Devils' dance in Bruegelburg - a fanciful folly

[Westfalia Chris]

Hi all,

I previewed a couple of painted figures in the "What I painted in November" thread, but here is a more or less complete recap of my latest flight of fancy, "The Devils' Dance in Bruegelburg, or the blood mass on St. Hieronymus' day."

Way back in 2012, I got involved with the Lead Adventures Miniatures venture, in particular Bruegelburg. Due to various real-life constraints, my then-plans didn't really go anywhere beyond painting up a gang of figures and building some concept terrain for what was to be a late-medieval port town table.

Fast forward 11 years, and Youtube suggested me this channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@SomethingWkd

The first video of the alchimistic dragon struck a note with me, and, having a good-sized town of Tabletop World buildings lying around unpainted since 2017 (don't ask), I decided this would be my convention game project for 2024.

Short aside: For lack of fellow gamers around these parts that are interested in the "moving diorama mindset skirmish" aspect of the hobby, my hobby these days consists mostly of painting either nostalgic minis or modern minis on nostalgic subjects, but I attend a local convention at Münster pretty much every year and host a participation game out of the ordinary.

After some humming and hawing, I settled on getting the remaining Bruegelburg range which I did not yet own and pit them against Eureka Miniatures' "Chaos Army" range, which is a wondrously whimsical bunch of Bruegelesque and Boschian monstrosities (magnificent service by Eureka and Australian Post, by the way).

Discarding the dragon angle for the time being, the idea was of a Kermis gone wrong, when the local alchemist's abode blows up, leaving a hell portal in its place, and the host of evil crawling out from every nook and cranny. The players would take command of one of the local guildmasters and attempt to destroy the hellmouth by use of blessed artillery or suicide powder pigs.

[Westfalia Chris]

On to the piccies!

These are the three player parties:

The Rivermen and Fisherwives' Guild:



The Beggars' and Thieves' Fellowship:



And finally, the Butchers' Guild:



Apart from these, there were a couple dozen "civilians" and "rogue agents", which were either fleeing the scene or had to be recruited to fulfil the scenario objectives.

Travelling thespians:



The belligerent bishop and his cronies:



Market folk:



Mischievous merchants:



Pesky patricians:



The marksmen's association:



Plentiful porcines:



The town's Master of the Armoury and some mercenary artillery:



Some pesky kids:



Various characters (Dulle Griet was drafted to the Beggars after this photo was taken):

[Westfalia Chris]

On to the Eureka stuff!





















These are the three spawn-points for the host of hell, two to be placed inside the town and one in the river (no points for guessing which is which):

[Westfalia Chris]

And now on to the scenery.

Some set dressing:



A harbour crane of cardboard and XPS foam:



And now onto some pics of the whole assembly, taken on the day of the convention. The board measures 100x150 centimetres, or 3ft4" x 5ft; I have gone almost exclusively metric these days for storage and transport reasons, mainly.





















And that's that for starters. Hope you like it, for me, it was a nice trip down memory lane back to LAFs heyday and finally finishing up all that stuff.

[voltan]

wow, that's one heck of a set up, I really like the fact you've gone for every figure being an individual, while still being grouped together.

[robh]

 

Wonderful presentation of two great sets of sculpts.
The wagon and its associated figures are really lovely.

[Vanvlak]

Wow!
That is a splendid set up, one of the coolest I've seen - the cannon is superb, the whale incredible, and that crane! Just perfect! 

[Pattus Magnus]

That’s quite amazing! I love the variety in the figures and your city looks great.

[Banderium]

Wonderful! 

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Fantastic! What a wonderful set-up.         

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Brilliant work. I wish I lived near/knew of someone interested in this sort of gaming.

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[Burgundavia]

Lovely looking scenery and minis.

As for heyday, definitely pre-FB was busier but I feel like LAF is still busy, especially by people who aren't keen on social media.

[JollyBob]

Chris, this is magnificent. 

This kind of dedicated madness is everything the LAF stands for to me, huge, involved projects taking every aspect of the hobby to a new level.
Simply stunning.

[DeafNala]

Your creations are all fantastic, imaginative, AND inspiring! OUTSTANDING WORK!

[Michi]

Chris, this is magnificent. 

This kind of dedicated madness is everything the LAF stands for to me, huge, involved projects taking every aspect of the hobby to a new level.
Simply stunning.

Exactly that! It's the spirit and essence of what is still being brewed in some obscure corners of this very LAF...