Usually the thing that I am most interested in with the Monthly Update emails from GMT Games is the sharing of new titles they are offering. New games just get my juices flowing and are of the most interest to me. Don’t get me wrong though. I thoroughly read the full Monthly Update emails and savor each and every aspect. But, new P500 offerings is where it is at for me! This month, the thing that really caught my attention though was not the new offerings but some of the news about the reworking of the Production Outlook section of the newsletter. Better and more accurate information, more organized and up to date. That has my attention and was the thing that I spent a bit of time on thinking over and checking out. We have all felt the frustration from time to time of not seeing any new information or even movement on a game we are hotly anticipating, especially once it has hit the required 500 orders. This new system will not make that anticipation go away, but will give us a better outlook to temper them.
This month there were 2 new P500 additions offered including 1867 Big Wyoming and Lenin’s Legacy. There also were 3 reprints offered in Banish the Snakes2nd Printing, Flashpoint: South China Sea: 2nd Printing and The Russian Campaign Deluxe 5th Edition 2nd Printing.
Also, as is usually the case, there was plenty of other information shared including updates on GMT One products, development updates, upcoming future P500 additions and the usual gorgeous art samples.
As I read the Monthly Update, the first thing that jumped out at me was the fact that they are reworking/modifying the information they typically show us below in the Production Outlook section of the newsletter. I know that this is one of the most confusing and difficult to understand/grasp portions of the P500 process. I know that many people believe that once a game hits its magic number of 500 orders that it is just weeks away from going to print and appearing on their tables. But, that isn’t the case. Remember, that the P500 system is a sort of soft pre-order that informs GMT as to what games are most desired. We just click the button to let them know that this game seems good to me and I am interested in purchasing it. There is no commitment. You don’t pay at the time and the process goes on based loosely on the pre-orders the games get but there is more to it than that. As the orders build up, the games are undergoing development, refinement, playtesting and even art. The art takes a while as does playtesting and refinement. I have heard art can take as long as a year or more to get correct. So, I think that GMT understands that people get frustrated and want more information so they are accommodating our fanaticism by giving us more of what we crave. Gene goes on to say:
Since Justin Martinez and Kai Jensen took over managing our art department and production management, respectively, early last year, they have been working to streamline and improve our processes. Justin and Kai have both done a ton of excellent work to make things run more smoothly in our art and production departments over the past year. Improvements in those areas also help those of us involved with development, marketing, and customer relations as well. Today, I want to share with you one way in which they’re helping us give you more timely and accurate information about the status of upcoming game releases.
The gist of it is that we’re going to start giving you what is essentially Kai and Justin’s internal schedule for how they manage and forecast the production readiness of our P500 games that are at least nearing readiness to be in our art department. So you’ll now see two categories for the “In Final Art and Proofing” and three categories for the “In the Art Department” sections of the Production queue. Note this latter includes a “2025” section, as the artwork for certain games takes a year or more to complete. And this schedule is and will always be dynamic. Some projects go faster than others; some games get stuck for a bit. So don’t get too worried if your favorite game doesn’t move up in a given month. It’ll work out over time.
Also, we’ve added a section called “Status Uncertain.” That section is where we’ll put all the games that get stuck in our process from time to time for various reasons. Sometimes we have to wait for funding; sometimes designers, developers, or artists get waylaid by a serious illness or family situation that means they need to step away from GMT work for a bit. Once in a while, we have a personnel change, and progress on a game slows down or stops while we get someone else to work on it. It might just be that an artist hasn’t yet been assigned to a key aspect of the project. And sometimes a designer or artist has multiple games on their plate, and they have to step away from one for a while to get another one finished. We roll with these situations as they occur, but we decided it was unfair to you and also inaccurate to keep items like this in our art department/production queue. So when you see an item in the “Status Uncertain” area, we’re not finished with it; it is actually pretty far along in our process. But it’s stuck at the moment. When we get it unstuck, we’ll add it back to the appropriate section in the Production Queue.
