by Whether you’re naughty, nice, or just out of shelf space, #TuesdayNewsday is here with this week’s wargaming gifts 🎁 and gossip 🎙️
Programming note: #TuesdayNewsday is off next week!
We’ll pick back up with an all-new year in January, and with some enhancements & upgrades to your favorite weekly news.
It’s been a hell of a year here with the Dragoons! Thank you all very much from the Regiment of Strategy Gaming to everyone who has saddled up with us this year.
Sound off below, or in our forums — what was your gaming highlight of 2025? What was your highlight of the year from the Dragoons?
RIP to Vince Zampella, one of the co-creators of Call of Duty and a longtime digital game designer, who died in a car accident this week
- R.I.P. Vince Zampella, game designer and Call of Duty co-creator (AV Club)
- Vince Zampella, video game pioneer behind megahit Call of Duty, dies at 55 (NPR)
- Vince Zampella, Formative Designer of Call of Duty Games, Dies at 55 (NY Times)
- Call of Duty Co-Creator, Respawn Co-Founder, and EA Executive Vince Zampella Killed in Car Accident (IGN)
Origins badges are now on sale. Event registration hasn’t opened up yet, and we still need to get all of our events submitted, but you can go ahead and get your badges now to join us from 17-21 June at the Wargame HQ.
New content alert! Prepare your game queue and shelf space accordingly
- Near as we can tell, Serious Historical Games are now shipping Bicocca (1522) – Pavia (1525), but we can’t get onto the CSW forums to ask and no one is answering their email, but we were able to get a copy into our cart and the notes about future shipping dates are now gone from their website
- Ares Games released Wunderwaffen covering the final days of WW2
- Osprey Games released The Hooded Man, their Robin-Hood-but-not-with-the-name-in-the-title game
- Renegade Game Studios released their Kids in Capes RPG (a spinoff from Kids on Bikes)
- The latest DLC for Avalon Digital’s Wars Across The World digital version is Sicily 1061
- Another freebie from Rapid Fire! Ambush at Grammichele: Operation Husky – 15th July 1943
- Some fun new toys from Alternative Armies
- Hazardous Movement – Pack #6 The Liberators for ASL is available from Gamer’s Armory
- Quar Fidwog Command from Wargames Atlantic
- Brian Train released the abstract game Gravel for free on his blog
- New on Steam
- Scourge of War – Antietam is a new DLC for the Scourge Of War – Gettysburg game
- Myths and Legends – Lydia and Thrace is a new DLC for the original Myths and Legends game
- A bunch of new Revolutionary French minis from Perry
- Heavy Cavalry, swords drawn, galloping in overalls
- Heavy Cavalry, swords drawn, galloping in boots
- Foot Artillery loading piece
- Foot Artillery firing piece
- Chasseur a Cheval in mirlitons and long tailed coats
- Chasseur a Cheval command in mirlitons and long tailed coats
- Chasseur a Cheval in 1791 helmets and Caracos
- Chasseur a Cheval command in 1791 helmets and Caracos
Here’s what’s cooking in the crowdfunding cauldron this week
- Dark City Games just launched their first-ever Kickstarter campaign for Wild, Wild, West: Tabletop Adventure for the Entire Family
- Compass Games put Sensuikan: Japanese Fleet Submarines in WWII on Kickstarter so it’s on final approach toward release
- This week’s newsletter from On Military Matters includes a whole bunch of pre-order discounts on Warlord products, and their usual book deals, too
- Modiphius has Five Parsecs from Home: Planetfall on pre-order and the salivation from some of our writers has already started
- GMT’s latest p500s
- Commands & Colors Napoleonics Combined Edition Volume I – The War in Spain (combined/ consolidated reprint)
- Commands & Colors Napoleonics Expanded Edition Volume II – Napoleon’s Continental Enemies (combined/ consolidated reprint)
