From StuartL - Challenge Island Safari Tour - 9th February (40 points)

Greetings brave C.I.S.T.ers,

Today we head for that wondrous celebration of generosity, O'Grady's Gulch. It is traditional upon visiting the gulch to gift friends and family with presents and souvenirs from your travels. For any of you wanting to reward your guide, Challenge Island Safari Tour staff accept all known credit cards, Paypal and cash. Please ensure that all payments are made in your home currency and not Snow Lord Bucks, which are not even legal tender here on the island.

The exact history of O'Grady's Gulch isn't entirely clear, but visitors to the location often leave behind their own offerings, and it is one of these that we will be visiting today. As part of their efforts to ensure that every planet in the known galaxy has exactly the same type of architecture and design, the Adeptus Mechanicus (or cog-heads as they are called when out of ear shot), frequently deploy Imperial structures and defenses in seemingly random and illogical locations. They say that it is all down to the Omnissiah's will, but personally I think that they are running an older version of Google Maps and got a bit lost.

Should there ever be a need to defend the island from attackers deep striking from orbit, this handy-dandy lascannon will ensure that only burning fragments of wreckage reach the ground. Oh, at this stage I would like to remind you all to wear your C.I.S.T approved hard hat and that only those of you with our platinum insurance package are covered for injuries caused by burning fragments of wreckage.

Feel free to take pictures of the weapon system, but please refrain from climbing on it or pushing any of the buttons. To comply with all Imperium regulations, the lascannon features a simple on/off switch that can be activated by any designated member of Imperial Personnel, Heretics, Xenos or, as we have found out several times, curious tourists. We don't want a repeat of last year and the incident with the cruise ship. They said you could see the explosion from miles away. Ahem.

To give you some idea of the scale of the device, Battle Brother Proportionis Comparicus of the Ultramarines is here to help. Hmm, it seems that the cannon has locked on to a large spherical object traversing the airspace above the island. If you'll excuse me for a second, I need to enter the abort code to preserve the Island's public transport network from imminent blasting.

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At my local club we have a few new players who all have armies for 40K but little to no scenery. With that in mind, I intend to donate the lascannon to the group as a combined objective/terrain/weapon system for them to use how they see fit. The gun comes from one of GW's old Planet Strike kits that they released back when 40K was in it's 5th edition. I'm not sure how to score it, as it represents a very small volume of terrain (roughly 2" x 2" x 4" or 1.48 points), so I will leave it up to the Minion on duty to decide. The marine was painted in last years challenge and is just for scale.

So, whatever gets added to my score for the weapon, plus 30 points for the location should give me a grand total of something or other.  

I rather surprised to hear that anyone has survived this adventure tour, but always appreciate Stuart's  Travel Blog.  A fine submission for the Gulch, I hope that the cog-heads appreciate it.  This weapon vaguely reminds me of cheap toys I played with in my younger days (no I never got into GW stuff, I mean real toys back in the 1960s).  I like the red highlights and the bronze symbol on the plinth.

I'm scoring this as a 28mm gun plus the 30 points for the location.  

Iain W 28mm New period, new army Anglo Saxons for Dux bellorum 360 points

I remember buying a wargames illustrated in Carlisle ,I'd just walked Hadrian's wall (which was great fun).  It  had an article on the War of the Roses and on the cover, an illustration of the battle of Barnet 1471 which continues to be a battle I want to cover again in better detail, but I digress.

There was another article on a new rule set,Dux Bellorum by Dan Mersey covering warfare in  Britain between 400AD to the Norman era and seemed to have nice mechanisms of differentiating between each group of hairy psychopaths, and appeared to offer rather more than a shoving match with spears that dark age battles can become.

In the article there was an example of building two armies out of two of the new gripping beast plastic sets, at the same time another dark age skirmish game  Saga  came out and I duly bought the plastic boxes and both rule sets, clearly advertising in magazines work!

