Crisis 2026 – Part 2

Now that we have covered the show and the traders in part 1 of our CRISIS 2026 coverage, let us move on to the clubs, their tables and the two trophy winners.

The Dutch/Belgian TooFatLardies Network, also known as Lard Arnhem or ClogLard, had It's not easy being King by Jasper Oorthuys on display, covering Dauncey's last stand at Oosterbeek, part of the Battle of Arnhem in 1944.

The scenario was played using the Chain of Command rules, and if you are interested in the Lardies rules, give ClogLard a try next year. It's an event for everybody who plays TooFatLardies games or wants to get to know them. You don't have to know the rules or bring miniatures, the game hosts take care of that!

The League of Augsburg had this mixed table on display, using their own Beneath the Lily Banners to cover the Coromandel Coast in 1693, where the Dutch East India Company (VOC) captured the strategically important French trading post of Pondicherry after a two-week siege.

The long bridge on which Terminators fought Tyranids was hosted by Conect'r, using the Grimdark Future rules by OnePageRules. I really liked the train terrain including the crane (try saying that three times fast).

De Witte Ridder showed Battlegroup (Tobruk) on this microscale table, featuring a raid on an airfield.

As every year, the clubs hosting games could win two trophies, Most Innovative and Best of Show, and this year both went to tables that had caught our eye right away.

Torsten of CONflict Rheinland, who joined the list of demo tables at short notice, had Asymmetric Warfare on this incredibly lovely modern combat table. The amount of detail not only drew in lots of people, who stayed for a while, but also won him the Most Innovative trophy of the show! Well earned and congratulations!

This table caught our eye right from the start: Warhammer The Old World with 10,000 points, The Battle of the Bloody Windmill by For Dice & Glory. An amazing setup of 16 (!) Realm of Battle modules and a huge load of 3D printed terrain set the base for those incredible armies. And it won the Best of Show trophy, an absolute stunner and worthy of that title!

If you think the town looks familiar, that is because it uses the Briarwood STLs by DarkRealms, which I used for my Deth Wizards table at CONflict.

Golden Goblins, who enjoy Owlhammer with Mordheim, Warhammer Fantasy and Space Hulk, even have their own small range of miniatures, which they produce in cooperation with Van Dyck Models. I knew some of them from the Mordheim Facebook groups and already enjoyed their impressive middlehammer setup back in 2024, and this year they brought along the dwarven stone houses again.

And that brings us to my haul from Crisis 2026! I treated myself to Otto the Owlhammer by Golden Goblins, their own fantasy take on Don Quixote. And at a trader with a colourful mix of all kinds of products, I found the middlehammer Dark Elf War Hydra and picked it up for a tenner! Quite the deal.

Team Würfelkrieg stocked up on Trench Crusade, among other things. And for a moment we considered buying a big box of Heavy Gear Blitz, but decided against it due to the price and some younger alternatives. After all, we already have Titanicus, and for something squad based we'd like to give Arsenal a chance.

As for the tournaments on Sunday, I didn't get to see much of them, apart from a few pictures of the Trench Crusade tournament that showed up online, as we headed back home on Saturday already.

I have been travelling to Crisis for 15 years now, with a few breaks along the way. My first visit was in 2011, when the show still took place on the ground floor of the cinema. In 2012 the event moved to the port of Antwerp, and in 2014 it added the second hangar. It is a well run and very stable show, and the organisation in particular is very professional.

If you only know the new format, you won't miss a thing. My criticism comes from high expectations, and from having experienced the heyday of the show before 2020, when we were talking about 90 traders, two full halls and a line-up of tables and products that was unmatched on the European mainland and came very close to Salute in London. Compared to that, this year's 40 or so traders are a different scale. None of these changes are the organisers' fault though. Neither the Tinsoldiers nor HQ can do anything about Brexit and the high hurdles it puts in front of traders from outside the EU, and as a result companies like Foundry or Empress are no longer at the show.

You notice that with the clubs as well, as big names like the South London Warlords, known for their impressive and inviting tables, are missing. Back in 2024 I hoped that clubs from North Rhine-Westphalia or Lower Saxony would join in the future, and I am surprised that still so few make the trip from NRW. On the other hand, some visitors came all the way from the Palatinate (greetings to Ad Arma!), with an even longer journey than ours.

Still, I had a great time. For me Crisis is more than just shopping for miniatures (though I really did miss the bring & buy), it is "gezellig", as they would say locally. The hospitality is great, we always had a good time in Antwerp, and this time in Sint-Niklaas as well. Maybe a second night would have made the weekend truly complete.

The date for 2027 should be announced soon, and if I remember correctly, it is going to be a Naval Edition. We will keep you posted!

CRISIS 2026 was hosted by Tinsoldiers of Antwerp and HQ Gaming Club