Mike Adams
25/4/04

www.smallbattles.co.uk

Summary

It’s the day after another excellent show. Salute seems to be bigger every year. I believe it is probably the biggest wargame show in Europe. The downside of this, if it can be called a downside, is that is now clearly impossible to see everything in the time.

This year I hardly saw any actual wargames and never even visited the lower ground floor! I could have spent a week there. But I realise for the organisers that this is a major commercial project and would not be commercially viable over more than one day. In any case, what am I going to do? Stay up in London, or drive up again on the next day?

Admittedly, I could have got up early and got there for 10am when it opens. I got there at 11am. I went straight to look at the traders on the right-hand side of the ground floor where I came in. I had just about finished in this area by 1:30pm. I realised I needed to move faster, so I picked up the pace and did the left-hand side of the ground floor and then up to the first floor, the largest  of the three. Time for lunch is really out of the question, but eventually exhaustion forced me to sit down an have a cup of tea and a pastry. This was also an opportunity to frantically take notes about what I’d seen (products and ideas).

When I came out of the restaurant after my tea break, I’d hardly seen anything of the first floor but decided I wanted to see some wargames! So I went off to the left-hand side of this floor where there was a big concentration of games. It was 4pm. The first table I got to, they were packing up. And of course all the tables were now packing up, so I never did see a game in progress. Which seems a bit odd for a wargame show.

One of the things on my shopping list was from Forge World (Games Workshop). You don’t really go to Salute to see Games Workshop games, because you can see those anywhere, but if you want anything from Forge World you can save yourself the postage and packing costs by getting it from a show like this. I finally got to their stand at 5pm and made my order (as usual it seems, they had run out of stock and so I will get it through the post, but I don’t pay p&p).

Where did the time go? Unusually, I didn’t chat to anyone until about 4:30pm. I had a brief chat with some War Machine players, a brief chat with Michael who I recognised from the Battlescar club in Bournemouth, and then chatted to the gentleman from Deal Wargames with the excellent Korea game as he was putting the models away. Now it was 5:20pm and I thought I’d better leave before I was kicked out.

And there you have it! Phew!

What should be my strategy next year? I could make a very organised hit list of traders and go to those, and when I get the programme make a list of those games to target, then ignore the rest. But often it’s the unexpected that’s the most rewarding. I don’t know the answer. The best advice is probably to get a Queue Buster ticket and get there when it opens at 10am. I don’t think that hour will make that much difference, though, and it will probably mean I’ll need to take another rest break.

Anyway, onto the meat and potatos… what was cool?

My Shopping List

• Hybrid Nemesis from Rackham – should I buy? How much?
• More West Wind werewolves?
• Looking for good “fantasy females”
• Forge World Grey Knights dreadnought
• Forge World Tau Seeker Missiles
• Bag of grass flock
• The Assault Group Samurai
• Lay-on roads, esp. for Eastern Front WWII (20mm)
• More medieval tents?
• Jungle terrain pieces
• Samurai terrain pieces/ideas
• Vietnam water buffalo?
• WAB medieval supplement “Armies of Chivalry”
• Confrontation – have a look

Rackham Confrontation & Hybrid

Hybrid Nemesis was on sale for £35. It would be premature to buy this yet, because I’m still putting together the models from the main game and I haven’t played yet. I spoke to a guy at the show who had a copy of Hybrid and the Nemesis supplement, and who also played Confrontation. He said it was a great game, not too complicated when you got into it, and that you had to play it to appreciate it.

Werewolves & Babes

This is part of a current project of mine for combining gothic horror elements with modern special forces and the like for skirmish games, inspired by the large number of movies with this sort of theme (esp. Underworld, Blade I & II, Resident Evil and Dog Soldiers). I have a set of rules under development called “Bloodbath”.

I have a squad of TAG SAS troopers and a large West Wind werewolf. Now I have bought a blister of several smaller (man-size) werewolves, which should mean I have enough models to play a game based on the movie Dog Soldiers. I had a look around and the West Wind models are the best.

I’ve also been looking for “fantasy females”. These are an important element in this theme (the lead characters in Underworld and Resident Evil are what you might call fantasy babes). I’m also keen to add a distinctly sensual element. Surely it wouldn’t be hard to find something to fit the bill? There are certainly a lot of miniatures of semi-naked female fighters around of one sort or another, but the quality wasn’t quite there and I find them too small.

For what I have in mind, there will be very few models in the game and I’d like them quite large. This is one time when the over-large 28mms are just what I want (e.g. the TAG SAS are way over 28mm). In the end I have settled for Copplestone’s Future Wars models. I don’t know how I’ve managed to resist them this long. We’ll see how I get on with a blister of “Corporate Babes”. I think these are sexy enough without being tasteless, they are suitably armed and are very good quality. I just hope I’ve judged the scale right when compared with my TAG troopers.

