November 2025 Monthly Update from GMT Games – A New Block Wargame in the Triumph & Tragedy and Conquest & Consequence Family and “Blockbuster Year End Project Updates”!
Talk about ending the year with a bang….GMT has outdone themselves with the Update this month as they have announced a very cool looking block wargame that takes parts of 2 of their previous games to make one big super massive game and also gives us about 5,000 updates on their ongoing project development! It was a really fun read and took me about 5 hours to get through it all!
This month, there was just 1 new P500 game offered called Conquest & Tragedy designed by Craig Besinque that allows players to take on the entire global conflict of World War II, including both the European Theater and the Pacific Theater of Operations. The title for this one is a merger of the first 2 games in the series Conquest & Consequence and Triumph & Tragedy. There were also 2 reprints offered in Plantagenet: Cousins War for England, 1459-1485 2nd Printing and Triumph & Tragedy: European Balance of Power, 1936-1945 4th Printing.
And as usual that wasn’t all as there was plenty of other information shared including updates on GMT Marketing news (including the addition of a rising star in the wargaming content world), development updates, shipping updates, upcoming future P500 additions and the usual gorgeous art samples!
Here is what Gene had to share, which included several areas such as updates on tariffs and shipping, a new episode of GMT Talk!, an update on the recent SDHistCon (which we missed as we were attending SPIEL Essen in Germany), digital games updates and more!:
I hope this update finds you well. Here in the US, we will be celebrating our Thanksgiving holiday next week. I know many of you around the world have already celebrated your “Thanksgiving” or “Harvest” themed national holidays. For everyone who is celebrating some version of Thanksgiving next week, I hope you all have a wonderful time of friendship and fellowship with your families. Sharing good food with family and friends while leaning into “being thankful” together gives us all a chance to retreat briefly from the stresses and challenges of our lives and just “exhale” and relax and recharge with people we love and trust. And if we can share a few good boardgames over the holiday as well, all the better! So, for those celebrating, I wish you a healthy and happy holiday!
It was great seeing many of you at the excellent SDHistCon convention about 10 days ago in San Diego. Kudos to Harold Buchanan and his terrific team for putting on one of the year’s premier conventions! I got to see several really outstanding new games from “new to GMT” designers/design teams at the convention, a couple of which you’ll be seeing on our P500 list in early 2026, plus a new game from Volko that I absolutely LOVED and that you’ll likely see on P500 in mid-2026 or so.
This month’s newsletter focus is slightly different in that we aren’t adding any NEW boxed games to our P500 list this time. We only want to add games to P500 when we believe they are truly “ready,” and we don’t have any that are quite in ready status this month. However, we do have two P500 Reprint additions and one very cool expansion item for combining Craig Besinque’s WWII strategic games Triumph and Tragedy and Conquest and Consequence. But our focus this month, as we near year-end (and our December update will likely be much smaller), is to give you a set of “Blockbuster Year End Project Updates” on a MASSIVE scale. At last count, we have 48(!!) individual game updates for you this month – plus a LOT of sample art, as well as a lot of new digital updates and a couple of excellent preview videos of Combat Commander: Vietnam and Drachen. So please be sure you check out the videos (CC:Vietnam is at the end of the Digital Games section and Drachen is just above the InsideGMT section) and then go down to the Art Samples and Designer Updates section near the end of this newsletter, where you will find a HUGE WEALTH of new information and art samples for games that are nearing production.
A note for those of you who are telling us that our newsletter emails get cut off by your email client: that’s a Google (or other email client) thing. To read the entire newsletter and see all those cool updates and art samples, just look at the bottom of the email, where your message ends. See the “[Message clipped] View entire message” note and link? Click the View entire message link and that will solve the issue. Alternately, you can always click the “View Entire Message in Your Browser” link at the top of the email to achieve the same result.
I hope you will enjoy this month’s update and continue to Enjoy the games! – Gene
One of the more interesting parts of the news he shared was that there are several different mobile apps out there that can be used to assist in running the solo bots for the various editions of the COIN Series.
COIN Series Solo Bots Assistant Apps
If you play COIN games solo, GET THESE! They are Free Solo Apps for Several of our COIN Games! I want to make you all aware of some free apps, created by Prabha Pillay, that you can download to your phone or tablet. These excellent solo apps (for both iOS and Android):
– implement the game’s flowchart bots, greatly reducing the workload for a solo player, – present only valid choices, reducing the time the player needs to compose their move
You can get more info about these Apps from Prabha’s posts on BGG, linked below.
If you like what you see, you can download the apps directly from either the Apple or Android store.
This truly is exciting and interesting as we have a few COIN Series games, including the new China’s War and People Power that we would like to get played again soon and we may be unable to get the full boat set up to play max player count so using these bots would be a good thing for us.
Candice Harris Joins the GMT Marketing Team
One of the interesting points Gene shared was the addition of a new team member to the GMT Marketing Team in Candice Harris. We have known Candice for a few years now and met her on several occasions at conventions, including recently while attending SPIEL Essen in Germany, and she is just a great personality and I love her enthusiasm. Here are Gene’s remarks:
Please welcome Candice Harris to the GMT Marketing team! Many of you already know Candice from her superb video work on BGG and elsewhere on the web as well as from her attendance at several of our GMT Weekends at the Warehouse, SDHistcon, and a variety of other game conventions. This is super exciting news for us, because we think Candice is amazing!
Candice is a consummate gamer who happens to be really great at sharing her love of games in the video medium. She brings passion, deep knowledge of the hobby and games, excellent presentation and video skills, and a magnetic personality and “heart” to her video presentations. Rachel and I have a couple years of experience working with Candice on video projects when she was at BGG. So we’re thrilled that she is now coming to work with us as a GMT team member! She is, in our view, in the top tier of “presenters” in the gaming video space. She’s also a really amazing human being! We can’t wait to work closely with Candice to take our YouTube channel and our video brands to a new level!
We’ll be announcing and rolling out a variety of new GMT video content over the coming months, and will continue both GMT Talk and GMTLDR. Keep an eye on our GMT Games YouTube channel for lots more cool content, much of it brought to you by Candice and her gaming friends!
I very much look forward to hearing what she will have to share and how she will go about sharing that with us all. Good luck Canice!
Operations Update/Tariffs/Shipping
Next up was some boring news….not really but it is definitely on the dryer side of the spectrum in news about Tariffs and Shipping progress that they have made with various overseas partners to improve how we all get our games.
