From Curt: 'Rodentovsky's Mischief' - Warband for 'Burrows & Badgers' (43 Points)

 Hey There!

Last spring Byron introduced me to 'Burrows & Badgers'. To be honest, I wasn't expecting too much, thinking it would be a cute game, but nothing to take too seriously. A skirmish game in a world of cute anthropomorphic animals? Maybe fun for one-off games, but no real legs to it, right? Well, I was proven wrong. 

The game is simple and straightforward, but is quite nuanced, having a few key mechanics that really make it sing. The other thing that makes it a winner is the depth to how you can build and develop your warbands, making them unique and telling a story. It has a bewildering number of creatures to choose from for your warbands, an astonishing depth to its magic system, a wide variety of weapon's and armour, powerful skills, and even rules for building your warband's den (think of the charm of Bilbo's hobbit hole, but with an armoury, apothecary and archery range thrown in and you get the idea). It's pretty amazing, and I recommend it not only as a great game to play, but also as a terrific example of quality publishing. The 272 page hardcover rulebook is both beautifully designed and wonderfully illustrated, making it a pleasure just to flip through and enjoy.

Our group recently started a B&B campaign which is proving to be a lot of fun. We have six warbands battling it out, three Royalist troupes and three fighting for the Freebeast Union.

So, for my second entry this season, I have a warband for the Freebeasts. This is 'Ratatevsky's Mischief'. 

Warbands in B&B can be as small as three creatures, or as many as ten. Players have 350 Pennies to build their beginning warband. The bigger/more powerful the creature, the more they cost in Pennies. As I knew several of the guys would create some low model-count, heavy-hitting troupes, I decided to take a different path and maximize numbers. Mice are the least expensive creatures to recruit, so I thought I'd try to 'flood the zone' with these little fellas in the hope that their increased numbers would allow me to take objectives, soak up casualties, while still being able to swarm for attacks. (By the way, a group of mice is called a 'mischief', which I thought was too charming to pass up so I worked it into the troupe's name.) All of these figures are 3d prints from 'Dragon Trappers Lodge' on MyMiniFactory.

This 'Mischief' of mice is led by a Great Grey Rat, Anna Rodentovsky. I really like her rakish, rapscallion appearance.  Anna sports a fencing blade and has a lot of sass.

Anna's second-in-command is Maizy the Mage. Like magic users everywhere, she's a bit of a glass cannon with a few powerful spells, but is otherwise quite fragile. 

The rest of the warband is split evenly between four close combat mice and four with ranged weapons. The models here have crossbows, but they are serving as proxies for calivers in the game. (Calivers are ferociously powerful in B&B, and having four of them will give a bit of pause to opponents who wish to move carelessly in the open.)

This is a warband that requires a good amount of luck and timing to work, but nonetheless can take a bit of punishment. Time will tell if they prove themselves worthy on the tabletop. 

The nine mice are pretty much all 20mm in size, while Anna is quite tall, coming in at 40mm. All together this makes for 43 points in total. The 'Mischief' will also provide a squirrel point as an added bonus.

For those who have read through this whole thing, I thank and applaud you! I hope to have a few more creatures for Burrows & Badgers over the coming months, but we'll see where the brushes take me. 

Again, thanks for stopping in and have a good one!

- Curt

From JohnB: 1/72 vehicles: "The Sinews of War (again)" (45 points)

Last year or was it the previous one? anyway the sinews of war in other words - logistics, hove into view and its the same again this year. In fact it is the same 1/60 scale? Corgi lorries liberated this time at a toy fair bin ends sale, and subjected to a wargamers paint job. Last time it was my Rugian (french) colours while today I offer up my Gombardian (italian) colours for these commercial lorries pressed into war service. The basic colour is a common dark green - docrafts jungle green in the uk, while I have tried a pale green from vallejo to create a white dusty environment. Think limestone. As you can see all headlights are blinkered and identification plates are suppressed. One vehicle is actually straight out of the paint shop heading to the front for the first time. so I game 20-25mm or 1/72 i.e. not 15mm nor 28mm. So I am claiming 3 x 15 points = 45 points for the 3 vehicles. Here are a few pictures using my currently favoured "Painting Portrait" approach to displaying my wargames figures and vehicles. Best of luck everyone especially those starting on this road for the first time!

