From MilesR: A World Wind Tour of the Galaxy (932 Points)

 

OK, its been awhile since I made a post for Challenge XII.  In fact this is just my second post.  I could hide behind the excuse of complications from my knee replacement surgery, which is true but dealt with.  The real culprit is the gentlemen in the picture, Impawator Augustus the First, who demands attention and is a lot of fun to play with - who am I to deny the Impawator his wishes.

Anyway, I have been at the painting bench when both my knee and Gus allow and some progress has been made.  I'm also not unaware of the "Quadrant Challenge" and hope this post puts me back on the path of the pious as we visit a "few" planets.  Few as in more than 1 or 10.

Buckle up baby, this is going to be a long post.  I'm working on 2 big projects during this Challenge.  The first, Manzikert, was revealed in my last post with about 1/3rd of the Byzantines painted up.  This post will see about 1/3rd of their Seljuk opponents, all in glorious 10mm scale.  Have you heard of our lord and savior, 10mm scale?  Please let me help you on your path to righteous.

I present to you 1/3rd of Alp Arslan Seljuk's from Mazikert.  All of these figures are 10mm Magister Militum figures and are great figures.

The first Seljuk contingent comes to us by way of the planet CAPRICA and are mounted archers - just the perfect tool for executing a wiley ambush.  These troops might be Seljuks, they could be Pecheneg or Cuman mercenaries - it's kind of hard to tell.  All I know is that they do run circles around slow moving Cataphracts.

Next up are some more heavily armored Medium Cavalry.  These were typically also armed with bows and proved to be very flexible on the battle field.

The last Seljuk cavalry contingent are the heavies - one unit of Persian cataphracts in the front and 2 units of Faris household cavalry.

Finally some infantry.  The actual accounts for Mazikert are unclear if Alp Arslan had any infantry there but as this army will be used for other battles (can anyone say Crusades?) painting up some medium infantry and arab archers is never a bad idea.

Some extra command stands with pretty banners in the back.

Well it's time to move on from CAPRICA and onto the DEATH STAR (Planet count 2), where we can visit a ship of very questionable design - the USS Dunderberg / French Romchabeau.

This is a 1/600 scale model of this ill-fated ship that I 3D printed.  The files are from a company called East Coast Ironclads.

The Dunderberg was laid down in 1862 as a ocean going Ironclad but due to both design flaws and resources was not completed until after the civil war was over.

She was then bought by Napoleon III and patrolled the North Sea during the Franco Prussian War.  Her war cruise was cut short when the French admiralty ordered her to port so her crew could be sent to defend Paris.  I think she is a neat looking ship and you nay see some more British and French Ironclads in 1/600 scale over the course of this Challenge.  This is a big model at over 7 inches long.  I suggest scoring her like a 28mm vehicle for 20 points but leave that up to the discretion of my minion, Curt.

Next on our little sojourn through the stars is SKARA (Planet Count 3), where we meet up with some rather strange Dr's in the form of 2 10mm Orc Shaman and their assistants, all based up for Warmaster.

There will be some other Orc minis in this post which are test paints for my planned ORC Warmaster army in glorious 10mm scale.  Is this the other big project I spoke about earlier?  Nope just a bit of diversion before diving back into Mazikert.  All of the Orc figures are from Magister Millitum.

As we bid farewell to SKARA (dont drink the potions the Orcs gave you) we now travel onto the dark and forboding world of KLENDATHU (Planet Count 4),   The planets topic of "Invasion gone bad" is best represented by this Marine Battalion from the battle of Peleliu in teeny tiny 3mm scale using Pico Miniatures.  The Marines and their LVTP's are on the right (just wait a bit about the other guys).  Is this the other big project?  Yes it is - I'm working on staging the battle of Peleliu with each base being a company - hopefully it will be ready to play at Fall-in this coming November.

Next door to Klendathu, is the much more welcoming planet of GLORANTHA (Planet Count 5), Whose theme of hero is best represented by this ORC hero riding a Yak in stunning and majestic 10mm scale.

Yes, that's right, Nothing says hero more than riding a damn Yak into battle.  This Orc may not be all that smart, but man does he have some style.

