Salute is the premier wargames show in the UK, and by extension all of Europe. Except for the US the competition isn't all that fierce, but I'll refrain from extending Salute's already formidable sphere of influence artificially.
For years I've been a happy subscriber to
Wargames Illustrated
and for as many years I've drooled over the pictures of all these fabulous games at UK shows,
particularly Salute. But airfares were expensive and the thought of actually going to a
show seemed like a pipe dream.
But times change and last year it seemed that even pipe dreams can come true. There's much more competition in the skies and airfares have come down substantially -- even if you don't fly RyanAir. So in mid-2006 I started planning a trip to UK, scouting out the plane tickets, checking hotels and most importantly, trying to decide which show to go to, as only one would really be within my resources.
A quick inquiry on TMP concluded that
Salute was indeed the premier wargames show in UK. Fortunately the Salute people plan well ahead,
and the date for the 2007 show was already available. Very good form guys, this is very important
when you're planning to come in from abroad.
With the date and location I could start planning in earnest. A quick rifling through the Internet provided me with airline schedules, ticket prices and accommodation options -- and most importantly, an approximate total cost. With this handy number I went about trying to get members of my so-called gaming group, members of historical gaming mailing lists and generally anyone I could think of interested in joining me in the expedition.
No such luck. For one reason or another, each prospective candidate flaked off left and right. Then I tried to get my wife interested -- weekend in London, I spend the day at the show and we have the evening and the second day together. She started piling on enough activities for a whole week and in the end I had to call it off. I'd just go by myself and as for the rest of them, their loss.
Ironically, just when I was about to order my plane tickets, my company wanted to send me to UK anyway
and let me decide the exact dates. I guess you can't lose all the time. So I set up my trip so I'd be
in UK for the Salute weekend.
Fast forward to April 21st. With my Day Travelcard in hand, I arrived at the Reading Station and after some trial and error managed to board a train en route to Paddington Station. With a printed tube map in hand, following the directions and minding the gap, I managed to get to the DLR station. I knew the tube, I was ok travelling on the tube (gap or no gap), but the DLR was an unknown element. I had formulated a plan B to pick up a taxi or simply walk to ExCel from the last tube stop if the DLR option proved too troublesome. I mean, if it's like a 3-minute train ride, it can't be an impossible walk, right?
Fortunately, I was not alone in my doubts and the DLR station was full of friendly chaps in bright yellow vests shouting: "This is not the train to ExCel", which was very good since the train labels and platforms were more confusing than ExCel's directions made them out to be. Finally the real train to ExCel arrived and Bob was my metaphorical relative after roughly 90 grueling minutes on a public transport system.
The DLR arrived at the ExCel and it began to dawn on me just how big the convention center was. All these people
could not be going to Salute and in fact, they were not. There were probably half a dozen other conventions
at the ExCel -- investing, floral arrangements, whatever. Wargaming fit right in with the other weird stuff.
Sensibly, I had pre-ordered my ticket with a Q-buster badge, which had been promptly mailed to me by the show organizers. However, arriving a few minutes past 10 AM, the Q-buster queue stretched as far as the eye could see -- in a straight open hallway, no less. At least they had people running around the queue telling people that indeed it was the queue for Salute and you hadn't been standing in the wrong line for the past 20 minutes. The Imperial Stormtroopers did provide some entertainment and I think I caught the sight of the odd Dalek or two as well. Tension was rising.
Finally I made it to the actual door where I exchanged my red badge of tenacity for a red plastic bag and was let inside the actual convention hall.
It was a... a big hall. Typical of big convention halls, the lighting shared some qualities with a gloomy,
overcast day. I stuffed my jacket in my backpack (no cloakroom service to be found, in general the lack of
places to leave suff in -- like wastebaskets, lockers etc. -- was rather weird for someone coming from where
people generally don't tend to leave exploding thingies in such places), took out my camera and decided to stroll
through the area, getting a quick glance at each stall before deciding where to spend more time and possibly
even some money.
Bad call. Over four hours later I sat down at one of the rest areas completely knackered. I still had some time to spend before I had to catch the train, but I was simply too tired to formulate a cohesive plan of attack. I ended up buying a few books, resting a bit and finally leaving the place around 15:30.