Overall. We’re getting a little stronger each month of late, both operationally and financially, and hopefully this will continue. Our team is working together to execute out operational plans, and you, are customers, are telling us that you still really like the games we are producing. So, things are looking good overall. Of course we still have challenges (see shipping, below), but every month we are solving small and larger problems together to make GMT more efficient.
Tariffs. As of November 10, our Tariff rate was reduced from 30% to 20%. That might not sound like a lot, but over a year of 30 or so game releases, that adds up to around $100,000 that GMT and our customers don’t have to pay to subsidize. So that’s great news! As you’ve seen, with the combination of larger print runs and directly subsidizing the tariff amounts from GMT funds, we’ve been able to keep all tariff surcharges on games well under $5 per game, which has been our goal. At this reduced tariff rate, we will be able to further decrease the tariff surcharge amounts, on average, over coming charges and shipments. For example, for the three games we’ll charge on December 3, the tariff surcharge for one is under $4 and the charges for the other two are both under $1.
International Shipping Transformation. We’re doing a lot better with shipping to Europe and not as well as we’d like with Asia shipping as we move into our 4th and final charge/ship cycle (of 2025) since we made the big move to direct shipping from our printer to international customers. The big reason for this move was to 1) let all of our international customers avoid the China-US tariffs, but we also wanted to 2) be able to charge less for international shipping, and hopefully 3) get the games to international customers more quickly.
So far, we’ve definitely managed the first two of those three objectives. International customers aren’t paying the tariff cost and our shipping prices (DIRECT) have decreased over what they were pre-August. So that’s good. But the third goal, getting games to customers more quickly, remains elusive. The big reason for this is that we have very little control over the timing of delivery from the printer to our seven fulfillment partners, through customs, and also over the amount of time it take the various partners to send the games to customers once they have them.
Again, this seems to be going better with our European fulfillment partners, although we have had some customs issues there, too. The biggest complaint we’re hearing from customers is that they often don’t have a way to know or track the progress of the shipments. And because those shipments are out of GMT’s hands, we can’t track them, either. BUT, one thing we can do (because several of you, especially in Asia, have told us you can track orders through the fulfillment partner’s website) is to make sure you know which fulfillment partner is handling your games. So, here is the list, one that many of you who use Kickstarter will likely be familiar with.
Boardgame Bliss (Canada)
Second Chance Games (UK)
UGG (Europe North)
Mas Queoca (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy)
Chrononauts (Japan)
VR Distribution (Australia and New Zealand)
VFI Asia (Asia and Pacific other than Australia, New Zealand, Japan)
I hope this information is helpful to you and that you can check in on these Fulfillment partners websites to help with tracking your orders.
GMT’s Digital Game Strategy and Offerings
And finally, Gene gave us lots of good information on updates with their line of developing digital games offerings.
For more details on what we’re doing with our Digital Games, check out Part 1 and Part 2 of my ongoing article series “Play GMT Games Anytime, Anywhere!” on InsideGMT. And check out our growing DIGITAL EDITIONS page (thank you, Luke!) on the GMT Website.
Digital Mr. President. November Update. Lots of new stuff going in to digital Mr. President. We’re aiming for system completion for our Early Access launch in the new year. Right now the team is working on two big systems: the Legislative Segment and Wars. Here are some screen shots to show you where the build is right now! In these shots you can see how we’re trying to surface the calculations and DRMs that players need to add up and calculate on their own. We’re trying to take this approach throughout the game, and to make use of tooltips where players would normally have to reach for the rulebook or charts.
For the War system, we’re likewise trying to surface things like odds, and dynamically update them, in the way you’d expect a digital approach to provide.
These are going well (and no, the first War screenshot is not a pro-Russia editorial statement about who was the aggressor in that war – it’s just a test case). We’re looking to wrap these systems imminently and move on to Allies and the End of Year Cleanup & Consequences components next. And, as a bonus, here’s one of the Crisis Cards:
Note the inline Decline/Accept button and the checkboxes; we’ve added some functionality to the digital version of Crisis cards, to better indicate player choices and show each element as it gets resolved (since some Crisis cards have several steps).
We hope you’ll take a look at the new demo, and keep an eye out for the Early Access announcement! – Ananda
Digital SpaceCorp: 2025-2300AD. November Update. Logix Interactive is excited to announce that SpaceCorp: Ventures has been released for Steam and AppStore! The launch sale is complete, but if you are stilling looking for a sale, you can grab it in the Steam Winter Sale at 40-50% off!
Additionally, the Android build of SpaceCorp has been submitted to Google for approval. This process has been long and arduous, but it is coming to a close. As a reward for those who have patiently waited for SpaceCorp on Android, the Ventures expansion will be included FOR FREE with the Android version until the end of the year!
Digital SaratogaNovember Update: Saratoga is on track for its release date of December 3, 2025. The third scenario, “Freeman’s Farm,” is being finished and the AI is being improved for all scenarios. Some user interface improvements are still being made, and the tutorials and rules reference are being added. Looking forward to everyone being able to play soon!
If you’d like to get a peek “behind the curtain” and have an opportunity to provide feedback, check out the developer log videos. These are available on the Hexes of War YouTube channel linked below: https://www.youtube.com/@HexesofWar
What customers are saying about digital Rebel Fury:
A simple but clever game system. And the computer version plays very well. This is great deal for just $9.99. Hats off to the developer for a great port of a board game to computer. – Steam User BlackCloud6
If you know the board game, it’s the same except with less space and faster play. If you don’t know the board game, do yourself a favour and buy it. Also, has the hotseat mode. – Steam User mako_chan
Click above to join Homo Ludens host Fred Serval, co-designer Stephen Rangazas, developer Joe Dewhurst, and Patrick from Patrick’s Tactics as the give us a preview of our upcoming Combat Commander: Vietnam.
There is more in this section but those are the items that I am going to call out. I recommend you really give this month’s update a thorough read as you will get all of the information about that game or games you are dreaming about.
Now onto the main event with the new P500 offerings!
New P500’s
As mentioned above, there was just 1 new P500 game offered called Conquest & Tragedy designed by Craig Besinque that allows players to take on the entire global conflict of World War II, including both the European Theater and the Pacific Theater of Operations. There were also 2 reprints offered in Plantagenet: Cousins War for England, 1459-1485 2nd Printing and Triumph & Tragedy: European Balance of Power, 1936-1945 4th Printing.
