by Gear up for another #TuesdayNewsday of thrilling updates from the wargaming universe! It’s been a rough week in the wargaming world, but there are also new releases, pre-orders, and events to talk about, too.
Last week, game designer, developer, publisher, reviewer, teacher, and all-around great guy Alan Emrich passed away
Per thread started by his friends on CSW, Alan Emrich has passed away
talk.consimworld.com…A longtime giant of the gaming world, both tabletop & digital, Alan founded VPG, taught game design in college before it was cool, and coined the term “4X” for those games we all love
— Armchair Dragoons (@armchairdragoons.bsky.social) January 8, 2025 at 8:26 PM
The full text of our small tribute
Per thread started by his friends on CSW, Alan Emrich has passed away
A longtime giant of the gaming world, both tabletop & digital, Alan founded VPG, taught game design in college before it was cool, and coined the term “4X” for those games we all love
He’s the guy responsible for Master of Orion, made print-on-demand wargame publication a viable business model, never met a monster game he didn’t want to like. Alan’s influence will be rippling through the hobby gaming world for many years to come, and he is gone too soon
There’s a significant hole in the wargaming world tonight Everyone raise an extra glass tonight in honor of a man happy to sling dice with any opponent, so long there was a good conversation during the game
Alan was a rare game professional that ran equally well in digital and tabletop worlds, and it was interesting to see the tributes to him from each of those communities that were surprised what a major player he was in the other.
Obituary from PC Gamer • Obituary from the Funeral Home • Interview with Alan at GAMEX in 2013
BGG Thread • CSW Thread • ACD Thread • eXplorminate Thread • BGG Thread on Designer Page
As posted over on Facebook, Rodger McGowan’s home & office were destroyed in the current fire that’s raging in Los Angeles
No one’s got any further details at this point other than Rodger & his family are safe, but will need to completely rebuild.
From Rodger: Mae, Steve & I escaped the fire. Our house and 14 other homes in our area were destroyed. We are currently in a hotel. This ordeal will be a long, hard road. So much to deal with and try to comprehend with. Yes please share with our friends and fans on Twitter. 🙏
— Mark (@markherman54) January 14, 2025
Registration is still open for the 2025 ACDC that kicks off on Friday.
And we made sure to get a bunch of games scheduled in time zones that are friendly for your folks over in Europe, too!
As with our previous editions of the ArmChair Dragoons Digital Convention1
Games you can play include
And if you don’t know any of those, well, here’s a chance to come learn your new favorite game from some great GMs (and designers!) who built a bunch of great games and love teaching you how to play. |
Talk shows, seminars, and more!
plus some pickup games in our open rooms, too! |
ORIGINAL OPORD ~ REGISTRATION ~ LIVESTREAM ARCHIVE ~ AAR
Hitting the shelves (and webstores) near you now!
- Blue Panther have added the next set of games from Lock ‘n Load Publishing’s back catalog that they’re bringing back, both from North Africa in WW2
- Totensonntag (Battle of Sidi Rezegh)
- Rommel At Gazala
- Avalanche Press says they’ve got Second World War at Sea: North Cape ready to ship right now
- Two new ones from High Flying Dice that just made it into today’s news under the wire
- Polar Vortex – The Battle for Alaska’s North Slope
- Digger’s Resolve – Battle of Milne Bay
- CSL has released With The Hammer, covering a German peasant revolt in 1525
- Warlord Games released the SPQR: Death Or Glory Rulebook
- Rapid Fire! have released their new Monty vs Rommel book
Time to get those orders in now and then either (a) complain that it’s 2 years late, and/or (b) be surprised when it gets here sooner than you thought
- Gettysburg Solitaire is on Kickstarter from Worthington Games, with options to add a copy of In Magnificent Style, and/or neoprene game mats, to your pledge
- Quebec 1759 – 50th Anniversary Deluxe Limited Edition is on Kickstarter from Columbia Games and we’re looking to bring you some more content on that one pretty soon
- Compass Games has both Burma and CHACO on Kickstarter in the same campaign, but you can (now) pledge them individually
- Until the Bitter End is a print-&-play tank game about the Battle of the Bulge and you’d think they’d try advertising to wargamers but this is first anyone’s heard of it
- A game called Know Thyself that’s billed as a self-discovery tool? Are we suuuuure we want to open that door?! 😆
- Finally some meeples you’ll want to use, as Bekir’s Battlers2 brings you some self-standing wooden minis for fantasy games
- Anime-meets-mythology in the Mesothassia TTRPG that’s going to have a hard time getting anywhere close to their funding goal
- Since Renegade licensed the Axis & Allies line from Hasbro, they’ve brought back the base game, year-by-year games, and 1914, and launched the new North Africa game, and now they’ve got a pair of pre-orders up for 2025
- reprint of Axis & Allies: Battle of the Bulge (expected to ship in May)
- all-new Axis & Allies: Stalingrad3 (expected in August)
- Archon Studio has the Master of Orion: Ad Astra game on Gamefound, based on Alan’s classic 4X computer game
Looking for a deal? Getting more bang for your buck?
