From NoelW: Hold Your Horses: Hawkin’s Hill: (25 points)

We scramble down the hill as quickly as we can, pleased to have escaped O’Grady’s Diner with no more than one casualty. That’s a pretty good result for us.

There’s the sound of horses ahead, and we see a battered old shed, or possibly the offcuts from a woodcutters’ jumble sale, where a couple of horses are hitched. A man in a hat is grooming one of them affectionately.

“Hello,” I say. “I wonder, can you tell us the way to Cook’s Crevasse from here?”

The man moves his mouth, but no sound emerges. Still combing the horse’s mane, he gestures to his throat with his other hand.

“I think,” says my recently elevated sergeant, “he’s feeling a little hoarse”.

I pick up one of the planks piled against the shed and berate him gently with its heavier end.

“I know you like your jokes to relieve the tedium, my dear recently elevated sergeant, but if you're not careful, you're going to feel a lot more than a little bored.”

Everyone laughed when I told them I was going to be a comedian.

They’re not laughing now.

---

Just a small offering today. 

My Cape Wars collection began several years ago. The Xhosa were well developed in about a year, but the Brits have languished in the way of most wargaming enthusiasms. However, the Challenge challenges me, so I've already previously posted a unit of Cape Rifles, who were basically mounted infantry, so they needed troopers to look after the horses. One of these horseholders is painted in an approximation of their uniform, the other more neutrally dressed as a Boer. However, both could easily be used in several different contexts. Figures are Perrys, of course.

Score: 28mm: 2 horseholders, 3 horses: 25 points

Cool stuff. I do like little wars, esp in Africa. 

Martin

From NoelW: Gone but not frogotten : Millsy’s Millpond: (10 points)

Last time we were here, we came across a rather rude frog. And here he is again!

“Ribbit!”

“What do you mean ‘kiss me’?”

I look at my corporal quizzically: “You speak amphibian?”

My men are a continual surprise.

“I had a somewhat misspent youth.”

“With frogs?”

His face reddens: “Don’t jump to any conclusions. Mainly just leapfrog.”

“And this one wants you to kiss him? Her? It?”

“It’s a well-known fact. Well, motif. Well, cliché of the lazy writer. If you kiss a frog, it’ll be restored to its original human self and shower the kisser with treasure.”

“Or warts?” I suggest. But his last word strangely interests me. It’s certainly worth a try, if treasure is involved.

“Ok, Corporal. Or, let’s say, Sergeant, shall we? Give the amorous amphibian what it desires.”

With an unexpected lack of reluctance my newly elevated sergeant leans down to the frog and, well, surprise, surprise, there’s a flash of absolutely no light at all, no sound of thunder, not even a whisper of wind, and where there was a frog and a sergeant suddenly I’ve no frogs and two sergeants. Frankly, given the way things have been going with sergeants lately, I’d confidently expected to have two frogs.

“Good to have you back,” I say to the newly reintegrated sergeant, as he's escorted shakily back into line.

“Ribbit,” he says.

I interpret this to mean “It’s surely time to put all this behind us and be on our way to Benito’s Brook.”

---

This was a difficult one, finding a vignette of early figures for Millsy's delight, so a slight compromise. The figures are definitely from pre-2000, but I don’t know exactly when, acquired from a miscellaneous collection at a Bring and Buy. They’re Wargames Foundry Indian Mutiny figures. I’ve no plans for a British 1850s army in India, but they’ll be fine as part of my Cape Wars collection. The Brits in these wars, against Xhose, Boer and various other groups, wore various motley uniforms on campaign (which was most of the time) and as the wars cover pretty much 100 years (1779-1879) most variants of uniform over the first three quarters of the nineteenth century are acceptable.

Score: 2 x 28mm figs: 10 points

MilesR: An excellent story to match two excellent figures.  Your pointology is a bit off as you forgot your 30 bonus points.  Never fear, that's what minions are for.  Well that and lots of menial tasks Curt assigns us which were hidden in the contract and are - well, perhaps I digress here.  40 points for you!



Edited by TamsinP - the location bonus points were added by mistake (this is Noel's 2nd visit to the location) and have now been removed.

