I know I promised you a conversion for this post, but in light of how I plan to proceed with this army of mine, he's going to have to wait. I'll explain why in more detail next time, but for now I'd like just like to take this opportunity to talk about Salute 2015.
Yep, I was at Salute this year, which is hosted by the Excel Centre in the East End of London. It's my first visit back there since I worked at Royal Victoria docks in 2005, and I honestly had no idea of the enormous scale of the place! Visitors were there for some sort of sporting convention (possibly connected to the London Marathon?) and not just Salute, which I had assumed would be the only event taking place on the day.
I'd like to commend the staff for their friendly, professional manner and organisational skills. Facilities and amenities were also excellent, and at no time did I feel unwelcome, there. Compare this experience to Games Day 2014, where the staff were generally uninterested and everything felt slapped together at the last minute, and it's clear that GW and the Birmingham NEC have a lot to learn about hosting their events.
I arrived at the event about an hour after doors opened, having decided to avoid the inevitable queues and just stroll around at a leisurely pace. This, it turns out, was a mistake on my part, and one of several I'll expand on throughout this post.
It's not that I wasn't free to roam about wherever the fancy took me, quite the opposite in fact, but without a clear 'plan of attack', I probably took away far less from the event than I could have. That's partly because I've seriously underestimated the range and proliferation of small hobby businesses in the last decade. Obviously, Kickstarter is a huge factor in the explosion of indy projects, but to see them all gathered together under one roof really puts it all into perspective. I've probably stumbled into a large proportion of these games and figures on the interwebz at some point or another, with links to source material for conversions and alternatives to GW models for various units, but I have always tried to limit myself to the GW range just for the sheer challenge of it. Stupid deliberate handicap is stupid!
If anything, it's probably more challenging to maintain a consistent look and feel with figures drawn from a variety of lines. So from now on, if I see something I like from another range, and can find a home for it in my little warband, it's going on the shopping list!
So, having a limited budget, I couldn't exactly grab anything I fancied at the time, but nor could I cherry pick a few items of specific interest. Next time, I'll know exactly what I'm shopping for and consult the layout in advance to find the stalls and tables that most appeal.
Now, I'm not big on impulse-buying, but this year I thought I'd try my luck at the Forgeworld stall.
Oh dear.
It took about an hour to get to the front of the queue, and the BO brigade were out in force. At one point, the customers in front of me were engaged in conversation by who will henceforth be referred to as 'Derek', on account of his innate 'Derekness'.
So I'm stood there in the queue trying to read my programme and figure out where to head to next, and this guy starts boasting about how many Baneblades he has. Now, you'd think that, given the exorbitant cost of owning just one Baneblade, that even fewer than half a dozen or so superheavies would be more than enough. Not for Derek. Derek loudly and proudly proclaims that eighty such vehicles reside in his personal armoury, from both the Forgeworld and GW lines. Yep, you read that correctly.
Eighty, as in 80. Baneblades. 80 Baneblades. Eighty superheavy bricks of plastic and resin.
The other two customers did their level-best to look and sound impressed by these excessive boasts, and if they weren't genuine reactions, I've got to give them props for their performance. It certainly boggles the mind, that anyone could find sufficient storage space for eighty Baneblades, let alone the funds to procure them. From what I understand, it's equally difficult to justify fielding one of these vehicles in your army without feeling like a total dick. It's the equivalent of bringing a minigun to a knife-fight. Now try and imagine how having eighty such vehicles could be in any way practical.
Derek then proceeds to boast about how he can 'assembly line' twenty rhinos in one hour and that if he tallied up everything he owns, it would amount to something in the order of 600,000 pts' worth of stuff. Derek also wanted to make sure everyone within earshot understood that one Tau Manta wasn't enough for him. No mention of Titans, oddly enough. Maybe I missed that part.
So at this point, it's clear to me that Derek has no shame, and I've made a grievous error by joining this queue but I'm too far along to duck out now without having completely wasted all that time.
