Its Sunday, the day after Salute 2025, and I'm still knackered from the Mt Everest of a show that is Salute.
Lee's first post can be found here, if you haven't seen it already. And his second post can be found here.
The Rejects arrived nice and early and gained entrance at around 8.15 thanks to our Press Passes, apart from poor Dave, who had to go join the queue! Previous to that we had a little trouble parking, and I guess most visitors had the same problem?
We were greeted at a roundabout by a rather rude and jobsworth Excel employee, telling us and everyone else that we couldn't park in the Excel centre carpark because we hadn't prebooked a spot. Nowhere on the Excel webpage or Salute page was this mentioned?? So we had to park 15 minutes away in a rowing club carpark. So it was them who received our £25 fee rather than excel. I was threatened with being banned from the site for trying to argue my point, which left me extremely pi$$ed off! So 15 minutes later we arrived at the show none of us were looking forward to the walk back, laden down with goodies, which we'd usually drop back to the car in the excel carpark, but what can you do?
We spoke to Peter the logistics head of the Warlords who wasn't aware of any of this going on, so it was as much of a shock to them as it was to the paying customers.
But we wasn't going to let Mr Jobsworth and Co spoil our fun! Was we!!!
And we're in!
We bought a few things, walked around had several chats with various blog and You tube glitterati, before the main visitors enetred.
At 10 o'clock the waiting horde was set free.
Now onto the games!!
Central London Wargames Club - Emperor of the Battlefield
Goblin King Games - Moonstone Fantasy Skirmish
GCT Studios - Bushido
Retired Wargames Reloaded - Gotterdammerung Berlin 1945
This was a monster of a game, which took 2 years to complete!! Said Larry.
A truly impressive looking game.
Another impressive looking WWII game, this time from
Loughton Strike Force - Warsaw 1944
Uhrwerk Verlag - Chronopia
- Marquee Models - Star Wars Legion
Halo
Crow Industries - Starship Troopers
Oshiro Model Terrain - Sengoku period Japan Skirmish
Ashford Gaming Club - Crypt Hulk and Tarati's Castle
Rifleman Harris
Warlord Games - Bolt Action
BattleTech UK South East - BattleTech
Skirmish Wargames - Shootout at Excel City
1/72 Wargames - Dargai Heights 1897
Gentlemen's Wargame Parlour- Like Cricket - But with guns
A Very British Civil War
Simon Miller - Louis Quatorze's Warses
Dibble Dribble......
Lee joining the ranks of the mighty 79th Highlanders!
Deepcut Studios - Colouring in figures
And painting
Anchuluss Publishing Limited - The Defence of Tobruk 1941
Bad Squiddo Games - Colouring zone.
WarFulcrum Games - 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood and the Battle of Villers Brentnneux
Essex Warriors - Mario Cart
Weymouth Levellers Wargames Club/ Peter Pig - AK47
Abingdon Wargames Club - Asteroids
ROK Minis - Small scale demo
Spectre Miniatures Ltd - Spectre Operations
Soldiers of Napoleons......
Matt Crump & me
Brecon Wragames Club - DAK Attack
Parabellum Miniatures
Battleground Bobmack 3d & Flank Miniatures - BattlegroundHD Cold War Skirmish
Cornwall Wargames Association - Port Royal 1692
Lee lookin all grand in his uniform
Brandy for the Pason
Society of Ancients - Battle of Gaugamela 331BC
Reverence Games - Last Living Soul
South London Warlords Hall of Fame Game
Club Space
Grond! At the Gates of Pelennor
Friends of General Haig - Breaking the Stalemate, Iran/Iraq War
Pendraken - Future War
Photo bombed by Tamsin!
Mike Hutchinson's - Hobgoblin
Titan Owners Club - Titan Walk
Veteran's Wargame Association - Digital Racing
Whitehall Warlords - The Ballard of Kinmont Willie
Wars of Gelderland Succession - Vauban's War
Beowulf Miniatures
Wandsworth Gaming
Olmec Games Ltd - The Drowned Earth
Yorkshire Renegades - Starship Troopers - Bourbon Outpost
Hugo's Heroes - Battle of Trangen 1808
Swedish v Norwegians Napoleonic!!!!
