Salute 2023 : It's Back and it's Big

Yesterday I went along to the Excel exhibition centre in London for 'Salute 50', the 50th occurrence of what must be Britain's largest wargaming show.  The show 'didn't have a good war' in the pandemic - the delayed 2020 show in November 2021 was a bit below par  -  but I think it's fair to say it was back to normal this year. The program listed about 60 games and over 120 traders(!), and I gather over 5,000 people attended,  It was big, crowded and noisy, and hard on the feet and legs! But I enjoyed the day, and there were many really impressive games on display. Of course I took a few ( only about 80 in the end! ) photos, so I can show a selection of the games that interested me. These are more or less in the order I walked around the hall - but I admit the first game I saw was one of my favourites! 

This was a large ( to say the least ) Seven Years War game entitled 'Bread and Beef',  depicting the battle of Battle of Domstadtl ( 1758 ) and put on by chaps called the 'Ardhammer Group' who had come all the way from Newcastle for the event. Around 2500 30mm German Flats using The War Game rules by Charles Grant. Austrian Force attacking a Prussian supply column.  That ticked quite a few boxes! One of the group had spent over 40 years collecting and painting the figures, but never previously used them in a game, it seems. The figures were great  and the guys were freindly, chatty and welcoming, and clearly having a great time - it was all rather lovely, and a really good game to have 'on point' by the entrance to the show. 

Some of the 'Beef' caught up in the fighting

 I managed a few close-ups of the figures, which speak for themselves, I think..

 

proper 'Grant size' regiments

..with artillery support

 

Charge!

And a moment of revelation - in probably over  45 years since first acquiring my copy of Charles Grant's The War Game,  I admit I have never seen one of these (below) in real life.. I was just delighted to see it!

The fabled 'Canister Cone'

 

The guys admitted it was quite a difficult thing to construct ( from wire and solder ), and that they had baulked at doing the 'howitzer circle' in the same material! 

  
Anschluss Publications always put on a nice-looking game with their War on the Ground rules, this time they were in the early days of Operation Barbarossa, 1941 with  German infantry running into Russian armour 

The War on the Ground, Russia 1941

 

'The Old Guard' group staged a game of Austerlitz, 1805 using the Command and Colours board  game system, with 28mm figures and model terrain replacing board and counters, and it looked great! 

Austerlitz using C & C

A simple yet very effective idea, and  especially interesting as  I assume this was pretty much the same C&C Scenario  that I had played last summer at my good friend Dave's place - now then Dave, how about using your Napoleonic figures on the C&C board? 

 

 Warlord Games showed a game using their 'Epic' Pike and Shotte system - the recently-released figures of which some were given away free with Wargames Illustrated magazine.  

'Epic' ECW

Here are some of the figures, in an 'Epic' regiment: 

Cornwall Wargames Association used the new 'Mark's Little Soldiers' for The Zagory Rebellion :A Night at Heidi's   , described as a pseudo-nostalgic game based in Mark Coppelstone's..inter-war world.  It did have a certain look about it - I liked the aircraft, and the all-round shinyness.. I can well see the appeal of the figures.

 Rival ancient Greek phalanxes competed in more ways than one, represented by first  Simon Miller's  giant To the Strongest game  of Ipsus (301 BC)  :

 

"you could have your eye out.. "

and by John and Diane Sutherland's equally gargantuan Command Decision : Leuctra 371BC, Spartans vs Thebans

 

( if you have very deep pockets, it seems the armies from this latter are for sale.. )

 Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden  rode again in The Friends of General Haig's Dirchau/Tczew 1627 game of Swedes vs. Polish-Lithuanians,

.. and went on his 'Death Ride' at Lutzen 1632,  with The Officers Mess 1:1 scale cavalry fight

Hornchurch Wargames Club's Ntombi River Zulus vs. British action  from 1879 had brilliant terrain and figures plus excellent 'dressing up' :

'Zulus, sir.. thousands,,'

 and worryingly few Red Coats defending their supply wagons - I didn't give the Brits much chance! 

Andy 'Lord Callan' (as it said on his shirt ) was running a Never Mind the Billhooks game promoting the new 'deluxe' volume of those rules, on a splendid Italian Wars terrain 

 Another great terrain model was from the ever-inventive Loughton Strike Force, with their Mordheim: chos in the streets 

 

But I think my favourite terrain spectacular came from the London Wargaming Guild with Cold Doings In London, a 1650s Frost-Fayre set 28mm skirmish participation game on and around an amazing model of old London Bridge. Impressive indeed!

 

 

More conventionally, Hailsham Wargames Club's  Bombay Mix Up  28mm Indian Mutiny 1857 game looked nice 

 but I stupidly forgot to photograoh the equally good Crawley Wargames Club  Sikh War 1845 Ferocious Fighting at Ferozaphur. Hopefully others will show that too!

Finally, I liked Wigmore Warriors WW2  big battle spectacular  D-Day landings game, which used three large tables ( I think each base of troops represented a company ) - maybe not quite so pretty, but they were revelling in just being able to use a big space to put on a big game! 

