Partizan in the Park - Attack of the Baboons!

Back from Partizan, footsore but happy.

Today James, Matt, Mark, Martin, Ted and myself again put on our Battle of Keren presentation at Partizan 2014.

Yesterday, I packed the entire mountain, figures and Bren Gun into the Mini and set of at 07:20 this morning and picked up Martin a few minutes later. By 08:00 we had found the Marquee at Kelham Hall and were unpacking the goodies.

Yes I said Mini!

As there were only Martin and myself there to start with we were never going to beat the record assembly time, but we soon had the mountain up and James, Matt and Mark arrived to provide some assistance.

During the day we played two scenarios, the first being  the attack by 3/5 Mahrattas in the early hours of 16th March 1941 to clear the slopes before Fort Dologorodoc prior to the main assault by the 2 West Yorkshires.

After lunch we played the main assault by the 2/West Yorkshires on Fort Dologorodoc itself.

In both games the British were victorious. In the final assault one platoon swept the ramparts clear of Askaris and then fought off a vicious counter attack by the Askaris before being relieved by the follow-on troops

A new feature for the game was a wonderful baboon painted by Simon Miller of Big Red Bat Cave for us, we had bemoaned lack of a decent baboon model and Simon mentioned that he had a very old Citadel one in the loft and would dig it out for us.

Not only did he did it out, but he converted it into an Eritrean Baboon with it's distinctive enlarged backside and painted it for us. Bravo Simon!

Here are some pictures from the game.

Setting it up

3/5 Mahrattas start their climb

James has made some great new additions to the game, here are just a few of them.

First of all a team of four Sikhs carrying a wounded comrade to the rear.

To protect against the light Italian grenades that were used in profusion some of the assaulting infantry carried shields made of corrugated iron, James has converted some Perry Desert Rats for these.

2/West Yorkshires storm the fort

And fight off a counter attack.

Oswin arrives to survey the result.

The Italians are routed

I made a bit of 'me time' at the show and as well as doing a little bit of shopping - another set of Chain of Command Markers and an Empress Tiznao and Nationalist Pak36.

Here are a few of the games that stood out to me.

Steve Jones had a fantastic American War of Independence battle of Weitzell's Mill.

Sidney Roundwood and Rich Clark of Too Fat Lardies had an excellent WWI Verdun game, very atmospheric.

Along with painting us a fantastic baboon, Simon Miller also found the time to paint a few hundred Romans and put on this Roman Civil War battle on the banks of the River Po

The Stonewall Wargames Group put on this Anglo-Zulu war game.

A rather nice early WWI game.

A Chaco Wars game using Bolt Action.