Tattered Flags: Into The Whirlpool is a hybrid historical miniatures/board game design that simulates tactical American Civil War combat in a playable format. The game depicts in detail the series of engagements that occurred in and around the salient formed by Union General Dan Sickles’ III Corps as he was attacked by Confederate General James Longstreet’s Corps at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2nd, 1863.
The game is primarily designed as a 2-player game, one player taking Union forces and the other the Confederate (or Rebel) forces. However, more players are easily accommodated as commands or sectors for each side can be divided amongst multiple players.
Rodney Smith, the founder and host of board game ‘how to play’ video giant Watch It Played, has accused long-time site colleague Chaz Marler of misleading advertisers on the latter’s Game Night Picks YouTube channel by paying to boost viewer numbers on its videos.
A detailed report distributed by Smith to board game publishers yesterday said Marler had used YouTube advertising to boost views on Game Night Picks – formerly known as Pair of Dice Paradise – in November and December last year, with typical viewers per video rising from the low thousands to an average of 36,700 across those months.
While that might seem ideal for publisher advertisers, Smith added that Game Night Picks had establised a ‘per view’ fee structure early last year – and said more than 90% of viewers in November and December left the videos within the first minute, well short of the point at which publisher advertising was shown.
A graph distributed by Rodney Smith showing the fall in viewership over time for an unspecified YouTube video, which he said made use of YouTube Advertising to boost viewer numbers
Smith said in the report, “Despite the sudden influx of 145,300 subscribers, the behind-the-scenes analytics (which only those with access to the YouTube account can see) showed that traffic ‘from subscribers’ did not change in any perceptible way.
“If even 1% of the new subscribers had returned to watch future videos with some regularity, traffic ‘from subscribers’ would have increased by roughly 1,453, but there was no noticeable change. It suggests that you can pay to have the ‘YouTube Advertising’ feature provide you with subscribers and/or views, but it cannot make those subscribers (or viewers) engage with your content.”
He added, “Would a publisher agree to pay a ‘per view’ fee if they knew only 3% to 6% of the viewers were still watching a video by the time their ad aired?
“It would seem that this advertising model can only be effective if the publisher remains unaware of the underlying data (which only the channel owner has access to) – I also had access to it, due to our working relationship.”
Data from social media analytics website SocialBlade, showing the surge in subscribers for Board Game Picks in the last two months of 2025
Smith said that after he noticed the change in analytics he approached Marler in December, telling him he believed the latter was “engaged in a deceptive practice” – and was told some publishers who bought ads in November and December had been issued discounts of ‘half or more’.
“He expressed that providing discounts to publishers would fix what he was doing, but it was clear in my mind that discounting unethical practices do not make them ethical.”
Smith continued in his written report, “I assured [Marler] that his activities would be discovered due to the overt and unnatural viewer and subscriber growth he had obtained through ‘YouTube Advertising’.
“Once uncovered, publishers might reasonably (but incorrectly) assume I was also engaged in this practice due to his six-year association with Watch It Played. They might reasonably assume I’d instructed him on how to do it.
“Although I have never engaged in any of these activities personally, his actions threatened to undermine the relationships and trust I have cultivated with publishers and viewers over the past 15 years – risking irreparable damage to my career and reputation.”
Chaz Marler hosting one of the videos on his Game Night Picks YouTube channel
Marler confirmed to BoardGameWire yesterday that he had made use of YouTube’s built-in promotions tools in November for Game Night Picks “to see how it works”, but added that the tool “didn’t produce the results I was looking for, in terms of viewership quality or sustainability” and was no longer being used by the site.
Update 10/2/26: Rodney Smith contacted BoardGameWire in the wake of reading Marler’s response here to add the following statement:
“The owner of Game Night Picks first used the YouTube Advertising feature in August, and then again in October. One would reasonably presume that the first and second time a tool like this is used, a creator would be paying close attention to the effects of how it works – especially as they are paying to influence the final resulting views.
“In November, the owner of Game Night Picks started using the YouTube Advertising feature again, but this time did not stop. It was used on each of the following 19 videos one, after the other. Each showing the same relative viewer retention within the document I shared, and this article.
“As I said to him in December: after three or four, or maybe five of these videos, the pattern was clear. Why continue the ‘experiment’ 15 more times (which does not include the experiments in August and October)? To my mind, he had lost plausible deniability about the effects of this tool after the fifth attempt. And I would say that’s being generous.
