In this week’s #TuesdayNewsday, we embark on a journey through the landscapes of tabletop, digital & practitioner wargaming, uncovering the news, events, & innovations that are shaping our beloved hobby.
By now you’ve seen the info about Rodger MacGowan’s family losing their house in the recent California wildfire. You’ve also likely already seen the information about the GoFundMe campaign to support Rodger’s family in their recovery, but we’re bringing you the information again, just in case
Now that the 2025 ACDC is in our rearview mirror, we’ve got 2 pieces of business to wrap up. Later this week you’ll get our ACDC AAR. Today, you’re getting the links to our live shows from The ACDC, most of which were private for the live audience, and shared now after the fact.
- Happy Hour Kickoff show with Ardwulf
- So, you want to create a minis game (honestly, who doesn’t)? with Marc Gacy
- Soniashnyk: Supply Chain of the Russo-Ukrainian Conflict (Clarkson University student presentation)
- A Quick Look Around the 2025 ACDC (Brant going live and dropping in on a few games)
- A Chat with Designer Keith Tracton
- Pushing Cardboard’s talk with Frank Davis
The 2025 Wargame Print & Play Design Contest is live on BGG. The first part of the deets
Games entered in this contest should be purpose-designed wargames. Games may be solitaire, two player, multi-player or even co-operative. However it is critical that the game is a wargame. The primary focus should therefore be on conflict and warfare. For the avoidance of doubt, the following themes are allowed: historical war from any time period (e.g. the Irish civil war), hypothetical war from any time period (e.g. hypothetical invasion of Cornwall by Korea in 1248), fantasy war (e.g. ents versus fungusfolk), sci-fi war (e.g. Cthulhu versus Godzilla on Planet X). Any scale of conflict is allowed from 1 on 1 (e.g. gladiators) through to grand strategic (e.g. whole of WW2). If you are in doubt about whether your idea qualifies, please consult BGG’s very detailed definition of what a wargame is.
And the rest you can read at the link. The other important piece?
Submissions close October 1, 2025. No further entries will be accepted after this date, but existing entries may be further developed. By this date, entries must be playable, with all components and rules available for download, though these need not necessarily be the final versions.
Hitting the shelves (and webstores) near you now!
- Wargame Design Studio released War of the Austrian Succession, the latest in their Musket & Pike series
- Compass Games moved The Golden Age of Piracy: 1718 to the “released” column
- DRAGOONS! New releases from Warlord Games!
- Dark City Games released their new squad-level solo Vietnam War game
- Hexasim released a new set of strategy cards for Great War Commander
- Now that Winter Offensive is over, MMP has released the Winter Offensive Bonus Pack #16 (3 new ASL scenarios + map)
- Dr Burns new book Infantry In Battle 1773-1783 (From Reason to Revolution) is now available
- Dawn of Anarchy is a Battletech-looking console/shooter just released on Steam and it’s 40% right now for its launch
- Trying to outflank the competition, Avalanche Press released their own Ponyri Station set that collects a couple of their Panzer Grenadier products together
- Warlord also released a set of Desert Raiders for Bolt Action!
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
- A new combo set from Worthington is now on Kickstarter, with both South Mountain 1862 and 1862 War in Virginia in one campaign
- Osprey are taking pre-orders on the new General Orders game from Thompson & Benjamin: Sengoku Jidai
- Steamforged launched their Gamefound campaign for the board game adaptation of the classic Hearts of Iron, and since they’ve already funded and shipped another Paradox-based project in the time since Academy’s Kickstarter for Stellaris funded and hasn’t yet shipped, there’s a good chance you’ll get this one before the sun goes supernova
- MMP’s Slaughter at Ponyri HASL module is on pre-order with MMP
- Warlord Games has a Hail Caesar Epic Battles: Celt Army on pre-order
- Thin Red Line Games are prepping a 4th printing of Under an Iron Sky
- A bunch of new Team Yankee / WWIII product on pre-order from the Battlefront minis guys for Israeli forces; aside from the usual cards, tokens, and dice, you can also get
- GMT’s January monthly update announced several new p500s
- Tsar – juggling the regime of Nicolas II
- I, Napoleon The Limits of Glory – expansion to the hit
- Ukraine ’43 3rd Edition – reprint
Looking for a deal? Getting more bang for your buck?
