Wow! This month there was some really great news and some amazing eye candy that was shown to us! The biggest piece of news though was the announcement of a new 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame Edition of Twilight Struggle. This new edition is just gorgeous and takes an amazing game and dresses it up in honor of their recent award. I am very much looking forward to this one but more on that later. There also was a new series announced that I have been anticipating for the past few years since learning about it. That is Small Battles of the American Revolution or Small BoAR and it is a new series that uses the BoAR System but makes changes to address the smaller scale of some of the small but pivotal battles of the American Revolutionary War.
There were 2 new P500 additions offered this month including The Battle of Cowpens (which is the debut game in the new Small Battles of the American Revolution (Small BoAR)) and Twilight Struggle 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame Edition. There also were 2 reprints offered in Salerno ’42, 2nd Printing and The Plum Island Horror, 3rd Printing.
But that wasn’t all as 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 and a final date for the annual sale!
In case you missed the Monthly Update email, here is a link: https://mailchi.mp/98b41ef9977b/september-19-update-from-gmt-new-p500s-many-game-updates-art-samples-and-more
Playtesters/Help Wanted! – On an ongoing basis, GMT uses this Monthly Update to let you know which design teams currently need extra testers. If you are interested in helping out, you can contact the team members for the game you are interested in at the links below. Playtesting is a very valuable yet time consuming commitment but I know that GMT Games appreciates your help as do the rest of us gamers as this is what makes game good.
- Henry Solo Playtesters Wanted! – looking for some folks to help test the Solitaire mode for Henry. If you would like to join the testing team, you can sign up here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoWKVy0eAbmhSURzdyoAWSgeiBlMHdWo5sIcEaW-kb5vPEQw/viewform - Playtesters wanted for Purgatorio – looking for players with some experience with the game system. We ask that the players play several battles and document their playtests in one of several after action report formats (samples will be provided) to detail the flow of the game. If you can feel that you can contribute please contact the developer, Jason Lindsay, at jasonlindsay04@gmail.com with your experience with the system and contact information.
Combat Commander Puzzles – Kai Jensen has added Combat Commander puzzles to the inventory. They are 500-piece puzzles of the maps from the various scenarios…but without the hex numbers. So far, Kai has created maps 1-24 which cover the Europe and Mediterranean maps. She is working on adding the Pacific maps, and they will go live as they are completed, so watch for them in the next few weeks. The link is embedded in the below picture.
New Short 2-Player Scenario for Conquest & Consequence – The designer Craig Besinque and Marten Raadsveld have developed a short 2-player scenario for CnC called “Japan Strikes.” For those of you who have a regular opponent but have trouble getting a third player, here’s a great way for you to try out Conquest & Consequence. The scenario allows you to have fun with the system and get right to moving/fighting after presenting interesting setup decisions for both players. Many thanks to Craig and Marten for creating this new scenario. You can download the free pdf here.
The classic game Washington’s War has found its way to Rally the Troops! – In case you didn’t know, Rally the Troops is an online site where you can play board games in your browser for free. All rules are enforced and it has a very good and functional interface with lots of great games to choose from. You can play live or turn-based games on your computer, tablet, or phone. And now they have added one of the classics to the platform in Washington’s War designed by Mark Herman. I want to thank Tor Andersson for creating this fantastic platform and for all of the work that he puts into coding and placing these games on RtT! You can get to Washington’s War on RtT! by clicking the picture below:
Now onto the main event with the new P500’s.
New P500’s
As mentioned above, there were 2 new P500 additions offered this month including The Battle of Cowpens (which is the debut game in the new Small Battles of the American Revolution (Small BoAR)) and Twilight Struggle 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame Edition. There also were 2 reprints offered in Salerno ’43, 2nd Printing and The Plum Island Horror, 3rd Printing.
Small Battles of the American Revolution, Volume I: The Battle of Cowpens
While attending the World Boardgaming Championships this past July, I was able to meet up with Dave Stiffler (acting as Developer on the project) and Bruno Sinigaglio who is the designer to get an early look at the upcoming debut release in the Small BoAR Series called The Battle of Cowpens.
