Prelude to Crisis 2024
While I already covered the visit to the actual show of Crisis 2024 in Antwerp, I'd like to give an additional insight on a few bits around it, just like I did in the past. And pardon the delay, the trip to Berlin and preparing for the Battle for Uulda postponed the release of this article.
As usual I travel to Antwerp by car, but as I drive an EV now it requires a bit more planning. But Belgium has a proper grid of ev charger stations, so that was not an issue. Others, especially the British got there by train or plane, as you can get to Brussels quite easily and then grab a connection train from there to Antwerp (and arrive at a very impressive central station).
Crisis 2024 – Part 1
It is finaly back - Crisis could again hosted in 2024, after the last instalment in 2019.
The break had multiple reasons, and after the forced break due to Covid, the aftermaths of Brexit made organizing an event quite difficult, especially as one of the unique aspects of Crisis was the large amount of british manufacturers and traders at the show. In 2022 and 2023 there was a smaller convention at the club rooms of the Tinsoldiers, with support of the Lardies, creating LARDwerp, which we visited as well back in 2022. And due to scheduling conflicts with the new venue, it had to be moved from the first weekend in November towards September.
What is new about Crisis? First of all, it is not just the Tinsoldiers of Antwerp hosting the show, but they joined forced with the HQ Gaming Club and used the 't Bau-huis in Sint Niklaas as the new venue. While it might (currently?) not be the at Waagnatie in Antwerp anymore, the new venue is a proper alternative for the restart. About 15 minutes outside of Antwerp, you can easily get there by train from the Central Station (with the IC-line you can drive every half an hour, and it's about 7 EURs for a weekend ticket), as the venue is just 500m from the local train station. For those of you arriving by car, there are is a parking lot and even some charging stations for BEVs.
The tickets were 12 EURs (dropped to 10 EUR, due to some last minute cancellations of vendors) and visitors under the age of 14 had free entry. Due to keeping the risk and costs as low as possible for the restart, there wasn't a show miniature this year, but that might be for the reason as well, as the show didn't have a topic this year, unlike it did in the past. So we might see that return in the future.
Crisis 2024 – Part 2
Now that we have finished the traders in part 1 of our CRISIS 2024 coverage, let us move on towards the clubs and gaming systems.
A very special guest at the show was Tuomas Pirinen with Trench Crusade. I follow this system for a while now, as they have a very active facebook group, with various conversions and I was excited to see the miniatures at show.
The setup was a bit spontaneous, as Tuomas had little time to prepare much more, as he basically finished his regular work day as Game Designer for Sony Playstation and directly jumped into a plane towards Belgium, grabbing just the few items that fit into the luggage.
August 2024 review
Welcome to September, quite the busy month ahead of us.
I dropped by my local Warhammer Store, who just had their 6th anniversary, to pick up the miniature of the month along with the new Stormcast sculpts and a bit of yellow for "projects". Impressive to see how more dynamic the Stormcast Eternals have become, especially compared to the very first releases with the rather bulky Liberators.
Anyhow, the miniature of the month is a great series for me, as I can pick up models that will be used in the scale comparison shots of our reviews, without me having to buy the entire box and it provides value for our readers.
November 2023 review
Welcome to december - the last few weeks of 2023. But start with some proper good news. CRISIS is back!
The once largest wargaming convention on the european mainland returns in an adapted variant. The pauses of Covid and the barriers due to Brexit took a toll on the show and thus forced the organisators to look for alternatives. In 2022 they went for LARDwerp, with a similar format in 2023. But in the next year the Tinsoldiers of Antwerp will colaborate with the HQ Gaming Club to organise a new show on November 2nd, as usual the first weekend in November. And we're already excited to be there.
LARDwerp 2022
November 5th, Saturday morning, 10 am - LARDwerp starts. I should be around2 pm that we arrive at the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp club house, in a northern suburb of Antwerp itself. And as you know from our event coverage, we start with a picture of the parking lot.
Properly filled with various gaming tables, the club house even covers a licensed bar, so beverages and food were secured. This is off for a good start!
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.
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.
Throwback to Crisis in Antwerp
Under different circumstances, I'd be psyched the whole week, with anticipation of driving to Antwerp, meeting with a lot of people that I wouldn't have seen since Salute (yeah, that didn't happen either). I had quite the plans for this year, as you can read in the Kick Off from back in January. And Antwerp would have been the guys weekend, the final show before a Brexit would make a lot of things in Wargaming a lot more difficult.
At the very first show I went to in 2011 I was driving in the early morning, but very soon we realized, Antwerpen is a city that offers that much, that you need more time. So our schedule for the weekend shifted towards an arrival on friday early afternoon, to have time for a proper tour of the flemish city.
Post-Easter Weekend Update
Welcome to the post-eastern summary of the week. The week started with the first out of an upcoming series of articles about Frostgrave, that will be dual series, one part covering my unboxing and build reviews, and the other part with Dino gathering his warbands within the Sword & Sorcery adventure.
Within the gap of the review on the Civitas Imperialis kits and the further terrain building, I covered a third party - Troublemaker with their 6mm terrain kits. And I did a review on the Goblin Wolfriders of the Oathmark range. They just announced the new light elf kit, that was supposed to be released on the Salute weekend.
As for Salute, there are a couple of virtual replacements, but they can't replace the tour and guys weekend we usually have in London. But Salute isn't the only event that was cancelled or postponed, just on friday the Tinsoldiers of Antwerp announced that Crisis won't be held in 2020. By that our other "main event", having a similar weekend in Belgium with a half-year gap is cancelled as well. I have updated the event schedule for this year accordingly.
Crisis 2019 – Part III
Let's start with the last set of pictures in part III of the Crisis 2019 coverage.
Naval wargaming, even with the recent introduction of Cruel and Black Seas is still rare, the more I was happy to see this ancient table by the La ligue des Gentlemen Civilisateurs.
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