December 5, 2024

Black Friday, Small Biz Saturday, Buy Wargames Sunday, Etc Etc ~ #TuesdayNewsday

It’s #TuesdayNewsday, where we connect the dots between hobbyist skirmishes, computer-generated warfare, and the military’s wargames—one update at a time.

 

5News 1 top

The tabletop gaming hobby might be one of the last places in the consumer landscape where brick-&-mortar retail isn’t dominated by national behemoth brands.

In your quest for the best deals wherever you can find them this weekend, make sure you take a moment and swing by your FLGS/FLWGS and drop a few shekels with them, too.  Even if you’ve got all the games you want off their shelves, grab some dice or a dice tray or some card sleeves.  Ask them to special-order a wargame for you even if you could get it just as easily direct from the publisher, so that your local store knows there are wargamers in the area.  Buy a gateway game for a niece or nephew to find under the tree next month.  Take the plunge on a game outside your own wheelhouse that you were always curious about

It’s easy to ignore the parts of the overall tabletop gaming ecosystem that don’t cater to our every whim and taste because there are so many available online options.  But a healthy ecosystem has to support all sorts of participants, and maybe you can help shape your local one by stepping outside your comfort zone and supporting a local business while you’re at it.

 

5News 2 Below 1

A couple of sale items to highlight

 

5News 2 Below 2

We’re finalizing submissions for events for the 2025 ACDC, to be held 17-19 January

  • Event submissions for the January 2025 ACDC are now open; there’s a bunch of games in place, and always room for some more
  • We’re busy filling in the talk show / interview schedule, and we try hard not to counter-program those, so if there’s something you want to do, get on it ASAP
    • Some of the games we’ve got (so far!) include Pendragon, Oceans of Fire, Neustart, Hannut: France 1940, and Robotech Reconstruction
    • We’ve also got some in-development games, like Queen of Spies, and Wharf Rat’s new WW1 game
    • A multi-session air/land/naval combo game on the Falklands War
    • We’ve got a special edition of The Chit Show with Gary & Dan that’s just for attendees
    • Opening / Closing Happy Hours, other designer discussions & historical talks
  • Registration should go live shortly after Thanksgiving (current target is 12/2)
  • More info can be found on the announcement page here
  • Join the discussion in our forums
  • If you’re interested in volunteering to help with ACDC planning & execution this year, and going forward, please drop a line in the forums, or shoot a PM through there to Brant

 

5News separatorLine

5News 3 Incoming

Hitting the shelves (and webstores) near you now!

 

 

5News 4 launch

Time to get those orders in now and then either (a) complain that it’s 2 years late, and/or (b) be surprised when it gets here sooner than you thought

 

5News 5 falling

Looking for a deal? Getting more bang for your buck?

There are some other sales – as well as some repeats of things here – listed in our top stories above.

 

5News separatorLine

5News 8 Blogs

This week’s best written coverage from the wargaming world

 

5News 9 screen

The best videos this week from our wargaming friends

 

 

5News 10 industry

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

 

This is one of Amabel’s best threaded set of posts.  It’s probably the basis for a really good article / listicle on game design considerations.  There’s plenty in here to disagree with – Amabel even admits that she disagrees with some of them – but literally every point will make you stop and think and ponder games in which you’ve seen these happen, and try to think of games that might disprove the points.  Either way, you’re thinking about games and that’s a win in anyone’s book!

Back on the other site I had a long thread of contrarian (but sincerely-held) board game design hot takes. Here’s a shorter thread with the best of them. 🧵

— Amabel Holland (@amabel.bsky.social) November 25, 2024 at 6:42 PM


An excellent thread here about how / why board game publishers use crowdfunding and what it allows them to control (and what they’re at the mercy of) and why the margin matters in game production

Why do board game publishers use crowdfunding?

Marketing
Margin
Forecasting

(I wrote about this already – I’ll revive that thread separately)

Let’s drill into the MARGIN item a bit.

Regardless of company size (or perceived company size):

[image or embed]

— 🥧 suzanne 🥧 (@425suzanne.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 11:25 AM

 

5News separatorLine

5News 6 regiment

It’s been a busy week for the regiment; here’s what you might’ve missed!

Reminder than #UnboxingDay is on hiatus until 2025, when we’ll re-evaluate its potential return

 

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.

Upcoming Dragoons Events

  • Wargame Days at The Gamer’s Armory in Cary, NC ~ 1 December and 5 January
  • Next confirmed live event is BuckeyeGameFest, 1-4 May 2025
  • Next planned virtual event is the ACDC5, 17-19 January, 2025

Other Conventions & Events
things are slowing down now that we’re getting to the holidays, so here are some for next year

 

5News separatorLine

5News 11 Pros

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

 

 

 

5News separatorLine

5News 12 different

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’ll drop some more news on 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. *not* the ones involving Ally Sheedy
  2. despite – as we’ve pointed out – the fact that the word “battalion” doesn’t appear for about 1700 years after the game takes place
  3. like our own Suicide Kitty
  4. which absolutely, never-in-a-million-years, ever happens in wargaming, does it?!
  5. Armchair Dragoons Digital Convention

Armchair Dragoons PAO

Official Public Affairs account for The Armchair Dragoons, for official site news, and other contributors.

View all posts by Armchair Dragoons PAO →

Tell us what you think!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.