How Did You Become Aware of the 2025 Survey?

For Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy's Great Wargaming Survey (GWS) in 2024 and 2025, the drop-off in responses was significant.  When asked what have contributed to these results, I often hear that gamers did not see any promotion of GWS2025 and missed filling it in.  Now, there are likely other forces at play, but I was curious where gamers actually saw a GWS promotion.  To get some data on the topic, a question was added in 2025 to examine the reach of GWS promotions.

While the question allowed free text responses, a standard pick list was available too.  Now, a number of respondents opted for free text entry even when one of the standard choices was a suitable option.  To aggregate as many of the responses as possible, responses were parsed and recategorized into one of the existing standard responses.  One respondent even wrote in that "he saw it on Jon's blog!"  That person gets a Gold Star from me.  When all of the responses were recoded and tallied, the distribution of responses show that the top four media sources were:

1. Wargaming website (17.1%)
2. Facebook (15.9%)
3. YouTube (12.3%)
4. WSS (12.2%)

Almost 60% of respondents saw the survey promo in one of these top four sources.

Interesting distribution and, perhaps, a reasonable gauge on where gamers consume hobby information.  While many of these sources are somewhat foreign to me, clearly this is not the case for the larger survey population.  Given my lack of familiarity with some of these media sources, I decided to examine these media distributions by Age Group.  Could my age group offer insight and help explain why there are large, missing chunks in my media exposure?  It is not me, it’s my age.

What stands out from the graph above is that media source tends to be age driven.  It could be my age!  The younger age cohorts predominately rely on YouTube for finding survey promos.  As age increases, respondents tend to increasingly turn to Wargaming websites and WSS.  Probably no surprise here but, perhaps, something to consider for marketing.

What if these data are cross-tabulated by Primary Interest rather than by Age Group?  Will a different picture emerge? 

While not surprising that respondents having Historical (16.2%) and Mixed (12.3%) primary interests see promos in WSS, Fantasy/Sci-Fi (2.7%) barely produces a signal.  For the Fantasy/Sci-Fi group, Friends (9.1%) and Discord (15.4%) are outsized drivers compared to the Historical/Mixed groups.  Hmm.  Why do primarily non-historical gamers rely on word-of-mouth from friends more than the other two groups?

These results suggest that one must know and tap into each audience's preferred media to pinpoint the promo campaign that targets any particular audience.

Where did you see the promo?

Zallaqah: Round 3

With two, multiplayer remote games of the Zallaqah battle in the books (see Zallaqah 1086 and Zallaqah, Again), I was curious if the four-hour play time could be reduced.  I also wanted to try my hand at playing the game.  Luckily for me, Richard kindly obliged.

At game time on 17 NOV (I know, this has taken quite a while to write up!), I offered Richard first pick of which army to command.  Richard chose to take on the role of Alfonso VI in command of the Christian Army.  I was Yusuf ibn Tashfin, commander of the combined Muslim Army.  As a reminder, starting army dispositions are as shown in the following two photos of the battlefield. 

Christian Army

Muslim Army

Richard starts the battle with the bang!  Activating the Right Wing first, Christian light cavalry charges pell-mell up the slopes and into enemy horse archers.  Well, I though this a pell-mell attack but Richard had other ideas!  The horse archers fail to evade and are driven back through a second body of horse archers.  Continuing on, the Christian cavalry hit the second body of enemy cavalry.  They too are carried away by this sudden attack.  When these multiple attacks and pursuits end, one Muslim cavalry unit is scattered and a second clings to life at the table's edge.  What a tremendous start!  I was awestruck by the devastation this one, seemingly harmless cavalry unit made.  Yusuf's left flank seems in tatters before he can even muster a response.  Oh my.

Armies prepare for battle.

Christian light cavalry attacks...

driving the horse archers from the field!

Al-var Fanez is not finished yet!

One of the Caballeros Villanos on the right end of the Christian cavalry battle line charges forward.  The Badajoz skirmishers covering the tercio are driven away before the heavy cavalry crashes into the Muslim tercio.  The tercio's archers let loose a volley but that does not stop the hard charging horsemen.  Not having the discipline of the Almoravid infantry far back in their rear, the Badajoz spearmen are driven back in search of support.  Fanez' horsemen pull up and do not pursue. 

Christian heavy cavalry crashes into the Badajoz tercio.

Muslims fall back finding support among their own cavalry.

