Armchair Dragoons, Regimental Operations Order 21-137
Distribution restriction: No restriction; unlimited distribution is authorized
Note that this Operations Order will be updated as the schedule is finalized.
ORIGINAL OPORD 21-137 ~ LIVESTREAM ARCHIVE ~ AAR
Situation
- Weather – Summer heat expected across most of our participant areas. Ideally, operations are executed indoors where weather impacts are minimized.
- Enemy Forces – COVID-19 still a factor, though waning. Apathy and disinterest remain concerns, however.
- Friendly Forces – Armchair Dragoons online expeditionary taskOrg is in effect
- Attachments & Detachments – Attachments will include Ardwulf’s Lair, Moe’s Game Table, NSDM, and Wargame Bootcamp, among others.
Mission
The Armchair Dragoons and other friendly forces conduct online/virtual game convention operations from 18-20 June, 2021, including gameplay, designer interviews, talks shows, seminar presentations, and the new wargame artwork design contest, at a cost of $5 to attend.
Registration is handled through Tabletop.Events
Operations
- Commander’s Intent
Continuing the burgeoning tradition of Armchair Dragoons Digital Conventions, our next event will take place on the weekend in June that was vacated by Origins (who moved the in-person convention to October). Expect a full weekend of online games, talk shows, presentations, and all around strategy gaming goodness.
The edition of The ACDC is expected to be highlighted by a variety of “big” events lasting multiple hours and/or including larger-than-usual numbers of participants, to bring convention attendees closer to the kinds of events that require a convention infrastructure to truly support.
- Concept of the Operation
As before, the ACDC will focus on the following 4 features, with details forthcoming
- Wargaming Events – Initial event calendar should be ready NLT 21 May 2021, including the aforementioned “big” events. Wargames will played through virtual tabletop systems like VASSAL, Tabletop Simulator, and Tabletopia. Registered players may play in any number of non-overlapping events for their $5 registration cost. The GMs will load ensure the appropriate game-specific modules are available for the players joining the game.
- Wargame-related Seminars – As above, initial event calendar should be ready NLT 21 May 2021, with seminars and talk shows spanning all three days of the convention
- Vendor and Sponsor Support – Continuing our experiments to find an optimal paradigm for vendor participation & support during an online convention, this time we’re providing the vendors with a dedicated area of the convention Discord server to allow them to control their own announcements, sales, product highlights, etc.
- The Convention ‘Community’ – As before, the convention “home base” will be the Discord server that will act as
(a) the common area for attendee interaction and discussion
(b) the primary announcement channel for convention staff to provide information to attendees
(c) the primary comms channel for online gameplay within the convention
(d) the primary vendor interaction channel for participants
(e) a means through which attendees can arrange / organize impromptu pick-up games - The Art Contest – A new initiative with The ACDC and The Armchair Dragoons! The art contest will provide a common set of tabletop wargame graphics for all participants, whose task will be to redesign the graphics with a focus on usability, aesthetics, and artistic merit. Two prizes will be awarded: a vote among The ACDC attendees, and a judges’ award by an industry panel, who will also highlight & showcase particular entries of merit during an online award show on Saturday 19 June. Details, including the original files for the artwork can be found here.
See Annex C, below, for the synch matrix.
- Subordinate Tasks
- GMs – prepare, present & supervise games played during the convention, including ownership of the game modules for the games/platforms you intend to use. If needed, platform test w/ Armchair Dragoons HQ NLT 14 June 2021
- Players – Ensure you have the correct platform software (VASSAL, TTS, etc) loaded and functional before registering for any games. The GMs will provide the appropriate game module and invite you into the game, but it is your responsibility to ensure your computer is working.
Additionally, players are required to provide their Discord user name upon registration, to ensure that GMs can invite them into their game at the appointed time. - Seminar Speakers – Prepare & present content for online audience, including participant Q&A.
- Editorial Team – ensure content is captured during the event to most accurately capture the convention for follow-up articles.
