As we look ahead to our next conventions (SDHistCon Winter Quarters 2026, online this coming Saturday, Jan. 31, with badges available here, plus the new SDHist AmRevCon online on June 27, the new SDHistCon North in the Twin Cities on July 11-12, and the return of our SDHistCon Summit convention in San Diego from Nov. 6-9), it’s worth looking back at some of the cool things that happened at our last flagship Summit convention. This was held from Nov. 7-10, 2025 at the S.E.S. Portuguese Hall in the beautiful Point Loma neighborhood of San Diego, and saw more than 150 attendees spend four days checking out upcoming games and seminars from top designers, learning how to play already-published games, and enjoying great gaming and fellowship. Here are a few highlights of the many great things that happened:
Seminars featuring amazing designers: Over the course of the convention, an incredible cast of designers took to the special seminar room to discuss their work and gaming topics more broadly. A few of the many seminars included Artur Carvalho hosting Cole Wehrle, Volko Ruhnke, and Dan Bullock for a wide-ranging conversation about game design, Akar Bharadvaj moderating a “How do we talk about historical games?” panel with Dan Thurot, Liz Davidson, and Meeple Lady, Dan Bullock discussing narrative in solitaire games with John Butterfield, David Thompson, and Jeremy White, and special convention guest Dana Lombardy speaking about his decades in wargame design and the evolution of wargaming in San Diego. The solo design panel is available to listen to in full here:
Famed game designers @danbullock.bsky.social, @volko.bsky.social, and @colewehrle.bsky.social discussing historical game design at our Summit convention in a panel hosted by @arturnottheking.bsky.social.
— SDHistCon (@sdhistcon.bsky.social) 2025-11-08T22:08:03.163Z
Liz Davidson, Meeple Lady, Dan Thurot, and Akar Bharadvaj held a “How do we talk about historical games?” panel at SDHistCon Summit 2025. (Meeple Lady/boardgamemeeplelady.com.)
The John Company: The Archivist’s Dream megagame: Cole and Drew Wehrle ran a massive megagame of John Company in the seminar room Saturday night, casting players as individuals within the game’s various families and asking them to chronicle their experiences in letters throughout the game. Dan Thurot wrote about his experience in that game (and also Painkillers and An Infamous Traffic) at Space-Biff! here.
A photo of the John Company: The Archivist’s Dream megagame at SDHistCon Summit 2025. (Yoni Goldstein on Bluesky.)
Designers versus content creators in Seljuk: Byzantium Besieged: Designer Justin Fassino organized a three-on-three game of his Seljuk: Byzantium Besieged game, featuring a designer team of Mark Miklos, Volko Ruhnke, and Florent Coupeau (with help from Mark Greenwald) against a content creator team of Candice Harris from BoardGameGeek, Joseph Buszek from Meeple Mountain, and Artur Carvalho. You can read Joseph’s recap of this as part of his convention report here, and watch Justin’s video on the game here:
It’s Designers vs Content Creators @SDHistCon #SDHistCon2025 #Seljuk #LevyandCampaign @gmtgames pic.twitter.com/eZntHZYsb1
— Mark Greenwald (@smarkg52) November 9, 2025
Designers and creators face off in Seljuk: Byzantium Besieged at SDHistCon Summit 2025. (Joseph Buszek/Meeple Mountain.)
Mark Herman and Volko Ruhnke team up for Fire in the Lake: The designers of GMT COIN Series Volume IV Fire In The Lake on the Vietnam War teamed up to take on con attendees, playing as the NVA and VC respectively:
"Fire in the Lake" with Volko and Mark, giants of the #wargaming field. @volko.bsky.social
— Sebastian Bae (@sebastianbae.bsky.social) 2025-11-08T17:25:02.766Z
Demos of hit upcoming games: Many of the incredible designers in attendance, including the aforementioned ones but also the likes of Sam London, Paul Wright, Andrew Brailey, Moe Poplar, and many others, had cool in-the-works upcoming games to show.
@volko.bsky.social teaching his Race to Rabaul coming soon from @phalanxgames.bsky.social @sebastianbae.bsky.social playing today too!
Got to check out Queen of Spies by @beyondsolitaire.bsky.social and @djackthompson.bsky.social at @sdhistcon.bsky.social! Who doesn't love a female spy network? 🐦⬛🕵🏽♀️
— Meeple Lady (@meeplelady.bsky.social) 2025-11-10T22:14:19.198Z
Playing Fruit by Dan Bullock in San Diego.
— Fort Circle (@fortcircle.bsky.social) 2025-11-07T19:28:08.568Z
Another day of teaching #Chevauchée #levyandcampaign @sdhistcon.bsky.social #SdHistCon2025
Started SDHistcon today with another @fortcircle.bsky.social upcing title, First Monday In October. Brain-burnery historical action, very interesting with lots of ways to influence the Supreme Court.
