by New releases, big reveals, and sneaky moves ahead! Let’s dive into this week’s #TuesdayNewsday 🔀
The end of an era of gaming content, even if there wasn’t a ton of wargaming lately
EssenSpiel kicks off this weekend, and while there’s not a ton of wargaming that happens there, it’s enough that you can see some coverage from the following folks
- The Player’s Aid are making the pilgrimage and already had a very suspicious stopover in Paris
- The Boardgames Chronicle previews some wargaming there
- Clio’s Board Games looks wider than just wargames
- Expect Eddy to drop a thread at BGG once he’s done at the show
New arrivals just dropped, and they’re looking dangerously fun
- #Maneuver Warfare is shipping now from The Dietz Foundation
- La Bataille de Preussisch-Eylau, February 7 and 8 1807 – Third Edition is finally shipping from Clash of Arms
- Microprose released Darkenstein 3D, a retro-shooter with some alt-history weirdness
- Naval SITREP #69 – the latest semi-annual release from the Admiralty Trilogy Group – is now available
- Precis Intermedia released Swords & Six-Siders: The Dwarven Glory in both PDF / print versions
- Phantoms & Intruders is a new modern-era air-to-air game on Wargame Vault
- Not a wargame, but a personal triumph from Amabel, who is one of our favorite designer/publisher-types, Belinda’s Big Bonus: A Belinda Blinked Game is now available
- Could’ve been a while ago, since we don’t track their site that closely1 but Minden Games has Richthofen: The Flying Circus 1917 linked to their “new” page
Here’s what’s launching now so it can land on your table… eventually
- Dana Lombardy has launched a 2nd edition of The Great War, the card game that he put together with the late, great Rodger MacGowan and it’s now on Kickstarter
- Wehrlegig Games launched the double-barrel reprint for John Company and Molly House on Kickstarter
- Because you can never have enough B-17s-over-Europe games at the same time
- Flying Fortresses: B-17 Missions Over Europe from Worthington is in-flight on Kickstarter
- B-17 Flying Fortress: The Bloody 100th Board Game is also on Kickstarter, from Microprose
- This week’s newsletter from On Military Matters includes includes a bunch of pre-orders tied into the new Guards of Traitor’s Toll line of games, terrain, and minis
- Devil of a Job is a new solitaire p&p game from Matt White that’s now on Kickstarter
- Echo Team: Spearhead is live on Gamefound for your urban combat needs
- Civil War 2 seems designed as a combo satire/in-joke and still seems like it might be more polished/realistic than other recent “next civil war” games of recent vintage
- Designers & Dragons: Origins is now live on Backerkit
- Osprey are soliciting pre-orders on a couple of Age of Mythology-era games that won’t ship ’til February
- Pre-order your advent calendars from Mantic and you can choose from a couple of different minis-focused themes
- Chaosium is bringing back the Pendragon: Classic Edition and it’s on Kickstarter now
- Warlord has some crewed weapons on pre-order, some of which include MDF bases for the figs
Warning: These prices may cause spontaneous checkout
- Insane deal right now at Fanatical where you can build your own bundle and get $60 games at $5 each as long as you get at least 2 of them (h/t Alistair!)
- WDS ‘Game of the week’ is Napoleonic Battles: Campaign Leipzig for $29.95
- Flying Pig Games have their own catalog out, and looks like it’s only available online but it also includes a 15% discount through January with coupon code HOLIDAY2025 at checkout
- This week’s new release from Dice Envy is ‘Shooting Stars’ and it’s 10% off with coupon code WISH at checkout
- Enterprise Games has copies of Turning Point: Battle of Stalingrad (from SPI) starting at $59
- Easy Roller Dice has a B2G1 sale on 7pc sets with coupon code BUY2 at checkout
- Alternative Armies “Winter Mega Event 2025” is underway2 and starts at 20% off pretty much everything, plus other bonus discounts
- Massive sale on all things Heroes of Normandie at Miniature Market and since the Devil Pigs have closed up shop this might be your last time to get any of these if you’re interested
- Noble Knight has copies of Tokyo Express starting at $95
Reporting for duty: The Regiment’s articles of the week!
- Assembling By Swords & Bayonets – A Wargame Fall Learning Campaign
- Guest Column! Politics In Wargames
- Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E5 – Why GAMA for Wargaming?
