Here we are again, another Partizan, with last years show being a benchmark of success, post Covid, how does this year measure up?
For those that don’t know, this is one of the U.K. premier shows. It runs twice a year (May and October), held at the spacious George Stephenson Exhibition Hall, at the Newark Showground, which is a fairly central location, certainly within England and do-able within the U.K. as a whole.
Punters can expect a good and wide range of traders, games and plentiful free and easy parking.
With accommodation booked and an early start, the kindly Mrs. Wargamer and I set off early for our destination. I was armed with a shopping list and a suitcase of full cash! and Mrs. Wargamer had a Kindle book reader and some biscuits :-)
For some pictures of game tables and comment, please use the ‘read more’ tab.
This year I decided to do a bit of tactical buying! I will shortly be going to another smaller show and decided to only buy from the traders that would be at show A (Partizan) and not attending B, which would mean that overall, I still get a wide coverage of traders, but have spend left to pour into the coffers of the smaller show … when it comes to traders returning to a show, a tick is a tick.
In fact, when I came to look at it, there were five key traders present at Partizan that no longer do this other show, which may well tell its own tale about the evolving show scene.
Anyway, I have taken it as a personal responsibility to ensure support of this smaller show.
Our timing was good and we pretty much arrived just after ‘doors open’. The front desk was well managed and the queue was soon inside. I made straight to ‘The Last Valley’ a terrain specialist, as he does not attend every show, doesn’t run a website and his show stock dwindles pretty quickly. I just wanted a couple more of his matching river sections, though while there saw a very large tree lined field, in two sections - hmmm nice! …. now I just need somewhere to store the thing :-)
I spent a good bit of time wandering around the gaming tables, which I enjoyed very much. Two things struck me. Firstly they were good and attractive games, but perhaps more importantly, this is the first show that I can recall attending that had such good figure scale diversity across the gaming tables. Anyone enjoying the smaller scales were well served with attractive games of all sizes.
Another thing, whilst there were plenty of spectacle games, there was also a good scattering of 6’ x 4’ and less sized tables, so the reality of kitchen table gaming was given a good representation.
I have said it before and it is worth repeating, that I feel the gaming side of a show is very important and it inspires the buyer to spend and there is clearly a symbiotic relationship between game and product / dealer. Anyway today’s tables did help buying decisions for me.
The show looked well attended. I noticed that whenever I wanted to buy something, there was always at least one person in front of me, so traders were busy. I spoke to one trader about buyers and he said he had been busy and then on my way out, show organisers told me that they were really pleased with attendances. So it all seems to point to the show scene still being appreciated and supported and that good visitor numbers post Covid might be something that is sustainable.
Overall the show had a good vibe.
I took some pictures, but as always, I failed to get the details of the game hosts (sorry).
As I sit here in the hotel room typing this, I’m not sure that I can properly list all the bits that I bought, which is still in the boot of the car. But Mrs. Wargamer was so pleased with being treated to a wargame show, that she bought me the latest book (the 4th) in Rapid Fire’s Reloaded range. This has 4 scenarios covering the fighting on Crete, all based on actions from 20th May 1941 (I think - from memory). The Rapid Fire people were also giving a free Pak 36 Sprue with each copy.
For those collecting the series, this looks a nice and colourful addition and good to see them continuing to support this line.
Anyway, a few pics for your pleasure. I have tried to keep the numbers low and the pictures compressed to help your data allowances. Click on the images to go large.
Above - this was the table that Warlord games put on to show off their new Epic Pike and Shotte - they sell it for £120, another seller there had it for £90, how does that happen?
I hope they don’t mind me saying this, but they were fairly crudely painted and I mean this in a most positive way because I am bombarded with magazine and internet images of Epic being painted in fantastic detail (because the detail is there), but there are just so many of the things that painting that way can be disheartening. Mine are taking ages to paint. Anyway, these looked great on the table, less so when picked up and examined and it has been like someone turning a light on for me - this is exactly how Epic need to be done if one is going to collect multiple ranges etc. I feel a bit liberated from a painting perspective. Thank you, a VERY useful demo table.
Above - This was the biggest table I think. Ancients.
Above - Just one of several games that had combined hexes with figures.
Above - Listed as a ‘somewhere on the Danube 1809’ - yum!
Above - another 1809 battle that I can never remember how to spell, so won’t attempt to now! Something like Hagen-Hassue (sorry, I told you I would murder it, the official flyer is in the boot of the car!) All nicely done in 10mm.
Above - The above three shots are all from a big Rapid Fire game in 20mm, full of character.
Above - The above three photographs are from a game that used a hexed mat, with 6” terrain tiles and 28mm figures. It looked lovely and I was trying to discuss how the hexes were built with a very friendly bloke, but his mate kept on interrupting and shoving cards (Commands & Colors system) in the face of the guy talking to me, clearly he wanted to keep running the game, at the total expense of allowing an enthusiastic team member to share the game detail with a punter - I don’t get that. I think the bloke talking to me felt awkward and I just felt it was time to move on - a really wasted opportunity on promoting a different style of game, which frankly I was interested in building a set for myself. Perhaps they should have just played the game at the club!
Besides that and Back Packs (do I really need to explain!), the whole experience as a punter was one of absolute excellence and look forward to the next one.
Nice venue, nice traders and gamers, nice punters, nice everything …. This wargaming thing is good.
Thanks to everyone, whatever your part, who did something to make this show happen, it is very much appreciated.
Resource Section.
My sister webspace ‘COMMANDERS’ is being re-configured to showcase various figure and boardgame systems that I am enjoying and gives a flavour of where current projects are up to. Link.
