by Shake off those Monday blues—#TuesdayNewsday is here to boost your morale with some wargaming news! 🥳
Similar to Record Store Day or Free RPG Day or Free Comic Book Day, GAMA is helping their members launch Game Store Day this coming Saturday, 1 November. The site even has a locator to help you find participating stores. There’s other reports from The Toy Book and TechRaptor as well.
With the intent of getting more customers into the local game stores, there’s a variety of Game Store Day-specific products or variants to be distributed on those days. There are coupons for discounts on Origins tickets, and even some 5-day Origins passes to be given away to folks hitting the stores on Saturday.
Participants are all GAMA members, so for a store to participate they do need to be part of the organization. But for customers participating on that day, it shouldn’t really be all that noticeable either way. The key is that GAMA is trying to find additional ways to get customers into the stores and in a place where they can discover more tabletop options than just what’s on the shelf at Target or Wal-Mart or Barnes & Noble1.
So, wargamers, what might a national “Wargame Day” look like across the FLGS landscape if we could get enough stores, players, and publishers to unify behind an event designed to draw attention to our niche of the hobby and the stores that specifically support it?
Essenspiel wrapped up over the past weekend and there has been plenty of companies popping on the socials to make us all jealous that we weren’t there
Two weeks ago there was a professional wargaming conference held in Poland, less than a day’s drive from an active shooting war. We might well have some reporting from that conference coming up soon, but in the meantime, here’s a whole set of YouTube videos from the sponsors of the conference, covering the professional applications of wargaming from the people closest to front lines right now.
Parachuting in to stores near you
- Compass are now shipping The Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet
- Mike Nagel’s Plague of Dracula is now available from Blue Panther, and it’s another game we were showing off at the Fall Assembly
- The Wargaming Company just released a new minis box of French Mid War Force Pack: Corps d’armée
- Against the Odds Magazine released a
new Stalingrad Way of War pack with 3 games in one bundle - Bill Molyneaux has his annual Goober The Traveling Bear calendar over at Blue Panther, which also raises money for the museums that are shown in the calendar
- New stuff over on Wargame Vault
- FNG Korea – The DMZ War (1967-1969) from Two Hour Wargames
- Iron Dragoons sci-fi battles from Eccentric Normality
- One Day Campaigns from WFHGS
- Osprey released the 2nd edition of their Dragon Rampant wargame rules
- Warlord had the 3rd edition of Bolt Action! Armies of the Soviet Union out for a little while, but there’s also
- Against the Odds has a pretty wild deal on their postcard games, where you can get all 33 of them, plus die-cut counters for them, in one “brick” deal
- Free League had a bunch of Vaesen stuff on pre-order earlier in the month and now it’s shipping
- Vaesen Starter Set
- Mythic Carpathia supplement
- Vaesen Dice Set
- Master of Command is a new Europe-in-the-1700s game on Steam that’s 10% thru Sunday for the launch
- Platoon is a fairly low-res, fast-playing modern game on Steam that’s under $5 for the launch right now
Because waiting makes it more exciting, right? Right??
- Mike Nagel has opened pre-orders on a Dawn of Battle expansion through Blue Panther that should start shipping within a month
- Warsaw 1656 by TS Wargames looks like it can be ordered from their site, but their FB page says ~20 November
- ASL completists! Gamer’s Armory is taking pre-orders on Steel Fury at Zamoly from Advancing Fire, with an expected ship date at the end of the year
- This week’s newsletter from On Military Matters includes a bunch of pre-orders for By Fire and Sword II
- There’s a bunch of new sets / accessories for Mantic’s new HALO: Flashpoint – UNSC game
- Modiphius has launched the DOOM Arena Board Game because the world needed another skirmish-level map-&-minis game
- Civil War: A Nation Divided – The Card Game is on Kickstarter, but with that goal amount, you wonder if they’re printing the cards in gold-foil-embossed imported papyrus or something
- Thermopylae: Last Stand is a solo print-&-play game on Kickstarter right now
- Blue Panther’s got some others on pre-order, too
- The Battle of Bentonville from BMG
- The Battle of Palmdale from Historic Wings
- GMT’s newsletter last week introduced 3 new p500s
- Ancient Civilizations of East Asia —— which was played at our Fall Assembly!
- Punicus –
The Battle of the Dad JokesThe Second Punic War - Fields of Fire, Deluxe Edition 2nd Printing2
- GMT also removed Napoleon in Egypt from their p500 list
Reduced prices, elevated morale—sounds like a win to us
- WDS ‘Game of the week’ is Panzer Campaigns: Market Garden ’44 for $29.95
- This week’s new release from Dice Envy is ‘Honeycomb‘ and it’s 10% off with coupon code CANDYMAN at checkout
- Easy Roller Dice Company has 25% off everything with coupon code WEEN25 at checkout
- You can get SWWAS: Midway from Avalanche Press at 20% with coupon code DANA
- SENET Magazine have some gift bundles and subscriptions, and you can save 10% with coupon code GIVESENET at checkout
- Noble Knight has copies of TCS GD ’41 starting at $60
- 15% off the entire Halloween collection of dice & accessories over at Emberglow Gaming
- A bunch of new free content for Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance from Slitherine
- Warehouse 23 Halloween Sale through Sunday over at Steve Jackson Games
Open fire on boredom—here’s your reading list from the Regiment
- Fall Assembly 2025 ~ The After Action Report
- Wargaming Research: Solo War & Historical Gaming 2025 Deep Dive 2
- Special Dispatch: The Bell of Treason—A Nation’s Fate on the Tabletop
- Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E6 – The Fall Assembly
- Saturday Night Fights ~ “Fire As She Bears”: Strachan’s Action
- Convention Report: CamelCon 2025
- Strategic Command: American Civil War ~ Concert Of Europe DLC – Press Preview First Impressions
- Gameplay this week
The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was
Geoff Englestein talks about his top 10 “unnecessary components”
When mentoring new designers, and working with people on their pitches, one thing I always stress is the importance of having a hook. How will the publisher sell your game? Why will a consumer buy your game over others on the shelf? Why will a reviewer want to cover it?
