The Other Partizan 2008

Sunday 7th September saw the first ever demonstration game hosted by Meeples & Miniatures at a UK Wargames Show, as we put on a 6mm Napoleonic Game at The Other Partizan, Kelham.

Here, along with a few pictures of the game, is the write up that I did for the game:

Many people’s route into the Miniature Wargaming hobby seems to be either via skirmish gaming, due to the low cost and small number of figures required, or via the various Games Workshop products, mainly due to their High Street presence.

We wanted to show that collecting and gaming an historical ‘massed battle’ miniature wargame which looks good, plays both well and quickly, and is within the budget of most gamers is not only possible, but easily achievable.

We decided to choose the Polemos Napoleonic Rules and Baccus 6mm Miniatures for 3 reasons:

1.        The Polemos ‘Marechal de l’Empire’,rules are easy to learn, fun to game and quick to play, enabling a game to be completed in a single normal club night (2-3 hours).

2.       6mm figures give an ‘epic’ feel to a game – the game actually ‘looks’ like a battle, and not just a large skirmish, whilst still being played on a table of easily manageable size (6’ x 4’)

3.       Baccus Miniatures are both well detailed and easy to paint, whilst at the same time being competitively priced.

 

This game is a generic encounter battle between British and French Peninsular War armies, and gives a good example of what it is possible to produce for the ‘average’ wargamer.

The French army comprises of 7 divisions of Infantry, supported by 1 Division and 2 Brigades of Cavalry. They are facing a British Army comprising of 7 Divisions of Infantry, supported by 3 Brigades of Cavalry – a total of some 1500 figures for both sides. All figures and scenery have been painted by Dave Luff.

 Figures:

 1 British & French Napoleonic box set (Includes starter armies and rules)

1 Pack British Line Infantry,  2 Packs British Riflemen

1 Pack French Line Infantry, 1 Pack French Grenadiers, 2 Packs French Voltigeurs

All figures produced by Baccus Miniatures

 

Scenery:

 

Trees – from Timecast, 6mm Deciduous trees

Roads – from Timecast. 2 packs of straight/bends from their 6mm collection

Buildings – from Timecast South Europe Range of 6mm Buildings

Hills  – various sized flocked hills from S&A Scenics

 

Additional Material

 

Gaming Mat – this is custom made. You can purchase a 6’x4’ gaming mat from S&A Scenics

Counters – These are available from Litko Aerosystems Ltd.  www.litkoaero.com

A couple of additional things of note:

Firstly, I must admit to not contrbuting much to the game, in the way of figures or scenery. I did, however, paint the river:

Finally, during the day, several people asked us how the base mat was made, and also what the cornfields were made of.

Well, the base mat was made from table protector – it has a brown vinyl cover with a kind of foam underneath. This was then covered in diluted PVA glue, and static grass (Gaugemaster, Noch 7072) was then liberally throw over the area. This was repeated until the desired effect was achieved.

The corn fields are simply made using acrylic paint pads – use the cheap varieties, as the expensive ones have too dense a bristle density. Scarpe the foam off the back using a scalpel, and then work some yellow/brown paint into the bristles with your fingers – job done!