I recently wrote an article about a Bolt Action tournament I attended in February. One of the commenters made me think about how different Tournament Organizers across the country approach the time management piece of running a tournament. So I set out to collect some answers.
I reached out to TOs from coast to coast, some I knew from attending their events and others via Facebook or recommendations from others, and started to compile some ideas. The conversations began with point/order dice limits, how long rounds lasted, scenarios chosen or avoided, and additional measures put in place to help ensure well timed events. Take a look below on comments made by eight TOs. At the end you’ll find my key take-aways from this experience.
I have been super excited about Konflikt 47 since I saw it on the discount shelf at my local store six years ago after first edition floundered. Now with the rerelease and the new plastic kits, I get to live the best parts of German tanks and multilegged battlemechs in one! To create my dream K47 army, I took a little bit of liberty to head cannon my own reasons for why I will be playing my favorite models. Notice I didn’t say the best units…a dozen or so games in, and I have only actually won a single game.
A former student of mine recently introduced me to Battletech. We played a few games over the last year and it gradually grew on me. At first, I was content to play with the models that my friend provided for our games, but that contentment did not last.
Perhaps it was rewatching Neon Genesis Evangelion over the summer, or older influences like Gundam or Pacific Rim, but either way I felt drawn to painting my own mech force. As I have little experience with the lore, game play, or mechanics, I decided to prioritize which set I wanted to try my hand at by the rule-of-cool.
Battlegroup is a WWII set of miniatures rules by Plastic Soldier Publishing. Written by Warwick Kinrade and first published in 2012, there have been many source books released over the past 14 years covering all parts of the war from early on with Blitzkrieg, Barbarossa, North Africa, the Pacific, Italy, D-Day, Market Garden, the Bulge, to Berlin when the war is all but over.
On 21 February, thirteen players gathered at the Williamsburg Muster in Williamsburg, VA to compete in another one of Kalissa Skibicki’s Bolt Action tournaments. Most of the participants were returning players with friendly catch-ups throughout the weekend. A few new faces joined the usual gang over three rounds on gorgeous tables prepared by David Skibicki.
With my Bolt Action Stalingrad German Army completed (for now), I set my sights on a display board to accompany my army. My plan was to make the most of some extra textured mats procured from Michaels for a previous project.
Flames of War has returned to the early period of the Second World War, with the publication of Blitzkrieg, covering the Invasion of France in May and June 1940. A new period is an exciting time for the game, with new nations, new miniatures, and new challenges.
My focus for Early-War in previous editions was the Mediterranean theatre, and I have never played anything from the campaign in France. To get back into playing Early-War while we wait for the North Africa book, I have picked up a copy of the new “Dunkirk” two-player starter set. Over the next few weeks, I’ll use it to assemble, paint, and start playing a new army. First, though, let’s have a look at what’s in the box.
The Trident Realm faction in Kings of War features new models! image by Mantic Games
By Troy Hill
Back in 2022, as the world was stretching its legs again post-Covid, I decided it was finally time to dive headfirst into fantasy rank-and-flank gaming. The obvious choice was Kings of War (KOW) by Mantic Games. So I cracked open the Big Green Rulebook (v3), joined a few online communities, and started building armies — even though there wasn’t a local scene anywhere near me. Apparently, I like my hobbies the way I like my road trips: long, ambitious, and slightly inconvenient.
In 2023, I hit two tournaments to start my journey into the game. First, I drove seven hours, crossed an international border, and threw myself into the King Beyond the Wall tournament in Ontario. That fall, I attended the Michigan GT for the KOW tournament.
There is, after all, no better way to learn a game than by jumping directly into the deep end with a chess clock ticking down your life expectancy. I learned a lot. I also discovered that playing a new-to-me game, under time pressure, feels suspiciously like defusing a bomb in a Bruce Willis movie. Eventually, I stepped away from the game, unsure if the tournament scene was the right fit for me at the time.
Then came the announcement that veteran designer Alessio Cavatore had joined Mantic and that KOW 4th Edition was on the way. That got my attention. Not because I wanted the game reinvented — but because I wanted it refined. Cleaner. Sharper. More confident in what it already did well.
Fourth Edition, as it turns out, isn’t a revolution but a revision. And for a game whose competitive identity rests on clarity and stability, that may be exactly what it needed.
Today we’re looking at Archon Studios‘s unique turn sequence for the Starcraft Tabletop Miniatures Game (hereafter “Starcraft”). It’s simple, yet encourages tactical planning in each phase, like any good game should.
A new tabletop war game is hitting the scene this March: the Starcraft Tabletop Miniatures Game (hereafter “Starcraft”). I purchased their promo figure for Zeratul to see the quality of the models they’re producing and how easy they are to assemble.
