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| Color guard of the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team standing at attention while their citations for bravery are read, near Bruyères, France, November 12, 1944. (Source: Britannica.com) |
Have courage and a little willingness to venture and
be defeated.
— Robert Frost
2026 has hit its half-way point, and it’s time for another quarterly report. These missives are really just for my own benefit; they help me to help take a tally of where I am and what I’ve been doing, both gaming- and blog-wise. I’ll make assumptions about what I’ve played or received in the mail, but then when I go over the records, my memory’s out of whack. I mention this to say that I won’t resent anyone not reading this. It might be a little dry and somewhat self-indulgent, but if that’s your thing, read on.
Incoming
This is
what I was talking about in the intro – Looking back over the last three months,
I was sure it had been a relatively quiet quarter for incoming games; I counted
five new to me titles, as well as the Update Kit for Mr President (GMT
Games, 2023) to bring it in line with the Second Edition (GMT Games,
2026). Then Queen of Spies (Salt & Pepper Games, 2026), which I’d
backed during its Gamefound campaign, arrived a couple of days before the end
of the month (I thought it wouldn’t be here for a few weeks).
 |
| Queen of Spies. Unboxing forthcoming. |
In truth, I received nine games, plus the Mr President update. Regular readers would have noted the saga of the January GMT order, but in short, I was able to run out to the Australia/New Zealand distributor (handily located here in Adelaide) and get the part of the order that had arrived. For me this was Ardennes ’44, Fourth Edition (GMT Games, 2026), Purgatorio: Men of Iron Volume VI (GMT Games, 2026), and the Mr President update. In that batch was a copy of the Men of Iron Tri-Pack (GMT Games, 2020) reprint for my brother-in-law, T. This, too, had its issues (an Errata Replacement Kit will be forthcoming).
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| Purgatorio. You can get a look at what's inside here. |
In a moment of feverish excitement, I impulsively ordered Guerre Eclair (Nuts! Publishing, 2026), directly from the publisher within a day or so of its release. The price was very good, although the shipping cost wound back most of that advantage, but in fairness, the package arrived in just a little over a week and really nicely packed. Guerre Éclair is the third in Nuts!’ Combat Rations series. True to the blog-title, I like a fast-playing game, and this promises to live up to that.
Speaking of fast games, the other titles
received are all second-hand purchases (though four of the five were unpunched
on receipt). These were the GMT Deluxe Edition of one of Pushing Cardboard host Grant Linneberg’s favourite games,
Blue vs Gray (GMT Games, 2023), and four
zip-loc games Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The Battle of Sedan – May 13-14, 1940 (Hi Flying Dice Games, 2002), Blitzkrieg Met: the Battle ofStonne, May 15-16, 1940 (High
Flying Dice Games, 2011), Green Berets: War in the Central Highlands 1964-1965 (One Small Step, 2001), and Warsaw 1920: Lenin's Failed Conquest of Europe (Revolution Games, 2020). And before you ask, with
the best will in the world, I have not as yet managed to get any of these to
the table. Their time will come.
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| Commands and Colors: Napoleonics (Prussian Army expansion), Placenoit scenario. |
Games played
Last
quarter, T and I didn’t catch up for a game at all (I’ve written about why that
was here, so I’m not going to dwell on that here). Since Easter, we’ve been
playing Commands and Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010) nearly
exclusively twice a week – twenty-five games in all – and all scenarios from
the Continental Army expansions (this makes up somewhat for not getting any games
in through Q1). We punctuated the run with a couple of palette-cleanser games
of Battle Line (GMT Games, 2000) Century: Spice Road (Plan B
Games, 2017). I’ve posted a string of AARs on A Fast Game, which must be
tedious for readers who aren’t a fan of Napoleonics. Sorry about that – I’m
trying to get back to a more diverse spread of subjects.
 |
| The Italian Wars, Scourge of Princes style. |
What I haven’t been writing about is a new miniatures rules-set we’ve been playing with the Wednesday group, Scourge of Princes (Sam Mustafa Publishing, 2026), which shamefully does not yet have an entry on Boardgamegeek.com. Scourge is subtitled, “The Birth of Modern Warfare: Machiavelli to Cromwell,” which is a broad scope to tackle with a single rules-set, but having played scenarios set during the First Italian War and the English Civil War, the overall rules capture the general nature of battle across the period, while situational rules-tweaks applied to the periods covered (such as freer movement options for cavalry in the later centuries) lend a sense of verisimilitude to the eras while keeping a fairly low rules overhead.
