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Hi everyone!
I hope all is well with all of you. First off, I just want to thank the 125+ of you who attended our recent (35th!) GMT Weekend at the Warehouse event. MAN, it was fun to see so many long-time friends, greet new attendees, and welcome several international visitors to the GMT home field. The weekend was a blur for me, with SO much happening and not nearly enough sleep, but it was a really happy blur, for sure!
We had a bunch of designers attend this time as well, so the attendees got to spend some hands-on time with Volko's
Nevsky, Mike's
Tank Duel, Jerry and Mark's
Above the Reich, Bruce's
Gandhi, Ken's
People Power, and many others. That's one of my favorite parts of the weekend - watching the designers get to share their creations, pre-publication, with smart, experienced gamers who inevitably both appreciate the experience and the skill with which the games are crafted, and offer suggestions to make the games even better. It's definitely a "win-win" for everyone.
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Tank Duel Friday Night with Designers Galore_
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Before I go any further, I want to publicly express my appreciation to the amazing people in our office and warehouse for the many, MANY extra hours of work they put in before, during, and after the Weekend to make sure the event runs smoothly. These awesome men and women do the behind-the-scenes work that makes these Weekends possible. I love that many of our attendees so often show them their appreciation as well. Every Weekend, some gamers take all of the office and warehouse staff out to lunch, others bring them food, presents, gift certificates, etc. Of course no one is expected to do any of that, but every time I walk into the office during a weekend and see our staff munching on treats someone brought for them, I think "our customers are a classy bunch." And that's the truth. So, thanks to you attendees for your kindness to our office and warehouse staff, as well!
OK, on to some important news about the coming couple of weeks....
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Website Down for Transition, Wednesday, May 23.
Our website will be down beginning early next Wednesday, May 23rd, probably for a day or two. We will be doing all of the transitions necessary to move our customer and inventory data from the old website to our new one, then taking the new site live.
I will be creating an InsideGMT article highlighting new features and needed details about the new site, and I will send you all another brief mass email with the link once it's ready to go. I think you guys are going to like the new site. It should be faster, more robust, and MUCH more mobile friendly. For us, this is step 1 in a 4-step process to get us where we want and need to be in terms of back-end functionality and productivity as we move forward. More on all this next week.
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Three Games Shipping Monday; Four More In Two Weeks.
Our awesome warehouse folks have been unloading 40-foot trucks and moving a lot of games around the warehouse this week. After Monday, their load will be a little lighter as we'll ship Cacaclysm, Fort Sumter, and the Fighting Formations GD Expansion out then.
Next week, we should also receive several more truckloads of both finished games and parts. As soon as they are in, we'll start building, packing, and prepping to send another four games (see Charge and Shipping Schedule, below) to our P500 customers around the end of May. So, things are going to be a little crazy in the warehouse for a while, but it's well worth it as you guys are going to be getting a bunch of fun new games. Incoming!
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New P500 Additions.
We have two new P500 additions this time:
Peloponnesian War
This is an enhanced edition (new art, mounted maps, new generals, pretty much an overall facelift) of the popular solitaire game that Mark Herman created for
Victory Games almost 30 years ago. It is a design that has stood the test of time, and (as a HUGE fan of both Victory Games and Mark Herman) I am really excited to be offering an enhanced version of Mark's cool solitaire game - one he created, I believe, BEFORE he became a Naval War College instructor and expert on the Peloponnesian War- for your consideration and enjoyment.
Versailles 1919
I'm massively excited about once again getting to work with a "Dream Team" of two co-designers who are both very accomplished in their own right. This time the design team is comprised of Mark Herman, who's one of my favorite designers ever, and Geoff Engelstein, who designed
The Expanse for WizKids and
Pit Crew and
Fog of War for Stronghold Games, among others. Geoff comes from a deep wargame background, like Mark, but clearly has also had great experience and much success with designing broader medium-weight Euro games.
