Vienna Fantasy Gaming Con / VIVAT 2024

 

The past weekend not only did Vienna Fantasy Gaming Convention make a return, but also VIVAT!

If you've been following my show reports of the past you  most likely will be familiar with VIVAT. Over 10 years ago, it was born out of a necessity for getting historical wargamers in Eastern Austria together. Ever since then, it's been a lovely occasion to meet friends and familiar faces. The last proper one had taken place in late 2019, but this year it was fully back, once more organized by Nikfu and Virago. 

Another much beloved show made a return this weekend - Vienna Fantasy Gaming Convention. 

As always, organized by Planet Harry, one of the long-standing go-to places for board games buying in Vienna. If you ever visit Vienna, go there.

I was there as well of course, and it was a lovely start into wargames shows spring season. Brought showcase figures, brought all the stuff, ran a painting workshop in the afternoon (which is always good fun and very well received).

Various boardgame and role-playing clubs (meeting some people again whom I ran into at ComicCon last November) were present, running games throughout the day. Vienna Fantasy Gaming Con is also always a place where to meet small indie-publishers of role-playing games (ie the people who bring interesting stuff, keep the whole hobby running and so on. Just as in any genre - the interesting and lively stuff happens in the niches.) and fantasy authors. Another thing Vienna Fantasy Gaming Con traditionally is great at is the bring and buy. They dedicate the whole entrance area to that and for the most part people offer vast amounts of board games and role-playing games at sensible prices.

Another notable presence was Shroudfall, the fantasy tabletop skirmish wargame from Austria. Very cool figures, very much worth checking out.They also ran a gaming table throughout the day.

A half of the big hall was dedicated to VIVAT, the historical wargamers con. Great tables, great mix of genres and periods. 

Tabletop Wien West showcased What a Cowboy. A wild west town is always a draw.

Cpt.Shandy and K demoed Cpt.Shandy's Damn the Torpedoes! rules for American Civil War naval battles. I had the honour of testing them a few times over the past years. 

Excellent approach to wargames writing, combining a deep understanding of the topic at hand, but also for how to design a game which is playable and fun even for people who lack the former. Which is a pretty tough job to pull off. Accordinly, the game was really well received by everybody.

Can't have a historical wargames show without Napoleonics. So we got a lovely General d'Armée tablet despicting the Attack on the Shevardino Redoubt 1812 in 15mm.

Several people have also been carrying General d'Armée 2 rulebooks with them already. Didn't know it had made it across the channel yet. They haven't had a lot of time to read it, but all of them said that these rules would be the way to go for them.

 Tabletopfreunde Wien were present as well of course. Over the past two years they have been running huge colonial battles outside over whole weekends and they brought part of that to VIVAT, using their rules set of choice, Kugelhagel. Another great table and a topic you don't see very often.

The Greeks vs. Etruscans table I was happy to see for two reasons: First, you gotta have Ancients. Can't do a wargames show without them. It's just the rules. :-) 

The other reason being, that it displayed the whole Samnites army I painted two years ago (with over 100 individual hand-painted shield designs). It's not too often that I get to see things I painted and then had to return to their owner again. Always nice when I do though.

And those Samnites are a pretty darned cool sight, if I may say so myself.

Lexxman's group ran the Silver Bayonet table again which I believe they already had with them at Late Fall show 2023.

The very active Katzelsdorf group was present as well, bringing a Saga table. Saga has been around for 13 years now, and it always gets played. 

Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less, depending on where you're located, but once it ebbs off with club X, there's a sudden resurgence with club Y 2, 3 hours down the road. With the clever core rules and several variants around, Studio Tomahwak have created a modern classic.

Last but not least Dice'illas showcased their new and even further improved Baron's War table.

Big fan of that table.

It was a very cool day out, sensible opening hours, lots of familiar faces I hadn't seen in a few years, several new faces, some lovely chats with like-minded people. Got some praise for my figures (hooray), and the workshop in the afternoon was a blast, as always. 

That's just the gaming area really (plus me and the RPG/boardgames clubs/indie publishers and the Shroudfall fellas). There was another room plus the aforementioned bring&buy corridor.

Sadly, it was the last Vienna Fantasy Gaming Convention. Even if nobody picks it up for another few runs, it was a great last hurrah, showcasing the variety of the hobbies present and showcasing smaller games/publishers/etc. especially. And loads of lovely people. Thanks to everybody who attended, the people who ran demo games, and of course the organizers!

Also thanks to Nikfu, who shot most of the photos I posted on here, because once more I didn't have enough time to do so during the day. :-)

Gaming Convention Organizers. Left: 11 years in. Right: 20 years in.