by The headlines have assembled 📄—and they’re ready for inspection ➡️
The Armchair Dragoons 2026 Fall Assembly event submission is now open, and you can add your events to the cavalcade of wargaming fun we’ll be having the weekend of 9-11 October.
Badge sales are still scheduled to open the second week of August. You’ve had plenty of warning, so no excuses on joining the fun!
Our annual Solo War / Historical Game Survey with Beyond Solitaire will be kicking off in about 10 days. We’re launching a little early this year so we can promote it while both GenCon and WBC are going on. We also might have a fix for the “must paste in URLs” issue that everyone hates, but we’ve got more testing to do to make sure it works on a variety of platforms. We’ll still leave it open for at least a month.
There’s a great blog post over on Stonemaier Games’ site that’s no doubt focused on the kinds of game discourse they see all the time, but is much more broadly applicable to the internet as a whole.
There are various versions of this question; here are some others that I ask myself (and often wish others would ask themselves):
- Would I speak differently if the other person was a friend or if I was face to face with them?
- Is the phrasing of my question, request, or post aligned with the outcome I’m hoping to achieve? (i.e., if I start a conversation by calling a game “a total joke”, I shouldn’t be surprised when the ensuing conversation ignores my more salient points)
- Is this an opportunity to ask a question instead of assuming or declaring? (i.e., it’s really important to get the facts straight before forming conclusions. See also this open letter to the internet.)
- Am I addressing the right person for this criticism or question? (i.e., if I have a question about a game in a specific language or digital format, am I asking the correct publisher/developer?)
- What if everyone requested this or asked this privately? (i.e., if 1,000 people asked this same question, would that be fair to the person I’m asking? See also the value of public questions.)
Fresh ink, fresh plastic, fresh possibilities 📝—all waiting below ➜
- NUTS! is finally shipping the 2nd edition of their Urban Operations game; there’s also an update kit for folks that had the original
- Legion Wargames just released Drive on Voronezh as a ziploc-only game; it’s still showing CPO price on the site but the front page says “now available for purchase”
- Hunt for Blackbeard is shipping from Fort Circle Games
- Ground Branch just released from Microprose and it’s 20% off until Thursday
- It’s print-&-play only, but Red Sash Games has released Children of the Mist on their site; it’s a Jacobite battle set in Scotland in the 18th century
- Real Time Wargaming – Rules for Real Time Miniature Wargaming throughout the Ages is a free PDF
- This week on Wargame Vault
- Destination Berlin! is a set of minis rules for late-war ETO wargames
- Enciclopedia Belicosa #11 – the Brazilian minis wargaming magazine – is now available
- Not One Step Back: Stalingrad is a solo wargame and you’ve probably figured out what it covers
- Lone Panther: A Solitaire Wargame is the latest book from Mike Lambo
- There’s a new BattleTech: Grinder Miniatures Tray from Catalyst that’s $250, but it’s also 30 mechs, with some initial paint/color applied
- Other new releases on Steam
- Microprose also released Drone Sector into early access this past week, too
- Valor 1944 is a third-person shooter set in WW2, both ETO and PTO
- Gladiator is an open-world adventure / realm-builder that has you doing just about everything except gladiating
- LNLP released their new Game Assistant to support playing LNLT, NAW, and WAW85 series games
- The new Crew Companion for The Expanse RPG was released by Green Ronin (and there’s a PDF option, too)
- DICE!
- Dice Envy’s new Clockwork Soul 8pc set is copper with blue ink and would look great with both a steampunk theme, or a retro-apocalyptic one
- Dice Envy also has a new War Horns d6 set of 16mm dice that would work great for a wild west game or Attila the Hun
- Easy Roller Dice has 45% off all their dice trays with coupon code TRAY45 at checkout
- Royale — the wargame played entirely by email
Several new projects just opened their doors 🚪—take a peek ➜
- Byron told us about Oasis on a podcast episode last Spring; Oasis: Tactical Salvage Reclamation launched today on Gamefound
- Battle of the Seas launched on Gamefound and because it has sails in it, we’re pretty sure Hethwill already backed it at the highest level
- New p500s from GMT this week1
- Lee Moves North CW Heritage Series, Vol. III
- Rowing to Hades, Ancient Naval Battles
- C&C Ancients 8th printing (see add’l details below in The Gaming-Industrial Complex)
- C&C Napoleonics 6th printing (see the same details below in The Gaming-Industrial Complex)
- Pacific War 2nd printing
- This week on Kickstarter
- Long Rifle 3e: French & Indian War Skirmish Game that’s built on the 2HW system
- Seven-Part Pact is a board/RPG hybrid about a bunch of wizards from Steve Jackson that’s got some incredible artwork and a bunch of your favorite designers & publishers backing it
- We’ve had Advent calendars for Legos, dice, and plenty more, so why not one for solo-journaling RPGs, too?
