Monty on tour: Crisis 2015 (2) - Gorgeous tables and charming encounters

Missed part 1 of my review?

Look here.

 

Of course our table wasn't the only one in Antwerp. This year the show was again larger than the year before and there were countless clubs bringing excellent table for nearly each and every period and kind of warfare. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures of all the tables and unfortunately not all the pictures I took turned out well but here's a small selection that might give you an idea how many efforts our hobby fellow put into their boards:

30-years-war in 20mm from the Hamburg Tactica club

Alde Garde with 28mm 9-years-war

20mm Operation Market Garden

A view to one of the landing zones.

An excellent 28mm ship graveyard

28mm Monte Cassino

28mm Bolt Action

28mm Battlegroup 'Fall of the Reich' from DHC Wargaming Dortmund

88mm PAK aiming at a Russian IS-2

But he seems to be aware of the danger.

54mm Plancenoit

Participation game run by the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp

Closer view of the board.

As usual the Tin Soldiers presented three prizes for some outstanding games. After we won two years in a row we weren't lucky enough to get the cup once more. Anyway the TSoA found some really valuable tables that deserved the awards absolutely. Many congrats to the winners!

DUST by the Tactica club from Hamburg - Best presentation.

A close-up of the U-Boat.

'Crush the Kaiser' Mexico - Best participation game.

Details of the 20mm board.

Unfortunately I missed who got the third award. In case that you know please tell me.

 

But besides those wonderful impression Crisis was a great event to meet some old friends and make some new. We met countless wargaming fellow whose acquaintance we made on different shows before and it was wonderful to have a chat with them. Besides that a couple of people showed up that I knew from the internet before but didn't meet personally before. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera at hand all the time to catch all these excellent meetings.

Met the Perry twins again. Nice fellows indeed!

Guy Bowers with his 'Black Ops' participation table. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take part myself...

... but that nice chap took the time to explain the mechanics anyway. Thanks, Guy!

Finally I met Sander whose great blog you should know. A fine fellow indeed!

Burkhard and me met before and it was wonderful to see him again. He's from DHC wargaming.

Only a couple of the excellent encounters I had. As the year before I met Annie 'The Dice Bag Lady' and what a wonderful, charming person she is! And of course Martin and Diane from Warbases were there. They are always so kind and helpful to me. Always a pleasure to meet them in person. Then of course good, ol' Ged from Gringo40s. We had a great chat about his ranges. Excellent stuff but thematically not my cup of tea. Surprisingly Dave from Grand Manner turned up. He didn't have a stall at Crisis but took the chance to deliver some pre-orders when he was on a trip to Belgium, Ypres actually. Again a wonderful meeting with this kind and decent gentleman. Besides our table I suddenly ran into Peter from 'Peter's Cave'. I meet him at Crisis 2014 and 2015 as well and it was great to have a chat with the kind fellow again.

 

Finally the mandatory picture of the loot:

This Crisis was rather pricy. During the last months I cut my expenses slightly but in Antwerp I caught up on it:

 

• Some figures from Warlord Games's WW2 range
• Two packs of Perry Desert Rats
• Some crates and luggage from Grand Manner
• Railings and a garden set by Warbases
• Some airbrush tools and stuff
• two issues of Wargames Illustrated as well as a new subscription
• two boxes of Twinings Earl Grey tea bags

Altogether a wonderful weekend with my friends from the club and an awesome show with a lot of excellent impressions and some indescribable encounters. It's a pity that our community is so widespread but just because of that it's so wonderful to meet some of the virtual fellows in person once a year.

 

Thus Crisis 2016 is fixed in my schedule again and I dearly hope to see some of you there! Maybe some of you English, Welsh and Scottish chaps combine it with a trip to the continent as well. It's easy as long as the UK is still in the EU... ;-)