Arriving in Antwerpen for LARDwerp 2022

Last weekend it was once again time to travel to Antwerp for the first Saturday in November - but not for Crisis, as it was unfortunately cancelled, so we went for LARDwerp instead. An alternative gaming event, hosted by the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp and the TooFatLardies.

For a while now, we prolong our stay at Antwerp, not only going for the show itself, but having a guy's weekend in the city. And this meant for me, starting on friday around early noon my roughly 3-hour ride to the north of Belgium.

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Due to further inconvenient circumstances during the week, I was the only one arriving from our area, so I used the time to listen to the Mechanicum audio book and caught up with our remaining motley bunch of wargamers from the UK, France, Italy and Northern Germany at our usual spot for Friday evening  - the Bier Central.

For those not familiar with Antwerp, it is the second largest city in Belgium and located in the north of the country, in Flanders. It is roughly 45 minutes north of the capital, Brussels and you can travel the distance easily by train, making Antwerp reachable from many European capitals by plane or in some cases train (like the EuroStar).

As I have covered Crisis, the show itself, multiple times since 2011, I want to cover a bit of the city and what you can do around the show.

South of the city centre is the Stadspark, not far from the central station and a lovely green spot with a playground, ponds and various statues and memorials. Among them the War Memorial, which not only remembers the first and second world war, but specific plaques, honouring regiments, battles and heroes defending the Belgians and inhabitants of the city.

Prior to heading to LARDwerp on Saturday, we did a small tour through the city to various shops, that might be of interest for fellow (war)gamers, beginning with a rather large model kit store, Modelbouw Verschooten. Further pictures can be found on Instagram.

Right next to that, is a game stare, Outpost, who covers board and trading card  games, esport and a few miniature games, along with open tables for various gaming sessions.

And not that far from that, is the Warhammer Store of Antwerpen, easily one of the larger Warhammer stores I have seen so far. Maybe the largest next to the one at Warhammer World in Nottingham. Very spacious, and  surprisingly a lot of Mail Order and otherwise more exclusive items that are rarely on stock in brick-and-mortar stores.

After our trip to the city, we went north to the clubhouse of the Tin soldiers of Antwerp, where LARDwerp was hold. I'll cover that in a separate article, but of course you don't have to wait for a loot picture. Beside the gaming tables, Tabletopper.nl had a booth there, so I grabbed the T26 kit along with the 2nd edition of Spectre Operations and some exclusive Bolt Action miniatures that were missing from my collection.

But that's not all, our dear friend Boycie, who grows his own chillies and makes delicious hot sauce with them, and I grabbed some for my own kitchen - in exchange for some local German beer. Next stop - coverage of LARDwerp.