July 19, 2017 Update from GMT Games

 
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Hi everyone!

As summer's convention season continues, a time of year when many of us get to spend more hours gaming, I hope you are all getting a chance to either attend a game convention or get a little extra time playing your favorite games.

Speaking of "seasons' and "games," we are entering our busiest new release and shipping time of the year. Having completed shipping Colonial Twilight early this month, we'll quickly follow beginning next week with  Talon Reprint , and 
 
Fields of Fire, 2nd Edition  is scheduled to arrive a little earlier than we previously anticipated, so we've moved it up from late August to early August. It'll be accompanied by  Arquebus: Men of Iron Volume 4 . It's possible that either or both  and Holland '44  will ship along with them, or they could ship a couple weeks after, just depending on how quickly we can get everything assembled and packed. 

Then, in late August, we'll release both   and the Unconditional Surrender Mounted Map Set.

Whew! Our work is certainly laid out for us for the next 6 weeks! I hope that each of these new products will bring you many hours of gaming enjoyment!

Systems Updates: Our systems update process continues. We anticipate having a new version of our full-featured version of our web and backend software to fully test within a few weeks. Hopefully, implementation will follow shortly thereafter. For now, though, I'm still minimizing our new P500 additions. Once we have the new systems in place, we will begin to add some of those new P500 games that we've been holding back over the past few months.

OK, on to the details of this month's update. We have a lot of news to share. Let's start with fixing a problem....

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Colonial Twilight Card Issue

The good news about Colonial Twilight is that we're getting a ton of feedback on social media and BGG about how much fun you guys are having playing this newest COIN series game. That's gratifying, and speaks to the skill and care with which designer Brian Train and developer Jordan Kehrer crafter this game. We hope this first 2-player COIN game will give rise to many other such designs.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that there was a card error at the printer on the Colonial Twilight Project that we didn't catch before we were sending out the P500 orders. The specific problem affects cards # 52-55. What happened is that Card #52 (Cabinet Shuffle) was not printed at all, and card #56 (Hardened Attitudes) was printed twice. So we're missing card #52, and current card #s 52-55 are "off" by one number. Thankfully, this issue doesn't keep you from playing and enjoying the game, but it's something that we are fixing right away.

What we're doing to address the issue: 
  1. First off, we have not shipped any distributor copies of the game (only P500s) and won't ship any until we have the corrected cards and can update the copies of the game we have in our warehouse.
  2. We are reprinting cards #52-55 and will ship them at no cost to all who ordered the game using the P500 program. We don't have an exact timeline yet, but have ordered both expedited service at the printer and expedited shipping, so we think we should have them ready to ship out by mid-August.
  3. In the meantime, so that you'll have the correct information to play with, we've added a pdf of all corrected and renumbered cards #52-55 to the Colonial Twilight page on our website. 
  4. For quick fixes, either:
    • If you sleeve your cards, just print out the new versions from the pdf and put them in sleeves until the replacement cards arrive.
    • If you don't sleeve your cards, take the redundant #56 "Hardened Attitudes" and write "#52 Cabinet Shuffle" on it, and when it comes up in play read the text out of the Playbook or from the pdf version of the card. 
We're very sorry for any inconvenience this error has caused. We'll have your updated cards to you as quickly as possible.

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Consim Press Update

John Kranz at Consim Press has some news that he's asked me to pass along to all of you. His position was recently removed at his place of employment, so he's going full-time in support of our hobby. That means more bandwidth for CSW, which is great news for us all. As part of this change, John has also accepted a position with another publisher moving forward. 

As it affects the games that Consim Press has on our P500 list, there are unfortunately going to be two immediate casualties. As of today, at John's request we are removing both Storming the Heights and Hellfire Pass (both under 400 orders on P500) from the P500 list. For any of you who have P500 orders for either game, we will cancel those orders immediately. John wants you all to rest assured though, with those two exceptions, that all of the other Consim Press titles on our P500 list will be published as planned, starting with Bear's Claw, Russian Campaign, and The Hunted.  Today we are also adding Silent Victory, 2nd Printing to the P500 list at John's request. 

As we continue to work with John on these planned releases, we wish him all the best of luck and future success, and are glad to know that we will all be benefitting from CSW getting more of his attention moving forward.