“I would want to remind readers, the issue is not that the tool was used. The document I presented was to show how ‘in combination’ with the YouTube advertising tool, the lack of information the publishers had, and the fee structure, unethical and legal implications were introduced.”
Update ends
Marler would not comment on the accusation he had willingly engaged in unethical behaviour towards advertisers, or say whether he had properly reimbursed advertisers featured on Game Night Picks during the period in question after the issue was raised with him by Smith.
Marler did tell BoardGameWire, “While I’m not going to detail specific invoices here, I can say that each invoice and project has always been taken on a case-by-case basis.
“That same approach was applied to the invoices incurred during the time in question. It would gain a channel nothing to overcharge clients, especially in an industry as intimate as ours.”
He said that while he had stopped using YouTube advertising, “if a solution does become available that benefits the sponsors, viewers, and the channel, while removing ambiguity, I think that would be worth looking into. The trick would be accomplishing that, while also ensuring clarity and transparency for all parties.”
He added, “I don’t think that anyone is making the case that investing in promotion in-and-of itself is unacceptable. The objective, as with any endeavor, is to set expectations and responsibly provide value to those you’re serving (including both viewers and sponsors).”
When asked what changes Marler planned to make to Game Night Picks, and how it offers advertising to publishers, he said, “Part of the plan is to continue communicating as openly as possible to sponsors, colleagues, and viewers. For example, in late November, a newsletter was sent to all the sponsors I work with informing them of the surge in viewership numbers that was being experienced.
“Subsequent newsletters have outlined updates to the way sponsorships are billed, to accommodate when experiencing lower overall viewer retention due to any reason.
“The channel’s ‘Video Services’ document, which is provided to sponsors, was also updated during that time to restate this updated policy. That policy is also included in cold-call and follow-up emails related to advertising that are sent out.
“The cornerstone of any collaboration process is communication and mutually setting expectations between colleagues, viewers, and sponsors. That has been the focus since the sponsorship system was launched, and it will continue to be, into the future.”
He did not respond to BoardGameWire’s request to see copies of those sponsor-focused newsletters or the channel’s ‘video services’ document.
Marler also runs the website TableTop Media Makers, which says it aims to handle the “sponsorship grunt-work” of running a board game-focused YouTube channel by “securing sponsorships, tracking down ad assets, writing ad copy, reporting video views, billing advertisers, and managing the financials”.
Further Fallout
Watch It Played, which was launched by Smith in 2011, has grown to become the hobby’s biggest YouTube channel for videos explaining how to play specific games, with more than 413,000 subscribers.
The vast majority of its videos up to 2020 were fronted by Smith, with support from members of his family, and Pep MacDonald also involved in making instructional and gameplay videos for the site between 2015 and 2019.
A slew of new faces began appearing on the site from 2020, however, as Smith expanded its scope to include content such as news roundups and top ten lists.
Smith announced seven days ago during a Marler-fronted video on Watch It Played that the site would return to a solo operation exclusively focused on tutorial videos – without offering an explanation as to why – with the rest of its hosts leaving to continue at their other respective outlets.
They include Marler, Deming and Jude, as well as Monique Macasaet and Naveen Sharma from board game playthrough and review YouTube channel Before You Play.
Of those, Deming and Jude also both appear on Game Night Picks videos – but Smith said in his statement, “I have no reason to believe any of the other people appearing in Game Night Picks videos have knowledge of the underlying data that would demonstrate how these inflated channel numbers were gained, nor would I imagine they know the full extent of the advertising practices the owner of Game Night Picks is using.
“Unless they chose to share it, only the YouTube channel owner would have access to that data.”
He added, “I also do not believe this is a widespread problem in the board game media community. I do not want the actions taken by the owner of Game Night Picks to reflect on other media creators who have grown their channels organically through the creative work they have published.”
Smith also spoke on yesterday’s video about his decision to pare back the site to a solo operation, saying, “This whole situation brought me to another hard-learned realization. I’m just not comfortable having my channel, and my reputation, entangled in the decisions other people might decide to make.
“Again, I have no reason to doubt the character of Matthew, Paula, Monique or Naveen – quite the opposite.
“But I would have said the same about the person who did engage in unethical behaviour that we’re now discussing. I imagine you can appreciate, my trust has been a bit shaken.
