by Armchair Dragoons PAO, 22 May 2024
The Origins War College hosts a wide variety of panels, seminars, and discussions around military history, military affairs, and current events. Once upon a time, our CPX’s were a part of the War College program, before the Wargame HQ was started.
This year, we wanted to leverage 2 things that have been neglected for years:
- The wargame designers attending Origins are all intelligent folks with fascinating insights about modeling conflicts, so we wanted to pull together a few panels with them to allow the audience a chance to ask their own questions about game design, inspirations, ideas, etc.
- It’s been years since we had the companies at Origins give an update about their companies with the ability for the audience to interact with them. We’re giving them all a platform to showcase whatever they want about the company – recent releases, upcoming plans, soliciting playtesters, etc – and for the audience to ask some questions of them as well.
Together, these two tracks have added over a dozen hours of programming to the Origins War College and several of the designers also stepped up with their own additional talks about topics of interest.
While we’ll have a full Origins War College listing later, we wanted to give you a rundown of what our specific talks were, and who you’ll see up front giving them.
All of our sessions are in room A 216.
THURSDAY 6/20
Guilford Courthouse
Jim Werbaneth
Game designer Jim Werbaneth dives into the campaign around Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina during the American War of Independence
6/20/2024 10:00 for 1 hour.(#1446)
Fight Like The Pros ~ Wargame Doctrine In Wargaming
Brant Guillory
What are some tools and techniques you can use to emulate the planning and decision processes of military staffs during while playing commercial wargames
6/20/2024 12:00 for 1 hour.(#1445)
The Battle of Gazala
Jim Werbaneth
Game designer Jim Werbaneth talks about the history of the 1942 Battle of Gazala, which was the subject of his game “Rommel at Gazala”
6/20/2024 13:00 for 1 hour.(#1440)
Company Update ~ Academy Games
Uwe Eickert
An update from Academy Games about their current and upcoming products and their recent crowdfunded games, and what’s next on their horizon
6/20/2024 14:00 for 2 hours.(#1442)
Conflict Update on Ukraine
Bruce Maxwell
Designer Bruce Maxwell gives a deep dive into the ongoing war in Ukraine focused on strategic military issues
6/20/2024 16:00 for 2 hours.(#1443)
Wargame Designer Panel #1
Kevin Bertram • Tim Densham • Jason Matthews • Jim Werbaneth
Acclaimed wargame designers Bruce Maxwell, Tim Densham, Jason Matthews, and Jim Werbaneth discuss their overall wargame design philosophies and current projects
6/20/2024 18:00 for 2 hours.(#1444)
FRIDAY 6/21
Company Update ~ Decision Games
Doc Cummings
An update from Decision Games about their current and upcoming products, and what’s on the horizon for the company as a whole
6/21/2024 11:00 for 2 hours.(#1441)
Aircraft Carriers in SPACE !!!
Chris Weuve
Aircraft carriers are cool.Aircraft carriers in space are even more cool — even if they might not make sense.This talk explores aircraft carriers in reality and science fiction, and expands on the previous version of this talk.
