WARNO · Issue 6 · week ending 22 August 2026

This week WARNO started counting livestreams, and it turns out we have been missing about a third of the hobby.

Sixteen live broadcasts across the roster, twenty-four hours of them!!! YouTube files a finished stream on a separate tab from ordinary uploads, and until this issue we were only reading the ordinary one. So three channels that looked silent last week weren’t: Rough Swordsman, Hex to Hex and Armchair Dragoons all posted, at length, and none of it reached you. Cardboard Commander showed one video against three missed streams, one of them a full A Most Fearful Sacrifice play. – sorry chaps.

Counted properly, the week runs to 112 videos and 84 hours. Live is 14% of the items but about 29% of the hours. Add the recorded long-form and it tips over: videos of 45 minutes or more are a quarter of what gets posted and nearly half of what there is to watch. The hobby’s centre of gravity is much further into the long stuff than a list of titles suggests.

Played share came in at 58%, up from 47%. Treat that carefully. Sons of Liberty 75 joined the roster this week and posted ten long play videos on his own; strip him out and the week is 52%. The share moved because the roster did, not because anyone changed what they make.

The remaster is having a moment. Decision Games put two out at once — Napoleon At War Deluxe (3,374 views at The Players’ Aid) and World War I Deluxe (1,359 at Hexed And Countered), both reworks of much older titles. Meanwhile GMT’s Army of the Potomac got covered three times in seven days: a designer-assisted unboxing with Mark Herman at Ardwulf’s Lair, an unboxing at The Players’ Aid, and an unboxing-and-overview at The Boardgames Chronicle. Someone has a good marketing agent 😉 .
When three outlets open the same box in one week, that is a release push, not a coincidence useful to know which is which before you order.

Overall, I’m glad to see more long form play. Nice to see more gamers gaming. Less talk about playing and unboxings - #rolldice baby!

Sons of Liberty 75 — Albuera Battle Comparison: COA vs Simulation Games, Video 22: game flaws

Eighty-three views. Fifty-one minutes. It is the twenty-second video in a series comparing two published games of the same 1811 battle, and in this one Lee stops playing and goes to the sources.

The two games disagree about when Albuera starts. One opens at 10:00 with the reserves well back; the other doesn’t. So he opens Oman’s History of the Peninsular War, volume four, and reads out the marching times! SWEET!! Sure enough Cole’s division off at two in the morning, on the field by half past six, eleven miles covered, the tail of Soult’s column not closed up till seven or eight. Then he makes the argument: a three-and-a-half hour gap between the two scenarios’ start times is where all the divergence in the battle lines comes from.

Not happy with just that, he goes further. He thinks the designers let the Spanish army’s reputation set its morale ratings rather than its conduct at Albuera, where the Spanish held. He reads the passage that says so.

That is source-checking a published game on camera, for an audience of eighty-three. Nobody else on the roster is doing it. I love this. Well. I may do it on the odd occasion, but this one caught my eye. – Give this man a follow llads.

One side note here. This taps into my Compare-Contrast blog series that I started a little while ago. So much for me thinking I was being all cool and original! LOL.

83 views · 2 comments · 51 min · Napoleonic —

· Guerre Eclair — Zilla Blitz’s overview took 3,989 views in seven minutes of runtime, the most-watched thing on the roster. Nuts! Publishing, designed by Yasushi Nakaguro: France 1940, point-to-point, block units, two card decks, hidden setup behind screens, under an hour. He rates it 2.5 out of 10 for complexity.

· Napoleon At War Deluxe — The Players’ Aid reviewed Decision’s remaster (3,374 views, 32 min). Four battles — Marengo, Jena, Leipzig, Wagram — about six pages of rules, an hour to three per battle. Grant and Alexander played Marengo through seven turns and got a result.

· Guadalcanal, and an 88-page rulebook that isn’t — Poultergeist Board Games’ first look at DVG’s Valiant Defense series entry (1,323 views). Henderson Field, 23–26 October 1942, one to three players, 60–90 minutes. Cooper and Johansson. The rulebook is 88 pages and the designer’s own advice is not to be alarmed by it — most is reference. I’m not saying a word..ahem…

· Pacific War 1942: Solitaire, second edition — Wayne Hansen’s full playthrough plus mini-review (1,028 views, 48 min). Worthington, States of Siege, and the change from the first edition is that the Japanese act off a card deck instead of a die roll.

