From MattW: StarCraft and Renaissance ships (35 points)

 MattW Statcraft and Renaissance ships 

A bit slack over the last week with too much opportunity on the deck and not completing much! 

First up completed some 1/600th renaissance galleys 

Then completed some skirmish figures. First up and old Paranoia Citadel figure from the 80s, “the blue trooper” painted up as as a block riot control for my Judge Dredd collection. 

Finally 3 figures for Tomorrow’s War futuristic skirmish game, two are crusader and the single I think is Infinity? 

Four 28mm @ 5 points = 20
Five 1/600th galleys @3  = 15 points 
Total points 35 points 

Squirrel points 
Renn galleys 1
Tomorrows War 1
Total 2 

Cheers

Matt

From Millsy:

Wow, what a blast from the past! We played a lot of Paranoia back in the day and really enjoyed it. Such a fun game and so far removed from anything else we played. I never had any miniatures for it though. Your miniature really suits the Judge Dredd vibe, so much though I do wonder if that was where the inspiration for the sculptor came from.

Your galleys are especially nice, really crisp lines and great colour choices. Will you add sails and if so made from what?

35 more points for you mate. Nice work.

Cheers,
Millsy

From PeterD Showing a Little Prosthetic Leg and Albemarle Sound for Treachery (55) points

It's not been a great challenge for me this year.  I got a decent start over the Christmas Break but was a bust ( a nasty head cold and then a trip to San Diego)  and this is my first post in four weeks. 

Circles of hell wise I've been stuck in limbo for a while, so I'm going to use the Bad Squiddo figure of the WW2 SOE agent Virginia Hall to skip over to Treachery.  Hall had a prosthetic leg name Cuthbert, which did not stop her from parachuting into occupied France.  The Gestapo considered her most dangerous of all Allied spies.  Her wikipedia bio is well worth reading.

She was a thirty-five-year-old journalist from Baltimore, conspicuous by reddish hair, a strong American accent, an artificial foot, and an imperturbable temper; she took risks often but intelligently.

M. R. D. Foot

I have painted a number of Bad Squiddo's Women of WW2 figures, and I really can't say enough good things about them.  They look and dress like the real women of the age, they are well sculpted, well cast and lovely to paint.  And they have great character.  Virgina's kind of bent over so getting a face shot was difficult.  I love the details on Cuthbert and the SMG casually thrown over the stylish coat.  My pictures always show up the worst of my painting, and I obviously have to touch up her hair.

Now for the Treachery I have two ACW ironclads.  I figure with any Civil War there's plenty of treachery around by definition.   Plus it's an American subject, and as a Canadian I find anything American very treacherous right now.  

These are 3d prints in 1/600 based on files by Long Face Games.  I had my Uni library print these off, so that I could surprise my normal 3D printer (the Snowlord) and they cam out decently.  Unfortunately the paddle wheelers that I tried to get the library to print were a mess and I'll need to get Curt's help and expertise on those.

First up is the CSS Albemarle, literally cobbled together in a corn field next to the Roanoke River.  Unlike most Confederate ironclads, she did a fair bit of fighting and was pretty darned successful in clearing Union Blockaders out of Albemarle Sound and recapturing Plymouth North Carolina in 1864.   She was eventually done in by a picket boat with a spar torpedo, an infernal device which as SylvainR has remarked is the most SpaceOrk naval weapon ever.

A spar torpedo in action.

On the Northern side I have the Passaic class monitor USS Nahant.  Most of the Passaic class served on the South Atlantic Blockade, especially the siege of Charleston.   Several of the class were still afloat to serve in harbour defence roles (i.e reassuring the public) during the Spanish American War.   She never fought the Albemarle, but she and a sister ship captured the ironclad CSS Atlanta.   

These Long Face prints were quite nice, but Civil War ironclads are basically ugly lumps of metal to begin with.  I plan to add labels with names and flags, but don't have them yet because I was an idiot and left my MacBooks power cord at the office this weekend.

Points wise we have

• 5 for Virginia Hall and Cuthbert
• 20 points (?) for the two ironclads.  a quick search found that 1/600 ships typically are worth 10-15 points depending on size.  I think these are on the smaller end of that range.
• 20 points for Treachery.

