Salute with Tom (16/04/2016)

This report is a bit late as I’ve been away (where to will become apparent in the next post), but here are a few photos from our day out at Salute. There wasn’t any London Marathon registration or Doctor Who convention this year, just a Wedding Fair and a Buy-to-Let show to get in the food queue with. We arrived by cable car from North Greenwich for a change, which was fun but probably not for those with a fear of heights and easily swayed cable cars 🙂

Nice day for a cable car

First up are some photos from a game using David Brown’s upcoming ACW rules “Pickett’s Charge” and played by the author. The game was commendable in the fact that, apart from looking brilliant, they were actually playing the game, so we hung around for a while to see if we could pick up anything about the rules. They do look interesting, with less morale checks than General de Brigade and should be available later this year – I’ll definitely be getting a copy.

Antietam using Pickett’s Charge rules

Antietam using Pickett’s Charge rules

ECW Siege of Bristol game – the walls looked like they were used in a game of the Siege of Worcester at Salute 2011, but who cares? ECW is still one of my favourite periods which I’ve never gamed.

Siege of Bristol

Siege of Bristol

Winter War – lovely depiction of snow and ice.

Winter War

Winter War ship iced in.

Vietnam

Vietnam table

Napoleonics in both 54mm and 40mm – amazing brushwork.

54mm Napoleonics – awesome

40mm Napoleonics

40mm Napoleonics with Sharpe defending the bridge

I wasn’t sure that there were as many outstanding games as usual – this was probably down to the Steampunk theme which would have encouraged smaller skirmish games. Rules-wise, there were more things I was looking forward too which were released after Salute – Sharp Practice 2 and Dystopian Wars Fast Play for example. I did pick up a few rule books – Combat Patrol (yes, more WW2), the Saga campaign supplement, Blood Eagle (IHMN rules adapted for the Dark Ages) and the Black Powder ACW supplement. Those, plus a few vehicles from Plastic Soldier and Peter Pig and civilian from Eureka completed the shopping extravaganza. Probably not a classic Salute, but despite this I’ll still be there next year – and besides, there’s always a pint of Meantime beer to look forward to at the end 🙂

Salute with Tom (20/04/13)

Achtung Spitfire!

Tom and myself had our annual pilgrimage to Salute yesterday and as usual I got carried away and forgot to take many photographs and even less that were in focus, but here are the better ones with some re-collections of the day. The first game we looked at was a 28mm WW2 game which was awesome I’m not sure if they were using the old “Kampfgruppe Normandy” rules or the new “Battlegroup Normandy” rules, but the table looked great. I did toy with getting the “Battlegroup Normandy” supplement, but I think it was £30 for the supplement & £30 for the rules which are in the Kursk book, and that put me off in the end, especially if the Lardies WW2 platoon set is as good as it looks (see below)

KGN British

KGN AA

KGN German Armoured Car

KGN Germans

As I said, the Lardies were demoing their “Chain of Command” rules and they look really interesting. We arrived during the first game of British v Germans after the Patrol phase had ended, but came back for the second game of Americans v Germans so as we could this this really innovative mechanic in action. I won’t go through the details here as Rich has explained it all perfectly well on YouTube, but the importance of the phase became clear as the Yanks were completely outplayed in Patrol phase ended up with their deployment zones pinned in a corner of the board. The Germans on the other hand controlled the town and the main roads so could bring units on when and where they were needed. I don’t think there is a need to use the mechanic with any particular set of rules – we were talking of replacing the hidden mechanic in “Bolt Action” with it. The rules are due out in July and if the  2-deep crowds around the table all day are anything to go by, they are going to be a great success. (crowds=photos not great :-)).

Chain of Command

Chain of Command village

I had pre-ordered some “In Her Majesty’s Name” figures from North Star and was surprised when I got a set of rules as well (they weren’t meant to be out until May). There was a demo of the game being run, but I couldn’t really get a flavour of what was going on as the people running it were too intent on playing – a good sign I suppose, but unlike the Lardies game, there wasn’t any explanation to the masses of what was going on. The figures do look grand painted up though.

Figures for In Her Majesty’s Name

In Her Majesty’s Name Board

Like everyone else, I was taken by the huge display game of Waterloo, but I’d like to have seen it being played.

Waterloo Hougomont

As this year is the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg, a few ACW games were in evidence. This period is a favourite of mine, and when I picked up the latest edition of “Wargames Illustrated” at the show I was pleasantly surprised to find it contained not one, but two accounts of ACW actions. The first was run by Dave Bickley using his “Bull Run to Gettysburg” rules which I use, and the second written by Barry Hilton who seems to have an ACW adaption of his Napoleonic rules in the works – can’t wait to try them out. I only got photos of the Little Round Top demo, but it did look great.