I hope this updated way of showing you production queue status will make it easier to follow your favorite games through our art and final production process. So you will see a LOT of new games and statuses in our art queue this month. See the Production Outlook section later in this newsletter for all of this month’s changes and details.
I for one am appreciative of this change as it gives more correct information on the status of a game in the design/development process. Thanks to GMT, and especially to Kai and Justin for their work and idea to make this process better!
The other thing that I found interesting was the number of interviews that have been done recently with new designer Sam London covering his upcoming Firefight Tactical. We actually had a chance to play the game in November while attending San Diego HistoriCon and had a blast with it and did a video interview with Sam at that time but also recently published a written interview on the blog. Including the interview from GMT Talk, there were a total of 4 interviews with Sam highlighted by Gene in the update. See the picture below for the list:
I actually am glad to see more of the content creators out there taking the time to do these type of interviews as they give an unbiased view into the games and help us to understand what the games are about. Here is a link to our video interview with Sam from Sand Diego HistoriCon:
I actually checked on the blog the other day and we have posted 458 of these interviews since 2016! I cannot believe that. I am very pleased with these posts and am always on the lookout for new games to discuss.
One other update that I found very interesting was from Jason Carr on the status of the Labyrinth Series and a new game, which was hinted at by Gene a few months ago.
LabyrinthSeries update – Director of Development Jason Carr
I wanted to take a minute to show a sneak peek behind the curtain of how game development works at GMT. About a year ago, now-GMT developer Peter Evans showed me a prototype of a game that he was working on that expanded the Labyrinth system to cover 1993-2001. I was initially full of questions, mainly around how well the Labyrinth model translated to Clinton-era US Foreign Policy. Peter immediately won me over with his thorough research and clever modifications to the core Labyrinth game, but what was most exciting to me was Peter’s thinking about how a prequel to Labyrinth would allow us to reframe the core narrative in Labyrinth with the things that we’ve learned since the game was printed in 2010.
I gave Peter a bunch of feedback on the game, and he went to work improving and changing things and came back a few months ago with a much improved prototype. After some early playtesting with Labyrinth World Champion Marco Poutré, we pitched the game to Volko Ruhnke and Trevor Bender. Now, Peter is in the process of using their feedback and thoughts to refine his thesis even more. We aren’t quite ready to take the wraps off of the game, but we’re very excited about what Peter’s done. Take a great game system like Labyrinth, add in great designers and players like Peter, Trevor, and Marco, and in the words of the late, great Carl Weathers in Arrested Development: “Baby, you’ve got a stew going!”
That’s not the only thing happening in the Labyrinth world: we are also reprinting the Awakening expansion. Trevor and I have collected the minor errata and clarifications for Awakening, as well as the updates to the bots made in the Forever War expansion, and Charlie Kibler is updating all the materials for the reprint. That should go to the printer soon. – Jason
New P500’s
As was shared above, there were 2 new P500 additions offered this month including 1867 Big Wyoming (an 18XX Series train game) and Lenin’s Legacy (a very slick and interesting fast playing card game). There also were 3 reprints offered in Banish the Snakes2nd Printing, Flashpoint: South China Sea 2nd Printing and The Russian Campaign Deluxe 5th Edition 2nd Printing.
1867 Big Wyoming
While I am not a huge fan of 18XX games, mainly due to their length of play and the nature of the focus on building optimal routes and then running them over and over milling money and VP’s, I am a bit interested in this offering as it seems to be somewhat fast playing. It still takes 3 hours to play but that is a far cry from the 5-6 hours we logged with 1846: The Race for the Midwest several years ago. I also have always had a bit of a fascination with the western expansion of the United States and the concept of Manifest Destiny and this game is right at the heart of that time and movement as railroads began to build to the west coast.