That's about it for my photos, but of course it's nowhere near all the games, there were loads more that I didn't get round to photographing  - no doubt other blogs will show them, if you look around - Big Lee's review  is a good bet! As I think you can see, there was a really impressive set of games on show - thanks and congratulations to all involve in putting them on.

Apart from the games, there is the social aspect, and the shopping, of course... It can feel like anyone who is everyone in the hobby is somewhere among the 5000 visitors, and also every possible trader! For the social side I plucked up courage to attend the 'blogger meet-up' organised by Big Lee - see Bob Cordery's blog for his picture of the assembled bloggers  ( I am the shifty-looking character second from right )  -  I had a good chat with Bob, and David Crook, and was really pleased to make the acquaintance of Rob Young of The Eastern Garrison - good to meet you,  Rob!

There was also a little light shopping - just a handful of  figures ( 15mm 30YW Generals from Essex,  and WW2 British 20mm PIAT and 2inch mortar crews from SHQ ) and no less than 3 different rulebooks - I may have got carried away there!  But not huge expensive ones, I hasten to add. More of those in future posts, I hope. 

I spent at last 5 hours in that cavernous and slightly dimly-lit space before finally emerging blinking into the afternoon sunshine and making my way home, 'tired but happy' - for once the cliched phrase fits just right. Salute is a real 'Marmite' show and I know lots of folk just don't fancy it, what with expense of transport/parking, the somewhat unforgiving environment of the space ( especially on the feet ) and the sheer size of it. I understand that point of view, but I can just about 'hack it', and it feels worthwhile once you're home and able to put your feet up! So that was 'Salute 50', certainly a long way from the old days at Kensington Town Hall, but still worth the trip, I reckon. Thanks to all concerned - next show for me  is ( I hope )  Broadside, at Gillingham in early June - which will be a little more relaxed, I suspect! Keep well, everyone.     

Starting with Saxony.. and Salute

Having set up a 'painting queue' in the previous post, real life promptly got in the way and not much hobby time has been available - I'm sure you all know the story.  But I have made a small start, with the Spencer-Smith figures who will be representing the forces of Saxony in the Seven Years War. 

I have a couple of Portable Wargame infantry units and one of cavalry in the queue, and have been deciding how to paint them, and what real-life units to represent. I have two sources of information; the Helion books Between Scylla and Charybdis ( parts 1 and 2 ) by Marco Pagan, and the amazing Project Seven Years War website on Kronoscaf.com.  

An appealing feature about the Saxon Infantry is their bright and varied colour schemes despite the rather generic 'white coat'  uniform - there are large areas of facing colour in the outfit, and the various regiments give  several different facing colour options - Sky Blue, French Blue, Dark Red, Crimson, Green , Yellow etc. They look to me exactly as the layman would expect for a soldier of this period - and as I remember seeing soldiers portrayed in an opera production of The Barber of Seville.  They do look like a classic 'Imagi-Nation' as dreamed up by Charles Grant or Henry Hyde.

Saxon infantry from Between Scylla and Charybdis

 

Hmm... red is a bit obvious, sky blue could be fun, but what about  Yellow? I also looked at the notes on regimental histories - I decided I wanted to portray troops from 1756, in the imaginary scenario where they did not surrender to the Prussians at Pirna. I want to 'nod' to Pirna too - I looked for units which having surrendered, promptly deserted en masse and marched away to join the fight against Prussia!  Given those criteria, I am going for the Prince Friedrich August regiment, with their White Coats and bright Yellow facings.  Here is an image of the uniform details, from the relevant page on Kronoskaf  - I hope they won't mind me copying  it here

from Kronoskaf.com -  Source: Hannoverdidi

Marco Pagan's book seems to show a slightly different scheme of white gaiters and buff-coloured breeches, which I think I would like to  go for - but a quick re-read for 1756 accuracy is required.  I think this should be fun, and they will look pleasingly  'different' if I can make a decent job of them. I have made an easy start by giving them a first 'base coat' of white pretty much all over, we'll see how it goes. The cavalry are going to be Cuirassiers, in basic white coats with blackened  cuirass for active service - actual unit and facing/trim colours yet to be decided. There seem to have been six cuirassier regiments with the choice of Red, Sky Blue, Dark Blue, Yellow, Green or Orange facings - but again I will consider the 'moral fibre' shown by regiments after Pirna! 

I'll keep this brief ( matching my progress ) for now, better to do some more actual painting than pontificate here!   One other hobby event coming up is of course Salute 50 this Saturday at the Excel in London, I will be there and will aim to join Big Lee,  Bob Cordery and others  at the proposed  blogger snd vlogger meet-up   there.   If any of you are going along, it'll be great to meet and have a chat. Meanwhile, keep well, everyone.  

