by Fresh links, hot headlines, and cool releases for #TuesdayNewsday are waiting below. ⬇️
Stumbled upon a reddit thread full of people defending a paid board game review, which just once again goes to show that reviewer trust has zero to do with standards and practices and mostly whether you like their vibe 🤷♂️
— Daniel Wynter (@boardgamefeast.bsky.social) 2026-06-05T23:16:12.561Z
Well I guess 3 years later, we’re doing this again.
Back in May of 2023, we included this in #TuesdayNewsday
Shit like this is why we recommended a Media Ethics course to the content creators division of GAMA back at the Expo. The idiots that run Quackalope usually just take the money and run, but this time they seem to have asked for it up front in return for burying a negative review. And the company they tried to blackmail? They brought the receipts to the conversation.
Well, there’s another channel out there taking money for “reviews” and pretending to some degree of objectivity even with their pockets getting lined by the publishers. This blew up on Reddit this past week in a thread that’s largely not worth reading considering how long it goes. This site doesn’t only do paid marketing masquerading as reviews—there’s some real ones, too—but pretending that somehow 2 different “scores” are enough of a fig leaf to cover your last shred of dignity is, well, it’s disingenuous and it’s embarrassing. Adam Richards lays out many of relevant concerns pretty succinctly here; Dan’s thread has some equally excellent points (as is his custom),
To get this perfectly clear: Armchair Dragoons does not accept any kind of payment for any kind of coverage.
We do accept review copies from publishers and designers, but make no promises of type, timing, or quantity of coverage, and endeavor to disclose that to the audience.
We prefer not to give scores as a part of any reviews or coverage, because we want our articles to be more meaningful than just a score slapped on a graphic somewhere, but some reviewers will do it out of habit.
Our policy is that we “review” a copy once the game is published, but pre-press or publishers’ proof copies will be tagged as “previews”.
Do we always get it right? No. Does that stop us from trying? Also, no. Want to talk about it? Feel free to do so in the comments, but please be respectful about it.
John Blanche, perhaps the artist most responsible for the look & feel of Warhammer, has passed away. He started working on White Dwarf magazine in 1977 and was the cover artist of the original Warhammer Fantasy Battle. The original announcement came on Facebook from Trish Carden, a friend of the family and fellow fantasy game artist. You can see the reports about John below
- ICv2
- PC Gamer
- Bell of Lost Souls
- CBC
- IGN
- Tabletop Gaming (with a good career retrospective, too)
Come join us at the Wargame HQ as we bring wargaming back to best of the big game conventions
Here’s where to find us at Origins
This week’s arrivals are ready to storm your table. ⚔️
- S&T issue #359 was mailed to subscribers and is now open for public sales; it contains the game Forgotten Front: Italy 1944-45
- For the Motherland! The Russian Front, 1941-44 from Compass Games is landing in mailboxes now
- SGS Battle for Gettysburg is now available on Steam and 20% off for the launch
- Guerre Eclair from NUTS! is now available in the US through Ares Games, their US distributor (who will be at Origins with us!)
- The free demo of the American Revolutionary War game from WDS is now available on Steam
- New Franco-Prussian War minis from Perry
- This week on Wargame Vault there’s a bunch of bundles, including some repackaging of older stuff together in a new ‘product’
- EZ Armies – Everything Bundle for paper minis you assembly yourself
- Fleets of the Second Great War bundle sourcebooks for Avalanche Press’ alt-history post-WW1 naval wars
- H.G. Wells, Grandfather of Gaming bundle includes Little Wars and a bunch of spinoffs
- And a non-bundle! Galley Wars is for ancient naval wargaming with minis
- SENET Magazine #23 is now shipping
- GMT reports that A Distant Plain, 4th Printing and Ardennes ’44, 4th Edition are both back in stock, too
- The Necroid Host: An OSR Horror Science Fiction Campaign Setting start weird and gets weirder
- DICE!
