Explore every episode of the podcast "Mentioned In Dispatches" with the Armchair Dragoons
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mentioned In Dispatches S17 E1 – Wargame Magazines | 11 sept. 2026 | 01:04:02 | |
11 September 2026 ~ Our 200th episode1 is here as we launch our 17th season, with Moe of Moe’s Game Table rejoining us for some hockey talk extended discussion of wargaming magazines. So join Moe & Mike & Brant as they talk about what’s out there now, classic favorites, where to find them online, and what they want in a wargaming magazine.
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E12 – Summer & Convention Lookahead | 17 avr. 2026 | 01:16:17 | |
17 April 2026 ~ For the season 16 finale, Brant’s joined by David Thompson, Tim Densham, and Byron Collins to talk about game conventions coming up, some of our favorites, some we can’t stand, and what makes for good & bad conventions. Oh, and Tim needs some advice, too, toward the end.
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E11 – The Politics of Play with Aggie Hirst | 10 avr. 2026 | 01:10:23 | |
10 April 2026 ~ Brant is joined by Dr Aggie Hirst of Kings College London to discuss her research that resulted in the book “Politics of Play” and her other explorations of professional wargaming Links & References
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E10 – Getting A Job in the Tabletop Industry | 03 avr. 2026 | 01:10:26 | |
3 April 2026 ~ Brant is joined by industry veterans Chris Pramas and Ross Thompson to talk about pathways into working in the tabletop game industry. Chris is one of the bigwigs at Green Ronin, and Ross just recently jumped on at Critical Role. The Tabletop Game Jobs group is here (it’s public) and the Tabletop Game Job Talents group is here (it’s not). They’re both on Facebook, so if you’re not on there, you might not be able to see much. Also, as noted around the 53:00 minute mark, here’s the survey question about “how did you learn to play D&D”
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E9 – Sci-Fi Wargaming | 27 mars 2026 | 01:13:15 | |
27 March 2026 ~ Brant, Rocky, Aaron, Austin, and Keith all team up to talk about sci-fi wargaming and barely scratch the surface. Hear what the designers are thinking as they’re developing their games, and we leave plenty of space for future episodes, too. Of course there are links!
Previous episodes on sci-fi wargaming (but not 4X games)
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E8 – The Wargamer’s Bookshelf | 20 mars 2026 | 01:03:39 | |
20 March 2026 ~ Brant is joined by Dr James Sterrett and Jan Heinemann to revisit & update our earlier discussion way back in season 2 on The Essential Wargaming Library. In the past 5-6 years2 there’s been a veritable explosion of full-length, serious books about wargaming and those interested in these titles are now filling up a second shelf with them, instead of having room for fancy bookends and tchotchkes around the limited selection of wargaming tomes. Linkdump
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E7 – Aerial Shooty-Bangy Stuff | 13 mars 2026 | 01:14:29 | |
13 March 2026 ~ Byron and Rocky join Brant to talk about all sorts of fights-in-the-skies, as we look up for this week’s podcast. The mandatory list of references
(and probably a few we forgot) Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E6 – Professional Development for Practitioners | 06 mars 2026 | 01:18:22 | |
6 March 2026 ~ Brant is joined by a pair of professional wargaming educators (Ed McGrady and David Banks) to talk about the professional development options for those in the applied / practitioner / professional world as well as a bit about how hobbyists can cross over Mandatory linkdump!
Got other links to wargaming curricula we should be linking here? Drop them in the comments below!
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E5 – TTRPGs & Wargames: Separated at Birth? | 27 févr. 2026 | 01:23:18 | |
27 February 2026 ~ Ardwulf joins the podcast for a discussion about when the bifurcation of wargames and TTRPGs happened, and how & why. Anecdotes aplenty and also assorted assholery abounds. Links to some of what we discussed
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E4 – BoAR Gamers Invade Camden SC | 20 févr. 2026 | 01:10:00 | |
20 February 2026 ~ Brant, Mike, and Bill are joined by Mark Miklos to talk about his BoAR series and the upcoming special event this Fall in Camden, SC, as well as RevCon in Charlottesville3, and more. Mark gives players some insight into the history of the series, what’s coming next, and even some advice on gameplay. Some of the key links for this episode
Battles of the American Revolution Series Mentioned in Dispatches Episode ~ Series Intro ~ Saratoga ~ Brandywine ~ Guilford Courthouse ~ Eutaw Springs ~ Savannah ~ Camden Event Podcast Episode Saratoga Digital ~ First Impressions ~ Gaming vs The AI Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E3 – Connections Online 5yr Anniversary | 13 févr. 2026 | 01:00:54 | |
13 February 2026 ~ Brant, Chris, and Merle4 gather ’round the virtual campfire to talk about why & how Connections Online came into being, a couple of standout panels & stories from the past 5 years of events, and the inevitable struggle to stay on topic whenever another shiny digression goes prancing across their view. Some key links and references— Connections Online Youtube Playlists
The Connections Online homepage at Armchair Dragoons Some specific sessions that were also called out
Also, pay no attention to the SETI intercepts in the background of Merle’s audio whenever he’s talking. Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E2 – Buckeye Game Fest 2026 | 06 févr. 2026 | 01:06:22 | |
6 February 2026 ~ Brant, Mike, and Gary look ahead to 2026 BGF and talk about The War Room, the other games & events there, and things they’d like to see. There’s plenty of ground we cover in this episode, so here are some of the relevant links
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S16 E1 – What is Wargaming Missing? | 30 janv. 2026 | 01:11:03 | |
30 January 2026 ~ Kicking off the new season, our erstwhile co-hosts take a deep dive into the wide world of wargaming and discuss what they think the wargaming hobby is missing. So you can hear what our couple of wargaming yammerers think, but what do you—the educated & erudite audience—think we’re missing from the overall wargaming hobby? Sound off below or in our forums or on any of the different service feeds where you hear our podcasts.
