Massive Warhammer Festival More Than The Average LARP

[IanDavis]

Massive Warhammer Festival More Than The Average LARP

Orcs and Dwarves and Beastmen, oh my!

Half the fun of Warhammer (or any tabletop minis game) is in painting and assembling your army. It's all about picking out colors, adding awesome minute details, and giving them a weathered look with battle damage. Now imagine doing that, but in full 1.1 scale, and instead of your local gaming shop, you battle with a hundred other screaming fans in the Czech Republic. What I just described is Smrtihlav 2014, an insane Warhammer Fantasy LARP that just recently took place.

The forces of order clashed against chaos, and the setting couldn't be better. Rolling hills, open forests, the participants even got to siege a castle. There are some truly impressive costumes on display here. There are hideous orc masks, intimidating chaos knights, a dwarf with a rifle, and a badass Warpriest. There's also an awesome one-on-one showdown in a narrow ravine with forces on either side cheering them on.

[gallery=2324]

This gallery's but a sampling of the hundreds of pictures taken of the event. While you won't find the more exotic races like the Skaven or Lizardmen, there are a few Beastmen (and Beastwomen) present. Anyways, I'm sure it confused the hell out of any passersby who thought it was supposed to be a historical reenactment.

Source: [a href=https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.444360392364640.1073741830.441146679352678&type=1]Martin Janca[/a], [a href=http://www.makovicka.net/galerie.php?lang=cs&g=140406]Lukas Makovicka[/a]

Permalink

 

[Remus]

I almost feel sorry for the castle. The place is likely older than dirt. That being said, I'd love to live in a countryside with ruins like this just scattered around. Here the closest thing we have are limestone caves. No castles in the U.S. and that makes me a little sad.

 

[Tigurus]

Except that I have no money for whatever, I would love to join a LARP, let alone a warhammer LARP. Specially in such a beautiful country as the Czech Republic.

 

[webkilla]

In Denmark where I live we have a yearly LARP event called "Krigslive" - meaning War-LARP. Its been going on, once a year, for almost ten years now. The tenth iteration is happening in a month or so.

Here be some youtubes from it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFM20uKAP-E - trailer for WarLarp 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF9C8NG6aRs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuEdoZSMtOk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrlR6v34zDc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U93zDmlGSIM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YW-RaaQBYo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17836t5chb0
¨
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfrT5S3CKZg

 

[SilverStuddedSquirre]

This sounds like All The Funs!

 

[xeian]

In Canada, more than 2000 people go to this LARP in july. More than 150 buildings created. 7 days of madness, le last day being 1000 vs 1000 on a battlefield.

http://www.bicolline.org/page_grande_bataille.html

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

And people wonder why 40k is more popular than Fantasy.
This. This is why!
When you guys do these sort of things, it makes all table top gamers look bad.

 

[Barbas]

And people wonder why 40k is more popular than Fantasy.
This. This is why!
When you guys do these sort of things, it makes all table top gamers look bad.

Really? All of them?

That's...not an easy thing to do. I feel like I should be patting them on the back for it. And for the effort they put into their costumes.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

And people wonder why 40k is more popular than Fantasy.
This. This is why!
When you guys do these sort of things, it makes all table top gamers look bad.

People going out and having fun with something they are passionate about makes all gamers look bad? I thought spewing negativity on a forum made gamers look bad.

 

[Ninjamedic]

When you guys do these sort of things, it makes all table top gamers look bad.

Um.... How?

This looks awesome, I'd have loved to be at something like that. Staging a massive fight like an American Civil War re-enactment. That'd be a great laugh!

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

And people wonder why 40k is more popular than Fantasy.
This. This is why!
When you guys do these sort of things, it makes all table top gamers look bad.

Well if 40K LARPs existed, I'm sure every military base and SWAT team in 200 miles of it would be on high alert for possible terrorist/enemy activity. You might be able to group a bunch of people together with flint lock muskets, foam hammers, and obviously medieval armor without causing a scene. Make it boxy futuristic firearms, homemade power armor, and scarred half-naked battle nuns, and you got, what looks like to the general public, a suicide cult gathering to destroy whatever establishments they can before being gunned down by law enforcement. I'd bet they are still plenty of people below 50 years old today that think Dungeons and Dragons is a satanic cult. I wouldn't put it past them to call the cops on 40k cosplayers reenacting the Horus Heresy.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

I've never felt so conflicted about a Chaos Beast.

 

[Sonicron]

Props for trying with the costumes, but... I can't help it, I look down on LARPers. I used to fight battles in places like this one - really fight, with real swords and axes (blunted edges and rounded blade tips, of course), the kind that would earn you broken bones for screwing up in combat.
I've seen these folks embarrass themselves in the most pitiful ways, and it's sad, given how cool this kind of thing could actually be. :\

Well if 40K LARPs existed, I'm sure every military base and SWAT team in 200 miles of it would be on high alert for possible terrorist/enemy activity. You might be able to group a bunch of people together with flint lock muskets, foam hammers, and obviously medieval armor without causing a scene. Make it boxy futuristic firearms, homemade power armor, and scarred half-naked battle nuns, and you got, what looks like to the general public, a suicide cult gathering to destroy whatever establishments they can before being gunned down by law enforcement. I'd bet they are still plenty of people below 50 years old today that think Dungeons and Dragons is a satanic cult. I wouldn't put it past them to call the cops on 40k cosplayers reenacting the Horus Heresy.

