August 26, 2026
News

Dan Goes Off, ACDC Schedule Expands, and the Rest of the News ~ #TuesdayNewsday

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All fronts, all formats, all fun—#TuesdayNewsday has your wargaming world in one friendly scroll

5News 1 top

Dan (rightfully) unloads on someone accusing him of using AI for any part of his writing process

This exchange on r/boardgames, in reference to the review I wrote yesterday, raises a whooooooole lot of emotions for me. Bear with me as I work through them.

— Dan Thurot (@danthurot.bsky.social) 2025-12-05T17:59:47.129Z

Here’s the rest of his thread:
If there isn’t anything wrong with using AI to polish one’s writing, why point out when a piece of writing strikes you as AI-assisted? The entire impulse to say something speaks to the way generative AI is worth being called out. Probably because it’s crappy and unnatural.
I resent this statement quite a bit, because apart from tinkering with some image generators years ago, I haven’t used AI in any fashion, and certainly haven’t used it in any of my writing. I don’t use AI to brainstorm, draft, translate, edit. None of it.
Before you start throwing around accusations, it would be prudent to get better at spotting AI writing. I work with students, many of whom try to pass off AI writing as their own, and frankly, it isn’t *that* hard to get accustomed to the bullshit spouted by LLMs.
One of the great perils of using LLMs is that it will result — indeed, as in this case, is already resulting — in good-faith creators accused of using the plagiarism machine. Which, I should note, may well harm one’s reputation.
The accusation isn’t merely that I’m an uncreative loser who spent years honing my craft only to *now* debase myself by using the plagiarism machine… it’s that I’m a hypocrite who despises AI but will merrily use it to my own benefit.
But what benefit? LLMs are garbo. It would pose *more work* to use an AI to result in *worse output*.
Am I so prolific that ChatGPT writes like me? In some cases, yes. One reader uploaded my entire corpus to the plagiarism machine to see if it could write like me. And it did. Just worse and stupider and with even less accuracy. Quite the feat!
The plagiarism machine debases us all. I’ve always been happy to hear when someone has been inspired or enriched by something I’ve written. I’m even happy when someone tries to “copy” my way of writing. But I do not consent to having my work ripped off by ghoulish oligarchs and techbro losers.
Look at what the ghouls are taking from us. They don’t value art for the same reason they’re always pursuing their horrible anti-aging schemes and space colonization and reproduction without sex. They are unnatural freaks who hate everything about themselves. And, by extension, about us.
Among countless other things, art prepares us for death. It eases our human condition. But like children throwing a tantrum at reality, the ghouls violate the condition’s medicine. Because they cannot accept that life is short and fragile, they will pillage the thing that makes it precious.
Using AI to produce art is more than a mere difference of opinion. It is a choice to deprive yourself of the entire justification for existence. You are free, in the abstract, to make that choice. But you harm more than yourself when you do. I will not pretend otherwise.
Write your book. Paint your painting. Opine your opinion. Make love and raise your children. Carve yourself into the flicker of a second before the universe snuffs us out. We are brilliant because we create meaning. When we abrogate that, we become less. We become filler.
I am not filler.

 

5News 2 Below 1

Holy balls!

 

5News 2 Below 2

Our third annual year-end survey is underway (and almost 200 responses)!
We’re looking for your feedback on the year in wargaming: purchases, conventions, favorites, big stories, and more.  Make sure you share the link with a friend, too!

If you have any trouble scrolling through the survey on our page—mobile device can sometimes be a problem—you can go directly to it at this link.

 

2026 ACDC Header

Details about the upcoming 2026 ArmChair Dragoons Digital Convention

We’re over 30 events now, including luminaries like Bruce Maxwell, David Thompson, Wharf Rat Games, Liz Davidson, and more!  Early bird badges are sold out, but even full badges are only $4, so it’s a steal.

Check out the registration schedule here and yes, there’s more still coming as we finalize some talk show hosts and a few additional games

Next week we’ll have the more detailed event previews, too

5News 3 Incoming

Incoming transmission: the new goods are live and ready to deploy

 

5News 4 launch

These campaigns are already rolling—are you on board yet?

 

5News 5 falling

Fewer dollars, more hobby joy. Let’s see what’s marked down!

 

5News 6 regiment

From the briefing room to your browser—last week’s articles await

 

The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was

Professor Higbee’s Lost Streams (h/t to Adam, who shared this older, but awesome article that a lot of you will probably really dig)

Even National Geographic told them it couldn’t be done. They thought of going to the landfill and searching for the plates. Then they heard about emerging technology that claimed to be able to reproduce non-photographic blue. They located a company called Complete Pre-Press with one of the first drum scanners, but the drum wasn’t big enough.

“We held our breath and cut one of the few remaining ones into six sections,” explains Larry. They were prepared to be disappointed but the results were better than expected. “All the details were there, crisp and clear,” according to Karl. “We knew at that moment that Howard Higbee might actually see his wish fulfilled.”

They printed 10,000 maps for $10,000, in time for Christmas. The first thing they did was a direct mailing to the 6,000 members of Trout Unlimited. The paper map, rolled or folded to 8×10 inches, sold for $19.95. The 33×55-inch laminated one to pin on your wall was $39.95. “The printer said, ‘I think you’re printing too many,’ but 23 percent of Trout Unlimited members bought them from that first mailing. And it took off after that,” Larry chuckles.

 

This week’s best written coverage from the wargaming world

The best videos this week from our wargaming friends

Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about Wargaming (all of) World War II

 

5News 10 industry

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

 

Watching @armchairdragoons.bsky.social video on logistics in Wargaming convinced me that I do want realistic logistics in WarGames, who else had the same takeaway? youtu.be/LyE29Xyh2mQ?…

— Dr. Wictz (@drwictz.bsky.social) 2025-12-08T17:42:39.485Z

 

5News 7 muster

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

Upcoming Conventions & Events

 

5News 11 Pros

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

"IADS: The Game" is one of the games I enjoyed learning this year. It is #wargame designed to be fast-paced and easy to learn for professional military education. It is a reminder that games don't have to be complex to be good. #wargaming 🎲

— Sebastian Bae (@sebastianbae.bsky.social) 2025-12-08T14:29:47.547Z

 

5News 12 different

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

this is an older video but still awesome

 

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 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

  1. Armchair Dragoons Digital Convention

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