Wednesday 20 April 2011

Salute 2011


As usual, others have beaten me to it with reports and photos, but I thought I'd still post the pics I took of Salute last Saturday. The general consensus seemed to be that the standard of games was up and attendance a bit down. The latter perception may have esulted from an extra feeling of space - the amount of space occupied by re-enactors was less than in previous years and generally the show felt less cramped. Another plus was the absence of the r/c tanks and daleks that have plagued recent Salutes - I have enough difficulty evading other punters and their rucksacks without having to dodge things that are racing around the aisles. First impressions were not too good. Having bought an "advance ticket" I arrived to see a queue that was about 3 times longer than the "cash on the day" queue. After 30 minutes I watched the latter queue reduce to nothing whilst those of us who had paid in advance were still snaking round to the back of the hall. Very irritating (not least because people with advance tickets who arrived after 10.30 am seemed to just walk in through the cash door, which those of us in the queue were not permitted to do).


Still, once you're in Salute is a mega-show, and I wouldn't want the points above to detract from my appreciation of the huge amount of effort that the organisers put in to the show. As stated above, the "terraining" of the hall seemed well thought-out and the bag of goodies upon entry was fuller than usual. I found most of the items I wanted to buy, and plenty others that I hadn't intended to. Purchases included: the Perry plastic 1815 Prussian infantry box; the Empress Miniatures New Zealand Wars release; the 3rd AWI scenario book from Caliver; the re-launched English edition of WSS magazine; a renewed Wargames Illustrated sub; the Olley/Grant "Wargamers Annuals"; and finally the Perry/Snook book "Go Strong into the Desert", which I've had my eye on for a while. Items desired but resisted included the Mutineer Miniatures Indian Mutiny range (beautiful figures) and the Empress Zulu War range. Given all the Perry 3-ups on display, I suspect next year's show will see my budget blown almost entirely on Perry plastics...


Anyway, here are some photos, in no particular order; as you can see, the standard was very high this year. Apologies to those games I missed.

Loughton Strike Force's siege of Budapest, 1945:





Newark Irregulars' Abyssinia 1935:





GLC Games Club's Chickamauga, 1863:





Battlefront's astonishing Grand Manner-built Gallipoli:





Crewe and Nantwich's "Alternative" Siege of Worcester, 1651:





Gentlemen's Wargames Parlour's "Battle of Ambridge" VBCW:





Lance & Longbow's/Painterman's/Darrell Hindley's Verneuil 1424 (winner of best demo):





On the left, Lundy's Lane 1814 by the Wigmore Warriors and on the right, Operation Barras, Sierra Leone by Deal Wargames Society:



Warlord Games' Antonine Wall (scenery by Touching History):



South East Essex Military Society's Norton St Phillip, 1685:



12 comments:

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

The Budapest game was outstanding...!

Bedford said...

Just one minor point, the Verneuil game was put on by both Simon Chick (Painterman) and me, Darrell Hindley (La Journey Blog):

http://lajourney-bedford.blogspot.com/

Could you be a sport and add my link to the Verneuil part of your Salute report please? :O)

Darrell.

Ray Rousell said...

Great photo's, I was very lucky to be in the pay on the dooe queue, your totally right, I was through the door very quickly, which we were all very happy about, that's the reason we never buy a pre-paid ticket, the queue is always longer.

Doc Smith said...

Giles - what a show! The pain of endless queuing notwithstanding it looks like wargamer's heaven once you're inside! The Perry three-ups of Russians and Austrians are interesting - I daresay they'll give Victrix a run for their money once they're out! I loved the shots of the Gallipoli game - one looks like the Australians at Lone Pine - amazing detail. Any idea of who made the figures?

Thanks for posting a nice selection of photos.

Cheers,
Doc

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Super looking show!!!! I just over the moon the perry's will be doing the AWI in plastic! :-)

Cheers
Christopher

Anonymous said...

Giles,

Glad to see you back!

Would BG work with bigger units, say 24-32 (ie with 3-4 bases added to each unit)?

Best Wishes

Theo

Anonymous said...

Good to see you and chat at the show Giles and stand by for a Pictures of a Pa in a week or so.

Bedford said...

Paul,

I'm doing something similar... OK NZ is the new Rome..... :O)

legatus hedlius said...

I've nominated you to!

http://legatuswargamesarmies.blogspot.com/2011/04/stylish-blogger-award.html

Bedford said...

Thanks mate- appreciated :O)

Darrell.

Anonymous said...

It has to be done Darrell as its a period that cries out for gaming and model making.

Perhaps chat at Partizan if your there?

Paulalba said...

Hi Giles,
I will definately have to get down to Salute in the next few years. Always fancied it but never seemed to have the time or cash when it came around.
Nice report.
When I do make it down I would think it will be pay on arrival.
Cheers
Paul