Colours 2026 Show Report

It's early September, it's the start of Autumn, so that must mean it's time for my annual trip to the Colours wargames show, held at Newbury racecourse. Even though the traffic was unusually busy for the time of day on the M4, I still arrived about 10 minutes before the doors opened. As always it was good to see a large queue of people waiting to get in, which is not only good for the show, the traders but of course for us gamers as it means the show is in rude health and likely to continue for many a year to come.

Once inside, I took my time to have a bit of a wander around all three floors, just to see what is on offer, alongside my normal stop at the book stands, but more on that later. But first I know most people simply want to see the games on show, so without further ado here they are. Apologies if I get anything wrong, as there were some no-shows and some of the games were not as per the floor plan. First world problems and all that!

The Lance & Longbow Society, with their skirmish rules, 'By Oath Sire'. Too much table clutter for my liking, but good to see the game actually being played!

Company of Makers, with a mix of Sci-Fi skirmish games.

Interesting to see this banner and the funding provided by HM government.

Standing Ready Games? with some 1930's action going on.

Bataille Empire and 'The Battle of Fuentes de Onoro'.

Liverpool Wargames Association and Spartan vs Greek City State, 15mm.

The Pike & Shot Society and some 28mm ECW. 

Lots of lovely figures on display.

I always like to see a fortified manor house, as I want to make one for my games one day.

An idea of how big the table was. 

INWTS Games & 1940 Norway naval battle. This seemed to be very popular.

The Society of Ancients, Guagemela, using Impetus 2 (that will make Jon Freitag happy😉!).

A lone Persian showing a certain 'sang froid'.

Oxford Wargames Club, Bloody Big Battles, The Wilderness 1864.

Figures from Pendraken (10mm).

Leggetts and the 'Siege of Maiden Hillfort'.

Shepway Wargames and War of the Roses. I didn't clock this was the WotR until editing these photos!

A lovely castle.

Ditto the figures.

Beaconsfield Wargames and Sharp Practice?

Nicely done cobbles, maybe with embossed wallpaper?

Lots of lovely terrain, which caught my eye for my planned Italian hill town.

Wargames Association of Reading, DBMM & Cunaxa 401 BC.

Deeprose Games & 15mm Peninsula War.

Too Fat Lardies & Vexillarius Ancients?

It would appear to be the Battle of Marathon.

Southbourne Table Top & Boardgamers, Club 1813 (clever title!).

Ecorcheurs & 'Will the Portcullis Fall at the Castle?' A nice game, but they were struggling to see and manouevre the miniatures when I took this photo.

Lots of great terrain once again.

Sorry, but no idea on this one.

Anschluss Wargames & 'A Small Town in Russia'. they always do a really nice small game to demo their rules.

Sadly no idea on this game.

Table Top Battles & 'The Battle of Schleswig' in 15mm, using grides for movement etc.

Grey Company & 'Amon Hen'. We used to play these rules a lot at the club many years ago.

Peter Pig and their 'Bloody Barons' WotR rules.

Rapid fire demo game, France 1944 by the look of it.

My 'loot'. I love these books and from a quick flick through, this looks to be all I hoped it would be. Another project looms...?

Thoughts on the Show

In the end I spent 3 1/2 hours at the show, much longer than I normally would do. I decided to take my time and just wander, rather than feel the need to whizz round and get back home, which I normally do. This made the day much more enjoyable, allowing me take it all in, chat with people etc. So in no particular order:

• Having had a wander, I sat down with Chris, Dave and Dr Mark Smith (General Lee) to play BBB and The Wilderness 1864. Even though I was comprehensively beaten by Mark, it was a great game and, as always with BBB, you get to appreciate how much terrain affects your actions. It was good to catch up with the chaps after the Waterloo game and to chew the cud as it were.
• My bright yellow hoodie did the trick and I was happy to meet David from Suffolk, for a brief, but very pleasant chat. It's rare you get the chance to meet fellow Bloggers FtF, but when you do, you realise why you follow their Blogs, because we seem to share similar views and thoughts on our wonderful hobby. Sadly I didn't get to meet him again, but there is always another show or online.
• The show has plenty of seating, which is we know, is not always the case at shows. The venue is bright and airy, so being able to take a break in pleasant surroundings is such a treat. Other shows take note!
• Books. Despite having been going to Colours for many years now, I'm always amazed at some of the pricing on show and the differences between the sellers. Some of the prices have to be seen to be believed, especially for many books that I know are cheaper online and come with free delivery. 
• This always seems to be a show for buyers, with the games coming in second place, compared to say Partizan which is the other way round. There was certainly a lot more Sci-Fi and 3D printing on show this year. Pendraken were noticeable by their absense, but will be back on the show circuit next year. I did notice that no-one was selling dice, tokens etc compared to other years, ditto rulebooks unless they came from some of the big boys. Maybe this simply reflects the online buying habits that are so common these days?
• The show did seem busy, after the usual scramble for products on the lower floors, as by lunchtime, the top floor was more busy than usual, which again is good to see. Even when I left at 1.30pm, some people were still arriving. Good to see the show doing well again after a few years when it was looking so good compared to others around the country.
• I think it was a good mix of games, with large and small on show, with those show stoppers and ones you could put on at home or at the club, with no trouble at all.
• This year I noticed a slightly younger demographic, possibly as the result of more Sci-Fi and Fantasy being on show, with families in attendance and the kids seeming to have a good time.

What Next?

Well I have the final scenario for the Greco-Italian War 1940 all fleshed out, so it just remains for me to get things set up so that I can play it. After that I need to see what takes my fancy, but September is looking busy on the Home Front, so I;m not sure how much time I'm going to have for anything gaming related, other than reading books.

Right, enough waffle from me. I hope you enjoyed this and as always, any comments greatly appreciated, assuming Blogger allows you to see this!

TTFN.

Partizan Wargames Show 2026

Another year, another Partizan show! So yesterday I set off just before 5.30am for the relatively easy drive to the show, as there's so little traffic about then, it's almost pleasurable. The same cannot be said for the M1, M5 and M4 on the way back though! This year I took a slight detour to pick up David Morfitt, of Not By Appointment Blog fame, which made for very pleasurable company to and from the show. I think we put the World to rights in our own small way!

We arrived at the show in good time, which gave me a chance to unwind and relax. Unfortunately just as the doors were due to open, their contactless payment system went down. Not carrying cash (I don't know when I last paid for anything in cash!) meant I was somewhat stuck! The organisers were sending out conflicting messages in that you could still book online, which proved not to be the case, but luckily they then said there was a cash machine a few minutes drive away. So in the end instead of getting into the show when it was relatively quiet at 10.00am, I didn't get in until about 10.45am and by then it was heaving! I must admit this did not put me in the best of moods, but after a wander around I got into the swing of things and started to enjoy myself

Having done a wander around to see what was on offer, I took a break outside for some lunch and then popped back in when it was a bit quieter and easier to see the tables to take some photos. In the end I ran out of time to get to some of the games and tables on show, but I did get the ones I really liked. So without further ado:

These chaps always put on a superb display, and this year was no exception.

You could spend an hour just looking at all the details on the table, as there was just so much to see.

Exquisite attention to detail every where you looked.

A complete contrast but the sort of game that you can put on at home or the club.

The Battle of Vosages 58BC.

A Back of Beyond game, using the 'Setting The East Ablaze' rules.

A lovely Inter-War aircraft.

Some nice riverine action, with the sort of boats I would like to use for my AVBCW games.

Always nice to see an armoured train...

... or two!

I just love this aeroplane!!!

Now that's how you do a poster for your game!

The Bunker and their 'Wild Geese' game.

Elephant hunting in a tank?!

Another very nice and doable game.

Shrewsbury Wargames Club and their wonderful Samurai game.

This castle was superb.

The Battle of Minden.

So many lovely flags on show.

The Assault on Kawajima Castle.

Another beautiful Japanese castle to behold.

Glasgow Tradestone Wargames Club and the Battle of White Hill, Thirty Years War.