- Simple GBACW 4-Pack (new game)
- The Last Hundred Yards, Volumne II: Airborne Over Europe, 2nd Printing
- Saving Angels – WW2 Solitaire Wargame is a print-&-play on Kickstarter right now
- Warlord Games goes big into the Crimean War on pre-order this week; Iron Maiden soundtrack not included
- Crimean War British Rifle Brigade In Shakos and Crimean War British Rifle Brigade In Shakos Command
- Crimean War Russian Dragoons Regiment, Crimean War Russian Dragoons and Crimean War Russian Dragoons Command
- Crimean War Russian Lancers Regiment, Crimean War Russian Lancers and Crimean War Russian Lancers Command
- Crimean War Cossacks Regiment, Crimean War Cossacks and Crimean War Cossacks Command
- Crimean War French Line Infantry Regiment, Crimean War French Line Infantry and Crimean War French Line Infantry Command
- Crimean War French Artillery Battery and Crimean War French Artillery Gun
- Crimean War French Generals & Officers
- MMP put all the ASL Starter Kits on pre-order, along with the Elst game for them
- Pre-orders from SGS
On sale now—because retail therapy is a valid tactic
- A bunch of games from SGS on sale on Steam thru 5 January
- Easy Roller Dice has their whole site at 25% off with coupon code WINTER at checkout
- 🤫 Don’t tell Modiphius that we gave out their newsletter-subscriber-code MERRYMODIXMAS25 for 10% off at checkout
- Tales of the Valiant on deep discount at Bundle of Holding
- PlayDek has pretty much their entire Steam catalog – including all the GMT titles – on 50% off thru 5 January
- Noble Knight has copies of Magic Realm (2nd Edition) starting at $495
- Just about everything from Microprose is on sale right now
- Skirmisher Publishing has a Winter Offensive Sale on Wargame Vault with a bundle of rules & expansions around 80% off
- Miniature Market has Hubris: Twilight of the Hellenistic World over $10 off
- GOG has Total War: Three Kingdoms at 75% off, and most of the DLCs are pretty cheap, too
- No Game of the Week on sale from Wargame Design Studio because their annual Winter Sale is still going on until 4 January, and everything that’s more than a year old is 25% off
Tactics, trends, and tabletop tales—this is your intellectual LOGPAC
- GMT’s Saratoga – Playing Against the AI
- Polyversal-tile Miniatures Wargaming
- The 2026 ACDC Event Update
- Saturday Night Fights ~ “Blucher”: The Battle of Austerlitz (2)
- 2025 Year-End Wargaming Survey Reminder
- Gameplay this week
The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was
The Legacy of Robert Moses – A Cross Bronx Expressway Review from Charlie over at Player Elimination
The heart of ICS is a historical event driven system that layers meaning on the situation occurring on the board. Each turn a card is triggered which dictates player activation as well as a unique event that influences play as an expression of historical context. A session is separated across decades in Cross Bronx Expressway, so events include societal inflection points like soldiers returning from World War Two in the 40s, as well as cultural happenings such as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s single “The Message” which dropped in 1982 and includes harsh commentary on racial tension and socio-economic struggles occurring in the Bronx. Each decade has its own collection of events, and only a random subset is shuffled into the deck. The fact that huge historical occurrences such as the flood of veterans returning from the war is given no more weight than a rap single reveals the game’s underlying cultural motif. This is a game dealing with an enormous amount of social complexity, and it models one of the most severe financial crises in United States history with impressive success.
Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about his shelf of shame, after spending 35-40 minutes on the recent GMT monthly newsletter
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- BoardGameWire reports on publishers that are incorporating fan-made content into their official games
- Rascal gets you ready for next month’s 48-word RPG Jam
- ICv2 reports that the Diamond Comics bankruptcy has been converted from Ch 11 (reorg) to Ch 7 (liquidation) so it’s likely everyone with consignment inventory there is about to get fucked
- There’s a new Tabletop Publishers subscription site where you can get info on the publishers, types of games, pitches, etc
- The most recent Dietz Foundation newsletter notes that anyone who ordered the Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific 2nd edition upgrade kit will not be receiving it, and will instead get a full copy of the 2nd edition, as its easier for them to keep up with the inventory than it is to juggle update kits separately
- This week, Scott Thorne talked about dueling “free comic days”
- So if you’re on Miniature Market’s website and sorting the category by “new items” you get all the pre-orders jump to the top, but if you check the “in stock only” box, well, all the pre-orders are still on top because MM thinks “pre-orders” are “in stock” 🙄
- So you’re a wargaming curmudgeon1 whose primary online persona is best described as a “human complaint generator” . . . why would you expect anyone to take your bitching seriously? You can’t even provide a reasonable definition of who counts as a wargame company at a convention, so what possible air of authority do you think you have to gripe at leading wargame publishers on their social media feeds?2
everyone told me that moment when you see it on the shelf of your flgs is special. they were right. #crossbronxexpressway #compleatstrategist @gmtgames.bsky.social
— Non-Breaking Space (@nbsp1618.bsky.social) 2025-12-18T21:40:58.244Z
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 ~ January 4 and February 1
- Next confirmed live event is BuckeyeGameFest, 11-15 March 2026
- Next virtual event is the ACDC3, 16-18 January, 2026
Upcoming Conventions & Events
- 15-18 Jan Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo (Philadelphia PA)
- 15-18 Jan Niagara Boardgaming Weekend (Niagara Falls NY)
- 16-18 Jan ConQuest Ventura (Ventura CA)
- 16-18 Jan Marscon (Virginia Beach VA)
- 16-18 Jan The ACDC (Armchair Dragoons HQ Online)
- 17-19 Jan Siege of Augusta Con (Augusta GA)
- 22-25 Jan Bellota Con (Badajoz Spain)
- 23-25 Jan MMP Winter Offensive (Bowie MD)
- 30 Jan-1 Feb SquareBash ’26 (London UK)
- 30 Jan-1 Feb Winter War Con (Champaigne IL)
- 30 Jan-1 Feb Captain Con (Warwick RI USA)
- 4-8 Feb Game-on Con (Bellevue WA)
- 5-8 Feb Cold Wars (Los Angeles CA)
Details about the upcoming 2026 ArmChair Dragoons Digital Convention
As you’ve seen in our recent event update, the schedule has been updated and expanded, with a bunch of new games added. What’s still missing are at least 3 seminars awaiting final description info: an ACDC-special edition of the Saturday night Starfleet Tactical show, the second of our Georgetown University student presentations, and the US Army CGSC wargaming student whose project is still going through PAO approval
Meanwhile, we’ve got plenty of seats still available and a bunch of great games waiting for you to discover your next favorite.
Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about the dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals!
- Wargaming Weekly #054: What has losing at my first ever Kriegsspiel taught me about startup failure? (Wargaming Weekly)4
- Wargaming in support of planning military operations (Richard Underwood on LinkedIn)
- What Scientists Are Doing With Games (Psychology Today)
- Taiwan students turn to wargaming amid rising strait tensions (Think China)
- China’s Air Force Is ‘Wargaming’ Against Dassault Rafale Fighters (1945)
- Wargamers contest battlefields far, far away (Australian Gov’t / Defence)
- Nigerian Army shift to advanced wargaming and simulation (Military Africa)
- This week, Mick Ryan’s ‘Big Five’ looks at the latest in Ukraine, including the Ramstein Conference outcomes
- The next GUWS webinar is Army Analytical Wargaming on 5 January followed by Wargaming AI—Representing AI-Enabled Military Systems in Games on 19 January
- PaxSims latest article covers Humans (and Non-Humans) at Play: Games and Simulations in Crisis Management
- Get Hired! “GovCIO” (the US gov’t) has a posting for Simulations Operator & Content Manager at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs
Looking to make an end-of-year charitable contribution and want to use it to support educational games? Consider donating to the Reacting Consortium. They provide flexible giving levels of $25 to $250, and your support can be targeted to a number of different needs.
— 42 Educational Games Coaching and Design (@42edgames.bsky.social) 2025-12-22T22:29:59.000Z
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 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.