I didn’t get any pictures because they didn’t have the components along to show but learned a lot about the design and how it changes the Battles of the American Revolution Series from GMT Games. First off, the scale is the major difference as it is 1/8th of the scale used in the normal series. This means 25 yard hexes and 2-3 men per counter. They also have included both rifle fire and musket fire which is a change as musket fire is simply an abstracted part of the close combat mechanic in BoAR. They also have added some new mechanics to account better for things like morale and being shaken or even shattered.
I have known about this game for a few months, actually nearly a year or so, but am very excited to see this one added to the P500 and hope that the reception is great and that the game does well because I would like to see more small battles covered in future volumes.
From the game page, we read the following:
Two critical battles were considered turning points in the American Revolutionary War: the Battle of Saratoga in New York and the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina. The Battle of Cowpens was a catalyst to a series of events that led eventually to the surrender of the British at Yorktown. Small BoAR Volume I, The Battle of Cowpens, puts players directly into the milieu of this decisive contest.
The goal of the Small BoAR design concept is to include small yet critical battles that otherwise do not fit the scale of the historically simulating and highly successful Battles of the American Revolution (BoAR) system designed by Mark Miklos. This new system, aptly termed Small Battles of the American Revolution (Small BoAR), was designed by Bruno Sinigaglio working closely with Mark Miklos to preserve the continuity and popularity of the original Battles of the American Revolution game system.
Although extremely important to the history of the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Cowpens involved slightly over 1000 participants per side. In the Battles of the American Revolution system, which represents 100 men per strength point, this would equate to only ten or so combat factors per side. The scale for the battle of Cowpens, on the other hand, is 12 men per strength point, or one-eighth that of the BoAR system. The map scale is also correspondingly reduced to 25 yards per hex from the BoAR scale of 200 yards per hex. The time scale is approximately four minutes per turn as compared with one hour per turn in BoAR.
I think that one of the best parts of this new series, aside from the size and scope of the battles covered being smaller, is that they have not just rested on their laurels and reproduced the BoAR System but have added new mechanics and elements to better deal with these battles and to model the smaller scale battles.
Although Army Morale, the game-within-the-game in BoAR, is faithfully preserved in Small BoAR, and the Small BoAR sequence of play resembles that of BoAR and will look familiar to anyone who has played games in the original series, certain novel elements appropriate to the new scaling have been added. These include:
- The ability to designate cavalry units in reserve
- Artillery Fire conducted both offensively and defensively
- Simultaneous ranged musket Fire as a complement to ranged rifle fire
- A Cavalry Reserve Phase where units designated in Reserve may charge after the normal Close Combat Phase
- And Opportunity Card Management
As mentioned earlier, I had the honor of sitting down with Bruno Sinigaglio and Dave Stiffler to discuss this new series and The Battle of Cowpens. Here is a link to that video interview:
If you are interested in Small Battles of the American Revolution, Volume I: The Battle of Cowpens, you can pre-order a copy for $48.00 from the P500 game page at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1140-the-battle-of-cowpens.aspx
Twilight Struggle 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame Edition
As if you don’t know but Twilight Struggle is a 2-player game simulating the forty-five year ideological struggle known as the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States which can be played in 2-3 hours. The entire world is the stage on which these two countries “fight” to make the world safe for their own ideologies and way of life. The game starts right after the end of World War II in the midst of the ruins of Europe as the two new “superpowers” of the world squabble over what is left and ends in 1989, when only the United States remained standing.
I remember my first impressions of Twilight Struggle was that it needed some graphic design improvements and the game just didn’t grab me visually but that was all erased the first time we played as the topic and the mechanics just really spoke to me. This game was our gateway to the CDG mechanic and I still have a real soft spot in my heart for it. Well, this month I got my wish and this new edition of TS with upgraded art is now on the P500.
From the game page, we read the following comments and a bit about the history of Twilight Struggle on the new offering:
“Twilight Struggle is my all-time favorite game. It is a brilliant first design by the team of Jason Matthews and Ananda Gupta. It takes the card-driven genre of games like We The People, Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage, and Wilderness War to its highest peak. Every game is different and the game gets better and better as you become more familiar with the individual cards. You are surprised as hidden combos are revealed game after game. Every turn is filled with tension as you try to figure out the best way to play the hand of cards you’ve been dealt. Gaming simply doesn’t get any better than this”. – Alan R. Moon
That quote from legendary designer Alan Moon, spoken not long after Twilight Struggle was released in 2005, helped sell out the game’s first print run and introduced thousands of gamers to Twilight Struggle. Fortunately, they mostly shared Alan’s opinion of the game and they told their friends. Soon, a groundswell of play and support for the game ran rampant across the gaming community as tens of thousands of players immersed themselves in the tense competition and compelling storytelling of Twilight Struggle. As a result, Twilight Struggle was the #1 ranked game on BGG for over five years, something no other game has achieved.
