From NoelW: Red Badger Courage: Rousell’s Sandhill (50 Points)

Are you sitting comfortably?

Then I’ll begin. 

Perhaps it was before D&D, perhaps even before Airfix: at any rate, this is an ancient tale when ancient men had strong opinions about lace. And hats. When two men almost started a war over a hat. 

In the red corner was the Almost-Honorable “Stonewall” Hammer, M.C., who claimed that the hat was really a rock, for with it on his head, a soldier always felt a little bolder. 

Whilst in the blue corner lurked the Lord Capability Mills-Bombe who maintained that the hat, like almost everything else in the world, counted as landscape because it could easily be folded into a six inch cube.

Then, one day, the hat mysteriously disappeared. Immediately, in order to determine the culprit, the two rivals initiated a considered and well-mannered debate:

“Thief!”

“Hat-napper!”

“Lignite!”

“Indigent!”

Neither of them was going to get anywhere with that sort of hattitude. So each decided to make their point(s) in an arms race, assembling mighty armies piece by piece, with boats and carts and cannon of all shapes and sizes, each week, each month, each year building greater and greater forces. Sleep was forgotten. Shares in Pot Noodles sky-rocketed (*). Where there had once been friends, homes and families, there appeared cobwebs, bailiffs and lawyers. But at least they made their point(s). 

And so that competition continues to this very day, though its origins are now long forgotten. 

But, no matter how much they badgered each other, they never discovered the true culprit.

(* Other inedible foodstuffs are available).

---

I reckon that I’ve the figures to stage battles in almost any period we might name. But one notable gap is between the end of the ECW and the mid C18th. The only figures I have which might reasonably be used in Rousell’s period are Ottoman, and, of course, the Turks weren’t that keen on the floppy hat.

So I chose one figure from the C16th and one from the early C18th. On average, therefore, the submission should be spot-on for Rousell’s requirement.

The two human figures are from Wargames Foundry, one a swashbuckler and the other from their pirate range. The badger is of uncertain origin. He may be one of a set of animals made by Citadel in the 1990s, but I’m not sure of this at all. The hat is by Warlord.

Scoring: 3x 28mm figs =15 pts, 30 pts for Rousell’s Sandhill: 45 points

Possible bonus points: badger bonus ? any terrain bonus for the hat? (possibly counter-acted for pun-itive reasons?)

***
So many things to learn from this Noel - for example, I had no idea I could source a floppy hat like this from Warlord.  And here I was thinking I would need to use a balloon ride in order to dodge Ray's absurd Challenge Island demands...

At any rate, let's make it an even 50 points, with the extra five accounting for the fun story and an entertaining effort to navigate the Sandhill.  Great work. 

GregB