The Fall Assembly is This Weekend! See You There? ~ #TuesdayNewsday

Minis? Maps? Maneuvers? Munchies? We’ve got it all. It’s time for your #TuesdayNewsday dispatch! 📰

The 2025 Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly is this weekend

Seriously, it’s gonna be a great time.  We’ve got 20-odd events crammed into 2-1/2 days with a pre-game social on Thursday night.  We’ve got some designers coming to the convention, and bringing some new stuff with them.  We’ve got our usual pay-it-forward table for folks to take one/leave one.  There will be some munchies, the option for a light glass of something for the adults, and plenty of sass around the tables.

Event Name	Max	Starts	Minutes
Traces of Hubris	2	Friday at 12:00	300
Off the Line Demo	2	Friday at 12:00	240
Simple Great Battles of History	4	Friday at 12:00	180
Fading Glory (Napoleonic 20 game system from VPG)	4	Friday at 13:00	120
Battles of American Revolution – Savannah	1	Friday at 13:00	180
World at War ’85 Team Game	6	Friday at 17:00	300
#Maneuver Warfare: The Card Game	2	Friday at 17:00	120
Combat Commander	4	Friday at 18:00	240
#Maneuver Warfare: The Card Game	2	Saturday at 09:00	120
Air & Armor: Wurzburg	4	Saturday at 09:00	300
Fading Glory (Napoleonic 20 game system from VPG)	4	Saturday at 10:00	120
By Swords and Bayonets	4	Saturday at 10:00	240
Dawn of Battle Designer’s Edition	2	Saturday at 10:00	240
SAS: Rogue Regiment	5	Saturday at 13:00	240
Battles of the American Revolution – Brandywine / Guilford	4	Saturday at 13:00	180
Dawn of Battle Designer’s Edition	2	Saturday at 14:00	240
LNLP’s Dawn’s Early Light	4	Saturday at 14:00	120
Ancient Civilizations of East Asia	6	Saturday at 17:00	240
The Napoleonic Wars by GMT	4	Saturday at 18:00	300
Plague of Dracula Demo	4	Saturday at 18:00	240
Verdun 1916: Steel Inferno	2	Sunday at 09:00	240
Saar: Strike-Counterstrike (MMP’s Grand Tactical Series)	4	Sunday at 09:00	300
Off the Line Demo	2	Sunday at 10:00	240
We Are All Mortal, The Cuban Missile Crisis	2	Sunday at 10:00	180

So getcher butt to the Fall Assembly and come join the fun!

 

GAMA Executive Director John Stacy – the guy that runs the organization day-to-day on behalf of the board of directors – is resigning to move to a non-profit outside of the gaming space.  The announcement was sent to GAMA membership in a newsletter, and included the following statement

I’m proud of the team we’ve built and the foundation we’ve laid. GAMA is in a strong position for its next chapter thanks to the hard work of the staff. I would like to thank both the current team, and those who are no longer part of the organization, for the incredible journey we’ve shared. Our success as an organization is due to your talent, dedication, and teamwork that helped us move forward. Thank you!

His 7-year tenure has been . . .  interesting.  There’s been some great strides made in the expansion and reorganization of GAMA, but there are still some questions about staff turnover, decision-making consistency, and the overall ‘point’ of the organization as they try to better position the organization for the future.  Plus, there was that whole rebrand to the “GAMA: The Tabletop Game Association” along with their 10-year plan (the first time they’ve ever had something like that).

both of those stories are from the fabulous BoardGameWire news site

 

Not straight-up strategy gaming, but certainly adjacent to it – B5Books is shutting down

PART ONETwenty years ago, publishing entrepreneur Jaclyn Easton came to me with a risky but innovative idea: b5books.com, a publishing entity built around one show, Babylon 5, its participants and fans. This wouldn’t be what was usually done, aftermarket making-of books —

— J. Michael Straczynski (@straczynski.bsky.social) 2025-10-04T23:47:29.881Z

 

 

