So I went to Salute on Saturday and have to report had rather a good time of it. If that seems a bit of a strange statement I have to admit my previous visits had been somewhat hard work. The thing is too damned big to take in, so I have in the past ended up walking myself into exhaustion and frustration. This time was different, partly because this time I was involved doing demo's of Dropfleet Commander on the Hawk Wargames stand. In addition to getting in free that also meant I didnt need to queue up to get in (Bonus) but I did miss out on the goodie bad - ah well.
I did a morning shift on the Hawk stand then thankfully got released so I could wander in the afternoon. After a much needed sit down and Red Bull to try and revive myself (having been up since 4 am) I got a chance to see some of the show, and not having too much time seems to have made it a less rather than more frustrating experience.
Notable Salute "stuff"
1. New ships for Dropfleet. Hawk had the prototypes for the new Scourge and UCM Battlecruisers on show and they were beautiful. They were also noticeably bulkier than the Kickstarter exclusive models so if you missed the KS ones you will have a chance to get these "soon". Watch this space.
2. New Plastics coming from Flames of War for Team Yankee. Battlefront had 2 new plastic kits on view, a T64 and a BTR60 PB. Both looked very nice. No details of build options. I had a quick chat with the guy on the stand and asked why the BRDM2 was released in resin when it was crying out to be dome in plastic with all the various Sagger\Spigot, RKh, SA9 and vanilla recce options and his answer was "we don't think people will need many". I have to admit this smelled a bit of BS as they are already making them in boxes of 3 in resin and any vaguely historical orbat will probably have plenty in there, however on the plus side the opportunity for PSC to jump in looks good. If you are watching Will Townsend that would be a good choice. This pic is stolen from the rather fine Breakthrough Assault Blog and used without their permission - hope they don't mind but my phone was almost dead at this point, and from the Blog they seem spiffing chaps
3. Speaking of PSC their T55AMs didn't make the show - not quite ready yet was what they said. Bit of a shame
4. Dr Who from Warlord. I'm far from happy with the initial releases as they looked too "leggy", and yet another "proprietary scale" but the plastic Daleks were very nice. I'm not so sure about the Cybermen - strangely they seem a bit weedy compared to the humans. I got to play a game yesterday and have another planned Wednesday so I will have a fuller look at that after that.
5. Perry's "Travel Battle" . I usually love the Perrys and think on balance they single-handedly saved 28mm historical wargaming, so was prepared to love this, but in this case I came away unimpressed. The components were ok but there was not a lot in the actual box to justify the £50 GBP price tag. At £30 GBP maybe, but not at £50.
So on to The Haul. Given the short time I had I was possibly restricted in the usual impulse buys. In addition to some ships and Command cards for Dropfleet I was so impressed at the quality of the Deepcut Studios game mats we were using to demo that I got myself one. I also got the decals I need to finish my StuG, and a platoon of Modern Russian infantry from Empress Miniatures to help in Black Ops. I also picked up some Desert Domes from Brigade Models to use as alternatives on Dropzone Commander tables, plus the obligatory "show only" Samurai from Warlord to use in Test of Honour. Last but not least some British Napoleonic Sailors from Perrys to act as a landing party for Sharpe Practice 2 games. I also got a "freebie" PzIV from Battlefront just for talking to them, which was nice!
So that was it - 18 1\2 hours all told but good company on the way there from Jamie, Joe and Shaun, and a good catch up with the guys at Hawk.
You been busy I see ;)
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