On the Christian left, Alfonso sends two bodies of heavy cavalry forward.  The skirmishers to their front stand little chance and are quickly scattered.  Into the Granada tercio come Alfonso's heavy cavalry.  Two heavy cavalry units against the tercio is too much.  The Granadinos collapse suffering heavy casualties as they fall back in disorder.  The Spanish do not pursue.    

Mass cavalry charge into the enemy.

The enemy is driven back with great loss.

Seeing the Taifa collapsing on the right, Yusuf orders his medium cavalry forward in an attempt to stabilize the situation.  Medium horse charges forward into the Caballeros Villanos on the left of the Christian battle line.  These horsemen are repulsed and gallop toward the rear.  Next Yusuf sends in the camelry.  They, too, suffer a similar fate and are repulsed.  What?  Seeing enemy cavalry turn tail and run, Alfonso's heavies follow up.  One Almoravid body of horse is caught in the rear and destroyed.  Others continue their flight away from battle.  The Muslim right cavalry wing disintegrates.  The battle has only begun and already the situation looks perilous for Yusuf. 

Yusuf sends in cavalry with a one, two punch.

Both punches fail to land.

Destruction of the Almoravid Right.

Sometimes, the best defense is a good offensive.  Yusuf snaps into action on the left-center.  With both flanks in jeopardy, the Sevilla tercio moves up to contest this central part of the battlefield.  In the tercio's way is a body of heavy cavalry.  Shooting arrows as the tercio advances, the cavalry is forced back under the threat of the tercio's long spears.  Now disordered and unprepared, the Christian cavalry is hit by Alfonso's medium cavalry.  Having suffered casualties in earlier efforts, these horsemen are scattered.  Wheeling to the right, Yusuf's cavalry takes up a position to threaten a second, forward Christian cavalry unit.  The camelry turns to dispatch that pesky light cavalry that caused so much mischief.  Yusuf regains some ground on this front,   

Yusuf delivers another one, two punch...

This time with success!

Caught in flank and destroyed!

With two bodies of Christian cavalry deployed possibly too far forward from the main battle line and being peppered by enemy archery, Christian heavy cavalry chose to fall back.  While the Caballeros simply fall back in disorder, the red knights turn around and retreat back between two skirmishers for cover.  Seeing an opportunity opening up to catch the knights from the rear, the men from Sevilla quicken their pace in an attempt to catch the enemy before the knights can rally.  Allah is watching over the Sevillians this day.  They muster enough courage and speed to come to grips with the red knights.  The red knights are driven from the field!  To stabilize the right, Fanez orders his cavalry forward and into Yusuf's medium cavalry.  This attempt is a complete failure, and these Christian horsemen are destroyed in the ensuing melee.  

Christian cavalry come under fire.

Discretion is the better part of valor.

Sevillians attack...

driving the red knights from the field!

Christian horsemen attack and fail!

By now, Yusuf has managed to get his elite Black Guard up into the main battle line.  Alfonso's heavy infantry are yet to reach the enemy.  Having lost three heavy cavalry units, Alfonso's army looks vulnerable, but Alfonso still has three heavy cavalry to wield in breaking the enemy line.

Alfonso wastes no time!  The black knights are sent forward into the Granada tercio.  Having already seen many of their comrades cut down in earlier cavalry attacks, the survivors are cut down where they stand.  Possibly not wanting to face a fresh enemy tercio, the black knights fail to pursue. 

Now, the white knights charge into action.  Their target, a body of massed archers, gets off a volley before contact.  The knights suffer some casualties and are disordered but plow on!  The archers fall back between two tercios with the knights hot on their heels.  Even with support from the adjoining tercio, the archers are overrun, and their supports fall back.  With their battle lust up, the white knights cutdown stragglers in pursuit.        

Black knights attack the Granadinos!

White knights attack!

Archers driven back...

and hit again!

White knights pursue into the enemy rear.

At this point in battle, both army breakpoint clocks are grinding down toward their breaking points.  Time to engage the infantry to settle the matter!

The Badajoz tercio moves forward to come alongside the Sevilla tercio and offer mutual support.  No sooner has this tercio moved up, they are attacked!  Into the tercio charges Fanez' heavy infantry.  The initial impact drives the tercio back.  Following up on this success, the two blocks of infantry battle it out until one side is forced to retire.  Which block retires?  Fanez'!

Infantry battle...

with casualties mounting.

