As a wise Roy Orbison once said, “It’s over, it’s over, it’s oooooover”. And indeed it is. The gaming event of the year, the Heaven and Hell, which is Salute is over once again. I say Heaven and Hell as this represents my feeling about the show. It is Heaven from the point of view that it is the ultimate place to be in wargaming. The sheer scale of the traders available, the splendid games which are undoubtedly glittering gems which represent the very best the hobby has to offer, the old friends to chew the fat with, the opportunity to meet people we’ve “known” on the web for years, but here for the first time in the flesh. If there is life after death I hope it looks like this! So why the Hell? Well, as an exhibitor or trader is is sheer, downright painful, bloody hard work. I reckon its the super hard polished concrete floor, but by the end of the event my ability to walk is reduced to a shuffle and after running several games and projecting one’s voice over the noise of the crowds, speech is also painful. But, that said, it’s a price well worth paying.
Of course I failed miserably when it came to providing an ongoing commentary on Twitter – it really was too busy – and I took a sum total of zero photos of the game. However, we did get one great snap emailed to us by Meeples & Miniatures contributor and Peterborough man Mike Whitaker and featuring the fine photographic work of Roger Bell-West who, David Bailey-esque had us working the camera like supermodels. Albeit rather unusually shaped super-models…
Thanks to those Lardies who turned up for this photo at midday, travelling the length and breadth of the UK with representatives from the Devonshire Custard Guzzler chapter of Lard, East Anglia, the Midlands and even Bonnie Scotland, not to mention lovers of Lard from from Belgium and Holland making their annual pilgrimage to Salute.
The famous Lardy community was out in force throughout the day, with the game and the stand being magnets for on-line friends meeting up for a chat with Lardy celebrity Robert Avery and Psuedo-celebrity Sidney Roundwood. We hope to see you all again next year.
It’s not quite feet-up time on Lard Island now. This week I am starting on my late-war Soviet force for Chain of Command, so I’ll keep you all informed as to how I get on with that. Looking forward to getting my Soviets on the table for a mini-campaign in the very near future!