by Reporting in with another #TuesdayNewsday of hobby happenings and strategic shenanigans! ➡️
An update from Origins, where they’re having to deal with some “security” foisted on them by the city government
Origins Update: Exhibit Hall Entry and Metal Detectors
Hey everyone, I’m Lindsey Carter, the new Exhibitor Manager for GAMA working on Origins and Expo.I wanted to jump in and talk about the metal detectors going into the exhibit halls, because I’ve seen the questions and concerns and they’re completely valid.This isn’t something we added on our own. It’s a requirement from the Greater Columbus Convention Center and part of local safety ordinances for events of this size.
But just because it’s required doesn’t mean we don’t care how it impacts you.I know this community. We carry a lot of “weird” stuff. Carts full of metal minis, tools, dice, demo gear, cosplay equipment and more. Some of you are traveling with mobility devices, adaptive equipment, or medical devices. These aren’t edge cases here. They’re normal, and we’re treating them that way.Right now, we’re working closely with GCCC to build a clear FAQ so you know exactly what to expect before you set foot in the building. That will cover what they’re actually looking for, what’s allowed, and how things like minis gear, mobility devices, and medical needs will be handled.We’re also making sure the setups are ADA compliant, and we’re working with security ahead of the event so they understand our community before the event. Like other shows that have gone through this, there will be a bit of a learning curve at first. Part of our job is helping bridge that gap, and we are taking it seriously.
We also know a lot of folks in our space benefit from clear, detailed expectations. We’re prioritizing that in everything we put out.
We’ll share the FAQ as soon as it’s ready.
In the meantime, if something is worrying you or unclear, please ask. It helps us make this better for everyone.
We’re building this with you, and we want this Origins Game Fair 2026 to be one of the best yet. We can’t do that without your input and support.
RIP Jodi Black, of Pinnacle Entertainment Group and Carolina Game Tables, and friend-of-the-Dragoons, who passed away on 2 May at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill, NC.
The family were the owners of Carolina Game Tables1 and Jodi was an editor, writer, licensing manager, and many other things for Pinnacle Entertainment Group with her fingerprints all over the Savage Worlds game line.
If you’re able to assist the family with their remaining medical costs for her care, there is a GoFundMe set up
Please keep the Black family – her husband Clint and their 2 daughters – in your prayers.
This guy wired up a couple of different AIs into a game of Diplomacy
Roll for initiative—new products have entered the arena.
- World at War issue #108, with the included game West Front 1944 is now shipping
- Wargames Illustrated issue #461 is now available
- New minis for Perry Miniatures “Travelbattles” series, as they’re now making a Lace Wars line of minis
- This week on Wargame Vault
- WARS Napoleon’s Campaign is an expansion for the WARS minis game
- Grim West gives you a pulp wild west rules set with a side of some (optional) supernatural
- The Helios Foundation is the latest sci-fi expansion from Canvas Temple
- A.M.P Tactics is another mech-based minis game
- Paradox released Stellaris: Season 10 and Stellaris: Vipra the Vapor Species Portrait on Steam, and how many more “seasons” do you think we’ll get before Academy gets around to releasing their board game?
- Worthington’s got their Gettysburg 1863 game back in stock
- Other new releases on Steam
- Microprose (re)released Gangs of Asia for all your 8-bit, early-90s-video-arcade graphic fighting fun
- Scenarios Of The Ancient Realm is a scenario / battle generation tool that’s in early access
- DICE! (including some sale stuff that probably ought to be down below, but we’re trying to keep it all in one place)
- Dice Envy has their “purple stuff” all on BOGO right now, no code needed
- Easy Roller has their “counter” dice on a BOGO sale through 8 May with coupon code COUNTER at checkout
- New “skull & axe” line from Black Oak Workshop, both the bag (new), and the dice (not as new)
New campaigns are rolling out—scroll on to see the contenders.
- Modiphius has pre-orders open on their Cohors Cthulhu: Tactics line – rulebooks, minis, dice, etc – for “adventure wargaming” in a Rome/horror setting
- NUTS! has their Urban Operations 2nd edition on pre-order and should be shipping soon(ish?)
- This week’s newsletter from On Military Matters that includes2 “a bunch of Dead Man’s Hand figures, some magazines, and a new scenario book from Partizan Press – latter of which is hot right now!”
