I feel that we have had a run of bad news over the past few months and 2025 is shaping up to be a hell of a year, in a bad way! I have now nearly completed by 30 day trial run of 2025 and I am going to be seeking a refund! Who is with me? Well, we can’t get a refund from life so we will just have to roll with the punches. But as always, we got some good with the bad and my heart goes out to all of those who are having tough times right now. But with that somber and downer of an opening, let’s jump into the Monthly Update.
There were 2 new P500 additions offered this month that really look pretty interesting including I, Napoleon: The Limits of Glory and Tsar. There also was 1 classic reprint offered in Ukraine ’43: The Soviet Summer Offensive Against Army Group South 3rd Edition.
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!
In case you hadn’t heard, recently Alan Emrich passed. We don’t have a personal connection to him, meaning that I was never able to speak with him face to face, but we had multiple interactions with him when he was still running Victory Point Games. When we were a brand new blog in 2016, we had purchased a copy of a few of Victory Points Games, including Mound Builders, Dawn of the Zeds and a few others, and had played and reviewed them on our blog. When we posted these reviews, he immediately reached out to us to introduce himself and his company and see if we needed any of their others games to play and review. Well, we were very surprised as this was one of the few publishers that had reached out to us at this time and we got copies of a few other games including Villainous Vikings, Nemo’s War and High Treason. He was just so very nice to us and we always were able to contact him with a quick response on this end. Alan was a member of the GMT Family as well as he was doing development work on some games and Gene shared the following on his passing.
If you knew and loved Alan, you know he was a human dynamo, full of excitement and passion about games and the people he loved. Alan was one of the most consistently positive, uplifting, and encouraging people that I’ve known in gaming. I can’t remember a time since I met him around 1990 that he wasn’t excitedly telling me about “this cool game.” Whether it was Modern Naval Battles, Master of Orion III, A House Divided, Totaler Krieg, ANY VPG game, or what he believed to be his Magnum Opus, Frank Chadwick’s ETO series, Alan’s effervescent enthusiasm introduced me time and again to games that were new and different and fascinating to me! And certainly, we’ve worked together professionally several times over the years—sometimes on one of those games. But Alan was bigger than GMT, bigger than any one company, really. He was an unabashed advocate for great games and a friend to the people who played them.
I am from a family of educators, and I respect great teachers. Alan was one, both in a university setting and as he demonstrated so well at Victory Point Games, where he taught and mentored SO MANY first-time designers and helped them turn their vision into a finished game. After Alan’s passing, various gaming chat sites were filled with those designers telling their stories of how Alan taught them the craft of game development. One of the great blessings of Alan’s life is that those intrepid designers that he helped to learn and grow at VPG have gone on to create more games. Some of them are going to be creating great games for our hobby for the next 40-50 years. What a wonderful tribute to Alan and his legacy!
Alan was a unique treasure—both to me personally and to the gaming community. That community is less vibrant without Alan walking among us. May he rest in peace, may God comfort his wife Petra and their children, and may all of us who knew Alan continue his legacy of genuine kindness, support, encouragement, and gentle instruction to those we encounter in our respective gaming journeys.
Alan will definitely be missed in our hobby but his impact will be lasting and he will be remembered for years to come as we all play one of his games. RIP Alan!
SoCal Fires Destroy Rodger MacGowan’s Home and Offices
Another piece of tragic news was word that the Southern California fires had destroyed the house and business of Rodger MacGowan the owner/operator of RBM Studio and C3i Magazine that we all know and love. From Gene, we got the following:
The person who introduced me to Alan Emrich, at an LA game convention about 35 years ago, is Rodger MacGowan. Rodger is another legend in our gaming community, both for his artistic skills that he’s brought to so many games and for his promotion of our hobby through his Fire & Movement and C3i Magazines. And of course Rodger’s iconic artwork has graced the boxes of so many of the hobby’s and especially GMT’s best games over the years. We mourn with Rodger and Mae and Steve the loss of their home and studio and offices, while we are so thankful they were evacuated in time and are safe.