Little Round Top 20th Maine

Little Round Top Confederates

Other games which I was too busy looking at to photograph included “Musket & Tomahawks” with Samurai  and “Dead Man’s Hand” Wild West rules from Great Escape games (which I had pre-ordered and look interesting if you like card-driven chaos – I do luckily :-)). I must also mention the two “Dux Bellorum” games which were side-by-side. I have the rules and have tried them out, but the standard of painting on the table and the sabot bases gave me lots of ideas, so I will need to re-visit the rules in the near-future.

Our haul of shiny new stuff was quite restrained this year – apart from the pre-ordered rules and figures mentioned above, I only picked some SCW militia from Empress, the new “Bolt Action” Russian supplement from Warlord and some bases from Warbases. The show itself didn’t disappoint and we’ll be back next year, not least because I didn’t get a go on the cable car across the Thames to North Greenwich and my son did 🙂

Salute 21/04/2012

A grand day out at Salute in London yesterday, made even better by gamer friends from my schooldays in Northern Ireland making it along as well. Purchases were mostly rulesets due to an embargo on adding to the lead mountain and using the figures I have rather than getting in to new periods (but see below…)

However, if I had managed to pick up a set of the new “Muskets & Tomahawks” ruleset from Gripping Beast, I’m sure I would be buying some Hurons and Mohicans on-line this morning – luckily Gripping Beast were sold out by the time I got to their stand, so panic over….til I can get a copy. I just can’t resist anything that says card driven on the tin at the moment, and coupled with the fact that Last of the Mohicans was one of the first books I ever read (and I love the film), this was a sure buy for me.

The 7TV participation game “On Her Majesty’s Crooked Service” looked absolutely splendid, though very busy, so no chance of picking up a game. I did however pick up my Crooked Dice 7TV “On Location” supplement and some bits and pieces from their stand. Also on the list were the Saga “Northern Fury” supplement, Normandy Firefight, Operation Squad Moderns and Hostile Realms (sold to me by Gonsalvo’s excellent recent run-down on his “Blunders on the Danube” blog http://blundersonthedanube.blogspot.co.uk/p/hostile-realms.html and the fact that I am heartily sick of GW tinkering with Warhammer Fantasy)

For us the stand-out game was Corunna. I didn’t see that many of the display games being gamed as it were, and this one was no exception. Maidstone Wargames club president gave us a great run-down on their 6mm Pegasus Bridge game (of special interest to my son and me as we have visited the site in Normandy). They were using a cut down Flames of War as their rules just for the show, though it seems they wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole otherwise! Given that I bought the last edition not so long ago and now there’s another edition out in short order, I can relate to that.

So some new reading material and new rules to try out, but nothing to really kick-start the current lack of painting progress malaise. Still, a day out with old friends is hard to come by these days, so thanks to David, Ian and his son, and my son Tom for being there and putting up with me.

Terrible Sharp Sword – 16/04/2011 (Tom & Too Fat Lardies)

Major Tom rolls the dice

I’ve been trying to twist Tom’s arm into playing Sharp Practice for ages, and at Salute we were admiring the Too Fat Lardies ACW game when Tom was offered a commission on the Union side. I think the Union  forces were meant to be looking for a Confederate spy and finding him would win them the game, but instead all they seemed to manage to do was stir up a hornet’s nest of Rebs whose dice-rolling was phenominal. I have never seen so many hits rolled nor points of shock rolled off on demand, and never have I seen my son roll so badly – ever. Tom’s troops are the guys skulking in the woods at the top.

Reb Allotment

In the end the spy went undiscovered and the Rebs successfully defended their allotment – what the guy waving the chicken around was all about was anyone’s guess, though to quote one of the Lardies “Jebidiah sure does love his chickens – ah mean, he REALLY does love his chickens”.

Lookee here boys, I got me a chicken!

Also at Salute was a 1/32 scale Arnhem game which just made you go “wow!”. I noticed Airfix Paras which I played with myself eons ago, but much better painted than mine were.

Arnhem Bridge

The level of detail on the table was amazing – this would never fit in my house never mind my dining room.

German reserves

One of my favourite periods is the English Civil War, though I have had several failed attempts at painting up armies for it – it’s probably a rules thing (as usual). I don’t know what rules these guys were using (turns out it was PIQUET), but their “Alternative Siege of Worcester 1651” with working candles in the buildings looked absolutely splendid.

Worcester walls

On the inevitable shopping spree front we picked up a couple of Humvees for Force on Force, bits and pieces for Dystopian Wars and lots of bare metal for the new Franco-Prussian war project – in the end we weren’t too badly burnt….

Worcester Fight

Finally, the new Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy looks great and has King Billy on the cover, so will be getting a new subscription from me for one!