Hallelujah! The information about the Fall Sale has finally been released and now we can all go about our business of getting back to our normal lives planning and scheming about what games to buy and how to finance these purchases!

Fair warning. This piece is being written as a bit of a lark and I am taking what might appear to be some sacrilegious liberty with some pretty important religious doctrine. I am not making fun of nor attempting to perpetrate blasphemy. All mention of any sacred teachings or principles are nothing more than coincidence.

If you wish to skip my silly anecdotes and lyrical meanderings you can learn the very same information from simply reading the two posts released yesterday by GMT Games at the following links:

GMT Fall Sale Details – Sept 3-9, 2024

Buyers Guide to GMT Fall Sale, 2024

In this piece, I want to share with you the 10 Commandments of the GMT Games Sale!

1. Thou shalt be entitled to the purchase of one game and one game only at 50% off the listed price!

We are all very blessed with this first commandment. No matter how many GMT Games products you might have purchased over the past year, everyone will be able to purchase 1 game with a 50% discount. This is a pretty big exception to sales of years past and ANY customer is being allowed, regardless of whether they may have used the P500 in the past year or not, to order 1 game at 50% off. This is according to our lord Gene and appears to be a very gracious offering of thanks and appreciation to us GMT acolytes! Don’t ever forget this grand gesture!

2. Thou shalt be able to purchase multiple other games at 50% off if thou hast been a P500 customer (in the last year)!

Normally, the Annual Fall Sale gives great benefits to those who have received a game on the P500 over the past year or so. This year, if you have purchased a P500 product from GMT Games (other retailers don’t count for this requirement), between September 1, 2023 and August 31, 2024, you will get 50% off in-stock GMT games and accessories (as well as games from some of their third-party vendors). The P500 System really is a great way for us to get the games that we WANT to play to our tables safer and more cost effectively than any other method. The really great thing is that we get a say in what gets produced without having to risk our precious pre-order money far in advance of receiving the game as you don’t pay at the time you commit to purchasing the game and actually can change your mind and remove your order without consequence up until a few weeks before the games are set to ship. I know that GMT Games takes a great deal of pride in their P500 System and “believe that it creates a really fair “win-win” environment for both GMT and all of you who use it”.

I have been a devotee of the P500 System for the past 9 years and even wrote this ode to the system on the blog many years ago: https://theplayersaid.com/2016/06/02/i-feel-comfort-and-joy-from-the-p500-its-a-positive-part-of-my-life-gmt-games-p500-cause-of-joy-or-path-to-despair/

3. Thou shalt render under Caesar that which is Caesar’s but not for Euro Value Added Taxes.

If you reside in Europe, don’t fear. There is a Euro-Friendly Shipping option for you to avoid those nasty and unfair VAT’s! (no taxation without representation I always say!) This benefit will come from various overseas partners associated with GMT Games including Second Chance Games, UGG, and MasQueOca who have agreed to handle their UK and EU orders in the same manner they do for their normal P500 orders! This means that those of you in Europe WILL be able to get your sale items shipped out at a lower price that includes shipping, VAT, and fees. Just be sure to choose the “Euro-friendly” shipping option (which includes GMT pre-paying VAT) when you place your order. This is crucial because if you don’t choose the Euro-friendly method, the games will ship out individually at regular (higher) shipping prices, and you’ll have to pay VAT and possibly fees. 

lord Gene has stated his appreciation to their friends at Second Chance Games, UGG, and MasQueOca for making it possible for these gracious savings to their European customers!

4. The Duration of the Sale shall be 5:00am (Pacific Time) September 3rd to 11:59 pm (Pacific Time) September 9, 2024.

This is the most basic of all of the sale commandments as the sale shall only be good from 5:00am (Pacific Time) September 3rd to 11:59 pm (Pacific Time) September 9, 2024. The sale shall be no more than this and no less. It will not last from 4:00am (Pacific Time) September 3rd to 10:59pm (Pacific Time) September 9th. Nor shall it last from 6:00am (Mountain Time) September 3rd to 2:00pm (Grand Bahamas Time) September 9th. But only for those ascribed times and dates. For further guidance, refer to the title of this commandment or the highlighted first times and dates mentioned in this paragraph!

5. Thou Shalt not get the “Sale Discount” for games not currently in-stock.

This sale is only good for games that are currently in-stock in the warehouse in Hanford, California and not for the most recent 3 products that are shipping via P500 right now, which are for your reference listed below:

Next War: Iran (not eligible for the 50% discount under any circumstances)
Normandy ’44, 4th Printing(also not eligible for the generous and benevolent 50% discount)
Normandy ’44 Mounted Map + 3″ Box (don’t even ask! The answer is NOT ELIGIBLE!)

6. Thou shalt also get the 50% discount for many (but not all) of GMT’s third-party games.

lord Gene is feeling saucy and has extended the 50% discount for many of GMT’s in-stock third-party games. These do not however include games from Hexasim or Vae Victis/Cerrigo products. So what games could this apply to? Well, all of their other partner’s games including Shakos, UGG, Ludifolie Editions and Kuro Neko.

