From Brussels with Love

Over the years we have been fortunate to have a smattering of international visitors to the show - at least those who have made themselves known to us. These have included, unsurprisingly, more than a handful of North Americans of both the loyalist and rebellious variety (only joking guys) as well as visitors from Japan and Australia. This year, as you may have seen on the Facebook page, we have already been contacted by Roly Hermans who is visiting the UK from New Zealand and has managed to arrange things so he can pay a visit to the show whilst he is here. Of course the most oft spotted foreign fellows at Partizan come from our nearby neighbours in Europe and over the last few years we have had visitors from France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland.  

This year we have something a little more interesting with (I think) our first game provided from outside these shores. A few weeks ago we were contacted by Jasen Lakic, a games designer from Brussels who runs 3C Boardgames. He asked if he could bring a new block based wargame to demonstrate at the show prior to launching a Kickstarter in May. Of course we are delighted to support new and innovative gaming ideas so leapt at the chance to host the game. 

It is called Multiverse War and, according to Jasen's description is 

"an area control/character progression/wargame where players recruit armies, explore the new lands and battle for better strategic positions to secure more space for development. The only way to advance through the eras is by killing enemy units or destroying buildings so players must do their best to outmaneuver their opponents and earn those valuable kills. You gain access to more powerful units and buildings by making kills with those units but do not underestimate Heroes. They are special units with increased Health, Action points and many unique and powerful abilities. Veteran heroes are formidable opponents, a strong hero can easily sway the odds in your favour!"

Not our traditional miniatures wargaming perhaps, but just another facet of our wonderful hobby. We are certainly looking forward welcoming our Belgian friend and seeing Jasen's game in real life at Partizan next month.    

You can find more details of the game development at: 

http://www.3boardgames.com/multiverse/
  

2019 Partizan figures first look

"Freiheit ist immer nur Freiheit des anders Denkenden"

We always try to do something a bit different with the Partizan figures. Over the last few years this has usually involved basing them on historical figures of interest - both military and civilian - particularly if there is an interesting anniversary lurking around a corner. This year is no exception and we have decided to make a temporary swerve to the left to celebrate two notable figures of the socialist movement.

2019 is the centenary of the Spartacist Uprising in Berlin in 1919. In 1915 one of the founders of the Spartakusbund  (Spartacus League) - originally a left wing anti-war movement - was the Polish-German philosopher and activist Rosa Luxemburg. When Germany was defeated in 1918 the league became very active in the post-war chaos of the German Revolution and Luxemburg, along with Karl Leibknecht, co-founded the Red Flag Newspaper and took part in the first congress that founded the German Communist Party.

In January 1919 a wave of violent strikes and uprising swept across Germany with armed bands attempting to seize control in a number of cities. Although Luxemburg apparently considered this a mistake, she did eventual come to support the uprising in Berlin. But it was a short lived revolution and was quickly crushed by the German Freikorps - mostly WW1 veterans - raised in support of the existing government. On 15th January 1919 Luxemburg and Leibknecht were captured by Freikorps troops and executed.

There is no evidence that Rosa Luxemburg physically took up arms during the uprising but we have asked our figure designer Martin Baker to model her with a rifle as if she were standing on the barricades in defence of the revolution. Here is the green ready for mould making.

The figure will be free to everyone trading, putting on a game or running a society stand at the Partizan show on 19th May and will also be free for the first 500 visitors through the door on the day. 

ROBIN 2019 Games Expo and Trade Fair

So I (LB) popped down to the ROBIN show today (Sunday 17th February) to see how it was going to be different from the previous incarnation. For its first two years it was run by Donna Simmerson who put in a lot of energy and experience to pull off a great little show which had a lot of potential. It's always difficult to start something from scratch, but Nottingham, at the centre of the fabled Leadbelt, has struggled to develop its own show, probably because of more established offerings in nearby Newark, Derby and the late lamented Cannon in Retford. The new experience has been relabelled as a Games Expo and Trade Fair so I was expecting an expansion of the card and boardgame part of the hobby, and looking forward to seeing what was on offer, given that Nottingham also has a thriving industry in this sector.

