AHPC Fellowship Bonus Round

My submission for the fellowship round is a band of nine intrepid fantasy adventurers - three fighters, an archer, a mage, a healer two thieves and a ranger.  Oh and they are also seven mice, a shrew and a gecko!

Here's the full set, although a couple of the shy ones are hiding in the back row.  I'll see if I can draw them forth shortly.  These miniatures come in Red Hat's board game Mice & Mystics and its expansion Downwood Tales.  The game features a royal (Human) household that overtaken by an evil sorceress and the heroes change themselves into mice to escape.    long the way they battle cockroaches, rats, centipedes and spiders (including their human enemies who also morph themselves).  It is a surprising good play, with simple rules,  great story line scenarios, a good challenge and lots of nice colour.  The currency is cheese, there's a ring of cat strength magic item and triggering a mouse trap means that your mouse both takes a hit and gets a cheese.  Better yet you can find a dinner fork and mouse-a-pult yourself over danger.

Tilda, Colin, Maginose

First up we have the leader, Price Colin in his red cloak flanked by his counsellors Tilda the healer and Maginos the mystic.  Tilda also fights with a nasty mace and gets more deadly if she's defending wounded comrades.  Maginos has his familiar wyvern Meeps who's been transformed into a lady bug.

Filch, Nez, Lily

Next up we have the royal armourer Nez, flanked by Filch the scamp and Lily the archer. Nez is a tinkerer (which is sometimes useful) and a warrior which is always useful especially when he uses his Thundersqueak ability.  Lily has always been a mouse and is a member of a local mouse clan that Colin befriends.  We meet her in one of the early scenarios when they rescue her from a mousetrap.

Jakobe, Ansel, Ditty

The last set of three are characters that we will meet in the expansion game as Colin and fiends venture into Downwood.  As with Lily, these characters have always been critters.  Jakobe the gecko is their guide and carries a boomerang.  He looks chatty and may try and sell us car insurance.  Ansel is a valiant mouse warrior and wears a serpent scale breastplate.  Ditty the shrew is a scamp.  She carries a peppercorn sling and a fiddle.

I'm not sure if Sarah's Challenge includes only human characters.  But there are three female anthropomorphic rodents in this groups so I've tagged them any way.  Here are the three ladies in question, Mother Hen Tilda, Adventurous Lily and well keep a hand on your valuables Ditty.

Final group shot.

FYI when we play M&M, I play Tilda, Curt plays Filch, Sylvain is Nez, Jeremey is Maginos and Stacey is Colin.

Points wise these figures are shorter than 28s and taller than 20s.  I'll leave it to the gods and GMs to work out my points

AHPC Curtgeld

Lighting's not the best.  I may need to touch up the facial details too, he's looking too mono-hued here.

Time to pay the piper, so here's my Curtgeld for the Ninth Challenge.  He's an officer from the French Dillon Regiment from the SYW.  The figure is by Front Rank and I really love the pose with hat off and sword out.

Front Figures paint up very nicely.  The raised buttons and lace work are very much appreciated.

Dillon's was a famous regiment in the 18th century, part of the Irish brigade formed after the Glorious Revolution (or War of English Succession depending).  recruitment cam originally from Irishmen wanting to change the British Monarchy back to a Catholic Jacobite, although the percentage of actual Irishmen diminished over time.  The colonelcy passed down through the family and many officers were Dillon's themselves. After valiant service in the Wars of English, Spanish, Polish and Austrian Succession, the SYW and the AWI, it was disbanded after the French Revolution.  Incredibly some officers then formed Emigre Dillon's regiments paid by George III and serving with the British.  So Irishmen who joined the Irish Army to overthrow George III, ended up serving George III to defeat a Republic and reinstall the Bourbons.  The intellectual contortions required for this defy me.

Beyond the regular Curtgeld tradition, there is another challenge tradition that seems to have fallen by the wayside over time.  There have been several cases of Challengers Curtgelding Cut with figures representing Bob Dylan, despite (or perhaps because of) Curt's fervent anti-Dylan hatred.  To rectify the recent tailing off of the tradition, I therefore present Robert (Bob) Dillon as my Curtgeld for this challenge.

By my count this will take me over my 500 point Challenge Target with 3 weeks left to go.  This figure also adds 5 points to my BP side duel total,

AHPC Nassuers and Command Stand

I continue to be a one hit wonder here with my ongoing progress on the SYW project.  I have two items in this post.

I can't remember which are the 8 newly painted figures, so here's the full 24 man battalion

First up are the final 8 members of the Nassau Prince Louis Regiment, completing the regiment that formed my Mercenary Bonus round post. Here's the full 24 man battalion, all Front Rank figures with flags printed at home based on images found at Kronoskaf.

Generally the French Army's foreign infantry regiments seem to have been better rated than the native french regiments.  The reasons differed by nationality with the Swiss being professionals and the Irish being more Anti-British.  I suspect with the German regiments it was due to the officers, as these regiments offered opportunities for ambitious gentlemen who might not meet the criteria (French speaking and Catholic) required for the "French" regiments.  It is worth noting that the two premier french generals prior to the SYW (Maurice and Berwick) were both foreign and both bastard sons of foreign Kings.

Close up to show the unit tables at the back of the basing.

A quick note on unit organization.  I've opted for 24 man foot units with 12 man cavalry and 16-18 man light infantry units.  For the formed regiments I've put a unit table on each base to keep the regiments straight, with the unit name and a small pic of their flag.  This should especially aid the  French army which should have  many infantry units in grey/white.  I have of course got 4 French regiments in 4 different uniforms and only one wearing white to date.

From the other side of the hill, we have Ferdinand of Brunswick and escort.  The allied army in western Germany was a truly polyglot affair,  mostly Hanoverian with contingents from Britain, Hesse, Brunswick and Prussia and generals from Brunswick who were also Prussian officers.  Since the Brits paid for the whole thing it was known as His Britannic Majesty's Army in Germany.

Ferdinand of Brunswick was lent to HBMAG by Frederick the Great in late 1757 following the Duke of Cumberland's epic defeat at Hastenbeck and the overrunning of Hanover by French armies.  Ferdinand quick turned things about with a strong campaign that saw him move from east of the Elbe to west of the Rhine in 1758.  He followed this up with a major Victory at Minden in 1759 and kept the army in the game for the rest of the war.

He's accompanied by one of Prussia's Black Hussars, one of several Prussian cavalry regiments serving in Western Germany.  This is the third time I've painted this uniform, and in the third scale.  In high school in the 70s I put French Shakos on Airfix British Hussars to do the regiment in 20mm Nappy's.  In the 80s I had the regiment in my 15mm SYW army, and it served well in some truly epic wargames.  Both figures are Front Rank 28mm and paint up very nicely.  Front Rank does a very good job with making the lace work standout and thus easy to paint.  I also like the horses, which are large look powerful.

By my count that's 8 foot at 5 points a pop, and two cavalry at 10 points each for 60 points.  These will count towards both me total and the BP duel (although that point is moot given the lead Alex has built).