I'm still knackered even now, myself Fran and evil Gamesmaster Postie, all travelled up to London on Saturday morning for Salute 2013. Both me and Fran had been on nights the Friday night, so you can imagine how impressed I was when the alarm went off at 0800. Just over 2 hours sleep is not the best start to the day!!! But it was well worth it!
The back of Posties head and the bloody massive queue, we as well as hundreds of other nutters, stood in it for around 50 bloody minutes. we weren't impressed. Tickets next year me thinks!!!!
In the queue we met Honorary Reject Clint!
Who didn't bring the Fudge he promised!!!
Me and Fran went straight to Warbases to pick up our orders from Martin and the guys (cheers Martin!)
And there we met fellow Blogger Andrew Saunders, better known as Loki. A thoroughly nice chap!
I also bumped into Reece and Phil from The Gravesend Wargames Club, who were putting on a Dark Age game with Rob Broom, who can be seen lurking around in the right of the pic, using War & Conquest rules.
Pics from the blogger meet up, this one was unashamedly pinched from BigLee's blog. I'm not sure who the chap is behind Sydney, to the left of Mike Whittaker and behind James, other did turn up but didn't make the group pic, Tamsin, MiniMike, Seb, Andy, Pat - The Silver Whistle, Mike - The Dark Templer, Phyilion and his brother, Legatus, Jerry & The Wild Goose.
In the pic are
Mike - Trouble At T'Mill
Carl - Hitting on a double 1
Whisperin' Al - The Wargaming Shed
James - Exiles Wargames Painter
Clint - Anything but a 1
Andy - The Lair of the Breviks
Fran - The Angry Lurker
Mathyoo - The Necroleadicon
Simon - BigRedBatCave
Dave - Round Dave's
Sydney - Roundwood's World
Markus - The Dice Warrior
Ashley - Paint it Pink
Apologies if I've forgotten anyone, drop me a line or comment and I'll add you onto the list.
Just squeezing into the pic on the right is Sir Michael Awdry and his pal The Provost Marshal.
Seb, Fran, Tamsin and the Wild Goose
Gripping Beast's Andy, I think he was saying I owed him £2 Not sure though??
MiniMike, Fran and Moi
Mike asked how Battleaxe was doing and gave us a commision,
to paint up his newly purchased Wild West train from Redoubt.
A few shots inside the arena.
Is that you??
My personal favourite game of the show, for obvious reasons was The Battle of Flodden 1513 from the Wigmore Warriors. I had a great chat with both John and Nicolas from the Warriors, two very nice chaps! We all agreed that it was strange that other Wargames clubs didn't recreate Flodden as this year is the 500th anniversary of the battle??? Apparently the battle went along with history with poor King James popping his clogs once again. But the Warriors were the only table I saw who were busy boozing while playing, John Smith's anyone??????
I've got to admit that I was very pleased to see my flags being used, one day I'll manage to get a game with my 15mm Flodden figures.......of course I've got to paint all the buggers first!
Nice one guys!!!!
That's a lot of people. And yes, hell of a queue.
ReplyDeleteThe shot of everyone is great. We don't get to see that often.
The queue was bloody awful!
DeleteBloody awful is an understatement! I was in the pre paid queue and joined it in an adjacent time zone!
DeleteWot? No pics or mention of your lovely gift from me? ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat write-up Ray :)
That's for another post!
DeleteHandsome fella that Fran!
ReplyDeletecough!
DeleteYou got a picture of Fran happy! That's officially my favourite Salute photo.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you all had fun and looking forward to seeing all the goodies you bought.
ahhh, but that's only because he hasn't posted pics of him with his wonderful "prize" yet! ;)
DeleteHmm?
DeleteI'm with Anne, it's nice seeing Fran happy and not frowning like on his famous profile pic :)
DeleteLooks like a fun day, maybe he was asking you if you got two hours of sleep. Also pretty cool to see your flags being used in a high profile game, all that's left is to see them in a magazine. And lastly, did the gal in the grey sweater catch you taking pictures of her? That must be what distracted you from the Waterloo game.
ReplyDeleteJust a chance she was walking by?? I think???
DeleteWhat a great looking con - and great to spend it with good buddies. Nice looking game and figures too. Best, Dean
ReplyDeleteGreat pics, Ray! Thanks for sharing. I really like the "who's who' of blogging, 2013 edition." Who is the blogger in the black mini? ;-)
ReplyDeleteShhh?
DeleteGreat post Ray. Certainly made me even more jealous about not being able to get there. Loved the photo of all the bloggers - great looking bunch. How about a 'Wargaming bloggers Calendar' for charity?
ReplyDeleteWe can do that!
DeleteTopless of course!
DeleteAs a fellow night shifter, I can relate to the luxury called sleep! ;)
ReplyDeleteJust finished three weeks packed with overtime that luckily ended today with my birthday! I'm so giddy about having the next three days off! Glad you guys had fun, looks like a great convention!
Well a Happy Birthday to you David, know get a little rest!
DeleteLooks like you guys had a great time! Thanks for sharing the pics! The Flodden game looks fantastic! I picked up some Dixon Flodden figs a while back, but never got around to turning it into a proper game.
ReplyDeleteThey're very nice the Dixon Flodden figures although the range is rather small.
DeleteNice post Ray! Love the photos of all the bloggers and good to see you received a commission from Michael (good man him). Also, it must have been very inspiring to see your flags in action on that Flodden demo, well done! (It's almost as inspiring as that oh so very stereotypical gamer in the black mini and grey sweater...
