Last week, Alexander and I attended our 6th Buckeye Game Fest in Columbus, Ohio. Buckeye Game Fest is an annual gaming convention ran by Buckeye Game Festivals, which is a 501c4 non-profit committed to promoting the hobby of boardgaming by hosting an annual festival and pop-up gaming events within the local community. BGF also has a dedicated War Room where wargames are featured and the War Room runs from Monday (when the rest of the convention doesn’t start until Thursday) through Sunday every spring. The convention is typically held in mid to late April but this year due to conflicts the convention was very early and was held from Monday, March 9th through Sunday, March 15th. We attended from Tuesday afternoon March 10th through Sunday morning March 15th. As is usually the case, we had a fantastic time playing games, hanging with friends, discussing game releases with several publishers who attend, including Blue Panther, Catastrophe Games and this year Decision Games, and hanging out with designers such as Hermann Luttmann, Tim Densham, John Lapham, David Thompson and others. It is just a very small and intimate convention that never disappoints.

While attending the convention, I wrote a series of detailed Daily Debriefs on the blog but wanted to do this piece to highlight the overall experience and show you why this convention is so good. So here are my Top 10 Moments from this year’s convention.

10. Played 6 Wargames Published in 2025 to Finish up 2025

2025 was somewhat challenging for us from a time standpoint. Alexander has received a promotion at work and has been traveling more than usual and also dealt with some non-serious health matters earlier in the year that cut into our gaming time. I also had a busy year at work and our 2 teenage daughters who are still at home have gotten involved in more time required activities at school which requires me and my wife to drive them to-and-fro from practices, concerts, attending competitions and the like so we were only able to get to 25 new published wargames from 2025….until we went to Buckeye Game Fest.

We were able to play 6 wargames published in 2025 over the 5 days of the convention and they were all very good. We played Gettysburg: The First Day from Revolution Games, Chicago ‘68 from The Dietz Foundation, China’s War: 1937-1941 from GMT Games, Cross Bronx Expressway from GMT Games, Werwolf: Insurgency in Occupied Germany, 1945-1948 from Legion Wargames and Imperial Elegy: The Road to the Great War 1850-1920 from VUCA Simulations.

This now has moved our total new 2025 published wargames played to 31, which is a very respectable number even if less than our usual number of new plays in any given year. This means we can now close the book on 2025 and put together our Top 10 lists for your consumption and then do a video.

All of these games mentioned here are multi-player wargames, with the exception of Gettysburg: The First Day, which is a traditional 2-player hex and counter wargame. But we believe that conventions are ideally suited for multi-player games and that is what we bring and plan to play when attending. This year we were very successful in this endeavor and actually played 11 multi-player games! No 2-player games for us at conventions (except for Tuesday evening as there are never really that many folks who have arrived yet!).

9. Breaking Bread with Hermann Luttmann

Each day, we need sustenance when attending these conventions. Playing games, learning rule sets, chatting and cavorting take a lot out of a body. We almost always take our breakfasts in the hotel restaurant as they offer a full buffet with eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, toast, fruit and cereals. But, we also like to visit the fantastic restaurants nearby and love to go along with friends. This year, we had 3 opportunities to break bread with our good friend Hermann Luttmann, who needs no introduction in wargaming circles, but has designed great games such as A Most Fearful Sacrifice from Flying Pig Games, The Plum Island Horror from GMT Games, At Any Cost from GMT Games and an upcoming zombie game that we all know and love Dawn of the Zeds Designer Edition from Blue Panther. While he has a bit of an aristocratic palate (he always orders eggs benedict!) and enjoys various Southern delicacies such as creamed spinach, he is a joy to eat with as we chat about all kinds of things including current events, game design, how contracts for designers work, the wargame market, his upcoming designs and lots of other interesting subjects. So eating with Hermann might cause a bit of indigestion due to all of the laughter and joking but is one of the highlights of any convention that he attends.

8. Annual Sit Down with Steve Jones AKA Steve Blue/ Panther Steve from Blue Panther

Annually at BGF, we try to sit down with Steve Jones (aka Steve Blue or Steve Panther) with Blue Panther, LLC and do a video summarizing all of their upcoming projects and games from the publishers that they have a partnership with and print their games. Their list of clients is quite extensive and includes the likes of Hollandspiele, White Dog Games, Bill Molyneaux Games, Historic Wings, Catastrophe Games, Art of Wargames, Pinkerton Games, War Diary Publications, Lock ‘n Load Publishing, The Historical Game Company and Red Sash Games amongst others.

Steve is a gentle giant of a man and is always fun to sit down and talk with as he has a rapier whit and deep knowledge of the gaming business. I sometimes feel bad as I always give him a hard time in the videos and this year I really felt saucy and was definitely giving him a what for! He was game though and took it in stride and punched back multiple times. I thought this video was especially good and was filled with lots of great upcoming games that you should keep an eye out for. We will post this video on our YouTube Channel in the next few weeks.

7. Playing Games with New Attendees

We are really into growing Buckeye Game Fest and over the past few years as we have been working with them and promoting the con with our videos, blog posts and social media, we have seen it grow and had the chance to meet tons of new friends along the way. Now, while this year’s attendance was a bit down, partly due to the earlier than usual date (remember I said typically in mid to late April) and conflicts with spring breaks, we only had about 35-40 attendees in the War Room. But that didn’t mean there weren’t new attendees. In fact, there were at least 5 new attendees that we were able to meet and game with as well as some new designers who attended.

I am not going to go into great depth or detail about each of these new folks but 3 that really stood out to us were Leslie Jerome from Kansas, Dave from Michigan and James also from Michigan.

First up is Leslie. He taught us the Line of Battle Series of American Civil War Games from Multi-Man Publishing with the 3rd game in the series called To Take Washington: Jubal Early’s Summery 1864 Campaign. He was a very passionate gamer and just loves this ACW series for many reasons that we learned as we played the game. I will talk about this more later in the post but he also makes his boards 3-D by cutting out and taping on pieces of card board/card stock to show the elevations on the board. This creates a whole new experience and is also frankly amazing the look at. We were honored to both meet and play with Leslie and want to thank him for the teaching and for also playing China’s War from GMT Games with us later that evening, which was his first foray into the COIN Series and I saw where on Saturday he purchased one of my favorite volumes in Liberty or Death from the Decision Games booth. Thank you Leslie and we hope you will return in the future!

Next was Dave from Michigan. Dave was a fantastic guy. A bit shy and reserved but a man that showed great resolve in how he ended up coming to be in attendance at the convention. See, each day I write those Daily Debrief Series posts recounting the events of the previous days plays and experiences and post them on the blog around or even after midnight each night. Well, he read my summary of Day 1 and just decided to drive down from Michigan, I think that he said it was a 4+ hour drive, and attend the convention. Just amazing and I was so glad that someone was reading the posts and that they encouraged them to attend. He agreed to play Werwolf: Insurgency in Occupied Germany, 1945-1948 from Legion Wargames with us and Gary from Ardwulf’s Lair and I think that he had a good time playing as the United States. Thanks for coming Dave and for showing such courage and spontaneity in just deciding to come from reading a blog post. Amazing!

Finally, there was James. Now James is a Patron, which means he donates a few bucks per month to have access to our Slack Channel and discuss wargames, but he came this year and it was a great honor to meet him and to also play 3 games with him as he played Here I Stand with us on Friday and Imperial Elegy and Bretwalda with us on Saturday. He also went to dinner with us Saturday evening and even bought us a drink (I don’t drink alcohol so he bought me a diet Coke). He was a very smart and savvy game player and held his own with Here I Stand as he tied with me as the Protestants before I won on the tiebreaker. But it was a great experience meeting him and he left with at least 3 new games from Blue Panther’s booth that I convinced him to buy (it wasn’t like I had to twist his arm as he already had them in his arms and was going to buy them anyway!).

But meeting new people is what conventions are all about and we have very much cherished these experiences and the friendships that we have built over the years.

6. The Gorgeous 3-D Boards

The 3-D boards made by Leslie. Oh man seeing these was simply amazing. Leslie has a special talent that he shared with us as he showed off his handiwork which involves creating 3-D boards for his favorite games such as To Take Washington: Jubal Early’s Summer 1864 Campaign from Multi-Man Publishing, A Most Fearful Sacrifice from Flying Pig Games and Stonewall’s Sword from Revolution Games.