Soon there was a digital version of the game for Steam and tablets, introducing hundreds of thousands of additional gamers to GMT’s most commercially and critically successful all-time game and supporting a total of twelve sold-out versions of the boardgame. And over those years, the awards rolled in, reflecting the joy and challenge that Twilight Struggle brought to so many gamers: BGG Golden Geek Game of the Year, IGA Game of the Year, Charles Roberts Awards, and more.
Then, in the summer of 2024 at its Origins convention, GAMA (Game Manufacturers of America) bestowed on Twilight Struggle its most prestigious award, inducting Twilight Struggle into the GAMA Hall of Fame. Designers Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews attended the awards ceremony and jointly accepted the honor on their behalf and for all of the Twilight Struggle team at GMT.
As we now approach the 20th anniversary of the game’s release, and in light of the recent Hall of Fame honor, we are thrilled to announce a new edition of our most successful game. We invite you to check out Twilight Struggle 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame Edition.
So what exactly is new and different about this edition:
Twilight Struggle 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame Edition adds even more beauty and play options to the original game. Here are some of the additions you’ll see in this new Edition:
- A brand new game box by the incomparable Terry Leeds
- A double sided map with a new Terry Leeds map on the front and the familiar Deluxe Edition Mark Simonitch map on the back
- The Turn Zero and Alternative Space Race variants included.
- A new alt-history scenario, “Red Sun Rising” with new cards.
- A collection of promotional cards including the Kickstarter Promo Packs #1 and #2 and a selection of promo cards from foreign editions of Twilight Struggle
- A background booklet including retrospective essays from the designers
We cannot think of a better way to commemorate the Cold War, this vital piece of world history, than with our freshest and richest version of Twilight Struggle to date.
Here is a comment from Gene found at the beginning of the Update about this game offering:
We’re really proud of Jason and Ananda and what they and their brilliant game have meant to GMT over these past 20 years—and for all of the TS team that helped to make their design vision a reality. And we’re so honored and really happy that Twilight Struggle was inducted into the GAMA Hall of Fame at Origins this past summer. That is a rare honor. So, to celebrate both the 20th Anniversary of Twilight Struggle and it’s HoF induction, we are adding a new Twilight Struggle 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame Edition to our P500 list this month. As you can see from the artwork, this is a beautiful new edition, featuring a new box and mounted map from Terry Leeds (with the Mark Simonitch map on the back side) as well as all new card fronts (we’re keeping the backs standard so there’s no problem mixing in cards from other versions). It’s also chock-full of a lot of new or hard-to-find play value, with a new scenario and a variety of cards and other game add-ons all in one new package.
With the recent advances in art and production, I have often longed for GMT to retouch some of their best games and give them the art and components that they deserve. It looks like this might be the first step in that direction and I would argue there are other great games that deserve a similar treatment including Here I Stand, Labyrinth, Wilderness War and others.
If you are interested in Twilight Struggle 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame Edition, you can pre-order a copy for $60.00 from the P500 game page at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1138-twilight-struggle-20th-anniversary-hall-of-fame-edition.aspx
Salerno ’43: The Allied Invasion of Italy, September 1943, 2nd Printing
As you know, we have really enjoyed our plays of games designed by Mark Simonitch, including Holland ’44, Stalingrad ’42, Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul and most recently North Africa ’41. He has an amazing ability to boil down all the elements involved and come out with a very playable simulation of the historical event. A few years ago, his focus on the Italian campaigns of WWII started with his game called Salerno ’43, which covers the Allied invasion of mainland Italy in September 1943. We really liked our plays of Salerno ’43 and have been very much looking forward to the other games in this promised trilogy that will take us to the end of the war in Italy in May 1945 with the capture of Mussolini.
But, in the meantime, Salerno ’43 has sold well and they are now offering a 2nd Printing for those that missed the game the first time around.