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and saddling up with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web, including our all-new merchandise shop. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E12 – Ask Us Anything! | 05 déc. 2025 | 01:43:44 | |
5 December 2025 ~ Well, we asked for it . . . ASK US ANYTHING!For our Season 15 finale of our podcast, you've got until Monday to get your questions in Jim, Mike & Brant will take their best swing at answering whatever you're wanting to know about wargaming, or the Dragoonsuse #AskMID15 & we'll collect them for the show — Armchair Dragoons (@armchairdragoons.bsky.social) 2025-11-22T19:44:22.000Z y’all did not disappoint… we had around 40 or so questions overall, and got to as many as we realistically could and not end up with a 3-1/2 hour podcast. As it is, you get the longest one of this season (and probably last, too). So Mike, Jim, and Brant tackle a bunch of questions that are all over the map – from questions about disease, genres in wargaming, social media channels, recommendations for middle-schoolers, and even hockey. We wrap up with some long-term forward-looking thoughts about the Dragoons, too.
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E11 – Fall Conventions! | 28 nov. 2025 | 01:22:37 | |
28 November 2025 ~ There are no shortage of game conventions held in the Fall each year, so we brought together some folks attended 3 of them to talk about the fun they had. Christina Kahrl gives us the low-down on SDHist 2025; Grant Linneberg of Pushing Cardboard attended his first BottosCon; Aaron Danis dropped into Compass Expo, since FoxCon was cancelled. What did they play? What were their favorites? Were there any big games on hand? What’s the vibe at each convention? What were the highlights and what would they like to see in the future? And now, which one are you wanting to attend next time?
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E10 – On Target Sims and Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War | 21 nov. 2025 | 01:09:34 | |
21 November 2025 ~ With yesterday’s launch of the latest Flashpoint Campaigns game, Cold War, we wanted a visit with our buddies from On Target Sims to talk about the changes in this game, the challenges of developing games on Cold War-era combat, how far you could stretch the system, and what lessons they learned along the way. Brant’s joined this week by James Sterrett, as they interrogate Jim Snyder and Rob Crandall, and really, it’s mostly a reunion for the gang since they used to all work together running events at the Origins War College and still collaborate quite at bit on the Wargame HQ, too. And speaking of War College events, here’s the AAR moment referenced around the 43:30 mark. And if you think Rob should audition to be a play-by-play announcer for televised golf tournaments, let’s just say you wouldn’t be the first one to think that
Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War Preview ~ Mentioned in Dispatches Podcast ~ AAR set 1 ~ AAR set 2 Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E9 – Wargame Design Studio Sword & Siege Crusades Interview | 14 nov. 2025 | 01:07:24 | |
14 November 2025 ~ Brant & Jim are joined by (only a few of) the Riches of Wargame Design Studio to talk about their latest series of games – The Sword & Siege series – that covers medieval warfare As always when Jim is present, or pretty much any time we record a podcast, things do get off-topic a bit, but always focused on Wargame Design Studio. We get a preview of what’s coming later this month, along with some behind-the-scenes looks at the research process. 3D graphics? Solo vs AI gaming? Updates to the WW1 games? We make an attempt to pester Mr’s Hamilton and Walker with these and more. Mandatory Linkiness
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E8 – How is the Wargaming Business Like the Music Business? | 07 nov. 2025 | 01:07:19 | |
7 November 2025 ~ OK, so we’re getting wacky5 this week as we bring in a pair of game designers/professional musicians on board to talk about the parallels between the wargaming business (and hobby gaming as a whole) and the music business – creating your own music, finding a publisher, going on tour, market segmentation, storytelling, and more Let’s welcome aboard Wes Crawford of Wharf Rat Games and Dan Bullock, both designers who have self-published a variety of games as well as selling designs to other publishers. You get back-stories from both designers of pitching games to publishers, developing their games with player feedback, and the inspirations behind some of their upcoming designs. And of course, we find as many connections to their experiences in the music business as we can along the way.
