The Hadley Report

Unfortunately, the pictures appended to this report keep getting stripped from the email messages (I suspect they need to be sized correctly, but we'll go "baby steps" here). So I expect I'll get them when Jay returns. Anyhow, this is Jay Hadley's report from SALUTE ZERO SIX. I've always wanted to go to this show, the largest miniatures show in the world they say, though HISTORICON might give it a run for its money.

Mr. Nizz

Here I am at the Ex-Cel Center in London. Huge does not describe this
place. This convention is held in one vert small part of the buildingm

More later

Jay


(image a picture here.. and if you can't imagine it, here's a link to the ExCel center's map image)

We are about one hour before openning. I am standing in front of the
bring and buy. It consists of 12 six foot tables. Honest. Lots of GW
stuff-- heavy on the space maines and Urban Chaos. Also board games and lizard men.

The dealer area is very simular ours ranging from bone fide
manufacturers, to junk dealers, to booksellers. Considerably more fantasy dealers
than we have. I have just seen the Companion figure range up close and
personal. Outstanding.

(Note: Of course, one benefit of the dealer's hall at Salute is not having to pay transportation and import mark up on various stuff like GZG, Amazon, etc. Check out GZG's new Walker Tanks in 15mm! Check out the grav tanks by the same manufacturer..)

The organizers of the convention have just called a fire briefing
meeting for the staff. They have about 50 staff which they outfit in
greenish yellow road crew nylon jackets with the name of the club on them.

The hall is one big room: 11,000 square meters. There is plenty of
room to move around.

I am looking at a game board for a Rorke's Drift game which is very
nice. (Note: Jay may not have been able to send photos but fortunately some of my English friends pointed me in the right direction: Rorke's Drift One, Rorke's Drift Two)

Most of the game boards look like ours including the green matt on the
table approach. Howevern I have just stumbled upon a game called
Cloudships of Mars that have the most incredible air ships in 25 mm It is a
take off on Frank Chadwick's colonial martian rules

(Note: That would CLOUDSHIP AND AETHER FLYERS, I think.. debuted in 2004 if I'm not much mistaken...)

More later

Jay


(Note: I've seen pictures of that cloudships game... it's awesome. Pretty heartening to know that they still use green felt cloth to run games with across the pond, isn't it?)

and later on:

Nizz:
The doors opened 30 minutes ago. People entering were greeted by Darth vader
and a handful of stormtroopers. Inside the doors are three ECWReenactors
and a cannon. It costs 8 pounds to enter and you have to have exact
change, no credit cards. However, most dealers accept them.

There were at least 2,000 people in line when the doors opened. Lots
of fantasy games, and the buyers are three deep at the Forge World
booth..

The average age of the gamer is younger than ours but the large fantasy
presence may have something to do with that..

In a large cordoned off area in the center of the hall is a group of
late roman/arthurian reenactors. There precisely two people watching them.

The games are fairly well attended. The fantasy games are doing the
best

The warlords have a large info area where they sell mugs, dice and pens
plus afew t-shirts at 15 pounds each.

More later
Jay


(Note: This sounds like a smashing time to me. The crowd seems unbelievable by our standards-- 5000 people in attendance in a singl day! My hat's off to the organizers of this one, South London Warlords)

Mister Nizz

I left Salute at 2:30. The organizers estimated about 5,000 paid
attendees and up to 1,000 free passes.game runners get in free. As do
minors, dealers and volunteers.

Dewler reaction was varied. Some like the Perry !rothers and Forge
World were very busy others not so much.

The difference between pounds and dollars do is not made here. An
Osprey book costs 11.50 pounds here or almost 20.00 dollars. I spent as
much for figure here as in the states.

The bring and buy is a bad idea. The quality was as good or bad as
ours and the amount of itmes available was far less. They only had 70
feet of table space. The crowds were always four to five deep.

I picked up a couple of program books. I'll send one to you. Nicely
done but lacking a lot of information especially abut games.

Got to run.

Jay



It seems that I have bad news about any photos. I am not certain
anything came out. Won't know until I get home.

Please feel free to share my comments

Regards
Jay


Thank you, Mr. Hadley! Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Other cool games at SALUTE: Back of Beyond, Bugs! Rolling Hot, Death of an Admiral. This show was a visual feast.

That was fun. I should have asked him if he could find a "Battle of Five Armies" for me while he was there (DOH!). You can't think of everything.

I look forward to seeing the programme. These guys seem to be much more "club centric" than American chaps. And they aren't the history snobs we seem to be.