Every week, #TuesdayNewsday takes you around the strategy gaming world with the headlines and on occasion, including those from the real world
So yeah, there’s a shooting war going on. And there’ve been wargames that were looking ahead to this conflict, with varying degrees of success in their prognostications. And there will be wargames after the fact trying to piece together what happened and how & why.
As wargamers, there’s always going to be a certain detached curiosity we bring to the table when exploring conflict topics like this. But as we consider the wargaming models of a very real and very current conflict, let’s never forget the human toll of the war, and to always be mindful of those innocents caught in it. Say an extra prayer for them.
And as a side note, anyone trying to drop political screeds, diatribes, or manifestos will have those comments sandblasted from the wall.
We’re not here to have a debate about this; we’re just acknowledging reality
- MMP claims that Yanks! is now shipping. Gary should get his in August1
- It might’ve snuck out past us, but Legion Wargames are now shipping Hill of Doves for all your solitaire Boer War goodness
- We normally don’t talk about .STL files because only so many of y’all have 3D printers. But Steve Jackson just released a big bundle of enemies for The Fantasy Trip in .STL format
- Steve Jackson also released a GURPS expansion2 about Social Engineering for all your social interaction needs, for any sort of genre, whether a medieval-fantasy noble court, or a 21st century spy.
- The latest GMT monthly update included mention of a downloadable print-&-play version of the Stuka Joe CDG solo system
- Warlord Games has some new “start collecting” bundles for Blood Red Skies: there’s a US one and a Japanese one
- Catalyst are now shipping new Battletech “blind boxes” with fully-assembled mechs in the boxes, with both Mechwarrior and Alpha Strike cards in them. They’re random, but all equal rarity, across the 90-odd different models.
- Big Humble Bundle sale on all-things-Sid for pretty much every Civ game (with DLCs) plus Pirates, and Beyond Earth, and Railroads, and Colonization, and Starships, and pretty much anything else that ever had his name on it.
- Miniature Market has a 3-game Rambo trilogy on sale and yes, we’re all wondering how there were actually 3 different Rambo games made
- Lock ‘n Load Publishing has both the Atlantic Storm Admirals Edition and the neoprene player’s mat on sale
- S&T’s game-edition magazine sale this week is going waaaaaay back, with S&T #148, with Cropredy Bridge
- The Downfall series of wargames has launched on Kickstarter. There’s one each for WW1 and WW2, at the high-strategic level
- Avalanche Press has the playbook version of their 1940 The Fall of France Panzer Grenadier game available for pre-order
- Osprey Games are taking pre-orders on Castles in the Sky which takes WW1-style dreadnoughts and puts them in the air
- Worthington Publishing’s D-Day to the Rhine 1944 wraps up the Kickstarter campaign this week
- Steve Jackson’s Munchkin just keeps on keeping on. Munchkin Batman is now live on Kickstarter
- Fantasy Commander is a hex-&-minis skirmish game on Kickstarter, and the minis look damn nice. The basic box is only $49 but that’s got the counters instead of minis, and the first mini-loaded set is just over $100.
- GMT’s latest monthly update announced a new p500, as Cuius Regio: The Thirty Years War is now up for pre-order. The GMT update also included p500 additions of 3 reprints, too: Commands & Colors: Samurai (2nd Printing), Conquest of Paradise (3rd Printing), and Sekigahara (5th Printing)
- Saturday Night Fights ~ The 1809 Campaign for “Snappy Nappy” part 3
- We’ve got Arrigo’s review of Aden, from Tiny Battle Publishing
- My Own Worst Enemy ~ Midway Solitaire Deluxe Edition Part 2
- This week’s classic article ~ B10: Night’s Dark Terror
- Mentioned in Dispatches ~ Operational Level Napoleonic Warfare
- Upcoming Dragoons Events
- Next #UnboxingDay 17 March 2022
- Next Virtual Convention is Connections Online, 19-21 April 2022
- Next Real-World Convention that’s actually confirmed is Origins, 8-12 June 2022, but Buckeye GameFest is likely enough that we’ve added it to our front page countdown
Planning continues for Connections Online, being held from 18-24 April 2022, with the Core Events being held 19-21 April from 10am-4pm EST. As the Armchair Dragoons are the co-sponsors of this event, you’ll get regular updates each week in Tuesday Newsday between now and launch.
