by #TuesdayNewsday has established communications 📟 time to check the latest reports from across the gaming world ➜
SDHISTCON announced their 2 awards during the convention last weekend. The Summit Award goes to a game, where the Bobby Nunes Award is for a media/content creator. Excerpts from the official announcement
The Summit Award
The San Diego Historical Games Convention (SDHist) is proud to announce the winner of the fifth annual Summit Award. The Summit Award aims to recognize a historical board game published in the preceding year that most broadened the hobby through the ease of teaching, ease of play, uniqueness of topic, novelty of approach, and/or effectiveness as a historical game. The 2026 Summit Award winner (for games published in 2026) is Chicago ’68. The selection was announced at the SDHistCon Summit convention in San Diego alongside the selection of Dan Thurot’s Space-Biff for the 2026 Bobby Nunes Memorial Award.
Chicago ’68 is designed by Yoni Goldstein and published by The Dietz Foundation. This one-to-four player game takes place around the events of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, inviting players to “compete for the hearts and minds of America at the convention riots of ’68. Fight street battles, maneuver your forces, perform outrageous political theater.” It is an asymmetric area-control card activation game. Chicago ’68 offers solo, competitive, cooperative, and team modes, and takes around 45 minutes per player.
The Bobby Nunes Award
The San Diego Historical Games Convention (SDHist) is proud to announce that Dan Thurot’s work at Space-Biff! has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Bobby Nunes Memorial Award. The selection was announced at the SDHistCon Summit convention in San Diego.
The Bobby Nunes Memorial Award was launched in 2024 in memory of our colleague and friend, Robert “Bobby Factor” Nunes. It seeks to recognize exceptional gaming media published in the prior calendar year that reflects Bobby’s enthusiasm for and interest in discussing important cultural issues within the historical gaming hobby. It was previously given to Liz Davidson’s Beyond Solitaire podcast interviews in 2024, and to Amabel Holland’s video essays (specifically “Vonnegut’s Board Game: Preservation, Annotation, Context”) in 2025. The award accompanies SDHist’s Summit Award, presented each year to a game that has broadened the historical gaming hobby. This year’s Summit Award selection was Yoni Goldstein’s Chicago ’68.
Further details have be found on the SDHISTCON website. Congratulations to the winners!
2027 ACDC registration opens on Thursday, 12 November for badges & event registration. Please note that events may be added to the schedule up until the Wednesday1 before the start of the ACDC, so keep an eye on #TuesdayNewsday for updates to the schedule, or just continue to check back at the registration site.
Some of the highlights?
- Kriegsspiel! We’re back with another double-blind / limited info wargame
- Great Campaigns of the American Civil War — both a tutorial session on “how to play” and then the breakout rooms to give it a go
- Red Baron’s War — a modified / modernized variation of Richthofen’s War for WW1 dogfighting
- Throw Down the Flag — the latest from David Thompson & Liz Davidson
- World at War ’85 — The Cold War goes hot and all hell breaks loose
- The Emperor’s Choice / The Emperor’s Voice — Crawford & Suckling’s paired games covering the end of WW2 in Japan
Additional games, seminars, and talk shows are all coming soon and will be entered before registration opens up.
- Registration is $5 for the weekend, with a limited number of early bird badges also available.
- Don’t forget that all of our Patreon supporters at the Regimental Captain level get a free badge.
- GM’s with at least 6 hours of approved events will also receive a free badge.
You can also check out Sunday’s THE CHIT SHOW for the discussion of The Armchair Dragoons Digital Convention with Brant
Lots of sales everywhere!
MMP’s sale is underway. GMT’s sale starts Thursday. Noble Knight just launched theirs.
GMT’s Sale
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MMP’s Sale
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There’s more below in our sale section, too.