 

 

 

Forming an orderly (Painting) queue

I've been meaning to take up the paintbrushes for a while and not quite got around to it - there is plenty of unpainted lead and plastic waiting patiently in various boxes, which need my attention.  A few different circumstances combined to decide what to prioritise : 

1.  18th Century inspiration

I still have quite a few 18th Century figures awaiting painting, including lots of those that came from Eric Knowles collection and inspired me to start this blog - but what has nudged me to get some more 'tricorne' troops mustered was Neil Patterson's recent examples of lovely Spencer-Smith figures on his blog Aufklarungsabteilung.  Neil had very generously gifted  me some surplus Spencer-Smiths, and it's high time I  got some of them painted.  I've decided they will represent  troops from Saxony,  a 'third force' who may side with either  Austrians or Prussians according to whatever  the shifting alliances of my imaginary corner of Central Europe dictate. So, we have 16 infantry and 6 cavalry,  which will make a  couple of Portable Wargame units of foot and one of horse. Specific units yet  to be decided, but the cavalry will be cuirassiers, I think. I won't make as good a job as Neil has, but it should be interesting to try painting this very 'old-school' figures. The officers and ensign came already painted, but in a pale blue uniform (possibly a previous owner's  imagi-nation): sadly I can't really use that, but will try to simply give them new coats and flag while leaving other parts unchanged. Fingers crossed..

Spencer-Smiths: potential recruits for Saxony

 

While I am at it, my Prussian army really needs a further stiffening with line infantry, and I still have plenty of my 1970s-vintage Minifigs Prussian musketeers, awaiting refurbishment, so I have lined up another 16 of those for painting - two more foot units in Portable Wargame terms. Here they are, after a quick spray of grey acrylic primer  The ( slightly singed ) backdrop is a wooden box from a rather upmarket brand of ready meals available here in the UK - when  its original use is done with, quite handy as a painting tray..

Minifigs: vintage Prussians

2. Epic Freebies

The April issue of Wargames Illustrated magazine in the UK includes a free sprue of Warlord Miniatures new 'Epic ECW' figures. My copy carried the Cavalry variant, and here they are

Epic ECW from Wargames Illustrated

 

These are officially 13 or 14mm, I think, but should fit perfectly well with my 15mm 'Pike and Shot' armies, and apart from various mounted troops there are some foot figures ( possibly mounted dragoons and/or firelocks ) and a couple of small cannon - all pretty useful stuff.  I have sprayed them with primer, now just need to decide how they can be fitted in to my existing armies. On Instagram, Mike Siggins has featured the infantry sprue which is also available - he is quite impressed with them,   though less so with the cavalry, he says. They don't look too bad to me, with good but simple detail and the correct proportion that is more possible with plastics - they are hard plastic too, so they won't shed paint. And they were free! 

 

3. Trial  DBA Forces 

Following my recent post debating options for Ancient Greeks vs Persians, I took the plunge and bought sets of HaT 20mm figures - 'Alexander's Macedonian Army' (set 8088)  and 'Achaemenid Persian Army' ( set 8117 ). Full marks for Models 2U website for good prices and very prompt delivery. 

Each set is a mixture of figures from several other sets, giving a spread of all types in the relevant army and ideal for rules such as DBA.  Consulting my vintage DBA edition, I was quite easily able to select figures for a suitable army for each side ( sadly, no chariots for the Persians ). I spent a pleasant sunny Good Friday afternoon sat in the garden, cutting out  cardboard bases and lightly glueing the figures to them, just to see what they would look like  - and here they are: 

Alexander's all-conquering army..

 

..and the mighty Persian host

I was quite tempted to use 10mm or 6mm ( or even 2mm ) figures for these armies and go for the 'mass effect', but  given the rather symbolic nature of the DBA units/elements, I think larger figure scales and correspondingly fewer figures can work ( think of them more like chess pieces? ) , and these 20mm plastics are cheap too.  They will get a 'stiffener' coat of diluted PVA glue ( as they are soft plastic ), then a spray of primer, then the painting proper will commence - I am going to try a  'limited palate' approach to keep things simple. I will probably have to remove them from the bases to paint, and they come without long spears and pikes, so I will be raiding the plastic broom/brushes in the house for bristles to use for those..  I suppose I could even give them a try with the DBA rules right away, and never mind the painting - 'sacrilege' to some! 

So, now I just need to try to make a habit of picking up the paintbrushes for a short session  every day or so, and we'll see how all these various mini-projects shape up. I'm hoping that the variety will keep things interesting..

 

Jon Freitag's picture of his brilliant AWI game setup

 

Meanwhile, there has been some gaming, at a distance: I was lucky enough to be invited to one of Jon Freitag's excllent remote gaming sessions, where I played one of the British commanders in a game set in 1776 Long Island.  I'm afraid our attack on the revolting Colonials didn't go too well, but it was great fun all the same - many thanks to Jon ( who has documented proceedings in a typically well-presented  battle report  )  for brilliant hosting,  and my fellow players Chris 'Nundanket' , Mark 'Jolly Broom Man' and Steve ( of Postie's Rejects fame ). A really pleasant evening was had! 

Finally, I was  impressed with what Mark ( Man of Tin ) has done with the 28mm WW2 figures (acquired free with magazines) which I passed on recently : he is 'kit-bashing' them into  inter-wars imagi-nations skirmish forces, and  provides an interesting  progress report and insight into his approach, here - I will be fascinated to see how they look when painted up.  Great to know they are being used so well, when they could so easily have just been thrown away! 

That's all for now, but as you see I have plenty to be going on with. Keep well, everyone, and a Happy Easter to you all.