Partizan Show - the gang was all there

As planned, I attended the Partizan show at Newark on Sunday just gone. Now I have to admit some hesitation about putting up my account of it and my pictures, as it seems that nearly every other blogger I follow has already done so themselves, not sure I have anything to add! In particular see Steve J's rather nice photos,  Big Lee's video/photo compilation, and I see  the usual fanatastic selection of pics by Ray 'Don't Throw a One'  has dropped as I have been editing this.  Looking at all these blogs it's interesting, seems that quite a large number of the bloggers I follow were there in the same room at the same time. Reading a social media page  regularly makes you feel you know the author  ( I think it's called a 'parasocial relationship' ), but crucually one tends not to know what they look like - I probably brushed past several people who it would have been really nice to have a chat with. Would it be naff to wear a name badge in future, and hope people spot it?  Or what about a 'blogger meet-up' as tends to happen at Salute?   I was very pleased to be tapped on the shoulder by Neil P  aka aufklarungsabteilung,we had a good chat and he kindly  lent me a book ( albeit one he didn't like!) - good to see you, Neil!    

But everyone sees their own version of a show, don't they? (c.f. Wellington's comment about the history of a battle - or a ball ) So at the risk of boring you, I'll show a few pictures of my version of  Partizan.. I arrived about 11:30 ( late, should have got up earlier!) for  rendezvous with Old gaming buddy Dave 'St Cyr' (come on Dave, reactivate that blog..), and we get stuck in to looking at the games.  The Waldorf and Stadtler of  wargames shows? Admittedly not as funny, though...  

It's a big show, it was was crowded and sometimes hard to move around, there were just loads of games ( 70+ according to the program, I think), and without thinking about it  we concentrated on the 'Demo Zone' where the big spectactulars were. We pretty much ran out of time before we could get to the 'Participation Zone' at the other end, which was a shame - maybe start at the other end next time! 

So here we go, pretty much in the order we same them - I'll try to keep it brief and let the pictures do the talking.  I didn't get decent photos of every game, so I won't inflict them all on you! 

First up, the League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers'  Wake Island 192?  - an imaginary Japanese attack on Wake Island,  a kind of 'Pearl Harbour 15 years before'. I suppose. I think the rules were Setting the East Ablaze, the 'Back of Beyond'  post-Russian Revolution set. 

 Wake was an American  base for early flying boat operations by Pan American, hence the rather lovely model in this picture:

 Loads going on across a rather glorious large table, but also loads of people crowded round, so hard to get good pictures! 

Wagram 1809 by Steve Jones ( 'Steve's Painting Shed' ) - nice to see a big battle in 6mm, as 28mm setups do tend to dominate.  

 The figures looked pretty good close-up, too. I was going to say that with 6mm you don't need to worry about detailed painting, but Steve clearly doesn't agree with me!

 

Back to the 28mms for Yarkshire Gamer's Germantown 1777 :

 

The British are Coming..

That's Ray Rousell (red 'Postie's Rejects' shirt)  in the first picture chatting with Ken, did they have anything left to say after their marathon (and well worth a listen) chat on Ken's Podcast the other week?  Also interesting that I must have unkowingly  been stood quite close to Steve J , as his pic of the same game looks pretty similar and clearly taken at about the same time!   ( my pal Dave also appears, to the right of Ray ). 

Next,  Westbury Wargames  28mm Spanish Reconquista   Battle of Sagrajas 1086 : 

Lovely figures (and look at the Islamic banners)  and a simple but effective terrain setup ( looks like a battle mat?). Another possible use for your 'Norman' army if you have one, and I think lots of scope for shifting alliances, not simply Muslim versus Christian forces?  

 Derby Wargames Society had  Eastern Front 1941 in 28mm, again nice but not over-complex terrain. Lots of 'early war' armour and you can't beat a Stuka over the table.. 

 Always slightly quirky but usually interesting,  1/72nd Wargamers Russo-Japanese War  Nihon shugi: Assault on 203 Metre hill ..

I didn't get to speak to John Kersey, who was presenting it, but that huge hill was something quite different!  I think the figures are probably Jacklex, nice to see some 20mms rather than the all-pervasive 28s ( I really liked the look of Jacklex but couldn't find an excuse to buy any, wrong periods! I understand they have recently gone out of business).  Rules were  Bloody Picnic  by Dillon Brown

Next, Lincoln Miniature Warfare Society showed Not A Holiday in the Sun 44,  Pacific War in 15mm using Memoir 44,  which looked great. I think the Command and Colours / Memoir 44 stable of games just cry out to be played using figures, this was a good example.

Possibly the most beautifully presented table of the day was by Bill Gaskin,  28mm Seven Years War. I'd call it more of a giant diorama than a game, but it did look splendid!  A nice big castle to start with:

 and then the fantastic figures, very much in individual poses

 and 'vignettes' like this baggage wagon

Even a battalion in line was made up of varied poses - which has sparked some interesting discussions online, do you like 'all the same pose' or a variety? 

 

Simon Miller and chums brought their War of Spanish Succession game - they are playtesting an upcoming set of rules from the 'To The Strongest' family. The figures were gifted after a fellow wagamer  passed away, and this seems a nice tribute. 

 

 1st Corps brought one of their ACW spectaculars, wildly impressive as ever :

 

 

this was my first 'spot' of the ubiqituous 'teddy bear throw' from Dunelm home furnishings store, which is clearly very handy for 28mm terrain on a large scale

  

More smart use of homewares for terrain was one feature of   Glasgow Tradestone Wargames Club's  Rocroi 1643 game, with smart use of (very portable) carpet tiles 

 Again it was nice to see a scale other than 28mm - in this case 15mm, which I use for  my own 30YW armies. So, quite inspring for me. I thought the scale and the terrain as a whole worked quite well in echoing the contemporary battle paintings of the period, and also keeping simple and 'achievable' rather than spectacularly out of my league!