These boards are just amazing and each one of them has such great detail showing the different elevations on the battlefield. Leslie said each one takes him multiple weeks to create and involves a lot of detail and precision cutting and gluing as well as shading the edges of the elevating terrain with colored pencils. We were really impressed and when we got to play a few turns of To Take Washington with him the details of the board really made the game play that much deeper and richer.

To Take Washington: Jubal Early’s Summer 1864 Campaign from Multi-Man Publishing from the Line of Battle Series…..and…..

…..Stonewall’s Sword: The Battle of Cedar Mountain from Revolution Games….and…

….and A Most Fearful Sacrifice: The Three Days of Gettysburg from Flying Pig Games.

At the end of the con, Leslie gifted us the To Take Washington board and we were honored to accept this gift as we plan to break them game out again in the near future and take it through its paces. Thanks to Leslie for the gift and for the chance to learn the series.

5. Experiencing the Newest COIN Series Game

We have been waiting for the final version of China’s War: 1937-1941 since it was announced in late 2019 and added to the P500. So, when we got a chance to play it at BGF, I knew it would be a memorable event. China’s War examines the first five years of the conflict in China from 1937-1941, when China stood alone against the Japanese Empire. Each player takes the role of a Faction seeking to attack or defend the Republic of China: the aggressive Japanese, the harried Government (represented by the Guomindang party), the rebellious Chinese Communist Party, or the unruly, fractious Warlords who are obedient when convenient but have their eye on gaining state power. Using military, political, and economic actions and exploiting various events, players build and maneuver forces to influence or control the population, extract resources, or otherwise achieve their Faction’s aims. A deck of cards regulates turn order, events, victory checks, and other processes. The rules can run non-player Factions, enabling solitaire, 2-player, or multi-player games.

We find that Brian Train’s designs are just fantastic. I think that sometimes they can be a bit opaque, meaning that their true genius cannot be seen with just a few plays but will be unlocked over 4 or 5 plays as we have found with A Distant Plain, which has continually moved up on my list of favorite COIN Series games with each play that numbers around 5. But China’s War was just special. It is totally unique as to its take on insurgency within the COIN Series, is really frenetic and active and gives the feeling of classic COIN while really turning things a bit upside down with the way the powerful faction works in the Japanese as they really only care about maintaining and cleaning off their Lines of Communication. In fact, they are so unique that they are the faction that will place Terror on the board, which is typically reserved for the insurgent factions to sway Support and Opposition.

Now we only played once, and there are things that we messed up, but it was a supremely interesting and engaging play experience and was actually so good that a new initiate to the system was able to grock the rules and be competitive in their very first play. Just an astounding example of a COIN Series game that has been well worth the wait to have it arrive on my table.

4. World War II Roleplaying War Stories

Our final event of the convention was our annual roleplaying game and this year Cullen prepared a session of a new RPG called War Stories from Firelock Games, which is set during World War II. With it, players take the roles of heroic airborne soldiers parachuting into Normandy during Operation Overlord in June of 1944.

As an RPG, players will have characters with various special focuses across 4 abilities including Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Empathy. Each time a skill is to be checked you find the matching ability and roll that number of six sided dice looking for 6’s which mean success. If multiple successes are rolled you can earn special tokens called Lucky Strikes that can be saved and used as successes on future rolls. The players will also have a choice when they fail about whether they decide to reroll but will remove any 1’s from the pool and roll the remaining dice again. If they fail this time though the GM will gain a FUBAR token that can be used to cause a failure on a rolled success in the future. This really created some cinematic moments and was a very interesting way to handle a check.

We played the game with a party of 5 characters with Tim Densham and Jim both with Catastrophe Games and Hermann Luttmann. I very much enjoy roleplaying but also enjoy the back and forth interactions between the players as we strategize, try desperately to execute and then watch as things simply don’t go as planned. It is always fun to see how to get ourselves out of a sticky situation and the hilarity that always ensues. This RFG was fun and engaging and really pretty simple but one comment I have is that it is a bit more difficult to play a game like this focused around soldiers and not take it seriously. I always feel like I am overstepping but I do know that the process of playing is in many ways paying homage to the men and their sacrifice.

In the end, there were lots of heroic actions, good sniper shots, daring orders, risk taking and of course explosions and we all had a great time with the game. But more importantly we had a great time together and created some lasting memories!

3. A Look at Dawn of the Zeds Designer Edition

I think that you all know well the original Dawn of the Zeds from Victory Point Games. A States of Siege Series game where the player or players take on the roles of survivors in Farmington as hordes of nasty Zeds stream down the paths toward the center of town hell bent on eating some brains. The game is light, fun and difficult and is both a great solitaire and cooperative game. As we have mentioned, Hermann Luttmann was able to secure the rights to the game back from Tabletop Tycoon who had purchased them from Victory Point Games and is working with Steve Jones from Blue Panther to bring the game back to life with new art, a new combat system with custom dice and some new characters. The game will be available for pre-order in May and then should be shipping in late July.

We had a chance to play the new version for about an hour with Steve Jones and Hermann and had a great time. There was lots of banter back and forth about our terrible rolls, the chances or lack thereof of a victory and lots of other things. One of the most memorable moments though was when Steve, who was playing a stealthy melee focused character, who liked to lay in ambush and await the Zeds to come into their space. Steve wasted about 3 turns just moving up and then moving back and doing…well nothing and we gave him hell for that. Ultimately in the end, he moved into a space and attacked the Zed and his rolls didn’t go well and his lightly armored character came within 1 hit of death before having to retreat and try to make it to the hospital to get healed. Just a total cluster that made the game very memorable.

One of the other memorable moments was when we were trying to evacuate a group of refugees but there was an event where the bridge collapsed and we had to move out to repair it and place a ferry that could usher refugees and characters from one side to the other. We then moved the refugees to the ferry and loaded them on but the next random event that occurred forced the refugees to move back across the river to get friends who had been left behind. Well, the Zed behind them had made it the river and when they went back they ran right into its jaws and were torn apart. That is one thing that I have learned about this game is that you can do the right thing, place your characters and assets effectively to open up paths to victory and cruel lady luck can ignore your plans and drop a bomb. But that is what makes this game memorable and we had plenty of those from this short 1 hour session.

2. A Glorious 9 Hour Marathon Game of Here I Stand

Annually, we plan to play one of 2 games at BGF; either Here I Stand or Virgin Queen and this year it was Here I Stand. We always set the game for first thing on Friday morning, when we are good and tired and worn down after several days of fun and the experience never dissapoints.

This year, we played with Russ (France), Cullen (Ottomans), Bill Simoni (Papacy), James (England) with me (Protestants) and Alexander (Hapsburgs). It had been a while since I had played as the Protestants but last year had played as the Papacy in a few games and had remembered several things that could aid me in fighting off the advances of the Pope.

But, the game would not go well for the Protestants out of the gate. As is the usual, our game started off with the nailing of the 95 Theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg and as the Protestants I have never seen a worse opening as I was only able to switch 3 spaces in Wittenberg, Brandenburg and Leipzig. Not a good start at all for the Protestants but I was undaunted, although I said many curses under my breath and to the gamers at the table, and quickly got my self under control and was determined to recover.

I worked hard over the next few turns to spread the faith and was quickly able to get most of Germany under control and take over 4 of the Electorates which gave me units that would help me continue to spread toward France and England. It was amazing to see Bill Simoni and the Papacy and I go at it as we held many theological debates, ultimately each of us disgracing a debater and gaining VP, and for me to have the full Bible translated into German during Turn 2 quickly followed by the translation into English by Turn 3. I had made a deal with England for him to play a card that favored me in exchange for a concerted effort to get the Protestant faith rooted in England so he could gain some VP from the effort.

Meanwhile the Ottomans got out the Barbary Pirates card early and had built a sizable fleet of corsairs causing France and England to loan the Hapsburgs several boats to combat this green menace in the Mediterranean. Also several colonies were formed in the New World and ultimately Alexander’s Hapsburgs were able to circumnavigate the globe and score several important VP.

