October 2025 Tabletop & Miniatures News Round-up: Aliens, Arena Duels & Ratling Rumours

October’s here, the evenings are long, and the excuses to stay in and glue tiny plastic gremlins together are plentiful. Here’s what’s been rattling dice cups this month across sci-fi, fantasy and horror gaming — with links you can actually click, because we’re nice like that here at SFcrowsnest.

First up, Games Workshop’s stores are doing their best impression of a sweet shop. Swing by and you can nab a free Ratling “mini of the month” and a shiny Warhammer Day coin (while stocks last, so don’t dawdle). If your tastes run hotter than a daemon’s armpit, the latest Sunday Preview has the Helsmiths of Hashut summoning reinforcements for Age of Sigmar — more beards, more brass, more bull-headed attitude.

Speaking of Sigmar, those Christmas-adjacent big boxes are back: a reliable source of plastic joy and buyer’s remorse. Woehammer have the round-up on the 2025 sets (Skaven, Soulblight Gravelords, Gloomspite Gitz, Sylvaneth) and the expected pricing: “Battleforce boxes are back”. Start clearing a shelf now, future you will thank/pity you later.

Elsewhere in fantasy lands, Mantic have been stirring the Pannithor pot with Kings of War 4th Edition in full swing, and a moody bit of world-building fiction to set the tone: Plainstalker — a Pannithor story. Pre-orders for KoW4 are rolling, blogs and videos are flowing, and the temptation to start “just a small force” remains medically unadvisable.

Into grimdark alt-history? Wargames Atlantic have teamed up on Trench Crusade with a new plastic set teased via OnTableTop: “Partners Up For New Trench Crusade Set”. Expect gasmasks, relics and the sort of ecclesiastical hardware that makes the neighbours twitch their curtains.

Board-gamers, your turn in the barrel. Modiphius have announced that the DOOM™ Arena Board Game hits Kickstarter on 28 October, with both Classic and Dark Ages flavours on offer. It’s a fast, competitive punch-up on a 3D board where the DOOM Slayer and assorted hellspawn resolve age-old differences via polite discussion (and chainsaws).

Over in the “things with too many teeth” department, Bestiarum Games dropped an October wave of nightmarish resin for The Remade: biomechanical horrors perfect for skirmish proxies, RPG bosses, or frightening the dog. Have a browse of their October miniatures showcase — then immediately regret browsing before bedtime.

Horror continues beneath the surface as Sub Terra gets extra nasties: Second Gate’s Horror Miniatures pack adds, well, horrors (and leapers) to spice up your caving misadventures. Perfect if your group said, “This is tense, but could we be slightly more doomed?”

On the events side, Ares are attempting the largest Wings of Glory game ever on 11 October in Italy at Ludo in Fiera. If you’ve ever wanted to be one of a hundred-odd pilots doing synchronized Immelmann turns, this is your chance. Bring a scarf and your best “Tally-ho!”

Back to the 41st Millennium: the Drukhari sharpened their scalpels for an 11 October release wave that included the new Codex, datasheet cards, a Realspace Raiders box and the return of that fashion icon, Lady Malys. A handy snapshot lives on Miniset.net’s 11 October 2025 release page if you fancy a visual checklist (and a sobering look at the number of boxes your wallet is about to “accidentally” buy).

Finally, seasonal mischief: Da Red Gobbo has reappeared with a festive robot that definitely won’t explode, go rogue, or redistribute presents according to a highly subjective concept of “fairness”. It’s October. We’re not ready. He is.

That’s your lot for this month. Paint bravely, measure twice, and when someone says “it’s only a little skirmish project,” smile, nod and clear them some storage space.