Partizan - witterings before the pictures!

Yesterday I attended "T'Other Partizan" at Newark Showground. Before I post any pictures, I need to see how many of the 104 I took are suitable!

I note several blogs and social media posts have already published photos and gushing praise of the show. I offer a dissenting voice, prompted in part by thinking about the show after reading Graham / Trebian - 

https://wargaming4grownups.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-other-partizan-newark-october-2026.html

Rather than clutter his blog with my ramblings, I thought it best to post here.

First a disclaimer or two. I'm well aware of the voluntary effort that goes into the show and any criticism is not intended to reflect on them or their actions. I'm just a paying punter and so have a right to give my view of the experience I paid for. I'm well aware many people regard it as the best thing ever - each to his/ her own- we are all entitled to our opinions.

Before the show I was feeling down and in two minds about going. This perhaps coloured my view. It has to be said I have a love / hate relationship with the show. It's local and prestigious and I should consider myself lucky it exists and I can attend.

Firstly, did I have an awful show? No. Did I have a great stupendous show? No. It was "OK". The positives. I met up with David (https://russetcoatcpt.blogspot.com/) and met Chris for the first time in person (https://horseandmusketgaming.blogspot.com/) it being Chris' first time at the show.

I think this is the highlight for me, meeting people. I had a very brief chat with Aly Morrison (https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/) but he appeared to be struggling a bit so I kept it brief - he probably didn't know who I was anyway! ☺

But it highlights my first grumbles. There is nowhere to sit and chat, the catering is IMHO awful and it leads to people blocking the lanes between tables or blocking access to the tables themselves. It's my view the venue has been outgrown by all that's included. The gazebo doesn't really help and pushing bits in there just mean they get less footfall as people rush for the show itself.

Attendance seemed down from May but I've heard it was the same or better. The layout and use of space is sub-par. Warlord have a sort of walled ghetto with huge amounts of unused space, yet seemed to have very little trade. Some of the games were huge with little room either side. Dave Thomas' corner seemed about 10 deep and I didn't bother even trying. I have discussed before, how they get away with H&S / Fire regs is beyond me. I hope they have a good evacuation plan and never have to use it.

I don't like big echoing sheds or sports halls and I don't like crowds that you have to fight through. It may be just me, but I found people much more selfish or unaware with very little courtesy on show. I saw a chap in a wheelchair a couple of times who I moved aside for, being completely ignored by people taking up all the aisles.

The games. As is customary, Partzan has always encouraged the big diorama style "demonstration" game - the attendance of MW/ WI etc reinforced this. It was often labelled "showcase" and the games have got bigger and bigger and more spectacular in terms of scenery etc. Now some people love it and think it's the be all and end all of wargaming. Others hate it, claim it doesn't reflect "normal" wargaming or that the games are not played etc. There are the 28mm are king advocates and detractors; there is also an undertone of "elitism" IMHO, especially with the way certain "names" are given sort of "celebrity" status. Never subscribed to that. We are grown men playing with toy soldiers...

Are the games inspiring? Sometimes. Are they impressive works of art in their own right? Undoubtedly some are and generally the skills on display impressive and reflect considerable investment in time and money. But what are they?

Americans don't understand and I have been dragged into all sorts of online arguments about what they are or they are not, especially when I suggested that they were about showing off your skills so people said nice things about them, and that there WAS NOTHING WRONG with that, but it sort of reduced it to a bit of an ego trip.....

Now of course there are prizes and pictures in magazines, on blogs, Facebook and other social media. This just seems to have made it more competitive; you see bigger castles, ships, little vignettes......

The main criticism was that they were not played. That seems to have changed. In fact it was difficult to get close to or see some games, not just bystanders, but players occupying the whole long side of a table, not engaging with the public (exceptions for "celebrities" or course) and in some cases seeming to be quite annoyed if you wanted to take a photo! It was a flashback to the 1970s and 1980s....

By contrast, the participation games seem to be getting smaller and smaller and odder. A lot of these didn't seem to be engaging with the public, but TBH, I found it crowded and didn't spend much time there.

