The Saga of Symbaroum

With the lower classes (Levy and Light Cavalry) out of the way it’s time to start looking at the professional soldiers, the standing army that has given Ambria such an advantage over the barbarian clans they have displaced. There’s nothing specific about the army in the Symbaroum books, not in any great detail.  But using the principles of Saga with its three tier system, these are the middle tier unit type called “warriors”.  They are professional soldiers and would likely be knights; second or third sons of noble or wealthy families.  Service in the army offers an opportunity for them to make a name for themselves that they would not likely get from their family.  They are wealthy enough to have decent equipment and spend a reasonable amount of time training.  In the world of Symbaroum, plate armour does exist however it isn’t really described as being ubiquitous and it’s still incredibly expensive to buy. Most armours are portrayed as flexible armour rather than rigid, armour like chain, scale or lamellar. Thus it would seem unlikely that for the main army, plate armour would be the norm although it may be used for elite troops and leaders.  So I have gone for chainmail armoured knights, again a mixture of Footsore and 1st Corps for the “Warriors” troop type.  These are the middle tier of soldier so obviously for the HearthGuard, the elite soldiers, I will need something a little better.  However the 12th – 13th century look is absolutely perfect for the soldiers.

When I looked in my collection I already had a few foot knights from Barons War more than enough to make a single unit but not enough for two.  So I topped them up, again, with Miniatures from 1st corps as well as buying a second command group so both units would have a banner.  Again, for scale comparison purposes, just in case anyone is interested, I have placed a 1st Corps Miniature on the left in the photo below, the rest are footsore.  The 1st corps looks slightly bigger but I think some of that is also down to the fact that the metal tab that they come mounted on is slightly thicker.  However, regardless of why it’s slightly taller, the difference is not so large that it looks weird and out of place.  They’re a very good match.

These troops also represent the first time I have painted a full unit of anything using paints other than citadel.  I recently switched to army Painter but have also picked up a few Vallejo paints as well.  I can’t say that I regret the decision.  I never actually had any problem with Citadel Paint, but I was absolutely sick of the pots clogging up, not closing and drying the contents out.  I can get to element games as easily as a GW store and they’re open 7 days a week.  That basically ended the “convenience” factor that had kept me with citadel for so long.

As well as new paint range, they’re the first unit in the army that I didn’t paint using speed paints.  The reason I opted to go with regular acrylic paints for these is that I wanted them to look brighter and cleaner than their peasant counter parts.  These are professional men-at-arms, their full time job is soldiering so it stands to reason they would have better kit and more time to look after it.  And of course being the Queen’s Army, not looking like you have been dragged through a hedge backwards is probably also very high on the agenda.   Also, it wasn’t really practical to go with speed paints because there’s so much metal on most of these, which made a Black undercoat preferable. If I have to go and pick out the cloth areas in white before painting the speed paint on, it would be almost as quick to paint the purple base coat and add some highlights anyway.  And finally, I actually enjoy painting, Speed Paints are a means to an end, actually sitting down and painting is a joy.  So there.  The finishing touches were some shield transfers, which are old Bretonnian transfers I have lying around, and a base ready mix from Geek Gaming.  At some point (i.e. when they arrive) I will be adding a few tufts as well.

On the subject of tufts, if people are looking for a reasonably priced supply of basing materials, look at a company called Serious Play.  They do a HUGE range if grass tufts and flower tufts in all sorts of colours and, more importantly, they are dirt cheap.  Delivery is sometimes a little slow (a week or so) but then, I remember a time when Amazon Prime wasn’t a thing and things always took that long to arrive so it doesn’t really bother me.