-------

Sorry to hear of your woes Peter - I hope that some repated application of fine San Diego ales helped fix your medical issues! :-) If not then I hope 55 points for this submission will, as its always great to see some naval ships in the challenge, and the spar torpedo is one of my favourite maritime "whites of the eyes" weapons!

-Paul

- Paul

From JP - 28mm Afghan Cavalry and 1/600 ACW Naval (178 points)

I've slowed down a bit due to some travel, but I'm having another run at things this week.

First off, I have half a dozen Afghan cavalry from Foundry. I remain very partial to this range in spite of other, more recent manufacturers - maybe nostalgia, or just good solid sculpts by the Perry brothers?

They are meant for the cut down version of The Sword And The Flame (by which I mean units of 6 horse and 10 foot vs 12 horse and 20 foot). I have slowly built these up after getting out of the Indian Mutiny as I am still attached to the NWF.

 

Having completed the Section, I will walk over to Maritime. These are 1/600 STLs of ACW vessels by David Manly, from the Wargames Vault.. The detail level is astounding, with areas you can literally look through. I collect ACW naval in 1/1200, my buddy here collects them in 1/600. So I decided to paint these up for him as a gift, which he collected this weekend. My son-in-law printed them in both scales. I highly recommend them, though the masts and flagpoles are fragile and should be replaced with fine (read very fine) hollow copper tubing.

I was not sure how to count them, due to size. I am tentatively counting them as one mounted 28mm fig each, and one foot 28mm for the small vessel. The last photo contains a 28mm pack mules for scale. Please correct if necessary.

 

I have used Sarah's taxi to take me to the Gift Corner and another one to come back. These are Otherworld Miniatures - and you already know they are my favourite manufacturer of fantasy figs. 

So, points wise, if I am doing this right:

    6 x Afghan horse             =  60 points

    4 x large 1/600 ships       =  40 points

    1 x small 1/600 ship        =   5  points

    2 x 28mm fantasy foot    =  10 points

    Maritime                         =  20 points

    Gift Shop by taxi            =  20 points

    Total                               =  155 points.

Thanks for looking them over. All thoughts for improving them are welcome!!

***

Great to have another submission from you JP! Lots to enjoy here, but for me the standouts are the Afghan cavalry. As you say, the Foundry sculpts are great classic figures, and I do find myself in a somewhat odd situation in a couple of the historical periods I collect where I get 28mm from the Perrys' current company, and supplement it with sculpts from Wargames Foundry which were...sculpted by the Perrys! 

Naval scoring is always the worst, and makes me long for all naval submissions to just be banned from the Challenge, but based on my research into other 1/600 precedents this morning, I would rate your larger ships at 15 points each. So all in you have another 178 points toward your total.

A reminder to please include labels in your draft post, to help with the data for the site and the Challenge!

GregB

From AndrewB: More Spanish-American War Naval! (Books) (65pts)

This week I’ve been chipping away at more ironclad warships for my 1/600 naval floor game coming up at March to Victory in Kansas City at the end of March!  These Old Glory ships are delightful, even with the usual challenges of resin castings. I’ve got all these miniatures painted in 1/1200, but the size of these larger models really should give a great feeling to a game where we’re measuring ranges in yards!   The game was partly inspired by the book ‘The Splendid Little War’ by Frank Feidel, which is a fantastic piece of writing which will certainly lead the discerning wargamer into a multitude of scenario ideas.  

First, we have the Armored Cruiser Brooklyn, which is frankly enormous.  I’m still working on establishing a color I like for the works and deck of these American ships, but I’m liking these more than the first attempts.  

Next, the first Armored Cruiser commissioned into the US Navy, the USS New York.  I really like the midships wing guns on this ship, and how you can really start to see the pre-dreadnaught design elements!  

Lastly, we have the heroic flagship of the Battle of Manila, the USS Olympia!  This delightful small Armored Cruiser sports the same twin 8” gun turrets as the previous two ships, crammed into a hull that doesn’t give away such a powerful main armament.  

Next up for this particular project will be the Spanish ships, so stay tuned for them in the coming weeks!  

As for points, I believe we were scoring these as Black Seas ships at 15pts each, with the Book studio bringing the total to 65.  I’m only a couple rooms away from the Director’s Chair, so here we come!