Conquest & Tragedy Kit
One of the common elements in wargames is a focus on historicity and simulation of historical events. We want to be given the same assets as the great commanders of the past, under the same conditions they experienced and attempt to equal or even best their outcome. In stark contrast to this regimented look at a historical engagement is the so called “sandbox” style game. Typically a sandbox is described as a system where players are not restrained in their choices and have the option of doing actions or attacks that would be considered alternate history. So there are different degrees of “sandbox” war games. Some allow you to change the initial order of battle. Some have different than historical objectives. Some even allow for planned invasions, such as D-Day or Sicily, to change their beaches. I personally love sandbox games and the ability to take a look at history in a little different light. Triumph & Tragedy: European Balance of Power 1936-1945 and Conquest & Consequence: Asian Balance of Power 1936-1945 are such sandbox games and delves a bit into alternative history in the European and Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II. These are big games that we have all wanted to combine into one in the past and now they have the vehicle that will allow this ultimate combination in the Conquest & Tragedy Kit.
From the game page, we read the following:
Conquest and Tragedy allows players to combine Triumph and Tragedy (T&T) and Conquest and Consequence (CnC) to play out the events of 1936-45 on a worldwide basis using the popular T&T System. Three partnerships oppose each other, and only one of them will win. Each partnership has one faction in the European Theater (ETO) and one in the Pacific Theatre (PTO). The game allows for 3-6 players, so players may control one or both factions of a partnership.
The Communist factions are the “USSR” (European Russia) and the “Soviets” (Siberian Russia plus Mao’s Red Chinese). With east and west Russia being a single nation, this naturally is a tight cooperative partnership with the advantage of geographical unity.
The Militarist factions are the Axis (Germany-Italy) in Europe and Japan in Asia. They have a solid but more limited partnership that suffers from severe geographical separation. They do have a military head start on the other factions.
The Capitalist factions are “Western Europe” (Britain and France plus the Asian/Pacific British Empire) and the USA, which has a seaboard in each theatre. The Capitallists initially do not cooperate but with diplomatic effort can become the most effective partnership of all. They begin unprepared militarily but have superior economic potential.
Gamers Playing Conquest &Tragedy
Team play and world-wide perspective make this combined game even more interesting and challenging than the standalone games. Playing time is 6-8 hours, with 6 players making the fastest games.
Plantagenet: Cousins War for England, 1459-1485 2nd Printing
A few years ago, the Levy & Campaign Series burst on the scene with Nevsky: Teutons and Rus in Collision, 1240-1242 from the gifted and beautiful mind of Volko Ruhnke. A series focused on medieval logistics and the feudal system where the arts of war and careful building of alliances were so important to the fabric of society all boiled down into a very playable game was like catnip to the wargame masses. Since that time, there have been several new designs in the series come about including Almoravid: Reconquista and Riposte in Spain, 1085-1086 from Volko as well as from other designers including Inferno: Guelphs and Ghibellines Vie for Tuscany, 1259-1261 from Enrico Acerbi and Plantagenet: Cousin’s War for England 1459-1485 from Francisco Gradaille. That game has also appeared on Rally the Troops! recently and it has generated some buzz and obviously has created a demand for the physical game so it is now being offered as 2nd Printing on the P500.
From the game page, we read the following:
England, 1459. The son of the great Henry V has not lived to fill his father’s shoes. England has lost the Hundred Years War, and mighty lords amass lands and wealth rivaling the King’s own. Henry IV left the door open for any such powerful lord with good pedigree to reach for the throne, and the best candidate is Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York.
Mounting tension over the Crown leads to armed clashes, under the excuse of freeing the king from his evil counsellors, and finally ignites the Wars of the Roses that William Shakespeare would immortalize in his plays:
A Yorkist rebellion that succeeds in placing Edward IV on the throne and exiling the Lancastrians to Scotland and France.
A civil war pitting Warwick the Kingmaker and King Edward’s brother Clarence against the King and his other brother Richard Gloucester.
The reinstatement for a few months of Henry VI and the invasion from France by his son and wife leading to a final contest between Richard III and Henry Tudor (later known as Henry VII) and the Battle of Bosworth that ends the Plantagenet dynasty.
Treason, bravery, political maneuver, and a cast of memorable characters mark one of the most intense and divided periods of English history.
In Plantagenet—the newest volume in Volko Ruhnke’s Levy & Campaign Series—players lead one of the two factions across the three main periods of war, as individual scenarios or the entire Wars of the Roses.
Designer Francisco Gradaille adds overall and local political influence to Volko’s medieval operation system to reflect the ever-changing loyalties of the time while keeping play familiar to fans of the Series. Players will create and maintain a network of allied lords and nobles in order to obtain the provender and coin needed to supply and pay their armies. As ravaging and looting will damage each side’s reputation, each faction will strive to convince cites to join its side. Great battles will seek to kill or capture enemy lords—perhaps even a king. Two kinds of operational moves will be in play: the military and the political.
In the end, when the dust settles and all arrows have flown, one rose will sit on the throne. White or Red, York or Lancaster, gather your troops and banners and join the fight.
Triumph & Tragedy: European Balance of Power, 1936-1945 4th Printing
Several years ago, I purchased my copy of Triumph & Tragedy: European Balance of Power, 1936-1945 2nd Edition and a few years later, (in June 2018) got to get it to the table and it was an amazing experience. If you don’t know, the game is designed as a 3-player game where each player controls one of the major countries of the time, including the USSR, the Axis (Germany and Italy) and the West (Great Britain and the USA). The only difficulty I had with the game is finding 3-players that have 4-5 free hours. This is a challenge and was the only reason that kept the game from seeing my table until we convinced our Euro-gamer friend Matt to host us and play this great game. He agreed but was hesitant, mainly due to the length of the game, but played with gusto and eventually won a victory for his Soviets. During our end game wrap-up, he told us that he was simply playing the game as any other Euro by doing set collection of technologies and building up his points. He took home an economic victory without ever having to be in a battle with the Axis. That great game is now being offered on reprint as its 4th Printing. That is an amazing feat and should tell you that the game is very, very good.
The map at the end of 1936. The Axis powers have moved their influence to the Nordic States while the USSR are moving into the Eastern Bloc.
From the game page, we read the following:
Triumph and Tragedy is a geopolitical strategy game for 3 players (also playable by 2) covering the competition for European supremacy during the period 1935-45 between Capitalism (the West), Communism (the Soviet Union) and Fascism (the Axis). It has diplomatic, economic, technological and military components, and can be won by gaining economic hegemony or technological supremacy (A-bomb), or by vanquishing a rival militarily.
