Today I made an unexpected visit to the Partizan II show and as 'expected' had a hugely enjoyable time :-)
The rest of this post covers the visit, some observations, the haul and of course some pictures.
Please use the 'read more' tab for the rest of the post.
There are four ingredients to a show;
The planning of purchases - this time there wasn't any. I wasn't meant to be going, but I awoke at 5 AM and, well, it must have been the coffee!
The Journey - mine was a 290 mile round trip - Sunday morning going out .... great. The return journey, not so much, what has happened to the British motorist? (rant below!).
The show itself - just simply splendid, splendid, splendid.
Getting home - "where the hell am I going to put this stuff!"
Right, so no buying plans, which made be the potential victim of every trader I smiled at! I thought I needed napoleonic stuff, turns out I needed WWII things - that's how much I know.
The show is held in a big modern open building, but think hangar space and you get the idea.
The floor plan is excellent, though by 10.30 I was having to squeeze past people, because of numbers. By 12.30 numbers were significantly thinned.
On the way out, I asked the staff if the show had been successful and they were very happy about the numbers and considering the last two shows have had record numbers, then today must have been in a similar ball park.
However .... does that mean people are spending and the traders are doing as well as previously?
A question worth asking because I did note a few bored faces on some traders, I also notice plenty of punters NOT carrying bags (so why the hell didn't they help me carry mine - lazy bastards!) and when I did my last round up at around 1 pm, I noticed some traders standing idle with stock, who previously would have been fairly depleted. Does that all mean anything? I don't know, that is just an impression I got - but perhaps high footfall doesn't always mean happy traders.
Having said that, I got talking to one trader and got all the info from him, and said I was going for a walk to think about it and I never went back ..... but I will be putting £120 order in to him re that conversation - though he might never know to link my money with the show (I will tell him so that Partizan gets a tick).
Anyway, looking at the brochure there were 46 traders, 29 demo games, 29 participation games and 7 Society groups represented. So in all, that is a goodly bit of entertainment under one roof on one floor.
There is also a fast food type cafe and seating, so sausage / bacon / pasties that sort of thing and hot / cold drinks. It seemed to have a queue while ever I was there, so a goodly number of punters must of cycled through the doors over the morning.
Entry to the show was a fiver (£5), which I think is superb value, I think we have been paying that sort of entry fee for about 10 years! You also get a free 28mm figure. This year it is General Sikorsky, sculpted by Martin Baker. He has a flat cap and trench coat, so is a universally useful figure .... unless you only collect ancients or some such :-). But he deserves painting and perhaps talking to every day!
He is in fact leader of the Polish government in exile until his death in 1943.
Let's talk about scales.
Well, as we have seen before at this show, it is scale diverse, both in traders and the games on the table. We even have a good old Kriegspiel game. That old chestnut that only 28mm games works for public consumption just isn't true.
We do continue to get a 28mm figure free at the door, but I fancy that commercially more people will be satisfied with that than a figure(s) of a different scale - it's the old 'you can't please everyone' thing and besides, there is a collectability element to these figures.
Anyway, that is not what I wanted to say. What I noticed was that there were big tables with big and small figures on them and small tables with big and small figures on them (that's nearly a tongue twister!) and it just didn't seem to matter that much.
What I mean is that painting a lot of 28's for a big table is a lot of work, but so is painting lots and lots of smaller figures for the same sort of table size.
I saw a lovely 20mm Pike and Shot unit, but the footprint was no different than the Warlord Games Epic Pike and Shot unit, just the Epic has more men balanced against each will paint faster - but impact wise - well, its not an exact science, it is personal preference with both sized armies taking up the same space!
Granted, building footprint is very different - but do we get hung up on scale a bit too much I wonder, giving it some importance above it just being a personal preference?
Anyway, a few shots to please the eye. This is only a small selection as it got harder to manage the camera as the number of bags around my wrist grew!
Above - This is the Kriegspiel map and my camera simply has not done it justice. I should have taken a second shot with a close up of the unit blocks - very nice.
Above - This was visually very nice by 1st Corps. At the last Partizan, they did a superb first day of Gettysburg and it would have been so easy to re-cycle that, but we have something quite different today, using the same type of teddy fur. It is the British defence of Calais against German 1st Panzer Division, May 1940.
Above - and another shot - I need more trucks.
Above - Sorry - I don't know who did this, but it was the centre piece of a lovely table.
Above - some nice WWI tanks lumbering around this battlefield, including mired German A7V, which I now wish I had photographed.
Above - I should have taken a second photo to show that lovely ECW cavalry close up, but I wanted to capture that lovely terrain board that has a very nicely done ravine.
Above - I did however grab this hamlet from the far end of the table, it is so nice and just highlights how much attention to detail this group have made to this table to give the punters something nice to stop at (they were not alone).
Above - Now this was special - a fantastic amount of detail in this small scale landscape. You can click on the image for a closer look. The hinge suggests it folds, but I'm not sure it does. EDIT - I have been advised by Phil Gray that this does fold down - thank you.
Above - I don't know, but its just so fab!
Above - Too big for my table, but just beautiful (Iain, this one is for you).
Above - This table was right next to a fire exit door that had been opened (presumably to let the heat out), but when the sun shone through and hit that green dome, it was very eye catching - my fave building of the day.
Above - Oh Hooray ... I actually know what this is! It is the Battle of Pwll Melyn 1405 using DBA rules. Being played by two very friendly gents who didn't make me blush when I declared it was Hastings ... well it has a hill!
Above - Now that's a Kraal!