As I’ve learned from listening to another long-time friend who lost his family’s home to a SoCal fire in November, a loss of this magnitude is heartbreaking, disorienting, a loss of normalcy and stability in physical and emotional ways. I can’t even begin to comprehend or describe it, but I know that Rodger and his family must be deeply hurt and could really use all of our encouragement and support. Please pray for them and consider sending a kind note of encouragement their way.
I also know that Rodger is a very strong and determined person. He sent me this brief note in the wake of the tragedy:
“We have a long road ahead. There is so much to take care of. Please let the fans know that RBM Studio will rebuild and with their support resume operations ASAP.”
I’ve told Rodger that I am standing by to help whenever they are ready. I hope that you will join me in that support of Rodger and his family and their ongoing work at RBM Studio and C3i Magazine.
I am saddened by this news and think very highly of Rodger, his company and their great products. I will share here that there is a GoFundMe page out there where you can donate to help him and his family out at the following link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-recovery-of-rodger-mae-and-steven
We donated as The Players’ Aid and would ask you to consider doing the same! You can also purchase many of their great products off their website, although I am not sure on the status of their ability to fulfill those orders at this time. Here is a link to the RMB Studio Store website for you to do some shopping: https://c3iopscenter.com/rbm-studio-store/
Twilight Struggle Inducted into the BGG Hall of Fame!
So now that we have shared the bad news first we will follow that up with the rest of the Update and the good things happening. One of the items that Gene shared about was that Twilight Struggle was just inducted into the BGG Hall of Fame! Below, is the induction video featuring Candice Harris, Fred Serval, Tom Vasel and Jay Bernardo:
This is a really great thing to see as TS has been GMT’s most resounding hit particularly in the general strategy board game arena. To see the success of the game, with it multiple print runs and continued laudits from those who have played it and loved it is a major credit to the design duo of Jason Matthews and Ananda Gupta as well as to all of the GMT team members who have contributed to making this game so well received over the years. Gene went on to share: “Thank you” to Alan Moon, whose early comments about Twilight Struggle being the “best game he’d ever played” drove so many players to try the game. Thanks to our friends at Playdek, whose masterful rendition of Twilight Struggle as a digital game introduced the game to hundreds of thousands of additional players. And thanks to all of you who have played and shared Twilight Struggle with your friends over these past 20 years. Without you, none of our success with Twilight Struggle would have been possible. We are humbled by and most thankful for this honor.
I will add to this that I love TS as well and do believe it to be one of the greatest games of all time! It is just so mind bending and changes your perspective about how a game can be designed to create such angst and replicate a power struggle of such epic global spanning proportions so easily! Phenomenal game that has bred a whole genera of CDG’s and other asymmetric games that continue to stretch players’ abilities and minds.
Update on the Winter Sale
As you know, last month there was an announcement about an upcoming Winter Sale. There weren’t’ a ton of specifics shared last month but this month there is a bit more for us to think about as we get ready to purchase their great games at a deep discount.
It looks like we’re going to need to have a Winter Sale to rebuild our strategic reserves, as funds are still very tight. We do have a LOT of inventory in our warehouse, so we think that having a sale to turn some of that into cash for operations and reserves is a good idea. The sale will happen shortly AFTER we finish shipping the January 29 massive P500 shipment, so that probably means late February or early March. It will be for ANYONE, not only P500 customers. And it will be for games published before 2025 (so the current P500 games will not be eligible). I’ll get you all the details in the February customer update.
There are plenty of games that I still need to add to my GMT Games collection so I will begin putting in time now to get prepared so I am ready to strike once they do announce the date and time of the sale. I would also hope that GMT puts together a list that is easy to access with the games that are available and eligible for the sale so that this can be as smooth and painless as possible.
How Can You Help GMT Now?
Also with last month’s update, we heard the news that GMT Games is going through a rough patch right now. In fact, that was reiterated in this month’s update and apparently GMT has received lots inquiries about how us gamers could help GMT. With that in mind, Gene gave us the following suggestions to help:
Every once in a blue moon, we run into a financial rough patch where we can really use some extra help from our customers, and now is one of those times. The best thing you can do at this point is still what we’d always say: “Buy our games, have fun with them, and tell your friends.” So if there are games in this current P500 charge/shipping cycle that are interesting to you, please order them (P500 discounts will be in effect until we start shipping on January 29th). And if you’ve had your eye on some of our other games, set some funds aside to participate in our sale in late February or early March. Those funds will really help us. And we all sincerely appreciate and will remember you helping us in a time of need. Thank you!