From  Barely Legal Wargamers (hmm...)  an ACW game entitled Battle of Honey Hill 1864, using 18mm Peter Dennis Paperboys figures and scenery

 

I really like the look of these, and the 'Barely Legal' guys were happy to give us a bravura demonstration of how to cut out the paper figures, which made it look really quite easy ( I have the Paperboys book on the War of the Spanish Succession, maybe time to actually try making up the armies?).  Even if you don't feel confident with the figures, the trees look great to me and would provide a quick, cheap  and easy source of woods and forests for any game. 

 

It's not a show without a Zulu War game, it seems: true to form, Burton and District ('BaD') Wargamers brought their Skirmish at Intombe 1879, using The Men Who Would Be Kings rules 

 

The Iron Brigade group showed Bonnie Blue Flag, 28mm ACW : I thought this was another nice example of a  'normal' game,  not trying to hard to be spectacular,  but very good to look at. Nice figures, scenery and terrain mat. 

In a similar category perhaps, Chesterfield Old Boys  28mm WW2 Russia, Case Blue - the Georgian Highway

But there was always another spectacle around the corner : the League of Augsburg's 28mm Dutch Raid on Hispaniola circa  1675 :  

 Presumably fictitious, a Dutch force lands on a French-controlled Caribbean island. 

Dutch assault force..

 

'French' defenders

What was also interesting was the makeup of the defending 'French' forces - a motley militia of plantation workers ( presumably slaves ), very few white men in evidence, which may well be accurate. Their colonial masters were mainly holed up in the fort, keeping control of the cannon..

  and best of all,  local Voodoo-practising warriors in a zombie warband - complete with hell-hounds!

The Perrys put on their  Peninsular War game using their Valour and Fortitude rules, showing off their Spanish army range 

The Bodkins 28mm Wars of the Roses Battle of Boar's Hill, April 1471 was another big game, a 'what if' scenario with rather beautiful armies 

 

 And another big game - Bramley Barn Wargames Group  Somewhere in Syria c.295CE, a fictional encounter between  28mm Late Romans and Sassanids.  Another really colourful game with varied forces - Cataphract Cavalry,  Elephants,  even Camelry. Hail Ceasar rules being used, figures from A&A, Aventine, Gripping Beast and Footsore,   battle mat ( or mats?) by Deepcut. 

A friendly group, who pointed out that the late Romans give lots of options for gaming, against Sassanids,  Goths and Vandals, Saxons etc etc - and maybe a Roman Civil War?
Their leaflet  said  The aim of this demo game is to show how any wargamer with painted figures can put on an attractive game using their everyday terrain etc.   Well, I can dream! 

                                                

Ardammer group had ventured down from Newcastle with their 28mm French Dutch War 1672-1678    The Battle of the Windmill,  which I had seen previously at Warfare last year, but it was worth a second look :  there's Ray again, lapping it all up, as I think it's his favourite period! 

At the other extreme, Anschluss Publications showed their very small game A Small Town in Italy 1945, a sort of adventure/heist game slightly reminiscent of the movie Kellys Heroes . It seems to  prove that their War on the Ground rules can be used for a smaller setup.. 

and one final spectacular :  The Boondock Sayntes  28mm Anglo-Sikh Wars  Battle of Aliwal 1846. 

 That huge and colourful table is a good point to finish - we didn't have time for much else!  

We made it to the 'Societies' zone and stopped briefly at the Northamptonshire Battlefields Society, sadly failed to speak to Graham 'Trebian' Evans but did take a turn at their Monte Cassino in Ten Minutes game using  Not Quite Mechanised rules and run my their author Chris Kemp - I am quite tempted to have a go at those and try some 'Operational' level WW2 gaming.  Also interesting was the Society for Army Historical Research,  whose stand was manned by  Andrew Bamford (formerly of Helion books )  who kindly gave us each a back issue of the society journal  

- this one is from 2017 and has half-a-dozen articles including an account of a British officer's experience in the Caribbean in the 1740s and extracts from the memoir The Old Halbardier,  a Welsh soldier's experience in the Peninsular and the War of 1812. All interesting stuff, quite tempting to subscribe..

And that was that, apart from a very quick bit of shopping - I picked up some more MDF road and river pieces from Pendraken for my 1859 Italy project, and a copy of the Osprey campaign book no. 207 Solferino, by Richard Brooks - should be very useful.  The show closed at 4pm and we were there to the bitter end, as games and traders packed up around us.   

It was (of course) a good day, even though we didn't see everything we could have done! Being a bit earlier might have helped, but probably it's too big to really do it all in the one day. Many great games, indeed perhaps too many to spend much time on each, but there we are. If you've got this far, I hope you've enjoyed my impressions of the day.  I'll certainly be going to the next one!    

Lots to be inspired by, and lots to think about - I think a future 'thinkpiece' post might be in order, covering a few areas raised by attending this show and Salute last month.   Meanwhile, apart from being pretty tired by the end of the day (and also at the end of writing this!), it has boosted my enthusiasm for my hobby and given me some good ideas for future gaming.  Which is the whole idea, really! Many thanks to Dave, too for being such good company on the day ( and for putting me up at his place that night, thus reducing my driving time considerably!).

I hope you've enjoyed this, and keep well, everyone.