[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
(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
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