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E7 ~ Designer James Day | 31 oct. 2025 | 01:02:35 | |
31 October 2025 ~ For the first time on Mentioned in Dispatches, we’re joined by designer James M. Day, who partnered with Fernando Sola Ramos in designing this year’s multiple-CSR-award-winning Panzer: North Africa. So Brant & Mike barrage Mr Day with a variety of questions about his history of designing tank-heavy games, the local newspaper covering his win, some history in the computer gaming world, and solo adaptations of his games. We also spend a little time talking about the background behind Mr Day’s upcoming man-to-man sci-fi game ARC. Huge thanks to Mr Day for taking the time out of his schedule to join us, and we’ll definitely clear the schedule for him to join us again in the future. A couple of our links to CSR-related content
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E6 – The Fall Assembly | 24 oct. 2025 | 01:13:11 | |
24 October 2025 ~ Brant, Mike, and Keith have a discussion about the 2025 Fall Assembly, just in case you weren’t already sick of hearing about the best convention that you haven’t yet attended. What got played? What stuck out for us? What about the new location? What did we like or not? What about next year6? Plenty of wargaming crammed into a pretty tightly-packed weekend with a great crew of gamers.
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E5 – Why GAMA for Wargaming? | 17 oct. 2025 | 01:14:03 | |
17 October 2025 ~ The Game Manufacturers Association, which has now been renamed GAMA: The Tabletop Games Association, has been a bit of a flashpoint for wargamers over the past dozen years or more. With some real questions about why wargamers should care about GAMA, it’s often been tough to make the case that they should. But with all the changes at GAMA since the pandemic7 there’s the potential for real value for publishers beyond just discounts on Origins booths. So Brant & Ardwulf are joined by Jason Matthews to talk about GAMA as a whole, but specifically what wargamers & wargame companies should be getting out of the organization. What does GAMA offer everyone and how does that apply to wargamers? What about Origins and the wargaming program there? What can a publisher get out of GAMA Expo? And how many times will someone’s browser crash and knock them out of Streamyard?8
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E4 – Brian Train’s Newest Game Designs | 10 oct. 2025 | 01:24:00 | |
10 October 2025 ~ After 3 years, Brian’s back to join us to talk about his latest releases, both Brief Border Wars 2, and China’s War, which have been in extended development and both just happen to hit your porch at about the same time. Brant, Mike, and Brian talk about quad games overall, d66 dice mechanics, development & history of the Brief Border Wars oeuvre, other ‘quad’-like sets that Brian’s worked on, when WW2 actually started, and some of Brian’s recent gallivanting through Europe for professional wargaming purposes. Brian’s always a great guest, so sick back and enjoy! The mandatory list of links
Mike’s copies of the Fiery Dragon versions of Battle for China https://i0.wp.com/armchairdragoons.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MiD-train-chinaswar-front.jpg https://i0.wp.com/armchairdragoons.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MiD-train-chinaswar-back.jpg
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E3 – Solo Wargaming Survey, 2025 Edition | 03 oct. 2025 | 01:16:42 | |
3 October 2025 ~ For our third consecutive Summer, we teamed up with Beyond Solitaire for a big survey about people’s solo/solitaire war & historical gaming. We were interested in both purpose-designed solitaire games as well as games people played solo regardless of how they were designed. We had a Google form open for a month towards the end of the Summer for people to vote. We tallied the results, and here is the top of the list, with links to the entire list and our other data diving linked down below. So here we have Brant joined by Liz (from Beyond Solitaire) and our usual semi-irregular occasional co-host who-actually-loves-solo-wargaming Mike (My Own Worst Enemy) to talk about what’s on the list this year, what’s new, what’s surprising, and what’s expected. We also talk some about how different demographic segments of the audience have different preferences. The top 26 games are below (there was a tie at the 25th spot) and the entire list can be found here. And audience – talk back to us! Use the comment fields below and let us know what we coulda/shoulda asked of our respondents and let us know what to put into next year’s survey. Rank Name Count Sum Average Designer Publisher 1 Fields of Fire: Deluxe Edition 33 141 4.27 Ben Hull GMT Games 2 D-Day at Omaha Beach 34 116 3.41 John H. Butterfield Decision Games 3 RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940 16 68 4.25 John H. Butterfield Decision Games 4 Pavlov’s House 17 56 3.29 David Thompson (I) DVG 4 Comancheria: The Rise and Fall of the Comanche Empire 17 56 3.29 Joel Toppen GMT Games 6 Halls of Hegra 16 51 3.19 Petter Schanke Olsen Tompet Games 7 Skies Above Britain 17 48 2.82 Jeremy White GMT Games 8 Enemy Action: Ardennes 13 47 3.62 John H. Butterfield Compass Games 9 Navajo Wars 13 46 3.54 Joel Toppen GMT Games 10 Atlantic Chase: The Kriegsmarine Against the Home Fleet 1939-1942 12 37 3.08 Jeremy White GMT Games 11 Pax Pamir: Second Edition 10 36 3.6 Cole Wehrle Wehrlegig Games 12 John Company: Second Edition 8 33 4.13 Cole Wehrle Wehrlegig Games 13 Fire in the Lake 10 32 3.2 Mark Herman GMT Games 14 Mr. President: The American Presidency, 2001-2020 7 27 3.86 Gene Billingsley GMT Games 15 Thunderbolt Apache Leader 9 26 2.89 Dan Verssen DVG 16 I, Napoleon 8 25 3.13 Ted Raicer GMT Games 17 Lanzerath Ridge 9 25 2.78 David Thompson (I) DVG 18 Combat! Volume 1 7 24 3.43 Ross Mortell Compass Games 19 Enemy Action: Kharkov 7 23 3.29 John H. Butterfield Compass Games 20 Cuba Libre 6 22 3.67 Jeff Grossman GMT Games 21 Western Front Ace: The Great War in the Air, 1916-1918 5 21 4.2 Gregory M. Smith Compass Games 22 Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398 7 21 3 Cory Graham GMT Games 22 Ambush! 