by Dive into this week’s #TuesdayNewsday, where we bring you the latest updates from the world of wargaming
There’s about a week two weeks left in our joint survey with Beyond Solitaire.1
If you want to see what we came up with last year, you can go here to see what we came up with. Plans are for something similar this year. Don’t be that guy that pops after the survey is done saying “I wish I’d know about this!”
The 2024 Fall Assembly will be held 11-13 October 2024.
- Badge sales are now open, and there’s still a few early-bird deals available.
- Event registration will open this coming weekend.
- Event submissions are still open; GM’s with at least 2 events in the schedule get a free badge.
- We will be back at The Gamer’s Armory again this year, in Cary, NC (just outside Raleigh).
Current event schedule, with a few more to come.
| Event Name | Type | Max# | Starts | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air & Armor: Wurzburg | Board Game | 5 | FRI 10/11 at 14:00 | 300 |
| GMT Rebel Fury | Board Game | 4 | FRI 10/11 at 14:00 | 120 |
| Raider Drop Zone | Board Game | 4 | FRI 10/11 at 16:00 | 180 |
| GCACW-Stonewall in the Valley-Cross Keys & Port Republic | Board Game | 3 | FRI 10/11 at 18:00 | 240 |
| Take That Street | Board Game | 4 | FRI 10/11 at 19:00 | 120 |
| #Maneuver Warfare: The Card Game | Card Game | 4 | SAT 10/12 at 10:00 | 120 |
| Air & Armor: Würzburg | Board Game | 5 | SAT 10/12 at 10:00 | 300 |
| GMT Rebel Fury | Board Game | 4 | SAT 10/12 at 10:00 | 120 |
| Raider Drop Zone | Board Game | 4 | SAT 10/12 at 10:00 | 240 |
| GMT's Fort Sumter | Board Game | 4 | SAT 10/12 at 12:00 | 120 |
| The Last Success (Library of Napoleonic Battles) | Board Game | 4 | SAT 10/12 at 12:00 | 240 |
| GMT Battles of the American Revolution | Board Game | 4 | SAT 10/12 at 13:00 | 240 |
| Star Wars: Armada | Minis Game | 10 | SAT 10/12 at 13:00 | 120 |
| World In The Air 85 | Board Game | 2 | SAT 10/12 at 14:00 | 240 |
| Star Wars: Armada | Minis Game | 10 | SAT 10/12 at 15:00 | 120 |
| Take That Street | Board Game | 4 | SAT 10/12 at 18:00 | 120 |
| SPI's Bundeswehr | Board Game | 4 | SAT 10/12 at 19:00 | 120 |
| Men of Iron | Board Game | 4 | SUN 10/13 at 10:00 | 180 |
| GCACW-Stonewall in the Valley-Mcdowell | Board Game | 4 | SUN 10/13 at 10:00 | 300 |
| NATO: The Cold War Goes Hot | Board Game | 4 | SUN 10/13 at 10:00 | 300 |
| TCS - Goose Green | Board Game | 4 | SUN 10/13 at 11:00 | 240 |
Hitting the shelves (and webstores) near you now!
- Revolution Games released Shiloh: The First Day in both boxed and ziploc editions; both are $20 off right now as a new release sale
- Worthington Games released their next “bookgame” through Amazon – D-Day Solitaire: Omaha Beach
- We’re not sure why TS Wargames’ Normandy 1944 doesn’t show up at the top of their “sort by new-to-old” list, but it was released in July and is now available
- Looks like Decision Games are now shipping Coral Sea Solitaire and it’s now full price, too
- SGS Battle For: Shanghai just launched on Steam and it’s on sale thru 26 August at 30% off
- Taking the Cross also just launched on Steam and is also 30% off until 22 August
Explore The Dark is just one page of rules (front and back) for players and referee. I love games that have tight rules, let you get started quickly and stay out of the way when playing. This is why I've been hooked on postcard and microgames. 1/3 #TTRPG #1pRPGJam @OnePageRPGJam pic.twitter.com/brhHtSGSGw
— Matt Kelly (@bymattkelly) August 20, 2024
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
- VUCA Sims put a new game on pre-order, as Formation Series #1 – Mirages (based on the system from Crossing the Line and Operation Theseus) can be found on their site
- Worthington has a two-pack on Kickstarter, as you can get both Drop Zone: Southern France AND Operation Dragoon 1944 together in one campaign
- Here’s a bunch of WW2 French Resistance figs, available as STLs, but also as a set of physical minis
- Tacticus Romanus (Historical Strategy Card Game) launched on Kickstarter
- So did 23 Knives: A Game of Social Manipulation in Ancient Rome
- Compass Games’ latest Kickstarter/last-minute pre-order game is Grant by Jon Southard
- 1-page 1-shots gives you a set of fantasy RPG maps for 1-sitting games, with some interesting encounters in them
- Battlefront Minis has some Market-Garden packs for your Flames of War games, both of which include lot of indiv minis for some famous personalities (BG Gavin, MAJ Frost, MG Urquhart, MAJ Cook, etc)
Looking for a deal? Getting more bang for your buck?