Like A Stonewall club and an 'Action off Finisterre, 22nd July 1805'.

A very impressive game, even though naval wargaming is not my thing at all.

A Barry Hilton game, beautifully presented as always.

An AVBCW game, that sadly I could not get closer too for more photos.

I really liked this game as it gave me plenty of ideas of how to make some future games for BKCII.

A wonderful SYW game.

Is this why they call it Linear Warfare;)!

So many great buildings on this table, as there were on many others too.

An ACW game...

An AWI game...?

Operation Bagration.

This game ticked loads of boxes for me:).

McPherson's Ridge.

The Wargames Illustrated game and table that's recently featured in the magazine.

Simon Millar and his WSS game.

Midgard rules and the Battle of Lewes 1264.

Post Show Thoughts

Where to begin? Well it was great to meet David Morfitt as mentioned above, but I also met Geoff (Ellie's Dad), a regular commentator on this Blog. Towards the end of my visit, Matt Crump ( Wargames in the Dungeon) spotted me, and then Iain (caveadsum1471) joined us for a good chat. Luckily for me Matt also spotted David Bickley (talesfromghq) whom I had hoped to meet at the show last year. It was lovely finally getting to meet him, have a chat, as well as his grandson and Phil Robinson (?) too. I did see some of the Rejects in the distance, and some Vloggers too, but sadly missed Norm Smith (battlefields and warriors) and David in Suffolk (russetcoatcpt).

So as is the norm with me, some reflections on the show in no specific order:

• I certainly noticed the increase in cost in attending the show this year, not only in the admission price on the door, but the cost in fuel too (thanks PotUS!). 
• The show was even busy than last year, or so it felt. Normally being able to go in as the doors open, you tend to avoid the sheer mass of humanity that I encounted when I did finally enter. Whilst there was much less bumping from rucksacks etc, it was hard to see many of the demo games, with the participation games almost impossible to see or even get to.
• Note to self: take cash next time! But honestly, it felt strange as here in Bristol, some shops have a card only policy now, with others having signs that they still accept cash payments.
• I had no puchases in mind, so didn't really look at any of the traders. With Pendraken not there, there was little to tempt me anyway. I did fancy looking at some of the book sellers, but couldn't face navigating the near constant scrum!
• This year there seemed to be far fewer smaller figure games on show, but maybe because of my late entry, I didn't get to see what was on offer. 
• As always the standard of games on show was exceptional. Certainly the availability and affordability of 3D printing has meant that terrain, especially buildings, has come on leaps and bounds. There might have been some MDF buildings on show, but honestly I didn't really notice any. Compare this to say 10 years ago when pre-painted MDf seemed to be everywhere.
• Alongside the superb 'diorama' type games on show, it was good to see ones that you could put on at home or the club, which is really important for those entering the hobby, or even trying carry on in these fiscally challenging times.
• The Russian Civil War 'Back of Beyond' and the WWII Pacific games I really did enjoy, as they gave me loads of ideas and inspiration for my own games. I'm sure the same is true for other gamers and other periods too.
• I had planned on spending about 4 hours at the show, so that I could amble about at leisure, but this was reduced to around 3 due to the problems getting in. There is just so much to see, that you need plenty of time if seeing the games is your thing, rather than shopping.
• Again I think the show is a victim of its own success. It is by far and away the best show in this country, bar none IMHO. But this comes at a cost. Not only was it hard to navigate your way around and see the games or the traders, but it was incredibly noisy, to the point that I had to take a break outside to let my ears recover! It was a bit better after lunch, but then the heat had increased, to the point you could feel it coming out of the hall from 10 yards away as you approached the doors! No easy solutions on this one, other than limiting numbers, which would be hard to do and not desirable from the organisers point of view I'm sure.
• As mentioned last year, I would love to see the traders in one section, the particpation games in another, then the demo games on their own. It's all too jumbled up and a tight squeeze in places at present.
• Seating. Enough said!

Well I think that's enough from me! I hope you enjoyed the photos and possibly my musings too.

TTFN.