— Kobold Curry Chef (@koboldcurrychef.bsky.social) 2025-11-09T03:25:13.724Z
A demo of Liz Davidson and Paul Wright’s forthcoming “Foxes and Lions” at SDHistCon Summit 2025. (Joseph Buszek/Meeple Mountain.)
Designer Andrew Braley (L) after a demo of his “Waterways” game with father Kip (C) and brother Liam (R). (Andrew Bucholtz/SDHistCon.)
Demos of hot new games, plus some classics: Designers, convention staffers, and attendees all showed off recently-published games, sometimes on multiple tables at once. And Playdek was there to show off their digital implementations of many cool historical games.
Had an amazing time demoing Cross-Bronx Expressway for two tables at @sdhistcon.bsky.social this morning. Thanks to @alexknight.bsky.social, @yoyoni.bsky.social, and Justin DeVries (and, not pictured, @mirikuski.bsky.social, Damani Pant, and Nathaniel James) for playing!
— Andrew Bucholtz (@andrewbucholtz.bsky.social) 2025-11-08T20:47:27.999Z
Great afternoon facilitating a 4-player game of Bretwalda at SDHistCon. Everything came down to the last turn! @phalanxgames.bsky.social #boardwargames #boardgames@sdhistcon.bsky.social
— Zilla Blitz (@zillablitz.bsky.social) 2025-11-09T05:51:00.979Z
What a great experience at @sdhistcon.bsky.social! Finally had a chance to play Cross Bronx Expressway, the John Co. Mega-Game, Bowie, Tierra y Libertad, and even run a double demo of Chicago '68… Huge thanks to all the convention staff, players, and designers for making this happen!!
“Undaunted” series co-designer David Thompson (top right) after helping to show four attendees the team version of “Undaunted: Normandy” at SDHistCon Summit 2025. (Andrew Bucholtz/SDHistCon.)
I think we just gained two new Fort Sumter fans! @markherman54 will be proud 🫡🔥 pic.twitter.com/Tk4tEZyOIF
— Playdek, Inc. (@Playdek) November 8, 2025
Announcements of the 2025 Bobby Nunes and Summit Awards: On Friday night, we announced War Story: Occupied France as the recipient of the 2025 Summit Award, and Amabel Holland’s “Vonnegut’s Board Game: Preservation, Annotation, Context” video essay as the recipient of the 2025 Bobby Nunes Memorial Award.
War Story: Occupied France is the winner of this year's @sdhistcon.bsky.social Summit Award!Huge congratulations to @djackthompson.bsky.social, Dave Neale, @kwanchai.bsky.social and the whole team here at Osprey Games 👏👏👏Read more and find the other amazing finalists https://bit.ly/4qWpgbk
— Osprey Games 🎲 (@ospreygames.bsky.social) 2025-11-10T18:50:05.853235414Z
I don't usually go in for awards and such but this means an awful lot, both because it's my work being recognized by peers, and because I remember Bobby Nunes fondly. It's also one of the video essays I am proudest of.
— Amabel Holland (@amabel.bsky.social) 2025-11-08T20:21:57.319Z
SDHistCon Lifetime Achievement Awards and Marine Corps cake ceremony: On Saturday night, SDHistCon founder Harold Buchanan presented four Lifetime Achievement Awards. Those went to Jeremy White, Dana Lombardy, David Dockter, and the late Rodger MacGowan (with Mark Herman accepting MacGowan’s award for his family). Steve Pap also led a Marine Corps cake-cutting ceremony in recognition of the Corps’ 230th birthday.
Jeremy White (left), David Dockter, Mark Herman (representing Rodger MacGowan), and Dana Lombardy (far right) receive SDHistCon Lifetime Achievement Awards from Harold Buchanan (second from right). (Andrew Bucholtz/SDHistCon.)
Public SDHist Board/Board of Advisors meeting: The convention board and board of advisors got together Sunday morning to discuss the past year and plans for the year ahead. There were some great conversations on how to advance SDHist’s mission to create a diverse and supportive gaming community dedicated to playing, discussing, designing, and promoting historically-based board games.
The SDHist Board and Board of Advisors at SDHistCon Summit 2025. (Meeple Lady/boardgamemeeplelady.com.)
Pre-convention mixer at Eppig Brewing: Thursday night again saw a fun convention kickoff mixer at nearby Eppig Brewing, with designers, publishers, and attendees all getting together for food, drinks, and great conversation:
Great vibes tonight at the pre convention mixer for @SDHistCon 2025! Thanks to @HBuchanan2 for bringing this community together! 😁🔥
We’ll be at the convention on 11/7 & 11/8, so be sure to stop by, say hi and demo our games! There might even be a raffle 👀😏 pic.twitter.com/naoituB1Vz— Playdek, Inc. (@Playdek) November 7, 2025
And there was so much more that happened! Thanks to everyone who came and made SDHistCon Summit 2025 so great! We hope to see all of you, and new faces as well, at our upcoming online and in-person conventions this year!