- Saturday Night Fights ~ “Victory at Sea: Age of Dreadnoughts” — The Battle of Dogger Bank
- Short Rounds! Panzer Corps 2: Frontlines – Westwall
- Combat Mission: Cold War ~ A First Impression of British Army Of The Rhine DLC
- AARs
- Gameplay this week
The Best Thing We Saw On Another Site This Week Was
This long apologia / self-hagiography from Wargames Atlantic that’s been discussed in other places over the past week, and there are a lot of comments at the end of the article
I knew that I couldn’t do it as Tony Reidy – there was so much garbage out there and even if almost all of it was wrong – it’s impossible to convince anyone of the truth after the bullshit has become the talk track. So “Hudson Adams” was born to be the face of Wargames Atlantic.
But I wanted to redeem myself. I wanted to build something on my own the way I knew it should be done. I wanted someday – once the company was built up – to be able to release the Defiance stuff and make the Kickstarter whole.
And so I put together a plan, spent a lot of time figuring out how to do this better, and started. I had to hide who I was to do it, and I hated doing that and not being upfront with people, but it allowed me to show who I REALLY was through what I’ve built at Atlantic. Over the years I’ve confided in key people and partners who came to know the real me and not the Internet Boogeyman I was made out to be.
I’m sorry I misled you but the guy you’ve known at Wargames Atlantic – is me. This is the real me. I’m good to my team and contractors and business partners. I try to help smaller companies and boost the hobby as a whole. And I get to make fun products that people love. That’s all I ever wanted to do.
Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream was a science project of multi-cam experimentation of how to livestream a game with overhead cameras while following the chat and appearing on another cam
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- This week, Scott Thorne remembers Rob Weiland, and talks about recent GAMA announcements
- BoardGameWire talks about Asmodee snarfing up more of CMON’s rapidly-disassembling parts
- Rascal teaches the young’uns about the legend of The Palace of the Silver Princess
- ICv2 reports on the judge ruling against Upper Deck in their Lorcana lawsuit against Ravensberger
- Some folks involved in the Diamond Bankruptcy case are headed to mediation, but that’s not a guarantee it’ll produce a result; coverage from ICv2 and asdf and sdfa
- A new Flashpoint Campaigns dev diary ahead of their upcoming release of FC: Cold War, and we’ll be talking to them later in the season on our podcast
- The last batch of Napoleonic games from WDS gets their updates this week
This is also a bit of a strange campaign for us. To be honest, I don’t even think I’ve ever been as nervous about a launch. I suppose that needs some explaining
Usually, campaigns are directed towards our core audience. For this reason, we basically always build them around a new game or expansion. With Wehrlegig, our general policy is to never do expansions (in the Root style). So we need new games to stay alive.
Back in 2020, we ran a campaign for a reprint of Pax Pamir that included a small upgrade pack. This was also a scary campaign, but we were still very small business with an uncertain future. We hadn’t anticipated demand correctly for its first printing and were out of copies.
Because Pamir had been out of print for so long, we were still pretty sure that the campaign would do fairly well. We did not realize it would do twice as much as the first campaign. This was huge for us. It allowed Drew to go full time and it gave us the resources we needed to finish John Company.
After that campaign, we started self-financing our reprints. For a company of our size, this was really expensive, but we wanted to reserve crowdfunding for new titles.
In 2023, we raised money for Molly House. This was an experiment on two fronts. First, we tried a different platform (Backerkit). Second, it was our first external design.
The results on both fronts were mixed. While we met our fundraising goal, we also had the feeling that our reach would have ben wider on Kickstarter. Second, while I adored the collaboration with Jo, Molly House took every bit as long as a solo design.
We learn so much from each and every project, so we took these lessons in stride and just kept working on new games. However, early this year tariffs entered the picture. By some miracle, Molly House made it through with a minimal tariff and we had enough stock to last us the year.
Drew and I made the call to batten the hatches. We had cash reserves and active projects. We’d just go about finishing those projects and wait for folks to come to their senses before we made any large investments.
Then, John Company and Molly House kept selling better than anticipated. And, because of a fulfillment snafu (Amazon lost a few pallets of MH), we suddenly found ourselves running out of stock about six months before we had planned to.
Meanwhile, both Hellraisers of Kanawha County and Infamous Traffic 2e were making good progress, but it didn’t feel right to rush them into a crowdfunding campaign just so they could help subsidize new printings of our existing games. We wanted to give both titles the time they deserved.
