Salute!

[Leman]

Actually you were English, Welsh, Scots, Irish but decided the government was a ton of crap. Bit like it is now over here.

Incidentally, Boris Johnson is making a big thing over Obama's comments about Americans not giving up their Sovereignty. As I understand it the USA is a group of 50 states, all of which have given up some of their sovereignty so that they can more effectively work together. Just saying.

[d_Guy]

Actually you were English, Welsh, Scots, Irish but decided the government was a ton of crap. Bit like it is now over here.

Incidentally, Boris Johnson is making a big thing over Obama's comments about Americans not giving up their Sovereignty. As I understand it the USA is a group of 50 states, all of which have given up some of their sovereignty so that they can more effectively work together. Just saying.

Some --Well that was the theory up until our civil war then things began to alter for good and ill.. At the present time state sovereignty is essentially moribund depending on the desire (dare I say whim) of the federal government (IMHO).

[Steve J]

Some thoughts on my visit to Salute can be found on my Blog:

http://wwiiwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/salute-2016.html

Also a few pics of the game I was involved in as well as a few others that caught my eye. I'm sure there are already loads to look at as lots of people were videoing, interviewing etc throughout the day:

[Techno]

Good report and piccies, Steve.

Thanks for sharing !

Cheers - Phil

[Steve J]

A quick search came up with this Blog, that has loads of good pics:

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/2016-salute-pictures.html?showComment=1460921339347#c5734825370553420952

It made me realise how much I didn't get to see! Next year maybe...

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Thanks for that Steve

[Leman]

Well that was a surprise. Compared to the venues I tend to go to I thought it looked pretty soulless.

[d_Guy]

Steve, thanks for your blog comments, pics and the various links! Fun to get a sense of things.

[Leon]

Thanks to everyone who came along to Salute to see us this year, we had a great time and we're now happily recovering for a few hours before back to work tomorrow to empty the van and catch up on emails.  We met a whole load of Forum members, so it was good to see you all (new and old!) and catch up for a few minutes.

So, is Battleground a North Yorkshire show? Or a County Durham show?

Both!  As skywalker says, technically the venue is south of the river and should be Middlesbrough, but the Uni Campus has their address as Stockton so we went with that.  I always say Middlesbrough as I think more people outside of the nort-east know where that is (probalbly due to the football club), but I do get told off by some folks for not classing it as Stockton.

The largest I've been to is HISTORICON - perhaps half the attendance on the biggest day.

Coincidentally a chap came to see us about attending Historicon, so it might be something for the future...  The main stumbling block is how to get all the stock over there and back again, safely and without it taking a couple of months.  We'll need to do some serious research to see if it would be at all viable.

[d_Guy]

Coincidentally a chap came to see us about attending Historicon, so it might be something for the future...  The main stumbling block is how to get all the stock over there and back again, safely and without it taking a couple of months.  We'll need to do some serious research to see if it would be at all viable.

Well that would be fantastic!
Uh - I have extra shelf space - should you require it! 

[Techno]

I always say Middlesbrough as I think more people outside of the nort-east know where that is (probalbly due to the football club),

Middlesbrough has a football club ? 

Cheers - Phil

[Steve J]

Compared to the venues I tend to go to I thought it looked pretty soulless.

Short of a complete film set treatment, there is little that can be done to make it feel nicer as the place is huge. Colours is my favourite show as the venue is nice with great views, which just add to the experience.

[Orcs]

I thought the lighting was much improved this year. looks like the lighting has been upgraded with LED's. Show seemed fairly busy.  Unfortunately I was helping on a stand and did not see many of the games as when I got away from the stall I was either shopping or chatting with the other traders , most of which are old friends.

Background noise and stranding on the hard floor for 11 hours was as draining as usual.  There seemed to be an increase in the Sci/Fi Fantasy traders and games, but then war gaming seems to go in trends, so this may change for next year.

The games I did see were all excellent and one or two were awe inspiring.

[pierre the shy]

Interesting thread - thanks for those links to the photos.

Next time I get to the UK - haha - I'll have to arrange travel dates around one show like Salute!    - gaming wise there's just nothing like this here in NZ  (or Oz I think - never been to Cancon so don't know what that's like).

Some lovely looking games, though got to say a couple of the fantasy games look a bit "over populated" with too many units to allow much manouvering.

Hopefully there's at least one trader at the local convention here in Wellington in August   

[skywalker]

We arrived around 10.30 and managed to gain entrance without standing in a queue
I last attended in 2014 and found the hall very crowded, this year the hall seemed larger and although there was a lot of people it didn't feel crowded.
I agree about the style of games, a lot being fantasy/steampunk/fantasy. All looked appealing to the eye but not to the wallet

Some of the traders were hard to find but all I spoke to were very friendly and even if I didn't give them cash spent time talking abot their toys 

It was a long day, up at 5am to get to Darlington station for the 6.30am train. Got home at 01.40am on Sunday due to train delay caused by a passenger taking ill on the service we had to join at Doncaster.
Would I do it again?
Yes provided I could get cheap train tickets.
Overall it was well organised and appealed to most tastes.