By Paolo Paglianti

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and every journey needs a starting point. If your journey is collecting a German or US Late War army for Flames of War, we now have a great foundation to begin with!

Battlefront sent us an early preview of the Fortress Europe box, perfect for anyone looking to get started with Flames of War or for those who already play and want to start a new American or German army. It ideally replaces the older Open Fire starter boxes and, as the name suggests, it’s themed around the D-Day period — but it can be used for any US Late War army or German Mid and Late War forces. Let’s take a look at what’s inside.

By Paolo Paglianti

As every year, the ETC – European Team Championship for Flames of War takes place towards the end of July. It’s probably the most important tournament of the year for fans of the game, and the whole FOW community, including US and New Zealand.

I was lucky enough to take part in 2022 as a “mercenary” for Team Iceland in Belgium, then returned in 2023 and 2024 with Team Italy, again in Belgium and then in Poland. This year, the ETC was held in Austria, in the town of Loben, and Team Italy was back on the field! Let’s see how it went!

Rumble on the Rivers game convention is returning to the Grand Wayne Center in downtown Fort Wayne Indiana, USA.

Date: October 24-26, 2025

• The Grand Wayne Center,
• 120 West Jefferson Boulevard
• Fort Wayne, IN 46802

Housing/Hotels

There is NOT a roomblock. There are several hotels that connect to the Grand Wayne Center. Please visit the hotel directory here to explore your options.

https://www.visitfortwayne.com/hotels/downtown/

Hours: (more information coming soon)

• Friday: ?
• Saturday: ?
• Sunday: ?

Demo and Learn to play games will be featured on Friday

Friday Oct 24

Friday, October 24 we will have an army shop & swap event, as well as open play tables for anyone that doesn’t want to participate in the tournaments. Our vendors will be set up, and everyone is encouraged to come! There is no cost for entry to the convention hall itself all weekend long. This page will update as new events are added to the schedule.

Tournaments on Saturday and Sunday

Events:

Here’s the rundown of current tournaments, and where to go to register for each:

Warhammer 40,000

Rumble on the Rivers 40K GT

2 day tournament, $100.00 entry fee.

Register here:

https://www.bestcoastpairings.com/event/9LBOSyQP0bkF

 

Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings

This is a two-day, five-round tourney. World Points pending approval.

Saturday Oct 25, 26

2000 pt using the latest rules and faction updates from Para Bellum Games. Follow the Tournament Rules from Para Bellum www.para-bellum.com/tourn…

No painting requirement, but there will be a painting competition.

Scenarios from the official Conquest scenario pack will be announced day of (each round a surprise).

Register here: https://www.longshanks.org/event/27157/
Entry  Fee: $50 – payable via Paypal (address at Longshanks)

Marvel Crisis Protocol

Tourney Sunday Oct 26

Standard MCP Sunday event at the Grand Wayne Center. We will be using the current rotation of crisis, tactics cards etc. 3-4 rounds based on attendance. 90 minute rounds, hard dice down after an additional 15. Round 2 at 1pm, Round 3 at 3pm. BornMinis Steph to stream table 1. Awards for top placings, best theme and best spirit. Prizes: TBD. Entry is 20$ via cash or PayPal

https://mcp.longshanks.org/event/27556/

Warhmammer: The Old World

Saturday, October 25 will be a 3-round 2k singles tournament, $25/player
https://www.bestcoastpairings.com/event/ppAhFOFohQs4

Sunday, October 26 will be a 3-round 2x1k DOUBLES tournament, $50/team
https://www.bestcoastpairings.com/event/Ar8dPBu8n1J8

We’re also running a charity raffle during the weekend for armies, units, and in-game rerolls to help support the family of one of our community members who passed from brain cancer.

By Troy Hill

Created by the dragons to be a subservient race, the Dweghom became anything but! Punished for rebelling, forced to delve deep into the bowels of Eӓ, the subjugated became the hunters when they unlocked the very prison of the demigod War!

The game of Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings (TLAOK) provides new and interesting takes on common fantasy races, and I’ve started–and mostly finished– building a third army for the game.