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Deluxe Edition of The Dark Valley Added to P500 List



We think Ted Raicer's The Dark Valley is a tremendous East Front game. We sold out fairly quickly when the game was initially released, but it didn't do well on the P500 Reprint list. However, we still think it's an outstanding game, so we have decided to publish a completely new Deluxe Edition of the game, with mounted mapboards, thicker counters, and some new tweaks from Ted. 

As a bonus for you fans of Ted's designs, one of the mounted boards will be backprinted with the Barbarossa to Berlin map - and we are including a complete set of Barbarossa to Berlin (thicker) counters in the game as well.

Please check out the P500 page for The Dark Valley, Deluxe Edition, and order today to help us get this gem back in print in a premium version.

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Retail Price Increase for Wild Blue Yonder

As you may have noticed, the Wild Blue Yonder project has grown, component-wise, over time, to the point where we are going to have to increase the retail price by $10, from $79 to $89.
This will affect only post-P500 orders and distributor stores orders. We are NOT going to increase the P500 price. So for all of you who ordered (or will order) this game using the P500 program - and for those of you who order before it ships in October, you are getting an even better (about 38% off) deal now!  
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New in the Warehouse or Back in Stock

In addition to our newest P500 releases (see top of left column in this update), here are a few items that are either new or back in stock in our warehouse. Most are available in limited quantities, so get yours soon!

No Retreat Card Deck (updated for new 3rd printing)

Austerlitz 1805 (Hexasim)
Med Sirocco (uses Atlantic Storm and Pacific Typhoon system)(Hexasim)

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New Rules and Player Aid Card for The US Civil War

Designer Mark Simonitch and the development team for  
The US Civil War  have recently completed a comprehensive update of the game's rules, and have created a May 2017 Edition Rulebook and an updated 11 x 17 Player Aid Card for the game. Both  the rules  and  the player aid card  are available as free pdf downloads to all of our customers

We have had several requests to make these rules and the Player Aid Card available via P500 as a professionally printed product. So we are adding both the rulebook (48 pages) and the Player Aid Card comprising this update package.

If we can get around 250 orders for the rules and PAC, we'll print them.

The price is $9 + shipping (1 lb) for this P500 offering.  If you'd like to order these new rules and PAC, here is the link to the P500 order page:

  
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Good Press for Volko and His Designs

For those of you who haven't yet seen the article, there was an excellent profile recently of Volko Ruhnke and his "real job," as well as some good press for GMT and our games. It's really nice to see Volko get this recognition. He's an incredibly talented guy who's as humble as they come - a real joy to work with.

Here's the link:


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Phil Sabin's 'Dogfight'

We thought you would all want to see this recent news from Wing Leader designer Lee Brimmicombe-Wood:

Okay, here's something for you all: that nice Phil Sabin, Professor of Strategic Studies in the War Studies Department of King's College London, has made a little air combat game, titled Dogfight that you can play with the Wing Leader components. 

Feel free to download these rules from here (they are near the bottom of the downloads page, in the section titled 'variant rules'): http://www.airbattle.co.uk/w_downloads.html 

Phil should be posting these up at BGG later. 

Oh, and please don't direct rules questions at me, but at Phil. - Lee

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This Month in InsideGMT!


 
Here are links to this month's new InsideGMT articles:

Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea - July Development Update

And, in case you missed them, here are links to our previous month's InsideGMT articles: 


As always,  I  invite you guys to head over to www.insidegmt.com, check out the articles, leave us your comments, and tell us what else you'd like to see us do to make  InsideGMT even better!

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San Diego Historical Games Convention - November 10-12, 2017

Harold Buchanan is hosting the 3rd Annual San Diego Historical Games Convention this coming November 10-12.  The venue is again the 5,200 square foot Shriner's Hall in sunny San Diego, CA.   The Theme for this year's Con will be The Great War. As usual, there'll be many scheduled events and plenty of room and time for open gaming.

As if three days of gaming in a terrific venue isn't cool enough, this year's special guest will be Volko Ruhnke. So come meet Volko and join us for a ton of gaming fun in San Diego - where it's 70 degrees in November!  Registration is limited to 150 gamers, so reserve your spot soon. For more information and to register for the event, please visit the convention website .