Tradestands - less and less each year. With more withdrawing from the show circuit and more and more retiring, what's the future? I'm not sure I want to see more and more 3d print traders or resellers. Is there a waiting list? No idea, but as they pay it's important to think about - and it has to be worth their while. I note more and more order in advance happening - prudent, but do the postage savings outweigh the other costs? At least they are in your sweaty hands. Is it nice to fight your way to a trader however?

All in all, I cannot help but feel pessimistic with some of what I saw. Does Partizan know what it is? Has it tried to appeal to everyone? There was criticism of the predominance of demo games, so participation were introduced but without reducing the number of demo games. It's simply too crowded IMHO and if the "get in for free" crowd are going to just play games and ignore punters, that's a backward step. Not all are like this but this year it was noticeable how many "hangers on" there were - attracted by free entry perhaps?

If trade does reduce with retirement etc, and if what I saw becomes the norm (crowds, rude inconsiderate people, paying punters being ignored) it may be on a downward spiral. Especially if we are going to become a narcissistic self-absorbed hobby.

Of course I fully expect most will not agree. Fine. This is MHO on my blog. What I would say is, that I think the US have got it right and the UK are just carrying on as they always have. The Americans expect to play and join in games. They don't understand "look but don't touch". OK there are differences, the conventions are longer and over several days; the distances are longer but, aside from cultural differences, I don't know why something similar hasn't developed in the UK. What I do see are more and more are "informal" gatherings put on by friends or acquaintances.

OK, putting my tin hat on and hunkering down in my bunker to await a storm of abuse or silence as I'm ignored! ☺☺☺☺

For the record, It wasn't a bad show and I did enjoy bits, but felt there was something off.

Caesar's Gallic War - progress report

A quick update on painting for the above campaign. Most are varnished and based awaiting a mass basing exercise...

Celts

Chariots

Light cavalry

Warbands

The ones at the back are to make up warbands to 6 stands using painted loose order.

Various Light Infantry

Druids

Vercingetorix

Leaders / command stands

Baggage and camp followers

Germans

Various cavalry including unit just painted with accompanying light infantry

Warbands

Light infantry

I thought I was almost finished with just some odds and ends - command some LC and LI, baggage and camp followers, and thought I had finished painting German warbands.....

Then my mate Pete Foggin sent me some 40 year old veterans in very basic paint.....so I slapped some Army Painter Flesh and Dark Tone wash on them...

That should be enough!

Testing

 Testing the Jonathan fix....

Play stops painting - a game!

 Rather than post pictures of painted and unpainted 15mm barbarians, something different.

To be honest, the last batches of Germans have at times been a chore; I suspect it's the numbers - 40 odd 15mm figures can sap the most enthusiastic painter and I have been flagging and getting frustrated with things like shield patterns. I don't really have a lot to do, some cavalry, light infantry and camp followers plus some command stands and that will be the German horde. There are a lot of odds and sods; Roman tribunes and baggage, plus camp defences. I think I will tackle them in small batches.

So, with the family away for a few days, I had access to the kitchen table without interruption. I decided I would play a game, but what?

For a bit of fun, here's the table laid out in the early morning sun. Can you guess the battle? A clue it's from the SYW.....

Answer? Lobositz 1756 the first battle of the Seven Years War between the Prussians under Frederick the Great and the Austrians commanded by the "wild goose" Marshal von Browne.

I first encountered the battle in Battle for Wargamers November 1977 where Charles Grant gave an account of his refight of the battle. At the time, not only was I greatly influenced by Charles Grant and the Wargame, but was also becoming interested in the period itself. So much so, I used his OoB to plan out 15mm Austrians and Prussians; having painted 1x 48 figure battalion and half way through a 24 cuirassier regiment, the thought of 9  and 3 more respectively was too daunting. I gave up the 15mm and switched to 25/30mm and WRG 1685-1845! The battle stayed with me though.

