We don’t get bad news that often with the wargaming hobby! And more often than not, when we do it is that a game will be delayed due to shipping issues or found errata or production back log, etc. All issues that can be worked around but that will try our patience. But, this month we found out about some really bad news that could effect one of our favorite publishers GMT Games and that I have been worried about for a while now. Gene was very candid and transparent about the financial impact of the current ongoing tariff war with China and frankly the world. But, I want to make sure that you understand that GMT has a plan and they are working that plan. But it is important for all of us who buy their games to understand that plan and do our part by continuing to support them and buy their games. Gene has laid out the plan in the April Monthly Update email and after reading it, I felt much better about the situation. It is still a problem…no doubt…but the plan has some merit to it and if it goes well should stave off any really nasty consequences.
There was only 1 new P500 offered this month but it was a good one in Drachen: Reconnaissance at Verdun, 1916 designed by Volko Ruhnke and 1 new reprint in The U.S. Civil War 3rd Printing designed by the great Mark Simonitch.
But that wasn’t all as there was plenty of other information shared including updates on GMT One products, development updates, new digital games news, upcoming future P500 additions and the usual gorgeous art samples!
Well, this month’s update was started off with some truth from Gene on the financial impact that the tariffs are placing on GMT Games. This is not just an isolated problem for smaller boutique publishers but for the gaming industry as a whole right now as I have seen at least 1 recent announcement where a publisher is shuttering their operations (Greater Than Games who published the popular Spirit Island, which I have played and was bored by) or having second thoughts about being able to fulfill a Crowdfunding campaign. But there is hope and I believe that GMT has done an admirable job in identifying the issues, coming up with a measured response and laying out the steps to ensure their continued viability. Rather than try to paraphrase Gene here, I am going to simply include the entirety of his comments on the matter.
As most of you know, it’s been a wild and challenging month of April already in terms of tariffs and trade wars that have a direct impact on GMT and our operations, and we’re barely halfway through the month. Before I get to all that, though, I want to personally thank all of you who took part in our 40% off sale from April 1-7. I know that you got some products you wanted at great prices. I also know that many of you bought items in the sale because you really wanted to help us through what has been a very difficult time here at GMT. I just want you to know that all of us at GMT appreciate your kindness and concern and willingness to help us. You DID help us improve our cash reserves, which makes us more flexible and resilient as we face the new challenges in the form of heightened tariffs.
The Elephant in the Room – Tariffs. So let’s just get into the tariff conversation. First off, I’m not at all interested in talking about the politics of all this, especially in public. The tariffs create a huge functional cash flow and pricing problem for us, as they do much of the board game industry. Today I’m going to be as transparent as possible as I explain the issues we face, what we intend to do to move forward, and how you can help us. First of all, we hear this question a lot…
“Why Not Just Start Printing in the US?” How we wish we could! Unfortunately, we don’t have the option to just “move our printing back to the US” because the quality and precision of manufacturing needed to produce many of the components in our games just does not exist at the scale and pace that we need in the United States. Believe me, we’ve searched for them and continue to do so (see Kai’s more detailed note in her Production section later in the update). Price is, of course, an issue—as the bids we’ve received from the US-based companies we’ve asked to bid on projects were 3-4 times what it currently costs to print our games. But the key thing, sadly, is that even at hugely increased costs, the few US companies that can do SOME of the work that we need can’t produce anywhere near the quality that we (and you) are used to with mass sophisticated game production in China.
We printed in the US for many years before moving offshore due mostly to quality issues (we were tired of and frustrated with those “bad old days” of paying for 10,000 countersheets and having to throw away 25% of them because they were miscut—often with no refunds or credits). For the few of those companies that still exist today, their machinery is older now and their capability to produce high quality game components has not kept pace with what the game market now expects. And they are very limited in how many projects they can run concurrently; they are certainly not in a position to print 25+ games a year for us, which is what we need financially to make GMT work. Ironically, although we’re “too big” for such older companies, there are a couple of pretty high end European companies that have facilities here in the US, but we’re “too small” for them (with minimum print runs required of 20-25,000 copies). That leaves us with virtually no viable options to print in the US at high quality and the scale that serves GMT and all of our customers.
We have been exploring, and will continue to explore, alternative arrangements for printing outside of China, but we have not yet found any that are satisfactory. See Kai’s production section below if you’d like more details on our “search.”
