BOLTERCON 2026 Updates & Introducing the Gray Card
Today we’re going to cover a lot of ground on two topics: the latest updates on BOLTERCON 2026 (only 4 Ptuesdays left AAAAA) and a new tool in our toolbox for clearly enforcing hobby standards called the Gray Card (aka the Grey Card). Your beloved and bedraggled Bolters at Dawn Staff are quite literally slaving away on terrain for the upcoming events, polishing those player packets, and fielding all manner of questions/clarifications/memes from our Bolters at Dawn club members and community. And that’s not only for BOLTERCON 2026 but for all the goings on in the hallowed halls of the clubhouse! Read on for more, or skip to the end for the TLDR.
BOLTERCON 2026 Updates
Before proceeding, REGISTER FOR BOLTERCON 2026 today! November 12th through the 15th, it is our premier community event over at the Holiday Inn West Chester. Put in for that time off & once you’re locked in, continue reading below.
Spooky Terrain Season
I get pretty weirded out this time of year when I watch BOLTERCON go from 40 weeks away to 4 in what seems like a blink. Who am I? What have I been doing with my precious time? Turns out that answer to both of those for me (and much of the staff and community) is one spooky word: TERRAIN! We have the normal growth from year to year for our events which usually means a few terrain sets get put together over the course of a year. For our literal best edition of Warhammer 40,000 though, things took an unexpectedly scary turn.
Specifically in the context of competitive events hosted by Bolters at Dawn, we have taken some fairly partially-hinged stances on terrain for 40k and published them for the community at large to understand where we are coming from. In a previous manifesto , we pointed out how the immersion and competitive balance of 40k in particular must exist in a push-pull equilibrium. Then, 11th edition launched and we saw during our first games at the midnight release that everything had changed. THE SHAPES MASON – WHAT DO THEY MEAN???
We’ll be publishing an updated manifesto (mostly-hinged?) that will outline our plans and motivations for the terrain at the 40k events over the next few weeks. Trust that we’ve been getting those reps, watching the rest of the local (and remote) 40k groups operate, and will bring the HYPEST experience yet to your 40k events, as is our tradition. This isn’t just reserved for 40k – all our events will be delivering the DOPE terrain you have come to expect from our crew here at Bolters at Dawn.
Shirts and VIP Swag
Enough terrain updates for BOLTERCON 2026, what about the rest? Well, most importantly, if you want to be a VIP there are four slots left as of my fingers slapping these characters into this blog. We always go as hard as possible for our VIP registrants because they go hard for us. BOLTERCON would not be here today without the VIP support! Every year we drop a bunch of goodies (like the best glassware) on our VIPs and are always looking for new ways to show our appreciation. Our vendors and sponsors throw in also!
Not only are the VIP slots dwindling in availability, but we’re closing up event shirt orders on October 29th! You can read about the shirts here on this very blog and then head over to the store to secure your very own.
Events!
So when we talk about BOLTERCON now we’re talking about less than a month until the events kick off! These are exciting times to watch as the individual events fill up and armies come to life. Did I mention yet that our GTs and Doubles events are filling up fast? Well, just in case go and register before they’re full like ASAP.
On the 40k side, our singles GT is filling up faster than ever. We have our 40k doubles event that has grown significantly versus last year. Right now we’re sitting over a dozen teams – extremely crazy. Our Boarding Actions event is slowly but surely going to be the coolest set of walls you’ve ever seen.
Our Warhammer: Age of Sigmar events are also on pace to be the biggest at BOLTERCON yet. We’re excited to see all the different avenues that AoS takes in addition to the grand GT, including our custom rule set for Sigmarpocalypse and a narrative Chaos Whirlwind.
Warhammer: The Old World events are also bigger than ever, so make sure that you don’t miss out if you’re on the fence about joining us in the hypest of TOW events this side of the Mississippi, or really any side of the Mississippi. A large GT, doubles, and a narrative event in the blessed system of square-based geometries – full throttle fantasy battles in The Old World confirmed.
What about The Horus Heresy and small-scale historical wargaming in Legions Imperialis? Let it be known your favorite Hype and Moral Officer and his crew of hypebeasts have been in the lab, slaving ever-harder for your enjoyment – and plausibly theirs if they have any strength left come November.
We have the same layout for the BOLTERCON event hall floor & we are very excited to have the same offerings when it comes to food and beverage with a dedicated bar and tableside service during the day and then the restaurant in the evenings. The staff at The Holiday Inn West Chester really did an amazing job last year and we’re looking forward to growing even further and seeing everything that the space has to offer. Tableside food and beverage delivery? Is there anything more hype??!?
Hit the BOLTERCON 2026 Player Packet for all those event deadlines, requirements, and basically EVERYTHING you need to know for your event(s). Not reading the Player Packet is basically guaranteed feels-bads, so do not take this suggestion (direct order) lightly! Also please start checking your email spam folder – we are sending out emails through our registration provider. You saw the first one, right?
Whew! After all that, this is the perfect time to orient you, dear reader, to a new enforcement mechanism for our hobby standards at BOLTERCON 2026 and beyond.