- WDS “Game of the week” is Panzer Campaigns: Rzhev ‘42 for $29.95
- Compass Games has Enemy Action: Ardennes on sale for $50 off
- Alternative Armies will throw in the 3 Wise Skeletons for free with any order until 6 February
- Miniature Market has Malta Besieged (Deluxe Edition) on sale for almost $20 off
- GOG has Buccaneer on sale at 33% off
- Kraken Dice has a buy-2-get-1 on their mystery dice sets
- Strategic Command Classic: WWI is on stale on Steam for $5 (75% off)
- Decision Games deal-of-the-month covers back issues of non-S&T magazines
It’s been a busy week for the regiment; here’s what you might’ve missed!
- Saturday Night Fights ~ “Playing the Beanball” (3) for “Charlie Don’t Surf!”
- Your 2024 in Wargaming, Part 2 – Your Games & Decision-Making
- Dispatches from Cyrano’s War Room, Part 1
- #TBT/Throwback Thursday ~ Ogre
- Wednesday War Stories ~ The Battle of New Orleans, 8 January 1815 <– NEW SERIES!
- AARs
- Gameplay this week
The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was
Wargaming Weekly #008: Can Taiwan boardgame its way to victory over China?
So between “2045” for the hobbyists (acting as the left horn) and this recent presidential tabletop exercise for the professionals (acting as the right horn), Taiwan seems to be growing some solid horns that it can use to execute an effective “Impondo Zenkomo” formation against Chinese influence/aggression using whole-of-society conflict wargaming. With TV shows like “Zero Day” (acting as the loins), I think the only missing (yet absolutely crucial) element now is a popular “taboo-breaking” video game along the lines of “2045” that can go viral among Taiwanese Gen Z’s (to act as the chest).
This week’s best written coverage from the wargaming world
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The best videos this week from our wargaming friends
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Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about THE TOPIC
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- Decision Games has a survey running on updated editions of boxed games
- ICv2 reports that the final contract has been signed between the port operators and the longshoremen’s union to keep the East coast ports open, which will impact overseas shipping arrivals for publishers using those ports
- High Flying Dice Games were the publisher spotlight over at Noble Knight last week
- Wargame Design Studio posted their end-of-2024 update
- Matrix Games has a new update for Strategic Command WWII: War in the Pacific that adds Steam Deck compatibility, among other things
Discovering New Game Designers: Diana Jones Awards @dianajonesaward.org – With Matt Forbeck @forbeck.com
Full Interview now available!
linktr.ee/Epic_Realms— Epic Realms (@epicrealms.bsky.social) January 14, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Don’t forget to check our consolidated event & convention calendar for more!
You can also submit your own events for our calendar here.
Upcoming Dragoons Events
- Wargame Days at The Gamer’s Armory in Cary, NC ~ 2 February and 2 March
- Next confirmed live event is BuckeyeGameFest, 1-4 May 2025
- Next planned virtual event is the ACDC4, THIS WEEKEND!
Other Conventions & Events
- 17-19 January The ACDC (Armchair Dragoons Virtual HQ) <– THIS WEEKEND!
- 17-19 January ConQuest Ventura (Ventura CA) <– THIS WEEKEND!
- 17-19 January Marscon (Virginia Beach VA) <– THIS WEEKEND!
- 17-19 January Siege of Augusta (August GA) <– THIS WEEKEND!
- 23-26 January MMP Winter Offensive (Bowie MD)
- 24-26 January Winter War Con (Champaign IL)
- 30 Jan-2 Feb CascadeCon (Bellingham WA)
- 31 Jan-2 Feb Captain Con (Warwick RI)
- 8 February SDHistCon Winter Quarters (Online)
- 5-9 February Game-on (Bellevue WA)
Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about our dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals!
- Are you a software dev looking for a break into professional wargaming? Check this one out
- Modeling a Chinese mass drone attack on Taiwan
- Start updating those South American orders of battle
- Russians accidentally shooting the Norks?
- More info about the TRADOC G2 Mad Scientist Initiative from last Fall
- This week, Mick Ryan kicks off an examination of the key considerations for the Ukraine conflict
- The next GUWS webinar is Wargaming for the Social & Cognitive Sciences on 21 January and then Nuclear Wargaming: It shouldn’t just be Game Over! on 4 February
- Where/how to pick fights when someone has otherwise conventional dominance?
- PaxSims shares the Wargaming Deception Working Group report
Someone’s trying to pick a fight!
What is a “warfighter”? I am unaware of this term in doctrine.
— thefred.bsky.social (@thefred.bsky.social) January 14, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Something neat from outside the wargaming world we thought was worth sharing
That’s all for this week!
Be sure to drop by our forums and join the fun, and next Tuesday we’ll drop some more news on you.
Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons.
Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web.
You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events.
Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below.