- Tropical Paradice is a new 10pc set from Dice Envy looks like candy; don’t eat it
- Easy Roller Dice has a Father’s Day sale to save $15 on any order over $49 with coupon code POPS at checkout
- Black Oak has released a half-dozen color schemes in their new “Expeditions” line; these include a regular d8 and a ‘compass’ d8 with directions on the faces
This week’s projects are full of ambition—and cool minis. ️
- Imjin War from Serious Historical Games is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: Japanese invasion of Korea in the 1500s, with a heavy naval component
- Compass Games put Falling Crescent on Kickstarter, so it’s probably already in the warehouse as they gin up additional orders
- War Diary Magazine has a new game on a short pre-order: Rommel in Italy 1943-44 asks “what if Rommel took command in Italy in WW2” and is scheduled to start shipping next week, so engage your hustle muscle
- This week’s newsletter from On Military Matters includes new minis from North Star and a variety of naval history books, among other things
- Vae Victis #187 is on pre-order; the included game will be Au temps des Cerises, Paris 1871 and remember that they make English-language game rules available
- VV also has the standalone game Kharkov 1943 on pre-order that continues their Storms in the East series
- Worthington put a couple of non-wargames on Kickstarter with Alien Hunter and Cryptid Hunter both in the same campaign
- This week on Kickstarter
- The Terror covering the early years of The French Revolution and just launched today
- Dracula 1897 covers the same ground as Mike Nagel’s Plague of Dracula and has a ways to go to make their funding
- The Five Kingdoms of the Icemark is a solo game that might fit right into Rocky’s “adventure wargame” niche
- Race To Tunis: A WW2 Roll & Write Game is about to end, and look, when you set a $71 goal, you really gotta try not to hit that, right?! 🤣
- The Codex Arena: Duel of Legendary Commanders can’t decide how to spell “duel” vs “dual” but it’s over 600% funded in about 20 days, and still going strong; there’s been other games in this genre, from Anachronism to Time Rift so we’ll see if this one has staying power
- And this week’s hopeless campaign is The Call of the Void: Denzaga whose cover looks like a glowing dildo, has a goal that’s easily 2x higher than it should’ve been, and hasn’t cracked 5 figures, with under a day to go
- MemoryCore is a project on Backerkit that’s aiming to adapt classic 90s console games to TTRPGs
- Flying Fortresses: B-17 Missions Over Europe is getting ready to ship, so you’ve got about a week to get the late pledge price before it goes up to full retail
- Don’t forget Hermann Luttmann’s Designer Edition of Dawn of the Zeds over at Blue Panther, with separate orders for US audiences and international ones
- Osprey put their Daimyo Mass Battle Samurai Game on pre-order with a July ship date
Lower prices, higher morale—here’s what’s on sale.
- WDS ‘Game of the week’ is Musket & Pike: Renaissance for $29.95, on sale until Sunday
- Can’t get cheaper than “free”! Mantic’s Kings of War starter rules are free to download on their site right now
- Looks like Modiphius either added some more stuff to their ongoing sale, or recategorized a few things, but there’s different stuff showing up now, it’s all 50% off, and it runs until 29 June
- Big B2G1 sale at Avalanche Press with coupon code WENDY at checkout
- Easy Roller Dice has a Father’s Day sale to save $15 on any order over $49 with coupon code POPS at checkout
- Noble Knight has copies of Enemy Coast Ahead – The Dambuster Raid starting at $125
- Assault on the 105s is on sale at Turgalium Games
- Songs of Silence – Complete Edition on GOG for over 25% off right now
- Worthington’s got a sale on until 13 June, and some of the prices are nuts; they’re clearing space in the warehouse for more things coming in
- Louisbourg game PLUS neoprene was $175 but on sale for only $50
- Waterloo Solitaire Board Game was $75 but on sale for only $37.50
- Band of Brothers Old Breed was $80 but on sale for only $35
- Shiloh 2nd Edition was $75 but on sale for only $25
- Seven Days Battles was $85 but on sale for only $25
- Levee En Masse was $75 but on sale for only $25
- Archie’s War was $75 but on sale for only $25
- Rommel’s War was $75 but on sale for only $25
- Soviet Dawn was $75 but on sale for only $20
- Lands of the Mesozoic was $70 but on sale for only $25
Our latest analyses and essays are ready for your eyeballs.
- #TuesdayNewsday – 2June 2026 – Wargaming Is Our Jam LIVE SHOW
- Origins 2026 ~ Q&A
- Translating to an AAR, part 1
- Translating to an AAR, part 2
- Saturday Night Fights ~ “Lasalle 2”: A Little Light Leipzig
- A Wargaming Visit to the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College
- Short Rounds! Panzer Corps 2 – Allied Operations – Italy: Volume 1
- AARs
- From The Armchair Dragoons Archives
- Back on 29 Nov 18, we published Classic Reviews ~ Runebound 2nd Ed (FFG) by bayonetbrant
- On 23 Jun 23, we released Origins 2023 ~ Third World War live from the Wargame HQ on our YouTube channel
- Gameplay this week
- This week in our forums we’re talking about ships in one of our long-running threads
The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was
This great tale of a neurodivergent guy and is daughter at UKGE and the games they discovered there
In many ways, it’s my worst nightmare: demands to perform tasks above my skill level, with an audience, under intense time pressure.
It is, in fact, a common worst nightmare. Plenty of psychological research suggests that the above combination reliably produces anxiety and impaired task performance – protocols like the Triers and the Mist stress tests do exactly this, and are used to generate anxiety in lab conditions so we can study it.
I also really, really enjoyed it. Not every game is about strategy, or tactics, or contemplating a webwork of beautiful, bifurcating decisions, each with opportunity costs and potential payoffs. Not every game is about the thrill of a card flip, the rumble of dice, the gasp of a uncloaked bluff.
Sometimes, a game can just be – on the face of it – very stupid, and arbitrary, and unique, and produce a definite state, or communal mood, or experience. The outcome generated need not be one of simple victoriousness. Actually, I feel as if Tear-able Quest makes explicit an aspect of play that many games go to some pains to hide. As the philosopher Bernard Suits put it: ‘If playing a game is regarded as not essentially different from going to the office or writing a cheque, then there is certainly something absurd or paradoxical or, more plausibly, simply something stupid about game playing.’
Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about naval wargaming
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- Paizo announced some layoffs as a result of some cash-flow issues related to the Diamond bankruptcy and subsequent legal wrangling over the ownership of consignment stock in their warehouses; laid-off employees do have 18-month recall rights, which is a protection their union negotiated
- This week, Scott Thorne’s column covers the new WH40K Armageddon box set and how store orders were handled
- BoardGameWire talks about the layoffs at Steamforged Games, which has a metric ton of unfulfilled Kickstarters but is making oodles of money on their Warmachine acquisition
- Rascal has a nice report on a new RPG store that’s opened in Milwaukee
- ICv2 reports that the legal and economic fallout of last Summer’s illegal tariffs continue to ripple through the hobby industry
- We don’t talk about WotC much because its outside our core interest and enough other people cover them, but the creation of their D&D Advisory Group of outsiders brought in to offer thoughts on the franchise is an interesting development that not near enough hobby game companies do
- There’s a new online marketplace for indie RPGs that’s opened up called RPG Trader
- Jamey Stegmaier talks about The Face of a Brand: A Delicate Balance
- Falkirk District Wargames Club’s annual Carronade show in 16 pictures
- Company Updates
- Mantic Games has a survey for Kings of War players about factions and concepts within the game
- Forgot to mention last week that MMP has a preorder price adjustment for Armies of Oblivion with the change in printing location
- Matrix Games changelog for the latest update to Armored Brigade II
- Wargame Design Studio updated more of their Squad Battles games to the newest engine
Just had the chance to play a couple games of Rebels Against Rebellion using a prototype made for Origins. Can’t wait to demo this to folks! @trevormbenjamin.bsky.social @kwanchai.bsky.social
— David Thompson (@djackthompson.bsky.social) 2026-06-09T00:37:36.886Z
Articles, advice, and ideas for those of you on the creative side
- Skeleton Code Machine talks about card drafting and forcing player actions
- Showing the game in action can’t hurt, especially when it’s a storytelling game
- What Makes Games Deep? A Conversation About Complexity, Luck, and Skill with Jon Perry (podcast)
- A good idea solves multiple problems at once
- Why I decided to try publishing board games (and why that was a stupid thing to do)
Attention is a resource, and I have not optimised my engine…#indiedev #gamedev #ttrpgdesign #boardgamedesign
— 52 Pickup Studios 🎲🃏♟️ (@52pickupstudios.com) 2026-06-05T09:03:33.561Z
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 ~ August 2 and September 6
- Next confirmed live event is Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly (Cary NC), 9-11 October
- Next virtual event is The ACDC 15-17 January 2027
Upcoming Conventions & Events
- 17-21 Jun ORIGINS (Columbus OH)
- 25-28 Jun Unthirl Your Banners Summer Gathering 2026 (Keswick UK)
- 26-28 Jun LibertyCon (Chattanooga TN)
- 27-27 Jun SDHist AmRevCon 2026 (Online)
- 10-16 Jul Consimexpo (Tempe AZ)
- 11-12 Jul SDHistCon North 2026 (Minneapolis MN)
- 15-19 Jul Historicon (with SPI’s Alive!) (Lancaster PA)
- 24 Jul-1 Aug World Boardgaming Championships (Seven Springs PA)
- 30 Jul-3 Aug GenCon (Indianapolis IN)
- 31 Jul-2 Aug Southern Fried Gaming Expo (Atlanta GA)
- 21-23 Aug Dragonflight Con (Bellevue WA)
Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about the dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals!
- A Wargaming Visit to the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (Armchair Dragoons)
- The calm before the storm: Command PE v2.4.4 is here (Matrix Games)
- ‘Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War’ is the ultimate OODA Loop wargame (Military Times)
- Design diary for an upcoming game, Procurement: The First Battle (Fight Club)
- Gamification in Logistics: Just a Gimmick or an Innovation with Value-Added Potential? (DHL Freight)
- As warfare evolves, virtual wargaming opens up new avenues for militaries (Euractiv)
- Russell Group: Corporate wargaming can challenge assumptions and build balance sheet resilience (GR)
- Testing Innovation Digital Modes and Models: Think Innovation through Games (book chapter)
- Game Design as an educational method (Design Research Society)
- The next GUWS webinar is LEXICON: Elements of Strategic Competition, an Educational Game on 15 June and then PRESIDIO Endeavor – Defending the Homeland, Projecting Power on 13 July
- PaxSims latest article recaps NYT: Why did Strait of Hormuz wargames go unheeded?
- Get Hired! Booz-Allen-Hamilton has a posting for a Simulation Center Technical Lead, but it’s in Fayetteville NC
US-based and want a copy of Battlegroup Clash? The last available copies are now with Catastrophe Games. Live anywhere else? You'll have to wait for the reprint, as the game has proven very popular and is now SOLD OUT.
— James Buckley (@jsbuckley.bsky.social) 2026-06-04T17:37:07.568Z
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
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.
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