Anyway, the day started with me getting up at 6 in the morning since we had advance tickets and would probably be allowed to get in early (or so we thought, for some reason people who bought tickets on the day were let in before us. We all agreed that this was a disgrace).
Since this was my first time in Salute, I didn't really have anything to judge this year against but other people I talked to told me that this year seemed to have less stands than last, Games Workshop were noticably absent, even though Black Library and Forgeworld had stands there. That said, with Wayland Games, Leisure Games and Maelstrom all selling GW stuff, they probably still came out okay at the end of the day all the same. Fantasy Flight's absence was also noticeable, especially given that Privateer Press had set up a stand.
On arriving the first 5000 people were given a goodie bag containing a carrybag for an army case, a brochure, some business cards, a leaflet talking about Osprey's new modern warfare game "Force on Force" a pewter American Civil War model and a tiny (3mil at least) Volkswagen Beetle. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WENT TO SALUTE MAKE SURE TO CHECK YOUR BAGS FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS BEFORE THROWING THE BAG OUT, IT REALLY IS TINY.
This years theme was the Civil War, but it was really only half-heartedly implemented, and several people who had turned up with western themed costumes shuffled about the stands looking embarrassed at how badly they'd misread things. At one point a re-enactment team marched through the hall, but they gave up within minutes.
Anyway, Flames of War were showing off their new Armoured War Train sets and Vietnam Rules (the rules of which come free with this month's copy of Wargames Illustrated) and whilst I was interested in getting a Sheridan tank for my collection, they only sold them in 3 man sections at £22 which was more than I was looking to spend.
Whilst I never managed to get a game in any of the demo games going on as they were always too busy, I don't really mind, I had a lot of fun rifling through the bring and buy sections and looking at all of the products on offer.
Forgeworld weren't really showing off anything that they hadn't already shown previously, aside from their WW2 ruleset, but I'll get interested in a GW made WW2 ruleset when they remember that Epic Armageddon is one of their properties and combine the two.
Seriously, that ruleset is MADE for WW2 battles.
The main thing I noticed as I browsed the stands was that the price of metal really has skyrocketed lately. Spartan Game's Firestorm Armada had metal escorts worth more than the giant battleships that they escort (and Firestorm Armada has some stupidly huge ships) . But stranger still was how much more expensive even simple items like dice towers and movement trays are now. £4 for a simple tray? £12 for a plastic dice tower? You are having a laugh surely.
The state of our economy with regards to the small businessman nothwithstanding, I enjoyed Salute, but I feel that I saw and did everything I needed to see and do by lunchtime, and by which point I was really only killing time until the draw.
The first six names drawn out of the hat turned out to have had the same idea as I'd had and left early. We nearly won that 250 quid by process of elimination.
Maybe next year. Maybe.
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