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---------- Hi everyone!



I hope all is well with you, and that you're getting time to play lots of great games. I told you last month that our family has started a long campaign of Pandemic Legacy on our Thursday night game nights. The quick update is: It took us two tries to win January, but we breezed through February in one session. We are a little bruised (a few "2" cities), but still standing, and loving new challenges and assets coming our way each month. This is a really good game. Of course the best thing is we get to experience it together. I hope you're getting some great shared gaming experiences as well.



I want to begin this month's update with some extra detail about this month's new P500 addition. I hope you enjoy it!



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A Terrific Strategy Game from a New Generation of Game Designers! During this past Spring's Weekend at the Warehouse, Mary and I hosted Volko at our home. He told me beforehand that "there's a game that might not be in your wheelhouse that I think you need to see." So, during the Weekend event, he gave me a private showing of Mystery Wizard, a fantasy-themed strategy game (that we're adding to our P500 list today). And he was right - I DID need to see it.



I am not going to spend a lot of time herein taking you into the details of the game, but please check out the How to Play Video or today's InsideGMT article on Mystery Wizard by Andrew Ruhnke, and you will have the gist of it in no time. Instead, I'm going to answer the questions that so many of you are asking right now. "Has Gene lost his mind?" "Why would a dyed-in-the-wool wargamer want to put a FANTASY GAME on the P500 list?" *shudder*



So, I'm quite hopeful that I can answer in the negative to the first question (time will tell). My answer to the second "why" question is multiple:



1. I trust Volko and his taste in games. He knew a great game when he saw it, and thankfully, took the time to show it to me.

2. The game has that terrific mix of easy mechanics but deep strategy and rich, even at times chaotic gameplay. And it immerses players in a great story that's different each time you play.

3. I like asymmetry in strategy games, and this one has it in spades. You can play one of eight different main (wizard) characters, and each is a completely different challenge, featuring unique capabilities demanding strategic flexibility and nuanced play.

4. The game doesn't go on forever, unlike some of the fantasy genre that aren't my cup of tea. 45-90 minutes works for me and my gaming groups.

5. It's exciting, and the excitement ramps up - with a "Get them!" feeling as in "capture the flag" when one player has a Mystery and is close to getting it to their home village. This means you'd better have a plan before you grab a Mystery, because you put a target on your back the moment you pick it up.

6. This game is the brainchild of three incredibly talented and creative designers - "20-somethings" who've spent many of their college evenings and weekends honing and shaping this game. They are friends of Andrew Ruhnke, known to GMT fans as the co-designer of Falling Sky, one of our most popular COIN series games. Andrew likes the game so much that he agreed to develop it, and has been helping the designers polish the details over the past year or so. The polish shows, folks. This game could go to the artists and printer very quickly once it hits its P500 numbers. They've done the work. Now it's our turn.



So, although Volko was accurate in saying this game "isn't exactly in our wheelhouse," at GMT our intention is to continue to publish great strategy games of all types. My intention is that this will be our first great strategy game with a fantasy theme. And it's also to build a strong team relationship with this new design team, as I am blown away by the quality of what they have created. I hope you'll like it, too. Please join me in welcoming Zachary, Aiden, and Jackson to the GMT team (and welcome again to Andrew!), and help us get Mystery Wizard published by supporting it today on P500!



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October SALE!! With most of our system integration issues behind us, we're soon going to be ready to have our long-awaited sale! The issue now is finding time to actually have the sale, in between P500 shipments (which take about 10 days each to complete) and the Weekend at the Warehouse (October 11-14). What we've decided is that we're going to have the sale starting October 16, so mark your calendars! It will run for about a week. I'll send you guys an update with all the details as we get closer to that date.



The one casualty of doing the Sale mid-October is The Dark Sands. Instead of shipping it in mid-October, we have to move it back a couple of weeks to ship along with SpaceCorp and Talon1000. There's just no other shipping window that allows us to also have the sale in mid-October. I apologize for the inconvenience.



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IGA Award 2018 Nominee. Congratulations to designer Brian Train and all of the Colonial Twilight Development, Testing, Art, and Production teams, as Colonial Twilight has been nominated for a 2018 International Gamer's Award as the best "General Strategy Two Player Game." In our history, we've only had about a dozen or so games nominated for this award, so this is a big honor for Brian and his teams, as well as for GMT. Nice work, everyone!



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Keep up with GMT Online

Virtually every day, we announce new information or show off upcoming products or give you a peek under the hood of our new designs in our various online sites and forums. For you guys looking to keep up with us online, here's where you can find us. Drop in and start a conversation!



GMT Games Website

InsideGMT blog

GMT Facebook Page

GMT's Twitter Feed

GMT on Instagram

GMT on BoardGame Geek

GMT YouTube Channel

GMT on Consimworld



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We're doing our best to segment this update so it's easier for you all to read. Here's what you'll find in the rest of today's update:



- New P500 Additions and On the Horizon

- Digital Games Update

- News You Can Use

- InsideGMT

- Charge and Shipping Update

- Production Outlook

- Coming Events

- Project Updates and Sample Art

- Website File Additions



Thanks, as always, for your support of GMT Games! Enjoy the games! - Gene