Show Report: VIVAT 2017

VIVAT, our little historical wargames show, has become a beloved tradition which took place on November 11th for the 5th time.





In this article I'll give you a little overview of the event; one of the very few ones 'round here which are all about historical wargaming.

At 8 in the morning everybody met highly alert and filled with happy thoughts to move around tables and chairs and set up their games.

After Nikfu's traditional opening speech the event was officially kicked off. 

Suit up....

...and ready to go!

The following article is meant to give you an overview and some impressions of the day.

One of the instant eye catchers was the 15mm Ancients table (Catharge vs. Syracuse, Field of Glory rules):

Really good stuff, and the smaller scale manages to get a feel of the battle across. Also: really, really nice looking minis.

Aside from my own pseudo-vendor-showcase-workshop-table-painting-area-thing as always S-Games' Adriano brought a ton of tasty merchandise AND a Flames of War 4 table to boot!

 

Yup, that's Flames of War alright!

In the mean time all of us tore into the goodies which were brought along. I'm in the process of looking through my collection (a.k.a. The Lead/Resin/Plastic Mountain) which is why my buying impulse is a bit subdued at the moment. Still, bought a set of 8th army dice.

One esteemed wargaming colleague bought the new Battle for Berlin set by Warlord Games. Boy, is that a big box. And boy, is it full of stuff. Lots of good stuff too. Some very nice models in there indeed. I think the buildings once more are recylced 1/72nd Italeri kits, right? Anybody got first hand info on that?

As always Clausefritz presented board war games. Always a bit different to the rest of the show, but really good at demo'ing games and enthusiastic about the subject. He also always brings interesting bring&buy stuff.

This year he presented the battle of Stalingrad with Axis&Allies Miniatures rules.

Clausefritz with guests from Hungary

The Tabletop Wien West guys showed two tables next to each other, featuring an American Civil War battle (Kugelhagel rules), and an Ancient battle between Persians and Eastern Roman troops. Now that is a cool and colourful pairing.

Much to my shame I have to admit that I didn't even know Steinhagel used blinds.

On the table right next to them Gandalf and Donald63 once more brought the American Civil War to life (Kugelhagel rules):

It's really cool to see how the Tabletop Wien West guys have become this fixture in wargaming around here, doing a lot of shows and other demo events.

Can't have a VIVAT without a Napoleonics table, so Der Fels and his Nappy buddys set up a table of lavishly painted masses of troops:

 Between such widely popular topics right next to them we had a WW1 naval game (Naval Thunder rules)! On the table we saw a re-telling of the Battle of Moon Sound on the Eastern front, all presented using GHQ models.

It's just insane how much detail they get on these things. GHQ minis aren't cheap, but wow..

Last, but not least we had an amazing table displaying a raid on an Indian village and small settlement during the French-Indian War (Sharp Practice 2 rules) set up and presented by Virago and Annatar. Sharp Practice veteran Cpt.Shandy also dropped by to demo the scenario. Him and our friend Daniel from Portugal had a very hard fought game.

At the centre you can see Virago,
 sporting the look of a man who knows he makes the best trees around.

The pumpkin patch. Later on the game would end in a bloody mess out there.

This game really illustrates well how Sharp Practice's major strength is telling a story, apart from being just damn good fun.

Great rules, great scenario, great presentation. Bravo.

VIVAT 2017 was good fun. Great chats, great games, good spirit overall. Things which stood out this year especially was the number of visitors, a handful even just walking in to have a look at the strange men playing with toys on these really cool tables. I showed some people some basic highlighting and shading and whatnot, talked about painting and everything else. 

A good day out as always, and many thanks to the organizers Nikfu and Virago, to Cpt.Shandy, to Daniel (for lifting stuff in general) and everybody else. Very much looking forward to next year!