From the game page, we read the following:
1867 Big Wyoming is a new game in the 18XX Series for 3 to 5 players that takes approximately 3 hours to play. In a game of 1867 Big Wyoming, players recreate Wyoming’s railroad history, assuming the roles of railroad operators, investors, and entrepreneurs seeking to strike it rich. Players will acquire private companies, establish railroad corporations, build rail networks that span the state, trade stocks, and develop Wyoming’s natural resource industries. The player who amasses the most wealth during the course of the game is the winner.
But this one has some new tricks and bit of innovation that aids in speeding game play.
While much of 1867 Big Wyoming will be familiar to longtime 18XX fans, the game offers several unique mechanisms that capture the unique quality of Wyoming’s railroad history and provide players with new and interesting challenges. The game seeks to provide a rich and dynamic play experience without overdressing the core system; as a result, 1867 Big Wyoming can be enjoyed by new and seasoned 18XX players alike and can be played in an evening.
Here is a bit of a look into these new innovations:
Accelerating Endgame – The game features an endgame acquisition system in which every player-owned railroad corporation is acquired by the Union Pacific or Burlington Northern systems, which today monopolize the state’s rail industry; the acquisition of the last such corporation signals the end of the game. During this phase of the game, corporations jockey for position on the stock market as acquisition offers are made. Players attempt to engineer the timing of their corporation’s acquisition to maximize their profits and deny valuable opportunities to their opponents. Corporations that decline or are denied acquisition must find a way to compete with the monolithic railroad systems and remain viable until their turn comes. Aside from being a novel endgame mechanism, it cannot be stressed enough that the endgame truly flies by. Veteran players can easily finish a game of 1867 Big Wyoming in under two and a half hours.
The Boom and Bust of Resource Delivery – The development of railroads in Wyoming would not have happened if not for Wyoming’s rich natural resource deposits. Upon their discovery, coal, metallic ores, crude oil, and natural gas quickly became the dominant industries statewide, attracting new rail lines and transforming small settlements into modern cities. 1867 Big Wyoming’s map is home to 5 natural resource deposit spaces. The deposits, once linked by rail, produce a number of resource cubes each round that can be delivered to nearby cities by whichever corporation claims them first. Once delivered, these resource cubes are used either to establish a refinery in that city or, if there is a refinery there already, to dramatically increase the value of that city, turning what was once a bump in the road into a major profit center. The locations and profitability of these refineries are driven by the development of railroad corporations, allowing player actions to influence the map’s financial landscape.
While attending San Diego HistoriCon in November, we had a chance to sit down with Matthias Cramer (who is a delightful person and a great designer) and play his newest offering called Lenin’s Legacy (at the time he was referring to it as Lenin’s Death). The game deals with the power struggle between Leon Trotsky and Josef Stalin for control of Russia following the strokes suffered by Lenin. The game plays in about 30-45 minutes and has some very interesting mechanics where players struggle over the control of various issues such as the Politburo, control of regions that provide new powerful cards for the players and the NKVD which keeps the army under control and out of the other player’s reach.
From the game page, we read the following:
Lenin’s Legacy is a fast-paced solo or two-player game about the power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky in the early days of the USSR, starting the moment Lenin’s health began to weaken after a failed assassination attempt in 1918 and culminating with Lenin’s death in 1924. Players will take on the role of either Stalin or Trotsky, playing cards from a common display (plus one hidden card each) to gain control of “issues,” such as the NKVD, Politburo, and personal access to Lenin. Cards can also be played for specific historical events, and additional Region and Politician cards may enter play each round, favoring whichever player was able to control the relevant issue in the previous round. Victory can be achieved in three different ways: control of the Army, domination of the Party, or lasting Fame after Lenin’s death. Players must therefore balance short-term gains towards each of these conditions with long-term bonuses from Regions and Politicians, while also ensuring that their opponent is not able to play the cards that will most benefit them. The result is a tense, fast-paced game where every card counts and you always have to stay one step ahead of your opponent.
