A wargames show in Belgium.

There are not a lot of yearly wargames shows in Belgium, only three I think. Yesterday, 8 february was the day for Warcon at Merelbeke, near Ghent. It is a lovely show organised by a few clubs who are based in or around Ghent. I visited this show for more then ten years in a row, and it seems to grow slowly but steady! it does not attract the storm of people you see at Crisis, which still is the largest show on continental Europe. Warcon is more the friendly "game a bit & meet old and new friends" type of show. Which does not mean there are no traders. This year there were several German and Dutch traders, next to the popular oversea (British) traders: Wargames Foundry, Dave Thomas and Warlord Games.

Me friends and myself put up a small game of To the Strongest with my old 15mm miniatures, representing our own club: HQ Gaming Club. And surprise, we actually finished the game before the end of the show, despite a few long pauzes as we talked to other gamers and scrambled the B&B! I had a few talks to other gamers who already knew the game. TtS seems to become more popular in Belgium too.

I made a small scenario, where the invading Galatians attack a small village, after they raided a supply post from the Seleucids. So the Galatians have that ancinet weapon of terror: scythed chariots! Now lets see if they know how to use it properly!

Setup

Galatians

 Seleucids

HQ Club banner

As the guys were starting their game, I took the time to walk around the show and take a few pictures. 

A fantasy block style game called Multiverse War, soon on Kickstarter

Schild en Vriend wargames club, with a 42mm toy soldier game.

Some of Phil's (Schild en Vriend) toy soldiers in action

More of Phil's figures

a quiet different view on wargaming: a spectacular Black Powder game

More of the Black Powder game

Lots of 28mm figures in this Black Powder game

A WW2 game, set up in the Belgian Ardennes I think, set up by Les Compagnies d'Ordonnance.

Lots of excellent detail in this game!

More of the same game

The other side of the venue. Lots of more games.

There was a lot more to see. For example the game set up by The Alde Garde from Venlo, the Netherlands. Unfortunately, I got into a talk with the club members, and forgot to take a few pictures afterwards. They had a 18th C game in 15mm where a battle took place in front of a well fortified town (Maastricht?) It looked very good, with over 1400 figs on the table! They used Honours of War (Osprey Games) as rules, and told it worked well with this amount of figures.

Many more games were played, I also noticed Warhammer Ancient Battles was again used. Maybe I should try to get this going again at our club also. We'll see if I can find some Chinese volunteers!

I had a great day out anyway. Grabbed a few things at the B&B (about the same amount as I sold off), and visited my favorite traders for some paint and a few extra figures. Most liked the talking to other gamers though. It gave me the mojo again to start painting again. Now, off to the painting desk!