Advance! 2026

The FIFTH annual Advance! miniature wargaming convention hosted by the San Diego Historical Miniature Wargamers will take place on April 25, 2026 at the La Mesa Community Center. This venue has expanded room to support bigger and better gaming!

While focused on miniature gaming, there will also be several tournaments/group events and a Flea market.

Bookmark this page to be on the lookout for details to follow, and for any questions, feel free to send an e-mail to the Advance! 2026 General Staff at: advance.SDHMWG@gmail.com.

Feel free to share this QR code with anyone you think may be interested to help Advance! continue to be the Premier 1-day Miniature Convention in California!

  • La Mesa Community Center

    4975 Memorial Drive, La Mesa, CA 91942

    There is parking on site at the Community Center. An overflow parking lot exists across Memorial Drive at Kuhlken Field. There may be street parking in the neighborhood with either meters or restrictions.

    Click the link below for access to a parking map.

    Additional Information

  • Have stuff you want to see re-homed? Interested in finding that obscure mini you’ve always wanted? Tables will be available to set-up for sellers at $25/table, price includes La Mesa business permit. Get your table reservation using the Advance! 2026 Store (button below or navigation link above)!

Welcome to the Advance! THIRD Annual Painting Competition! After an amazing inaugural event in 2024, and an even better one in 2025, we are excited to see more of the incredible talent and craftsmanship of miniature painters from across the realm. See below for categories, descriptions, and full rules for the competition. New to 2026 will be expanded categories!

  • This category celebrates the best painted historical military units. From ancient warriors to modern soldiers, showcase your skill in bringing historical battles to life on the tabletop. Must contain at least FIVE miniatures to qualify as a “unit”.

  • Delve into the intricate details of historical personalities, heroes and figures with this category. Whether it’s a knight in shining armor or a renowned general, let your brushstokes capture the essence of history.

  • Show off your mastery in painting historical vehicles, war machines, or weapons in this category. Be it a tank from World War II or a medieval siege weapon, bring these iconic pieces of history to vivid life.

  • From alien creatures to mythical beings, let your imagination run wild and paint a single figure that embodies the essence of this genre.

  • This category celebrates the best painted Sci-Fi units. From bug races to grimdark soldiers of the future, showcase your skill in bringing Sci-FI battles to life on the tabletop. Must contain at least FIVE miniatures to qualify as a “unit”.

  • Whether a hovercraft, a spaceship, or a battered snubfighter, this category celebrates the wide span of vehicles in the Sci-Fi universe.

  • Dragons, Demigods, and Monsters - oh my! Let your imagination run wild and paint a single figure that embodies the essence of this genre.

  • This category celebrates the best painted Fantasy units. From Dwarves to Elves, to Paladins, showcase your skill in bringing Fantasy battles to life on the tabletop. Must contain at least FIVE miniatures to qualify as a “unit”.

  • The most massive and fearsome fantasy monsters will be on display in this category!

  • Category winners will compete against one another to determine the best painting at Advance!

Current Categories

New for 2026…

The Advance! KID ZONE

Need an excuse for your significant other to come to Advance!?  Want to get your kids involved in YOUR hobby?  New to the convention will be a kid-friendly and focused gaming area in the main hall.  With three separate gaming opportunities of varying complexity and time, there’s sure to be one that appeals to everyone!

ALL KIDS UNDER 14 FREE WITH PAID ADULT TICKET!!!!!

2026 Sponsors

Games from past Advance! Conventions

List of Games

Advance! 2026 Schedule of Events

  • Check back again to see games as they're scheduled!

  • Alpha Clash

    Time: PM Gamemaster: Ridge Kiley Ruleset: Alpha Clash Scale: TBD Max Players: TBD

    Alpha Clash is an indie comic book IP featuring a TCG, novel, comics, board game, and our newest addition, miniatures.

  • Battle of Cannae

    Time: AM Gamemaster: Anthony Nicklo Ruleset: Age of Hannibal Scale: TBD Max Players: 6

    The Battle of Cannae was a key engagement of the Second Punic War between the Roman Republic and Carthage, fought on 2 August 216 BC near the ancient village of Cannae in Apulia, southeast Italy. The Carthaginians and their allies, led by Hannibal, surrounded and practically annihilated a larger Roman and Italian army under the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro. It is regarded as one of the greatest tactical feats in military history and one of the worst defeats in Roman history, and it cemented Hannibal's reputation as one of antiquity's greatest tacticians.