- Moe’s Game Table and Ardwulf’s Lair will conduct public comms events for convention attendees, including wargaming happy hours, designer interviews, and hosted discussions.
- Coordinating Instructions
- The ACDC has a cost of $5/attendee for a weekend badge; individual events have no separate cost.
- Event schedule will be posted here, for you to recon before registration opens.
- All times for all events are listed as US/Eastern time.
- Only ticketed attendees will be given access to the ACDC Discord server.
- Badges are needed to play in the games, but not to watch. While we hope to stream many of the games through YouTube, they will primarily be made available to registered participants through the screen streaming function on Discord.
- All GMs will make every effort to stream their games through the Discord screen sharing, and through publicly-viewable channels (YouTube, Twitch, etc) when possible.
- ACDC Merchandise will be available through the Armchair Dragoons CaféPress store
- There is an option to print your badge, if you want it as a keepsake. Obviously, we don’t need no stinkin’ badges for an online convention.
Service Support
- Support Concept
Armchair Dragoons will provide the scheduling & registration framework, as well as the online ‘anchor’ presence for the convention. As the central clearinghouse for information, Armchair Dragoons will take the lead in supporting convention attendees.
- Technical Support
- Armchair Dragoons can offer limited technical support for the registration / scheduling software through the tabletop.events platform
- Within the Discord Server, there is a “Help” channel that will include “tips & tricks” guides for specific platforms, but these are in no way intended as any sort of guarantee of success nor an implied offer of universal tech support
- Armchair Dragoons makes no promises, guarantees, warranties, or assurances that the platforms used for this convention (such as TTS, or VASSAL) will load and function correctly on your individual machine. In short: it is your responsibility to make sure your computer works with the platform for the game(s) you want to play this weekend.
- Personnel
- Anyone wishing to volunteer as a GM is instructed to contact the convention team at dragoonsassembly – (AT) – that ‘gmail’ thingee. Please include game, platform, duration, max # of players, and your experience with playing/leading the game in an online platform. Include at least 2 options for times at which you can run the game.
- Anyone wishing to volunteer as a seminar speaker is instructed to contact the convention team at dragoonsassembly – (AT) – that ‘gmail’ thingee. Please include a draft outline of the content to be covered and include at least 2 options for times at which you can present. Note that whenever possible, we will try not to schedule multiple seminars at the same time, although that is getting harder these days.
- No one is to submit events to the convention without first clearing them through the convention team.
- Promotions
- A bank of images is available to freely share here: banner ad (728×90) ; social media box (500×500); large banner (728×250)
- Everyone registering for/attending the ACDC is asked to share information about the convention through their social networks; the more, the merrier!
- When posting to social media, please use the hashtag #TheJuneACDC and/or tag Armchair Dragoons (Twitter / Facebook). Anyone posting photos of themselves with June ACDC merchandise just might be in for a surprise
Command & Signal
- Command
- Armchair Dragoons will lead the effort, with assistance from other organizations as needed
- Questions or concerns should be communicated to dragoonsassembly – (AT) – that ‘gmail’ thingee
- Signal
- We will use online comms for site administration and other coordination
- All games are played online through virtual platforms like Tabletop Simulator, VASSAL, and Tabletopia. It is the player’s responsibility to ensure the appropriate software is working on his/her own computer.
- Games will operate with online voice channels, such as Steam Chat or a Discord server. The GM will communicate to the players which channel is being used, but it is the player’s responsibility to ensure the audio is appropriate for the game.
