Kasteelfeesten Ekeren 2024

 So in what, according to the predictions, might be the final sunny saturday of the year, we set out to Ekeren to visit the Kasteelfeesten.

This year celebrating 65 years of the De Rode Ridder, a popular medieval graphic novel character.

We arrived around 14.00hrs (it is from 13.00 until 17.30) and entered through the smaller field at the back, where the jousting arena is build.  Here various knights re-enactors show of their skills on horseback for the audience.

And it was already nicely crowded.

Now, being warm, of course I needed to have some refreshment first, so enter a honeybeer from local brewery Het Perkament.

Children could get a "questing card" on which they could collect stamps of all the activities around the park, like this horseshoe throwing.

Arriving at the main field, around the castle itself, there where a lot more activities, as well as all sorts of clubs and various traders.

These where some odd people, they are painting little toy figures and playing games with them...

Walking around the venue where of course more re-enactors, all adding to the atmosphere of the event.

 

The last main event is the jousting game itself between the 4 knights that contended earlier that day in the skill tests, and then it was time to go home again after a calm day in the sun.

While nowhere near as big as The Quaeye Werelt, on which I reported of from various editions, this was actually my first visit to the Kasteelfeesten.  Due to circumstances, I almost never have that weekend the possibility to go, but 'for reasons' this year, I had!  And I remembered it actually took place that saturday lol...

But an enjoyable afternoon none the less, and hopefully one to revisit in future editions.

De Quaye Werelt anno 1477 edition 2023

 Finally, the medieval festival The Quaeye Werelt is back with this 2023 edition (Covid, bad weather, those sort of things made us miss out previous editions for the past years), and on a new location it was a fun day out.

Though that new location is right across the street, instead of in the shadow of Castle Sterckxshof, it is now in the Rivierenhof itself, and the more spacious arrangement actually made it a hige improvement.

 

The historical background of the event is this.  When Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, fell on an icy night on the 5th of January 1477, his 19 year old daughter, Maria, inherited the Burgundy empire.  This was the sign for various regions to start rebelling, and amongst them was Antwerp.  This resulted in a battle where a larger professional army was send to bring down the rebelious cities. 

Organised as such since 1999, De Quaeye Werelt tries to recreate the setting of this turmoilous period.  With a large medieval bivak of craftsmen and re-enactors, this all culminates in the recreation of the battle.  And from this year onwards, it has moved from the shadows of Castle Sterckshof (search this blog for an earlier edition in 2019 for example) to the park Rivierenhof across the street.  Which I must admit has been a good move, as the central fields are far more spacious then the previous location.

They also seem to be in luck with the weather every year, as it was a very sunny pre-summer saturday, going around 26 degrees during the day.

Though I can imagine in the full plate costumes, this might not be always as welcome...

This year, even our own city Major, mr Bart de Wever, participated in the event, and he was even dressed up for the occassion.

On the fields, you could find all sorts of craftsmen selling their wares, from food to re-enactment props.  And all trade stands where dressed up in the atmosphere of the event, making it look and feel like a fun medieval market place.

At 15.00 hours, the main event starts, with the recreation of the battle.  Now, I only filmed as far as the arrival of the armies on the battlefield.  The cannons where in full swing this year compared to previous editions, and the loud bangs weren't that toddler friendly.

 

 

But Thorin quickly got over that, and I think he wants to join the battle one day...

So this was a fun day out in a nice sunny weather.  Ending the event, I enjoyed the locally brewed beers from VZW Het Perkament, who brought along their Tripple, their Dark and their Honey beer.  I loved the first one especially, but I took one of each of course hehehe.

A succesfull event for sure going by the masses of people present, and next year, bar thunderstorms or pouring rains, we will be going back again for sure.  After all, this event takes place literally in front of our door...

Lion Rampant

 One of the many, many books I bought (digitally) during last year's big lockdown here in Belgium, I finally got round to reading them.

And realising I wanted to buy Dragon Rampant actually, the fantasy version, but heck, let's have a look at these Medieval wargame rules by Osprey, written by Daniel Mersey.

 

The book comes short just under 90 pages, and it is written with both historical style, as well as 'Hollywood' style medieval battles in mind.  From the rise of the Normans to the Hundred Year's war, these rules should have you covered.

The ideal size is the retinue, battles fought with a few dozen models a side, as this was the most common way of fighting in those days.  Surely, large battles happened, but generally it was a period of feuds and raids, and as such often only included two lords, perhaps an ally left or right, and their followers to duke it out.

Written in a style to promote fun above tactical simulation, that is always a good thing, because most of us (and more as in decades past, as I once mentioned already in an Opinion piece on this blog) are looking for relaxing, quick to learn games in the rat race of real life, so I guess that plays a large part in the stellar rise of skirmish sized games the past years.

As such, it is also recommended to play the game with individually based models, mostly due to the fact of facing of each soldier on the battlefield as well as suffered casualties.  Standard games go around 24 points and in the example of a retinue that would contain about 6 units.  Mounted units number 6 models, foot units 12...

Next, the unit profile is explained, but to anyone with some experience in wargaming, they are self explanatory, with attack, move, armour and the likes, basically the usual stats for the usual goals in a game.

There are of course rules for the terrain and how that influences your units cohesion and cover, and the Leader, aka you, who gets a whole list of skills to select (usually at random).

The turn sequence, which is a standard I go you go affair, is then explained, including what happens during each of the four phases of said turn, and how to activate your units... including an actual flowchart of what can happen or will need to be done!  The rules then proceed to how everyhting works exactly like shooting, attacking and the likes.

 

After what is the biggest section of course, we move onto the next one, which involves how to muster your retinue and what sort of troops there are at your disposal.  The special rules are also mentioned in this section for the various sorts of units, as well as the possible upgrades and points costs for each of them.

Section 4 takes us to the scenarios to play your games over, which can be decided by a diceroll or agreed on in front of course.  The scenarios all have different victory conditions and you can also claim boasts for your forces, on how to gain more Glory.

After that, some sample retinues are presented in case you want to dive straight in with models from other gamesystems for example, but which can always be tinkered with of course to ones own likings.  And which also has a section on Hollywood Legends forces and even Old school fantasy forces!

Rounding out the book is a reference sheet (handy to print if you have the digital copy) and the warband roster (same).

The rules look like fun, but like I said, I basically bought the wrong book and I'm not (re)starting a collection of medieval figures anymore... but that is no argument against these rules of course!

2.11.0.0

De Quaye Werelt 2019: Anno 1477

The Quaeye Werelt is a large medieval camp re-enactment, taking place in Deurne (near Antwerp) since 1999.

During the event, people can witness how the medieval life went about, and buy things from specialised merchants.

There are also demonstrations of re-enactors, like this medieval swordfight tournament.
 

But the highlight is definitly the battle for Antwerp, as the Burgundy army came to our beloved city to quell the rebellion on taxes.

We did leave the battle a few minutes before the end, to beat the masses on the drinking lines.  And at 30 degrees, there was no way i wanted to wait a moment longer then needed.

This was also Noshi`s first time at the event, and she found it a truly wonderful experience.  And one I can recommend to all you people as well to pass by and have a stroll in the wonderful park, transformed during this medieval fair in one big encampment!