Salute 52 - event report.
Salute 52, the annual wargaming convention, held as always by the South London Warlords and their incredible volunteers at the ExCel centre in London on Saturday 12th April, did not disappoint. The weather was bright and sunny, which was let's face it ultimately pointless when you’re indoors. Even so, spirits were incredibly high when we entered the doors and awaited entry, and the weather certainly helped.
The theme of this years’ shindig was Highlanders, so unsurprisingly there were lots of people swanning around in kilts with swords, with an equal number of Redcoats mulling about - ladies and gentlemen, we were introduced to the highly entertaining 79th Cameron Highlanders, who were great sports throughout the day. The level of fancy and fantasy dress at this years event was equal to any Salute before it.
The event, which is sponsored by Wargames Illustrated magazine, Wayland Games and Warmag, who sell magnets for figure storage, hosted 133 trade stands, out of which, 21 were there for the first time. On top of that, there were 118 games going on around the hall space, a massive space the size of a couple of football pitches.
As always, there’s the ubiquitous goody bag for the early birds. The contents this year were some sample magnets from Warmag, a sprue of Quars from Wargames Atlantic, the regular appearance of the Salute dice, as well as the excellent programme produced by Miniature Wargames Magazine. A free game booklet, Troika was supplied, along with some quick start rules for Space Gitz, and from Hammerline Minis, a detailed dwarf fighter with cobbled base. Last but by no means least, there was also intricately detailed metal figure of the ‘Bravest man in the British Army’, namely Lt. Col James MacDonell of the Coldstream Guards - the official keepsake figure for Salute 52.
McDonell distinguished himself in battle at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 – quite a lucrative gig as it turned out; The Duke of Wellington was so impressed with him, he awarded MacDonell £1000 (£113,785 in today's money) – he did however split the cash with his Seargent, James Graham who deserved quite a bit of credit for his actions too. What a decent chap.
The programme has a lot of info on McDonell, as well as the designer who sculpted him, Paul Hicks. Also in the programme is a QR code that enables you to download an STL of the Salute digital miniature, a futuristic Highlander Mech Pilot, complete with kilt and sword. Think HALO after a few pints of Newcastle Brown and you'd be not far off the mark.
The show itself was arranged into seven long rows of stands interspersed with gaming and display tables, and in the upper middle part of the hall was the panels stage, and centrally placed below to the centre of the this was the Painting Competition area. The refreshments area was a nice little café at the back of the hall which gave sterling and friendly service throughout the entire day, a welcome respite for weary legs.
The usual big hitters were in attendance. Some of the bigger exhibitors were Wayland Games, Mantic Games, Warlord Games, TT Combat, Element Games, Foundry Miniatures and Wargames Illustrated.
But the best parts were the smaller traders. Some of the most notable were Moonstone who really went to town this year with a stall and three excellent demo tables. Bad Squiddo Games, who were fronted by the always amiable and irrepressible Annie Norman, put on an excellent show - Annie was her usual sprightly self, getting very much into the spirit of things, a force of nature as usual.
We gawped at ROK Mini's models, which had a lovely retro feel to them - it was almost like stepping back into the late eighties with the style of the packaging and the design of their space dwarves, and with exceptional detailing to boot. From 5mm to 56mm and beyond, there was something for everyone, and someone for everything. A big shout-out to Tine Fieldling who, apart from being highly entertaining on the Sustainable Wargaming panel, also had her own stall for My Mini Factory, and the delightful gnomes that she designs and sells, among other fantastical and phantasmagorical things. Talking of which, one of the more amusingly disturbing things we saw this year was the Florescentia Grotesque table, which featured old careworn toy dolls turned into macabre oddities. Delightfully weird!
The Department of Wargaming, had a much larger stand this year, and were confidently showing off Tiny Conflict, which has come along in leaps and bounds since its inception a few years back.
Tiny Conflict is a scale agnostic wargame, that enables you to utilise the humble sprue as a means of making large space fleets from cast-offs and recycled bits and bobs. The Tiny Conflict Handbook has been carefully and with incite crafted by James Lakin and Amber Howard who have taken the Department of Wargaming from a small hobby to kickstarter, to something that will hopefully make some of the larger games companies worry.
James himself was the host of the panel on Sustainable Wargaming. In this day and age, some people are struggling with the expense of wargaming as a hobby, and the Tiny Conflict concept addresses this neatly. And above all, it’s a lot of fun! Moonhopper are proud to have been asked by the Department to help develop some of the game packs which were also on sale at Salute.
From Burrows and Badgers, to battle mats and dice, there was something there for everyone. The Perry Brothers were there, making a very welcome appearance, and Duncan ‘Two Thin Coats’ Rhodes as always was his affable self, talking to many fans of his painting videos on YouTube.
The panels were also entertaining as usual, including one on Wargaming in the Real World – perhaps more relevant now in this day and age than ever. Hosted by Alex Vince, one of the principle members of the South London Warlords, this was a very thought provoking session that overran slightly due to the barrage of questions that the panel received at the end.
There was also a nod to absent friends this year. The passing of Paul Sawyer last month, whose influence on wargaming in the UK, from editing White Dwarf to founding Warlord Games cannot be underestimated. His loss was publicly observed by those who knew him. Warlord Games set aside a glass cabinet to give some an insight into his legacy and those that knew of his reach gave a silent nod of respect as they went past.
Also of note was Brian Ansell's passing in late 2023, the man who, along with giants such as Rick Priestly and Iain Livingstone laid the foundations for Games Workshop and much of the gaming landscape we know of today, represented by nearly every table in some form or other. This was commemorated with the South London Warlords setting a table aside for the prototype game from which Warhammer and all the games of that ilk followed: Laserburn.
It was a well thought out tabletop, complete with retro spaceship models pinched from here, there and everywhere - from Snowspeeders to Britain's Space models of days gone by, there was more than a nod to the great man, and the enthusiasm that the volunteers manned and chatted away at the table while playing was more than evident.
Among the tables were some of the usual stalwarts of the event; the gaming societies, that came from far and wide across the UK to attend and put on a decent show. Too Fat Lardies brought The Lard Zone back as usual, and many of the wargaming societies at the event came up with incredible tables with intricate set pieces. Some old friendly familiar faces mixed with the new, and it was nice to catch up with old friends and acquaintances.
This years Salute was definitely the biggest to date in over fifty years, an annual event since 1972 that has only ever been cancelled once, and that was due to the COVID pandemic. How ironic that the site of the Nightingale Hospital, prepped five years ago for a battle of a very different kind, is now the setting for an event which is the polar opposite of those troubled times not so long ago.
In all, it took us nearly six hours to traverse the hall from beginning to end, and being the wrong side of our forties, it was fun, but blimey, we all slept like bricks that night.
We’re looking forward to Salute 53 next year. The noodles in the foyer, we are also pleased to report, were excellent as usual.