There are many hooks, including a unique theme or take on a theme, a mechanic, the artwork, the size or component count, or even the name. But it can also be a unique component.
And that’s what all these examples have in common. Here are games that have lived in my memory for decades because of unique features that made them stand out.
Folks, I am under the weather. I have thus decided to spare you all from a show filled with sniffling and coughing. So no Counter Clipping tonight, but I'll be back next week!
— Ardwulf ⇒ Traveller (@ardwulf.bsky.social) 2025-10-27T22:12:14.717Z
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- Folks, it’s October of 2025. If “what’s new” on your site goes to something from March, or 2024, or the closing of a Kickstarter that’s now 3 years past the original delivery date, it’s not “new”. Do better!
- This week, Scott Thorne talked about events that are bringing people into his store, including Halloween, and the above-mentioned Game Store Day
- Rascal reports on the reboot of Apocalypse World
- ICv2 has a nice report on GameHoleCon
- Sound of Drums recaps their Essen experience
- WotC/D&D Beyond have shuttered their Sigil project at creating a 3d VTT, fewer than 3 months after it launched
- Big update for one of WDS’s favorite campaigns, Certain Strike ’87 (played using the Danube ’85 game)
Another Garage Sale in the books! Thank you to everyone who came out, shopped around, hung out, and got some killer deals!We appreciate your support as always, and we will see you at the next one!
— Noble Knight Games (@nobleknightgames.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T13:17:53.924Z
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 BuckeyeGameFest, 11-15 March 2026
- Next virtual event is the ACDC3, 16-18 January, 2026
Upcoming Conventions & Events
- 1 Nov Crisis 2025 (St Niklaas Belgium) <– THIS WEEKEND!
- 6-11 Nov Compass Games Fall Expo 2025 (Meriden CT)
- 7-9 Nov RockCon (Rockford IL)
- 7-9 Nov SDHISTCON (San Diego CA)
- 7-9 Nov Battlefront Dayton (Dayton OH)
- 7-10 Nov HMGS Fall-in! (Lancaster PA)
- 14-16 Nov SCGCon 25 (Liverpool UK)
- 14-16 Nov U-Conl (Ypsilanti MI)
- 14-17 Nov Kublacon Fall (Santa Clara CA)
Details about the upcoming 2026 ArmChair Dragoons Digital Convention, 16-18 January
Invitations are going out to previous year’s GMs about possible events. If you’ve not been a GM with us at a previous ACDC and are interested in possibly joining the fun, we’ll have the event submission portal open soon, or you can drop the team a line here.
We also have a pretty cool slate of speakers lined up for our concurrent talk shows, including some historical-focused discussions that (we hope!) wargamers will find fresh and compelling.
Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about the dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals!
- Building off of the article from RUSI about “emergent approaches” to maneuver in Ukraine, James Buckley decided to see what he could model using hit upcoming Battlegroup Clash: Baltics game (spoiler: it’s close)
- Wargaming beyond the battlefield: civilian and strategic applications (Defense24)
- A German Way of Wargaming? Musings on the History of Wargaming (LinkedIn column by Jorit Wintjes)
- International wargaming engagement success (Defence Academy of the UK)
- UK Troops Explore the Future of Combat on NATO’s Eastern Flank (Bloomberg/gift link) – imagine training with inputs to all those digital sensors and tool that were powered by a wargame running in the background and feeding info to the participants
- NHS running ‘war game’ exercises as bosses predict busy winter (Independent)
- Wargaming and modern warfare (Defense24)
- This week, Mick Ryan’s ‘Big Five’ focuses on sanctions and Gripens for Ukraine
- The next GUWS webinar is Games for Conflict and Resolution on 4 November, followed by Wargaming at HMCS Venture: Enhancing Naval Officer Training on 18 November and then Idiosyncracy in Motion on 9 December
- Get Hired! SAIC has a posting for a wargame designer . . . in Hawaii
We included #ManeuverWarfare in last week’s news, up in the new releases section, but it’s worth another mention here in the professional section of the news, since that’s the target audience; plus, Ian’s a good dude who always merits an extra note
It’s a little box, but it holds three years of my life. My thanks to @playersaidblog.bsky.social for the chance to tell the story of #ManeuverWarfare from @thedietzfoundation.bsky.social from inception of publication. Keep #wargaming! #USMC #Marinestheplayersaid.com/2025/10/27/i…
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 return with another intel 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.
Footnotes
- not that those aren’t important channels for publishers, but they usually lack the knowledgeable employees to help guide customers, and definitely lack the space to host games & events and provide an experience for players
- the game that topped our 2025 solo/solitaire wargaming survey
- Armchair Dragoons Digital Convention