The cards and how players obtain them to play is one of the best parts as a common tableau is built with a total of 7 cards at the start of each round, 5 of which are visible to both players and then 2 cards that each player can view but keep hidden. The player with initiative, which is an issue that can be moved to your side, gets to play 4 cards while the non-initiative player only plays 3. Huge advantage there!
Here is a look at our interview with Matthias at the the convention:
There also will be a full solitaire system included. This one is a winner and is sure to be one of my favorite quick playing Card Driven Games.
We love cooperative games here at The Players’ Aid, with one caveat, they must be good cooperative games that are a challenge and are not too easily won! At first glance, Banish the Snakes looks very interesting and has some really interesting mechanics that are sure to be a joy to play. I am only sharing this one because it is a cooperative game based in the history of Ireland and not some fantasy setting where we are not dealing in facts. We own a copy but have not had a chance to play it as of yet…shamefully!
From the game page, we read the following:
Banish the Snakes is a cooperative game that simulates Ireland in the 5th century, while the Roman Empire was collapsing in the west and Ireland was turning to the Christian religion. Players represent Saints Patrick and others (up to six of you) who set out to convert the pagans on the island. You must work as a team to convert the people of Ireland before the barbarians completely overwhelm Britain – if you fail, the Irish will not be able to save Civilization in the following centuries!
The game uses some really interesting card assisted elements that decide how you go about your business of changing the minds of the Pagans and influencing them to join the Christian movement. So, a game with indirect conflict and overcoming influence. Sounds to me like a lot of the games that I personally love that use cards to influence areas such as Twilight Struggle and Washington’s War and that delves into the religious side of history like Here I Stand.
The game board is a map of Ireland in the 5th century, with four Provinces-the same as today – but no counties yet formed. Wooden tiles represent the People, Druids, Chiefs, and Kings, and of course the High King at Tara. It is the players goal to invade the interrelated influences between these groups of people and get your new ideas accepted.
I also see at the very bottom of the board is a schematic type of diagram of Great Britain which is used to keep track of the steady decline of Roman civilization in Great Britain and the continual assault on the country by barbarian invaders. As different parts of Britain succumb to the barbarians, more and more difficult challenges are added to the deck of cards, until finally Britain is completely overwhelmed, cutting off Ireland from the continent and ending the game.
The game also uses Event Cards to drive the action. Each turn a card is drawn, throwing new challenges at the group working to convert the populace. The severity of the event is determined by the previous card, and so no two games can ever play the same. The cards introduce events and ideas of the time, new saints, and historic figures such as Neil of the Nine Hostages.
Flashpoint: South China Seafrom GMT Games designed by Harold Buchanan is a very cool and fast playing 2-player strategy game that simulates the complex geopolitical contest currently taking place between the United States and China in the South China Sea. The game is a Card Driven Game that uses cards to allow players to play out the struggle using events based on today’s headlines and use these cards to take actions that will provide dominance over regions and score victory points at any time during the game. The game also has a dedicated Solo Opponent that was designed by GMT One and Jason Carr and I have played it four times and really enjoyed how it translates the tension in the 2-player game over to the solo game. It works really well and while daunting at first to run once you are familiar with the flowchart it becomes easy to maneuver.
First thing that I wish to say is about the solitaire mode. It uses the same general rules of play as the 2-player game but the Solo Opponent doesn’t have a hand of Event Cards. They use cards, but only typically draw an Event Card off of the top of the deck or use special Solo Opponent Cards. And, the game is brutal. I have played four times as the United States against the China bot and I am 0-4. I have come close once but it is very challenging. As all good solo games should be.
Part of the reason that the game is brutal is that it tries to take into account the actions that a human player would perform during the game. This typically revolves around the use of powerful Event Cards. The Solo Opponent doesn’t ever take Events though so they had to design a way for it to replicate that effect. The text of these Event Cards are ignored and the only way it uses the Event Cards is for the Scoring function and to see if there is a Mode Match which allows the Solo Opponent to remove the player’s Influence Cubes from the board. This really hurts and really replicates what a human opponent most likely would do in the same situation.
