The Saga of Symbaroum

The Rangers are an arm of the Ambrian military. Where the regular army is operated much like most medieval armies, the rangers are a small, entirely professional force. Although they fall under the command of the field marshall, they have their own hierarchy and structure, separate from the rest of the army. They recruit separately from the regular army and there’s no “blood” requirements for joining. You don’t need to be a noble or wealthy, you just need to be competent. The primary purpose of the rangers is to patrol the Queen’s highways around Ambria and also to patrol the forest of Davokaar. Entry into Davokaar is very strictly controlled by the Ambrians. To travel in the forest you must have a permit, to seek treasure you must have a different permit that allows you to remove artefacts from the forest. Ostensibly these permits are to try and prevent, or at least reduce the risk, of people bringing back dangerous artefacts or starting trouble with the Iron Pact. In reality they’re a way for the tax man to make some extra coin. The Rangers patrol the forest to ensure that travellers have the correct permits. In addition to this role, they also act as scouts for the army in times of war.

When I was looking for miniatures for this faction I had initially looked at the Rangers of Ithilien from Games Workshop (albeit with a different colour scheme). But the new boxes are sold in twenties and I didn’t really need 20 of them. I was looking around for something to use as an alternative and I found these from Medbury Miniatures, a digital model seller. These are outlaws but they are quite a good match for the rangers. I have only printed 6 for now, with a leader model on the way, because that’s all I need for the RPG.

Colour wise, I wanted them to still feel like they were part of the queen’s army, but obviously being Rangers they couldn’t be wearing the bright purple. I was also conscious of making them look too much like the Elves or the Yedessa barbarians (for which I am actually just using my Rohan models) by going with green and brown. So I experimented with a few mixes and I settled on using Hive Dweller Purple speed paint darkened with a bit if Dark Wood to produce a darker purple tone. I then used Sand Golem Speedpaint on the facemasks and the mantles they’re wearing over their necks and shoulders. Those two colours bear a resemblance to the main army with its purple background and golden lion coat of arms. The rest of the colours were then picked to suit the environment they operate in. They’re wearing Camo Green cloaks and their trousers and other garments are dark brown. I actually really like the final result, even though I think that the colours are bit of an odd combination (the purple and the green), they have a practicality about them. I think the fact that the purple was dulled down with brown actually helps make this work in a way that a full on bright purple probably wouldn’t have.

At the moment I don’t really know how these will fit into the Saga warband.  The Ambrian faction is without doubt best suited to the Great Kingdom archetype, the problem with that is only the Levy are allowed to be equipped with bows.  The Rangers are certainly not levy troops, they are warriors at a minimum and one could make an argument for them being a form of Hearthguard.  The Sapphire Elves warband could be used in a pinch, allowing warriors to be equipped with bows, however it also gives them special rules around magic that don’t really fit with the Queen’s Ranger.  I suspect that it would make more sense to turn the Rangers into a warband of their own, perhaps even using the Lords of the Wild as a template. There are a few companies out there making digital ranger miniatures as well as the Games Workshop plastic ones.  There’s also some really good cavalry options as well so I think it’s definitely a viable option for a Saga Warband, it’s just a case of trying to figure what archetype to use.