These Guys Were Made of Sterner Stuff: Starting Saga

As indicated in the last post, I am Scottish. Well, mostly. Well, I suppose not even mostly, when it comes down to it. There's also Irish, English, quite a bit of French actually, a touch of German and even a wee bit of Polish. Or Prussian? Wherever the border was at the time, I suppose. Even some Native American, if family stories are to be believed. (That French part became French Canadian, so...) But the name starts with Mac, so we're going with Scottish. Western highlands, to be more specific. Gaelic in origin, derived from Irish and Norse.

What I'm getting at is an interesting component of gaming is to examine family history through the lens of historical events. My guess is all of us know of ancestors involved in military activity. My grandpa was at Normandy. His dad in WWI. A great-great-grandfather was in the New York Heavy Artillery in the ACW. Going farther back, one finds some Loyalists and even some Hessians during the AWI period. Oops! Maybe I didn't need to know that... And some settlers in New York ambushed by Indians in the FIW timeframe before that.

Beyond that, it gets hazy, but it's not outside the realm of believability that the family was represented in the '45, certainly the clan was there. Whether any direct ancestors were or not is unproven. Perhaps some were caught up with William Wallace, or Robert the Bruce. Maybe a few had to fight off Viking raiders. If so, they were made of sterner stuff than me!

Which leads to... wait for it... Saga! Yes, I took the plunge, and the rules arrived last night. A quick read leads me to believe they are going to live up to the hype. Not only does this give me a chance to run around and shout Scottish fightin' words, it finally gives those Dark Age minis I painted about 15 years ago something to do at last!

I think I have enough Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Picts/Scots to put together some 4-point forces, or reasonable facsimiles thereof. I have already ordered some more to fill in some holes, and some Normans to get that faction started. I really think I'd like to focus on some Scots, or better yet, some Gaels. Maybe an order to Crusader???

Updates as events warrant. Hope to get in a game soon!