During this time, the Protestants and Papacy continued their fight tooth and nail but my dice rolling, and innate ability to win ties, allowed me to build a sizable lead in the religious war. I was in very good shape when the Schmalkaldic League card was played turning the Protestants into a military power and then changing the other players focus to then declare war on and starting to attack my fortified Electorates to take away VP I had earned by having both religious and political control in 5 of the 6.

As we came into turn 5, I was at 24 VP and ultimately came up shy of a victory by 1 point at the time. I had been able to take over the entirety of England and change every space and also get about 5-6 spaces in France. but now the Papal Bull came to play and Bill fought me back and forth with him taking over 3-4 spaces followed by me reclaiming 3-4 spaces. It was a beautiful game of back and forth and I used every tool at my disposal to fight him including The Wartburg card to stop the untimely excommunication of Luther before he could attempt to embarrass one of my lesser debaters.

Then England gained ground as a healthy Edward was born and he gained 5 VP and then took over a key from France to get close to my score going into Tuen 6.

At that point it was dog pile the winner as everyone declared war on the Protestants and came after my Electorates but I was able to stave them off and ultimately never lost down to lower than 4 controlled which retained 8 VP for me and allowed me to finish the Bible translation in French and take a sizable lead in VP.

The best part of the game was that it all came down to the last few card plays as England and my Protestants tied at 25 VP and I won on tiebreakers as I had the most VP in the turn prior. What a fantastic game that took us over 9 hours to play!

I simply love this game because of the player interaction, which includes making treaties, declaring war and also negotiations about what we desire other factions to do and how to go about their efforts to win. Cards can be traded in this game as part of these negotiations and I have always really liked this aspect. I say trading but the various events on these cards can also be trade bait as players can ask for or commit to either playing or not playing a certain card that would have a dramatic effect on an upcoming round. This take players who are comfortable with the system, the different factions and the victory conditions of the game but is such a juicy and exciting part of the design.

I just love Here I Stand, for a multitude of reasons but as a CDG it is one of the best at creating an experience and this time a really great experience was had by all.

1. Our Friends…And New Friends!

The best part of any convention, not just Buckeye Game Fest, is the friends that we make and then see each year. I love the wargaming community and all of its members. Each time I meet and play with new people, I am amazed at how amazing each of them are. From their passion for history, to their generally easy going and fun personalities, I love to meet with other wargamers. Because we create content, making dozens of videos per month, you know our faces, and in some cases our voices as someone recently stated they had heard us and came to say hello. And we sincerely love it when you approach us at a convention to interact. We have always taken great pride in knowing our fans and will continue to try and meet as many of them as is possible.

We have built some really great friendships over the past 6 years of attending Buckeye Game Fest. Names like Bill Simoni, Cullen, Russ (Bad), Russ (Good), and others. We tend to see these friends each year and when they are not present, which seemed to be the case this year at BGF, we truly miss them. But, we were able to meet new friends and play games together and this will be the start of new relationships that we hope will continue into the future.

Well, I know I got a bit mushy there at the end, but we had a great time this year at Buckeye Game Fest and I hope you see what the experience is like at these conventions. We would encourage all of you to try to get to a convention and begin the process of making friends. I know it is not easy or convenient but I promise you it will be worth it.

If you are interested, I did write a series of Daily Debrief posts summarizing each of the 5 days and you can read those at the following links:

Daily Debrief Series Introduction

Day 1 Daily Debrief

Day 2 Daily Debrief

Day 3 Daily Debrief

Day 4 Daily Debrief

Day 5 Daily Debrief

We also did 11 different videos and will be sharing those on the YouTube Channel over the next month. Until next year!

-Grant

Last day. We have had a great time and got 14 different games played! I’m exhausted but it’s a good exhaustion, if there is such a thing. Our final day was filled with 3 more great games as well as a lot of quality time with friends and fellow wargamers.

The day started with our first play of a brand new game called Imperial Elegy: The Road to the Great War 1850-1920 from VUCA Simulations. Imperial Elegy is a card driven game that blends diplomacy, warfare, and statecraft and feels a bit akin to games like Here I Stand and Virgin Queen from GMT Games. Grand scale sweeping epics that play multiplayers and take a day to play. Players play as 1 of 6 unique major powers in the game including Germany/Prussia, the United Kingdom, France, Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

The game takes place over 7 turns, with each turn representing approximately a decade. If the Great War breaks out, the game can be extended by an additional 6 shorter turns.A turn in the game consists of numerous player impulses that is driven by the play of action cards for their Command Points or the printed events. Players will use CP and events to take actions like colonize, conduct diplomacy with minor nations, fight wars, as well as hinder their opponents by playing events that take away their actions or resources. A turn will end once all players have consecutively passed or when all players run out of cards.

Here is a look at the German player board which tracks a lot of information including current Stability, which decides whether various actions like war can be taken or if there are various positive or negative modifiers, the available Manpower that will determine how many armies can be built, Industry that tells how many action pointed you will have to spend during war to maneuver units, attack and replace losses. The focus of the game is about the control of territories both on the Minsk and of Europe as well colonies abroad and there is an automatic victory if a certain target number is met, in the case of Germany 15.

Here is a quick look at the Russia player board for comparison’s sake as each faction is unique and has various starting levels and abilities.

We only played the first full turn and it took us about 90 minutes including an hour of setup and rules overview and discussion as only one of us at the table had player previously (John Lapham). But we very much enjoyed the experience and found lots to like. We are going to try to put together another full game in the next several months and will have more to report on after that. But suffice it to stay everyone at the table was impressed with the design and everyone had a good time with it.

The 2nd game of the day was Bretwalda from PHALANX. This is such a beautiful game but is also a very good design in the area control/dudes on a map realm.

Bretwalda attempts to do what Civ Builders do but do it in a novel and different way…and also finds a way to incentivize combat, which was really a breath of fresh air for me. Bretwalda from PHALANX is a game for 1-4 players that plays in around 2 1/2 hours. Each player takes charge of one of the kingdoms of medieval England, including Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex and East Anglea, and each of these kingdoms has unique leaders and abilities. The goal is to be crowned the Bretwalda of England and victory will be achieved through a combination of controlling key areas with victory points, completing Chronicle cards in the form of hidden objectives and also focusing on building various buildings such as Abbeys.

The game has very little assymetry and I initially thought that this would be a bad thing for the design but really enjoyed how they did make each kingdom feel different, also how they provided unique choices in the area of Kingdom Tiles and the development of your kingdom. The Kingdoms differ in three main aspects. First, they are located in different areas on the map. Now this might not seem very important but there are advantages to each of these locations. East Anglea has access to several Areas that produce Food. This is very good as you have to feed your soldiers at the start of each Winter Phase and you will always be on the lookout for how to get more Food. This is a very good advantage but the tradeoff is that they are very open and spread-out on the map in the east and have more areas susceptible to attack which requires more troops for defense. Northumbria is located in the north of England up against Hadrian’s Wall which provides some form of protection as it provides extra defense if attacked. They can also conquer the area to the north of their kingdom and have very little worry about any threat from that side so they can focus on defending other areas. 

Second, each kingdom has its own permanent, unique special rule that provides them with an advantage. East Anglea starts with 3 Food in their capital while other kingdoms start with just 1 and they also obtain 2 Food at the start of each Spring Season. Wessex will draw one extra Lordship Card after winning a battle. This is very important as these cards are very versatile special benefit cards that can be used in battle to do several things like reroll dice, add reinforcements, bring back a destroyed unit, etc. They also though have other uses through other phases of the game including scouting your opponents stash of cards before attacking, cancelling played card effects, gaining additional Gold, amongst other benefits. Mercia is able to Recruit 1 additional land unit when they take the Fyrd (Recruit) action. This gives them access to larger armies more quickly than other kingdoms so you have to watch out for them to be aggressive early. Finally, Northumbria may build Abbeys for 1 less Gold. This is probably the most simple benefit but Gold is at a premium and this really helps them to get more Gold as Abbeys give victory points (called Dalcs) as well as provide 1 additional Gold during the Collect Action. These benefits are not massive or game breaking but really add some flavor to each kingdom. Third and finally, as already discussed in the point above, each of the kingdoms has a set of its own unique historical Rulers, each with a different ability. I wont say anymore about this here but I really liked this part of the assymetry and thought it worked really well without breaking the game or making it more difficult than it had to be.