Ready, set, release! Let’s see what’s stormed the gates this week

• Brief Border Wars 2 is finally – FINALLY! – landing in customers’ mailboxes
• Dying Breed is a new release from Microprose, in early access with a launch sale; it’s trying to “create a nostalgic retro RTS that will feel familiar to those who played them decades ago”
• An Impossible War from Bellica 3rd Generation is now shipping
• Gamer’s Armory has the Inor Players Guide from Le Franc Tireur¹ in stock now
• Alternative Armies has a batch of 15mm Omnicop Detectives
• Perry Miniatures released a new Skirmish in a Box set of Napoleonic French and Spanish minis
• It’s been a bit of a slow rollout with GenCon orders, and some store pre-orders already shipping, but Quartermaster General: South Front is finally widely available to the public
• Modiphius released their new Cohors Cthulhu line, including a Player’s Guide and a Gamesmaster’s Guide
• They also released the new Star Trek Adventures Second Edition Exploration Guide
• New DLCs from Paradox Interactive
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Seaplane Tenders
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Expansion Pass 2
  • Age of Wonders 4: Cosmic Wanderer
  • Age of Wonders 4: Expansion Pass 3

 

 

Your next obsession is only a pledge button away

• Compass put The Spanish American War on Kickstarter, so it’s on final approach for getting shipped within 6-8 weeks or so
• Columbia has put the seminal Napoleon reprint on Kickstarter; this one is a new ‘enhanced edition’ with multiplayer rules and other tweaks
• Brandywine 1777 – A Time for Heroes launched on Gamefound and pledge levels include basic wooden blocks, deluxe painted wooden formations, or resin minis & a neoprene map
• Battle Box – Napoleonic Wars is now on Kickstarter and includes a modular card-based “map” and wooden formation pieces for your units, and it all fits in an oversized Altoids-sized tin
• Pendragon: Glory to the Round Table is a new board game that builds on Chaosium’s Pendragon RPG line
• Central Michigan University Press has launched a 3-pack of games on Backerkit, including Dog Eat Dog and Princess With A Cursed Sword and The Mountain Witch
• This week’s newsletter from On Military Matters includes the new Heiho mass-battle samurai game, and a bunch of books on Colonial era firearms (among other things) all on pre-order
• EmberGlow² have their own advent calendar on pre-order; this year it’s a Norse theme with metal dice, minis, and more
• Kraken Dice has a new “Hedge Witch” color scheme and you can get a 14pc RPG set, a brick of d6s, or a set of +/- counter dice
• Hexploration Decks Expanded: Along the Way & Strongholds are on Kickstarter
• The Dietz Foundation put the Littoral Commander: The Baltic reprint on pre-order
• Free League Games put some new Vaesen material on pre-order, since it’s October and all . . .
  • Starter Set
  • Mythic Carpathia supplement
  • Dice Set
  • Core Rules (new edition)
• Renegade Game Studios put Axis & Allies: Commanders on pre-order with a Spring release date and adds specific personalities to your A&A games
• The Renegades also put Diplomacy: The Golden Blade on pre-order; it’s a Diplomacy card game
• And finally, those chaps at Renegade Game Studios have mashed up a couple of IPs with a new G.I.Joe-branded Heroscape game on pre-order
  note that these links are to the unpainted sets, but they also offer painted ones at a slightly higher price
  • G.I. JOE Heroscape: Rumble at the Rift Battle Box
  • COBRA Troopers & COBRA Flight Pod Common Army Expansion
  • Greenshirts & Battle Copter Common Army Expansion
  • Strike Forces Army Expansion

 

Because buying twice as much on sale means you’re saving money… right?

