While pacing The Other Partizan last Sunday, doing my best to pick a path between the crowds of attendees, I realised I’m getting to know too many people in the wargaming world! It’s one of those good problems, of course - my job allows me to mix with talented game designers, miniature makers, hobbyists, company owners, and more - but when your mission is to cover as much as possible at a show (and in a limited amount of time) being friends with an increasing number of people attending that show rather slows progress! The upside of the many conversations on the day (beyond it being a very pleasant experience) is that they inevitably spawn new ideas for articles and other cool stuff to come in Wargames Illustrated. I can’t share some of the gossip and talk of upcoming releases just yet but there’s plenty on the way that will make for great reviews and articles in the next few issues we work on. A Christmas special I discussed a special December issue article, with accompanying figures and rules, with one of the traders at the show. This would connect with an iconic battle fought at the North Pole… but I can’t say more than that for now. Also, as we’re already finishing up 2024’s December issue right now, the piece won’t be seen for over a year! This is why, if you ever talk to me about ‘recent’ articles I’ll probably vaguely remember them at best. They were likely finished off many months ago in our magazine making cycle! Fabulous fantasy One thing I can share is that, while snapping photos of the Battle of Five Armies table (perhaps my favourite on the day), I was introduced to Simon Tofield, who had painted most of the masses of figures doing battle. I’m very happy that regular Wi contributor James Morris, who was running the game with his Midgard rules, introduced me to Simon, as we ended up discussing his conversion and painting for about 20 minutes. That will become a feature in an upcoming issue. In the meantime, here’s a selection of my photos, fresh from my iPhone and largely unedited, that give a taste of how Simon brings a lot of character to the different races in Middle-earth.
