"Mentioned In Dispatches" with the Armchair Dragoons

23 September 2022 ~ Brant, Bryan, and GOTY’21 Jim tackle our first listener suggestion of the season, as our man Adam asked about what games have replaced others in our collections, as well as which ones we’ve hung onto even though newer games are out there. So with that as a guidepost, we take a look at a few of our own games that have migrated in / out of our own collections.  Or, in...

16 September 2022 ~ OK, so Rocky picked a fight with his recent analysis of Harold’s latest, the Flashpoint South China Sea game, that sprawled across multiple Twitter threads.  That naturally led to a variety of discussions about “games” vs “sims” and of course, we weren’t going to let the opportunity go to waste, and promptly dialed up Volko Ruhnke for his fir...

9 September 2022 ~ Aaaaaaaand we’re back! Let’s get this season started with stalwarts Mike & Rocky as we catch up on this Summer’s wargaming and a discussion of what’s coming up for the rest of this season. There’s no special topic here, just reassembling the gang to get back into that podcasting rhythm that we all lose over the summer. Don’t forget, you ca...

29 April 2022 ~ We made it!  Season 8 has wrapped up, and we’re looking ahead to Origins in a few weeks. Brant, Mike, and Gary talk about what’s coming up at Origins this year, some of the past events we’ve run, and what we’re seeing out of GAMA and the Origins organization team this time around. So don’t just listen to us, come to Origins this year and join us for so...

22 April 2022 ~ Crowdfunding and pre-orders have become the “norm” among the wider hobby gaming world over the past 10-12 years.  The wargaming world is now congratulating them on catching up to where we were over 20 years ago.  With that said, we brought in Jim and Rocky to talk about their own experiences with crowdfunding over the years, both positive and negative.  Some campaigns a...

15 April 2022 ~ In case you missed our copious coverage on Twitter , or our wrap-up here on the site , we spent last weekend at Buckeye Game Fest in Columbus, OH, hanging out in The War Room with Ardwulf, The Player’s Aid, Patreon supporter and Friend-of-the-Dragoons Ray M, and Friend-of-the-Dragoons and all-around great guy David Thompson, among many others. Don’t forget, you can alwa...

8 April 2022 ~ David Ensteness and The Wargaming Company have just upped the ante for excellence in Napoleonic miniatures wargaming with the release of  Et Sans Résultat series 3, and he joins us for an extended chat about what makes ESR different from all the other Napoleonic games out there and the problems he’s trying to solve in his game. Don’t forget, you can always catch up with...

1 April 2022 ~ Distant Worlds 2 has finally released, and our guys have been all over it.  The space 4X crew has been waiting for this game for quite some time, and now it’s here and they have some strong thoughts on it.  So here’s Sam, and eventually, Bryan too, to talk about the latest offering from Matrix Games and whether or not it lives up to the hype. Don’t forget, you can...

25 March 2022 ~ Bryan’s back, and he’s taking over!  We let him steer the show as we talk about NATO unit quality ratings & strategic-level fantasy wargames, and no Ardwulf, those aren’t the same thing.   Tide of Iron ?  Sure.   The Pacific War ?  Yeah, it comes up.   Under an Iron Sky ? We spent a bit of time on it.  Backing games on Kickstarter?  Why not.  Which Scandinavia...

18 March 2022 ~ As Spring rolls back around, it’s time for Connections Online to go back onto the calendar.  Registration will open shortly, but Brant, Chris, and Merle are here to give you a preview of what’s coming up this time around. Don’t forget, you can always catch up with past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. The panel talks about what happened with...

11 March 2022 ~ Another Mentioned in Dispatches debut, as Justin (of the Justegarde YouTube channel ) joins the show to talk all about game conventions, including a bunch that he’s attended out there on the left coast, that we don’t ever get to cover because we’re too busy out here with our own.  Oh, and  this is the podcast where we finally get out of sequence this season, too....

4 March 2022 ~ The danger of trying to record a podcast referencing current events is that it’ll no longer be “current” by the time it’s released. Nevertheless, we took the plunge and tried it anyway.  Guest Brian Train, and host Brant had both designed wargames covering contemporary wars in Ukraine some number of years ago, and both take a look back at what they generally...