Introducing the Gray Card
The time has come to introduce our new penalty card – the Gray Card. As always, we have the Yellow Card and Red Card system in place for BOLTERCON and other events. Through The One Packet, you can see the template we use to apply these cards to each individual game system. The section for the Gray Card is currently WIP as we gather our thoughts. Here is my expert artist rendering (enlarged to show detail, not to scale):
Motivation
Trust that your BOLTERCON staff, club members, and community at large want to have a good time playing tabletop games together! Even in the most competitive situations, we can set and enforce standards that promote sportsmanship & the hypest events possible. These standards and enforcement procedures do not exist to be punitive, exclusionary, abusive, etc – they exist to ensure we all understand the requirements and can work towards common goals.
Just like saying your pleases and thank yous, we are able to show respect for each other as tabletop wargamers through the common language of our hobby. Manners provide a widely understood way to be respectful of strangers and friends (and enemies) alike. Honestly striving for a competently hobbied army shows your respect your opponent (and the TOs and the staff who worked to bring the event to life) – manners of a different sort. I’ll leave it to a Bolters at Dawn club member’s take that really captures the ethos:
Hobby standards feel like a tug of war between those that would abuse the goodwill of what “sufficient effort” looks like—hence 2 empty “stealth suit” bases. On the other end is those that pull for fully painted and based armies because it is what they value about a shared hobby and gaming experience. I find it immersive to play with my own force painted, and I find it respectful of my own efforts when my opponent shows up with a painted\based force as well. Granted this is mainly as it relates to playing at major events like GTs or weekend narrative events where it’s encouraged to show up “wearing your Sunday best” (at least for your army lol).
It’s rewarding to get your army to the finish line, and doubly so when you know you’re opponents are all on the same journey. In our experience, the Bolters Ready standard also has the benefit of filtering out the low-effort trolls, griefers, and rules-abusers who are looking to exploit the latest rules-writing oversight on a new release. The hobby lag allows for those FAQs and errata to correct most of that madness, which is an added benefit! This club member continues to elucidate things in a way I could not improve on:
I feel like people who are caught in the middle of that tug of war due to lack of funds or time are perhaps unintended casualties of trying to uphold high hobby standards meant to dissuade the deliberately uncaring players (see “stealth” models or meta chasers who won’t be slowed down by the drag of painting). Upholding a high hobby standard is not specifically targeting and penalizing you because you might lack the time or money to finish painting a force. It sets a shared expectation for a community that promotes what the community collectively agrees is aspirational. What to achieve. In some cases that boundary is defined by what not to do (I.e. shitty 3d printed proxies), but to me the standard is an aspiration and a respect for those that share those values
And here, dear reader, is where the Gray Card comes into play. We want people to aspire to great things, especially on the sportsmanship and hobby front. The Bolters Ready standard is clear, and we do our best to communicate that this is not an optional standard. For the BOLTERCON 40k GT last year, we had a pre-approval process where all armies must send pictures to prove they understand not only the Bolters Ready hobby standard but the WYSIWYG requirements. This mostly worked (and is why it is returning for BOLTERCON 2026)! Those from outside the Bolters at Dawn community are not used to the firmness of our standards. Lots of events out there in the world have standards/rules but don’t consistently enforce them. We can do better.
What about systems other than 40k? How do we get everyone to want to achieve the standard? The answer is not simply more public executions / disqualifications but an additional mechanism to enforce our norms while rewarding effort! The Grey Card is not an alternative to a disqualification. Those who blatantly disregard the standard will continue to be removed from events. The Grey Card is for those who are mostly there, put in the effort to show respect for others, and came up slightly short. This helps us universally answer the question – do you disqualify a player who basically died hobbying to have 95% of the models to the standard but came up short on the last 5% (maybe missing a shade/highlight)? No, they get the Gray Card and can play.
To reiterate, this will not replace disqualifications. This is not a reduction in the Bolters Ready standard (as described in the BOLTERCON 2026 Player Packet). This is an additional enforcement mechanism to assist in universal application – while promoting attempts at hobby greatness.
The Implementation
It’s a straightforward addition to the existing enforcement mechanisms of the Yellow Card and Red Card as described in the BOLTERCON 2026 Player Packet.
When you receive a Gray Card:
- you may be paired into the event at the TO’s discretion
- you will not receive any in-game points for being painted
- you cannot place at the conclusion of the event
- you will count as having received a Yellow Card
You may be able to address the issues that prevent your army from being Bolters Ready through the course of the event, which is great! Once the Grey Card is removed, you will be able to get those in-game bonuses. However the counts-as Yellow Card and being unable to place will remain.
As always, you can hit up your not-completely-exhausted-yet Bolters at Dawn staff with questions, and please expect we are refining the Gray Card as we approach BOLTERCON 2026 and beyond. We very much appreciate your understanding and patience while we continue to pursue the absolute HYPEST and DOPEST events possible!
TLDR
So that was a lot of words, which I expect most of our readership to gloss over, then have questions & come back through at a slower pace. For you non-re-readers or those in a rush (or an LLM or bot or NPC):
- Check your email spam folders for BOLTERCON 2026 updates
- Shirt deadline is 10/29 so order quickly
- VIP and events are filling fast – register for BOLTERCON 2026 today
- Read the BOLTERCON 2026 Player Packet. I mean really read it.
- New hobby standard penalty (in addition to DQ) starting at BOLTERCON 2026 – the Gray Card
You can reach out to us via email, direct message on Discord through BCP. I hope this is clear, I hope this is comforting, and we are very much looking forward to seeing you all in less than a month. Again, please check your player packets, make sure you know your requirements, and saddle up.
PS: Don’t miss out on the HALLOWEEN HAUNT on October 24th!
PPS: Want to paint some TERRAIN?!?
