"Mentioned In Dispatches" with the Armchair Dragoons

11 April 2025 ~ Brant & Jim are joined by first-time Dispatchers Achilles & Robert to talk about Adepticon 2025.  Minis, minis, and more minis, with all sorts of Star Wars, Battletech, and WH40K everywhere, and some occasional real battles too. What did our guys enjoy?  What surprised them?  What loot did they bring home?  Coolest thing they so?  How many solo games were being played?  And...

4 April 2025 ~ Rocky and Mike and Brant do their best to muddle through a discussion around why we do/n’t care about wargame awards, what’s wrong with popularity contests, and how you would design the “right” kinds of wargame awards. We certainly don’t discuss all of the possible awards out there, and we don’t do a deep dive on each of them, but we try to cover...

28 March 2025 ~ Brant is joined by Dr James Sterrett and one of his students, US Army MAJ Alex Adkins, to discuss the wargaming curriculum at the US Army Command & General Staff College at Ft Leavenworth, KS, and MAJ Adkins Master’s thesis wargame  Overmatch . The discussion includes some info about the program (more info below) and pivots to MAJ Adkins experiences in the program.  There...

21 March 2025 ~ Friend-of-the-Dragoons Rex Brynen (of Paxsims , among other places) and fellow Canadian Ben Taylor join Brant for a discussion about serious games that don’t involve all the shooty-bangy things. What are some of the tools that overlap from wargaming into the non-kinetic world?  What are some success stories in using wargaming techniques in these contexts?  What are some of th...

14 March 2025 ~ Mike & Bill join Brant to talk about GMT’s long-running Battles of the American Revolution series, as we continue this season’s focus on digging into some different game series in a bunch of our episodes. At over 25 years old, it’s one of the longest-running, still-active series that started after TAHGC’s crash & burn back in the 1990s.  We talk abou...

7 March 2025 ~ Similar to what we did last year at the Expo, rather than try to organize a full-hour episode on a particular topic, we grabbed a couple of different guests to join us for a consolidated Expo episode.  Also, rather than focus exclusively on publishers this year, we cast a slightly wider net. We start out with a wonderful discussion with Steve Jackson 13 to discuss their latest Kicks...

28 February 2025 ~ Brant, Jim, Gus, and (eventually) Sam get together to discuss CA’s  Total War series of wargames.  Starting with  Shogun and continuing through multiple iterations of  Rome and  Warhammer as well as such off-the-wall games as  Attila and  Pharoah , plus Jim favorites  Napoleon and  Empire , among others. What did we love and/or hate?  What was awesome, ugly, fun, or stupid...

21 February 2025 ~ The OCS games are one of the current standards of the industry for large-scale ‘monster’ games with a reputation for both complexity and consistency.  Series rules are usable across almost all of the 20-odd games, and veteran players have literally hundreds of hours under their belts. We talk about the scope of the series, how far before/after WW2 you could reasonabl...

14 February 2025 ~ Yes it’s Valentine’s Day; no, it’s not that kind of XXXX fantasy!  Brant, Mike, and Sam chat about their favorite 4X games in the fantasy genre (as opposed to historical or space). What distinguishes a fantasy 4X game from the other kinds?  What are some hallmarks of the genre?  Which games were our favorites and why?  Which ones had particularly good graphics?...

7 February 2025 ~ click to really enlarge Brant & Mike are joined by Ardwulf, and Bill is back again, to talk about the classic quadrigames from SPI , and their later evolutions through TSR and Decision Games, as well as other emulations of the form by Compass Games, GMT, and others. We talk about the history of the games and the designers who were ‘trained’ on quads, and the under...

31 January 2025 ~ Kicking off our 14th season with episode 164!  Brant is joined by Keith Tracton and Tim Densham, a pair of designers who were also GMs for our most recent ArmChair Dragoons Digital Convention (The ACDC). We talk about how this year’s ACDC shook out and what they enjoyed during the show and what could’ve been improved.  We compare digital conventions to in-person ones,...

6 December 2024 ~ Brant & Mike are joined by Jim & Bill to talk about all the things for which we are thankful in the world of wargaming and our wider hobby ecosphere. Let’s talk about conventions, content creators, how technology has changed wargaming, and more.  Chime in below, or in our forums, and let us know what you are thankful for in the wargaming world!   We love your f...

