review says that there are 48 unique Revenant figures. Not so with my set - 24 poses, two of each, not that this is a major issue at all, but I'm flagging it up for anyone researching the faction so they don’t end up disappointed. Of slightly more concern is the way the box is marketed as a 6 point Saga faction when this is only the case if both grave pit markers are fielded along with all the Revenants. If you want to field more than four units of Revenants or change the mix up a bit you will need to purchase extra figures. Gripping Beast now sell these as booster packs, but they didn't when I had bought mine, so my extra two units of Revenants are made from a box of plastic zombies to which I added Dark Age bits and pieces from the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors box set and some odds and ends from my bit box.

Regardless, the Revenants look like a fun alternative to the usual Saga factions and even if they aren't official I'm still looking forward to playing games with therm.

So here are some images of my finished Revenant army.

Revenants from the box set

Unit #1

Unit #2

Unit #3

Unit #4

Scratch-built Revenants

The last two units of my Revenants were made from a Mantic Kings of War Undead Zombie Swarm box set, modified with dark age additions from the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors box set. To this I added weapons from my bit box, tattered clothing made from green stuff, and delapidated chain armour made from netting material soaked in PVA glue.

Unit #5

Unit #6

Grave Pits

I added Renedra plastic bases to both of these to make them site better on the table. Almost certainly totally unnecessary, but there you go.

Grave Pit markers

Necromancer

When attaching the gravestone base to the Renedra base for this figure, I raised the level of the back so that it didn't look like the necromancer was gazing abnormally into the sky. I decorated his base with a few scattered Black Cat miniatures skulls for added effect.

The Necromancer

If anyone has worked out exactly what it says on the gravestone he's standing on, I'd love to know. I suspect this might be some sort of Gripping Beast in-joke.

The complete Revenant army

Zombie Vikings - they just keep on coming…