Sci-Fi and Fantasy themes made up at least half of the gaming tables at Tactica 2024. The big franchises Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones were represented with impressive displays while many classic and new game settings shone on beautiful tables of all sizes.
Below just a small selection of what was on show, more impressions can be found for example in this slideshow by Some Dude On YouTube.
‘After the Apocalypse’ was the theme of Salute 2019 and the show miniature (which is very nice and fits in with my Ghosts of Gaia by Bad Squiddo). In terms of boards it didn’t have more of a presence than most other years however, while sci-fi was equally present as usual. Additional non-blurry photography courtesy of undeadhighelf once again.
The South London Warlords had built a moon base for their scenario ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. Set in not too distant 2039 it featured a clash between US and Chinese forces and other mysterious players.
The fantastic Flash Gordon by the Jersey Privateers Gaming Club was built entirely of Lego and featured different settings and scenarios played with custom made rules.
The Bexley Reapers Wargaming Club brought Back to the Future onto the table in the specially designed game ‘Flux Capacity’. As usual for their projects there were special effects as the DeLorean sped into three different eras.
Other sci-fi themed games included Anvil Industry’s Afterlife and Warhammer 40k.
In ‘Project Fear’ by Frothers, Remainers were trying to escape the former United Kingdom through the port of Dover, fleeing from 17.4 million cannibalistic Brexiters.
Skirmish Wargames took the Magnificent 7 into space in a Wild West meets sci-fi encounter.
More post-apocalyptic mayhem was played out by Crooked Dice, Osprey Games and Reverence Games.
Salute 2018 wargaming convention has come and gone in a flash. The trend of fewer large independent display tables and more company run demo and participation games is continuing, and there was a noticeable increase in open floor space, presumably also due to the ongoing consolidation of gaming franchises.
4Ground’s presence is growing year on year, and they had many tables on display for the variety of settings they now support with their terrain. In this year of Star Wars Legion, the biggest was a proof of concept for a star ship hangar bay with particularly shiny floors.
There were also some lovely mechs and a gaming table for use with Fallout on show.
Wild West Exodus was also being presented on a large stand this year, and some very original and elaborate demo tables were showcasing this growing games system.
The South London Warlords staged the Dr Who based Invasion Earth including two life sized Daleks.
Anvil Industry brought some nice demo tables for Afterlife, including a backlit tech compound.
My local gaming store Dark Sphere had set up a gazebo to play games of Star Wars Legion and Necromunda in the dark, illuminated only by special effects on the boards themselves.
Various other gaming companies and clubs had brought their demo gaming tables along, below a selection of my snapshots.
Sci-Fi games at Salute 2017 had a strong showing, but many of the demonstration tables were run by the respective game manufacturers for consecutive years now so I skipped photographing all of them (and spent more time buying shiny new things).
Since I am now collecting and painting Infinity, I was particularly excited about the following two tables. I hope I have the credits right for the first, but unfortunately I don’t know who created the second.
A nice mixture of old and new on this smaller table, something I want to try with my own fledgling terrain collection for Infinity.
The South London Warlords piled several thousand pounds worth of lovingly painted Forgeworld resin onto this large table for Warhammer 30k, depicting a battle of the civil war on Mars. I didn’t get to see this display last year, so I was glad to catch it now, after it did an extensive round through the UK wargaming show circle – and even the V&A Museum!
Star Wars has a steady presence at Salute now, and there were several participation games of X-Wing in progress.
Dark Sphere went a step further and constructed a three tiered table with glass panes to refight the attack on Scarif from Rogue One.
The Drowned Earth made their first showing at Salute. Their Kickstarter is already well funded and I am looking forward to seeing more of this very original looking system.
Fenris Descending by the Maidstone Wargames Society and Germy was another very original looking game out of left field. All terrain and models for this game were scratch built from household materials, plastic and electronics parts.
As usual there were plenty more smaller tables and participation games to look and and get stuck in with, here just a sample of those I managed to catch.
In the universe of Sci-Fi, space ship games were the most prominent theme at Salute 2016. Since Battlefleet Gothic I haven’t played in this genre but now I’m very tempted to pick up one or two of these new games.
Mechworld ran the Full Thrust Academy on their illuminated concept gaming tables, showcasing their new starter set.
White Dragon Miniatures presented their upcoming Shattered Void game of space dog fighting which will be on Kickstarter in the summer.
Dropfleet Commander already finished a very successful Kickstarter and Hawk Wargames showed off an upscaled 3D print of one of their ships.
Halo: Fleet Battles from Spartan Games was played around a scaled up ship centrepiece.
The South London Warlords had constructed a Star Trek participation game entitled Savage Dove, taking place along the corridors and bridge of the Enterprise and being broadcast through a set of webcams.
The Sheffield Runelords tried to Stop the Truck in this sequence from Mad Max 2.
More vehicular mayhem ensued in the Battle of Mount Maerzan by Bexley Reapers Wargaming Club.
Another offering from Spartan Games with Halo: Ground Command in 1:100 scale.
More futuristic 15mm battles were fought in this cityscape for Critical Mass.
For Planetfall set in its Firestorm Galaxy, Spartan Games ran demo games and had brought scaled up engines of war representing the various factions.
The Lost and the Damned 