"Mentioned In Dispatches" with the Armchair Dragoons

22 March 2024 ~

Fresh off of GAMA Expo, Fort Circle Honcho Kevin Bertram joins us to talk about what’s up with the company, as well as their upcoming CircleDC convention.

Kevin fills us in on the current production plans for Fort Circle Games, which run out over a half dozen games and through the end of 2025 (at least).  We discuss some of the production & development process, including the visual art & design piece.  We talk about Kevin’s Substack wherein he divulges waaaaay more info than a lot of other companies probably would.  And we also spend a bit of time talking about what’s coming up at CircleDC – the designers he’s expecting, the venue, and the non-gaming activities they’ve got planned to go along, too.

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Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.

15 March 2024 ~

We spent last week at GAMA Expo, and rather than try to set up a 90-minute chat with someone there, we tackled a handful of people to come talk to us.

So kick back & relax and enjoy this patchwork episode of many different guests, as we run well past the hour mark, but give you a smorgasbord of people here (in no particular order):

Plus, here’s the link to the GUWS talk from Ian T Brown that we reference while talking with Jim

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Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.

8 March 2024 ~

Moe’s back!  And the Molotov Cockatiel joins us, too, as we take a spin through some classic wargames – how far back they go, why we love them, which ones we can’t stand, and how classic wargames might be like your favorite musical artists.

We also take some time to discuss how the business has changed a bit from in-house design & development teams to freelance designers and occasional development teams.  We learn a bit by cracking open some old rulebooks.  We talk about what’s still on our shelves decades later.  And since Moe’s here, we can’t help but talk a little hockey.

Some references

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Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.

1 March 2024 ~

Inspired by this thread on BGG, our panel tackles the idea of “how would you improve the wargaming hobby if you had $1 million to do it?”  So join Brant, Mike, Rocky, and new voice22 Byron (Jack Nastyface in the forums) as they go as bluesky as they can with some ideas.

Endowed faculty chairs.  The giant Blue Panther-tron Dr Seuss Grog-Print-O-Matic game printer to bring back old-school out-of-print wargames.  Hire some goddamn editors!  Supported play programs.  Bling out the games!  Can you tie into a much-loved media license to bring in a ready-made audience?

So are we trying to broaden the hobby?  Are we trying to better serve the people already in the hobby?  Are we trying to preserve the existing body of knowledge for future wargamers?  There’s a bunch of courses of action and none of them are necessarily wrong, but all come down to personal preferences.

The Weekly References (Non-Tolstoi-Edition)

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Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.

23 February 2024 ~

Amabel is back!  One of our favorite designers comes back to Mentioned in Dispatches to talk about what’s going with Hollandspiele and tell a few tales of designing off-the-wall games.

So chill & enjoy as she gives us the low-down on Hollandspiele’s best-sellers, what’s coming soon (Comet, Ides of March, Striking Flint, and more), and what she’s enjoyed working on. Custom dragon meeples?  Game reviews as literature?  A game with no rulebook?  Small-box games that are even more experimental?!  Yep, we covered that too!  And stay tuned ’til the end when Amabel starts pestering Brant with some questions of her own.

Oh, and of course we talk a bunch about the New Yorker article where Amabel was the star of a long read about modern boardgaming and game design.

We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think.  Thanks!

Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.

16 February 2024 ~

Liz drops by to talk to Brant & Mike about her upcoming Night Witches game (designed with David Thompson).  Hexes, counters, aircraft and AAA shooting at each other, and managing aircraft damage all combine for a fun little solo/co-op wargaming experience.

We also talk about some of her other work in the wargaming world, whether it’s additional designs kicking around in her head, or the editing work she’s done for other people.  We also talk a bit about some conventions – BGF, Circle DC, and Origins are all among them.  And yes, Brant does actually play wargames, too.

References & Links

And you’ll understand the point of this one around the 55 minute mark or so

We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think.  Thanks!

Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.

9 February 2024 ~

What the heck is an “adventure wargame”?  OK, so we’re not going to get into the parsing of specific definitional details, but we’re going to try to give you a sense of what makes them different than you average wargame and why you might enjoy playing them

So help us launch season 12 with a discussion of where RPGs and wargames overlap and how you can adapt some of those experience & campaign ideas to your more traditional hex-&-counter wargames down the line.

Some references?

We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think.  Thanks!

Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.

15 December 2023

So we’re cutting it pretty close to Christmas23 but here are some wide-&-varied suggestions for gifts to put under your favorite wargamer’s tree, with Rocky, Brant, Mike, and Bryan

It’s not just games, but a bunch of game accessories and add-ons, protective tools, tracking tools, and more.  And, yeah, we recommend a few games, too.

A, uh… ‘curated’ version of the different stuff we talked about on the show

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Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.

8 December 2023

The fine folks at Wargame Design Studio just recently released their latest game – Thirty Years’ War – in their Musket & Pike series.  Rich stops in with Brant & Jim to talk about their recent releases, the company’s current design plans, and what they’re currently excited about.

What’s the company’s design and release philosophy – tablets?  Macs?  Steam?  Long-term patching & support?  What’s the breakdown of their different series and how widely are their historical nets cast?  How did they get sychronous online multiplayer functionality “right” 20 years ahead of a bunch of other companies that still haven’t figured it out?  What’s up with the graphics?    Why don’t they announce games until they’re actually launching?  And yes, we cram it all into a 1-hour show.

Links & References

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Here’s the game that Jim referenced in the show, as they streamed one of the Thirty Years War scenarios

Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.

1 December 2023

The Autumn convention season has come, and (largely) gone24 and we’ve got some attendees of those conventions here to regale us with their adventures.

So let’s welcome in Ardwulf, Grant from Pushing Cardboard, and Tim from Catastrophe Games and talk about Compass Expo, SDHistCon, and the (then-upcoming) U-Con.  We discuss the games played, the ‘other’ events – panels/seminars, social gatherings, etc – pre-press or playtest games on tables, and what was for sale at the shows.  What did we like about the conventions?  How’d they compare to other conventions?  What are we looking forward to next?

Tell us about your recent convention experiences!  Which ones did you attend and what did you like (or not) about them?  What’s next on your convention calendar?  Discuss below, or in our forums!

Please gallop on over to the iTunes page for our podcast and give us a rating – whatever you think is fair!

Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.