Tariff Tuesday and Other Less-Depressing Matters ~ #TuesdayNewsday

It’s that time of the week again—#TuesdayNewsday is here! We’re diving into the biggest stories from tabletop, computer, and professional wargaming. Whether it’s new releases or industry insights, we’ve got everything you need to stay informed without the arbitrary 35% price hike.

The obvious headline is the devastation of Trump’s tariffs that are about to land like an atomic bomb on the tabletop games world.  Here’s just a sampling of the many varied articles that have appeared this week to discuss it

• Polygon talks about the industry as a whole
• BoardGameWire talked to a bunch of industry people about the issue
• ICv2 reports that the tariffs won’t apply to books, which might be a reprieve for the RPG world, but will still screw boardagmers (note that “printed material” doesn’t mean “boxed games with other things inside that collectively are classified as toys”)
• David Enstennes talks about how it’ll affect The Wargaming Company
• Steve Jackson Games reaction part one
• Steve Jackson Games reaction part two
• Scott Thorne’s weekly column talks about them
• BoLS expects a bunch of companies to go under
• Sound of Drums doesn’t expect them to affect how they do business
• City of Kings offers some input
• Dietz Foundation reaction
• Nick Bentley talks about how they’ll affect Underdog Games
• Pushing Cardboard reports on Revolution Games’ reactions
• Stonemaier Games has had multiple columns about them
  • The Darkest Timeline
  • The Math of Tariffs
• GAMA’s statement (posted on FB, but also available elsewhere)
• A deeper dive on RPGs in particular
• Industry reactions, reported by Forbes

 

As we reported a few years ago, and discussed on Ardwulf’s show, the idea that publishers can just move their manufacturing to the US without serious capital investment is completely wrong.  There is simply no capacity to produce the same components that overseas printers can produce at the moment, and the things that can be printed here are demonstrably lower quality.  This isn’t just us making up some bumper-sticker talking points.  This is all coming directly from people whose mortgages literally depend on getting those answers right.

 

As Hethwill pointed out in our Discord server, congrats to Jan!

 

Here’s a pretty interesting quiz about your “board games motivation profile” and it would be interesting to see how wargamers stack up against the general board gaming public.

We’ve been working on some similar things over the years, building off of the original study we did back in 2006

 

✅ Nomination time over at BGG again
Please help us get to the final stages of the balloting, even if there’s no real chance for us win in the end. 🎖️
Remember, we’re the podcast withOUT “meeple” in the name! 🪆

 

 

Hitting the shelves (and webstores) near you now!

• Slitherine released Armored Brigade II on Steam and there’s a 10% launch discount for a few days yet
• It’s only been in development for, oh, a decade or so, but Burden of Command has finally released on Steam
• Littoral Commander: The Baltic is now shipping to pre-orders from The Dietz Foundation
• On their site, Compass has moved Roma Victrix to their “released” column
• High Flying Dice released Villa’s Vengeance that’ll let you chase Pancho Villa round Columbus, NM
• Paper Wars #109, including the Baltic Freikorps game, is now shipping
• Catastrophe Games are importing Patria Libre, so you can buy them stateside without a huge shipping markup
• Probably should’ve mentioned it before this week, but Sound of Drums are shipping Assault: Sicily ’43 – Gela Beachhead and yes, that’s our own Bawb in the credits
• NAC Wargames released Berlin 1945: The Fall of the Reichstag and so far we haven’t seen any promo posts with Nazi war criminals, so that’s a plus
• There’s a new D-Day Counterattack Bundle for Flames of War that includes the rules/unit cards plus a starter force of both Americans & Germans for a ridiculous $80
• Gamer’s Armory has the KC March Madness 2025 ASL scenario pack available to order, which was otherwise only available at the event
• Sword of Steel released Battlefield Commander WWII on Steam
• New DLC for Distant Worlds 2 is now out, introducing the Atuuk and Wekkarus factions
• Microprose released Battlefall: State of Conflict, technically as an “early access” game, but you can still buy/play it
• New boxes of minis from Wargames Atlantic for The Baron’s War
  • Mounted knights (1150-1320)
  • Mounted serjeants (1150-1320)

 

 

There was waaaaay more stuff hit crowdfunding this past week than you probably expected

• Now that LC:Baltic is shipping, pre-orders are open for Littoral Commander: Australia
• Vae Victus #180 with Conquest of Hungary 1526 is on pre-order until late April
• Last Flag WWII just launched on Kickstarter, with a capture-the-flag feel in a WWII motif
• Forsage Games launched Urban Battle and cleared their low funding goal pretty quickly, but remember that they’re running behind on previous Kickstarters still
• Vendée 1793 has started shipping to the people who pre-ordered through the site, but they’re running a Kickstarter campaign to get the pre-orders up for other sales, so you can still get it cheaper than retail right now
• Helldivers 2: The Board Game is now on Gamefound

 

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

• WDS “Game of the week” is Panzer Campaigns: Spring Awakening ‘45 for $29.95; read our impressions of it here
• Decision Games deal-of-the-month is on the SPW Der Weltkrieg series, where you can get 20% off any single game, or 25% off the whole set
• Dice Envy’s new set this week is “Earthquake” and you can save 10% with coupon code SHOOK at checkout
• You can save over $35 on GMT’s World At War, A – Second World War in Europe and the Pacific (4th Printing) over at Noble Knight
• Big sale from Alternative Armies that includes over 50 different items and free stuff in every order
• Very good Humble Bundle deal on 5e RPG stuff from Kobold Press, and it benefits the Make-A-Wish-Foundation, too

 

