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Alrighty then, now that I'm home and more or less recharged from a long day of travelling by multiple trains, time to post about all of this. I'll start things off by saying that this trip was a long time coming and I finally got to do it, meeting up with dear friends from the States who are working abroad and as an added bonus, getting to go to both Salute 2016 and Warhammer World, two items that have been on my bucket list for a long, long time now.
We initially planned for a seven days full of gaming, sightseeing and other hobby activities, but in the end we didn't game until we were past the halfway mark really, spending the evenings shooting the s**t, watching movies in glorious bluray (RED, the Force Awakens, A New Hope and Stardust) and well, just generally having an all-round great time. I also got to visit a pair of US military installations, where I got a quick tour of the grounds and where my host pointed out where his office was so to speak. biggrin
Overall trip highlights:
- Got to play one final game of Bolt Action before I gave them my 500 pts of US Infantry, the army book and all of my order dice (though as of right now they haven't found out yet).
- Did a quick demo game of X-Wing on my last night of being there, showing off the mechanics to the wife of the host, who is not just a massive Star Wars fan, but also very much one of us when it comes to gaming.
- Played a 2500 pts game of 40k, my Solar Auxilia versus his Tyranids. I ended up feeling a little bit like a TFG for bringing an armour heavy list, but in the end both sides suffered massive casualties and we had fun, that's all that mattered really! :thumbsup:
- Got a crash course in Malifaux, learning to play the game using the contents of the starter boxed set. Overall a very fun game with interesting mechanics. While this will not replace 30K as my primary game of choice, it has most certainly piqued my interest enough that I started looking into a faction I like the look of the most. Being a massive fan of costume porn, I decided to go with the Showgirls. biggrin
- A bit of a weird one perhaps, but getting to see around 5000+ points of Sisters of Battle all painted up and in a display cabinet at their home, all belonging to the hostess. A portion of that collection used to belong to me, but I ended up giving it all away back when I figured out I'd never use them anyway. It made me happy to see that the girls weren't just painted up neatly, but also very much loved by the hostess.
General non-event related swag:
- A Malifaux starter, which I will be playing quite a few times to get the hang of the core mechanics. :thumbsup:
- A book on heraldry (The Illustrated Book of Heraldry - Stephen Slater), something they wanted to give me a few years ago when the Knights were first released but sadly got lost in the shitty mess that is the Royal Mail. I've been reading through it these last few days and I will most certainly be using the lessons learned in this book on my next two Knights when I get the boxed set this weekend. biggrin
SALUTE 2016
I'll preface this by saying that there aren't any pictures of this event, I didn't bring my iPad to Salute as I feared that it would be super-busy, plus I didn't want to be one of those twats who stands there with a tablet or the like, loudly moaning about people walking through the shot all the time. biggrin I did take some pictures with my Blackberry of the artefacts on display over at the "A Very British Civil War" demo table, because I'm a sucker for things like official documents and the like from that era, but they may be blurry, plus I can't upload them here anyway. Really though, I just wanted to take it all in and quite honestly, geek out whenever I saw someone or something famous / awesome / fun.
It was a nice event though, we went there by car, which wasn't a problem at all, as there was plenty of parking space and reaching Excel wasn't a bother either, despite there being several places where there were detours and road maintenance going on. Getting into the event itself was not a bother either as we were quickly processed, given a bag with goodies (single golden die, a metal steampunk mini, a magazine and a pair of plastic minis by some company called Spiral Arm Studios or something.. Huh!) and set free to roam the grounds, with people with stamps at the side exit ready to give us a mark should we want to lunch and pop back in again. Speaking of lunch, plenty of places to go to for that, though not a lot of places to sit down sadly. Though my hosts decided to go to the restaurant overlooking the food court, which was quiet and empty for the most part, posh looking even. But, good food and service and all that, bit of a long wait though.
While it was busy, it wasn't as busy as I had feared, plus the space in between the stalls was nice and spacious that you could move freely without having to worry about getting knocked aside all the time. Some of the stalls were rather tightly packed, but nothing a bit of patience and gentle sidling ever closer to your object of desire can't fix. All in all, we got to see and visit most of the stands we wanted to see, sadly aside from the Spiral Arms Studios one, which was busy as hell every time we went by it. Sorry, don't ban me now! :*)
Overall Salute left me with nothing but good impressions really. While this isn't an annual thing for me like with some lucky folks, I do hope to attend once again a few years from now.
