by The news ticker never sleeps 📟—fortunately neither does #TuesdayNewsday ➡️
RAND has a new report that’s got some significant implications on the professional side of things.
Initial Observations from the Camp(ai)gn Wargame
From these games, the authors developed six observations about how AI-enabled autonomous systems could affect campaign planning and execution. First, autonomous systems could enable new forms of limited conflict—graduated, low-intensity operations fought primarily with robotic systems. Second, these limited conflicts could produce distinctive escalation dynamics and end states that differ from canonical visions of great-power wars. Third, autonomous mass could become especially important during protracted conflicts, potentially in ways that favor China. Fourth, autonomous mass could expand the commander’s decision space and reshape familiar operational trade-offs, though it also increases the decisionmaking burden on commanders. Fifth, AI and autonomous systems could introduce new roles for allies—in self-defense, direct combat participation, and coalition production. Sixth, attacking an adversary’s data centers is unlikely to deliver decisive operational effects or prove to be an Achilles’ heel for AI-enabled forces.
Fight Club International has re-opened their Take That Bridge challenge, for you to (1) play the game, and (2) post your score. It’s an HTML/browser-based implementation of the game based on their Take That Hill (itself now available on Steam) with some new mechanics and tools available.
Pet peeve alert: if you’re going to be partnering or co-branding with another company, site, club, organization and/or person, get the damn name right. Spelling, capitalization, accent marks, pronunciation, and all the rest of it matters. Don’t stick an extra word in the middle of someone’s name. Don’t split words that aren’t split in their actual name. Capitalize things properly.
This isn’t about someone’s stray forum post or blog response.
This is talking about publishers, content creators and media relations people, professional organizations and official reps of clubs, conventions, and other organizations taking the time to get your information correct, before you publish. Double check. Then check again.
Put your best foot forward if you want to be taken seriously.
Every single year, someone goes nuts on the results posts, or on the YouTube comments on Liz’s channel, or the Geeklist on BGG, or one of the FB groups, and complains that “I didn’t even know this was happening!” So this is your warning! The 4th annual Favorite Solo War + Historical Games Survey is still open thru 31 August and it’s only a dozen questions (mostly drop-downs), and it goes pretty quick.
Note that we’re using a new platform this year, which solved the problem of pasting in BGG URLs (yay!) However, if you see a Google Drive error instead of the survey, try opening this page in a private/incognito browser window or another browser.
This is a Google account session issue that occasionally affects Apps Script surveys (boo!)
What’s it like to have to constantly feed the all-devouring content beast?
Three wargaming voices will get together and talk about it with Ardwulf & Pushing Cardboard & Armchair Dragoons
TUE 8/18 • 8pm Eastern
Another wave of releases has reached the shore 🌊—let’s sort through them ➜
- Microprose released Dagger Directive on Steam; the launch sale is 25% off until end of next week
- Strategy & Tactics Quarterly #35 – English Civil War looks to be shipping now
- WDS’s Thirty Years War is now on Steam
- Renegade Studios have brought back Axis & Allies: Zombies
- Zone Trooper is a download solo one-page game that’s inspired by 80s-era retro-futurism
- This week on Wargame Vault
- We told you about Eleven Bravo: Miniature Wargaming Rules For Modern Conflicts when it was on Kickstarter; the PDF’s are now available for anyone and 25% off for the launch
- Starmada Admiral’s Handbook gives you tabletop fleet actions
- A big bundle of WW1 magazine PDFs from Lombardy Studios, as they’ve collected 91 issues of Relevance Magazine from The Great War Society
- GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition Revised, PDF/digital download is available now (see below for hardcover)
- Marvel Multiverse RPG – Secret Wars supplement is now available
- Other new releases on Steam
- Solar Wave is an indie 4x game that just dropped; animations are simple but evocative
- Chunky 3d hexes that look like Heroscape are the map for Fire and Movement, a new arcade wargame
- Silent Shark is a WW2 submarine game with some basic graphics, and heavy on the onboard instruments as the UI
- Osprey have launched a bunch of audiobooks for their “Campaign Series” books1
- DICE!
