Only a few days after returning (and barely recovering) from my Germany trip for SPIEL ’22, I hopped in my car and drove about 200 miles (3.5 hours) to attend the GMT Games October Warehouse Weekend event in Hanford, California. Even though I’m still playing catch-up from convention season and back-to-back trips, I have no regrets and would do it all again in a heartbeat!
Twice a year GMT opens its warehouse to the public for a fun, long weekend of open gaming. Attendees primarily bring their own games, but you can also purchase games at the warehouse. I really enjoy it because it’s a low-key, welcoming environment where friendly gamers gather to play a variety of different games, and I especially appreciate that everyone always seems happy to teach games to others.
• I’ve been on a mission to learn and play all of the games in the Carl Paradis‘ No Retreat! series. Justin Fassino was kind enough to walk me through a few turns of No Retreat!: Polish & French Fronts so I could get a feel for it. It was very helpful to run the sequence of play a few times with someone who has experience playing the game.
P500 coversThe No Retreat! games are card-assisted, low counter density, hex-and-counter wargames which cover different World War II fronts. Even though I’ve barely scratched the surface and have much to learn and explore with the existing No Retreat! games on my shelf, GMT has two new ones available for P500 pre-order which I’m excited about: No Retreat! 5: The Western Front, 1944-45 and No Retreat! Battles: 1942, which is a new spinoff series of No Retreat! games which each cover one year of the World War II conflict, starting with 1942.
• After burning my brain learning No Retreat!: Polish & French Fronts, Justin showed me the latest prototype for his upcoming Levy & Campaign game SELJUQ: Byzantium Besieged 1068-1071, which will be a future GMT P500 game. It was awesome to see Justin’s passion and enthusiasm for Byzantium history and his eagerness to share it. It also sounds like SELJUQ will be one of the more accessible games in the Levy & Campaign series, as one of the many different Nevsky and Almoravid follow-ups on deck.
SELJUQ: Byzantium Besieged 1068-1071 prototype
• I had the pleasure of learning and playing Flashpoint: South China Sea with designer Harold Buchanan (Liberty or Death). Flashpoint: South China Sea is new GMT Lunchtime series game for 1-2 players which is very accessible, easy-to-learn, and can be played in an hour. It was my first time playing it, and I thought Harold was a great teacher…up until he whooped me. Jokes aside, it was awesome to meet Harold for the first time after many video chats for SDHistCon and our occasional interactions on Twitter.
Harold Buchanan & I before he whooped me…
What was I to do with all these 1s?!
• I scored a copy of Richard Borg‘s Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles a few months ago at a local convention and brought it with me to the GMT warehouse. It was nice to learn the C&C system and play a scenario, once again thanks to friendly gamers being happy to teach. This was my first time playing a Commands & Colors game and I enjoyed that it had interesting strategic options while being straightforward, fun, and quick-playing. It feels like a something I could play with just about anyone, plus, Samurai Battles has a ton of different scenarios you can play, which is great.
• Cole Wehrle‘s John Company: Second Edition from Wehrlegig Games was very popular at the Warehouse Weekend. It seemed like there were always people playing it, and I loved seeing that beauty on the table, even though I didn’t manage to jump in a game.
Heavy negotiations in progress…
• Space Empires 4X has been on my “shelf of opportunity” since November 2020 and I was determined to play it. Thankfully, Red Dust Rebellion developer Adam Blinkinsop and GMT Staff Developer Ken Kuhn are big fans of Space Empires, so they were stoked to introduce it to me via the co-op mode, which was super fun. I loved exploring the map, shopping for ship upgrades, researching technologies, and working together to take down doomsday machines. I have a lot of organizing and chit-clipping to do with this one, but I’m really looking forward to playing it again soon and trying out the solo and competitive modes.
• I got the opportunity to play the tutorial scenario for Non-Breaking Space‘s Cross Bronx Expressway with John Butterfield and Jason Carr. Cross Bronx Expressway is an upcoming socio-economic city building game for 1-3 players in GMT’s Irregular Conflicts Series. Not only was the game very intriguing and unique, but it was an awesome experience to meet and play with John and Jason.
Cross Bronx Expressway prototype
• The folks at Revolution Games introduced me to Hermann Luttmann‘s Blind Swords chit-pull system, which has been featured in many games since Hermann’s Position Magnifique: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour, 1870, including Steve Carey‘s new 2-player American Civil War release, A Greater Victory: South Mountain, 1862. It was great meeting and chatting with Richard and Roger from Revolution Games, and Steve Carey.
Grand Havoc: Perryville 1862 prototype map
• I had a blast playing an 8-player (4v4) game of Tank Duel with designer Mike Bertucelli and others. It’s practically a tradition at this point.
Mike also gave me a quick rundown of Wolfpack: The North Atlantic Convoy Struggles October 1941 – March 1943, which is his upcoming solitaire/team game where 1-4 players take on the roles of German World War II submarine commanders and work together to sink allied convoys. It sounds very challenging and fun.
Wolfpack prototype
Wolfpack prototype
…and when it was time to unwind after a long day at the warehouse, we played late-night Great Western Trail: Argentina.