The area that I really wanted to cover in this part though was the Kingdom Tiles. During the Development Action, each player can pay 3 Gold and place 1 Kingdom Tile on their board. These Kingdom Tiles are divided into 4 different categories (you can see the four categories on the Kingdom Board shown above) tied to the four available Actions for players, including Development, Collection, Fyrd (Recruit) and Movement. The surprising thing about these tiles was that they are all the same for each kingdom. At first I thought maybe this was a missed opportunity but then after playing I saw that each having the same access to the same tiles was smarter as it gave the game balance. Also, each of the categories offers 3 possible Kingdom Tiles to develop and each player only has 2 spots on their board so you cannot develop all 3 in each category and each player will have to choose what makes the most sense for them at the time. I have seen this done in several of the Lite Civ Dudes on a Map Area Control games but they tend to overcomplicate it and make it clunky whereas in Bretwalda it is streamlined and simple yet there are options and paths to develop.

Bretwalda is a unique game amongst the many Lite Civ Building Dudes on a Map Area Control games out there. I had a great time playing the game and enjoyed the very interesting and fun combat system with custom dice for each unit type and Lordship Cards that add special abilities. This game is special and beautiful and thematic and earns a spot on my shelf as a game that I want to play again and again.

The wrap up event was annual roleplaying game and this year Cullen prepared a session of a new RPG called War Stories, which is set during the World War II. With it, players take the roles of heroic soldiers parachuting into Normandy during Operation Overlord in June of 1944.

As an RPG players will have characters with various special focuses across 4 abilities including Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Empathy. Each time a skill is to the checked you find the matching ability and roll that number of six sided dice looking fur 6’s which mean success. If multiple successes are rolled you can earn special tokens called Lucky Strikes that can be saved and used as successes on future rolls. The players will have to decide if they roll their dice again and will remove any 1’s from the pool and roll the remaining dice again. If they fail this time though the GM will gain a FUBAR token that can be used to cause a failure on a rolled success in the future. This really created some cinematic moments and was a very interesting way to handle a check.

Our friend Cullen was the GM and did a fantastic job guiding us through our first experience with the system. His good explanation and clear understanding and familiarity with the system really made our first experience an enjoyable one.

We were tasked with taking a hardpoint on D-Day behind enemy lines to assault and take out several gun emplacements shelling the upcoming landing beaches. We went through a series of rolls and checks on the flight in on the Dakota C-47 and then had to bail out over flak filled skies taking hits and losing gear or our musette bags.

When we landed we had to gather up, create a plan and then execute that plan to maneuver through German held positions under fire and take out the emplacements. There were lots of heroic actions, good sniper shots, daring orders and of course explosions and we had a great time with the game.

In the end we were successful and only lost a few of the men under our command. I look forward to playing more in the future. Thanks to Cullen for his preparation and time devoted to teaching us the system

We finished up at about 9:00pm and we then gathered up all of our games, equipment and items and said goodbye to friends who we hope to see next year. This week was a major success as we played 14 different games and had a very good time. Thank you so much for following along in my daily posts and look ahead to the videos we did appearing on the YouTube Channel over the next month.

-Grant

Day 4 dawned early and we are really tired. I actually felt like I had slept, although I didn’t fall asleep last night until about 1:30am, but just didn’t feel refreshed and had very little energy. I am a Wargamer and I simply sucked it up and got downstairs where we had breakfast with friends including Russ, Cullen and Hermann Luttmann. We imbibed in the buffet eating more pieces of bacon than someone should in a fortnight and made it to the War Room a bit before 9:00 where we started setting up for our annual 6-player game of Here I Stand from GMT Games.

Playing with us was Russ (France), Cullen (Ottomans), Bill Simoni (Papacy), James (England) with me (Protestants) and Alexander (Hapsburgs).

We simply love Here I Stand and have played the game at least 15 times and it just gets better every single time. If you don’t know, Here I Stand: Wars of the Reformation, 1517–1555 is a grand-scale Card Driven Game that simulates the political and religious struggles in Europe during the period covering 1517-1555 referred to as the Reformation. It is designed primarily for six players, each controlling a major power with unique, asymmetric goals and mechanics and is best with max players.

The game takes place over up to 9 turns, but for us a majority of our plays have lasted 4-5 turns with our longest play being today as we finished the game in 6 turns. Each of the turns represent approximately 4 years of historical time. The game utilizes a Card-Driven Game system where players spend cards for their Command Points to perform actions like moving armies or building fleets or for the unique historical event described on the text of the card.

The game is very asymmetrical in its gameplay as each of the factions plays a different game based on its historical role and will win via amassed VP’s that are earned in vastly different ways such through piracy (Ottomans), building of chateaus (France), New World Exploration (England, Hapsburgs, France) and through battles. The Papacy and Protestants will wage a religious war over the souls of European Christians to either sway spaces to Catholicism or Protestantism. But one of my favorite parts is the Diplomacy and making of secret deals between the players to help out their goals.

With that being said our game started off with the nailing of the 95 Theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg and as the Protestants I have never seen a worse opening as I was only able to switch 3 spaces in Wittenberg, Brandenburg and Leipzig. Not a good start at all for the Protestants but I was undaunted, although I said many curses under my breath and to the gamers at the table, and quickly got my self under control and was determined to recover.

I worked hard over the next few turns to spread the faith and was quickly able to get most of Germany under control and take over 4 of the Electorates which gave me units that would help me continue to spread toward France and England.

It was amazing to see Bill Simoni and the Papacy and I go at it as we held many theological debates, ultimately each of us disgracing a debater and gaining VP, and for me to have the full Bible translated into German during Turn 2 quickly followed by the translation into English by Turn 3. I had made a deal with England for him to play a card that favored me in exchange for a concerted effort to get the Protestant faith rooted in England so he could gain some VP.

Meanwhile the Ottomans got out the Barbary Pirates card early and had built a sizable fleet of corsairs causing France and England to loan the Hapsburgs several boats to combat this green menace in the Mediterranean.

Also several colonies were formed in the New World and ultimately Alexander’s Hapsburgs were able to circumnavigate the globe and score several important VP.

During this time, the Protestants and Papacy were fighting tooth and nail but my dice rolling, and innate ability to win ties, allowed me to build a sizable lead in the religious war. I was in very good shape when the Schmalkaldic League card was played turning the Protestants into a military power and then changing the other players focus to then declare war one and begging to attack my fortified Electorates to take away VP I had earned by having both religious and political control in 5 of the 6.

As we came into turn 5, I was at 24 VP and ultimately came up shy of a victory by 1 point at the time. I had been able to take over the entirety of England and change every space and also get about 5-6 spaces in France. but now the Papal Bull came to play and Bill fought me back and forth with him taking over 3-4 spaces followed by me reclaiming 3-4 spaces. It was beautiful game of back and forth and I used every tool at my disposal to fight him including The Wartburg card to stop the untimely excommunication of Luther before he could attempt to embarrass one of my lesser debaters.

Then England gained ground as a healthy Edward was born and he gained 5 VP and then took over a key from France to get close to my score going into Tuen 6.

At that point it was dog pile the winner as everyone declared war on the Protestants and came after my Electorates but I was able to stave them off and ultimately never lost down to lower than 4 controlled which retained 8 VP for me and allowed me to finish the Bible translation in French and take a sizable lead in VP.

The game came down to the last card play as England and my Protestants tied at 25 VP and I won on tiebreakers as I had the most VP in the turn prior. What a fantastic game that took us over 9 hours to play!

We were all wasted and went to dinner at a nearby bar called The Flat Iron Grill and had a very enjoyable meal. We decided to not play the WWII RPG War Stories and might till tomorrow night as we were all a bit brain dead.

We played about 5 scenarios of the beautiful and very fun trick taking game called The Lord of the Rings Trick Taking Game: The Two Towers from Office Dog. This is a standalone continuation to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, with several play modes including solo, 2-player, and 4-player and we did the 4-player version. It is a cooperative card game that follows the narrative of J.R.R. Tolkien’s second book through 18 unique, story-driven chapters.