From NoelW: Our dogged march continues: Piper’s Peak (37 points)

Zulus make a very annoying din when they’re charging a surprised target. Fortunately, that sound has long ago faded away behind us. Now we’re on the slopes of Piper’s Peak, an uncertain road that darts off in random directions, lined with weird and wonderful statues, of strange shapes and almost unimaginable oddity.

From the peak we’ll have a view of Rousell’s Sandhill, the next (or previous) step we remember taking on our journey. It shouldn’t take long to reach that vantage.

But as we’re shuffling up the path, we hear footsteps ahead, and a party of bedraggled soldiers trots rapidly towards us, carrying a stretcher.

“Go back!” the lead soldier shouts, as they approach, “if you’ve got any sense, go back. It’s on the loose. It’ll tear you apart.”

This doesn’t sound too promising.

“What are you talking about?”

“Lady Sarah’s Peke. It’s vicious. It savaged our corporal.”

He gestures to the wounded man on the stretcher.

“Don’t be silly, young man,” a commanding female voice objects. Lady Sarah has followed them down the hillside. “The poor dog barely licked him. You shouldn’t have been teasing him with those big sticks you’re carrying.”

“That dog needs psychiatric treatment,” interjects another of the soldiers. “It bites first and asks questions afterwards.”

“Nonsense,” says Lady Sarah, “Snowy is just a little over-friendly. All Pekinese are.”

“I’m not convinced it’s a Pekinese at all.”

“If I say it’s a Peke, then it’s a Peke,” Lady Sarah has that look again. “Snowy! Where are you Snowy? Heel!”

“Anything you say, your royal ladyshipness. But with your permission, we’re getting out of here.”

With a hasty look over their shoulders, the soldiers lift their burden and hurtle down the hillside.

“Where can he possibly be hiding? I must get him back in his basket. The balloon can’t lift off without that. There’s already a queue of bamboozled wanderers desperate for my assistance. Snowy! Treats!”

She looks at us meaningfully.

There’s a huge roar in the undergrowth, a crushing of vegetation worthy of a T Rex line dancing, and the Pekinese comes bounding out, it’s tongue lolling from its mouth, and spittle scattering to the four winds. At once, he leaps upon my sergeant, sending him head first into the dust.

“Snowy! Snowy! Put that poor man down! Oh dear. He doesn’t mean anything by it. I’m sure you’ll be able to get another sergeant easily enough...”

---

To satisfy Mz Piper’s requirement this little vignette uses more Cape Wars British, with their peaked caps, sculpted by the Perrys to emulate a well-known picture from the conflict:

But I thought it was a little lame just to use troops of the same kind as my first trip, so I’ve introduced a second kind of Peke, which I hope will please Tamsin. Admittedly, he’s probably not a thoroughbred, there’s pretty obviously a hint of bull mastiff somewhere in his ancestry, but I’m certain no-one will notice.

Lady Sarah, of course, is dressed in her dog-walking clothes, a tatty old thing which she just threw on for the purpose. Actually, it’s about time a certain Snowlord took one or two of the hints that’ve been floating in the air lately and opened his wallet to do something about that wardrobe, which is so very clearly lodged firmly in 2018, almost an embarrassment to wear in contemporary dog-walking circles.

As usual I’ve forgotten who manufactured the figures, apart from the Cape Wars figures by the Perrys. The mastiff is one of a set of dogs which I’ve a feeling came from a Ainsty, even though they’re not a figures manufacturer – whilst Lady Sarah is a lovely elegant pewter souvenir figure bought from a bring and buy, dressed in what I take to be Edwardian costume (which shows what I know about fashion!) but in my games she's as likely to appear both in the Duchess of Richmond's Ball in 1815 as on the dancefloor in 1930s Walmington on Sea.

Score: I think prone figures are 2 points, so that’s how I’d count the stretcher.  1 x 28mm dog and 6 x 28mm people: total 37 points.
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By Paul:

Personally, I find yellow to be the single most difficult colour to paint. I would never even attempt an all yellow gown such as that but you have nailed it beautifully Noel!

37 points plus 30 for the map location - 67 points of this great submission, just keep Snowy on a leash! 



Edited by TamsinP - the location bonus points were added by mistake (this is Noel's 2nd visit to the location) and have now been removed.