This month was a bit full of surprises! One was that Mark Herman is now going to be an official published author with his first book (I believe after having written dozens of articles for various wargaming magazines and publications) but also that these science fiction style of games are really gaining some traction at GMT. With games like SpaceCorp and SpaceCorp: Ventures from John Butterfield, Space Empires 4X from Jim Krohn and most recently Away Team from John Butterfield and even Hermann Luttmann’s The Plum Island Horror with its upcoming expansion The Plum Island Horror: More of a Bad Thing. I am fine with this trend as these are great games that are very fun to play but it is definitely an emerging market for GMT Games. And these just seem to keep coming! Overall, this month’s update was very good and definitely chock full of information.
This month there were 3 new P500 additions offered including Founders of Reyvick, Battles of the American Revolution Volume XI: The Battle of Green Spring and a book written by Mark Herman called Wargames According to Mark. There also was 1 reprint offered in Empire of the Sun: The Pacific War, 1941-1945, 5th 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.
One of the most interesting points of shared information was about Volko Ruhnke’s previous P500 game called Hunt for Blackbeard, which was removed from the P500 about a year or so ago. The game has been picked up by Fort Circle Games and they are preparing the game for a Kickstarter campaign soon.
Gene had the following to say about this project:
All of us at GMT love working with Volko, and it was hard a couple of years back when it became clear that Hunt for Blackbeard didn’t have the P500 support we needed to publish it with GMT. I told Volko at the time that I’d support him if he took the game to another publisher, and fortunately, it landed with our friends at Fort Circle Games, who have treated the game with the care and excellent production quality that Volko deserves. I told you all that I’d let you know if/when Hunt for Blackbeard was being released from another company, so here you go.Hunt for Blackbeardis about to hit Kickstarter on May 28th from Fort Circle Games. We invite you to support Volko and Fort Circle and order away once it’s live on Kickstarter!
We are going to be working with Volko on an interview for the campaign but I am running out of time to get him some questions. I am very much interested in this game that focuses on hidden movement and is a big game of cat-and-mouse. The game looks beautiful as well and I know that Fort Circle will do the game justice as much as GMT would have. Good luck to Volko and Fort Circle Games with the campaign!
Great looking component photo taken by Zilla Blitz.
GMTOne continues their work on developing and playtesting various games in the design queue as well as further refining their solo modes. Jason Carr had the following report on several of their ongoing projects:
I’ve also been enjoying my advance copy of Ted Raicer’s I, Napoleon. The stories the game creates are as wonderful as the gorgeous production, courtesy of Donal Hegarty. Ted and I have been trading emails with stories of our sessions and having a great time with the game. I can’t wait for you all to experience the game later this summer. Playtester extraordinaire David Kurtz is hard at work on a Tabletop Simulator module in support of the release.
And of course, there’s about a dozen projects in flight for GMT One, so let me explain. No, there is too much! Let me sum up:
Red Dust Rebellion is at the printer, and the rulebook has been posted. Developers Adam Blinkinsop and Joe Dewhurst, editor Liz Davidson, and graphic designer Terry Leeds did a phenomenal job with writing, editing, and laying out the rules for the game. I think you will all be pleased.
Congress of Vienna‘s solitaire modes are being final-checked by developer Peter Evans and the design team. We know this one has had a long wait, but these final checks usually turn something up, and we certainly don’t want to skip them.
Mike Bertucelli’s Wolfpack is in final proofing, and the proofreaders are gushing about the player aids, rulebook, and gameplay. Mike really did a great job with Wolfpack, and I can’t wait to play it!
Initial design work is done for the Bell of Treason solitaire system, based on the system used for Red Flag over Paris and Fort Sumter. The bot managed to beat Joe Dewhurst, so it can’t be that bad! It’s ok; Joe deserved it.
Staff Developer Joe Dewhurst is making significant progress with the solitaire systems for Cross Bronx Expressway and China’s War and is even spending his evenings peeking at Calixto. I’m not sure this is public knowledge, but I think Joe might actually be a robot.