· Not One Step Back: Stalingrad — The Players’ Aid ran a 90-minute solo playthrough (998 views). The most-watched actual play of the week.

· Coast Watchers — Wiseguy History’s gameplay overview of the GMT title (833 views, 34 min).

· ASL held its line. RSS Episode 55 — Star Leader at ASL Academy, 67 minutes; We’re Not Dead Yet Ep 49 from MMP ran 86 minutes on nationality rankings and pulled 32 comments, the most argued-over item of the week.

· WWI is having a good run — Hexed And Countered posted three: the World War I Deluxe first look, The Lamps are Going Out gameplay, and a six-favourites list of WWI solitaire games.

· The magazine corner — Gaming with ER Bickford read Fire & Movement 70 and 74, and Moves 100. I’m loving this. My Cross Fire series is trying to bring back discussion just like the days discussed here.

· A new series worth watching — The Tabletop’s Edge is starting one that pairs a game with the book to read alongside it. Two minutes of announcement so far, but that is a format almost nobody runs.

(Full A–Z is in SUSTAINMENT below.)

· Fall of Berlin — Review / AAR — Legion Wargames, the Zhukov–Konev race for the city. The nine-turn frame and what it does to the German position.

· TCS: GD’42 Assault on Travino videos

· TCS: Arty GD’42

· Fall of Berlin — Combat! — 695 views:

· Fall of Berlin Review — 505 views, 14 min:

· Race for Berlin — niggles, bitches and missing tracks. Oh, and a Martini. — 175 views:

· Race for Berlin — Combat /1 and wording rules /2:

· Cuius Regio wrap /4 — 294 views:

· Played, Posted, Playing, Ordered! — the live catch-up, 25 min:

· PAXsims — six posts, this week: a RAND study on AI in a future US–China conflict, a piece on Chinese wargaming, the MORS tactical-design course in November, and The Army Taught Me to Write Like AI, which will start an argument somewhere. Sixteen Games That Made Me a Wargamer is the one that will read easiest from where you are sitting. [Editorial note: PAXsims is the professional/serious wargaming source on this roster — policy, education and defence sims. It’s here for that.]

· The Players’ Aid — eight posts. Sykes-Picot from Hollandspiele (two players carving up the Ottoman Empire in red and blue ink), HISPANIA from Draco Ideas, and a Volko Ruhnke interview on Drachen: Reconnaissance at Verdun 1916.

· The Boardgames Chronicle — Cuius Regio unboxing and overview, and Army of the Potomac.

· Wargaming Weekly — #081: Am I stretching the definition of a wargame too far?! Rwizi Rweizooba Ainomugisha replies to our Important to whom? piece, and does it generously — no pushback at all on the book review, and he grants that “most important wargaming book of 2026” should have read professional wargaming book. Where he pushes back is the line itself: a kinetic test, he argues, throws out logistics, MEDEVAC, intelligence and cyber wargames along with the business ones. He calls it “bigger tent maxxing” and offers three requirements instead — one human player, decisions about military, political or business conflict, consequences over at least three turns. Seems like I started a thing. We need to have a fuller discussion and corrective chat with our lad here. Stay tuned. 😊

· Sgt Steiner’s — Battle Command: Jakubowo 1812.

· Grymauch’s — Pony Wars: The Homestead reached its conclusion over two posts.

[ Political & Non wargame & PC game vids removed. ]

· Lone Boardsman — The Wars of Marcus Aurelius | Overview and Review · 183 views · 38 min

· Wayne Hansen — Let’s Play! Eagles of Rome I: Caesar | Battle of Zela 47 BC · 402 views · 76 min

· Justegarde — Crusade: Road to Jerusalem (Solo Wargame) · 335 views · 32 min

· Gaming with ER Bickford — Napoleon Overruns Piedmont Montenotte · 29 views · 26 min

· Matt White Wargames — On the Table — Bailén 1808 · 484 views · 9 min

· Pushing Cardboard — Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars unboxing · 118 views · 14 min

