The DDWG Salute trip on 21 April 2012

It hardly seems like a year has past since we were all stood sleepily beside a coach early in the morning on the day of Salute.

Off to Salute 2012 - some 23 members of the Devizes & District Wargames Group

We hardly been going any length of time before I heard strange sounds coming from the rear of the coach. A wheel bearing going? A hole in the exhaust...no, just the Big Sleep:

While the others were having to join the long queue to get into the show, Will Watson and I strode past with our exhibitor badges. We were joining the Evesham Wargames Club - which I think was only Dane Stevens,  as the other participants in the re-fight of Antietam came from London, Oxford and three of us from Devizes.

The game was using Kallistra's new 10mm American Civil War figures on their hex terrain with some simple rules (two sides of A4). So here are some pictures:

Kallistra's 10mm Confederate infantry

Union Infantry advancing

View from the union side

Confederate left flank

We had great fun and a lot of interest in both figures and terrain. Beasts of War came over for a look and Dane and the game are seen (briefly about 90 seconds in) on the Salute Tour feature.

It seemed a long day and my feet were aching by the time Will and I were headed back to the coach at 5pm. The downside of playing in a game is that you don't get to see much of the show. Fortunately Gripping Beast were very near to us so my pre-order was simple to collect and find more things too. I topped up with 28mm Norman crossbows for my new Saga force, the new War and Conquest Ancient Rules by Rob Broom (looking very good to me as I read through them), the new Saga supplement Northern Fury plus some Saga dice.

I also picked up some 28mm plastic Norman Knights from Conquest Games who were selling the boxes at a bargain £15 from their stand. They had also released their crossbowmen and I thought they looked very nice. I've started making the 12 knights up and hope to be painting them sometime this weekend.

Apart from that I bought bases from War Bases, some desert sand weathering paint for my 15mm 8th Army vehicles plus a couple of magazines. I also picked up an order from Warlord Games for my friend Gary Walling; I enjoyed looking at the copy of Pike & Shotte he had ordered and may even buy it myself in the near future. It has some great photos and illustrations and I know the rules work well as I had a play test last year at Triple Helix Wargames one weekend.

Roll on next year.

An Easter Saga part 2

I have just found out that the the stand next to the one I am on at Salute is Gripping Beast!
(I'm helping Wyvern Wargamers run a 12mm Antietam game using Kallistra figures and terrain)

An Easter Saga

Having not done any painting for ages I decided that I would get the brushes out this weekend. This is partly prompted by my recent purchase of the Saga rules from Gripping Beast.

 So after I finished some work on Friday I felt justified in popping down to Triple Helix Wargames in Westbury. I had in mind making  a start on a Norman warband by buying a box of Conquest Normans. They didn't have any! So it was Gripping Beast Norman bow and spear instead.

I had also bought some Gripping Beast Vikings off eBay in the week - except I'm not quite sure that they are from Gripping Beast. But they still look the part.

Here are a couple of progress shots. More to follow sometime soon.

It seems to me that whenever I mention these rules other people tell me how great they are. Warbands are either already being used or about to be built. Salute may see lots of Dark Age figures being bought.