Tactical Workshop Gaming Company Information

This is some information right from the horse's mouth by Tactical Workshop.

"As an avid wargamer, I own and have played many types of games for the more than 35 years I have known the hobby: Clash of Arms/Marshall’s “La Bataille”, GMT’s “Great battles of History”, (old) Avalon Hill’s “Advanced Squad Leader”, MMP’s all types of Combat Series and “Great Campaigns of the American Civil War”… My interest, however, has always been towards the more tactically focused games from battalions in the musket period to squads and vehicles in World War II. I also have had a tendency, except for a few systems I found “perfect”, to house rule out or improve things that I found unrealistic, unbalanced, poorly designed in the games I played. This led me to create new rules, new counter sheets, new payer’s aids,… over the years, some of those can still be found on the Board Game Geek website.

About Tactical Workshop

This led me to create my company: “Tactical Workshop”. I wanted to publish my designs in physical form and not just have people “print & play” them.

I first used the resources provided by The Game Crafter website (www.thegamecrafter.com) to get my products out there. It is a “print on demand” company that lets you order games one copy at a time. I started selling add-ons cards for GMT games’ "Red Storm" in 2019 (pro-bono as it was a play aid for an existing game) but quickly expanded to produce two original battalion-level Napoleonic wargames, “1811: Albuera” and “1810: Bussaco”.

However, the “print on demand” model has many drawbacks: the selling price is far too high compared to industry standard for similar products, our profit margin was less than 5% of the MSRP, the system has restrictions on the kind and format of the components that could be produced and the printing quality is still below industry standard for some game parts.

These did not justify the long hours spent on creation, design, promotion and play testing we spent on the games.

I therefore decided to incorporate as an LLC and look for professional printing companies soon after. The question of the initial printing/promotion costs would be answered by using the crowdfund model for each of our new creations through the board game dedicated Gamefound platform (https://www.gamefound.com/).

About our games

We currently have one game out “1811: Albuera Second Edition” (out in 2025) and are in the process of publishing a second one ”1809: Talavera”, that has already reached its goal in the crowdfunding campaign that is running on Gamefound from March 1st to April 1st this year (https://gamefound.com/en/projects/tactical-workshop/1809-talavera).

Both games use our “Fix Bayonets!” system of rules and make the first two volumes of a series we hope to expend further in the coming years.

“Fix Bayonets!” is a system simulating Napoleonic combat at the battalion level. The rules include an emphasis on Command and Control, a card driven initiative activation system and limit the use of informational markers. The combat resolution system differentiates between the effects of fire, infantry assaults and cavalry charges.

We always aim for:

quality components with large (3/4”) colorful counters (rounded corners easy to punch out), mounted maps, full color rules and player aids;

easy to understand rules that, while not complicated, are a challenge to master;

a system that leads players to make difficult decisions leading to exciting gameplay but also leaves the door open to a satisfying “playing both sides” solitaire experience;

less reliance on informational markers to allow players to enjoy the counters on map fully;

a historical fidelity when it comes to tactics, orders of battle and most certainly the various uniforms of the period.

For experienced Napoleonic gamers, I would put the system’s difficulty below “La Bataille”, about the same as the old Spanish Simtac’s games but definitely more detailed than Lock and Load’s “First Victories” or Vae Victis’s “Jours de Gloire”.

For people that have not tried our games, we have a special on the Gamefound campaign for Talavera, where you can purchase both games for $99.99 (running until April)!

Talavera Gameplay

About the future

With the success of our first two entries, we plan on producing more games in the future.

Our next project will probably be the next volume in the series which might cover a non-peninsular war battle this time: “1806: Auerstadt”. I think our command system will shine simulating this uneven engagement between an experienced and well-led French Corps against a fumbling Prussian army more than twice its size!

After that, we still have plans to finish a World War II air-naval tactical system that would start with the invasion of Burma/Malaya in late 1941 and to update our old “1810: Bussaco” game to its second edition format.