by Every week, #TuesdayNewsday gives you a run through what matters in the strategy gaming & practitioner worlds >>>
This Week’s Headline:
Our lead article this week is Brant diving into the current global shipping crisis and how it’s affecting tabletop gaming in the large, and wargaming in particular. There’s been plenty of other discussions of the topic across the broader game industry about the issue, including one from ICv2 that ‘conveniently’ dropped the same day as ours.
While the issues of transport times, wait times, storage costs, and overall freight space shortages are affecting everyone, one very eye-opening point brought up by several publishers we queried was the complete and utter lack of sufficient US-based production infrastructure for the level of quality needed to meet current market expectations.
There’s plenty more at the article on our site, and the follow-up appearance by Brant on Ardwulf’s counter clipping show.
Newly Released This Week:
- Avalanche Press has released PanzerGrenadier: Black Panthers, an expansion to their Elsenborn Ridge game that focuses on the 761st Tank Battalion in WW2. In addition to the game, there’s a trove of great background material, both the history of the unit and the development of the game, on Avalanche’s site, all linked to the game’s page. There’s also a package deal to save a few quid on both Black Panthers and Elsenborn Ridge together.
- Steve Jackson has re-released Munchkin Princesses for all your back-stabbing, double-crossing, high-heels-and-dress-wearing princesses in your life. And there’s the conveniently-timed Munchkin Dragons expansion getting a reprint, too. No word if there’s a “Donkey” card or a green Scottish ogre in there somewhere.
- PSC Ltd has restocked a bunch of their 15mm WW2 minis – US infantry, Paras, German trucks, and more.
- Alternative Armies is bringing back the “Erin” line of Celtic-inspired minis, including some sculpts that haven’t been produced since the 1990s.
- Order of Battle: WWII from Slitherine is now available on PlayStation
On Sale This Week:
- The August sale at Osprey Games wraps up in a week.
- GOG has a sale on a lot of Slitherine/Matrix titles.
- Paradox has a back-to-school sale on about 94587203495827034985 different games, most of them for over 50% off, and virtually none of them likely to contribute to the timely completion of any schoolwork.
- S&T’s game-edition magazine sale this week is World at War #72, with Paratrooper at 50% off.
Newly Launched This Week:
- It launches last week, but LNLP’s Point Blank – V is for Victory is chugging along with their Kickstarter campaign.
- After a looooooooong development saga, Kontact Now: Red Eclipse is now available for pre-order from Compass Games.
- Modiphius is riding DUNE pretty hard, with a preorder already up for one of their adventure packs, Adventures in the Imperium: Sand and Dust
- AMASS – The Battle for Resources on Planet XS is on Kickstarter, with a combination of 4X, worker placement, and aliens all rolled into a single game.
- The latest GMT monthly update dropped at the end of last week, and there are some new games on their p500 program
- 18 India – Railroad building in India with a classic 18xx style game
- The Bell of Treason: 1938 Munich Crisis in Czechoslovakia – a 2-player card-driven game that tries to re-litigate the precursor to WW2, using a system very similar to GMT’s Ft Sumter game.
This Week With The Armchair Dragoons:
- Saturday Night Fights continued D’Erlon’s Attack with the Lasalle 2 rules.
- This week, Brant looked into the current global shipping crisis and the damage it’s doing to the tabletop gaming world. He followed it up with an appearance on Ardwulf’s show to discuss in ore detail.
- Last Thursday was our monthly #UnboxingDay!
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- Red Storm from GMT Games
- Double Feature! Across 5 Aprils / Battle Hymn Vol 1: Gettysburg & Pea Ridge
- Kraken Dice!
- The Lamps Are Going Out (2nd Ed) from Compass Games
- Indian Ocean Region by Compass Games
- ASL Starter Kit Bonus Pack #2 from Multi-Man Publishing
- Double Feature! Target For Today / B17 Queen of the Skies
- Blackbeard from GMT Games
- Zurmat from Catastrophe Games
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- Other online games with the Armchair Dragoons
- Wednesday Night Warfare went back to Waterloo for an Epic C&C:N game
- The Thursday Night Throwdown was a much smaller game with the Lasalle 2 rules.
- IKS held another weekly game, with a “Race to Metz” scenario using a set of ACW rules.
- Perhaps most importantly, the Armchair Dragoons Naval Squadron – Tolstoi, McGuire, and Dr Perla – have won 2 rounds of the GUWS Sail & Shot tournament, and are in the finals!
News From The Wargame Industry:
- Dr Sidran is wondering if we’re going to accidentally create Skynet or The Matrix
- Battlefront/Flames of War are now dealing with multiple lockdowns, both at their plants in Malaysia and at their studio in New Zealand. They are suspending ordering so the backlog doesn’t overwhelm everyone when they get back.
- Modiphius has signed a deal to print the Index Card RPG base game and worldbooks, so it’ll be nicer than the ones from DTRPG.
- It’s not “new” because it’s been around over a year, but the ASL coffee mug from MMP is just kinda neat and we wanted to tell you about it.
- This week on Twitter
If you’re anywhere close to DC, please join the DC Conscripts for our next game day on 28 August. We’ll be meeting at 1000 at Games & Comics Pair O’ Dice in Fairfax City, which is a great location next door to a coffee and sandwich shop. We’ll start with an overview of OBA!
— DC_Conscripts (@ConscriptsDc) August 18, 2021
Something From Our Partners:
- RMN laments the return to school that might cost him some participants around the family game night table.
- Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about global shipping & tabletop gaming with Brant, and he also went through the latest GMT update, too.
- Moe had the guys from LNLP on a special Whiskey Charlie show to talk about Point Blank – V is for Victory.
- Solosaurus is taking a nap.
The Professional & Practitioner Wargaming World:
Don’t forget we’ve got a dedicated area of our forums for the professional wargamers.
- Inoculation against disinformation through a game?
- How are the Chinese thinking of their future wargames? As ‘living organisms’?
- King’s College London is aiming to be the center of the wargaming universe in academia.
- This week, GUWS has Jason Matthews talking about Politics in Wargaming and Wargaming Politics. Next week they’re off, but coming out of Labor Day weekend, they’ve got Brant talking about Incorporating Professional Perspectives in Hobby Wargaming, and that’s how you know they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for speakers.
- PaxSims has a report on the first in-person meeting for the Women’s Wargaming Network
- So the Fleet Marine Force professional wargame is starting to get some buzz in the practitioner circles. Oh, and… we might – might – be able to secure a copy to show off at the Wargame HQ at Origins this summer
Received ~50 requests for physical copies of my Fleet Marine Force #wargame — ranging from the MEUs to the MAWs, active duty to reserves. Striving to get these ‘handmade artisan games’ out to units ASAP. DM me if you want a copy for your unit/command. #wargaming pic.twitter.com/tIMEX6V6a2
— Sebastian Bae (@SebastianBae) August 22, 2021
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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