We’re in this together. As you’ll see from the financial details I’m sharing below, these tariffs and their meteoric rise over just a couple of weeks, have presented a set of huge, potentially fatal problems for us at GMT. What I want you to know is that we are doing everything we can to plan a viable route through the tariff minefields. And I want to tell you that we absolutely cannot do it without all of you, our customers, sticking with us. One of the effects of these tariffs and the dialogue around them is that a lot of people who live outside of the US are angry at the US government right now, some even boycotting US products. I just want to remind you that, although we understand the frustration and anger, this doesn’t mean you have to be angry with GMT. We believe that we’ve done right by our customers over these 35 years, providing quality products and customer service and treating you all with kindness and respect. We’ve hosted hundreds of you at our various GMT events here in the US over the years, numerous GMT team members have attended your conventions in your countries, and many of us have become friends. But this environment of heightened tensions, frustrations, and anger created by the tariff/trade issues is a challenge to all of us. Will we retain our good relationships and friendships and mutual support amidst the chaos? That’s a question that each of us individually has to answer, but what I can do today is tell you how we at GMT are approaching this.
Honestly, our response to this challenge is pretty simple. We will stay true to ourselves and will treat ALL of our customers, employees, and strategic partners—in any country—as friends who are worthy of kindness and respect. Despite what’s happening on a national level, that doesn’t have to—and will not—change who we are. What’s being modeled for all of us at higher levels right now is “Care about yourself. Get your advantage. Don’t worry about others. Demonize your opponents.” Of course, the “us vs. them” vitriol that this kind of approach has ignited between parties and countries is NOT the way we believe in treating people or how we do business here at GMT. Over 35 years, that kind of exclusive, divisive, selfish thinking has just never been part of our company DNA.
I hope, for all of our sakes, that these tariff conditions and trade issues don’t last for long. But even if they do, it’s not going to shake our commitment to treating our customers as friends and trying our best to create “win-win” scenarios for all of us. You matter to us. And frankly, as we’ve told you many times over the past 35 years, we can’t do what we do without you. This is collectively OUR hobby, not any one company’s or any one country’s. It’s something that many of us are passionate about and that we all enjoy TOGETHER around our game tables and online. So here at GMT, we’re going to do everything we possibly can to continue to be transparent with our customers and to show leadership, kindness, and respect to each other and to all of you even through these rough times. We intend to make sure—to the best of our human efforts and abilities—that we can all continue to enjoy this hobby—and the games that we create and produce here at GMT—together for many, many years. I would respectfully and imploringly ask you all to join us in these commitments to each other as we consider how to keep GMT creating great games for you even in the face of the biggest threat to our continued existence as a company in the past 35 years. As you’ll see in what follows, we absolutely need your support in order to survive this and to someday thrive together again.
Now Let’s Look at The Big Financial and Operational Issues Created by the Tariffs.
Issue #1. Cash Flow. This isn’t the one you hear about as much as you do “game prices” when you hear game companies talk about the tariff impacts, but it’s definitely the one most likely to kill us. Because of the 145% tariff, those batches of games that we have currently printing in China (and any subsequent batches) are going to cost us EXORBITANTLY more cash than we planned for when we were told that tariffs would be 10% (we had a plan for that, and even for 20-40%). For example, we currently have 14 games at the printer. The cost to print all of those titles is right around $500,000. It looks right now like they’ll be coming in three separate shipments, but that’s still in normal times a $500,000 cash commitment from us to pay for all the games. And FYI, P500 charges are designed to provide us with the funds to pay the printers, while other sales to distributors and longer-term direct sales to customers pay for our overhead and create some profits. So right now, as long as a lot of customers don’t cancel orders before we charge and ship for those games, we can expect about 500K in P500 income that would in normal times pay for those games.
With the 145% tariff, though, those games will now cost over $1.2 MILLION dollars to get to our warehouse. That’s $700,000+ extra for…..basically nothing. So how we price the games (the next issue) isn’t the biggest problem we have at all. Rather, it’s how to pay for the games at the scale and frequency that we print them with a 145% tariff (in this case, $700K) tagged on. As a business model, with that level of tariffs, printing at a pace we need to in order to cover our overhead, it’s unsustainable. Basically that group of three shipments alone, unless we make some big operational changes quickly, will eat up all of our cash reserves and leave us with no funds to pay our employees and other expenses.