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GMT Weekend at the Warehouse - October 5-8, 2017 
 
Come join us at the Fall, 2017 GMT Weekend at the Warehouse!
For those new to the event, this is mostly an open gaming event, although we do hav e tournaments from time to time. We expect about 100 gamers to attend, and space is limited, so please get your reservation in to the office ladies (call, chat, or email) as soon as possible.
There are several hotels within a few miles of our offices. The closest one, The Sequoia Inn , blocks rooms for our attendees at special rates. The hotels reservation # is 559-582-0339. Tell them you want the "GMT Group Block" rate. They have already blocked rooms for us for Oct ober, so feel free to go ahead and make reservations whenever you are ready. 
 
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Keep up with GMT O nline

Virtually every day, we announce new information or show off upcoming products or give you a peek under the hood of our new designs in our various online sites and forums. For you guys looking to keep up with us online, here's where you can find us. Drop in and start a conversation!


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That's it for the news bytes from me for this time.   Here's what you'll find in the rest of today's update:
  
- Charge and Shipping Update
- Production Outlook
- P500s
- Project Updates and Sample Art
- P500 Reprint Update
- Website File Additions
  
Thanks, as always, for your support of GMT Games! 
  
Enjoy the games!
  
Gene  

Charging and Shipping Schedule

Shipping
We've shipped all the P500 orders for  Colonial Twilight  , but are holding further shipments until we have the corrected cards in-house and can update the rest of the stock. 

Our next P500 shipment will begin on Tuesday, July 25th, for the following three items:

 
Charging
Our next P500 charges - for the "Early-Mid August" games, will commence Wednesday, July 26, for these items (we'll charge one per day over roughly a week):

For you guys calculating shipping charges for these games, I've included the weights we're using for shipping in parenthesis after each game title.

To avoid any delays in your game shipment, please make sure you've updated your charge cards on our website before we charge. If you use the "Pay by Check" P500 option, please send your checks in by the above dates. Thanks!
Tentative Production  Schedule
  
Here's our most current Tentative Production Schedule from Tony and Mark. 

Games with a ** following their entry are currently at the printer (we're a little more certain about scheduling on these).
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July 25, 2017

Early-Mid August, 2017

Late August, 2017

September, 2017

October, 2017
Pendragon **

Remainder of 4Q, 2017

Early-Mid 2018
The Hunted  (Consim Press) #

#= Although at least one of these is going to be "ready" sooner, John has decided to achieve some operational and cost synergies by printing all three games together in Q1, 2018.
P500s
  
We have no new P500s this time, but be sure to check out our new Deluxe Edition of Ted Raicer's  The Dark Valley, Deluxe Edition, and ConsimPress' Silent Victory, 2nd Printing, which we've added to the P500 Reprint list today.

Recent P500 Additions:




The Battle of Rhode Island   (Volume IX in our BoAR Series): 433 Orders to Date







Apocalypse Road:  339 Orders to Date


Grand Prix Track Pack: 211 Orders to Date


Musket & Pike Dual Pack:  585 Orders to Date





Golden Gate Park: 207  Orders to Date


Red Storm: 523  Orders to Date


SpaceCorp: 1,122  Orders to Date


Tank Duel: Enemy in the Crosshairs: 577  Orders to Date


Battles of the Warrior Queen: 766  Orders to Date


Wing Leader:Blitz632 Orders to Date


Ariovustus: A Falling Sky Expansion: 1,272 Orders to Date


Commands & Colors: Medieval: 984 Orders to Date

 
No Retreat 5: The Western Front:  445 Orders to Date
Project Updates and Sample Art
  
In this section, we'll be passing along updated status on a variety of projects, generally direct from the designers or developers. 

Sneak Peeks:
   
Here's a peek at the Welcome to Centerville game board, by Chechu Nieto:

 
And here's a look, from Mark Simonitch, at the final components for Enemy Coast Ahead: The Dootlittle Raid.