Some years later and very little/ nothing had happened, I'd bought some metal dark age figures on Ebay but that was it, I'd initially gone off the great idea because I didn't really want two dark age armies in chainmail,  it seemed a bit silly, anyway dux bellorum got bypassed by  Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant and dux bellorum and Saga gathered dust.

I then went to Colours a couple of years ago and found someone selling lots of cheap Blacktree design ancient Germans which I had no use for and late Romans, obviously I bought them.  I hadn't bought the Picts which I deeply regretted and then saw the same chap at Salute and was able to buy the Picts, phew! With a few more purchases I now had enough figures to give me a pagan Saxon army , Pict army, Late Roman ,Irish and Romano Brits  the armies aren't that big ,the Saxon one is eight bases , I've chosen  ten figures a base-ish , so there are 70 figures here, one more base to go, they're mostly Black tree design Germans with round shields,  the armoured chaps are gripping beast plastics in  the back rows are various unknown Ebay types. I quite like the barbaric hairy, fur covered pagan Angles, looking at them now they look a bit like a bunch of Game of thrones extras!

 A unit of companions.

 A noble unit

 Some back row chaps

 Another unit of nobles

 More back row types.

 Final unit of nobles.

 Back row types.

 Ordinary warriors

 Second unit of ordinary warriors

 Final unit of ordinary warriors.

Big mass of hairy pagan English.

I know the helmets are slightly anachronistic (too late on the companians and too early on the nobles) having uniformed shield colours is also wrong but makes the disparate force hold together, plus they're my toys and I'm happy with them!

If it doesn't work out with Dux Bellorum there are plenty of other rulesets I could use them with so I'm just happy to have completed them!

Points 70 x 5 gives me 350 points so I'm halfway to my total.

The shields are handpainted but were pretty straightforward so I wouldn't bother with extra points.  I won't be doing quite so many in one go in future, I thought dark age figures, surely I can knock them out but that wasn't the case,  next post will be 4 figures!

All the best Iain

Wow, the back story on this project is an epic saga fit for the annals in own right Iain.  I'm someone who has just about every flavour of Hairy Psychopath DNA covered by Dux B in my own genes, so I can certainly appreciate a mass of Dark Age infantry.  I've done Late Saxon stuff in my past and am solely tempted at times by the earlier end of the time span.  

Excellent work on this horde.  I fully appreciate your issues on painting lots of these types.  Painting one DAIS (Dark Age Infantry Slog) type is fine but when you do a bunch you want to differentiate between flavours and it tests the brain.  I like these guys a lot, don't give a fig if the helmets are slightly off and am giving you 10 points for the nice shields regardless of what you say!  So that's 360 points for a nice complete circle (which seems appropriately Pagan to fit the army).

From TamsinP: Dog Stix (18 points)

Having reached a certain point with my Snowlord's Peak piece I had a few hours to kill, so I decided to paint up this trio.

These are three Stix for the Strontium Dog game. The Stix are a "family" of genetically identical mutants, all contracted to the Search/Destroy Agency. Nobody knows how many there are; in the town of Stixville on the planet Freedonia, female and child Stix have been observed.

I expect some wag will say "Tish! These are the ones she submitted last year!". Well, here's the proof that they aren't:

Left: new trio; Right: last year's trio

As you can clearly see, there are now six and the hats and dusters of the previous trio are more yellow in tone.

The figures are somewhere between 28mm and 40mm, so I'll claim them as 6 points each for a total of 18 points.

Anyone else see the title of the post and think "Fetch boy"?  Your near nearly identical genetic mutants and near dopplegangers of your last year's set Tamsin, but I think I prefer the slightly greener duster's of this year's models.  Perhaps like car makers, the genetic mutant manufacturers have to retool their models slightly each year.  Neither trio looks like anything I'd like to run into.  Excellent work even if you did squeeze them into a bit of spare time (grrrrr....).  18 points it is. 

