Partizan Show

Partizan has always been one of my favourite shows and as a group its one we almost always put a game on at. Led by Chris Flowers and under the banner of Bramley Barn, we always like to put on something slightly different.


Having moved to the showground I have to say that the new venue is great, light and well ventilated, lots of room, I do like it. In terms of games there are still a good number of beautiful games put on, this years French in Egypt from the Perry's and Barry Hiltons Great Northern War perhaps captured my imagination most, but there plenty of others including a lovely Sudan game. There are also a number of other much more basic games, Being a bit of a wargaming snob I am not keen on these, but at the same time not massively offended either, each to their own.


This year our game took the form of a 1970's cold war gone hot game with a river crossing by the Soviets contested by Germans and Dutch of all things.

A 14 foot table with a town I the middle, it did look good. But would it play?

 The game was designed as three players per side, there were 8 of us and this was done on purpose as Steve and I have a tendency to wonder off looking at the pretty games and buying things. This year was not exception so fair play Mr Flowers.

 I shared Richards command on the Russian right flank facing Steve, with a battalion of Motor riles a regiment of T62's and supports.

 Lots of Jet fighters on both sides added some period flavor and eye candy, but was relatively ineffective apart from one particular throw of the dice of which more later.

 

 

We dropped smoke and advanced on the river without much opposition, the same being the case in the other two crossing points.

 As we entered the Water a company of Centurians appeared and things fairly quickly went down hill from there

We attacked them with cluster bombs from the air, 6 tanks and artillery and inflicted zero casualties. Nothing, nada. Over two turns in return we lost two troop transports and two tanks but did at least get the bridge down.

 At this point it became obvious that I need to do some shopping and look at other games to cheer myself up. Steve and I wondered over the Barry's fantastic Great Northern War game and chatted for over an hour about rules and forthcoming releases. Steve already knew Barry and Bob, for me I left the table with two knew wargaming chums and a burning desire to spend money on Swedish Cavalry and the new rules, perhaps just as well they a few weeks away yet.

 I checked out a couple of other games including the wonderful Sudan game, sorry I didn't notice who put it on. The railway and balloon made a great centre piece.

Returning to the table I found we had small numbers of troops over the river, however Steve got the best shot of the day with aircraft taking out two of Richard personnel carriers. After this he changed his mind about not having his name mentioned in the blog and reminded me that Shann and two n's. Thanks Steve. I decided to check out the perry's Egyptian game to cheer myself up.

 This was a really lovely game, loads of lovely troops and a real pull on me to buy the fantastic range. I did resist buying more of these to add to the lead pile but only just.

 Back on our table the other two crossings are doing much better, but still making heavy work. We have managed to inflict one single casualty on Steve, a crewman for the TOW, meanwhile our forces are sadly depleted with very little over the river. Did I mention the mine field? Sorry we drove straight into a minefield and the first tank destroyed was the mine clearer. Oh look, the Perry's game is still lovely, off I wonder.

 I also captured shots of another couple of the games, this pre-dreadnaught game was particularly nice.

 Back to Barry and Bob to drool over the new mounted Colonels and the have a long discussion with Bob about the Poles and the future for Warfare Miniatures.

 And just enough time to snap a lovely late war WW1 game I particularly liked.

We wrapped up at 4pm having accepted that the Russians were unlikely to win the game without some form of  miraculous intervention. A good day, enjoyed the game despite Steve's giggles as systematically pulled our forces apart and some really nice games to add some inspiration.


Now to crack on with some painting.