From LeeH - Classical Indian Elephants - (120 Points)

I have been looking forward to painting these for a long time. The massed elephants of Poros' army is such an evocative image, I couldn't resist buying this army. Everything I have painted up to now has effectively been painted to justify painting these beasts of war.

The Elephant could perform a number of useful military functions (clearing obstacles, fording rivers and battering down the walls of strongpoints) but it was its prowess and the phycological impact of these massive animals that saw them favoured as beasts of war. In Ancient India the army was divided into four types; Infantry, Cavalry, Chariots and Elephants. As I mentioned in my post about the Chariots these had once been the prestige weapon of war but had started to be replaced by the Elephant as the dominant wing of most armies. Magadha (mid-4th century BCE - 321 BCE) had about 3,000 elephants while the Mauryan and Gupta empires with figures of anything up to 9,000 animals in its command. King Poros, at the Battle of Hydaspes (326 BCE) faced Alexander with a mere 200 Elephants but this still sounds like a terrifying sight. It's possible that facing these animals, and knowing that larger armies lay ahead, was partly responsible for the army eventually refusing to continue with Alexanders invasion of India.

The Arthashastra of Kautilya (c. 4th century BCE), gives a lot of information on different kinds of elephants, their training, and their conduct in war. Their main use in battle was their ability to crush enemy foot soldiers, scare away horses, and trample chariots. The psychological impact of these creatures cannot be underestimated, however, their practical success has been hotly debated for centuries. Wounded or dying elephants could as easily trample their own troops as enemies. And an elephant running amok is as uncontrollable as it is unpredictable. Royal elephants were specially trained and prized for control but if the beast decided to run away it's riders - including any commanders - would be carried away with them, come what may. Despite these risks, the Elephant was still a prized weapon of war and at the Hydaspes, King Poros fought bravely from the back of his mount, even after the defeat of his army was inevitable.

Elephants could be provided with armour but by the 4th Century BC they were often covered in massive rugs called hatthatthara which would provide quite effective protection from arrows. As Poros would find, these were less effective against 18 foot Sarisa pikes and well-disciplined troops. From about this period the Mauryan kingdoms used three riders, all archers, with two shooting.

Points wise these should net me about a hundred and six points - 26 Elephants, 77 Crew and 32 foot troops as escorts. With the Elephants finished I have completed everything I had planned for this army, so I guess a picture of the whole lot is in order? Here's my Army of Poros at the Hydaspes. They don't currently have anyone to fight as I haven't started collecting the figures I need for the corresponding Macedonian army... maybe something to consider for Challenge XI ?!?

It seems a shame to put these away in a drawer so I think I'll buy myself a special display case and get these fella's out where I can enjoy them.

Holy heck that's a lot of Heffalumps Lee, excellently painted.  This Classical Indian Army and been a favourite of mine through the challenge and I'm thrilled to minion this post.  Excellent work again, love the bright colours and the painted shields on the accompanying infantry.  And the close ups show just how tiny and delicately done the details are, especially  on the pachyderm riders

Your full army looks the bomb all lined up, far too good to lock away in a drawer.  My eyes are too old to do a head count on this horde Lee, so I'll go with your figures.  But I'm rounding it up to 120 for all the details.

From TeemuL: Lady for Ballon Ride (115 points)

"Lady Sarah, Lady Wonger"

"Get us and this lady somewhere out of this atoll, somewhere with no ships."

"That Mesa looks good, there please."

"Oh those? Lady needs some peasants with her, there's room for everyone."

"Come on, aboard please!"

"We should have our own drinks? Oh well, may be next time..."

From ScottM: Samurai arrive at Snow Lord's Peak (145 Points)

For my climb onto Snow Lord's Peak, I went with a submission of some samurai figs. I've been working on this samurai project for a number of years. I pretty much have one army complete, and these figs will go towards the second army. At the rate I'm going I should be done somewhere around 2030.

These figs are all 28mm metal. All the infantry are from Steel Fist Miniatures and the cavalry is from TAG (The Assault Group). I've base up my figs so they could be used for Impetus and eventually when it comes out Command and Colors: Samurai. This first base is a group of Ashigaru with yari.

I was originally planning on doing two bases of Teppo instead of the yari troops, but the Steel Fist Teppo I had were actually really crappy casts. They're sitting on my shelf right now and I'm debating whether just to grind through them painfully or just pitch them. Argh!

Next up is a base of Steel Fist Samurai. These guys' armour tends to vary all over the place when it comes to style.

