Showing posts with label Partizan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Partizan. Show all posts

Thursday, 19 May 2016

To Newark with Ballista and chums!

On Sunday I'll be at Partizan Wargamign and History at its new Newark Showground home running a game of To the Strongest! with Dr Phil Hendry and his wonderful Middle Imperial Roman and Sassanid collections. 

The Battle of Circesium will feature a Roman force, led by Ballista, Dux Ripae, fighting its way through a Sassanid horde to the relief of a besieged city. Here's a photo that I have lifted from Phil's excellent blog where you can see his lovely Third Century Romans and his Sassanids that will be used in the game.


Not only will there be me, Dr. Phil and his collection, we also have special guest Dr Harry Sidebottom, author of the Warrior of Rome and Thrones of the Caesars series. Harry will be signing his novels and passing out a free freshly sculpted miniature of the aforementioned Ballista (the hero of Harry's Warrior of Rome series) to those buying a book. Moreover, there will also be copies of "To the Strongest!" for sale and not only will £20 get you a copy of my worthy rules, but you'll get a free Ballista and a free sample pack of chits and bases, to boot! I'll even sign the rules too, if you want.  ;-)

Last but not least,  not only will we have me, Dr Phil Hendry and Dr Harry Sidebottom, we will also have Keith Branagh and Adam "Smithy" Smith from Aventine Miniatures. Keith runs the friendliest miniatures company in the land and Adam is a genius who sculpted all of the miniatures that will be used in the game, and the new Ballista, to boot. 

If you'd like to play the game and try out the To the Strongest! rules, post a message and I'll book you in. The game is in the centre of the gaming zone at DG15- look out for the city walls of Circesium!

Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Arthur and Magnus Maximus at Partizan

Very belatedly, here are shots of the recent game on which the Newark Irregular boys and myself collaborated. Most of the miniatures, terrain and buildings are from Steve Jones and James Morris superb collections as seen in the WAB "Age of Arthur" book, with Scrivs, Mog and myself topping them up. The photos are from various contributors including Darrell Hindley, John Thompson and Ian Notter.


Above the whole table, which was L shaped and roughly 15' by 15'. In the foreground Magnus Maximus' Late Romans (left) fact a Pictish horde. 


Above Pictish reinforcements coming ashore with their village in the background. Below a couple of shots of the Pictish warbands.


The printed gaming mats proved very popular- so popular that four of the five used in the game were "spoken for" by the close of play. I have started importing them from Deep-Cut Studio in Lithuania, and they can be found in the BigRedBatshop, I'll have some desert ones too, shortly.


Below, Picts peer nervously out from their villages.


I made the heather- it is clump foliage glued to MDF with a dusting of pink flock. Cheap and effective and I'll make some more, also more gorse.


Romans drawn up in front of their camp. That's Magnus Maximus on the horse. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the Arthur vs the Saxons game, but here are some lovely shots of the village situated between the two games.



James' villa (below, one wing only) is stunning and packed with interior detail, too.


Below To the Strongest! action as evidenced by the presence of playing cards. The Roman unit with the blue shields and draco (bottom left) broke through the Pictish line.


Finally here's another shot of the lovely stand that the Newark Irregulars very kindly gave me; they formed the garrison of the Romans camp.


Many thanks again to the Newark Irregulars and to all my mates who helped on the day; it was a pleasure. Farewell to Kelham and onwards to the Newark Showground! Next year there should be space for a proper-sized table. ;-)

Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Ecce! Lasiurus egregius!


Behold the BigRedBat! This lovely stand of Asterix-style Romans was unexpectedly presented to me on Sunday by the Newark Irregulars, as a very generous counter-gift to a baboon I donated for their Keren game. For the curious, the BigRedBat tag is a reference to a model I made back in '02. The minis are lovely and will provide a garrison for my Roman camp in many games to come!

Luckily Tabletop Mog was present to record the very instant of presentation in his below action shot (from the left: the left half of Steve Jones, the eponymous Bat in tasteful shirt being presented with model, James Morris and Scrivs. 


I've not had enough time since returning to get my pictures of our collective "Arthur and Maximus" game together. However Scrivsland has some great pictures of the game and the other excellent games at Partizan, and Wargames Illustrated took some beautiful photos too. Hopefully in  a few days I'll have time to do a post.

The last Kelham Partizan was a memorable event.  It was great to meet so many friends new and old including the Newark lads, Muswell mate Ian; TtS! stalwarts including John Thompson, Dave Lycett, Mark Emms and Simon Wilson; paint-gods David Imrie and Andres Amain, Jack Glanville, Darrell Hindley, Bunker Shaun, Meeples Nigel, Craig Daisho Cartmell, Daniel "Glutter" Mersey, Harry Sidebottom and Tom, WS&S Guy, WI Daniel and all the others (many apologies) who I've forgotten (I'm dreadful with memory, especially names and faces). Tricks and Laurence did their usual super organisational job. The next Partizan will be at Newark Showground on 22nd May 2016, one for the diary!

