CRISIS 2017 - Part 1

Let's do it again!

After half a year of absence from my blog I'm trying to revive this obervation window to my workbench and relatied things. My apologies to those who came here to see this old article from May and who had to withdraw disappointedly.

It's not that I lost my hobby mojo but during the last months hobby time has been precious. Too precious actually to use it to take pictures and prepare articles I thought but after all I discovered how valuable those connection within the bloggosphere grew to me and that they diserve a lot more care than I spent lately. Thus I'll start as I ended: With a show report.

The first Saturday each year is reserved for one of the most - if not the most - important wargaming shows on the European continent: CRISIS in Antwerp. This year my THS club fellows and me decided to bring fourth a project that mainly my friends Michael, Bernhard and I myself belaboured: The Nortwest Frontier (aka. 2nd Anglo-Afghan War). But this shall be covered in a second articles. First for the show itself, some impressions from the wonderful tables the other clubs brought and for a series of tremendous ecnounters I had.

As usual CRISIS took place in two large hangars near the Schelde river in the centre of Antwerp. Traffic is always an issues these days since there have been extensive roadworks proceeding in whole Antwerp for the last years. Nevertheless we were rather lucky this year. We billeted on the Ibis Budget Antwerp Port and luckily our paths led us around the heaviest construction zones.

Anyway at 10am the show opens for audience and within minutes the larege hangars are filled with hobby enthusiasts from all over Europe. What makes CRISIS so special for us continentals is that a lot of British traders and visitors use the opportunity for a quick jump over the channel. It's always tremendous to see those people face to face who I usually know from Blogger, Facebook or Skype only.

As international as the crowd is are the presenters. Thus clubs from Belgium, the Netherlands, England, France and Germany come there to present their output. Here are some impressions of a few table:

Later that day the stand of the Too Fat Lardies turned out a most important place to be for me. On Friday I read that the Lardies would bring Adam 'Sidney Roundwood' as aide for their Sharp Practise participation game. Thus I showed up there around 11am and made Sidney's enjoyable acquaintance. We had a good chat about hobby and real life while some other well known fellows creeped up on us. All of a sudden an illustrious fellowship scraped out from the crowd and Dave D. (One man and his brushes), Nick (Moiterei), Christopher (Axebreaker) and most surprising Curt (Analogue Hobbies) appeared. I knew that Dave wanted to come and I had been really looking forward to meeting him but making the other fellows acqaintance was a sublime moment of surprise. Unfortunately Sidney was too busy to join us but we others found the time to have a pint and a chat during which Sander (...) with his son joined us. We had a wonderful hour of conversation which I truly enjoyed beyond all measure. This small blogger gathering really made my day!

At 5pm then CRISIS came to an end. It was a blast of a day in many respects. A great weekend trip with my club friends, a wonderful rally with friends at the show and last but not last a good oportunity for some Christmas shopping. Here's the loot:

Not too much this year but at least...

- the CRISIS special miniature 'Till Eulenspiegel'

- a set of additional special figures 'Till's Companions'

- a wonderful miniature of Lord Uxbridge by Gringo40s

- a nice incarnation of the 'Iron Duke' by Wargames Illustrated

- some grass tufts from Warbases

- walking and neeling camels with baggage by Iron Duke Miniatures

- a couple of modern miniatures and a technical by Spectre

- a frame of modern plastics from the Crisis bag

That's it for now. I'll try to be back soon and will cover our NWF game then. See you soon!