  • Big Bolt Action Play

    Time: ALL DAY Gamemaster: Andrew Sadera Ruleset: Bolt Action v3 Scale: 28mm Max Players 6

    Extended, large map, Bolt Action play!

  • Flames of Orion

    Time: ALL DAY Gamemaster: Mike Saint Ruleset: Flames of Orion Scale: 6mm Max Players: 2 (preferred) or 4

    Flames of Orion is a 6mm mech skirmish game. Rules light, fast playing (~1 hour, including teaching the game), miniature and terrain agnostic, with an emphasis on DIY kitbashing.

  • SAGA Tournament

    Time: AM Gamemaster: Steve Phallen Ruleset: SAGA Scale: 28mm Max Players: 8

    3-round SAGA tournament, stay tuned for additional details. Loaner armies are available.

  • Come Out Fighting

    Time: TBD Gamemaster: John Carnahan Ruleset: Come Out Fighting Scale: 15mm Max Players: 6

    Come Out Fighting is an innovative 15mm WW2 game, intended to use the models sitting idle after Flames of War. You can learn more about it on boardgamegeek and on its recently successful Kickstarter!

  • Hive City Gang War

    Time: PM Gamemaster: Dillon Tinkham Ruleset: OnePageRules Grimdark Future Firefight Scale: 28mm Max Players: 4/session

    A skirmish level Scifi wargame using an easy to learn and play system by OnePageRules. The games will be themed around the conflicts of rival gangs fighting for reputation and influence in a dystopian hive city. If you enjoy the themes and visuals of games like Necromunda, and enjoy streamlined rulesets, this one's for you!

  • Escape from Lepanto, 1571

    Time: AM Gamemaster: Tony Rodgers Ruleset: Galley, Guns, & Glory Scale: 1/300 Max Players: 4

    The battle is lost, all that is left to do is try and escape with what is left of your command. You lead your squadron to the south around a small island hoping to reach the open seas and leave this disaster behind. But after passing the island you see an enemy fleet bearing down on your galleys. The race is on will you make it to the open seas.

  • A Battle of Dragons

    Time: PM Gamemaster: Tony Rodgers Ruleset: Fjord Serpents Scale: 10mm Max Players: 4

    Fjord Serpents is a unique and dynamic miniature war game, set within Dark Age Scandinavia during the apex of the Viking Age. You will as they did in the Viking Age, on the mighty Fjord that controlled the islands.

  • Springtime in Poland, 1808

    Time: AM/PM Gamemaster: Marc Rubin Ruleset: Et Sans Resultat, 2nd Ed. Scale: 15 mm Max Players: 4-10

    Spring in Poland 1807. Snow melted, roads dried up, Russians on the move. Bennigsen has stolen a march on Napoleon and intends to isolate and destroy Marmont's II Corp before Napoleon can concentrate. Base scenario is designed for 4 players but I can add additional forces if I have more players. ESR rules are a grand tactical set where players represent Corp commanders, directing multiple subordinate formations composed of Battalions, Squadron Groups, and Batteries. Rules will be taught and excellent cheat sheets provided. Gaming area will represent about 7 scale miles of frontage and about 3 scale miles of depth.

    This is an all day game, but I'm going to experiment with allowing players who have signed up for late arrival to join the game between noon and 1 pm. They will command additional forces that have arrived on the field.

  • Battle of Salem Church, May 4th, 1863

    Time: PM Gamemaster: John Covello Ruleset: Carnage & Glory Scale: 15 mm Max Players: 4

    General Hooker has pleaded for help desperately to save the Union forces at Chancellorsville.

    John Sedwick’s 5th Corps is racing to the rescue.  Can the Confederates prevent them from linking up with the rest of the Union Army?

  • Battletech Grinder

    Time: AM/PM Gamemaster: Kevin Bailey Ruleset: Total Warfare Scale: 6 mm Max Players: 10

    The Battletech Grinder is a casual convention game setup that allows players to drop in and out as needed and is fun for both new and experienced players. The Grinder uses the Total Warfare ruleset for game play (also known as Classic Battletech), and is a "see how long you can survive" game mode. If a player's Mech is destroyed, they get to respawn in a new upgraded Mech. There is no winner or loser, but kills can be tracked for bragging rights. All game supplies will be provided.

