Advent Challenge Take Two

Another Advent Challenge model painted today - went with a Skaven after all. The actual painting time was very short, as they're very simple to paint, but as usual my standard bouts of procrastination dragged the process out over several hours. 

On the 15th Day of Christmas!

Just a few quick snaps of the model I painted up for Da Warpath's Advent Challenge on Thursday. The challenge is to paint a complete model, from start to finish, within a day. I picked a Witch Hunter (Mordheim) model I've had sitting around:

Still a few details that I'll go back in and add when the mood takes me, but that's what I got done on the day.

I've also signed up to paint tomorrow's figure. I had originally intended to paint the Marco Columbo figure I picked up earlier this year, but after an accident and ensuing wrist injury at work yesterday (followed by another accident and exacerbated wrist injury at work today...) I think I'll stick to something simple instead. I don't know how difficult painting will be (typing is bad enough...) so I don't want to take on a model that is too detailed and complicated. I'll have a quick look through what I've got undercoated already, and pick something simple. It might end up being a Clanrat or similar plastic Skaven. The upside of that is that it will get me in the mood for getting back to the rats...

One Last Word on Wargamer...

Of course, no wargames show would be complete without some good old fashioned trading going on. In between running and playing our own game, and looking around at everyone else's games, I managed to pick up a few bits and pieces. I was good and didn't buy much that requires painting...

First up, some literature. The Malifaux rules manual, because I've been eyeing this up for quite some time (primarily for the figures); Condottiere, Foundry's latest rules offering, and 7TV's summer special - a supplement for the 7TV rules from Crooked Dice, based around wargaming popular cult TV...

On the miniatures front, I picked up an Empire Great Cannon from the Bring-and-Buy table; this will be added to my Tileans at some point. I added "Daisy Taylor and May Killan" to my growing Dr. Who stuff. I also took the opportunity to pick up the 'Time Lift Security' - for anyone who doesn't recognise them, take a look. 

So that's that! All the Wargamer coverage over for another year. Back on the home front, Da Warpath are running another Advent Challenge - some of you may remember I took part in this last year (have a look here if you don't remember!) This year, I've actually signed up for two days of the Calendar, and the first day is technically today (being 2am in the morning on 15th December...) I'll be back with more on that...um...later today I suppose!

Wargamer - Some Other Games...

As I said in my last post, there were several other games going on on Sunday. I didn't get chance to take a good look at all of them, but I did manage to grab some snaps of a few that caught my eye.

A massive pirates game presented by the 'Like a Stonewall' group, with hundreds of figures and three pirate ships! Brilliantly detailed, as is to be expected of 'Like a Stonewall'...

The Battle of Gotthard Abbey 1664, presented by The Border Warlords

Unfortunately, I didn't see which club was putting this game on, but it was a Napoleonic skirmish game featuring a certain Richard Sharpe...

Steinkirche Part III

Hepburn's Scots face off against Munich-Ebersberg and Nuremberg

The lines face off...

And from the other side

View from the rear of the Swedish lines

View from the rear of the Imperialist lines; the Hagen Arquebusiers advance along
 the road, and the Loebl  infantry  regiment move onto the board

The Upplands cavalry are surrounded by Firelock musketeers, but not for long...

The Lorraine regiment move up to plug the gap in the Imperialist lines
 before the Yellow regiment smash into the Aldringen regiment

Munich-Ebersberg engage Hepburn's Scots while the
Schlammersdorf, Blue and Red regiments form into line 

The battle lines move ever closer; the Jung-Tilly regiment have taken up position behind the Aldringen to secure the Imperial right flank. Little do they know what fate has in store for them!

The Yellow regiment clear the redoubt, allowing Baner's Lifeguard
 to advance along their flank to encircle the Imperialists

The Loebl regiment and Hagen Arquebusiers behind Imperial lines

The Swedish centre. Hepburn's Scots break and run from Munich-Ebersberg;
the Vastgota cavalry move up to plug the gap and pump lead into the Munich-Ebersberg regiment 

Piccolomini arquebusiers arrive in the Imperial camp; the Loebl regiment
form line in front of them to secure the Imperial centre

The Yellow regiment engage the Aldringen regiment; meanwhile Baner's Lifeguards
 face off against Pappenheim's Kurassiers on the edge of the Imperial camp

Pappenheim Kurassiers, fresh to the field (and not long to remain on it! Mwuhahaha!)

View from the rear of the Swedish lines as the battle enters it's climax. At the bottom of the picture, you can see the Croat cavalry arriving in the Swedish rear to threaten the artillery. Meanwhile, the Blue regiment have turned about face and formed 'hedgehog' to face the threat of the Schwarze Kurassiers (out of picture)

The Blue regiment 'hedgehog'

The Schwarze Kurassiers threaten the Swedish Blue regiment

The Yellow regiment, having ploughed through the Aldringen, smash into the Jung-Tilly while next to them the Lorraine regiment get blasted to pieces by the Red regiment and Schlammersdorf

So those are the final shots of the game, but there are still more to come! Of course, ours wasn't the only game there and I have shots of some of the other games still to show!

More from Steinkirche

Supernumeraries in the camp

...and a view along the road into the town of Steinkirche

A closer shot of the board from the Swedish end

Hepburn's Scots - the first Swedish unit to arrive

The first Swedish light gun, accompanying the Hepburn's on the right flank

The Swedish Red and Yellow regiments being led forward by Gustavus Adolphus himself!

Swedish Red regiment deployed

The Yellow regiment and Gustavus

And the first arrivals for the Imperialists: Munich-Ebersberg regiment accompanied by Pappenheim

The Imperialist front line: Aldringen (left), Munich-Ebersberg (centre), Nuremberg (right)

The Swedish begin their advance as the second wave arrives on the table

The Vastgota cavalry show up

A view across the Swedish advance from the left flank

Men of the Match, the Swedish Yellow regiment

Red regiment and Gustavus

Bader leads his Lifeguard (left-bottom), the Swedish Blue regiment (top)
and Holtzmuller's Dragoons (right) onto the field

A closer shot of Holtzmuller's Dragoons

The Schlammersdorf regiment advance in the wake of the Hepburns

And on the Imperialist side; the Aldringen regiment

Munich-Ebersberg regiment

Munich-Ebersberg (front) and Nuremberg (back)

Hepburn's Scots advance along the road towards the Imperialist camp

The rear of the Yellow regiment as they advance over the hill

The Swedish advance. The Upplands cavalry have just made it
onto the board behind the farmhouse

The Imperialists begin to move down off the hill to confront the Swedes. Both the culverin and medium gun have shown up, placed in the redoubts, along with the Lorraine regiment advancing down the road

View from the Swedish left flank. The Yellow regiment advance on the redoubt and
Aldringen regiment, with the Red regiment advancing on the other side of the wood.

The Swedish centre; the Blue regiment are flanked by Holtzmuller's Dragoons on the left and
Baner's Lifeguard on the right, while the Upplands cavalry move along the road behind them

The view of the Yellow regiment as they crest the hill and spy
the Aldringen regiment exposed on the Imperialist right

The battle lines close. Hepburn's Scots advance in the face of the Munich-Ebersberg regiment,
 only to find themselves repulsed and routed after suffering heavy casualties from artillery fire