What Would’ve Been An Origins Preview – #TuesdayNewsday 5/10/22

Every week, #TuesdayNewsday is the intel briefing you need to keep up with the strategy gaming world

The Origins event listings were supposed to be released on 5/9.  Like everything else this year, it’s behind.  Some of this might be due to the changeover to Tabletop.events and some of it might be the shorter horizon from O’21 (October) to O’22 (June). Some of it might just be the usual GAMA inanity.  Whatever the reason, the information that attendees need to plan their convention time is late, and that sucks.

The Other Headline

Closing out Connections Online 2022 with our After Action Report and the updated archive page with the videos for you to watch after-the-fact.  We’ll probably have some more Connections Online follow-up over the next 2 months or so; watch this space.
Remember that there’s always room for discussion on the professional wargaming side in our forums

 

• Compass has officially released / started shipping their new version of The Russian Campaign
• Gamer’s Armory has another after-market ASL scenario pack Wacht am Rhein 2nd Ed. Volume 2
• Acies Edizioni has a Novi 1799 “mega bundle”, with Novi 1799, Moravian Sun, and Wise Bayonets
• 2GM Pacific has been re-released by Draco Ideas
• Steve Jackson Games released a couple of “scapes” – Hexscape and Squarescape – for minis adventure terrain. It’s a jazzed up version of the old HeroScape terrain that’s interlocking, and includes the .stl files to print more as you like
• Steve Jackson also released the Girl Genius RPG based on the Foglio’s graphic novel series of gaslamp fantasy

 

• Matrix Games has their entire catalog on sale this week at 30% off, for their Home of the Wargamers event with parent company Slitherine
• The King’s Heroes is an anime strategy/adventure game on sale at Humble Bundle, for under $1
• Tactical Combat Department is 20% on Steam right now
• S&T’s game-edition magazine sale this week is S&T #318, with the solo game Constantinople in it

 

• Legion Wargames put Ars Bellum on their pre-order system, with some very nice artwork for battles between 3000-476 BC
• You can pre-order Avalanche Press’ upcoming (expanded) reprint of their Go For Broke module for Panzer Grenadier, covering the 442nd RCT of the US Army in WW2. Craziest stat about the 442nd? Authorized strength was 3800 soldiers. They earned over 9400 Purple Hearts in WW2. They averaged 2-1/2 Purple Hearts / soldier.  Read that again, slowly.
• Gamelynn have another “tiny epic” game – Tiny Epic Vikings – launching this week and if it holds up to tradition, will blow thru it’s funding goals within about 11 minutes
• WotC announced Spelljammer minis for pre-order and we have two words for you: Space. Hamsters. ‼️
• Compass is doing the last-minute pre-order thing again, with Enemy Action: Kharkov on Kickstarter
• The Momentous Issue of War from Wicked Wargames is a block-&-grid game and is on Kickstarter

 

• Connections Online 2022 After Action Report and the Archive page with the videos
• Saturday Night Fights ~ The Battle of Antietam (part 2) for “Bloody Big Battles”
• A Grognard Perspective of the Ukraine Air War
• This week’s classic article returned to the History of Wargaming to look at Donald Featherstone’s games
• Mentioned in Dispatches is done for the season. But, we’ve got a quiz for you about this season, to see if you’ve been paying attention!
• Upcoming Dragoons Events
  • Next #UnboxingDay will be May 19
  • Next Virtual Convention that’s confirmed will be our ACDC in January
  • Next Real-World Convention is Origins, 8-12 June

 

• An (1809) Encounter (part 2) for “Sharp Practice 2”
• The Battle of Laichling (part 2) for “Shako 2”
• Hethwill streamed Battle of Watling Street 61 BC ( 1 of 2 )
• The Blood Bowl league is still going strong, with recaps in our forum

 

• Lock ‘n Load is going full-on Holy Trinity and splitting their web presence into 3 parts: their store site, their news site, and the new Line of Fire magazine site; details here
• Slitherine starts their “Home of the Wargamers” week this week, streaming live from Venice (the one in Italy, not California)
• Deep thoughts on AI in wargaming
• Collins Epic Wargames has said that Polyversal is finally on its way in from shipping – about 2-1/2 tons of it

 

• This week in our forums
  • Some deep analysis of the BIOS: Origins game in our What’s On Your Table thread
  • What do you think about the proliferation of Star Trek shows on Paramount Plus?
  • Chatter is ramping up about Origins in our forums
• Discussion on BGG about the Battle of Midway
• UltraCheng was sharing pics of his Nam Leader variant/update for Panzer Leader with his own maps & counters
• Bwahahahahahahahahah
• Last week on Twitter, the guys at CNA did an impromptu AMA

 

• Rocky took a look at the Ukraine war through the lens of GMT’s MBT wargame
• James Eisert reviewed Starfire
• Justegarde showed off his Weekend at the Warehouse loot, and some gameplay, too
• Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials keeps adding to the Here Come the Rebels! playlist, with the lastest one just yesterday
• Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about Avalon Hill classics, plus, y’know…  ‘other stuff’™

 

We’ve also got a 4X-specific area in the forums to discuss any of these, too.

• Songs of Conquest releases onto Steam Early Access today (trailer).  A turn-based strategy/RPG from developer Lavapotion, the game is an homage to the Heroes of Might & Magic series and other classic fantasy games from the 90’s.This one initially slipped past our radar, but Timeline, a historical turn-based 4x, has released as well.  Its simple visuals hide what appears to be a fairly deep game, and without being overly complex.
• Releasing later this year, developer Praxis Games has announced Evolving Empires [trailer], the second expansion for Interstellar Space: Genesis, their underrated turn-based space 4x.  Set to drop  alongside the new expansion is the accompanying free 1.4 update, which is currently available to Steam players via beta.
• The official 1.04 update is now available for Remnants of the Precursors, the free-to-play/own modernization of the original Master of Orion game from developer Ray Fowler.  The patch adds Hungarian translation, as well as including numerous bug fixes and UI fixes.  (You can download the game here.)
• Slitherine/Matrix released the official 1.0.3.7 update for Distant Worlds 2, their massive space 4x released back in February.  While the game has continued to struggle with problems since its troubled launch, this patch appears to resolve a lot of the technical issues many players have experienced in trying to play or run the game.
• Speaking of troubled launches…  After weeks of delay, Creative Assembly finally released their roadmap (such as it is) for Warhammer 3.  Reaction among the player community has been…animated, to say the least.

 

Don’t forget we’ve got a dedicated area of our forums for the professional wargamers.

• Fleet Waterborne Troopie Warfare Group-Like Thingee continues to make inroads in the professional wade-ashore ranks of the littoral naval infantry hip-wading amphibious assault special commando forces department of the US Navy
• Excellent podcast from the US Army War College about wargaming
• War on the Rocks has an interesting article about the lessons the Chinese are learning from Ukraine
• The USMC Commandant is weighing in on the force redesign
• Part of the USMC’s redesign is concerned with land-based force projection into naval conflicts, not unlike the Ukrainians have been doing to the Russians, where they’ve set another frigate on fire (or maybe not) and sunk a bunch of smaller, high-speed ‘patrol boats’
• The next GUWS webinar is Gaming as Scholarship: Creating a Space for Games in Academic Research on 5/17, followed by Breaking Bad: How to Get the Best Adversary for Your Wargame on 6/7
• PaxSims has shared an update to their earlier matrix game on Ukraine, covering the latest actions in the war

 

 

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.

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