The 22” x 34” mounted area map covers Eurasia to India and the Urals, with the Americas and the eastern British Empire represented abstractly. Military units are 1/2” blocks, of 7 types (Infantry/Tank/Fortress/AirForce/Carrier/Fleet/Submarine), in 6 different colors (Germany/Italy/Russia/Britain/France/USA). The mix of approximately 200 blocks allows great flexibility of force composition. There is a 55-card Action deck and a 55-card Investment deck, plus 30 Peace Dividend chits and 50 markers of various types.
The game starts in 1935, with all 3 Great Powers virtually disarmed: Germany has repudiated the Versailles Peace Treaty, initiating an arms race in Europe. With blocks, the nature of military buildups remain unknown to rivals unless/until military conflict breaks out. The game may end peacefully or there may be war. There are game sanctions for attacking neutral minors or declaring war on an opponent, and rewards for remaining peaceful (you get a Peace Dividend chit of value 0-2 for every year you remain at Peace).
You can win peacefully by:
Economic Hegemony (total of Production + secret Peace Dividend values is the greatest in 1945, or reaches 25 at any time) OR
Technological Supremacy (build the A-bomb — which takes 4 stages).
If there is war, you can still win by either of the above methods, or by:
Military Victory (capture of TWO enemy capitals – each Great Power has 2).
Economic production underlies all forms of power in the game. Production is the LEAST of controlled Population (cities), controlled Resources, and Industry (which starts low and can be built up with Investment cards). Powers can spend their current economic Production on either:
Military units (new 1-step units or additional steps on existing units), OR
Action cards, which have Diplomatic values (to gain Population and Resources without conflict) and a Command value (to move military units), OR
Investment cards, which have Technological values (to enhance unit abilities) and a Factory value (the only way to increase Industry levels).
Building a unit step or buying a card costs 1 Production. Simple. You can’t inspect cards bought until after you have spent all Production.
Initially, the Axis economy is Population/Resource limited, but ahead in [war] Industry, while the West and Russia are Industry-limited, with adequate empires of Population and Resources. Throttling/limiting rival economies by denial of Population/Resources is a key form of competition. In peacetime, this is primarily done via Diplomacy, committing Action cards to gain control minor nations and their Population/Resources, or to deny or reduce Rival control of them. At war, this can be done more directly by military conquest on land, by Naval/Submarine blockade of trade routes at sea, and by Strategic Bombing of enemy Industry by air forces.
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. 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 game using the Here I StandSystem – Primus Inter Pares which focuses on the Crusades.
A new book from one of our designers – I am just stabbing in the dark here but Mark Herman will share his experience of being abducted by the wargaming designer obsessed alien species called the Hexagonals and how they implanted him with wargame designing genes in 1969 (it allegedly wasn’t a bad acid trip!).
An expansion for one of our best-selling games of the past few years – I have nothing here.
One of the smartest wargame designs I’ve seen since Jerry White showed me Atlantic Chase – from a new-to-GMT designer – I have nothing here either.
Well, my guesses (or lack thereof) this month were pretty lame! Not my best effort. How did I do Gene?
Charging & Shipping
The following information for Charging and Shipping was copied directly from the Update:
GMT charged BOTH US and international customers on October 30th. This charge and shipment (“Batch 3”) were for the following SEVEN items:
Next Batch of Charges/Shipments (the final Charge/Ship cycle of 2025)
GMT will charge both US and international customers on December 3rd for three items. The P500 pricing will be good through December 7th, when all pricing on the games below will revert to retail prices. On December 8th, they’ll begin processing and then sending order/shipping data to fulfillment partners, and begin shipping games from our warehouse roughly December 10-12th. The items in this batch will be:
Not bad this month as we are getting 3 new games (well, 1 new with a reprint and an expansion). This will give us a bit of breathing room as we are still working through the most recent shipment and will give us some time to play these games over the holidays.
Production Outlook
We got the following production update from Kai Jensen:
If you made it far enough through last month’s newsletter to read the Going to the Printer list in the Production update, you’d think we’ve had a slow month in production. The 2025 errata countersheet was the only thing listed. What you haven’t seen is that, behind the scenes, we’ve been setting up for a strong finish to a difficult year.
We typically send one or two new games (along with reprints and accessory items) to the printer in a month. For November, we anticipate sending FOUR new games to the printer by the end of the month. It’s been a big lift for development, proofing, and art and I am very proud of our teams for pulling together to make it happen.
If you know me, you know that I’m an optimist. So it won’t surprise you to hear that I believe that in December we will do even better. We have eight games lined up that I am hoping to get sent off by the end of the year. Five of those are new games, one is an expansion, one is a reprint, and one is a deluxe edition of an existing game. Yup, I said FIVE new games.
There are the usual hedges to bets due to the holidays this month and next which historically pump the brakes on our schedule. But if even half of those games actually get out the door, December will still be a phenomenal month. And my money is on more than half.
Part of what fueled the big drive has been the fabulous response to Jason Carr’s call for proofers. We called – you answered. A LOT of you! Jason tapped our in-house wunderkind Marco Poutré to take on vetting and organizing the volunteers. From the flood of applicants, Marco pulled together two teams of proofers which opened up the sluices as far as pushing games through final production goes. So a big shout-out from Production (okay, it’s just me in here but I’m cheering loudly) to Jason, Marco, and our new proofing teams!
So check out the printing schedule below for a list of all those games that will be headed your way in early 2026! – Kai
As is usually the case, I wanted to share the great sample art that has been shared as a part of the update on various games as they run up to production. I won’t share everything but just those games that I am very interested in.
First up was a look at the box back for the upcoming Infernal Machine: Dawn of Submarine Warfare designed by Jerry White and Ed Ostermeyer. This game looks really, really interesting and I am very keen on experiencing this look at submarine operations during the American Civil War. Not a subject that has ever had a game!
We then were shown the final cover for The British Way: Enemy of My Enemy and I am going to be honest that I was a bit underwhelmed.
I know that this is an expansion and will come in a baggie but I was hoping for a bit more. It is functional, and tells you what you can expect in the game, but its nothing amazing. I will still get it and play it though. So, there is that.
We then got a look at some of the cards from the expansion.
We were then shown a 3-D version of the cover for the upcoming Defiance: 2nd Russo-Ukrainian War 2022-?. I think that I liked the P500 image a bit better but I think that this will grow on me.
I will say that I like the use of the Ukraine colors of yellow and blue and that this is definitely eye catching for sure.
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. Again, I won’t be sharing information about all of the updates as I know you have the attention span of a gnat! (post a comment if you stayed with me this far!).
