By Paolo Paglianti

Even though I’ve been playing wargames since way back in 1992 and have travelled across half of Europe, I had never had the chance to visit Romania. When my friend Quentin Taylor — a Canadian but Romanian by adoption — told us he would be organizing the Nationals near Sibiu, we booked our flights almost immediately!

Moreover, the Romanian Nationals are part of the European Series, a circuit of National tournaments which this year — in its second edition — includes Belgium, Germany, the UK, Poland, and also Italy, where I will be organizing the event on March 14–15, 2025. Together with Rob and the others, we wanted to create a network that would encourage players to take part in tournaments across the Old Continent.

Today we have friend of the show Jon Chang (Black Powder Red Earth) and he is joined by Mike Durao  and they talk about their new game Near Present which is a modern skirmish game set in the near future.

By Kreighton Long

With my North African Italians finished it’s time to look forward to a new project.  After attempting desert bases with my Italians, I had the idea to challenge myself with new-to-me basing themes for my next few projects.

The next project will take me from the sands of North Africa to the ruined cityscape of Stalingrad.  If I said the German Veterans release from Warlord Games had nothing to do with this choice I would be lying.  Having never attempted urban bases before, I spent some of my prep time looking for different ways of creating urban bases and came up with three options to experiment with: Green Stuff, plastic mats, and sand.

Today we have Robert Crandall from On Target Simulations. Robert and I talk about the upcoming release of Flashpoint Campaigns Cold War coming out here on Steam.

By Kreighton Long

While day dreaming about my desert terrain I had a vision, or perhaps a mirage, of an oasis on my future table.  As my palm groves came together I strategically left the largest of my bases in reserve for such a project.  With the first batch of my palm groves completed I felt confident in trying to put together a desert oasis.  This oasis will add a splash of color to a dreary desert table as well as could double as a fun objective for the two sides to fight over.

Like my desert palm groves, the palm trees with this oasis can be removed to facilitate models moving through the terrain and to store and transport easier.

Happy painting!

By Kreighton Long

On 11 October, sixteen players gathered at the Call to Arms Convention in Williamsburg, VA for a 1250 point Bolt Action tournament hosted by Kalissa Skibicki.  This is Kalissa’s fifth time running the Bolt Action tournament for Southeastern Tabletop Gaming Organization (SETGO)’s autumn convention.

This continuity has allowed relationships to grow between the repeat attendees even if it is limited to a once-a -year interaction over a tournament involving toy soldiers and measuring tape.  The camaraderie is ever-present throughout the weekend especially as players arrive to the event and are heartily greeted by their soon-to-be competitors.

By Troy Hill

I began to write this a week ago, on 7 October. But new bits of information were trickling out of Mantic HQ so fast, the trickle was more of a typhoon. Or, at least, it was “Blowing a Hoolie” with news from Nottingham UK.

Now that Ronnie, Matt, and Kyle at Mantic have the information deluge at more manageable levels, let me recap the last several weeks for those living outside the world of Pannithor.

Mantic Games flagship game, Kings of War (KOW) is on the road to a new edition! And it’s been designed by one of the grand masters of the fantasy gaming genre, Alessio Cavatore. The reigning King (of Wargaming Rules) is back, baby!

Even though he’s been busy recently, ushering one of his other flagship designs, Bolt Action, by Warlord Games, into their 3rd edition, Alessio is recharging another game (KOW) he hasn’t touched since it came out back in December of 2010.

In the following article, I’ll share what a broad overview of what we know about the new edition at the time of this writing. Most of the images link to pages on the Mantic Website, so be sure to click them to learn more.

By Kreighton Long

After completing my North African Italians I committed to building a set of desert terrain for them to fight in.  In addition to the standard dwellings and walls I wanted to build palm groves to add some soft cover and greenery to the table.  While wandering around a Michaels store I came across bags of palm trees on sale and decided the time to start the palm groves was now.

By Kreighton Long

As many a tabletop war gamer has learned, the winter holiday season is a wonderful time for terrain builders.  This past winter I stocked up on the three styles of Lemax mats in stock at Michaels with the idea of using them to build European style cobblestone roads for my urban tables.

I wanted to build 6 x 12″ sections of road that will allow me to easily stack and store the road sections as well as drop them down on the table as needed.  I found a pack of 20 basswood sheets measuring 6 x 12 x 1/8 inches on Amazon and added them to my cart.

By Kreighton Long

Nearly a decade since the release of Warlord Games’ first edition of Konflikt ’47, we are on the precipice of a new edition set to be released this September.  Since it’s release in 2016, I must sheepishly admit that I have not taken a stab at this science-fiction, alternate history, cousin of Bolt Action.

I am hopeful that that will change soon as I have become more and more invested in the aesthetics and gaming of a competing science-fiction universe as well as having an advance copy of the new rulebook in front of me.  As a veteran Bolt Action player, I have a familiarity with the foundational rules and an abundance of 28mm WWII miniatures and terrain.  With this head start, it looks like a fairly simple leap to add Konflikt ’47 to my wargaming repertoire.