7 21 3 John H. Butterfield Victory Games 24 Maquis 6 20 3.33 Jake Staines (Web published) 25 Stilicho: Last of the Romans 5 19 3.8 Robert DeLeskie Hollandspiele 26 Raid on St. Nazaire 8 19 2.38 Robert G. Markham The Avalon Hill Game Co Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us 2025 Solo & Solitaire Wargaming & Historical Gaming Survey Results ANNOUNCEMENT | MASTER LIST | DATA DIVING | BEYOND SOLITAIRE YOUTUBE DISCUSSION BGG GEEKLIST | MENTIONED IN DISPATCHES EPISODE | MORE DATA DIVING Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. The results of our 2024 survey can be found here:2024 Solo & Solitaire Wargaming & Historical Gaming Survey Results ANNOUNCEMENT | MASTER LIST | DATA DIVING | BEYOND SOLITAIRE YOUTUBE DISCUSSION | BGG Geeklist | Historical Rankings MORE DATA DIVING | MENTIONED IN DISPATCHES EPISODE The results of our 2023 research can be found here:2023 Solo & Solitaire Wargaming & Historical Gaming Survey Results ANNOUNCEMENT | MASTER LIST | DATA DIVING | BEYOND SOLITAIRE YOUTUBE DISCUSSION | MENTIONED IN DISPATCHES EPISODE | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E2 – The 2024 Charlies | 26 sept. 2025 | 01:28:45 | |
26 September 2025 ~ The 2024 Charles S Roberts Awards were presented over the Summer at Origins9 but we didn’t get a chance to weigh in with our opinions until now. Look, you already know who won, because you read our site religiously and saw the list we published back in June, right? Right?! But what you haven’t heard is Jim chime in with his outrageous French accent, or Mike complain about conflating solo and co-op games10, or Brant give a bit of behind-the-scenes insight, or how The Doors factor into all of this11. Some of the links & lists that we discussed during the show
Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S15 E1 – The Wargaming “Canon” | 19 sept. 2025 | 01:23:52 | |
19 September 2025 ~ Annnnnnnnnnd, we’re back! Brant is joined by fellow Dragoon Jim/Cyrano, and regular guests Gary/Ardwulf & Liz from Beyond Solitaire, for a discussion inspired by Liz’s comments last year about “what’s in the Wargaming Canon of those games that you expect people to have played if they’re claiming to be a wargamer” So we brought some smart people together, and let Brant crash the party since he runs the console, and tried to figure out what games we would’ve expected wargamers to have played at some point — not their favorites, or the most influential, or the most popular — if you’re trying to earn that Grognard Merit Badge. Give the show a listen for the rationale behind the choices, especially since some of them were merely exemplars of wider series/families of games; there’s four different Commands & Colors series games in the table below, but as explained it’s really about picking out the era of interest to you and then giving it a whirl. We even explain why we left some particular choices off the list, so don’t go ballistic until you hear it all! Title Publisher(s) Original Date Kriegsspiel (1824) Original Prussian Kriegsspiel 1824 D‑Day (exemplar of old AH flat-box designs) Avalon Hill (original) 1961 PanzerBlitz (or swap in Panzer Leader / AIW) Avalon Hill 1970 Napoleon (4th edition) Columbia Games 1974 The Russian Campaign Avalon Hill / Jedko 1974 Third Reich Avalon Hill 1974 Wooden Ships & Iron Men Avalon Hill 1974 Blue & Gray Quadrigame (exemplar of SPI quads) SPI (original) 1975 Frederick the Great SPI / Avalon Hill 1975 Napoleon’s Last Battles SPI / Decision Games reprints 1976 War in Europe SPI / Decision Games reprints 1976 OGRE Steve Jackson Games 1977 Squad Leader Avalon Hill 1977 Republic of Rome Avalon Hill / Valley Games remasters 1978 Ambush! Victory Games 1983 Empires in Arms Australian Design Group / Avalon Hill 1983 RAF (exemplar of Butterfield designs) West End Games12 1986 Battle Cry (part of C&C series) Avalon Hill 1999 Hammer of the Scots (exemplar of block games) Columbia Games 2002 Memoir ’44 (part of C&C series) Days of Wonder 2004 Empire of the Sun GMT Games 2005 Commands & Colors: Ancients (part of C&C series) GMT 2006 Here I Stand GMT Games 2006 Maria Histogame 2009 Pax Pamir (exemplar of Pax series) Sierra Madre / Wehrlegig 2009 Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (part of C&C series) GMT Games 2010 Dawn of the Zeds (exemplar of States of Siege series) Victory Point Games 2010 Cuba Libre (exemplar of COIN series) GMT 2013 Enemy Action: Ardennes (exemplar of Butterfield designs) Compass Games 2015 Napoléon 1815 Shakos 2022There were some other things mentioned during the show, so here’s some / most / almost all of them
And yes, Ardwulf was constructing and testing a plastic speedcoaster for his marble collection in the background. Drop in on your podcast platform of choice (iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | Castro | whatever we forgot to link) and throw our way to help other listeners find us Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E12 ~ Whatever (!) | 18 avr. 2025 | 01:11:06 | |
18 April 2025 ~ Brant, Jim, and Mike just talk about games – mostly wargames, some classic computer games, some good, some bad, and everything in between! There’s no real agenda here, we’re just babbling about random wargame stuff, from ooooold computer wargames to upcoming battle anniversaries to the SALUTE show over in London. Some of the links we promised in the episode
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E11 ~ Adepticon | 11 avr. 2025 | 01:13:13 | |
11 April 2025 ~ Brant & Jim are joined by first-time Dispatchers Achilles & Robert to talk about Adepticon 2025. Minis, minis, and more minis, with all sorts of Star Wars, Battletech, and WH40K everywhere, and some occasional real battles too. What did our guys enjoy? What surprised them? What loot did they bring home? Coolest thing they so? How many solo games were being played? And why were there Muppets everywhere?!