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Design Updates: 




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Apocalypse Road - Designer Jeff Horger



We are still working on Apocalypse Road, trying to take the time allotted to smooth out the rough edges of the combat system. We had a few really good convention tests last month and used those games to focus in on the players that are not old hands at Thunder Alley/Grand Prix. It was a little eye-opening when players got together to just shoot and not to race. Turned out we had been making rules and effects to deal with extreme racers and were not completely prepared for a game of nothing but shooting and ramming. At the halfway point, we altered a couple of minor rules and boom! back on track. 

Also as an update, we are still in the process of naming the drivers in the game. If anyone wants to follow up on that they should contact me at jeff@nothingnowgames.com. -  Jeff

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MBT series expansions - Designer James Day

BAOR & FRG Update

Map development is now in full swing. The two new expansions broaden the play options throughout the MBT world with new, unique scenario objectives or just terrain features. Here are two examples. 


Map 22, included with  BAOR , has a storage tank farm -- Objective Dragon-22. 


Map 14, included with FRG, has an airfield with two runways -- Objective Twilight-14. An additional feature of the airfield is that it may be used for in-game arming and refueling for fixed-wing aircraft and/or helicopters. - Jim

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Fort Sumter - Designer Mark Herman



We are now making the clubhouse turn with this design. I have done what I feel is the final tweaks to the cards and continue to refine the  very short rules. One of the major additions to the game has been the Peace Commission piece. Basically, as the crisis deepens, the historical activity toward local truces, such as at Fort Sumter, add s another interesting strategy element to the game. As I write this, the game is 4 preorders short of 500, so I hope to see this one heading into the art department very soon. - Mark

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Gandhi - Designer Bruce Mansfield



Work on  Gandhi  is going well. Developer Mike Bertucelli has organized a strong group of veteran playtesters who are helping develop the mechanics and feel of the game. One group of playtesters took the game to Origins and returned with a list of specific (and spot-on) suggestions. 

Right now, I'm working hard on the nonviolent factions to fine tune the way they interact with traditional COIN factions, both government and insurgent. Getting Congress and the Muslim League right is an essential part of the game and the story it tells. I'm also reworking the Event Deck to make it more interesting and to give the players even tougher gameplay choices. Lastly, I'm fine tuning systems that address the long timescale of  Gandhi;   its 30 year narrative will be the second longest in the COIN system (after  Pendragon ). A new version incorporating these developments will be going to playtesters soon. - Bruce

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Mr. President - Designer Gene Billingsley



For much of the last month, I've been able to allocate  4-6 hours per day of focused design time on Mr. President. The attention is beginning to show, and the new version of the game is playing very well. We're prepping over the next few weeks to hand the game off to developer Mike Bertucelli and his testers in August, as the redesign phase is nearing completion.

If you'd like to get a sense of how the game plays, please check out the three recent Mr. President AAR articles on InsideGMT.
I'll also have an article on "The Domestic Side of Mr. President" coming to InsideGMT soon, as I've had a lot of questions from gamers about how the domestic interactions and choices work in the game. 

I want to thank all of you who have ordered Mr. President. It hit 1,500 P500 orders this week - you guys are awesome! I'm also extremely grateful to those of you who have offered suggestions (I want to especially thank David Spangler, who has helped me greatly with MANY suggestions and ideas), encouragement, and support. Thanks so much! - Gene

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Pendragon - Designer Marc Gouyon-Rety



Quick Pendragon update: we have completed the proofing of all the game material with Charlie, Chechu and Mark: rulebook, playbook (all 72 pages of it!), player aids, deck, map and counters. Everyone has done a great job and the game is looking fantastic! The only thing that is still outstanding is the final gamebox graphics. Cheers, Marc.

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SpaceCorp - Designer John Butterfield


 
SpaceCorp, the 1-4 player game of space exploration, settlement and profit over the next 250 years, is now in the late stages of development.  Seven months ago, I placed the design in the skilled hands of Chad and Kai Jensen. Thanks to them, the game plays faster with more player interaction, offers a wider range of player choices and strategies, and is balanced for all number of players. Its amazing what happens when award-winning designers develop your game.
 
A full game of SpaceCorp is played over three eras, on three different boards - MarinersPlaneteers and Starfarers. Playing time runs 3-4 hours. For shorter play times, games of one or two eras are also available, starting with any era.  Playtesting of the full game is now complete and we have turned our attention to testing the shorter games.
 
