GAME

AWARDS

SALUTE 52

Best Participation: All Hell Let Loose

Bloody OmahA

“I created my Omaha Beach game for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. I wanted to help bring to life the phenomenal effort and sheer scale of the undertaking and celebrate the bravery of the American soldiers that fought on the beach.

I built a scale model board of the entire length of the beach, sea approaches and the bluffs. I was able to use contemporary maps, modern archaeology and aerial photographs to recreate the beach in precise detail.

I used 6mm figures for the US and German ground forces and scaled down 3D prints for the landing craft, support craft and destroyers, cruisers and battleships. Players took on the role of the US troops landing on a beach sector. They had to guide the landing craft in, beach safely, disembark amidst hails of machine gun fire and artillery shells and push up the beach to reach the shingle. Players used engineering teams had to try to clear gaps in the obstacles and tanks to shield forces on the beach.

My two teenage sons helped set up, break down and run the game at the show umpiring sections of the beach. We were all very busy for the whole day!

I have run the game up and down the country over the last 18 months and had well over a hundred people give the game a go. I believe we have helped bring to life the horror of the landing at Omaha and given just an inkling of the courage, sacrifice and heroism required to establish the beachhead.

I was absolutely thrilled to be awarded Best Participation game, particularly given the incredible quality of the games at Salute.”

- Charles

Best IN SHOW: Loughton Strike Force

WARSAW 44

Best SMALL SCALE: Per Broden and Wyre Forest Wargamers

The Crossing of Düna 1701

Best MEDIUM SCALE: THE Friends of General Haig

Breaking the Stalemate

Best LARGE SCALE: A Few Brits and the Hobby

The CrOSSROADS

“The game we displayed was a result of not being able to bring the actual game that was planned!

We had a 20mm WW2 Normandy planned but two weeks before the show, an issue with ferries arose and that idea had to be scrapped.

So we decided to do 28mm Napoleonics instead! Warwick supplied the Austrians, Andy supplied the Austrians and we threw together a game. Indeed the first time the table was set up, was at SALUTE and it was put together out of scenery that was available.

We just called it 'The Crossroads'!

We loved the layout and table, and it just goes to show that you don’t need sculpted boards and expensive terrain to put on a good looking game.”

- Piers Brand, Andy Fox and Warwick Kinrade

Best HISTORICAL: YARKSHIRE GAMER

The Battle of Mentana 1867

"Rome or Death"

“After over 40 years as a Wargamer finding new projects isn't easy. I run a Podcast called the Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast and at the end of each show my guest gets to ask me a question. On episode 6 (nearly 5 years ago) Von Ketteringham (YouTube Channel) asked me what unit I have always wanted to paint but never have.

My inspiration for the project was The St Patricks Battalion, which was a group of Volunteers from Ireland who went to Italy in 1860 to defend the Papal States, they had an amazing uniform and a great back story, so like any typical wargamer, I went on line and bought the figures from Gringo40s.

I was then left with the dilemma of what to do with the unit, a rabbit hole opened up and I started reading about the Italian Risorgimento, Papal Zouaves and Garibaldi - I was hooked! I found the Battle of Mentana in 1867 which was relatively small (for me) and was an ideal off the wall project for a demo game.

I did it all myself, bought, built and painted the armies. Studied illustrations of the Battle and built terrain to match. About 4 years work. The game went to a number of other shows over the previous 12 months and ended it's run at SALUTE.

Finding figures was difficult as (at the time) no one produced them so I had to improvise and use figures from ranges from around the world set in a similar time frame, so the Perrys ACW, War of the Triple Alliance and BEF ranges were a god send. I also ended up with Franco Prussian and Crimean figures on the table to go with the period specific Gringo40s. It was also very hard to find much information about the Battle itself, and there was a lot of digging and a lot of translation going on.

