by It’s #TuesdayNewsday, where we connect the dots between hobbyist skirmishes, computer-generated warfare, and the military’s wargames—one update at a time.
The tabletop gaming hobby might be one of the last places in the consumer landscape where brick-&-mortar retail isn’t dominated by national behemoth brands.
In your quest for the best deals wherever you can find them this weekend, make sure you take a moment and swing by your FLGS/FLWGS and drop a few shekels with them, too. Even if you’ve got all the games you want off their shelves, grab some dice or a dice tray or some card sleeves. Ask them to special-order a wargame for you even if you could get it just as easily direct from the publisher, so that your local store knows there are wargamers in the area. Buy a gateway game for a niece or nephew to find under the tree next month. Take the plunge on a game outside your own wheelhouse that you were always curious about
It’s easy to ignore the parts of the overall tabletop gaming ecosystem that don’t cater to our every whim and taste because there are so many available online options. But a healthy ecosystem has to support all sorts of participants, and maybe you can help shape your local one by stepping outside your comfort zone and supporting a local business while you’re at it.
A couple of sale items to highlight
- Dice Envy put together a pretty nice holiday gift guide, in part segmented by the recipient type
- Until 2 December, almost everything in the RBM Studio Store is 35% off with coupon code KOREA at checkout
- Free League are taking a page out of MMP’s playbook, starting their sale later this week (11/29) and wrapping it up before the next #TuesdayNewsday (12/2), but their Black Friday sale in their webshop can net you up to 50% off core games and starter sets
- There’s a LOT of Wings of Glory and Sails of Glory stuff on Black Friday sale over at Ares Games
- Renegade’s Black Friday sale only runs through 12/1, but some of the discounts are pretty crazy
- Avalanche Press has a bunch of games at half price with coupon code HALF at checkout and if you also drop coupon code BLACKFRIDAY you get free shipping on any order over $200
- You’ve got to wade thru a bunch of junk in the GOG.com Black Friday sale, but there are some deeply-discounted gems in there, like Morrowind and Oblivion each for less than a drive-thru combo meal
We’re finalizing submissions for events for the 2025 ACDC, to be held 17-19 January
- Event submissions for the January 2025 ACDC are now open; there’s a bunch of games in place, and always room for some more
- We’re busy filling in the talk show / interview schedule, and we try hard not to counter-program those, so if there’s something you want to do, get on it ASAP
- Some of the games we’ve got (so far!) include Pendragon, Oceans of Fire, Neustart, Hannut: France 1940, and Robotech Reconstruction
- We’ve also got some in-development games, like Queen of Spies, and Wharf Rat’s new WW1 game
- A multi-session air/land/naval combo game on the Falklands War
- We’ve got a special edition of The Chit Show with Gary & Dan that’s just for attendees
- Opening / Closing Happy Hours, other designer discussions & historical talks
- Registration should go live shortly after Thanksgiving (current target is 12/2)
- More info can be found on the announcement page here
- Join the discussion in our forums
- If you’re interested in volunteering to help with ACDC planning & execution this year, and going forward, please drop a line in the forums, or shoot a PM through there to Brant
Hitting the shelves (and webstores) near you now!
