ETC 2026 – The Biggest Flames of War Tournament of the Year Is Made in Italy!
August 16, 2026
(https://nodicenoglory.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/ETC2026-Apertura-1536x701.jpg)
By Paolo Paglianti
Twenty-six teams made up of 156 players converged on Milan for four days of Flames of War. Wargaming friends from every corner of the globe came together for dice rolling and good times. For me, it was a dream that finally came true.
I first started playing at ETC thanks to an invitation from my friend Soren Petersen, who in 2022 asked me (https://nodicenoglory.com/etc-2022-nodicenoglory-went-to-the-biggest-fow-team-tournament-of-the-year/) to play as a "mercenary" for the Icelandic team. What an experience! All the best FOW players in the world compete for a spot on their national team—or, indeed, as mercenaries—to take part in the most important and prestigious tournament of the year. That year, with Team Iceland, we also won the award for "Most Sporting Team," and I even finished second in the individual standings.
Over the following three years, I returned as a regular member of Team Italy, with more than satisfactory results: third place in Belgium (https://nodicenoglory.com/etc-2023-nodicenoglory-and-team-italy-went-to-the-biggest-fow-tournament-of-the-year-ready-for-check/), another third place in Poland (https://nodicenoglory.com/report-from-etc-2024/), and second place in Austria (https://nodicenoglory.com/etc-2025-the-event-of-the-year-for-the-flames-of-war-players/). However, since I also really enjoy organizing tournaments (I've been doing it since 2001!), from my very first ETC I had dreamed of bringing the event to Milan, Italy. And finally, I managed to do it!
(https://nodicenoglory.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/bf69e663-21c5-43e5-8b50-d77ec0bec13c-950x463.jpg)
The colorful brigade of 156 players (and two umpires!) at ETC 2026!
Preparing for ETC 2026
While the lights were literally still going out on ETC 2025, together with the Milan club staff we submitted our bid (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BTHhUlAoayWB1BvwF8DOC1ME4zMPdgBX/view?usp=sharing). The venue was the sports hall at the Sandro Pertini Sports Centre—a rather fitting name, considering that Sandro Pertini was one of Italy's most beloved Presidents and one of the leaders of the anti-Fascist Resistance.
The sports hall is a huge basketball court of around 800 square metres. In our original bid, we expected to have enough space for 20 or 22 teams. Other advantages included the possibility of eating on site at the Sports Centre's Pub Pertini, with different menus every day, and being strategically located within easy reach of Milan's two airports, Malpensa and Linate.
On top of that, the hotels in my home town of Cornaredo are very close to the venue. One is literally across the street from the sports hall, while the other is about three minutes away by car and offers a highly efficient free shuttle service.
We won the Captains' vote—with just one vote separating us from our friends from Greece—and from September 2025 onwards, we immediately got to work.
(https://nodicenoglory.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Turncounter-950x363.jpg)
In every tournament I organize, I love giving each player a painted souvenir. For the ETC, that meant painting 160 small Semovente tanks and adding them to a turn counter. I started 3D-printing and painting them back in late February!
The tables
One of the Milan club's promises was that ETC 2026 in Italy would have gaming tables worthy of such an important event. Since I regularly organize FOW tournaments, including the Italian National, I already had 10 completed tables in my garage. Together with the tables owned by the Milan club, we had around 30 very good and highly varied tables. The ETC chairmen then introduced a new system for classifying the six tables making up each "group," ensuring that the two teams playing against each other would face a suitably varied selection of terrain. The categories ranged from "City," with 50% of the table covered by buildings or ruins—think the Fall of Berlin or Stalingrad—which favour infantry, to "Countryside," with a majority of hills and woods, and "Steppe," which is more open and better suited to tank armies. The response from all the Italian clubs was simply moving. Right from the beginning, friends from the clubs in Trieste, Assisi, Padua and Verona, Turin, Trento, and even Switzerland offered to lend me their tables.
I therefore created a classification system to allocate the tables to the different groups according to the ETC requirements. Here you can find the Google Sheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ee4NF3CPwSK7nr9m6wllHy6pgPZj3ihYnlYEUQ5r1cs/edit?gid=1709852279#gid=1709852279) showing all the tables and where they came from. This was shared to all Captains, Chairmen and players, to check every single table layout.
Read on... (https://nodicenoglory.com/etc-2026-the-biggest-flames-of-war-tournament-of-the-year-is-made-in-italy/)