For those interested, the article has been reprinted in CG Grant's The Wargame Companion, along with a refight by CS Grant, his son (Charles Grant) and Phil Olley. The original article sadly had no pictures, just  a map.

Despite playing SYW I never replayed the battle - not enough Austrians for one thing. It was many years later when starting the Soldier King project and casting around for rules that I encountered it again as a scenario in Volley & Bayonet 1st edition. This had a major influence in choosing the rules, with the connection back to Charles Grant.

Recently, I have written a lot of background on the Soldier King project for the Society of Daisy newsletter (Saxe & Violets) at the urging of Eric Turner:

 (https://brownspreadandyellowfruit.blogspot.com/)

So my mind had turned to things SSM and Soldier King. With the opportunity to have a game, it was inevitable that I turned to Lobositz (although Mollwitz was a close second) and took a leaf from Charles Grant's book; he used his VFS and Lorraine armies as proxies for Prussians and Austrians, I would use my Soldier King armies of Bravance (in blue) and Estavian Imperial (in white). Initially I thought about using Charles Grant's OoB with VnB rules, but in the end plumped for the VnB orbats as in the scenario. This required a few "stand-ins" from other SK armies to make up the numbers.

So on to the game. First the terrain. Although the scenario uses a 5' x 4' table, I was limited to 5' x 3'6" so both long edges were shortened by 3" and deployment depth reduced accordingly.  I was limited by what I could find and resorted to "books under a cloth" for the significant hills.

The Lobosch - an extinct volcano covered with vines and walls.

The Holmka mound

Lobositz town with the river Elbe behind

The sunken road

The Morellenbach a swampy stream

Early morning mist in the valley floor - limiting visibility. Dice each turn after first to see if it dissipated; with a roll of one, it burnt off on the second turn!

The Austrians deployed, the advance guard beyond the Morellenbach, with the main army behind it.

The strong position of the sunken road - counting as fortification on sides facing out from road. I tried to replicate the Austrian historical deployment. TBH it was rather cramped and it took some time to organise and note which units represented the historical ones in the roster.

The main army and left wing cavalry cramped behind the Morellenbach.

The right wing were also cramped. Lobositz was garrisoned. 

I christened a dice tray I'd bought years ago and found some new dice - blue and black for the Prussians and white and red for the Austrians.

Tiddlywink tokens - green = stationary, blue limbered, yellow = disordered and red = routed permanent disorder.

The Prussians / Bravancians debouch from the narrow pass - thankfully the large movement rates meant the traffic jam was able to sort itself out to some extent, although the pass and left wing remained cramped. Playing solo, I was more concerned with getting the units on table so didn't lead with the cavalry as they did historically. You can see I managed to establish an artillery position on the Holmka mound.

The following photos were taken at the end of each sides bound showing the significant events / changes.

The left wing Austrian cavalry swung out behind the Morellenbach. You can see the mist has not cleared.

The mist lifts revealing a strong Prussian column of infantry regiments offering a potential opportunity for the Austrian advanced guard cavalry; sadly the Prussian artillery made short work of an Austrian Hussar regiment - unfortunately I had not left a base width gap between units so no saving roll! First blood to the Prussians.

The combined Carabinier brigade boldly charged and through back one of the infantry regiments, leaving them disordered and as exploiting this would take them out of command, settled for threatening the flank of the remaining units. Perhaps it should have gone for the artillery...

The Prussians clear the pass. The leading grenadiers would suffer as point unit. To the rear, regiments are told off to clear away the Croats from the Lobosch.

The infantry turned and shot up the Carabiniers, who opted to save the only hit (from artillery ) but then had to retire. Their action had disrupted the Prussian advance.

The Prussian left is stalemated while the Croats are cleared out. The grenadiers threatened by cavalry go stationary and the cavalry are disinclined to try their luck. However, the grenadiers are under short range artillery fire from a stationary battery which will eventually destroy them. The Prussian infantry are building up to storm Lobositz.

The left wing cavalry pile up behind while two regiments take on the Croats.