From BenitoM: Booking a seat at Sarah's Balloon (35 points)

Having trotted all along the Path of History, I'm still one spot away of reaching the Snowlord Peak. For that reason I'll need to ride Sarah's Balloon and drop me on Cooke's Crevase as soon as some seats are available (tried through Booking.com but couldn't find the airline).

My payment for the seat is this nice Wargames Foundry model of Cartimandua.

Cartimandua (43-69 AD) was the opposite mirror of the better known Briton heroine Boudicca. As a queen of the Brigantes (a northern tribe in the Isles) instead of revolting against the Roman, she actually become a very faithful allied.

When Caratacus was defeated, he took shelter under the protection of the Brigantes. But Cartimandua decided that what a better gift t than to hand him in chain to the Romans. The Brigantes flourished under her tenure, but in year 69AD (the Year of the Four Emperors) she was deposed by his former husband Venetius and then disappeared from history.

This is a metal 28mm from Wargames Foundry. Despite being bought in the early 90s, the sculpting is good and can still be found in the current catalogue

I'd like this model also to compete in Sarah's Choice contest. Cartimandua will add 5 points (1 x  28mm model @5 points) to my Challenge scoring.

A fine looking Celtic lady Benito and an excellent token for a balloon ride.  I really like the plaid and the subtle shading on her shawl.  From my quick check of your previous posts (beautiful work FYI), this seems to be your first balloon ride.  Therefore the lady with the unpronouncable Celtic name nets you another 30 points for a total of 35.

Sunday's Minion - What's the Worst That Can Happen?

Well, Curt hasn't pulled the plug on me yet, so I guess I get to try this again.  Let's see if I can update points without deleting the table.

It looks like lots of folks have been busy and I've several posts to Minion today.  There's a couple of points heavy submissions plus the odd balloon ride.  My challenge has hit a solid case of the Februarys and ground to a halt with several things mostly done, so I'm glad to see others get their fingers out.

Have a good Sunday.

From DaveD - An update on the “For Joshua” project

I am with JamesM and MartinC today and a few guys from our local group. We are doing a a play test of our upcoming game at the Hammerhead show at Newark in the UK. We are using To The Strongest as the main rules engine , with of course some tweaks for flying things and magic etc.

It’s a big thanks to those who have contributed so far .

The table needs some more terrain work etc , but we are just tinkering with the rules to make it more suitable for a quicker participation game. It’s coming together nicely

So it’s a big thank you to those of you on here who are helping out .

Paul Ascends Snow Lord's Peak

Lathered in sweat and grime, Paul and a group of beastmen slowly push a herdstone, end over end, to the peak's flat summit. 

This week's Snow Lord's Peak brought to you from Mount Columbia, Alberta.

The Snow Lord, leaning against a tree while smoking a pipe, follows their efforts bemusedly. 'Guys... Guys! What are you doing?'

Paul halts his efforts and wipes his brow, 'We met Noel on our way up and he mentioned that you needed some landscaping done up here. That Martin chap is a wonderful guy, but can be a bit of a menace with a pick and shovel, eh? Anyway, me and the lads thought you might like a Herdstone. Maybe you could use it as part of a water feature or something.'

The Snow Lord points at the huge festooned boulder with his pipe's stem, 'What about all those skulls on it? I'm not sure if Lady Sarah's going to be too wild about that.'

'Tell her they're from the White House.'

'Perfect. Put it by the pond, mate.'

______________________________________________

After their labours, the group reconvenes for a well earned beverage... or ten.

The Snow Lord smacks the foam from his lips and calls out above the snorts and bleating of the Beastmen, 'Now, I guess you'll be wanting your treasure, eh?' 

Paul nods and says, 'I hear you'll require a boon for it. Bring it on mate, we're game.'

'Okay, since you've done me a good turn, I'll give you your choice amongst three tasks:

1) A new unit for your growing Beastman army; 

2) A unit for your 'Mortal Gods' collection; 

3) or, something new for your Kill Team shenanigans with your lad Reilly.'

Wavering slightly, Paul looks straight into the blue monstrosity's eyes and slurs, 'I'll tell you what mate, I'm so up for this that I'm going to do all three of them. Howz that!'