Never heard of it, I here you say??? Me neither
I had a chat with Jan, in the blue top, who during his army service served in one of the Swedish regiments that fought in this battle.
Ilford Wargames Club - Rocketeers Guide to Rocketships
Flash Gordon ships from the 1936 Buster Crabbe series
Burrows and Badgers
Magrathea Builder of Worlds - What lies beneath
Night Terrors
Painting Challenge
Haverhill Wargames - Twilight Chronicles of Anyaral
Free League Publishing - Zone Wars
Peterborough Wargames Club - Alpha Strike Introduction
Garry David Wills - The Best Army in Europe
The Battle of Pirmasens 1793
Maidstone Wargames Society - Atari Tank Warfare 1980
Continual Wars Society - The Battle of Gurguljat
Serbo-Bulgarian War 1885
Hornchurch Wargames Club - Zeppelin
Footsore Miniatures - Baron's Wars
Ooooo me knees....
Gordon's Regiment Scot's Brigade
Highlander Reenactors
The Shed Gamers Club - Battle of Westeros
Pandyman Entertainment - Trench Offensive
Santa Maura & Capri Boardgames
Yarkshire Gamer, Ken Reilly
with his Best Historical Game Award
The Battle of Mentana 1867
Rome or Death
Per Broden & the Wyre Forest Wargamers - The Crossing of the Duna 1701
Great Northern War
Per with his Award, Best Small Scale game
Lasting Games - Butcher & Bolt
WWII Daring Raids and Covert Operations
All hell let loose - Bloody Omaha
Bunny Badger Games/Frothers Mars Defends
Elon
Mr Orange
Realtime Wargames - The White Cockade, Pretender, Prince, King
Belloludi - Oosterbeck 1944
Oakbound Studio - The Woods: Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Peter's Paper Boys - Wofun 10mm Napoleonics
Mark Backhouse - The Battle of Beneventum 275BC
TooFatLardies - Chain of Command v2
Joe Bilton (TFL/Reisswitz) - What a Tanker
Operation Charnwood - Caan July 1944
Dave Brown (TFL/Reisswitx) - Austerlitz 1805
General D'Armee 2
Lastly Team Warbases!!!
I had to pick my package up at the end of the day.
Well that's it from me and Salute 2025
What a great show, I took 638 photos on the day and cut it down to this one mega post. I hope you all enjoy the ride.
Awesome! Berlin, Warsaw or Caan, all look fab, , as did thebut Simon's Louis XIV game looked great too as did the Napoleonic games! I'm afraid the parking information probably means I won't go again but thank you for the photos, I guess you need another seperate post for your vast haul of loot?!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Just got to prebook parking Iain. We'd have had no problems if we knew that. Trouble is you can't rebook on the same day either.
DeleteDid you see any of the show other than through a camera lens !? :-) great pics
ReplyDeleteHa, To be honest, it took a hell of a lot of time to take all the photos. But I did see enough of the show.
DeleteThat is a scary number of photos, but some really cool setups. I can see how you took so many pictures.
ReplyDeleteI did take a lot of photos, thank gawd for good camara's on mobiles!
DeleteThanks Ray I’m exhausted looking at the photos. Hard to pick one but if I had to the Charnwood what a tanker game would get my vote. Very epic 👍 good to catch up on the day and meet some fellow bloggers
ReplyDeleteThat was a superb looking game.
DeleteWell that was an impressive post Ray…
ReplyDeleteThere were some lovely games by the look of it…
Thank you for all your hard work.
All the best. Aly
No problem Aly.
DeleteMy God, that is a lot of games and a lot of photos! Great job, Ray, in capturing the essence of the show. What was your favorite game?
ReplyDeleteThere were a lot of great games, I loved Simon Miller's Louis Quatoze game and the Per Broden 6mm Crossing of Duna. The Hugo's Heroes game The Battle of Trangen 1808, the Swedes v the Norwegains, was pretty apt for myself and Lee, being a snow board, and I'd never heard of the battle either?? The 3 WWII games from Joe Bilton, Loughtan Strike force and Retired Wargamers were all superb too. How could I choose from these??
DeleteA thoroughly enjoyable round-up with some inspirational games, even if the parking situation was unnecessarily bureaucratic.
