Fantasy and Sci Fi Partizan 2004

Last year I was disappointed not to be able to make it to this show, and I felt even worse when I saw the pics of the superb display games on show. So I decided that come Hell or high water I was going to make the 2004 show. Well Hell had little to do with it, but it took a bit of persuading to get My son to miss lacrosse for the day and get out of bed at 6am to ensure we got to Newark in good time for the show.

But it was well worth it!

The advantage of the fantasy and SCi Fi genre, is that the only limitation to the games is the imagination of the clubs involved, and although, predictably, Lord of the Rings games featured at the show, it by no means dominated, and there was a variety of excellent games on show. Richard homed in on a large LOTR participation game from Ken South and I knew that he would be happily engaged in slaughtering the forces of good for a good couple of hours, so I slipped off to check out the rest of the show.

The Skirmish Wargames Society did it again with a Sci-Fi game in a very large scale, bigger I think than their normal 54mm, their games are always worth looking at, always innovative, and always fun! And talking for fun the chaps from teh South East Scotland Wargames Club presented a sort of Island of Doctor Moreau meets Return of the Zombies game, with Hollywood style heroes, naval landing parties and all sorts of creatures wandering around a tropical island. The rules used were very simple, and contained a whole host of daring do situations that made this game a peach (click here for more info and pics). Overlooking the action was an Imperial castle under assault from the undead, first class modelling from the League of Orksburg!

In the main hall I was very impressed by the Kallistra display which featured their new plastic Hexon II terrain system, which looks excellent. Amazon hosted a display featuring scantily clad women with guns, fast flashy cars and loads of violence, those guys are so PC it hurts.

A couple of the larger games could not fail to catch the eye The Nottingham Wargames Club presented a huge Bretonnian versus the Undead Warhammer game. The painting on the figures was first class, and the terrain also extremely impressive. Meanwhile on a neighbouring table skeletoid dinosaur cavalry spearheaded the attack on the COGS displays, while next door Angel did battle with a horde of vampires and demons in the city sewers. As I said the great thing about this show is that the only limit is the player's imagination. Over in the corner of the main hall was a small but wonderful game presented by the HLBSCo, which was a sort of Lost Worlds scenario with explorers and hunters on a safari somewhere in Africa, encountering a selection of reptiles a la Jurassic Park, unfortunately this seemed to be more of a static display as there was little gaming when I passed, which was a pity.

The bring and buy was something of a disappointment for me, as I had decided, very strictly that I would not buy anything unless it was an addition for my existing armies, or for Richard's LOTR collection. And although there were a few LOTR items they were commanding seriously premium prices. There was plenty of other bits and pieces around and a few real bargains, but nothing that tempted me....... except that is a superb Back of Beyond collection that almost had me driving into town to clean out my bank accounts, but luckily I decided that the cancellation of the family holiday would probably lead to my early demise, in which case the possession of a first class collection of military miniatures would be of little good to me. Having said that I did buy some very nice terrain features from the home club's members bric a brac stall which will feature in future photo sets in Wargames Forum.

I was amazed to find that the day had flown by at this show, and all too soon it was time to set off home, I retrieved Rick , who having slaughtered a host of Gondorians was now polishing off a squad of Ja'far in one of the two Stargate SG1 displays. The trip home was full of discussion about the show and it was clear that Richard had enjoyed himself immensely, so I am able to state that this is a show that has attractions for the family, perhaps far more than the normal military focussed event, and well worth the visit.

Please remember to mention Wargames Forum when contacting traders!

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