- Core events are largely set, but exact times are being confirmed. They’ll include
- Recent Innovations in Wargaming
- How Wargamers Get Hired
- Designing a Professional Wargame
- Methodologies for Designing Cyber Wargames
- Wargaming Outside the NatSec World
- Extended events will occur across all 7 days, at a variety of hours that do not conflict with the Core Events. Current planning includes, but is certainly not limited to
- Moderated panel, and a seminar game for the 40th anniversary of the Falkland Islands War
- NSDM Game Design Workshop, where participants will actually design the broad-strokes mechanics of a wargame
- Pol-Mil Wargaming, with Jason Matthews
- Orientation to Wargaming, for New/Aspiring Wargamers
- Wargaming History with High School Students
- Wargame Bootcamp (multiple sessions) for VASSAL / TTS usage
- Registration will go live in March
- All Core Events will be streamed through YouTube, but using unlisted URLs, which will limit live interaction to registered attendees. After Connections is over, streams will be made public. Some – but not all – Extended Events will be streamed.
- If you are interested in volunteering with Connections Online, please drop a note in our forums or contact us at armchairdragoonsevents – at – gmail – dot – .com
- The Landgrafenberg for “Lasalle 2”, part 2
- Striking St. Nicholas for “Chain of Command”
- Hethwill could probably still use some players for this campaign
- The Wargaming Company weighs in
- GMT East registration is open
- Brian Train flips a table over Ukraine
- Matrix Games launched a new version of their forums, and managed to import the old content with them, which they didn’t do when they migrated the wargamer.com forums
- Here’s an interesting blog post from Hollandspiele about “accidental design”
- Phalanx Games walks back some mis-steps on their social media, with a public mea culpa on the Twitters
— PHALANX (@PhalanxGames) February 28, 2022
- This week in our forums
- A discussion on BGG about co-op wargaming, and no Case Blue suggestions yet
- A good read on Substack about the kinds of lessons you do – and don’t – learn from hobby wargaming
- There was a sprawling Twitter conversation over the weekend about what sort of wargaming tools were needed for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine
How would someone go about designing a game/scenario for what we're seeing in Ukraine? If it was released 3 weeks ago, would anyone call it realistic. Who would think Russian army this bad @ADragoons @GUWargaming @TheGascon @moesgametable @Ardwulf @SebastianBae @thecommandtent
— OJsDad (@OJsdas) February 28, 2022
- Rocky’s still rolling up all sorts of TTRPG characters, but took a break to talk about Paddy Griffith, too
- Moe learned to play Conqustadors with the designer
- Kev took a look at some of the RUS-UKR wargames out there, and that sounds like it should be a podcast episode
- Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about Winterfest, questionable taste in music, the latest GMT update, and reprints. He also unboxed his Kickstarter edition of The One Ring
Don’t forget we’ve got a dedicated area of our forums for the professional wargamers.
- So the Russians apparently wargamed out their post-invasion campaign in Ukraine. Might’ve skipped a step or three there, guys.
- The
MarinesUS Naval Infantry have formally activated their first “littoral regiment” and we’re hoping that doesn’t force another name change for Sebastian - If you’re in the DC area, you can RSVP for the next USA Fight Club in-person event on 4/30 in Arlington
- Connections Japan has now been announced
- UK Fight Club is asking about games with a focus on, or robust component of, ground-based air defense systems
- The next GUWS webinar will talk about Principles of International Relations in Commercial Board Games on 3/15, and then on 3/31 you can hear about Air Force Wargaming
- PaxSims is talking about the GAP Project
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.
We appreciate you visiting the Armchair Dragoons and hope that you enjoy our weekly news dumps!
Please leave us your feedback in our discussion forum, or in the comment area below.
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