The game functions as a “must-follow” trick-taker, where players must play a card of the led suit if they have one; otherwise, the highest card of the led suit wins the trick. Unlike many traditional trick-taking games, players work together to meet individual character goals simultaneously to progress through the story. And they s game is very tough with the new edition adding in several very tough challenges as the addition or orc cards that have no function but if lead because you have no other choice lead to a loss. Just great and thinky fun that is very relaxing and frankly very fun to play.

This was a perfect way to end the day and we actually made it back to our room at 9:30pm allowing me time to write this post and get in near before midnight.

Tomorrow is our last day and we have big plans as we will be playing Imperial Elegy from VUCA Simulations (a kind of Here I Stand style CDG on the rise and fall of European empires from the 1850’s through WWII), Bretwalda from PHALANX (an Ameritrash combat game set in medieval England) and then a night cap of the RPG War Stories that we didn’t get to this evening. See you tomorrow night!

-Grant

Day 3 started off a bit slow as we dragged in the morning getting ready and didn’t get out the door till around 8:15am and after breakfast didn’t make it to the War Room until almost 9:00am. But, upon arrival we got right to gaming by setting up Cross Bronx Expressway from GMT Games with Russ Wetli from Cardboard Conflicts as our third.

Cross Bronx Expressway is the 3rd game in the Irregular Conflicts Series and attempts to simulate the socio-economic processes of urban development, and the human costs that result, as a competitive city-builder with collective loss conditions in the South Bronx between 1940 and 2000, with their unique faction pursuing their own goals while cooperating to keep the borough viable. Through a card driven sequence of play, they will work to solve the economic challenges facing the area by building infrastructure and organizations, forming coalitions, mitigating the multitude of issues facing the vulnerable population, and managing resources to stay out of debt. 

Cross Bronx Expressway is a very interesting and engaging way to learn about the history of American cities as an economic simulation of sorts. Players will have to deal with the conflicting incentives and complex factors shaping urban life and together determine the fate of the Bronx.

We very much enjoyed this one and felt like it was very insightful and thematically connected with the subject and the times to create a very brain melting but interesting experience. I felt like I really had no idea what I was doing…but very much liked it.

We ended up losing the game as it is semi-cooperative and players can lose together due to bankruptcy or the overcrowding of prisons that will lead to higher social difficulties. But we learned a lot and I very much look forward to playing this one again.

We then played our 1st game of the interesting COIN Series like game Werwolf: Insurgency in Occupied Germany, 1945-1948 from Legion Wargames with Dave (a new friend from Michigan) and Gary of Ardwulf’s Lair. The game is designed by Clint Warren-Davey and Benjamin Feine and is an alternate history game, but the story that is presented is entirely plausible. Werwolf was a real underground guerrilla group, comprised of SS and Hitler Youth members. It was intended to lead an insurgency against the invading Allies and Soviets when it became clear that Germany was losing the war in a conventional sense in the mid-1940’s. They did in fact have a few successes and American intelligence officer Frank Manuel said that the Werwolves were prepared “to strike down the isolated soldier in his jeep, the MP on patrol, the fool who goes a-courting after dark, the Yankee braggart who takes a back road.”

The game allows players to take on the role of the occupying Soviets and Western Allies along with this Werwolf insurgency and the Edwlweiss insurgency.

After about 3 hours we finished 3 decks and the Werwolf Insurgency was declared the winner. All had a good time and I am looking forward to taking this to WBC in July and playing again.

I then sat down with Tim Densham with Catastrophe Games and he gave me a look at several of their planned upcoming games. These will all go on Kickstarter in order to fund the publication.

First was a look at War Cabinet, which is an economic and logistics focused take on WWII in the European Theater of Operation.

Next was Afghanistan: Decades of Strife, which is an area control game in the Conflict of Wills Series.

Then we got a look at Brothers of the Sword: Baltic Crusades which is set in 1100 AD.

All of these games will be coming to Kickstarter in the next 6-8 months and I am very much interested in them all. I was able to shoot a 30 minute video interview with Tim with more details and that’ll be on the channel soon.

We then sat down with Steve Jones from Blue Panther and Hermann Luttmann to play the new Dawn of the Zeds Designer Edition which will be available for pre-order in May and will be published at the end of July.

You know well the original Dawn of the Zeds from Victory Point Games and this has now had the rights reacquired by Hermann who is working with Steve to bring it back to life with new art, a new combat system with custom dice and some new characters. We played for about an hour and had the same fun we have always had with the game and I am very much looking forward to this new edition.

We shot a 20 minute video with Hermann and that’ll be up on the channel soon.

We then played our final game of the night, a 4-player game of War of the Ring: The Card Game from Ares with Cullen and Bad Russ. This is a game that I have had on my shelf for a few years, even purchasing all of the various expansions to date, but just have not had a chance to get it played…until now.

This was our 1st play and while it took us a good amount of time to get comfortable with the mechanics, and about 3 hours to play the entire game, we all had a great time and very much enjoyed what it was doing. The art in the game is just amazing and the game play is smart, with lots of bluffing and gamesmanship on how to play and manage your limited cards. Just a very solid multi-player card game.

It is now well after midnight and I am tired. Sorry for the brevity of my comments about the games but it’s just too late.

Tomorrow we have a full 6-player game of Here I Stand from GMT Games at 9:00am and then an evening role playing game with a WWII historical RPG called War Stories from Firelock Games. Should be a blast!

-Grant

Day 2 dawned early and we were out the door by 7:45am for breakfast and made it to the War Room around 8:30am where we finished up our game of Blind Swords Volume 12: Gettysburg: The First Day from Revolution Games. We should a video review and then I walked around the War Room to see all the games that people were playing. I saw Battle Britain from PSC Games, which is a fun beer and pretzels air war game with cool little plastic minis, Littoral Commander: The Baltic from The Dietz Foundation, Company of Heroes: The Board Game from Bad Crow Games, which is a fun and lite miniatures based wargame based on the successful video game franchise, and a new and interesting looking prototype game called Arsenal of Democracy.

With the prototype, no one was at the table though and I found out that the designer had been here but had to leave for the day but would be back later. The game looks to be a card based game that deals with the production of armaments for the war effort during World War II. I am keenly interested and will definitely want to get a closer look at this one soon.

We then sat down with Leslie Jerome to have him introduce us to the Line of Battle Series with Volume 3 To Take Washington: Jubal Early’s Summer 1864 Campaign from Multi-Man Publishing.

Line of Battle is a regimental-level American Civil War wargame system designed for fast-paced, non-stop action by eliminating excessive paperwork and combining fire phases with movement. I feel like this system is a highly playable classic ACW system with lots of very interesting mechanics including activation, order reception and relay, closing rolls, morale checks and close assault. In fact, I love how it creates a great narrative with some of the terminology and naming conventions such as the Blood Lust result fur close assaults and the Cowardly Legs from broken units.

Just a really solid system and we hope to explore more of it in the near future. We do have the next volume in the series on pre-order called No Turning Back: The Battle of the Wilderness.

We then sat down with Steve Jones (aka Steve Panther or Steve Blue as we affectionately refer to him) with Blue Panther Games and did a summary of all of their upcoming projects and fakes incurring getting an early look at Dawn of the Zeds Designer Edition designed by Hermann Luttmann.

This one looks awesome and is a revision of the original game with some added content and rules that realize Hermann’s true vision for the game.

We are playing this with Hermann and Steve tomorrow afternoon and I cannot wait. It’ll be damn good old fashioned gaming fun!

After lunch, we broke out Chicago ‘68 from The Dietz Foundation. Chicago ’68 pits revolutionary spectacle against civil order at the Democratic National Convention riots of 1968. Players take the role of either the Establishment, consisting of the Chicago PD and Mayor Daley, or the Demonstrators, including the Yippies and MOBE, and is a fast-paced game of street battles and political maneuvers.

Each side plays from two asymmetric decks of action cards. The Establishment positions tactical forces and police platoons to co-ordinate mass arrests while working the convention floor. The Demonstrators, on the other hand, can pivot from direct clashes to radical street theater; their tactics can be reactive and unpredictable, allowing for wild cat-and-mouse chases and mischief-making across the tear-gassed avenues of downtown Chicago.

