Season 12

10 May 2024 ~ Wrapping up season 12, we’ve got a full house here to talk about the current state of hobby wargaming, what we’d like to improve, and some predictions for the near future. So let’s join Brant & Mike and welcome back Moe (of Moe’s Game Table) and Grant (of Pushing Cardboard) and settle in for our season finale to discuss the current state of hobby wargaming in 2024. 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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.

3 May 2024 ~ How are “historical RPGs” different from other RPGs and how can you use them to explore various points in history?  And far back (or forward?) do they look? You can always catch past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. So let’s join Rocky and Byron and Brant talking about different eras & periods, some underlying mechanics, what they can (and can’t) do, and some of our favorites.  We obviously reference Nations & Cannons, and here are Pat Mooney’s previous apperances in our 5Q interviews, podcast episode, and ACDC panel.   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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.

26 April 2024 ~ Ardwulf comes back to the show and brings fellow Origins GM Lee along with him, to talk about our Origins events and Buckeye Game Fest, interspersed with some guidance and advice about how to register for and attend most game conventions out there. You can always catch past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. So we talk about our experiences with both conventions, as well as some of the differences in focus between the gameplay-focused conventions (like BGF) and the larger, and more broad-based cons like Origins or GenCon.  And anywhere Brant references a 10×20 space, it’s actually 20×4020, and this year’s space at Origins is actually 40×40. Some links that’ll help you out: Go find a convention through tabletop.events! Buckeye Game Fest 2024 Origins Game Fair 2024 Brant & Peter and the We Are Coming Nineveh livestream BGF ’22 coverage with the Artemis videos BGF ’23 coverage with a lot of input from other gamers   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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.

12 April 2024 ~ In preparation for Connections Online next week, we’re joined by a pair of wargame practitioners: Kevin Williamson, and Mitch Reed, both up in the DC area. Mitch is well-known to the hobby world as the lead sled-dog of the No Dice No Glory team, but he’s also on his third different professional wargaming gig, after an extended military career.  Kevin’s hobby background is more digital than tabletop, but it’s serving him well in his current wargames-in-military-education role. You can always catch past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. With a focus on the overlap between hobby and pro wargames, both of our guests talk about places where they’ve seen hobby wargames used in the pro realm, the ideas they steal from the hobbyists for their day jobs, and the perils & pitfalls of using hobby wargames in a practitioner context.  And because this is Mentioned in Dispatches, we definitely wander off topic in a few places. Here’s a list of stray links mentioned in the show No Dice No Glory (Mitch’s site) Fight Club US Near Peer Simulations GAO report on wargaming (2023) Flashpoint Campaigns   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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.

5 April 2024 ~ We’re joined this week by designer Darin Leviloff, who designed the first States of Siege game (Israeli Independence) and has since designed several more that have found new homes with other publishers. You can always catch past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. Ironically, the original game is the only of Darin’s current designs that isn’t back in print, although he does take a moment to explain why not.  We also discuss Darin’s background in wargaming, how he stumbled into designing, and what’s on the drawing board. You can read Brant’s Hapsburg Eclipse AAR here. 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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.

29 March 2024 ~ Brant is joined by Chris Weuve (chair of the Connections Online committee) and Pete Pellegrino, longtime professional wargamer and instructor.  This slightly-rambling episode looks at some of the history of wargaming at the Naval War College, how and why it’s withered today, and what we can do about it. You can always catch past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. We also talk about how Pete came to wargaming and how its indicative of other people wandering into the wargaming practitioner field, and Chris (of course) tells us about a test-to-destruction as a valid type of wargame.  And we unironically use the term “ambiguity horizon”.  Of course, we wander off-topic here and there, because this is Mentioned in Dispatches and that’s our schtick. A handful of references (look, there were a lot) The Bob Work Memo (or at least Bob Work talking about it) and some of our commentary on it Wargaming Pathologies That Nimitz quote CAPT William McCarty Little collected essays (midway down on the page) The Strategic Naval War Game Or Chart Maneuver Millennium Challenge the official report (PDF) “the real story” “lost lessons”   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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.

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. You can always catch past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. 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. CircleDC convention info Behind the Fort Circle scenes The Fort Circle homepage   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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.

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. You can always catch past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. 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): Jim Dietz, The Dietz Foundation Cole Wehrle, Leder Games and Wehrlegig Games James Buckley, Phalanx Games Drew Wehrle, Wehrlegig Games Jason Matthews, Fort Circle Games and the GAMA board Plus, here’s the link to the GUWS talk from Ian T Brown that we reference while talking with Jim   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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.

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. You can always catch past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. 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 Rocky looks into Tactics II Alexander The Great Russian Campaign vs Russian Campaign Luftwaffe HOCKEY! 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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.

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 voice21 Byron (Jack Nastyface in the forums) as they go as bluesky as they can with some ideas. You can always catch past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. 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) The #ManeuverWarfare card game Evil Genius Games Mentioned In Dispatches Season 6 Ep 7 – Teaching Game Design Mentioned in Dispatches Season 10 Ep 1 ~ The OGL For Wargaming   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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.

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. You can always catch past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. 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 Night Witches on BGG White Tribe AAR Hapsburg Eclipse AAR Buckeye Game Fest 2023 w/ the La Bat games Buckeye Game Fest 2022 w/ the Artemis videos Liz’s channel   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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.

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 You can always catch past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. 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? The Drive on Gießen for World at War ’85 Striker (RPG rules) Five Parsecs From Home / Five Leagues From the Borderlands The Birthright setting Polyhedron 156 / V for Victory RPG   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. You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads, if we could ever get an auto-post to it. (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.