Attended: Saturday 28th March 2009

This report originally written a few days after said attendance.

28th March 2009 was the designated day for Salute 2009, or more properly Salute Zero Nine. It was also the day von Peter himself lost his wargames convention virginity! Of course I have been to several gaming conventions in New Zealand before but nothing that can compare with the sheer scale and diversity of Salute Zero Nine.

The day started early with the alarm going off at 5:30.am (though I was already awake - d’oh) to ensure that we had plenty of time to get ready and get to the train. In both of these aims we succeeded and we had our butts firmly planted in our seats on the 7:30am Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington train. Phew. The firmly planted butts were those of von Peter himself, Simon - The son and heir, and Fraulien von Peter herself who unbelievably was forsaking Salute to spend the day with her sister in London.

The next critical point occurred when the train pulled into to Chippenham Station. Would Martin Kelly, of Befreiungskriege 1813-14 fame and our guide for the day, join us. Thankfully he did. Second phew! Not only was Martin great company but his presence also made navigating our way through the London transport system from Paddington Station to the Excel Exhibition Centre one heck of a lot easier for the Clan von Peter. This was especially true as the most direct underground line was closed for engineering work. The resultant one hour trip across London utilised two underground trains and the Docklands Light Railway. Easy ... with Martin’s guidance.

Above: The Perry’s Quatre Bras game using the yet to be released Black Powder rules from Warlord Games.

Lots to look at and admire here, as you’d expect.

Upon paying our entrance fee we were each given our plastic ‘goody bag’. Here be a listing of the contents:

Above: the Salute Zero Nine Official Guide helpfully showing off the give away figures.

We were now in Salute Zero Nine. Looking around we were obviously in a L-A-R-G-E room. The aircraft hangar analogy is apt with a vast open space and a high ceiling. If I were to have a complaint about the venue it would be with the lighting. Hard to rectify in such a large area, but it would have made my viewing of many stands, games and figures a lot easier and more pleasurable. The second impression was that there was much to see. There were obviously many traders, many displays and many games. Excellent.

Above: Skirmish Wargames’ 54mm (1/32) ECW game.

The figures and particularly the terrain made this quite a sight to see.

We started to methodically work our way around the hall until breaking for a coffee and to meet Peter Fitzgerald, Mr Calpe himself, as prearranged and engineered by Martin and Peter with the assistance of mobile phones. Mobile phones are so useful sometimes. This was a very enjoyable interlude and the first of several social occasions on the day. There was certainly plenty to see at Salute Zero Nine but all of that almost took a back seat to the social aspects in the enjoyment stakes. And this despite Dave Ryan (Caliver Books) pronouncing that Salute was not one of the more chatty conventions!

We hooked up with Peter several more times during the day as per plan. The Clan von Peter were fortunate to be in the company of Martin and Peter. As a result of this association Clan von Peter got to meet and chat with several other gamers including Bill Gaskin and his wife. The Gaskins proved to be a very friendly couple though the talking was cut short as, feeling the pressure of time, the Clan von Peter raised back into the exhibition area!

To complete the name dropping von Peter himself also got to finally meet Dave Ryan from Caliver Books. Dave has been providing books and magazines to von Peter himself for many years now so it was nice to meet him in the flesh, even if he was rather busy. The Perry Twins were shocked, perhaps even horrified!, to see von Peter himself in the UK. Is nowhere safe?! They both managed to cover up their horror and talk to us while selling their wares, playing their game and talking to others. They were in hot demand, no surprises there then. Having a very similar day to the Perry’s was Barry Hilton of League of Augsburg fame. He was running a Peninsular Napoleonic game sporting many Victrix figures and using one of his new rule sets, The March of Eagles, which are supplied in each box of Victrix’s plastic Napoleonic figures. As with the Perry’s his was a very pretty game and he was a man in great demand. I introduced myself and Barry even knew who I was, or at least said he did!, care of my few posts the Fighting Talk forum on his League of Augsburg site.

Amongst those I had hoped to see and didn’t were the newly married Giles Allison, Graham Knight and Fire at Will (real name unknown). Perhaps they all just got lucky or saw me first! Apologies gentlemen.

Above: Barry Hilton’s Peninsular demonstration game for Victrix. The game was played using Barry’s The March of Eagles rules which are provided in every box of Victrix plastics. Plenty of Victrix plastics on the table, but not this artillery battery as Victrix have yet to release artillery. The battery illustrates the way Barry’s other work in progress Napoleonic rules, Republic to Empire, will represent artillery. Barry is keen to replicate the large no go area behind artillery that was full of caissons, limbers and other artillery paraphernalia. A wonderful opportunity for any keen and creative modellers out there.h

Interspersed among the social stuff there was plenty of wandering, observing and even a little shopping to be done.