Let's move on from Glorantha and onto the neighboring ISTAVAN V (Planet Count 6), and the very definition of loyalty at Manzikert - the Varangian Guard who never deserted the emperor despite a hopeless situation.  I've finished five bases and will need another 3 but ran out of Vikings.  Don't worry, more have been ordered. 

The next planet in out little journey is BABYLON V (Planet Count 7).  Hey wait a minute, you've seen this picture before!  Yeas you have but we really didn't discuss the Japanese battalion with some artillery and adorable Ha-Go tanks.  

3mm is becoming the go-to scale at the club for ww2 as as you can field entire divisions and corps for a very limited investment of both capital and time.  In fact, it the the very definition of high quality but LOW BUDGET FUN.  

Next in the planet rotation is Vulcan, but I don't have anything ready for that so lets go the other way around.

On the Other side of Caprica is ARDA (Planet Count 8), which is oftern referred to the Middle Earth of the galaxy given its Tolkenian theme.  What better fits a Tolkien themed than some more 10mm scale Orcs?  Really nothing.  There are some misc command stands and a single 24 figure Orc regiment.

Our last stop in the outer ring is SOLARIS (Planet Count 9) and it's an illusionary theme we're going for.  By the time of the Battle of Manzikert, imperial neglect and mismanagement had rendered the once imposing Tagmata or regular portion of the Byzantine army a hollow shell, as represented by this Tagmata regiment of fully armored cataphracts.  While fearsome in look and reputation, the moral and staying power of these formations was very poor, as the emperor discovered to his shock on that fateful day.

These figures are 10mm Pendrakken ones, which I like better than the Magister Millitum counter parts.

Well we seem to have flown by every planet in the outer ring, surely this insufferable post must be drawing to a close. Nope, suck it up, theres more.

Lets go the the secondary ring and visit the planet LV 426 (Planet Count 10).  It might be a really bad idea to do so, but I don't care.  You know what would have been a really bad idea - a British Intervention in the US Civil War as represented by this British Intervention Force in 6mm (Baccus figures).

These figures are based where 1 stand equals 1 brigade and will be used with the Altar of Freedom ruleset for a campaign I will be running up at the club.

It's super silly campaign idea but should be a lot of fun!

You know what's next door to LV 426? NOEL's COMET (Planet Count 11) and this will be our final stop for this post.  I know we all miss noel and this theme of friendship is a wonderful one.  I built this 28mm scale Spanish Villa for a friend who is getting into Napoleonic skirmish gaming

The Sarissa precision kit is very nice but I tarted it up a bit by adding texture to all the walls and little bit of ground foam.

and the doors open!

The ivy is some old HO-scale ivy I had hanging around the shop.

Well that's it for this post - its a bit of a handful to score but I'll try to summarize below

11 Planets: 220 Points

10mm Seljuk Turks

- 116 Mounted @ 2 pts/each = 232

- 133 foot @ 1 pt/each = 138

10mm Byzantines

- 15 Armored Cataphracts = 30 

- 42 Varangian Guards = 42

10mm Orcs

 - 4 mounted = 8

 - 42 foot = 42

1/600 Scale Ironclad

- Dunderberg / Rochambeau = 20 points ?

6mm British Intervention Force 

- 36 mounted figures = 36 points

- 156 infantry figures @0.5/each = 78

- 4 Artillery Guns + crew = 12

Villa

Overall dimensions 4"x 14" x 12" = 672 cubic inches, 216 per scoring cube so that is 3.1 or 60 points, lets round that down to 50 points

3mm ww2 

13 15x40mm bases, current scoring is 12 points for a 60x30mm base.  3 15x40 bases fit within 60x30 so that would equate to 4 60x30 bases or 48 points - that feels really high so lets cut that in half and go with 24 points

Grand Total: 932 points

It feels good to have another submission and finally knock a little of the rust off the painting machine.  I think the next few weeks might be even more productive - well assuming the Impawator concurs.

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Okaaay, wow. That is a heap of stuff. Great work Miles.

- Curt