by Welcome to #TuesdayNewsday—your weekly deep dive into the world of wargaming. Whether you’re leading troops on the tabletop or analyzing military strategies, we’ve got the most relevant news to keep you informed and ahead of the curve.
Recapping a few highlights from our Origins After-Action Report, here are a few key take-aways from that rather long article
First: rankings of the events and the Wargame HQ
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What The Wargaming Community Needs to Take Away From Origins 2025
We just put over 170 wargaming events in the main gaming hall at Origins, and pulled in over 450 total player sessions, for an event that wargamers continue insist isn’t for them.
We had games running from 8am–midnight across 20 total tables, with at least 7 tables in use at all times between 10am–10pm.So yes, we’re looking right at YOU Multi-Man Publishing, and Columbia Games, and Compass Games, and Revolution Games, and Legion Wargames, and Worthington, and White Dog, and Lock ‘n Load, and Avalanche Press, and OSG, and Clash of Arms, and Accurate Simulations, and Cadet Games, and Fortress Games, and Marshal Enterprises, and all the rest of you stateside. And we know that VUCA Simulations, and Form Square Games, and Sound of Drums, and Draco Ideas, and NAC Wargames, and Hexasim, and Neva, and SNAFU, and Acies, and Ad Hoc, and DiSimula and Europa Simulazioni all have to get on planes to come join us and that’s expensive and we’re sensitive to that.
Don’t get a booth, or set up some big retail presence next year. But send someone to show up and see what we’re doing. Put a badge on someone and have them come walk around the Wargame HQ and take in all the wide variety of games, and gamers, that we’re putting on the table across 4-1/2 days of non-stop grognardiness.
We hope to see you there next year!
This is a hell of a crew of RPG historians
Owner Michael Coe has sold Gamelyn Games (all those Tiny Epic games) to Tycoon Games1 & Dan Yarrington.
Let’s just say that the reactions are not wholly supportive, and trending negative. For those that don’t know, Yarrington was the owner of Game Salute, which left a trail of failed crowdfunding projects and other busted deals & lawsuits in their wake before the launch of Tabletop Tycoon, which also later bought out Victory Point Games when Alan Emrich was ready to leave publishing behind, then laid off all the VPG creatives. He was also the owner of ShipNaked, a “fulfillment” company that once shipped all of the EU orders for a game to the US and tried to charge customers to send them back to the EU, and of Starling Games, which seems . . . fine? But also, why does one person need to keep changing company names if there’s nothing going on?
BoardGameWire has an interview with Yarrington, which includes his responses to some – but hardly all – of the online criticism that’s been leveled at him over the years
Man, this was a LIGHT week for new releases… wow!
- Golden Journal No. 30: Caspian Princes is new from Avalanche Press
- Ventonuovo released the Moscow ’41 expansion on their web store now that pre-orders are done shipping
- War Untold is a new RTS that just launched to early access on Steam and is 20% off right now
- A free PDF of the entire HALO: Flashpoint rulebook? Not just a quickstart? Limited time at Mantic Games’ website
- Wrapping up the releases from the Flames of War campaign for The Pacific 1942-43
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
- Dana Lombardy’s v3 of his 1970s-era NORAD game is being brought back by Banzai Magazine and he’s taking pre-orders on how many to have shipped over from Japan through the end of July
- This week’s newsletter from On Military Matters includes a bunch of minis sets for Anno Domini 1666 and a bunch of magazines
- Draco Ideas’ Kickstarter for Castelnuovo 1539 is about to end; you can read about the game in BC’s review
- CMU Press launched a 2fer on Backerkit, with both With Hunt 1649 and Making History as a part of the campaign
- Assault Sicily ’43 — Primsole Bridge is now on pre-order with Sound of Drums
- The Quest Keeper’s Deck of Character Development is now up on Kickstarter
- Free League has 2 new starter sets up for their Tolkein RPGs, with an option to pick up at GenCon; you get the PDFs immediately upon pre-ordering, too
- Konflikt ’47 just took over Warlord’s latest items page . . .