From the game page, we read the following:
Salerno ‘43 is a regiment/brigade-level game on the Allied invasion of mainland Italy in September 1943. Two British and two American divisions land in the Bay of Salerno defended by the full strength 16th Panzer Division, which is soon reinforced by five other German mechanized divisions. For 8 days the survival of the beachhead is in doubt, and emergency measures are taken to reinforce the beachhead with the 82nd Airborne Division. With their counter-attack stopped and the British Eighth Army approaching from the south, the Germans withdraw their left flank to avoid being trapped. However, their right flank stubbornly holds back the British from pushing north to Naples.
Salerno ’43 uses the exact same map, unit, and time scales as Normandy ’44, providing an excellent way to compare these two invasions. Salerno ’43 uses a modified Normandy ’44 game system. With a smaller size, the game is easier to learn and play than its predecessor.
Salerno ’43 includes two scenarios: an 8-turn Invasion Scenario and a 24-turn Campaign Game. In the Campaign Game, the Allies must exit the north map edge by the end of September 1943. The Germans must delay the Allies to give time for the construction of the Gustav Line further north. The 8-turn scenario can be finished in an afternoon.
I wrote a fairly in-depth First Impressions style post and you can read that here: https://theplayersaid.com/2022/05/18/first-impressions-salerno-43-the-allied-invasion-of-italy-september-1943-from-gmt-games/
I also did an entry in The Beautiful Boards of Wargaming! series taking a look at the beautiful board: https://theplayersaid.com/2023/12/08/the-beautiful-boards-of-wargaming-salerno-43-the-allied-invasion-of-italy-september-1943-from-gmt-games/
Here is a look at our video review:
If you are interested in Salerno ’43: The Allied Invasion of Italy, September 1943, 2nd Printing, you can pre-order a copy for $35.00 from the P500 game page at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1136-salerno-43-2nd-printing.aspx
The Plum Island Horror, 3rd Printing
Man this is such a good game! While attending Buckeye Game Fest earlier this year, we had a great opportunity to play a 4-player game of The Plum Island Horror from GMT Games with designer Hermann Luttmann and ID Jester (Kirk) from the War Room YouTube. If you aren’t aware, The Plum Island Horror is a cooperative game that focuses on 6 unique factions which represent the various groups that populate Plum Island fighting against an outbreak of “zombies” called Horrors. Each faction has their own strengths and weaknesses, and the cooperative system forces players to work together and use their abilities wisely to stay alive and perform lots of different tasks like repair damaged bridges to ease movement, evacuate civilians for points and protect key areas against the continually spawning hordes of Horrors that will keep coming and move down various tracks.
We played a new scenario that is being playtested for the upcoming expansion called The Governor’s Decree Scenario. We had to protect specific locations on the board and also use civilians to attempt to do well enough to get the Governor reelected. We started off really roughly with several very bad events that spawned lots of Horrors as well as murder hornets and poison rats but we worked together well and held the horse back to bring our score to zero VP which was enough to win the scenario. Man this game was a lot of fun and was really interesting. It had everything you want in a cooperative survival based game. Tough choices, bad events and really challenging game play. This was our first play and I can’t wait to get it back to the table.
From the game page, we read the following:
The Plum Island Horror is a 1 to 4 player game featuring cooperative play that combines tactical-level unit management with a tower-defense style survival mechanic. Each player will control one of six unique factions which represent the various groups that populate Plum Island. Each of these Factions has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the system encourages you to optimize for the group’s strengths and marginalize its weaknesses. Players must coordinate with one another, and the resulting synergy will hopefully be enough to successfully evacuate a city under siege and contain the horrific outbreak that threatens to spread beyond the island itself. If the players can succeed, they will win together, and the world will most likely be none the wiser to the averted crisis. If not, they will lose together and share the blame equally for failing humankind.
The Plum Island Horror features a variable turn order system accomplished by drawing Turn Order Cubes from a bag made up of four faction-activation cubes, three Horror-activation cubes, and one “Impending Doom” cube. When a player’s activation cube is drawn, they may move each of their units and then select actions to perform. If a Horrors Cube is drawn, the players must Spawn and Activate a number of Horrors units depending on a Fate Card draw. With the Impending Doom Cube, an Event Card is drawn and immediately resolved. There are always eight Turn Order Cubes in the Turn Order Bag regardless of the player count. For the solo mode, the player will simply play the 2-player version and control both Factions. The 2-player mode has each player controlling one Faction. However, each player also has two faction-activation cubes in the bag (two for each faction). In the 3-player game, each player plays one Faction, but there is a “Wild” faction-activation cube added to the bag; when it’s drawn, the players must decide which faction will take the extra activation. Finally, in the 4-player game, each player controls one Faction that receives one Turn Order Cube.
