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Hi everyone!
It's only been a few weeks since our last update, but I am leaving shortly for a cross-country drive to get Luke back to college in Nashville, so I need to publish this update before we leave. I don't have as much news as usual for you this time. But I do have several cool new P500 additions.
Before I get to those, just a quick word about progress with our system and warehouse updates. We've looked carefully at several excellent options to upgrade our systems, and are at this point a few days away from signing an agreement with the winning vendor. I'll give you more details in the September update, but it looks like September and October will be the big "transition months" for us, so things may be a little crazier than usual around the office and warehouse during the transition period. Please be patient with us as we get new systems up and running. There is bound to be a learning curve as we learn and install the new software, equipment, and processes. We'll keep you updated on how it's going.
On shipping, as I noted before, we've pared back shipping plans for the fall a bit already. Still, our schedule looks pretty full, because we have quite a few games already at the printers. So you guys are still going to get a bunch of games from us between now and year-end. If we have to slow production further or hold some games in house for a short period to accomodate our new software and processes this fall, we will. At this point, though, we're intending to go with what you see on the Production Schedule, below in this update.
OK, on to the new P500s. We have THREE very cool games that we're adding this time.
First, there's
Bayonets & Tomahawks, a game that I think you guys are going to love. Volko Ruhnke made me aware of this game, after a trip he'd taken to Montreal for a game convention. He'd played
Bayonets & Tomahawks with the designer, Marc Rodrigue, and came away extremely impressed by and excited about the game. As you might imagine, when Volko is excited about a game, that gets my attention. So check out the
P500 page for Bayonets & Tomahawks for more details and to order. I think you'll like what you see.
The second new P500 addition is
Holland '44 from Mark Simonitch. For you operational-game-loving guys like me, who particularly enjoy Mark's games, that's probably all I need to say - ordered. :-) Mark's operational system is very popular and his track record with these games is strong. I've been waiting years to experience Mark's take on
Operation Market-Garden. I'll bet a bunch of you have, too! Here's the
Holland '44 P500 page. Check it out and order away!
For the final P500 addition, I'm very happy to announce that I can finally answer the oft-repeated customer question: "So when is Jason and Ananda's next game going to be ready for P500?" That answer would be "today!" This time, Ananda and Jason have created for us a "spiritual successor" to their best-selling
Twilight Struggle, this time about the 18th-century battle for supremacy between Britain and France. It's called
Imperial Struggle, and it is magnificent! It's simpler to play than
Twilight Struggle,
yet allows you to experience and play out the military, diplomatic, economic, and scientific competition between these two historic rivals. See the
Imperial Struggle P500 page
for details and to order.
That's the brief on the three new P500 additions. Now on to the rest of this month's GMT news.
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Price Increase: Silver Bayonet 25th Annivers. Ed.
As we sent this one to the printer, we realized we have a few more components than we originally budgeted for (a LOT of scenario and Player Aid cards). So we are increasing the RETAIL price on this one from $50 to $55.
For you P500 guys, we're not changing the price. It's still $30! So if you haven't ordered yet and you want a tremendous P500 discount on a cool game, order away!
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The Cards in Hitler's Reich
A few days ago, we published a lavishly- illustrated (thank you, Charlie Kibler!) post by
Hitler's Reich designer Mark McLaughlin. It's one of the best InsideGMT articles I've seen to date, and lays out, in very organized detail, how the interplay of the cards in
Hitler's Reich make this game so much fun. If I were titling the article, it would have read "Why
Hitler's Reich is So Doggone Cool!" because I've played the game, and it's that card interplay that makes it both easy to play and strategically challenging. If you haven't read the article already, please give it - and
Hitler's Reich, now at 493 orders on the P500 list - a good look.
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Card Deck for No Retreat: The Russian Front Reprint Edition Now on P500
The only big upgrade to the Reprint Edition of No Retreat - shipping later this year - is the card deck. Designer Carl Paradis has updated all the cards with needed corrections and clarifications for this edition. When Carl announced this, we got a slew of requests to make the card deck available separately, so we have added it to the P500 list. Orders for the card deck will ship when we ship out the reprint edition of the game in a few months.
