Howdy, my fellow wargamers! If the place looks different, you haven’t clicked the wrong link. The Avid Wargamer has been through a refit. Since 2019 this blog has looked like a supply depot after a night raid. Things were in there somewhere, but you needed a torch and a lot of patience to find them.
So I did what any sensible general does after losing the same battle five times. I redrew the map. Here is a quick guide to what changed, where everything lives now, and what you can expect from me from here on. It’s short, I promise. Shorter than my last Panzer Corps campaign, anyway.
The short version
- Five regular series, each with its own page and a fixed day.
- A proper front door for newcomers: Start Here and a rebuilt Beginner’s Guide.
- Reviews that end with a verdict: who should play it and who should skip it. Still no scores out of ten.
- Steam Sale HQ, one page for every Steam sale, prices still measured in cups of coffee.
- One newsletter, the Weekly Dispatch, with a sign-up box on every page.
- A lighter, faster site. I retired a few plugins that were mostly there to eat the server’s lunch.
What gets published, and when
The biggest change is a schedule. For years I wrote whenever the mood struck, which turned out to be roughly every solar eclipse. Now every article belongs to one of five series, and each series has a day.
- The Weekly Dispatch (News in the menu), every Friday. The week in wargaming in about ten minutes: releases, patches, sales, one game worth your evening, a screenshot quiz called Name That Front, and one question for you.
- Commander’s Diary (AARs), every other Tuesday while a campaign runs. My after-action reports, one campaign at a time, told turn by turn. Every entry now has a strip at the top so you can jump between entries, plus a list of the whole campaign.
- The Verdict (Reviews), every other Monday. Full reviews and first looks. Early Access games get a first look and never a final verdict. Review keys are always disclosed.
- Field Manual (Guides), on the 15th of every month. Practical guides, plus a report for each big Steam sale.
- Old Soldiers (History), on the 1st of every month. Retrospectives on older games, history pieces, book reviews and the odd interview.
Each series page has a “Coming up” box, so you can see what is on the way. If I fall behind, you will know exactly how far. That is called accountability, and I am told it builds character.
New to wargames? Start here
A lot of you arrive here after typing “what is a computer wargame” into a search box at two in the morning. Welcome. You are among friends, most of whom have also lost a tank to a hidden anti-tank gun.
Start Here is now five short steps from “I’m curious” to “I’ve finished my first scenario”. The Beginner’s Guide has been rebuilt with game cards, a contents list, a section for each scale (strategic, operational and tactical) and the questions newcomers actually ask.
Every game card now carries a coloured dot. Green means you can play it in an evening. Amber means read the manual first. Red means it is worth it, but it will hurt. I have made it to red twice. I am still recovering.
How reviews work now
Every review ends with the same box. “Play it if” tells you who will love it. “Skip it if” tells you who will regret it. You also get the newcomer dot, the build I played and how many hours I put in. No scores. A 7 out of 10 never told anyone whether they would enjoy losing Stalingrad.
The newsletter
There is now one newsletter, the Weekly Dispatch, and one way to join it. Look for the green box that says Enlist. It is on every page, so you don’t need to go hunting. The newsletter moved to EmailOctopus, and the old Mailchimp box in the sidebar has been retired.
Faster, tidier, fewer gremlins
Behind the scenes I cleared out plugins that weren’t doing anything useful, fixed broken links, started giving screenshots proper descriptions for screen readers and search engines (a few hundred to go), and made the whole thing work on a phone without needing a magnifying glass. The site should load faster and fall over less. Should. I have learned not to promise victory before the battle starts.
What to expect from here
- A Dispatch in your inbox every Friday, even on quiet weeks.
- More diaries. The guest Graviteam Tactics: Pivot Point AAR by u/nzmx121 continues with parts 2 to 4 in the Commander’s Diary slots.
- Steam sale reports on day one of every big sale.
- The Beginner’s Guide and the other evergreen guides rechecked every January, with a dated note so you can see what changed.
- Corrections, always welcome. Spot a mistake and I will fix it and say so.
Over to you
Have a look around and tell headquarters what you think. Is something broken, missing or just plain ugly? Leave a comment below, write to me, or come and argue about it on the Hex! Discord. And if you haven’t yet, enlist so the next Dispatch lands in your inbox.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a campaign to lose.
Max Chee considers himself an avid wargamer, which inspired him to create this site. He has a burning passion for history and advocates computer wargaming for the masses. He believes one can derive knowledge from learning and playing out history,