From the GMT Staff:
Hi everyone!
Life at the GMT Offices has been a little crazy this month, as we’re in the midst of shipping one of our largest ever shipments of P500 games, which has taken us about three work weeks to complete (we can ship about 200-300 orders per day). We plan to finish by Friday, so things should normalize a bit then. I’m sorry for the delay some of you are experiencing since the game started shipping, but 5000+ items to ship out at once just outstrips our capacity to ship everything in a week. I’m working on getting some systemic upgrades done before our next “large order volume group” in July, so hopefully we’ll be better able to handle the extra volume by then.
On the “playing the games” front, it’s really great to see on social media how many folks are setting up and playing their new copies of Falling Sky, A Distant Plain Reprint, and Cuba Libre Reprint. And it’s SO good to have you guys getting the massive update kit to Won by the Sword, so that you can finally fully enjoy Ben’s terrific game.
Personally, I want to thank many of you for your prayers and well-wishes during both my cross-country drive with Luke (getting his car home from college) and my recent medical procedure. Those two have taken up most of my month of May, but I’m feeling a lot better now and should be able to get back up to speed on all things GMT pretty quickly. Thanks again for all your kindness and understanding while I’ve been out. I know our online presence and general comms have been degraded a bit while I’ve been out, but that should ramp up again quickly starting this week – actually, with this update.
The big news this week is that we’re adding a new Mark Herman design to the P500 list, and It.Is.Awesome! So let’s get right to details….
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New P500 Addition!
Pericles is game #2 in Mark Herman’s Great Politicians Series. Please click the banner or link above for full details or to place your order, but the gist of it is this is an amazing 2-4 player game (with bots for solo play) that is related to Churchill in terms of some systems and mechanics but in my view at least, is even better (than the Golden Geek Award winner for best wargame of 2015!)!
Mark’s design and research/teaching skills (as designer of Victory Games’ Peloponnesian War and from his many years teaching the Peloponnesian Wars at the Naval War College) have combined to create what I believe will be seen as a masterpiece design on the entire period of the Peloponnesian Wars. Those of you who like this period will findPericles just dripping with history and theme. If you like Churchill, I think you’ll enjoy the way Mark has evolved the “Conference” system to be even better in Pericles. If you enjoy Co-opetition games or just a good solo game that helps you understand the dynamics of the era better, you’re going to love Pericles. And if you just plain “love you some Mark Herman games,” then you may not be able to contain your excitement, because this is Mark at the top of his craft.
If you’re interested in the development of this game, check out Mark’s Delian League Diary articles in InsideGMT:
When you decide that this game is for you, we’d be thrilled to have you place your P500 order here.
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Twilight Struggle News
For our best-selling game, it’s hard to say that interest is increasing, but we’ve definitely seen a broadening of interest in Twilight Struggle since Playdek launched the Digital version on Steam for Mac and PC last month. Back in December, we printed our largest print run yet, 22,000 copies, thinking it would last a couple of years. Well, sales have been really strong throughout the early months of 2016, but when the Digital version launched, sales of the boardgame spiked. The result? We’re (again) sold out of Twilight Struggle!
It’s a bad problem (lost sales) inside a good problem (increased revenue, more interest in the game), but a problem nonetheless. So Tony already has another reprint lined up for this summer. Hopefully we’ll have the game back in stock by early fall. We’ve also added the 2016 Reprint Edition back to the P500 list, for those who’d like to pick up a copy. Note that this reprint will be identical to the 2015 version. We’re not adding any features or components – just getting the game back in stock.
Speaking of the Digital Version, sales for the first month have been really, really good! Thanks to all of you who have supported us, given feedback to Playdek, and helped new players learn Twilight Struggle over this past month. We’re really excited that the product has experienced such an excellent beginning, and to see Playdek already making the game even better through their updates. We’re excited to play Twilight Struggle on tablets soon, and on other platforms over the coming months.
It’s clear that the digital sales and exposure are helping us massively on the boardgame side of the house. It’s one of the great things about working with Playdek: they have a huge customer base and the ability to help us really spread the word about Twilight Struggle to tens of thousands of new players. We’re excited to join with them in fostering this new group of TS players as they learn the game and helping to integrate them into our already strong communities of online and tabletop Twilight Struggle players.
We don’t have an official update from Playdek today and I’m way too NDA’d to tell you things without their permission, but I can tell you that they are hard at work on the iOS version and committed to continuing to improve the AI and squash any bugs you guys find.
