Show Report: Austrian Salute 2023

 

Saturday, June 3rd, finally had us all gather for Austrian Salute again, after a 3 years hiatus. The day before I packed up lots of paints, paintbrushes, showcase figures, figures to deliver to some people I would meet there, the glass cabinet and all the other stuff and drove off to Oberndorf in Salzburg.

Other than with the prior shows I attended this year, the weather was lovely for travelling and the 350 kilometers just flew by (aided by the lastest edition of the Lardies Oddcast and other audio entertainment). 

Right when I arrived at the hotel I ran into Virago and Annatar and we paid a visit to Silent Night Games (run by El Cid, head of Comitatus wargames club and head organizer of Austrian Salute. Yes, we all got supercool names for everybody and everything of course.).

The place was crawling with familiar faces and most of us left soon for the venue-to-be to set up, followed by dinner and drinks at the hotel.

Austrian Salute (ironically) still takes place right across the border in Germany. The variety of games on the day of the show was great. Here's the traditional overview:

The Mordheim table by one of the Tabletop-Tirol guys sure was one of the eye-catchers.

Apart from the sheer size of the table it had lots of nice little details and the odd mood lighting via LED here and there. 

Also: Levels. Not only does this table feature height in the shape of multi-level buildings, but it also goes underground!

Tons of segments of the table can be removed to reveal underground tunnels. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to have a look in there.

Two more tables (which I know already from Tabletop Knights' Gaming Day in April) were the Fallout and Star Wars Legion games, presented by Lastmanstanding92 and teager40k.

Both excellent tables, both were placed for 2nd and 3rd for "best table" on the day.

Then there was Annatar and Virago's Nmitz table. For something a bit different. They played Sam Mustafa's very intriguing big, campaign-map-based WW2 naval wargames rules, partly on virago's finely crafted overview map...

...and as soon one group finally manages to a.) find and b.) reach an enemy group the action switches to the table. Out come the GHQ ships.

A Japanese task force hunts down a US group surrounding the carrier USS Enterprise. 

As usual with Mr.Mustafa's games, it's a really intriguing game which looks like it's a well thought-out abstraction of a vast and complex subject to cover.

Lexxman and crew (Justizius, Medicus, etc.) had a very nice, spooky The Silver Bayonet table to run demo games on, as well as a One Page Rules table right next to it.

Grave stones!

Tabletop Wien West, one of the premier people to run demo games for years now, showed 1-48 Tactics.

It's a bit of an abstract tactical game, but throughout the day it drew people to play, and after the show Mr.Tabletop Wien West told me that after the first or second rounds, people took over introducing other players to 1-48 Tactics! Which is a handy thing to happen.

Constable and crew have a history of running cool skirmish tables, and this time they brought Carnavale, a game resurrected by the fact that Table Top Combat took it on and produced a new figures range and MDF buildings for it:

Here we see the mechanical rhinocerus pushing the
crusading man into a Venetian canal. Picture provided by
lynx)

This one's been getting a lot of attention throughout the day as well, not the least due to the attractive looking table.

You can't have a party without Space Marines and a lot of those were present at the Horus Heresy table to honour the occasion, surrounded by several "Please do not touch" signs and a little gaming table.

Much to my delight Maniac-Eye and Gregor brought not only their GREAT lamp (it's a thing to behold), but also an excellent looking 15mm Chain of Command table.

Don't tell anybody, but for the first time ever I partook in a few phases of a demo game towards the end of the day. Because Chain of Command is just so good.

The Lardy goodness didn't stop there though, because DaMoiti ran a ton of What A Cowboy! demo games throughout the day.

One of the funny developments of recent times is how Warmaster re-emerged. Ic3m4n and Muswetyl brought a very nice looking table and figures to go with it.

Many, many moons ago I painted a lot of Warmaster figures for several different people around the world, which led to my love for 10mm as a figure size. 

On the day we also saw two vendors: Silent Night Games and Roostermodel, who dropped by for a few hours, presenting the latest in MDF and acrylic goodness.

Me, I brought the usual display figures, some stuff to show painting on and so on.

(Picture provided by Lynx, who, other than me, did not leave
his camera's objective at home)

 However, I barely did a brush stroke on the day, simply due to the number of people to talk to.

Austrian Salute is one of my favourite shows throughout the year. It's a bit smaller, but the variety of interesting tables and games more than makes up for that. It's also a nice, relaxed ambience with a strong sense of community. Also of course: Silent Night Games is one of the best wargames store I know and it's kinda nice getting to shop there a little before and/or after the show.

A horrifyingly bad collage of my haul of the day.

Also, I delivered a great bunch of painted figures, received boxes and boxes of new figures to paint.

It was a really good trip. Thanks to the organizers, everybody who ran a demo table, everybody who paid a visit to have games, chats, drinks and whatnot. It was just good to see a lot of familiar faces after such a long time and also get to experience that sense of wargaming community again.