Introducing Winter Moon Wargaming

New Year, New Substack

Happy New Year! Welcome to Winter Moon Wargaming. I hope to make this place a home for worthwhile content and cultivate space for an engaged community of wargaming and hobby enthusiasts.

Who Am I?

My name is David and I am the author behind this Substack. Those of you in the Star Wars: Legion community know me as David “Endless” Zelenka, the guy behind Yavin Base and all the streaming and video content there.

I’m partially starting this blog because I want to go back to my roots - I got started making “gaming content” by writing about Legion. Strategic analysis, player interviews, and so on, way back in 2018 when Yavin Base was a mere free WordPress blog, which still exists.

That’s me, on the right, with my buddy Zane, in the middle

Why this, why now?

To be frank, I’ve known for years that the name Yavin Base was hindering me. I’ve been aching to rebrand, but nothing ever struck me as feasible.

Yavin Base hit a peak in 2023 at the World Championships: we hit 1000 concurrent live viewers and I received an Adepticon medal for my streaming efforts. I will be forever grateful to the team that stepped up to make that event possible. This was followed by a rapid decline as I entered treatment for an eating disorder and stopped being able to make content on a regular schedule. This decline prompted me to pivot in order to sustain what I wanted to do.

As I struggled to figure out a new name for this pivot, I went outside one December night to my car to uninstall my kid’s car seat. I looked up and saw a striking winter crescent moon hanging low in the sky over my neighborhood. I knew instantly that “Winter Moon” would play a role, that slender arc of reflected light really spoke to me. This event, coinciding with the start of a new year, pushed me over the top. Also, Winter Moon is a pretty sweet Magic card.

In addition, to make this venture survive, I need to broaden my niche. Legion is a wonderful niche but is rather small. I want to expand to include several other games and hobbies outside of Legion, chiefly Star Wars: Unlimited with its burgeoning scene, One Page Rules as a marvelous miniature-agnostic wargaming ruleset, and Gunpla as a model-maker’s dream hobby, plus I love mecha.

What I’m Looking to Build

While thinking about this rebranding, I identified 15 values that I wanted this brand to represent. These are meant to be values that remain constant no matter how the brand evolves. I’ve chosen five of these words to represent the type of content, and the type of online community, I want to build around this Substack:

• Honest

• Independent

• Thoughtful

• Creative

• Best-in-class

As such, I will strive to make all the content I write and record here align with these values.

What Can You Expect?

My current idea is to publish one to two pieces of free content every week, one written (1000 words) and one audio (10-20 minutes). I may also drop short (500 words or less) articles at random intervals. Any paid content will be longer form - I want folks to get their money’s worth, and as such will have an irregular schedule, and will include original images and video. The content will cover a wide variety of subjects in all the games and hobbies I pursue, and there will be crossover content coming in the future.

What am I asking for?

I'm going to ask for two things:

1. Leave comments on content that moves you.

2. Share this Substack with anyone you think might be interested

That's it.

It would be really cool if you became a subscriber, it would be really cool if you wanted to buy me coffee on a regular basis. But to enjoy the space and be part of the community - that will be forever free. There will always be free content of substance here. I do not intend to produce sleazy fluff pieces to bait you into becoming a paid member, like some other sites do.

Thank You

Lastly, thank you for reading this far, and may we all have a happy new year in hobbies and games!