AHPC12 Lune/Sorcery Cooking Man and Haitian Priests

Finally made it to The Inner Ring, and my first Planet to visit via Arakkis is Lune, I'll be using the Tag Witchcraft/Sorcery.

I first saw the 3 figures in this post on Stuart's blog Dust, Tears & Dice and thought I'll have to get them one day. When I saw the list of planets in the Challenge I ordered them straight away.

I already had the Cooking Man figure from Infinity Engine. Sold as Campfire with Human BBQ! Yum!

I picked that up at a show a few years ago, thinking I might need it one day for the Challenge, and that day has come!

The three North Star figures are from the Dracula's America range

The Mambo, the Bokor,  and the Houngan

A manbo (also written as mambo) is a priestess (as opposed to a oungan, a male priest) in the Haitain Vodoo religion

A bokor (male) or caplata (female) is a Vodoo witch for hire who is said to serve the loa "with both hands", practicing for both good and evil. Their black magic includes the creation of zombies and of 'ouangas', talismans that house spirits

Oungan (also written as houngan) is the term for a male priest in Haitian Vodou (a female priest is known as a manbo)

Rear view

I think this could possibly be a former Plantation Owner, who was rather disliked by his subjects?

The only problem with the figures is they're tiny, as you can see in the photo. I've added a Trent mini

for scale. The North Star figures have already been double based to give them a little more height.

I'm sure they'll mix in well though, the Rejects won't even notice the size difference.  

Rebel/Slave leaders are pretty hard to come by so these will fit in well and become commanders for the Rebel/Slave army.

Points

3 x 25mm figures @ 5 pts= 15pts

Not sure how many points for the Cooking man?  I'll leave that to you Greg.

20 pts for the Lune bonus

 

AHPC12 - Arrakis/Machiavellian - Barbed Tormentor & Sarah's Star Yacht

 

I'm paying a visit to Planet Arrakis for this post and using the tag Machiavellian. No I'm not painting anything from Dune, this is one of the few planets I didn't have to look up!

But first I have to pay the fare from Corsucant to Arrakis using Sarah's Star Yacht

Hmmm? This is Mellusa, a slave in chains, from Col Bill's Belt Said Girls

Believe it or not, but she was quite an easy paintjob!

This rather devilish looking chap is a Barbed Tormentor, from the Denizens of Hell series from the game Kingdoms of Hell by Ill Gotten Games.

This isn't your usual type of figure? I hear you say

Well I purchased this beast at Salute from Encounter Prints, I always buy a few strange (for me) figures when I go to a show, just incase Curt puts something strange on the Bonus rounds. 

Just like this!

The definition of Machiavellian is cunning, scheming and unscrupulous, which I think for a Denizen of Hell fits in particularly well?

2 x 25mm figures @ 5 pts each 

Arrakis Bonus 20 pts 

Sarah's Sky Yacht Bonus 20 pts

60pts

AHPC 12 Corsucant/Imperial - Imperial Austrain Curassier regt

From the Vogshere and my Clergy its a quick trip to my last planet on the middle ring.

My trip takes me to Corsucant where I'll be using the Imperial tagline  to get my next Donnybrook fix.

 The Imperial tag turns into an  Imperial Austrian Cuirassier regt

The regiment is that of Conte Aenas Silvio Caprara who took over as the head of the regt in 1663.

The regt was raised in 1629 and  formally known as Piccolomini d'Aragona, the Duca d'Amalfi, before being taken over by Luigi Geronimo Conte Caprara in 1656.

In 1683 they were in camp at Pressburg in Hungry, then were called to be part of the relief force at Vienna.

The figures are from Reiver Castings and the flag is from the book Uniforms and Flags of the Imperial Austrian Army 1683-1720, by Robert Hall and Giancarlo Boeri. Sadly unavailable from the Pike & Shot Society.

As for the points....

8 x 25mm Cavalry figures @ 10 pts each = 80 points

20 points for the Corsucant Bonus

Total 100 pts

AHPC 12 - Haitian Revolution - Spanish Infantry and Commanders 125pts

Finding any information about the Spanish army in Haiti has proved to be quite difficult.