Above - and here is the Zulu - British battle going on next to it.
Above - Okay, now here we go the other way, a small table, being used with a bigger scale figure. Lovely detail in there. This was done on behalf of Rubicon Models and apparently they have free downloadable rules - Oscar Mike Vietnam. This was a participation game, run by a really accommodating and friendly gent.
Above - Finally, a few shots of the Perry's table. I am highlighting it because they are using the Valour & Fortitude rules (currently napoleonic) with adaptions for the Franco-Prussian war. I did a play through of the existing napoleonic rule set a couple of posts ago and here the team are exploring moving the rules to their next period.
Above - This is the end closest to the camera in the opening table shot.
Above - There is a nice piece of board set in amongst the terrain boards that has a three track rail line. It just looks right and better than my rather mean single track for everything fix!
Above - This is really just a record shot for me of the same buildings as in the previous shot, but a close up, so that I can try and get some of those effects on my buildings. Have a click on it, it is a lovely complex.
The Haul.
While driving to the show, I was trying to work out what I really needed and decided on roads for the larger scale. My Fat Frank ones were starting to curl and then there was that disaster, when they got caught out in the rain (don't ask).
I decided that I would buy back into the MDF roads that Andy from The Last Valley does, as they worked well enough for me previously. He does sell out of things very quickly, so once I got through the door, I ran up to him and said 'quick, take all of my money'!
Well almost, but I did visit him first. This was my biggest single purchase, plus some log fencing and two feature pieces, one a bridge to go over his river system, which I use and the other, a fallen tree on a road section, which I thought was a nice touch.
Anyway, later, as I fiddled with bags on the Caliver book stall, I dropped a bag and heard a crack, the said above bridge had one of its side walls broken into three pieces. Oh Dear I said, fancy that!
From Phoenix Games Studio I got some nice 6mm brown tufts, a good price, I wish I had got more. Plus a 200ml bottle of Vallejo Black Primer. This is the acrylic stuff and though designed for the airbrush, it hand brushes onto plastic superbly.
Next stop was Early War Miniatures (EWM), I like this trader because he travels up all the way from the Isle of Wight and I think that sort of support of the show circuit is admirable.
Anyway, I only wanted a resin house, to add to the two I bought last year and then I got all excited and bought the dressed stone wall large set, a 20mm Nashorn with crew, a pack of seated German soldiers for half tracks and decals for German / Soviet vehicles.
My visit to Colonel Bills yielded some wire pikes and wire spears, very sharp points, a fine deterrent to anyone picking my figures up .... including me!
Next - Ironclad Miniatures. They produce lovely resins. I picked up a big concrete type gun emplacement, which would look good on a D-Day beach, plus an anti-tank type emplacement ...... because I've only got a hundred of them already - what can I say!
Finally, from Caliver books, the reprint of the Pike & Shot rules from Warlord Games. I've actually got the Epic ECW starter set with an A5 version of the rules in, but I am in two minds about moving that set on, I think I would rather see these armies in 20mm or 28mm.
By time I got the book home, it has already obtained a curl on one corner from the way it had lay in the bag (anyone who knows me knows that I hate anything with the slightest biff, ding or dent in it). It is a desperate shame that WG re-did this rulebook in soft back, rather than the FAR more robust hard covers that the sister books, Hail Caesar and Black Powder have .... but I'm happy to have the rules as there is a potential method in my madness of having all three of these rule sets.
News.
The only bit of interesting stuff I picked up was from the Rapid Fire people (lovely gents). The Reloaded series will have two new booklets out, probably in a couple of months. One is on the Sherwood Foresters and I can't remember the other title, it might be Med based.
But of note will be the release of a Soviet booklet for Barbarossa ...... at some future point! Many will look forward to that, including me and I haven't got early war armies (yet).
Anyway, that's all that.
I would just like to thank everyone who contributes towards putting this show on, from traders, to gamers, to the club - superb effort, the place has a real positive vibe and is a great shot in the arm for the war-game community.
A fantastic amount of work has gone into the tables. It is easy to take that for granted whilst moving between tables, but for anyone who has tried their hand at terrain building recently, the effort here can be appreciated.
A special note of thanks to the lady who stood at the front gate to guide visiting motorist in and smiling - she was still there when I left at 1 PM and still smiling ..... more people like you in this world please!
Brilliant show, I have done the show both times this year and hope to do the same next year.
It is a shame to close the post on a bit of a rant, but then it is my blog :-). Not that I care ... I'm just asking for a friend.
95% of my journey today was motorway (I am in the UK) .... Today, homebound, I was suddenly conscious that the MAJORITY of motorists are driving too close - too fast to the car in front, I don't just mean a bit, I mean a lot, like just two to three car lengths distance, at speed. When did that suddenly become such a widespread thing - it just makes the whole thing of journey a weary thing. Is it just a UK thing?
I am a wee bit sensitive to all of this at the moment because my vehicle was rear shunted a few months ago, by some such driver. The car body work was extensively damaged and the car also needed a new rear axle, wheel hub and tyre - a repair that took six weeks because of world supply problems.
By time the contact happened, speeds had dropped and we were uninjured .... but on a motorway, that same contact would likely be devastating.
I have just checked the Highway Code and typical stopping distance when travelling at 70 MPH is considered to be 96 metres / 315 feet or TWENTY FOUR car lengths.
Of course for wargamers, it is easy to think of this as one and a half times the width of a typical napoleonic French battalion.
What I want is a more serene journey, but what I need is one of those cars that James Bond has, you know with the rockets and machine guns!
Drive safely :-)
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.