In
Versailles 1919, Geoff and Mark have created a game that is unique, mechanically interesting, and accessible for just about any eurogamer or wargamer. Although the theme may remind players of Mark's
Churchill,
Versailles 1919 is a much different (and lighter) game that uses simpler mechanics than
Churchill. Mark and Geoff are aiming to create a game here that families and friends can easily play together, yet one that still provides players with plenty of strategy challenges and tons of replayability.
As one example, I like how the tile management - which is at the heart of the game - works. The tiles represent issues, and you use 5 possible actions each turn to choose issues, influence issues, settle issues, and move military pieces as a result of the issues. There's plenty of room for bidding, bluff. and bluster as you maneuver with, around, and through your fellow players to craft a treaty that best favors your country's ideal post-war landscape.
I imagine there will be "is Versailles 1919 a wargame?" debates (and each player does get three military pieces!) once this game is released, as we've seen with Twilight Struggle and several other of our crossover wargame/eurogame hybrids. For me, it's very cool strategy game, so I don't really care which it is, as long as it delivers many hours of enjoyment. And on that score, Geoff and Mark have really delivered with
Versailles 1919. Check it out!
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New P500 Reprint Additions.
We're adding one game to our P500 reprint list this time:
Panzer Expansion 2, 2nd Printing
. Click the link to add it to your P500 orders and help us get this game back in stock.
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New Mounted Maps.
We're adding two new mounted map options this time:
Here's a brief tease as to what we have lining up for P500 addition in the coming few months. Note that last month's tease of "
a new co-design coming from one of our most popular designers" referred to this month's addition of Versailles 1919, from Mark Herman and Geoff Engelstein. Over the coming few months, I anticipate that we will have:
- an expansion for one of our most popular games
- a new volume for a popular WWII series
- a cool new Next War project (probably next month)
- a new space game that you (mostly) already know how to play
- a Commands & Colors game
- a new Vietnam-themed product
- Our first Co-operative Game
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Digital Games
Sighted at this April's GMT Weekend at the Warehouse: Team members from Playdek, the programming wizards who brought us that marvelous digital version of Twilight Struggle. What does this mean? The world wonders.... One passerby did note that he heard the Playdek folks describe the Chinese dinner they shared with Gene and Volko as "divine!"
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Hexasim Games.
Just a reminder that we still have some copies of
Austerlitz:1805: Rising Eagles
(and most of the rest of the Hexasim line) Unfortunately, we're now sold out of
Great War Commander
. We're ordering more, and we will let you know as soon as we have another shipment in stock (that game's a Keeper).
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Playtesters Wanted! (Jim Day)
: Looking for Panzer and West Front aficionados. Needed are those experienced players willing to engage in playtest sessions of any of the 12 new scenarios (no one is expected to test all 12) included with Panzer Expansion 4: France 1940. Note that this expansion includes the exciting new Panzer Solitaire rules, which includes 2 scenarios designed specifically for the new solitaire system.
VASSAL is the only method that will be employed in testing. Slots are available for those interested in putting in the time and effort. Please contact Jim Day directly at jamesmday@aol.com for the whats and wherefores.
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Thunder Alley and Dominant Species on Premium TableTopia. We now have our first two Premium games available on TableTopia. These turned out really nice! If you're a Premium TableTopia member, you can play these games as part of your subscription. Check them out here:
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Great Video Rules Overview for Cataclysm. As part of his Sound Strategy Network series, Adam Ruzzo (Bridger) has posted a comprehensive Rules Overview for
Cataclysm: A Second World War on YouTube. Using the pre-release VASSAL module, Bridger worked up a full explanation of the rules of the game with examples and graphics. If you want a headstart on learning Cataclysm, you could hardly do better than watching Bridger's work. Check it out here:
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Coming This Week in InsideGMT .
Here's an update from Rachel on this week's upcoming InsideGMT articles:
Not as much content came to InsideGMT this week as perhaps in previous weeks, but make sure you check out the article from
Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea co-designer Christopher Vorder Bruegge that we posted on Wednesday.