I do know they fought in 2 major battles, The Battle of Gonnaives and the Battle of Saint-Raphael , both in 1794.

I did find a picture online of the Batallon Auxiliar de las Tropas Espanolas de la isla de Santo Domingo.

Which looked pretty fancy, with their light blue cuffs and facings.

So I decided to paint them up as that unit, with the longest name EVER!

The figures are from Trent Miniatures, now sold by Skytrex and Warlord.

The command are from Front Rank, as Trent don't sell Spanish command figures.

Also from Front Rank are these three mounted Colonels.

Two are painted in the same uniform as the infantry, while the last figure is painted up in the normal Spanish dress of a General.

I found the Spanish flag image online, its not specifically for this unit, I don't even know if they carried a flag or not, but I think it adds a little panache to the unit.

Brigadier General

Mounted Infantry Officer

Field Officer

There are 19 x 25mm Foot figures @ 5 pts each = 95pts

and 3 x Mounted 25mm figures @10 pts each = 30pts

Total 125 pts

 

AHPC12 - Vogsphere/Bureaucracy - The Clergy 65pts

 

Vogsphere: Bureaucracy; Black Comedy

What the hell's Vogsphere were my first thoughts when reading the Bonus rounds this year, after a quick google search, I found out its the home world of the Vogons...........

Not a clue? 

And I'm not inclined to find out anymore! 

Moving on to Bureaucracy, during last weeks Covid, I had a Netflix rampage and watched all episodes of The Last Kingdom, one after the other, it took a few days, but I'm still here to tell the tale.

Watching the series, made me realise just how much influence the Clergy had over political decisions during this period of English history.

The definition of Bureaucracy is "a system of government in which most of the important decisions are taken by state officials rather than by elected representatives."

So these 9 figures fit the round perfectly. The figures were gifted to me by my old pal and old Challenge painter FranL. He sent these to me in the post a few years ago, so I thought it was high time I got them painted. They're from Conquest Games and sold as Benedictine Monks and Nuns.

Rear view

From left to right

Brother Martin, Brother Miles and Brother Paul

L to R

Father Curtis, Brother David and Brother Lee

L to R

Sister Natasha, Mother Tamsin, Sister Sarah

Bonus round 20pts

9 x 25mm figures @5pts

65pts

AHPC12 - Donnybrook - Polish Cossacks 1683

Back to my Vienna 1683 project for today's post.

This post was originally posted on the Painting Challenge blog on 2nd February,

 I'm still playing catch up

Last week I was banished to my painting shed because I had Covid for the third time!!!. Mrs R works from home so I wasn't allowed in the house, (well only to only to use the loo). I was in there from 6.30am till 10 at night. I watched a lot of Netflix and Amazon Prime while painting lots of figures, while still holding the fort for work as the boss was on holiday, beer doesn't sell on its own you know!

I did get quite a bit painted, some of it will appear here today.

These 12 figures are from Barry Hilton's most excellent Warfare Miniatures!

Gotta say these are really nice figures and were a pleasure to paint up.

There's a wide variety of poses, with separate arms and top half of the body, so you can change the style and pose of the figure.

I gave one figure a longer spear changing it to a standard bearer.

There's my favourite figure, leaning back and firing with his pistol, with his Papakha on sat a jaunty angle.

Rear shot

A close up on the flag, which was from a free download.

12 x 25mm Cavalry @10 pts each

120 points!

Revolutionary Wars Batrep - The Battle of Pasta Castiglione 1796

 

The Rejects got together last weekend for our 2nd game of 2022, you've not missed the 1st game. I've not posted it yet!

Reject Richard got out his French Revolutionary figures once again, after his great game he put on at Broadside in November we all said we'd like a few more games, for a 3 reasons, 

1. They were a bloody good set of rules. 

2. We need to play them or we'll forget the rules. 

3, See 1 & 2

Smiffy & Postie were the French

Me, Lee and Surj played the Austrians

The set up

Our right, my command.

