From PhilH: Setting an Ambush at the Hall of Traps (60 points)

I immediately knew where I'd enter the Chambers of Challenge, as it mapped perfectly onto a new project I'm hoping to get a good run at during the Challenge. So somewhat later than planned, my first group of warriors from the Mohawk or perhaps Huron tribe, joining the struggle for dominance of North America during the French and Indian War. 

The FIW is surely a conflict defined by ambushes and raids in the North American wilderness, with the odd siege and pitched battle. And the natives tribes that threw in their lot with one of other (or both!) European power s to bolster their regular and militia forces were masterful at setting ambushes. 

A salutory lesson on their importance during the conflict comes from the Braddock Expedition early in the conflict. A column 1300 strong led by British General Edward Braddock, marched to contest French at the 'forks of the Ohio'. Recently arrived in North America, Braddock was scornful of employing native American tribes as warriors and scouts, instead cutting a path through the wilderness to move his European-style army and baggage train. Scouting parties reporting the expedition to the French commander at Fort Duquesne Captain Daniel Hyancinthe Lienard de Beujeau (what a name!), who rushed from the fort to set an ambush. Before they could do so, the columns encountered each other at an Indian hunting ground by the Monongahela River. The ground suited de Beajeu's Canadian militiamen and 650 native allies, who enveloped Braddock's column from the treeline, inflicting heavy casualties and breaking the British column in a chaotic firefight. 

Nine native warriors, though one was painted in a test scheme before the Challenge. These took inordinately long to do, hence my late entry to the challenge, with many gubbins, widgits, detailing and warpaint. I’m trying to do bigger batches to get things done quicker, but  I suspect a smaller batch would actually work better for these. 

Hopefully you'll see some more of these by Challenge end, after some inevitable distractions as I amble through the Chambers...

From Jez Todd: Week Four - Macedonians Part 3 - 95 points

 Dear All 

Hope everyone had a good week 4 of the Challenge. Posting the final part to complete my Basic Impetus Alexandrian Macedonians. As highlighted before figures are Wargames Foundry

First up is Alexander himself as a command base. Painting a tiger skin was a new first. 

Next is the second Macedonian pike block - 13 figures plus a wounded character. 

I also have a few markers for "disorder" status - in total this gives 2 cavalry for 20 points, 13 infantry for 65 points, and 4 wounded at half infantry points so 10 points, giving 95 overall.

Basic Impetus gives a fun game taking 2-3 hours and here is the completed army in the box! I did the  Greek hoplites in an earlier challenge as part of the Persian army force, but they can be played as Macedonians including elite Hypaspists. Also got a side by side shot for the classic match up Persians v Macedonians. Cant wait for the first game!

 On to something new for Week 5. All the best Jez

From GeorgeS - The Armoury - 40mm Knight ( 35 points)

     After the gentle help of Sarah, here I am in the " Armoury" chamber, and with the help of this small Knight I will quickly get out of here..

    Here I have another Toy Soldier resurrection - Repainting (as it is my passion ) . This little plastic fellow must be a Hong Kong figure from the 70s. I haven't seen any in the original state but from some colours remained in the figures ( I have 3 of them) I tried to paint some parts similar to it.

   The size of the knight is in 40mm scale and it is unbranded. In the last picture you can see one of the unpainted figures to understand the change with the painting. Simple, cheap but lovely mould.

 So with it I score 20 points and 15 for the mounted 40mm figure. Total 35 points and this takes me to the next room.

 

          In the next room I will present my contribution to the challenge with one 1:32 figure I'm preparing at this moment and try to finish it before 21th of January!

'Till next time..

Keep Up The Brushes!!

From BenitoM: Eearly Imperial Roman Auxilia (40 points)

Unlike in previous years, in this year's Challenge I decided not to focus my attention on a particular project, but to use the leftovers of other year's projects and try to complete some of the armies that still score as work in progress in my cupboards.

This is one example. In late 2019 I decided to build a couple of Ancient armies in anticipation to the publication of Infamy! Infamy!  by Too Fat Lardies (I participated in the testing phase). I repainted some very old Foundry Celts/Britons acquired in the 80s and bought a few Victirx bags for the Romans.

 

This is the third unit of the Auxilia list, so there is one more to go to complete my army, which I expect to do before the end of the current Challenge.