What’s more, because of the uncertainties of trade policy at the moment, we didn’t want to run a Kickstarter with a long post-campaign. We needed a campaign that would let us send files to the factory within just a few months and be fulfilled within a year.
So, we decided to split our next campaign in two. We’re doing the reprints now and then we’ll do whichever project is ready first next. I’m not sure when that might be, but there’s a good chance y’all could see an Infamous Traffic crowdfunding campaign by the Spring. It’s really pretty far along!
In short, this is not the kind of campaign I like running. But, Drew and I are trying to make the best of it. This is a chance to show our games to a wide audience and to let folks see them not as works-in-progress, but as finished games. Want to learn about them? Read any number of reviews.
Drew and I know that there’s a group of 3 to 5 thousand players out there who like our stuff and want to see more historical games. I thank my lucky stars every day for their support. The question of this campaign is: who else is there?
In some respects the answer doesn’t matter. I’m still going to do my best to finish AIT and I’m cooking up another massive project right after that’s finished. But, this performance has huge ramifications for how Drew and I think about our company and its future. I suppose we’ll know soon.
- “Production will stop, shipments will be frozen, and some companies may not make it”: board game industry braces for further pain after Trump threatens 130% tariffs on China (BoardGameWire)
- Businesses closing due to tariff pressure, as Supreme Court weigh legalities of tariff implementation (Spectrum News)
- Lehigh Valley small businesses, from yarn to pretzels to games, try to ride tariff wave without wiping out (Morning Call)
Very sad news: After eight memorable years in the American market, AMIGO Games US will close its doors at the end of 2025. Thank you to our team, partners, and players for your support along the journey.AMIGO Games' products will continue to be available while supplies last.
— AMIGO Games (@amigogames.bsky.social) 2025-10-15T15:06:52.034Z
Don’t forget to check our consolidated event & convention calendar for more!
You can also submit your own events for our calendar here.
Our Next Armchair Dragoons Events
- Wargame Days at The Gamer’s Armory in Cary, NC ~ November 2 and December 7
- Next confirmed live event is BuckeyeGameFest, 11-15 March 2026
- Next virtual event is the ACDC4, 16-18 January, 2026
Upcoming Conventions & Events
- 23-26 Oct EssenSpiel (Essen Germany) <– THIS WEEKEND!
- 1 Nov Crisis 2025 (St Niklaas Belgium)
- 6-11 Nov Compass Games Fall Expo 2025 (Meriden CT)
- 7-9 Nov RockCon (Rockford IL)
- 7-9 Nov SDHISTCON (San Diego CA)
- 7-10 Nov HMGS Fall-in! (Lancaster PA)
- 7-9 Nov Battlefront Dayton (Dayton OH)
MMP posted this news about Winter Offensive to their FB page
Details about the upcoming 2026 ArmChair Dragoons Digital Convention
The team is assembled! We’ll be updating this year’s graphics, and prepping for event submissions soon, with a target of late November to open badge registration.
Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about the dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals!
- The “Target Taiwan” series has a variety of wargame info underneath the articles, but also a lot of details taht could be mined ot refine your own scenarios (Defense Priorities)
- Wargaming as an Analytical and Training Tool: Two Days of Global Wargaming at the Military University of Land Forces (General Tadeusz Kościuszko Military University of Land Forces)
- First Sea Lord Oversees New Series Of Royal Navy Strategic Wargaming (UK MoD)
- ‘Sir, Our Aircraft Carrier Battle Group Was Destroyed’: 1 Wargame Proved The U.S. Military Is Vulnerable (National Security Journal)
- Wargaming at the Land Forces Academy (Defence24)
- We ran a war game at UVU on political violence, and this is what we learned (Deseret News)
- Mainland China scientists build electronic war game for Taiwan and nearby waters (South China Morning Post)
- The next GUWS webinar is Games for Conflict and Resolution on 4 November, followed by Wargaming at HMCS Venture: Enhancing Naval Officer Training on 18 November and then Idiosyncracy in Motion on 9 December
- Get Hired! SPA has a posting for Wargame Design Analyst
🎲 What an amazing day to end my visit to Ankara with: Running a #Kriegsspiel of the eastern flank of the Battle of the Sakarya at a historical museum with a group of awesome players.📝 This playtest was part of a joint project. We'll keep developing the system and accompanying resources. #wargaming
— Jan (he/him) | Let's Play History (@letsplayhistory.bsky.social) 2025-10-19T21:06:47.643Z
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 return with another intel update for you
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