Phalanx Show 2024

 Once again the St Helens Spartans club has organised an excellent show, with a good balance between games and trade, with the added attraction of what looked to be a thriving Bring and Buy.  In the lunch time break between participating in the Montgisard game with the Gentlemen Pensioners I managed to take a few photographs of other games of interest.

Firstly, this Boxer Rebellion game, with groups of troops from several nations attempting to rescue a group of their nationals from the besieged town.

Another 'colonial' game was offered by Tiger Miniatures, set on the North West Frontier

Next to the Lance & Longbow game were James Mitchell and Bren Dolan with a Talavera Game in 6mm

In contrast the All Independent 54mm Wargames Club also presented at Napoleonic game, in , as their name suggests 54mm scale.

The Cheshire and Staffordshire Wargamers had another game which looked Napoleonic, but on closer inspection was set in the Crimean War.  It was covering the British sector of the Alma Battlefield.

Two clubs had games set in North Africa in WWII : Beacon Gaming Club

and the Mailed Fist group

We ran our game twice and  several visitors to the show were interested enough to give our much modified 'Lion Rampant' rules a try.

In these units the spearmen can kneel, allowing the crossbowmen to fire

Sadly, Dave Lanchester wasn't able to join the Gentlemen Pensioners this time, but Andy, Chris, John, Neil, Peter and Steve were all in attendance.

Gentleman Pensioners Weekend 2024

 The weekend of the Phalanx Show at St Helens is coming up soon.  Once again we will be running a game in support of the Lance and Longbow Society, this year provided by Will.  On the Sunday, Steve usually hosts a game and this year it will be an Eastern Renaissance 'bash'.

We will be using Steve's 8 x 6 table and almost 1000 25mm figures.  The battle will involve an Ottoman army, with some Tartar allies confronting an 'Alliance' army of Muscovite, Cossack and Polish/Lithuanian troops.  Here are a few photos of the initial deployment.

View along the table from behind the Alliance left wing

The Alliance centre flanked by wagons

The Ottoman centre, Janissaries and Spahi of the Porte

Ottoman right flank

Soldatski and Cossack foot

Hopefully, a report of the show and the Sunday battle will appear in a fortnight's time.

Partizan Show, May 2024

 If it is a sunny Sunday in mid to late May, it must be Partizan.  Once again Steve and I were blessed with the weather as we made our way south to the Newark Showground for the Partizan show.  Partizan has an enviable reputation for hosting a diverse range of excellent demo and participation games along with a good range of trade stands.  This year proved to be as good as ever, as I hope the selection of photos below demonstrate.

As they say on the tv, "in no particular order"

Phil Olley with his Eastern Renaissance game

Nearby were the League of Extraordinary Kriegspeilers with their "Back of Beyond" game Down on the Adriatic Sea

Westbury Gamers had their Alexandrian Successors game "Battle of Gabene

Durham Wargames Club with the Battle of Fulford Gate

The South American Wars of Independence features in the Barely Legal Wargamers "Battle of Carabobo

On a similar theme Ist Corps had a game based on the Mexican- American War of the 1840's

The Battle of Freeman's Farm by Mr Steve Jones

Simon Miller's Relief of Norchester

Chesterfield Old Boys has a WWII game in 1/35 scale

While Kallistra offered a 10mm Siege of Buda

The Boondock Sayntes demonstrated an Indian Mutiny game

Yarkshire Gamer brought along his Mentana game which was also at Vapnertak

There were of course lots of other games, all well presented.  Without fail, the groups and individuals providing the games were keen to talk about them.  One of the bonuses of attending shows is the opportunity to meet up with old friends and indeed meet new ones.  Ray Rousell, who posts on his blog Don't throw a 1, often posts comments on this blog and I was pleased to meet him and thank him in person for taking the time to make comments.

Judging by the number of people in the venue the show was a success and thanks go to the organisers who put so much hard work into Partizan.  Well done to them all!!