Issue #2.Game Pricing. So, assuming we can figure out how to manage the cash flow issues above, how do we deal with game prices that were set 1-4 years ago (both P500 and Retail) when now our costs have increased by 145%?
First off, I will tell you that the price increases and shipping mods we made near the end of 2024 did what they needed to do. Our internal operational price models work now to cover our expenses. Well, they DID work before the tariffs. FYI, most of the 10% tariff increase that we were told we’d get and long expected was covered by that price increase. Every tariff increase after that (20%, 54%, 104%, 125%, and now 145%) needs to be covered in some other way.
I WISH we were a rich enough company that we could just absorb all the tariffs and have our customers pay nothing extra for our games. But that’s Gene in fantasyland again. This one is going to take some creative, strategic reworking of how we operate. So we have developed an Action Plan to help our international customers AVOID the tariffs, and to MINIMIZE and SHARE the cost for our US Customers (and I’m sorry to our US Customers; these tariffs are the law right now and we have to pay them). I’ll give more details on how we will accomplish this in our ACTION PLAN below.
Issue #3. Worldwide Availability of our Games. In a situation with both direct tariffs on goods moving from China to the US and potential reciprocal tariffs between the US and many other countries, how can we help ALL of our customers still be able to get our games without huge additional price increases?
OUR ACTION PLAN
1. Continue to increase our cash reserves now, BEFORE those three batches of games are ready to ship to the US! We have a LOT of inventory in our warehouse and five new P500 games that are set to charge on April 21 and ship on May 1. We need increased cash reserves right now a LOT more than we need inventory. We need to sell as many of these games as possible to build more cash reserves to give us the best possible chance to win the coming Cash Flow battle.
To help you all who want to help us by buying more of our games, I’m setting up a “Loyalty Appreciation” discount code (good starting April 18th at 5am Pacific time) for the next 60 days. Use coupon code GMT25 to get 25% off your orders. It’s good on all in-stock games (both GMT and other publishers, including the new Hexasim expansion announced in today’s newsletter) in the warehouse (and including 13 of the 14 we shipped at the start of 2025 — Congress of Vienna is sold out) EXCEPT for the five P500 games that we’ll charge on April 21. There is a Loyalty Appreciation Sale page on our website if you want to see all the eligible in-stock items. Thank you in advance for your orders and your help!
IMPORTANT: The 25% discount won’t compute on our website until you add the “GMT25” coupon code at checkout, It must go in the “Special Offer Codes” box at the top right of the order page. After you put the code in that field, make sure you press the ADD button (see image at right). That’s what will apply the discount to your order. And please double check that the discount was applied before you place your order. Thank you!
I’ll note that another way to help us increase our cash reserves is to buy our digital games. The games are relatively inexpensive ($5-$20, mostly), and you don’t pay any tariffs on them. We get cash monthly or quarterly from those, and believe me, it adds up. If you want to know what’s available, check out my InsideGMT Article here. Thanks to all of you who can support us this way.
Note that any current tariffs should not affect your Loyalty Appreciation Sale purchases at all, even if you’re not in the US. All of the games in our warehouse (except for the April 21-charging P500 games) came in before there were tariffs, so there is no extra charge for US customers. And for non-US customers, the Country of Origin for all of these games is China, not the US, so unless your country has a tariff on Chinese goods, you won’t have a tariff cost either. Another “win-win,” we hope.
2. Transform our Worldwide shipping to SHIP DIRECT from China to our non-US P500 customers and distributors around the world. Our aim is to have this in place by the time we charge and ship the next batch of P500 games (the first batch AFTER the April 21 charge). This is NOT an easy task, but we have Jason Carr—who, as many of you know, is AMAZING—heading up this part of our plan. Jason talks a bit more about it in his Development section below. I can tell you that due to Jason’s rapid and thorough efforts, plus the willingness of our friends and contacts around the world who have been so generous in sharing information with us, we already have a preliminary plan in place with partners in Europe and Australia! If at all possible, we intend to have solutions for ALL non-US P500 customers and distributors to use before the next P500 charge (the next one after April 21).
