September 2024 review
Oh what a September it has been! Quite packed with travelling and that is not over in October either.
Right in the beginning of the month CRISIS! returned, and what a return it was. Proper weekend in the city of Antwerp, including meeting Tuomas Pirinen (and having my Mordheim book signed). Due to unplanned coincedences the festivities of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the city (Bevrijdingsdagen) were hold simultaneously . So lots and lots of World War 2 vehicles, people dressed as Allied forces and music was going on.
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.
Road to CONflict – Part VII
You could see my progress on the tanks in the last article, Road to CONflict - Part VI, and now we were on the final steps just days away from CONflict 2024. In part IV I gave you the overview on the terrain files I printed for our demo table.
Grabbed a variety of green tones to paint the base colours, and moved on to the further scatter terrain and mines.
Road to CONflict – Part VI
And on we go, after adding the base colours to the tanks in the last part of our Road to CONflict, we applied the first weathering and first coat of wash onto the models, in this case Army Painters Dark Tone.
A visit to…Games `n Dice Düsseldorf e.V.
Last June, I had the pleasure of being a guest at the Games 'n Dice hobby club. This name will not be entirely unfamiliar to some, as the podcast of the same name was created directly by the club members, Gregor and Benni to be precise, with whom I recorded a system introduction to Mortal Gods. Beside that, Dennis visited the club back in 2019 for the Historical Demo Day and covered the visit on here as well.
This was also the reason for an invitation to the clubs Open Sunday in Düsseldorf to play a demo game there too.
Games'n Dice e.V. was originally formed in 2010 from the community of Warmachine and Flames of War players. Of course, the focus was not limited to these two games, but at the time they formed those were the core systems. The basic idea behind founding a club was to have a fixed structure and a legally secure roof for events. The Drachental store has always been the home of Games 'n Dice. In addition to the Open Sunday, which only takes place every other weekend, there is also a hobby meeting every Wednesday evening.
The great strength of Games'n Dice is its great variety and openness to different systems. Club President Benjamin (not our Podcast Benni) answers the question "What do you play?" with "What don't we play?". Even though attention is often paid to current trends, there are also many players who turn to the "classics" from time to time and start a Necromunda campaign or like to meet up for a game of Infinity or FoW V3.
The Drachental store offers some very spacious premises for tabletop and board game enthusiasts. I really liked the store section, as you quickly get the feeling of a general store - you'll find the usual products from major manufacturers, but also some exotic items that aren't in the mainstream spotlight. The selection of board games is also wide enough to offer something for those who are not interested in tabletop games.
June 2024 review
A slightly postponed recap of June. While I was able to write up our visit to FeenCon at beginning of this month, a prolonged family weekend followed up by a few days of the flu changed my schedule.
First things first - the Horus Heresy audiobooks are back on spotify, and while that was in clarification between the license holders, I went to Bookbeat, as they have the audiobooks as well- by the way if you use the code "60tgratis" when you register, you get two months for free not just one. I'm currently listening to Betrayer, where the Word Bearers and World Eaters fight alongisde, attacking the realm of Ultramar, more precisely Armatura.
FeenCon 2024
Last weekend Dino and I went to the FeenCon, a convention hosted in Bonn, which went through a couple of changes over the last few years - one of them moving from the old location of Bonn Bad Godesberg towards Bonn Beuel, from the town hall to the comprehensive school.
And across the venue, the tabletop area was the smaller gymnasium, with the trade stands and board games and pen & paper in the other areas.
The tabletop area was hosted by three clubs, Bedburger Tabletop Freunde, Privateer Poza Boyz and the Tabletop Community Bonn. You might know the Bedburger Tabletop Freunde from our visit to their club house.
Road to CONflict – Part V
In the last step, we assembled the tanks for our demo table, and are now about to paint five armoured vehicles for our game of tank battles and the Road to CONflict.
Obviously we start with a primer, and as usual black coat with a with dusting on top. Makes it much easier to see details during painting and the white colour is a bit more coarse, giving you a better grip for your paints.
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