“I don’t want what has happened to make me cynical, and I would like to believe I could revisit collaborations in the future. But you’ll likely understand if I would just like Watch It Played to go back to being fully my responsibility, and not tied to the actions of anyone else.”
We picked up Churchill back in 2014 when it first was printed. From what I could tell at the time was that it wasn’t getting a lot of buzz amongst board gamers on BGG and there were only 2 YouTube videos about the game where we could learn a little more (one from Mark Herman and his wife, the other from Stuka Joe). I realize now that I was wrong to a large extent about the presumptive popularity of the game. First, we had bought it while it was brand new so the buzz was just getting started in a major way. Secondly, Churchill is viewed by many as a wargame and as such many euro gamers are hesitant to give it the try it so rightly deserves. But the game system and what it is trying to do is just fantastic with its debating over issues, seeing those issues translate to action on the board in the further prosecution of the war and then the way that people work to coordinate their actions. Just a really solid system.
A few years ago, after playing all of the games in the Great Statesmen Series, we heard of a new game in the series from a designer not named Mark Herman and I was immediately interested and intrigued as we have had so much fun with Churchill, Pericles and Versailles 1919. Congress of Vienna from GMT Games is a diplomatic card driven wargame based on Churchill and is the 4th game in the Great Statesmen Series. The game is set during the years of 1813-1814 and sees players take on the role of the main characters of the struggle between the Napoleonic Empire and the coalition of Russia, Austria, and Great Britain with their Prussian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swedish allies. We played the game recently while attending Buckeye Game Fest and then played a full campaign again while attending the World Boardgaming Championships and absolutely were amazed at the changes and innovations to the system introduced by the designer Frank Esparrago.
In the Shadows: Resistance in France, 1943-1944 from GMT Games is a 2-player card-driven game about the desperate struggle of the French Resistance against the occupying Nazi and collaborating French forces between January 1943 and June 1944. In the game you will play as either the Resistance or the Occupation in a fight over the hearts and minds of the French People. The game strives to have players better understand the nuances of the resistance and the clandestine nature of the fight that led to the founding of the fourth French Republic.
The gameplay of In the Shadows is driven by Event cards and Actions based on suits. The game relies on three different suits (the Resistance Cross, the Victory Cross, and the Iron Cross) to determine the cost and effectiveness of your Actions. Narratively, this is meant to represent the vital importance of local networks and resources. You may be working with resources in Paris but need to perform Sabotage Actions in Vichy. In this way, the game can better replicate the choices that the leaders of the Occupation and Resistance needed to make.
In this video, I run down my list of the Top 10 Solitaire Wargames that I played in 2024. These games included many that are designed for solitaire play only as well as a few of the games that I played solo but were designed for 2-player. They also included some Print and Play offerings as well.
Take the role of a general (United States, Russia or Germany) in Aces & Armor, which is a complex (but easy to learn) strategy game. In addition to attack strength and armor of your troops, their tactical setup, combat experience, damage and terrain have a decisive influence on the outcome of the battle. Since each unit brings its own strengths, you must cleverly assemble your army to win the victory over your opponents.
Cooperative or competitive
Solo mode
Detailed miniatures with many different unit types
High re-playability due to the variable start setup
Complex combat system that depends on type of unit, combat damage, experience, strategic formation, terrain and armor (known from highly rated game Trench Club)
Invasion Normandy by Historical Board Gaming, designed by Kirt Purdy, is a historically accurate D-Day board game developed over three years of design and playtesting. This WWII strategy game immerses players in the Allied invasion of Normandy, featuring a detailed map in three sizes, battleboards for combat resolution, wire-bound rulebooks, reference sheets, and cardstock roundels and markers for strategic gameplay. Plastic pieces are not included, allowing players to use their own game components.
Experience the challenge of commanding forces during one of the most pivotal battles of World War II!
As you know, we very much enjoy multi-player wargames and anytime there is a new multi-player game coming out we very much sit up and take notice. In early 2024, Columbia Games launched a Kickstarter for a game on the Napoleonic Wars called Alliance: Multiplayer Napoleonic Wargame. Alliance is billed as a 1-7 player strategic level game of diplomacy and warfare in the Napoleonic Era with a Columbia Block System twist. The game is huge and plays best with more players. The players take on the roles of different nations during the time and you can play as Austria, England, France, Prussia, Russia, Spain, or the Ottomans. We recently played a full 7-player game and had a grand old time. While the game is not perfect, and there are some quirks that you must get past, the game is really pretty fun and interesting and could be one of those main staples at gaming conventions where you need a lot of players.