The effect of this will be to avoid the huge China-to-US tariffs for all non-US customers (and GMT won’t have to pay the huge tariff on games sent to international customers either), so that tariffs on goods coming into the US from China are not an issue for our international customers. We are also hopeful, although we can’t give you details just yet, that this will facilitate a significant overall decrease in the shipping costs we charge our customers in non-US countries. So if we can do this right, you folks who use P500 and our distributor friends around the world should be able to get our games at even cheaper overall cost than you have paid pre-tariffs. We think, especially in today’s environment, that creates a huge “win” for our non-US customers. And if the result (as we hope) is that many former P500 customers who’ve stopped using P500 because of cost issues will begin to order P500 games again (helping us continue to be able to operate and build our cash reserves), then that will be a big “win” for GMT as well.
3. Ship to our US Warehouse ONLY games we need to fulfill US P500 orders and US Distributor Orders. We plan to not keep a lot of stock on hand in the US because we can’t afford to have our money tied up in inventory on the shelf. When combined with #2 above, this will cut the amount of tariff we have to pay by about half, perhaps even less. The downside is that because we’ll be aiming to ship only games that we have orders for (plus perhaps a small stock more), we’re going to have fewer games for US restocks and thus likely fewer games in stock and in US stores for a while. So for our US customers and distributors, at least in the near term, it’s going to be a “buy early via P500 or they’ll likely be gone” environment so that we can survive.
If we have to (i.e. if the tariff rates stay this high), we’ll set up ongoing warehousing arrangements in China, Europe, Canada, etc. to allow us to distribute our warehousing nearer to where our customers are and also limit our tariff costs as much as possible.
4. We will begin to charge a “Tariff Surcharge” on (only) games that come into the US for as long as we have tariffs. We’re not going to change P500 or Retail prices. Those work for us where they are. But we have to account for the extra tariffs, and we simply can’t afford to pay them all ourselves. So we’re going to limit the number of games we pay tariffs on (between #2 and #3 above), and then GMT is going to contribute and pay part of the tariff cost. What’s left will appear as a Tariff Surcharge when you order or when a game is charged on our website or when a distributor orders our games.
To be perfectly clear, no currently in-stock games will get a tariff surcharge. The first games to get the surcharge are the five P500 titles that are charging April 21. And unlike future surcharges (which once we have our direct shipping set up will not apply to our international customers), these April 21 surcharges will apply to ALL P500 orders and distributors (because we haven’t yet diversified our shipping). Because these games came in while 20% tariffs were in effect, what we’re passing along after we pay our contribution is a pretty small amount. Here’s what the Tariff Surcharges will be for those five games.
Note that these relatively small surcharges for 20% tariffs get a LOT worse at 145% (could be as much as 15-25% above current retail pricing, depending on quantities printed and ordered), but we’ll do our best to keep them as low as possible even if the tariffs remain high over time. And we’ll always tell you in advance what they will be BEFORE we make a P500 charge so you’ll have time to change your mind about your order if you need to.
5. Buy some time. We’ve put a 30 day hold on any games going to the printer and, more importantly, instructed the printer not to ship any of the 14 games they are printing now until we say “go.” Even paying some small warehousing fees at the printer if we have to is MUCH cheaper than having all those games—and their associated 145% tariff charges—show up before we have all of our operational plans in place. So you’ll see some delay on our production schedule and for near-term P500 games, but it will facilitate both our survival and our longer-term operational health. And note that it’s POSSIBLE that we may have to change the timing of our P500 charges—to have slightly longer charge-to-ship windows—to make all of this work. We’ll be transparent with you and let you know in advance if/where that has to happen.
And there’s always the hope (yes, I know that’s not a strategy, but still…) that the US and China will come to some agreement that will reset tariffs to a level that we can manage more easily over time.
6. Expand and Enhance our Product Line with more games from our Friends/Partners in Europe and increase our promotion of those games. This will help our US customers get more quality European games and help us have more non-tariffed games (well, at least not 145% tariffed games) to sell. It will also help those European game companies, as this is a difficult time for them as well. Another “win/win.” On that note, we also intend to increase localization opportunities with our European partners to print more of our games in their languages as they have demand for them.
How Can you Help GMT?
1. The biggest thing is to keep buying the GMT games that you want to own via P500 and from our warehouse. If our customers keep buying our games and we get more of our international customers to participate again with P500, we will survive this short term and be much stronger and more efficient in getting you our games long-term. 2. Buy our digital games. 3. Especially for our international customers, tell your friends and gaming groups about what we are doing and that P500 participation will now get you your games faster at the best prices. We really need robust international P500 support to sell a larger % of games to our international customers, creating tariff-free revenue for GMT and cutting the % of our print runs that are subject to the high China-to-US tariffs. 4. If you just can’t buy our games right now, we understand. Keep the fun alive by playing our games for FREE online (on Rally the Troops, Tabletopia, Boardgame Arena, etc.). Find new GMT games that you and your friends like to play together. 5. Spread the word about the fun you have with our games. Make some social media posts, put AAR’s online. Help us keep the GMT brand prominent among online hobbyists.