Fresh titles have joined the catalogue ✉ let’s find out what players can get their hands on ✎
- War Diary issue #33 is now shipping
- Italia 1944: The Italian Campaign is the new ziploc game from War Diary Magazine (there’s also a bundle with the Rommel in Italy game, too)
- They’re not on the website yet, but wave 2 of the US Steve Jackson’s reprints of the UK Steve Jackson/Sir Ian Livingstone’s classic Fighting Fantasy books are now arriving in mailboxes2
- A free browser-based Civil War wargame for you to try out
- This week on Wargame Vault
- Stations Manned and Ready – Complete includes not just the rules, but 20-odd books of ship data, too
- Airship Raiders! is a dieselpunk air-combat game that would feel like a sci-fi WW1, or a alt-history pre-WW2, depending on your historical lens
- Tarnation: Circle Your Wagons is a supplement for the wild west shootout skirmish game
- Other new releases on Steam
- A classic-era hexcrawl in a digital game, One More Adventure looks like a fun time for all and it’s on sale for a week for the launch
- TFC2: The Fertile Crescent 2 – Collapse of The Bronze Age was just released by Microprose
- Victoria 3: State and Revolution – Immersion Pack and the Age of Wonders 4: The Silver Seas DLC released by Paradox
- Crowns of Medieval Europe gives you a mix of 4x realm-building and hex-maps
- Three Kingdoms: March looks like it’s got a lot of FOG battles in its DNA, with a point-to-point strategic map
- Fleet Forge is a new real-time space battles game with a bunch of ship-design tools, but early access means no campaign mode yet
- Imperial Kingdoms is another medieval fantasy 4x realm-builder, but with a nice color-pencil art style
- Militant Monks for The Baron’s War from Wargames Atlantic
- DICE!
- Dice Envy’s got a new ruby-red 10pc set that’s only $5 right now
- The “Fossilized Violence” set from Black Oak includes some bones to throw
- Christmas D20 Dice 33mm Candle Dice Set
- Against The Odds Magazine has a couple of the Kickstarter ‘extras’ from their Tiger Wings release, so if you missed the campaign and just bought it at retail, you can ‘catch up’ here
- Perry Miniatures has a bunch of new mid-European Napoleonic figs
Another set of campaigns has entered the funding arena ♟ let’s inspect the newest prospects ⌕
- Worthington has 3 games rolled into one Kickstarter campaign again: Hunt for the Bismarck, Rising Sun Solitaire, and Aspect of Armor are all on the same page
- Old Guard Publishing has Unclaimed Victory: Fuentes de Oñoro on pre-order on their website
- This week on Kickstarter
- The guys behind the 2D6 game system are back, this time with 2D6 Dungeon Goblins, a solo dungeon crawler
- CosmosCrushers gives you figs-on-tables space fleet battles, but with actual figs, and not just STLs
- LoreScape 3d hex tiles are being advertised for BattleTech but also work for Heroscape and other similar hex-map games
- And this week’s hopeless campaign is Handsweeper, which asks “what if we took the convenience & simplicity of the old Minesweeper computer game and made you shuffle cards and take over a table?” and they’re wondering why they’ve got 2 backers towards at $13k goal
- Red Alert New World Order looks like a tabletop adaptation of Command & Conquer with a high toy factor and more AI artwork than most folks will be comfortable with and also not scheduled to deliver until March of 2028
- Osprey Games/Books put these on pre-order
- New Soviet Flames of War toys from Battlefront
A few prices have stepped down from their podium ⇩ let’s see what’s worth a look ✔
- WDS ‘Game of the week’ is Panzer Campaigns: Japan ’45 for $29.95, on sale until Sunday
- Pretty much everything at Noble Knight is 10% off, so you can pick up Firefight starting at $10.80 or Summer Storm – The Battle of Gettysburg at $28.80 or splurge for the StarForce Trilogy and get it under $200 while you can
- Revolution Games sale is on right now, too; games starting in the $20 range and there’s a few bangers in there
- We’ve mentioned the big Modiphius warehouse sale before but figured we’d include it with the others going on right now
- Miniature Market has Undaunted 2200: Revolution on sale this week
The editorial workbench has been busy ✎ here’s what made it into this week’s lineup ⌕
- Excellence Has No Uniform: the Second International Scientific Wargaming Conference
- #TBT — Classic Car Wars Revisited – Part 3: Crash City: A Car Wars Roleplaying Supplement
- Mentioned In Dispatches S17 E9 — GMT and the P500 List
- Saturday Night Fights ~ “Snappy Nappy”: The Marengo Campaign (4)
- Connections Online 2027 – Scenario Design & Worldbuilding 5-9 April 2027
- The Chit Show talks ACDC 2027
- Revisiting Battleplan from Matrix Games
- AARs
- From The Armchair Dragoons Archives
- Back on 25 Aug 22, we published Classic Reviews ~ Seasons by bayonetbrant
- On 29 Apr 24, we live-streamed Urban Warfare Wargaming: Past, Present, Future from CNX ONL 24 on our YouTube channel
- SHORTS!