From TeemuL: More of these bulky ships, Andrew, but could we have more photos from different angles in the future? I'm sure some evil minion would give you only half points after assuming you have painted only one half of the ship! :) You are making a great progress at the Challenge Studio and in your personal point Challenge, keep going!

From AndrewB: More 1/600 Pre-Dreadnaughts! (30pts)

More pre-dreadnaughts for the big game I’m putting on in March! This pair of ships were 3D printed, and came out pretty passably.  I’ve been having some slight troubles with a couple of my printers recently, but I’m hoping that’s mainly due to the cold we’re experiencing here in the American Midwest. Without further ado, the pair! 

First up is the American Monitor USS Arkansas, BM-7, which mounts a powerful pair of 12” guns. Not particularly well armored or fast, but those guns are serious business! I’ve painted my American ships in a scheme reminiscent of the Great White Fleet, as they just look really distinct.  

The second ship is a Chinese protected cruiser I found on thingiverse. Being a Chinese ship, it was naturally built in a British yard. Given the British tendency to assume command of any ships in British yards in time of conflict, I’ve painted her in a RN scheme of the era, and decided to name her the HMS Goodenough. She mounts three 8” guns and a variety of smaller armaments, and will operate with another sister vessel(yet to be painted).  

I believe we scored the last 1/600 ship I painted along the lines of Black Seas ships at 15pts apiece, which should net me a lean 30pts for these! More coming soon! Reminder to anyone in the Midwest at the end of March- March to Victory will be in Kansas City, come on out and get a play in with these beauties!  

Also, I’ve remembered my map this time for the challenge!

From TeemuL: Thanks for the weekly ships, Andrew! They look goodenough... :) The Chinese ship is more to my liking, all the colours etc, but I guess if a warship is eye catching, then there is something wrong. They kinda need to look boring and uninterested, right? Nevertheless, good job paiting these ships, Andrew!

From GregB: Pico Panzer Regiment Bäke (35 Points)

The Tiger Is of Schwere Panzer Regiment Bäke - 1/600 models from Pico Armor.

Greetings all - sorry to have been absent for much of the past couple of weeks.  I have been busy with work, and the Snow Lord's task has been taking a fair bit of time as well.  But here is a small (haha) project that I have been working on and I thought this would be a good time to share and end my recent blogging drought.  These are 1/600 WW2 German figures in winter kit - and while figures at this scale they could represent almost anything, in this case they are meant to represent Schwere Panzer Regiment Bäke in games of "Spearhead", the classic division-level WW2 rules by Arty Contliffe.

The whole group.

Panzer Regiment Bäke

Heads up...here come the big cats...

As catastrophe overtook the German army on the Eastern Front in 1943, the overstretched German forces would make use of "fire brigade" type formations in order to stem the various crisis arising from the Red Army's overwhelming material and manpower superiority and countless breakthroughs along a huge front line.  Schwere Panzer Regiment Bäke was one of these "fire brigades", and a potent one at that, combining a battalion of Panthers, a battalion of Tigers, a battalion of combat engineers and a few other assets (artillery etc) which represented a terrifying concentration of fighting power.

Tiger Is in 1/600 scale and winter paint.

Under the command of Franz Bäke, a panzer commander of some renown, this formation was formed in late 1943, and fought through the winter into 1944, racing from crisis to crisis. Equipped to such a level, the formation is reported to have racked up fantastical kill totals in a number of armoured engagements. I am skeptical of these sorts of kill-total reports, but this formation certainly made a major impact wherever it was deployed on the front.  And yet the Eastern Front was enormous, and in the end formations such as this could not turn the tide or reverse the broader strategic circumstances that would see the Red Army triumphant in the east.

With each base representing a platoon, we have a Panther battalion in 1/600 scale.