  • Battle of Wolf Creek, 1838

    Time: AM Gamemaster: Timothy Greene Ruleset: Counting Coup & Cutting Horses Scale: 28 mm Max Players: 6

    Since the 1800's the Cheyennes and Arapahos had been moving south from Wyoming and Montana into Kansas and Colorado, pushed out of the Black Hills by the Crows and drawn by the immense horse herds and year round buffalo hunting of the southern plains. By 1826 they had reached the Arkansas River, the northern range of the Comanches and Kiowas. Parties of young Cheyenne and Arapaho braves would set out, on foot, in search of Comanche and Kiowa horses. One such party set out in the spring of 1837 despite the fact that the renewal of the tribal medicine, a bundle of sacred arrows, was incomplete. Impatient to set out, they whipped the keeper of the arrows, White Thunder, to make him perform the renewal ceremony. Despite portents of disaster due to the arrows not being renewed properly and even dire warnings from their Arapaho allies who had just finished their own sun dance thirty eight Cheyenne Bowstring Society warriors and four Contraries slipped out of the Cheyenne camps on foot.

    They were cornered by Kiowas under Satank and by Comanches and were rubbed out. News of the disaster reached the Cheyennes through their Arapaho friends who had been visiting the Kiowa and Comanche camps to trade and saw scalps they recognized during a Kiowa scalp dance celebrating their victory over the Cheyennes. The grieving Cheyennes sent runners, including Porcupine Bear, to all the bands of the tribe. They also gave a feast for the Arapahos and persuaded them to join in punishing the Kiowas and Comanches. Due to the anger of the Cheyennes it was agreed no captives would be taken. One Arapaho warrior, Flat War Club, announced he was giving his body to the Cheyennes, meaning he would not come back from the fight. ‍
    When all the Cheyenne bands had assembled they and the Arapahos moved south as tribes, with their families, hunting for Kiowas and Comanches. They encountered a large Kiowa camp along Wolf Creek, a tributary of the North Canadian river. One band of Cheyennes under Porcupine Bear, who had been outlawed for murdering a fellow tribesman, killed thirty one Kiowas out hunting buffalo while the remaining Cheyennes and Arapahos charged the Kiowa camp. Fierce fighting continued all day as bands of Comanches and Apaches (Kiowa Apaches) came up to reinforce the Kiowas from nearby camps. The Cheyennes and Arapahos made repeated massed charges.

    Towards evening the northerners, revenge satisfied, withdrew. Stunned by the ferocity of the assault the Kiowas and Comanches were content to let them go. Each side had lost many warriors in the fighting including some prominent men. One source states the Cheyennes and Arapahos killed fifty six Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache warriors in the fighting losing just fourteen of their own.

    The tribes would make peace in 1840 with the Kiowas and Comanches ceding the buffalo ranges along the Arkansas to the Cheyennes and Arapahos. Wolf Creek was the largest inter tribal battle on the Plains.

  • Conscripted Chaos

    Time: AM/PM Gamemaster: Chandler Eller Ruleset: Battletech Alpha Strike Scale: 6 mm Max Players: 2 per table

    Check back for game description.

  • The Mormon Trail

    Time: PM Gamemaster: Timothy Greene Ruleset: Counting Coup & Cutting Horses Scale: 28 mm Max Players: 4

    Lead a wagon train west along the Mormon Trail encountering Indians, grizzlies and buffalo herds In this Big Country on table map campaign! As the Civil War has broken out the army posts have been emptied of troops so you are on your own. The first player to reach and cross the river wins!

  • Meeting Engagement at Santo Thomas

    Time: PM Gamemaster: John Palomino Ruleset: Maximillian in Mexico Scale: 28 mm Max Players: 4

    Meeting engagement of French and Mexican troops set in Mexico during the French occupation of 1860-67

  • Advance! KID ZONE

    Time: AM/PM Gamemaster: Wade Page Ruleset: MarioKart Super Circuit / NBA Brick Heroes / MARVEL Weirdos!!! Scale: Various Max Players: Open Gaming

    See section above for flyer and game descriptions.

  • Battle of Dogger Bank

    Time: AM/PM Gamemaster: Harmon Ward Ruleset: Fleet Action Imminent Scale: 1:2400 Max Players: 6

    It is 1915 and the cryptographers in Room 40 have discovered the High Sea Fleet battlecruisers of the German navy are planning another raid on the English Coast. Can you trap them this time or will signal errors again allow the fast ship to elude your grasp? As the Germans will you fight off the superior forces of the Grand Fleet or flee to safety, preserving your ships for another day? There is no radar and your ships can only steam as fast as your stokers can shovel coal.