29 November 2024 ~ Over Veteran’s Day weekend, a bunch of wargamers gathered in San Diego, where they started each morning by scraping 3 inches of sunshine off their windshields before cruising over to the Portuguese Hall for several full days of games, panels, interviews, special events, and other general frivolity at SDHISTCON. So join Brant has he chats with Grant from Pushing Cardboard,...

22 November 2024 ~ It’s time to blast off to the outer reaches of strategy gaming as we spend some time discussing 4X games that are set in space.  Brant & Mike are joined by Sam and a different Mike to talk about gameplay in 4X games, classic tropes, processor power, and more Sam’s also been playing the latest DLC for Distant Worlds 2 from Slitherine Games – Return of the Sh...

15 November 2024 ~ We’re back to computer wargaming, as we pick up where we left off and start shifting up in echelon away from tactical to operational and strategic level games.  This isn’t some “all-time top 10” or anything; it’s just games we’ve enjoyed over the years and some commentary on them, from ancients to modern, and everywhere in between. So join Bra...

8 November 2024 ~ Ian and Mike 15 join Brant to talk about the ‘aha!’ moments of wargaming in military classrooms, what games they’ve used for different purposes, and wargame interfaces, among plenty of other things. Some links & Info Ian’s  #ManeuverWarfare and the essay he references in the episode Lessons learned from playtesting at Origins Orange Crush has been over...

1 November 2024 ~ Let’s talk digits!  Bryan and Gus join the show to talk about some of their favorite computer games over the past 20-25 years, with a focus on this show starting at the tactical level and drifting slightly into the operational level of combat. We cover a lot of different ground as we tackle  Battletech and the Russo-Japanese War and vampires and WW2 and the Aliens universe,...

25 October 2024 ~ Is there a positive word for “browbeating”?  How mad should your opponents be when you blow up the city block that they’re occupying?  How much table space is too much, too little, or just right? Brant & Mike are joined by Fall Assembly attendees Rocky and Bill to talk about what they enjoyed, what needs improvement, and what they learned.  You can also read...

18 October 2024 ~ Brant, Mike, Bryan, and not Gary talk about things that contribute FOMO in wargaming, and how FOMO has applied to their own gaming acquisitions.  Which companies create that “ f ear o f m issing o ut” among their customers?  How does crowdfunding contribute?  Where are there games that are perpetually available and never really create any sort of FOMO? What about you,...

11 October 2024 ~ Shelf of “Shame” or a Shelf of “Opportunity”?  Brant & Mike are joined by Rocky and “The Other Mike” (OJsDad for those of your who watch Saturday Night Fights) to talk about all those games you’ve stacked up on your shelf that are still waiting to hit the table. What have you had the longest without getting it to the table?  Do you ha...

4 October 2024 ~ Time to shoot up some truth serum and sharpen the knives!  Bryan wanted to talk about the “worst” of wargaming, so Brant dragged Jim & Mike into the fray and here we go –– Worst game name?  Computer game?  Rulebook?  Category of games?  Which game was so bad the 1st edition was unplayable as written 18 ? There’s plenty of rough & tumble thoughts here to g...

27 September 2024 ~ Last Summer, we teamed up with Beyond Solitaire for a big survey about people’s solo/solitaire war & historical gaming.  We were interested in both purpose-designed solo games as well as games people played solitaire regardless of how they were designed.  The plan was always to repeat this each Summer and see how it changed over time, so we did it again! You can see t...

20 September 2024 ~ David Thompson joins Brant for a wide-ranging discussion around the uses of AI for creative purposes in tabletop gaming, whether for art or text.  Note that the “AI” we’re talking about this week is for the creation of the game content, and not as a ‘bot’ or automata in place of an opponent. Under what conditions might AI usage be OK?   Assuming it...

13 September 2024 ~ Season 13 is here!  Brant, Mike, and Rocky spend this episode talking about what motivates people to play a wargame, how to keep your motivation up when it’s flagging, and how to get engaged with a topic that’s outside your wheelhouse. Let’s kick off this new season with discussions of Divine Right and other reprints, boosting your opponents’ motivation...

10 May 2024 ~ Wrapping up season 12, we’ve got a full house here to talk about the current state of hobby wargaming, what we’d like to improve, and some predictions for the near future. So let’s join Brant & Mike and welcome back Moe (of Moe’s Game Table ) and Grant (of Pushing Cardboard ) and settle in for our season finale to discuss the current state of hobby wargami...