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Welcome back to the Challenge, John!

Great work on these 'Gombardian' lorries. As you say, its great to be able to reflect the logistics of war on the tabletop, and for the 20th century this usually means trucks, and lots of them. The blinkered lights are a nice touch but I have to say I quite like your photo setup and background - very nice! 

45 points for your climb to your points target - well done!

- Curt

From BillA - The Brotherhood of the Boomstick (40 pts)

After an absence of several years due to having other draws on my hobby time, I'm very pleased to be back with the AHPC! A lot has changed since the last time I've been here - married my long-time girlfriend, we're homeowners (bought the house I grew up in from my parents), I've become a published RPG author... Lots has gone on. 

For my first post, I've got some charming 3D printed figures, printed by a friend of mine for me from STLs designed by Ill Gotten Games. They had a recent Kickstarter for a variety of hooded cultist-types with weapons ranging from fists to ray guns, along with a goatish demonic mastermind. My buddy printed me twice as many cultists with shotguns as I'd asked for initially, so I've got some leftover that may get painted later.

I'm planning to use these for a demo table I'm running at a local gaming convention the first weekend of February; six should be more than enough (fingers crossed!) and so I didn't go too crazy with the paint jobs. The robes are basecoated in Reaper "Ultramarine Shadow" and given a heavy drybrush with "Ultramarine Blue" to pick up the folds in the robes before picking out the details of the hands and guns. 

And a solo look at their master:

He's a big boy (that's a 50mm base he's on), and I think the multiple eyes is a callback to the 1980 film "Altered States," where William Hurt's character has religious hallucinations of a goat-headed figure with a similar spread of eyes. He's been basecoated with Reaper's "Coal Black" (actually an extremely dark blue-green) and drybrushed with "Midnight Blue" before picking out the eyes, horns, hooves and giving a light feathering of "Tanned Shadow" to the palms and inner ears. 

And for my entree fee, I've made a donation to the National MS Society, a cause very close to my heart. In 2022, my wife Gina was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune condition where her immune system mis-identifies her nervous system as a foreign invader and attacks the nerve cells. We're very lucky that we were able to catch it relatively early and are in a position to treat aggressively, but as of right now there's no cure and no repairing the damage the illness has already done; the best we can hope for is slowing progression. We've done fundraising events and charity walks for NMSS in the past, so donating again was a no-brainer for me. 

We have six cultists at 28mm scale for 30 points, and I think it's reasonable to call the demon a 54mm figure for 10 points, for a total of 40 points. 

With this entry, I'm claiming 1 point towards the Squirrel Duel with these...let's call them Modern Horror as a genre. 

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First, welcome back to the Challenge, Bill! It's great to catch-up on all that you've been up to these past few years. 

Terrific cultists here. Who doesn't enjoy a cultist, or six? So wonderfully ardent, passionate and eager to please. And why not, when your overseer is a huge, multi-eyed horned beast! If you've not been ravaged by now you must be doing something right, right?! 

Great work on these, Bill! I'm sure they will give you solid service in your coming gaming convention. 

More importantly, donating to the National MS Society is a great thing. I'm very sorry to hear of your wife's diagnosis, but am heartened to hear that her treatment is on course to help her going forward. Best wishes. 

I look forward to your coming entries over the coming weeks.

- Curt

From JP - Early Germanic Foot (30 Points)

Well, I think this Analog will see me reach the end of my Cimbrian adventures, where the Germans are concerned. If you've seen my work the past two years, you know I have an obsession with fighting the Cimbrian Wars. My 28mm collection is made up for Victrix and Foundry figures. Earlier this year, I picked up a sizable order of Foundry's Copplestone Early Germans as I love his sculpting style. My Victrix are great, but metal is still my favourite medium.

WARNING: not everyone is clothed in this mob...

Without further ado, here are six Cimbrian skirmishers, mainly Suebi, looking for their first trophies, though one seems to have gotten a bit ahead of the rest (trophy wise). 

That's  6 x 28mm = 30 points

More to come... lots more... not to mention the Marians...