- Strategy & Tactics #350 has shipped to subscribers and is now available to the general public
- Wargames Illustrated #444 is out, but since the WI site is down, you’ll need to order it from Warlord Games
- Slitherine has released ICBM: Escalation on Steam, so you can live out your Wargames-inspired fantasies1 in the nukeable RTS
- Paper Wars #108, with the Three D-Days game, is now shipping
- GMT announced that the last new thing they’re shipping in 2024 is Wargames According to Mark, the much-awaited book from Mark Herman
- Osprey Games are shipping Battalion: War of the Ancients2 and you can get it from them
- Renaissance Kingdom Wars is now on Steam, with a discount during launch week
- Phalanx Games’ long-delayed / long-awaited Purple Haze is finally arriving for Kickstarter backers3 and looks like you can get an order in through their site
- New from Steve Jackson – GURPS Monster Hunters Adventure: The Face of Fire
- Here’s a free 5e adventure from the folks at Penny Blood Adventures, who are dropping a new one every 2 weeks or so into January
- Avalanche Press are shipping Golden Journal #54, with Stalin’s Tanks, but you have to join their Gold Club to get it
- Not a wargame, but a very cool collection with some personal connections to the Dragoons – the complete collection of the 80s-era indie comic Southern Knights is now available as a hardcover and cheaper than buying individual issues of a comic can be these days
- Two new games from The Historical Games Company, printed through Blue Panther
- Battle of Kandahar (Afghans vs Brits in 1880)
- Battle of Vinegar Hill (Irish Rebellion in 1798)
- The last batch of the Flames of War Late War Leviathans line released this week
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
- Not a game, still very cool – The Official “Team ZFG” Coin
- They’re relaunching the classic Heavy Metal magazine, and are currently Kickstarting that reboot; what would be awesome is of the pledge levels included an actual subscription and not just a single issue
- `New ASL products coming in to Gamer’s Armory and now on pre-order
- Bounding Fire Productions – BFP6: Mannerheim Cross
- North Texas ASL – For A Few Scenarios More
- GMT’s p500s from their November newsletter
- Microverse
- The World Crisis – First World War in Europe
- Border Reivers 2nd printing
- Navajo Wars 3rd printing
- Two new books from Warlord Games on pre-order
- New pre-orders for your Flames of War games
Looking for a deal? Getting more bang for your buck?
There are some other sales – as well as some repeats of things here – listed in our top stories above.
- WDS “Game of the week” is First World War Campaigns – Serbia ‘14 for $29.95
- The playbook edition of Avalanche Press’ Defiant Russia is about $10 off with coupon code REMEMBER at checkout
- Until 2 December, almost everything in the RBM Studio Store is 35% off with coupon code KOREA at checkout
- You can get a pound of dice from Dice Envy right now at $45 off
- Arcs: Conflict & Collapse in the Reach is 20% off at Miniature Market right now
- Save $15 on Death Ride – Hafid Ridge from Grognard Sims over at Noble Knight Games
This week’s best written coverage from the wargaming world
- Rocky thinks pretty highly of Forward Defense ’85
- Pushing Cardboard episode 39 is out, with Grant talking about SDHISTCON
- Stuart reviews Paper Time Machines
- Space-Biff reviews LotR: Duel for Middle Earth
- Avalanche Press has an article about their Soldier Emperor game
- Matrix Games has an article about the Malyutka ATGM in their “Armory” series
The best videos this week from our wargaming friends
- My Own Worst Enemy plays Mr Madison’s War
- Moe looks at the new Assault Sicily ’43 game
- Zilla checks out First Monday in October from Fort Circle Games
- Beyond Solitaire Podcast 178: Clarence Simpson on Growing as a Game Designer
- HIssyCat opens up Holland ’44 : Operation Market Garden, September 1944
- Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about sci-fi wargames and managed to not mention Revolt on Antares
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- Scott Thorne’s latest column at ICv2 looks at the “controversy” around the foreword to the new Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons book and how some people seem to be intentionally misquoting what was written to suit their own agendas4
- BoardGameWire reports on the LotR: Duel for Middle Earth phenomenon
- GMT’s November update includes reports on SDHISTCON, upcoming projects, and more
- While everyone is freaking out about possible tariffs tanking the board game biz in the US, Rascal is reporting on some new EU regulations concerning company contact info that are screwing with potential sellers in the EU, especially companies who export their games to the EU from other countries
- The boat with the LNLP games coming from China is docked in LA, and we should be hearing about the transit of games to the warehouse soon
- Designer Michael Raymond has made the rulebook for his game Close The Atlantic a free download on Wargame Vault right now
- WDS’s latest Panzer Campaigns engine update gets all the 1943 East front games (such as Mius, Kursk, Orel, Kiev, etc) up to the same 4.05.1 standard that shipped with Smolensk ’43 earlier this year
- OSG has updated the page for Napoleon’s Counterstrike with images of the maps & counters for this upcoming game
This is one of Amabel’s best threaded set of posts. It’s probably the basis for a really good article / listicle on game design considerations. There’s plenty in here to disagree with – Amabel even admits that she disagrees with some of them – but literally every point will make you stop and think and ponder games in which you’ve seen these happen, and try to think of games that might disprove the points. Either way, you’re thinking about games and that’s a win in anyone’s book!