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E10 ~ Wargame Awards | 04 avr. 2025 | 01:09:20 | |
4 April 2025 ~ Rocky and Mike and Brant do their best to muddle through a discussion around why we do/n’t care about wargame awards, what’s wrong with popularity contests, and how you would design the “right” kinds of wargame awards. We certainly don’t discuss all of the possible awards out there, and we don’t do a deep dive on each of them, but we try to cover a variety of ways in which these different awards approach their categories, participation, scope, and scale. So what did we miss? What awards didn’t we cover that we should have? How would you organize a set of wargaming awards – categories, voters, scope & scale – if you were going to do so? Sound off below! Here’s a bunch of links to some of the wargame awards discussed on the show
And this was from the question we asked at the end of 2024 about your wargame-acquisition decision-making And we also asked whether or not awards had any bearing on purchase decisions.
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E9 ~ US Army Command & General Staff College Wargaming Students | 28 mars 2025 | 01:03:46 | |
28 March 2025 ~ Brant is joined by Dr James Sterrett and one of his students, US Army MAJ Alex Adkins, to discuss the wargaming curriculum at the US Army Command & General Staff College at Ft Leavenworth, KS, and MAJ Adkins Master’s thesis wargame Overmatch. The discussion includes some info about the program (more info below) and pivots to MAJ Adkins experiences in the program. There’s a bunch of discussion about Overmatch and its development and purpose. There’s also a brief discussion of the uses of wargaming in the military decision-making process. A couple of links to things that were discussed in the show
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E8 ~ Serious Non-Wargaming | 21 mars 2025 | 01:12:31 | |
21 March 2025 ~ Friend-of-the-Dragoons Rex Brynen (of Paxsims, among other places) and fellow Canadian Ben Taylor join Brant for a discussion about serious games that don’t involve all the shooty-bangy things. What are some of the tools that overlap from wargaming into the non-kinetic world? What are some success stories in using wargaming techniques in these contexts? What are some of the third rails to avoid when using wargaming techniques with other audiences? When do you push back on requests for a wargame? All these, and more, in the best hour of podcasting you’ll get this week.
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E7 ~ GMT’s Battles of the American Revolution series | 14 mars 2025 | 00:53:41 | |
14 March 2025 ~ Mike & Bill join Brant to talk about GMT’s long-running Battles of the American Revolution series, as we continue this season’s focus on digging into some different game series in a bunch of our episodes. At over 25 years old, it’s one of the longest-running, still-active series that started after TAHGC’s crash & burn back in the 1990s. We talk about the scope of the series across all the games, some nuances of a few specific games, whether (or how) the game could expand beyond the AWI, and games from other publishers that might operate in a similar space. Some links for this show:
You can chat about this series in the Age of Gunpowder section of our discussion forums Battles of the American Revolution Series Mentioned in Dispatches Episode ~ Series Intro ~ Saratoga ~ Brandywine ~ Guilford Courthouse ~ Eutaw Springs ~ Savannah ~ Camden Event Podcast Episode Saratoga Digital ~ First Impressions ~ Gaming vs The AI We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E6 ~ Special Guests at GAMA Expo | 07 mars 2025 | 01:12:29 | |
7 March 2025 ~ Similar to what we did last year at the Expo, rather than try to organize a full-hour episode on a particular topic, we grabbed a couple of different guests to join us for a consolidated Expo episode. Also, rather than focus exclusively on publishers this year, we cast a slightly wider net. We start out with a wonderful discussion with Steve Jackson14 to discuss their latest Kickstarter, trends in the gaming industry, blazing new trails, and evergreen hits. For this conversation, we were joined by Jason Matthews. We start off that discussion talking about the Kickstarter campaign for the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks that are being reprinted. Steve also shows off some very neat minis tiles from Lorescape that he’s backing and can be used for a variety of hex-based games. https://i0.wp.com/armchairdragoons.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GEx2025-2-00203.jpg https://i0.wp.com/armchairdragoons.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GEx2025-2-00204.jpg https://i0.wp.com/armchairdragoons.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GEx2025-2-00205.jpgclick images to enlarge Our second guest was Mike Dunn of Gaming Trend, who is one of the key drivers behind the recent push in the GAMA Media & Events division to improve the quality of content, and capabilities of the members. We talk about media coverage of overall industry and some of his specific initiatives within the organization. This might seem a little bit like media navel-gazing, but we thought it good perspective on what forces are shaping potential coverage of the industry. Finally, with both of the folks that lead Buckeye Game Fest at the Expo, we snagged Kate and Kristin to talk about the background of BGF, as well as some upcoming plans for the next few years as BGF is looking to broaden their appeal to a wider audience. Plus, don’t forget Quad Fest at BGF this year! Overall, we think this offers a fair cross-section of the kinds of industry folks you encounter at the GAMA Expo, as we try to situate our niche of the wargaming hobby within the broader context of the overall game industry.
