Intro to Salute

Last thursday, on April 12th, Operation Sealion 2018 started. We went to Cologne Bonn Konrad Adenauer Airport, for our four day trip to the UK for Salute and a brief day trip to the Leadbelt.

There are a couple of ways to get to London. Two years ago and before that, we did the Salute as a day trip, grabbing a flight from Cologne to Stansted or Frankfurt to Heathrow. Flying from Germany takes roughly 1 to 1,5 hrs and sets you back between 70 - 150 Euro, depending on who you fly with. Just for Salute a rental car would only make sense, if the group is bigger than two people, as the London Underground is superb and reasonably priced. Only the shuttles ex-airport are sometimes a bit expensive. As we headed north to Nottingham, that question was already solved. Rentals are quite cheap in the UK, you can get cars for around 30 Euro per day. We paid just over 90 Euro for the prolonged weekend incl. unlimited miles. For rental cars I usually go with Budget, a daughter company of Avis. They offer good and uncomplicated service at reasonable quotes. The Honda Jazz was brand new, but not that much fun to drive and had a unpleasant driver seat.

Ryanair changed a lot in the last few months, along with strict limitations on the cabin luggage and checkin in. If you book all the excluded things to get back to a regular ticket, you end up with a price around the area of a Lufthansa ticket from FRA to LHR. Our flight was delayed by almost two hours due to mist, and on arrival we met quite a different weather compared to Spain two weeks ago.

After picking up the rental, we went to Cambridge, to gather the third of our motley crew and we bought a few basics for our trip. Among other things a few craft beers to unlock a few goals on Untappd. Enjoying a delicious meal of oven fried chicken, fries and salad, we called it a day (well, it was already friday and we had to get up early 😀 ). So on friday morning we went north, with the proper musical support.

What brought us to Nottingham? Well, Nottingham is the cradle of wargaming. The big three have their offices there, among a huge amount of smaller companies within only a few miles.

Our first stop was at Mantic Games. We got a tour around the studio, saw some upcoming 3D prints and first resin masters of the new Hellboy kickstarter, along with new miniatures for Vanguard and The Walking Dead. We even managed to squeeze in a introduction round to Dreadball.

Next stop was Warlord Games with their new addition of a store to their facilities. A tour around the studio as well, taking some early looks on the novelties that were packed for Salute (the 3-Ups of the Afrikakorps, 8th Army and new US American plastic kits) and a introduction to Blood Red Skies. We really enjoyed that aviators skirmish.

And the last stop for the long friday was at Games Workshops Warhammer World. We met up with the german Warhammer Community manager and enjoyed a tour along the miniature exhibition along with the gaming area and Bugmans Bar.

Each of this visits will receive a proper individual article, where I'll go into detail about our experience there, so no worry! There will be many more pictures.

If you're looking just to visit Nottingham, there are a couple of ways to get there by plane. There is EMA (East Midland Airport, in the middle between Derby, Birmingham and Nottingham), BHX (Birmingham) and MAN (Manchester) and grab a train towards Nottingham. There is an airport in Nottingham, but that one is for private machines and charter engines.

As Bugmans Bar, the pub at Warhammer World, is open on fridays till 10 p.m. and offers great food and drinks (along with free wifi), we braced ourselves on some Burgers and pints before heading back to Cambridge. Unlocking some achievements as the beers of Bugmans Bar are although listed on Untappd.

We had a great first full day in the UK, with lots of new miniatures, lovely tables and it was fun chatting to other wargamers.  As mentioned above, there will be individual articles on the visits to each of the three companies. That was our intro to salute, the next article will cover the first part of my Salute 2018 coverage. Operation Sealion (hashtag #sealion18) continues.