Gaming | Advance! 2026

And just like that a whole 'nother year has passed and we're back at Advance!, the local wargaming convention put on by the San Diego Historical Miniatures Wargame Club (SDHMWC). Once again, while the focus is definitely historical, there are a ton of other genres to match whatever flavor you're looking for. I was able to stay a little longer this time around, so I got some more games in than last time plus I managed to enter some minis into the painting competition. 

The first game I played was Galleys, Guns, and Glory, which is a naval game focused on, you guessed it, galleys. If you know what the Battle of Lepanto is, this is the game for you. The models are stacks of laser cut MDF that when put together make some lovely miniatures. They're surprisingly large, with the biggest models at this game over 6" in length. 

The mechanics of the game are pretty easy to grasp. This is helped a lot by the fact that these are galleys, which means wind isn't as big of a factor. You also only have cannons on your bow, so where you point is where you can shoot. When you get within 4" you can do some small arms fire, which requires you to roll dice based on half your crew. 

Speaking of crew, the ships are actually large enough to have crew on them, represented by tokens. They come into play with the aforementioned small arms fire along with boarding actions. And let me tell you, boarding is quite deadly. If you successfully sweep a crew, you get to claim the enemy ship as a prize. Very fun game, and I did win, so that helps me like it. 

Pivoting hard from historical naval games, the next game I tried was Flames of Orion. This is a mini-agnostic mech game, in the same scale as other well known games like Battletech. This is a 4v4 game, and I got to play on some beautiful terrain boards. 

You could view this game to Battletech as Mordheim is to Warhammer Fantasy Battles. It was very easy to pick up and get right into the action. The heat mechanic practically encourages you to get into the fight, as you'll accrue heat tokens even if you don't do anything, so you might as well get busy doing. Once you collect sufficient heat, you explode, so this also means you have to do a lot with the few turns you have. 

So unusually for me, I skipped across the map, drove a lance into the enemy mech's face, and started absolutely wailing on my opponent. This was very fun, and I love it when game mechanics encourage a certain style of play without depending on railroading a player. 

I managed to squeak out a win by knocking out more mechs by then end of round five. If I had rolled poorly I would have exploded from excess heat, so I was playing very high risk high reward. 

If you're interested in the game, the core rules are available online, which makes the game incredibly accessible. I also love it when your minis get to be used in a bunch of different games, so if you have a ton of Battletech/Mechwarrior, you can give this game a try right now. 

For my last game of the event, I played some good old fashioned X-Wing. This was a custom scenario where the Rebels had to protect the Star Tours ships from getting scanned and captured by Imperial forces. 

I elected to play as the Rebels, and boy was I rusty at this game. My maneuvers were terrible, setting up my poor A-Wing to get pounced upon by a trio of Tie Fighters. 

I also wasn't helped by my utterly abysmal die rolling. I think I only managed to score a few hits during the game. By the end I had only knocked out a single Tie Fighter. All seemed lost for the Rebellion, but the Empire only managed to scan the ship with the spy on it before it blasted off to hyperspace. The win condition for them was to scan and capture the ship, so I won on technicalities. 

So that means I won all of my convention games, which means I am the best miniwargamer. 

There were tons of other lovely wargames strewn throughout the event, so go ahead and take a gander: 

And as a final note, I did actually win some cool things. I won a box of Allied Troops for Epic Battles Hail Caesar The Punic Wars (I'm sure they could make that title longer). I usually don't win anything good in raffles, so this was a nice little surprise for me. 

But more importantly, I entered my Xebec from Black Seas into the painting competition. Naturally I entered it into the historical vehicle/machine category, as it didn't really fit in anywhere else. And I'm happy to report that she took first place in her category! My prize was a shiny medal and some Vallejo WW2 acrylic paints. So now I get to tell folks that I'm an award winning painter. 

This year was a blast, so I'll definitely be back again in 2027! 

-The Space Dinosaur