The models are (very high- ) 28mm  plastic Victrix. Shields are transfers from the same manufacturer. Note that Foundry and Victrix do not mix well at all, as the former are truly 25mm while the latter are closer to 30 mm rather than to 28 mm. Nonetheless, I discovered in the very few games played in 2020, that if you build homogenous armies, the difference is hardly noticeable when pitching both armies against each other on a table.

 

There is no specific bonus attached to this entry, therefore I will score the 40 points (8 minis @5 points each)  for this entry. 

From Dallas: Hasslefree Gromli, Dwarf Lord, in the Hall of Ancestors (25 points)

Next up is the Hall of Ancestors... and when you think of ancestors, in terms of fantasy tropes, you think of the Dwarves. They're fairly ancestor-obsessed, so I reckon painting a nice Hasslefree Dwarf should fit into the dungeon room theme nicely.

As you'll see farther down in the post, I've already painted a bunch of very nice Hasslefree Dwarf castings - in fact I got them on my visit to Salute 2012, so they've been around for awhile. However, while the Hasslefree Dwarf packs are outstanding models in themselves, they need a leader... 

Enter Gromli, also from the Hasslefree range. A really nice little model and fairly well suited to the style of the Hasslefree multipacks.

Here's the full group of Hasslefree Dwarves I've painted. I think my favourite is still probably "Adalheid", the female dwarf in the green dress. What a fantastic model! However I think Gromli fits in well there too... I was thinking that maybe he was Adalheim's dad...?

Another chamber completed in the Dungeon! Next up is the Guardroom, I've got some models ready to submit for that one shortly...

Stay safe everyone!

From TeemuL: Lady Sararwen, Level 1 Sorceress (30 points)

After the pest encounter, S.N Owl-Ord continued his walk in the lower levels of the Miskatonic University, when he finely some homely light ahead. He entered the chamber and saw a young woman in blue gown. "Lady Sararwen, I presume", he said, completely ignoring the impossible-to-him sword on the lady's hand. "Well, I've been called by many names, I guess you are correct", came the reply. "You seem a bit lost, old friend", she continued and spotted the flask on Uggla's hand. "Is that white port, there?" "Well, erm, I guess this is more red than white and I'm not sure about the port either, but I think I am bit lost, actually", Shellington answered. "I believe I took a wrong turn somewhere on my way to the Chamber of...". "Chamber of Grey?", interrupted the lady, "I can take you there, but let's first take a quaff of that fine beverage of yours." Shellington was thinking about the Chamber of Principal, but it most likely is grey like everything else here, so Lady Sararwen was most likely correct, she was teaching logistics or transportation or something like that, she should know where everything is. And a quaff of some fine port, that would make good to his nerves and rest would welcome too, Principal would not be expecting him immediately. And the lady looked thirsty as well, almost like 4 weeks without a decent drink...

As I follow the journeys of the good old S.N. Owl-Ord in the Chambers of Challenge, we next meet Level 1 Sorceress, who will be taking us to the Chamber of Grey. Level 1 Sorceress today is Arwen from the Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring era. I had to open the blister with green background to get this entry started, so I guess she has been waiting for a long time to be painted.

I used four different blues on the dress, trying to make it look very thing and light and have multiple layers, then there's of course some purple, pink and red with orange highlights elsewhere. I tried to keep the skin very light as well, which suits an elven noble. The black hair got only a very soft grey drybrush. There is a hint of pink on the lips.

A very nice miniature indeed to paint, especially when trying to put some effort on the dress, bit different than rough military uniforms. Arwen is a magic user, so she will give me 5 bonus points.

5 points for a 28mm GW miniature (152 total for the GW side Challenge)

20 points for the room bonus, Level 1 Sorceress

5 bonus points for sorceress

30 point in total, or even more...

Here's a work in progress photo of my painting session...

From MartinC The Turkish Army (118pts)

 Afternoon all, hope you are all well. A very steady couple of days for me and I've completed all the Turks I have, although there is another section on the way (which may grow into a whole platoon - who am I kidding, which will become a whole platoon if the figures are suitable),

I've also expanded all of Dunsterforce to apply to the whole of WW1 in Mesopotamia and the Ottoman Empire, so I've go as many of them to paint as I've already done)

So the last figures I had to paint were just over 2 infantry sections

To finish an independent officer who can double as an artillery spotter

I've also completed 4 more trench sections, need a few more sections and some ends but that will be enough

THis is my completed army of 8 infantry sections, 3 cannon, 2 machine guns and artillery observers and officers. 

