Well, we made it through the summer -- time flies when you are having fun! I would like to welcome the Flames of War (FOW) guys who have joined the Ohio Valley Hoplites. We will be expanding our tournaments to include FOW in the upcoming year. I am working on the schedule now. One idea is to hold our FOW tournaments on Sundays of some conventions, due to space, and so that DBM players who want to can play both. Also, depending on how things go over the next several months, we may be having some of our tournaments at the OSU plaza. If I can swing a good deal with them and they do us right at De Bellis Columbus, we might hold the doubles tournament and Winter Sword there.

Just so that you DBM players know what we're talking about, FOW is a company level WW II game that plays a lot like DBM (i.e., lots of dice, "6's" are generally good, "1's" are still bad). When building your Armies, plan on Mid War (1942 and 1943), you may use: the Flames of War rulebook, Diving Eagles, Hitler's Fire Brigade, Old Ironsides, Desert Rats and Stalingrad Intelligence Handbooks. We will not play the "Death from above", "Elite Units", or anything that takes more or less than the 1500 points until we can get everybody comfortable with the rules. Once we get comfortable, we will most likely go to 2000 points. Then all the rules will be played.

I plan on running the tournaments this way:

• Pre set-up terrain (will need volunteers for this, both with set-up, terrain building and design).
• Two army lists, but same company type (that way you can have engineer stuff for the Big Push)
• Three rounds of 3 hours each. Missions will be (1) Meeting engagement; (2) "Free for all" (3) Hold the line. Prizes will usually be awarded for Best General, Best Painted and Best Sportsman.

This is a work in progress, but we should have this down within six months or so. My goal is to have things running smoothly by Origins, where we hope to host the U.S. National Championship for FOW.

De Bellis Columbus, Nov. 5-6.

This is the North American DBM Open in Columbus. We will have DBM 25mm and 15mm, DBA and DBR! It will be held at the University Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, 3110 Olentangy River Rd., Columbus, OH 43202. (614) 267-7461, toll free (867) 677-5292, or Website: www.universityplazaosu.com for information on the hotel.