Battlefront at Salute 2012 Another year and another Salute has been and gone. In a whirlwind of gaming, modelling and purchasing the Europe’s largest Wargames show took place at Excel in London on 21 April 2012. This year Salute was celebrating its 40th anniversary, from its humble beginnings in the Surrey Tavern (at the Oval Cricket ground) the event organised by the South London Warlords has become the biggest of its kind in Europe, competing with Historicon in the US for the title of biggest in the world. Below: The crowd at Salute 2012.

Battlefront TV The team in the UK took a short video to show off what was going on at the Battlefront tables at Salute this year. For those of you not lucky enough to be there, Salute is a massive 1-day Wargaming Event held in London and is filled with participation games, retailers and all sorts of other things for the avid gamer to check out. Visit the Battlefront TV channel on YouTube here...

Battlefront have been in attendance at Salute for the past three years, using the event as a showcase for new products and a chance to meet customers and introduce the uninitiated to Flames Of War, Gales Force Nine and Wargames Illustrated.

Unlike many other wargaming events Salute isn’t a gaming tournament; you won’t find Flames Of War competitions taking place here and this gives the Battlefront team an ideal opportunity to focus on demo and boot camp games. To add to that, at Salute 2012 Battlefront also introduced their new baby – Achtung! The Flames Of War starter set, which saw it’s European launch at the event.

Our sales team were kept busy all day by eager show attendees purchasing copies of Achtung! as well as Third Edition and other Flames Of War and GF9 products, but we were equally pleased with the response we received to the participation games we were running.

On a 16’ table devoted to four games showcasing Achtung! Our friends from the Gaming Club Network (GCN) ran through the basics of the Flames Of War rules, getting gamers swiftly into tank fighting action in the fields of Normandy. Everyone who played on this table was rewarded with a free plastic tank sprue - either a Sherman or StuG -from the new Achtung! set. By the end of the day we had given away nearly 200 plastic tanks to happy gamers.

Over on another purpose built table we were running a massive ‘Tank Scrap’ game, using the new Blood, Guts, and Glory Flames Of War supplement. Players were invited to take command of a force of Germans or Americans and blast the hell out of each other in a scenario based on the Battle of The Lorraine, 1944.

Our third table played host to ‘Purple Haze’, a game using the Flames Of War Vietnam rules and based on the American defence of An Loc, 1972.

In the Wargames Illustrated section of the stand, the Wargames Illustrated team were selling the ‘hot of the press’ issue of the magazine - WI295, which dove-tailed with our Crimean War demo game - Sevastopol, 1855 - another masterpiece in terrain building by Grand Manner.

Wargames Illustrated staff were also giving away a show exclusive figure (also available at Historicon!) of Leiutentent-Colonel Lacy Yea, a VC winner from the Crimea.

Salute 2012 proved to be another welcome opportunity to meet with Flames Of War players and Wargames Illustrated readers from across Europe. The whole Battlefront Europe team had a great day sharing their passion for our games and magazines and showcasing our products to those wargamers who weren’t aware of what Battlefront is all about.

Special thanks must go to the members of the GCN who helped us on the day: Alex Clarke, Paul Winter, Andy Thear, Anthony S, Erik 'Grandad' Cooper and Tim Harris – great work lads.

We hope you enjoy the photos below, for a full report on the entire show pick up a copy of Wargames Illustrated 297. See you all again next year!