Salute highlights:
- Spotting the portly chap from Beasts of War angrily shouting into his phone.
- Getting to chat with Kev White from Hasslefree about his upcoming projects and his hilarious Facebook posts.
- Spotting Gav Thorpe at the Second Thunder stand(?) promoting his fantasy skirmish game.
- Spotting the Perry twins, though may have made me look like a fool, as according to my hostess I was freaking out like a fangirl. biggrin
- Seeing the Dropfleet Commander spaceship up close and for real.
- Meeting and chatting with the owners of Anvil Industries and Zinge Industries, two of my favourite bits sellers out there.
- The Blood Angel cosplayer. There were some cosplayers about, like a husband and wife both wearing WWII British army uniforms, plus the obligatory commissar, but they paled in comparison to the chap in a hulking suit of Blood Angel power armour and his wife / partner / friend in blue Cadian armour. Double points for the chap to stop and pose whenever someone asked him to. He even fist bumped with one of the kids of the hosts. :thumbsup:
The Salute haul:
- Anvil Industries order made up of various weapon scopes, a servo-arm set and a squad of their kickass count-as Centurion robots.
- Hasslefree order made up of six resin medical cabinets, a Star Trek nurse, Grimm power fists, Justice Sedante, Widow and two sheets of etched brass.
- Second hand copy of the Battlefleet Gothic rules, which may not sound like much, especially with the rules out digitally, but I want my books in dead tree format. It makes for better night time reading. biggrin I was going to be calm and deliberate with my purchases (having only 40 quid in my wallet), but the moment I saw it lying in the box there I knew I had to get it.
- Four pins from the Forge World stand: Ultramarines, Eye of Horus, Adeptus Mechanicum and Collegia Titanica.
- I also got a free Malifaux mini (Arcanist performer) that my hosts got from a mystery box with their Malifaux purchases. This may or may not have been a bribe to get me even more into Malifaux. All I can say is, well done, it worked! biggrin
WARHAMMER WORLD
Second item on the bucket list was of course Warhammer World! We went there on Monday, which opened up with a rather anti-climatic first impression, as it seemed like quite a small building upon seeing it for realsies. However, the actual museum more than made up for this with some truly awesome miniature gaming relics on display, alongside quite a few miniatures and armies I have seen many, many times over the years in various publications, only to see them with my own two eyes. It may sound weird, but getting to see the Imperial Guard advisors and the Cadian colonel, some of my most favourite miniatures ever, painted by THE studio team, is really cool. Ditto on seeing the various characters from the Horus Heresy series painted up by Forge World's crack team of painters, simple awesome! The dioramas were also amazing to look at, some of them having an amazing amount of details hidden away.
Upon getting the tickets the chap asked us if we were up for a challenge. My hosts being Americans replied with a cheery "Bring it on!" and thus we were issued the following: find the Vindicare assassin in the mega diorama. We scoffed at that, thinking we'd find the guy up high or something, but nope! We scoured the diorama once, looking at all the high places and whatnot, with no success. We asked the other store staff about this and they all said they haven't found him either, but did confirm that there is a sniper hidden in there by the chap himself, as he was one of the people involved with building that sweet, massive diorama. When I met him again after the tour of the museum he offered us a single hint: In between a pair of rocks. So, motivated to give it another go we tried searching again, decided on a certain location where it looked like he may be hidden and told him he had to be there. Close, but no cigar was his reply. He was surprised though that we got it narrowed down to that location. I already told him, next time I'm bringing along binoculars! biggrin
That said though, aside from using it as a gaming venue and a direct source of getting Forge World kits and other exclusives, it doesn't have that much on offer. I do want to revisit it again a few years down the road for sure, if only to find that bloody Vindicare! biggrin
Warhammer World highlights:
- Spotting Dan Abnett, Alan Bligh and a bald chap (Andy? Sorry for forgetting the nam!) whose name eludes me chatting in the pub, no doubt about Prospero.
- The Vindicare assassin challenge.
- The many awesome dioramas.
- Seeing some of my absolute favourite miniatures up close and in person.
- Friendly and very helpful store staff, whether it was the chaps at the Forge World store giving me tips on how to paint yellow or the nice lady at the Black Library store, swapping anecdotes about meeting authors. biggrin I know a lot of people scoff at the folks working at GW, but these people were really radiating a love for their jobs, enjoying every moment of it.
Warhammer World haul:
- A pair of White Dwarf weeklies (#115 & #116).
