Late to the party with my report - that's work for you! Anyway, last Sunday saw a trip to the Other Partizan at the Newark Showground.
I wasn't certain if I'd be going until the week before and even on the day was not particularly excited. The weather has been very grey, an old injury was playing up and work has worn me out, This perhaps explains my lack of enthusiasm....
The day dawned foggy - in fact it never lifted all day in Newark! I managed to get there about 12 and left around 3 so it was something of a hit and run visit.
I got a text from David Barnes of the Ragged Soldier blog https://russetcoatcpt.blogspot.com/ just as we arrived that he was heading for the cafe. I made my way over and bumped into Andy Mcmaster https://blog.belisarius.org.uk/author/count-belisarius not long after that David and his friend Dave (St Cyr blog - lapsed gamer) appeared and then Dillon Browne another VWC member. Sadly I only manager a quick chat with David and Andy, but did have a long chat with Dillon who I've never met in person.
Then it was a quick visit to Eureka and EWM for some 20mm desert bits, a quick tour of the tables clicking some pics and then another quick tour of the trade stands and games before leaving. I lost the will fairly early on so didn't take as many pictures as I could - only those that stood out. There were a lot of games seen previously, especially 28mm WW2. The participation zone as usual seemed a mix of activity and nothing happening. By the time I got there I didn't manage to speak to either Martin Rapier or Chris Kent who were deep in conversation / running games.
All in all the event seemed to lack something of the buzz of previous shows, It may have been me or the weather, but I left thinking I could easily not have bothered. There were some nice games but a lot were so crowded, it was difficult to get close to take pics, let alone have a chat with people. It's one of my old bugbears, "demonstration" games which are very pretty, but could equally well be a game played by a group of close friends - not really a spectator sport?
Anyway the photos.
NQM Operation Mercury - invasion of Crete on a rather nice hex cloth
Giant Risk - Europe this time
This year the theme seems to be ships...
Black Ship a European v Samurai game
Desert games - always inspiring
Sudan - Boondock Sayntes I think
NW Frontier Interwar - I'm sure I was outbid on that wadi on eBay!
An intriguing Siege of Vienna 54mm skirmish with some nice Winged Hussars
Then on to the Eighteenth Century where I took most photos
First Louis XIV period?
League of Augsburg or Marlburian?
Then other end of century with AWI Breed's Hill - more ships - couldn't get very long table in
Then my personal favourites
40mm home-cast Prince August SYW Battle of Kolin
A nice snowy Battle of Leuthen
There were lots more games, some of which I managed to miss! But in the limited time available, I just picked a few that stood out.
More Spencer Smith cavalry are primed awaiting a spray undercoat - these are to finish off the main kingdoms - Arcadia had ended up with a slight advantage so each of the remaining kingdoms will receive another unit of Cuirassiers. After that, there's rebel militia, Estavian and Electoral bits to add. I'm also keen to do a bit more modelling...