This article is the first in a series of articles covering some of the cards featured in ACIS and what they do, how they affect gameplay, etc. Near final card art samples are also shown in the article, so if you have been itching to learn more about the game's cards, look no further than this article series. And, for those of you who have been following Joel Toppen's set of video AARs of his big Next War: Poland campaign game, we posted Part 3 to the blog today, so go check it out!
I invite you to visit
InsideGMT.com
this weekend to check out the above mentioned articles (and more!) from our team of excellent InsideGMT contributors. -Rachel B
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This Past Month in InsideGMT!
Here are links to this month's new InsideGMT 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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Heavy Duty White Game Boxes and Blank Countersheets Available.
For you guys looking for extra boxes for component storage, we now have some 2" deep and 3" deep heavy duty (like the COIN games come in) white game boxes in stock. They're $6 + shipping (1 lb) and $8 + shipping(1 lb), respectively. Here are the links:
And for you guys who like to design your own games or extra counters, we now have several sizes of white blank countersheets available on the Parts and Accessories Page of our website. They are $3 per sheet, plus shipping. Links are below:
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Fall 2018 GMT Weekend at the Warehouse - October 11-14 2018
We have dates established for our Fall 2018 weekend. Come join us for 3 1/2 days of gaming fun!
For those new to the event, this is mostly an open gaming event, although we do have tournaments from time to time. We expect about 125 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.
Click on the
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 hotel's reservation # is 559-582-0339. Tell them you want the "GMT Group Block"rate. They have already blocked rooms for us for April, so feel free to go ahead and make reservations whenever you are ready.
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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
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Shipping.
We'll begin shipping P500 orders of the following the following items on next Monday, May 21st:
Then in late May or early June, we'll ship the following:
Charging:
Our next P500 charge will begin on May 21st, when we'll begin charging for these games:
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, above.
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!
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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)
May 21, 2018
End of May/Early June, 2018
June 15-20, 2018
August/September, 2018
October-December, 2018
Early 2019 (art work started)
Early-Mid
2019
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New P500s
We have two new P500 additions this time: The Peloponnesian War by Mark Herman and Versailles 1919 by Geoff Engelstein and Mark Herman.
For more info about these or any game listed below, or to order, just click the banners or links below to go to the P500 page.
Recent P500 Additions:
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Project Updates and Sample Art
Sneak Peeks:
Here's a peek at the Planeteers map (the 2nd of 3 maps) from
SpaceCorp.
Here's another sample Tank card and some Terrain cards from
Tank Duel.
Design Updates:
All Bridges Burning: With the All Bridges Burning base game design nearing completion, the attention has began to focus on the cards-based solitaire system. There's no precedent in the COIN Series for cards-based non-players, so the challenge is formidable but also all the more exciting.
Flowcharts can be tiresome to process and one of our key aims with the cards-based design has been to alleviate just that. At the same time, the flowchart is an attractive format because so much intelligence can be packed in the charts' decision tree structure. A key challenge therefore is to create structured decision processes in absence of the flowchart structure. I look forward to talking more about the cards-based non-players in a future InsideGMT article.
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P500 Reprint News and Tracking
Here's the current status of all the games on our P500 reprint list - with current order totals and a +/- order growth since last month. Please help us determine what to print by pre-ordering any of these that interest you. Thanks for your help!
Fire in the Lake, 2nd Printing: 1,039 Orders (+46)
The Hunters 3rd Printing: 897 Orders (+15)
Ardennes '44: 807 Orders (+32)
Barbarossa: AGN: 753 Orders(+8)
Dominant Species, 5th Printing: 715 Orders (+25)
Paths of Glory, Deluxe Edition: 653 (+26)
Empire of the Sun, 3rd Printing: 633 (+31)
Andean Abyss: 600 Orders (+18)
Barbarossa: AG Center 2nd Ed: 599 Orders (+19)
SPQR Dlx.: 578 Orders (+14)
Red Winter, Expanded 2nd Edition - 360 Orders (+10)
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New Game Support Files, Vassal Modules, New Reviews, Interviews, and Sneak Peeks
Here are new support files we've added to our website since our last update. Enjoy! Game Support:
Vassal Modules:
Reviews:
P500 Sneak Peeks:
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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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