1989: Dawn of Freedom is on Rally the Troops!
In case you don’t know, Rally the Troops! is an online gaming platform that hosts multiple (now up to 23 total games of which 8 are published by GMT Games) strategy/wargames that you can play with the rules completely and totally reinforced by the platform. I love RTT! and currently have 13 different games going including 3 Andean Abyss, 4 Time of Crisis, 1 Wilderness War, 2 Votes for Women,1 Red Flag Over Paris and 2 of the new 1989. With that 1989 has been added to the platform. Here are some words from Jason Matthews:
When Ted and I released 1989 thirteen years ago, we were trying to expose the historical gaming community to a piece of history that was pivotal to the modern world. The strange thing about the collapse of the Eastern bloc was that the details were only lightly known even to the people who lived through it. 1989 has a strong following, but the details on the end of the Warsaw Pact are more important in 2025 than they were when we published the game in the first place.
For that reason, we are so excited to have Tor and Iain and the amazing team at Rally the Troops making this game accessible online. We believe that this implementation will help die-hard fans find opponents and CDG players who have always wanted to try 1989 have an effortless way to do so.
Just as the physical board game sought to honor the courage of those who stood up for democracy in Eastern Europe, this digital version preserves those same dramatic choices that shaped the fate of nations, now available at the click of a mouse.
As mentioned above, there were 2 new P500 additions offered this month including I, Napoleon: The Limits of Glory and Tsar. There also was 1 reprint offered in Ukraine ’43: The Soviet Summer Offensive Against Army Group South3rd Edition.
I, Napoleon: The Limits of Glory
A few years ago, I, Napoleon from GMT Games was announced and it was marketed as a historical role-playing game. Not with polyhedral dice, magic and dragons but more as a “choose your own adventure” style of game where you could make choices about the life of Napoleon Bonaparte as he made his way to infamy from his humble beginnings as an artillery officer, to staging a coup d’état in 1799 and becoming First Consul and then to dominating much of Europe and being crowned as Emperor of the French Empire. This was the promise of I, Napoleon and I was very much intrigued by the concept but more importantly about how this game planned to do just that.
As you probably know, normally Ted Raicer designs hard core hex and counter wargames such as The Dark Valley: East Front Campaign, 1941-45, The Dark Sands: War in North Africa, 1940-42 and The Dark Summer: Normandy ,1944. These games are fantastic experiences that are true wargames. But, he also has an eclectic side to him and has designed one of the classic card driven games on the subject of World War I in Paths of Glory. So when I heard that he was designing this interesting looking card based historical role-playing game the first thought that came to my mind was “How is he going to accomplish this feat?” And recently, I was finally able to get the game to the table for a few plays and really very much enjoyed the experience, although I didn’t love it. Partly because it was a very long and involved game, but also partly because it was very tough and seemed to last a long time.
But the game has been very successful for GMT Games and they are now releasing an expansion to the base game called I, Napoleon: The Limits of Glory.
From the game page, we read the following:
I, Napoleon is a solo biographical card game that puts you in the shoes of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1793 and allows you to explore the paths his life might have taken until his death in 1821. Despite having 222 cards ranging from Napoleon’s Marshals to his mistresses, his life was so packed with incidents (and what-ifs?) that I couldn’t fit everything I wanted into the original design. Thus, today we are announcing an expansion, I, Napoleon: The Limits of Glory.
You don’t need this expansion to play the original, which is complete as designed. I, Napoleon: The Limits of Glory offers new events, people, politics, and possibilities, but it also adds some complexity, more cards to shuffle and keep track of, and as much as two hours of additional playtime. You will meet new Commanders (Suchet you say?), new lovers, new political allies, and new enemies (including the Russian Imperial Guard!). The cards increase the importance of Political Points in the game as you will need them to deal with unrest from both Jacobins and Royalists. The Spanish Ulcer will be a bigger problem, with three new Expedition cards to deal with. And the Portugal Box on the map will finally get some use with Portugal’s Royal Family.