ReplyDeleteIt was quite fulfilling to see my flags out on the field of battle and Yes to the stereotypical gamer.
DeleteVery nice Salute AAR Ray !
ReplyDeletebest regards Michaek
Looks like a great Salute.
ReplyDeleteCheers/ Jonas
A great day out there Ray, I could not make it this year, but already looking forward to the next one
ReplyDeleteGreat to meet you on the day Ray. For me this years Salute was a cracking day out!!
ReplyDeleteMe too, I could have done with another couple of hours though, there was so much I missed and didn't see.
Deletegreat write up I may have to nick your labeled Blogger picture. Was great to meet everyone although a little intimidating for a shy guy :)
ReplyDeletePeace James
Nick away James nick away! And it was great to meet you.
DeleteNice one Ray - good to meet up again but we need somewhere to sit down next time (my poor back) - surprise you and Fran were on such good form given the lack of sleep!
ReplyDeleteFran suggested the pub, but that could be a little dangerous, we might never make it back out. I think me and Fran were running on adrenalin that day, I did nearly fall asleep driving home though!!!
DeleteGreat to meet you Ray, pity we didn't get to chat more
ReplyDeleteYeh, sorry about that, I did try and get over but all the other buggers kept stopping me. he he!
DeleteThank you Ray, the pic of the bloggers with names attached is excellent as I had very little idea who I was meeting. Next time I shall attempt to be a tiny little bit more prepared. (But it won't happen). Maybe a shirt with my name on it!
ReplyDeleteAs for the fudge I told you on the day I had supply problems. The shop I buy the confectioners chocolate from has gotten a new distributor and they can't get the type I like. And I know you would not want a second rate product! (Well that' my excuse and I'm sticking to it. And it has absolutely nothing to do with the amount I ate on the train and my expanding waistline!)
No excuses Clint, we want fudge!!!!!
DeleteNice write up!
ReplyDeleteIn response to your question "is that you?", yes it is!!! I'm the skinny guy in the white T-shirt on the phone. Great show wasn't it?
Yep, it was!!!!!
DeleteGood show Ray, lets get down to the nitty gritty, was the girl in the sweater and mini lost?
ReplyDeleteOh I think so!
DeleteGood report, Ray.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the pics of the bloogers and the show. Maybe I'll make it to London next year or at least 2015...
Cheers
Stefan
Would be great to meet up Monty!
DeleteSorry I missed you this year Ray, I somehow didn't know about the meet-up. I bumped into Fran though during the raffle at the end.
ReplyDeleteNever mind, there's always next year!
DeleteGuy to my left is my partner in Dux Britanniarum crime, the fabulous rock god Mr Andy Hawes of guitarheroandy.blogspot,com
ReplyDeleteaha!
DeleteFantastic post mate and the fully labelled and linked 'blogger' picture is excellent. I was thinking about doing what you did but realised I couldn't remember half the people there (senility setting in, sorry guys).
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to more pictures!
I did have trouble myself?????
DeleteI had to go back and add 5 or 6 people to the list on my post about the meet-up
DeleteNice coverage Ray, enjoyed the read, the pic of the whos who is very cool.
ReplyDeleteNice pics, Ray. It's great to be able to put faces to bloggers' names.
ReplyDeleteVery nice post Ray, figures are really nice...humans too!
ReplyDeletePhil.
Great set of photos Ray! Thanks for them. Love the group shot!
ReplyDeleteExceedingly jealous.................
ReplyDeleteExcellent report Ray - it was brilliant to meet you and the other Rejects. Absolutely wonderful day out!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the whole day, I just needed a little more time. It was great to meet up with you though.
DeleteWhat a great blogger meet up you guys had! I'd never survive with only two hours sleep. I'm glad you had such a great time!!
ReplyDeleteIt was a great day Elsie, the 2 hour sleep was very hard on the pair of us, we were both shattered by the end of the day.
DeleteNice photos mate.
ReplyDeleteGood pics Ray
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a great time.
ReplyDeleteVery nice pics, Ray. Thank you a lot for the report.
ReplyDeleteGreat to say hello again Ray and well done for getting the meet organised; certainly the highlight of my day.
ReplyDeleteGotta agree its really great to put faces to names and i was very pleased with the blogger turnout.
DeleteGreat pics Ray and I see your flags had a chance to shine. Nice of to be names and faces to some of the bloggers.
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Hi Ray, great report on the day there. Got the late flight back to Prague on Sunday, and then all day at work, so I knew I'd be wading through reams of photos on all of the blogs this evening :-). My word though, that was a hectic show, a lot busier than 2 years ago which can only be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteMark
Hi everyone, it was great to meet you all and to see who lurks behind all those posts and blogs.
ReplyDelete@Ray: look here : http://dicewarrior.blogspot.de/
Aha!!! Thanks Markus, I'll add your blog address to the top of the post. It was great to meet you too!
DeleteWow, what a giant picture with so many of you!
ReplyDeleteFlodden has always been one of those games that I would have loved to have played so I especially enjoyed seeing the pics of the game. nice to see those Dixon Miniatures Archers etc taking to the field too.
ReplyDeleteDarrell.
Was great to see you guys again! Still recovering but will be in touch soon.
ReplyDeleteNice to meet you, too! And cheers for the labeled photo, when people were explaining who they were, I felt bad about asking it more than twice so I had to resort to nodding! :P
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletefantastic group and activities!
ReplyDelete