The grenadiers have gone and the Prussians aim to storm Lobositz.

The fight against the Croats drags on. Shooting was ineffective but melees at least pushed them back.

Lobositz is stormed and taken.

Cavalry replace the grenadiers and some Croats are eventually eliminated. An ineffective artillery duel ensues.

 The Prussian infantry reorganised them selves, rallied and attacked the sunken road. A battalion of Grenze were pushed out but the Prussians have been repulsed disordered (yellow markers). It's a very strong position with stationary grenadiers and a heavy artillery battery.

The regiments which took Lobositz rashly pursued and were repulsed disordered for their pains! A second regiment moves in. The Austrian infantry and a unit of grenadiers are out of command so cannot rally or move towards the enemy and the beaten regiment remains a disordered mob by the banks of the Elbe. Sadly, with attacks on the sunken road and Von Browne organising a counter attack into Lobositz, neither the army or corps commanders can do much to sort these units out.

A successful counter attack retakes Lobositz and yet again the Prussians are repulsed from the sunken road. Some of the left wing infantry are out of command, their commander being preoccupied with the fight on the Lobosch; the overall infantry commander has to bring them under command and lead them towards the Lobositz meatgrinder!

The Prussians keep on coming! While units form up to attack the sunken road again, artillery is pushed forwards and in the distance fresh regiments from the left wing are led forward.

Lobositz falls to the Prussians a second time! The mob of whitecoats by the Elbe increases.

The Lobosch is cleared, only a single battalion of Croats remain on the hill. The losses mean the Austrian army reserve is exhausted and cannot undertake offensive action.

Disaster for the Austrians! Most of the sunken road is cleared or captured and the heavy gun battery out of action after being stormed. There are reserves, but not in the right place and the commanders need to rally disordered units. The Austrians are faced with attacking Prussians behind entrenchments on the left and filling gaps on the right with the prospect of imminent attack.

Sensing victory, the right wing Prussian cavalry with overall cavalry commander attached, charge the Austrians behind the Morellenbach; it's a risky move - each unit has to dice to see the effects of the marsh - 1,2 no effect, 3,4 halve move distance, 5,6 halve move distance and disorder. The dice fall! The ones and twos that have plagued shooting actually come in useful! In a hard fought melee the Austrians are pushed back disordered, the Prussians follow up and now outnumber the remaining Austrian dragoons. Faced with an uneven combat on this flank, the centre collapsing, reserve exhausted and Lobositz falling and so cutting communication , Von Braune decided it was time to withdraw.

Thoughts.

I played solo from about 11am to 3pm with a short break for lunch. The rules worked well but there was some flicking through the rulebook to resolve certain situations. The eventual butcher's bill was 11 SP lost for the Austrians and 13 SP lost for the Prussians, so something of a pyrrhic victory. In the real battle, it was just to delay and distract Frederick while a flying column went to aid the Saxons penned up in Pirna. Sadly, the Saxons capitulated and were forced into the Prussian army (most deserted within the year), so despite no cavalry action in the valley and defeat of the Prussian horse, a historical result. Frederick remained on the field, played by Von Traben of the Bravancian army.

The Austrian position is a very strong defensive one. They are hampered by the ad-hoc command structure and never seemed to have enough generals where they were needed. In contrast the Prussians had a surplus of generals, tough troops and need to grasp the nettle and attack aggressively. The biggest problem is the terrain and the opening moves are akin to managing a traffic jam! A unit of hussars were missed in the confusion and remained in the box!  It probably explains the failure to push the cavalry forward as \I had so many things going on I concentrated on just getting them on table!

It was good to get the SK armies used (as David Barnes of the Ragged Soldier blog has been urging me) 

https://russetcoatcpt.blogspot.com/

The game and terrain were a bit improvised but did the job.

Given Blogger at present I don't know how long it will be before this is published and appears on others blog roll.....

Postscript: The VnB scenario books for the SYW have a different Lobositz scenario - different map and altered OoB with better command structure for the Austrians.