ReplyDeleteIt was a great day out, apart from the parking of course!
DeleteSuperb post Ray, so many great games on show, lot's of very interesting ones, plenty to take in!
ReplyDeleteI could have spent another day walking round and trying to take in what I was seeing. One day wasn't enough.
DeleteOnce again, thank you for transporting me to Salute with you amazing pictorial tour!
ReplyDeleteNo problem Shaun, glad to be of service.
Deleteoh, I make it a point of honor to be there next year.
ReplyDeleteSo many great layouts, games, publishers and people related to the hobby in one place!
Thanks for the tons of great photos!
No problem Michael, see you there next year!
DeleteEpic post Ray . It looks to have been better than ones I have seen over the last few years , some good looking games .Pity about the parking experience and hopefully that gets sorted going forward .
ReplyDeleteIt was the best Salute for quite some time Dave!
DeleteThanks Ray, an excellent representation of our premier show.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm, I'm glad you approve!
DeleteExcellent pictures mate. Even though we walked around together you got shots of stuff I managed to miss (no idea how!). As for my knees, I'm still hobbling around like a geriatric. One of these years we'll do something sensible like loose some bloomin' weight 🤣
ReplyDeleteLose weight.......us.........?
DeleteGreat Photos, thanks for the effort!
ReplyDeleteNo problem John!
DeleteA very extensive coverage of the show there Ray. Not one I would ever attend again though. £25 to park? Were you buying the spot? Has the lighting improved from the gloom I recall or do you have a good camera?
ReplyDeleteI thought the lighting was just fine, unfortunately my £25 didn't buy the spot, it was loaned to me for 7 hours, then I had to give it back.
DeleteAn amazing collection of equally amazing games, Ray! That Berlin game is quite impressive - huge and wonderful. Good to see you with the gang and enjoying yourselves.
ReplyDeleteAll the WWII games were superb. Dean!
Deletethat IS a monster post, though I did look at it twice and probably will do so for a third time. Thanks for all the pictures. 😁
ReplyDeleteNo problem Stew, glad you enjoyed the post.
DeleteWow, that was an epic post Ray. A huge number of fantastic games but I really can't go past the first one, particularly as I am currently in my "Russian Period" and have recently watched several Russian language Mosfilm WWII films on YouTube, including a couple covering the fall of Berlin!
ReplyDeleteThe Warsaw and Kinmonth Willie games also looked particularly impressive 👏 👌
I have to agree those games were very impressive!
DeleteGreat post Ray, thanks for giving my Pirmasens game so much coverage.
ReplyDeleteThanks Garry, which game was yours?
DeleteThe Best Army in Europe: The Battle of Pirmasens 1793; it was 15mm with lots of Hexon terrain. Thanks again Garry Wills
DeleteOh yes! A crackin looking game!
DeleteThanks
DeleteSome fantastic looking games on display, thanks for sharing Ray
ReplyDeleteNo problen Neil!
DeleteWow, great report and a lot of photos, thanks for putting this together, a great overview of the show and some beautiful tables.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the post!
DeleteThanks for taking all those photos, sorting through them and then fighting Blogger to get them up. Appreciated!
ReplyDeleteThe post nearly took as long as walking round the show all day!!
DeleteThanks Ray a fantastic selection of wonderful wargaming eye candy.
ReplyDeleteWillz.
No problem Willz.
DeleteGreat pics Ray! Just one correction - that Japanese castle wasn't Oshiro Models Terrain; it was a second game from the guys doing "Crypthulk" (although I can understand the confusion with Rifleman Harris occupying the spot where Oshiro were listed as being).
ReplyDeleteAh, thanks Tamsin. I'll correct the mistake in a few minutes.
DeleteRay looks like you had a great time! I’ve seen that Berlin table pop up in several places now, so it must have been quite a sight!
ReplyDeleteOh it was. It was a thing to behold.
DeleteExcellent photos Ray. Looks like you had a brilliant day.
ReplyDeleteWe did thanks Rich, it was a completely Knackering but gteat day out!
DeleteFantastic pics and report, Ray - many thanks for going to such effort to post these.
ReplyDeleteNo problem Giles!
Delete