The Son & Heir was successful in wheedling the cash out of von Peters pockets to check nearly everything off his shopping list. A Leman Russ tank for his 40K Imperial Guard, the purchase of which was approved by the weak Fraulien von Peter herself, didn’t hurt quite so much as it was bought a bit cheaper from The Hobby Box stand. A box of Perry plastic Napoleonic French was also secured with a little less grumping from the totally biased von Peter himself. These latter were the cause of much discussion and mirth as The Son & Heir, idler that he is, had thoughts of not painting the piping required on the French infantryman’s uniform. A seemingly endless trail of people felt that it was their duty to point out the error of his ways - Martin Kelly, Peter Fitzgerald, the Perry’s (at least one of them anyway and they should know having sculpted them!) and various other persons of good taste and mostly sound character! It was amazing how many levels of shading some of these characters apply to their piping. Perhaps they were teasing just a little.

For von Peter himself a pack of Realistic Modelling Materials flock was procured, though sadly no tufts were spotted at Salute Zero Nine. Also obtained was a copy of the Too Fat Lardies Sharp Practice which may come in useful if The Son & Heir starts his French and von Peter himself starts his Saxons.

So limited expenditure from this quarter to swell the coffers of the traders.

A few miscellaneous ramblings in no particular order to close the prior general rambling ....

There seemed to be quite a few WWI aerial games, perhaps three or four, not that The Son & Heir took any photographic evidence! Maybe that number is normal, maybe not. Is this the beginning of a new fad period?

There were several stands and games that von Peter himself saw in the distance several times and thought to himself “must remember to visit them” or “I’ll get to them later as a result of my methodical approach”. Of course these stands or games never did get visited. The Front Rank stand is sadly to be counted amongst this number. von Peter himself was hoping to introduce himself and thank them for their fine service over the years. I’ll have to go to another convention now I suppose!!

For the Fusilier General Roly Sir - I said hello on your behalf at the Too Fat Lardies stand and caused great consternation at first as they thought it was Roly there in person ... who was in New Zealand. How could this be?! All sorted in the end although they did take advantage of the confusion to extract money from von Peter’s pocket in exchange for a copy of Sharp Practice. Bounders!

For Terry the ex workmate of von Peter himself - the plastic Perry American cabin looked great in the flesh ... errr, plastic. It’s still a shame that it is not a European structure, but there you go.

Several games had working electronics in the form of lighting built into the terrain. Mostly in the form of LEDs is the suspicion. Nothing too new here but interesting to see all the same. I wonder how the new wave of plastics would like warm scenery? Just an amusing yet mad thought that doesn’t have much of an overlap with reality.

Everyone on the trade stands and playing the games whom von Peter himself annoyed with (mostly stupid) queries was extremely pleasant, informative and happy to talk. A great feeling of camaraderie was felt and enjoyed by the Clan von Peter. It was all nearly enough to make one revise ones opinion of the human race!! There are some great people in the hobby.

It’s a long story but The Son and Heir has taken a liking to Napoleonic Poles, aka The Duchy of Warsaw. One of the first stands we saw was the Offensive Miniatures stand and what should they have on display but some samples from their yet to be released Polish range. The Clan von Peter were meant to return to get some photos - guess what happened, or didn’t happen.

Being in a Napoleonic frame of mind von Peter himself would have liked to have seen the advertised Retreat from Moscow game. But if the game was present he missed it. It is, of course, quite possible that the game was present and that Clan von Peter simply missed it. It didn’t help that von Peter himself didn’t realise that he had missed it until after he had left Salute. D’oh!

Finally, and against his better judgement, von Peter himself feels a need to unburden himself and acknowledge the outstanding behaviour on the day of The Son and Heir.  Good, glad we got that over with.

In summary Salute Zero Nine was a great day out. Plenty to see ... and see ... and see. Thanks to all who made the day for Clan von Peter so memorable particularly Martin Kelly for the superb execution of his escort duties and Peter Fitzgerald.  When’s the next convention guys?

See below for a clickable gallery of more photos.

Salute 2009 - I salute you!!

Until we meet again ...

Salute  (arrggghhhhh, yet another Salute!!)

von Peter himself

Above: Nomonhan - Japan v Russia 1939 in 28mm by the The Escape Committee. A beautiful game, not that you can tell from this photo! But this photo does give some impression of the venue with this game being sighted roughly a third of the way down the hall from the end wall you can see. It went along way in the other axis as well.

Photography by The Son & Heir

the Salute Zero Nine give away figures. A limited edition Zulu War diorama sculpted by Adam Clarke of Black Scorpion Miniatures. This is a 28mm multi part two figure and base set. The Son & Heir was and is thrilled with it. The base has an array of sandbags plus a crate and The Son & Heir plans to mount a 40K commander on his! So embarrassing for his long suffering father!

the 34 page Salute Zero Nine Official Guide that has the look of and seems to have been produced by Wargames Soldiers & Strategy.

a blue six sided marble effect (?) die with ‘SALUTE D6 WARLORDS’  on the ‘1’ face. Quite a nice die. Now all I need to do is get my hands on a bunch more to make a gaming set. Perhaps I can make a start when The Son & Heir goes to sleep tonight.

a questionnaire and various flyers. If the questionnaire was filled out and handed in by 2:30pm then a draw for 500 pounds of vouchers for wargames stuff was entered. Of course von Peter himself realised none of this until well after he was back in Bristol, so no chance for prize vouchers for him then. Sob!

and lets not forget the plastic bag itself which was perfectly capable of performing double duty as a carry bag for moderate levels of purchasing.