Show Report: Austrian Salute 2025

 

Here's the show report of last weekend's Austrian Salute 2025!

First time in the new location, which is larger and brighter than the prior ones. This is the ninth time I attended this annual show, and it's one of my favourites. Not as big a show as others, but the variety of games and quality of gaming tables easily makes up for that.

Right next to my own table there was a lovely 40k table, featuring colourful Tyranids vs. Space Marines.

One of the annual highilghts is the gaming tables by teager40k, and he certainly didn't disappoint this year either with a lovely Cyberpunk - Combat Zone table.

Look at those trash bags! There were loads of them and
 loads of stuff to discover all across the table.

Nikfu And the Gang presented a lovely Seven Years War table, using Die Kriegskunst rules (which I actually own, come to think of it) and probably more figures than the other tables on the day combined!

Back to GW land. That Legions Imperialis table was rather lovely and featured an Imperator titan as a centre piece (they're really good at that).

Lexxman and his group ran demo games of Necropolis all day.

The chocolate they brought to lure in people was almost not necessary, considering the lovely boards and general appeal of these travel-size games. 

Likewise, Virago and Annatar ran demo games of Adeptus Titanicus all day.

(photo courtsey of takk)

I'm fairly certain they were actually not sponsored by Puma and the big box there is just there by coincidence. Anyway, tables were lovely and Adeptus Titanicus actually is a really cool game.

El Cid was slated to run a big game of Valor and Fortitude with partner-in-crime Tom, but the latter was out due to health reasons, so instead we were treated to a presentation of El Cid's latest Saga army - Condottieri.

Saga is a phenomenon, isn't it.

As not to send people home without getting their Napoleonic fix though, a lovely winter table (hooray for winter tables), featuring an 1812 post-Moscow game of Shakos and Bayonets.

The mat featured a lovely coat of snow, which was done in a quite unique fashion, featuring little styrofoam balls, snow effect and glitter.

The road in the middle had an effect on it I'd never seen before on a wargaming table - it was a muddy road with re-frozen and partly broken slush on top. It looked class. Only downside was that time before the show ran out a little on the table's creator, so the bases on the trees weren't fully done yet. But the rest looked really unique.

One word on the figures: Lovely French and Russian figures by North Star, which actually were on sale at one of the vendors there too. North Star offer such a vast variety of miniatures that it's rather easy to miss out on some gems. Good to be reminded every now and then. 

A little to the side, there was something I personally found rather delightful: Das Schwarze Auge - Schicksalspfade.

Look at how neat it looks with those hex fields. A long, long time ago (I can still remember) I was hugely into Das Schwarze Auge and to this day it might be my favourite fantasy world.

Neat figure range as well. Schicksalspfade has been around for quite a while now, but I'd never seen it played.

Star Wars Legion was present as well, featuring a lovely table by lastmanstanding92.

By the looks it's an amphibious landing of imperial troops, in an attempt to storm an Ewok beach resort.

It's 2025, so there's a Trench Crusade table. And what a table it was. Very impressive work by Daggi.

...which at the end of the day earned him the 'best table of show' award, with just a few points ahead of teager40's Cyberpunk table.

For some reason I probably spent the most time at the The Old World table, maybe simply due to old famliarity, especially since the first game on there featured Dark Elves (I too am a Dark Elf) versus Dwarfs.

The second game in the afternoon featured a clash of Chaos Warriors and Night Goblins, which is a match-up that's always worth a look.

Of course vendors were present on the day as well. As usual, the father-and-son-run Roll The Dice stand, with a Halo Flashpoint miniatures game demo table attached.

Great assortment of merchandise, as usual, including Wargames Atlantic, North Star, various board games, paints, paintbrushes and so on.

...as well a stand by Spielbrett.at. Loads of GW and Battletech boxes. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

I brought the usual array of stuff, including several recently-finished things, such as Old Guard Grenadiers...

...a mix of larger figures and special collectors stuff....

...Guild Ball, Vietnam figures, ....

....and Cruel seas torpedo boats. Among other things. All photos of my stuff courtsey of takk, because I still can't remember to take pictures of my own table at events :-P )

So yeah, after the show we took the traditional trip to Silent Night Games. I did some purchasing as well, and then took off home.

The day after El Cid announced that this year's Austrian Salute had been the biggest in the event's history. This year, we also had some role-playing tables in a slightly separated area, which is a great addition, with a cool array of RPG books on sale, free rules sets (I grabbed a leaflet featuring a game based on Honey Heist, which I played last year. It's a hoot.).

It was a lovely two days out. Always great to meet the old familiar faces and new people. Likewise with games. There is no other event like this in Austria, since it's got people from all parts of the country come together, plus people from Bavaria and so on. It's just a lovely experience every single year. Great show, thanks to the organizers, people who ran demo tables, vendors, visitors, everybody.