This game is an area control/area influence game that uses cards to take a predetermined set of actions that can be upgraded and replayed with better actions as the game progresses. Each player will fight for control of the delegates to the convention as well as exposure to the nation through the media. Just a very well designed game that was a ton of fun to play.

In the end, Alexander’s Yippies/Mobe coalition won the exposure battle and took home the victory. Very tight game though that came down to the last few card plays. What a great area control/area influence political style tug of war. Loved it!

Our final game of the evening was the long anticipated China’s War: 1937-1941 from GMT Games, which is volume 13 in the COIN Series. China’s War examines the first five years of the conflict, when China stood alone against the Japanese Empire. Each player takes the role of a Faction seeking to attack or defend the Republic of China: the aggressive Japanese, the harried Government (represented by the Guomindang party), the rebellious Chinese Communist Party, or the unruly, fractious Warlords who are obedient when convenient but have their eye on gaining state power. Using military, political, and economic actions and exploiting various events, players build and maneuver forces to influence or control the population, extract resources, or otherwise achieve their Faction’s aims. A deck of cards regulates turn order, events, victory checks, and other processes. The rules can run non-player Factions, enabling solitaire, 2-player, or multi-player games.

This feels like a classic COIN Series game with 3 insurgent style factions against the powerful Japanese. But the focus really centers on the control of the Lines of Communication or LoC’s, which was a very refreshing approach that created some really interesting interplay.

In the end my Japanese were able to bully the other 3 factions and control the LoC’s to take home the victory in an early 3rd Propaganda card . The scores were Japan +3, Nationalists +1, CPC -3 and Warlords -4.

We very much enjoyed ourselves and can’t wait to play again soon.

A great day where we played 3 full games, shot 5 videos and had a lot of fun. Tomorrow is already booked and we are playing Cross Bronx Expressway from GMT Games, Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars from Ingenioso Hidalgo, Dawn of the Zeds Designer Edition from Blue Panther and then a 4-player game of War of the Ring: The Card Game from Ares Games.

See you tomorrow night!

-Grant

We arrived safely on Tuesday afternoon at around 4:00pm and got checked in, unpacked, organized and off to the War Room to get setup and see what was happening. The War Room is back in its original location in the Taft C room which is great because it’s a bit larger than last years room. When we entered there were about 20 people already there and playing and I was immediately excited. I love conventions and BGF is just about my favorite!

Upon entering and getting setup we were approached by a fan of the channel named Leslie Jerome who drove all the way from Lawrence, Kansas. Such a nice guy and his wife was with him and they were a fantastic couple. Leslie has a special talent that he shared with us as he showed off his handiwork which involves creating 3-D boards for his favorite games such as To Take Washington: Jubal Early’s Summer 1864 Campaign from Multi-Man Publishing from the Line of Battle Series…..and…..

…..Stonewall’s Sword: The Battle of Cedar Mountain from Revolution Games….and…

….and A Most Fearful Sacrifice: The Three Days of Gettysburg from Flying Pig Games.

These maps are just amazing and each one of them has such great detail showing the different elevations on the game board. Leslie said each one takes him multiple weeks to create and involves a lot of detail and precision cutting and gluing as well as shading the edges of the elevating terrain with colored pencils. We were really impressed and are hoping to play a few turns of To Take Washington with him tomorrow morning.

After that, our 1st game of the day was Danger Forward: The Battle of Gela, July 1943 from Multi-Man Publishing which is found in the Battalion S3 Operations and Training Magazine Issue #1. This magazine is new and arrived just last week so Alexander was able to read the rules, clip the counters and also read the 40-page magazine which is filled with of strategy and tips n how to play the Battalion Combat Series.

The game is a fantastic entry point to the BCS and was specifically designed as an accessible, entry-level game as a gateway to the series with 1 map, 5 scenarios, and approximately 176 counters.

We played for about 2 1/2 hours and finished the 3-turn scenario and really had a great time with the game. While it is introductory, we still had plenty of opportunity for maneuver, combat and some really great narrative emerged.

As the Americans landing on the beaches, I had about eight 82nd Airborne Units that went through a drop procedure at the start of the game with many of them scattering all over the board and even a few drifted and landed on several German and Italian units which meant they were instantly killed. But the best bit was when one the units, against all odds and totally outnumbered and outclassed, was able to hold a mountain pass road the entire 3 turns during multiple German attacks. They were able to hold them back allowing the 45th Infantry to move up and secure the objective there.

The next game up was Blind Swords Volume 12: Gettysburg: The First Day from Revolution Games. We played the Barlow’s Folly scenario which is a smaller 7-turn affair.

I was the Union, who were in a defensive posture and had few opportunities to activate and make attacks, and frankly didn’t enjoy the scenario we chose. There were a few reasons for that other than the fact that I was getting steamrolled. My commanders had terrible Command Ratings while Alexander’s Confederate leaders were much better. In Blind Swords, players draw chits, which represent specific brigades, divisions, or command events. If a Division or Brigade chit is drawn, the player usually rolls a die and compares it to the Command Rating on the chit to determine if it is a Full or Limited Activation. If the roll fails (or a “Limited Activation” is triggered), the brigade can only perform limited actions, such as firing, instead of full movement and combat. This happened to my brigades over and over. In fact, in turn 2 I failed all 5 activation rolls and most of my units were unable to do anything as they were not in range to do a fire attack.

I also struggled with the difference in strengths of the units as most of the Union units had 4-5 strength as compared to 6-9 for the CSA units. This meant my chances of scoring hits on the multi-step combat process was very poor.

For me, I just think we chose a poor scenario and we are going to continue tomorrow morning a bit and see if we can choose a more balanced scenario. We shall see!

With that, we returned to the hotel room at around 11:30pm to get some sleep as we are going to breakfast at 8:00am and then getting back to the War Room to play several games tomorrow like a few turns of To Take Washington, Chicago ‘68 from The Dietz Foundation, Werwolf: Insurgency in Occupied Germany, 1945 – 1948 from Legion Wargames and some other stuff.

A big day and I am looking forward to it!

-Grant

Good morning our faithful readers! As this post uploads this morning, we will be traveling to beautiful Columbus, Ohio to attend the best little game convention in the Midwest called Buckeye Game Fest. We have raved about this convention for years and always look forward to attending as it is such a great place to play games, meet great people and enjoy the glory that is our hobby of wargaming! This year will be our 6th time attending and we have been invited back as Guests of Honor, which means we have agreed to host events and help to promote and advertise the convention. BGF is a multi-day convention that has two different parts. We are going to be a part of the War Room at Buckeye Game Fest which is open from Monday, March 9th through Sunday, March 15th. This year, we will only be attending from the late afternoon of Tuesday, March 10th through Sunday. Our 5+ days at the convention will be filled with gaming events, designer interview videos, looks at new prototypes, and of course visiting with friends, the publishers who are there including Catastrophe Games and Blue Panther and various designers including guys like Hermann Luttmann, David Thompson and Tim Densham. But most importantly, we attend conventions to play games! We love to get together and do lots of multiplayer games and we are very much excited to get to playing.

At the end of each day, I will be putting together a short summary of what we did that day at the convention. I would like to keep this to just a few paragraphs with several pictures to give you an idea of the games we played that day, people we talked with and other activities we participated in. We will still work on doing multiple videos as well that will be released on the YouTube Channel over the next few months but this written coverage will supplement the videos. This summary will most likely not be posted until after midnight EST each night, if not a bit later, so you might be checking it out the next morning which is fine.

We have at least a few things planned that are official including an impromptu teaching session for the rules of the Battalion Combat Series (BCS) from Multi-Man Publishing, our annual play of a full table of Here I Stand: Wars of the Reformation from GMT Games, War Stories RPG from Firelock Games being run by our friend Cullen Farrell and a few other things. Should be a lot of fun! We also will be bringing along lots of other multi-player games to hopefully play including China’s War from GMT Games, Imperial Elegy from VUCA Simulations, Hubris from GMT Games, Neither King Nor God from Sound of Drums, Proxy War from Amoral Games, Black Orchestra: Resistance from Starling Games, Bretwalda from PHALANX, Wunderwaffen from Ares Games and Werwolf: Insurgency in Occupied Germany, 1945-1948 from Legion Wargames. Our general philosophy of gaming at conventions is big multi-player games and each of the games we are bringing plays anywhere from 3-6 players. No 2-player games at BGF for us although I have asked Russ Wetli from Cardboard Conflicts to play We Are Coming, Nineveh from Nuts! Publishing.

