Austrian Salute 2014

Back from Austrian Salute! On the 15th of March 2014 the fourth installment of this wargaming event, the biggest in Austria, took place in Oberndorf, close to Salzburg.

14 tables with demo- and participation games, a bunch of vendors, drinks, very good location. Altogether it was a smashing day.

Here are some pictures of the tables on the day. You will notice a distinct lack of GW stuff. The reason behind this is that they do dedicated GW-focussed events as well and placed a lot of focus on diversity of games rather than having an event of eight 40k tables, six Flames of War and four Bolt Action tables.

Six Day War (rules set: Flames of War):

 The main draw of attention surely were those missile launchers. Very cleverly done and they look great.

Modern Aerial Combat (rules set: Something really obscure. I would have lovcd to stick around and have a look at the mechanics but there just wasn't any time):

These guys came over all the way from Bavaria. Sounds great but actually Oberndorf is in spitting distance of the German border. At first I thought that maybe I should not drive right home after the event but take a trip to Munich just to have a look. Of course at the end of the day I was way too tired to do anything like that and was happy to make it through the drive home. 

Some of the terrain used looked kind of familiar. I think it's FW's epic/aeronautica imperialis stuff, isn't it?

 World War Two, Pacific Theatre (rules set: Bolt Action):

Really pretty table, isn't it? Note the statue in the back.

 Modern (rules set: Bolt Action):

At VIVAT last October I had a longer chat with one of the guys who run this game in which he told me about their modern day Bolt Action plans. The table did look really nice and I think the scale is 1/48th (yeah, the infantry too, not just the vehicles, certain Bolt Actioners ;-) )

 Dystopian Wars:

Dystopian Wars is rather popular in Vienna. I never gave it a shot myself but the rules seem rather tight, the models are popular and fancy. Seems to be good.

Empire of the Dead:

These guys won the 'best demo game' award. It's a really pretty table too. 

Freebooter's Fate:

Ever-popular 'round these parts and the table looked splendid (it also won the 'best table award').

Battle of Bannockburn (rules set: Field of Glory):

See, THIS is what I like to see. Proper orders of battle, research and all of that. Good stuff. Oh, also: lots of dice. 

 War of Spanish Succession (rules set: Beneath Lilly Banners):

Beneath Lilly Banners in 28mm, showcased by the show's host El Cid and friends. As always very, very pretty. I'm somewhat into warfare in the 17th century so it is rather tempting to get into.

Malifaux:

Another beautiful table, also showing the relative compactness of the game. The cobble stone texture was all made by hand.

WW2 Pacific Aerial-Naval Combat (rules set: massively modified X-Wing):

Hosted by Virago and Vic. I had the honour to participate on the playtest sessions with Virago over the past weeks. It's an interesting system, taking the elegant movement rules from X-Wing, adding historically accurate bits, two altitude levels and some nasty rules for AA fire, some flexible deployment for the attacker and so on. Plus: aircraft carrier movement based on the Gorkamorka racing design. I'm sure that those of you who are familiar with the mechanic will like this. ;-)

 The objective for the attacker is to sink the enemy carrier using dive and torpedo bombers. 

As always, the guys came dressed in themed t-shirts (courtesy of Vic). The above picture is of El Cid's opening speech at the event by the way.

Curious listening to El Cid's opening speech (which was started by the toot'ing of a rather loud horn).

Rooster Models' lasercut HDF terrain demo table:

Czermak Tabletop Shop ran their own table of Warmachine:

(also had some nice show deals like -50% off Avatars of War stuff)

It IS 2014 so the show wouldn't be complete without a World War 1 table:

Really impressive stuff. 20mm scale, but a huge table, including no trains but planes and automobiles.

The show was a three and a half hours drive away from where I live so I booked a hotel room for a night. Good hotel too and it's got art on the wall.

After the show the organizer of the show and owner of Silent Night Games opened the shop for the traditional post-show shopping at a discount. It's been the first time for me to visit the shop but what I'd heard about it ('They got more stuff than you'll find in the whole of Vienna') was no exaggeration. It's just the range of stuff that makes the place. Lots of Warhammers and Flames of Wars and Bolt Actions but also stuff like Essex miniatures, a whole bunch of Wargames Foundry blisters, some of the starters for all the Osprey rulesets like Ronin, lots of different paints and so on. Seriously good stuff. So here's my loot from that:

Impetus, because I play it every once in a blue moon and thought it wasn't a bad idea to get the full rules, some flowers, Roman officers on horse and on foot and a pot of paint from Pegasus Farben, because I never worked with those before and I really liked the name ('Shadowed Steel'). Gave it a try last night and it's really good paint.

Being the unselfish person that I am I completely forgot to take a picture of my own setup! I ran a painting workshop and painting table at the show.

As always, I brought that big old glass cabinet (a.k.a. 'the coffin') for displaying stuff. Other than for VIVAT, I was able to bring Fantasy/Sci-Fi stuff this time and indulged in that, with just one unit of American Civil War Confederates in the back. (pictures courtesy of tokk)

Bunch of Zombies and Survivors (who were quite a hit with many people) and the aforementioned Confederates (preferred by the gentlemen of more historical persuasion).

The Riptide you probably know already, several Infinity models, my Halloween vignette, good old Sicarius and two Night Goblin Fanatics.

...and of course the Landship I had finished for the event especially.

Virago took the time to take a closer picture of this little fellow. It was nice being able to bring the 'wacky' stuff for once. Next event will be VIVAT 2014 to which I'll bring more historical stuff again.

All in all the event was a great fun. Thanks to El Cid and his Silent Night Games crew for organizing the whole thing, thanks to Virago and Vic for helping me haul The Coffin into the hall (and thanks for the shirt!). It was a great weekend, had very nice chats with lots of cool people, many familiar faces, some new faces. It's just nice having events at which everybody can meet up, chat face to face rather than over the interweb, getting to know new people, new wargaming systems and so on. Good show, looking forward to the next one!