From Curt: Ottoman Laylar Fanatic Infantry at The Great Siege of Malta, 1565 (105 Points)

For the past few Challenges I've tried to make an effort to add a new unit for my Great Siege of Malta project. This time round I thought I'd add some more fellas to the Ottoman mosh pit with some Iaylar fanatics.

From what I understand, the Iaylars were a large, irregular force of religious fanatics which the Ottomans used as expendable shock troops. They were typically thrown in the the initial assaults to soak up missile fire, disrupt defensive lines, and generally pave the way for the more high-value troops.

It's rumoured that the Iaylars regularly used hashish to help put themselves into a religious frenzy before flinging themselves into the assault. I like to think that perhaps their imams stoked them up by telling them that the defenders held vast stores of Cheetos and Mountain Dew behind the lines. I figure that after a good hookah pipe, there's nothing like the prospect of a big munchie run to get your blood up. :)

These 28mm models are from Old Glory and fit the Iaylar bill quite nicely. They actually didn't look like much when fresh out of the packaging, but as with many OG models, they paint up wonderfully and look great in a mob. In order to give them a little more variation I bent a few limbs, drilled out some fists to add some hand-painted banners, and played around with their skin tones to reflect the wide variety of ethnicities which would have made up the ranks.

I've been quite taken with AlanD's wonderful 3,2,1 basing for his ECW Covenanters, so I thought I'd do something similar with these lads. This mob will give me two groups of 12 figures (plus one hanger-on) for any future 'Pikemans' Lament' scenarios. I hope to double the numbers for this contingent as I feel the Ottomans should have a schwack of cannon fodder, er, enthusiastic recruits willing to spread the word that Suleiman is rather Magnificent.

Points? Let's see, four of these mooks were done pre-Challenge as 'proof-of-concept' (as if you need such a thing for religious fanatics these days), so that puts it at 21 models for 105 points. This should also provide me another Squirrel Point and count as my 'O' (for Ottomans) in my Alphabet Soup Challenge.

Finally, this group will allow me to check off another subject on my ridiculously unrealistic Challenge Project List. Still, seven out of twelve isn't too bad.  Okay, you're right, it's pretty bad.

1. French Indochina
2. 10mm Fantasy
3. Moonstone
4. Malta
5. Italian Wars
6. Sisters of Battle
7. 28mm Napoleonics
8. Spanish Civil War
9. 28mm Modern
10. 20mm WWII
11. Retreat from Moscow
12. Dungeon Crawl

I think I have a few more posts left in the tank before the end of the Challenge, but we'll see what I can manage. Wish me luck!

Thanks for dropping in for a look. Have a great week!

- Curt

Always great too get a chance to vet the Snowlord's work and no disappointments here at all, these are wonderful (of course).  Love the movement in the figures and those flags.  And they look amazing ranked up against those ruined walls.

I agree with a lot of what you said about OG figures.  One can get sucked in by large bags at a good price and then get disappointed on opening the bag and looking closely at the figures.  But they do tend to paint up well and the end product in this case looks excellent.

From AlanD: Covenanter Pikes (60 points)

Along with a gnome and more Romanians this week, I finished my Covenanter company for Pikeman's lament. The last unit was another block of 12 pikemen from Warlord Games, based again using the 3-2-1 system suggested in the rules. I really like the look this gives to the units, and I will be using it more.

GregB asked last week how many figures are needed for Pikeman's Lament, and apologies Greg for not getting back to you sooner. The rulebook suggests games using 24 point companies. Infantry are made up of either 6 or 12 foot (eg 6 for a Forlorn Hope, 12 for Pike or Shot) and cavalry always have 6 figures. Units cost anywhere from 1-8 points, but most cost about 4 without upgrades. For example, a company made up of two units of horse, two of pikes, one shot and one unit of dragoons would cost 24 points, and require 39 infantry figures and 15 cavalry (depending on how you base your dragoons). Typically, I just painted far more than I need so I can have bigger battles or different options.

The flag is one I hand painted some years ago (at larger scale) and reduced it on the photocopier. I painted a few Covenanter flags and different cavalry cornets back then - if anyone wants them let me know and I'll send you a scan.

Since I'm calling this project done, I'll finish with a group photo. Without any upgrades, this would be a 36 point Company in Pikeman's Lament. Only about 2/3 of the force was painted during the challenge, with some painted a number of years ago and rebased. 60 points for the final pikemen please Barks!