- And this week’s hopeless campaign is Kriegsspiel ~ 7 Years’ War that we told you about when it launched, and hasn’t even cracked $2k with 3 days to go
- Unlaunching2 this week was the Skyships & Strongholds campaign from ND Hobbies, after they admitted in a discussion thread that they used AI artwork, but hadn’t disclosed it anywhere else in the campaign; regardless of whether you’re pro/anti-AI, it seems like disclosure is a minimal requirement that ought to be pretty easy to meet
- Free League opened pre-orders for some Dragonbane expansions; pre-order now and you get instant PDF access, too
- Arkand – City of Waves and Flames (plus a collector’s edition)
- Book of Magic (plus a collector’s edition)
- Ares put a bunch of Earth Under Siege boxes on pre-order this week; expected shipping is September
- Mystery Boxes are on pre-order with Warlord Games; $200 gets you at least $320 of product and the core of at least one army
New bargains have entered the operating area 💰—inventory follows ➜
- WDS ‘Game of the week’ is First World War Campaigns: France ’14 for $29.95, on sale until Sunday
- Modiphius’ “Christmas in July” sale has PDFs 30% off, sometimes more
- Big Hackmaster package over at Bundle of Holding
- 25% off all back issues of SENET Magazine with coupon code SUMMERSALE at checkout
- Noble Knight has copies of SPI’s Great Medieval Battles starting at $55
- Ventonuovo’s been announcing some deep discounts in their newsletters on their back catalog, but by the time we click through to them, everything’s out of stock; it really feels like their trying to clear some warehouse space
The latest Armchair Dragoons articles are ready for inspection ✏️—continue below 🔍
- #TBT/Throwback Thursday ~ Comparative Analysis of Waterloo Games – Part 2
- Saturday Night Fights ~ “Lasalle 2”: The Battle of Golymin (3)
- Helter-skelter Frontier Scum -or- another RPG Borg assimilation from Free League Workshop
- Ace of Aces: A WWI Dogfighting Classic – with a Richthofen’s War Twist!
- From The Armchair Dragoons Archives
- Back on 9 Jul 21, we published 5 Questions with… HistoriKC Fest & History on the Table from the Armchair Dragoons PAO desk
- On 15 Jan 24, we streamed the 2024 ACDC Welcome Happy Hour on our YouTube channel
- #CNXONL26 Why you sometimes must stack the deck in war games
- Podcast Excerpt from MiD S16e6— Prof Wargaming Certifications at Kings College
- #CNXONL26 Why soft aspects are the core of wargaming
- Gameplay this week
The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was
On Wargame Reviews. What they are; and What they are not…at least according to TPA
First off, I don’t see a review, or at least our brand of reviews, as a total and full exploration of a game or the system. As I stated above, we play a game until we are comfortable with the rules, the mechanics, the thesis of the game and the general flow. This can mean that we play through an entire scenario or even sometimes the campaign but that is not necessarily the case. In fact, more often than not, that isn’t the case. We also play these wargames to see if we like the system. Liking the system is a very different thing from totally dissecting and examining the system for its flaws, strengths and proving or challenging its thesis. Our focus in reviews is generally pretty simple…sharing the feeling of the game, its accessibility, meaning the clarity of the rules, and then a focus on how the game plays.
Regardless of whether you agree with Grant’s position or not, at least he’s taken the time to clearly stake out the level of detail and analysis you should expect from them. It’s OK for people to disagree on definitions, but once someone tells you the definition they are applying to a term, you’re now informed on their perspective whenever they use that word.3
Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream stayed pretty well on the topic of wargames about Sicily in 1943
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- This week, Scott Thorne’s column covers DCC Day, and at some point we’re going to have to get a bunch of people together about an annual Hex-&-Counter Day
- BoardGameWire has an interesting article about an academic analysis of the BGG catalog examining the rise of solo gaming as a dedicated mechanism
- Rascal covers the Between Two Cons shift from podcast to convention organizer
- Rolling with it: Dungeons & Dragons & the University Honors Program (Unicorn of Cincinnati)
- Eric Martin rolling out his new ad program for Board Game Beat
- Paizo has a special Pathfinder day coming up with the Seattle Mariners, including specially-priced tickets and a custom dice set
- Company Updates
- Nice feature here on Friend-of-the-Dragoons Christopher High and his plans to expand Valor Mountain Games
- GMT Games added a new “Specials” category to their site for all their sales in one place; they’ve also got a page for products from Sound of Drums now that they’re carrying those games, too
- Wargame Design Studio shared their half-year update for 2026
GMT’s July newsletter was fortuitously-timed. While we already had the news about the “Specials” and “Sound of Drums” pages, this info about their C&C lines was new, and a pretty big deal. Go read the newsletter for all of it, but here’s some of the key info
After we’d gathered all the input and refined an approach, Jason pitched it to Richard and he was “in” very quickly. So, now that he’s in and all of us internally at GMT are onboard, we want to invite all of you to be in, too. Here’s what we’re inviting you into:
1. Reworked lines for C&C Ancients and Napoleonics that will include a single base game for each, plus expansions that are packaged differently than we’ve previously done it (with some grouped in multi-packs to help everyone get the most bang for your buck with the expansions). The base games are going back up on P500 as P500 Reprints TODAY. If you’d like one, please support us and the series by placing your P500 order!