The plan was to hold

Our centre, Lee's command

This was our weakest area, the French had a hell of a lot of troops facing us.

The Plan, hold the line!

Our left, Surj's command on the hill and to the far left.

The plan, try and take the road if possible?

I moved forward, just to give myself a bit of room and squash the French up facing me, commanded by Smiffy.

Lee also moved up, to hopefully get a few shots on Posties command as they came in.

Commander on the right

The French move forward

I get off a shot with my artillery.

What's Postie gonna do with that column?

Postie pushed 3 columns forward

Ol shiny head himself

There wasn't a great deal going on on our left. 

Just a lot of manoeuvring.

a view down the table.

Smiffy's troops

Hopefully we win the dice for who goes first, we should be able to charge?

BigLee doing his thang!

The French are getting close, Postie charges on the hill. As its only 1 unit charging I should do it some damage as it comes in. 8 dice needing a 4+, then 3 D6 needing 4+ for the artillery...

Uh oh, this isn't going well?

Only 1 hit!

Then the 3 D6 for the artillery, I threw three bloody 1's!

I think it was because Lee was standing next to me?

And Postie strolled into contact.

Smiffy didn't advance, so I did. I also entered the town.

Lee moved back, hopefully out of charge range.

Just incase I lose the melee....

Come on Austrians!

I lose the melee, but only just. I get pushed back.

And also retreat my entire line back.

Lee moves his troops on his left to attack Posties units.

Still not a lot going on?

Lee takes a shot

And next turn, we win the first move and charge in.

Even if we lose, it should hold the French up for another turn.

I charge up the hill and move forward in line with my artillery.

A pic from the French side of the table. It always looks worse when you do this!

The French Dragoons

Come on Surj, Charge!

Again from the French side

And finally there's a cavalry charge.

We fortunately won the first turn, Surj charged in. He hit the first unit on the left within half their movement, so Postie took the charge at the halt. But could counter charge with the other unit. 

So they're all in.

The melees didn't really go our way. Surj smashed one French unit routing it, as it was so close to the table edge, it fell off the planet never to return, that raised an Austrian cheer, until Richard told us we had to dice to follow up. So Surj carried on the charge and fell off the table edge as well, never to return!!

Then he went and lost the other melee and was pushed back.

I win the melee on the hill

Pushing Postie back.

I withdrew my troops again

Apart from those in Solpherino.

Smiffy moved forward, to charge the next turn, while I turned my unit to face the French flank.

Postie still managed to get in 2 charges. 

Its a bit of a mess.

I charge Smiffy in the flank, his other column charges my line and Smiffy charges my troops in Solferino.

Postie wins a melee and pushes Lee back, but then Postie fails a brigade morale check and all his units move back one move.

Now we, the Austrians thought the battle was going our way when.....

The Ray's got the dice curse came back (not really sure it had gone) and bit me on the arse!

I lost the fight for Solperino, I shouldn't have, but my dice were truly awful.

Not only did I lose the melee but I then failed the morale test and was pushed right back.

Then I lost the melee in the centre which again I shouldn't have done and was pushed back 8 inches. Smiffy threw 2 D6 to see if he could catch me in the follow up, he threw an 8 which caught me in the rear destroying the unit!!!!

This caused a brigade check which of course I failed. this actually saved my bacon, as it pushed all my units back 8 inches. which in turn left one of my units protecting the road to Perscheria. 

And there the game ended

Conclusion

Richard added the points up for the game, destroyed units, captured colours, leaders killed and the like and declared the Austrians the winners!!

To be honest it was a really close game and could have gone either way.  At the end of each turn we played it swapped who had the upper hand, it was so close. Although neither side achieved their goals, the French were a spent force. Statically the Austrians lost the game as we didn't achieve our historical aims but due to smashing the French we won the game.

Great game Richard, it was a very difficult game to play and really made you think with each turn we played. 10/10

You can see by Richard's check sheets, just how the French were punished in their attack.