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May 2026: Launch of our new Cousins' War Solo expansion!

29 - 31 May 2026:  SSG will be at UK Games Expo (NEC Birmingham), Hall 2, 2-996

13 June 2026: SSG will be at Broadside 2026 (Gillingham, Kent)

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Our latest newsletter (May 2026) has now been sent to subscribers. 

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Launch of our new Cousins' War Solo expansion

Later in May, we will be launching our new Solo mode for our most popular Pocket Campaigns game, the Cousins' War. This expansion, designed by David J Mortimer, enables you to play the Cousins' War against an automated opponent, BoT. Your opponent is named after John Wenlock, 1st Baron Wenlock, a notorious turncoat, therefore here Baron of Turncoats or BoT. You play normally, but BoT's Actions are determined by a deck of Decision cards, and the strength of his Actions by your choice of difficulty level. Extensively playtested by a range of expert solo game players, the Cousins' War Solo expansion will tax to the full your ability to win the Wars of the Roses.

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Conventions

We are usually at UK Games Expo, Attack!, BritCon, Broadside, Hereward, IPMS Show at Thornbury, Norwich GamesCon, Vapnartak and Warfare.

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29 - 31 May 2026: UK Games Expo (NEC Birmingham)

We have a stand in Hall 2. Stand #2-996.

 

NEW AT UK GAMES EXPO: COUSINS' WAR SOLO EXPANSION! We plan to have copies of our new Solo expansion for the Cousins' War for sale at UK Games Expo, alongside copies of the base game.

 

Games on our stand will include our Pocket Campaigns games: Cousins' War (and the new Solo expansion), Ming Voyages, War of the 3 Sanchos; plus Last Bug Standing in the Circle of Doom, and the new(ish) version of Kingmaker (published by Gibsons Games in 2023).​​

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13 June 2026: Broadside 2026

Run by Milton Hundred Wargames Club, Broadside is an annual wargames show held at the Medway Park Sports Centre in Gillingham, Kent. There's a mix of traders, demonstration and participation games, and model painting. Plenty to see and do.​

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Older News

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30 November 2024: Dragonmeet at Hammersmith, Novotel London West

We will be there in the Lower Trade Hall C3 with all of our Pocket Campaigns games: Cousins' War, Ming Voyages, March of Progress, War of the 3 Sanchos, 1065-67; plus our new game Last Bug Standing in the Circle of Doom, the new Kingmaker (published by Gibsons Games). 

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16/17 November 2024: Warfare 2024 at Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre

We will be there at Stand 34 with all of our Pocket Campaigns games: Cousins' War, Ming Voyages, March of Progress, War of the 3 Sanchos, 1065-67; plus our new game Last Bug Standing in the Circle of Doom, the new Kingmaker (published by Gibsons Games). I will also have a small number of copies of the Reference Manual for Mission Command: Normandy, our WW2 miniatures wargame rules.

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10 August 2024: BritCon 2024 at Nottingham Trent University, City Campus

We will be attending with loads of stock for sale on Saturday 10 August. Games on our stand will include all of our Pocket Campaigns games: Cousins' War, Ming Voyages, March of Progress, War of the 3 Sanchos, 1065-67; plus our new game Last Bug Standing in the Circle of Doom, the new Kingmaker (published by Gibsons Games), and Lux Aeterna.

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20-21 July 2024: Attack! 2024 at Devizes School, SN10 3AG

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8 June 2024: Broadside Games Show at Gillingham, Kent (Medway Park Sports Centre)

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31 May - 2 June 2024: UK Games Expo (NEC Birmingham)

We have a stand in Hall 1. Stand # 1-226. Games on our stand will include all of our Pocket Campaigns games: Cousins' War, Ming Voyages, March of Progress, War of the 3 Sanchos, 1065-67; plus our new game Last Bug Standing in the Circle of Doom, the new Kingmaker (published by Gibsons Games), and Lux Aeterna.

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15-17 March 2024: AireCon Harrogate

We are at AireCon Harrogate 2024, Stand I16. In addition to our usual small box games, we will have a small stock of the new Kingmaker (by Gibsons Games) for sale.

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4 February 2024: Vapnartak, York

We will have a small stand at Vapnartak (York Racecourse), where we will be selling Pocket Campaigns, and the new Kingmaker.

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23-26 November 2023: Consequences P

We are running the Boardgame Library at Consequences P, a LARP convention at Naish, nr Bournemouth.

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16-19 November 2023: GridCon 4

We are playing and demoing games at GridCon 4 with Gaming Rules!

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5-8 October 2023: Essen Spiel 2023

We are at Essen Spiel 2023, Hall 3, Stand 3-A114.

8 June 2024: Broadside Games Show

We were at the Broadside Games Show at Gillingham, Kent (Medway Park Sports Centre)

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February / March 2024: War of the 3 Sanchos - shipping to backers

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4 September 2023: War of the 3 Sanchos - Late Pledges now available on Gamefound

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17 August 2023: War of the 3 Sanchos - Successfully funded on Gamefound

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18 July 2023: War of the 3 Sanchos - Now Live on Gamefound

War of the 3 Sanchos is now live on Gamefound. End date is 17 August at 21:00 UK time.

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10 July 2023: War of the 3 Sanchos - Gamefound campaign to Go Live on 18 July 2023

We are pleased to announce that our Gamefound campaign for War of the 3 Sanchos will go live at 09:00 on 18 July 2023. Please back our campaign at: https://gamefound.com/projects/ssg/3-sanchos. If you Follow the campaign before it goes live, we're awarding a discount of £1 from your pledge.