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Pydna at Partizan

My brief tour of the Midlands culminated with our Pydna game at Partizan.

The Pydna Project was a joint venture between myself and friends Keith Branagh from Aventine, Craig Davey, David Imrie and his friend Jack Glanville, Dug Page-Scott, John Thompson, Shaun "Bunker" McLaughlin and Andrew Fielden, most of whom brought miniatures to the event.

I had initially planned a Zama-sized 1500-mini game, but the project spiraled upwards until we had 2,850 miniatures on the table on the day, recreating the battle at 1:30 scale. The phalanx (not including supports) was 2.8 metres wide, and 4-6 miniatures deep.  David Imrie was kind enough to re-base his Roman legion in a similar style to those we already had, giving us the required 4 legions of around 200 miniatures each.  Simon MacDowall kindly let me use the briefing and order of battle from his recent piece in Wargames Illustrated.  

Here's a shot of the deployment (all pictures expand when clicked):

View down the phalanx, looking up the hill towards the legions
I build the terrain, which was roughly 6 metres wide by 1.6 metres deep, with a nearly invisible grid. To recreate the slopes of Mount Olocrus upon which the Roman formed up, I jacked up the rear  nine boards by 130mm and supported it underneath with timber and Really Useful Boxes, so that a giant slope ran the entire length of the battlefield.


Here's a link to a 30 second video showing the table after deployment; this is too good to miss!


The rules we used were my "To the Strongest!" set (to be published in November), which I originally designed to play large games at shows. I was able to shout (!) the basics across the table to the players in around 15 minutes, and field questions as they went along.  We didn't need to consult the rules. The game took 3 hours and ten minutes to come to a suitably bloody conclusion.   

Mid battle
The Macedonians attacked fiercely from the outset, all along the line. From my position on the Roman right (assisting a 13 year old tyro called Solomon), I could see that the Keith's Macedonian Agema were making fast progress, successively carving their way through Dug's velites, hastati and principes. There were some local Roman successes, with Solomon pushing forward with the Numidian elephants. 

The killer taxis
However Aventine Keith managed to kill a unit of triarii and get a taxis of the Macedonian guard phalanx (above) to the top of the hill, turn it through 90 degrees (not easy) and march through the rocky terrain at the top of the hill (not at all easy) to kill the four more units of triarii (pretty darned difficult) required for a Macedonian victory. 

We all had a terrific day and it was great to catch up with friends made at previous Partizans and through blogging. An especial thanks to everyone who helped with setup and knock-down! My hat goes off to Richard and Laurence for organising the event, and dealing efficiently with the curve-ball delivered by the Kelham owners (an unexpected stage in the main hall). 

Onwards to the next big game; perhaps Magnesia?

Wednesday, 3 September 2014

Pydna 168 BC at Partizan on Sunday

I am in the final stages of preparing for our Very Large Pydna 168BC battle to be fought at Partizan Wargaming and History in Newark on Sunday. Pydna was the last hurrah of the Macedonian army, and the Roman General Lucius Aemilius Paullus apparently suffered from nightmares about their phalanx for the rest of his life!
With 2500+ 28mm miniatures, I hope that this will be one of the largest ancient wargames ever played. We could do with four or five more generals (we ideally need a dozen), so if you are coming to Partizan and have 2 hours or so free, please drop me a line! Previous ancients experience is not essential, and I'll teach you the simple rules on the day.


Monday, 2 June 2014

Bloody Cremona!


Here are some more photos of the Roman Civil War game that I ran yesterday at Partizan, in the grounds of Kelham Hall. 

One benefit of this year's move from Hall to tent was the vastly superior lighting.  Yesterday I felt very much like Van Gogh must have felt after he relocated from Paris to Provence... Time was so short, however, that I am afraid I completely failed to take any pics of the other games, several of which were quite spectacular, particularly the lofty Keren and muddy Lardy Verdun game.  

Several of the below photos were taken by Dave D. and John T., who played in the game, together with Agema Greg, Nigel M. and Jean. The players were as good-natured a bunch of wargamers as one could hope to come across.  A big thank you to John T who was a huge help in setting up and knocking down the game. 

In our re-fight, the smaller Othonian force attacked aggressively from the outset.  Their cavalry, although outnumbered almost three to one, smashed the  poorer quality Vitellian cavalry and turned onto the flank of the enemy infantry. Beyond the Po, the Batavians killed the Othonian gladiators, losing a unit to an ambush from a small wood, in the process. The main infantry fight was extremely even but, after hard fighting, the Othonians managed to overturn history and achieve a narrow but very worthy victory.

