Wargame Demo Tables, I Salute You

One of my favourite things about Salute is seeing all the fantastic demo tables that companies and games club put together and run throughout the day.

Seeing those nicely painted miniatures brought to life against the backdrop of some interesting terrain is one of the main draws of the hobby. This year I spent plenty of time drifting from table to table, taking snapshots of those that impressed me most.

So without further ado let me present to you a handful of my picks from the crop of Salute 2012 demo tables.

First up is a three part table for the 15mm sci-fi game Gruntz. I was taken by this table because it was such a nice way to present different aspects of the game.

I think for demo purposes a small 2’x2′ terrain setup with a handful of miniatures is a great way to go, and here they had three such tables – including a nice interior “bug hunt” scenario in the foreground.

It must have been cool to play through some linked scenarios on those boards.

Well done guys. I’ve never really been taken by the 10-15mm scale sci-fi stuff but this, along with an impressive stand for new game Dropzone Commander, has rather tickled my fancybone.

One thing you can count on is that the Freebooter’s Fate team will put together a splendid demo table for their pirate skirmish game and this year they didn’t disappoint. A nice island/swamp affair with connected walkways which would have been great fun to demo on, I’m sure.

I think the raised solid wooden frame adds a real touch of class and I can imagine it’s very satisfying to clatter the dice in there – casino style – without fear of them scattering off the table edge.

Steampunk has been a la mode in the hobby this past few years and there was plenty of brass goggles stuff on display at Salute this year.

West Wind have a new offering called Empire of the Dead, and Micro Art Studios were demoing a beta version of Wolsung.

Both looked great, but I think Wolsung edged it for me with the slightly nicer minis and a touch of the exotic about it. Possibly due to Micro Arts being a Polish company.

Many of the demo tables made good use of laser-cut MDF terrain buildings. This has been something of a recent revolution in terrain manufacture and you’re seeing more and more suppliers get on board with the process.

Companies like Sarissa Precision and Gamecraft to name but a couple are putting out some impressive product, with many demo tables being accompanied by the telltale and not unpleasant aroma of burnt wood!

Sarissa’s System Infinity range, for example, is perfectly suited to the (not so coincidentally named) Infinity skirmish game by Corvus Belli.

I must say that I tend to be drawn more to the small skirmish demo tables and, though I can appreciate grandeur of a billiard table sized Napoleonic conflict in 20mm scale, it doesn’t really grab me.

That said, there were plenty of impressive offerings and I did enjoy seeing the giant 20th century battlefields.

The level of detail can be staggering, really inviting the viewer to peer in close and marvel at the effort put in by its creators.

I’ll leave you with a few such epic battlefields and encourage you to click through to the bigger versions so you can enjoy the detail. Well, whatever you can make out from my fuzzy photography at least!

~ by Max Von Deadlock on April 29, 2012.