Explore every episode of the podcast Miniature Wargaming Labs

Brian and I discuss what the best starter set for table top miniature wargaming is to buy as we burn into Black Friday. Considering Value For Money It's Halo Flashpoint.

If you have ever been to a convention they are fun. But the bigger they get the harder getting in and freedom of movement get.

Julian with Enemy Spotted Studios stops in again to discuss his new game BLKOUT. Set in the Killwager universe BLKOUT pushes the timeline forward and gives you the feel of Edge of Tomorrow and Elysium in a tabletop miniature wargaming experience.

I talk to Sam and Jack about their Renaissance Skirmish game Force of Virtue. If you have Warhammer Old World miniatures you are already half way there; and the rulebook is up for free download so that the rest of the way. You do not have an excuse not to play.

Brian is back from LVO. Did he actually go to LVO - kinda. But, he shopped and competed.

We meet up with Gaddis Gaming to talk about The GUARDS system pushing into the Cold War starting with the Second Indochina War (aka Vietnam War).

No plan survives first contact with it designer.

Some game systems have simple rule versions or advanced play modes that just don't catch on. Does it make sense to have various versions of the same game and how different should those games be?

We meet up with Julian from Enemy Spotted Studios and talk over the interconnectedness of game design with product design. That may appear like an evil capitalist plan to take money from customers, but is actually what customers expect to stay engaged; with just a sprinkle of community champions.

Also, this is really what Julian sounds like. It is not a voice modulator. Nor is it a deep fake AI simulator.

Nova is over and we share our thoughts on the convention before we go to bed.

It is Friday at NOVA. We talk about what we have done and what we plan to do if Brian can stop swearing. Come one. This is a family friendly show.

Windham Graves returns to tell us about his time at HISTORICON 2023.

Back form a long break we spend some time talking about the upcoming NOVA Open 2024 and the prevalence of smaller scales in the major wargaming companies.

The title is based off the Richard Feynman quote about the utility of atomic scale physics. I drew a direct correlation between game companies pushing down into the smaller scales instead of ever upward.

We interview Lee Gaddis of Gaddis Gaming as he launches his new Kickstarter: Empires Fall: Conflict in the East. The Ball Tanks in this game have gotten bigger.

Check out:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gaddisgaming/empires-fall-conflict-in-the-east?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=Gaddis

It is that time to gawk at a new Warhammer 40K edition. But what does it mean for, and do for, the local stores?

Brian goes over how he did on the tournament scene at Adepticon. He did well enough that he had plenty of time to demo and play test a bunch of games which he will go over in this episode. A lot of them were from Black Site Studios.

Brian regales us with stories of his insatiable need to consume by walking through all the sings he bought and acquired during his trip to Adepticon 2023.

In this episode we turn inward and have Brian regale us with hie preparation for Adepticon.

In a follow on to our last episode where Brian and I complained about Games Workshop and Wizards of the Coast we will complain a little more, because that seems to be what people want to hear. What is wrong with you? Then I will bemoan the management of Onslaught, but Brian and I will praise Boarding Actions. And thus the cycle continues. We will then discuss the need for every game to have an intro version of itself to pull people in. I call it the two beer rule in that an intro game should take the amount of time it takes a person to consume two beers.

Brian and James sit down to talk about Games Workshop and Wizards of the Coast ability to make buying their products hard. But, we keep buying them so have the really made any mistakes?

3D prints free and accessible for the masses? That is Windham Graves business plan? It reminds be of the worst excesses of the French Revolution. The thought that someone wants to make it so that anyone can get the tank, terrain, or what not for free done in a way that even a librarian can help print it off for any child or gamer on a publicly valuable machines. A brazen assault on the gatekeepers of wargaming. It might cause one to spill their claret if such an idea were to ever spread. With such a nonsensical activity in mind I had to interview this designer.

We catch up with Duncan Rhodes and Roger at the have returned from their Frontline Gaming sponsored trip to the Las Vegas Open. This was our opportunity to find out how the dynamic duo work together to deliver their content and their wildly successful second Kickstarter.

We interview Jack with Lazy Forger about his new game Full Spectrum Dominance. If you have Battletech minis you are $10 from playing a skirmish game at least, and you might already be familiar with the companies terrain line that many Battletech players already use.

Every where I look I see dead games. We discuss Steamforged games consumption of Privateer Press in what some might say will be a rebirth of Warmachine, which we compare Asmodees euthanization of Star Wars X-Wing and Armada.

WWI Skirmish Wargames have gotten super hot this season. We interview CK the designer of Scouts Out! Raids and Reconnaissance in 1914-1918. He has his rules and he makes his own minis to capture the elite and experimental nature of trench raiders during the Great War with plans to expand outside the Western Theatre.

Brian and I go over how our plans for what we would get done, buy, and play fell apart completely. But it is a new year and a new slate of conventions so why not try to plan again for this year.

Military Miniatures Press is currently working with Adam from NoGhostGames to develop Obsidian Empires: Warfare in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The idea is that warfare in the Americas did not begin with the Spanish arrival and the existing city-states and Empires had their own unique approach to warfare. Of course, we talk to Adam to see how he tried to tackle the nuances of the period.

Set your weapons to eleven and join us for our second interview on Jon with BPRE as he talks about getting the game out into the convention scene and his plans for Phase Line 2.

