Wargaming Show - Partizan 2025

 

Had a great day today at the Partizan wargaming show at Newark (UK).  It's a bit of a trek to Nottinghamshire from Oxfordshire, but it is well worth it.  I think Ian put up with my moaning about the state of the roads and ever growing housing estates pretty well!   

I'm starting off with my haul of goodies in the first photo - I didn't go to excess (mostly from having been made redundant from work this week), but I did pick up my pre-order of Chain of Command 2, some much needed grass tufts, and a few Perry's Napoleonics.

What really makes Partizan is the quality of the games. They are splendid to look at and so much thought and time has clearly gone into them.  I find it all really inspiring and I pick up lots of ideas as I go around seeing the games.

Where I remembered, I tried to take photos of the signs explaining which battle was being portrayed. In some cases it was just too busy to be able to work my way through the crowd to get to the signs.  Below is a great Battle of Stamford Bridge game, with a really decent sized river - I think might have to get a wider one as this one looks really good.

The battle of Pirmasens 1793 below.  The use of contoured shapes for the terrain is very interesting.  I like the way it attempts to match the ground topography.  So many battle were defined by the ground, and I can probably do more to improve my own games in this area.  The difficulty always comes in the playability and troops sliding down hills for me.

Below is an excellent looking game from the League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers - The Battle of Wake Island.  The players looked like they were having a lot of fun too.

The Battle of Wagram game looked very impressive.  I do like the general appearance of 6mm games, it's the actual physical painting of them that I don't enjoy very much.  Looking at individual 28mm figures that I have painted pleases me, but the overall 'look' of  6mm is undeniably good.

The semi-transparent unit labelling was a nice touch. These can often be very ugly and obstructive, but they appeared almost like holograms on here and didn't detract from the action or the figures at all.

Below is the Battle of Germantown by the Yarkshire Gamer, famous for his very large battles, this one was no exception.

Perry Miniatures put on a Napoleonic Peninsular game using Valour and Fortitude rules.  As you can probably imagine - this was breathtaking.

I was immediately drawn to the battle below. I am very interested in the Wars of the Roses and have a pretty large collection - however, it does not compare to this!  The battle portrayed - The Battle of Boars Hill, Oxfordshire, was a fictitious battle but neverthess could have happened. Being fairly local to that area  - I kind of wish it did happen as it would make the area that much more interesting!

Sassanid Persians and Romans in battle below in Syria 295. This was by the Bramley Barn Wargames Group. I really must add more to my own Sassanid Persian collection!

Now this was outstanding - details are on the sign below. The gentleman at this stand was a delight to chat to and was very appreciative of my compliments.  There is so much detail to be spotted in the terrain - it must have taken so much planning and work to have created this.

                                                  

I had to laugh when I saw the fellow on the thunderbox below!

The Battle of Shimonoseki 1863 by the 'Like a Stone Wall' Wargames Club.

Below is one of the best games in show for me - it was Bill Gaskin's Seven Years War battle (I cannot recall if it was set on a particular battle) but the layout and the troops were simply amazing. Talking to one of Mr Gaskin's colleagues, I understood that the figures are very heavily converted by him so that few figures look the same. Bayonets are made and soldered on and hands individually sculpted to assist in creating the required look for the conversions.  The figures are beautifully painted - truly each one is a work of art and then to see them all together on the table...really quite amazing.

Below is the very impressive looking Battle of Intombe 1879 presented by BAD Wargamers.

There was so much to see and I kept forgetting to get my camera out to take photos.  Partizan is one of the wargaming highlights of the year for me.  I think I have definitely gained 12 months of inspiration until the next one!