Category: Shows

Eumenes & Antigonus Go To Partizan

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So, another Partizan has rolled around and we took along our two year Successors project to do a display game of Paraitacene 317BC where the forces of Antigonus Monophthalmus and Eumenes of Cardia met in the first of their duels for Alexander’s empire.

Before we review the game however, what about the show?

First take was, busy 😀 But not in a bad way, even at the peak show point (between 11.00am and 1.00pm) the numbers weren’t so overwhelming that you couldn’t move and looking out from our pitch you could see that the punters were moving about freely. I couldn’t comment on how well the traders did as we were tied to our spot but there looked to be decent numbers around most stalls.

Next take was the vibe, and that is always a good one. For me the show has always exuded friendliness and good humour which is the principal reason for us attending as demonstrators and this one was no exception. We had many positive comments on the game, some great chats with people we’d never met before and renewal of contact with folk we hadn’t seen since the last show. Also the hooking up with some of our followers on Twitter which I just love, so good to put a face to the profile 😃

Of course Partizan sells itself on the quality of the games on display and this year was no different with many fine games available to feast the eye upon.

As is always the case for ourselves being tied to the game there is very little time to really look at the other games and this one proved no exception – I think we got half an hour each to whizz round, pick up a couple of pre ordered things and have a quick look at what was going on.

For me, the preferred games are the the ones that look like an extension of what a club or group of mates is capable of and by inference what a newcomer or player of only a few years experience could aspire to within their circle of gamers. These games will feature well painted mini’s, based up consistently, deployed over some decent terrain which isn’t beyond the skills of most gamers.

I completely appreciate the enormous amount of modelling skill, time, effort and expense that some of the demonstration boards have had poured into them but I do ask myself, what happens to all this gorgeous stuff a year later?

What of our efforts?

With only two of us moving the figures around and an awful lot of chatting 😂 it was slow going but hey so what, people seemed to like it and we had a good day.

For the record, Eumenes crushed the Antigonid left flank and at end of play had his veteran cavalry sweeping behind the Antigonid lines, similarly on the other flank, a rather more tough fight did finally see the Antigonid cavalry defeated also. In the all important centre we had elephants panicking and getting in the way and a couple of support infantry clashes which saw both sides losing their mercenary hoplites, alas no push of pike 😥 we were just too busy talking!😂🤣

All in all though a great day. Many thanks to the organisers for another flawless show and much love to all those that stopped by and commented.

Carlists Go To Partizan

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So, Partizan May 2022 dawned and what fun it was! Not the first Partizan post Covid but normality could certainly be said to have been restored 🙂

We took along our re-fight of Arquijas, fought on December 12th 1834, in which the government tried to force a river crossing using a single bridge whilst sending a flanking force on a long journey into the rear of the enemy.

In short, the main force battered itself to a standstill trying to cross the bridge as did a parallel force which had found a ford just down from the bridge and eventually called off the attack. The flanking force duly arrived, fought its way through a detachment sent to delay them and then found that it was facing the whole Carlist army! Naturally, withdrawal was seen as the most appropriate action 🙄

But before narrating our re-fight, what of the show? Well the first thing I noted was the sheer volume of people, it was packed! and remained busy virtually all day which was very different to October ’21 when numbers tailed off significantly not long after lunch.

The upside of all these people was that we got to see and speak to a whole load of people we hadn’t seen for a very long time, in a couple of cases, years. The wargaming glitterati were out in force, I saw Henry Hyde and Big Lee taking photo’s of the game at various points but never got the chance to chat, although did manage to get in two very long chats with Alec Brown and Phil Olley at separate times, made all the more enjoyable for not having seen them for so long.

The downside of the numbers was that we spent a lot more time talking than we did playing! 😂🤣 Not that this was a bad thing; we chatted with people we didn’t know about the period and gaming it, we met up with a number of our Twitter followers which is always great – excellent chat with Charlies aka Fred Worthingham, and we got to see gamers we’ve played with over the years but hadn’t see for a long time which was really nice. At the end of it all though we were both knackered and had a serious conversation on the way home about how much longer we could continue; two is a lonely number and Covid has taken its toll on the group.

Games and trade wise we really didn’t get to see much, glued to the game as we were. In terms of games there were some cracking efforts on display and those that caught my eye in my one quick tour of the venue were, the Cold War Commander game (mainly because I’ve just bought the rules for a proposed Iran Iraq project), the Grimsby ACW game complete with ironclads, the League of Augsburg naval game, the Midguard dark age game, the Ian Smith tribute game with the huge galleons, the Derby guys early C18th game with Ottomans – a bit unusual, and then my memory turned to mush 😆

In terms of trade there was enough range to cater for most tastes, it’s never going to be Salute and doesn’t try to be, if I’d had time I’m sure I would have spent up but my haul was very measly indeed.

But what about the game, absolutely nobody asked 😃 Well we stuck to the historical prototype with me moaning about how I didn’t see why my flanking force had to march all the way down the table and then round the back of the table (figuratively) to get back on the table 😏 However, history was very much reversed; the government forces fought their way across the bridge and the ford making far more inroads that their historical ancestors and then in the final hour (when we were knackered) the flanking force arrived on the hills and advanced down sweeping all before it – clearly my genius command skills at work 🤔

As with any event, successful or otherwise, there will always be some niggles and this Partizan was no exception. The biggest issue is the catering, come lunchtime the queue was horrendous and I confess to simply giving up, even getting a coffee was a drama; the outlet just can’t cope, maybe a couple of vans outside might relieve the stress? On the subject of coffee, allegedly the traders and gamers get a pack containing coffee vouchers, the free figure and raffle entries; well not us and not the last one either, now I’m pretty sure they were allocated so that leads to a rather uncomfortable conclusion…..

A final point, why can Hammerhead drum up enough trade to fill the second hall but Partizan can’t? It’s perplexing.

Overall though a great day and we look forward to October!

Games Expo 2018

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We (well I actually as the rest of the team were either working a shift or on holiday) visited this for the first time last year and had a great time wandering a show which wasn’t exclusively for miniaturists, in fact the number of ‘proper wargames’ you can count on the fingers of one hand but if your interests go beyond just pushing miniature figures around this is a must do on the calendar.20180603_172555

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