- WDS “Game of the week” is Squad Battles: Winter War for $29.95
- OK, Dice Envy’s new “Three Kobolds in a Winter Coat” dice are just hilarious, and they’re 10% off with coupon code STACKED at checkout
- Miniature Market has Iwo Jima 1945 on sale at $15 off
- MM also has a big clear-out-the-bak-room sale going on, and there’s a bunch of stuff from the Heroes of Normandie and associated lines for dirt cheap
- MMP extended the sale price on ASL Journal #15 through the 30th
It’s actually been a damned busy week for the regiment and we’re not just saying that!
- Mentioned in Dispatches started recording this past week; look for new episodes soon!
- Saturday Night Fights ~ The Battle of Bautzen for “Blucher”
- FL(W)GS Spotlight ~ GameStorm of Lemont, IL
- A Grognard’s view of Wargames According to Mark: An Historian’s View of Wargame Design
- Your 2024 in Wargaming, Part 3 – Your Biggest Stories
- Short Rounds! Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance: We are Legion
- Wednesday War Stories ~ Battle of Dogger Bank, 24 January 1915
- Counter Deep Diving with Joint All Domain Operation
- AARs
- Gameplay this week
Seriously, that’s a lot of articles for one week!
The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was
this thread from Dreadnought Holiday over on Bluesky
Literally clearing the decks, Roberts built a space to control and move his model convoys and their dinky wolf pack predators, and then he and his team taught themselves to fight using the same tactics as their subjects to see what they might learn.
it’s a heck of a journey that talks not just about the WATU work, but the personalities involved, too
![]() 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 The Best of GMT Games, Part V: 2011-2013
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- Friend-of-the-Dragoons Tory Brown appeared on NPR talking about the recent “tabletop gaming surge”
- Tips from a Cardboard Edison judge
- ICv2 reports on the shuffling of some folks in the game industry, including a new Managing Director at Tabletop Tycoon
- BoardGameWire reports that CMON is bringing a new marketing manager on board
- Rascal reports that the ENNIES are going exclude games with AI-generated content from their awards
- Neva Games announced they’re pulling their campaigns off of Gamefound and moving the pre-orders in-house
- Decision Games final(ish?) round of customer voting on which box games get brought back into print
We are currently looking for playtesters for our upcoming game Crown & Courage. So if you are interested in trying it on Tabletop simulator please let me know.
— tompetgames.bsky.social (@tompetgames.bsky.social) January 24, 2025 at 2:28 PM
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 ~ 2 February and 2 March <– THIS WEEKEND!
- Next confirmed live event is BuckeyeGameFest, 1-4 May 2025
- Next confirmed virtual event is Connections Online, 7-12 April, 2025
Other Conventions & Events
- 31 Jan-2 Feb Captain Con (Warwick RI) <– THIS WEEKEND!
- 5-9 February Game-on (Bellevue WA)
- 14-22 Feb WinterFest (Strongville OH)
- 14-18 Feb DunDraCon 48 (Santa Clara CA)
- 14-17 Feb Strategicon: Orccon (Los Angeles CA)
- 15-16 Feb Cold Barrage (Havre de Grace MD)
- 15-16 Feb Connections North (Kingston ON)
- 17-24 Feb PrezCon (Charlottesville VA)
Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about our dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals!
- Academic studies on wargaming effectiveness are a bit thin on the ground so when there’s one that comes out of MCU it’s worth sharing –– How Participating In Educational Wargames Changes Student Preferences On Learning
- How do you wargame an “undeclared war” ?
- A new all-drone, multi-domain attack in Ukraine – a sea change in warfare?
- Artillery ambushes and current warfare
- Restructuring US Army Cavalry (PDF form)
- This week, Mick Ryan’s Big Five talks about changes in Europe/Ukraine under the new administration
- The next GUWS webinar is Nuclear Wargaming: It shouldn’t just be Game Over! on 4 February, followed by Professional Wargaming in France in 4 March
- PaxSims has a longer piece about recent Chinese wargaming
You get what you reward. "Wargaming and research experience" are not rewarded because trying to keep our ships afloat and our crews fully manned and properly trained while complying with excessive bureaucratic demands and a misguided sustainment system creates different… https://t.co/b5jdvP9JgF
— Mark Tempest (@lawofsea) January 28, 2025
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.