My weekend deep dive in which I blame your nan for the state of the country (not really).

I'm confident that anyone who's enjoyed Littoral Commander will get a lot of out of Battlegroup Clash: Baltics. If you want smart, concise, hobby-informed design on this kind of topic, then James is your man. (Plus, you can support a new, independent, wargame publisher!)

Turning negatives into positives... Take a look at CGE's block list and see who you want to follow.💚 Trans rights are human rights! clearsky.app/codenamesgam... #Brettspiel #Boardgames

Tornado Splash is a hoot, A+ table presence, as long as your table is big enough!

If "Zachtonics Solitaire x The Roottrees Are Dead" isn't gobbldeygook to you, then you already know I'm telling you Occlude is great. For everyone else: if you want calm deduction with spooky vibes wrapped in a classic card game shawl- then OCCLUDE from @tributarygames.bsky.social is great.

💡💡 DESIGN DIARY Did you miss co-designer @djackthompson.bsky.social diving into the process behind the scenes that went into creating our new deckbuilding lane battler Line of Fire: Burnt Moon? Find it on @boardgamegeek.com or read it on our blog now: bit.ly/4n2hPx0 // OUT NOW //

Want a overview of what PunchedCON is like? Thinking about going next year? Read this fantastic review: eboracon.co.uk/2025/05/13/p...

Who knew that the niche board game reviewing needed was muppets? I love it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKF5...

A Molly House (from @wehrlegig.games) double header (with Condotierre as a filler). First game 5p, Community Infiltration, but a loss even for the hated informant (me). Second game, community survival and joy at 3p, thanks to a gin-soaked violin-fuelled final festivity at the last!

Saturday of Vanguard is kicking off with Weimar. I feel I may have drawn the short straw as Zentrum, but we have narrowly surived turn 1. Twice being at 6 DR and rolling for a potential 7. But München is lovely this time of year?

The warm-up evening of board games at Vanguard, was excellent: BIG Plantagenet, 1960, Burning Banners, No Peace Without Spain, Arrancourt and more!

In an hour, @lukeevison.bsky.social and I will be playing Battalion from @ospreygames.bsky.social live, and it will be fun: youtube.com/live/TV4_TnW...

🐻🌊 Katmai, our board game of cards, area control, and very hungry bears, is out today! Order your copy now, and head over to the launch blog on our website to check out a tutorial, playthrough, review & more: https://bit.ly/4b9eOW5 Available now: https://bit.ly/4fmhUY3

I think every designer should write a love letter to a font at least once in their lifetime. This is mine: A 150-year-old font you have likely never heard of, and one you probably saw earlier today. aresluna.org/the-hardest-...

🐻🐻 The official tutorial for Katmai is here! Join Becca Scott @goodtimesociety.com and learn to play our board game of cards, area control, and very hungry bears: bit.ly/3CKPGZh Out Feb 25th US / Feb 27th UK

Fancy various chats, both game and historical tomorrow? Tune into some of the SDHistCon Winter Quarters events! Some great game previews and speakers, but if that isn't your jam, there'll also be Hell-Raisers content: Design and Dev chat [1600 GMT] Teach and Play [2100 GMT] tinyurl.com/yhw4k68x

Age of Steam is great, but the tweaks for Denmark are 👨‍🍳🤌

We have a role opening up, specifically on the Osprey Games marketing team! It ain't just board games, and it ain't only historical games; we are doing so many awesome titles (you can peak at some of the first titles you'd be working on at: boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogp...)

A fab summary of a successful pitch approach. My only addition would be around 'how to react to responses', most of it is a no-brainer: listen, take the response in stride, follow up (which is included) etc. But also, always ask, "What do you look for?" it's very helpful as a hook to future pitches!

PROOF ALERT, APHRODITE PROOF ALERT

The fastest I've ever had a project arrive from crowdfunding AND in time for a clear weekend to read? TYVM @nutspublishing.bsky.social and editors!

NYE is always a major time for remembering, so Finn humoured me with a trip to 'Memento park' on the foggy and freezing outskirts of Budapest. Who says we don't know how to have fun?

Live in range of London? CE is a fab group, open to a wide range of historical games and the fount of many of my favourite discussions about games. There's hex & counter loyalists to fantasy conflict renegades. Get thy self to board games! (Good beer included, but you knew that already)

Battalion! at the Pub-co.

