I've Got A Boat!

To recap, SAGA is a game of skirmishing factions from across Europe and the Middle East during the Dark Age/Early Medieval period.  There's quite a bit of variety to the factions, especially in the later expansions.  The game goes beyond Anglo-Danes bashing Anglo-Saxons.  There are also Skraelings (Native Americans), Pagan Rus, Byzantines, and Merovingian Franks.  It's a real United Colors of Benetton ad.

While those other factions add depth to the game, the one faction that is above all others as an icon for warfare in the period is the Vikings.  When we think of Europe in the 800s, we think of raiders rowing longships across stormy seas to plunder and pillage.

Outside of gaming, I love of all things maritime.  It therefore stands to reason (that word probably doesn't fit in this post or even in this blog) that I should endeavor to build a Viking ship model to decorate my SAGA games and give my wife something else to shake her head over.

There are only  a few options for 28mm Viking ships.  Old Glory will sell you one for only $36 without crew, but in order to get the rudder, you have to buy the crew.  Getting it with the crew adds another $30 dollars.  The Tapestry did a write-up of it a while ago. Sixty-six dollars puts this one at the high end of the offerings.  Then again, that Old Glory Army card saves you 40%, which is great if you plan to spend enough in a year to justify the $50 cost of the card.  I'm not totally sold, given that I don't know if I'd use that membership to full effect.  I do know that if North Star offered such a card, I would have abused the snot out of it this year alone.

Plastic model maker Revell produces a very nice kit that comes in right around $28US.  The only downsides are that it doesn't have a crew and it has a full hull, so it will need to be cut to the waterline.  Still, for someone who just plans to park it on the beach as scenery (as I do) and is willing to break out the razor saw and miter box, it's an easy choice.

Option three is Gripping Beast.  They do a series of Dark Age vessels.  There's a large trading ship, a small trading boat, a "Pictish/Scots/Irish boat", and the "Oseberg Style Long Ship".  The last one is the largest by a wide margin.  I find it impressive that Gripping Beast has a bothered to create a full line of vessels to populate the beaches near your little resin abbey.  What's frustrating is that the images on the website, with one exception, look like they could be spy satellite imagery imagery taken during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Tiny, fuzzy little pictures and little sense of scale do not sell these models.  Also, no masts or sails.  Old Glory at least provides dowels for the masts.  Even if you were willing to take the leap on such an unknown quantity, you've got to deal with the fact that they're frequently out of stock.

That last hindrance is the most baffling to me.  Try Googling these things.  There aren't a lot of bloggers writing up their experiences with them.  In fact, there are only two that I can find.  One fellow built up the knorr trading vessel to use as a raiding ship (it's a bit small) and another bought the Oseberg ship for a fantasy game.  Beyond those folks, no one seems to own one.  I've asked in several SAGA groups and just get crickets.  My suspicion is that they're made in small batches and then immediately scooped up by one those large English wargaming groups that love to stage those massive convention demonstration games showing the entirety of the fall of Incan empire or a 1:1 model of Wagram.

I really wanted a Viking ship, but wasn't quite willing to lay out that much cash on such an unknown quantity.  As luck would have it, a gentleman on Facebook happened to be selling off some SAGA things and put an Oseberg long ship up for sale.  As he was only in the Netherlands, that would make it a quick ship to me and not terribly expensive to do so.

Turns out, shipping was a bit pricier than initially thought.  Sorry, Arvid.  It was fast, though.  Only a few days after shipping, it was at my doorstep.

The ship is surprisingly large.  I measured it at 18" from stem to stern.  The picture below is with a 28mm Empress T-26 for scale.  It's certainly impressive.  Given that SAGA games are supposed to be played on 3x3 or 4x3 boards, it's almost a bit too much.  It's the size of a small village.  Anyone who has seen the real things in Oslo or Roskilde will know who much this conveys the very real mass of the subject.


The ship comes with the rowing crew shown in the pictures, a mast cap, a fitting for a crossarm. With masts and sails installed it will definitely draw the eye to a gaming table.  A Dark Age board on it's own may not make a clear impression in a convention or shop game, but adding a full-sized ship like this let's people know at a glance what the game is about.

It's about Vikings!