A trip to Partizan 25 (a grand day out)

So the stars aligned and myself and 'A' had a trip out to the Partizan show . It's several year since we visited it so we where both a bit hyped to be going again , plus we were to be meeting or old wargaming pal 'R'  there. The show was VERY busy with lots of traders and some spectacular games.

There was an unusual 'Marlburian' era game set in the Indies 

Big chunky bases and spectacular scenery.

A Voodoo warband !

A very nice SYW game or rather a display of some nice terrain and beautiful figures

Lot of individually converted figures .

Lots of animated figures. (click on photos to enlarge)

Guns emplaced on the chateau roof.

Beautiful figures and terrain but not really a wargame.(?)

A large ACW game , I liked the use of various bits of 'Teddy Bear' fur fabric.

Another view of the ACW game . I'm sadly aware I didn't note who had put these games on .

A rather nice Sikh Wars game (actually being played)

A Sikh square (?)

Sikh Howitzer.

The game of the show for me was Peter Dennis's 2D Paper Soldiers ACW game .

The figures are 15mm scale , all the terrain is paper too.on a rather nice felt mat.

I bet the earthworks were fiddly to assemble , you need a good printer to get the best out of the figure illustrations - and a steady hand to cut them out.

The Perrys had a large Peninsular game set up and being played - Spanish versus French .

Lots of nice plastic figures .

The three Amigos- 'R' , 'A' and myself - my rather short arms means I don't take a good selfie. A great day out for all . I have an older photo of us three taken about 20 years ago but decided to to do a 'before and after' comparison . I got into the show on the concession rate (£2) being an OAP and much to 'A's annoyance and my amusement he was offered the same deal ! (he being much younger than me !)😂  

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A Blast From The Past ! . (a forgotten posting)

I have had this article on the computer since before Christmas and had rather forgotten about it -

 I came across my old copy of DBA wedged  between some Osprey books on my bookcase and I sat there wallowing in nostalgia - I bought them when they first came out in 1990 (that's 29 years ago !!!) and our group  played them constantly for years  and I amassed lots of 15mm DBA armies of various eras, we never bothered with the various new editions which I think didn't improve the game , then as things happen I moved on and ended selling off all my armies .

Then I came across a copy of The Sumerians by Leonard Wooley for 50p at a charity shop - 

I also saw and won very cheaply several boxes of plastic 1/72nd figures - so I was back into DBA .

I painted up two Sumerian DBA armies using these figures and re-read the rules , which there are not a lot of , but rather badly written - they read like a insurance document .

The war carts were a nightmare to assemble needing lots of pins to hold things in place . I used the 25mm scale basing system which needs a 4' x 4' table .

Spearmen and shield/pavise bearers , what I like about the Sumerians  that there is hardly anything known about their methods of warfare , we know they used ass drawn chariots and close order spear armed infantry and that's about it .

These are some of the very few contemporary illustrations of Sumerian warriors .

The opposing General flanked but skirmishers and Guti tribesmen . Behind them is the armies camp a homemade Ziggerat .

The other flank of the army , the great thing about DBA armies is that you only need twelve bases/elements per army and Sumerians are very simple figures to paint up .

Their first battle, skirmishers ( called 'Nim' - flies ) engage Guti highland tribesmen holding a patch of woodland . I'd quite forgotten how quick and simple DBA was to play , in my opinion  they probably portray ancient warfare as well as any other sets of rules and a lot easier to learn and remember . I'm going to paint up some more of the figures so I can field the other variants of the army .