- Konflikt ’47 Rulebook With Special Miniature
- Axis All In Bundle and the USA All In Bundle include minis, rulebooks, dice bags, and more
- Axis “Vorwarts!” Bundle and the US “Good To Go” Bundle aren’t quite as all-encompassing
- Konflikt ’47 Starter Set
- Konflikt ’47 United States Starter Army and the Konflikt ’47 Axis Starter Army are figs-only
- Firefly Airborne Infantry
- Stahltruppen Heavy Infantry
- And if you’re single2 there’s always the Rift Buster Mega Bundle
Looking for a deal? Getting more bang for your buck?
- Now that the WDS Summer sale is over, they’re back to the “Game of the week” sales, and this week it’s Panzer Campaigns: Tobruk ‘41 for $29.95
- OSG has Napoleon’s Counterstrike on sale
- Emberglow Gaming (the manufacturers of our snazzy convention dice trays) have a Christmas in July sale right now and that includes what’s left of their 2024 dice Advent calendars for $55, but there’s a 25% discount on the entire “Christmas in July” collection automatically applied at checkout
- Academy Games sent out some discount links for Amazon Prime Days and no, Stellaris isn’t one of them; you can get 878 Vikings or 1775 Rebellion at 15% off but you gotta click the “Apply 15% coupon” box
- Dice Envy’s new “lagoon nebula” set launched this week and you can save 10% with coupon code GILLMAN at checkout
- Avalanche Press has a new “Six Days” package that gets you 4 different Panzer Grenadier (Modern) games all covering the 1967 Arab-Israeli War at almost $50 off the price of the eaches
- There’s a free Cleared Hot demo from MicroProse on Steam right now
- Easy Roller Dice still have their Summer clearance page up, and you can save an additional 20% with coupon code JULY20 at checkout
- Twilight Imperium 4th edition is 25% off for Prime Day
It’s been a busy week for the regiment; here’s what you might’ve missed!
- Saturday Night Fights ~ D’Erlon’s Attack for “General d’Armee 2” (2)
- Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector – Deeds Of The Fallen DLC First Look
- Origins 2025 Coverage – The AAR
- Origins 2025 Coverage – The Kind Spirit
- A Different Race War with 1944: Race to the Rhine
- Short Rounds! Conscript
- Wednesday War Stories ~ Operation Citadel (Kursk), 5 July-23 August 1943, and the Battle for Prokhorovka, 12 July 1943
- AARs
- Gameplay this week
The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was
Nisei Resistance from Dr Mike Benninghof
While the 442nd’s war record would become iconic among Japanese-Americans after the war, at the time many camp inmates saw its segregated nature as further proof of their own country’s scorn for them. The War Department had already foreseen conscription as a necessary follow-on to the volunteer effort, in order to provide trained replacements for the regiment.
Within the War Department, conscription also opened the possibility that more men would be drafted than the 442nd could absorb. Would Japanese-Americans be integrated into other, white Army units, or would further segregated units have to be established for them? That solution implied a complicated logistical and administrative burden, but Maj. Gen. Allen Gullion, the Provost Marshal and a prime proponent of the internment of Japanese-Americans, argued that Black Americans would object to their own young men serving in segregated units while Japanese-Americans served alongside white men. Gullion, who openly spouted his hatred for Roosevelt, Blacks and Jews (and cared nothing for Black opinion), won out. Japanese-Americans would remain segregated in Army service.
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 ancient warfare, plus sci-fi media properties, a big giveaway, and more
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- This week, Slitherine celebrates their 25th anniversary, and will have a livestream on the 9th with a bunch of news & announcements
- Scott Thorne gives you some insight on how game products ended up with a comics distributor and what might happen to them
- A couple of industry veterans have left Flat River Games to start their own import house under ACD3 Distribution; BGW has some more details, too
- ICv2 reports that Paizo could potentially be have issues getting some releases into stores on time thanks to the Diamond bankruptcy
- There’s a new home coming for both Flames of War and Team Yankee as they’re unifying the websites as Battlefront Community
- Catastrophe Games’ Origins AAR
- ICv2 also reports that Hasbro has licensed some of their more famous brands to casino operators for gambling machines/games and really, who among us wouldn’t want an Advanced Squad Leader online slot machine?!