In closing, I want to emphasize that all of us at GMT appreciate the ways that you, our customers, have encouraged and supported us thus far on our 35-year journey. We are committed to weathering this storm, and I hope that what we have shared herein gives you an appreciation of how complex and fluid the situation is and helps explain everything we are doing to try to survive in these difficult times. We do not control these tariffs, but we do control how we respond to them—both as a company and as individuals. This is an opportunity to demonstrate our values, our skills, and our determination as we face some daunting problems together. We are choosing to be true to ourselves and to treat our customers and fellow hobbyists with kindness and respect as we walk through these challenges, and we hope that you will walk beside us as kindred spirits and fellow travelers. We are all in this together, and we all want to continue to…enjoy the games! – Gene
That was a very thorough plan and I am feeling much better about all this than I did on Thursday reading the Update for the first time! In fact, when I initially read the Update, I was immediately a bit panicked as I thought that if GMT is struggling, then all of the other small publishers we work with and play their games and create content for are also going to be suffering and that could mean that there will be less wargames and less need for people like us to create. But, I think that now I feel better about that immediate panic and feel like even if that occurs, and I truly hope that it doesn’t, that we have a good enough back log of unplayed games that we could tackle and probably keep creating content for years to come.
But enough about us, the message here is pretty clear. We as customers, who love and play GMT Games products, need to step up and “invest” in the solution to their current crisis by buying their games. With that in mind, over the weekend both Alexander and I purchased several games from GMT to support their efforts in reaching their $1.2 million goal. I was able to pick up Clash of Giants: Civil War Combat designed by Ted Raicer, as well as 3 Combat Commander Battlepacks that I have never acquired to round out my collection (BP #3: Normandy 2nd Printing, BP #4: New Guinea 2nd Printing and BP #5 Fall of the West 2nd Printing). I am not a money bags and probably have enough games but I felt that my purchase of $158 would help out.
Alexander also found several games that he wanted including Austerlitz 1805: Rising Eagles from Hexasim, Medieval Conspiracy from UGG, Tourcoing 1794 from Vae Victis and Typhoon Over the Pacific from Vae Victis and dropped $229.00 on those games. That means that we here at The Players’ Aid tried to do our part but I am encouraging each of you who read this to do yours. Get some good games at a discount and help GMT out.
Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398 on Rally the Troops!
If you follow us, you know my affinity for Rally the Troops!, and the fact that I have about 20 games going at all times. And this month, we got news that the newest addition to the online rules enforced digital platform is the fantastic Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398. We got the following from one of the designers Saverio Spagnolie:
We are very excited to announce that Tor and Co. over at Rally the Troops! (especially Joël Simoneau) have just released a wonderfully high quality, online implementation of Vijayanagara! And with rules enforced for easy learning and play, it is sure to bring new players to the game, and to let a wider audience explore this underexplored but very spicy period of history. It will also make finding opponents for a friendly game, and setting up tournaments, a breeze.
We look forward to seeing your many threatening (or conspiring?) governors, qasbah chains, cavalry stacks, Compel+Attack combos, and your late game Demands of Obedience. Players should be warned, however, that even in this luxurious new implementation, it remains the case that It is Not Easy to Be the Sultan.
Update on Counter Issues for The Battle for Normandy Deluxe Edition – from Kai Jensen
If you remember last month, we got news that there were some issues with the counters for the brand new released The Battle for Normandy Deluxe Edition and this month Kai Jensen gave the following update:
After review of all of the 3,080 counters in the recent printing of The Battle for NormandyDeluxe Edition, we have found the following:
2 counters are unplayable as printed (one is missing the front, one is missing the back)
38 counters have minor issues such as a wrong color on the step dots, but are still playable
24 counters (18 US Paras and 6 UK Paras) are not playable using the optional rule but the errata has no effect on standard game play
34 counters (18 Brit/Pol and 16 German) are missing the visual reminder of the colored stripe on their reduced step side which affects an optional rule but are still playable as printed
3 counters (81mm Mortar units) that have the incorrect range (5 instead of 3) on them.