Don, our artist, handed over the final art assets for 1848 last week! We’re now ready to move into layout. This is where the rules will get put into their final form, and also where we’ll construct the player aids and other final components. Here are some examples of the card art Don’s been working on. One players can use to mark the condition of the Battle of Ideas, with a reminder of its effect (Nation), and one from each of the game’s three “suits”: Revolutionary-aligned (the flag), Counterrevolutionary-aligned (the crown), and Neutral-aligned (the scales). – Peter
Joe has told me he is making good progress with the non-player design for his own two games, The Pure Land and Resisting Revolution, after which he will be able to dedicate some time to helping me with the non-player system for A Fading Star. This is the last piece of the puzzle we need for the game to be complete, but while we work on that we may be able to get started on art and layout for the other game components, and in the meantime I will finish writing the Playbook. – Yann
We just published the first in a series of InsideGMT articles that will help you get a better idea of what perils await you around the Verdun fortress complex. Hermann is very prolific, so our plan is to publish such an article on a monthly basis while the preorders build up. And I (Marco) don’t want to tease but the rules are ready, the TTS module is ready, and the only thing preventing us to call for playtesters is for the game to reach the magic number that will put it on a formal trajectory to the printer! So, keep showing your love while we tune and tweak and maybe, just maybe, you will be deemed worthy enough to be put in command of the German 5th Army! – Hermann and Marco
We are very excited that A House Divided will be going into art in the near future. Developer Karl Kreder has been taking AHD out to conventions and playing with new and returning players, making sure the rules are clear and the scenarios balanced. We’re very happy with the game, so now Karl and Kai Jensen are working to polish up the rules while we wait for art. We should have new map and counter samples to show you all early in the new year as we march to the finish line. – Frank and Karl
I think that I have said this since this was announced a few months ago, but I want more information. This is better, and is giving me a better understanding of what the game is and is trying to do, but I still would like more.
Army of the Potomac is complete and with our proofreading team, who will finish with the game before Thanksgiving. Most of the time in the last 2 months was spent polishing, rechecking, and clarifying the campaign rules, as the core series rules remain mostly unchanged from Rebel Fury. So, if you can play Rebel Fury, you can play Army of the Potomac already. Kai tells us that the game will go to the printer before the end of the year and be in your hands early to mid 2026. – Mark and Jason
Here is a video interview we did with Mark Herman at WBC this summer:
We’re nearing the close of this playtesting round, with our intrepid explorers finishing Pandora’s voyages to all seven systems. Things look good, and we’re beginning to look ahead ourselves to next steps.
We are strongly pushing to complete all the game’s artwork, which will allow us to start working on components. We have also created a plan for proofreading all of the game’s passages, rules, and components, which we’ll start in December, if not sooner. Meanwhile, David is putting finishing touches on the Training Mission for first-time players, while John completes variable content specific to the Voyage game — the re-playable version of Away Team.
In the meantime, below are images of the ExoRanger and BioBot to whet your appetite, courtesy of Javier Bahamonde.
If you’ve been on the fence, get to the game page and place your order today! – David
We are done with proofreading and final edits, so Baltic Empires will be sent to the printer imminently. It’s going to be an amazing looking game on the table, with a spectacular board and other components by the talented Nils Johansson. We can’t wait to hear your stories and other experiences of playing it, and I’m already planning a potential sequel game, so let us (and GMT) know if you enjoy playing it! – Brian
We are on track to finish up development on AGS by January and get it to the GMT team for printing before the end of Q1. Right now, we are reviewing the countersheets and maps, and working to get the play aids completed. Once those are finished, the set up cards will be laid out. This is about a month behind where we anticipated we would be, but all is going well with AGS. Once AGS is complete, we will immediately begin development of Typhoon Second Edition, and we hope to get Typhoon to players without too much of a wait. – Dev Team
All the Bear Trap materials are now with Marc Rodrigue for layout, and he’s doing a great job of bringing it together into a unified and thematic whole. Once those are complete we will send them off for a final round of proofreading, meaning that we are now probably only a couple of months off sending this to the printer. This has been a long time coming, so I can’t wait for the game to be published and sent out to you all. – Paul
Scenario pages and playtest maps have been laid out. Map artist Oliver Stewart is touching up my rough drafts and creating two new terrain types. Mark Yoshikawa and I are meeting in early December to go over the package and fill in any remaining gaps. ~ Kai
This month we kicked off our first public wave of testing for Combat Commander: Vietnam, which was preceded by an initial round of internal testing with veteran players from the Combat Commander Vassal Ladder Tournament. Feedback has been great so far, with players seeming to really appreciate how we have modified the core system to give a true “Vietnam experience”, and we are planning to open up even wider testing sometime next year. We are particularly grateful to Patrick Pence, who has been pivotal to coordinating these testers and helping us answer questions, and recently joined us for a preview of the game on Homo Ludens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_6AGDolUwc – Stephen
Decisive Action– Designer Joe Chacon and Developer Evan Yoak
Art for Decisive Action is chugging along – we are excited to have an additional artist onboard, David Prieto Gómez, who will be creating Event and Asset cards, as well as laying out the rulebook and playbook. That means we’re close!
Antonio, our other artist, ran into some health issues – we’re wishing him a speedy recovery. Nonetheless, he has also been hard at work creating the Activation and unit cards, examples of which you can see below. We are quite pleased and excited to see the game coming together! – Joe and Evan
Art for Defiance is moving right along, with the maps, counters, and cards completed. The player aid cards have been finalized, and Rick, our fine artist, will dig into those next. We’ve carefully planned how to split the materials between the rules, player aids, and playbook. And speaking of the playbook, Nico, another talented artist, will be taking on laying out the playbook and rulebook. We are closing in on the finish line! – Evan
We’ve just come back from a whirlwind of playtesting, including a couple of great in-person games at SDHistCon and a very insightful game with our Discord group (ask about it on the COIN Series Players Club Discord). It’s always an intellectually honest — and humbling — process to put a design in front of sharp players. The feedback has been invaluable, providing clear, motivating evidence around a few anxieties I’ve been nursing about the core systems of Echo from the Dark. We saw a few patterns emerge that needed addressing. These weren’t bugs, but rather misalignments between the game’s intended experience and the one actually happening at the table. Specifically:
● The time to the first Entropy Round (Echo’s “Propaganda” or “Coup”) was often too long, leaving the early game feeling a bit less punctuated than intended.
● The Disaster Phase of the Entropy Round rarely had any effect, making a whole subsystem feel vestigial and anomalies feel too safe.
● As the board filled up with Technology cards, we saw new players (and even experienced ones) start to tune out the technology system entirely. It was a classic case of too much information overwhelming the decision-space.
