However, the fates conspired to place impediments in our way. Two weeks before the event my car was involved in an accident that saw it written off. This was to be the means of transporting scenery and armies over 600 kilometres from Armidale to Sydney. This minor glitch was overcome by hiring a car for the weekend. Then Mark informed me that he would not be able to get to Sydney from the Gold Coast (1000 kilometres away) until to early afternoon on the Sunday.
So after girding my loins I made the short trip from where I was staying to MOAB's venue. After introducing myself to the organisers I set up the scenery and promotional material. As I had brought my youngest son, Jared, along I was able to start playing almost immediately. After playing Jared twice, loosing both games, members of the public started lining up to play games. So Saturday finished with me hosting six games over the day. The armies used for Saturday's games were Patrician Romans and Saxons.
Sunday witnessed much the same as the previous day. However, the major change was that Mark turned up with his Early Imperial Romans and Celts. This was the first time that I saw these figures and I was blown away! Mark's figures were painted by an extremely talented painter called Peter Callan. Peter can be contacted via his email address. I have some images taken on the day that don't do justice to the figures. When we can make arrangements and have ideal lighting I will take some pictures of his figures that will show his figures as they deserved to be viewed. Mark has doubled based his figures so that all bases, except the Celtic chariots, are double the bases' depth. They are truly inspiring.
Overall I would consider the weekend a great success. We gamed for about 12 hours with players ranging from teenage beginners to guys in their forties/fifties who have not played DBA for quite sometime. The most rewarding aspect was that people were impressed with 25mm DBA, even those guys who had been playing for many years.
The following are images taken during various games when Patrician Romans fought Saxons. Prior to the weekend I would have thought that the Romans would have out-fought the Saxons. To my surprise the Saxons won about 60% of the games.