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Lovely work on these early Germans, JP. Like you, I really enjoy the sculpts from Copplestone. Such nice, clean lines, with just enough detail - easy to paint. Your basework and sabots look excellent as well, another unit for the barbarian horde! I look forward to more hairy Germans and the promised Marians. 

 - Curt

From LeeH - Soviet Infantry Platoon HQ & 2 Squads (140 Points)

This year’s project for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge marches straight into the deep snow of Northern Europe and the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland. The action took place, as the name suggests, in the winter of 1939–40. Once again, I’m painting the Russians, while Ray takes on the Finns. All of the figures for these first units are from Parkfield Miniatures, although later units may include specialist reinforcements drafted in from other ranges. One of the real joys of this period is that it gives us a second use for all the 28mm winter terrain we’ve already built for last year's project, Napoleons Retreat from Moscow. 

Historically, the Winter War began in the uneasy aftermath of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union calmly agreed on who would menace whom. Stalin, peering nervously at maps, decided that Finland’s proximity to Leningrad was intolerable. The Finns were newly independent and understandably unimpressed by Soviet demands for territorial concessions. Diplomacy collapsed, and in November 1939, the Red Army rolled across the border in what Moscow insisted was a defensive measure, and everyone else recognised as an invasion. 

What followed took place in some of the most brutal winter conditions ever endured by modern armies. Temperatures dropped to –30°C and below, turning weapons brittle, engines temperamental, and exposed skin into an invitation to frostbite. Soviet planners expected a swift victory, assuming that mass, armour, and artillery would quickly overwhelm a small, lightly equipped opponent. What they hadn’t factored in was Finland’s near-mythical familiarity with its own landscape. Forests, frozen lakes, and endless snow weren’t obstacles; they were tools. Finnish units moved on skis, vanished into tree lines, and struck where Soviet formations were weakest, turning the environment itself into a weapon.

The war’s narrative divides neatly into two acts: the Soviet disaster and the Soviet recovery. Early operations saw Red Army columns funnelled along narrow forest roads, where Finnish troops cut supply lines and isolated units using “motti” tactics, breaking larger formations into smaller, doomed pockets. The results were humiliating and costly. By early 1940, though, the Soviets adapted. Leadership improved, artillery was concentrated, and sheer industrial weight was brought to bear against the Mannerheim Line. Finland fought with extraordinary determination, but numbers and firepower eventually told. The Moscow Peace Treaty ended the war in March 1940, forcing Finland to give up territory while retaining its independence, a bitter compromise, but one that stunned the world.

The contrast between the two armies is part of what makes the Winter War so compelling, both historically and on the tabletop. The Soviet Union had vast resources but suffered from rigid doctrine, poor preparation, and an officer corps hollowed out by purges. Finnish forces were outnumbered, under-equipped, and often improvising (this is, after all, the conflict that popularised the Molotov cocktail), but they had experience, initiative, and morale in abundance. They were defending their homes, their freedom, and a way of life. 

As you would expect, my soviet forces consist of a lot of infantry. I have started with a Platoon HQ unit and two light machine gun squads. I have several more primed and waiting in the wings, along with some support weapons and armour. 

27x28mm Foot = 135 points
2x28mm prone = 5 Points
Total = 140 Points

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Ah, yes, the 2.0 of the Lee-Ray (like 'Leeroy') Challenge! Fantastic!

The Russo-Finnish war is so evocative (and in many ways hauntingly relevant to current events). Of course, it makes perfect sense to tap into not only the terrain from your Great Retreat project, but also all the skills you honed doing winter-themed figures. Wonderful work, Lee! These Russians look suitably miserable and frostbitten, waiting for dreaded Finns to strike from blizzards and snow-laden tree lines, only to infuriatingly disappear. I look forward to seeing how this partnered project develops over the coming winter months.  

- Curt

From KillianF - Entering the Zone (30 Points)

First post for my first time challenge! I have painted six modern adventurers who are exploring "The Zone", a mysterious area in unspecified Eastern Europe. For some reason these guys jumped up past the  4th C. Goths I originally planned to start with.