It sounds like maybe this expansion or new addition is going to offer some new cards and some new challenges but also will increase the length of the game by as much as up to 2 hours. Because it is a solitaire game I am not as concerned with length of play as I can go at my own pace and don’t have to worry about others time but more length to the game sounds daunting to me.
As a Commander, Napoleon may have the opportunity to carry out either his attempted March on Constantinople (historically thwarted by defeat in Syria) or his dream of a March on India. Both very risky but promising large rewards.
The possibility of Escape to America after Waterloo now exists, opening up the chance for a final act of Glory by the fugitive French Emperor. Will you collude with Aaron Burr and perhaps create an American Empire? Or be defeated by Andrew Jackson? Or perhaps serve under the Americans against the British in an ongoing War of 18–?
Of course, new chances for Glory also introduce new threats that can cut your life short, from an assassin making hand grenades to an encounter with a Cossack patrol. I, Napoleon: The Limits of Glory can take a couple of hours longer (a new Card Draw process insures the new cards don’t crowd out the old), but you can still fall at the first hurdle. And then try again!
A few years back, we had a poor experience with Prime Minister from GMT. We just didn’t get the game and we played it with some smart people. Maybe it was our attitudes or maybe it was the scenario that we chose but I came away from it feeling like it was a bit of a missed opprotunity. Now, they have announced a new game called Tsar, that is not using the same system as Prime Minister or really has any other resemblance or connection, but I can see somewhat of a simple comparison between the 2 and I am hoping that this one lives up to my expectations.
From the game page, we read the following:
Tsar reimagines the reign of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia. Players occupy the center of his regime, advising and influencing him while competing to advance their own factional goals. The game captures the interplay of public opinion, war, diplomacy, culture, internal order, the economy, and the personal traits of Tsarist leaders and the imperial family. Through this simulation, Tsar explores the inner workings of autocratic regimes, with a realistic portrayal of official corruption, the cult of personality surrounding the Tsar, the violence of oppression and resistance, and the conditions that led to revolution.
In real life, Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until the February Revolution of 1917. Tsar begins with his accession to the throne, and his fate depends on you. The game’s narrative may follow historical realities or may diverge from the historical record into alternate histories. Players may experience actual events such as the Russo-Japanese War, the Zemstvos movement, or the Franco-German alliance, or they may encounter historically-based hypothetical events such as a war with the British Empire in central Asia, the construction of the Moskva-Volga Canal, or Russian control of the Turkish straits. Depending on your decisions, Russia may pursue liberal reforms or maintain a strict autocracy, experience victory in war or defeat, industrialize its economy or stagnate, stabilize its political regime or witness the collapse of the Romanov dynasty.
Tsar is mostly card-driven, with other mechanics including resource management, worker placement, and a hybrid system of action points and bidding. You may play using a built-in solitaire system or in a 3- to 4-player multiplayer game. In multiplayer mode, the game is semi-cooperative with shared resources and a single hand of cards. Although there is a player order in some actions, there are no player turns. Overall decision-making is handled collectively, with different decisions allocated to different players; for key decisions, a “Council” procedure allows all players to bid for their desired outcomes. With a simple automation system for non-player Factions, Tsar easily transitions to solitaire play, with no extra components and minimal rule adjustments.
There are several different decks and types of cards used in the game and it does appear to be somewhat Card Driven. But what about your goal? What are you trying to accomplish?
Players take Era-specific Scoring Cards for their Factions with goals that relate to conditions on the board, such as industrialization of the economy or the form of government. In multiplayer mode, you share each of your VP objectives with one other Faction. These overlapping goals support the semi-cooperative nature of the game, with limits that keep the game competitive: no more than two players can share a common goal, and the VP shared between two players is always unequal. This means cooperation is a strategic decision for the players, not a predetermined arrangement. Players can also acquire Gold by using Offices for corruption.
