Partizan

Today I went, accompanied by smallest boy, to my local wargames show, Partizan (actually the Other Partizan) at Kelham Hall in Newark.
Having missed the event in a tent earlier in the year I wanted to make sure I made it to this one. Partizan was the first non-Games Day wargames show I attended, and started me off on the slippery slope away from solely fantasy and into the historical. So it always holds a special place in my affections and I try and get along as often as possible.
This year some chums were putting on demo games and although family commitments meant I couldn't actually help out with the games I wanted to at least drop by and show support.

I grabbed my phone and took a few pictures, so here they are:

These three were from Scrivs' excellent Spanish Civil War game using Chain of Command rules, aided and abetted by Matt.
Scrivs reckons he's painted around 300 SCW miniatures and built most of the scenery on this board in the eight months since James introduced him to the period!
There's plenty more info over on Scrivs' blog.

These three were from Steve Jones lovely looking AWI game.
I'll hopefuly be helping him with a different game from this conflict at Salute next year (along with the usual suspects from Keren and Dux Bellorum games).
It all looks lovely and it's a fascinating period, but I'm staying firm.
More on Steve's blog abut his AWI obsession.

These two were from a very nice looking Dark Age game put on by the Westbury Wargamers.
Had a pleasant chat about Picts with the chap overseeing things whose name I neglected to get.
I'm a sucker for all things Dark Age and this had some lovely looking models and nice terrain

Finally these were from the massive Large Pydna 168BC game staged by BigRedBat and his chums. Small boy was very impressed with the massed pike blocks.

However, highlight of the show for smallest child was definitely the World War One Subbuteo game.
He loved it so much he played twice. Once against me (a 0-0 draw) and once against another gamer, who edged it 1-0 (at least he didn't go out to the Germans on penalties). It appeared to be Great War Miniatures in the main, on custom bases, and we flicked to kick in the time honoured fashion.

Although the aforementioned family commitments meant it was just a flying visit it looked a great show as always and I was glad I made the effort.
Bumped into the usual collection of reprobates and ne'er-do-wells that it's always a pleasure to see in the flesh, including Big Jim, Craig and Pete from Ooop North and Mike, Andy and Graeme of the Peterboro' massive who were running "Dead's Army" (sorry, forgot to take pictures) and encouraging me to attend their event in November..

My haul was modest.
A copy of Lion Rampant from the always reliable Mr Nick Northstar (I had meant to pop along to  Northstar and grab this earlier in the week, but work got the better of me). I do try and buy from proper wargames suppliers and avoid giving money to tax dodging online discounters.
Lots of info about the game over on author Dan Mersey's blog.

The other was a stag and hind from Warbases. To dress the table a bit in Dux Bellorum games.

I had hoped to see if I could spot Loki on the Warbases stand and congratulate him personally on his very brave post from earlier this week (do go and read it if you haven't already), but time (and small boy) were against me. Maybe at Derby.

In other news I got a new camera for my birthday, so hopefully the quality of photography will improve over the coming weeks.