Partizan.. a fistful of 17th/18th century gaming

Storming Athlone 1691 - from Mark Shearwood

For the first time in 20 years I was not able to actively contribute to Partizan. Instead, I decided to make a visit to see the show as a punter.

English Town in the hands o the Williamites

The Danes move up to cross by pontoon bridge

view from the west bank of the river

English soldiers in English Town

I spent about three hours at the show and enjoyed the new venue and the quality very much. Although many shows are starting to feel the same - barn like venues with a very high noise level, the light was fantastic and the games were of very high quality.

what is there to say but WOW!

Dutch ships of the Line

Different angle of the battle line being cut


What became quickly apparent was that the 17th/18th century is not any more a backwater of wargaming, well at least in the East Midlands!

Grimsby's Gigantic WSS meat grinder

I saw two ECW games, one Ireland 1691, one WSS, one 1660s Naval, one AWI and one SYW! It may have been the case that there was not a single Napoleonic game although I cannot be certain.

Andy's DONNYBROOK ECW skirmish

Mark Shearwood's Siege of Athlone 1691 was a spectacular effort and I was delighted that Mark used Beneath the Lily Banners as the rule set, Warfare Miniatures figures were on the table and Warfare/Quindia flags and unform guides were much in evidence.... full house!

Another view of Andy's game

An additional bonus was a very pretty ECW Donnybrook game run by Andy Bowes and friends - lots of fun and beautifully presented.

Innovative game of the day - clothes pegs and wood carvings

The asset rich Grimbsy Group had a very impressive WSS game with big battalions which appear to get chewed up and spat out in dramatic fashion allowing them to finish massive games in an evening.

Raw materials

A real favourite of mine was an awesomely presented ship for ship naval battle in 1/200th scale simulating Anglo-Dutch action somewhere in North Sea/English Channel.

The way forward - all flat packs apparently


Going back to Mark's game, my understanding is that it was a solo effort making it even more impressive.

Final word to Mark's Athlone!


I am very pleased that for once, the hardy perennials of Napoleonic, WWII, ACW and Ancients were placed in context with the scope of another critical period - ours!

Hope you enjoy the pictures.