They also made the following post about playtesting help:
Playtesters/Help Wanted! On an ongoing basis, GMT puts out a clarion call to let gamers know which design teams currently need extra testers. If you are interested in helping out, please contact the team members for the game you are interested in at the links below.
Plum Island Horror: More of a Bad Thing – They decided to wait on playtesting until they worked out a few details, but they are about ready now. You can sign up here; they expect to contact testers in Mid-June: https://forms.gle/2MWahAU5oo53qbkDA
Now onto the main event with the new P500’s.
New P500’s
As was shared above, there were 3 new P500 additions offered including Founders of Reyvick, Battles of the American Revolution Volume XI: The Battle of Green Spring and a book written by Mark Herman called Wargames According to Mark. There also was 1 reprint offered in Empire of the Sun: The Pacific War, 1941-1945, 5th Printing.
Founders of Reyvick
As I mentioned in the introduction, I actually really enjoy sci-fi games, and particularly sci-fi games that focus on economy and the development of a revenue stream. This new game Founders of Reyvick, that is set in the same universe as John Butterfield’s Away Team, really looks interesting and intrigues me deeply.
From the game page, we read the following:
Richard Garfield’s Founders of Reyvick is a 3-5 player economic game of speculation and competition on the newly settled world of Reyvick. Each player controls a company just starting out on the planet and attempting to amass the most wealth and craft the greatest legacy. Players deploy their Partners to collect resources from their assets and complete projects furthering research, exploration, and building across the planet. At the end of the game, the player with the greatest combination of wealth, assets, and projects wins the game. Founders of Reyvick is set in the dynamic and exciting Away Team universe, created by John Butterfield.
A game of Founders of Reyvick revolves around assets. Assets include the districts on Reyvick as well as Special Assets that are different in each game. During the game, companies compete to own these assets and take advantage of the resources and revenue that they provide, while maximizing their profit by buying low and selling high. Each game round begins by resolving a draw of Event tiles. Most tiles place new population, resources like Flora and Fauna research, or Unobtanium into the various districts of Reyvick, but some Events present setbacks for companies to manage.
The promise of rich resources have drawn many to Reyvick, but the economic climate there is unique. Unlike other planets, Reyvick’s Ruling Council uses a radical approach to managing the many companies seeking profits on Reyvick. Every game round, each player must set the price at which they would be willing to sell each of their assets to another player. Players are then obliged to respect their own valuation, so the price must be chosen carefully; if you set it too low, someone else will take over your asset and make a profit, but at the end of the turn you must pay taxes on the price you’ve set on every asset, so you also don’t want to set it too high.
Once prices are set, the Council distributes whatever taxes were collected in the previous turn. Some portion of those taxes will go to funding public projects, which are placed in districts for the welfare of its citizens—and companies—while the rest is distributed to players. Rights to the resources and profits from a District or Special Asset are always for sale; any company can buy them by paying the price set by the current owner. And every asset on Reyvick has a price!
Once you purchase an asset, you must immediately set the price as at the beginning of the turn. You can set it to any amount that is higher than what you paid, but beware! The Council will tax you based on what you claim your assets are worth. And those taxes are distributed as incentives in a public/private partnership, so your tax money can end up benefiting your competition!
The game also uses cards and the art on these is really great!
There is a lot to unpack here but I am definitely going to do some further investigations to get a better idea of what the game is about. I thought it was interesting that the game is supposedly based on the economic theories of Nobel Prize Winning economist William Vickrey, as well as the writings of Eric Posner and Glen Weyl, especially their book Radical Markets. I am also going to reach out to Richard Garfield for an interview. Stay tuned!
