Join us for a very busy edition of #TuesdayNewsday, packed with all the wargaming news you need to know
SDHISTCON has opened nominations for their Summit Award, which is given to “a historical board game published in the preceding year that most broadened the hobby through the ease of teaching and/or play, uniqueness of topic, or novel approach” and the rest of the parameters are available at the link above.
This year, they are also adding a new award – the Bobby Nunes Memorial Award. This award will be “an annual award to recognize an exceptional piece of gaming media (including but not limited to a video, podcast episode, written article, etc., or a cohesive series thereof) published in the prior calendar year” and the nominees are expected to have discussed important cultural issues within the historical gaming hobby.
Both will be presented at this year’s SDHISTCON, which will be held 8-11 November (which you’d never know from their homepage).
GMT’s Fall Sale is now launched. Anyone can get one in-stock game at 50% off. If you’ve been a p500 customer over the past year, you can get an additional in-stock game at 50% off for each game you ordered on p500. There are other details here in GMT’s announcement, including a list of p500 games that would make eligible for the additional discounts. Use code GMTSale2024 for your discount
The 50% discount also applies to most expansions, accessories (hello, counter trays!), and magazines, but only some third-party products that GMT distributes in the US.
There are overseas-friendly shipping options, but “friendly” is still a relative term as overseas shipping is both (1) ridiculous, and (2) out of GMT’s control.
A while back, James Buckley launched a survey about where Wargamers get their wargaming content, especially about new releases, but also about wargaming overall. James has now released the results – in conjunction with the launch of his new Sapper Studio consulting firm – and you can check them out over at his site
Of particular note, Armchair Dragoons did reasonably well in the “podcast” category (2nd behind “Other” and Homo Ludens) and “blogs” (3rd behind TPA1 and Space-Biff2.
As a result of this “What is Kriegsspiel” video, the IKS guys have now ended up with a couple dozen new players in just the past week
The 2024 Fall Assembly will be held 11-13 October 2024.
- Both badge and event registration are open
- Designers Bruce Maxwell & Keith Tracton are confirmed; waiting to hear on a few others
- Events include Air & Armor, Library of Napoleonic Battles, TCS Goose Green, Rebel Fury, and more
- We will be back at The Gamer’s Armory again this year, in Cary, NC (just outside Raleigh)
- Event flyers in both PDF and PNG format you can share
Last year, every attendee had a t-shirt included with their registration. This year, we cut the price and made the t-shirts available for folks to order through our Spring store. Not only that, but because we’re using our Spring store, we also added a pint glass option, as well. Both of them include the Dragoons logo + the 2024 Fall Assembly info
T-shirt (multiple color options) | Pint Glass (wraparound images) |
Prefer a sweatshirt? Long-sleeve T? Coffee mug? Let us know in the comments and we’ll see what we can conjure up.
Hitting the shelves (and webstores) near you now!
- S&T Press are now shipping World at War #98, with the included Stalingrad 1942 from their Campaigns in Europe series
- Compass Games are shipping Paper Wars #107, with the included Operation Isabella game
- Wargames Illustrated #441 is now shipping
- Panzer Corps 2: War Stories – Fall of Poland is available from Slitherine on Steam
- Patria Libre isn’t the newest release, but now that Old Dreamer Press3 are assisting in distribution of the Kickstarter bundles, it’s available to order for US customers
- Precis Intermedia released a couple of classic reprints
- MMP made some new neoprene playmats available with some of their game maps
- Steve Jackson Games got a bunch of reprints back into the hipping queue
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
- It was nice of Catastrophe Games to make sure that their twin Kickstarter for Arabian Struggle and Insurgent: Algeria launched in time for inclusion in #TuesdayNewsday 🍻
- Operation Biting is a small WW2 PnP game where you’re trying to steal an enemy radar
- Pre-orders are open for Modiphius’ upcoming Mass Effect boardgame
- Warlord Games has a bunch of Napoleonic sets on pre-order for their Black Powder games
- Napoleonic Prussian Horse Artillery With 6-Pdr (1813-1815)
- Napoleonic Prussian Foot Artillery With 6- Or 12-Pdr (1813-15)
- Napoleonic Prussian Foot Artillery With 7 Or 10-Inch Howitzer (1813-1815)
- Napoleonic Spanish Horse Artillery With 8-Pdr
- Napoleonic Spanish Horse Artillery With Howitzer
- Napoleonic British Rocket Bombarding Frame 2
- Napoleonic Portuguese Cavalry
- Napoleonic Portuguese Cavalry Command Group
- Napoleonic French Young Guard Command Advancing
- Napoleonic French Young Guard Voltigeurs/Tirailleurs Advancing
Looking for a deal? Getting more bang for your buck?
- WDS “Game of the week” is Panzer Battles: Battles of Normandy for $29.95 (and why not do this one back in June!?)