So, of the counters affected by sending a wrong file to the printer, five counters are unplayable as printed when playing by the standard rules. We are putting together a free replacement countersheet and will keep you updated as we get this into production.
NewGreat War Commander Item (Commander Strategy Cards Expansion) from Hexasim in Warehouse Now
As you may or may not know, GMT Games has a partnership with Hexasim to sell their games on their site. Hexasim is a French publisher who does a lot of great games including the Great War Commander Series and the Eagles Series. This month, GMT has announced that they are carrying a limited amount of copies of this new expansion called Strategy Card Expansion.
It was great to see so many of you pick up Great War Commander games and expansions during our sale. We’ve just received one additional Great War Commander expansion from Hexasim:
We have 50 copies in stock, so if you want to complete your Great War Commander set, get them now!
GMT at Origins - June 18-22
I know that Armchair Dragoons has worked with GMT Games to put on a large demo area at Origins for years now and they are coming back again this year. In fact, I was contacted by Jason Carr and he is planning to be there personally and I am reconsidering whether I attend at least a few days to go over and see what he is doing.
Come participate in our game demos at Origins! We have a large slate of demo events lined up. Jason Carr and and our friends at Armchair Dragoons will demo most, but designers Jason and Ananda will host the Twilight Struggle event, Hermann Luttmann will demo his The Plum Island Horror, and Perry Silverman will demo Illusions of Glory.
The list of demo game events (and number of events) we’re running at Origins:
Combat Commander (2) Commands and Colors: Ancients (5) Congress of Vienna (1) A Gest of Robin Hood (3) Holland ’44 (4) Illusions of Glory (1) In the Shadows (5) The Plum Island Horror (2) Red Dust Rebellion (3) Twilight Struggle (2)
And we invite you to buy our games at the Enterprise Games Booth in the dealer area from Thursday through Sunday. The folks at Enterprise always do a great job and carry a wide selection of our products.
Not There Yet P500’s
Gene shared the following about some of the P500 offerings that are lagging behind in orders. I would encourage you to check into all of these games and give them some love if you are interested.
Playtesters/Help Wanted!
This is a segment that GMT has been doing a lot of lately and I think it is a great way for many of you to get involved and give of your time to make these games better.
If you are interested in helping out, please contact the team members for the game you are interested in at the links below. We greatly appreciate you helping us test our games and make them better! Thank you!
Next War Supplement #4. Mitchell Land is looking for some playtesters for content that will be coming in Supplement #4. There are several new scenarios that need testing. Four of the scenarios are Insurgency scenarios: 2 updates (1 for Korea and 1 for Poland) and 2 new ones for Iran. In addition, there’s a new 3-player scenario for Iran. If you’re interested, please contact him at mitchell.land@outlook.com or on BGG, CSW, or Discord.
Fields of Fire Volume III Playtesting Arnhem, 1944: We’re looking for playtesters for the Fields of Fire Volume III Arnhem campaign. The main details were thrashed out through playtesting a while back, but it proved quite complex in places, especially in the latter Urban Combat sections. We’ve gone back over the whole thing, made a new mission book that focuses on the important info you need to play, and updated/streamlined some of the special rules. We’ll be launching a new round of playtesting at the beginning of next month to let people test that. Anyone who knows how to play the game is welcome to join. No Urban Combat experience is necessary; there will be a training course to ease you into that, taken from the volume’s extensive training material. Sign up at the link below:
As mentioned above, there was just 1 new P500 offered this month in Drachen: Reconnaissance at Verdun, 1916, which is Volume II in Volko Ruhnke’s Recon Series that started with Coastwatchers and there was 1 new reprint in The U.S. Civil War 3rd Printing designed by the great Mark Simonitch.
Drachen: Reconnaissance at Verdun, 1916
I think that every single wargamer knows the name Volko Ruhnke. He has designed several great series in the COIN Series, that has now stretched to a full 15 volumes, and then more recently Levy & Campaign Series, which has an astounding 4 released volumes with 3 others that are announced and about a dozen more in design. He can make a good game for sure! One of our first experiences in wargaming and the first Volko design we played was Wilderness War. He is now at it again with a new design in a continuing newer series called the Recon Series that uses hide and seek elements and hidden blocks to tell the story of the Allied intelligence efforts during World War I during the campaigns around Verdun in 1916. The game is called Drachen: Reconnaissance at Verdun, 1916 and looks to be very interesting.