As a wargamer I love tank battles, and I very much enjoy painting armour, and I'm drawn to the Eastern Front as a setting (and the middle east, and Team Yankee, etc. etc.).  It's a lot of fun to represent these "fire brigade" type formations in WW2 games.  The trouble is that many tactical-level games provide players on the German side with all of the benefits (veteran crews, amazing kit) while struggling to represent the downsides (ammo and fuel shortages, being massively outnumbered, dire strategic situation etc).  You can try to make allowances for these things of course, and many well-intentioned game designers look to assorted points systems to create some balance or handicapping in a game where Panthers and Tigers are present.  But this is hard to do...don't get me wrong, skirmish gaming with "big cats" is great fun, but I like to find games that give players on the German side the problems as well as the benefits when it comes to these sorts of units.

Play these rules! They are fantastic!

So that is where a magnificent game like "Spearhead" comes into play.  Yes, your Panther battalion is terrifying, and will blow up a lot of sh*t. But the Soviet player(s) will have infantry to slow it down, artillery to blast it, air strikes to hammer it, AND waves of T-34s to send towards it.  You might blow away clouds of T-34s and still end up trapped in a pocket, with half your Panthers out of action, and in no position to seal up the breach in the front lines. No rule system comes close to "Spearhead" for giving players on the German side these sort of up-ended "I-feel-like-I-won-but-I-still-lost" gaming moments.

The combat engineers...a "Stuka Zu Fuss" battery is at the front...

In "Spearhead" each base represents one platoon.  The round bases represent command elements - small ones for battalion commanders, larger ones for regiments etc.  The "Spearhead" scenario book "Where The Iron Crosses Grow" has a scenario featuring Regiment Bäke that I have always wanted to run for our gaming group, and this submission contains the bulk of the German forces for the scenario.

Another view of the engineers - the armoured engineer platoons are at the front - they have their own Hanomags to ride around in.

For the scenario in question the Germans have a battalion of Panthers, a battalion of Tigers, and a battalion of combat engineers.  As units go in "Spearhead", these are all pretty scary...but in the scenario they will face a vast amount of Soviet armour, and they will have a difficult mission: escort the remnants of some shattered friendly units out of a pocket and back into the German lines.  The German players will have fun blowing up tanks with their elite panzers, but the command challenge in the scenario is a tough one...it will be played on a big table, and those panzers can't be everywhere...

Another view of the Panthers.

I had, at one time, a large 6mm collection of WW2 figures based for Spearhead. That is no longer with me...since I was starting from the ground up once again, I thought I would give these 1/600 models a try. I've been experimenting with them here and there for a long time, and have used them for the "Modern Spearhead" variant - they really are fun.

Regimental command - with a SdKfz flak unit on the left, and a 234 recon unit on the right.

These figures are all from Oddzial Ozmy, available in North American from the fine people at Pico Armor. I never thought I would enjoy 1/600 stuff...but the sculpting is incredible.  The infantry is still hard to do, and the bases will need labels so the players know what is what, but these paint up fast and are a lot of fun.  I also really need to up my game when it comes to ground work etc (check out Curt's 1/600 stuff to see what I mean).  But since I had all of the winter colours out during this edition of the Challenge, and Panzer Regiment Bäke was in action during the winter, it was no big deal to crank these out in winter colours "on the side" as I went along painting 28mm stuff.

Another view of the 234 - recon elements are critical in "Spearhead".

Some people who play 1/600 scale will take the opportunity to make their platoons 1-to-1 creations, putting a whole group of three or four tanks on each base.  I experimented with this, but decided against it in the end.  Crowded command bases look neat, but the tanks in the general combat platoons all look too crammed - you just end up with the same "hub-to-hub" look that ruins so many "Flames of War" games, but just at a different scope.  I kept it straight up, using the prescribed base size from the "Spearhead" rules, and used either one tank to represent a tank platoon, or one group of infantry to represent an infantry platoon.  The armoured engineer bases include a group of infantry and some 251 carriers on the same base - in "Spearhead" mechanized infantry is based together with their fighting vehicles.  

I have no idea how many points this is.  The relevant minions will figure it out! But there are 31 vehicles, and about 12 strips of five infantry figures, all in 1/600 scale, in this submission.

Thanks for looking, have a great weekend!



OK, so scoring this is a bit of a poser as I think the points per base for 3mm stuff assumes earlier periods with formed units of infantry or cavalry. 

Tell you what, I'll count the infantry as being equivalent to a "stand" (= 12 points) and the 29 (you seem to have miscounted) vehicles as half a point each (=16.5 points) plus some rounding and general bonuses for the great look to this regiment.

