Hello everyone. I have returned from the unforced wilderness of non-blogging. Unfortunately real life has taken its toll since the end of last year, and this is my first post since September 2016.
What a way to return! posting about my annual pilgrimage to the church of wargaming - SALUTE 2017!. Over the last couple of years I have come away from Salute feeling like there should have been something more... its hard to explain, sometimes the organisation has been lacking or the abundance of decent demonstration and participation games etc, one thing that is never lacking though is the amazing bunch of people/friends that I get to meet at this event.
Anyway this year saw me arriving early as usual to beat the crowds (yeh right) and I was devastated not to be at the beginning of the queue (I was in the first 100 though) this was mainly to sitting down enjoying a yummy hot jam croissant on the concourse and catching up with Morgan from Crooked Dice Miniatures and trawling Facebook to see if friends have arrived yet, and finding out that Ray and Postie had already managed to blag their way in at 8:30ish!! jammy sod's.
The doors opened (finally) at 10:02 the ravaging hordes of gamers descended. I spent the whole day just wandering around and picking games to play that took my fancy instead of the semi arranged timetable I had used over the last few years and I had pre-ordered a lot of stuff to collect so there was minimal extra shopping. Who am I kidding!!! I spent loads, and came away with a huge haul.
I got in quite a good few games this year including the fantastic new post apocalyptic skirmish game (on kickstarter now) The Drowned Earth. A really good cinematic skirmish game where the action action point mechanic allows you to do imaginative things using the board and terrain. At one point I had my Gorilla bruiser hanging upside down from a overgrown flyover, leaning round the pillar and shooting his dueling pistol and an enemy model.
Another new game on show was 4Grounds fantasy skirmish/battle game Fabled Realms, this turned out to be a fantastic demo/game as I bumped into a wonderful German fellow I played a few years ago at a Bushido tournament. Great fun was had and this will be going to kickstarter in June and should be worth a look.
A massive table portraying Jurassic Park saw a very intense dice rolling escape game. You had just over 4 minutes to escape the park in a jeep whilst a mean ol' T-Rex chased you down. The dice had various symbols such as wheels to give the jeep extra movement, a T-Rex which slowed the gribbly down and gates which helped you open park gates. Each gate you got to needed a set number rolled on the set of dice for you to get through. This game went right to the wire, I was trying to roll the dice so fast but the timer went off just on the last roll I got enough gates to get out the park and both I and my jeep became Dino chow.
Quick games of both new 4th Ed Flames of War and Battlefronts TANKS were fun and I got a free German Panzer tank to boot.
At 1pm I arrived at the centre of the hall for the annual Bloggers meet. Attended by less numbers the the previous few years but still great to catch up with good friends old and new.
Some of the highlights of the show were the Drowned Earth Game - Fable Realms - and the amount of lovely people I got to talk too and meet this year. One of the best though and I couldn't stop giggling whilst playing was the game and introduction to Rumbleslam at TTCombats stand. I had seen this on kickstarter in the past and didn't really take notice of it, but now I am hooked and bought the base game as well as a few extras and will soon be ordering the MDF deluxe wrestling ring (only £14.95)
A fabulous day out and I am already looking forward to nexts years event. Below are some of the best pics taken of the games and tables as well as the final picture showing my haul of goodies for this year.
PICS
The Swag