7. Thou shalt study the eligibility list and be ready to purchase!

This discount and sale are not for those who are not willing to put some work in though. You will have to study to understand what games are eligible for the discounts and which are not. To help you know which P500 games make you eligible for the sale (in addition to the single free game that everyone can purchase), here’s a list of P500 products that GMT has shipped between September 1, 2023 and August 31, 2024 (including the 3 currently-shipping P500 games—you can count these for Eligibility purposes if you ordered them; you just can’t buy them at 50% off as they are currently-shipping P500 products):

18 India
2023 Replacement Countersheet
A Gest of Robin Hood
Banish All Their Fears
Bayonets & Tomahawks, 2nd Printing
Commands & Colors Medieval, 2nd Printing
C&C Napoleonics: The Austrian Army, 3rd Printing
C&C Napoleonics: The Prussian Army, 3rd Printing
C&C Napoleonics: The Russian Army, 4th Printing
C&C Napoleonics: The Spanish Army, 4th Printing
C&C Napoleonics: (Base Game), 5th Printing
C & C Napoleonics Exp. 5: Generals, Marshals, Tacticians, 2nd Printing
C & C Napoleonics Ex. 6: EPIC Napoleonics, 2nd Printing
Clash of Sovereigns/Clash of Monarchs Double Sided Mounted Map
Clash of Sovereigns Update Kit
Commands & Colors Samurai Battles, 2nd Printing
Downfall
Downfall Mounted Map + 3″ Box, 1st or 2nd Printing
For the People, 4th Printing – 25th Anniversary Edition
For the People, 4th Printing Mounted Map + 3″ Box
France ’40, 2nd Edition
France ’40 Mounted Map
Great Battles of Alexander Expanded Deluxe Edition, 2nd Printing
Great Battles of Alexander: Tyrant Module
Here I Stand 500th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Printing
I, Napoleon
Next War: Iran
Norman Conquests – Men of Iron Volume V
Normandy ’44, 4th Printing
Normandy ’44 Mounted Map + 3″ Box
Panzer North Africa
Prime Minister
Pursuit of Glory 2nd Edition
Rebel Fury
Seas of Thunder
Skies Above the Reich, 2nd Printing
Sovereign of Discord
Tanto Monta
The Last Hundred Yards: Russian Front
The Plum Island Horror
Vijayanagara
Virgin Queen, 2nd Printing
Washington’s War, 3rd Printing

If for some reason, you are unsure which of these items were shipped to you between September 1, 2023 and August 31, 2024, you can check your account on the GMT Games website by logging in and clicking “My Account” (at top right on any page of our website). Once you’re into your account, click the “Order History” tab on the left side of the page, and that will show you all of your recent orders/shipments.

8. Thou shall be limited to a certain number of games to purchase via this sale.

And because of the importance of this part of the sale instructions commandments, I will copy the text directly from the tablets webpage provided by lord Gene:

Sale Quantity Limit: You may order a limited number of games via this sale, as follows:

  • ALL CUSTOMERS can use this sale to order ONE IN-STOCK ELIGIBLE ITEM at 50% off. 
  • P500 CUSTOMERS: If you ordered one or more of the games listed under “Eligibility” above via P500 between September 1, 2023 and August 31, 2024, you can order ONE IN-STOCK ELIGIBLE ITEM at 50% off for each such Eligible item ordered. So the only upper limit to how many games you can order is 1 + the number of eligible games you received via P500 during that period.

    Example: If you received only ONE eligible game via P500 between September 1, 2023 and August 31, 2024, you are eligible to order TWO in-stock items at 50% off in this sale. If you received 10 eligible P500 games in that September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2024 window, you would be eligible to order up to 11 items in this sale.

9. Thou shalt only be able to buy certain games in the sale and gain the benevolent discount!

Once again, due to the importance of this portion of the sale instructions commandments, I will copy the text directly from the tablets webpage provided by lord Gene:

Which items you can buy at the 50% off Sale Price:

1. Any Game on the Fall Sale 2024 Page on the GMT website.

2. All Items on our Specials Page. Please remember that you absolutely CAN use the games on the Specials Page as part of these 50% off orders if you wish. These items are AMAZING values because you get to use your 50% off the already great “On Sale For” prices on this page! So check out the Specials Page and get some great deals!

10. Finally, thou shalt peruse the 2024 GMT Sale Buyer’s Guide and internalize the word of lord Gene!

I love a good and clear player aid when playing a game! In fact, a good game has an equally good player aid…it is an immutable truth and I am sticking to that. But, a stupendous and gracious sale like this needs an equally stupendous and gracious sale guide. And lord Gene has provided!

2024 GMT Sale Buyer’s Guide. Every year, some of you ask which games are close to going out of stock, which games have the highest retail prices (for reselling purposes), which series games are in stock, etc. So this year, Rachel and I put together a Buyer’s Guide to help answer those questions in advance and organize (in a variety of categories) the games that we currently have in-stock that are eligible to buy in the sale. We hope you find this Buyer’s Guide helpful. Check it out on InsideGMT here.

Check out that sale guide! It will help you in preparing for this sale and you will be grateful if you spent a few minutes perusing its helpful instructions!

Now, to wrap this goofy post up I want to demand a few things from each and every one of you who partake in this fantastic buffet of a sale.

  1. Be Fast – Don’t wait or you will find that the games you were hoping to buy will be sold out!
  2. Expect the Crash – When the site crashes, just be patient. Everyone will be logging on at once and everyone else will be experiencing the same fear and angst that you are experiencing. Don’t email, message or call GMT Games. They are working as quickly as possible and will get things back up shortly!
  3. Be Patient! – This is probably the most important advice that I can give. You and about a thousand other people will be ordering games when this sale goes live. Some will order boxes of games. Some will order just a few and some will order just a single game. They all will be pulled from the shelf, packaged with great care and shipped to you just as soon as possible! It might take a few weeks or a month. If it hasn’t yet arrived, just wait longer!

Thank you for reading this silly little post and I wish you good luck in your quest for those games that you just can’t live without in the sale!

-Grant