- “Bloodsuckers” is a new 10mm mini set of metal dice from Dice Envy that would look great for most vampire/horror games
- Feywild Advent Calendars from Emberglow (the company that makes our awesome dice trays) can be pre-ordered at their side
- New from Warlord Games, they were called the “Dark Ages” because it was knight time!
New pre-orders have entered the system 💾—browse responsibly ➜
- Steel Wolves Deluxe Edition from Compass Games is on Kickstarter and include the German Fleet Boats expansion
- LPS/Against the Odds has Tiger Wings in pre-order; it’s a stand-alone game in the Fighting Wings series of WW2 games, out in East Asia
- This week’s newsletter from On Military Matters includes a variety of magazines and a bunch of books about Rome
- GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition Revised, hardcover is on pre-order now (see above for PDF)
- Mongoose is crowdfunding a reboot of the 90s-era Dark Conspiracy game that’s best described as a mix of T2K, X-Files, Dark Skies, Fringe, and Stranger Things, in the near future
- This week on Kickstarter
- Tank Clash : Eastern Front is the follow-up to the previous Western Front game, that comes with round tokens for the tanks on the map, but you can order STLs to print cartoonish versions for yourself
- Rawr: The Deck Building Game has you playing aliens that fight using mind-controlled dinosaurs
- Star Squadron is a tactical space dogfighting game that just launched today but is barely creeping ahead on orders; looks cool but almost no one promoting it
- And this week’s hopeless campaign is Defence by Design, that just launched last week but only has 2 backers; you just don’t get professional/practitioner audiences to pre-order on third-party platforms
- Mantic Games have their Advent Calendars on pre-order already, with an October ship date; themes include Walking Dead, Bar Room Brawl, and Hellboy2 among others
- Upcoming Fallout: Wasteland Warfare sets from Modiphius on pre-order
- Fallout: Wasteland Warfare – Into the Wasteland Starter Set & Dogmeat with Goggles
- Fallout: Wasteland Warfare – Warbands Starter Set
- Fallout: Wasteland Warfare – Factions of the Wasteland Bundle
- Fallout: Wasteland Warfare – Warbands Faction Bundle
- Fallout: Wasteland Warfare – Into the Wasteland Creature Bundle
Several excellent deals have been detected 📡—further investigation recommended 🔍
- WDS ‘Game of the week’ is Modern Campaigns: Korea ’85 for $29.95, on sale until Sunday
- ESR 1806 in Germany Starter Bundle on sale at The Wargaming Company
- Through their Desert Fox Games retail arm, Decision Games has a sale on collectible & out-of-print games until mid-September; spend more, save more
- Age of Wonders 4 Starter Edition is 40% off at GOG right now
- Noble Knight has copies of The Dogs of War from Thin Red Line starting at $495 and ranging up to $1300
- Miniature Market has Urban Operations: 2nd Edition on sale this week, over $20 off
- Save $15 by ordering Coast Watchers for The Gamer’s Armory
- Fanatical’s got an insane inventory of games under $5
New articles are now available in the reading queue 📝—proceed below ➜
- Wednesday War Stories ~ The Battle of Camden, 1780
- Connections US 2026
- Saturday Night Fights3 ~ “Lasalle 2”: The Battle of Dresden (South Flank)
- FL(W)GS Spotlight ~ Citadel Game Cellar of Groton CT
- First Impressions of Battle Box: Napoleonic Wars
- AARs
- From The Armchair Dragoons Archives
- Back on 25 Sep 24, we posted Data Diving Into the 2024 Solo & Solitaire Wargaming & Historical Gaming Survey by bayonetbrant
- On 1 Sep 23, we streamed the Armchair Dragoons 5th Anniversary Happy Hour on our YouTube channel
- Shorts!
- Gameplay this week
The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was
Wargaming is not the same as making a game out of war
Operators are awarded points for successful engagements. Different targets carry different values. Those points can then be exchanged for additional drones through an internal procurement system. From a management perspective, it is easy to understand why such a system exists. It creates accountability, measures effectiveness and helps allocate scarce resources to those delivering results.