Battles of the American Revolution Volume XI: The Battle of Green Spring
In our travels to several gaming conventions over the years we have made some great friends, which include gamers, designers, publishers, other content creators, etc. While attending the World Boardgaming Championships a few years ago, we had the chance to interview Mark Miklos who is the creator of the Battles of the American Revolution (BoAR) Series. We also got to include in this video his development team including Rob “Cappy” McCracken and Dave Stiffler. We discussed the series in general, the newest upcoming volume at that time Battle of White Plains as well as the new upcoming Small BoAR Series which will focus on smaller lesser known battles. I am really glad to see these games rolling out and the interest still being strong after 11 full volumes. This month, we got news that the new 11th volume is coming, which focuses on the Battle of Green Spring in 1781 as a prelude to the final battle at Yorktown that ended the revolution and forced the British to surrender while playing The World Turned Upside Down!
From the game page, we read the following:
The Battle of Green Spring (aka The Battle of Green Spring Plantation, The Battle of Green Spring Farm, or “The Affair Near James Island”) was the largest field battle fought in Virginia during the American Revolution with over 10,000 combatants on the field or in proximity to it. In addition to being noteworthy for its scope, this battle was Lord Cornwallis’s final victory in North America and served as the immediate precursor to the Siege of Yorktown. According to British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton and others, the outcome at Green Spring directly influenced the forces available to the protagonists at Yorktown, and as such, Green Spring played a direct role in Yorktown’s eventual outcome.
British Lieutenant General, the Earl Cornwallis displayed tactical finesse while luring American Major General, the Marquis de Lafayette, whom he pejoratively referred to as “that boy,” into a trap. While Cornwallis was subtle, American Brigadier General “Mad” Anthony Wayne was bold, displaying the kind of dash and élan for which his name had by now became synonymous, staving-off disaster for the Americans with a desperate Bayonet charge.
For all these reasons, the Battle of Green Spring deserves more than the footnotes it typically receives in most histories. Volume XI in GMT’s Battles of the American Revolution series sheds light on this important action and allows the hobbyist and historian the opportunity to fully appreciate its significance.
So as you can see this one is a “donny brook” with large armies engaged in a prolonged battle that lasts 13 game turns. This might be one of the longer volumes in the series but never fear there are smaller scenarios included.
The game includes three scenarios:
The standard game lasts 8-turns. The British begin in their historical deployments while only that portion of the American army committed by Lafayette approaches and deploys. Depending on card-play, this scenario may be extended one turn into night.
There is a short historical scenario lasting 4 turns and involving just those units that actually engaged in the late afternoon and twilight hours of July 6, 1781. Players familiar with the series will find this scenario reminiscent of the Freeman’s Farm scenario in Saratoga or the Chatterton Hill scenario in The Battle of White Plains for its nail-biting tension where both sides can ill-afford losses and victory can turn on a half-victory point on the last half-turn of the scenario.
A 13-turn campaign game gives players access to the full array of both armies as they approach the battlefield in a meeting engagement. Cornwallis and the British are in-route from Williamsburg to Jamestown Ferry, as they were historically. During the actual campaign, General Lafayette shadowed the British at a distance and therefore was only able to commit piecemeal forces at Green Spring. In the campaign game, however, Lafayette assumes a bolder strategy by pursuing the British more closely, ready to fully commit his army in a bid to defeat Cornwallis.
We definitely will want to play this one and I also want to get with Mark Miklos to do a written interview. Also, I will be attending WBC in July by myself as Alexander is out of the country, and I am going to see if I can get a look at this one as well as possibly play a game with Mark and his design team.
I know that Mark Herman is a very talented designer and has a great ability to communicate in writing his thoughts and ideas about wargaming. He has written dozens of articles for wargaming publications including C3i Magazine and these are also very interesting and helpful. So it is not really all that surprising that Mark is now writing a full book and it is being offered on the P500. The book is called Wargames According to Mark and in my humble opinion will be a must read!