I'm determined to stick it out to the bitter end and when I do reach the service counter, I'm given a catalogue with which to identify items for the staff behind the counter, which was clearly undermanned. When I'm asked what I want, I pick out the Thudd Gun as my first choice. A brief rummage through the stock, followed by:
FW: "Sorry, we don't have any of those." Ok fine.
ME: "Do you have any Plague Ogryns?"
FW: "Nope, we don't have any of the Renegades, today."
I'll try something Imperial, then. "How about a Rapier Laser Destroyer?"
"Nope, sorry. You could order it with us today if you like?"
Well, I've run out of ideas for anything I can reasonably afford and I'm feeling a bit embarrassed. Several quick scrambles through the catalogue turn up nothing, and I can feel the scrutinizing gaze of those waiting in line beginning to bore a hole in the back of my head. Exit stage left.
Ok, so I was warned that not everything will be available on the day, and to reserve items in advance to avoid disappointment, but to be told than an entire faction is unavailable? Well that's a bit hard to swallow. But swallow it I did, and I'll be sticking to on-line orders only in future.
Derek, meanwhile, can add another five Baneblades to his collection.
Having been deployed in a static position for the past hour, it was time to get roving again. It wasn't long after I'd perused the wares of a few dozen stalls, that I began to feel like a miniature, myself. It dawned on me that the hobby has well-and-truly embraced the age of social media and crowdfunding, and I've been somewhat left behind. I'm fumbling about trying to catch up with this here humble blog, but it's never been more apparent to me now just how useful it is to establish an on-line presence for yourself. Up to this point, I have defiantly resisted any attempts to be assimilated by the Borg Collective, preferring instead to lurk on forums and other blogs, never saying my piece. I just assumed that the craft itself was sufficient, but it seems that the hobby has evolved with the times, and so, evidently, must I.
So there I was, feeling a bit overwhelmed, drifting from one table to the next, but never really committing to learn a new game or having any meaningful interactions with all these talented designers. Story of my life...
If there was one table that held my attention for longer than ten minutes, it was the Afterlife diorama centered around a maglev station. Great setting and superbly detailed models that really nail the near-future, dystopian aesthetic. I can't really comment on the rules, but just on those factors alone, if I ever want to break off from 40k, that's where I'm headed first.
I tried to take a few photos with my digital camera, but I've yet to upload them and I'm not convinced they're even good enough to post here. If I'm going to start producing proof of the pudding, quality photos are a must. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. In the meantime, if anyone knows how to thumbnail images here, please drop me a hint, because I don't want to keep sending y'all to photobucket! For a decent bit of camerawork, I recommend you head over to Shed Wars, who has documented the event far better than I ever could. Thanks for sharing those with us, Eric!
The day did yield a couple of goodies. I walked away with a free event exclusive Agincourt miniature, and I grabbed some brand new tools from 4ground. I even managed to pry a few painting tips from one of the painters at Siege Studios, and even had my new copy of Figopedia signed by the author, so I'm glad I went, but I do have one or two minor gripes with Salute.
First, the painting competition. Congratulations to the winners and I'm sure your hard work really paid off, but the poor quality of the display cases meant that all that effort went largely unappreciated by yours truly, and probably the vast majority of browsers. The same lighting issues were present at Games Day '14, and there's just no excuse for it. Someone please explain to me why display cabinets at these events are almost always lit from the rear and not the front? If the entire purpose of a display case is to show off its contents in the best possible way, it's pretty important to get the lighting right.
The other issue was navigation. I got lost a couple of times, and if I wanted to find my bearings, I had to consult the programme and pin-point my location based on nearby stalls that weren't always clearly marked. This meant I had to strike out in a random direction until I happened upon another recognisable 'landmark'.
Will I be going next year? Most likely.
There really is no better time for a hobbyist in terms of the sheer volume and high quality of resources at their disposal. Nowhere is this more evident than at Salute.
If you've stuck it out this far, I salute you. Thanks for reading.
Next post will detail my new army list and how I've settled on the choices therein. Then I can start rolling out the paintjobs, so hang in there!
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