Salute 2013 - The morning after the day before

Andy Hawes Twilight of Brittania force

So, the alarm goes off at oh-my-gawd-it's-three-thirty, it's a small matter of wiping the sleep from my eyes, getting dressed and into the car and off to Littleover to pick up John. Then it's over to the Wyvern to meet up with James and Tom a quick transfer of everything into James' car and we are off to Salute.

A good couple of hours later we are in the Excel, we meet up with Steve and are soon setting up our games. The two Andys from Peterborough arrive shortly and our complement is complete.

Arthur leads his Commitatus

We will be running two side-by-side Dux Bellorum games, a large 64-point game of the Barbarian Conspiracy featuring the armies of Steve Jones and James Morris on a 8ft x 6ft table and a regular sized 32-point Arthurian game featuring Andy Hawes' beautiful Twilight of Brittania army and my rather more shonky Early Saxons.

The majority of the terrain had been created by Steve Jones and the remainder provided by James Morris. Steve had made a rather splendid hill fort that you can see on his blog here. Our intention was to have action in at least one of the battles at all times and to try to keep spectators involved with running commentary and comment.

The Barbarian Conspiracy by James Morris

It was a great day, Andy and I managed to play out our Twilight of Brittania game twice with the Saxons coming out on top both times. I am almost hoarse this morning with all the chatting and glad handling, but I think we managed to enthuse a lot of people about this particular and often overlooked gaming period and to the Dux Bellorum rules. Many people said they had bought the rules and had not gotten around to playing them and would certainly be giving them a try.

Steve Jones' Late Romans

I had a great day and over the course of that day met up with some good friends, many of whom I'd not seen for quite some time, several years in some cases. To top it off, we were presented with the Salute 2013 Best Painting prize.

I finally made it home at about 9:30 in the evening, knackered but somewhat elated.

My hairy Saxon battle line

And my 'spend' at Salute, up to 16:00 I had only spent one pound! But this sad state of affairs had to end, so I went to the Perry Miniatures stand and purchased their Desert Rats and Universal Carrier deal for £30.00. That's right, without petrol, parking and snacks I had only spent £31.00 at Salute, I think I need to see a doctor!


Here are some more pictures of our games, all the figures are from and by James Morris, Steve Jones, Andy Hawes and myself, the terrain is by Steve Jones and James Morris.

The team for the day was Steve Jones, http://guitarheroandy.blogspot.co.uk/, Andy McTaggart, James Morris, John Grant, Tom Webster Deakin and myself. Thank you chaps!

 

More of James' Picts and Irish

More of James' Picts and Irish

More of Steves Late Romans

Andy Hawes Shieldwall forms against the Saxon onslaught

Andy Hawes Noble Riders

The beautiful fort by Steve Jones

The Saxon Warriors crash into the British Shieldwall

British Shieldwall

Arthur and his Comitatus again

Arhur gets stuck into the Saxons

The battle lines clash

The British left flank is under a lot of pressure

We won the Best Painting prize!