Tuesday 21 July 2015

Skraelings for Saga: The Dark Ages

A dramatic image of Vikings fighting Skraelings
Since I first heard of Gripping Beast's limited edition Skraeling boxed set, and realised it was no longer available, I've been hankering after some of these, and recently reading The Vinland Sagas has only made me keener.

You can download the rules and a battle board for the Skraeling faction in Saga from Studio Tomahawk.

The Vinland Sagas - the original tales of the Viking adventures in North America - are two separate documents, both of which are recommended reading that won't take you more than about an hour to get through. The Saga of the Icelanders and The Saga of Erik the Red are both very short, and the bits that take part in Vinland even shorter, only a few paragraphs in each tale in fact. Both sagas also tell pretty much the same story, at least as far as Vinland is concerned.

The Vinland map (which may well be a fake)
Vinland (named so after the vines that were found there) refers to an area of coastal North America and Newfoundland beyond Greenland. Its precise location and extent is still subject to controversy. Vikings referred to many indigenous peoples they came across in their travels as Skraelings (a derogatory term meaning something like "barbarian", or "foreigner"). The Skraelings we are talking about here were most likely to have been woodland Red Indians of a culture that was later to become part of the Iroqois nation. They might have looked something like the later Mohicans, although there are no contemporary depictions to confirm this.

With the Gripping Beast Skraelings unavailable, all is not lost. Two manufacturers currently produce 28mm Skraeling figures, and there are other figures available that are strictly more modern but which could be used with some conversion, for example, those made for the Muskets and Tomahawks game, which I am not going to go into here.

Footsore Miniatures (formerly Musketeer Miniatures)

These look to be very nicely cast figures, depicting very (stereo)typical Red Indian types, which are on the large 28mm side. They're priced similarly to Gripping Beast and there's a good choice of figures to use giving a reasonable amount of variation of poses. I chose not to use these simply because I preferred the look of the CP Models Miniatures, but that's just my preference.

CP Models Miniatures

These are on the small 28mm side and have a really tribal look about them, most of the figures wearing loincloths and very little else. There isn't a huge amount of figure variety (only three different archer figures, and six different poses of warrior, excluding the command figures), but once the army is put together this really doesn't matter. They are lovely figures and  I think they look superb.

Army List

CP Models sell their figures in packs of three, which may not be ideal for Saga, but they're great value, and even better there was an offer when I placed my order, so I bought a few more than I had originally planned.

To give plenty of flexibility, and to minimise the surplus unused figures I would end up with, I set out to make a Warlord, four units of 8 Warriors, and three units of 12 Levy. A total of 69 figures (23 packs) altogether, giving some flexibility in the 6-point list I might field, and coming in at an extremely reasonable price.

Some CP Models Skraelings, straight out of the box (plastic bag, in fact).
Neat castings with very little flash and no significant mould lines.
Levy

These were simply cleaned up, based and painted as is. Nice figures all in very similar positions standing with a bow at the ready, three different figure poses altogether.

I painted their skin in Valejo Mahogany Brown highlighted with a slightly lighter brown, hair Black Brown and clothing a variety of dull cloth colours.

Levy unit #1

Levy unit #2

Levy unit #3
Warriors

The CP Models Warriors come with separate weapons and shields, which allow for more variety in their finished poses. I decided to replace their weapons with scratch-built javelins made from brass rod. To get a tribal effect (similar to the look of the spears that came with the figures) I tied dressmaker's wire around the bottom of the spear head and fixed it with a drop of super glue to give the impression the spear point was tied in place. I made some extra javelins so that some of my warriors could carry spares with them in their shield hands.
Spears during construction
The figures were painted as the Levy. Shields were painted black and dry-brushed with grey to get some texture, after which I added some home-made tribal designs - lines of spots, zigzags and hand prints, to give each Warrior a unique design.

Warrior unit #1

Warrior unit #2

Warrior unit #3

Warrior unit #4
Warlord

To make the Warlord stand out from the rest, I gave him a rock to stand on (along with a bit of dead vegetation), and equipped him with a mace rather than a shield. The mace is a weapon head from the weapons supplied with the CP Models figures but with its shaft replaced with a short length of brass rod. I also gave him a few extra feathers made of green stuff in  his hair and tied to his javelin, as befits a minor chieftain.

Skraeling chief, from front and back
War Paint

After one failed attempt to get this right I decided not to paint war paint on the bodies and faces of any of my Skraelings. While it initially appealed to me (in my appreciation of the stereotypical Red Indian) my efforts to paint it on just didn't look right at all. Anyway, after checking images of early native Americans (from the time of the pilgrims and conquistadors, at least) there are very few illustrations that show war paint or the like at all. So if I am asked, I'll say my Skraelings have been caught by the Norsemen by surprise and haven't had time to put their war paint on yet.


The completed Skraeling army. Six points for Saga comprising four units of Warriors and two of Levy.

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