CONflict Rhineland 2025
We've been looking forward to this! CONflict Rheinland took place again last weekend, and we once again hosted our own table with Deth Wizards this time.
To put this event into context, CONflict used to be a public event with traders until 2019, but it switched to a closed format when it was relaunched in 2022, and we've been going ever since. We've had tables of our own for the last three years. So, we packed the car with some essentials and headed for Langenfeld, near Leverkusen.
The event runs from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon, with some people only staying for Saturday. As we have shown you the car park so many times over the last few years, we skipped it this time. I know, I know — traditions with our event coverage — but unnecessary repetition is wasteful.
As everyday life caught up with some of the participants, there were some last-minute changes to the hosted games. But don't worry — the replacements and other options were colourful too.
Throwback – RPC 2011 Cologne Tabletop Demo Area
With the concept of the Role Play Convention returning in a re-boot as the Role Play Verse, it is a good opportunity to cover the Tabletop Demo Area of 2011 and 2012.
I went into detail about the beginnings of the T3G (TabletopTestGelände, German for Tabletop Demo Area) in the Throwback of the 2010 show, but to sum it up briefly, the Role Play Convention (RPC) was a show in Cologne (the first two years in Münster) covering various role playing contents, from video games, to LARP/cosplay and tabletop games (board, role playing and miniature based). In this wild mix, we had the great opportunity to introduce people to our hobby. We had a large area of 400m² / ~4,300 sqft area for our tabletop area and I coordinated various clubs, traders and manufacturers for the event.
Mortal Gods – Athenians
Athens. What do you immediately think of when you hear this name? The Parthenon? The goddess of wisdom and strategy from ancient greek mythology? Well, when you play Mortal Gods, you probably think of arrows. Many, many arrows…
Since I would like to use them, I treated myself with the additional card set of the Athenians from Footsore Miniatures and will take a closer look at it for you along the way.
The set is currently available for between €11 and €15, depending on the retailer, and comes with a booklet as well as the cards. The cards include the Athenian troop types, named heroes, new equipment cards and additional omen cards.
April 2025 review
In April happened a bit more than I anticipated. So let us do a recap.
I got lucky on one of my shopping trips and managed to get my hands on the 500E, which is quite sought after. This is not a treasure hunt and as I intend to repaint it for Gaslands, I don't mind the heavy glitter on this kit. I am just happy to have a more recent oldtimer for my German Gang in the game.
Right in the beginning of the month, we managed to squeeze in another event, that was not on our schedule at the start of the year. We did a family trip and went for Intermodellbau, the largest model building tradeshow. Our event coverage is split across two articles as we took a lot of pictures. Enjoy!
Mortal Gods – Army of Thebes
Who would have known? Originally I only wanted to paint a small group of Thebans for demo purposes, but after the “small” demo was so successful and a demo in full game size was also well received during my visit to the Rhein Main Tabletopclub e.V., I decided to bring both, the Thebans and the Plataians, to full size.
In fact, not much was missing from both armies, because I had already increased the size of both factions by another unit.
The former size of the army
The challenge was not only to make them visually fit into a theme, but also to make them fit into the game in such a way that they have their own character. In the case of the Thebans, a little more punch seemed like the right choice, so I added another troop of slingers, a veteran hoplite and a new model for the Lochagos. The original leader has moved into the role of a regular captain and, in the form of a Promachos, now represents the smaller of the two melee heroes.
Mortal Gods – More Games!
Originally, I had only written this article as a post on the hobby forum tabletopwelt.de, but Dennis thought it would be a good idea to show that we don't just write articles, but also actually play!
So please bear with me for the amateurish presentation, I will make the next summaries of the games a bit more interesting. My opponent was none other than Martin, whom I've known for over 20 years and our paths have crossed many times at the gaming table.