To order, click the link or the image of the cards below:
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Pendragon Video
Every once in a while, one of our customers really surprises me. I still play James McKane's music video once in a while, and smile. This month, one of our awesome COIN test team, Samuel Argento, made a video for Pendragon, and it's really well done. Thanks Samuel - you rock! Check out the video on YouTube, here:
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MBT Illustrated AAR/Essay
The Big Board is running a really nice set of ongoing illustrated Replay/Essay articles on MBT. These are very well done. If you have any interest in modern combat or the MBT series, check them out here:
And while we're talking MBT, just a quick note that both the
BAOR and
FRG Expansions have passed the P500 mark recently! We were hoping we'd see an order surge once the main game was out and players say how much gaming goodness designer Jim Day has packed into the box, and that did indeed happen. Hopefully this will mean more MBT goodness in 2017 and beyond. Thanks to the MBT community for your ongoing support for this series!
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Colonial Available for Sale through GMT
For those of you who like strategy games, here's a reminder that we now have the 2nd Edition of Christophe Pont's
Colonial, published by Strategem Games in our warehouse.
This game has terrific scope and is dripping with historical theme. The players represent the leaders of European countries, exploring, trading, and fighting for supremacy in the period between the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. $40 is a great price for this cool multi-player game, so check out the link above, and order away! Oh, and I'd recommend using the full advanced/optional rules from the beginning, for what it's worth. Experienced gamers can handle them easily, and they make the game even better!
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Twilight Struggle Collector's Edition Updates
As I noted last month, we now have the replacements for the misprinted cards in house. Now that we've shipped all of the "Golan '73 P500 orders, we're ready to sent out the updated cards.
We're shipping the reprinted cards (only) to those of you who have the Collector's Edition of Twilight Struggle. We'll also be shipping full decks -which include the reprinted cards - to those of you who ordered a 2nd deck with your Kickstarter order. If we have any left over, we'll let you guys know once all of our Kickstarter customers have theirs.
As I noted last month, If ANY Kickstarter backer of other physical rewards (CE, T-shirts, etc) has not yet received their items, please contact our offices (gmtoffice@gmtgames.com) as soon as possible, if you haven't already.
For those of you who want to know when we'll make the remaining TS Collector's Editions available for general sale, it looks to me like that'll likely be about mid-September. I'll update you on this - and give everyone plenty of notice - either before or in next month's customer update.
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This Month in InsideGMT!
Due to end of July/early August vacations, we've only had a few InsideGMT articles since our last update. Look for more articles, starting tomorrow. Here are links to this month's articles:
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
The November San Diego Historical Games Convention (November 11-13, 2016) is now open for registration! This year brings a new venue utilizing the 5,200 square foot Shriner's Hall and sharing a parking lot with the Convention Hotel. This years special guest will be Mark Herman. Come join us in San Diego where it's 70 degrees in November!
http://www.sdhist.com/
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GMT Weekend at the Warehouse Oct. 13-16
We had a great time with about 90 gamers at our most recent GMT Weekend at the Warehouse on April 21-24. Thanks to all of you who attended and made the event so much fun!
We do have dates for our Fall Weekend, so come join us on October 13-16, 2016, for our 32nd (!)
GMT Weekend at the Warehouse! We'll spend the better part of 3 1/2 days, often long into the night, playing your favorite GMT (and non-GMT, if you'd prefer) games. This is mostly an open gaming event, although we do have tournaments from time to time.
The hotel has already blocked rooms for us, so feel free to go ahead and make reservations whenever you are ready.
If you'd like to attend, just call or chat with our office ladies and they'll reserve your spot.
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Keep up with GMT Online
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 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
- P500 Reprint Update
- Website File Additions
Thanks, as always, for your support of GMT!
Enjoy the games!
Gene
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Charging and Shipping Schedule
Shipping
:
We are now finished shipping all the P500 orders of
FAB Golan '73
.
We plan to begin shipping our next batch of P500 games in early September:
Then in mid-late September we'll ship two more:
Charging
We have just finished charging for those early September releases and C&C Napoleonics. We'll charge for Sekigahara sometime in early September.
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Tentative Production Schedule
Here's our most current Tentative Production Schedule.
Games with a ** following their entry are currently at the printer (we're a little more certain about scheduling on these).
Wing Leader fans, rejoice! Big move up here for
Wing Leader: Supremacy.