And finally is a base of mounted warrior monks. These figs are actually the first miniatures from TAG I've ever painted and I really enjoyed painting them. They're nice and clean and not loaded down with crap.

And here is the lot all together.

And that completes Snow Lord's Peak! From here I think I'm going to wander down the Path of the New Shiny.

So that should be:
15 28mm foot figs + 3 28mm cavalry figs = 105 +30 (location bonus) = 135 points.

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Oooh, these look fabulous Scott. Steel Fist and TAG? Awesome quality minis here, though I'm sorry you've had some quality issues with the Steel Fist offerings. It's terrific that you've given us the 'greatest hits', ashirgaru, warrior monks and samurai. The mon and heraldic devices are superb (I'm especially taken by the fellow with the butterfly). I usually go with low-profile bases, but I have to say I really like the look of your more chunky approach. 

I'm going to give another 10 points for all the flags and fiddly banners/devices. 

As to your prize, I award you with JonathanO's Necromancer.

Well done Scott!

-Curt

From SamuliS: I love the smell of warpfire in the morning! (50points)

Moving on from Sander's Sand Dunes I head of towards Millsy's Millpond with an offering of old(hammer) Skaven. I'm pretty sure these warpfire throwers came out during the 4th edition of Warhammer Fantasy so somewhere during the mid-90s.

I actually haven't had these minis for that long as I only really had a couple of old models left from when I was a kid and started Warhammer Fantasy. Most of the minis for my Oldhammer Skaven army have been bought from ebay and various facebook sales groups and these warpfire throwers are no exception. They were actually bought last March from ebay alongside some other older models. Like a lot of my purchases this was done while on a business trip and sitting in a hotel lobby bar browsing ebay and online stores while drinking beer and trying to pass the time.

The whole project was kicked of a bit over two years back with Total War Warhammer 2 coming out and with Skaven being a playable race it instantly rekindled my interest in the little ratmen. I dug out what was left of my old minis and started planning an army. Originally I was just going to paint the couple of older metal minis for nostalgia's sake and then have the rest of the army be the newest plastics, but it turned into a full on Oldhammer project quite fast. The first mini I painted for the army was actually my entry for the Childhood bonus round of the eighth challenge. After that there wasn't much progress for a while before I really kicked things forward late last spring and now I have most of the core already done and have lately started painting some of the special units like these warpfire throwers.

As the skaven are a horde army I've kept my paint scheme fairly simple. Most colours are just a basecoat and a wash so a lot of different brownish shades as they work pretty nicely with just a wash and no highlights. The skin gets highlighted to add a some detail to the minis and to draw the eye there and hopefully making the whole force seem like it's painted to a better standard than it really is. The main army colour of green is also highlighted as it doesn't really work that great with washes.

With these crazy warpfire wielding rats I should get another 50 points to my tally. 30 from the next step on the challenge island and then 20 for the 4 28mm figures on show. Three tasks completed and now time to think which one I should tackle next. I'll probably take another balloon ride as I don't think I have any suitable subjects for Benito's Brook. Maybe I can find something by digging around the stash for random miniatures.

Lovely work on these rat-men Samuli, it's great to see these old projects come back to life.  These warp-fire thingies look like a match for mister handful-of-potato-masher-grenades and the lets-open-up-with-the-flamethrower-while-prone team. 

I like your technique using a base browns plus washes with highlights on key areas.  It works a charm on these lads.  I agree on points.  Now lets see if I can hack past Miles security system to rack them up properly.

From MartinC - 28mm Late Romans (170 pts)

Why are the Romans never punctual, I have early Romans and I now have Late Romans (see below) but I've never seen just in time Romans.

1st up some armoured infantry. As usual I handpainted the shields and there are loads of early Christian symbols I can use. It has just struck me that the Romans have Christian Shields and Pagan Dragon Pendants - weird. The figures are from Ebor Miniatures, more famous for floppy hat chaps, and a complete bargain at £24 for the regiment with all the spears. There was no swarf and all the bases came pre-sanded

The figures are a nice height but a little skinny, think Perry, but do fit with Footsore

To go with these I have 8 Footsore archers

These will go with my few cavalry so far and form the backbone of my burgeoning Late Roman army but I do need to buy some more, I nearly won some on a ebay auction but the prices get too close to full price. Luckily its Hammerhead in a month, the 1st outing of the For Joshua battle and loads of opportunities to buy stuff - I've nearly run out (2 months of painting left then I'm out of toys!!!!!!)