- Macragge's Honour, in glorious A4 format.
- A heresy-era Imperial pin, a House Terryn upgrade kit and a squad of Veletaris with power axes.
We initially planned for a seven days full of gaming, sightseeing and other hobby activities, but in the end we didn't game until we were past the halfway mark really, spending the evenings shooting the s**t, watching movies in glorious bluray (RED, the Force Awakens, A New Hope and Stardust) and well, just generally having an all-round great time. I also got to visit a pair of US military installations, where I got a quick tour of the grounds and where my host pointed out where his office was so to speak. biggrin
Overall trip highlights:
- Got to play one final game of Bolt Action before I gave them my 500 pts of US Infantry, the army book and all of my order dice (though as of right now they haven't found out yet).
- Did a quick demo game of X-Wing on my last night of being there, showing off the mechanics to the wife of the host, who is not just a massive Star Wars fan, but also very much one of us when it comes to gaming.
- Played a 2500 pts game of 40k, my Solar Auxilia versus his Tyranids. I ended up feeling a little bit like a TFG for bringing an armour heavy list, but in the end both sides suffered massive casualties and we had fun, that's all that mattered really! :thumbsup:
- Got a crash course in Malifaux, learning to play the game using the contents of the starter boxed set. Overall a very fun game with interesting mechanics. While this will not replace 30K as my primary game of choice, it has most certainly piqued my interest enough that I started looking into a faction I like the look of the most. Being a massive fan of costume porn, I decided to go with the Showgirls. biggrin
- A bit of a weird one perhaps, but getting to see around 5000+ points of Sisters of Battle all painted up and in a display cabinet at their home, all belonging to the hostess. A portion of that collection used to belong to me, but I ended up giving it all away back when I figured out I'd never use them anyway. It made me happy to see that the girls weren't just painted up neatly, but also very much loved by the hostess.
General non-event related swag:
- A Malifaux starter, which I will be playing quite a few times to get the hang of the core mechanics. :thumbsup:
- A book on heraldry (The Illustrated Book of Heraldry - Stephen Slater), something they wanted to give me a few years ago when the Knights were first released but sadly got lost in the shitty mess that is the Royal Mail. I've been reading through it these last few days and I will most certainly be using the lessons learned in this book on my next two Knights when I get the boxed set this weekend. biggrin
SALUTE 2016
I'll preface this by saying that there aren't any pictures of this event, I didn't bring my iPad to Salute as I feared that it would be super-busy, plus I didn't want to be one of those twats who stands there with a tablet or the like, loudly moaning about people walking through the shot all the time. biggrin I did take some pictures with my Blackberry of the artefacts on display over at the "A Very British Civil War" demo table, because I'm a sucker for things like official documents and the like from that era, but they may be blurry, plus I can't upload them here anyway. Really though, I just wanted to take it all in and quite honestly, geek out whenever I saw someone or something famous / awesome / fun.
It was a nice event though, we went there by car, which wasn't a problem at all, as there was plenty of parking space and reaching Excel wasn't a bother either, despite there being several places where there were detours and road maintenance going on. Getting into the event itself was not a bother either as we were quickly processed, given a bag with goodies (single golden die, a metal steampunk mini, a magazine and a pair of plastic minis by some company called Spiral Arm Studios or something.. Huh!) and set free to roam the grounds, with people with stamps at the side exit ready to give us a mark should we want to lunch and pop back in again. Speaking of lunch, plenty of places to go to for that, though not a lot of places to sit down sadly. Though my hosts decided to go to the restaurant overlooking the food court, which was quiet and empty for the most part, posh looking even. But, good food and service and all that, bit of a long wait though.
While it was busy, it wasn't as busy as I had feared, plus the space in between the stalls was nice and spacious that you could move freely without having to worry about getting knocked aside all the time. Some of the stalls were rather tightly packed, but nothing a bit of patience and gentle sidling ever closer to your object of desire can't fix. All in all, we got to see and visit most of the stands we wanted to see, sadly aside from the Spiral Arms Studios one, which was busy as hell every time we went by it. Sorry, don't ban me now! :*)
Overall Salute left me with nothing but good impressions really. While this isn't an annual thing for me like with some lucky folks, I do hope to attend once again a few years from now.
Salute highlights:
- Spotting the portly chap from Beasts of War angrily shouting into his phone.
- Getting to chat with Kev White from Hasslefree about his upcoming projects and his hilarious Facebook posts.