We also have plans to sit down with Hermann Luttmann to get a look at some of his upcoming projects and play some games including his new edition of his Dawn of the Zeds: Designer’s Edition from Blue Panther being published this summer and also get video interviews with some designers who are willing to dish on their in-process designs. Should be a busy few days and a lot of fun.

Finally, if you are attending Buckeye Game Fest please feel free to find us and say hello. I believe that we are very friendly and accessible and love to make connections with our fans and followers. In fact, we have TPA buttons and stickers to give away so just ask. We also would like to take a picture with you so we can document it in our writings.

Please check back each day for a summary of the days exploits. Thanks for following along.

-Grant

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.

I posted a fairly in-depth overview of the game in my First Impression post and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2025/08/06/first-impressions-congress-of-vienna-from-gmt-games/

-Grant

Another year in the books and I am in awe of what we were able to get accomplished in 2025! In this post, I want to take a look back at some of what we did, played and experienced in 2025! But, I also want to share my thoughts and create some discussion here about some very interesting trends and changes that I am seeing. So welcome to my musings as I take a retrospective look back at the year that was 2025.

The Numbers

To start this post off, let’s take a quick look at the numbers associated with our gaming and the content that we created in 2025. This is not a full deep dive into the statistics (like we normally do in our annual State of the Union posts in April) but a quick look at the number of games and then some simple info about the content.

In 2025, I am pleased to announce that we played a total of 26 new wargame titles but we will still get in a few more over the next several months as we don’t put together our “Best of” lists until around March in order to give some time to play at least some of the games released in December. That number is quite a bit less than it was last year. We had a weird 2025 in the gaming time availability department as we were busy with work, family vacations and commitments and some minor health issues. We just didn’t meet each and every week to play, which was a bit disappointing.

I also was able to play a total of 12 solitaire games but am still fiddling around with 4 or 5 titles (Black Skin Black Shirt from White Dog Games, Trench Raid from Compass Games, The Twelfth Battle from Hexasim, SPQR: The Battle of Alesia from Art of Wargames and Iwo Jima: Hell on Earth from Neva Wargames) that I hope to finish out before March.

I had quite the streak going over the past 2 years plus as I had a post on the blog for 876 consecutive days! By my calculations, that represented 2.4 years straight that something had appeared here! I gave up the streak over the holidays as I was just more interested in spending time with family and friends and enjoying myself. That was a bit mind blowing and I was just in a groove and had the ability to write quickly, sometimes repurposing previous posts, and still had the drive to do it. I am saddened that my streak came to an end but as they say all good things must come to an end! I am now actively trying to get myself back into a good streak but have had a bit of trouble with motivation at this time of year. In 2025, I posted a total of 395 blog posts! That is a bit behind the records for posts we had in 2024 (410) but still a really good number and represents 1.08 blog posts per day. Thanks for reading and consuming what I put up and for the great feedback.

A bit more of the numbers, for 10 out of 12 months we exceeded 50,000 views with 5 of those months far exceeding that number (May 65,344, August 72,868, October 68,081, November 130,612 and December 202,847). I am not sure what happened in those months but the views were really, really good. Maybe I was hacked or spam bots were sharing my content but it was nice to see. So, in 2025, the blog did just fine and keeps chugging along, mainly due to your consumption and I thank you.

Our YouTube Channel has also grown to 21.2K subscribers (we were at 19.5K subscribers in January 2025) and we have posted 184 new videos in 2025! We have a pattern of 1 new video (including unboxings, reviews, interviews, debriefs and other videos) every other day and some times we had 2 or 3 in a row due to timelines for Kickstarter/Gamefound projects, new games we simply wanted to share quickly or mistakes in scheduling. We hope that you find our videso genuine, insightful, helpful and fun because we really enjoy doing them and have plans to continue our torrid pace. Enough with the numbers! Now onto some of the trends we saw or things we did in 2025.

How do you prefer to consume our content? What do you like best about our stuff? What would you like to see?

Proliferation of Solo Wargames

A trend that I have seen expanding is the number of high quality solitaire wargame offerings on the market. I know that there have always been solo wargames, and those 2-player games that are more easily solo able such as Chit-Pull Activation, but the number of dedicated solitaire wargame options has just exploded. In 2025, I acquired 29 new dedicated solitaire wargames. I was only able to play a handful but there are just so many options out there that it is really amazing.

Here is a list of those games that I acquired (with those played bolded):

• Okinawa: The Last Battle of WWII
• The Fall of Röhm 3rd Edition
• Iwo Jima 1945
• The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth
• Battles of the American Civil War
• Operation Dragoon Travel Game
• Solitaire D-Day
• Crusaders: The Siege of Acre 1291
• Nightfighter Command
• SPQR: The Battle of Alesia
• Siege Works: A Napoleonic Siege Roll & Write
• War In The Pacific: A WW2 Roll & Write
• Lonely Cairn
• World War II Solitaire: Echoes of War: (Right Handed Allied Edition)
• The Twelfth Battle
• Pocket Air War
• Combat Volume 3 Arnhem
• Fields of Fire Deluxe 2nd Edition
• Bloody Lane
• French & Indian War Solitaire
• Lone Wolf: U-Boat Command 
• Europe at War 1940 Solitaire
• Shogun Solitaire
• Black Skin Black Shirt
• Trench Raid
• Empire of Grass
• British Tank Ace
• Onoda

I have always been a believer in the market and I think that this proliferation is due to more games being purchased and played than ever before. I hope this trend continues and that I am able to get to more of these games in the future.

What are your thoughts on dedicated solitaire wargames? How many did you acquire in 2025?

Shelf of Shame Dustoff! Event Part II – 12 Games from Our Shelves of Shame

One of the new things that we tried in 2024 and now have continued into 2026 was our Shelf of Shame Dustoff! where we identified 12 older games that have been sitting on our shelves for far too long and need to see the light of day and our gaming tables. We initially chose one game per month to play but due to time and other constraints ended up simply choosing a few games to play this year. We didn’t get around to 12, but still were able to play quite a few that we had owned for a while. The Shelf of Shame! games we were able to play in 2025 were as follows:

Medieval Conspiracy from UGG – not a wargame per se but a hybrid euro style area control game with bidding and combat along with event and action cards that are used to build up your economy and influence and control fiefdoms to gain prestige and power. The game is set during the Holy Roman Empire of Germany. The HRE is divided into many small earldoms, principalities, and bishoprics. The Ruler of the Empire is the Holy Roman Emperor who is elected by the 7 electoral princes and the players vie for control of these areas to build up trade, wealth and armies to fight wars of conquest. 

Here is a link to our video review of Medieval Conspiracy:

Border Reivers: Anglo-Scottish Border Raids, 1513-1603 from GMT Games – In Border Reivers, each player rules over one of the Marches on the border of England and Scotland and has the goal to increase the wealth and fame of their clan by gaining VP’s from successful combats, amassing large herds of livestock consisting of sheep and cattle, and by elevating their notoriety above the other players on the regions of the map. The game is unique and in essence is a limited action selection game where players use cards to target the various marches and perform various atrocities such as raiding and stealing livestock, feuding with rivals and participating in ongoing battles. But the most unique part is the it is made for 2-6 players and is best with 4 or 6 players, though 2 and 3-player versions are also supported where each player leads both an English and a Scottish family.

Here is a link to our video review of Border Reivers:

The Napoleonic Wars 2nd Edition from GMT Games – The Napoleonic Wars is a Card Driven Game where the cards have Command Points that can be used to build units, move armies, lay siege, negotiate with neutral countries and other such actions. The game is a strategic level look at the entire Napoleonic Wars from 1805-1815. We had a very good time with the game and are very glad that we had a chance to play it with seasoned and experienced players.

