From NoelW: Dabbling in the Aquifer (186 points)

“Here, Clerihew, you take my elven shoes! Titchy, hang on to my elven socks, will you?”

“Not even if they contained the Greatest Treasure the World has Never Seen! I like to be able to breathe!”

“Gnawbone, you’ll look after my fine elven socks for me, won’t you?”

“Precious mithril socks?”

“Knitted from dragon-spit silk, actually. Very rare.”

“What are you playing at, elf?” demands Getrude.

“Can’t you see? Look! There’s a beach. There’s waves! There’s the vast mystery of the gloriuous waters stretching before us with its overwhelming lure – the scree of the seagull, the ululation of the undine, the eternal whisper of the wandering islands of the west. At the very least I need to have a paddle…”

“What do you call it when someone keeps stealing seaweed?” asks Gnawbone.

“I don’t know,” says Merlissa. “What do you call it when someone keeps stealing seaweed?”

“Kelptomania.”

Getrude holds Elfbow back, dragging him aware from the lure of the salty waters.

“Can you not feel it?” he cries. “The possibilities of sand castles. The glories of tiny little rockpools where stinging starfish hide just below the sand ready to turn your feet into pumpkins? I cannot deny the saltwater of my destiny. Look! The sea! The sea!”

“Also look,” adds Getrude. “A massive fleet of invading ships and dozens of uniformed men with wicked looking weapons wading to shore.”

“How come they get to paddle and I’ve got to keep my shoes on? Let me go!”

Elfbow makes a lunge seaward. So Gerald makes a lunge elfward, tripping Elfbow spectacularly. He falls flat on his face in something that apparently was left behind by an untidy donkey.

“Speaking of lunge,” says Titchy dreamily. “ I vote we head for the Larder.”

“And how will we do that?”

“First syllable,” says Merlissa. “Saw.”

“Second sybbable,” says Gnawbone, “Knighthood.”

“That’s ‘sir’,” says Titchy.

“Third syllable,” says Getrude. “Snake? Oh, ‘S’.”

“Woof!” says Scruff.

“That’s right, Scruff. Sorceress!”

***

This submission has two parts. Firstly, another batch of invading troops. These are 20 Wargames Foundry SYW Prussians, which I think I’ve had since they were first released. I really like these models, and they paint up well, but I game SYW in 15mm, so I’m using them as Hessians in AWI games. No-one will ever know.

The second part is the ships on which these villains are arriving to plunder the Chambers of Challenge, the cads! These are two 1/700th 3D printed ships which I bought ready assembled from a Facebook contact. They’re designed by Simon Mann, I think, and are in some ways better than Black Seas ships as the designs are more accurate for particular classes of ship, but the printing obviously simplifies some detail, which means they’re not as crisp as the Warlord castings, the sails are clearly far too thick and there are weaknesses in the printing.

Both ships are 2^nd raters: one is Barfleur class 

and the other Temeraire class. 

There were four ships built of each of these classes.

Although the paint scheme of these ships (and some others from the British fleet I’ll finish later) are broadly the same, I like to individuate them a little with variations in the detail, to make them a little easier to distinguish on the tabletop. I rationalise this as based on the variation in materials available, the different approaches different captains will have to painting their ships, and the likelihood that paint jobs would weather in different ways depending on the ships stations and histories.

Pointswise, I’m following Adam’s notes on scoring. As he’s suggesting 25 points for 3rd rates, and I think he noted 28 for 1^st rates, that presumably makes a 2^nd rate 26 or 27. He’s also suggesting 5 points for rigging and 1 or 2 for flags, so I propose:

2 x rigged 2^nd rates @ 33 = 66 points

The Aquifer: 20 points

20 x 28mm figures: 100 points

That's also 66 points for the Naval Challenge and 2 more Squirrel points. I guess I could count the ships as points for the Napoleonic Challenge, too?

TOTAL: 186 pts