The Other Partisan 2025

 The WD Display Team (north) recently attended The Other Partisan at the Showground near Newark. We took my 'Alexander the Brief' game along for another outing, and I had also had a short shopping list. 

Even though I was there before 9am, a lot of the other games and trade stands were already set up. Given the thick fog blanketing the area, that was quite impressive, it wasn't a nice drive and the fog hung around until late afternoon.

The WD stand didn't take long to set up. This time I actually remembered to bring the old copies of the WD Journal 'Nugget' as prizes, and the battle board, which I'd forgotten for the SOA conference. We were using John As very posh dice rolling trays too (repurposed wood picture frames, pre lined with felt). We had our usual slot near the Northamptonshire Battlefields Society.

I had a quick run around but I was busy running the game most of the day. I'm sure other people will do detailed photo reports. I liked the look of this large Eastern Front game by Derby Wargames Society.

And this fabulous Vietnam game from North Riding Wargames. The napalm strike had little flashing lights in it and a lovely model of a Skyraider (which irl is an enormous aircraft).

Near to us Chris K had set up his Front Scale 'Invasion of Crete' game using brigade sized bases. He ran various phases of the German assault during the day. It was somewhat less lavish than the Corps Scale version I'd played all day at Patriot Games a few days before. (I will report on that separately).

Meanwhile back on our stand we had some takers for Alex the Brief. Although there were four of us on the stand, I ran all the games. It just seemed easier and the acoustics in the hall were awful. This is the setup for Granicus.

In this iteration of Granicus, all that is left of the Persians are their mercenary hoplites, about to be surrounded as Alexander storms across the river. We ended up running the game about half a dozen times.

Darius' flanks collapse at Gaugamela. In these iterations, Alexander never lost a battle, unlike the outings at Partisan and SOA conference, and Macedonian campaign losses never approached the massive ten achieved by John B. The best performance was three battles won and three units lost, which was pretty good.

Darius got to run away a lot. Here is he is fleeing to Bactria after Gaugamela.

The show attendance was pretty good, it was absolutely packed, and the numbers held up well into the early afternoon, but dropped off sharply after 2.30. We packed up at 1545 after one last session. A permanent feature now seems to be the new 'tabletop sale' in the tented area by the entrance. This is run as a series of slots, so there were new things for sale all day. Some of my colleagues came away with amazing bargains (three complete 6mm armoured trains for £3!).

Back at Crete. The Germans manage to capture Heraklion airfield, but at heavy cost.

My own purchases were quite modest. I was disappointed Brigade Games weren't there as I wanted one of their Vauban forts, however I did score not one but two second hand Matildas and a Stuart, as well as some useful Coat D'Arms colours including a good match for RAF Duck Egg green. I prefer paints in pots to dropper bottles. 

The Matilda, Stuart and Duck Egg green were on my shopping list. The Matildas are Zvezda, and I think the Stuart is a Skytrex M5. Hopefully a bit closer in size to my QRF M3s than the PSC M5 whoppers.

Surprise score of the day was this perfect condition boxed set of Striker. Result! I sold my original set in the late 90s, and paid roughly the same for this one as I sold the original for 25 years ago.... I'm unlikely to ever play it, but I'd much rather have the actual booklets than the PDFs I got from DriveThruRPG.

Many thanks to John A for spotting this on the Bring and Buy.

Even better, the funds raised from Striker (and loads of other stuff on the same stall) go to the SeaWatch foundation. Saving the planet while blasting aliens, what isn't to like.

That was a fun show and and I'm glad the numbers seem to be holding up. I did see some people I knew wandering about as well but didn't have much chance to chat. I didn't get to do as much shopping and browsing as usual either, but what I did manage was fine and the people who played Alexander the Brief appeared to enjoy it. My Macedonians and Persians have been living in their 'show box' for several months now, so I'll be glad to put them back in their proper storage boxes.