Arriving a few minutes after opening I parked easily, and found that their first innovation as to make the entry through the Tennis Centre, which means no door opening straight to the outside, which was a definite improvement. The weather was much milder this year too, so a much more comfortable temperature in the hall. There were a lot of unfamiliar traders which was refreshing, but meant some of the big names were missing. I think Tactica was on in Germany this weekend, so it looks like Foundry and Wargames Illustrated, for example, were there instead of nearer to home. Surprisingly the fresh faces didn't really represent an expansion into the boardgame and card game sector, but it as good to see some of the smaller names from the wargames field - and it is probably wise at this point for us to apologise again to those of you who are on the Partizan waiting list - we know it is frustrating to have to wait to get into the more established shows, sorry! 

For those of you who like to hear the personal side of things I managed to get two out of three things on my shopping list - a ne can of Strong Tone varnish, and Wayne Bollands new Cold war rules 'The Zone', which look very good, and will persuade me to get out my Sloppy Jalopy vehicles and those old Mongrel figures! I saw Wayne in the distance and s going to get him to sign it for me but he diappeared whilst I was chatting! I was looking for some Vallejo sepia wash, but couldn't find any, but got some decal softener instead! All in all quite restrained I thought.

Of the games again there were  couple of board game and card game offerings, but more traditional wargames. Standout amongst those were the Lenton Gamers Chain of Command game and James Morris'  Red Book of the Elf King games, and the Leicester Phat Cats Blood and Thunder pirate game with some very impressive ship models.

I had been hoping to find time for a quick game of Mortal Gods and/or Cruel Sea, but seemed to spend a lot of time chatting with folks instead. The legend that is Duncan Macfarlane seemed in fine form, and we talked nostalgically with Dave Bickley about the days when painting was done with Humbrol enamels, Plaka paints, or even oils, before I realised that I'm actually not old enough to remember those days...

ROBIN has only been going three years, and this is the first year 'under new management'. I've often said that a show needs to have a reason for being, a niche that makes it stand out and gives people a reason for going. Over the years I hope Partizan has done that, and I had high hopes that the move to expand this show to include more diverse sectors of the gaming world would be the making of it. On the face of it much remains to be done to achieve this goal, but if and when it succeeds then ROBIN will be a great addition to the circuit - and it's also very handy for me, living as I do in Nottingham now..

Plans and stratagems

The New Year has been and gone and the last excuse for avoiding preparations for this year's shows has been blown away in the blizzards.

So we have buckled down and started sending out invites and drawing up floorplans. If you were hoping to bring a game to the first show in May and have not yet received an invite then please do let us know. If you were hoping to trade then, as always, we are very over subscribed but will do our best to fit traders in as space becomes available. Again, let us know if you are interested and we can add you to the waiting list. Finally if you represent a wargaming society and wish to promote your particular aspect of the hobby then let us know and we will try and fit you in to the History Zone where we provide stands free of charge.

Meanwhile we have been making some changes to future shows. If you put on games or trade at the show you should already have received a letter about this but, for wider consumption, we are making some permanent changes to the date of the second show of the year.

 Since the Partizan show moved to the new venue we have had to compromise on the dates of the shows, particularly the second of the year, which has been pushed forward into mid-August from its traditional slot in early September. Whilst we think that everyone would agree that generally the move to the showground has been very successful, the need for the second show to move to mid-August does, we believe, impact on numbers and also makes it far more difficult to tempt games as so many people are away at that time. In addition the relatively short period of time between the first and second Partizan shows makes organisation rather difficult.

We have recently been asked by the showground to make a further date change as they have a large client who wishes to take the whole venue for a weekend. We have used this opportunity to ask for a more radical change to the date in light of the demise of the Derby World's show.

Therefore we would like to announce that, whilst this year's show dates remain unchanged from those advertised, from 2020 The Other Partizan will have a new date in early October.

A reminder that the dates for 2019 are:

Partizan: 19th May
The Other Partizan: 18th August

The new dates for 2020 are:

Partizan: 17th May (please note the letter that went out to games and traders had an incorrect date for this show) 
The Other Partizan: 11th October

The dates for 2021 are:

Partizan: 23rd May
The Other Partizan: 10th October

First look at the Partizan giveaway figure for August

It is a year of anniversaries.

