From TamsinP: Why Georgia Didn't Join The Fifth Crusade (144 points)

 The Adventures Of Oscar: Time Traveler, Slayer of Squirrels and Very, Very Good Boy

Chapter Four

In which our hero sees lots of horses...

"It's hot, it's dry, it's dusty, but there's grass! At least that means I'm not in one of those nasty deserts! Row-rah!"

"There's a lot of noise coming from over that hill. I wonder what it is? Better go and find out - no trees here, so no chance of finding squirrels to see anyway..."

"I think that's a battle? There are lots and lots of men on horses. The bigger ones seem to be surrounded and losing to the smaller, darker looking ones...oh, it seems they've all been killed. That was over rather quickly."

"I wonder if that was a famous battle? I expect Daddy-Curt would know."

"Well, not much more to see here, let's press a button and see where and when I end up this time. Ruh-roh..."

Of course, the battle young Oscar witnessed was one of the occasions where the Mongol tumans led by Jebe and Subetai encountered and wiped out the pride of Georgian cavalry near the start of their "Great Reconnaissance". The Georgian army was meant to join the Fifth Crusade, but with their cavalry mostly destroyed, King George IV's sister had to write to the Pope to explain what had happened.

As for the figures, I realised that I needed to beef up the medium cavalry part of my Mongol army. The list in Art de la Guerre also allows you to take up to four bases of Georgian or Armenian heavy impact cavalry, so I decided to add those as well.

Mongol Medium Cavalry

Georgian Heavy Cavalry

The figures are all 15mm from Donnington Miniatures.

There may be another submission from me today if all goes to plan...

<<<<INTERMISSION>>>>

 Extract from the journal of TamsinP, Time Traveler, Society Girl and Adventuress

Well, that's quite a pickle that Curt has put me in. How could he have left the box somewhere that Oscar could get at it? And why on Earth did he wait so long to ask me for help? Oh, well, I guess those questions will never get answered. Best to focus on sorting this problem out. First things first - I'll need to get someone to build a modified time travel device. Lots of electronics work for that - better call Dave.

"Hello, Dave here!"

"Hi, it's me, Tamsin. I'm going to need your help."

"Of course, what can I do for you?"

"You remember my time travel device? Well, I sent it to Curt for safekeeping and it seems that Oscar found it..."

"And broke it?"

"Errrmmm, I hope not. It's gone missing. As has Oscar."

"....."

"Are you still there, Dave?"

"Yes, still here. You don't think that loony hound has time-traveled do you?"

"At the moment it looks quite likely..."

"Ahhh, I see. Heavens help us! So, how can I help?"

"I was rather hoping, given your electronics wizardry that you might be able to modify the device so that we can track him down and get him back home. I have the blueprints for the original."

"That's technically feasible, but I'll need to consult with someone on the maths side for the time-tracing equations. I'll call you back in a week or so."

"Cheers - that'd be fab! I'll email you the blueprints"

I put the phone down, and sigh with relief. That's the first part of the rescue done...

For scoring

36 x 15mm mounted @ 4 = 144 points

Total = 144 points

__________________________

Haha! Excellent work Tamsin. I'm curious to what makes the 'medium' aspect with Mongol medium cavalry, or is it simply a gameism to fit a list mechanism? No matter, they look terrific as do the hapless Georgians. I'm glad you have Dave on the case helping you, but I'm curious to the 'someone on the maths side'. I look forward to seeing our new character and how this unfolds.

Always wanting to help, here is Oscar being your muse, investigating the leaves and grass for clues (and squirrels).

From GillesW - I'll do it tomorrow! (74 points)

"I'll do it tomorrow." That's what I have been saying for three weeks as I saw these figures waiting for their bases and flock ( Lazy jester!). This week I flicked from a project to another, but at least I have finally done the last group of heavy cavalry of my "Mongol Conquest" project, the army is finished (yes I know only for now;-)).

They will fight their first game this evening (that 's probably why they are ready).

Then I returned to my Italian Communal stuff with the addition of some bow and crossbow skirmishers.

I also reworked the flags of the command bases, resizing and painting highlights on them cause they were too small (something to compensate lord Farquuad??), this give me no points but I quite happy now, at least enough to return on the project and just to satisfy my "oversized EGO" I present them to you:

Jacopo Rangon di Modena and Jacopo dei Pazzi, standard bearer of the Florentine flag:

Bilenchi + the flag of "di Popolo di Firenze", a St Georges cross:

    

     Dante Alighieri (the man who wrote The Divine Comedy) + the flag of the Guelf party.

     The dead horse is bearing the arms of the famiglia Silembini who financed the Sienese party ( money don't do all ;-)

The last one is for the allied city of Pistoia with the Famiglia Montemagni + Famiglia Cancelleria bearing the standard of their town:

I will have more communal Italian to come...

Bien fait encore Gilles! Well done.  Very nice to see the "finish" of your Mongol force.  I hope they bring you victory tonight - although you know what they say about newly painted figures and their first game...