- While some GMs prefer Steam Chat for their voice comms, the priority will be the dedicated Discord Server available for that weekend for both voice and text chat
Annex C – Synch Matrix
| Event Name | Event Type | Host Names | Max Tickets | Starts | Time (EDT) | Minutes | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wargame Bootcamp - Learn to Use Discord, VASSAL, TTS | Seminar | Karl Kreder, Tim Porter | 12 | Friday | 1300 | 180 | Discord |
| Operation Corridor | Seminar | Tomislav Čipčić | 100 | Friday | 1300 | 120 | YouTube |
| Moe's Game Table interview designer Stuart Tonge | Seminar | Moe Fitzgerald | 100 | Friday | 1500 | 120 | YouTube |
| World At War 85, "The Rhine" Campaign Game - Session 1 | Game Session | Devin Heinle | 4 | Friday | 1600 | 180 | Tabletop Simulator |
| Iron & Oak | Game Session | Andrew Bucholtz | 4 | Friday | 1700 | 120 | VASSAL |
| Bayonets & Tomahawks | Game Session | Karl Kreder | 8 | Friday | 1700 | 180 | VASSAL |
| ¡CANCELED! (Conflict of Heroes) | Game Session | CANCELED | 6 | Friday | 1800 | 180 | CANCELED |
| Happy Hour - Welcome to the June ACDC | Seminar | Brant Guillory, Gary Mengle | 100 | Friday | 1800 | 120 | YouTube |
| Lock 'n Load Tactical | Game Session | Stéphane Tanguay | 20 | Friday | 1900 | 180 | VASSAL |
| Last One Standing (pre-pub) | Game Session | Ryan Heilman | 4 | Friday | 1900 | 120 | VASSAL |
| Squadron Strike | Game Session | Ken Burnside | 4 | Friday | 2000 | 240 | ASCIBI |
| Great Campaigns of the American Civil War Bootcamp | Game Session | Patrick Pence | 4 | Saturday | 0900 | 120 | VASSAL |
| Kriegsspiel! | Game Session | Marshall Neal | 8 | Saturday | 0900 | 360 | Discord |
| Wargaming Wakeup | Seminar | Brant Guillory | 30 | Saturday | 0900 | 60 | Discord |
| Space 1889! | Seminar | Robert Mosher | 100 | Saturday | 1000 | 120 | YouTube |
| Wargame Bootcamp - Learn to Use Discord, VASSAL, TTS | Seminar | Karl Kreder, Tim Porter | 12 | Saturday | 1100 | 180 | Discord |
| Shores of Tripoli | Game Session | Kevin Bertram | 4 | Saturday | 1200 | 120 | VASSAL |
| What a Tanker! | Game Session | Jim Owczarski | 8 | Saturday | 1300 | 240 | Tabletop Simulator |
| White Eagle Defiant | Game Session | Dave Shaw, Ryan Heilman | 4 | Saturday | 1300 | 120 | VASSAL |
| Brotherhood & Unity demo & historical background | Seminar | Tomislav Čipčić | 12 | Saturday | 1300 | 240 | Discord |
| Rebels and Patriots AWI | Game Session | Rich | 4 | Saturday | 1300 | 240 | Tabletop Simulator |
| Atlantic Chase (starts at 1430 EDT) | Game Session | Karl Kreder | 8 | Saturday | 1400 | 180 | VASSAL |
| Forts at the Forks of the Ohio | Seminar | Jim Werbaneth | 100 | Saturday | 1400 | 60 | YouTube |
| In The Shadows Gameplay Demo | Game Session | Joe Schmidt | 20 | Saturday | 1400 | 120 | Discord/TTS |
| Moe's Game Table interview with designer Bruce Maxwell | Seminar | Moe Fitzgerald | 100 | Saturday | 1400 | 120 | YouTube |
| 2 Minutes to Midnight Demo with designer Stuart Tonge | Seminar | Stuart Tonge | 30 | Saturday | 1500 | 120 | Discord |
| Lock 'n Load Tactical | Game Session | Stéphane Tanguay | 4 | Saturday | 1500 | 180 | VASSAL |
