Crisis 2012: the aftermath

Crisis – the Venue

After years spent in the dark, claustrophobic, hot and badly ventilated function room at the Metropolis cinema complex, TSOA moved their annual event to Hangar 29, a repurposed storage building on the banks of the Scheldt River. How did this turn out?

Parking: should have been no problem, but the city council decided that it was the perfect spot to build a megasized ramp for a snowboardcompetition… I managed to park my car at the site itself, but those that arrived a bit later had more trouble.

Getting in: arriving at 10.00 sharp there was a 50m or so line that was moving pretty briskly. The waiting area, while outdoors, is covered by a roof so when the weather is bad, you’ll keep dry. The entrance fee was 8€ and as every year you got a specially commissioned figure. This year it was Peter Minuit, the administrator of New Amsterdam who purchased Manhattan from the local Indians. His parents were religious refugees who came from what is now Belgium, as all Crisis figures are supposed to have some link to Belgian/Flemish history.

The show area (facebook link): this year saw a massive upgrade in available floorspace, and headroom as well. Moving the show here was a great idea. Weird thing was that even with the added space, it still looked very busy, especially in the trader aisles. My only fear an old warehouse would be pretty chilly didn’t come true. The massive building was heated to a very pleasant temperature, without leading to the wafts of gamer funk that were all too common at the Metropolis site.

Catering: was back under club control and a big improvement on the catering firm that had to be booked at the old site. I think prices were a bit lower, service was better and I had the impression consumption was up too. And while in previous years you got a reduction coupon for a burger menu at the cinema complex, here the club operated their own rolls and bratwurst stand. Quite a hit judging by the line at noon J

I can only say that this move was a good… errrm, move by the club. Hopefully they will keep Crisis here for a very long time to come. A serious improvement on the old venue!!!

Crisis – the Purchases

I have been a very, very good boy this year with very few “ooh shiny” impulse buying (and even that was kind of planned for).

Hobby supplies: I stocked up on Vallejo varnish so I can get back to my 3D dungeon project and bought a sheet of plastic rooftiles that I need to finish off a small shrine/chapel that has been in limbo for years.

6mm: I picked up my pre-order from Adler, filling the last gaps in my WW2 Russian army (mortars, AT rifles and engineers). At the bring and buy I stumbled across a blister of ZIS-3 guns and while checking out the traders I ran into a sale of GHQ scenery. Those metal buildings make look any other scenery like a resin turd… They were 50% off, but after picking out a collection of stuff worth 48€, I offered to pay 20€ for the lot. And got the extra discount, they really wanted to unload that stuff from their inventory.

(Huh??? Already getting painted???)

15mm: I also picked up a box of Plastic Soldier Company ZIS anti tank guns. This was somewhat more of an impuls purchase but my 15mm FoW army is a project in progress. The guns have already been built, so the box isn’t added to the unpainted pile. I must say that for PSC standards, these gun sets are pretty poor value for money when you compare it to their tanks sets. Then again that did get me a discount: they had forgotten to mark the price, so when I asked how much they were I must have looked rather shocked when the guy told me they were 22.5€. This led to an immediate “But I’ll settle for 20” from the seller. I’ll have to train that look for next year, hehe J

Ooh shiny: nothing from Crooked Dice as I expected before the show, but some stuff from the Perry twins. I never see myself getting into 28mm Nappy, unless maybe at the lower end of Sharpe’s Practice, but I always wanted to paint up something for the display cabinet. So I ended up with a command group of Russian cuirassiers and a 6lbs gun and crew. And I also picked up a Cossack cart, but more from a gaming point of view. It looks generic enough to be used as an objective or something like that in a (fantasy) skirmish game.

Freebies: I traded in a bunch of Mantic points for their “Thinking Elf” vignette, featuring an Elf (obviously) looking at a chess-like boardgame. And the Peter Minuit figure off course

  

I ended up with two of those Peter Minuit figures: when I was rummaging through my backpack in the bar area, someone told me I had dropped my figure. But back home I found two, so it was somebody else’s figure that had gotten lost. Because I don’t need two, I’m giving away the double to the first person who comments “I wants it!!!” . You just have to pay for the postage through paypal (or bank transfer if you’re in Euroland). So add your email adres so I can get in touch.

Happy Gaming!