● The “random” placement of Salt was proving procedurally painful to resolve, adding friction where we wanted flow. It also required additional information on already densely packed Technology cards.
Good design is an iterative process of identifying these points of friction and sanding them down. So, based on this feedback, we’re rolling out a fairly significant set of interconnected changes. The goal, as always, is to maximize the ‘bang for the complexity buck.’
In addition, the current UX design is my poor attempt at presenting information, so I’ve been having some good talks with Kai Jensen and Bruce Mansfield about better ways to represent what’s going on in the game. I hope that this, combined with changes motivated by the above, will make the state of the game easier to read in play — and give us more room on the Technology cards for that sick Sam Matthews art. – Adam
This test-kit uses hand-drawn playtest art. This is nowhere near final art. 🙂
Epipolae has entered the fine-tuning and balancing phase. We’re excited about how the different victory paths are shaping up for both players. At the moment we are shuffling some events and capabilities for balance purposes – Christophe
It’s been a bit since we updated on Expansion or Extinction. I (Marco) just took over development for this, got all the latest files and I’m now ready to dive in! I’m familiar with Triumph & Tragedy and Conquest & Consequences but yeah, you don’t move around in space like you do in Europe or the Pacific, right? So, while Stuart is busy getting a few components up to speed, I am getting acquainted with what his game brings to the table in terms of new mechanics to account for the fact that you will now duke it out at the confines of the galaxy.
To everyone who preordered the game, thank you for your patience and expect steady progress from now on as we drive this one to the finish line! – Marco and Stuart
The development team have been deep into the art of Fields of Fire III for the past couple of months. On the six counter sheets you’ll find a set of British forces for era (1944, 1982 and 2008) along with German, Argentinian and Taliban units. Long-time Fields of Fire artist Donal Hegarty has updated all of the standard game markers as well as adding lots of new ones. So now we can have fires blazing in the Arnhem campaign, burning gorse bushes in the Falklands and of course lots of new radios. Donal is joined by Terry Leeds who provided additional artwork for the Afghanistan campaign to help keep things on schedule and ensure Colin Parsons’ vision for this brand new era in the series is realized.
There are seven terrain decks (two for each campaign plus an extra few cards for Afghanistan) to ensure a good mix of possible map layouts for each mission. We also have some new Staging Area cards to set up your forces at the beginning of play, and a brand new Action Deck, updated by Donal to include British equipment and a couple of new icons. The urban combat missions that make up the latter half of the Arnhem campaign feature a set of 50 cards based on an awesome overhead map of the area drawn by our third artist Mark Mahaffey. We hope to show this off in the near future.
Fields of Fire III follows the British Parachute Regiment through the battle of Arnhem 1944, Goose Green and Wireless Ridge in 1982 and Helmand, Afghanistan 2008. Like Fields of Fire Deluxe, each campaign has its own mission book, detailing the required map layouts, counters and special rules as well as a historical background for each campaign. There are also three training pamphlets included. Basic training will be familiar to anyone who has played FoF Deluxe, though even experienced players may want to take a quick look at our guide to the British army and how they spell things differently before putting it aside. Advanced operations covers AT Combat and air assaults, while the third pamphlet is dedicated to teaching the ins and outs of Urban Warfare.
And if that’s not enough, there is also a book of stand alone missions aimed at both beginners and advanced players. For those times when you just want to play a quick game and don’t want to think about campaign issues.
With standard and urban training assault courses, beginner and advanced stand alone missions and the main 25 campaign missions, Fields of Fire III is a massive project that we’re hoping will be wrapped up by the beginning of 2026. Take a look at the P500 page here and as always if you have any questions or just want to share your Fields of Fire stories, we’re always available on BGG, The Fields of Fire HQ’s Lounge on Facebook and CSW Forum.
As pre-orders are climbing, I have gotten a start on art for Bryan VanNortwick’s second expansion for FF: Grossdeutschland Division. Two of the ten new maps have been created, and the scenario pages and counters will start taking shape in the new year. Once we have all the pieces and maps, we will be getting a Vassal module set up and final playtesting will kick off. If you are a fan of the FF series, watch the newsletter for a call for testers. Current guess is that will be in late Spring/early Summer. ~ Kai
Firefight Tactical is essentially done with artwork. While Terry finalizes the counters, the last outstanding pieces are graphic design for the scenario cards and for the bot cards. This requires deft skill beyond my expertise, as there is a lot of info that has to appear clearly on these cards. For my part I am continuing bot playtesting on a few scenarios. Were the game to somehow go to the printer tomorrow I would have no reservations, but given that things are out of my hands I am trying to make the most of the extra time. I’m very much looking forward to sharing more as FFT starts to go to the printer, but here’s a sneak at the back of the Terrain cards. Unlike in other games, these are not merely decorative but form part of the play surface, so getting them to communicate “fog of war” was very important. – Sam
Over the past couple of months Joe and I have been having some discussions with Kai about the components for Hammer and Sickle, and we’ve decided to make a few adjustments that we think will improve the final game: the board is going to be slightly larger than our prototype version, and we will be using illustrated counters for the units, which will both be more evocative and allow for easy stacking in crowded map areas. Furthermore, we are going to be using wooden components for both the titular Hammers and Sickles and the crucial resources they generate. We are now just awaiting to be assigned an artist to help us get this game finished! – Alex
We recently worked on an interview with Alex and it will be upcoming on the blog in December.
We are nearing the close of a second round of testing for I Napoleon: The Limits of Glory. Things are looking very promising, with a couple key game mechanics having come into better focus since our first test. We’ll know more next week, after this playtest round finishes and we can dig through the data, but there’s a good chance this game could enter the list of games waiting for artwork next month!
Big shout out the folks testing the expansion because they’ve not only helped with the expansion, but have also been instrumental in identifying important clarifications and improvements which will be incorporated into the 2nd Printing of I, Napoleon.
