GenCon is coming up quick and we’re already getting sneak-peeks at new gaming releases for GenCon itself and the fourth quarter of 2026. From Osprey’s wargaming division, we get word of new goodies for three favorites.
The first is a second edition for Joseph A. “Frostgrave” McCullough’s rank-and-flank fantasy battles game, Oathmark. Not only does this new edition put undead and chariots in the core rules, but it also puts greater focus on kingdom-building and campaign play. Kingdoms have been expanded out to six regions, and each region has a number of territories in it equal the number of the region (so Region 1 has a single territory in it, Region 2 has a pair of territories, etc.). Each territory supports different kinds of units you can field in your armies. So open plains allow you to field cavalry units, mountain passes allow for dwarf units, and timber woods allow you to field trebuchets and other artillery units. The rules suggest you start with two regions if you’re new to wargaming, and three if you’re an old hand or have a large collection of models you want to play with. Territories that support Artillery or Monsters now support only a single unit; if you want multiples, you’ll need to acquire multiples of those territories.
Also from McCullough is a new addition to Stargrave called Acceptable Loses. This is a military-focused book which adds vehicles to the table for the first time. We also get rules for heavy weapons, new types of battle armor, airdrop deployment, artillery strikes, and minefields. As we’ve come to expect from a Stargrave book, it will also include solo and cooperative scenarios.
Last, but certainly not least, we get the second edition of A Billion Suns, Mike “Gaslands” Hutchinson’s game of interstellar fleet battles. The first edition of A Billion Suns was an amazingly innovative game that you played without a pre-set army list. The second edition comes in a larger, hard-bound book, allowing more room for a greater range of play.
While there are few changes to the core gameplay, the game now comes in three different eras, each with a different level of complexity. The first is Armageddon, the simplest version of the game that allows you to build fleets from different factions and smash them together on your tabletop. The second is Hypergrowth, and this is the classic version of A Billion Suns where you can requisition whatever ships you need to complete your missions, but the stockholders stand ever-ready to call you to account for every scuff, ding, and explosion on the company’s expensive resources. Finally, there’s a solo survival mode called Junkspace, a post-apocalyptic version of the game where you battle rival scavengers for the junk floating around a single star system.
It’s great to see all three of these games, the products of two of the best and most prolific designers currently in the hobby, getting some extra love. If you’re a fan of any of these games, McCullough, or Hutchinson, you’ll want to check out the new fun ways to play they’ve made for us. If you’ve yet to experience Osprey’s solo-friendly, mini-agnostic wargaming, you owe it to yourself to see what all the buzz is about. Talk to the quartermasters at your local Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® today to secure your copies of these cutting-edge wargames.
All Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® locations are independently owned and operated by local folks. Not all stores will carry all games but will be willing to attempt to special order any that they do not carry. (And they’ll carry most.)