- Free League has a couple of Blade Runner RPG pre-orders, and you get the PDFs immediately when plunk down your shekels for either the Replicant Rebellion book or the Asset Pack & Solo Mode in their webshop
- This week on Kickstarter
- Blitz Creed3 is a new combat card game that claims to use “real world data”
- Command & Defend: Modern War is a new ‘generic’ map-&-minis game that just launched and feels a little like an early-00s RTS on the tabletop
- Neon Odyssey: Space Opera in D&D by Legends of Avantris hacks the DD5e rules into a sci-fi setting that feels like a cross between 80s-era mall kiosk paintings and a Saturday morning cartoon that never made it onto the air and it’s blowing through funding goals like mad (launched this morning and already at 2000% of goal within an hour)
- And this week’s hopeless campaign is Nebulae – The Space Politics MMO that’s not even 10% of the way toward an already way-too-high goal, even with over 150 backers
- A couple of new PDFs for RAPID FIRE! on their site
- Warlord is hoovering up more of your pre-order budget! This time it’s a metric morbagaload of minis and the rulebook for The Highest Throne that’s a Pike & Shotte supplement for The Ottoman Wars, with a heaping helping of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for good meaure
- The Highest Throne (The Ottoman Wars) Pike & Shotte Supplement
- The Highest Throne Polish-Lithuanian Collection and The Highest Throne Ottoman Collection
- Ottoman Janissaries Regiment and the Ottoman Sipahi Cavalry Regiment
- Pancerni Heavy Cavalry Regiment, Pancerni Heavy Cavalry A & Pancerni Heavy Cavalry B, and Pancerni Heavy Cavalry Command
- Early Hajduks Firing & Early Hajduks Reloading, with a Early Hajduks Command, and heck, why not an entire (not Early) Hajduks Regiment that presumably slept in
- Polish Winged Hussars Regiment (Sabaton soundtrack not included)
- Polish-Lithuanian Mercenary Pikemen and the larger Polish-Lithuanian Mercenary Pikemen Regiment
- Polish-Lithuanian Levy Cavalry With Muskets Regiment and Polish-Lithuanian Levy Cavalry With Sabres overseen by the Polish-Lithuanian Levy Cavalry Command
- Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Later Infantry With Muskets Firing and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Later Infantry With Muskets Reloading with a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Later Infantry Command and we’re not sure if they’re letting the Hajduks get the worm, or just avoiding the mousetrap so they get the cheese
- Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Later Infantry With Muskets Regiment
These discounts may cause mild excitement. Viewer discretion advised.
- WDS ‘Game of the week’ is Panzer Campaigns: Poland ’39 for $29.95, on sale until Sunday
- Through the end of May, Blue Panther has a “Revolution” sale on their games that feature prominent revolutions
- War Mongrels is on sale on GOG for 75% off
- Noble Knight has copies of Waterloo (2nd Edition) starting at $34
- Miniature Market has A War of Whispers (Collector’s Edition) on sale this week
- Ares Games has a whole lot of stuff on order for UKGE pickup, and the “sale” here is that you save on shipping costs
- JTAS collection for Traveller at Bundle of Holding
Our keyboards were busy writing—your turn to get busy reading.
- “Commands and Colors Napoleonics”: The Unboxing
- Wednesday War Stories ~ The Battle of Mollwitz – Frederick’s Baptism of Fire
- Origins 2026 ~ Wargame HQ Events
- HMGS – Little Wars 2026
- First Impressions of American Revolutionary War from Wargame Design Studio
- Saturday Night Fights ~ “Lasalle 2”: A Bit of 1809 Madness
- China’s War 1937-1941 – COIN Goes WW2!