I really like the Solo Opponent and feel that its implementation really makes for an engaging and enjoyable solo experience for a game that was designed with 2-player mode in mind. I have played it four times, as mentioned previously, and I still enjoy the game and have not tired of it yet even though I have always played as the United States against the Chinese Solo Opponent. I need to switch sides now and go against the United States Solo Opponent to see how the game changes.
From the game page, we read the following:
The Chinese player works to influence other countries in the region, establish territorial claims and regional hegemony, and improve its world standing. The U.S. player works to maintain influence with allied countries in the region, secure freedom of navigation, and keep China in check. Success for both players hinges on the support and allegiance of non-player countries in the region. The game stops short of dealing with a potential full-scale military conflict. Rather, it requires the nuanced exercise of political, economic, and military resources, in a form of prima facie diplomacy – on the waters, in the air, and ultimately in the minds of the people – to achieve victory.
Each player manages a hand of cards that can be used immediately for various operations, or may be held for future operations under more favorable circumstances.
Here also is a look at our video review of the 2-player game:
The Russian Campaign Deluxe 5th Edition, 2nd Printing
We have played a lot of wargames over the past 10 years but some of the classics have eluded us thus far. I say eluded but a better word would be are either unavailable or the cost is prohibitive. So when one of the classics gets a new edition, especially one that is updated with new graphics, new rules and clarifications all intended to assist and enhance gameplay, we are really excited and try our best to get a copy.
This story actually begins way back in 2017 or so when GMT Games announced the Deluxe Edition reprint of The Russian Campaign on P500. The last time The Russian Campaign was in print was sometime in 2002 and the game was sold out and out of print as of 2007. That is a long time ago and for such a classic and well thought of game, it was about time for a reprint and with changing production values and more knowledge some additional rules and tweaks. I was excited and mashed that button to reserve my copy. Well, at the time I thought this would maybe take a year or so to get to print and on my table but it actually took much longer than that and just became available earlier this year. So after waiting for about 8 years, we finally gave this one a spin and instantly I could immediately understand why so many wargamers held this game in such high regard.
The game is true to its name as it represents the entirety of the East Front of World War II stretching from Leningrad and Finland in the north all the way to the Caucasus Oil Fields, Rostov and Stalingrad in the south. I have said this before, but there is something a bit romantic about East Front games. Long lines of contiguous counters. The German blitzkrieg pushing the Soviets back for the first dozen turns. The Soviets gaining their strength, bringing up bigger replacement units and pushing back. A continuous bloody wave of motion and combat and attrition. Bad terrain, bad weather and bad luck all combining to spoil the best laid plans of commanders. It is all here. The entire East Front in all its glory and beauty and I think that this is one of the main draws of the game and the genre. Can my decisions lead to better advances? Can I do more than historical? Can the Germans break the red wall of Soviet units and capture Moscow to knock them out of the war?
We really enjoyed our play of this classic hex and counter style wargame and are eagerly awaiting an opportunity to give it another play. The mechanics are just solid and really rooted in classic wargaming style but there are enough new and interesting chrome optional rules here to make it interesting for anyone, even for those who may have played an older edition till the counters wore out. When I play wargames like this, meaning a true blue dyed in the wool hex and counter wargame, I feel the love and affection for this genre swell and grow in my whole mind! Just awesome simplicity.
Here is a link to our full unboxing video showing off the beautiful components:
Next Charges/Shipments: Our next shipments should arrive in mid-late March. We should charge for them in late March and ship in early April. Those shipments include:
Clash of Sovereigns/Clash of Monarchs Double Sided Mounted Map
One of the features that I have always enjoyed about these Monthly Updates has been the New P500’s on the Horizon where Gene Billingsley shares a few very cryptic comments about an upcoming project and we are supposed to somehow decipher his meaning from these “clues”.
