From NoelW: Outnumbered in the Oubliette (1159 points)

 [INTRO: This is a longish post with quite a few photos, so I’ve only given one or two photos for each item, and I’ve scored the probable points as I go along. ]

But first…

***

“Stop shoving!”

“Where are we? I can’t see a thing.”

“More to the point, who are we?”

“Well, I don’t know who you are. But I know I’m – definitely – someone.”

“Or something, judging by the smell. And you’re holding a big shiny stick.”

“I am, aren’t I? I wonder why.”

“Oy! Keep the witty conversation down, will you? There’s a legion trying to get a bit of shuteye in here.”

“There must be a way out. Stands to reason. We got in somewhere. Just find that place and reverse the process.”
“Hey! Watch where you’re treading!”

“Sorry – if only there was a light.”

“Get your foot out of my mouth!”

“Must be an elf, if it’s foot in the mouth time.”

“Who you calling an elf? You take that back this minute!”

“If we had a couple of sticks we could rub together, we could make a fire. Or at least a spark. Like a boy scout.”

“No thanks. I’ve just eaten.”

“Ok, that’s an ogre, or I’m a person who identifies as man from the Netherlands.”

“You got something against ogres?”

“No! No. Apart from my chin, that is.”

“I wish I could remember – something…”

“I think I’ve found a couple of long knotty sticks. Possibly elven legs. I could rub them together, see what happens.”

“What have we got to lose?”

“Let go of my ankles. I’ve a great deal to lose.”
There’s a grating sound, like sandpaper rubbing against grandma’s stubble. Nothing happens.

“If there was a sorceress or a cleric, they could shed some light on the situation. Even a halfling with a bright idea.”

“Unlikely.”

“Hang on. Maybe one of these sleeping people is a magician. I’ll have a look. Let me just light this torch so I can see better.”

For a moment the oubliette – for such it is – is as thick with silence as it is with darkness, a silence broken only by the snores and whimpers of thousand bodies, suddenly illuminated by the blaze of Titchy’s torch. Rows and rows of sleeping warriors.

“Ah! Tread softly, or we’ll tread on their screams.”

“There’s a lever over there, by that small wooden wall.”

“If only we had someone who could pull a lever…”

***

I thought Oubliette was a character in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, because I’d forgotten what it actually meant. I read French as part of my degree, tutored by a very French lady called Mme Grillet (which is French for ‘grill’, which she frequently did to me). I learned one thing: that parapluie meant ‘butterfly’, so that on my very first trip to France I could declare, brightly, to demonstrate my erudition, “Voila les parapluies dans la jardin”. Highlight of my polyglottism.

At my age I forget many things but, fortunately, one of them is how many things I forget. There was a time, almost forgotten now, when I thought 10mm was the answer to every wargaming need. 10mm figures weren’t too expensive, didn’t need lots of storage, could fit on the smallest of gaming tables and enabled massive battles, yet weren’t so small they could not carry detail worth painting. I planned several massive setups: Borodino, Leipzig, ever battle in Tolkien.

Well, of course, you know what’s coming next. I acquired drawers full of 10mm figures, only to decide that 28mm was where I really wanted to be. The 10mm figures were assigned to miscellaneous receptacles, languishing for years in forgotten corners of the parallel world that is my attic.

Until last year I sorted out some of the figures for the Joshua Project, and was reminded of how much unpainted 10mm I had. These days, with my declining faculties (no comments, please) I find it hard to see the detail on 10mm, and get bored with painting them. So this time round I decided I’d do some bulk 10mm painting between working on posts for the Chambers before it's too late, and post whatever I’d managed when I reached the Oubliette, focusing on two of the unfinished projects: Borodino and fantasy.

Eh, voila!

Borodino

All Old Glory figures.

For the Russians: 90 infantry, 90 points

For the French I’m working towards nominal units to represent each of the Corps:

90 Poles (Duchy of Warsaw): V Corps (90 points)

30 Westphalian Garde-Grenadiere: VIII Corps (30 points)

(There are 9 hand painted flags in these units, but they’re such poor quality, I’m not asking any bonus for them).

TOTAL: 210 points

[So that's also 210 points for the Napoleonic Challenge, and I guess three armies gives me 3 Squirrel points.]

Tolkienic Fantasy

Most of these figures are 10mm plastic from GW's Battle of the Five Armies set, comprising humans, dwarves, elves and goblins, including wolf riders. The individual figures are from various sources, and of various sizes. 