Final art production is also underway for the game's components, including finished illustrations for the 165 cards. Four samples shown here depict (L-R, top to bottom) an anti-matter patent, a chemical drive heavy lifter, , nano miners, and market influence. Each illustration occupies the top third of the card.



I have completed design of the solo game, with development and testing just getting underway. Like most of my solitaire designs, the solo system is not simply a bot for missing players.  You are opposed by an AI that aggregates all competing factions and changing market conditions into a single system. - John

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The Last Hundred Yards - Designer Mike Denson



The development of The Last Hundred Yards continues. We are quickly approaching the completion of a final version of the rules and I am very pleased with the results. I am currently working on the Play Book that will include Mission basic rules, Examples of Play and Designer Notes. We have recently received increase support in regards to the play test of the Missions having completed the play test of 4-5 of the smaller ones. We have also developed rules for Do Your Own Missions but have yet to play test. -  Mike Denson

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Wing Leader: Blitz - Designer Lee Brimmicombe-Wood



The expansion set Wing Leader: Blitz is in the final stretch. Artwork and layout are complete, bar some final touch-up. The delay has been due to the complexity of balancing the module's Barbarossa campaign, which is set in the Ukraine. 

A problem we had encountered was that the Germans were easily dominating the Soviets, with knock-on effects throughout the rest of the campaign. We weren't achieving the asymmetry we were aiming for, in which a high-quality but declining German force struggled against poor-quality but resilient Soviets. In the last six weeks we have made some major balancing fixes that appear to be giving us the outputs were were looking for. We are now in the process of validation testing of some further tweaks, with a view to delivering print-ready files to GMT in August for publication early in 2018. - Lee

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Wild Blue Yonder- Designer Chris Janiec



Wild Blue Yonder is complete and going to the printers! Thanks to the artists for all their hard work, and to everyone who helped test and proofread the game to make sure Down in Flames will soon be available again from GMT in the most beautiful volume yet. - Chris


P500 Reprint News and Tracking

Here's the current status of all the games on our P500 reprint list. Please help us determine what to print by pre-ordering any of these that interest you. Thanks for your help! 

Here's the current P500 Reprint list - with current order totals and a +/- order growth since last month:

Fields of Fire  - 2nd Ed. - 1,202 Orders (+19 )
Unconditional Surrender - 729 Orders (+19)
Barbarossa: AGN  - 679 Orders (+4)
The Hunters 3rd Printing - 660 Orders (+28)
Fire in the Lake, 2nd Printing - 598 Orders (+33)
Ardennes '44 - 518 Orders (+22)
Barbarossa: AGS - 500 Orders (+6)
Cataphract - 480 Orders (+0)
Andean Abyss - 451 Orders (+11)
Barbarossa: AG Center 2nd Ed.- 451 Orders (+4)
Space Empires , 3rd Printing - 449 Orders (+53)
SPQR Dlx.   - 448 Orders (+7)
Navajo Wars - 365 Orders (-1)
Talon: - 318 Orders (+49)
Combat Commander: Pacific - 296 Orders (+8)
Next War: Korea - 277 Orders (+11)
This Accursed Civil War - 269 Orders (-3)
Red Winter - 235 Orders (+0)
Falling Sky, 2nd Printing: 210 Orders (+25)
1989 - 202 Orders (+6) 
Brandywine - 191 Orders (+0)
Dominant Species, 5th Printing:  168 Orders (+25)
Roads to Leningrad 2nd Ed.  - 145 Orders (+1)
Combat Comm. BP 4: New Guinea: - 127 Orders (+7)
Cuba Libre, 3rd Printing: 110 Orders (+12)
New Game Support Files, Vassal/Cyberboard, New Reviews, and Sneak Peeks
  
Here are new support files we've added to our website since our last update. Enjoy!
  
Game Support:  
Vassal/Cyberboard/ZunTzu:
 
  • None this time

Reviews:
 


P500 Sneak Peeks:
 
  • None this time
Sincerely,
 


Your Friends at GMT Games
 
www.gmtgames.com
Toll Free Order and Support Line: 800-523-6111

E-mail: gmtoffice@gmtgames.com