25 February 2022 ~ The two most recent Grognards-of-the-Year – Ardwulf & Cyrano – are joined by, well…  Brant.  Please don’t let that stop you from tuning in as we narrow the focus of the podcast a bit to discuss the specific facet of Napoleonic Warfare at the operational level, and why fighting out entire campaigns, rather than individual battles, can be more satisfying in this hi...

18 February 2022 ~ We take another dip into the professional wargaming world, as we are joined by a pair of folks from the wargaming team at the Center for Naval Analysis.  Justin and Gino both design wargames for use by organizations across the entire Department of Defense and other national security agencies, and CNA was nice enough to let them spend a little time with us. Don’t forget, yo...

11 February 2022 ~ Brant, Mike, and Chris talk about their shared love of the Civilization series games, focusing on Civ 6 as that’s what they’re all playing now.  There are liberal discussions of Civ 4 & 5, Call to Power, Humankind, and others, too. Don’t forget, you can always catch up with past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. What features do they li...

4 February 2022 ~ (reloaded on 7 February to fix a feed problem) Aaaaaaand, we’re back!  Brant & Mike are joined by Ardwulf for the launch of season 8, wherein we tackle a variety of wargaming topics about the US Civil War, an area of wargaming that we don’t normally discuss on our podcast. Don’t forget, you can always catch up with past episodes on the “podcast”...

17 December 2021 ~ Seems like so long ago that we were starting season 7 of Mentioned in Dispatches––  and here we are wrapping it up, with Mike, Jim, and Bryan talking about everyone’s wargaming wishes for the holidays.  What games should be brought back?  What designers need more love?  What typos made games funnier?  Why are the Purssians purple?  Exactly when did Bryan run away and join...

10 December 2021 ~ Our good buddy Bison migrates back through with an extended chat about wargaming miniatures.  We talk about the arts-&-crafts aspects of the hobby, how to find minis, challenges of rulesets, scaling & basing, and collaborating with your potential opponents.  There’s a bit of a discussion about paints, as well as where and how to find your minis.  Both BC and Bison...

3 December 2021 ~ The Mikes are back!  Brant and the guys wrap up their holiday weekend with a discussion of their personal wargaming evolutions from where they started to what they’re playing now.  And yes, there are computers involved, too. Don’t forget, you can always catch up with past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. We cover a lot of ground, from Star Fleet...

26 November 2021 ~ Brant, Ian, and Sam have a chat about best sources of wargaming news, what they look for and where to find it, what’s good and what’s not, and the one thing that absolutely  every game company website  must  have. Don’t forget, you can always catch up with past episodes on the “podcast” tab of our site. There’s plenty of other bits and pieces...

19 November 2021 ~ The two-headed design team known collectively as “Dr Witcz” joins us to talk about their game  Robotech Reconstruction .  Say wha…?  Robotech?!  C’mon guys, you’re a wargaming site! Yeah, but it’s actually a barely-disguised multi-faceted counterinsurgency, that just happens to be built on a well-known sci-fi media franchise. Don’t forge...

12 November 2021 ~ “Guys yell at CSR-shaped clouds” , wherein three cranky dudes hold court on the administration & execution of the 2020 47 Charles S Roberts Awards.  We go through literally every category – even the dumb ones – and give you some unvarnished opinions on what won, what should’ve won, what should’ve been nominated, and where it got screwed up. Don’...

5 November 2021 ~ Hey y’all!  It’s Amabel from Hollandspiele joining us!  We talk a bunch about  Horse & Musket , obviously.  But we also talk about the solo games, take a deep dive into the  Shields & Swords series (especially the differences between ancient / medieval eras), and chat about how to approach certain designers. Don’t forget, you can always catch up with pas...

29 October 2021 ~ Jim, Mike, Brant, and the other Mike continue that annual tradition of their deep dive into the THE COMPASS GAMES HOLIDAY CATALOG   (55.4 MB PDF) .  Not quite item-by-item but pretty damn close, the guys talk about what they’re looking forward to, what they already have, what’s on order, and what went into their cart during the recording of the show. Don’t forge...

22 October 2021 ~ Bestselling author Matt Forbeck joins us to talk about his upcoming  Shotguns & Sorcery sourcebook for D&D 5e that’s about to hit Kickstarter .  And he brought along the rules developer for the sourcebook, his son Marty!  Obviously, we spend a bunch of time talking about the upcoming campaign.  But hey, why not talk about some of Matt’s background with Pinnacl...