From the game page, we read the following:
Trench warfare on the Western Front changed the manner of reconnaissance forever. Continuous fortifications, machineguns, and long-range artillery removed from the field the age-old mainstay of scouting—the horseman. Now an army knew of its enemy’s positions and preparations only what it could see just across no-man’s land, 100 meters or so in front of it. Beyond the next hill might be the massing of a great host or not much at all.
The remedy was to get up into the air. Whoever could get above the battlefield and deny that ability to the enemy would dominate. High-explosive shells were available at industrial scale, and indirect-fire guns could rain destruction deep into enemy territory—if directed to hit enemy positions. It was this hunger for reconnaissance that drove history’s first air campaign and that gave such importance to the famous knightly duels of aerial aces.
Secrecy being key to Germany’s great blow at Verdun, the attackers massed aircraft in the sector, flew continuous barrier patrols to shut French fliers out, and coordinated their Fokker Eindecker units, 2-seat observer planes, and even Zeppelins to ensure that only they had eyes over the battlefield. Dominant numbers of kite balloons (Drachenballon)—wind-stable and equipped with optics to see for miles—were essential. In the attack, the Germans pulled off a surprise artillery attack that downed French balloons anchored too far forward.
With the attack underway, the French reacted swiftly to the German bid for air superiority. Generalissimo Joffre approved dispatch of a countervailing concentration of French air machines to Verdun. There, French aviators developed new group patrol tactics and tested new technology such as balloon-busting rockets. Aces on both sides—Boelke and Immelmann, Guynemer, Navarre, and Nungesser—would seal their fame jousting over that small patch of front.
I really like the direction of this series and the way that it is addressing the lesser (or not) gamed side of wars.
Drachen—Reconnaissance at Verdun, 1916 is Volume II in Volko’s ReconSeries that began with Coast Watchers. Similar use of hidden position blocks and chit pull maximize secrecy. Over 2 to 4 turns, you can play out the reconnaissance struggle ahead of each historical offensive within this iconic trench battle.
Draw your hidden objectives for the coming push. Secretly set your fortifications and station your guns, troops, and supply depots. Assign barrier air patrols, Jagd missions to chase off enemy spotting planes, balloons, and anti-aircraft guns. How close to the enemy’s ground will you raise your balloons, and how many will you hold in reserve?
Next, send your fighters and observers out beyond the front: chase off enemy fighters protecting their positions and their balloons, then send in your balloon-busters and observers. Ground observation posts on the heights of Mort Homme, Cote 304, and Fort Douaumont play their role. As do daring trench raids: press your luck and you might just bring back the plans that give you a peek at your opponent’s objectives!
Massed infantry and artillery are vulnerable. It is a simple matter to suppress or destroy enemy troops—if your guns know where to shoot! If successful, your observation missions will “range” enemy targets for your guns. But beware that firing on the enemy’s batteries also reveals your own. Both sides will have some opportunity to adjust their deployments based on what their observers have learned—and what damage the enemy guns have done.
Opportunities for deception and signaling are many. Objective cards and position blocks begin hidden. But your opponent can see where your aerial photography and artillery cooperation missions fly. Did you concentrate balloons on the Left Bank of the Meuse because you intend to attack there, or is it a feint?
I think that this new series, and this game particularly, look really interesting and I am all in on the subject matter and the approach. I am going to reach out to Volko soon for another written interview. Also, the game offers 8 main scenarios and a solo learning situation spanning German and French offensives within the titanic 10-month Battle of Verdun. Asset cards add to the character of each stage of the battle and illustrate each side’s innovations in reconnaissance, aerial warfare, firepower, and protection. The game pits 2 players in a contest of planning, detection, and deception. It will also include instructions for solitaire play.
If you are interested in Drachen: Reconnaissance at Verdun, 1916, you can pre-order a copy for $79.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1162-drachen.aspx
The U.S. Civil War 3rd Printing
Want a large and grand strategic look at the United States Civil War? Well, you can get that from a Mark Simonitch designed called The U.S. Civil War as they are doing a 3rd Printing of the game. I have played this game with a friend (not Alexander) and we had a great time with it although it is deep and a bit involved and is not necessarily for the feint of heart.
