Last of the new buildings

 

Another batch of buildings in pretty good condition. This lot cost £45.23, so basically £9 each

The largest building - they are mostly shops with flats above.

Plus one hotel called the Karn Hotel. Might be difficult to rename this so I'll probably leave it as it is. No idea if it's based on a real hotel or not - should look it up... And done... '"Karn hotel" refers to multiple properties. "Karn Residence" is a 4-star hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, and "Karn Havos" appears to be a holiday home in both Saint Eval and Mawgan Porth, according to Booking.com and Booking.com. Additionally, there's "Hotel Karn Vihar" in Munger, India.'

A nice little group of shops!

Back views...

And more back views...

And that lot, especially when added to the things I've already got, should give me a decent city centre shopping centre.

A Meroitic Kushite civil war

 

Steven home usually means a game. So, he said 'Didn't you have a load of Zulus you used as Kushites?' Yep, looked up armies. Meroitic Kushite. Saw it could have a elephant general... intriguing, couldn't resist myself, so sorted out 2 DBA armies - Indian elephants acting as general as I don't have any Meroitic elephants.

Steven lost dice roll and had to set up first. I mirrored him to a degree except I put my Ps element next to my blades (well, guys with spears and shields pretending to be blades). Ready for spears mayhem in the middle as our generals slog it out.

I let my left flank get too close to him while he partially refused his...

OK, I thought. Lets take out the Psiloi element - straight dice roll, I win, he flees, unless he doubles up I just recoil. No, I died... Happily, one of archery elelents succumbed to a hail of arrows leaving a gap in his line.

Just before contact I had stopped a bit over a move away from Steven. That meant I got to be the one making contact and choosing order of combat. As I had given myself a right flank overlap to start with, and as I had also made sure his single ranked spears next to the general were facing a double rank, I had given myself a slight combat advantage...

Steven threw a 2 for PiPs...meant he took out one of my archer elements but couldn't then roll up my line... 

Anyway, the way the combats went I finished up with a double overlap on Steven's middle spear elements. Steven had a dice roll advantage over me early in the game; that changed and I got three sixes in a row. Including here... two dead elements, suddenly the game moved to my advantage...

Last move of the game. Steven's single element of spears succumbed.

I did actually get my flank attack in on that last move. It bounced! But, having taken out four elements, game over and I finished up winner!

So it proved to be a very close game. It would be easy to say that it depended on dice rolls - true, but that's true to a certain extent of every game. When his Psiloi took out my archers we both thought it was game over; I would his line being broken by the loss of his arher unit was more important - broke his line and made him more dependent on PiPs. At the wrong time he threw a two, couldn't dress his line and attack as much as he wanted and was left vunerable. Meanwhile, throwing three sixes at the right time helped me - but my tactics had given me a +1 or +2 advantage across the whole of my right wing and centre anyway. If the dice rolls on that combat that took out his two spears elements had been reversed I would simply have been pushed back!

Afrika Korps

 

Another load of minimal standard WW2 plastics - Afrika Korps to provide an opponent for the 8th Army...

Building up HO towns

Didn't spend anything at Partizan because I was saving my pennies - lots of nice cheap 1/87th scale buildings on ebay to enlarge my 'collection' of these.

Side view... My target was to get a lot of multi-storey buildings to act as a town centre.

Quite a good block of buildings - price averaged out at under £10 per building, so relatively cheap!

Also picked up a load needing attention - but for £27.50 for this lot... Actually, in total 10 buildings mean these ones were less than £3 each, for the others pictured I bought 15 buildings (including 3 I'd already put away so aren't pictured here) for £132.48 - average price £8.83!) There are still another 5 buildings due to arrive (£45.23 so about £9 a building!)

They should add a lot to my current collection.

Most of my previous figures have appeared as a backdrop rather than the main area. The set up here was from when I finished my harbour and did an H.G.Wells scenario, 'The Sea Raiders'.

Of course, it's more a way to expand my 'Little town in Germany' to make a 'bigger town in Germany'...

Have used some buildings for a representation of the real Dunwich...

So, a major upgrade to buildings at a pretty good price suitable for 20mm games... just have to use them....

Partizan 2025

 Straight in with the two games Steven played...

His first  game was a Vietnam War game run by Rubicon Models. 

Neat terrain. The game was mainly concerned with learning the rules. 

Next one was a game based on Crooked Dice 'Tron' type racing bikes. Not sure what look my wife Sandra was giving me...

The sign seems to suggest that it was a Terry Pratchett game. That's just an angle thing - the Terry Pratchet was the one behind them with the tall tower. It was actually put on by the Veteran Wargamers Society. Steven won - thought he'd go and buy some bikes but he 'never thought of it'. He enjoyed both games.

Although Crooked Dice did have their own game on - Steven had already played a different one at a previous Partizan.

I admit to be interested/tempted more and more by this.

Quite a nice set up

Buildings basic but did the job.

Lots of tanks.

I mean, what's not to like.

Lots of tanks...

Warhammer inspired...

Nice buildings.

Advertised as coming October Partizan... 60mm...

Current offering a bit smaller.

One of my favourite set ups on the day.

Lots of interesting tanks and aircraft.

Have to admit though.. at the moment more interested in the shipping involved.

Definitely some nice ideas on display.

OK, lots more there - these are just some of the things tht caught my eye, mainly because they had a link with current projects. Next week might have seen me with a different set of priorities.

Still my favourite show.

Looking at Minifigs S&S Picts

Just a quick post before I start going over my Partizan pictures... Relating to a discussion that seemed to develop over my last post!
 

I mentioned using the Minifigs S&S Picts in my Achaemenid army. This lot are the Pictish archer and chieftain repurposed as Ethiopians.

This is the unit in action in a Thermopylae re-enactment I did. Next to them are some later shieldless Greeks pretending to Lydians. On either side of them are some Garrison figures - the range I describe as 20mm to distinguish them from the later, bigger Ancients figures. - in reality they are 25mm.

Now, the point of this is that all of these figures are equivalent in just about every way. Design costs covered a long time ago, figures all 70s, figures all ones that you would expect to use as part of units in an army.

So what is the difference? Well, for Garrison figures I would charge £1.25 whether they are historical or S&S. The Minifigs Greek  goes for £1.85, with officers/musicians 10p more. The Picts? £3.25 each. Nearly twice the cost of the historical figure!

Not going to comment except with a ?

Minifigs Medusas and demons

 

Going through 'odd' figures I've got lying around. This lot are by Minifigs, Matchlock Miniatures Sword and Sorcery range plus Classic Fantasy and Science Fiction range..

Quite like these two. Granted, they are dated and overpriced but they have a certain charm. (I may be biased but I much prefer the Garrison S&S Range figures. Also Minifigs charge a premium for fantasy figures over historical ranges which I personal dislike when it includes bulk figures)

Dodos and Mock Turtles

Some additions to my 'Alice' collection...

Shown  here, my dodos with the Little Soldier Company version - did mine because the 'original' is a bit bigger than I want.

Here, my versions of a couple of Mock Turtles - again smaller.than the 'original'

This batch, even throughthe paint and varnish, are a bit 'sticky' Not sure why, possibly didn't leave them in the oven long enough to cure fully?