Partizan 2026 : A Bit of a Scrum, Part 1

 Last Sunday week I was fortunate enough to get to the Partizan show at Newark Showground; after a not-early-enough start, I made it to the venue just before 11:00 am, thus missing the inevitable queue. I was due to meet 'the other Dave' in the show, he had arrived earlier but the card payment system had broken down and he didn't have cash, so he was stuck waiting for me! ( and then when I pulled out a £20 note to get us in, it promptly tore in half!  Luckily they still accepted it ). So, a slightly challenging start, but we were in.. What follows is a selection of photos I took of the games to be found inside, more or less in the order we saw them - which was admittedly a bit random, we dodged about the hall somewhat for various reasons. Having had a tot up, I reckon I photographed a total of 35 games in all, and I will try to show all of those; in order to do that, I think I'm going to break my report into two parts, or it will be very long read!  I should say that there were at least 75 games in the program, so I didn't get pictures of even half of them - it's just that big a show.  Anyway, without further ado: 

The first game we saw was just inside the entrance, in the marquee added to the main hall (and mainly used for 'bring and buy' : Salamanca 1812, a Napoleonic game in 28mm by father-and-son team  The Leggetts: 

I liked the overall look of this, simple but effective terrain and the general colour scheme suggested Spain very well, somehow.. They were friendly and happy to chat, but rather stupidly I forgot to ask what rules were in use!  They told me they are aiming to show an ancients game (I think) at 'Colours' later this year - so look out for that if you are going along. 

Once you got into the main hall, it was difficult to miss Sir Colin Campbells Second Relief of Lucknow, a large  28mm Indian Mutiny game by regular show-stopping group The Boondock Sayntes. As ever a huge table, fantastic terrain and buildings, colourful troops and loads of fun little vignettes all over the board. 

  

 

Next, (James) Morris and Chums with their Battle of Lewes 1264 in 28mm, using James'  Midgard Heroic Battles rules. 

Mostly Wargames Atlantic 28mm plastic figures, we were told. James is always happy to talk, and his rules seem very well-regarded; I like the 'heroic' system making leaders important which seems to suit ancient and medieval (and mythical) periods very well.  I liked the Lewes  town walls, too..

 

Next up was a real highlight - quite possibly my favourite game at the show, given my bias for 18th Century.   An Action in the Seven Years War sounded unremarkable enough, but as put on by The Friends of A Military Gentleman (aka Graham Hilditch ) it was a real spectacular! 30mm figures in regiments of 60+ figures each, all beautifuly painted. What's not to like? OK, so I'm never going to set up and play anything as ambitious, or paint even one figure as well, let alone 60 per regiment, but it just does you good to see it done..  

  

as someone said 'this is why it's called Linear Warfare'  

                    

Frederick oversees his artillery 

After this we detoured to the Participation Games zone -  and at the other end of the scale, so to speak, we had Baccus 6mm with their Battle of Lens 1648; 

I think I caught this during a break between games, there was no-one around to explain it. But it looked nice, and it looks like the table was in fact a foldable decorating table (or inspired by one), which seems a pretty good idea. The armies looked quite effective too: interesting that each base looks to represent a brigade of up to 6 battalia. I'm assuming the figures are 6mm by Baccus(!) 

  

Nearby, another 6mm game - this time depicting the WW1 Battle of Neuve Chapelle 1915, by 'All Hell Let Loose' group, and I think they were promoting their soon-to-be published WW1 rules.  

shell-burst markers very effective.. 

 Next,  a Medieval Skirmish game with nice scenery: 

I think this was Will the Portcullis Fall at the Castle?  28mm 100YW  Skirmish, by the Ecorcheurs group - clearly  promoting the rules of the same name.

Caseshot Publishing's Gary David Willis is a regular at shows, this time with another game based on Salamanca  -  Glory is Fleeting, Maucune at Salamanca, July 1812 - a 15mm Black Powder participation game   

How about this for a nice bit of scenery?  Viking Blood Feud game by the rather grand-sounding  Edinburgh University History and Games Lab, a 28mm Lion Rampant game: 

 

Back in the 'Demo Games' zone, Simon Miller and friends can be relied on to stage an impressive-looking game, this one is a 28mm War of the Spanish Succession game using his forthcoming Lust for Glory rules. As far as I know this uses a gridded tabletop system, so it was interesting how subtle the grid marking can be..

