From PeterD: Imperial Pretender in the Gift Shop (31 points)

Last post from me today, I swear.

I going to make a stop in the Gift Shop for a gift for that fine chap IainW.  During last year's Challenge Iain I received a beautiful  Landsknecht commander from Iain and I wanted to return the favour.  Of course Iain also gifted me a Jacobite artillery crew that I specifically said I didn't want and I'll reward that action too at some point.

I have a pretender Roman Emperor with standard bearer, both 28mm foot figures from Gripping Beast.  During the Later Roman Empire, Britain spawned Imperial Pretenders at a great rate.  The general pattern was that Pretender X got the support of the local army commanders in Britain, declared himself the true Emperor, landed in Gaul with an Army and got his butt kicked and his head mounted on a stick.  

Iain liked the Wolf Sock puppet shield designs on one of my cavalry units so I gave the leader the same design.

The less successful got murdered before stepping foot on the Continent (this happened twice in 407 alone).  The moderately successful stuck around long enough to get recognized as Co-Emperors for a while before the True Emperor got around to dealing with them.   The most successful went down in history as Constantine the Great.  

The problem was that every Pretender stripped the Province of troops which were never replaced.  Eventually the Emperor got tired of the Fractious Brits and told them to look after their own defences (or alternately the Brits got tired of sending taxes to the Continent and told the Empire to get stuffed). Some things never change....

I mangled the original GB Vexillum because the hands weren't drilled out completely and I forced things.   I subbed a wire shaft and Victrix plastic Draco (which I think looks the business).

Carausius avoided the normal path by declaring himself Emperor of Britain after running afoul of Western Emperor Maximian over spoiled looted by Saxon pirates.  He was successful enough to declare himself co-emperor with Maximian and Diocletian and minted his own coins.  He held on to power for seven years until the Western Caesar Constantius Chlorus (father on Constantine) made plans for an invasion.  Carausius was killed by his Finance Minister Allectus, who was in turn done in my Constantius and Britain return to the Imperial fold.

Points wise that's 20 for the gift shop and 10 for the two figures for a total of 30 points.

I've updated my Studio map to show the three lots visited today, completing my Green Security pass and allowing me to move on to the Blue lots.  Since I bounce back to World Cinema after my spree in the Gift Shop I will need to do something Fantasy related or do another female figure to hop to another lot by Limo.

From TeemuL: True friendship is a beautiful thing, I'm sure Iain will be happy. It is all about giving and receiving, sometimes passing the misfortune (not sure about the translation of the proverb) truly shows that you do think and care. :) The models look good, I like the tone on the red cloak. I'll give you extra point from the hand painted shield - or is that a decal? :D But hey, three nice, turnip-free posts from you! Looking forward to your Fantasy post.