Here is a brief tease for P500 additions lining up in the coming months. This month’s 1867 Big Wyoming was teased last month as “A new 18xx game.” (creative, right?) And this month’s Lenin’s Legacy was foreshadowed in December as “A power struggle strategy game set after the Russian Revolution.” Note that this is not a comprehensive list (nor will I preview EVERY game we have planned), so I will switch these up a bit from month to month. Over the coming 1-6 months, I anticipate that we will add:
A shadowy “Hide and Seek” WWII game set in the South Pacific – Jerry White’s Pacific Chase or maybe Volko Ruhnke’s hinted at game Coast Watchers. I am not sure which.
Here is a picture of Pacific Chase I found on the interwebs:
Here also is a pic of Coast Watchers on Vassal:
A battle game set in Medieval Italy – this could be so many things but Battle Game is a specific clue that I am just not sure about.
Something new in the GBACW Series – The Wilderness – book it!
Another ACW multi-pack for your American Civil War wargamers – not sure on this one.
A Deluxe GMT Edition of a hobby classic strategic game – The Campaign for North Africa?
Those are my guesses. I feel good about 2 of them so not a bad month for me. Gene, how did I do? Is there a call-up to the show in my future?
Project Updates and Sample Art
One final thing that I wanted to share this month is all of the great sample art that has been shared as a part of the update on various games as they run up to production.
The first item that was shared was a look at the box back for Space Empires: All Good Things Expansion that is nearing being ready and shipped. This expansion is a sort of hodgepodge of a lot of new additional elements to the game. Kind of like a plug and play with options that are not related but will add some new and interesting challenges to the system. I love Space Empires and am eagerly awiting this final expansion. In fact, I am trying to talk Alexander into doing a multi-player game while attending Buckeye Game Fest in early May. I would love to play an all day Space Empires game!
Next they showed the new cover art (not the full cover itself) for the upcoming Hubris: Twilight of the Hellenistic World from Morgane Gouyon-Rety. I really love the look of this one and feel that it conveys the thesis of the game as the leader pictured, not sure who it is, is now reaping the whirlwind of his leadership and choices as behind him his city burns as he embraces his family. A really heart pricker! I am excited to see how it evolves and am really anticipating the game.
They then shared a look at the new cover for the 5th Printing of Space Empires 4X and man it is really good! I am upset that my 2nd Printing copy doesn’t have this same look.
We then got treated to a mockup of the map and some counters for Next War: Iran and they look really good.
We were then shown a new card from the upcoming solitaire narrative driven solitaire game I, Napoleon and it looks great.
We were then shown 2 different counter sheets for the upcoming COIN Series entry Red Dust Rebellion. These just look great and I know that this one is getting really near to completion! In fact, in the new reworked Production Outlook section of the update we read that it is 1-2 months away from going to the printer.
Next, they shared a look at the stickers for the Commands & Colors Medieval Expansion 1: Crusades Mid-Eastern Battles 1. They are great! Can’t wait to get my hands on those stickers. I love stickering blocks! It is just very relaxing and therapeutic to me.
Finally, with a game that I do not know a ton about but that does look really interesting, we got some samples of several final cards for the game Away Team: The Voyages of the Pandora designed by John Butterfield. I love the pulpy look to the art.
One more thing that I always like to see is the summary of the recent P500 offerings that are not getting orders as quickly as others. Here is a list of those games that need some extra orders.
We have done interviews on several of these games including Hannibal’s Revenge, Napoleon in Egypt, Borikén. I also plan to reach out to the designers for Solitaire Tac Ops: Ortana, Spearhead, Hammer and Sickle and we have an interview covering Imperial Fever coming up in March.
I want to end this post by sharing our recent content on the blog and YouTube Channel for GMT Games products including reviews/interviews/unboxing videos:
6 thoughts on “February 2024 Monthly Update from GMT Games – Matthias Cramer Comes into the GMT Family and a Reworked Production Outlook is the Big News!”
I think I look forward to your thoughts about as much as the actual email…
I really liked the new insights into the P500 process/statuses. I don’t mind delays (of course we want it sooner rather than later, but we want it nice and right more…) as long as there is some understanding (and or updates) on why some projects move faster along faster than others. Also, I really like seeing the projections for when something actually might get to us.