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E5 ~ The Total War Series | 28 févr. 2025 | 01:00:51 | |
28 February 2025 ~ Brant, Jim, Gus, and (eventually) Sam get together to discuss CA’s Total War series of wargames. Starting with Shogun and continuing through multiple iterations of Rome and Warhammer as well as such off-the-wall games as Attila and Pharoah, plus Jim favorites Napoleon and Empire, among others. What did we love and/or hate? What was awesome, ugly, fun, or stupid? Who is shadowboxing, and why? What would we fix? What do we think is superfluous, and what do we think is essential? And how exasperated will Jim get with it all?
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E4 ~ The Operational Combat Series | 21 févr. 2025 | 01:01:19 | |
21 February 2025 ~ The OCS games are one of the current standards of the industry for large-scale ‘monster’ games with a reputation for both complexity and consistency. Series rules are usable across almost all of the 20-odd games, and veteran players have literally hundreds of hours under their belts. We talk about the scope of the series, how far before/after WW2 you could reasonably extend the series and why, the logistics model, the surprise mechanic, splitting roles across multiple players, and even a digression about bad dice. A couple of relevant links
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E3 ~ Fantasy 4X Games | 14 févr. 2025 | 00:57:08 | |
14 February 2025 ~ Yes it’s Valentine’s Day; no, it’s not that kind of XXXX fantasy! Brant, Mike, and Sam chat about their favorite 4X games in the fantasy genre (as opposed to historical or space). What distinguishes a fantasy 4X game from the other kinds? What are some hallmarks of the genre? Which games were our favorites and why? Which ones had particularly good graphics? Most of these are digital, but what about on the tabletop? What parts would we pull from different games to create our ultimate fantasy 4X game?
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E2 ~ Quad Fest! | 07 févr. 2025 | 00:59:54 | |
7 February 2025 ~ https://i0.wp.com/armchairdragoons.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Quad-Fest-Promo-1.pngclick to really enlargeBrant & Mike are joined by Ardwulf, and Bill is back again, to talk about the classic quadrigames from SPI, and their later evolutions through TSR and Decision Games, as well as other emulations of the form by Compass Games, GMT, and others. We talk about the history of the games and the designers who were ‘trained’ on quads, and the underlying ‘schtick’ of fast-playing, quick-learning, low-overhead, small(er)-footprint combo packs. We also cover some of our favorites, some recent multi-pack games that fit the “quad” ethos, and the fifth-wheel games later published in S&T. Are series wargames more of a thing now than back then? And which quads showed up in single packs, as well? All of this is leading up to this year’s Buckeye Game Fest 15, where we’ll be sponsoring/participating in Quad Fest! In partnership with Ardwulf’s Lair and My Own Worst Enemy, we’re putting 6 classic SPI quads on the table in The War Room at BGF, from Wednesday through Saturday (with Friday as the main day). There’s even room for more GMs to add a couple of Quad Fest events – just get in touch with us about scheduling so we don’t overlap each other! When? Quad! WED 6p-9p Crimean War THU 1p-4p Blue & Gray FRI 9a-Noon Modern Battles I FRI 1p-4p Island War FRI 6p-9p Thirty Years War SAT 9a-Noon Modern Battles IIWhat are your thoughts on the old quad games? Any particular favorites, or ones you hated? What about Quad Fest? Is that enough to get you to come join us / game with us at Buckeye Game Fest? Is there a game you want to see added, or one you’re willing to come join as a GM? Sound off below, or tell us in our forums!