· Sons of Liberty 75 — Albuera Battle Comparison, Video 21: SG turn 1200 and 1300 · 67 views · 74 min

· Sons of Liberty 75 — Albuera Battle Comparison, Video 22: game flaws · 83 views · 51 min

· Sons of Liberty 75 — Albuera Battle Comparison, Video 23: completion of the 1300 turn · 31 views · 43 min

· Sons of Liberty 75 — Albuera Battle Comparison, Video 24: turn 1400 · 24 views · 110 min

· The Players Aid — Review | Napoleon At War Deluxe | Decision Games · 3,374 views · 32 min

· Ardwulf’s Lair — Designer-Assisted Unboxing | Army of the Potomac with Mark Herman (GMT 2026) · 799 views · 50 min

· Camp Sawyer — 3DoGD — Longstreet’s Assault, 17:00 turn: McLaws engages · 257 views · 31 min

· My Own Worst Enemy — And The War Came Part 4 · 130 views · 23 min

· Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials — Roads to Gettysburg II — Scenario #2, Stuart Rides North, rematch · 139 views · 53 min

· Sons of Liberty 75 — A Greater Victory: South Mountain 1862, video 4, 0930 turn · 17 views · 84 min

· Sons of Liberty 75 — A Greater Victory: South Mountain, video 5, 1000 turn · 25 views · 81 min

· Sons of Liberty 75 — A Greater Victory: South Mountain, video 6, 1030 · 4 views · 65 min

· The Players Aid — Unboxing | Army of the Potomac | GMT Games · 1,660 views · 14 min

· Calandale — Death in the Trenches — intro · 339 views · 175 min

· Calandale — Death in the Trenches — setup woes · 436 views · 62 min

· Hexed And Countered — World War I Deluxe Edition (Decision Games) | First Look & Rules Overview · 1,359 views · 27 min

· Hexed And Countered — The Lamps are Going Out (Compass Games) | Gameplay Part 1 · 406 views · 39 min

· Hexed And Countered — The 6: Favorite World War I Solitaire Games · 233 views · 7 min

· Nangwaya — The German 9th Army press on with Operation Mähen · 36 views · 13 min

· Nangwaya — Some of Frainz Mileric’s personal effects — 7th Corps, 4th Army, Austro-Hungarian Empire · 13 views · 10 min

· Aaron Plays — COMMAND CONFUSION | Combat! Eastern Front | Episode 16 · 58 views · 32 min

· ASL Academy — Advanced Squad Leader RSS — Episode 55: Star Leader · 404 views · 67 min

· Bill Needels (Punched) — Italy ’43 — To the Bernhard Line Scenario · 110 views · 5 min

· Bill Needels (Punched) — Italy ’43 — Allies Advance (T1A) · 152 views · 8 min

· Bill Needels (Punched) — Italy ’43 — Turn 2 · 97 views · 22 min

· Bill Needels (Punched) — Italy ’43 — Turn 3 · 89 views · 15 min

· Bill Needels (Punched) — Panzer Battles (5A3) · 66 views · 39 min

· Cardboard Commander — Unboxing | Rommel In Italy / Battle of the Bismarck Sea — War Diary Publications · 159 views · 10 min

· Gaming with ER Bickford — Afrikakorps World at War 11 · 44 views · 15 min

· Gaming with ER Bickford — Battle for Moscow C3i 25 · 62 views · 18 min

· Hexed And Countered — First to Fight — Battle for Poland 1939 (Old School Tactical Vol. 5) | First Look · 330 views · 15 min

· Poultergeist Board Games — Guadalcanal by DVG Games | First Look at the Valiant Defense Series · 1,323 views · 18 min

· Pushing Cardboard — Victory in Normandy Unboxing · 261 views · 6 min

· Pushing Cardboard — 57 — Wes Crawford, Sam London, Stalingrad Roads · 16 views · 109 min

· The Discriminating Gamer — TDG: Old School Tactical: First to Fight, Poland 1939 unboxing · 518 views · 9 min

· The Discriminating Gamer — TDG: Sniper Elite: Escalation unboxing · 328 views · 6 min

· The Players Aid — Playthrough | Not One Step Back: Stalingrad | Solo Wargame · 998 views · 90 min