As long as the regime remains in power, the game proceeds until the final quarter of the Era, with players scoring VPs as they advance their factional goals, and their Gold (if any) is deducted from their VP scores at the end of the Era. But if the regime is overthrown by revolution, solitaire players immediately lose, while in multiplayer mode, the player with the most Gold immediately wins. Accordingly, players in multiplayer games assess the regime’s stability to decide their focus on either VP or Gold.
Finally, your ambitions for VP or Gold often clash with Russia’s need for responsible government. This conflict is especially important for the Favorite: you have to keep the Empire running smoothly to retain the Tsar’s Favor, which means carefully balancing your factional objectives and the Tsar’s expectations.
I feel like this game has great potential and looks to be well thought out and designed. The cards are already gorgeous, although they are just prototype, and the description on the P500 page is one of the best and most thorough that I have ever seen really giving a good idea about the game and how it plays. I am definitely interested in this one!
Ukraine ’43: Ukraine ’43: The Soviet Summer Offensive Against Army Group South3rd Edition
I love the designs of Mark Simonitch. We love his ’40X Series and have played most of them including Normandy ’44, Ardennes ’44, Holland ’44, Salerno ’43, Stalingrad ’42 and most recently North Africa ’41. In my search over the past few years, I was able to acquire a 2nd Edition copy of Ukraine ’43 but have not yet had a chance to play it. Well, now that I found and acquired that copy, I knew it was about time for GMT to announce a new edition and they did just that this month with a Ukraine ’43 3rd Edition P500.
From the game page, we read the following:
Ukraine ’43 3rd Edition from designer Mark Simonitch takes advantage of sources that were not available when the 2nd Edition was designed, the 3rd Edition will have historical setups for all scenarios and an improved reinforcement schedule. Additional units will be added plus a few deletions.
Features:
Larger units
Larger hexes
Additional Sturmgeschütz brigades and Tiger Tank battalions in the order of battle
All Panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions, Soviet Tank and Mechanized Corps now have a 3rd step (remnant unit)
Simple, classic igo-ugo system
Russian Tank Army and Shock Army capabilities
Soviet massed artillery
German Tiger tanks
Air power
Differing capabilities for Marshal Zhukov and General Manstein
Zone of Control Bonds
On August 3rd, 1943, less than two weeks after the Kursk offensive, the Soviets launched a massive offensive near Kharkov that ripped open the German line. The ensuing battle began their summer offensive that would take them across the Ukraine to the Dnieper River.
During August the two sides were equally matched and a tremendous war of attrition raged from Kharkov to the Sea of Azov with neither side willing to give ground. In September, bled white by the never-ending Soviet attacks, the German army retreated in haste to the safety of the Dnieper River. In October, the battle raged along the length of the Dnieper and for the Perekop Peninsula, the only land exit to the German 17th Army in the Crimea. During this three month period German reinforcements poured in from every sector, but it was never enough. Three Soviet Tank Armies and four Soviet Fronts ground through nineteen panzer and panzergrenadier divisions. German and Soviet losses were staggering. Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, fell on November 6th.
Ukraine ’43 attempts to simulate this important campaign in a moderately complex game. The design uses the conventional move-fight-exploit sequence of play and the popular Zone of Control Bond rules. Soviet tank armies and German panzer corps spearhead constant attacks and counterattacks. With both sides able to attack, the game becomes a tense battle of skill and nerves.
I am very much excited about this new edition and will just have to make sure we get a copy when it comes out.
If you are interested in Ukraine ’43: The Soviet Summer Offensive Against Army Group South3rd Edition, you can pre-order a copy for $43.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1156-ukraine-43-3rd-edition.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 Tsar was teased last month as “A strategy game set in Russia.” 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 battle game set in the late 17th/early 18th century – I don’t know about this one.
A strategy sports game – this is Matt Calkin’s Tennis game.
A strategy game of the Old West – I don’t know anything about this one but I sure am interested in just this teaser and already have lots of thoughts and images swirling around my brain.
A new game that will thrill our Combat Commander fans – I would guess maybe that this is Combat Commander Spanish Civil War but I cannot be sure.