We had quite a few visitors, and I talked to as many as I was able. I also managed to chat with some of the people from other tables, notable the Newark Irregulars, all three of the magazine editors, Phil from the SOA and Northstar Nick, and old friends Craig Cartmell and Richard Crawley, amongst others. 

The players picked up my "To the Strongest!" rules very quickly and required surprisingly little intervention from me, which was convenient as I was stretched very thin.

Lawrence and Tricks, the Partizan organisers, did a fantastic job of moving the event to the marquees, on such short notice. I absolutely loved playing in the tents, and would be delighted to put on a game in them again. I fear that the additional cost and the risk of bad weather may preclude this, though... I hope there will be room for me, in tent or hall, in September!

I'll be running this game again, and several others on a similar scale, at the Wargames Holiday Centre near Basingstoke, on the weekend of 28th/29th June, there are still spaces, give Mark Freeth a call!

Without more ado, here are the photos!  All are clickable, and the video can be watched full screen.

Initial deployment; eight regiments of Vitellian cavalry, face three Othonian units.  The former were slaughtered...

The first of the eight Vitellian cavalry units are removed by Agema Greg...

The pontoon bridge.  I liked the bridge, even if everyone who came by the table seemed to prefer the vineyards.  ;-)
Battle lines clash amidst the (offending) vineyards.
Othonian Praetorians advance along the raised Postumian way; this terrain piece came out very well.

The plain near Cremona was extensively farmed, and divided into rectangular plots; perfect for my grid-based rules!
Batavians cross the pontoon bridge, shot at by gladiators from the Othonian boat
Othonian self-propelled artillery benefit from the elevation provided by the raised road.

I Adiutrix (forground) battle XXI Rapax (rear).  The commanders of both legions fell in the heavy fighting.
Finally, below a video of the battlefield I took after the end of the game, showing all of the figures and the terrain pieces.



Sunday, 1 June 2014

Cremona at Partizan


I'm back from Partizan and completely bushed. The sun shone, the venue was fantastic and I met a whole lot of friends. I'll post some photos tomorrow, but for the moment, I have a somewhat shaky video of the game in full flow, playing cards everywhere and several generals with furrowed brows! The pile of units off table towards the end of the clip, are seven regiments of dead Vitellian cavalry. It was a bloodbath...

Wednesday, 16 April 2014

All downhill to Partizan...


With Salute behind me, it's all downhill towards Partizan. Here are the two new 100-strong legions I'm raising for the next game; above are the minis I'm painting from scratch, and below the pre-loved minis I bought from Legatus Hedlius, and on eBay. There are around 190 Little Big Man Studios transfers involved; I managed to fit all of these, safely, without wasting a single one.


It is a little daunting that I need to finish around five of the above minis each and every night until the date of the show (not to mention building the terrain), but I reckon I can do it...

Sunday, 30 March 2014

Two legions for Vespasian

I'm near enough to completing the various projects for Salute, so have begun to make a start on my next project, which is a Cremona 69AD, for Partizan on 1st June.

In odd moments I've been preparing the figures for two 100-strong legions of Early Imperial Romans, which will form the core of Vespasian's army. I'm using the system I described in my "One piece at a time" article in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. I have bought around 110 of the figures, painted, in 4 different lots. A substantial contingent came from Legatus Hedlius; in fact they are on the header of his blog! All of these need new shield transfers, and some (but not Legatus'), need quite a bit of work to make them presentable.


The balance of the required minis need to be painted from scratch, and are shown below. Almost all of the minis are Foundry Saleh's, but I've mixed in a few Black Tree, Aventine and Crusader and swapped a few heads to increase variety. I've  made a small start on the painting and shield transfers. One legion will have grey-black shields, and the other, yellow.


I have exactly 2 months to lick these into shape (whilst simultaneously building the terrain!). This should keep me nice and busy...

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Thapsus goes to Partizan!

On Sunday I had a pre-dawn start up to Newark for Partizan.  I had a nice clear drive up the A1 in my new-ish war wagon. As my games get bigger, I find that the task of loading and unloading everything is getting more taxing... and this year it was quite a job!  


I eventually got the boards set up, ate a bacon butty, and John arrived and helped me to set up the troops. The above view (all photos are clickable) is from the salt-lake side, across the isthmus, towards the sea at the rear. The more numerous Pompeians and their Numidian allies are on the left, and Caesar's legions on the right. There is a light scattering of scrub and olive trees, but no terrain that will impact the battle.


