Kelham Hall, Newark, 29th May

PARTIZAN 2011

Well, I wasn't very impressed with Salute this year, I was so busy at Triples that I scarcely got time to complete urgent business ... but I enjoyed some camera time at Partizan.
The show seemed a little less busy this year (and down the odd trader and a games table or two*) - perhaps, I understand, due to the proximity to Triples, the week before. That, combined with Graham running The Elephant in the Room as our show game, meant I had time for a longer break in the afternoon and got to see the show.

(Graham running The Elephant in the Room)
We are giving an extra bit of exposure to Shows North participation games TEITR and Greyhounds in the Slips this year to support the Society publishing cut out versions in A Domino Double Header as the 2011 incentive project - if you missed the early resubscription you can get a copy from the web store (Society of Ancients games) or from the stand at shows ... and at some of the Northern Shows, we will be running it (so you can get a quick start, too).

(what you get in the game pack)
In the pack, you get a double sided A2 play board (one game either side), rules booklet plus all the cards, and fold up playing pieces for those who don't have figures that they would prefer to use instead.

You need to provide 2 to 4 sets of dominoes (preferably in a shuffling bag), and for GitS, a couple of dice. Let the Dominoes Decide - also available - has the basic game plus lots of additional resources for using the Anno Domino combat system in the Roman Arena.

At Partizan Graham played the elephant game through 7 or 8 times, including some thrilling finishes (though the velites eventually prevailed in all cases) ...
(Pachyderm down - shots from the game)
I trust you will indulge some pictures of the game where (one-time psales volunteer) Sarge made a long awaited return to ancients and characteristically tried to do too much too soon (yep that's both his velites lying on their sides). In the end the other two players went on to dispatch the elephant just before it reached the Roman lines.

Partizan also offered an opportunity to try (or in my case chat to the authors about ...) some of the new crop of ancients games.

(click on the pictures for a bigger version)
(Plataea - War & Conquest)
Rob Broom was there with War and Conquest (and a version of the Battle of Plataea), Great Escape Games had a try out table for Clash of Empires ... and if that wasn't enough 'new' ancients, Phil Hendry and Richard Clarke were there with a development version of Augustus to Aurelian (watch the news pages ...!).

(Clash of Empires)
(Augustus to Aurelian)
The DBA campaign in a day participation game was also running - in this case in Medieval Italy. Loads of good stuff in this game, and very well presented. The core, of course, was a day long sequence of DBA participation games.
(DBA - The Italian Job)

And that was just a quick tour of the more fascinating ancient and medieval offerings: there was much, much, more ... some good ideas, and some nice presentations.

There is more of that splendid ECW 'Worcester' game on ECW Battles in Miniature ...

Now I know (despite all the help I have offered) that a lot of browsers on this blog are taken with the 28mm eye candy, so here's a couple more shots of Phil Hendry's stuff ...


Watch out for the Shows North stand at Phalanx, where we will be running a DBA participation table all day (your chance to beat the team!) ...

*that said, a number of people complained that there was nowhere to sit down and eat the lunch they had bought from the cafeteria - something the hosts are going to have to sort out: Hammerhead, in the same venue, had a room given over ... Partizan can be almost as bad as Britcon for this.