I'm really quite pleased with this force and with some additional colour from irregulars they will look cool on the table.

Scores on the doors

22x28mm infantry = 110

4 trench sections at 2 pts each = 8

total 118

Have a good week and try not to overthrow any governments, it never ends well

From SidneyR: Soldiers of Fortune - the Regiment de Kinský, 1688 (125 points)

 

"Serve I the first, I shall not be repaid;

Serve I the second, I harvest but hate.

Tricked I will be, if I serve still another,

Serve I the fourth, my conscience will bother.

I know the hero whom we'd serve without pay;

The one who permits us to steal our own way"

A tavern song, sung in Bohemian, in "The Harvest Goose", Laarden, 1688*

*******

Among the various Challenge Chamber entries, I've been painting a German mercenary regiment for my late seventeenth century project centred around the fictional Free-Flemish City of Laarden.  I wanted a unit of German mercenaries who could easily take to the field on either side - Flemish, or French - and who knows, perhaps be of dubious loyalty to both, or either.

Casting the net to find for mercenary formations in the seventeenth century is not hard. There's a good choice of formations from the Thirty Years War, the Fronde, the Northern Wars and further to the East. I came across the name of Count Wilhelm Kinski, a colleague of Albrecht Wallenstein, the great Imperial military enterpriser and general in the Thirty Years War. Kinski - also spelled as Vilém Kinský or Vchynský - was a Bohemian soldier of fortune whose landed property passed to more reliable Hapsburg supporters after Wallenstein's murder in 1634.

I've also come across a reference to a regiment of Kinský serving in France in the Fronde in the 1650s, perhaps some distant relation. So, following a theme, I thought it was not unreasonable to place a regiment of the same name in late seventeenth century Flanders, as Bohemian "children of fortune" following the drum.

These 25mm figures are a bit of a mix.  I've used Dixon Miniatures and Wargames Foundry for the soldiers.  The camp followers are from Midlam Miniatures and Colonel Bill's.  The cat and the dog (also following the drum, or the food) are from Warbases, and the barrels of beer and apples are from Hovels.  The basket of bread is from Irregular Miniatures (and has finally found a base after about 30 years in the spares box).

I really struggled with finding good standards for German regiments which did not feature an Imperial Hapsburg eagle.  Most of the German regiments in the Northern Wars between Denmark and Sweden seem to have adopted standards similar to one of the Northern belligerents, rather than something more personal to the colonel of the regiment.  

I did come across a couple of standards which featured a pair of duelling knights on horseback, and used that design for the centre-piece of the standards, which I painted myself.  

I tried to go for standards which looked sufficiently 'German', but which could also reasonably pass for use in either a French or Flemish army in the period.

As befits professional soldiers of fortune, I didn't bother with lots of green-stuff lace, feathers and ribbons.  Such affectations are not for true masters of their craft - we can leave that to the French cavalry, or maybe French-fashion following Flemish cavaliers (#forthcoming).  I thought that the beer barrels we possibly more in keeping with the mercenary lifestyle these 'gentlemen' would have enjoyed.

I fluffed up the bases a bit with tufts from WWS Scenics (which are very nice), and some static grass.  I tried to get the 3mm bases (from Warbases) to be as neutral as possible, so went for a burnt umber tone for the edging, instead of black.

Ah, I'd almost forgotten - the points.... so 25 figures (one being two characters) in 25mm would give me 125 points, which is nicely symmetrical. No points for any 'Chamber' of Challenge XI, though - Count Kinský's men are not the sort to be tied down to any single location, after all, dear Challengers!

And because it's Sunday, and for all the collectors out there, here's the Collectible Character Card for the "Enemies and Allies of Laarden, 1688: The Challenge XI Collection", for Count Kinský and his "children of fortune'.

If you see them in the Grote Markt, dear friends, just trust me. Walk the other way...

(*  I should mention that the chilling Bohemian song isn't mine.  They're from a Strasburg-published text from 1650, which I took from page 472 of Fritz Redlich's "The German Military Enterpriser and His Workforce" (1964).  Dr. Redlich's book has everything, and more, you'd ever want to know about seventeenth century mercenaries.)