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| Royalist troops (English Civil War)... |
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| and Cromwell's New Model Army (Scourge of Princes). |
There’s one more game we played with the Wednesday group just recently which was a revelation. I own the earliest editions of the three European Conflict of Heroes games, Awakening the Bear: Russia. 1941-1942 (Academy Games, 2008),
Blog matters
I’ve
been slipping a little this quarter, posting only twenty-one pieces, about
seven a month. Putting it that way, it’s not quite as bad as it first sounded –
that’s nearly two a week (honestly, it felt like less). These included four unboxings (I have a couple in various
states of completion, but that need better photos of some of the components –
even I have some pride in this regard. I also bored everybody with a string of
C&C Napoleonics AARs, eight, posts covering nine scenarios. I burnt out a
little before getting on to the subsequent boxes, but I might write up some of
those. I also posted two Blog Notes (short posts about things that don’t fit
into the regular, established categories). I’ll come back to these below, because
they are each interesting in their own way and worth some extra consideration.
The
rest of the posts were interviews. This was a new thing last quarter. A Fast
Game’s first interview, with Yasushi Nakaguro, which I posted in
February, in February. In Q2, another four have appeared, almost accidentally;
Mr Nakaguro sent me a copy of Bansai 28, which featured the Award
Value Proposition for Wargame Publishers article I posted to the
blog last year, and the featured game in that issue was Brian Trains Balkan Gamble
(BTR Games, 2015; Bonsai Games, 2026). I read Mr Train’s blog
regularly and we’ve exchanged comments in the past, so I asked if he would mind
forwarding me the English-language rules for Balkan Gambit. When he did, I
though Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and asked if he’d be willing to
participate in an interview, to which he said yes, but he had some work across
the country, so after that.
 |
| Bansai 28 |
Around the same time, Grant Linneberg had been renovating his basement to become his new game room and studio. Mr Linneberg is responsible for the excellent Pushing Cardboard podcast and YouTube channel. I’ve written about wargame collection development in the past, and I thought this was a great opportunity to talk to somebody in the process of unpacking and reorganising his game library. Mr Linneberg agreed, and so his became the second interview for A Fast Game. The third was Mr Train’s. Both were really a delight to work with, and I’m very happy with the results.
I’ve
been a fan of Nadir Elfarra’s art for wargames since I first got Dawn’s Early Light (Compass Games, 2020). Mr Elfarra and I have some mutual
friends on Facebook, so I messaged him asking if he’d do an interview. I’m keen
to highlight the artists that make our favourite games special, and so there
will probably be more art-design interviews in the future. I’ll circle back to
the fourth below, but there’s a bit more of a story behind it.
In the
last quarter I hit a milestone that I mentioned in a Blog Note, but I
kind of buried the lead there, so I’ll reiterate. A Fast Game hit 100,000 views about
a week and a half ago (at time of writing). I must be doing something right
because it only took me about eight months to add another 50,000 page views
from my last milestone.
Being
on Blogger, I’m not tapped into the WordPress fraternity that most of the other
blogs I follow have access to. I have no members or subscribers, per se, just regulars and
tourists. Thank you to everyone who stops by, and I hope when you do you’re all finding something
of interest when you do. And thank you to all the who have contributed to that growth;
I gave them all a shout-out here, so I won’t repeat myself of embarrass them further,
but I am very grateful to all of them.
Now for
some statistics, because this wouldn’t be a quarterly report without some
random numerical values. I finished the quarter with a total of 101,464 page-views
of 276 posts. Considering the interviews, I can no longer say “I’ve written X
words,” so instead I’ll say that I have posted to the blog total of 439,058
words. A Fast Game, in its totality, is now somewhat longer than Don Quixote,
though I have a way to go before reaching the length of The Count of Monte
Cristo.
Two scoops
Reader,
this quarter saw A Fast Game has take a few small steps toward covering some
real news with two stories that hadn’t been covered elsewhere. In their May
newsletter, GMT inadvertently listed The Napoleonic Wars, 3rd Edition
(GMT Games, ~2027) as tentatively joining the company’s production queue in the
fourth quarter of this year. There had been rumours of a reprint or new edition
circling around the usual online haunts for six months or more, but nothing
official had been announced (the title appeared again in the June newsletter).
 |
| I did apologise to the good folks at GMT, after the fact (better to beg forgiveness than ask permission). |
I’m sure other people noticed this, but so far as I’m aware, I’m the only one who wrote about it. I posted a Blog Note about the inadvertent announcement here. Feeling cocky, I posted a link to the note to the Official GMT page on Facebook. This has become the most-read piece I’ve posted to A Fast Game, clocking a little over 700 direct views in the first 48 hours. At time of writing, it’s registered over 1,000 views, plus the 200 or so it would have received from folks wandering in through the front door while it was the latest post.