We talk to John, the skipper of Captaincy 2nd Edition, which tries to capture small scale tactical actions during the Age of Sail.

We talk to Fubar Design based in the happiest city in the world: San Diego. They specialize in printing terrain for 28mm WWII games but have plans to be bigger and better. Follow along as we ask them to impart some of their hard won knowledge making a 3D terrain printing company work.

Enemy Spotted Studios has a kickstarter going to launch their new game INCOUNTRY. This is a faster, squad based take on ultramodern warfare with the ability to customize different elite fighting units in the world today with a more stripped down approach than their previous games Killwager.

And at the end of the day they donate a portion fo their proceeds to tackle veteran suicide and that is a good thing to do.

We interview the creator of Country Road Z. Not just another Zombie skirmish game; it focuses on solo and coop play primarily.

In this episode Brian and I talk about looking for gaming stores when not in the Albuquerque area and what we look for in our side piece stores.

We talk to Joel, the designer of Borne From Ashes: Frontier Battles, a new game in development by someone from the neighboring city of Santa Fe. This game feels like PUBG in table top form for those look for that small team ultramodern combat gaming experience.

Every podcast has to do the "is GW a monopoly episode." This is ours. BLUF: They Are not a monopoly because they do not want to be one, but they do not have a problem being the standard setting body for miniature wargaming.

My old FLGS Eagle and Empire is dead. Long live Your hobby place, the successor game store that took the long hallowed traditions of a northern Virginia classic and elevated it to a newer, bigger, and brighter store front and facility - the American way.

I interviewed Matt with Your Hobby Place about the addition of their third location to their corporate empire on the North side of Old Town Alexandria during their grand opening and talked about what their plans are and what a visitor can find there.

I interview Chris, the designer of Crystallum: Conflict in the Far Future, a 15mm futuristic war game pitting company sized combined arms units against each other. Designed for a 4 by 4 play surface with an average game lasting two hours.

Chris represents the small game designer with a dream and the grit to see it through.

Check it out at:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gaddisgaming/crystallum-conflict-in-the-far-future?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=crystallum

In this episode Duncan Rhodes kindly joins me in explaining his lessons learned in conducting painting classes. As I look for ways to expand the local miniature wargaming community holding painting classes for younger wargamers has been an approach I have dabbled in. Knowing Duncan has serious experience in this field he provides his experiences with class size, curriculum, and dealing with students of various levels of experience.

We interview the designers of Firelock Games' Blood & Steel; a skirmish game looking at the period of 1837 to 1901.

At Miniature Wargaming Labs Brian and I started with a plan of what games we were going to play for the year and invest our limited resources of time and money on those games. Of course we added new games to the plan. In this episode we discuss our progress and why we add new games.

In this episode we interview Nic, the creative mind behind the skirmish game Planet 28.

I am interested in doing battle reports for the YouTube Channel. Who better to ask about this than Michael, aka War Corgi.

We interview the founder of the MechBay Podcast about how to manage a new players entry into the Battletech universe.

BOHICA is the new rule set released by Paul Eaglestone of Empress Miniatures fame; and, in this episode we talk to him about his rules, the miniatures he has made for the period, and where to get them.

His ruleset does not just cover the period of the war most Americans think about, but are applicable to all three Into-China Wars. The rules do not come with a point system, instead the games are balanced by the scenarios you choose, with more expansions on the way to cover all the nuances of the different time periods, specific environments (it was not all delta and jungles), and forces. That means that with some home brewed scenarios you could use these rules to cover other conflicts such as the Malayan Emergency, La Violencia, or Belgian Congo with a little imagination.

In our second episode of the year we interview the Editor-In-Chief of Military Miniature Magazine: Jason. He lays out his vision for an Americas centric publication (that includes appearances by the Canadians) to rally the wargaming community around.

This is a short episode where Brian and I talk about what we listen to while hobbying.

Brian and I talk about how we are going to approach this year from a miniature wargaming perspective. As part of that how we are down selecting to what kind of games we are going to focus on and our thoughts on whether certain games will be big this year or flops.

As part of our long term effort to find companies that seek to manufacture in the US, we have found Black Powder, Red Earth 28mm Wargame. If you like ultra-modern skirmish games built in the US from responsibly sourced suppliers then this is the game for you. Based on a quirky blend of JSOC training scenarios and computer game development this game seeks to capture the action found in the similarly named graphic novel.

Jon Russell joins us again to talk about some of the new games and releases that Warlord Games will start pushing out as we approach the death throes of the Black Friday month and enter year ending gorging times.

Amongst the items we discuss is the rerelease of Project Z (I had to remind our honored guest that Zed is not a letter) which will only be available while supplies last, the launch of Black Powder Napoleonic Epic (look for more games to enter Epic scale), and WWII Italians.

I should also remind listeners that from November to January is the time Warlord starts dumping items into their clearance bins so pick the right time to strike.

Julian from Enemy Spotted Studios in the Minneapolis joins us to talk about Enemy Spotted Studios and his upcoming Killwager Kickstarter. Julian develops his miniatures and games with a focus on delivering realism in small unit actions from the use of body armor, stances, and the use of weapon sights.

His Kickstarter has just launched and has two ways to buy in: Either go all digital with the rulebook and miniatures, or buy everything physically and receive it in the mail. He is also offering the option of having a model sculpted by those crazy enough to drop the money.