How did I go Gene? I could be 0-4, 1-4 or even possibly 2-4. Who knows?
Charging & Shipping
The following information for Charging and Shipping was copied directly from the Update:
Charges/Shipments. We charged on Wednesday, January 15 for the following items:
The office and warehouse staff are prepping the orders now and will begin to ship these games on January 29th. Because this is such a massive shipment, GMT estimates it will take 4-5 weeks to complete all the shipping so please be patient!
Designer/Developer Updates
I also wanted to share a few of the project updates that were included in the email as they are just chock full of great information.
Away Team – Designer John Butterfield and Developer Jason Carr
Over the holidays, and while John was moving house, we took a good long look at our excellent tester feedback from the Training Mission and Star System 1 and made a few changes to the surface movement and terror systems in Away Team. We greatly increased the range of unexpected things that can happen while moving into uncharted areas, while cutting back on checks when moving through known areas. Some players found their Away Teams scared of their own shadows, so we took terror down a notch and added chances for the team to calm down in the field. None of these changes are seismic, but they will have a meaningful impact on the variety and tempo of play and address some constructive feedback from the testers. This makes us very happy—we love when adjustments address feedback and make the game better for everyone!
With these changes done, TTS developer David Kurtz will update the module and we’ll get back into testing late this month. Our testers have been great—a big thanks to them—and we’re more excited about the adventures of The Pandora than ever before. There’s still a ways to go to test all seven star systems, but we are making steady progress.
In the meantime, here are a few more visions of alien encounters from illustrator Javier Bahamonde.
Our artist Nils Johansson has been hard at work, and we are now getting close to having all the art finalized. This means that we will soon be able to proceed with laying out the final materials (rulebook, playbook, and player aids) and preparing everything for the printer. Over the coming weeks, we will be releasing some additional articles on InsideGMT, featuring new Dramatis Personae artwork alongside historical notes. Keep a look out for these, which we hope will keep you going until the game arrives! – Brian
We also posted a series of History Behind the Cards from the designer where he discussed the Dramatis Personae Cards. You can check those out at the following links:
Joe Dewhurst, our developer for Bear Trap, has been hard at work crafting the game’s solo mode. Joe brings a wealth of experience, having designed or developed solo and non-player modes for several other titles, including games in the COIN Series and other card-driven classics. In the meantime, we’re still welcoming additional playtesting for Bear Trap, whether through TTS or Vassal. Feedback on the draft rulebook, including comments and questions, is also greatly appreciated—it’s much better to catch everything now before we go to print! – Paul
Calixto – Designer Kevin Crooks and the GMT One Team
When life intervenes, sometimes it intervenes hard, but we are once again marching forward with Calixto. GMT One Developer Joe Dewhurst, whom you all know and love, has gotten his hands on Calixto and is putting it through it’s paces. Joe has a tremendous amount of experience with the Jacquard system that Calixto uses and was able to get things sorted in short order. So, we’re opening playtesting up to get more feedback and start moving these bots closer to production. If you’re interested in playtesting Calixto, you can sign up here. – Kevin
China’s War – Designer Brian Train and Development Team
We are heading into the final steps of pre-production for China’s War and are very happy with the way the game has shaped up. Joe Dewhurst and the development team are doing their checks on all the final materials before the game goes to proofreaders and then to the printer. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the playtesting and polishing of this game; we’re excited to (finally) get it to the printer and then to your game tables. – Brian
An update on the state of Firefight Tactical is long overdue. I have plenty to share so let’s get to it. Rulebook: The rulebook is going through a rewrite now because apparently, I am not the best writer. FFT’s developer, Peter Evans, is finishing up on that and it is certainly better than the dross I put to page. To be clear, this rewrite is 100% stylistic in nature and there is no content that is being changed. I still need to write an example of play for the core gameplay as well as the bot, but besides that we are nearing rulebook complete.
Scenarios: At the same time I am making some minor balance tweaks to the scenarios. I can obsess over this stuff forever of course, but I am more looking to catch anything glaringly off (nothing like that so far). On this end I am just trying to make the most of the period before the art is ready to go.