In the
subtitle I mentioned two scoops. The second actually came out of the first. As
an afterthought, I asked readers to mention in the comments what other games
they would like to see GMT reprint. The second comment mentioned the one game
that comes up every time somebody mentions reprints. Downtown: Air War Over Hanoi, 1965-1972 (GMT Games, 2004) is a perennial wish-list candidate with
a particularly strong reputation. It won three separate categories in the Charles
S. Roberts Awards for 2004. A string of games have leveraged Downtown’s systems
to explore new theatres, from Bloody April, 1917: Air War Over Arras, France
(GMT Games, 2012) to Red Storm: The Air War Over Central Germany, 1987 (GMT
Games, 2019). But in more than twenty years, no reprint. I decided to find out
once and for all if it might come to pass.
I
follow Downtown designer Lee Brimmicombe-Wood on FB, so I cold-called
him on Messenger and asked the question. I admit I was a little surprised when
he replied, and his answer prompted another question, which he graciously answered.
Rather than pepper Mr Brimmicombe-Wood with further random questions and risk is
just blocking me, I asked if he’d be willing to do an email interview. He
agreed.
I
recommend you go read that if you haven’t. It’s an interesting read (and a salutary
lesson in the importance of thoroughly researching the topic). And it definitively
answers the question of a Downtown reprint.
Extracurricular activities
I’m
staying away from playtesting for the foreseeable. I have been thinking about
the Cesare Borgia game I’ve been tinkering with, but nothing solid (it’s still
pretty much vapourware – don’t look for it anytime soon). I haven't given much thought to the further scenarios for Afrika Army Korps (Conflict Simulations Ltd, 2025); they are on the backburner for now.
Next steps
As I
said, T and I have been playing “All Napoleonics – all the time.” Commands
& Colors: Napoleonics is T’s go-to game, and twice a week, nearly every
week since Easter. Apart from the aforementioned reason, I’m using the
opportunity to reacquaint myself with the Continental Armies expansions. We’ve
played around half a dozen or more scenarios each from the Austrian Army
(GMT Games, 2013), and Prussian Army (GMT Games, 2014) expansions, and are
currently working through the Russian Army box (GMT Games, 2013). The three national
army expansions are now set for reprint as a combined set in a BIG box. There’s
not a lot of critical consideration of the Continental army expansions in the
wild (beyond casual musings over playthroughs, so the plan is to present
something like a review of each box on the blog. I’m part-way through the
Austrian Army write-up; I had hoped to get that one at least up before the end
of Q2, but I should be able to post all three will be up before the end of Q3.
With a lot else going on, I've been slack at tabling new games this quarter. I'm planning to turn that around in Q3. I'm not going to commit to firm numbers, but I'll write something about each one as it happens.
I won’t
have any further interviews planned at the moment. I do have a line on one that’s
been taking longer than I expected, but I won’t mention who it is in case it doesn’t
come off as I don’t want it to reflect at all badly on them. I never meant for
interviews to become a regular feature, and I’m a little surprised I managed
four in the space of three months. But if the opportunity arises, I’ll be happy
to follow it up.
I’ve
been a little distracted from posting in the last couple of weeks because I’m
spending a chunk of free time gathering data for A Fast Game’s next research
project. I don’t want to say too much this far out, but I’m hoping to get a
proper article posted in the second half of August, though there may be some
slippage in that time-line depending on how quickly I can gather the
information I need. Like my last research piece, I’ll include the full
methodological details and such. And like my last article, this one is drive
purely by my own quirky interests, but I think this one will have broader
appeal to the regular readership. Unlike the last one, I’m planning to release
as much of the raw data as I can in a set of follow-up posts. For more, you’ll
just have to wait until it's online.
-----
Thank you,
long-suffering reader, for persevering this far, and generally for showing up and
checking out A Fast Game. Honestly, I’d probably still post if I didn’t have a
regular readership, but it’s nice to think somebody will see it and maybe even
have a chuckle. If you have read this far, either pat yourself on the back or
pour yourself a double.
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