Salute50 – A Minnesota Yankee at London’s leading game convention

 

By Tom Gall

This year I was pleasantly surprised to be in London on business at exactly the same time as Salute the largest independent game convention in the UK. This year, the 50th anniversary, was perfect timing for the first time ever attending. The event is held at the ExCel center on the east side of London. It was super easy to get to by the London Underground via the new Elizabeth Line. Once inside, queue up to enter…

Different than AdeptiCon or GenCon, no badge pickup, just get in line, get to it. Also different from those other Cons was something that really had me going, I wanted to sign up for a variety of games to play. Maybe a tournament? Or something? I did pack a tape measure and dice but going in this idea of going to a game convention and not knowing if you’d even get to play anything was well, weird.

With Salute it’s different than the states, there it’s run by the South London Warlords club. A good portion of the games were run by the variety of game clubs in the area. Then intermixed with the demos games were row after row of vendor, demo games, vendor, vendor, demo games. Different, but refreshing especially if you were looking to try out new things as well as shop.

Take this pretty table a Seven Years War action, common across the entire floor, lots of really pretty tables, just walk up, ask questions, and roll dice (after asking if you could join in of course)

Some of the presentations were pretty amazing, like this dam busters table. Get yourself a bomber, try and get around the flak, drop your barrel, and blow up the dam! Presented by the Peterborough Wargames Club, it included a nice history of the action and did its best to get the players to get a sense of what the dambusters had to do back then.

What an absolute visual treat and all in all to me one of the best of the show.

Some of the games like Force of Virtue were still working up to their release and thus demoing at Salute was their way of educating what was coming. Given games like Blood and Plunder, a skirmish game set a little further back is an interesting concept.

Speaking of Blood and Plunder that was well represented at the show with this demo table. Gorgeous presentation and as it would so happen was awarded a best of show. Well earned!

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Micro Art Studio was there from Poland. They didn’t have any product with them due to well … Brexit .. [insert mild cursing from the author] but were showing off some of what is coming. If you aren’t familiar with their MDF pre-painted buildings O-M-G, go check them out, they’re wonderful. I have a set of their 28mm buildings for WWII and I suddenly feel the need to get furniture, the insides are so nice.

Coming up as you can see in the picture they have some barns and farm-themed buildings. Additionally, they are going to have 15mm version of what they’ve already released in 28mm. I’m deeply curious how well those might work for Flames of War or Battlegroup which I play in 15mm scale. As I recall the next release is due in June.

Another game being demoed as a future Kickstarter is Gods of War Togo Heihachiro which features turn of the 20th century ships. They were handing out a demo torpedo boat model that were 3D resin printed (very nice at that!), as a fan of the period this is one I plan to watch closely.

Another “new” game published by Wargames Illustrated is Never Mind the Billhooks. (SWOON!) It covers 14-15th century skirmishes / small actions. Given the period this covers the 100 years war, War of the Roses and related periods. This “deluxe” book is an expansion and a bit of a clean-up of free rules included in a past issue of War Games Illustrated. Full disclosure, after seeing this game at the convention, I bought into it and transported it back to the US.

This was the demo table set in Italy using 28mm scale figures. I’ll be doing a review of the rules in a few weeks so keep your eyes open! As I understand they also have an expansion for the rules coming that will cover action at sea. It seems to play pretty well.

The TooFatLardies were running a few absolutely GORGEOUS tables with Chain of Command. These were well presented, with folks on hand to walk you through.

As you might imagine these were pretty popular with the crowd.

Another view from the other side of the table. These two games were running side by side. Note the force “diagrams” helping newbies understand the organization of what they were running.

Some of the larger studios were there, Atomic Mass Games was running a single table demo of Shatterpoint the new Star Wars Miniatures game of theirs coming out in June.

Parabellum games were their demoing Conquest and First Blood. These are games catching on in the US, was fun to see it on hand, their paint jobs were pretty outstanding.

Dinos from one of the factions within the game.

A giant, couldn’t tell you what faction this is for off-hand, but the artistry is sure impressive!

Warlord games was there and of course, showing off their new Epic Pike and Shotte system.

Again, let’s all remember a very good portion of these demo games were put on by the various clubs in the London area. I’m feeling a very strong need to relocate.

Napoleonics? Of course!

Ironclads? Check!

Franco-Prussian? Yup!

Tron light cycles? Can’t leave that out!

Even miniature games set in modern times were in attendance.

In summary, Salute was a great event, just a single day but a great experience. Very different than an American gaming convention and in a refreshing sort of way. No tournaments, not one. It’s about meeting people, playing games be they new or old, and many a dealer from miniatures, terrain, books and tools of the trade.

I certainly admire what the gaming community across the pond from the US looks like. Vibrant, healthy and so many people I’d love to become great friends with across the tabletop rolling dice. (Hi Harry!)