Fans of the game can also look forward to an updated FAQ in the next few weeks. – Ted and David
I am still testing some final adjustments to Iron Storm while we wait for an artist to be assigned to work on the game, but otherwise the game is now complete. We’ve had an amazing group of playtesters putting the game through it’s paces over the last few years, and I’m now looking forward to getting it out to a wider audience. – Edgar
Unsurprisingly, a lot has been going on these last few weeks! The wording on the cards has been tightened to make them look and sound like their 360 predecessors. Likewise, Peter has been hunting images for them (a daunting job that goes sometimes unnoticed). This will allow us to hand them over to a layout artist and enter the final round of playtesting with production-ready cards! Will you seize that opportunity to join our Discord server and help us in this final stretch? -> https://discord.gg/m9k8gYbTUA
The finishing touches have also been put on the 1993 scenario so we should be ready to shift our focus to the other two (“Declaration of Jihad: 1996-2001” and “Public Enemy #1: 1998-2001”) as well as the long-awaited campaign game! – Peter and Marco
I am just in the process of making some final adjustments to the solitaire components for Lenin’s Legacy, mostly to make sure that they will fit in the box! Marco Poutré’s very clever solitaire system uses a separate sideboard to keep track of the “value” assigned by the non-player opponent to each card, making it easy to see at a glance which card they are most likely to play next. Our plan is for this sideboard to double-up as a card mat for the two-player game, where the five public cards drawn each round can be placed and viewed easily. This should all fold up nicely, allowing the game to retain a compact footprint overall. – Joe
Microverse is moving ahead at full steam. The majority of the species artwork is already completed and we will soon begin the sector tile art. On my end, I am still working on Microverse bot which is coming along very well. Starting this month, I am doing small write ups covering the various species of Microverse. We will share the art for them, I will give a brief lore explanation, and then offer an idea of how they play. Check the art Sneak Peeks section above to see the first two! – Sam
We launched Punicus on P500 last month, and it is now steadily gaining orders, but could still do with a bit of a boost. To that end, I will be conducting an interview with Grant and Alexander at The Players’ Aid, and I am planning to write a series of articles about the game for InsideGMT. In the meantime, if you have any questions about Punicus don’t hesitate to ask on either BGG or Consimworld, and sometime in the new year we will open up testing so you can take a closer look. Thanks for your support! – Carlos
Recon Series – Designer Volko Ruhnke
Coast Watchers:Allied Field Intelligence in the South Pacific, 1942-1943 – Recon Series, Volume I
Coast Watchers art is ever-so-close to done! Artist Wouter Schoutteten and solitaire systems co-designer Todd Quinn are putting finishing touches to the Solitaire Instructions booklet and foldout. We expect to hand off the entire package to GMT internal proofers before month’s end.
Drachen: Reconnaissance at Verdun, 1916 – Recon Series, Volume II
Even as Discord-based development and Tabletop Simulator tests of the Series’ next volume, Drachen, continues apace, we have 3 physical sets in action in different locations. Two of them just saw a terrific double-demo and test session at San Diego Historical Games Convention.
If you are interested in trying out Drachen on TTS or print-and-play and joining in on test and development conversation by Discord, just let me know by email at volkoruhnke@gmail.com. Thank you! – Volko
With my work on The Pure Land non-player system wrapping up, I am now about to begin working on the non-player system for the main four-faction Resisting Revolution game. This will likely take me several months to get working right, but in the meantime we have been assigned an artist to work on the other game components, so we will begin layout for the cards, counters, player aids, and booklets. – Joe
Seljuk is currently shipping to all the GMT customers. We hope you will all like the game. For people who aren’t sure about buying the game just yet, we posted the rules online on the GMT website and a vassal module will be available to you soon.
At SDHistcon, (photo below, left to right) Mark Greenwald ( Simulations Specialist at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College), Justin Fassino (Seljuk designer), Florent Coupeau (Nuts publishing), Volko Ruhnke (COIN, Levy & Campaign Series creator, Labyrinth, etc.), Mark Miklos (Battles of the American Revolution Series), Joseph Buszek from Meeple Mountain, Candice Harris and Arthur Carvalho played SELJUK in a Designers vs. Creators game.
I took on Tank Duel Tank Pack #2 development at the Weekend at the Warehouse in October and I’m glad to join the team of this great system. There has been a lot of progress this month: The tanks have been completely finalized/passed to art and Terry has begun to work his magic on the tank boards which you can see earlier in the Sneak Peeks section of the newsletter. We’re now finalizing the cards and scenarios for the expansion. Kai and Jason assure us that once everything is ready, we’ll move to the printer – that includes a reprint of the base game with several updates from North Africa (available for first edition owners in a convenient Update Kit). – Chris
We have been making steady progress with Cowpens, and we are now nearing the proofing stage. It takes some time to finalize all of the components before everything goes to proofers: in particular, the map and counters are in good shape, while the rules and player aid cards need additional editing. – Rob
I am going to reach out to the designer Bruno Sinigaglio to get his thoughts on the design soon in an interview. I have been procrastinating I guess.
But, I did shoot this video interview with Bruno and Dave Stiffler while attending WBC in the summer of 2024:
Last week we sent off the final Enemy of My Enemy booklet for layout, so this one is now close to ready for proofreading, and should be sent to the printer shortly after that. We will be printing it at the same time as a reprint of the base game, The British Way, so if you’re interested in this expansion you can pick that up at the same time. The expansion includes two entirely new games, variants for all four original games, and updated rules and materials for the revised version of Cyprus that will be included in the reprint. If you enjoyed The British Way, you’ll surely enjoy this! – Stephen
We sent The Guerrilla Generation off to the printer last month, and we can’t wait to get it into your hands and onto your tables! Like its older sibling The British Way, it packs a lot into the box, including four entirely separate two-player games plus a combined El Salvador-Nicaragua game that can accommodate up to four players (in two teams).
Joe and I already have some ideas for an expansion if this one does well enough, similar in format to the Enemy of My Enemy expansion for The British Way, so vote with your wallet if you’d like to see that happen. – Stephen
Last week I launched a final round of non-player testing for The Pure Land, putting the system through it’s paces while we continue to work on the rest of the art and layout. Nils Johansson has updated the beautiful map he designed for us, based on some usability feedback from playtesting we did earlier in the year, and the other components are now just awaiting an artist to work on them. – Joe
The Weimar Republic is in the final stage of proofing, and we will be sending the project to the printer soon. This is a big project, and designer Gunnar Holmbäck has done a thorough job exploring the turbulent history of Germany from 1919 to 1933. There is a lot of history in The Weimar Republic: the futile attempts by the democratic republic to stabilize Germany in the wake of WWI, the strident revanchism of the radical conservatives, the revolutionary fervor of the communists, and the final power grab by Hitler and his Nazi party.
And there is a lot of game in the Weimar box, too! Each of the four factions have their own unique set of actions. Over 150 event cards detail the key historical events, people, and moments that define this critical era in world history. Each faction can be handled by a full non-player bot, allowing any number of players — from 1 to 4 — to play the complete game.
