Show Report: Austrian Salute 2019

It's that time of the year again! Early/mid-March means it's time for Austrian Salute!

So I packed up my painting stuff, some models to show, some finished models for customers, the old Detolf, and all the other good stuff and off I drove to Bavaria. 

Yup, just like last year Austrian Salute took place in exile in southern Bavaria. It's complicated. But we're all friends, and the show used to take place right at the border anyway. Now it made a jump by about 5km and it's got the advantage of more people from Germany attending, which is nice.

Another great thing about the new location is that I can set up the day before the show takes place, which is lovely. So I arrived (first too), started setting up all the tables and had a coffee until Martin of Roll the Dice showed up. Us two surely are the ones who got the most to set up, so it made sense we'd arrive early.

Martin didn't just have a bunch of goodies with him, but also ran a demo table. Last year he'd shown Legion and Test of Honor, this year it's Wild West Exodus. Somehow it had slipped my radar that Wayland/Warcradle had bought up that one as well. Those sly foxes also want to turn that one and  Dystopian Wars (which of course they'd gotten off Spartan Games during their sad demise) into the same setting and do Wild West Exodus factions reflecting the ones from Dystopian Wars. Interesting things going on in the gaming world. 

So, Guild Ball, and similar stuff aside, he had a ton of WWE and also Carnevale stuff with him. Seems like Carnevale's re-release also happened now. That one's owned by TTCombat now of course and they redid all the models digitally. You can hear the whole story on a 2017 episode of the M&M Podcast. Sadly I didn't have a chance to have a look at the Carnevale figures. 

Anyway, back to the show. Of course the most important thing is the gaming/demo tables. Sadly it was fewer tables than last year as a few people had to drop out last second due to illness or things coming up. On the up side, the lack of quantity in tables was made up for in quality. 

At setup already it was clear what the Warammer 40k table would be about:

'ello. First time I saw I warlord titan (28mm) in person.

Beyond the physical universe of the known lie the
unfathomable horrors of the warp.

Another interesting thing about this year's show was certain rules sets dominating the show with multiple tables each. One of those was Cruel Seas, Warlord's controversially discussed coastal craft naval wargame.

Andreas (in the left) consulting the rules, while Moar shoots him his best war face.

Right next to them Constable ran another Cruel Seas game:

If you're interested in a 2-part show report about Austrian Salute with better photos (and in German language!), you can find it here. Cleverly, he had brought his son to take pictures.

Now for virago's and Annatar's Lord of the Rings table, depicting the ambush at Amon Hen:

Two men knowing they're about to play LotR on a really nice looking table.

What we see here isn't only action-laden scenes of battle, but also
darned good forest soil.

The cool thing about this table is how it's so darned well done and keeping with the theme of LotR, while keeping things understated. There's no eye-popping flashiness on there, just one theme done exceedingly well, with thought and competence.

Virago scratch-built Amon Hen there, including the statues on top.

Back to the flashy, but no less pretty, here's Necromunda!

All straight-up GW stuff, really well put together and painted and much fun was had by the guys playing.

The other rules set getting two tables at the event was Battlegroup. The tables couldn't have been any more different though. First, a Vietnam table:

This one saw action throughout the day. And it's really pretty too!

Not pictured, but yes, there also was a surfer dude on the water.

The other Battlegroup table depicted a part of Budapest in late 1944 by Zauberlehrling:

Just an amazing table with incredible attention to detail and overall competently done. In the end of the day it won 'best table' (with the Lord of the Rings and Vietnam tables being close runners-up).

Overall it was a very nice event again. Bit smaller than last year, for which last minute drop-outs and I think the great weather are to blame. But stuff will always get in the way, and I'm looking forward to seeing the guys next year. Austrian Salute's always a bit of a smaller event, with mostly familiar faces showing up. Which is a cool thing, because you get to sit down with mates and chat for a while, meeting customers face to face and talk about future projects, and so on. 

Right, here are some photos of my own stuff, to round it all off:

Alaska13 and I in deep meditation over a bust and how to paint it.
Alaska13 drops by every single year to ask me things about painting, bless him.
(photo credit: El Cid)

(photo credit: El Cid)

(photo credit: El Cid)

(photo credit: Constable's son)

(photo credit: Constable's son)

(photo credit: Constable's son)

Oh, and I bought things. Time for the confessional, I guess. Martin of Roll the Dice brought along some of the sets of Mantic's recently released Fantasy terrain kits. The past years I've really fallen for the idea of really nice Fantasy/medieval-to-modern terrain, specifically a town square. So it was hard to pass up those sets:

The Last Days rules were a bit of a last-minute idea. I got a collection of modern-day zombies and Survivors and all, but lack a nice set of rules to go along with them. I've been a proponent of All Things Zombie for the longest time, and it's an amazing set of rules, but it lacks the tightness for me to really stick to it. It surely is the more interesting game, but I'm looking forward to see what I can do with Last Days, which probably is a bit more game-y. Let's see. 

As always, many thanks to everybody who dropped by, thanks to El Cid / Walter for organizing the whole event (and for managing lunch), thanks to all the guys who brought and ran games. Always nice meeting the guys at these events. It sure seemed everybody had a good time, that that's what it's all about. Very much looking forward to Austrian Salute 2020!