Preparation for Crisis 3

As Peter is busy with the fortress of Maestricht (see nr 1 and 2 preparations), Jan has starting to make the trenches for the siegeworks.
Plastic bases (as we have all our terrain on top of the table, the trenches must be build on top of the table also), wood dowels, some insulation materials and a lot of matchsticks (thanks to relatives and friends who collected these years and years ago when they still were smoking).
Up to now the the building of the trenches is complete and this week painting will be finished.
Three parallels, three advance trenches and a heavy/siege artillery position in the middle.

  

a lot of matchsticks has been used

 

first sand on the trenches

Preparation for Crisis 2

Some new pictures of our building work for Crisis

Preparation for Crisis 2019

It is a whole time ago that we posted something here, so let's start again with the first pictures of our preparation for the November Crisis show.

Our theme will be the Siege of Maestricht in 1748 (War of the Austrian Succession) in 15mm. As always, Peter as our master builder putting great effort in building a part of the fortress.

Of course it isn't possible to recreate the whole of Maastricht on a wargames table so only part of its defences will be made.

A picture of the copy of the maquette that Louis XIV had ordered to be made in about 1750 from the fortified town of Maastricht. 

The original can be seen at the Palais Beaux Arts in Lille in the Salle des Plans-Reliefs. The Dutch made copy can be seen in the Centre Céramique at Maastricht.
In the downcenter of the picture is the part of the defences we want to recreate.

This maquette inspired us to make copy for wargames purposes and a scenario fort he siege of Maastricht by the French in 1748 at the closing of the Austrian War of Succession.
Our copy will be cover the north side of the town.

 A map of the 1750'showing the defences of Maastricht; the North (which we want to represent on the table) is to the right.

A first floor plan of the northern defences we want to recreate to scale.

Underneath two stages showing the progress in building the town wall and outworks

Will be continued soon!

Ghent Wargames show Warcon

As each year we always try to have a demo on the Ghent wargames show as it is a very friendly and entertaining show.
And it grows each year with more traders and more clubs attending which is great for the organisers and the visitors. We cannot if the amount of visitors also growed but hope of course that spending was up.
Of course: a big thanks to the organisers for thei great show.
One way or the other we forgot to take pictures of the games which were presented but there were some great games on, so sorry again.
We have only a few pictures of our French Revolutionary game which are underneath.

Crisis 2018

As you know, the Alde Garde always tries to be at Crisis as it is a great, friendly show. Meeting other wargamers and talk to them about the hobby, seeing all those great games and trying to find new ideas for our own games.

And then of course, the friendly atmosphere and the perfect organisation, what better could a wargames wish.

This year it was a little bit different for us as we had made a demo game but we were not playing. That part was taken out of our hands by our friends of the Gentlemen Pensioners who came over for a weekend Antwerp and of course playing our demo.

On the left from front to back; Will, Peter and John. On the right Steve and David.

Neils head can be seen in the background while manning the stand of the Lance and Longbow  Society while Dave and Lynne cannot be seen as they are manning their bookstore.

Pictures of the game situated in the Eastern part of the Netherlands and in the year 1511, it portrayed a "what if" scenario of the Guelders Wars.

But of course, there were a lot of other demo's and participation games at Crisis and boy, they were very good.. For the most part our pictures don't do them justice but here we go.
And please, keep in mind that we just had little time to tour the two halls and take pictures . There were a lot of great games around but we just hadn't time to take pictures,
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