Scores on the Doors

32 x 28mm infantry = 160 plus lovely shield and flag bonus

Nice bunch of Fashionably Late Romans Martin.  I'll agree I've never seen the Bang on Time Romans but am familiar with the Early Imperial Romans (crap  what are they doing arriving now- finish setting the table and get dressed).  Fine work indeed. 

Heavens out of toys to paint - best get out the MonsterCard.  Isn't there a show somewhere up North this Sunday?

I'm in a generous mood given my recent promotion to Minion and I always like to encourage hand painted shields.  Therefore I'll bump you up 10 points for some nice shields and a draco standard (is this really a flag technically?)

Groundhog Day and its Deja Vu All Over Again

Miles has had to step back from his minoring duties, so Curt's asked me to pinch hit on the Sunday minion duties for the rest of the way.  Fear not Miles assures me that miniature production will continue if not perhaps at his regular warp factor nine.

Long time Challengers will remember that  this is not my first trip to the Minion rodeo, but I may be a bit rusty.   I'm not sure if my Banana Splits Secret Decoder Ring will let me access Miles dreaded spreadsheet, but let's try and see how it works.  

So far there's not much on the radar screen but I'll check back over the day.  You can always shoot me an email or comment below if you've got something ready to go. 

Have a good Sunday and happy painting.  Oh and Ray, I'd suggest making sure that you've got backups of everything!

From Curt: Amanda Sharpe 'The Student' from 'Mansions of Madness' (15 Points)

Hi All!

As I need to book balloon fare to Awdry's Atoll, I present to you another resolute heroine from 'Mansions of Madness'.

This is Amanda Sharpe, 'The Student'. 

Amanda's a bit of a miss in MoM as her special ability is focused purely on solving puzzles. This is not bad per se, in fact it can be quite handy at times, but unfortunately it's an activity that only plays a very small part of the game so she often ends up not pulling her weight. 

Like many of the MoM characters, Amanda is also featured in other Cthulhuesque games from Fantasy Flight, and her other renditions are often far more powerful (in 'Elder Sign' she is perhaps one of the most kickass characters in that game). Oh well, you can't be the belle of the ball all the time. 

This all being said, here she is, bespectacled, fresh-faced, in a green jacket and grey skirt. Clutched to her chest is a red-bound book - maybe a university textbook, a novel perchance? But perhaps it is something entirely more significant and sinister...

Amanda should give me 5 points, and with this being my sixth trip on Sarah's Balloon she'll provide me another 10. 

It can easily be deduced that I am irredeemably slothful as I've not yet traveled a step on any of the island roads! This is probably for the best, as with Lady Sarah's in-flight stores of champagne I'd be too smashed to attempt to stagger down any of these foreboding paths. :)

-Curt

From NoelW: Childe Noel to the Dark Tower came: Roundwood’s Tower (105 points)

 (I want to make it clear that “Childe” in the title is used in the medieval sense of a young man of noble birth who has not yet become a knight, and nothing to do with the mental age of someone who spends most of his days painting little toys and thinking up puns.)

We sail towards the Dark Tower of Roundwood, which looms through the clouds beckoning, spiky and ominous. The final stage of our journey, the last stepping stone at the foot of the Snowlord’s Peak, the one remaining deathly challenge between us and infinite treasures, it leers against the sky like Sauron’s bad tooth. I gaze at the oncoming monolith with a sense of awe. For my companions it's more like a sense of “or”:

“We could land there, I suppose. Or we could simply give up and go home.”

“Or we could start all over again. It’s been such fun.”

“Or we could abandon all hope of treasure and join a nunnery.”

“Don’t you mean ‘monastery?”

“Which do you think would be most fun?”

I must admit, watching the sky fill with the tower's looming ominosity, part of me has some sympathy for the trembling knees and knotting intestines of my loyal companions. But I’m made of sterner stuff, for in the Land of Make-Believe the man with an imaginary friend is king.

As a flock of rooks – I’m pretty sure that’s what they are – scatter before the balloon, I make one of the rousing speeches I’m so famous for:

“Don’t look now, but those birds are an omen which tells me this balloon will carrie us out of misery. It may be near dark, but this is the end of our journey: the ring of that tower is our final destination. We may not have arrived here as soon as we hoped, but now, 28 days later, this descent will bring us all we deserve. This is it!”(*)

For some reason, my companions find something disturbing in my words. But it’s too late to turn back now. As the dark of creeping night seeps across the tower, the balloon sets us down, and with shadowy rooks circling us and stone trembling beneath our feet we clamber hesitantly onto the roof, waving our goodbyes to the good Lady Sarah (who seems quite keen to be on her way, for some reason. Perhaps she’s run out of champagne).