BTW, the Copplestone stand had some nice terrain pieces for the ancient near east and a fantastic pair of werewolf statues.

Forge World

Well, I got my Grey Knights dreadnought (not physically, because it was out of stock, it will come through the post). Poring over the pictures for weeks, I had decided on the plastic dreadnought with Forge World sarcophagus and Forge World plasma cannon, but what I ended up with was the Mk IV dreadnought with Psycannon! There‘s not much to choose between them, but the Mk IV is a little bit different, it’s all resin, it comes with a special base, it has a fantastic close combat arm with Incinerator, and of course the Psycannon (and it works out a bit cheaper).

There are no official rules for a dreadnought-mounted Psycannon, but it’s very cool and in character, and could in any case be “counted as” either a twin heavy bolter (a Psycannon is a lot like a heavy bolter that fires psy-bolts) or a plasma cannon (it looks physically similar). This model will round out my Daemonhunters army nicely.

I also got a pack of Tau Seeker Missiles, as you don’t get enough in the plastic kits for Tau vehicles.

Terrain

I bought a ready-to-play ruined Aztec-style temple (from German company Noch/Ziterdes, distributed by Wargames Warehouse). This is perfect for Warhammer Lizardmen, used with my jungle terrain set. It can also be used in games of W40K set in the jungle. I also bought a large bag of compatible grass flock.

For Eastern Front games especially, I found the road pieces I’ve been looking for. At least I hope so. For £15 I bought a set of resin, 15mm scale, rutted, untarmaced road sections from Gladiator Games (Battlezone Scenics). It looks like there is enough to cover a 6’ x 4’ table and I think they are perfect for Eastern Front WWII in 20mm. I will paint them muddy brown, so they can be deployed on my winter white terrain and also used for other games on a green terrain base. I think they are fine for 25mm wargames as well, just not skirmish games. The 25mm scale road sections would be far too big, when you take into account the different scale for buildings and terrain.

BTW, I nearly bought instead a set of latex roads from Slindon Scenics (half pack trackway £25). I think latex is probably a better material, but the sculpting wasn’t as good and I would get less road for my money.

I didn’t see anything else inspiring for jungle terrain or for Samurai terrain. If I get serious about Samurai skirmish, I can see myself making my own open-plan buildings with screen walls, etc. designed for placing and moving figures. Obviously the requirement for skirmish is completely different than for battle games (in skirmish games, terrain needs to be at 1:1 scale where a building represents a building, whereas in battle games a building represents a village or set of buildings).

An honourable mention must go to the reasonably priced, ready-to-play 20mm scale ruined buildings from Fieldworks.

Samurai

I got to have a close look at the new Samurai from The Assault Group (TAG). Yes, they look pretty good. They are chunky and they are compatible size with Dixon Samurai (I took one along to compare). I wasn’t 100% sure about the sculpting on the horses, but again I think these are compatible with Dixon’s.

I didn’t buy any of the TAG Samurai because I haven’t painted the Samurai I have yet and I don’t want to build up another unpainted metal collection, but also because they are sold in £8 blisters of the same type. I am building very individual skirmish forces at the moment, so it doesn’t suit me to buy e.g. 4 or 5 monks with naginata, whereas maybe what I want is one monk with naginata, one with sword, etc.

WAB “Armies of Chivalry”

Armies of Chivalry was on my shopping list. I don’t actually play WAB because I don’t think it’s that great. It’s an old-fashioned set of rules that is unrealistic. I feel like I moved on from that sort of game many years ago. Funny really, because of course I do play Warhammer. The same criticism applies to Warhammer, but it’s fantasy so it doesn’t matter about realism so long as it makes an enjoyable game and an enjoyable hobby. Of course GW do kid themselves sometimes that it is “realistic”.

[The fundamental criticism is that the rules are oriented around numbers and weapon types, rather than the more fundamental command & control and morale which determine the outcome of real battles. Not only is there no command & control at all, but there is no army-level morale rules. And the morale rules they have are too random and too generous.]

Anyway, the medieval period and the Hundred Years War in particular is my first love in wargaming, and the WAB supplements are lovely hobby manuals. I would prefer they were lighter and cheaper (I mean that literally, because one of my problems is the amount of space and weight these books take up, out of proportion to their importance). I was finally swayed to purchase by Foundry giving away a lovely Henry V model in 28mm.

Actually, I have a problem here. I still have my original and large collection of mainly Minifigs Hundred Years War models in true 25mm scale. I still love the period, but obviously this collection is out of date and I can’t mix in the fantastic new 28mm models (especially Front Rank). Do I start replacing the entire collection from scratch? These days I just can’t manage big armies. And on the Warhammer front, I have been swayed by Bretonnians. The fantasy Bretonnians are compatible size with Front Rank, Foundry, etc. and in some cases are historically accurate too.

