From AdamC - Brian Boru and more 52 pts

So I have had this vignette in my head since I saw the Boru figures from Footsore.  I'm very happy it came out as well as it did.

Brian Boru was High king of Ireland who stopped the advancing tide or Vikings/Norse-Gaules but died in the attempted.  He's a hero of the Viking Age in Saga but one who is pretty long in the tooth so he doesn't really fight like most warlords.  Rather he finds a good safe place to sit and give you certain bonuses while someone else acts as the Warlord.

Since He tends to find a piece of "difficult terrain" and just sit there I figures I should build a full terrain piece to go with him.  Thus I built this hill.  In this vignette the Irish Chieftain (who I sort of painted as a more athletic, long haired version of myself) is getting the battle plan he will have to execute on the field while Boru's Banner man and bodyguard looks on in the back ground.

 The hill has magnets to I can can remove the figures and replace them with rocks or trees as I wish.  Pretty clever if I do say so myself.  I did paint the rock but the trees are out of the box.

 The hill is about 6.5 inches by 7 inches in its base dimensions...

and about 1.5 inches at its highest point (very rough estimate not well shown by the picture.) Doing some math 6.5"x7"x1.5"= 68.25 cubic inches (being quite generous as moss of the hill is lower than 1.5").., Divide that by 216 Cubic inches (6x6x6)  and you get .315 (ish) x20 = 6.3 points and possibly an explanation of why I was a history major in college. I'll call it 6 Points... (assuming my math is right which it may not be!)  This cheeky fellow throws it to Ray to judge and hopes he'll be generous. (and not make too much fun of my math if I botched it completely)

 Boru is in creamy white robe with purple fringe is out fit is pretty unpretentious for a king, but creamy white cloth is actually pretty hard to make and purple is an expensive dye that would have had to be imported to Ireland.

I'm pleased with the look of the fur cape Boru has against the cold.

 The Chieftain is a special footsore miniature figure of the month I as I mentioned above I sort of did him up to look a bit like I imagine my Irish ancestors might have looked.

 I kept his colors relatively muted but green dyes (mixes of yellow and blue) were fairly expensive and a fur lined cloak and jacket of mail mark him as a high noble. I feel there must be someone off stage holding his shield and helmet.

The banner man is dressed in gray but his cloak is green and his robe has a little purple fringe at the bottom. 

 This as well as the gold on his helm, belt and sword mark him as high born even if he doesn't have shoes.

The banner is one I found on line on the O'Brian Clan Society website ... I don't know if its historically accurate (I may also have made it too big) but I am going rule of cool here.  So there is the "command team" of my Irish Saga army.  On to Norse-Gales!

 Another Footsore figure this is Brodir another hero of the Viking age "the man steel cannot bite." supposedly he had a magic hauberk that made him invulnerable. I'm disappointed in the shield.  I did hand paint it but its not what I set out to do... sometimes you just have to fall back on simple designs.

While not part of the Irish Army Brodir could fit in with its palate. Brodir is said to have killed Brian Boru and then was killed (rather gruesomely) by Ulf. Footsore has the details if you want them.

 Next we have what Footsore calls a Irish hero but I'm using him as a Norse-Gale. Clearly this fellow has just pulled off a successful "who's next!" challenge (for those familiar with this faction in Saga) and is waiting to see if someone else steps forward.

 I'm not a big fan of the guy holding a head figures because when you have too many of them it looks like you have a "head collectors convention" rather than a battle going in. I'm very pleased with how his mail and his wolf hide cape came out.

Next we have a trio of miniatures I call the casual Ax brothers.  I think are all based on the same core figure and and then dressed in a different fashion (I'm positive this is the case with the two on the right)

 This another special figure of the month form Footsore I plan to use him as my Norse-Gales Warlord because hey his stance and gear just sort of shout "boss."  Footsore calls him Arnvid Ale Sinker.

I did his cloak in purple because clearly he at least aspires to royalty which is why he's in Ireland not back home in Scandinavia.

 These other two are from the Footsore Irish line.  The one on the left is part of the same hero pack with the guy holding a head.  The one on the right is form the Brian Boru set.

Again I probably use these mostly with my Norse Gales but they could see play with the Irish and parts of the Irish army will certainly see play with the Norse-Gales. This is why these fellows have the purple flowers on their base to tied them in with Boru and his crew.

 One last figure my BFG (acutely my second BFG the first is primed but unpainted at this time) I had stared him just because he was in with the other were beast. I didn't get him done due to family obligations so I present him here. My Big Freaking Gorilla.  I think a "weregorilla" is a rather odd concept so I will just call him a Gorillas.  One that knows how to use stone tools which many not be such a big stretch. 

I tried to get the silver back look right... I'm close but not there. This is another Bones figure about 40mm.  So we have 8 28mm figures for 40 points (unless Boru counts less being seated) One 40mm Figure for 7 points.  So that's 47 point for the figure... I think the hill comes out to 6 points (though I don't really trust my math here).  I'll simply ask Ray to score the hill at what ever he thinks is fair.

From Ray

Brian Boru is indeed a cult figure in Irish history and you've done him proud Adam. Who knows what his banner would look like so this is as good representation as any. As for your hill, this terrain business is as confusing as hell, I've worked it out as 5 points, so add that to the 40 points for the 8 28's and 7 for the 40mm Silver back and your grand total is 52 points!