The Other Partizan 2025

I popped along to The Other Partizan show on Sunday with my youngest. It was very busy! Probably a bit too busy for me, I find it hard to look/shop/play/concentrate with that many people around. I had tried to persuade my son to go in the afternoon instead when it was a bit quieter, but he couldn't wait, in that way that 9 year olds' can't - maybe next year! It did mean that I probably bought less than I would have otherwise though? I came away disappointed that I hadn't spent more, so that is a lose-lose I guess. Or perhaps shopping online is just better. I did get to catch up with a couple of people, which is always nice, and missed catching up on a few more, which is always a bit disappointing.

 Anyway, becasue of the busy-ness of the event, I ended up taking the photos in a much less organized pattern then usually, which has made it even harder for me to recall which group put on which game - not helped by Blogger sometimes putting groups of photos in ascending, sometimes in descending, order: I wish I could figure out which setting causes it to do that! In any case, please forgive (and correct!) any omissions and errors. 

The Forest Outlaws doing Salamanca in 6mm - Napoleonics in 6mm always presses the right buttons for me: 

Like a Stonewall doing Blackhawk Down reskinned for the NW Frontier

Mr. Dale Yates doing some kind of 28mm medieval plunder and pillage type skirmish

 

 

The Shrewsbury Club doing a huge WH40K game. Always good to see a Warhammer game at these shows, since it is by far the most widely played system in the world, and also (by comparing it to the other games) showing there really is no such thing as 'the Warhammer Hobby', it is just wargaming like any other. Anyway, it was based on Rorke's Drift...didn't GW publish Orc's Drift as a scenario way back? Or was that for WFB?

A small Cold War game (which is quite unusual); if memory serves, by the 1/72 wargames group (moonlighting in 1/35??)

This one 'might' be from the League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers. Great-looking figures in any case, some Eastern European affair, don't recall the details unfortunately.

Snowy terrain...tricornes...the Austrian left flank getting stoved in...someone attacking in some kind of echelon...must be Leuthen!

The Very British Civil War group doing their thing...

 

Next-up, ACW affair (I think). May have been Forest Outlaws again...sorry, got a bit muddled in this section

Russo-Polish War next...may be the Lincoln group?

More SYW action next: Kolin. This may have been Chesterfield. Spencer Smith action?

A nice looking Normandy game (one of several at the show); this one may have been the Burton group?

More Normandy! Caen this time...by Mr. Joe Bilton? It looked so suitably ruined, my bairn thought it might have been Stalingrad at first glance!

The Solent group put on two games side-by-side: Ancient Naval...

and some Ancients game, I definitely didn't get the details of this one; looked nice though (my camera struggled a bit with this game for some reason, so looking back at the pictures afterwards was no help!).

A Very French Civil War! It looked great, though it did make me wonder a bit why the actual big 1930s civil war in Spain gets less love than it might do...

Next up, a Gaslands Car Wars type game (the Gentlemen Pensioners?).

Then a Bijou ECW skirmish game using Donnybrook

I think this one was by the Barely Legal group, a Zulu War affair anyway (Ntombe, or Intombe)

There was a really nice ACW-type game next. It seemed to be some kind of book tie-in, but the reference escaped me. 

Next was a big 6mm Pony Wars/Old West affair.

Pulpy-SF next (from Bunny Badger games?), which seemed to mix Mars Attacks with a James Bond type rocket. Looked fun, whatever!

Ok, I think this was a What a Tanker game. Looked nice, with all the focus on buildings and model vehicles.

 

 Next to a set-up you don't see every day: the Songhai Empire in action.

Gang-fighting in the Forum:

A nice-looking fantasy game next, seemed quite LotR to me. A very late 90s White Dwarf aesthetic too, I thought.

Wings of Glory next, always looks so fun

I am guessing this was Sails of glory to go alongside (!) it. The land terrain looked great to accompany it!

A turkey-hunting skirmish game!

 

Some kind of Judge Dredd-ish affair, by COGS.

  

 An ECW skirmish game, with a nice fighting up the town-steps design. Really effective!

