We’re back on Lard Island after a superb trip to Antwerp in Belgium and the Crisis, the annual show run by the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp every November. As always we had a truly great time, with the joys of visiting this fantastic show – what for us is without doubt the BEST show in the annual calendar – combining with the fact that Antwerp is a really buzzing city with a great selection of historic bars and restaraunts.



To really put the icing on our cake (or Belgian Bun) the TSA judges very kindly awarded Chain of Command the award as the Best Participation Game award, a real feather in the cap for the rules. We played three participation games throughout the day, with action in the Western Desert in early 1941 as the Afrika Korps and 8th Army clashed around the Egyptian border. We got some superb compliments from the people playing the rules, so a great day all round.



To compliment Chain of Command, our chum and Lard Ambassador to the Court of St Alex, Wee Derek, was present with his chums from the South East Scotland Wargames Club demonstrating the forthcoming Raiders supplement to Dux Britanniarum which covers the Picts, Scotti and Irish. Dux Britanniarum is tremendously popular in Belgium and much interest was raised as the hairy wild men of the north took to the table. Naturally that’s the figures we’re talking about. Not the blokes in the photo!



Smashing as the award was, for us the highlight of the weekend was seeing old friends, many of whom come to the show from right across continental Europe. It is a true Mecca for the wargamers of France, Holland, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Britain as well as the local Belgian gamers and this always shows in the quality of the games present and the polyglot nature of the traders. If you haven’t yet been to Crisis you really do need to add it to your wish list of things to do; the friendliness of the show means that people come back year after year to enjoy what we think is a really uniquely friendly environment.

So, many thanks to the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp and our chums in Euroland for making our weekend so enjoyable.