From the game page, we read the following:
The U.S. Civil War is a 2-player strategic-level war game of the American Civil War. The game covers the entire war from 1861-65 on a large 30” x 44” map area (2 mounted maps) of the Southeastern United States. Turns represent 3 months during the winter and 2 months during the summer, with four Action Phases to each turn.
Military forces are represented by generals and strength-points (SPs). Each SP represents approximately 5,000 soldiers. Game mechanics stress strategy, maneuver and leadership but details like ironclads, naval battles, leader promotions, forts, and commerce raiders are included.
Shorter scenarios are included that cover just 1861, 1862, and 1863.
Players of Eric Lee Smith’s The Civil War (VG) and Mark Herman’s For the People (AH and GMT) will see many similarities between this game and those two benchmark games. Those two wonderful games inspired many of the rules and concepts used in this game.
Note on 3rd Printing: This edition will be identical to the 2nd Printing except that any known errata will be corrected.
Tariff Surcharge: I’ve also noted the amount of the Tariff Surcharge (at far right) for each game. These Tariff Surcharges are per game and apply to all orders (P500, distributor, and retail) for these five games. For website orders, they are applied automatically when your credit cards are charged.
Production Outlook
Also as an addendum to Gene’s intro about tariffs, we got the following production update from Kai Jensen:
For the past few months, I have been sharing news about how things were really coming together for the production schedule. Then tariffs happened.
On the bright side, we have fourteen games at the printer in various stages of creation. There are five games wrapping up art this month with another four right behind them. Normally, I would be very happy with all of this. But in response to the economic reality of huge tariffs (145% as of today), we are looking at what we hope is a brief delay in production as we sort things out.
Ideally, we would switch over to US-based printers and just keep moving along. But I have been working on establishing that pipeline for over a year now and am no closer to a solution than I was when I started.
If you’ve been following other game publishers’ press releases as we all try to adapt to the new reality of business in America, you’ve heard of the lack of printers who do what we need. The few that are out there are of a lower quality than we are used to getting and cost a lot more. Their schedules are already booked up, so getting into the queue doesn’t mean the game is coming back to you any time soon.
I have a list of 56 printers from around the world to whom I have been reaching out in order to get us an alternative. While quite a few of them list themselves as a US company, their offices are in the US while their factory is in China, which doesn’t solve our problem. Most of them don’t handle punchboards (our countersheets that require precision die cutting). Some of them have minimum order requirements far above what we typically produce and can afford. Some only handle very small print runs, well below what we need. A lot of them don’t respond to emails, phone calls, or entries on their own “Contact Us” page.
I am currently following up leads on factories in Germany, Belgium, and Czech Republic. I am no longer holding my breath for a quick fix to this dilemma.
I have joked with Gene and Jason about getting together with other game manufacturers and opening our own print shop. The realities of that in this economy make that a non-starter as well, even if we were serious about it.
I have no answers right now. I am networking, researching, reaching out, working all the angles I can. I will let you know—probably in all caps with a ton of emojis—when I find a solution we can live with.
GMT One Update from Jason Carr
This month we got the following comments from Jason Carr on GMT One:
This month will be a short update, and a direct one.
In February, Gene and I started talking about how we could better serve our international customers. Shipping costs have gotten very high for those of you in other countries, and shipping things through the United States was not a cost effective way to manage fulfillment. We knew this was important to solve, and the 10% tariffs announced in February (increased to 20% in early March) made it more urgent, so I began dedicating a small amount of my time each week to coming up with a solution to this problem.
The announcement of escalating tariffs up to 145% earlier this month made this my top priority. So, this month I have no development update because my focus has been on solving international fulfillment. That also means that there are a lot fewer game updates than usual in this month’s newsletter. But development is still continuing unabated. In September I wrote in this space about the need to grow my team and delegate responsibilities so that the day-to-day running of the team could continue without me. That has never been more important than it is right now. I have the utmost confidence in Joe, Bruce, Marco, Evan, David, and all our series and solitaire developers’ ability to continue to do excellent work while I work with Gene, Tony, and Kai to solve these fulfillment problems.
Project Updates and Sample Art
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 of sample art that was shown to us was a near-final Peru map for The Guerrilla Generation. This map is just gorgeous and feels right at home with the other games in the COIN Series and the COIN Series Multi-Packs.
We then got a sneak peak at the final Rulebook Cover for The Plum Island Horror: More of a Bad Thing Expansion.
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:
The Players' Aid 