'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...

'Empire' From Mike F - Tyrant’s Legion Command Squad - Empire Theme - 80 Points

 Hello fellow challengers! It’s usually late January before I get my first entry in, but this year I seem to have my act together. Hopefully I can keep the momentum rolling. I’ll apologize now to the bulk of you who paint historical and fantasy miniatures, as I’ll be blathering on about 40k and space marines for most of the challenge. I’ve tried to pivot to history at different times, as I do have a passion for it, but I just can't seem to get any momentum going with a historical or even historical adjacent project. 

For the past year or two, I’ve been in full blown 40k nostalgia! 5th edition and Badab War specifically. I’ve completed a Minotaurs Chapter and have (mostly) completed an Executioners Chapter. Both of these were involved in the Badab War on opposite sides. I enjoy these large projects, so decided to move on to the primary bad guy of the Badab War - The Astral Claws! 

For those not familiar with the lore of the Badab War, It's a small civil war in the 40k Imperium which involved several Space Marine Chapters and lasted for about 10 years. The Astral Claws were originally put in charge of a sector of space and tasked with liberating the Maelstrom Zone which is littered with pirates, raiders and chaos empires. As usually happens, the Imperium eventually lost interest and focused on other matters. The Astral Claws chapter master, Lufgt Huron became incensed and turned his homeworld and surrounding systems into a small empire with which to pacify the Maelstrom. This led to him withholding his Imperial tithes, expanding his chapter beyond the size which was allowed and when challenged, to secede from the Imperium. At its height, the Astral Claws empire was quite powerful and held off over a dozen space marine chapters before it was destroyed. As such, I'm submitting this post for the Empire Theme to commemorate both the rise and fall of the Astral Claws Badab "Empire".

The first unit for this project is a Command Squad for the Tyrant's Legion. This was an Auxiliary force of normal humans to help secure the Badab Sector for the Astral Claws. In the 2010’s Forgeworld actually made an army list for the Tyrant’s Legion. They were poorly equipped and utterly expendable, but could include space marines in the list. I’ve put together a varied collection of models from different manufacturers to represent the various units and most of the GW models were purchased second hand. I hope to complete a good chunk of the army during this challenge.

The full command squad.

I used the original Commissar Yarrick model as the Commander who is known as a Tribune.

The actual leader of the army is the Astral Claws Centurion in the centre represented in MK IV armour. The human members are from the Wargames Atlantic Raumjager box with heads from Mad Robot Miniatures.

The standard is also from Mad Robot. The tyrant's claw and Astral Claw decal is from Fallout Hobbies. Unfortunately they are going to stop trading their line of space marine decals.

The color scheme for the Tyrant's Legion is pretty vague. Grey uniform with dark grey armour. I tried to include a few different greys and blue greys to add a bit of variety and break up the models a bit.

6 28mm figures for 30 points plus 50 points for the Empire Theme = 80 points.

Thanks for visiting!

'Empire' From PeterA: 'Come Out Ye Black and Tans' (100 pts)

 First a little bit of background - my family is Irish and I have always been fascinated by the history of Ireland and in particular its relations with England and then Britain, which, I think it is fair to say, have not always been smooth! Near to my house in County Clare, there are many reminders of the often turbulent relationship between the two - remnants of castles erected during the Norman and then Tudor periods, a Martello Tower built during the Napoleonic Wars, and the ruins of a former Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks. 

When it comes to gaming some of this history on the table, my focus has tended to be around the Viking Age or the late Tudor period. However, an article in the 2025 TFL magazine about using Chain of Command to game actions set in the Irish War of Independence caught my attention. I went off in search of more information and came across the excellent Irish History Podcast, which did a mammoth 31-part series on the IWI, which is well worth a listen and inspired in me a desire to game some of the many small skirmishes, raids and ambushes. And now the Empire Theme has been the perfect incentive to finally get this project underway!

Given the Theme, the first figures  represent the forces of the British Crown and Empire - the infamous 'Black and Tans'. Initially, the British Government were reluctant to acknowledge that the IWI was in fact a war, preferring to regard it as a matter of internal order and therefore a police matter. However, by late 1919/early 1920, the RIC was haemorrhaging constables (thanks to IRA violence and intimidation, as well as social pressure from their fellow Irishmen and -women) and so the British Government decided to reinforce the RIC with recruits drawn largely from ex-soldiers, mostly ex-NCOs. Eventually, over 10,000 of these constables served in Ireland during the war, with recruits coming from all across England, Scotland, Wales and some even from Ireland itself. Their name came from their practice of wearing a mixed uniform of British Army khaki and RIC dark green, a result of a lack of RIC uniforms to fully clothe the new recruits. Even when more uniforms became available, many of the men preferred to wear the mixed colours.

An illustration showing the mixed khaki and much darker RIC uniform

The Black and Tans have an unsavoury reputation for poor discipline, violence and brutality. This reflects the harsh, punitive (and counter-productive) approach the British took in trying to quash the IRA, but is also a result of the actions of the 'Auxies' (mostly ex-British Army officers who acted as a virtually independent paramilitary arm of the RIC) - in the eyes of most Irish people, the Tans and the Auxies were one and the same.