From the P500 page, we read the following:
Mark Herman’s new book is on our P500 list now! As many of you know, Mark Herman is a giant in the wargaming hobby. Over his long and distinguished career as a game designer, Mark designed signature games for SPI, Victory Games, and with us here at GMT. Mark learned his craft beside Jim Dunnigan and so many talented designers at SPI before later running the company that created so many of my favorite games ever, Victory Games.
Beginning in 1991, he brought his design talents to GMT, often paired with his dear friend, Richard Berg. For over 30 years now of working with our teams, Mark has continually pushed the creative envelope in the wargame and strategy game spaces to create a succession of fun, ground-breaking, and award-winning designs like For the People, The Great Battles of Alexander and SPQR (and the entire Great Battles of HistorySeries), Empire of the Sun, Churchill, and Fire in the Lake (with Volko).
Mark is so much more than a designer to me. He is my friend. And he’s someone who has been hugely influential to me in the learning and growing process of running a wargame company over these 34 years. Often, even today, when I have a difficult decision to make, I’ll give Mark a call and ask for his counsel. His sage advice is always more than worth my time.
All that to say this: when someone as talented, experienced, and accomplished in our industry as Mark Herman writes a book about game design that tells stories about his experiences over a 45+ year career in our industry, that’s a book I’m going to read. When that author then asks me if GMT would publish it with him, there’s just no way I am going to say no. So, I’m thrilled that today we are adding a book to our P500 list for the first time! It’s so fitting, because of the many ways that his presence, talents, and leadership advice have graced GMT over the years, that our first-ever P500 book should be from Mark Herman.
Now I will just have to put a few rulebooks down to spend some time with this one but it will definitely be worth the time!
Empire of the Sun: The Pacific War, 1941-1945, 5th Printing
If you have followed us for long you know that we really love Empire of the Sun and have played it several times. The game is simply fantastic and really implements the CDG mechanic perfectly with the events of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Furthermore, if a game is on its 5th Printing now especially with the 4th Printing having been announced at the end of 2020, that says something about it.
From the game page we read the following:
Empire of the Sun is Mark Herman’s third card driven design since he introduced the system to the hobby in We The People. EotS is a strategic level look at the entire War in the Pacific from the attack on Pearl Harbor until the surrender of Japan. EotS is the first card driven game (CDG) to move the system closer to a classic hexagon wargame, while retaining all of the tension and uncertainty people have come to expect from a CDG. Players are cast in the role of MacArthur, Yamamoto, Nimitz, and Mountbatten as you direct your forces across the breadth of the globe from India to Hawaii and from Alaska to Australia. This is represented on a single map based on a 1942 equal area projection of the entire theater of conflict.
As in other games using the CDG system, players try to maximize the impact of their cards even as they hide their intentions and traps from their opponent. The player is faced with a wide set of clear strategic choices. The focus of EotS is on directing major offensive axes of advance. The Japanese early in the game are challenged to achieve their historical expansion as Allied forces battle the clock to react with their in-place forces trying to achieve maximum damage to the hard-to-replace Japanese veteran units.
If you don’t have this one, you need to get it now. Not only is the price right but the game is simply amazing. And it will be in a near perfect form with the 5th Printing.
We have lots of content on our blog and channel for you to choose from but here are a few of those pieces.
P500 Removals There was 1 P500 removal as they are removing Conquest of Paradise, 3rd Printing from their P500 list and are returning the game rights to designer Kevin McPartland as of today. Currently, they don’t know whether Kevin has any plans for potentially publishing this game elsewhere. But if/when that occurs, they have said they will let us know where you can order it. In the meantime, they are keeping a legacy page for Conquest of Paradise up on their site so players can continue to get support materials as needed. Such a shame as this one is a really good game!
Charging & Shipping
The following information for Charging and Shipping was copied directly from the Update:
Next Charges/Shipments: It looks like our next shipment should arrive sometime in mid-late June. We’ll let you know final charge and ship dates in the June update, but the plan right now is to charge somewhere in the June 20-30 window. This shipment includes:
To avoid any delays in your game shipment, please make sure you’ve updated your charge cards on our website before we charge. If you use the “Pay by Check” P500 option, please send your checks in to arrive by the charge dates. Thanks!
