The Changing of Seasons

We here at Bolters at Dawn tend to plan in two chunks: BOLTERCON season and everything else. The latter is the easygoing first half of the year, which wraps up around Bolters at Dawn Day on July 11th. The former (and scarier) is only a few weeks away, and boy is it wilder than ever! We’re entering our fifth (5!!!!!) year of this auspicious season change, but that doesn’t mean we’re any better at things like not panic painting terrain or 250 zombies or giant ass walls or any other (incredibly dope) thing for our club members to enjoy (rage).

A good bluff can go a long way (Alright)
I’m out of luck, but I got the will to make it work (Don’t give up)
A bad hand ain’t a reason to give up (Not ever)
I’m out of luck

For those new to our club membership, know this: nothing can slow our dedicated staff and officer corps from bravely tackling whatever gets in the way of the best tabletop experience. The first half saw the conclusion of our inaugural Blood Bowl league (congrats Greg!), our resident Blackstone Enjoyer conquer the 40k Delve league (congrats Adam!), a bunch of The Old World getting played (including a siege!), and the slow+steady progress of King of the Clubhouse (our Age of Sigmar league with dope scoreboard !). More to come on all this thoon.

Ok, enough talking. Time for THE SCHEDULE. We have Maypoc, Kenny back in the clubhouse, a series of TOW RTTs, a few 40k RTTs, the King of the Clubhouse conclusion, our very own Horus Heresy narrative campaign, and other stuff in our concluding thoughts. Wowwowowowow lesgoooooo!

Maypocalypse (now in July!)

Our friends over at Fundamalleus have for years put on an amazing Apocalypse event in May (peep that article header up there), aptly named Maypocalypse aka Maypoc. This year we are happy to welcome Maypoc to the clubhouse in July! Come on out and see the wild stuff, but I cannot explain it as well as Jason and Kyle who are the Event Organizers:

We will be determining the fate of forge world Drakus as it hurtles through the warp with more models than is sane in a huge game of Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse. Come witness the spectacle and dust off all your dopest, largest models. Or just a couple hundred orks!

Make yourself known in the our Discord and get ready for July 12th. In the meantime, make sure to check out the Apocalypse FAQ for lots more info.

Florida Attacks: Swamped and back for more!

At this point, you probably have been pinged at least twice about the upcoming return of Kenny Boucher to the clubhouse! Let’s add to that, or maybe it’s your first if you have yet to sign up for the Bolters at Dawn club membership. Last year, Kenny came by and taught his 101 painting class in an all-day event. It was absolutely worth the price of admission and the time spent working through the curriculum.

Kenny has invested a ton of time and effort in crafting the class and it shows throughout. We had awesome sponsors like Monument Hobbies, Game Envy, Elrik’s Hobbies, and more come through with all the supplies we needed. Admission includes access to the course materials online, the dedicated channels in The Long War’s Discord, and the prerequisites to progress into more advanced classes.

Check out our blog about last year’s event:

https://boltersatdawn.com/blog/articles/florida-attacks-recap-kenny-boucher-in-the-clubhouse

After you read about last year, go get your spot for this year! The event will take place on Saturday, July 19th, at noon and last all day long. Lock it in because we can only take a total of 10 students:

http://boltersatdawn.com/events/florida-attacks-2025/

The Old World: RTT Circuit

After the big siege (more on that later), we have transitioned our game days for The Old World to start embracing standard formats. Our Judiciar Extremis aka Ed is running an RTT circuit to test out the various ways that tournaments around the world are running their events.

Points will accrue throughout the circuit and the top finisher will be given free entry to BOLTERCON 2025 TOW Tournament, amongst other prizes! Check out the event on Best Coast Pairings for the next one coming up August 2nd. Sign up, get those reps, paint those minis 🫡

By the way, I’m not sure if you know (you do) but we just got a HUGE SHAKEUP to The Old World that will make things very interesting indeed. Our friends over at Goonhammer have a wonderful writeup if you want the quick hits, or go straight to the source at Warhammer Community.