The table recreates the Battle of Mentana at the beginning of the action, Garibaldi has set his forces up in and around the town intending to advance on Rome. The Papal and French Forces have marched out of Rome to stop him. From that point onwards the players are free to choose their actions. The rules were a slightly modified version of Picketts Charge by Dave Brown. I just needed to include rules for the additional range of the Chassepot (this was the first use of the famous French Chassepot Rifle). The lack of Artillery at the battle made an earlier set of rules (as opposed to say Franco Prussian) more appropriate.

I have always loved the Papal States and this was a great excuse to get the last ever Papal Army on the table. The only problem was that it was so obscure everyone thought it was set in Mexico!

I've been back at SALUTE for around 5 years and put a game on for the last two. I've really enjoyed the whole experience. It's a long way down to "that there" London from Yorkshire but I've had a really good time each visit. The organisers have really made an effort to make exhibitors feel welcome.

When Martin (the Warlords President) told me I had won the prize, I said some naughty words to him as I thought he was joking! He wasn't, it was a great honour, my Podcast has been flying the flag for Big Game Historical Wargames and to win an award for one was fantastic and shows that there is still life in this kind of gaming.

I'm back in 2026 with my Italian Wars collection, so get ready to Block your Pike!”

- Ken Reilly “Yarkshire Gamer”

Best SCI-FI/FANTASY: Magrathea Builder Of Worlds

What Lies Beneath The Streets

Of Luneden & Mega City OnE

“I have enjoyed bringing games to SALUTE for over twenty years now. I play various games in a small informal group of friends and our games are pretty much exclusively skirmish games. I love to build scenery and like to use SALUTE as a goalpost for scenery builds. The problem with playing skirmish games at big shows is they can often get overlooked as they are naturally smaller games than big battalion games. We had discussed this for some time and realised that what we could do with was verticality. Build up not out and I settled on the use of the kalax units from Ikea (other furniture stores are available) to help us play taller games. We settled on a Burrows & Badgers game as we wanted to highlight the burrows element of the game and play games underground and Judge Dredd is a game just crying out to be played on a vertical table as it can all take place in Mega City Blocks.

The building of both tables were featured in my “Magrathea Builder Of Worlds Road To Salute” series which took me from January to April 2025. I tend to build scenery single handed as it is my favourite part of the hobby, but taking games to shows is very much a team thing and it usually the rest of the Spirit Of The Game guys - this year; Mike, Gary, Harry John, Aaron, and Alex. They spent the day running exciting custom scenarios to introduce new players to both systems. While most of the Dredd figures are mine - painted by Simon Purdue, most of the B&B figures came from the collections of the other group members. All of signage and gaming aids were designed by Ted (our eight member) who could not be at SALUTE this year and the tables were completed by adding some brilliant extra tall backboards painted by my wife, Heidi."

“I was really pleased with the response both sides of our back to back table got. Many gamers loved the inspirational use of Ikea furniture as a vertical game board. The Dredd table looked great, it is impossible to build all of a Mega City Block but this certainly gave a good idea of how the block might go, up and down. One of the Dredd scenarios was based around a botched bank job in a shopping mall and other involved a final showdown between a street gang and a pursuing judge as they had a shootout in a carpark, the judge had to prevent the perps escaping and disappearing into the block. The B&B games were very popular as they were a great way to show this game off, it was also helped by the launch of the second edition of the game at SALUTE. The B&B scenarios were set under the great city of Luneden during the ongoing siege. The first scenario involved a group of Witchunters trying to destroy an ancient shrine far below ground. The second scenario involved some infiltrating mercenaries tying to force their way out of a tunnel into the cellar of a tavern so they could get above ground and open the city gates from the inside.

We were delighted to win the Best Sci-Fi or Fantasy game at SALUTE - although as we were playing both scifi and fantasy games we made a slight edit to our winning banner and made it Best SciFi AND Fantasy games.

We are looking forward to returning to SALUTE in 2026 with some new skirmish tables - apart from anything else I need to get more use out of those shelf units!”

- Tim, Magrathea Builder Of Worlds