(snip)
2. I’m not ready to announce a title or exact date yet, but I MAY have buried the lead a bit, here. As part of our reinvigoration of the Commands & Colors line, we will be launching a new GMT Commands & Colors product line on P500 within the coming 3-6 months! The first product is going to include more scenarios than you’ve seen to date in a C&C game, giving you TONS of gameplay value for your C&C investment. Internally, we are SUPER excited about this product, and I think you will be, too, once you see what Richard has prepared for you!
3. In light of how strategic this line is to GMT, and to get some momentum rolling for these products quickly, and honestly in hopes that we can win many of you back to GMT’s C&C lines after this long period of product line stagnations, we are setting aside the funds needed to get at least the two Ancients and Napoleonics base games to the printer by the end of 2026 and to get the new mystery product(s) to the printer within 6 months of its announcement on P500.
Again, much more in the newsletter, so if the C&C series are your thing, go read it!
Articles, advice, and ideas for those of you on the creative side
- Skeleton Code Machine talks about generating a tavern map to burn it all down
- “What is a Hawk & Dove Game?”
- One-Page RPG Jam 2026: itch.io page with the details; advice & guidance from Exuent
- A Game Designer’s Aesthetic
- Why Listening to Every Playtester Will Ruin Your Game | Design Pillar
Game design 🎲✂️ questionWe're very fortunate to have @unpub.org in the US.Is there anything like that in the UK or EU?
— Corey Young 🔜 Gen Con (@coreyyoung.com) 2026-07-15T15:37:31.926Z
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 The Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly (Cary NC), 9-11 October 2026
- Next virtual event is The ACDC 15-17 January 2027
Upcoming Conventions & Events
- 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)
- 3-7 Sep DragonCon (Atlanta GA)
- 4-7 Sep Gateway 2026 (Los Angeles CA)
- 5-9 Sep World Series of Board Gaming (Las Vegas NV)
- 18-20 Sep Southern Front (Morrisville NC)
- 24-27 Sep 6ᵉ Open de France des Jeux d’Histoire (Bordeaux France)
- 4-11 Oct ASLOK (Cleveland)
- 9-11 Oct Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly (Cary NC)
- 22-25 Oct EssenSpiel (Essen Germany)
Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about the dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals and the separate “practitioner” category for articles on our site
Wargaming News & Articles for the Pros
- Upcoming wargaming events of interest
- 31 July — GameNation with Ed & Betsy, register here
- 14 August — Wargaming Civil Contingencies & Security, details here
- 19-20 September — Iron Tide virtual wargame/exercise (Taiwan Straits scenario), register here
- Wargaming Weekly #077: Are you looking for a micro-wargame about land drones?
- Development of the Allied Command Operations C2 wargame continues (NATO C2COE)
- Plans, Pedagogy, and Paper Wars (Australian Army Research Centre) talks about what wargames can/’t tell us, using pre-WW1 wargaming exemplars
- Across the Stour – Demonstrating the Kriegsspiel (LinkedIn)
- ARF Headquarters Strengthens Readiness Through Wargaming (NATO)
- Steadfast Shield, a logistics wargame set in Europe (LinkedIn)
- Research on Methods for Empowering Wargaming System with Large Language Models (Advanced Intelligent Computing Technology and Applications conference paper)
- The next GUWS webinars
- 27 July — Looking Across the Horizon: Lessons from Gaming with the USCG
- 3 August — Future War in Your (Cargo) Pocket
- 1 September — Joint Wargaming in Denmark
- Upcoming PGS/MORS events
- 22–25 September – Wargaming Emerging Technologies Workshop
- 19–23 October – Certificate in Wargaming
- 3–5 November – Designing Tactical Games Course
- 17–19 November – Gaming Space Operations Course
- 7-11 December – Certificate in Cyber Wargaming
- PaxSims latest article covers the board game Looking after Eden
- Get Hired! Knightsbridge is hiring for a couple of different “Wargamer” positions
Something neat from outside the wargaming world we thought was worth sharing
Oh lord, the hair!
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.
Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below.