- WDS “Game of the week” is Squad Battles – Advance of the Reich for $29.95
- DVG has a sale right now that you get 10% off an order up to $100 with coupon code KEVIN10 at checkout; 20% off an order up to $200 with coupon code KEVIN30 at checkout, and you can probably figure out what KEVIN30 does for you
- Celebrating their release of Shiloh: The First Day, Revolution Games is holding a big sale thru the end of September on most of their other games
- After the countdown got to mere hours before the end of it, LNLP reset the counter on their “Blitzkrieg Sale” to add over 40 days
- Avalanche Press has a “Tunisia Package” bundle that’s a discount on the individual components, and includes at least 1 game that couldn’t otherwise get without joining their “Gold Club”
- Undaunted: Normandy is 35% off on Amazon right now
- Miniature Market has 1066, Tears to Many Mothers for $10 off
- You can get The Soft Underbelly 1943-1945 from Noble Knight for about $5 off
This week’s best written coverage from the wargaming world
- Wargaming Esoterica plays GTS Utah (translated from Japanese)
- Rocky looks at his latest wargame arrivals
- Pushing Cardboard released episode 36 of the podcast
- Space Biff looks at Chicago ’68
- Interesting article at InsideGMT about the the factors that mattered for carrier battles in WW2
- Avalanche Press has an article about the battleships that were at Midway
- Matrix Games latest “Armory” article is about junior officers
The best videos this week from our wargaming friends
- Justegarde compares Horse & Musket to Horse & Foot
- Peter Robbins chats with the Admiralty Trilogy Group
- Beyond Solitaire recaps her first GenCon
- HissyCat looks at the classic AH France 1940
- Zilla looks at Phalanx’s upcoming Lords of Heaven
- Ardwulf’s counter clipping stream talked about research vs mechanics
Various news & notes from the business end of the gaming world
- ICv2 reports that Renegade has sold out of the first wave of their new Heroscape products
- Interesting article on use of video games in classrooms; just ignore the fact that the Chicago ’68 game they talk about isn’t digital2
- Sound of Drums finally got their rebuilt website launched but ignore the lorem ipsum text for now
- Big update from WDS about their Jutland game engine
- Great article here remembering Charles S Roberts
20 August 2010 – Death of Charles S. Roberts – Founder of the Avalon Hill Game Company – Game Designer of Gettysburg, Tactics, Bismarck, Afrika Korps, D-Day – C3i Magazine Nr25 from RBM Studio was dedicated to the “Memory of Charles S. Roberts” pic.twitter.com/fWIV7Hbx5Q
— Rodger MacGowan (@RBMStudio1) August 20, 2024
It’s been a busy week for the regiment; here’s what you might’ve missed!
- Saturday Night Fights ~ A Playtest Game of Sam Mustafa’s “EISENHOWER”
- Badge Registration Now Open For Fall Assembly 2024
- A Wargaming Perspective of “Engineers of Victory”
- 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 September3 and 6 October4
- 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 ACDC5, 17-19, 2025
Other Conventions & Events
- 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)
- 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!
- MORS has an upcoming course on “Designing Tactical Games” that’ll be held virtually 24-26 September
- Update those orders of battle: ROKs are getting more Apache attack helicopters
- Challenger 2 tanks invading Russia
- This week, Mick Ryan talks about the options in Kursk
- The next GUWS webinar is TONIGHT! – Wargaming outside of War: How NGO’s use games and gaming to expand maritime, followed by Communicating Uncertainty in Wargame Outcomes on 10 September
- PaxSims talks about the new CNAS report about nuclear standoffs over Taiwan
- A couple of job opportunities out there
Generally I'm not a fan of 3D printing for wargaming, but this project looks really professional and useful. Canadian Army 3D printing library https://t.co/2x6DgNd2hf
— Jim Dawson (@JimDaws93102644) August 20, 2024
Something neat from outside the wargaming world we thought was worth sharing – just don’t think too hard about how long ago this was
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
- we’re going to extend the deadline a week into September
- h/t Tory Brown
- pushing back a weekend bc of Labor Day holiday
- the weekend before the Fall Assembly
- Armchair Dragoons Digital Convention
It’s unfortunate that the solitaire game survey accepts no fewer than five answers. This means the more casual (war)gamers who may not play too many games and thus may not have five favorites, are either not going to respond at all, or fill in their blanks with games they rarely play, or more likely have never played, thereby skewing the survey results.
So, spare me the near constant lament heard from nearly all quarters on how this hobby “needs new blood” when the more casual gamers are ignored in instances like this.
it’s not an issue of ignoring casual gamers so much as it is trying to capture what solo/solitaire gamers prefer. As someone pointed out last year on a BGG thread – if you don’t have 5 favorite solitaire games, or games you enjoy playing solo multihanded or with some form of ‘bot, then maybe you’re not the target audience for this particular survey, since that’s its focus.
We’re not trying to exclude anyone, but with fewer than 5 votes/person, the math *does* get skewed (we did a test run last year before the survey to check) and we’re really focused on gathering info from those that play enough solo/solitaire wargaming that they would have 5 faves.
It just seems to me that your “target audience” would be tiny, in which case who cares what they play. 😀 😀 😀