'Empire' From GregB - Imperial Pike and Shotte for 30YW (170 points)

Pike and shotte infantry unit from Warlord Games' "Epic" 30YW range.

The "theme rounds" return, and this first theme round is one that worked well with my hobby interests. Too well, in fact, as I suddenly found myself starting a bunch of projects "because they would work great with the Empire theme round" and then, by diffusing my efforts, ensured I would hardly make any progress...sigh...anyway, I did get something done, albeit with a crutch that a number of the figures had been painted prior to the Challenge. Nonetheless, for the "Empire" theme I present a block of Imperial pike and shotte for the Thirty Years War - these are plastic figures from Warlord Games' "Epic" range. Hard to get more "Empire" than Hapsburg troops, ready to crush those absurd pre-Marxist protestants. 

One of the musket "sleeves". 

This period a "slow burn" project for me - sort of the hobby equivalent of a slow burning match cord, appropriate for the setting! I started in late 2023, experimenting with the "Epic" figures, and through the last edition of the Challenge I added another couple units and some artillery. 

View of the pike block. 

Pikes at the ready!

Some rear detail on the command group. Man...the flags are still a pain.

The "Epic" range from Warlord is a mixed bag overall - I find the ACW stuff to be pretty awful, while the Napoleonic stuff is interesting, but also frustrating because of where they opted to locate the command elements. But these 30 Years War guys...I think they pretty much nailed it! They have a nice mix of detail on the sculpts, and I really like how it looks - the pike units look really cool in particular. 

The other "sleeve".

Many people painting these models are able to make huge progress with speed paints etc. I am not one of them...I get hung up on the details. I want to make sure there are a few "exceptions" in every rank, that not every single hat or pair of gloves matches tc...it slows me down, but I like how it looks in the end. Oh well. 

"White Mountain, here we come!"

For scoring, there are 80 figures here. But as I noted at the outset, a number were painted prior to the Challenge getting under way, so only 60 of them will count for points. Add in the "theme round" bonus and this should work out to 170 points - a nice kick in the pants!

Now, what are the odds that a permanent 12-year-old like me would have anything for the "Toy Story" theme? Surely this would not cause further delay...