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S14 E1 ~ The ACDC & Digital Conventions | 31 janv. 2025 | 01:05:12 | |
31 January 2025 ~ Kicking off our 14th season with episode 164! Brant is joined by Keith Tracton and Tim Densham, a pair of designers who were also GMs for our most recent ArmChair Dragoons Digital Convention (The ACDC). We talk about how this year’s ACDC shook out and what they enjoyed during the show and what could’ve been improved. We compare digital conventions to in-person ones, too – what are the dis/advantages of digital setup & prep vs in-person teaching of games. What’s different with an in-person presentation vs a digital broadcast on-line? And whatever happened to that guy the city watch hauled off for going through the dead guy’s pockets back in 2018? More shenanigans to come as this season unfolds! For now, rejoice and be happy, as Mentioned in Dispatches with The Armchair Dragoons returns The 2025 ACDC –– ORIGINAL OPORD ~ REGISTRATION ~ LIVESTREAM ARCHIVE ~ AAR ~ PODCAST
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons. Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web. You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 13 ~ Thankful Wargamers | 06 déc. 2024 | 00:57:31 | |
6 December 2024 ~ Brant & Mike are joined by Jim & Bill to talk about all the things for which we are thankful in the world of wargaming and our wider hobby ecosphere. Let’s talk about conventions, content creators, how technology has changed wargaming, and more. Chime in below, or in our forums, and let us know what you are thankful for in the wargaming world!
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 12 ~ SDHISTCON | 29 nov. 2024 | 00:59:30 | |
29 November 2024 ~ Over Veteran’s Day weekend, a bunch of wargamers gathered in San Diego, where they started each morning by scraping 3 inches of sunshine off their windshields before cruising over to the Portuguese Hall for several full days of games, panels, interviews, special events, and other general frivolity at SDHISTCON. So join Brant has he chats with Grant from Pushing Cardboard, Liz from Beyond Solitaire, and our buddy Ardwulf, about what they played, who they met & chatted with, and most importantly, about the outstanding food they ate while there.
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 11 ~ 4! X! In! SPAAAAAACE! | 22 nov. 2024 | 01:06:20 | |
22 November 2024 ~ It’s time to blast off to the outer reaches of strategy gaming as we spend some time discussing 4X games that are set in space. Brant & Mike are joined by Sam and a different Mike to talk about gameplay in 4X games, classic tropes, processor power, and more Sam’s also been playing the latest DLC for Distant Worlds 2 from Slitherine Games – Return of the Shakturi, and he gives us his initial impressions of the content as well as his overall thoughts after 2 years of continued improvements for DW2. Of course we make fun of how late the Stellaris board game is running, but we also spend a few minutes on other 4X board games, too, like Stellar Horizons and Space Empires 4X. Enjoy!
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 10 ~ Best of Computer Wargaming Part 2 | 15 nov. 2024 | 01:02:10 | |
15 November 2024 ~ We’re back to computer wargaming, as we pick up where we left off and start shifting up in echelon away from tactical to operational and strategic level games. This isn’t some “all-time top 10” or anything; it’s just games we’ve enjoyed over the years and some commentary on them, from ancients to modern, and everywhere in between. So join Brant, Bryan, and Cyrano for a rambling romp through our digital wargaming as we call out some of the better games we’ve played over the years. And no, Bryan is not from Ohio, but still likes adding a “s” on all the titles anyway. Here are some of the other episodes referenced in this discussion, too
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches S13 E9 ~ Hobby and Practitioner Wargaming Overlaps | 08 nov. 2024 | 01:24:40 | |
8 November 2024 ~ Ian and Mike16 join Brant to talk about the ‘aha!’ moments of wargaming in military classrooms, what games they’ve used for different purposes, and wargame interfaces, among plenty of other things. Some links & Info
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 8 ~ Best of Computer Wargaming Part 1 | 01 nov. 2024 | 01:00:34 | |
1 November 2024 ~ Let’s talk digits! Bryan and Gus join the show to talk about some of their favorite computer games over the past 20-25 years, with a focus on this show starting at the tactical level and drifting slightly into the operational level of combat. We cover a lot of different ground as we tackle Battletech and the Russo-Japanese War and vampires and WW2 and the Aliens universe, all in one show. There’s bemoaning of bad DRM decisions and nostalgia for turn-based games back when that was all the computers could handle. We talk about some favorite media licenses and game worlds, and some not-so-favorite sales practices. And plenty of other babbling.