Here is a link to our video review of The Napoleonic Wars:

Time of Wars: Eastern Europe 1590 – 1660 from Strategemata – Time of Wars is a multi-player card driven game similar to games like Here I Stand and Virgin Queen designed by Krzysztof Dytczak that focuses on the 16th and 17th centuries in Eastern Europe. The game focuses on the five superpowers of the time in Eastern Europe including the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Tsardom of Russia, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire.

Here is a link to our first impressions video of Time of Wars:

Black Orchestra from Starling Games – Black Orchestra is a lighter cooperative but seriously thematic game focused on the various coup and assassination attempts on Hitler near the end of World War II. We did a full 5-player game and had a blast with it.

Here is a link to our video review of Black Orchestra:

1714: The Case of the Catalans from Devir Games – This is a game that I purchased off Amazon for $18 a few years back and have been wanting to play called 1714: The Case of the Catalans from Devir Games. The game tells the story of the death of king Charles II of Habsburg, which left the throne vacant and started a war all over Europe to settle the matter of the Spanish Succession.

The players in the game represent the powers of the Grand Alliance and will fight the Bourbon forces composed of French, Castilian and Bavarian troops. The overall goal of the game is to obtain the best commercial and territorial concessions, and conquer the Bourbon territories gaining VP from control. But this is not a true cooperative game as only 1 player will win.

Here is a link to our video review for 1714: The Case of the Catalans:

Crusade and Revolution: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 from Compass Games – Crusade and Revolution is a fairly traditional card-driven game system that mimics Paths of Glory but adapts it to the specific circumstances of the Spanish Civil War. Each player, the Republicans and Nationalists, has their own unique deck of strategic cards, which are the heart of the game, and must make difficult choices on their use through-out the game. Each card has four possible uses, but only one of them can be chosen each time the card is played! The possibilities included using it for Ops points to move and attack, the printed Event, Replacement Points to be able to rebuild damaged and eliminated units and Strategic Redeployment to place these units out onto the board.

Here is a link to our video review of Crusade and Revolution:

So we only ended up getting 7 games played but that is better than zero!

Another Busy Convention Year

Again 2025 was very busy on the convention front as we attended Basement CON, Buckeye Game Fest, the World Boardgaming Championships and the big one in ESSEN Spiele in Germany. We always have such a great time at conventions and love to see our friends and play lots of great games.

Here are some summaries of those events as well as video debriefs to get you caught up on our experiences.

Basement CON – At the end of March, Alexander and I traveled to St. Louis, Missouri to meet up with friends to play wargames all weekend during what we affectionately call “Basement CON”. We do this annually, usually in the spring, and play large multiplayer wargames with max players. In the past, we have played games like War Room, Virgin Queen, Here I Stand and Tank Duel just to name a few. This year at Basement CON, which was our fourth such gathering, we played multiple games over 3 days including Red Dragon / Green Crescent Deluxe Edition from Decision Games, War Room (again) from Nightingale Games, Dune from Gale Force Nine, Virgin Queen from GMT Games and a few others.

Here is a link to our debrief video for Basement CON:

Buckeye Game Fest 2025 was a fantastic time and we got to play a lot of games including Crusade and Revolution: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 from Compass Games, Black Orchestra from Starling Games, 1714: The Case of the Catalans from Devir Games, Congress of Vienna from GMT Games, Tattered Flags No. 1: Into the Whirlpool from Blue Panther, Rebels Against Rebellion from Flying Pig Games coming soon to Crowdfunding, Divine Right from Pungo Games, True Command from Catastrophe Games, Crisis: 1914 from Worthington Publishing, Successors 4th Edition from PHALANX, Nations & Cannons RPG from Flagbearer Games, Time of Crisis from GMT Games, New Cold War from VUCA Simulations and finally The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick Taking Game from Office Dog. That’s a total of 13 games. Amazing!

Also, I wrote a Daily Debrief Series of posts on the blog while attending and you can read those at the following links:

BGF 2025 Daily Debrief Series Overview

BGF 2025 Daily Debrief Series Day 1

BGF 2025 Daily Debrief Series Day 2

BGF 2025 Daily Debrief Series Day 3

BGF 2025 Daily Debrief Series Day 4

Here is a link to our debrief video for Buckeye Game Fest 2025:

The World Boardgaming Championships 2025 held at the beautiful Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania was a great time and we played a lot of games including B-52D Linebacker II from Compass Games, Medieval Conspiracy from UGG, Congress of Vienna from GMT Games, The Napoleonic Wars from GMT Games, Time of Wars from Strategemata, Triumvir from GMT Games, Here I Stand from GMT Games, Operation Valkyrie: A Black Orchestra Game from Starling Games, Battlestar Galactica from Fantasy Flight Games, Border Reivers: Anglo-Scottish Border Raids, 1513-1603 from GMT Games, Eschaton from Archon Games and Great Battles of the American Revolution Germantown from the new American Revolution Tri-Pack from GMT Games.

Here is a link to our WBC 2025 debrief video:

Also, I wrote a Daily Debrief Series of posts on the blog while attending and you can read those at the following links:

WBC 2025 Daily Debrief Series Overview

WBC 2025 Daily Debrief Series Day 1

WBC 2025 Daily Debrief Series Day 2

WBC 2025 Daily Debrief Series Day 3

WBC 2025 Daily Debrief Series Day 4

WBC 2025 Daily Debrief Series Day 5

And finally, we attended ESSEN Spiel in Essen, Germany in October. SPIEL Essen, often referred to as Essen Spiel, is the world’s largest public fair for board games. The convention is held annually in Essen, Germany, typically in late October, and attracts a massive crowd of visitors and exhibitors. The fair is intended for board gamers to be able to discover new games, play demos, meet with game designers, and purchase new products. The convention is more about board games than wargames but we went over due to the generosity of Sound of Drums and Uwe Wallentin. While there, we also spent time driving through Germany, France, Belgium and Holland to take in various historical sites.

Here is a link to our ESSEN Spiel 2025 debrief video:

While there, I posted a daily summary of our activities on the blog and you can read those at the following links:

Europe Trip and SPIEL Essen Convention Road Show Daily Debrief Series Introduction

Day 1 – Ouvrage Hackenberg (Maginot Fort), Metz and Verdun

Day 2 – Bastogne and Sedan

Day 3 – Paris, Versailles and Caen

Day 4 – Sainte-Mère-Église, Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc

Day 5 – Mons and Waterloo

Day 6 – Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem

Day 7 – Day 1 of the Convention

Day 8 – Day 2 of the Convention

Day 9 – Day 3 of the Convention

What a year it was for us on the convention circuit. We had a lot of fun, played a ton of games and saw many friends and made even more. I look forward to they future of our conventions.

What was your best convention experience in 2025?

2025 Gaming Convention Attendance Plans

We next will take a look at our big plans for 2026 and attendance at several gaming conventions. We are planning to attend our traditional gaming conventions this year with nothing really new.

BasementCON – March 27-29th – St. Louis, Missouri – Attending our friends BasementCON again in St. Louis in March and hope to play several big games including Here I Stand for the umpteenth time and possibly the new Napoleonic wargame Imperial Borders from Nightingale Games as well as some other large games.

Buckeye Game Fest – May 10-15th – Columbus, Ohio – This is a staple in our convention schedule and we look forward to playing some games, running some events, including sessions of Nations & Cannons RPG from Flagbearer Games, the COIN Series and some other larger multi-player wargames.

World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) – July 25–August 2nd – Seven Springs, Pennsylvania – I will be planning to attend again this year but Alexander will once again be out of the country with family and I will be solo. Have no concrete plans as of yet but it will probably involve 8-10 videos, several games (probably including a rematch with Mark Miklos of one of the BoAR Series titles) and meet ups with publishers to discuss upcoming games.

SDHistCon – November 6-9th – San Diego, California – Back to sunny California for another small and intimate convention where we will play lots of prototype games, shoot designer interview videos and have a great time.

There might end up being others that we add but our slate is pretty full with these conventions and we hope to see many of you there! I have considered trying to attend Circle DC in late March but am afraid it will conflict with my family’s spring break trip to Florida. I also keep threatening to make the 2 1/2 hour drive over to Columbus, Ohio in June to got to a few days of Origins but June is always so busy for me at work.

What conventions are you planning on attending in 2026?

Thank you for following along and please let me know what you loved about 2025 and what you are looking forward to for 2026.

-Grant