    This event follows the Dogger Bank diorama to be presented at the Western Naval History Association annual 2026 symposium on the Midway in San Diego Saturday 21 Feb and Sunday 22 Feb 2026. We will be inviting the attendees at the symposium to attend Advance!. Then they will make the diorama dynamic and see who wins the day. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dogger_Bank_(1915)

  • Red Alert! and Battle of Hoth

    Time: AM/PM Gamemaster: Rich Norton Ruleset: Commands & Colors Scale: Various Max Players: 8

    Love Commands & Colors? Always wanted to learn? This is your moment.

    Join us for fast-paced, head-to-head sci-fi battles featuring C&C: Battle for Hoth and C&C: Red Alert! Whether you’re a veteran commander or a complete recruit, we’ll get you into the action quickly. Learn the system in minutes, then challenge a friend (or make a new rival) across the battlefield.

    Each game plays in under an hour, making it perfect for jumping in between events. Tables will be running all day — drop in anytime and take command of your forces!

    The Commands & Colors game system, designed by Richard Borg, is a streamlined, card-driven tabletop wargame system that recreates battles on a hex-based board using blocks or miniatures. Armies are divided into left, center, and right sections, and players use Command cards to activate units in those sectors, creating an engaging mix of strategy and battlefield uncertainty. Combat is resolved with custom dice tailored to different troop types, keeping gameplay fast and accessible while still capturing the feel of tactical warfare. The system has been adapted to numerous historical and thematic settings, including Commands & Colors: Ancients, Commands & Colors: Napoleonics, and Memoir '44, making it one of the most versatile and widely played wargame systems available.

  • Marvel Crisis Protocol Demos

    Time: AM/PM Gamemaster: Jeremy Spurlock Ruleset: Marvel Crisis Protocol Scale: 40mm Max Players: 2/session

    I will be running demos of Marvel Crisis Protocol from Atomic Mass Games. This is a skirmish level game set in the Marvel universe. Come see your favorite Superheroes and Villains and learn how to play this strategic and fun game.

  • Mordheim: City of the Damned

    Time: AM Gamemaster: Dave Mclay Ruleset: Mordheim Scale: 28mm Max Players: 8

    Teaching people to play Mordheim in a fantasy skirmish setting. We are a terrain heavy PvP vs over game battling the elements, NPC characters, Monsters and players.

  • Trench Crusade Demos

    Time: AM Gamemaster: Darius Choksy Ruleset: Trench Crusade Scale: 32mm Max Players: 8

    The game that you’ve been hearing about - Trench Crusade is a skirmish-scale tabletop miniatures game set in a horrifying alternate timeline of WW1. Choose your faction of Faithful or Fallen and send them into the endless conflict of the trenches. 

    I plan on running a demo game on a 2x2 ft board with demo lists of 3-5 models. Models and rules will be provided

  • BATTLEZONE!!!

    Time: PM Gamemaster: Brett Lynam Ruleset: What A Tanker! (Modified) Scale: 28mm Max Players: 6

    The 80’s Arcade sensation comes to tabletop miniature gaming! Climb into one of four vector graphics tanks and take on your opponents in a stark, neon lined world of armored combat. Score points for destroying other tanks but beware!

    You only have limited lives. Who will get High Score and enter their initials on the leaderboard? Bring a handful of quarters and find out!

  • Kriegsspiel

    Time: AM/PM Gamemaster: Marshall Neal Ruleset: Kriegsspiel Scale: —- Max Players: 16

    Kriegsspiel is a military training exercise that emphasizes realism and fog of war.  It is played double-blind with three tables and maps; one for the umpire, and one for each opposing team.

    Players DO NOT NEED TO KNOW ANY RULES.  Rules are secret.  This forces players to focus on tactics instead of mechanics.  This game is still played by the military today to train officers.

    The International Kriegsspiel Society runs Kriegsspiel Games weekly on their Discord server, and daily by post.

    For more, check out the Little Wars TV group’s participation in an International Kriegsspiel Tournament on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hQuiv1Ln7-4?si=IJDOJ1JTdwsh6Kso

Convention Schedule

A Full Day!

Morning, Afternoon, and Evening gaming. Click on the button to see a single page graphically listing the current overall slate of games and times!

Prospective GMs

We are ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW GAMES!!! Interested in hosting a game? See the contact information to the right, please provide the Advance! 2026 General Staff your contact information and details regarding your game (table size needed, preferred times, number of participants, etc.)

NOTE

Non-Club member GMs will receive a free ticket to Advance! (one free ticket per game)