· WARdROBE — Baptism by Fire — Turn 5, 18th turn · 76 views · 2 min

· Wayne Hansen — Let’s Play! Pacific War 1942: Solitaire (2nd Edition) · 1,028 views · 48 min

· Wiseguy History — Coast Watchers | Gameplay overview (GMT Games 2026) · 833 views · 34 min

· Zilla Blitz — Guerre Eclair Overview | Nuts! Publishing · 3,989 views · 7 min

· Zilla Blitz — Sensuikan — Submarine School | Episode 0 | November 1941 · 3,063 views · 21 min

· Aaron Plays — FIRE MISSION! | Fields of Fire Deluxe: Vietnam | Episode 6 · 65 views · 56 min

· Aaron Plays — SGT. SAGE LEADS THE WAY | Fields of Fire Deluxe: Vietnam | Episode 7 · 37 views · 79 min

· Aaron Plays — FIELDS OF FIRE 2: Korea 1950 — Chosin Reservoir, Mission 2, Turn 2 · 17 views · 80 min

· Category Solo — The Forgotten War: Korea — Wargame Archaeology · 36 views · 17 min

· John Maag — Charlie’s Year Campaign — 1 · 120 views · 58 min

· The Players Aid — Unboxing | Enemy Of My Enemy | GMT Games · 454 views · 11 min — the expansion to The British Way

· TheGimpyGamer — Urban Operations Example of Play · 488 views · 42 min

· Ardwulf’s Lair — NBNBS: TROLLPAK, Avalon Hill 1988, RuneQuest Third Edition · 195 views · 11 min [RPG]

· Ardwulf’s Lair — The Outer Rim, an Unofficial Setting for Traveller · 879 views · 2 min [RPG]

· Armchair Dragoons — #CNXONL26 Pitfalls of AI in wargames · 15 views · 1 min [Conference]

· Armchair Dragoons — #CNXONL26 Modeling doubt without hiding information · 6 views · 1 min [Conference]

· Armchair Dragoons — Podcast excerpt from MiD S16e10 — tabletop industry job listings · 28 views · 1 min [Podcast]

· Bill Needels (Punched) — Channel Update 260816 · 286 views · 38 min [Channel update]

· Calandale — History of the World 1 · 252 views · 97 min

· Calandale — History of the World 2 · 182 views · 134 min

· Calandale — History of the World 3 & wrap · 125 views · 131 min

· Calandale — History of the World review · 358 views · 40 min

· Cardboard Commander — Join us tonight! Operation Cardboard Con is a GO! · 164 views · 2 min [Con]

· Gaming with ER Bickford — Fire & Movement 70 · 25 views · 4 min [Magazine]

· Gaming with ER Bickford — Fire & Movement 74 · 21 views · 6 min [Magazine]

· Gaming with ER Bickford — Moves Magazine 100 · 16 views · 9 min [Magazine]

· Gaming with ER Bickford — Magazine Game Collection Part 52 · 31 views · 5 min [Magazine]

· MMP Not Dead Yet — We’re Not Dead Yet Ep 49 — Nationality Rankings! · 1,389 views · 86 min [Podcast]

· Seek Out and Play — War of the Ring: Multiplayer Rules · 165 views · 5 min [Fantasy]

· The Discriminating Gamer — TDG: Cody’s Top 100 Games 2026 (#80-71) · 2,412 views · 19 min [List]

· The Tabletop’s Edge — Introducing a new series for the channel · 314 views · 2 min [New series: pairing games with the book to read alongside them]

· the2halfsquads — T2HS 391: Gateway Goodies St Louis interviews · 106 views · 38 min [Podcast]

· Zilla Blitz — Top 7 Board Wargames with designer Hermann Luttmann, Part 2 · 2,709 views · 45 min [List]

· The Discriminating Gamer — TDG: Exodus: Proxima Centauri · 1,756 views · 16 min [Sci-fi]

· The Discriminating Gamer — TDG: Dune: War for Arrakis — Smugglers · 891 views · 9 min [Sci-fi]

· The Discriminating Gamer — TDG: Eve: War for New Eden unboxing · 542 views · 32 min [Sci-fi]

· The Discriminating Gamer — TDG: Twilight Inscription unboxing · 221 views · 11 min [Sci-fi]

New this issue. These are finished broadcasts, which YouTube keeps on a separate tab from ordinary uploads. So none of them have appeared in WARNO before. Long by nature and mostly play or talk. Where the same stream went out on several channels it is listed once per channel, because three creators turning up to the same thing is itself worth seeing.