I'd been told this, but I guess you have to see it to really believe it: Salute is, first and foremost, a shopping
venue. As such, it was something of a letdown for me. Yes, there were many very beautiful games (that you usually
could not actually play). Yes, it was huge. Yes it had pretty much all the UK traders I knew about and quite a few I
didn't. But on the whole, I could not escape the feeling that "Is this all there is to it?". It's roughly the same
thing I have locally, except much much bigger (and with less actual gaming).
I'll address some specific things below:
As I said, it's a shopping venue. I gotta admit that I did not find the atmosphere all that conductive to good
gaming anyhow. It is a large, relatively dimly lit hall with the associated din and clamor, and the timeframe
is really too short for proper gaming anyway. Now, I knew this and I didn't really come in to play games. But
if you're planning a trip specifically to get to play games, this is something you should know.
I never really got to see the Bring&Buy table, because it was so crowded and I really did not come in to buy
stuff anyhow (the downside of spending two weeks away from home was that my luggage capacity was pretty much
used up already). Some of the traders had convention specials, some had excess stock they were dumping but
for the most part everyone was selling stuff at suggested retail. Since almost all of the stuff is also available
via mail order, all you're really saving is the postage. Now, given the chance to visually inspect the goods
(the digital camera still being a mystery to many webshops) is nice and getting away without postage can offset
the cost of getting there -- if you live in the UK. Even with relatively cheap airfare and flying in for a day
with an empty suitcase, I don't really see the business case for flying in from abroad just to stock up on stuff.
Bollocks to that. It's a massive show in a very big city, things in such a context tend to get impersonal.
As I waded through the show tables, only one of the presenters opened a real discussion with me, a handful
tossed a general comment in my direction but most had locked their attention on their game, just like their
Finnish counterparts. Most games didn't even have clearly identifiable staff, further reducing the risk of
undue contact with the audience.
Yes, some of them. Some were average and some were even not all that nice, truth be told. And I don't mean
the odd aesthetic senses of the Little Wars guys, I mean games that just weren't really show quality in
my opinion. It's basically the same as here, only on a much larger scale. We have one
GeMiGaBoK, they have several.
That's all there really is to it.
I should add that most of these games are geared towards providing a visual spectacle. 28mm figures were most popular choice by far, and several games used even larger figures. The teeny stuff favored by frugal competition gamers was few and far between.
Two things, really. The hobby has more roots in UK. As a 30-something, I'm pretty much in the grand old
man of gaming category over here. At Salute, you see graying gentlemen in immaculate tweed rifling through
racks of Hannibal's finest. And a few graying bikers at the same task.
The other big difference, quite possibly related to the first one, was the abundance of painted stuff on sale. Now, in Finland, the market for painted historicals quite simply does not exist and even for more popular stuff the more you've done to your mini, the less money you're going to get for it. The idea of paying a premium price for a premium paintjob is totally alien to Finnish gamers -- quite likely because the vast majority of them are rather young, tight on cash and have lots of free time.
At salute, in addition to the Bring&Buy stuff and traders in second hand miniatures you have traders selling new painted miniatures. I guess you wouldn't have a stall full of boxed painted units at 100 quid each if no one was buying them.
Speaking of painted stuff, I also got a look at the new painted stuff from Mongoose. Quite frankly, I was
underwhelmed. They're ok, but IMHO not all that substantially different from e.g. classic Britain's stuff.
In addition, I found them oddly toylike, especially the guns. Sorry guys, not my cup of tea, though I can see
a whole bunch of "I'd rather be gaming" people rushing to stock up on these. Sigh... I've no objection to someone
else using them on my table, but I'd rather be painting real miniatures. And no, re-painting over pre-painteds
does not count. Haven't tested how compatible they are with other nominally 28mm figures.
Truth be told, probably not. If I happen to be in the area, maybe. If I need to stock up for a major project, just possibly. But just to repeat this year's trip on my own dime, nope.
I'd like to see one of the American shows, but airfares aren't quite that cheap yet, nor do I have the free time for a multi-day convention plus transatlantic travel.
Editor's note: All the pictures.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Copyright 2003-2021 Mikko Kurki-Suonio
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