Partizan 2012 (May 27th)

As always Partizan entertained and inspired me.  If I could only ever go one wargames show then I suspect Partizan would be my show of choice.  Quality participation games, quality demo games, and lots of the great and the good in the wargames hobby there. 

Firstly I must make big apologies to the staff at Wargames Soldiers Strategy - I didn’t take any photos of the naval wars of the Roses game. 

There are some pictures on the Too much Lead Blogspot and here at Another Slight Diversion

  

It was only going to be a morning visit as I had both mum to visit on the way back to the in laws and then to get back down to Exeter.  The plan was to start at the furthest place from the entrance/exit and work my way backwards.  That sort of fell apart as at 10.30 I was offered the chance to play Muskets and Tomahawks.  I was intrigued what was within this rule set given that I’m a fan of the fairly innovative SAGA and this is by the same author. 

For the most part the rules are very similar to what we have seen elsewhere – dice rolls to hit, dice rolls to kill (or save), dice for morale etc.   The cards reflect that this is a card driven activation system.   Where M&T has evolved is that rather than one card per unit (as per Battlemasters), and lots of rules from Two Fat Lardies (Which I also like) this give different numbers to different types: at its crudest analysis then irregulars like Rangers get 4 cards with one action (move, shoot, reload) per card, whereas regulars get 2 cards but 2 actions per card.  There is a bit more to the system than that – Indians, Civilians, Grenadiers, Officers and morale all playing a part along with optional event cards.  As I understand it so far (need to read rules) the contrast with the Two Fat Lardies system is that your cards are guaranteed to come up, compared with the “tea break” card that causes a re-shuffle although I’m not sure.   More on M&T and the French Indian Wars in a subsquent blog post.  

The Camera came out somewhat sparingly – as usual these days.  A few more pictures will appear on my next blog entry ‘scatter terrain’.  

An Arthurian game from Westbury Wargames

A VBCW game from the Gentleman's Wargames Parlour 

A Vinland game from Shaun at the Bunker.

In talking with him he did admit that lots of the rock - including that at the left had been reused from a '633 Squadron' game.  

A World War One game from Great War Miniatures.  Lots of really nice details in this and freely admitted to be a spatial compression game (so that a manufacturer can show off what they do) - the front line to the artillery to the supply tractors would in reality have been miles.   A nice change from the brown mud games.   

A Wars of the Roses game from Perry Miniatures.  As one might expect, this was stunning although I might have liked something that told me about the battle or the sides/heraldry (if fictional).  

Muskets and Tomahawks participation from Rich Jones. 

I probably spent more at Partizan on goodies than I did at Salute.  

        

~Muskets and Tomahawks

~Two Rice paddies (A4 size) from The Last Valley

~Song of Arthur and Merlin (Ganesha Games) - Ready printed copy from Dave Thomas

Various bits for M&T - Two Totem poles (Grand Manner) for use with Indians, Redendra Bell Tents for regular soldiers, Trade goods (two different sets) from Ainsty Castings, and some second hand French Indian Wars which I have now identified as Redoubt Enterprises (and good sculpts: I feel some Redoubt stuff is good and some poor). 

Chris