What is a shame is that I can’t mix in wonderful characters like Henry V into my Bretonnian force, but it’s just not worth it because I couldn’t use the army in any sanctioned GW tournament, which only permit all-Citadel miniatures (for obvious reasons that I don’t hold against them).

The answer may be to do the reverse, i.e. play my Bretonnian army using WAB and Armies of Chivalry. Then I can happily mix in historical 28mm figures, and WAB does offer some minor historical improvements over straight Warhammer. But then why not just play Armati or my own HYW rules? Hmm… not sure.

Other notable products

15mm WWII is looking very strong at the moment, from a number of manufacturers, including Skytrex. WWII remains such a popular wargaming period. I thought the range was fully covered in 20mm, but then we saw a diversification to 25mm and 15mm, not to mention 10mm or 1/200.

The “ready-to-play” (as I call it) terrain choice has grown, with some great buildings ready to use straight out of the box. However, of course these are normally very generic half-timbered houses of the sort that are perfect for something like Warhammer but far too generic for almost all historical use. The standard of Warhammer terrain has increased and become more themed, so we are seeing less of these generic buildings, but they are still very useful.

I wish I’d bought an £8 pack of Foundry spears. OK, I know they are just pieces of wire with the end flattened, but they are so generally useful and save a lot of time and effort.

In the same category is the ready-cut 2mm MDF bases in standard sizes (from ?). My last effort to cut my own was pathetic. My 1/2000 Napoleonic ships are on distinctly unparallel bases.

Another purchase I regret not making was the Takeda Samurai book for £16 (I can’t remember the exact title – it’s on the web somewhere). This looked superb and covers the period I am most interested in.

I bought an ox-drawn baggage cart and some gravestone pieces from Amazon Miniatures. The baggage cart has more than one possible use, from ancient Assyria to Vietnam. The gravestones are for me to build themed terrain for my Warhammer Undead forces.

Of course there were other interesting products to see, too many to name. Britannia had a crashed Blackhawk to use with their Mogadishu figures (fantastic models, but a bit too contemporary for me from an ethics point of view).

It was interesting to see Andy Foster from Heretic Miniatures there, with his Netherlord and other daemons. I certainly know where to go to get sculpting tools if I ever go down that route.

Notable Wargames

Deal Wargames – Korea

More good stuff from the people who brought us Narvik 1940 and Iraq 1941.

War of the Worlds

This looked good and looked fun to play. And it looked like you could build the pieces for it relatively easily.

Big 6mm (ECW?)

I’m sorry, it may have won best game, but 6mm still doesn’t work for me. The problem is that visually all periods look the same, let alone armies from the same period. You might as well play with chunky counters and save a lot of trouble painting up tiny soldiers.

Lance & Longbow

I like medieval and so I always like the Lance and Longbow games, but it does seem like the same slightly tired collection of models (like my medievals!) that comes out each year. I thought it was interesting to see the small town they modelled on a single base with maybe three houses and a fortified building – effective and very quick to set up.

Warhammer

I liked the bridge over the river. But it seems now that all Warhammer games look the same. Ohmigod, it sounds like I’m being really critical. I think it’s just that the standard has got so high.

War Machine

Looked good, although I wonder how well the game scales up as it seems to be designed for small-scale skirmish and there is a very limited range of models.

Back of Beyond

This looked good and looked fun, and offbeat. Of course the armoured train was nice, but I also liked the way the river had been modelled (I have in the back of my mind that I want to model up a river – I’ve never had a proper one, only bits of blue cloth).

Painting

Painting standard seemed to me very high, both in historical and fantasy miniatures, and terrain for that matter.

A special mention to Mike McVey for painting – eat your heart out Kevin Dallimore!

I had to say that. Kevin Dallimore has had I think far too much exposure, like he’s some god of painting. But I’ve never liked his style, and I can’t be the only one. Mike McVey’s War Machine models, on the other hand, are the best I’ve ever seen.

Lasertag

As I passed the lasertag stand I was interested to see one of the guys with a H&K G36 Compact. This was a cut above the normal lasertag gun and it looked like it might be an Airsoft rifle adapted for lasertag with the addition of a lens assembly, etc. But who would spend that money and then effectively “downgrade” it?

As I got closer I realised that it was closer to a lifelike toy gun than a pukka Airsoft rifle. Apparently it’s a basic BB firing gun for something like £20 (as opposed to £200+ for the real thing). Interesting… at that price you can afford to buy two and convert them to infra-red.

Balance Sheet

Purchases (in order of expense)

(total spend last year £64.00)

Costs

(total costs last year £21.40)