 From left to right:

Simeon the Scrounger, Handy Javik, Natalie Halovna, Andrei Peshtov, Vas "the Boy", and Kid Czerno.

These guys and girl are all in a mish-mash of tactical gear and weaponry, which was good fun to paint. Some jazzy camo patterns were suitably dulled down with washes made from acrylic ink and AK fluid matte varnish. The various lenses are not accurate or tactical, but I like the pop of colour and texture they add. They were done with Tamiya clear red and yellow.

These are the start of a small collection of figures for Zona Alfa and similar games. The models are 28mm from Anvil Industry (from a whole variety of packs), 3d printed by myself.

6x28mm infantry: 30 points.

I also believe this qualifies for 1x Squirrel Point.

Probably need to crack on with some Goths now......

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First, welcome to the Challenge, Killian! It's always a pleasure to have new people join in on the madness, and for all of us to enjoy looking at new brushwork and toys!

Excellent work on this post-apoc squad. The figures really have that Metro 2033/STALKER vibe going on. I also like the desiccated ash waste groundwork - very on-theme. I haven't checked out Anvil Industry in ages and am bewildered by how much their stocklist has grown - thanks for the tip!

These half-dozen ZONE adventurers will give you 30 points towards your Challenge target. Well done!

From Kerry T - Getting the hump - Reconquer Designs Berber Camelry (160 points)

Morning, afternoon and evening all

I figure that greeting should cover it as its bound to be one of those times of day where you are, given that we are such an international audience!

Isn't it great to be back for the challenge again. Huge thanks once again to Curt and Sarah for keeping this superb innovation going into its 16th year.

I'm a latecomer and so this is only my fifth challenge though hopefully will turn out to be my most productive as I've essentially retired now though still work one day per week. Despite having plenty of time to plan I still don't have a definite idea of what I'm going to feature so as usual I suspect its going to be all over the place. I must say I'm really glad to see terrain making a return this year.

I've had plenty of help and no shortage of advice and suggestions from my Antipodean mates with whom I meet on line at least once but usually twice per week. We've been meeting on a Tuesday and often an additional Thursday for a paint and chat for at least two years I think. Its hugely encouraging and my thanks go to the guys for their support and enthusiasm along with their positive input that makes it the highlight of my wargaming week. Cheers guys

The challenge usually motivates me to get on and daub some paint on the masses waiting in the lead and plastic pile. I'm usually very productive painting wise being more of a painter/collector rather than gamer (how come I have so many rule sets then?). My aim is usually to try and finish those few remaining units that will mean that a period or project will have been completed. That's all well and good but we all know that one never finishes a project as inevitably some "oh look shiny" set of figures catches the eye so the project never ends. The acquisition of both a filament and resin printer in the past few years has done nothing for the height of the pile I'm afraid!

In previous challenges I've often started off with something from the Crusades or Reconquista era. This year I've decided to do the same and this afternoon I've just finished taking pictures of  some Berber camelry from Reconquer Designs. These are 3D prints and available from Myminifactory

A section of my gaming table set up taking for photos

I decided to paint 2 units, one in darker colours

and the other in brighter colours

The detail on the figures is great but they are very brittle, particularly the very thin spears, hopefully though they will turn out to be robust enough for gaming

Bases are 60mm wide and 80mm deep, 2mm MDF from Warbases

  

 

The prints come in a few parts, 4 camel variants, 5 rider variants, the reins, shields and weapons for the right arm are printed separately. Normally I would base 3 horses on a 60mm wide base but these are too big and can only be based in twos.

In summary

16 x 28mm Mounted figures at 10 points each = 180 points

1 Squirrel

Many thanks and best wishes Valleyboy

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Wonderful to have you back, Kerry, and with camels no less as your first entry!

These camel units look fabulous. I especially like the vibrant colours you've gone with and the arid basing looks ace. I've done a few figures from the Reconquer range and agree, they are beautifully designed. I don't know if you're using it already, but if not you may want to try mixing in some 'Tenacious' resin from Siraya Tech. It helps to keep prints more flexible, less brittle, and not as prone to breaking. 

160 points and a terrific opening entry to, er, get over the hump! ;)

- Curt