Early September, 2016
Mid-late September 2016
Early October 2016
Early November, 2016
Mid-Late November, 2016
December, 2016
1Q 2017
2Q 2017
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Project Updates
In this section, we'll be passing along updated status on a variety of projects, generally direct from the designers or developers. We have several updates this time:
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Cataclysm (Perspective) -
Mark Herman (BGG)
I had a great time last night playing Cataclysm and I wanted to share some perspectives. I have always been a fan of alternate history wargames. What I particularly like about Cataclysm is it goes beyond Europe and integrates the Pacific into a beautiful portrait of the period.
I was the combined Italy/Japan player coordinating with Chris playing Germany. Early on I decided to focus the Japanese on China and eschew giving the US/UK Democracies a chance to pick a fight with me. I maintained the Washington Treaty and built up the army with armor upgrades relying on the treaty to keep the Pacific quiet while the IJA conquered China.
In the Mediterranean I used the Italian forces to expand into the Balkans (Albania and Greece), while the Germans did their usual grab for diplomatic control in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.
The Axis then entered into the tripartite treaty giving the three countries combined leverage against Democratic and Communist moves to stop the Axis successes. As the clock reached 39/40, the Western Allies started WWII by launching a carrier strike on the German submarine forces.
We will conclude next week, but what a great time.
The game currently needs something like 30 orders to 'make the cut' at GMT, so I hope anyone interested in a game that creates a great narrative of WWII should get onboard. You will be happy you did.
Mark
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Mr. President - Gene Billingsley
I'm closer to finishing the design stage, but still not quite to the finish line. I've made really good progress on the domestic side of things this summer, and am finally happy with the way that part of the game works. Right now I'm focusing on tightening up the "results of legislation" part of the game (for example, when you pass legislation, there is a range of results, so you never know exactly what the results will be - but getting bipartisan support, expert testimony, and support from the populace during the bill's progress helps to skew the results toward being really good). I'm also working on making the Russia and China AI's easier to use and, well, just better overall.
The good news is the switch to an integrated round system is turning out really well! No longer do you draw three cards, implement them, then get "your turn." Instead, there is an interactive sequence throughout the round where you just don't know what the game is going to throw at you next, but you get plenty of opportunities to both act pre-emptively and respond throughout. The catch there is you have limited resources, so choosing which ones to use when you have an opportunity to act is key.
I'm also really happy with how the yearly priorities system is working out. At the start of each year, you prioritize your ten areas - 3 high - 4 medium - 3 low. And that indicates the resources you're going to have during that turn. (it's a 3-2-1 system, where (depending on the area) you get either 3 activations or 3 die rolls or 3 actions for high priorities, 2 of the same for medium priorities, and only 1 of low.) You can make a switch (at a cost) later in the turn if you feel events dictate (think 9/11), but mostly those priorities drive your strategy and resource availability throughout that year.
So basically what's been happening on the design front is the framework, intent, and "story" of the game remains, and I've been working on the subsystems to make the gameplay more compelling and to give the player lots more choices throughout. So it's definitely getting better.
Gene
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Next War: Poland - Mitchell Land
Mitch has posted a detailed update on NW: Poland progress on InsideGMT. Here's the link:
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Wing Leader - Lee Brimmicombe-Wood (BGG)
I realise that recent updates have been variants on a theme of 'we've done a bit more art and are closer to the end', but now I have some real news to impart. I have reached an agreement with GMT to deliver the game to them in mid-September, when it will immediately go into production. I've no idea when the release will be. Depending on how the printing and shipping goes we might have a release before Christmas, or it might be in the New Year.
Anyway, it means I'm now moving into the final stretch of development and artwork and I need some help. I've put the call out on Consimworld for assistance with proofreading the second-edition rulebook. You can read about this here:
If you can spare the time, please help. Extra eyes on this are welcome.
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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 (you can click on the name link below to go to the P500 reprint page). Thanks for your help. Here's the current P500 Reprint list - with current order totals and a +/- order growth since last month:
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New Game Support Files, Vassal/Cyberboard, and Sneak Peeks
Here are new support files we've added to our website since our last update. Enjoy!
Game Support:
Vassal/Cyberboard/ZunTzu:
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Sincerely,
Your Friends at GMT Games
www.gmtgames.com
Toll Free Order and Support Line: 800-523-6111
E-mail: gmtoffice@gmtgames.com |
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