The Bot: I have been public that there was something about the bot that didn’t feel quite right to me. The first week of December I had a major breakthrough on this front. It turned out my problem was with how the bot handled its own concealed units. I am now extremely happy with the bot and am in the process of playing all the scenarios on both sides versus the new logic to make sure it really is as superior as I believe it is.
Art: The counter art is being done by Terry Leeds, and while we are not prepared to share any of it yet, suffice to say I am EXTREMELY happy with it. Once Terry has finished up with the counters he will be moving onto the scenario cards and a couple other things. On the terrain art front I have been very fortunate to work with Donal Hegarty. His gut instincts on the presentation of the battle grid were dead on and did a better job articulating the aesthetic the game calls for than I was able to do myself. The terrain card art is starting to wrap up and I am very excited to share some of it with you here.
FFT is edging closer and closer to the finish line. However badly you may want to get it to your table, I guarantee that I want you to have it more. Stay tuned for more updates as more art becomes available. – Sam
There is little progress to report on Rebellion: Britannia since October. As you probably know, GMT is a small company, and there are only so many hands to work on projects. Right now the P500 order total for Rebellion: Britannia isn’t enough to get it into the art queue (although there is some movement on that front!), so we’re continuing to refine the gameplay and finalize all the cards and rules. GMT’s Director of Development, Jason Carr, is working on a plan to get the game into art later this year and prioritize more development support for the game through the art process. We believe that we will have more exciting news for you all in the April newsletter. – Maurice and Daniel
This month we’ve just begun working with Matthew Wallhead on art and layout for the four games, beginning with the maps/boards. It was a pleasure working with Matthew on The British Way, so we’re very pleased to work with him again on The Guerrilla Generation. Matthew tends to work quickly once he gets started on a project, so hopefully we will be able to share some of the new maps with you soon! – Stephen
With China’s War nearing completion, we are now finally ready to move The Pure Land into art and layout. This has been a long time coming for me, as The Pure Land was the first game I designed and my first introduction to working with GMT back in 2021. It’s now time for me to re-familiarize myself with the game so I can begin to finalize everything for layout while we begin looking for a suitable artist to work on the board and box cover. – Joe
As is usually the case, I wanted to share last 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 piece that we were shown was the final cover for the very interesting looking intelligence game Coast Watchers designed by the Volko Ruhnke. I love this one…the image here is just perfect as you have an agent in the jungle spying on the movements of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The water is highlighted with the new rays of the sun and it just looks so bright and is enervating. I know that some will not like this but I do so there is that.
Next up, we get to see the box back for the upcoming Hubris: Twilight of the Hellenistic World designed by Morgane Gouyon-Rety. This is a very interesting looking game dealing with the successors to the successors of Alexander the Great.
We also get a look at a few items from the rulebook with the first being a Mustering Example from the rulebook. As I see this images, I am getting more and more excited about it as I love an Ancients game and this time period specifically is so very interesting.
We were then shown the cover for the reprint of Barbarossa Army Group North, 1941. I am not a fan of the use of pictures and then lining them up in geometric layouts. This cover is not a good example of what GMT’s art department can do and I consider this to be a bit lazy. I do like the original cover but what are you going to do!
They also shared the box back for Barbarossa Army Group North. This is very comparable to the 1st edition look of the game but the new cover is just not doing it for me.
I will end this post by sharing our recent content on the blog and YouTube Channel for GMT Games products including reviews/interviews/unboxing videos:
Thanks for another great update. I’ve got 7 games on P500 (don’t tell my wife…), so I’m sitting out until the sale. My wish is that GMT/someone would do a solo game for 19th century 4X railroads, since the existing games are not supposed to be solo-able.
Starlight, if you mean the 18xx games, 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties has an absolutely superb solo mode. It was probably my game of the year last year, and I’d never played one before. Highly recommended. The rule book is a bit, ‘Here’s how you do things, not why you’d do them,’ but part of the fun is figuring out how to win.
Sorry, but Hubris game is not about “successors of Alexander the Great”, but rather people living some 40 years and more after the last successor of Alexander has died (Lysimachus in 280s) – “heirs to the famous Successors”, as description from BGG goes. It is the title about Hellenistic kingdoms with Philip V, Antioch III and several Ptolemies. Those gentlemen are not known in the history as “successors”.