In almost any commercial environment, we would recognise this as a performance management framework.
The question is whether the same logic should apply when the outcome being measured is the taking of human life.
Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream (theoretically) covered Bronze Age wargaming
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- This week, Scott Thorne’s column covers the plusses and minuses of distribution, with some real-world examples
- BoardGameWire reports on GenCon’s new head of events, Camilla Cleghorn
- Rascal let folks know that Games for Scholarships is now LIVE!
- ICv2 reports that GAMA has set 7 November for this years Game Store Day, and retailers can register to participate on GAMA’s site
- Larry Elmore—From field manuals to fantasy realms: How Fort Knox helped launch a veteran’s legendary career (DVIDS)
- Really excellent analysis / overview from ENWorld about the “toy factor” for many big-money crowdfunding campaigns and how the non-game add-ons run up the average spend per backer
- W Eric Martin’s member survey about what kind of board gamer you are
- Very interesting interview on TTRPG Insider with a pastor, about incorporating divine influences into RPG
- Vietnam War era Red Chinese anti-American board game (BGG)
- Company Updates
- Sapper Studio posted the VASSAL module for Battlegroup Clash: Baltics
- Against the Odds Magazine has stated that ATO #65 is going to be the last scheduled issue of the magazine, leaving open the possibility of other unscheduled ones after that
- The public beta for Command Modern Operations v1.10 is open at Matrix Games; this build adds real-time multiplayer
- Wargame Design Studio has engine updates for their Musket & Pike series and their Sword and Siege series
C’mon, who doesn’t love a good coloring/activity book?!
OUT NOW!MechWarriors of all ages can explore the Inner Sphere and beyond with BattleTech: Activity Book 04!This free book is a great way to enjoy #BattleTech with your kids when not playing the game!Download it today!bit.ly/BT-Activity-Book-4#free #mecha #kidfriendly #parent
— Catalyst Game Labs (@catalystgamelabs.bsky.social) 2026-08-15T18:00:34.217Z
Articles, advice, and ideas for those of you on the creative side
- Skeleton Code Machine talks about Converting game maps into graphs (part 2 continuing from last week)
- I’ve designed a Board Game – how do I make money from it?
- Board game design basics with Pam Walls
- Pre-flight checklist for your first one-page RPG
After the last Button Shy design challenge, I offered feedback to willing entrants in exchange for a small charitable donation. That meant watching and rewatching a lot of pitch videos, and there’s one big piece of feedback that I found myself repeating:SHOW US WHAT MAKES YOUR GAME EXCITING.1/8
— Ian Howard (@leafydragongames.bsky.social) 2026-08-15T15:30:50.122Z
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 ~ September 6 and October 4
- 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
- 20-23 Aug Hurricon 2026 (Celebration FL)
- 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)
- 19-20 Sep ProtoCon (Dallas Metroxplex)
- 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)
- 5-9 Nov Compass Fall Expo 2026 (Meriden CT)
- 6-8 Nov HMGS Fall-in! (Lancaster PA)
Current schedule as 18 August 2026 and registration is still open for the 2026 Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly
| Event Name | Max # | Starts | Mins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battle of Cowpens (Small Battles of the American Revolution) | 1 | 10/09 (FRI) at 1200 | 240 |
| Kriegsspiel Scenario | 10 | 10/09 (FRI) at 1200 | 120 |
| Raider Drop Zone (Full division!) | 6 | 10/09 (FRI) at 1400 | 300 |
| Red Baron’s War—WWI Air combat a remake of Richthofen’s War | 10 | 10/09 (FRI) at 1400 | 240 |