· Aaron Plays — COMBAT! LIVE | American Squad Campaign, Normandy July 1944, Episode 1 · 236 views · 141 min

· Aaron Plays — COMBAT! LIVE | Episode 2 · 149 views · 116 min

· Aaron Plays — The Ultimate Solo Squad Game? Ambush! vs Combat! | Let’s Discuss Episode 5 · 108 views · 108 min

· Ardwulf’s Lair — Counter Clipping Ep282 | Bronze Age Wargaming + News · 1,210 views · 118 min

· Armchair Dragoons — Feeding the Content Beast — Keeping the Wargaming Media Flowing · 207 views · 81 min

· Cardboard Commander — Coffee & Counters · 196 views · 31 min

· Cardboard Commander — Zone Of Control | Episode 73 · 259 views · 56 min

· Compass Town Hall — Compass Games Town Hall, Episode 140 · 884 views · 68 min

· My Own Worst Enemy — Solobabble Live! Episode 1 · 177 views · 61 min

· Tony’s Board Life — Fields of Fire 2 co-op with Mike Bertucelli, Part 2 · 112 views · 114 min

· Wiseguy History — Hell Let Loose: Vietnam | Live gameplay · 179 views · 88 min

FLASH URGENT

Gettysburg in Living Color — the October meetup, co-streamed across three channels, 109 minutes: - Hex to Hex —

· 422 views - WARdROBE —

· 55 views (and a vertical cut at 220 views) - Camp Sawyer —

· 52 views

END FLASH

The Players Aid — 8 - Unboxing Video: Sykes-Picot from Hollandspiele · 2026-08-22 - Solitaire Playthrough Video: HISPANIA from Draco Ideas · 2026-08-21 - History Behind the Cards — Checkpoint Charlie, Card #5: Berlin Film Festival · 2026-08-20 - Guest Blog: The Battles of the American Revolution Tournament at WBC 2026 — AAR by Mark Miklos · 2026-08-19 - My Favorite Wargame Cards — Card #90: Mob, from Time of Crisis · 2026-08-18 - Interview with Volko Ruhnke, designer of Drachen: Reconnaissance at Verdun 1916 · 2026-08-17 - Unboxing Video: The Rock of Chickamauga from Flying Pig Games · 2026-08-16

PAXsims — 6 - Sixteen Games That Made Me a Wargamer · 2026-08-22 - MORS Designing Tactical Games Course, 3–5 November 2026 · 2026-08-21 - The Army Taught Me to Write Like AI · 2026-08-20 - Wargaming nightmare scenarios · 2026-08-18 - RAND: Exploring AI’s Operational Implications in a Future US–China Conflict · 2026-08-18 - Chinese wargaming reaches new heights · 2026-08-18

The Boardgames Chronicle — 3 - Cuius Regio: The Thirty Years War — Unboxing & Overview · 2026-08-21 - Phenomena of Mike Lambo Solo Designs · 2026-08-19 - Army of the Potomac: Campaigns of 1862 and 1864 — Unboxing & Overview · 2026-08-16

Grymauch’s Solo Wargaming Blog — 2 - Pony Wars: The Homestead, Turns 25 — Conclusion · 2026-08-20 - Pony Wars: The Homestead, Turns 17–24 · 2026-08-16

Cardboard Commander — 2 - Looking for a Game? Operation Cardboard Con Can Help! · 2026-08-23 - Cube4me Turns 5! · 2026-08-16

Sgt Steiner’s Wargaming Blog — 1 - Battle Command — Jakubowo 1812 scenario · 2026-08-21

Board Game Views — 1 - Spirited — A lucky hit? · 2026-08-17

Wargaming Weekly — 1 - #081: Am I stretching the definition of a wargame too far?! · 2026-08-19

Systematic Hatreds (Paul Musgrave) — 1 - Time is a Weapon · 2026-08-22