We’re heading downhill now, at some speed. Which is a shame,
really, because it’s completely the wrong direction. We’re also beginning to
get a little hungry. Consulting our rather tattered map, we see no sign of
Edgar’s Emporium or Gregg’s Grocery. Do the people of this island subsist solely on paint and glue?
Suddenly we come across a pair of slim silver saplings bent to
the ground like yoga contortionists, yoked
to the earth with vines. Tied between them on the ground lies a huge basket of coconuts,
glistening in the sun. Given that by now we’re ready to suck our own shoe
leather, this unexpected bounty seems very tempting. But wait! With so many
madmen running around this island, surely we need to exercise caution – it is
about the only exercise we’re capable of, after all. This basket case could be
a gift or it could be a trap. Hard to tell.
Tentatively we circumnavigate the arboreal enticement,
taking care to give it a wide berth. So wide, in fact, we find ourselves tumbling
elbow over patella down an unexpected cliff. As we plummet we realise the bent
birches were simply a bluff. And we fell for it. Or rather – over it.
There’s the roar of water and a blur of violent blue below
us. Luckily it’s a deep pool which we plummet splashingly into, breaking almost no legs in
the process.
Once we’ve remembered how to swim and stopped gulping pondweed,
we emerge wet and miserable to find ourselves surrounded by another army. As
the last, this is equipped with weird carriages, with their pouting chimney-cannons
and magical mechanisms grumbling like flatulent dinosaurs. But these wear an
armour of bright blue, not gold, and almost all are masked. Clearly they find
the tropical sun a tad on the chill side.
When questioned, they seem particularly interested in the
golden troops we recently encountered. But they can’t help us with our quest. Their
scouts say there’s no way back up that steep Bluff, so our only choice is to
follow the shiny brick road once again to the coast in the hope that there we may
spot a sail to ferry us round the island to a more salubrious locale.
---
For my Horus Heresy entry, I’ve another Epic force. Space
Marines have never really been my thing, but whilst was on the look out for
Imperial Guard, I happened instead to come across a motley collection of epic
marines and orks at a flea market (at an unresistable price). You know how it as
– they are precisely not what you are looking for, but they’re an absolute
bargain, so what can you do? The orks have been under way for months, so they
won’t appear here, but the Challenge has given me the excuse to polish off the
Marines. So here they are.
I wanted a blue force, but not the ubiquitously boring
Ultramarines, so I aimed for something closer to sky blue. What I’ve produced
is not really as light as I’d intended, and still rather ultramarinish, but at
least it’s consistent across the force. I chose a deep purple and gold for
contrast highlights, and named them the Sky Chasers. They exist to track down
and gently re-educate recidivist imperial forces, so are tasked with returning
the Starwasps to the realm of reason and light. However, when faced with a
common enemy of the Imperium – whether chaos, tyranid, eldar, ork or any more
exotic alien – the two forces may well band together to properly make light of such dark matter.
There’s the inevitable flock of rhinos and their bolter fodder:
supported by whirlwinds and Land Raiders :
bikes, scouts and assault troops (two figures unfortunately broken when I bought
them)
terminators, a smattering of devastators and command
and here's the whole army skulking under Burch's Bluff.
Pointswise, that’s 98 foot figures (49 points), 3 bikes (3
points), and 17 vehicles (34 points), plus 30 points of Bluffery: total 116
pts.
A fine submission of little uns we have here.