Warhammer 40k RTT Circuit – The Road to BOLTERCON

Much like our esteemed square base enjoyers, us Warhammer 40k enjoying (suffering) club members will also be embarking on an exploration of the competitive tournament scene. Over the course of the RTT game days, we’ll kick the tires on the Chapter Approved 2025-2026 mission pack, the sheer weight of all the FAQs & Errata from an edition much advanced in age, and the updates/changes that your Bolters at Dawn staff want to test before the 40k GT at BOLTERCON 2025. On this very blog we have begun making the case for those coming changes and we are very extremely excited to start manifesting them in reality.

Hey look, I played a Warhammer! And look at that non-standard terrain! Oh no!

Anyway, we’ll kick off our first RTT of the circuit on August 23rd, so head on over to BCP to get your spot! Remember, if you are a club member (#blessed) then your entry is free. Please DM me in Discord and I’ll get you all set up. Otherwise, your $15 is well spent to come to our hallowed halls and have a blast with those same club members!

Age of Sigmar: King of the Clubhouse FINALE

I will hand this one off to Gavin, our Czar of Occasional Corrections and Knowledgable Stances, for his thoughts:

The AoS league has been shaken up with the new GHB forcing us all to relearn secondaries and get stuck in bushes for the final leg of our journey. Mr. Roake and his elves still lead the pack by an impressive amount, will anyone be able to dethrone him!

You can see the scoreboard on the league site: http://clubhouseking.boltersatdawn.com/league/

Preparation has also begun on our big finale which will see players paired up for 4000 points clashes where the missions are determined by how well (or uhm poorly in my case) you did in the league! Mark those calendars for August 23rd (and the round 6 kickoff on June 29th and round 7 kickoff on July 26th). Cheers 🍻

The Horus Heresy: The Shattered Frontier

Our Hype and Morale Officer aka Alex has whipped up a doozy of a narrative campaign for The Horus Heresy! I won’t sully it with my words, so here are his:

In the distant reaches of the galaxy, beyond the well-trodden paths of the Great Crusade, lies the system of Nox Aurelia—a once-promising frontier system rich in resources and ripe for Imperial expansion. Located at the edge of the Segmentum Obscurus, Nox Aurelia was a symbol of mankind’s reach into the unknown. It boasted an impressive collection of mining colonies, trade routes, and research outposts.

The system is now a chaotic battlefield, with factional control of key installations and resource-rich areas changing hands regularly. The Loyalists aim to secure the system to maintain supply lines to the heart of the Imperium, while the Traitors seek to turn it into a launch point for further rebellion. The Mechanicum’s divide is becoming impossible to ignore, with their war for control of their forges beginning to spill into the open. The Solar Auxilia are slowly disintegrating, their loyalty torn and their forces splintering into pockets of resistance or full-blown rebellion.

Want to know more? Check out the extremely well written Player Packet for The Shattered Frontier and then make yourself known by using the sign-up sheets linked in the dedicated Discord channel. The next game day is this coming Saturday, June 28th with more on the near horizon!

Concluding Thoughts

Congratulations, you made it this far! Well, we made it this far. I did the typing, you did the reading (probably not lol), and now you’re prepared for what’s to come. We have all of this easily digestible in the Discord events section which is also linked on our main web site.

Club members are asking with increasing frequency about running a demo game of their favorite system, or bringing in different games than are on the official Bolters at Dawn schedule. The answer? If it’s dope, let’s get it going! We have THE SHEET for coordinating our tables and our Hype and Morale Officer is always on duty to help find places in the schedule for things. Did you know that games of Legions Imperialis have been added to The Shattered Frontier?

Did you know that we have an ongoing Bolt Action campaign also? Club members talking about Infinity and Battletech? Get hype, get in the Discord, and get involved with the actual most hype tabletop club in Cincinnati (also the Earth)!

PS: BOLTERCON 2025 kicks off November 13th so get that in the calendar. Detailed schedule to come extremely thoon.