The November/December 2025 Monthly Debrief Video, which is the 11th and 12th episodes in Season 5 of this series, saw us discussing Winter Wargames. These are games that feature battles and campaigns that happened in snowy and cold wintry conditions. These involve several different theaters and wars but as you would expect does involve the East Front of WWII quite a bit.
Also, as usual, we covered the games we played in November and December, as well as the games we plan to play in January.
We will remind you here that we are fortunate to be continuing our relationship with Noble Knight Games as the sponsor for our Monthly Debrief Video series. In case you don’t know, Noble Knight Games specializes in hard to find games but also carry all the new releases. But what makes them truly unique is that you can find some of the rarest games, long out of print games, hand made games, imported games from overseas, etc. Thanks to them for their sponsorship and we hope that you will consider them first when looking for the games we cover.
Manila: The Savage Streets, 1945 puts the player in charge of the attacking and far more mobile American side while the game system handles the defending and largely static Japanese side. No two games will ever be the same. Each turn presents new and unique challenges for the player in the form of random events, uncertain supply deliveries, and unknown Japanese area strengths and defensive strategies.
The primary game is a nine-turn campaign covering the American assault on the city during February and March 1945. The deeper American forces advance, from the city’s less developed periphery to its urban business district and fortress-like government buildings, the greater Japanese resistance becomes. The number of American units fought to exhaustion, effectively out of action, mounts. American determination to secure a rapid victory for Supreme Allied Commander General Douglas MacArthur, represented as “morale” in the game, gradually decreases. The player wins by equaling or exceeding historical American gains and loses if they fail to do so, or if morale falls too low.
Fighting Formations is intended to be an ongoing series of wargames covering WWII tactical combined-arms combat at the platoon and squad levels. Each game in the series will feature a distinct combat unit, highlighting battles in which that unit participated as well as its particular order of battle and fighting characteristics. In this second volume of Fighting Formations, GMT features the US 29th Infantry Division—“Blue and Gray”—as it fought from just after D-Day in June of 1944 to the end of the year.
Corvette Command is a dedicated solitaire wargame that places the player in command of a Flower class corvette, guarding desperately needed supplies being transported across the North Atlantic during the early years of the Second World War. Fighting both the harsh weather and the continual threat of German U-boat attack, mission success – and perhaps even the eventual outcome of the war – hinges on the successful passage of the transports.
This one surprised me a bit! Initially, I really had just a tad bit of interest and when I got a copy and started to play, it felt a lot like a chart flipper that can be repetitive. But, as I kept at it the game opened up and I really started to love the mechanics, the dice and how they are used, the crew development over time and then I just fell in love playing it.
Looking for something comic related for that fan in your life for the holidays? Then consider the board game, Corps. of Discovery from Off the Page Games.
Lese Zeit: 12MinutenLetztes Jahr hab ich ja ausgelassen, aber dieses Jahr war ich wieder live dabei – und das gleich alle vier Tage lang! Und das hier ist mein Bericht für Euch! Fakten Zunächst ein paar Worte zur Messe selbst, der SPIEL: […]
Legends of the Arena is an intense brawling board game for 2-6 players inspired by Super Smash Bros. Knock your opponents out of the Arena and claim victory!
Lese Zeit: 4MinutenGedanken zum Spiele-Hobby anlässlich des Weltspieltags am 11. Juni 2025 Wahnsinn! Wenn ich darüber nachdenke, wie viel Zeit meines Lebens ich schon mit Spielen verbracht habe und wie selbstverständlich es für mich ist, an den Spieltisch zu kommen… Unser Hobby […]
Lese Zeit: 2MinutenLesezeit: 8 Minuten Entdecke, wie du als Anfänger erfolgreich Miniaturen bemalst. Dieser umfassende Beginner-Kaufguide erklärt dir Schritt für Schritt, welche Materialien du benötigst und wie du sie effektiv einsetzt – für beeindruckende Ergebnisse bei Brettspiel-Miniaturen. 🧰 Was du zum Start […]
Lese Zeit: 4MinutenLesezeit: 10 Minuten Ein Brettspiel, das im Krieg spielt – aber nicht mit Soldaten, nicht mit Siegpunkten, nicht mit Helden. This War of Mine ist ein Spiel, das uns in die Rolle von Zivilisten versetzt, die in einer zerstörten Stadt […]
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