You know, we’re often so focused on just continually working to improve that we forget to stop and appreciate our accomplishments. So, especially for our team members and those of you who’ve played any part at all in helping us create and develop Twilight Struggle and then get it to digital, just stop for a minute and listen to what PC Gamer (Seriously, I never thought I’d see PC Gamer review one of our games….) had to say about the Twilight Struggle Digital version:
Twilight Struggle’s creativity and elegance sets it apart from most of what’s available on PC. It’s a great strategy game, but one that behaves according to completely different logic than we’re used to seeing. As a strategy game, Twilight Struggle is a revelation. On PC, it’s one of the best head-to-head strategy games around.
It’s an excellent and detailed article. Just click the headline above to go read the whole thing if you want. But that conclusion (quoted above) …wow! I read that and thought “How many companies would love to have PC Gamer say those things about their game?” So kudos to all our friends at Playdek and to Jason and Ananda and all of our GMT team that helped get Twilight Struggle to where it is today. And thanks to all of you who have bought, played, and continue to teachTwilight Struggle to new players!
If you haven’t seen the Digital Version yet, or you’d like to learn to play Twilight Struggle, I invite you to check it out. When you buy the Steam version linked below, you get access to both the PC and Mac versions of the game for the $14.99 price. Enjoy!
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Discounts! Check out our SPECIALS Page
Just a reminder that we have some really good games at great prices on our Specials Page.
Here are the most recent additions to the list:
Game Original/Special Price
Twin Peaks $59/$35
Newtown/Oriskany $65/$35
Elusive Victory $55/$29
1805: Seas of Glory $59/$35
Blue Cross/White Ensign $60/$35
Manoeuvre $55/$29
Stalin’s War $55/$29
Pax Baltica $55/$29
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Solitaire Rules for Conquest of Paradise!
Designer Kevin McPartland has come up with a set of Solitaire Rules for Conquest of Paradise! Those rules and the components needed for them will be in the 2nd Edition of Conquest of Paradise, which you can P500 now. But we’re also making them available to all of you as a free Print n’ Play package for your enjoyment. The details are in Kevin’s InsideGMT Article, linked below:
Conquest of Paradise Solitaire Rules
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Thunder Alley Crew Chief expansion on Kickstarter Reborn – Final Lap!
Jeff and Carla Horger and their companyNothing New Games have a Kickstarter project for a Thunder Alley Crew Chief Expansion, designed by accomplished designer Richard Launias (Arkham Horror, Defenders of the Realm, and many others), who is a huge fan of the game. The original Kickstarter failed about a month ago, but the folks at NNG reworked it and put it back on Kickstarter, and this time it has funded!
There are now 4 days left on the Kickstarter, so you can still get in for this expansion if you are interested. Here’s the link:
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GMT Digital Gift Certificates!
Just a reminder that we DO now have digital gift certificates available on our website.
PLEASE NOTE that Gift Certificates do NOT work for P500 orders, only for in-stock orders.
To purchase and send a gift certificate, just go to our Gift Certificate Department and select “Email Gift Certificate.” You’ll then be able to choose from $10, $20, $25, $50, or $100 Gift Certificates. Then when you checkout, once you Update your cart and hit the “Checkout Now” button, our system will ask you to fill in the recipient’s name and email address for each Certificate ordered (you can include multiple gift certificates on a single order). You’ll also be able to include a personal note to the recipient.
We hope you enjoy this new addition to the GMT website and that it helps you with your gifting for holiday, birthdays, etc.
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This Month in InsideGMT!
Here’s a look at our most recentInsideGMT articles:
And, in case you missed them, here are links to our previous month’s InsideGMT articles:
As always, I invite you guys to head over towww.insidegmt.com, check out the articles, leave us your comments, and tell us what else you’d like to see us do to make InsideGMT even better!
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San Diego Historical Games Convention
Last November, I had the pleasure of attending the first San Diego Historical Games Convention, organized and managed by Harold Buchanan (designer of Liberty or Death). It was a blast, and San Diego November weather is amazing! I hoped Harold would make this a yearly event, and it looks like that’s happening. I hope many of you will check out the website below, and makes plans to join us in November in San Diego. Here are some details and the event link from Harold:
The November San Diego Historical Games Convention (November 11-13, 2016) is now open for registration! This year brings a new venue utilizing the 5,200 square foot Shriner’s Hall and sharing a parking lot with the Convention Hotel. This years special guest will be Mark Herman. Come join us in San Diego where it’s 70 degrees in November! https://www.sdhist.com/