 

English vs French SAGA (done by GB itself, I think):

Battletech (on that type of Hex terrain whose name escapes me!); again, nice to see a game that seems to be relatively popular long term getting a run out at a show (maybe Sheffield?)

 a 28mm Revolutionary/Napoleonic amphibious skirmish. I am pretty sure I have seen this one before at Newark, although it looked just as nice this time! By the Lancaster group.

 

An appropriately shell-scarred terrain for a WW1 game next (Rob Jones?):

A more hard Sci-Fi offering? Looked quite nice.

A game of Silver Bayonet (the Napoleonic fantasy game that isn't Flintloque, more of a small-scale skirmish I think):

Another medieval raiding type game. By the Scourers, I think?

This is Crete 1941 at Operational Level by Chris Kemp of Not Quite Mechanized fame. I didn't get to chat much to game presenters, but I did get a little chat in with Chris, and very interesting it was too. Nice to see something a little different!

Wargames Development's Alexander the Brief; would have loved to have a go at this if I had been able.

Operational Manoeuvre Group do their modern thing.

More WW1 Air: Snoopy vs the Red Baron!

An LRDG raiding game next (it might have been the Veterans' group??):

 Grantham doing their perennially popular Discworld witch racing take on Formula De.

 A really huge game of Napoleonic Risk next. Impossible not to be visually drawn to this one!

A 1940 raid on Britain caper, "The Seagull Has Landed"

A big WW1 naval game

 The Combat of Boxtel by Casemate Publishing I think. I thought this was one of the best games for hitting the spot between "That looks great!" and "I could do that without a degree of effort I am simply not going to exert on a normal games day"

The Gothenburg Gamers did a modern piracy game. Looked very simple but effective. Loved the Gold Bars...

An Ancients' game (Successors vs Indians) in 54-60mm I think?

More WW2 Normandy IIRC; US Paratroopers this time.

 

Boondock Sayntes doing something bright and colonial, as usual (this time in the Sudan); also visually fantastic, as usual!

 

More 1944 WW2, although this time outside Arnhem. A really huge game, this one:

 This next one has me beaten. I thought it migt be ACW, but whilst usually a couple of details stick in my brain, not for this one at all (I think it is because I saw it in the middle of looking at the Arnhem game). Looks great though!

Ok, back to the Arnhem game.

 Next up, James Morris doing Agincourt. Like the Leuthen and Sudan games earlier, it is nice visually when the 'green' games get broken up with a 'white' or 'brown' or 'sand' colour.

 I think this was more WW2 Normandy:

 Peter Dennis doing his thing with the card soldiers. A medieval affair, with a nice motte and bailey castle!

 A big 100YW game next:

 A Weird War 2 (Projekt 47?) game next

Something very different: a multi-level Burrows and Badgers game. This one really did look different! I have seen all the individual elements done before, but not together like this. It felt almost like it was a model made for a Jim Henson fantasy film, then used for a game, if you see what I mean?

 League of Augsburg doing their thing next, always looks great:

 And a very pretty late C17 Wars of the Sun King game:

 A big Vietnam game (by North Riding?):.

 More WW2 Normandy: this time, the attack on Objective Hillman on D-Day by the Norfolks (done by the Fieldcraft group).

More WW2 in 1944 next, but this time on the Eastern Front (maybe Derby group)

A Samurai game next, really nice water, ship, background and cherry blossom!

I wasn't sure who this next group were even at the time I took the photo, but it looked like they were doing two games: the first an operational level bombing raid (the simple wood-cut aircraft looked really effective for this, actually better than a more accurate model) and a 'Robot Rebels' game, which I think I may have seen before in some guise.

Rubicon models put on another one of their very small but very beautiful games. More WW2 1944 this time

And to round it off, Steve Jones with one of his spectacular AWI games, this one based on Bunker Hill / Breed Hill:

Purchase-wise, I had made a long list, but all I actually ended up getting was my pre-order from Baccus. The bairn picked up a box of WW2 USMC, a group of support weapons for them, and a Buffalo from Rubicon to accompany them (which looks a fabulous model - looking forward to us making that together for him!). It is funny, I don't really need any more models at the moment (to the extent that you ever 'need' any of this stuff), but buying stuff at shows is like a reward function I use for work, so I will always try and get a few things. Maybe I need to concentrate on reducing the pile first, so I should take this as a blessing, rather than a missed opportunity!