- Red Sash Games are going to be changing their publishing model with Blue Panther in September, where complete new games will only be available for a year after they’re released, and after that, Blue Panther will only make the boxes, maps, counters, etc (ie, all the things you can’t easily print at home) and the rest of the game will be a PnP download direct from Red Sash
- Believe it or not, WDS has yet to run out of games to update to the new Panzer Campaigns 4.05.3 engine! This week, it’s Kharkov ’43, Mius ’43, Rumyantsev ’43, Smolensk ’43, and Kiev ’43.
Hey!Have you submitted to be a vendor at the Indie Games Night Market in November yet?Applications are due by August 1 and decisions will be made by August 15.Get to it!www.newmillindustries.com/ignm
— Daniel Newman // New Mill Industries (@dnlnwmn.bsky.social) 2025-07-06T20:53:46.995Z
- One of the many tariff-related reactions include Funko pulling the plug on their only-recently-appointed CEO
- Trade wars now playing out very publicly
- Higher prices are here and going up at record rates
- And the oldest toy store in Los Angeles (over 80yo) is struggling with the price increases
Don’t forget to check our consolidated event & convention calendar for more!
You can also submit your own events for our calendar here.
- Wargame Days at The Gamer’s Armory in Cary, NC ~ 3 August and 7 September
- Next confirmed live event is The Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly, 10-12 October 2025
- Next planned virtual event is the ACDC4, 16-18 January, 2026
Other Conventions & Events
- 11-20 Jul Consim World Expo (Tempe AZ)
- 11-14 Jul Human Wave (Washington DC)
- 11-14 Jul Twister Lords (Midwest City / OKC)
- 16-21 Jul Historicon (Lancaster PA)
- 26-4 Aug World Boardgaming Championships (Seven Springs PA) which includes Historicon yet again running off with our ideas5
- 31-4 Aug GenCon (Indianapolis IN)
- 14-18 Aug NashCon (Nashville TN)
- 22-25 Aug Dragonflight Con (Bellevue WA)
- 28 Aug-1 Sep Strategicon: Gateway (Los Angeles CA) featuring Ruggierocon (the wargame program there)
- 28 Aug-2 Sep DragonCon (Atlanta GA)
Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about our dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals!
- “Wargaming the Uncomfortable”
- It went around the web last week, but here is the Australian Army Battle Lab’s Professional Gaming List, which has different games in the picture than are in the list, and congrats to friends-of-the-Dragoons Tim Densham and Sebastian Bae for getting games on the list
- Still time to try to get your organization to pay for the MORS Certificate in Wargaming class is coming back around this Fall
- “Gamification” is changing how we learn & work6
- Europe just ran its first war game with drones and robots—Ukraine helped design it
- Wargaming at the strategic level needs to include munitions stockpiles
- One Ukrainian Drone Is Smashing Russia’s Factories—So Germany’s Paying for 500 More
- This week, Mick Ryan’s Big 5 talks about Russia’s effort vs gains, among other conflicts
- The next GUWS webinar is Reinvigorating the use of Manual Wargaming in the Australian Army on 5 August and Wargaming and the Just War on 19 August
The final map for Battlegroup Clash: Baltics is now ready, see below. All the maps are grid based, and replicate satellite imagery of Estonia. Blind playtesting is underway. I plan to open up the game for pre-orders at the start of next month. Sign up for updates here www.sapperstudio.com/games
— James Buckley (@jsbuckley.bsky.social) 2025-07-04T12:49:27.913Z
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.
Footnotes
- formerly “Tabletop Tycoon – yes, another name change
- or want to be
- no relation to Armchair Dragoons; they had the initials first!
- Armchair Dragoons Digital Convention
- they announced their digital/online convention back in 2020 after we rolled out ours, and we just ran a whole SPI series as a part of BGF with Ardwulf & MOWE
- and really, how the hell do you write an article about “gamification” and not at least acknowledge Jane McGonigal
