Salute 52: Review

On 12-April I headed into London to visit Salute 52. This isn’t so much a review as a ‘things I liked the look of’ blog post. That, and a way of making a list of all the cool things I want to buy over the coming months.

There’s more to Salute than what I’m going to talk about here since I’m not much of a historical wargamer and my sci-fi interest has dwindled to almost nothing.

Since I’m calling it a review, I guess I should mention that I enjoyed the exhibition and had to work hard to resist spending three months’ wages in one day.

Table displays and participation games

I’m not going to go into too much detail here. Suffice to say, there were several tables dedicated to wargaming (hardly a surprise). I took some photos of a few so I’ll let them do the talking.

Mantic Games - Kings of War Champions

Mantic’s stand was relatively close to the entrance and one of the first stands on my zig-zag tour of the hall. That early in the day it was way too crowded for me to check out much of anything.

Given I’m fairly familiar with the Kings of War brand, I figured I’d swing back later to try and get more details about the upcoming Champions releases. The lack of pictures here shows that I didn’t get that chance. Not a major loss for me as I’m on the Mantic newsletter distribution and Champions isn’t yet a priority (although that axolotl sneak preview they sent out on Friday piqued my interest).

Chronopia

Across from the Mantic stand was a demo table for a skirmish game I’d never heard of so I switched my focus to that instead of trying to push through the crowd checking out the Mantic products. That game was Chronopia, and Salute was it’s grand debut following a successful Kickstarter. I was given a quick summary of the factions and game basics and intended to return later in the day for a full demo game. I didn’t make it back to the stand (there’s a theme developing here), but I will be checking this game out now that I have the time to sit and take it all in and not worry about making it to the other stands.

Cerberus Studios and Parabellum Miniatures

I messed up here and didn’t take pictures for either of these stands. In the case of Cerberus Studios, it was because I found out about them at UK Games Expo past year so already have them on my wish list (mainly for the large models that I can use as large monsters or avatars of the gods in my Anathema to the Divine setting). Parabellum miniatures (not to be confused with Para-Bellum) are a UK based company that I’ve seen on Etsy while searching for models to represent demon lords, etc.

Para-Bellum Games - Conquest

Speaking of Para-Bellum , I did visit their stand and took some pictures of the Conquest models on display. Scale-wise, they don’t fit with my mostly 28-32mm collection, but the larger, unique models are something I’d like to add since the scale difference won’t be as jarring as it would be for human-sized models.

Wargamer Games Studio - Anno Domini 1666

Entoyment is a UK based wargaming and hobby centre. At their stand they had a demo table run by the designer of Anno Domini 1666. Produced by Wargamer Games Studio, a Polish company that also acts as a distributor for other brands, Anno Domini 1666 caught my attention mainly because of the banner featuring a nun, a thief, and some werewolves. All the ingredients needed to make someone think ‘What?’.

Breaking my pattern, I got an overview of the game on the first pass and made it back to the stand for a full demo at the end of the day (pretty much the last thing I did before heading home).

Unlike many of the games I play, there are no dice involved with this one. Instead, players use a deck of cards to determine their scores for various actions and engagements.

I’ll probably do a full review of this one at some point since it was one of my on-the-day purchases. In a nutshell, the core game includes models and cards for the Polish and French factions of an alternate history that includes some famous names from French and Polish literature and cinema.

You can add other factions, such as Ottomans, or branch out into more fantastical elements such as werewolves, demons, and spellcasters.

Overall, it was a fun, skirmish game that felt more like playing out a scene from a movie than your usual ‘two groups meet to fight over an objective’ skirmish games.

I also picked up a model of Jeanne the Knight from their Hot and Dangerous range to use as part of my not-Bretonnian army. The box art did deceive me into thinking it was a resin model, but it was metal.

Modular Worlds

Modular Worlds is another Etsy 3D Print company but one I hadn’t come across before Salute. They have a store in Newquay (which is a bit far for me to travel to so Etsy it is) and caught my eye because of their large monsters, specifically their magma elementals. Not much more to say on this one since it was approaching lunchtime and I just snapped a couple of pics to remind me to check them out later.

Black Scorpion Miniatures

Before leaving the hall to grab some lunch, I visited the Black Scorpion stand to buy some minis (female mercenaries and a Blackbeard model) that I’d seen in the newsletter. I didn’t grab any pictures as it was a small stand that was super busy. That, and I knew of them from UK Games Expo so this one was purely a shopping visit. Good job I did as the models I picked up are showing as out of stock on the site at the time I write this.

Footsore Miniatures - Baron’s War and Warhost

The middle of the hall was dominated by resellers, gaming tables, and the lecture stage, allowing me to speed through the next few stands since I was mainly on the look out for new (to me) miniature manufacturers. With lunch out of the way, I made my way over to Footsore Miniatures and the demo tables for The Baron’s War and Warhost.

The Baron’s War is one of those games I’d heard of and dismissed thinking it was a historical game. The release of the Warhost supplement converts it into a fantasy game by adding in your typical races such as orcs and goblins. I almost picked up a pre-release copy of the second edition of the game at the stand but managed to keep myself in check. It is likely to end up on my shelf before too long though as the game seems like it will be a fun addition to the stack of games I never seem to find the time to play.

Archon Studios and TT Combat

No pictures for these two as I zipped through both the Archon Studios and TT Combat stands to avoid breaking and spending a load of money, especially on Archon Studios’ dragons. One of the people I travelled down with didn’t fare so well, broke, and spent a small fortune on Masters of the Universe models.

Everything Else

There was so much more to see that towards the end of the day I was starting to suffer from miniatures overload. I did get another box of Forgotten Worlds Albion Knights to expand my not-Bretonnian army. Other than that, I did well on not maxing out the credit card. I did end up buying a new dining table and chairs after getting home from the show though so that has messed up my plans for further miniatures purchases. I guess I’ll have to paint the ones I already own. Speaking of which, I’ve got some unopened Frostgrave models around here somewhere that I can use to expand my not-Bretonnian army. Until then…