My Wargaming Week, Partizan MMXVI

Hi all.

A slightly belated blog post, but it has been a busy and enjoyable weekend as Partizan settled into its new venue at the Newark Showground. Saturday saw our small team setting up all of the tables, followed by a slap-up feed at Mrs Miggins's Pie Shoppe and Tandoori Curry House. It was then en early start to be at the show for a 7AM start, get everything sorted including my own game, play the game, chat to people, spend all of my cash, pack up and then meet with friends afterwards for a few beers. Lovely!

So, on to the show. I feel the new venue worked really well. Much better than the last few years at Kelham Hall and we seemed to have plenty of people attending. The show also stayed busy right up to 3 prm or so rather than going quiet after lunchtime. The afternoon did not drag at all and it was a surprise when Tom Webster-Deakin informed me it was 4PM and we could all start to pack up.
There was plenty of light, which made photography much, much, much easier than at Kelham. Coupled with the superb standards of games there should be some wonderful images from the show appearing on the 'net.

My game worked well and we played to a result. The scenario will soon be appearing in WSS but in the meantime here are some photos:

Also at the show were many great games. Below is a small selection of those I managed to photograph in my brief escapes from my table:

Dave Imrie's Carlist War game using Sharp Practice 2:

Hendry and Miller with their 3rd Century Romans vs Sassanid's game (To the Strongest rules)

Perry Twins: Vichy French vs Commonwealth:

A fun game using soldiers made from dolly-pegs:

Andy H's participation game using the new "Men who Would be Kings" rules by chum Dan Mersey.

And saving the best for last:
James Morris's superb Fort Vaux game won the Macfarlane Shield for being the best game at the show. An award featuring votes from the editors of the leading wargames magazines in the UK, and very, very well deserved. Who would have thought that you could take the fighting at Verdun, focus on the even more miserable fighting underground and make such an interesting, challenging and educational game out of it? Genuinely original.

But a bit mad.

Back to reality now. I had booked to day off so I can recover from the weekend and recharge my batteries as I'm on call all of next weekend and Bank Holiday Monday. The car is unpacked and I can think about some projects.

I think they are roughly:
Immediate/near future:

• Finish off the OOB for the Crown at Eutaw Springs
• Build some modular redoubts
• Repair some of my trees

Next year:

• Prepare demonstration game of either Eutaw Springs or Germantown (or maybe both)
• Begin AWI French!

I'll have to begin planning next year's commitments in the next month or two as workplace rotas need to be sorted, holidays booked, and so on. After the disappointment around Salute this year I'm not minded to factor that into my 2017 plans and am more likely to concentrate on Cannon in Retford and the two Partizans (August always being a bit uncertain) - and support the local wargames community. The social side of this weekend has been great, so doing that for each show also seems like a good idea.