If you are interested in The Plum Island Horror, 3rd Printing, you can pre-order a copy for $75.00 from the P500 game page at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1137-the-plum-island-horror-3rd-printing.aspx
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 segment 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 The Battle of Cowpens was teased back in July as “A small-footprint American Revolution battle game.” 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 new strategic WWI game – could this be Armistice! from Salvatore Vasta? I had the chance to speak with Sal while attending the WBC in July and we briefly discussed this title but he didn’t mention it coming to P500 soon. Hhhm?
- A prequel to one of our Top 10 All-time best-selling games – I am not sure on this one and do not have a guess.
- A new Combat Commander boxed game – Combat Commander: Afghanistan maybe?
- Something new for our ICS Series – Is this Echo from the Dark designed by Adam Blinkinsop or an additional upcoming ICS Series game?
I really feel that I have more questions than answers this month about the hints. How did I do Gene?
Charging & Shipping
The following information for Charging and Shipping was copied directly from the Update:
Charged September 17th. Shipping Next Week. This shipment will include:
Labyrinth: The Awakening, 2nd Printing
Labyrinth: The War on Terror, 5th Printing
Next Charges/Shipments: The next shipment is scheduled to arrive at the warehouse in mid-October. Tentatively, we’ll charge roughly October 15-20 and begin shipping within a week thereafter. That shipment will include:
Comanchería, 2nd Printing – here is a link to my written review: https://theplayersaid.com/2017/10/10/learning-history-through-the-lens-of-counters-and-dice-a-review-of-comancheria-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-comanche-empire-from-gmt-games/
Holland ’44 2nd Edition – here is a link to my written review: https://theplayersaid.com/2018/07/19/i-think-we-may-be-going-a-bridge-too-far-a-review-of-holland-44-operation-market-garden-from-gmt-games/
Holland ’44 2nd Edition Mounted Map
Wolfpack – here is our interview with designer Mike Bertucelli: https://theplayersaid.com/2022/07/11/interview-with-mike-bertucelli-designer-of-wolfpack-the-north-atlantic-convoy-struggles-october-1941-march-1943-from-gmt-games/
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. There is not near as much as normally but what they showed was pretty amazing!
First up we got a look at the near final cover for Fighting Formations: US 29th Infantry Division designed by the late Chad Jensen. Simple. Clean. And some good choice of colors with blue and gray (makes me think about the American Civil War) which is very complementary. I like the clean lines of the lettering and even enjoy the ying-yang like symbol at the top of the cover which is the logo of the US 29th Infantry Division. A really nice touch adding that in!
Next, we got a look at the near final cover for the Deluxe Edition reprint of Thunderbolt: The Second Punic War, 218-201 BCE. I am not sure if the drawing is a painting from antiquity or an original piece of art but it looks very good. I like the softer colors chosen here as well with tan and red for the lettering.
They also gave us a peek at the maps for the game on a poster laid out. They are large and cover the Italian peninsula, Carthage in North Africa, Spain and Muretania. As you can see from the notation on the image that the maps laid together are 55″x43″. Big!
Early on in the Update, they provided us with a look at the box back for the upcoming By Sword & Bayonets in the Great Battles of the American Civil War Series.
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:
A Gest of Robin Hood – Action Point 3
A Gest of Robin Hood – Action Point 4
Video Review: Rebel Fury: Battles of the American Civil War
Playthrough Video: Rebel Fury: Battles of the American Civil War
Please let me know what caught your interest from the update this month and what GMT Games products that you have been enjoying lately.
-Grant
The Players' Aid 
Nice summary Grant!
What game is showing in the GMT banner at the top of this article?
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I, Napoleon designed by Ted Raicer. A solitaire roleplaying style style game where you follow the career of Napoleon from his start to being Emperor.
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I could just ask GMT, but I’m here so I’m asking you – any idea why Ukraine 43 hasn’t gotten any P500 love with all these others in the series getting reprints/updates?
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Sal Vasta’s Armistice! coming to P500? You give wings to my wildest hopes!
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