21st May, Newark Showground

 PARTIZAN 2017

 

For some years, now, we have jointly booked Partizan with the Lance & Longbow Society and Northampton Battlefields Society.   Latterly, the organisers have created a 'history zone' to accommodate the historical wargaming societies and military heritage stands.

 

(Northampton Battlefields Society)

So this year, the key zone offered you ...

The Society of Ancients

The Pike & Shot Society

The Battlefields Trust

The Naseby Project

The Northampton Battlefields Society

The Civil War Centre 

Please click those links, as all these worthy organisations need your consideration.  All are charities or volunteer run.   Wargaming and military heritage interests would not be where they are without them.

 (the History Zone at Partizan)

Northamptonshire's most famous battle is Naseby ... arguably the most important battle in British history ... it has its own charity but is also a key project for the Battlefields Trust ...

 

(The Naseby Battlefield model)

Equally important, but firmly imbedded in the Participation Games zone, Wargame Developments is another volunteer association encouraging game designers and rules innovation.

 

Games at Partizan:

 

 Outside the ancmed brief, so for more pics of Phil's Naseby, go to the ECWBattles blog

 

(Northampton Battlefields  Society/Lance & Longbow/Society of Ancients: Northampton 1460)

 

(More ECW: Edgehill in 12mm)

 

(... and more ... Cropredy Bridge in 28mm)

Plus ...

 

 

How about this?

 

And regular readers will know I couldn't resist this ...

 

(click on the picture for a larger image)

So, a wonderful History Zone, and surprisingly lots of ECW ... but not so much in the ancients and medieval periods at Partizan this year.

Nevertheless, the Society of Ancients did well and the L&LSoc had a splendid day ... NBS and the Battlefields Trust also had a lot of interest - so thanks to everybody who stopped by.

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A number of you wanted to join the Society of Ancients but wanted to pay by card.  Here's the link:

Join the Society of Ancients 

You will get membership of the oldest historical wargaming fellowship, 6 issues of Slingshot, a 20% discount on the Society's large back catalogue of games and publications, plus a host of other discounts (from 25% to 5% according to the trader) ... and there's a Conference and a Games Day ...

Most ancient and medieval enthusiasts give The Society of Ancients a try at some stage - the majority like and most stay ... if you are not a member, try clicking on the link.

We would appreciate your support.

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6th and 7th May, Central Milton Keynes

MKWS CAMPAIGN 2017

The show in the shopping centre.  Yes, and a great opportunity to reach out to ordinary folk and engage them with wargames and military history.

To do that we team up with the Northampton Battlefields Society and the Battlefields Trust ...

( The Battlefields Trust reprised Phil's wargamable display of the 1645 battle at Naseby)

 

(Northampton Battlefields Society added a participation game of Northampton 1460 by Graham Evans)

 

(medieval weapons and equipment from the Northampton collection)

 

(while the Society brought out the Kadesh game 'Call it Qids')

We were busy all day Saturday and both games got played a lot.  The displays attracted a lot of interest - feeling the weight of the swords, trying the helmets etc.

 

 

On Sunday we were joined by another of the Northampton team, Peter, the archer who answered questions on the longbows, demonstrated fletching etc.

 

Here are some more pictures of the games and exhibits

 

 

 

There was a nice mix of scales and resolutions ... blocks for Northampton, 6mm figures for Qids 

 

(Call it Qids: 6mm Hittites from Baccus)

 

(showing members of the public how wargames work - and letting them enjoy some history)

 

(Northampton 1460)

Elsewhere in the show:

 

This 15mm game was DBMM at the Teutoburgerwald on hex terrain.  Lots of trees.

 

 

And some nice scenics and figures in 10mm

 

But if you want bigger figures, Skirmish wargames had these 54mm ...

 

Next to our Wars of the Roses displays, Bedford Gladiators put on this 28mm Barnet

 

Nearly all lovely ancient and medieval games but I also like this 54mm colonial bash...

 

For more of the Naseby, see Phil's ECWBattles blog.

 

See NBS, SoA and the Battlefields Trust/Naseby at Partizan next weekend 

Call it Qids is available from the Society website.

22nd April ... London ExCel

SALUTE 2017

Another Salute came and went at the massive and constantly busy ExCel exhibtion centre in Docklands.

I was fully engaged this year with Ad Hoc's 'Nick the Tsar II', but spent my (extended) lunch break with the Society of Ancients stand as always.

The Society's big game was a Lost Battles interpretation of Kadesh ...

(the Society of Ancients at Salute 2017)

You will just about see a Rameses style Nile monument in the background ... just to say that this is a control marker, not a terrain piece ... and Lost Battles recovers the battle from the mists of time as a grand chariot engagement beside the Orontes.

For the full campaign, you can do no better than refer to Call it Qids from the Society games collection (easily the best published account documenting the battle).

Elsewhere there was a massive interpretation of the battle of Raphia using 'To The Strongest'

Here's a close up ...

(Raphia at Salute 2017)

For more shots of the game, go to Simon's blog)

Indeed almost everyone ends up at Salute

Another Ancient/Medieval battle I saw was a Mortem et Gloriam 'Hastings' (keeping the anniversary going) ...

(Hastings 1066)

And a few battles in other periods caught my eye as I briefly toured the show ...

(Salute 2017)

Including some wintry ones ...

(the Battle of the Snowshoes)

But of course most of my day was spent with this one ...

(Nick the Tsar II at Salute 2017)

There's a full set of pictures on Phil's 20th Century Wargames Blog ...

Next event is Campaign 

And watch out for us at Partizan.