 

There were a brace of 28mm ACW games next-door to each other - I hope I have got them the right way round! I think the first one was Bramley Barn Wargames Club's Second Kernsdown, 1864 ( not sure what rules were being used ) :

   

Very nice figures, in the modern style of highly animated and mixed-pose units which seems to suit the period pretty well, these are volatile citizen armies rather than highly-drilled regulars! 

 Next, The Bodkins group with their  "The Devil to Pay" - Death of a Corps  game of  McPherson Ridge ar Gettysburg.  According to their excellent paper information sheet the rules were This Hallowed Ground by Jay White, and figures were a mix of Perry Miniatures and Wargames Foundry. 

Derby Wargames Society presented their  Operation Bagration 28mm Eastern Front WW2, though slightly confusingly the game was actually depicting part of the Seelowe Heights battle in April 1945. Very nice figures, vehicles and terrain, and I always like an aeroplane over the table (In this case a nice Il-2 Sturmovik ),  but I'll admit that 28mm and larger scales seem a bit large for WW2. It looks rather like some of the tanks are engaging at about 30 yards - though in the desperate fighting of April '45, that might be realistic, I suppose! 

 

In this 250th Anniversary year, a few American War of Independence / Revolution games are appropriate, and the Chesterfield Old Boys duly obliged with their  28mm scale game  of Bemis Heights, 2nd Saratoga 1777.   

A nice table set-up and I think it used the now-ubiquitous Dunelm cloth throw for the terrain ( also seen at McPherson Ridge, I suspect ).   

A nice little twist to this game was that the rules being used were British Grenadier by the pseudonymous authoe Eclaireur; these date from about 2011, and the old boys told me that the author had stopped by during the day, and told them he was pleased his rules are still being used!  That interested me, because as far as I know the person behind the pseudonym is TV Journalist Mark Urban, who has also written several excellent books of military history ( including Fusiliers about the AWI ). Sure enough, later in the day I spotted Mark Urban in the hall looking at games. But the guys playing the game didn't know who he was until I told them - if he went back later, I hope they got him to sign their copy of the rules, and let him roll a die or two! 

Glasgow Tradeston Wargames Club presented another of their Thirty Years War games in 15mm, this time The Battle of the White Mountain.  

Very simple ( and hopefully portable!) terrain, and they were using and promoting their own published rule set Through the Square Window, which they stress are all about making formations behave as they really did in the 1620s to 1640s. 

The Bunker group presented a rather good-looking 20mm Post-Colonial Africa game based on The Wild Geese  movie -  nice scenery, lots going on (including elephants fleeing from a tank!) and aircraft both on the ground and in the air: 

And as a 'first-half closer',  a really splendid-looking game by the Like A Stone Wall Group depicting  The Action Off  Cape Finisterre, 22nd July 1805.  

 

This was one of two games I saw at the show which involved mist and presumably its effect on visibility - though at first I thought this was perhaps representing gunsmoke.  Anyway, a splendid-looking game, and one of the best tables at the show, I thought. 

So that is probably a good moment to pause and take a break - I hope you've enjoyed looking at all these games. Putting this together has well and truly confirmed to me that this show is just massive, and probably impossible to properly visit every table!  That's even without 'essential' visits to trade stands, and meeting and chatting with fellow gamers, bloggers and friends - before lunch we had the great pleasure of meeting up with Rob Young from The Eastern Garrison and his wife Sandra (and this will feature in the 'shopping' section of the next post) and Neil from Aufklarungsabteilung blog -always a pleasure to meet you, Neil! 

I'm a bit late putting this up, as the show was 10 days ago now, but it was followed by a pretty busy week or more of 'real life' stuff, including the current 30C+ heatwave!  I'll try to get 'part 2' posted in the next few days. Meanwhile plenty of others have also reported on the show, and as ever I would direct you to Ray at Don't Throw a 1 and Big Lee at Miniature Adventures for their excellent and comprehensive reports.   So in the meantime do enjoy those and keep well, everyone.