Salute was a bitter sweet event this year. My main motivation for attending has always been to be impressed and inspired by the gaming and display tables, with shopping opportunities as a bonus. This year I had a shopping list, consisting largely of new rules systems (Oathmark, Stargrave, Gaslands Refuelled), a box of Fireforge peasant zombies for my necromancer to summon into his Warhammer 8th edition army, plus the obligatory new KR case to carry the latest forces I managed to paint.
All that purchasing luckily distracted from the lack of photo opportunities. For some years now the number of jaw dropping displays has been steadily declining, and this year they fell off a cliff. My respect goes out to anyone who manages to build and bring a table full of terrain and opposing forces to a wargaming show, especially as a club effort without any related rules or miniatures to sell. Still, the amount of empty floor space due to missing traders, and worse, tables that had been set up but remained vacant on the day, didn’t inspire my photo journalistic fervour of previous years. Therefore I only took some snapshots of two displays in attendance.
The first was created by the Loughton Strike Force, who are consistently bringing amazing looking games to Salute. Their ‘Stalingrad – Fire on the Volga’ was played using the new ‘O’ Group set of battalion level WWII rules. You can see many more photos of it on their website.
The second display that stood out to me featured World of Twilight. The creators have been attending Salute for many years, and I always enjoy looking at their unique miniatures and terrain. I believe this year was the first time they brought a ‘full size’ table, with lots of buildings and little vignettes.
I guess next year, with the show scheduled to be back in its regular April slot, will tell what the new normal for Salute is going to be.
The Lost and the Damned 