- Spotting Gav Thorpe at the Second Thunder stand(?) promoting his fantasy skirmish game.
- Spotting the Perry twins, though may have made me look like a fool, as according to my hostess I was freaking out like a fangirl. biggrin
- Seeing the Dropfleet Commander spaceship up close and for real.
- Meeting and chatting with the owners of Anvil Industries and Zinge Industries, two of my favourite bits sellers out there.
- The Blood Angel cosplayer. There were some cosplayers about, like a husband and wife both wearing WWII British army uniforms, plus the obligatory commissar, but they paled in comparison to the chap in a hulking suit of Blood Angel power armour and his wife / partner / friend in blue Cadian armour. Double points for the chap to stop and pose whenever someone asked him to. He even fist bumped with one of the kids of the hosts. :thumbsup:
The Salute haul:
- Anvil Industries order made up of various weapon scopes, a servo-arm set and a squad of their kickass count-as Centurion robots.
- Hasslefree order made up of six resin medical cabinets, a Star Trek nurse, Grimm power fists, Justice Sedante, Widow and two sheets of etched brass.
- Second hand copy of the Battlefleet Gothic rules, which may not sound like much, especially with the rules out digitally, but I want my books in dead tree format. It makes for better night time reading. biggrin I was going to be calm and deliberate with my purchases (having only 40 quid in my wallet), but the moment I saw it lying in the box there I knew I had to get it.
- Four pins from the Forge World stand: Ultramarines, Eye of Horus, Adeptus Mechanicum and Collegia Titanica.
- I also got a free Malifaux mini (Arcanist performer) that my hosts got from a mystery box with their Malifaux purchases. This may or may not have been a bribe to get me even more into Malifaux. All I can say is, well done, it worked! biggrin
WARHAMMER WORLD
Second item on the bucket list was of course Warhammer World! We went there on Monday, which opened up with a rather anti-climatic first impression, as it seemed like quite a small building upon seeing it for realsies. However, the actual museum more than made up for this with some truly awesome miniature gaming relics on display, alongside quite a few miniatures and armies I have seen many, many times over the years in various publications, only to see them with my own two eyes. It may sound weird, but getting to see the Imperial Guard advisors and the Cadian colonel, some of my most favourite miniatures ever, painted by THE studio team, is really cool. Ditto on seeing the various characters from the Horus Heresy series painted up by Forge World's crack team of painters, simple awesome! The dioramas were also amazing to look at, some of them having an amazing amount of details hidden away.
Upon getting the tickets the chap asked us if we were up for a challenge. My hosts being Americans replied with a cheery "Bring it on!" and thus we were issued the following: find the Vindicare assassin in the mega diorama. We scoffed at that, thinking we'd find the guy up high or something, but nope! We scoured the diorama once, looking at all the high places and whatnot, with no success. We asked the other store staff about this and they all said they haven't found him either, but did confirm that there is a sniper hidden in there by the chap himself, as he was one of the people involved with building that sweet, massive diorama. When I met him again after the tour of the museum he offered us a single hint: In between a pair of rocks. So, motivated to give it another go we tried searching again, decided on a certain location where it looked like he may be hidden and told him he had to be there. Close, but no cigar was his reply. He was surprised though that we got it narrowed down to that location. I already told him, next time I'm bringing along binoculars! biggrin
That said though, aside from using it as a gaming venue and a direct source of getting Forge World kits and other exclusives, it doesn't have that much on offer. I do want to revisit it again a few years down the road for sure, if only to find that bloody Vindicare! biggrin
Warhammer World highlights:
- Spotting Dan Abnett, Alan Bligh and a bald chap (Andy? Sorry for forgetting the nam!) whose name eludes me chatting in the pub, no doubt about Prospero.
- The Vindicare assassin challenge.
- The many awesome dioramas.
- Seeing some of my absolute favourite miniatures up close and in person.
- Friendly and very helpful store staff, whether it was the chaps at the Forge World store giving me tips on how to paint yellow or the nice lady at the Black Library store, swapping anecdotes about meeting authors. biggrin I know a lot of people scoff at the folks working at GW, but these people were really radiating a love for their jobs, enjoying every moment of it.
Warhammer World haul:
- A pair of White Dwarf weeklies (#115 & #116).
- Macragge's Honour, in glorious A4 format.
- A heresy-era Imperial pin, a House Terryn upgrade kit and a squad of Veletaris with power axes.