On the distant horizon, outlined in the blood-red sunset, at last is our long-sought goal, the Peak of the Snow-Lord.

Dum Dum Dah!!!

(*Just in case when reading this para you were wondering whether they've recently upped my medication - there are thirteen horror film titles here. Can you spot them all?)

---

A favourite project which I keep coming back to is Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798. In 1799, following the loss of his supporting fleet at the Battle of the Nile and his failure to extend the invasion into Syria, Napoleon abandoned his army to return to France. My imaginary variation on history has Napoleon succeeding in Syria and, following in Alexander the Great’s footsteps, as Napoleon fantasised, eventually reaching India. This allows his armies to fight various nations and tribes along the way: Turks, Persians, Arabs, Afghans and so on, eventually to meet Wellington somewhere in the Punjab.

So here are a few of the figures I’m adding to this campaign. There will be more.

2 French Generals, Rampon and Damas

a spattering of sepoys, from the Bombay contingent that came to Egypt as part of the British 1801 effort to oust the French

An Ottoman character group, Apparently Janissary regiments treated their soup tureen and spoon with reverence similar to that European regiments reserved for their colours.

Points: 2 cavalry: 20pts, 11 foot: 55, Roundwood's Tower: 30 points: Total : 105

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What a great collection of figures here Noel!  All of the figures look top notch, but the Janissary soup pot has such great character that it has to be an instant favourite!  I don't know about everyone else, but for me one of the biggest joys of the challenge each year is seeing such different, cool, and odd ball miniatures such as this one. 

- ByronM

From TomG: The South Rises (85 Points)

I have finally returned, and with more Confederates in tow. Following on from my Officers I bring you the final leader for my Sharp Practice force, along with the first two groups of infantry, ready to defend their home land and way of life, albeit one that is anathema to modern sensibilities, and rightly so.

With that foot-in-mouth skirting if issues far larger than I have a right to comment on, I bring your the limited edition Officer figure from the Perry Miniatures American Civil War Battle Box, and what an officer he is. With his head bandaged, and his sword held aloft, he is a striking figure in the battlefield. 

Sergeant Farley narrowly missed his appointment with Death, but hailing from the South he stands defiant, leading his men with tenacity and valour.

As my games are likely to take place all over the ACW period, I went for a mixed uniform for Sergeant Farley, allowing the idea of new pants being from the butternut range of uniforms to imply the desperate position men in campaign found themselves in. 

I tried to keep the details fairly simple for Sergeant Farley, he's a working man ready to be there for his men, but he's no hero, all the heroes are already dead. 

Following him are the men of the South, and here we have a lucky few still sporting grey uniforms, however the rigours of fighting men has seen some equipment being replaced. These figures are from the Wargames Foundry range, and what a joy they were to paint. 

I tried to keep the uniform, well, uniformed, but took the bed rolls as an opportunity to add a bit of flavour to the men. 

However the Confederacy quickly felt the pinch of economic disruption, but men flocked to the banners. These men picked up what uniform was available, or supplemented it with what fitted and worked, so with this in mind the next group gave me the chance to really dive in to the box of colours.

One chap was deliberately given the light blue pants of a Yank, if nothing else but to break the monotony of grey and butternut, however my father-in-law always loves to tell me how his 6mm Confederates have the occasional Union clothes thrown in. 

And what a joy it has been getting started in to a period that I've been fascinated by for years, from across the pond, and yet still finding enthusiasts so open and willing to share information. With 3 more groups of 8 infantry to go, along with one group of skirmishers expect more to come soon, but for now here is a family photo of the beginning, but not the end!

Points - 17 x 28mm minis = 85 points

Next up is my return to Challenge Island with a Feat of Arms... see you soon!

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These are some great looking figures Tom, I especially like the unit that is in random clothing as it shows off the figures a bit more.  Uniforms are as you say, a bit uniform, and that doesn't always allow the figures to shine individually.   That said, both units look great.

It was nice seeing several units from the civil war all in one day, as it is a time period that we do not game with here.  No one in the area that I know of has any forces for the period, but it certainly was an interesting period to recreate.

- ByronM