Well, I've been home for a few hours, taken pics of my loot, uploaded and resized all the pics I took, put (most) things away and had a bit of a relax watching TV so I guess it's time to do my Salute post.
I got into the ExCel centre and joined the queue at about 0950 and finally got into the hall at about 1020. I'm not sure how they did the letting in last year (I was in early on a press pass) but it was so much better two years ago where they let in one rank at a time. This year you had to snake back and forward before finally getting in - I must have walked close to a mile doing that.
There seemed to be more open space (and seating areas) this year which is no bad thing. I'm not sure if that was down to a somewhat larger hall or if there were less traders. I think it may have been a combination of the two.
I didn't take many pics of games this year. Overall I was less impressed with the games than on previous occasions, but there were a few stunning tables. Of course, there were a couple that I spotted and thought I'd go back and take pics later but managed to forget. There also seemed to be a big increase in the number of small demo game tables associated with companies.
Pics of Games
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| Fort Mosquito |
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| Fort Mosquito |
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| Fort Mosquito |
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| Fort Mosquito |
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| Fort Mosquito |
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| Tribal, Primeval and Eureka's "Mad Maximillian" cars |
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| Big Red Bat's "Raphia" game |
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| Gaslands |
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| Gaslands |
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| VBCW naval game |
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| VBCW naval game |
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| VBCW naval game |
Bloggers' Meet
At 1pm various bloggers gathered by the painting comp display for the now traditional meetup. There were less of us this year than last, but still a good crowd ad it was nice to catch up with folks in person.
I've posted both pics because both cut off someone at opposite ends. In the pic are Legatus, Alastair, Postie, The Wilde Goose, (someone at the back - Dave?), Big Lee's Padawan, Big Lee, Big Red Bat, moi, Fantorical Simon, (someone), Carl Packham, (someone), Ray/Badger/Sandbagger, Provost Marshall, Michael Awdry, Al.
Eric the Shed was also there, but isn't in the pics for some reason.
Bob Cordery turned up after the photos had been taken and it was good to finally meet and chat with him.
I eventually left at about 3pm and encountered the odd experience of having to queue to get down to the DLR platform. I guess that was down to Customs House station being closed and everybody (not just Salute - there was also the London Marathon registration and a few other shows on) having to use the Prince Regent station.
The Loot
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| Everything |
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| The Salute goodies |
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| Various odds and ends |
These were actually my final purchase of the day. I decided that I want to try out the Honours of War rules, but didn't want to fork out (and spend months/years painting) another 15mm army for the SYW so I opted for some Baccus 6mm. The small blisters are two extra packs of infantry, one of dragoons and one of artillery. That will give me 16 infantry regiments, 6 cuirassier, 8 dragoon, 3 hussar and 6 artillery batteries. I'm going to do them as "imaginations".
From Warbases I got various bases for figures and terrain. Also some small bases and dice frames.
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| Freebies from Warbases. |
I managed to restrain myself at Bad Squiddo Games and left with just the new WW2 Soviet women packs (the deal for these three packs was £30 instead of £34 to buy the packs separately) and didn't buy any of the "gunny peegs" despite serious temptation.
Some more bits for Salutesville, including the "Lady Sarah" for my pulp seamen
Some reinforcements from Essex for my SYW Russians: figures for two combined grenadier regiments and another dragoon regiment - I discovered that I'd somehow missed the Nizhegorodskiy regiment which fought at Palzig and Gross-Jagersdorf.
I picked up my pre-order from Eureka. I'd ordered some Grumpy's Korean artillery (I need to crew figures for medium and heavy guns), some Eureka 18mm SYW command groups (which I'll be painting as gifts for the other contenders in the side duel during the Challenge) and some sample figures to see how they fit with the Essex. The Cossack looks OK, but the infantry are noticeably larger.
I also cooed over the "Mad Maximillian" cars, but then I saw the prices and decided against buying them.
From Timecast I picked up some 6mm black powder era buildings for SYW gaming and some 10mm North African houses to represent a village with my desert terrain.
Last of all is my pre-order from Foundry - a few groups of their 2000AD figures to make crews for Rogue Stars.
Judges - Dredd, Giant, Tech Judge Deex, Psi Judge Anderson, Psi Judge Karyn
Stronty Dogs - Johnny Alpha, Wulf Sternhammer, Middenface McNulty, Durham Red, Torso
ABC Warriors - RoJaws, Hammerstein, Joe Pineapples, Black Blood, Morrigun
I didn't take a pic, but I picked up the new issue of Wargames Illustrated and foresook the 5p change so that I could get their Richard III figure.
All in all a good haul