- DiceEnvy is giving you 25% off everything with coupon code TILT at checkout (thru 8 September)
- RBM Studios has a sal right now that’ll get you 25% off most games with coupon code LABORBM at checkout
- Miniature Market has the new 3rd ed of 2GM Tactics from Draco, and it’s on sale for over $10 off
- Noble Knight has Flanks of Gettysburg from Compass for about $15 off
This week’s best written coverage from the wargaming world
- Rocky dives into the latest issue of Banzai Magazine, with a look at the articles, included game, and more
- Detailed playthrough of Decision’s Drive on Leningrad here from Wargaming Esoterica, part 1 and part 24
- Stuart takes aim at Rebel Fury and finds it not really to his liking
The best videos this week from our wargaming friends
- Part 2 of Cyrano’s series about How I Build Tables for “Charlie Don’t Surf!”
- Ardwulf has the SDHISTCON brain trust on to talk about their convention
- My Own Worst Enemy plays the Champion Hill scenario from Thunder on the Mississippi
- Justegarde went through a big comparative exercise on tactical games covering 18th century battles
- HissyCat checks out the PnP game Violent Skies 1940 – Dynamo to the Blitz that’s now on Wargame Vault
- Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about “Advanced Wargames”
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- ICv2 reports that the Cosmere RPG, based on Brandon Sanderson’s books, has passed $11 million in funding on Kickstarter
- BoardGameWire reports on the new CEO of Asmo
borgdee as they get spun off from Embracer - GMT has a buyers guide for their ongoing sale
- Just in time for Labor Day, Rascal reports that Hex & Co in NYC might be engaged in union-busting tactics
- WDS has updated all of their Naval Campaigns series games to the new 4.04 engine, and there’s new content for a couple of the games, too
- Not strictly strategy game-related, but still meaningful for those of us of a certain vintage: ICv2 reports that there’s a new hardcover, all-color, collected set of the complete Elfquest stories from all the different series across the different publishers
We're working on the future of America's passenger rail system—funding high-speed rail projects in the West and expanding service for communities across the country. Get your ticket to ride! pic.twitter.com/6S1sKOhDII
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) August 30, 2024
Clever use of the Ticket to Ride visuals for the US rail map
It’s been a busy week for the regiment; here’s what you might’ve missed!
The next season of Mentioned in Dispatches starts recording this week! 🤠
- Saturday Night Fights ~ The Battle of Teugn-Hausen (2) for “General d’Armee 2”
- Project: Quatre Bras IX AAR
- First Impressions of Arete: The Battles of Alexander
- Gameplay this week
Reminder than #UnboxingDay is on hiatus until 2025, when we’ll re-evaluate its potential return
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 ~ 8 September5 and 6 October6
- Next confirmed live event is The Fall Assembly, 11-13 October 2024 at The Gamer’s Armory in Cary, NC
- Next planned virtual event is the ACDC7, 17-19, 2025
Other Conventions & Events
- 6-8 September 2024 Council 2024 (Schenectady NY) <– THIS WEEKEND!
- 20-22 September 2024 Southern Front (Morrisville NC)
- 27-29 September 2024 Czech Consim 2024 (Prague CZ)
- 11-13 October 2024 Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly (Raleigh/Cary NC)
- 17-20 October 2024 GMT Fall Weekend at the Warehouse (Middle of Nowhere CA)
- 26-28 October 2024 Auck Con (Auckland NZ)
- 1-3 November RockCon (Rockford IL)
- 6-11 November 2024 Compass Game Fall Expo (Meriden CT)
- 7-10 November BottosCon (New Westminster BC)
- 8-10 November 2024 MythicCon (Charlotte NC)
- 8-11 November 2024 FoxCon (Dallas TX)
- 8-11 November 2024 SDHISTCON (San Diego CA)
- 15-17 November 2024 SCGCon (Liverpool UK)
Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about our dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals!
- NATO Wargaming Initiative 2024 is going on right now and we’re not at all even the tiniest bit jealous we’re not in Hamburg right now
- Fantastic article about wargaming at the Canadian Forces Army Operations Course
- This week, Mick Ryan’s latest “Big Five” column talks about the Kursk offensive, as well as Taiwan/China
- The next GUWS webinar is Communicating Uncertainty in Wargame Outcomes on 10 September and then they’ve got
The Challenges and Pitfalls of an ‘Authentic’ Medieval Wargame on 8 October - PaxSims reviews some recent Derby House Principles endorsements
A Brian Train sighting in California!
Day 5 of the @UrbanWarfareCtr's Urban Operations Planners Course. The students are fully immersed in their urban warfare games now! The instructors hover over them to clarify procedures & occasional laughter is also heard. A good way to end the day.
(@40ID_DeputyCG, @Stu_Lyle) pic.twitter.com/EwZyKYOlET— Jayson Geroux (@JaysonGeroux) August 30, 2024
Something neat from outside the wargaming world we thought was worth sharing
Hard to decide how to describe onlyvisitonce.com but when you do, make the most of it, because you can’t go back to it
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 Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.
You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.)
You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, 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.
Footnotes
- who crushed every category they were in
- who covers much more than just wargames
- parent company of Catastrophe Games
- translated from Japanese
- pushing back a weekend bc of Labor Day holiday
- the weekend before the Fall Assembly
- Armchair Dragoons Digital Convention