I think we can all relate to the feeling of "I'll do it tomorrow."  Although in my case I am often saying that about shoveling snow or cutting the grass, so I can paint instead.  But I can understand hesitation on groundwork and flocking...it's important, but not quite as much fun as painting the miniatures themselves, is it?

Great stuff all around, and nice to see more Italian Wars figures appear.  No doubt Peter will have some academic points to make about all these Italian fellows.  All I know is they look right to me! 

So I'll throw in a couple of extra points for work on banners - another part of the hobby I struggle with, so I respect the strong work of others.  Une autre 74 points pour vous, Mr. le Jester.  A la semaine prochaine!

From GillesW- Clutching at straws! (176 points)

Hi everyone! Of course, I'll not try this with palm trees, even in California, it 's just how I feel today ;-)

I managed to get a lot of figures prepped, painted, based and flocked this week, up to the standard that I like. I was afraid to be unable to finish them for today...the worst thing is that I have not  based and flocked all the figures I painted two weeks ago (don't ask me why, I have no sane answer).

I have painted more Minoan spearmen  and Lybians with javelins to have enough of them to try the army at the club this evening (impatience when you keep us!).

To add some variety in the color theme of the Minoans, I chose some Lybian mercenaries who came with their blankets and grass tufts.

With some luck the camp for these fellows will be finished this weekend.

Moving along, here is one more group of heavy Mongol cavalry. Thiis time most of them are from Old Glory Miniatures, it's just to differentiate each group of cavalry during the games.

Yes ! the army is nearly finished. After that, I'll bore you with something different!

One month to go and around 500 points to paint, I'm late! I'm late!...... the Queen will kill me!

More great painting Gilles, well done.  An army "nearly finished"? Surely by now you have learned there is no such thing as a "finished" collection! And as for your pace falling off, well, there are many of us who wish we could match your speed, I am sure.  I hope the Minoans and Libyans do well with your club game, and of course I'm sure the Mongols will ride over anyone getting in their way! Great work. 

From GillesW - Drowned in a glass of water! (102 points)

Hi everyone - The title say all ! I have few figures ready for posting this week, and so few points gained.  The rower is slowing, so where is the lash ?

I had planned to paint some different stuff for this week - ok I almost did it - but nothing is based and flocked (lazy frenchjester!) at least I have done more dots on the brown camos of my Marines.

I just been able to "finish" more support weapon for my marines with a Medium machine gun in a "John Rambo"style. The tripod carrier is just running after him.

Of course, when I read the rule book on the USA, I learned that the medium machine guns need three crew, so I'm still missing one crew man. I should read before painting (stupid jester!).

A small addition of heavy mongol cavalry from Essex Miniatures, Donnington Miniatures and Old Glory ranges , as usual I have cut off the lead spears to avoid the "spaghetti" effect .
I painted them with a black undercoat followed by a zenithal light of "The Fang" spray from Games Workshop, then I put an " Agrax earthshade" wash from GW to obtain a dark blue armour, I'm not sure that it can be seen on the pics.

 some ancient archers for my greek cities army:

some of them are coming from my never ending" give them a second life!" project, sprayed once more and repainted.
then two bases of Mycenian swordmen from Magister militum biblical range undercoated on their cardboard and forgot in a box.
I'll use them as change in case I lose a base of spearmen, all my spearmen are double based for an ease of use during the games.

a different test of skintone and one more time the cows paid the toll....
stay tuned......

Great work again Gilles - I find each week I am starting to look forward to the historical variety in your submissions!  From the Pacific in WW2, to the plains of Eurasai, to the ancient Greek city states.  Very cool! I love the heavy cavalry, and the cow hide shields on the swordsmen look great.  As for the MMG team, don't worry about what the rule book says - I'm sure a hard working two-man crew will work just fine with the MG on the table...

That is another 102 points for your Gilles - I do hope you avoid the "lash" on the boat this week...

From GillesW - Painting in all directions! (182 Points)

Hi everyone. My submission this week is comprised of figures I started two weeks ago - I have finally finishes the varnish, the basing and the flocking.  These are 28mm Egyptian archers - the figures are from Wargames Foundry, and I painted them with the Foundry "triad" paints.  These figures are part of another project which is "never finished".

 Here are a few close-ups:

Then the kings of the steppes, this time in 15mm from Essex miniatures, although the drummer on horse that is from Donnington Miniatures.  These are from a sort of "50 shades of brown" project for Field of Glory Ancient-Medieval rules. These are the command bases:

Now a group of armoured cavalry:

I still need to finish another group like the one above, as well as three more battle groups of heavy cavalry. Stay tuned for more on those!

Très impressionant Gilles! An excellent variety of figures in this submission.  The Egyptian archers are excellent, in particular with those signature Egyptian head caps - creates a total "Old Testament" vibe. And the ancient cavalry is very well done - "50 shades of brown" indeed! I don't much care for painting horses, and you have done an excellent job on this lot.  Armoured cavalry and heavy cavalry are always some of the most fun units to use in any wargame, and these fellows look the business. 

That is 182 points for you this week - we look forward to your soumission de la semaine prochaine!