Back on the other site I had a long thread of contrarian (but sincerely-held) board game design hot takes. Here’s a shorter thread with the best of them. 🧵
— Amabel Holland (@amabel.bsky.social) November 25, 2024 at 6:42 PM
An excellent thread here about how / why board game publishers use crowdfunding and what it allows them to control (and what they’re at the mercy of) and why the margin matters in game production
Why do board game publishers use crowdfunding?
Marketing
Margin
Forecasting(I wrote about this already – I’ll revive that thread separately)
Let’s drill into the MARGIN item a bit.
Regardless of company size (or perceived company size):
— 🥧 suzanne 🥧 (@425suzanne.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 11:25 AM
It’s been a busy week for the regiment; here’s what you might’ve missed!
- A New Player’s First Impressions of Labyrinth: The War on Terror 2001 – ?
- Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 11 ~ 4! X! In! SPAAAAAACE!
- First Impressions of Armored Brigade 2
- #TBT ~ Recruiting grognards, 80’s style
- 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 ~ 1 December and 5 January
- Next confirmed live event is BuckeyeGameFest, 1-4 May 2025
- Next planned virtual event is the ACDC5, 17-19 January, 2025
Other Conventions & Events
things are slowing down now that we’re getting to the holidays, so here are some for next year
- 16-20 January MMP Winter Offensive (Bowie MD)
- 17-19 January The ACDC (Armchair Dragoons Virtual HQ)
- 17-19 January ConQuest Ventura (Ventura CA)
- 17-19 January Marscon (Virginia Beach VA)
- 17-19 January Siege of Augusta (August GA)
- 24-26 January Winter War Con (Champaign IL)
- 31 Jan-2 Feb Captain Con (Warwick RI)
- 5-9 February Game-on (Bellevue WA)
Focusing on the practitioner world ~ don’t forget about our dedicated area in our forums for the wargame professionals!
- The US House Select Committee on the CCP participated in a wargame run by CSIS about the US NatSec industrial base and there’s a bunch of footage, quotes, etc all to be found here
- If you want to institutionalize wargaming in the military, start by educating the educators (which is pretty much what Brant said 10 years ago)
- The next battle of Kursk seems imminent
- This week, Mick Ryan’s “Big Five” is talking about Russia’s new missile attacks in Ukraine and what it could mean going forward
- The next GUWS webinar is Understanding Educational Wargaming in the Military Sector on 17 December and then Wargaming for the Social & Cognitive Sciences on 21 January
- PaxSims brought the Brynania “sim” to their CNN Academy, this time held in Mexico City, and reports on how the students enjoyed it
Playing through Air Force Wargame Indo-Pacific to learn the rules. Interesting idea or two in here, but I need to play another game or two before I figure it the game fully in my head. pic.twitter.com/Enp2FKWMQf
— Evan D'Alessandro (@EM_DAlessandro) November 25, 2024
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’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.
Footnotes
- *not* the ones involving Ally Sheedy
- despite – as we’ve pointed out – the fact that the word “battalion” doesn’t appear for about 1700 years after the game takes place
- like our own Suicide Kitty
- which absolutely, never-in-a-million-years, ever happens in wargaming, does it?!
- Armchair Dragoons Digital Convention