Knowledge is power and I think their new approach will give gamers info that makes them feel better about delays or the long process of finalizing a game. I think that sometimes we forget that GMT is a small boutique publisher in many ways and they do anywhere from 30-40 published games per year. That is a lot of work and effort and timing and decisions that have to be made about things like art, shipping, costs, etc.
The January GMT monthly update had the new artwork for SE4x All Good Things and I thought wow, I hope they do that for all of them now. Well that’s definitely happening. A few years ago I was looking at SE4x, I knew it was well regarded, but the box art just didn’t do it for me, too bland. In the end I picked up a copy of Here I Stand over SE4x. So glad I waited. Maybe one day GMT will do posters of the box art, it’s getting really good. Some of my old AH/Vic/GDW games that I love to play I now think could do with a make over. But hey, we’re all getting old and don’t look as good as we did 30 odd years ago.
Why the heck has GMT placed a 2nd printing of The Russian Campaign 5th edition on the P500 list when the 1st printing is still available in stores? What’s the catch? Were there too many errors on the deluxe 5th edition we recently received that CONSIM/GMT had to put a new printing into the works so soon? Anybody have a comprehensive list of corrections/improvements planned for 2nd Printing?
Was dis appointed that JE’s TRC map was not improved to add many forested regions that have been successively rendered as clear hexes – eg, Kurland, Prussia, Ukraine et al. Northern Bug River is still conspicuously missing – a must for Russian defense of the fortress at Brest-Litovsk.
What, if any, is the value of ordering 5th edition second printing DE when we just received the 1st printing last year?
CONSIM and GMT have been rather tight lipped since announcing their new P500 listing in February.
The Players' Aid 
I think I look forward to your thoughts about as much as the actual email…
I really liked the new insights into the P500 process/statuses. I don’t mind delays (of course we want it sooner rather than later, but we want it nice and right more…) as long as there is some understanding (and or updates) on why some projects move faster along faster than others. Also, I really like seeing the projections for when something actually might get to us.
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Knowledge is power and I think their new approach will give gamers info that makes them feel better about delays or the long process of finalizing a game. I think that sometimes we forget that GMT is a small boutique publisher in many ways and they do anywhere from 30-40 published games per year. That is a lot of work and effort and timing and decisions that have to be made about things like art, shipping, costs, etc.
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The January GMT monthly update had the new artwork for SE4x All Good Things and I thought wow, I hope they do that for all of them now. Well that’s definitely happening. A few years ago I was looking at SE4x, I knew it was well regarded, but the box art just didn’t do it for me, too bland. In the end I picked up a copy of Here I Stand over SE4x. So glad I waited. Maybe one day GMT will do posters of the box art, it’s getting really good. Some of my old AH/Vic/GDW games that I love to play I now think could do with a make over. But hey, we’re all getting old and don’t look as good as we did 30 odd years ago.
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I now feel the same way about the upgraded components and board for Tanto Monta as I want them to do the same to Here I Stand.
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As long as we only think that for our wargames and not our better halves, we’ll live.
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Why the heck has GMT placed a 2nd printing of The Russian Campaign 5th edition on the P500 list when the 1st printing is still available in stores? What’s the catch? Were there too many errors on the deluxe 5th edition we recently received that CONSIM/GMT had to put a new printing into the works so soon? Anybody have a comprehensive list of corrections/improvements planned for 2nd Printing?
Was dis appointed that JE’s TRC map was not improved to add many forested regions that have been successively rendered as clear hexes – eg, Kurland, Prussia, Ukraine et al. Northern Bug River is still conspicuously missing – a must for Russian defense of the fortress at Brest-Litovsk.
What, if any, is the value of ordering 5th edition second printing DE when we just received the 1st printing last year?
CONSIM and GMT have been rather tight lipped since announcing their new P500 listing in February.
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