At the May show we celebrated the centenary of the founding of the Royal Air Force with our WW1 pilot figure. Now we have before us a far more sombre anniversary but one that still needs to be marked.

As we are sure everyone knows, November 11th will mark 100 years since the Armistice which ended the First World War. We wanted to produce a suitable figure to mark the occasion and for inspiration we turned to some of the war memorials that have been put up in the century since the Armistice. In particular we found two; one erected in the 1920s and the other far more recent, erected only a few years ago.  

The Scottish American War Memorial was erected in the West Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh in 1927. It was designed by the Scottish Canadian Sculptor R. Tait McKenzie and is a tribute to the bravery of Scottish troops during the First World War. It is called 'The Call' and shows a kilted soldier about to rise from his seat to go forth into combat.

The Seaham Memorial in on the seafront at Seaham in County Durham was erected in 2014. It was designed by Ray Lonsdale and depicts the end rather than the beginning of the soldier's duty. Designed particularly to highlight the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder it shows a weary soldier, head bowed over his rifle, reflecting on the horrors of war.

 
Our own figure designer Martin Baker has used these two memorials as his inspiration to produce the Partizan figure for the next show.

With apologies for the quality of the photos, here is the figure. We hope you like it.

The figure will be available to the first 500 through the door on the day as well as to all of those providing games, trade and society stands.

Please note a number of groups and individuals are continually working away to raise money for soldiers suffering from the physical and mental effects of combat and you may well see some of them fundraising at the shows. If you do, please do dip into your pocket to support them.

For wargamers, the study of conflict is an interest, a hobby and an escape from daily life. For many of those who have had to endure it, conflict and its effects are a daily struggle from which they can never escape.  

Of Dreams and Nightmares.

So, planning is well underway for the second Partizan show of the year which will be held at the Newark Showground on Sunday 19th August.

Invites are out to games, societies and traders and most replies are already in. If you have received an invite but have not yet replied please do try to let me know as soon as possible if you can attend as we need to get the floorplan finalised well in advance of the show.

Advertising is in place both online and with the Wargames magazines. If you are trading at the show then over the next few days you should receive flyers which we hope you will include in your mail order dispatches.

Later this week we will update the website with the latest lists of traders, games and society stands. After that it is just a case of waiting for the last few replies, sending confirmations out to everyone  and then producing the final floorplan.

And then we await the most important moment in all Partizan planning. The Partizan Dream.

This has become something of a legend amongst the Partizan crew, rather akin to the ravens at the Tower of London.

Basically it goes like this:

It is Sunday morning, either just before or just after opening time at the show. We are wandering around the halls - always the stygian gloom of Kelham rather than the bright new venue - and the place is filled with empty tables. A few poorly produced games (unpainted figures on a blanket) sit alongside trade stands usually selling potted plants or house cleaning products. And inside the dream we think this is all great and everything is as it should be. It is only when we wake up that the cold sweats start.

Alternatively everything is in place and we open the doors to... one small child and a lost delivery driver.

Another variant is that the venue has inexplicably shrunk to the size of one small room and we have 40 traders and 60 games to fit into a space the size of my kitchen - on more than one occasion it has actually been my kitchen.

The point about these dreams is that they are invariably about failure and disaster for the show and one or other of us invariably has them before each show. So much so that it is now part of the Partizan mythos that as long as one of us has The Dream everything will be fine. And of course the year we don't have The Dream the show will be a catastrophe.

So as well as getting the final preparations ready for the show, we will be doing everything we can to ensure we get the right sort of nightmares before 19th August.

If not we might just stay in bed and give the whole thing a miss.

Post Partizan Posting

Well that was fun!

At least I think it was fun. After two days of shifting tables and walking the floors to make sure everything ran smoothly the team are doing their normal shell shocked shuffle as we once again try to work out why exactly we do this.

To be fair that is one question that rarely arises these days, particularly after a show like we had on Sunday. Okay so the door was down a little on last year. But the unavoidable proximity of Hammerhead, some bladder kicking on TV and some Eastenders' couple getting hitched the day before (at least I think that was what it was) probably all conspired to keep some of our regulars with their families this particular weekend.