New P500’s on the Horizon
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”.
A 20th Anniversary Edition of a popular game – could this be a new edition of Downtown: Air War Over Hanoi, 1965-72 designed by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood?
A new WWII game from Mark Simonitch – I know that Mark is working on several new games including a new East Front game but I think this one is Italy ’43.
A new game from Matt Calkins – this is his tennis game mentioned on Harold Buchanan’s pod cast on game design.
A new Flying Colors series game – I am not hazarding a guess on this one as I just don’t know what it might be.
Gene, how did I do here? I feel pretty good about 2 of them and might get lucky on a 3rd that was more of a wish than a guess.
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 an image of the final cover for the science fiction COIN Series entry Red Dust Rebellion rulebook. It looks great and you can also access the final rules for the game on the P500 game page. This is going to be such an interesting volume in the COIN Series. I cannot wait to give it a go. It also appears from the Update that it is currently at the printer but doesn’t have a shipping date as of yet. My guess would be in the next few months….maybe!
Next up, they shared some sample cards for the upcoming In the Shadows: French Resistance 1943-1944 designed by Dan Bullock, Chris Bennet and Joe Schmidt. We got a chance to play this one while attending the SDHistCon last fall with Dan Bullock and it is really good. In the Shadows is a 2-player card-driven wargame about the struggle of the French Resistance against the occupying Nazi and collaborating French forces between January 1943 and June 1944 during WWII. In the game players are either the Resistance or the Occupation. The game strives to have players better understand the nuances of the Resistance and the clandestine nature of the fight that led to the founding of the modern French Republic. In the Shadows is a 2-player card-driven wargame about the struggle of the French Resistance against the occupying Nazi and collaborating French forces between January 1943 and June 1944 during WWII. In the game players are either the Resistance or the Occupation. The game strives to have players better understand the nuances of the Resistance and the clandestine nature of the fight that led to the founding of the modern French Republic.
We next were shown some action pictures for the very cool looking solitaire wargame Infernal Machine: Dawn of Submarine Warfare which takes us into the first submarines used during the American Civil War. The game focuses on building, outfitting and financing these monsters of the deep and seems to be a very interesting concept.
Next we saw the really nice looking final board for Bear Trap: The Soviet-Afghan War, 1979-1989 designed by Paul Daniels. Bear Trap is a quick-playing, low-complexity 2-player block wargame covering the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989).
We then got a peek at the new cards for the very interesting looking Baltic Empires: The Northern Wars of 1558-1721. First we saw some of the card backs, and they simply look stunning, followed by a few sample final cards.
The final art sample I will share is a look at the play mats for By Swords and Bayonets. These are really nice looking components.
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:
One final thing. In the category of things that you didn’t know you needed, there were two unique items that appeared in the middle of the update for sale including Combat Commander puzzles and a book of Rodger MacGowan’s art over the years. Here is more information:
Please let me know what caught your interest from the update this month and what GMT Games products that you have been enjoying lately.
3 thoughts on “May 2024 Monthly Update from GMT Games – New Economic Game in the Away Team Universe, a New BoAR Title from Mark Miklos and Herman is Now an Author!”
Founders of Reyvick looks very interesting! We all know examples of corporations valuing their assets rather differently when they’re for sale than when they are taxed… but not on Reyvick!
The Players' Aid 
Sad to hear CoP 3rd edition is off the table. It is a fun one! Hope to see it picked-up elsewhere.
I love the idea of Mark Herman releasing a book on the P500, a must add for sure.
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Founders of Reyvick looks very interesting! We all know examples of corporations valuing their assets rather differently when they’re for sale than when they are taxed… but not on Reyvick!
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Got my copy of A Gest of Robin Hood, and have been really enjoying it.
The theme makes it much more normie-friendly than a COIN-type game would normally be!
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