Here's the view from the sea wing. I eventually decided to name the ship "Venus", after Caesar's patron goddess (and the scurrilous song!).  Hilariously, Dug kept forgetting to move it, but brought its ballista into use by the end of the game.


Above is Caesar, beautifully painted by Andres of Einar Olafson, and received just before the game. He's a conversion using Foundry, Aventine and Warlord parts, and I'm going to paint a standard bearer to accompany him.

Later Dug, Dr Phil and his son Tim arrived, and we were quorate to kick the game off. A brief run through the rules (the Lite version of my own "To the Strongest!" set), and we were off! The players looked a little slack-jawed when the first unit was destroyed, within 30 seconds of play commencing. Shortly after this, I demonstrated why it is important to remember to move one's elephants... in a blue-on-blue incident, mine rampaged back through two of my units and trampled my general to death.  The 3 Aces are my failed saving cards.


On the other wing, however, Tim's elephants performed prodigies and smashed deep into the enemy lines (below).


This enabled us to turn the flank of Caesar's legions, but unfortunately they had done much the same to us on my other wing.  Below, playing cards are used to activate units and resolve combat.  The first time I've not needed to take dice along to a game!


Below is a shot of the clash of legionaries in the centre. Several cohorts eventually managed to turn onto the flanks of other cohorts.


I estimate that  we managed to only get 2-3 hours or so of play in during the whole day, as we started late, chatted to lots of people, did some shopping, took pictures of other games and so forth, so we didn't quite finish the game.  Caesar was ahead at the end, though, but not by as much as on the day in 46 BC, so, in that sense, it was a moral victory for Scipio.   Below is a shot of the late-game carnage; I was running out of places to put my casualties!


We had a great day, so thanks to Dug, John, Dr. Phil, Tim and Craig, who played, and a big hello to everyone who called by to have a look!  Especial thanks to Dug for his photos, and John for helping me pack up at the end.  Dr Phil and John had some useful suggestions for rules tweaks.  Oh, and huge thanks to the Partizan crowd for being such great hosts!  

Monday, 2 September 2013

A few shots of Partizan...

Yesterday I took my Thapsus game to Partizan.  I had a great time, but not nearly enough spare time to get around all the games.  Below are a few that were near to our table.  Tomorrow, I'll post some shots of our game.


The Bunker's Operation Thunderball (Entebbe raid) game was stunning.  Those aircraft were even bigger than they look here!  There was some lovely craftsmanship in this game.


Below, the Ugandan airforce.


And finally, the terminal building.


I'd love to play this scenario, someday, to see if the rules mechanics are as good as the modelling!

Next, we have David Imrie's Roman game based on "The Eagle of the Ninth", I think.  The minis are terrain were painted to an exceptional standard.


The fort, below, is one of Touching Histories; I have its twin.


And finally a War of the Spanish Succession game that Goat Major and LT from WD3 were running.  Lovely minis...


...and the Belgian town was to die for.  But what's that in the main street?  ;-)


The venue seemed very busy, and the event well run.  It was an enjoyable day and I ran into quite a few people I know, largely from previous trips to Kelham.  Partizan remains quite my favourite show!

Monday, 3 June 2013

Pikes, pachyderms and Partizan

Yesterday we played the long-planned game of Raphia at Partizan.

I was far too busy to take many photos, but I did get a few good shots of the setup, and one of the team involved; so here goes!  This is a view down the 14' long table; the Seleucids being on the right.


Below, this is my phalanx, with first the agema/peltastoi, then the libyans, the five chalkaspides and three deeper machimoi taxis; some 600 minis with long pointy sticks!  There were 11 lovely Aventine  elephants on the table, and Craig's phalanx was very colourful in pink and blue.  


Below, Craig's lovely converted arabs stare across the plain towards the Egyptian phalanx, no doubt with considerable trepidation...


A view from behind the Seleucid left flank.


There seems to be something wrong with our elephants today... an African elephant routs through the King's Companions.


And below, an Indian routs through the Seleucid mercenary phalanx.


Eventually the Seleucid cavalry were able to turn onto the exposed wing of the Ptolemaic phalanx, and roll it up.  


I hope to get some more shots of the battle, later.  My "To the Strongest!") rules worked very well, in their largest test to date, and Keith and Craig had a couple of very interesting suggestions, that I am pondering...

Craig has posted a fuller AAR here.

Here are the various involved parties: Keith, Adam, Craig, John, yrs. truly and Dug.


Partizan was great fun; very well organised, as ever, and I love the high ceiling of the main hall.  Sadly I didn't have time to see many of the other games, or even spend any money.  I did meet lots of bloggers and gamers, though, and enjoyed chatting with the WSS crew on the next table, too, as well as catching up with Keith, Adam, Dug and Craig.  

Now...  what to do next?  ;-)