Impressed, the Snow Lords raises his glass, 'You're on my good fellow. To sweeten the deal I'll also give you an extra point for each skull you can cram into your submission.' 

They all clack their drinking horns and glasses in raucous agreement.

______________________________________________

Wow, three tasks, Paul! We all very much look forward to seeing what you come up with. Have fun with them!

-Curt

From TomM: Sander's Sand Dunes: For Hashut! (55 pts)

In this challenge, we daring adventurers need to paint up something red.

And as I am in the process of both restoring, rebuilding and adding to a Chaos Dwarf army for the 9th Age (well, Infernal Dwarves they are called there), the first 5 basic warriors are completed for this challenge leg.

The models, being from Mantic, have my old (classic GW) colour scheme copied on to them to the best avail, namely the red armour with blue clothing and details.

I might even complete the other 35 I have lying around during the challenge, but so much things to paint, and being the wargamer butterfly that I am, it is not simple to keep focus... so don`t count on it just yet ;-)

So these guys grant me 5 times 5 points for 28mm figures, and the 30 for the location putting a nice additional 55 on the counter.

The goal is coming in sight now!

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Great work Tom.  I have always loved the big stove top hats that the old chaos dwarves wore.  They have such a distinctive style.  These new ones maintain a lot of that same character, and are from a much better game (in my opinion KOW is 100x better than AoS, but hey to each their own).

Nice to see your take on this classic look.  Keep those paint brushes flying!

-ByronM

MarkB takes Sarah’s balloon - Pauline Cushman Union spy (35 Points)

Having plundered my way through one path on the island I felt it was time to confuse my pursuers with a quick aerial getaway! I summon forth Sarah’s balloon to take me on this speedy exit!

As my payment for the ride I have painted a Union spy - Pauline Cushman. She was an actress in the North at the start of the war but ingratiated herself with the Confederates by getting sacked from her job for toasting the Confederacy! This was all a ruse to help her cover story that she was travelling around the Southern states looking for her lost brother. She wasn’t terribly lucky and got caught smuggling some Confederate battle plans concealed in one of her shoes.

Pauline will play a pivotal role in an ACW Sharp Practice scenario I’m planning for a game in a month or two. Doubtless she will be valuable as an objective marker in other games as the Colonel’s wife who needs a safe escort in other ACW or Pony Wars games. At a push she could be used into the Twentieth Century as a rather old fashioned refugee!

The figure is of course a rather distinctive 28mm Dixon’s sculpt. Rather oddly proportioned by modern standards but with bags of character!

I’m going to take the balloon to Mudry’s because I’ve got the next one ready to go, and it gives me plenty of options to continue the island pillage and plunder raid in several directions!

Total points: 

Challenge completed : 30

28mm figure : 5

Total: 35

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What a lovely little figure here with tons or character and colour. The photos are great too, I enjoy when people set up scenes with the figures as it adds a lot to the submission seeing how it will fit in to your games.

Great job on the fine details here like the hat decoration and the eyes.

- ByronM

From ScottM: Soviets at Mudry's Mesa (50 Points)

A short quick post for Mudry's Mesa. I went with the brand new shiny figs picked up after the challenge was announced. I picked these 28mm figures up back in early December along with some samurai figures from The Assault Group (TAG). A friend of mine is starting an early war Soviet army for Chain of Command and one of the support options let's you change out some regular rifle armed troops for some armed with the SVT-40. So here's a pack of 4 SVT-40 armed infantry.

Nice clean figs, not a lot of equipment, they painted up nice and quick. That completes Mudry's Mesa as we head back out towards sea.

So that should be: 4 28mm foot figs = 20 +30 (location bonus) = 50 points.

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Welcome to the mesa Scott, nice to have the company.  These guys should certainly add some firepower to any formation.  It is great to hear of more people playing CoC as it really is such a good set of rules.

Enjoy your trip around the island.

-ByronM