You made my day, mate. Thanks for the laugh. ^^

 

[DSP_Zulu]

Props for trying with the costumes, but... I can't help it, I look down on LARPers. I used to fight battles in places like this one - really fight, with real swords and axes (blunted edges and rounded blade tips, of course), the kind that would earn you broken bones for screwing up in combat.
I've seen these folks embarrass themselves in the most pitiful ways, and it's sad, given how cool this kind of thing could actually be. :\

Well if 40K LARPs existed, I'm sure every military base and SWAT team in 200 miles of it would be on high alert for possible terrorist/enemy activity. You might be able to group a bunch of people together with flint lock muskets, foam hammers, and obviously medieval armor without causing a scene. Make it boxy futuristic firearms, homemade power armor, and scarred half-naked battle nuns, and you got, what looks like to the general public, a suicide cult gathering to destroy whatever establishments they can before being gunned down by law enforcement. I'd bet they are still plenty of people below 50 years old today that think Dungeons and Dragons is a satanic cult. I wouldn't put it past them to call the cops on 40k cosplayers reenacting the Horus Heresy.

You made my day, mate. Thanks for the laugh. ^^

To be fair, that's primarily US LARPers (of which I am one, though we do our best to keep our LARP low-power/low fantasy and based around real combat skill - it was founded by a group of guys who werent old enough to do full-up SCA re-enactment and settled on a nearly-full-contact LARP instead) that have the bad rap. In Europe, it's not looked down upon, and the guys in the hobby put tremendous effort into their outfits, fighting skill, etc.

Without the stigma, you have a lot more people willing to do it, and people willing to really dedicate their time to making it awesome, which is hard to do in the US. And, the few groups that do try to hold out for this level of immersion/skill/dedication end up with smaller groups of players because they are looked upon as elitist.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

And people wonder why 40k is more popular than Fantasy.
This. This is why!
When you guys do these sort of things, it makes all table top gamers look bad.

Wow, projecting much?

As a 40k fan I personally find this to be the best part of Fantasy. Apart from possibly modding some airsoft guns you can't really do a 40k/Dark Hersey LARP, or at least one with ranged weapons.

 

[Sigmar ov The Hammer]

And people wonder why 40k is more popular than Fantasy.
This. This is why!
When you guys do these sort of things, it makes all table top gamers look bad.

Yep, keep dividing the community! Good job, guy!

OT: This looks awesome! Must organise something like this in Britain. Maybe some form of Albion LARP, with Firmirs and all!

 

[Mangod]

And people wonder why 40k is more popular than Fantasy.
This. This is why!
When you guys do these sort of things, it makes all table top gamers look bad.

Yep, keep dividing the community! Good job, guy!

OT: This looks awesome! Must organise something like this in Britain. Maybe some form of Albion LARP, with Firmirs and all!

I wonder if GW would crack down on that for "Copyright Infringement" if they find out about it before it happens. It does seem like the sort of stupidity they'd be pulling these days.

As for the LARPers... damn, that looks sweet. I wish I had the talent to make an outfit like that myself, because it looks awesome.

 

[Sigmar ov The Hammer]

And people wonder why 40k is more popular than Fantasy.
This. This is why!
When you guys do these sort of things, it makes all table top gamers look bad.

Yep, keep dividing the community! Good job, guy!

OT: This looks awesome! Must organise something like this in Britain. Maybe some form of Albion LARP, with Firmirs and all!

I wonder if GW would crack down on that for "Copyright Infringement" if they find out about it before it happens. It does seem like the sort of stupidity they'd be pulling these days.

As for the LARPers... damn, that looks sweet. I wish I had the talent to make an outfit like that myself, because it looks awesome.

I could see that happening, but at the same time, I doubt GW would be that bad... I hope.

 

[Sonicron]

To be fair, that's primarily US LARPers (of which I am one, though we do our best to keep our LARP low-power/low fantasy and based around real combat skill - it was founded by a group of guys who werent old enough to do full-up SCA re-enactment and settled on a nearly-full-contact LARP instead) that have the bad rap. In Europe, it's not looked down upon, and the guys in the hobby put tremendous effort into their outfits, fighting skill, etc.

Without the stigma, you have a lot more people willing to do it, and people willing to really dedicate their time to making it awesome, which is hard to do in the US. And, the few groups that do try to hold out for this level of immersion/skill/dedication end up with smaller groups of players because they are looked upon as elitist.

No no no, trust me, it's looked down upon. I'm German, and I'm just one of many who can't stop rolling their eyes.
I think it's mostly the 'play' aspect of roleplay that gets dialled up to 11 in LARPing, with people laughing and grinning like while they smash each other with foam warhammers, like kids taking whacks at a pi~nata; and before anyone says it doesn't look like that one these pictures, it's there, believe me. Maybe I wouldn't have such a problem with it if people at least went whole-hog on the fantasy of it and approached the game like they were actually doing battle.

That said, I will stand by my approvement to the commitment of crafting good costumes, which I find to be a wonderful manifestation of personal imagination, dedication and skill. Besides, this sort of thing helps deepen immersion for the roleplay and is common even among those who fight with real weaponry (like the 'tribe' I used to be with as mentioned before).
I still have my forearm guards (reinforced leather with a lining of rabbit fur), my shield (also self-made) and my sword (modified in weight and balancing for maximum efficiency). Ah, such pleasant memories.