Upon seeing Fanez' infantry falling back to his right, Alfonso, himself, leads his heavy infantry up into battle.  The target, this time, is the Sevilla tercio.  This hard-fought struggle continues with the Sevillians finally giving way after heavy losses.  Alfonso pursues.  With the balance teetering on a knife edge, the next unit lost with bring defeat to that army.  After a few more hard-hitting rounds, the last of the Sevillians are destroyed.  Yusuf's Army breaks!  

Alfonso leads an attack!

With Alfonso leading the way, the enemy is driven back...

and finally destroyed!

While Yusuf's Army breaks first, the Breakpoint Clock shows how close this contest was.  With only a single point separating the two clocks, I declare the battle a draw.  Richard kindly agrees!

Yusuf's Army breaks but it is close!

Another game coming right down to the wire!  The decision was in the hands of the last die roll of the last combat of the day!  Excellent stuff, hard-fought until the very end.  As for game duration, we managed to fight to a conclusion in about two hours.  Half the time of the other contests.

On the Butcher's Bill, The Dead Pile tells the story.  Notice that all of the Christian losses came from Fanez' wing.  Alfonso lost nothing!

Butcher's Bill

Great game, Richard! Very enjoyable and entertaining contest.  Thank you!

To read Richard's excellent account of this battle, please visit his blog post at Battle of Zallaqah 1086 -AAR.

A Most Dangerous Time

For 2025, I made a conscious decision to pare down my (some would say "massive") hex-and-counter wargame collection.  I managed to make an almost noticeable dent in the collection by moving off more than 40 games.  Since many of these games have been long out of print, I actually showed a profit on some!  Of course, some of these 40 games shifted were offset by additional game purchases but I am still in the black for the year; and by a large margin.  That success is even counting that the November and December bargain season showed its head.

Many wargame companies offer a seemingly steady stream of sales from early November through the end of the year.  This year is no exception with plenty of bargains to be had.  Not only are the manufacturers offering up great deals but ebay bargains are popping up with regular and increasing frequency.  Now, is this plethora of bargains seasonal or a gauge of the state of the economy?  I will not dive into that topic... 

What I do know is that this approach to year-end is a most dangerous time for the shopper and especially me.  

What caught my eye so far in this run up to year-end bargain hunting?

Starting with MMP Games' Veteran's Day Sale, I picked up

From ebay, I snatched up

The selection of ebay-sourced games is an interesting lot.  In each case, the offering either had a very low minimum bid requirement or a Make Offer option.  I won all four by either a having a low opening bid or a ridiculously low offer.  All games are in new condition.

I suppose that I really only effectively managed to swap some inventory in the game closet.  Fortunately, many more games departed than arrived in 2025.

Also, an inexpensive snag on ebay were three more of Brad Butkovich's useful ACW scenario books. Great to be able to add three more titles to my collection.

Cannot overlook this week's Helion Flash Sale of

Of course, this does not account for the year-end sales that many of the figure manufacturers hold.  19th Century Miniatures and Lancashire Games have their year-end sales underway, and Eureka's annual December sale is only about one week away.  Luckily, I only "need" to pick up a few things this year.  Well, let's see how long I can resist.

Prussians on the March

Having laid in a sizable supply of primed and Ready-to-Paint figures in preparation for hunkering down in winter quarters, I pick up the brushes and get back to work.  The completion of undercoating activities appears to cross the finish line only days ahead of a wintertime atmospheric river of moisture headed into the Pacific Northwest.  Did I lay in enough supplies to make it through winter?  Perhaps not but there are always opportunities to step outside to lay a coat of spray primer down on a handful of figures if the stockpile runs low or my interests change.

Anyway, marching out from the workbench today are 48 figures comprising the 96th Infantry Regiment.  These 48 figures are spread across three, 16-figure battalions.  Today's release brings the fledgling FPW Prussian army up to six infantry regiments.  This is probably enough to begin thinking about bringing this small force to the table.  Figures are 15mm Lancashire Games.

With the game table seeing Reconquista armies battling it out at Zallaqah (I still have one BatRep from a week ago to write), it may be little surprise that more figures for this period have been pressed into the painting queue.  More Christian horse and foot are working their way through the production line.  Hopefully, some of these units will find their way to the photo box and eventually here.

photo courtesy wargamesinthedungeon

Later this morning sees a return to the long running AWI series of games with Matt.  It has been a very long time since we last visited this series of games as we fight our way through the AWI.  Today's offering looks at the Battle of the Clouds in a follow-up from the Battle of Brandywine.  Should be fun.