Mastodawn

It’s the monthly GMT Games update! I’ll be in the bunker.

Grayson Sep 18, 2025

@FredKiesche
I think we've hit a point where the production queue and historical trait of announcing too early has consumed them.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Rio Grande announced what was coming 8 weeks before it shipped (essentially when distributor pre-orders were due).

I suspect there is some middle ground, but I don't know how small shops (e.g. anything below Asmodee) should treat that...

Show thread

RTokarczuk Sep 19, 2025

@grayson @FredKiesche My wife has said this: "You don't need all those games". She is right - I don't. Some time ago, two years or so, I have decided to concentrate myself on a single particular period in history. GMT Games does not publish that many games on that period - and the games that are in their preorder system can exist there for several years. For one title, I think, I have waited for around four years now. Maybe I am outside of the mainstream names and games?

So, even with the most recent update - the company does not provide me with any difficult choices - their preferred designers simply do not design the games about my selected period. I am "safe", I have no need to use a bunker myself.

GMT Games nowadays have so many projects in the making that they can seemingly carry on with what they are doing now - relying on recognized names that attract the customers.

Popular designers craft new titles and before the first game in the new series is even published, the second one in those series is being officially announced within the preorder system.

Show thread

Grayson Sep 19, 2025

@RyTo @FredKiesche you're not wrong, and in particular, I think you're spot on with the penultimate paragraph..

I realized that I can sort my wargames into three segments of setting/conflict:
- I'm interested
- I'm ambivalent or otherwise uninterested in.
- I have no/negative interest in.

I have a negative interest in any American Afghani conflict games; I watched that in the news daily for years. I know Volko has done a couple of great games on it, and I'm happy they exist for my friends who enjoy them. I'm not going to play any of them given the absolute plethora of game options available to me. Life is too short to waste time on a game you're not interested in.

WW2 is a section of history that my spouse nerded out on but only has a passing interest in playing a consim of. So I'll play one if they are interested, and I have had some that I think are neat (Triumph & Tragedy comes to mind), but I basically don't pay for any WW2 games now for that reason.

Then we are left with stuff that I'm interested in (e.g. Pre-1900s Japan, Second Indochina War, the Cold War in general), and I buy those games once I see the rulebook and have an idea of what they are asking players to wrestle with.

One big factor in my consims is "does this make a serious attempt at modeling non-military dynamics?" Fire in the Lake where the US can act on a Hearts & Minds agenda vs just torching the countryside is one example.