Salute Show Report

I'm a little late with the obligatory blog post on Salute, but here goes.  Last Saturday (April 6th), I was able to attend my first Salute given a business trip happened to coincide with the with the event.  I've always wanted to go to Salute and to be worried was a little apprehensive I'd be disappointed.  Those concerns were entirely misplaced as I had a blast.

In addition to my first Salute there is a second "first" with this event - I've made my first video for Little Wars TV by "reporting" on the show for the channel.  Don't worry, you'll not have to suffer through any images of me but you will have to listen to my voice and odd sense of humor.  Please be kind in the comments on the video - I might get banned from further correspondent work if you're really tough on me - that includes you, Ray.  Heres a link to the show report

 I've always heard about the awful line to get into to Salute and managed to arrive about 35 minutes early and found the queueing hall to be relatively open.....

 That wasn't the case about 20-25 minutes later as here's a shot of the line to get just before opening.  To put the size of the show in scale for US readers, the queuing hall is about 3x the size of the vendor hall for Historicon and was packed with people.

 I was very lucky to find my friend, Tamsin, was in line with me and we passed the time catching up.  While I didn't get any pictures, I was also able to catch up with Ray, Lee and Postie at the convention and seeing them is always a great deal of fun.

 The rest of the reports will be a set of randomize pictures of games with the rare witty comment (very rare).  First up - Simon Miller's ancients battle using his "To the Strongest" rules and pitting Romans vs Britons.  What really struck me is despite having super simple terrain - it's just a terrain cloth on a tilted piece of plywood with tree clumps along each side, the game looked stunning and people seemed to be having a blast.

 It seems that Warlord's Cruel Seas game will have a follow on set in the age of sail called "Black Seas".  It looks promising but is a ways out.

 Finally got to meet Peter Baccus and found his booth to be oh so tempting.  I suspect there will be an order placed in the not to distant future.

Franco / Prussian war anyone?

 I made my pilgrimage to the Perry booth and picked up the new set of WW2 US infantry in plastic.

 The was a new company making 6mm scenics for the Normandy campaign.  The first casts looked stunning.  The companies name is "RK Modelworks".  I did pre-order the village set.

Looking forward to getting these.

 Next will be a bunch of random game pictures

 15mm 6 day war model of Jerusalem.  That's pretty darn ambitious and carried out rather well.

 Ahh Osprey was here with lots of historical books....

Oops only fantasy stuff.  OK I used that joke in the video too.

 Giant command and colors game

 This may have been the game with the best terrain at the show

My favorite game of the show was a refight of the Battle of Ligny in 15mm using General D'Armee.  I got the meet ht rules author and found the we had very similar backgrounds.

 It was a wonderful game

 This terrain piece was the subject of a series of "how-to" videos that I had been watching and it was a real treat to see in person.  Mr Aps has terrain making skills that I can only aspire to.

I'll likely edit this post over the next few days as after the LWTV video goes up.

Overall, I really did have a good time and will go again if I can align either a  business or personal trip.  I do think one of the reasons I enjoyed the show so much was I was able to catch up with some UK based friends.

I do look forward to next year.