In the house! New edition of Balkan Gamble.

Last week’s mail brought my designer’s copies of BANZAI magazine #28, published by Yasushi Nakaguro who also runs Bonsai Games.

The issue game is Balkan Gamble, my game of the Allied invasions of Greece and Yugoslavia that never were. It uses the HQ Activation and mission matrix, near-diceless CRT system that includes Winter Thunder (also by Bonsai Games) and Summer Lightning.

The printing job is beautiful, as is so often the case with Japanese editions of wargames. Really high quality work. You can see examples at the game’s BGG entry: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/189017/balkan-gamble/images

Looks to me like it can be ordered online, and shipped with something called Zenmarket. Anyway, if you go to the trouble of buying a copy of this, I have posted the English-language rules and charts and scenarios to the game’s entry on Boardgamegeek. https://petitslg.shop-pro.jp/?mode=cate&cbid=2415263&csid=0

Into the White (again)

 

Sorry I haven’t posted lately, I have been busy working on a design.

I will be going to Ottawa (brrrr) for the Connections-North conference on March 14. It’s a one-day event that goes quickly but there will be:

• panels on wargaming methodology and gaming “emerging challenges”
• demonstrations of games (I will be showing QUICK Junior and maybe will drag along some other items)
• a “game lab” brainstorm session on topics like Arctic security, influence operations and social resilience, and others.

Here is a link to the complete program: https://paxsims.wordpress.com/2026/02/19/connections-north-2026-conference-programme/

I’ll be in town a couple of days either side of the event too, since apparently I have forgotten how cold that cold can be and have to be taught again.