Salute... the photos

So. all safely back  from Salute... loot counted, dinner eaten, dogs walked [twice] and wine about to be drunk.

I'm never any good a guessing whether numbers were up or down at events like this but it seemed pretty busy all the time  I was there... stalls seemed busy but not over crowded.  As usual the standard of games was very high... increasingly games seem to be run by games companies wanting to showcase their latest offering rather than the traditional club putting on a game to show off their talents.  Is this a bad thing??  I don't think so.  If anything it means games are less likely to suffer from the old problem of the organisers spending most of their time playing the game themselves rather than encouraging others.  There was still a good turn out from clubs though and to be fair everyone seemed very engaging....I even came across John Treadaway from South London Warlords practically begging for someone to explain their very impressive Lord of the Rings game to!

As always the range and quality of games was excellent with surely something for just about every interest there.  The range of traders and products was also breathtaking...so many things I didn't know I needed!!  I'd suggest Salute take out extra fire insurance next year though... the sheer volume of MDF being sold must have constituted a major fire hazard! It's definitely been the product of the last year or 2 and while I didn't buy any I did note several new companies whose websites will need  close examination.

I managed one participation game... a very entertaining game of 7TV.

I made the Bloggers gathering at 1pm and I suspect there will be a photo of us all doing the rounds.  It was nice to be able to put names to faces  although it does seem odd asking "which blog are you then?"  Judging by the number of people taking lots of photos and, increasingly video, I suspect the blogosphere and various Youtube channels will be full of Salute related content shortly!

I also met an old friend from Uni days who I hadn't seen for something like 28 years.  Dave was helping on the Leisure Games stall and it was great to catch up.

Shopping-wise I wasn't too bad... some 7TV baddies and a couple of heroes from Crooked Dice, the latest Wargames Illustrated, mainly so I could get the free Che Guevara mini that came with it...my son was very pleased as Che's a bit of a hero [..he was very entertained by the mini-meltdown on TMP over WI offering an evil Marxist as a freebie!].  I also picked up a terrain feature of a wrecked Tube train from Ainsty as part of the scenery for my Post-Apocalypse project.  Finally I had a very interesting chat with the people behind Skirmish Sangin, the relatively new Afghanistan based modern skirmish game.  The mechanics look good and I liked their aim of trying to focus on the narrative of the game..so much so I went and bought a set [which kind of proves my earlier point about the value of engaging with the punter!]

And now some random photos [apologies if I've either failed to explain whose game it was or got it wrong...  it was a long day!]

The queue at approx. 11am...it looks worse than it was. 
It actually moved pretty quickly

erm...a big space ship. I think it was connected
 to the Dropzone Commander people

The Frothers Dune game

...and the interior

Lots of X Wing

The next few photos are from the very big D Day game

The SLWG big Lord of the Rings game

The Skirmish Sangin game

Lots and lots of 4Ground houses

WW1 in 1914

...and the same but 4 years later

This game was promoting the new Crusades update for Saga



Dien Bien Phu

Dropzone Commander

The Battle of Kemen

Some lovely Oshiro terrain