Here we have a small section of 6 Black and Tans on patrol. They are from the Woodbine Design Company's WW1 range of British Infantry, sold by Gripping Beast. 

Whilst the khaki was pretty straightforward, the green of the RIC uniforms was a bit tricky. The actual uniforms are VERY dark green, in fact almost black. I wasn't happy with my initial attempt to highlight the green uniform, as seen on the NCO below, as I felt it made the uniform too light, so I toned the highlights right down on the remaining figures - which you cannot see at all in the photos! I may adjust this with the next group I do, but for now, I am happy with them. 

Next up is Lewis LMG gunner and loader for a bit of extra firepower, one area where the Crown forces had a genuine advantage over the Republican forces.

Next up is an RIC Inspector, calmly stuffing his pipe with tobacco whilst the constables get on with the work. A very characterful figure and one of my favourites from the British Officers pack

Finally, we have a couple of group shots in front of different backgrounds, just for the fun of it! As always, backgrounds are from John Hodgson's backdrops books.

So this works out as:

10x 28mm figures = 50 points

Empire Theme bonus = 50 points

Total = 100 points

Now, I really have to get going on my Big Stompy Robots of Death!

 

'Empire' From RafaelO: The last stand of the Imperial Old Guard (114 points)

Hello everyone!

This year’s Empire Theme Challenge couldn’t have come at a better time for my painting plans, as I’m currently working on a Napoleonic French army.

With the goal of creating a base that represents the Emperor himself and can serve as my HQ for games, I decided to use a painting by Charles Steuben as my main source of inspiration.

Napoleon's Return to France, painted by Charles Steuben in 1818.

To achieve this, I used 12 Imperial Old Guard Grenadiers from the Zvezda 8030 box, along with the Napoleon miniature from Italeri’s French Headquarters set. As a companion to Napoleon, I wanted to include one of his followers wearing a more distinctive uniform: the Mameluke Ali dit Saint-Denis.

The last Stand of the Imperial Old Guard, 1815.

The painting process was fairly straightforward. I applied a white Tamiya spray primer to all the miniatures. Most of the colors come from Vallejo’s Xpress Color range or Citadel Contrast paints. Afterwards, I added a couple of highlights to enhance the final finish.

In summary

12 x 20 mm Infantry models @ 4 points = 48 points.

2 x 20mm Mounted model @ 8 points = 16 points.

plus 50 points by Empire entry

Total 114 points.

Cheers,

Rafa

'Empire' From TeemuL: Pezhetairoi [Empire] (25 points)

 I make my life too difficult every now and then. For example when trying to decide which miniatures would qualify for "Submit a freshly painted figure (or figures) and/or terrain piece illustrating the rise or fall of an empire. The empire can be one from history, myth or fiction."

What actually is an empire? When that empire is rising or falling? What minis I have that could be used? I have old WHFB Empire minis, but when that Empire was actually rising or falling? Same goes for various 40K minis, which part of the timeline would be suitable for rising or falling? Horus Heresy, just before? Just after? 40K era after Guilliman came back? How could I justify random Space Marine or Astra Militarium minis to be from the rise or fall and not just generic?

Now, I don't have any Roman Empire era minis. Nor Holy Roman empire. Nothing from Klingon Empire. Or Galactic Empire. Could I just create an empire and a backstory? I guess so, but it would almost be cheating. If there are bonus points to get, I want to get them fair - You might remember how much trouble I saw to grab all these bonus points with Twilight Ringwraiths 4 years(!!!) ago https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2022/03/from-teemul-outer-ring-istvaan-v.html.

I almost gave up, until I started browsing through my collection of unpainted minis, when I found a box of Pezhetairoi, which was part of Warlord Games mystery box. Ok, I thought, Alexander the Great probably had an empire, could these fit... The answer came from the back of the box:"The Pezhetairoi (Foot Companions) built upon the success of the Greek phalanx – and improved it. Deeper formations were used, along with the sarissa, a pike much longer than the spears used by the city-states. Whereas the phalanx was the mainstay of Greek armies, under Alexander they were used to pin enemy units and hold them until they could be smashed by the Companion Cavalry."

Alexander the Great had an empire, and being victorious in every battle, his empire was in constant rise, until he died and everything fell, or collapsed. Pezhetairoi were a major part of his empire and one could say he made them what they were, underlining their importance for the empire and his success. At the moment I'm confident that I can claim the bonus points for Empire theme round and sleep without nightmares.

As I said these are plastic minis from Warlord Games (no longer available, it seems). The paintjob is part Contrast part traditional paints. Some parts of the clothes is just thin wash over off-white basecoat. My laid-back research is solidly based on the box art, lots of off-white, gold(ish) and red, with other colours here and there. The shields are hand painted red and then transfers added from the box. The base is sand, washed and painted in pale brownish colours and I forgot to add some self made tufts.

25 points for 5 minis in 28mm and what ever the bonus points for the theme round might be. And luckily I decided to paint 5 of these instead of four, so I can claim my third Squirrel (28mm Napoleonic British, 28mm Fantasy Dwarfs, 28mm Alexander the Great)