Battalion: War of the Ancients is a mass battle miniatures game without the miniatures. This is a difficult category to succeed within. Let's take a look at how Battalion manages: playerelimination.com/2024/12/18/m...

Trains in the tree, trains on the board. The Livingroom is now Christmas Ready®️

If you’re at #PAXUnplugged you have GOT to stop by and check out @plusoneexp.bsky.social! They’ve got Wassailing, Hellwhalers, RAD, and even my own Primadonna and Knowing Revenge! And if you sign up for Zine club you may get something spooky in Jan…

I did not win this game of Brass.

I'm so delighted this is now Fully Offical; Drew, Joe, and Cole have already been doing so much awesome work, Matilda and I couldn't ask for a finer team!

It's time to raise hell!

Bonjour BLUESKY! Nuts! Publishing has arrived! Lovely weather here 🌞 We'll mainly use this account for our wargame stuff to begin with. To get the ball rolling here's a link to our inaugural wargame newsletter, just published: kpd.r.bh.d.sendibt3.com/mk/mr/sh/7nV... Pls read, share, follow etc etc

I've had the pleasure of working with several different co-designers on a variety of projects. My experiences have been generally hugely positive, but it's not always plain sailing. So I've been thinking about steps to take when starting co-designs. www.thedarkimp.com/blog/2024/11...

🚨 EuroWarGames is live on Kickstarter! 🚨 Explore 17 chapters diving into the unique world of European wargaming, with insights from designers, scholars, and practitioners. Support the campaign and help us celebrate this rich tradition! 🎲✨ www.kickstarter.com/projects/nut...

Congratulations to the winners! The Porters sounds right up my alley (unions AND trains?!) Historical gaming has so many fresh topics to explore and any one in doubt should find inspiration in the list, I hope to see oh so many of them make their way more widely zenobiaaward.org/winners-and-...

Since @thatphoenicia.bsky.social is now here, I have permission to share her Halloween costume this year. The scariest thing of all: 2004 Spiel des Jahres winner 'Ticket to Ride'

For the attention of beloved weirdos: geonil, master of weird 2p trick takers 🫂, has an impeding 1830 variant with pick up and deliver and a royal carriage twist and it sounds like it might even be available outside of TGM (one day): gamemarket.jp/blog/191286

My flight in was spent chatting to an off duty air stewardess flying home to Indy. Hadn't heard of Catan, exclusively referred to Gen Con as "Gen Tech- a funny dress up thing", but owns and plays 3 games: Crockinole, Pan Am (with whom she had started her career 70s), and Pit Crew!

Want to support some women & gender non-conforming game designers? Here is a filtered list of "featured" games at Gen Con (releasing or about to release). Give them some thumbs on BGG now and some eyeballs if you're there this weekend! (And let me know if I missed anybody!)

Our guest from Chicago delivered. To be consumed in considered order...

PunchedCON 3, kicked off last night for me with a game of Junta. As minister for internal security Im pleased to report significant wealth was secured internally.

ICYMI: The Tabletop Game Designers Association is a new organization to advocate for the rights of designers and help with contracts and disputes. ttgda.org

Australia and Poland robbed by Cyprus, Slovenia, and Serbia. Bah. Still c'mon Ireland.

The only true counter clipper a grog needs.

Airecon Highlights. Unreasonably excellent; introducing many lovely peeps to all sorts of historical games, chilling with the Osprey crew, a preview of the excellent Molly House (I was a horrible tratior), and finally the ultimate: bluffing games in the pub. 11/10

What an amazing review by Dan, and one that shatters my greatest worry for the game; that the themes and history wouldn't pierce through the abstract aesthetics. Fantastic work.

From this day forth, all games should be on cloth. Especially if it doesn't need ironing. Dark magic, thank you @mildamatildagames.bsky.social , Pax Penning flies by every time!

Balatro is great, I wasn't certain it would be at 10:00, but now it's allegedly 14:00- AND I WAS SO CLOSE. Would highly recommend to anyone who likes card games and/or roguelikes, it is free to demo on Steam this weekend.

Putting this here just to make people jealous 😏

Some morning Sankorè in the Barbican: it's a beautiful game - and I'm allowed to say that because I had nothing to do with its creation. In particular, I love the historical ties of each action, some surprise people but the care @mandelafg.bsky.social & Fabio put into it is so evident.