TamsinP

From NoelW: Encounter at Reidy's Reef 96 points

Heading for the coast, we expect, of course, to see a golden beach and vistas of blue ocean. We’re disappointed. Instead we find ourselves trudging through a soggy Sargasso of bulrushes and seaweed. The water is grey as the inside of a whale, strewn with spiny rocks and greasy boulders against which reluctant waves rub with all the enthusiasm of bored teenagers.

Clearly this was once a major harbour, but not any more. Still standing are a pair of jettys collapsed like pensioners who’ve just missed the ferry.

Here’s an artist’s impression of the scene:

And clearly someone thought it well worth defending. There are various dilapidated towers and fortifications pretending now to be tourist attractions. It’s not clear why this reedy reef every needed protection but it’s obviously now well past its best.

Struggling through the reeds we see there’s even an ancient wreck, barely able to keep its head above water. Could this perhaps be the fabled SS Reidy?

On the distant horizon we spy a host of pale sails. It looks like a squadron of gunboats:

escorting a pair of brigs:

But there’s little chance that any of these distant vessels will spot us here. It seems unlikely any ship worthy of the name could navigate these rocks in any case.

We wade out into the reeds, in case some skiff, jolly boat, mildy amused boat, raft or seaworthy plank is hidden there. No luck, just an old rope hanging off the jetty. It seems we’ve come to the end of our tether.

Then, just as we’re wondering where to turn next, there’s a bloodcurdling scream somewhere in the reeds nearby. It could be a seabird, if said seabird had a penchant for Death Metal. Or it might be a maiden in dire need – but we’re all so busy paddling none of us really have the time or inclination for an unscheduled rescue. Or perhaps it’s some undead predator, a ghostly remnant of this once productive bay, now scouring the waterline for blood to bathe in and skin to lick the salt from.

There’s a second scream, curdling quite a bit more blood than the first. Not to be outdone, we decide we can scream too. And, it turns out, we can also wave violently and splash frantically in order to disguise any possible hint of panic. And if one of those distant brigs happens to see us, and sail here to investigate, it would be discourteous not to scramble aboard.

But now there’s something plunging through the reeds behind us, whimpering and snuffling, and screaming like Ozzy Ozbourne with a tax bill.

We decide this is a propitious time to learn to swim. How hard can it be?

---

The submission consists of Warlord's Black Seas 1/700^th ships and 1/600^th and 1/700^th coastal constructions, a mix of pieces from Brigade Models and Hagen Miniatures. (The rocks and cliffs are not to be scored, being here merely as supporting actors).

I’m not sure how to score most of this. Here’s my guesses:

3 bases of gunboats: Curt scored three identical bases in an earlier post as 36 points.

2 Brigs: each is a little bigger than a 15mm armoured car (but also has sails and rigging), and is a little over twice the size of a lugger Curt previously awarded 5 points for, so perhaps around 10 points each?

3 forts, 3 towers, 2 jettys, 1 wreck: One fort is 3" square, one 2.5"x3", the other about 2" squarish, but none are more than 1.5" high. These obviously aren’t going to fill much of a 6” cube. I reckon they can squeeze into an volume about 6”x3”x1” which would be worth around a massive 2 points. I did a quick survey of past entries for precedent on 6mm terrain, but couldn’t find anything helpful, so it’s entirely what you think is reasonable.

Plus 30 points for Reidy’s Reef.

MilesR: Strangely, this is my favorite spot on Challenge Island but I must object to some of your descriptions - it is clearly stated in our marketing materials that the boulders have an oily hue and are not, sir, "greasy".  Also our Seagulls are HUGE fans of Metallica.  In fact they constitute the #2 most ardent fan club for that band (#1 is reported to a group of pensioners in Iowa, because there's nothing else to do in that locale).  The gulls rendition of Sandman at dusk is breathtaking.  

Perhaps I've gotten off track.  Your point-a-logical calculations seem right to me but I'll increase the terrain score from 2 to 10, because the power of being a minion has gone to my head and I like the terrain.  This results in a total of 86 points  (ok its really 96) for you sir, despite your slanderous depiction of my latest time share real estate ventures