Twilight Struggle is simply the best of its kind. I’ve tried to articulate to friends why it is so good and really it boils down to tension. There are so many delicious pain points you have to manage all while trying to decieve your opponent about what those are so they don’t exploit them.
Thematically, it might be one of the best as well – as a child of the cold war era, the feeling it invokes is so spot on. Also, the game has a card that tells you to poke the chest of your opponent – what could be better?
Super excited to see Ukraine ’43 finally getting a reprint!
Having lost everything in a house fire before, I can honestly say it is a hard thing to experience. Everything is frustrating about it and I can’t imagine going through it with hundreds of other people AND having it impact my business.
(selfishly, I hope the back-stock of C3i wasn’t lost as well – if it was not, I’d gladly fill some of my holes to help out in addition to donating)
1989 – We played a couple games and the implementation is good as always. That being said, its such a pale shadow of Twilight Struggle (and we don’t care for the power struggle/hannibal-like combat). It just feels like a more complex Votes for Women CDG (in a bad way). VfW is faster and cleaner (thus better) in MHO
Oh Grant, I’m not much of a commenter but I have to say thanks for helping to keep written coverage of wargames alive via this blog. I’m much the same age as yourself but my preference is still the written word. This blog is like a dappled clearing in the forest of YouTube videos 🙂 Thank you!
You are welcome. I also prefer to read more than watching videos even though we spend time making them. I have no plan to stop anytime soon. Been doing this for nearly 9 years and hope to do it at least 9 more.
The Players' Aid 
Thanks for another great update. I’ve got 7 games on P500 (don’t tell my wife…), so I’m sitting out until the sale. My wish is that GMT/someone would do a solo game for 19th century 4X railroads, since the existing games are not supposed to be solo-able.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Starlight, if you mean the 18xx games, 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties has an absolutely superb solo mode. It was probably my game of the year last year, and I’d never played one before. Highly recommended. The rule book is a bit, ‘Here’s how you do things, not why you’d do them,’ but part of the fun is figuring out how to win.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry, but Hubris game is not about “successors of Alexander the Great”, but rather people living some 40 years and more after the last successor of Alexander has died (Lysimachus in 280s) – “heirs to the famous Successors”, as description from BGG goes. It is the title about Hellenistic kingdoms with Philip V, Antioch III and several Ptolemies. Those gentlemen are not known in the history as “successors”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ok. My mistake. I’ll change it. Thanks for the prod.
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Twilight Struggle is simply the best of its kind. I’ve tried to articulate to friends why it is so good and really it boils down to tension. There are so many delicious pain points you have to manage all while trying to decieve your opponent about what those are so they don’t exploit them.
Thematically, it might be one of the best as well – as a child of the cold war era, the feeling it invokes is so spot on. Also, the game has a card that tells you to poke the chest of your opponent – what could be better?
Super excited to see Ukraine ’43 finally getting a reprint!
Having lost everything in a house fire before, I can honestly say it is a hard thing to experience. Everything is frustrating about it and I can’t imagine going through it with hundreds of other people AND having it impact my business.
(selfishly, I hope the back-stock of C3i wasn’t lost as well – if it was not, I’d gladly fill some of my holes to help out in addition to donating)
1989 – We played a couple games and the implementation is good as always. That being said, its such a pale shadow of Twilight Struggle (and we don’t care for the power struggle/hannibal-like combat). It just feels like a more complex Votes for Women CDG (in a bad way). VfW is faster and cleaner (thus better) in MHO
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh Grant, I’m not much of a commenter but I have to say thanks for helping to keep written coverage of wargames alive via this blog. I’m much the same age as yourself but my preference is still the written word. This blog is like a dappled clearing in the forest of YouTube videos 🙂 Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are welcome. I also prefer to read more than watching videos even though we spend time making them. I have no plan to stop anytime soon. Been doing this for nearly 9 years and hope to do it at least 9 more.
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Can’t wait for China’s War!
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Me also. 6 years in the making.
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