Elf archers: 84

Elf spears: 210 

Dwarves: 210

Humans: 42

Goblins: 252

Wolfriders: 12 figures, 24 points

Unicorns (unknown manufacturer, possibly Pendraken): 3

Trolls: (The trolls and Black Riders are from Lord of the Rings Risk. The trolls are 25, whilst the Riders are really 15mm rather than 10mm, but as they’re supernatural creatures, I think they look fine and as the painting is simply black with a drybrush, I'm scoring them as 10mm):

3 x 25mm Trolls: 15 points

Black Riders: 9 cavalry: 18 points

Ghosts: (I think these are Kallistra)

9 x 20mm figures: 36 points

Sea monsters: These are from GW's old Man O' War game. I regret getting rid of the ships from this game, which were lovely models, but I did keep hold of these four monsters. The range in size from 25mm to 50mm, but I'm scoring them all as 25mm.

4 x 25mm figures: 20 points

TOTAL: 929 points
[Not sure how to compute the Squirrels here: maybe 4 for the main races, and another one for all the “Specials”?]

20 points for The Oubliette

Grand Total: (210+929+20) = 1159 points

From NoelW: For Joshua: Sarah’s Balloon (104 points)

The balloon lifts off and we give thanks that we’ll never have to see that infernal towering place again. Deftly Lady Sarah turns us towards Frans Fjord, but we quickly realise we could simply cut our entire journey short by zooming straight across the island to our original starting point, Douglas’ Shallows. In wild celebration at the thought, we squeeze the last drops from the champers, almost a thimbleful each.

“Head east,” I say.

“The wind’s easterly,” says Lady Sarah.

“Brilliant! How lucky is that? We’ll be there in no time.”

“No – 'easterly' means the wind is coming from the east.”

“Well, just ignore it then.”

Lady Sarah has a certain expression on her face, an expression the Snowlord apparently is so familiar with that he made a particular point of warning us about it. She pulls on ropes, stokes the fire, trims the rigging and does whatever else a balloonist can think of to fight the Warp Factor 9 wind.

We pass over the fjord and I see small people way below us. So small. So very small. Tiny, in fact:

Is it my imagination, or are those people getting larger?

And larger!

Yes, we’re descending!

---

These are 10mm figures I’ve been working on as my contribution to the For Joshua project, a hugely worthy cause. They’ll join a few other figures and some terrain I’ve pruned from my existing collection. It’s rather a miscellaneous assortment, but James assures me all figures will be welcome. They’re a mix of manufacturers, too: GW Warmaster (undead and Empire), most of the men at arms are Pendraken and others are Kallistra, plus three figures (the Ringwraiths and cave trolls) from Hasbro’s “Lord of the Rings Risk”.

In total there are 62 10mm infantry, 16 mounted, 1 hellblaster volley gun and 4 banners, which is around 97 points. Possibly the five ogres/trolls are worth a little more but that’s perhaps counteracted by the lack of proper basing. James wants to base all the figures in the same way, so I've simply left these on painting sticks.

---

The wind has whipped us round. Now we’re heading directly for the spikiest peaks above the fjord.

Calmly Lady Sarah jettisons sandbag after sandbag. Then empty champagne bottle after empty champagne bottle. Then all unwanted baggage – I’ll miss my sergeant but I did tell him his BMI would be the death of him.

Yet still we descend. Those spiky mountains are looking closer and closer, grosser and grosser.

Then, for a moment, there’s a shift in the wind. The balloon spins in a sudden updraft. We start to rise.

And just as suddenly, the balloon stalls and we plummet again, rock-wards. Right in the middle of a steep climb, there’s nothing grosser than an unexpected stall...

So here it is, the grocer’s stall - 

---

So here’s my second small vignette: a market stall and its stallholder. I thought the miniature was another Perry model, but I can’t find it in their catalogue. She has a strong resemblance to my grandmother (Grandma TicToc, as she was known) and also to one of my primary school teachers, both of whom coincidentally were called Williams and both were formidable ladies, too, so I imagine this is not the stall to find bargains.

The stall and market goods are resin, but I’ve lost any note of the manufacturer(s). As my second returning home vignette, I suppose this is a bit of a cheat, as it's not all based together, but I wanted to keep the pieces separate so they could be used in different games and different ways.

For points, there’s 5 for the gorgeous stallholder but the stall and miscellaneous goods fill less than a twelfth of a terrain cube, so I guess that’s a mere 2 additional points.

Total points: 97+7 = 104

Noel, James will love these. They are a great collection of forces. As for the stall holder, she does indeed look terrifying. No nicking apples from her, she will know your mother. Stalls are complicated but it's worth more than 2 points. Lets go for it being the equivalent of a 28mm gum, with actual grapeshot.