Well done on 'finishing' this project! They are a beautiful and coherent force. I like your idea of painting your own banner and then reducing it.

Barks

From AlanD: Covenanter Lancers (60 points)

It has been a full and interesting week, so a pretty small entry this time. I have nearly finished my Covenanters for Pikeman's Lament, and the penultimate unit is a group of lancers. The figures are from Warlord, and they are OK, although ideally I'd like the Scots horses to be a bit more scrawny... The Scots were unusual in using lances during the ECW, as they tried to compensate for their inferior horses and comparative lack of pistols.

60 points for six cavalry gets me past the 1000 point barrier. Yay!

Very nice work again, Dux. Your pictures show the interesting effects of warm and cool tones! It is a slippery slope of detail when we start insisting on appropriately emaciated horses... Congratulations on reaching the big M!

Barks

From AlanD: Covenanter Dragoons on Istvaan V (115 points)

I'm back teaching this week, so production is slowing somewhat. However, I've been pushing on with Covenanters for Pikeman's Lament while I wait for a few more Romanians to arrive...

This week, I present a couple of units of dragoons with some prayer support. One of the things I like about the 3-2-1 basing suggested in Pikeman's Lament is the flexibility it gives. These troops can be mixed up to show a couple of units of dragoons, with some mounted and some on foot, or I could just use the foot figures as a unit of commanded shot. The figures are from Bicorne Miniatures, the first figures of theirs I've painted, and I enjoyed the range of poses and deep detail.

Supporting the dragoons is a Covenanter preacher from Warlord Games, although I chopped off his hat and gave him a bonnet. Istvaan V is a particularly apt planet for this force of Covenanters to land on. The events we (inaccurately) call The English Civil War were precipitated by Charles I's clumsy attempts to impose his brand of Anglicanism on the Scots, the first shots of the war being the objects thrown at the minister using Charles' Prayer Book in Edinburgh in 1637. The Scottish Covenant signed shortly after was a response to the suspiciously Catholic appearance of Charles' religious policies, which reeked of heresy to Scots Presbyterians. 

Istvaan V's theme of loyalty is also relevant to the Covenanters. Their opposition to Charles' religious policies made them initial allies of the English Parliament, culminating in them handing Charles over for trial in 1647. However, in 1648 the Covenanters changed sides, invading England to try to restore Charles to the throne after Parliament failed to follow through on their vague promises about making Presbyterianism the official religion throughout Britain.

With that, the figures here should gain me 95 points with a 20 point planet bonus, for 115 in total. Happy weekend to you all!

Another lovely unit of Covenanters! I really like the colour tone you have achieved here, and your basing works well with the backdrop.

Barks

From AlanD: The Next Project and Runes for Glorantha (125 points)

In the lead-up to the Challenge, PaulOG and I were talking about our 20,000 different projects, and I got all excited again about the English Civil War. This tends to happen every 8 months or so. In particular, I was inspired by the beautiful new figures from Bloody Miniatures, which are in my painting queue. First up though, I wanted to paint a Covenanter force to play Pikeman's Lament. I already had a few painted Covenanters, so I based them up and prepared the rest of the army for the Challenge.

This week I painted a unit of 12 pikes and a frame gun, all from Warlord Games. For the basing, I've decided to go with the 3-2-1 basing recommended by Michael Leck and Dan Mersey in the rules for Pikeman's Lament. I must say, I like this arrangement of basing a lot. It's quite flexible, and gives units a nice slightly ragged appearance. I had my usual existential crisis about what colour hodden grey should be, settling for the main part on a sort of medium sea grey with a bit of brown added in.

I was quite keen to explore Glorantha this week as well, and remembered I had a set of runestones from Fenris Games that I bought about 10 years ago. These are lovely accurate models of runestones from Sweden (from memory), and will be used for objective markers or just interesting table scatter in games like SAGA.

15 foot figures should give me 75 points, with another 10 for the frame gun. I don't really know how to score the runestones, except that they all fit in a 6 inch cube, so call it 20 points? Add a bonus 20 points for Glorantha, and I think this entry is worth 125 points. The Inspektor visiting from Weimar Berlin is just included for scale.

I really like that grey-blue tone you've achieved with your pikemen. I've never been quite game to adopt the 3-2-1 basing, even though I can see both the gaming practicalities and the aesthetic appeal. I do wonder how effective frame guns and early artillery was, but I'm sure there's a psychological shock. And the painted patterns really help the runestones pop.

Barks