- Mentioned in Dispatches excerpt — Designer demo’s the secret to better booth sales
- Podcast Excerpt from MiD S16e10 — How we built a 26 000 person tabletop jobs group
- AARs
- From The Armchair Dragoons Archives
- Back on 5 Sep 24, we published Like Intel, Views of War Change in Boots on the Ground Deluxe by Rocky
- On 9 May 25, we showed 8-Player Game of Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific at Buckeye Game Fest 2025 on our YouTube channel
- Gameplay this week
- This week in our forums we’ve got our Origins 2026 discussion thread open
The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was
Chris Farrell talking about Triomphe a Marengo
As a forever gamer I will almost always have an intuitive sense when something is off and there is a rule we’re missing. This sense usually fails me in Simmons’ games. For example, the new Marengo has an extremely good morale system, where if the defender commits to holding a position they have to commit morale points to it, and potentially lose them when the position falls. This is, in theory, terrific, and I think in the case of this game it totally makes the design. It’s also not clear what exactly it represents, and it’s very easy to miss when the defender has to commit a morale until you’re fluent with the system. And there is no intuitive backstop to say, oh, hey, you needed to commit a morale there when you deployed a block to that approach. If you get to the end and realize you’ve played it slightly wrong your result is invalid and it’s hard to know what the game would have played like if done correctly. None of this is necessarily bad. I think the morale system is terrific in fact, it encouragers nuanced historical behavior and it’s critical to forcing the French to do their historical fighting withdrawal rather than fight it out for every intersection, and that makes the game. I don’t think Triomphe à Marengo would work at all without it.
Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream covered “omnigamers” and a whole lot of other stuff
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- This week, Scott Thorne’s column talks about Free Comic Book Day, which impacts a lot of game stores that cover both markets
- BoardGameWire
- Rascal asks Why Did Dan Frazier Get A Pass For Plagiarism When Other Magic: The Gathering Artists Don’t?
- Man, just when you think the Diamond bankruptcy couldn’t get any stupider, ICv2 reports that SparklePop has entered the fray, as the owner of the warehouse where all the consignment inventory is stored
- Jon Peterson interview: Shall We Play a Game? from Asterisk
- Noble Knight talks about “Great Games from Q1 2026”
Haus of Dream presents a Charity Actual Play series benefitting Rainbow Railroad. A Season’s Oath Episode 22🪨The Oros Caverns🪨Saturday 5/9/26 9AM PST | 12PM ESTTwitch.tv/haus_of_dreams Donate: tilt.fyi/P5Pm8ivto8#ttrpg #charitystream #actualplay #Wanderhome
— Haus of Dreams (@hausofdreams.bsky.social) 2026-05-04T20:22:28.736Z
Articles, advice, and ideas for those of you on the creative side
- Skeleton Code Machine talks about a turn drafting system
- Cutting rules that don’t really matter
- From Stonemaier Games Crowdfunding Potential Games vs. Launching Fully Produced Games
- 9th Grade Game Design Lab at Cincinnati Country Day School (Gaming the Past)
- Rules for generating factions in fantasy games
You never know what’s coming from Hollandspiele but it’s always interesting
ANNOUNCING: Swords Against Beginner's Box Replica EditionComing in June, this is a reproduction of a specific, incomplete, unplayable copy of this 1979 game found at an estate sale in 2016, including replicas of personal effects of the former owner.
— Amabel Holland (@amabel.bsky.social) 2026-04-29T15:21:52.915Z
Don’t forget to check our consolidated event & convention calendar for more!
You can also submit your own events for our calendar here.
Our Next Armchair Dragoons Events
- Wargame Days at The Gamer’s Armory in Cary, NC ~ June 7, July 5, and August 2
- Next confirmed live event is The Wargame HQ at ORIGINS (Columbus OH), 17-21 June 2026
- Next virtual event is The ACDC 15-17 January 2027
Upcoming Conventions & Events
- 12-14 May King’s College London Wargaming Conference (London UK)
- 14-18 May Compass Expo Spring 2026 (Meriden CT)
- 15-17 May CanGames 2026 (Ottawa ON)
- 16-17 May Chimera Con (Dublin IRL)
- 21-25 May BGG.Spring (Dallas TX)
- 22-24 May Enfilade (Tacoma WA)
- 22-25 May Gamex 2026 (Los Angeles CA)
- 24-24 May Tre Kronor (Haverhill UK)
- 29-31 May ConCarolinas (Charlotte NC)
- 29-31 May UK Games Expo 2026 (Birmingham UK)
- 5-8 Jun Bordercon (Albury NSW)
- 12-14 Jun Bayou Wars (Kenner LA)
- 12-14 Jun BottosCon Spring (New Westminster BC)
- 12-14 Jun FriedrichUK26 (York UK)
- 12-14 Jun Travcon UK 2026 (Bedford UK)
PunchedCON day 2!