- Gameplay this week
The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was
From cradle to grave – life and death in Traveller
This was Traveller’s quiet rebellion. In D&D you began as a nameless nobody at level one, and your past took shape at the table, in play itself. Traveller turned that around. Your character walked into the first session with a biography already finished.
That touches the idea running through this whole book. A character becomes real through one concrete detail and one desire. Traveller pushed that idea to its limit. It did not hand you a detail to fill in, but a whole life to live through.
Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream (theoretically) covered post-apocalyptic wargaming but mostly avoided zombies
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- This week, store owner Scott Thorne covers problems with WotC’s pre-release products getting to stores on time
- BoardGameWire notes that Board games targeting adult players see 20% sales surge in Germany, publisher optimism grows
- Rascal has an interesting article about a designer who disappeared and the community that rallied to continue his word in his absence
- ICv2 reports that the Pokemon card game is going in the “National Toy Hall of Fame” – whatever that is – along with Care Bears, Bingo, and the slide4
- Eric Martin’s Prep for Night Markets at SDHistCon and PAX Unplugged
- My sister-in-law is nearly 40 but cannot handle losing at board games. What can I do? (The Guardian)
- Bravo to Stonemaier for creating an “all games” page on their site; everyone needs this
- Company Updates
- Canvas Temple Publishing has started converting some designs to browser-based games, and is looking for playtesters; warning, there a bunch of AI in these
- GMT created a buyer’s guide for their ongoing Fall Sale
GAMA has appointed an interim executive director in the wake of Melinda Prickett’s departure. An excerpt from the announcement:
…we are pleased to share that Andrew Zorowitz of Foam Brain Games has joined GAMA as our Acting Executive Director, leading GAMA staff, as the Board continues its search for a permanent Executive Director. Starting immediately, Andrew will be serving a six-month term that oversees the first GAMA Expo in Baltimore, along with ongoing planning for Origins Game Fair.
Andrew’s experience running Foam Brain Games has made him a recognizable force in the tabletop industry. Combing his role as a seasoned exhibitor, his contributions to educational programming at both GAMA Expo and Origins, and his work on the GAMA Expo Site Selection Committee, gives him a deeper understanding of the work that goes into making these events a success.
With that understanding and breadth of experience, Andrew will oversee the day-to-day operations of GAMA, working with staff on all current initiatives to keep moving them forward, while taking a step away from many of his duties at Foam Brain Games during his tenure.
There’s also coverage from ICv2, BoardGameWire, and TTRPGInsider
Articles, advice, and ideas for those of you on the creative side
- Skeleton Code Machine talks about How to simplify mob combat in games
- We need to talk about Board Game Geek ratings (video)
- Licensing Your Game: Lottery Ticket or Smart Move? (video)
- Is my game ready to pitch? | Designer POV 10 (Full play through) (video)
if you could send one game back 100 years in order to dramatically accelerate board game design in the present day, what game would it be?