Several scenarios allow for a shorter game, or you can take on the full campaign game: 1919 – 1933. There is a tutorial scenario and matching tutorial example of play, giving new players an easy way to learn the game. Detailed historical notes cover each faction, and historical notes accompany every event card. This is an important story, one that would have far-reaching consequences for the history of Europe and the world, and it is told in great detail in The Weimar Republic. – Bruce
The World Crisis, a World War I grand strategy game adopting concepts from A World at War, Gathering Storm and Storm Over Asia, continues to make strides. The mapboard is complete. Here is an excerpt:
All the counters are also done. One unique category of counters relate to terrain, which has a major impact on combat:
These and other components, as well as the rules and related documents, are available for viewing at The World Crisis website:
A number of playtest games are underway, all of which have seen appropriately high casualty rates, as well as many interesting and unexpected twists and turns, as players explore the game’s potential. The target release date is 2026. – Bruce
At long last, Three Days of Gettysburg – Deluxe Edition is in its final stages and is headed for what is hopefully a December print slot. Final development and art/design from the estimable Charlie Kibler are all but complete. This has been the result of a nearly two-year incubation and dozens of playtest sessions by our crack “Iron Brigade” of testers. The final product will truly be deluxe in every sense of the word, with no less than FIVE booklets: series rules, battle rules, scenario rules, Simple Version GBACW rules (making their first appearance here), and Simple Version battle book/scenarios.
Add to that four full-sized maps, two double-sided “mini-maps”, eight sheets of counters, and FOURTEEN displays and player aid cards, this will be the largest GBACW release to date. Fifteen scenarios, ranging in scope from small-map clashes like Culp’s Hill to several versions of the full battle and everything in between, will provide countless hours of Gettysburg action and entertainment. Presently, 3DoG-DE is with GMT and Jason Carr’s eagle-eyed proofreading team. After what are hopefully minor corrections and updates, I would anticipate production preparation to soon follow. Many thanks to all involved for their dedication and hard work in making the final product a reality. – Joe and Dick
Today we wrapped up the proofreading process for Thunderbolt Deluxe. The five rulebooks, over 250 pages, have been updated and being prepped for the printers. In addition, to the rulebooks there 13 Player Aids cards and 16 Displays many of which are back printed, that are now ready for the printers. The map and counter artists are putting the final touches on those components in preparation for printing. My understanding is that all will be ready for the printer in the very near future. – Alan
Kai and Jason let us know that GMT is ready to print Time of Crisis Deluxe Edition in early 2026, so things are moving ahead. First, the new improvements in this edition – Port, Market, Monument, and Temple – are with the artist. Each of these buildings has a new ability that gives players more choices:
Ports make it easier to move your armies across the Mediterranean. Markets let you convert Influence Points between types of Influence. Temples let you reroll event rolls by petitioning the Gods, and Monuments honor your legacy by generating Mobs when your governor is replaced by an opponent’s.
These improvements, and some balance changes to the Military Emperors and the Demagogue and Foederati cards, have been thoroughly tested on Rally the Troops, thanks to Tor and his crew. That means that all that is left once art is complete is to lay out the new combined rulebook, and then the game will be ready to print! – Brad and Wray
I started working on Triumvir a few weeks ago, reviewing the rulebook and the other components, getting clarifications from the designers and generally putting the game into shape so a TTS module can be created for YOU to see what it’s all about and help us make it the best game possible! So, whether you’re a Versailles 1919 enthusiast, new to the system, and/or a fan of Ancient Rome intrigue, keep your eyes open for our new call for players, possibly in the very next newsletter! I’ll be partaking for sure as Geoff and Mark put together a worthy follow-up, similar enough to be familiar and different enough to carve its own place. The Mood of Rome is an intriguing mechanic which I cannot wait to try out! – Marco
I had the pleasure of talking with Ananda Gupta at the GMT Weekend at the Warehouse in October about the one sticky problem that remains with South Asian Monsoon. Ananda is not directly involved in the design of South Asian Monsoon, but he has a massive amount of Twilight Struggle experience and a wealth of context, so it was a great conversation. He pointed out that in Twilight Struggle, players Coup for several reasons: It is a great way to flip control of a country, it drops DEFCON (which can lock in control of countries), and it gives you MilOps which protect against VP loss. This last function ensures that players still consider a Coup even at DEFCON 2, when most Coup targets are closed off due to restrictions and auto-loss.
South Asian Monsoon has no Coups, instead players make Rapprochement rolls (no, don’t ask me how to say it). These rolls serve a similar function as Coups (with a dash of Realignment roll), but Ananda saw that we needed something in the game to serve the same function as Military Operations in Twilight Struggle: enter, the Engagement track. Ananda did a great job helping me avoid “double modeling” with Rapprochement modifiers, and was a great sounding board for balancing the VP award from the track. When we last played, Ananda’s endorsement was clear: “It’s done, ship it!”
As soon as Twilight Struggle 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame Edition hits the printer, as much of my time and attention as possible will shift to finishing South Asian Monsoon, along with Jason Matthews. Stay tuned! – Jason
Žižka – DesignerPetr Mojžíš and Developer Christophe Correia
There has been significant progress in tuning up Žižka. The focus was on streamlining and balancing the game. Gone are complicated rules for handling attached Crusader Lord mats. Don’t worry, the brain-burning supply challenges of huge Crusader armies are still there. The same gameplay is simply achieved by giving some Crusader Lords a zero Command rating.
The brand new mechanism “Open the Gates!”, which allows Strongholds to Surrender even at the very moment the army marches into the Locale, and which is very crucial for Žižka gameplay, is now seamlessly merged with the already well-known Surrender mechanism. Again, nothing is lost here. Expect mini negotiations in front of every town gates with (religious and political) Cause cards. Speaking of which, these cards are now integrated throughout the player decision-making on many levels of the game.
The Prague playtest group is very active. Two or three games are simultaneously on the tables every month. The game now also includes a brand new half-campaign scenario based on their input. There will be a total of eight scenarios, including the quick start one, plus one battle minigame intro in the box.
We also had a great time when (not only Czech) Žižka playtesters gathered together during Czech Consim Con 2025. This visit of Mitchell Land and Ralph Shelton to Prague might also cause the Hussites to deploy their War Wagons not only to the Levy & Campaign Series but also to the Men of Iron Series in the near future.
A big thanks from Petr Mojžíš (middle of the photo above) to all the playtesters who have spent many hours playtesting Žižka, and to all the people who spend many hours testing future releases and helping the designers deliver a good product. – Christophe and Petr
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:
As always, thank you for reading along this month. Please let me know what caught your interest from the update and what GMT Games products that you have been enjoying lately.
The Players' Aid 