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

• Saturday Night Fights ~ Charlie Don’t Surf, Mum!
• Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E10 ~ Wargame Awards
• Convention Report – Circle DC 2025
• Adepticon 2025, Too
• Chad’s Story of the 29th Infantry Division – Fighting Formations: US 29th Infantry Division
• Both of our current AARs wrap up this week, so look for new ones starting next week!
  • Let’s Roll – Part 6
  • The Life & Times of I, Napoleon – Part 14
• From our forums, which were pretty busy this week
  • Bawb opens up Assault: Sicily ’43 – Gela Beachhead
  • Early returns on All Are Brothers, with a look at the contents as well as some gameplay
• Gameplay this week
  • Attack on Malon for “I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!”
  • “Longstreet” Campaign — 1861 (2)
  • Maurice Lite at Kesseldorf:  part one and part two

 

The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was

To Rome, With Love, from Galactic Journey, where they’re “living in the past” as though it were the present

Two months ago, Jim Dunnigan started a revolution.  He took over the wargame fanzine, Strategy and Tactics, and not only worked to revitalize it, he started the novel practice of releasing a new wargame in it every issue!  Avalon Hill, the previous, undisputed king of the wargame publishers, comes out with one or two new games a year, whereas S&T plans to put out six to twelve (there are two in the current issue) of these magazine inserts in the same time—plus a whole line of regular releases.

 

This week’s best written coverage from the wargaming world Rocky opens up Littoral Commander: The Baltic (dammit!) Clio’s Board Games looks at some AWI games Space Biff digs into In The Shadows Slaughter at Ponyri lands on Wargaming Esoterica’s doorstep Boardgames Chronicle looks at Washington’s War and it’s implementation on RTT Avalanche Press has an article about German coastal defense ships in WW2 Meeple Lady tells you all about her trip to Circle DC Kevin Zucker has some memories of working at SPI

The best videos this week from our wargaming friends My Own Worst Enemy unboxes The Battle For Normandy Deluxe Edition Justegarde talks about his time at Game mORe 2025:  part one, part two, part three Beyond Solitaire Podcast 191: Michelle Strayer on Wargame Analysis Bill’s Battle of the Hook board game play thru Meandering Mike talks about Magazine Game Storage Solutions Pushing Cardboard #43 – Grant Dalgliesh | Columbia Games | Vae Victis

Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about sandbox wargaming, and fighting with his browser

 

 

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

• ICv2 talks about some of the interesting tidbits uncovered in the Diamond bankruptcy auction
• BoardGameWire talks with the publisher of games magazine Senet, about the goals for the magazine to elevate board gaming to a higher level of art form
• Rascal talks to Quinns (who also did a video about professional wargaming) about his platform
• Some online goofiness – Which Board Game Designer Is Your Creative Soul Twin?
• WDS released the latest engine update to their Civil War Battles line
• Per their homepage, Silver Fox Productions – the heir to the long-running RAFM minis company – has closed up shop

 

And look who is jumping on the Tuesday Newsday bandwagon!

 

Don’t forget to check our consolidated event & convention calendar for more!
You can also submit your own events for our calendar here.

• Wargame Days at The Gamer’s Armory in Cary, NC ~ 4 May and 1 June
• Next confirmed live event is BuckeyeGameFest, 1-4 May 2025
• Current ongoing virtual event is Connections Online, 7-12 April, 2025

Other Conventions & Events

• 7-13 Apr Connections Online 2025 (Armchair Dragoons HQ Online) <– RIGHT NOW!
• 24-28 Apr HMGS Little Wars (Naperville IL)
• 10-13 April ChaosiumCon (Ann Arbor MI)
• 25-27 Apr Spring Offensive 2025 (Burlington NC)
• 26 April GUWS Kriegsspiel Game Day (Washington DC)
• 28 Apr-5 May The War Room at Buckeye Game Fest (Columbus OH) <– featuring QUAD FEST!
• 1-5 May Buckeye Game Fest (Columbus OH)
• 2-5 May Gaming Hoopla (Milwaukee WI)
• 8-12 May PAX East (Boston MA)
• 9-12 May PunchedCon (Coventry UK)

 

You’ve seen the list of Origins events we’ve got for this Summer.  Starting next week, we’ll have other updates for you about the Wargame HQ at Origins, and at the end of April we’ll start our usual countdowns to the convention with event listings, vendor locations in the exhibit hall, and more.

All of our events have been approved, so you can look for those to be one of our first preview articles.  We’ve also been told we’ll be in 2412 in the main gaming hall.

 

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

• The New York Times talks about wargaming the current global economic situation
• What happens after the US attacks the Mexican cartels?  Here’s a report on a wargame that looked into it
• The Brennan Center “wargames” out what might happen if the Insurrection Act were invoked
• Simulating Landpower and Alliances in the Indo-Pacific
• Update your Brazilian naval orbats
• ‘Direct Hit.’ 720,000 HIMARS Fragments Shredded These Russian Helicopters.
• This week, Mick Ryan’s Big Five talks about peacekeeping & peace negotiations along with the usual check-ins around Ukraine and Taiwan
• Really, who needs actual operations research to support warfighting & acquisitions decision-making, anyway?
• Impact of Serious Game Design Factors and Problem based Pedagogy on Learning outcome
• The next GUWS webinar is tonight! – Spyships, Satellites, and SAMs; on 6 May you get Modeling Urban Warfare: how can we model the complexity of urban space? followed by Cobalt Rocks: Wargaming Seabed Operations on 20 May
• PaxSims was a review of an Italian wargaming manual

 

Big thread here about wargaming at MCU

 

Something neat from outside the wargaming world we thought was worth sharing

This is probably a bit of preaching-to-the-choir here, but still 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.