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 7 ~ Fall Assembly Wrapup | 25 oct. 2024 | 01:04:03 | |
25 October 2024 ~ Is there a positive word for “browbeating”? How mad should your opponents be when you blow up the city block that they’re occupying? How much table space is too much, too little, or just right? Brant & Mike are joined by Fall Assembly attendees Rocky and Bill to talk about what they enjoyed, what needs improvement, and what they learned. You can also read our AAR here and keep up with the playlist of videos from the convention17. As you’re doing all of this, you can start planning now for next 10-12 October, and whether you’re going to attend for 2 days, 3 days, or the full weekend plus the Thursday night social! On this episode, we talk about the overall convention, but also about a couple of particular games we played as well:
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 6 ~ FOMO | 19 oct. 2024 | 01:06:00 | |
18 October 2024 ~ Brant, Mike, Bryan, and not Gary talk about things that contribute FOMO in wargaming, and how FOMO has applied to their own gaming acquisitions. Which companies create that “fear of missing out” among their customers? How does crowdfunding contribute? Where are there games that are perpetually available and never really create any sort of FOMO? What about you, dear audience? What contributes to any FOMO for you, and how do you18 combat it? We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 5 ~ The Shelf of Shame | 11 oct. 2024 | 01:06:35 | |
11 October 2024 ~ Shelf of “Shame” or a Shelf of “Opportunity”? Brant & Mike are joined by Rocky and “The Other Mike” (OJsDad for those of your who watch Saturday Night Fights) to talk about all those games you’ve stacked up on your shelf that are still waiting to hit the table. What have you had the longest without getting it to the table? Do you have more than one of the same game and neither of them have been played yet? Are you collecting all of a particular line of games (or expansions) but never get them played? And then there are the edge cases: if you’ve played someone else‘s copy of the game, does that count for checking it off of your shelf of shame? If you’ve played it thru VASSAL / TTS / etc is that enough to knock it off the list? What about games that you were gifted or otherwise didn’t really intend to acquire but are now on your shelves? There are no hard-&-fast rules here, but what’s still lingering in your game collection that you keep meaning to play but never seem to find the time to get to? Go ahead and confess your shames! Comments below or in the forums
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 4 ~ The Worst of Wargaming | 04 oct. 2024 | 01:23:34 | |
4 October 2024 ~ Time to shoot up some truth serum and sharpen the knives! Bryan wanted to talk about the “worst” of wargaming, so Brant dragged Jim & Mike into the fray and here we go –– Worst game name? Computer game? Rulebook? Category of games? Which game was so bad the 1st edition was unplayable as written19? There’s plenty of rough & tumble thoughts here to go around, so jump into the discussion and let us know what some of your “worsts” are. What did we have to say about Hearts of Iron or Maneouvre or I, Napoleon or Fields of Fire or Balance of Power. What do 60s classic rock songs have to do with this episode? Why is(n’t?) Mike angry at the CSRs and is this the only time Jim will ever agree with him about solo wargaming? Is there actually a Napoleonic game that Jim hates worse than the Ridley Scott movie? Have we asked enough questions? Why aren’t you listening yet?! And yes, we do get off-topic – we have tradition to uphold! At this point, Jim has dropped from the 3rd hit to 4th on Google, when searching “Teugn-Hausen”. But . . . one of their videos of the battle is up to 5th, so he’s got 40% of the top hits on the world’s biggest search engine when you go looking for a major Napoleonic battle! We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 3 ~ Solo Wargame Survey Wrapup | 27 sept. 2024 | 01:09:15 | |
27 September 2024 ~ Last Summer, we teamed up with Beyond Solitaire for a big survey about people’s solo/solitaire war & historical gaming. We were interested in both purpose-designed solo games as well as games people played solitaire regardless of how they were designed. The plan was always to repeat this each Summer and see how it changed over time, so we did it again! You can see the links to the rest of the 2024 survey content below, but on this episode of Mentioned in Dispatches, we talk about some of the big rise & fall games from last year, how the top games compared based on how long you’ve been wargaming, and finding new-to-you gems in the data. The results of our 2024 survey can be found here: 2024 Solo & Solitaire Wargaming & Historical Gaming Survey Results ANNOUNCEMENT | RESULTS | DATA DIVING | BEYOND SOLITAIRE YOUTUBE DISCUSSION | BGG Geeklist | Historical Rankings MORE DATA DIVING | MENTIONED IN DISPATCHES EPISODE We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 2 ~ AI & Tabletop Gaming | 20 sept. 2024 | 01:05:55 | |
20 September 2024 ~ David Thompson joins Brant for a wide-ranging discussion around the uses of AI for creative purposes in tabletop gaming, whether for art or text. Note that the “AI” we’re talking about this week is for the creation of the game content, and not as a ‘bot’ or automata in place of an opponent. Under what conditions might AI usage be OK? Assuming it’s legal, is it automatically ethical? As a consumer, what sort of usage are you comfortable with? What disclosures do you want regarding the usages of “creative” AI in tabletop gaming? What’s black and white and how big are the gray areas in between? Some of the headlines we mention in this episode
The Chasing Amy reference20 with language that is sooooo NSFW
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||
| Mentioned In Dispatches Season 13 Ep 1 ~ Wargame Motivations | 13 sept. 2024 | 01:05:25 | |
13 September 2024 ~ Season 13 is here! Brant, Mike, and Rocky spend this episode talking about what motivates people to play a wargame, how to keep your motivation up when it’s flagging, and how to get engaged with a topic that’s outside your wheelhouse. Let’s kick off this new season with discussions of Divine Right and other reprints, boosting your opponents’ motivation to play, how to engage with your game topic, similarities to RPG reprints, why to keep playing your way through a game that’s no longer fun, and more.
We love your feedback, over on the iTunes page for our podcast or on Spotify, or even Amazon or Castro, drop us a rating and let us know what you think. Thanks! Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and mounting up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming. You also can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Threads. (We have an Instagram page and it’s really just a placeholder & redirect to our articles.) You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events. Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below. | |||