| King of the Tabletop | 4 | 10/09 (FRI) at 1900 | 120 |
| Combat Commander | 4 | 10/09 (FRI) at 1900 | 240 |
| Sails of Glory | 10 | 10/09 (FRI) at 2000 | 180 |
| Cracking the Hammer Bastion (Saturday) | 6 | 10/10 (SAT) at 0900 | 240 |
| Air & Armor: V Corps Learn To Play | 5 | 10/10 (SAT) at 0900 | 360 |
| Grand Tactical Series Beach Landing Scenario | 4 | 10/10 (SAT) at 0900 | 240 |
| BCS- Danger Forward | 2 | 10/10 (SAT) at 0900 | 180 |
| Wings of War/ Wings of Glory: WWII | 10 | 10/10 (SAT) at 1000 | 120 |
| Eagles in the Sky | 2 | 10/10 (SAT) at 1000 | 180 |
| SPI’s Würzburg | 4 | 10/10 (SAT) at 1300 | 180 |
| From Rappahannock to Bull Run – (rolling game part 1) | 4 | 10/10 (SAT) at 1300 | 240 |
| Red Baron’s War—WWI Air combat a remake of Richthofen’s War | 10 | 10/10 (SAT) at 1600 | 240 |
| The Napoleonic Wars by GMT | 4 | 10/10 (SAT) at 1900 | 240 |
| From Rappahannock to Bull Run – (rolling game part 2) | 4 | 10/10 (SAT) at 1900 | 240 |
| Cracking the Hammer Bastion (Sunday) | 6 | 10/11 (SUN) at 0900 | 240 |
| Air & Armor: V Corps Learn To Play | 5 | 10/11 (SUN) at 0900 | 360 |
| Musket and Pike Battle Series – Naseby | 4 | 10/11 (SUN) at 0900 | 240 |
| Wings of War/ Wings of Glory: WWI | 10 | 10/11 (SUN) at 1000 | 120 |
| Brief Border Wars 2 | 4 | 10/11 (SUN) at 1200 | 120 |
| Die Atom Bombe (by Against the Odds) | 5 | 10/11 (SUN) at 1200 | 240 |
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
- RAND’s report on their wargame “Exploring AI’s Operational Implications in a Future U.S.-China Conflict” (see our top story)
- This week, Wargaming Weekly asks “Am I stretching the definition of a wargame too far?!“5
- Wargaming is not the same as making a game out of war (Pravo Zulu)
- Lawmakers seek to expand Space Force training, wargaming to strengthen readiness (FedNews)
- Ukrainian drones wipe out entire US tank brigade in live war game (ArsTechnica)
- Code Metal lands $80 million Pentagon deal to modernize military wargaming (Fortune)
- The Next School of War: Educating for Tomorrow’s Battlefield (War on the Rocks)
- Advancing the Royal Navy’s mine-hunting capability (UK MoD, h/t Wargaming Weekly)
- Complementing Scenario Planning to the Strategic Value of Corporate War Gaming for Foresight and Decision-Making (Ideas)
- Who makes learning happen? Facilitators and actors in simulation-based learning for teacher professional learning and development (Professional Development in Education)
- PaxSims latest article covers Medevac! – The Fight to Save Lives
- Get Hired! Astrion, down in Australia, has a posting for Senior Wargame Mentor
Wargame Events of Professional Interest
- The next GUWS webinars
- 1 September — Joint Wargaming in Denmark
- 6 October — After AlphaZero: Human-Machine Teaming from Games to the Battlefield
- 20 October — Wargaming in the French Army: Duel Tactique
- 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
- Upcoming wargaming events of interest
- 22 August — Gaming Public Health Responses (WWN), details and RSVP here
- 11 September — Playing the nation: Identity, culture, and power in video games, register here
- 19-20 September — Iron Tide virtual wargame/exercise (Taiwan Straits scenario), register here
New Releases / Pre-Orders of Professional Interest (from last week)
- Fight Club’s Take That Hill is now available as a digital game on Steam
- Defence by Design just launched on Kickstarter and looks much more like a workshop tool than hobby gameplay & looks to be targeted to the pros
- Dietz Foundation has Sinews of War – a professional game for logistics & sustainment – on pre-order
- Designing Historical Games for Classrooms – A Practical Guide for Educators is now available
Something neat from outside the wargaming world we thought was worth sharing
View this post on Instagram
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.
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