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30 May 2023: SSG at UK Games Expo

We will be at UK Games Expo (2-4 June 2023, NEC Birmingham). Come and see us in HALL 1, STAND 1-352. We will have a new promo gift for Ming Voyages, as well as our full Pocket Campaigns series of games, and Lux Aeterna. Come and try out our prototypes of our new games in progress: War of the 3 Sanchos 1065-67, and Last Bug Standing in the Circle of Doom.

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6 March 2023: SSG at AireCon

Alan will have a demo table at AireCon (9-12 March 2023, Harrogate Convention Centre). If you'd like to see and maybe play the latest version, with near-final artwork, drop in at Table 11, Hall B.

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14 February 2023: 3 Sanchos Preview page on Gamefound

Another milestone in our journey to publication of 3 Sanchos is upon us. We're organising a Gamefound campaign for later this year, and to this end, we've launched a Gamefound preview page. At this stage, we're showing basic details about the game, including some near-final artwork and an overview of the game. We will be releasing more details in the coming weeks.

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Please sign up to our Gamefound preview page at: https://gamefound.com/projects/ssg/3-sanchos. You can also find the page by going to Gamefound and searching for "3 Sanchos".

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31 January 2023: Second SSG Newsletter!

We issue our second email Newsletter.

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22 December 2022: First SSG Newsletter!

We issue our first email Newsletter.

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28 September 2022: SSG at Essen Spiel, 6-9 October 2022

We will be at the great Essen Spiel extravaganza between 6 and 9 October 2022. You can find us in Hall 5, Stand 5-K110. We'll have all our Pocket Campaigns games, plus Lux Aeterna, plus a prototype of The War of the 3 Sanchos (4th in the Pocket Campaigns series), plus a prototype of the new edition of Kingmaker from Gibsons Games, with near final artwork. Kingmaker is live on Kickstarter between 26 September and 14 October, so it will be live during the whole of Spiel. Feel free to come along and ask Alan questions!

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Kingmaker Kickstarter live between 26 September 2022 and 14 October 2022: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kingmaker-rerelease/the-royal-rerelease-of-kingmaker/

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14 September 2022: SSG at Tabletop Gaming Live in Manchester, 17-18 September 2022

We will be at TTGL in Manchester on Saturday and Sunday, 17-18 September 2022. Our stand is D23. Please come and see us. We'll have all our Pocket Campaigns games, plus Lux Aeterna, and a prototype of the new edition of Kingmaker from Gibsons Games, with near final artwork.

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Kingmaker Kickstarter coming soon: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kingmaker-rerelease/the-royal-rerelease-of-kingmaker/

 

More information from Gibsons Games: https://gibsonsgames.co.uk/blogs/news/the-rumours-are-true-kingmaker-is-coming-back

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9 September 2022: Kingmaker Kickstarter from Gibsons Games delayed till 26 September

Gibsons has made the decision to postpone the launch of Kingmaker on Kickstarter until Monday 26th September at 2pm. Being a British company, they feel it is only right that we respect the passing of Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II. We at SSG concur. We are sorry if this news has disappointed anyone, and we all hope you will still back the campaign on Monday.

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8 September 2022: Kingmaker Kickstarter from Gibsons Games!

The Kingmaker Kickstarter starts tomorrow, 9 September 2022 at 2pm. This is an opportunity to get hold of an early (and cheaper) copy of the new edition of Kingmaker - The Royal Re-launch, re-developed by Alan Paull of Surprised Stare Games.

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Kingmaker Kickstarter coming soon: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kingmaker-rerelease/the-royal-rerelease-of-kingmaker/

 

More information from Gibsons Games: https://gibsonsgames.co.uk/blogs/news/the-rumours-are-true-kingmaker-is-coming-back

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15 May 2022: UK Games Expo

Expo 2022 will be the first where we have available all three of our popular Pocket Campaigns series – The Cousins’ War, The Ming Voyages, and The March of Progress. All of these games are heavily thematic with a lot of depth of strategic and tactical play in a small box. They are designed to take about 30 to 45 minutes to play.

We will also be displaying the prototype of Gibsons’ new edition of Kingmaker!

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12 April 2022: International reviews of Pocket Campaigns games

All the current Pocket Campaigns have been reviewed in Dutch on Gamingblog SpinLi:

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25 March 2022: Helpers for UK Games Expo wanted!

Surprised Stare Games is looking for helpers for our stand at UK Games Expo in June 2022. Would you be willing to help demo our games? If so, we'll be able to provide a hotel room and additional benefits. If you're interested, please contact me, Alan Paull, at alan@surprisedstaregames.co.uk for further details.

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19 February 2022: Reprints have arrived!

The reprint of The Cousins' War and The Ming Voyages has arrived at the warehouse at Spiral Galaxy Games. Shipping to customers starts early next week.

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14 December 2021: Reprints of The Cousins' War and The Ming Voyages

Our reprint of The Cousins' War and The Ming Voyages is due for delivery in early February 2022. The reprint consists of: 

  • The Cousins' War in English

  • The Cousins' War in Spanish

  • The Ming Voyages in German

  • The Ming Voyages in English

If you're interested in getting hold of these games to add to your current Pocket Campaigns games, please contact us as follows:

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3 August 2021: Launch date! Welcome to our new website!

New games under development in our Pocket Campaigns series: The Three Sanchos, another great pocket game from David J Mortimer; The Castle War, set in The Anarchy, Stephen and Matilda struggle to control the kingdom, designed by Rob Harper. Alan continues his work on the newly redeveloping Kingmaker. Originally designed in 1974 by Andrew McNeil, and published by Philmar, Gibsons, and Avalon Hill, the new version of Kingmaker will be published by Gibsons Games in 2022.

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