• WDS ‘Game of the week’ is Civil War Battles: Campaign Franklin for $29.95
• Avalanche Press has an “Autumn Storm” sale for 2 days where you save 30% with coupon code TRISHA at checkout
• This week’s new gig from Dice Envy is their “Hope & Fear Mystery d12s” where you give them a couple of keywords and they send you a pair of complimentary d12s for that ‘vibe’
• Some interesting older / out of print wargames found among the other stuff on this Etsy store
• Noble Knight has copies of Israeli Air Force Leader starting at $58 and copies of Phantom Leader (Deluxe Edition) starting at $70
• Flying Pig has Old School Tactical V4: For the Empire expansion on sale for $10 off
• Miniature Market has Defcon on sale for over 50% off
• GOG has Men of War: Condemned Heroes under $2

This one’s a little different, as another of our wargaming tribe has passed

Large game collection liquidation sale, Oct 12, 2025 in Rockville, MD USA. Storage units for the 1200 games are costing the widow $600/month, so she wants them gone NOW to those who share her late husband’s passion for the hobby. Many rare games, with all in excellent condition, and many in shrinkwrap or unpunched. Details and partial list of games here (Google Sheet)

 

You bring the curiosity, we’ll bring the content—here’s the latest from the Dragoons

• First Impressions of Strategic Command : War In The Pacific – Rise And Fall Of An Empire DLC
• Wargaming Research: Solo War & Historical Gaming 2025 Results
• Mentioned in Dispatches S15 E3 – Solo Wargaming Survey, 2025 Edition
• Saturday Night Fights ~ “Snappy Nappy”: The Spring 1809 Campaign (VI)
• Armchair Dragoons Reviews Meltwater from Capstone Games
• Connections UK After Action Report
• Red Zone Offense ~ An appraisal of the wargame Seapower & The State: World War Three at Sea
• Gameplay this week
  • “A Fistful of TOWs 3”: The Battle of Arracourt
  • “A Fistful of TOWs 3”: The Battle for Arracourt (II)

 

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We also have the video on the Solo Wargaming Survey that was recorded with Beyond Solitaire (and congrats to her channel on 8 years of ruining the internet 🥳)

 

The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was

Look, we’re not even gonna get mad at Space-Biff for publishing this the same day as our last #TuesdayNewsday, because it’s an incredible and thoughtful and illuminating and resonant read . . .

Anti-Fun by Space-Biff ³

In the end, we wrapped the game up early. According to the moderator, it had gone great. I imagine they say that to all the volunteers.

Is this fun? Are we having fun now, recounting this awkward, tense, uncomfortable experience? Was I having fun then, feeling like a jerk for trapping these people in a game they normally wouldn’t consider a good time, making an ass of myself by misgendering this at-risk kid?

Here’s the thing: I think so. I think this was fun then. I think it’s fun now. More than that, it was (and is) all three types on the Fun Scale jumbled together. But to explain how that could possibly be, we need to expand our scope. We need to talk about what “fun” means in the first place.

 

This week’s best written coverage from the wargaming world Rocky has a long post about Seapower & The State over on his blog that’s kind of a pre-cursor/companion to the long article he wrote for us Wargaming Esoterica talked about the Air Power series from 6 Zoro, and specifically the View From a Cockpit #7 Wargaming Weekly is playing more microgames Brian Train wraps up his travels in Europe; stay tuned for more from Brian this week (hint, hint) Stuart covers Playing at the World, 2e Volume 2: Three Pillars of Role-Playing Games by Jon Peterson Avalanche Press has an article about 19th century ironclads as a part of a launch of their new naval system Sgt Steiner was playing Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game and there are a bunch of photos Skeleton Code Machine has been examining some dice mechanics: roll 3, pick 2; and ways to press your luck A Fast Game Is A Good Game is playing C&C Medieval

The best videos this week from our wargaming friends My Own Worst Enemy has Fading Glory Part 2 and Fading Glory Part 3 and will the GM for the game this weekend at the Fall Assembly Last week, Patrick was playing Thunder on the Mississippi – Scenario #12 – The Vicksburg Campaign – Rematch – Session 12 Beyond Solitaire Podcast 211: Carly Kocurek on Coin-Operated Americans Pushing Cardboard has Live Cardboard 17 – Games that fired other games. Or did they? on Thursday Justegarde has a Red Sash Games interview with Ian Weir Moe’s latest is Whiskey Charlie – Episode 86: Normandy Trip & Wargames Real and Simulated Wars tells you why FPV ‘Suicide’ Drones Are Not the Easy Button – Arma 3 ZillaBlitz is doing The Rock of Chickamauaga Overview & Giveaway Two Important Elements of Boardgame Design on the Computer over at Line of Departure

Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about “Major League” wargame topics

 

Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world

• This week, Scott Thorne talked about the difficulty in getting MtG Standard events filled at his store, but the underlying critical point to the argument is that some companies end up over-saturating their customers and event fatigue starts to set in
• Dead Games Should Just Stay Dead (The Gamer)
• ICv2 documents a variety of attempts at censorship around hobby media, whether comics or games or TV properties
• Mantic Games are hiring several positions over in the UK; they are all on-site and not remote
• Kickstarter’s unionized employees⁴ are on strike and there are reports about it from
• Rascal, ICv2 (strike article and Kickstarter’s response), BoardGameWire, and HomeCrux
• Wargamers putting mental health on the front line (BBC by way of the Homo Ludens Discord)
• WDS have updated more of their Napoleonic Battles games with the new 4.09.3 engine, including Campaign 1814, Campaign Bautzen, Campaign Eylau, Campaign Jena-Auerstedt, and Campaign Leipzig

 

🚨Expansion Update!🚨We are moving in as we speak, and filling it up to the ceiling!Take a look at the last photo to see all the space we had to clear! (It won't be empty for long!Thank you to everyone for your continued support, which has made this possible for us!

— Noble Knight Games (@nobleknightgames.bsky.social) 2025-10-03T14:14:50.599Z

 

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 ~ November 2 and December 7
• Next confirmed live event is The Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly, 10-12 October 2025
• Next virtual event is the ACDC⁵, 16-18 January, 2026

Upcoming Conventions & Events

• 10-12 Oct Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly (Cary NC) <– THIS WEEKEND!  
• 16-19 Oct Millennium Con (Temple TX)
• 23-26 Oct EssenSpiel (Essen Germany)
• 25-26 Oct DC Victory Open Memoir ’44 Tournament (Georgetown Univ/Washington DC)
• 6-11 Nov Compass Games Fall Expo 2025 (Meriden CT)
• 7-9 Nov HMGS Fall-in! (Lancaster PA)
• 7-9 Nov RockCon (Rockford IL)
• 7-9 Nov Foxcon (Dallas TX) <– CANCELLED (see below)
• 7-9 Nov SDHISTCON (San Diego CA)
• 7-9 Nov Battlefront Dayton (Dayton OH)

 

Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about the dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals!

• A Wargame to Take Taiwan, from China’s Perspective (War on the Rocks)
• Derivation of Combat Factors (PDF) in professional wargaming from David Burden
• Wargaming conference in Poland in 2 weeks
• Medical Wargames: Preparing for Success in High-Intensity Conflict (Canadian Army Journal)
• A Taste of Armageddon in Modern Diplomacy (Matrix Pro Sims over on LinkedIn)
• MORS has a couple of upcoming course
  • Designing Tactical Games  (4-6 November)
  • Certificate in Wargaming  (17-21 November)
• This week, Mick Ryan’s ‘Big Five’ talks about the value of deep strikes; how do you wargame something that doesn’t fit on the map?
• The next GUWS webinar is tonight with The First Recorded Italian Wargames & Their Legacy and then Games for Conflict and Resolution on 4 November
• Get Hired! MDBA has a posting for Operational Analyst – Undergraduate Placement 2026

After god knows how many attempts at a modern brigade game, I think I may have finally hit upon a model I like enough to make it work and keep the game fast. This is a full brigade in card form, plus the (tbd) capability cards. Hopefully I'll be able to start playtesting soon to see if it works!

— Evan D'Alessandro (@evandalessandro.bsky.social) 2025-10-06T16:22:46.336Z

 

Something neat from outside the wargaming world we thought was worth sharing

Not sure we’re going to find anything more random than this

 

That’s all for this week!
Be sure to drop by our forums and join the fun, and next Tuesday we return with another intel update for you

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Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below.

1. the 3rd-party ASL scenario guys
2. the folks responsible for our awesome dice trays
3. c’mon, “The F Word” was right there for a title!
4. looks to be 50-60 of them
5. Armchair Dragoons Digital Convention