— James Buckley (@jsbuckley.bsky.social) 2026-05-02T12:27:51.288Z
Come join us at the Wargame HQ as we bring wargaming back to best of the big game conventions
This post from Rogue Judges offers some great advice about dealing with the events at Origins
Hey Gamers new & old to Origins.
I just wanted to share some helpful tips as a GM to help you have a great experience at the show but also help ensure us GMs are getting proper attendance numbers and a good experience for everyone!
I know we are ALL stoked that a majority of events are included in the badges cost (aka free) but GMs still have to turn in tickets for free events. We of course want to get as many gamers to the table but we also have limits to what we can run and space.
With that said here are some tips that will help you & us!TIP 1: JOIN THE WAIT LIST FOR A SOLD OUT EVENT
TTE has a waitlist feature that works pretty well. When a ticket becomes available they notify you via email and you have a chance to snag a ticket.
— BONUS: Sometimes some GM’s may have an extra copy of the game or additional seats available not listed on the TTE event. the GM’s can message attendee’s directly with TTE. if your on the wait list then I could target those people to let them know (not every GM can support/do this but there are some that do!)
a ticket to an event is the 1 way to guarantee you get a seat. Even FREE events this is important as GM’s we have to turn in tickets to report our fill rates to Origins. This is how Origins knows which GMs etc get to get more space, come back, etc over time.
I know walk ups are a thing and we love getting as many gamers in but PLEASE register for a ticket (even you can do it on your phone to show a GM) this helps Origins reconcile AND the GM gets credit
If you change your mind about a game/event, please take a few minutes to go back into TTE to return the ticket.
For the FREE events its SO easy to get and forget or just change your mind and decide to get food then goto the event. This will allow wait listers to be notified/walk ups to join. Also GMs will be able to check (if they can) if something changes from before origins to during. thanks Katie Brad
This is more for the GM groups that have larger spaces, but some of these groups off wait list solutions so lets say TTE says an event is sold out– no shows ARE A THING — but if you use their wait list process you may get priority for “walk ups”.
— ex: Rogue Judges has a process where you can sign up on a wait list sheet for an event and just show up at that time. If your on the list you get “priority” vs someone that *just* walked up at event start to join without ticket.
GMs want the best experience for their gamers but sometimes things just don’t go well for us or the gamer. Remember patience and understanding is key. Almost all GM’s are volunteers and give up their own time to run events for your enjoyment.
This is to say if you have a bad experience or positive you should feel comfortable letting the GM know. If not, that is understandable maybe let the HQ for that GM group know — if they don’t have one and it was an experience that really upset you you always can report issues to the Event HQ’s staffed by GAMA convention staff.
Not every game is for every gamer and that is TOTALLY ok but lets me courteous to each other!
SEE YOU ALL in just 6 weeks?! crazy!
Yes, it’s just 6 weeks
Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about the dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals!
- I Played Putin in a War Game. The Most Dangerous Period May Be Coming (NY Times)
- This week, Wargaming Weekly asks, for the 12th time: “Are we ready for AI-powered wargaming?”
- Acquisition Reform Needs Its Own Wargame (War on the Rocks)
- DEGRE wargame an “Essential Tool” for modern deterrence (US StratCom)
- Army plans fast follow-up to AI cyber wargame with industry: Officials (Breaking Defense)
- NATO Partners Support Ukraine Wargaming Capability With Simulation (Halldale.com)
- What’s coming up from MORS
- 19–21 May:Introduction to Wargaming Course (UK)
- 14–17 September:Certificate in Survey Process
- 15–17 September:Global Critical Infrastructure Workshop
- 21–24 September:Wargaming Emerging Techniques Workshop
- This week, Mick Ryan’s ‘Big Five’ focuses on drone-on-drone warfare
- The next GUWS webinar is Five Wargames Every Force Design Process Needs on 1 June
- Get Hired! Booz-Allen-Hamilton has a posting for Wargaming Analyst, Mid (presumably not in a Gen-Alpha slang way)
Because no matter what the war gamers get up to, you will have had RPG players who were 10,000 times worse? 🙂
Something neat from outside the wargaming world we thought was worth sharing
That’s all for this week!
You can chat about the news in the Intel Dump in our discussion forums and next Tuesday we return with another update for you
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