wargames shows – The Wargaming Erratic

On an unseasonally warm October Sunday I journeyed to Newark for the second Partizan show of the year.

It was busy – I am on the hard road by the other show building on the site – the car park was as full as I have seen it. Being a tin shed, in the distance – hot weather is not ideal – but the organisers had lots of fans and did a good job on ventilation.

Traffic was light so I got there early and decided to get some fresh air for half an hour before opening time: I queued. Upside of queuing was I got to see the demo games pretty much people free

I think this was Shrewsbury wargames club – in this case I was too early 🙂 just sheep grazing…..

I toured the demos before checking out HLBSCo for some plastic figure possibilities – I drew a blank.

Earnest discussions at the 1/72 table – Mr John Kersey I presume – all set for some boxing antics chinese style

Boondock Sayntes provided an impressive display

I am not sure which club this was – they did the biscotti wars – offering samples to enjoy – given its Garibaldi on the table you can guess the variety. These are Piedmontese troops

The scenery was eye catching and this was a well laid out participation game by Chesterfield I think.

Again I failed to note the club but I always like a balloon

I think this is Grimsby Club with an impressive medieval encounter

Gangs of Rome participation game with some nice colour in the buildings

Like a Stonewall WGC offered up a Neil Thomas rules normans encounter – again participation plus you can also sense we were at capacity for layout and access space

A good display siege at the end of the gaming area

Simon of MeG is publishing a renaissance ruleset in 2024 (ReG?) and put on a demo he devoted some time to our conversation which I appreciated – I also liked the 30 year old hinchliffe figures below. It will be interesting to see the time spread and also focus of this rule set.

Chris at Northampton battlefields society – joe ekins takes out 3 tigers participation

Going to Partizan – Operation Totalise

https://notquitemechanised.wordpress.com/2023/10/05/going-to-partizan-operation-totalise/

never take an untried new phone to a show – I had plenty of wrong focus results – the new phone seemed to have a mind of its own………the trees are in focus though! Which is a pity as I liked this ACW encounter

General Sikorski was the freebie this year.

Overall I enjoyed this partizan although somehow I think I prefer the May offering-not sure why?

I also missed the 1848 Hungarian war table, never went back to biscotti for some sharp practice or go for the boxing although I did chat with quite a few people perhaps more than I normally do – that I think is a good thing in these testing times.

Partizan at Newark Showground made a welcome return for me in 2022. Last visited in 2019 this show or rather the pair – “the other Partizan” that happens in the Autumn, had both become a regular destination for me.

This years show built on my trips to Vapnartak (masks still very evident as well as much caution) and Hammerhead (obvious relief as constraints eased) so I should not have been surprised that Partizan was “many in earnest”. I felt there was a lot of catching up conversation going on, which maybe meant slightly less participation? Yet the enthusiasm was so obvious – people discussing, looking and yes playing games – simple pleasures throwing dice and moving pieces.

And there was the other simple pleasure of admiring other peoples work. Conversations seemed easier and the enjoyment palpable.

For once I had no shopping list – 2 years of on online buying had emptied my pockets? Well no – quite simply I have been sticking to my projects and actually painting my figures and even gaming. That has meant less erratic moments for the Wargaming butterfly.

First up are the games that were on show. I concentrated on just a few for photos. on reflection mats seemed to be a theme for me!

The 40mm Mr Ian Smith and friends was a glorious display of Napoleonic soldiers and fantastic scenery.

The Immortals presented an excellent medieval action

Over to another Eastern European battle – no details gathered

Fast forward to 1833 and Westbury Wargames with their “two brothers war” in Portugal where all manner of nations piled in for another go just a few decades after Wellington and his Portuguese allies had fought their way through to Spanish held France.

And thats it. Well I did get distracted by mats and terrain this year. The terrain mats are a gift for the time hungry and space hungry gamer which is the most common type of wargamer I suggest. I think it is more the case that, at shows where displays are a product of a different amount of effort the textured cloths seem to be the better bet for “a look”? However I have seen some tables where the “hirsute” cloth swamped the poor figures who looked as though they were wading through 2m high grass.

All in all the displays I found were excellent and inspired me to wargame, which is what it is all about.

What did the other big sell do to me – the trader tour!

I impulsively fell for some pendraken and warbases material – invariably so. Usual suspects being bases plus some dice.

The man in the “corner” shop hailed from Birmingham and brought many an interesting box for the 1/72 gamer. They were at T22 in the trader zone – see map at the end.

I fell for this station……..

But was too late for its mate the Italian church – curses.

If you cant wait for me to paint these then try visiting https://comitatusgaulois.wordpress.com/

Chariobaude offers up a great range of painted Late Romans.

My current preoccupation is middle nineteenth century where in plastics you get the “plastic soldier review” much disliked Austrians. Failing this in 20-25 mm its really just Irregular Miniatures at each end so to speak 20mm or 28mm. I have posted a picture of 20mm Neapolitans posing as 1848 French at Rome elsewhere on this blog.