| Squadron Strike | Game Session | Ken Burnside | 4 | Saturday | 1600 | 240 | ASCIBI |
| Inaugural Wargame Art Design Contest Award Show | Seminar | Brant Guillory | 100 | Saturday | 1600 | 120 | YouTube |
| La Belle Epoque | Game Session | Tim Porter | 4 | Saturday | 1600 | 180 | VASSAL |
| In The Shadows Gameplay Demo | Game Session | Joe Schmidt | 20 | Saturday | 1700 | 120 | Discord/TTS |
| Hands in the Sea | Game Session | Andrew Bucholtz | 4 | Saturday | 1800 | 120 | VASSAL |
| Deadly Woods | Game Session | Karl Kreder | 8 | Saturday | 1800 | 180 | VASSAL |
| Ardwulf's Lair interview with Dark City Games | Seminar | Gary Mengle | 100 | Saturday | 1800 | 120 | YouTube |
| Waterloo! (Lasalle 2 rules) | Game Session | Jim Owczarski | 6 | Saturday | 1900 | 240 | Tabletop Simulator |
| World At War 85, "The Rhine" Campaign Game - Session 2 | Game Session | Devin Heinle | 4 | Saturday | 1900 | 180 | Tabletop Simulator |
| Wargaming Wakeup | Seminar | Brant Guillory | 30 | Sunday | 900 | 60 | Discord |
| Lock 'n Load Tactical | Game Session | Stéphane Tanguay | 20 | Sunday | 1000 | 180 | VASSAL |
| Great Campaigns of the American Civil War Bootcamp | Game Session | Patrick Pence | 4 | Sunday | 1100 | 180 | VASSAL |
| Wargame Bootcamp - Learn to Use Discord, VASSAL, TTS | Seminar | Karl Kreder, Tim Porter | 12 | Sunday | 1100 | 180 | Discord |
| Starship Troopers: What's All the Fuss? | Seminar | Chris Weuve | 100 | Sunday | 1100 | 90 | YouTube |
| Brave Little Belgium | Game Session | Dave Shaw, Ryan Heilman | 4 | Sunday | 1200 | 120 | VASSAL |
| ¡CANCELED! (Aspern Essling) | Game Session | CANCELED | 6 | Sunday | 1200 | 300 | CANCELED |
| Rebel Raiders on the High Seas | Game Session | Andrew Bucholtz | 4 | Sunday | 1300 | 120 | VASSAL |
| Global Hotspots update with NSDM | Seminar | Merle Robinson | 100 | Sunday | 1300 | 120 | YouTube |
| Rebels and Patriots AWI | Game Session | Rich | 4 | Sunday | 1300 | 240 | Tabletop Simulator |
| Conflict of Heroes | Game Session | Uwe Eickert | 6 | Sunday | 1400 | 180 | Tabletopia |
| Napoleon 1807 (starts at 1430 EDT) | Game Session | Karl Kreder | 8 | Sunday | 1400 | 180 | VASSAL |
| World At War 85, "The Rhine" Campaign Game - Session 3 | Game Session | Devin Heinle | 4 | Sunday | 1400 | 180 | Tabletop Simulator |
| Moe's Game Table interview with Lock 'n Load Publishing | Seminar | Moe Fitzgerald | 100 | Sunday | 1500 | 120 | YouTube |
| Shores of Tripoli | Game Session | Kevin Bertram | 4 | Sunday | 1500 | 120 | VASSAL |
| Happy Hour - Wrapping Up the June ACDC | Seminar | Brant Guillory, Moe Fitzgerald | 100 | Sunday | 1700 | 120 | YouTube |
| Almost a Miracle | Game Session | Karl Kreder | 8 | Sunday | 1800 | 180 | VASSAL |
Full schedule will be posted here as it is finalized
How was the last ACDC, in January 2021? Here’s the OPORD & event listings, live streams, AAR
We appreciate you visiting the Armchair Dragoons!
We’ve got a dedicated forum to discuss the June 2021 ACDC.
You can also find the regiment on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and occasionally at a convention near you once we’re allowed to hold them again.