The Dweghom were one of the first factions created for Para Bellum’s Fantasy rank-n-flank game. They currently sit awaiting a faction rules update, which is coming in September, when the company releases the last of this year’s rules updates. I started collecting them to build a low meta army for TLAOK. Knowing their glow-up in the rules is about to hit, I’m worried that their play style may become more complicated than the sweet-spot (for me) they currently sit at.

This is not a look at competitive army builds, since the new faction rules are only a few weeks away. Instead, I’ll present the lore and the background of the faction and units.

By Paolo Paglianti

When I found out I’d be traveling to Historicon 2025 for work, I took a look at the tournaments hosted at the event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and saw that there were no fewer than three Art de la Guerre tournaments— the 15mm ancient/medieval wargame that’s so popular both in the Old and New Worlds.

Although I played a few ADG tournaments in Italy a couple of years ago, I never really got into it too deeply, since the club I attend in Milan has remained loyal to DBMM, which—along with FOG—is something of a “parent” to ADG. But since the miniatures are the same and I have about 7,000 ancient and medieval 15mm figures at home, why not have a bit of fun?

By Paolo Paglianti

When I found out I’d be attending Historicon 2025 for work again this year (as I am Head of Comms at the videogame company Slitherine), I went straight to check the list of wargaming tournaments. To my surprise, there were no Flames of War or DBMM events—the two games I play the most, WWII and ancients/medievals respectively.

However, I was happy to discover tournaments for both Art de la Guerre (which I’ll write about in another article) and Bolt Action. Since I had a British army sitting in my garage waiting to be painted, it seemed like the perfect chance to finally learn the game and get some 28mm figures painted—usually, I paint in 15mm.

By Troy Hill

I admit it. I hated studying the American Civil War (ACW) ever since Junior High School. But, the title says I made a visit recently to Gettysburg. Since I’m about to turn 61, you might be wondering why I had this change of heart?

First, why did I not care for the war? The best I can say is that reading The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane, in the 8th grade. I’d had a good dose of ACW studies in the 7th grade as well at Brookdale Junior High, as my social studies class covered it in depth for about three months. Then the 8th and 11th grades went even farther.

And Stephen Crane’s book kept coming back to haunt my dreams, so I tuned out the lessons. Study enough to pass the tests, then forget about it. I just wasn’t interested. But, after having spent most of two decades studying and gaming World War 2, I was ready for something fresh. Napoleonics! Yeah….? Well, no. I wasn’t into figuring out the uniform facing colors for each unit. Best to not upset the gaming grognards with the incorrect facings or pom colours. But I still wanted another period to get into that was older than WW2. The Great War was too tied into WW2. Though different, it was too much the same.

What about ACW? Union blue vs Confederate gray, butternut, brown, and whatever else Johnny Reb was wearing… Yep. That’s more manageable on the painting front. And a lot of the battlefields are only a one-to-two day drive away from Indiana. No hopping on a jet plane to Europe or Africa to go see what happened. So, ACW was my next historical gaming stop. As long as I didn’t have to read Stephen Crane again.

Where does the pilgrimage to Gettysburg fit into all of this? And, most importantly, how did I as a wargamer, get my non-wargaming wife to agree to one of the most required pilgrimages in all of ACW-dom?

Today we have Mike Love from Bad Goblin Games and we talk about their great game Trailer Park Warlords of the Apocalypse, a unique game that covers a future where mutants and the remnants of humanity fight it out.

By Kreighton Long

Last autumn I wrapped up my capstone Bolt Action tournament of the year and began dreaming of my next army project.  This transition coincided with the release of Bolt Action Third Edition, and I drafted my new army knowing that my experiences with the new edition would likely evolve how I built and played my list.  You can find the first two articles in this series where I share my original ideas and how I painted my work.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

We had a 2-day Bolt Action tournament recently (May 24-25, 2025) as part of the Canadian Tabletop
Championship (CTC) here in Ottawa ON. We had enough players for Warlord Games to let us declare
it Canadian Nationals. 1250 points, 18 Order Dice (OD) cap, no more than two of any unit bar regular
Rifles, HQ , Transports and Tows.

Since my last event in April <link to article> I’ve tinkered with some
lists, settling on the following (regulars unless noted):