First game – Scenario „The Price“
I was once again a guest at the Rhein Main Tabletopclub e.V. in Nidderau and, as mentioned, played against Martin. He had so much fun with the extended demo last time that he bought the whole game in pieces and brought his recently painted Athenians to the table. Martin painted like a machine and I don't want to keep the snapshot of his Athenians from you, which he painted in less than a month:
Athenians…assemble!
Intermodellbau 2025 Part 1
Last week, from Thursday to Sunday, the Intermodellbau in Dortmund was held. The World's largest trade fair for model building & model sports.
The Intermodellbau is a show, that covers various aspects of the model building hobby, from RC cars to model trains, model kits build from paper, plastic or metal, in all different scales from z-scale to full-scale replicas. It is not a wargaming event but due to the proximity with building models and painting them, we want to give it a try and show you our event coverage on here.
The venue, the trade halls and Westfalenhalle (often used for concerts and other cultural events), are located next to the football stadium Westfalenstadion (home of Borussia Dortmund) and the ice sport centre, and sport a large area for parking as well a good connection towards the highway. The show itself spreads out across six of the eight halls of the venue.
Intermodellbau 2025 Part 2
As we took more than 300 pictures of which over 100 made into the coverage on Intermodellbau 2025, we continue with part 2 here. We went through Halls 3 to 5, and now arrived with the big vehicles and trucks.
Hall 6 - Car model making & Large scale function model building
Once we entered hall 6, we saw an incredibly large display by IG Modellgiganten Stephan Grabs, where huge RC models in 1:8 scale were shown and a great highlight, especially for our youngest, was the chance to take a ride in one of these. A huge thank you to the hosts for this stunning exhibit.
March 2025 review
A quarter of 2025 is over. Lets do a recap.
Asmodee Germany sent me these boxes for Marvel Crisis Protocol and Star Wars Shatterpoint. During Adepticon they gave a great update on the roadmap for the two games (have to be honest, the X-Men starter caught my eye), as well as the Outer Rim Outpost terrain kit for Shatterpoint, along with Star Wars Legions (with the strategic token set coming in 2026...).
Obituary Paul Sawyer
Earlier today Paul's family posted this on facebook, informing his friends about his passing.
To all that knew and loved Paul, it’s with a truly broken heart that we must share the news that our beloved husband and father passed away on the evening of March 27th surrounded by the immense love of his family. From the very beginning of his diagnosis, he showed nothing short of heroism with his bravery and strength and that carried through right until the end. We are truly devastated and will feel his loss forever.
We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the kindness that has been shared with Dad and to us as a family during this cruel battle.
May he finally rest peacefully.
All our love,
Julie, Catherine & Holly
It was a great privilege to meet Paul Sawyer in person 15 years ago – and that on our first ‘official’ trip to Nottingham. Together with John Stallard, Paul took a lot of time for us, a small group of German wargaming bloggers who were on a true pilgrimage to the Lead Belt. In the following years, often even at invitation, as at the Warlord Games Day, we were repeatedly able to experience the hospitality of Paul and his team. Our visit in 2023 as part of the Bring-out-your-Lead event, when we were guests in Nottingham again, remains particularly unforgettable.
It was not only a personal experience for me to meet Paul as the former long-standing editor-in-chief of White Dwarf, but also to feel the passion and enthusiasm for the hobby that he has brought to life in his numerous articles. It was equally fascinating to witness how Warlord Games, the company Paul co-founded, grew from its modest beginnings in the small offices of the first headquarters to the later relocations to larger premises – always with Paul in the characteristic Notts County jersey, a polo shirt or the tea cup of his beloved Magpies in hand. We were also allowed to take a look at the personal projects he worked on at his desk.
It is therefore particularly painful to have to say goodbye to a man for whom our hobby was not just a job, but a true calling.
Our deepest condolences go out to his family and to all those who knew and appreciated him.
In case you want to donate, as the GoFundMe campaign for Paul has been closed, you can do so at CancerResearchUK.
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