6/21/2024 13:00 for 2 hours.(#1429)
The Inchon Landings
Jim Werbaneth
Game designer Jim Werbaneth talks about the Inchon campaign from The Korean War, which was the subject of his CSR-winning game Inchon: MacArthur’s Gambit
6/21/2024 15:00 for 1 hour.(#1430)
Company Update ~ Dietz Foundation
Jim Dietz
An update from The Dietz Foundation about their games, as well as the non-profit education support that the foundation provides to students
6/21/2024 16:00 for 1 hour.(#1431)
Company Update ~ Fort Circle Games
Kevin Bertram
A status from Fort Circle Games about their current offerings and upcoming plans, as well as some discussion around their marketing philosophy
6/21/2024 17:00 for 1 hour.(#1433)
Games & Sims for Training & Learning
Brant Guillory • James Sterrett • Ian Brown • Chris Weuve
A freewheeling panel discussion about the ways in which the military (and other practitioners) use games & sims for training & learning purposes
6/21/2024 18:00 for 2 hours.(#1432)
SATURDAY 6/22
The Twilight Struggle Franchise
Ananda Gupta • Jason Matthews
Designers Jason Matthews and Ananda Gupta talk about plans for extending the Twilight Struggle franchise
6/22/2024 9:00 for 2 hours.(#1439)
Franco-American Relations in WW2
Jim Werbaneth
Game designer Jim Werbaneth talks about the ups and downs of the relationship between the US and the various French governments during WW2
6/22/2024 11:00 for 1 hour.(#1434)
Company Presentation ~ GMT Games
Jason Carr
GMT Games’ presentation on current activities
6/22/2024 12:00 for 2 hours.(#1435)
Company Update ~ Catastrophe Games
Tim Densham
A status from Catastrophe Games about what they’ve been up two in their first few years, and where they are going as the company expands their offerings
6/22/2024 14:00 for 1 hour.(#1436)
US Army Tank Destroyers in WW2
Fred Schwarz
Tracing the tactical and technical developments of the US tank destroyers in WW2
6/22/2024 15:00 for 1 hour.(#1437)
Wargame Designer Panel #2
Ananda Gupta • Bruce Maxwell • David Thompson • Ian Brown
Acclaimed wargame designers Ananda Gupta, Bruce Maxwell, David Thompson, and Ian Brown discuss their overall wargame design philosophies and current projects
6/22/2024 16:00 for 2 hours.(#1438)
ORIGINS 2024 COVERAGE
PREVIEWS:
WARGAME HQ EVENTS ~ MiD PREVIEW EPISODE ~ WARGAME HQ GAME PREVIEWS ~ WAR COLLEGE PREVIEWS ~ CONSOLIDATED ALL WARGAMING EVENT GRID ~ EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT ~ THE ORIGINS OF ORIGINS
AT THE SHOW:
SETUP & FIRST GAMES ~ DAY 1 REPORT ~ THE SHAMAN ASCENDS ~ THE EXHIBIT HALL ~ THE VIEW FROM ABOVE ~ BINGO ~ GAMEPLAY PHOTOS ~ WARGAME HQ EVENT REPORT ~ COSTUME PHOTOS ~ CONVENTION PHOTOS ~ KRIEGSSPIEL ~ AAR ~ YOUTUBE PLAYLIST
DISCUSSION FORUM THREAD
| Event # | Event Name | Starts | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1446 | Guilford Courthouse | 6/20 10:00 | 1 |
| 1445 | Fight Like The Pros ~ Wargame Doctrine | 6/20 12:00 | 1 |
| 1440 | The Battle of Gazala | 6/20 13:00 | 1 |
| 1442 | Company Update ~ Academy Games | 6/20 14:00 | 2 |
| 1443 | Conflict Update on Ukraine | 6/20 16:00 | 2 |
| 1444 | Wargame Designer Panel #1 Bertram/Densham/Matthews/Werbaneth | 6/20 18:00 | 2 |
| 1441 | Franco-American Relations in WW2 | 6/22 11:00 | 1 |
| 1429 | Aircraft Carriers in SPACE !!! | 6/21 13:00 | 2 |
| 1430 | The Inchon Landings | 6/21 15:00 | 1 |
| 1431 | Company Update ~ Dietz Foundation | 6/21 16:00 | 1 |
| 1433 | Company Update ~ Fort Circle Games | 6/21 17:00 | 1 |
| 1432 | Games & Sims for Training & Learning Guillory/Sterrett/Brown/Weuve | 6/21 18:00 | 2 |
| 1439 | The Twilight Struggle Franchise | 6/22 9:00 | 2 |
| 1434 | Company Update ~ Decision Games | 6/21 11:00 | 1 |
| 1435 | Company Presentation ~ GMT Games | 6/22 12:00 | 2 |
| 1436 | Company Update ~ Catastrophe Games | 6/22 14:00 | 1 |
| 1437 | US Army Tank Destroyers in WW2 | 6/22 15:00 | 1 |
| 1438 | Wargame Designer Panel #2 Gupta/Maxwell/Thompson/Brown | 6/22 16:00 | 2 |
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At the Origins Game Fair, so vast,
Wargaming enthusiasts amassed,
With armies in sight,
They prepared for the fight,
And victory was theirs at last.
Today’s oxymoron: War College