Still the numbers of paying visitors was well north of 800 and, with all the gamers and traders, the hall already had a good buzz before the doors even opened. We will leave it to others to pass judgement on the show overall though we do reserve the right to gloat a little if people write nice things about us on their blogs. And to use a magnifying glass to set fire to their MDF buildings if they don't.

But the one bit for which we bear absolutely no responsibility and so are able to praise to the well lit rafters are the games themselves. Sixty of them in total at this show. Sixty little (or in some cases quite large) gems. As always I am in awe of the time, effort and money that people dedicate towards presenting these brilliant games at the shows. Whilst we are aware that, with the great help of the wargames magazines, we have built a reputation for hosting some good looking games, year on year the standard just gets better and the games ever more inspirational. For that every single person coming to the show to put on the demonstration and participation games has our huge and heartfelt thanks.

When we moved to the Showground we made a few changes to the show beyond just having more space and better lighting. One of the changes was the introduction of prizes. We had always resisted these before because we felt - and continue to feel - that every game that comes to the show has made a huge amount of effort on our behalf and it seems wrong to pick out one or two particular examples to reward when in fact every game deserves a prize.

Anyway, for some reason that I cannot quite now remember, when we moved to the new venue we decided to stop being so damned equitable about these things and start giving out some trophies. It was at this point that we realised that our carefully cultivated impartiality was actually a smoke screen for our utter inability to make a decision.

So we made a decision.

We decided to get someone else to make the decisions for us.

Enter stage left the editors (as they were at the time) of the three main wargaming magazines.

Dan Faulconbridge of Wargames Illustrated
Guy Bowers of Wargames, Soldiers, Strategy
Henry Hyde of Miniature Wargames with Battlegames.

Their credentials? Well as well as being editors whose job was to spend all day looking at wargames and photographing them for magazines (oh and drinking coffee), they are also three fine fellows who we knew we could trust to be impartial, honest and forthright in their opinions. And even though Henry has now moved from paper to Patreon, this is our team who we call upon at each show to decide who deserves to be awarded the bright shiny engraved resin thingies we call trophies.

Like all good things they come in threes.

The Best Participation Game award is the Pete Gill Shield named in honour of one of our staunchest supporters down the years whose games with the RAF Wargames Association brought joy to so many at shows up and own the country.

The Best Demonstration Game award is the Macfarlane Shield named in honour of the man who started Partizan (and, incidentally, both Miniature Wargames and Wargames Illustrated).

Finally the Best in Show is the Editors Shield - mostly because they said they would only do it of we named something after them.

Of course the point of all this rambling is to get to the bit where I tell you who won each of the trophies. With Guy being absent on a European jolly we relied upon Dan and Henry to do the honours.

So without further ado...

The winners of the Best Demonstration Game were TooFatLardies with their What a Tanker game.

Listening to the deliberations it is clear that this was a tough decision in a very good field. But what finally swung it was the sheer amount of fun being had by the participants as evidenced by the loud cheers that escaped the table at regular intervals. Well done to Richard Clarke and all his crew.

If the Participation award was tough, the Demonstration award was near impossible to judge. Henry talks about this process a bit on his latest podcast but the number of fantastic looking games meant that any decision was going to be incredibly close. In the end the award went to the absolutely gorgeous "La Gorgue Airfield" WW1 game by Aly Morrison and Dave Andrews. It was absolutely stunning and you can see a lot more detail of it as well as the history behind it on Aly's blog

Finally we come to the 'Best in Show' Again this could have so easily have been one by any of more than a dozen games but in the end there was one game that stunned with its incredible attention to detail. Anyone who has listened to the interview that Laurence and I did with Henry will know that the best games for me have both height and depth. Height means being three dimensional rather than just played out on a flat surface whilst depth means depth of detail. The winner of Best in Show had both of these in spades. 

So in the end the Editors' Shield was awarded to the Earlswood Wargamers Club for their magnificent Stalingrad game. 

We will have lots more pictures of these and all the other games in forthcoming blogs and on the website.