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

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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 TamsinP: 15mm Mongols...On Foot! (90 points)

No, you're eyes aren't playing tricks on you. These are Mongols but with not a horse in sight. Most rules do allow Mongol cavalry to dismount when the opponent has certain troop types, such as big grey beasties. And that is what these are for.

These figures are all 15mm from Donnington Miniatures.

For scoring, there are 42 x 15mm foot @ 2 = 84 points which will see me nicely past my increased target. Before you get worried that this will mean I put the brushes down, have no fear - you can expect at least one more entry from me before the end of play on Wednesday.

From Grognard DaveD ... Ah Tamsin... its been great to see you kicking stuff out across this  challenge leading to  really great points total too. Mongols without horses.. love it. I love the colour you have got into these - cracking - so with added minion goodness its a total of 90 points.. and over the line you go - that means all of our current top 10 challengers (Well obviously we need to do a recount of Ray's incase he broke the spreadsheet ... again )and then some  have knocked it out of the park.. well done. 

Brendon W - Wednesday Wars with Mongols, Arabs and a Norman (70 points)

This weeks episode contains.... 7 x 28mm on foot, 1 x 28mm Cavalry and, 2 nasty War Machines. All of these except the Norman I actually built during the Challenge...GASP! The War Machines are one of very few small purchases I have made recently. Which is kind of good as I work my way through the unpainted hordes. Anyway...on with the show.

Group shot for this weeks Wednesday club team photo.

Three more Arabs on foot to increase my collection. This time though some experimentation with the bodies. The middle one has the body from a Gripping Beast Dark Ages kit and your right is a body from a FireForge kit. Seemed to work OK. The FireForge scale leather looks suitable for a Fantasy setting but perhaps a little bit of sculpting for some baggy pants would be better for the Arab look to match the rest. Shields are hand painted.

Next in the Wednesday warrior line up is this Norman from Conquest Games. A little bit of inspiration from the Beer and Bacon army to inspire the colours on the hand painted shield. Swords can become heavy so he has his one casually down as he look to his right to give his aching shoulder a little relief.

Among my Sprue horde I could not locate (after a quick search) the larger shields this kit comes with so he has a slightly smaller one. The smaller ones have a boss while the big ones do not. 

Another mix and match with these Mongol War Machine crew. Heads and one arm from FireForge Mongol kits and Bodies from Gripping Beast Dark Ages. The metal staffs are for cranking the War Machine but I could make an arrow head for them instead.

Last but not least the weapons of war for the Mongol Crew above. A pair of nasty Bolt Throwers. These metal machines are a Mantic product fronted with plastic shields from FireForge. Been a long time since I built a metal kit like this and .....wow...lots of filling etc. 

These are actually from the Goblin range but I have re-purposed them for a different army. They are mounted on 50mm square bases. Crew for these machines have no function in 'Kings of War' rules. They are really just decoration but I wouldn't have these weapons without a crew. Kept it minimal though with only two crew each. Just extra efficient and well trained I guess. 

Cheers from Brendon

PS. Tunes Challenge....SLAYER

I am seeing them soon all the way down in Melbourne on their last World Tour. So looking forward to that. I also listened to the more chilled ZAKK WYLDE, 'Book of Shadows II', also chilled out with THE SWORD, 'Used Future'. I need to listen again to TENGGER CAVALRY...Mongol Folk Metal.

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"Mongol Folk Metal"? There had better be throat singing to go with those awesome morin khuur riffs...

😁

So, let's see... 10 for the Norman, 20 for the two ballista thingies (and a pip for their splendid basing), and 35 for the footmen (plus 4 extra for the shield painting) - that's 70 points! You're on fire, mate!

Ev

From Brendon W - Archers, Arabs and More (80 points)

This week I have a variety of plastic 28mm miniatures. 2 x Mongol Cavalry, 4 x Arab Archers, 6 x Dark Age Archers and 1 Norman Cavalry Casualty.

Gripping Beast Dark Age Archers except one. The plastic kit comes with only three body types. The Miniature with the quiver on his back is from Conquest Games. These double ups on 25mm round bases are suitably dull and drab and my less than average photo makes them darker perhaps.

A fraction brighter these Gripping Beast plastic Arab Archers but have more archers to paint and I think I might aim for a little brighter with them. I glue a lot less flock on the Arabs and I also do a quick highlight of Khaki on the Flock as I do for the Gripping Beast Mongols below.

These Fireforge plastic Mongols are based on 50mm squares to help extend my collection across unit trays. The black horse had a small slope constructed to give a change in angle.

I have only one more mounted Mongol in my unpainted hordes so hopefully this challenge will motivate me to completion. 

I did purchase some FireForge Mongol heavy cavalry but they are resin and not a high quality plastic kit. I have had them a few years but they are such lower quality of the ones above that I am on the verge of selling them rather than painting them. The sculpts suck! It's a mystery to me that parts such as the quiver and bow in its holster are totally different! Why not just use the bits from the set above? Anyway I will stop ranting about the disappointment they are.

The Conquest Games Norman Cavalry box comes with this great little unit base filler. I hand painted the shield on this miniature in pain (or in death). The belly of the horse looks a little odd in regards to the sculpture finish. They sit on a 50mm square and I think Casualties get half points.

Cheers from Brendon

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Very nice work, Brendon - those Fireforge Mongols are especially cool! Pity their resin brethren haven't come up to scratch...

I couldn't find anything in the rules about scoring casualties (then again, I'm not known for my attention to detail in these matters), but I figure that the unfortunate Norman has to be worth at least as much as a regular mounted model given the effort that's gone into painting and basing him! So I'm scoring him as a regular cavalry figure.

Could your Dark Age project become the next Knights of Beer and Bacon, I wonder...?

Ev

From TamsinP - 15mm Mongol Cavalry (355 points)

These very nearly didn't make it to submission this week. Luckily I had finished painting them on Friday, before the 'flu grabbed me, beat me up some and then beat me up some more for good measure. It was still touch-and-go whether I'd get the basing done, but as you can see, I did.

A couple of years ago I started work on what was going to be a very small "ally" force of steppes tribes cavalry for my Choson Koreans. As was inevitable, my plans expanded somewhat and these additions will allow me to field a small-ish army for FoGAM/FoGR (or a huge army for Art de la Guerre).

Now for the picture show.

Guard Cavalry

Very heavy bow cavalry

Not as heavy bow cavalry

Medium cavalry

Commanders

Baggage elements

There was meant to be a third baggage element, but I messed up the painting of that one. It may appear later on in the Challenge.

All figures are 15mm from Donnington/Ancient & Modern.

For scoring:
86 mounted @ 4 = 344
1 camel @ 2 = 2
1.5 foot @ 2 = 3
Total = 349

It's just as well that these will put me slightly ahead of my points target as the 'flu is likely to mean I won't get much painting done over the next few days.

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We've all heard of Spanish Flu or Avian Flue but you're the current host of that nefarious bug, Challengers Flu. Every year it raises its head and cuts down some eager painter in the midst of their plan for fame and fortune in the challenge. Alas, this time, you are its victim. Clearly, the bug hasn't got you completely beat as this batch of Mongols looks magnificent. I'm going to throw in some bonus points as well for the various pennants and standards in the different units and for fighting through the fug of illness, so this lot comes to 355 points. 

Lee