— Zoë Tricks (@dxdydz.northsky.social) 2026-11-07T05:55:26.974Z
Don’t forget to check our consolidated event & convention calendar (freshly updated with 2027 events!) 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 ~ December 6 and January 3
- Next confirmed live event is Buckeye Game Fest (Columbus OH), 25-28 March 2027
- Next virtual event is The ACDC 15-17 January 2027
Upcoming Conventions & Events
- 13-16 Nov Kublacon Fall (Burlingame CA)
- 13-15 Nov SCGCon 26 (Liverpool UK)
- 18-22 Nov BGG.CON (Dallas TX)
- 4-6 Dec Pax U (Philadelphia PA)
- 14-18 Jan CascadeCon (Bellingham WA)
- 14-17 Jan Niagara Boardgaming Weekend 2027 (Niagara Falls ON)
- 14-17 Jan Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo (Philadelphia PA)
- 15-17 Jan The ACDC (Armchair Dragoons HQ Online)
- 15-18 Jan AdamCon (Cincinnati OH)
- 15-17 Jan ConQuest Ventura Tabletop Game Fest (Ventura CA)
- 15-17 Jan SaltCON (Liverpool UK)
- 28-31 Jan MMP Winter Offensive (Bowie MD)
- 29-31 Jan SquareBash! 27 (Gatwick UK)
- 29-31 Jan Winter War Con (Champaign IL)
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
The DoD released a memo that seems to indicate that senior leader professional military education5 will be evaluated with some form of wargaming at the end of the course. There are all sorts of other changes to military education outlined in here that we’re not going to get into, there’s a heavy emphasis on the integration and use of wargames in the coursework.
Wargaming News & Articles for the Pros
- This week, Ian Brown authored Excellence Has No Uniform: the Second International Scientific Wargaming Conference for us, covering the recent conference in Poland
- From Jon Compton, published at CIMSEC—Rethinking Wargame Design And Analysis In The Modern Age: Lessons Learned From Global 21
- This week, Wargaming Weekly asks “What have I learnt from this decision forcing case (DFC) series about Ukraine in 2014?”
- (PDF DOWNLOAD) What War Games Actually Teach: Threat Recognition, Not What War Games Actually Teach: Threat Recognition, Not Prediction (USNWC)
- Teaching the Tryzub: Lessons From Ukraine in Military Educational Games (video)
- Want Better Training Outcomes? Let The Opposing Force Win (Modern War Institute)
- Inverted Rook – A New Wargame for a New Kind of Crisis (RAND)
- Integration Over Numbers: What 5,000 German Wargame Runs Say About Autonomous Fleets (Defense.info)
- Wargames underscore value of hedge or tailored forces touted by CNO (Jane’s)
- Actual stories in actual play: on meta/narrative immersion as seen in the tabletop role-playing game (Critical Studies in Media Communication)
- PaxSims latest article covers CFP: The (He)Art of Wargaming (University of Kentucky, 25-26 February 2027)
- GET HIRED! Booz-Allen-Hamilton has a posting for Senior Cyber Wargame Analyst
Wargame Events of Professional Interest
- The next GUWS webinars
- 10 November — Emergency Management and Resilience Wargaming
- 17 November — Get to the Point: Designing for Clarity
- 1 December — Invisible Forces, Playable Wars: Radars, Weather, and Wargame Design
- Upcoming PGS/MORS courses
- 17–19 November – Gaming Space Operations Course
- 7-11 December – Certificate in Cyber Wargaming
- 25–29 January – Certificate in Wargaming
- 8–10 February – Certificate in Homeland Security Gaming
- 23-25 March – Gaming Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Upcoming wargaming events of interest
- 15 November — GUWS Playtest Day, register here
- 21 November — GUWS Kriegsspiel Day, register here
- 15 January — Introduction to Professional Serious Games – One Day Course, registration on LinkedIn
- 4 February — Serious Games For Insight & Analysis – Two Day Course, registration on LinkedIn
Something neat from outside the wargaming world we thought was worth sharing
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
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