Sunday 4 November 2012

Monty on Tour: Crisis 2012 - Part 1

As I told you last week I visited "Crisis 2012" yesterday. The convention was organised by the "Tin Soldiers of Antwerp" (Link) and took place at a hall near the port of Antwerp. I went to the event with my fellows from the "THS - Team for Historical Simulations" (Link) and we (mainly Robert) prepared a nice 15mm / 18mm fantasy game, but more at that later.

The
trip started on Friday around half past eleven and firstly I picked up Robert and Michael. Afterwards we set sail for Antwerp. Fortunately traffic wasn't to dense and so we reached our destination at half past three. After a little search we found our dwelling where we meat Achim and Eymard two other mates of our team. Axel, Bernhard, Holger and Heinz, the remaining members of our party arrived later and we met them at the hall.

The quarters itself was the first highlight of the trip. We booked some cabins on the houseboat "Hannus". All was tidy and comfortable and we were absolutely satisfied. The only disadvantages were the narrowness and the loud wooden planks which were quit noisy when anyone went through the ship.

Unfortunately I've got only blurry and dark pictures from the ship which I took with my cell phone. But this one gives some an impression:
The cabin which Axel and me shared.

After we dropped our luggage on the ship, we went to the convention hall and started to prepare the gaming table for the next day:
The first hall before anything started, It was really large...
A view of the second (smaller) hall...
Robert and Achim get a general idea of the location and our table.
The board is set. Only terrain and miniatures had to be placed on Saturday morning.

When we had finished our preparations for Saturday, we had dinner in a small pub near our ship and enjoyed some pints of Belgian beer. A pleasure which was only excelled by the nice chat we had.


After a rather short night we had a quick breakfast and the left for the main event. Robert and Michael prepared the remaining terrain parts and we discussed the procedure for the day:
Robert and Michael setting up the terrain details.
The table in all its beauty. A great job by Robert !
The scenario which we presented was a kind of "Prelude to the Battle of the five Armies" described by J. R. R. Tolien in his "Hobbit". It's a little skirmish between some roaming orcs and goblins which meet with some elvish and dwarven troops. Please look at the THS homepage for a more detailed description (here).

Some more views of the miniatures and terrain:
A hardworking peasant which is heading for the market in the village
The village with its busy market. All buildings scratchbuilt by Robert.
The blacksmith at work.
The elvish troops on their way towards the Lonely Mountain. In the background are the dwarves waiting for the to unite for the battle.
The villainous orcs looking for loot.
Close-up of the dwarven command. Remember: They are 18mm scale!
The elvish cavalry on photo which Axel took.
 Although a lot of people were interested in our game, each and every of us was able to take a walk or two through the halls. There were a lot of great tables set up and a lot of interesting traders. I'll post a short review in an additional post, since this one became rather larger by now.

15 comments:

  1. Tremendous photos and a great insight into what looks like a tremendous show.

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  2. Looked like fun, glad to see you all had a good time. It must have been an interesting experience, sleeping in a boat!

    Nice photography!
    FF

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  3. Thanks for sharing your adventures. It looks like a lot of fun!

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  4. A great looking game, looked like fun!

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  5. Good idea with the boat to stay at!
    The table looks great!

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  6. Amazing looking table and figures but the cabin looked like a tight coffin, me and Ray would have suffocated in there!

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  7. Fantastic looking table and figures. I think the accommodations look fun for a short stay. Just a place to lie down between games and beers.

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  8. A whole weekend of beer and gaming with your mates, great fun.
    Superb terrain and buildings by your mate, does Robert have a blog, so we can see how he made all that fantastic terrain?
    Thanks for sharing,
    Pat

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    Replies
    1. Unfortunately Robert doesn't have a blog or website. But he's "Steam Flunky" on the Lead Adventure Forum. You might search there or drop him a message.
      Here's a threat where he presents some pics:
      http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=47427.0

      Cheers
      Monty

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  9. Wonderful to see some Middle-Earth activity. Love it. Beautiful board, well done. 18mm not a scale I am too familiar with... Looking at the mix of basing, was this a rule set based on Warmaster?

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    Replies
    1. The 18mm scale is mostly by Eureka miniatures I think. And some larger 15mm miniatures fit as well. In fantasy it's not that important when some orcs or goblins are a bit larger or smaller.

      The ruleset is based on "Triumph and Tragedy". It's a skirmish ruleset actually for 20th century. But with some ajustments it works for fantasy too.
      For larger battles Robert plans to do something with "Hail Caesar".

      Cheers
      Monty

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