Mike Adams
26/4/08

www.smallbattles.co.uk

Well, I'm just back from Salute 2008, the biggest show in the wargaming calendar, and the only one I regularly attend now. I missed last year, and my hunger for this year's show was immense. This year was also the first year I took my son with me. If you were there, you may have seen us sporting our "small battles" t-shirts which I just had printed the day before the show! (why do I do everything at the last minute?)

However, maybe it's just me, but for the first time I felt a little disappointed. Were my expectations too high? In my imagination it had grown to be something really exciting and special, but when I got there it was, well, just a big wargame show.

Wargames Foundry normally have cabinets of all their fantastically painted miniatures, which are always an inspiration, but this year there was no cabinet. Neither did Forge World have a display of all of their fantastic models. Nor did Gripping Beast. Nor did Crocodile Games have any of their superbly painted examples from their Wargods range. Have I missed something? Why did vendors leave their painted minis at home this year?

So that I'm focused at the show (it's just too big to see everything), I go with a list of specific objectives. This year one of my big objectives was to see Rackham and see how they play AT-43. I was sure they would have a great demonstration of this new and ground-breaking system, based as it is on pre-painted, pre-assembled models. You see I have invested in this system but am slightly concerned that no-one seems to be playing it and I can't find any support for it. I was also quite interested to see the new pre-painted version of Confrontation. Well, to get to the point - Rackham weren't there! This is the first time I can remember them not being there. What's going on? The whole point of going to Salute is that everyone is always there! No-one was playing AT-43, apart from one small table which was simply demonstrating the starter box. This was very disappointing.

I also have to say I don't really like the venue as much as Olympia. It just feels like a big aircraft carrier, with a mucky floor, filled with market stalls. There's certainly no glamour about the event. And of course being London, you have to pay £12 just to park in the venue car park.

If we get to the point and ask what was new and cool at Salute, I have to say there was just one thing that created a buzz, and simply put everything else in the shade. That was of course the release of new 28mm hard plastic historical ranges from Perry Miniatures and Warlord Games. I consider this a huge milestone in wargaming. I'm not sure everyone seems to appreciate the significance, which surprised me, but then I have been heavily involved in the Games Workshop hobby for the last ten or fifteen years so I am used to high quality plastics and how backward the historical hobby seems from the GW perspective.

Now it seems Games Workshop are laying off people and they are all going out and starting new wargaming businesses. Among them we have a plastics tooling company and two companies making plastic figures. Amazingly, I only learned afterwards that there is actually a third company, based in the USA, called Wargames Factory, which are also just launching ranges of 28mm hard plastic historical figures. Something however seems to have gone slightly amiss because even more amazingly Wargames Factory and Warlord Games have chosen the same ranges to launch with!!

Warlord Games is new, but I had never even heard of Wargames Factory until the other day when I received my copy of Battlegames through the post. I was gobsmacked.

Perry Miniatures are the most advanced, and on the day you could buy their first boxes of American Civil War infantry. Not only that but they were demonstrating a great looking wargame using the new figures, including plastic infantry and cavalry and supporting metal figures like wounded, generals and so on. The Perrys are no-nonsense, they just get on with it and of course do it very well. They seem to be touched by the hand of God in the quality department (I'm a big fan of their artwork, let alone their figure sculpts). You can see examples of their miniatures in the Salute 2008 gallery on this website.

Warlord Games were unheard of a couple of months ago but they have really made their mark with a fantastic launch, superbly timed. Although you could only pre-order the first boxes at Salute, they were handing out free samples of Roman Legionairies and one was given away free on the front of Wargames Illustrated. They also reinforced the launch with other touches including Roman re-enactors walking around the Salute hall. Well, it worked for me! It's all about miniatures at the end of the day, and I was really chuffed to have a couple of freebies in my hand. So I painted them the day after Salute and then immediately put in a pre-order for more. And I don't even collect Romans! I'm not sure I even like Romans!!

It's a personal thing, but I prefer ancients to American Civil War. I know it would be hard to maintain motivation to paint hundreds of near-identical blue and grey soldiers for a horse-and-musket period that doesn't have the colour or variety of Napoleonics or Seven Years War, for example. But I'm sure the American market will love them. BTW, you will of course have seen the Warlord Games Romans on the front image of the website and in the painting table section.

Wargames Factory were not at Salute, and like I said I'd never heard of them before. Maybe they are targetting the American market primarily, or maybe they just missed the timing for Salute, but it seems they are now second runners behind Warlord Games. Plus they do not seem to be as forward with showing us actual sculpts or masters (possibly because they are all computer modelled?). I had a look on the website yesterday and I have to say that in my opinion the sculpt quality did not seem to be so high, not on a par with Warlord and of course the Perrys. I hate to criticise a new vendor before they've even got off the ground, so let's wait and see - they may be better "in the flesh". They would appear to be surprisingly cheap, at £18 for no less than 48 models! And they have a marketing tie-in with Field of Glory (new wargame rules), which always seems like a good idea.

Anyway, one thing is for sure - it's exciting times for historical wargaming, and I would be pleased if ancients wargaming got a boost, as its surprisingly poorly subscribed.

On that note, I'm always surprised at how many extremely fringe periods become so popular. A good example of that at the moment is pirates! There were so many pirates games, and supporting figure ranges, it was ridiculous. On top of so-called "pulp" games, you have to wonder what's going on. Don't people play proper wargames any more? Ok, ok, I know I'm really ranting now.

The release of Field of Glory should have been exciting, but I didn't see it being promoted. Unusually I have not bought these rules, for two reasons: firstly my rules (and probably this is true for a lot of people) have now reached a level of maturity where I just don't need commercial sets, I mean I think we are all converging on the same point and FoG look at a glance to be very similar to my own rules except for a couple of areas where I prefer my own. Secondly, it would cost me £73 to buy the rules and supplements to cover all my areas of interest, which is frankly ridiculous. By comparison, the DBM army lists are much cheaper, with research and analysis second to none. WAB supplements are not only expensive but horribly weighty too, however I have bought some of these for their photographs and general inspiration, certainly not for the rules. But back to Salute - where was the FoG stand promoting the rules?

So, what else was interesting at Salute? Well...er...hmm...I'm struggling... What about the free Salute miniature? Ahh, perhaps the less said about that the better. It's so pointless and useless that I would much rather they dropped the ticket price instead. Is there a market on eBay for Goblin pidgeon riders?

I did of course find lots of wonderful wargames to tickle my fancy, and you can see these in the Salute 2008 photo gallery. I particularly liked the Wargods of Valhalla game, pitting historical Vikings against mythological fantasy monsters, in a snowy setting. The Waterloo game was spectacular, I believe this was also at Salute in 2007?

One final thought. I normally write up my personal purchases from the show, but this year there was virtually no money left over after petrol, car parking, entrance, and food and drinks on the site. I bought "Fighting Techniques of the Early Modern World" for £10 and a handful of D20 dice and that's it. But I have to say that my personal circumstances mean that I have virtually no money to spend on hobby at the moment. And judging by the economic forecast, we should all be preparing for lean years!

It may just be me, and perhaps I built up my expectation too much, but this year I felt a little disappointed and did not come away from the show with my head buzzing with ideas. The only exciting thing was the new plastic historicals, although I have to say these did not disappoint and I already can't wait to dive into Imperial Rome. Perhaps my hobby has reached a certain level where I've seen it all before? Maybe I will try to visit Partizan? Partizan has a good reputation for high quality wargaming and a good venue.