Your hosts James and Mike, with the occasional guest, look at the Canadian wargames scene. We're interested in miniature wargaming, board (hex and counter) games, and how Canadian military history inspires some of our projects. We hope to help tell the stories of a small but dynamic hobby scene in a big country.
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The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 26: Is This Thing Still A Thing?
Episode 27
Sunday, April 14, 2024 • Duration 01:16:56
<Blows dust, taps mic> Hello, is this thing on? Does it still work?
Yes, in the spirit of all things Easter, this podcast has risen, or at least, roused itself from its slumber. In this catch-up issue, James and Mike get together on air for the first time since last October. No interesting guest, just us. In a little over an hour, we talk about:
Model Builders Supply was not at Hot Lead this year but they sell great terrain (I love their trees) and you could buy the business! Check it out: https://modelbuilderssupply.com/
As well as Twilight of the Soldier Kings which I think is available for purchase on Amazon.
If you have thoughts about these rules, let us know please.
We also talk about ancient Romans, books vs PDFs (James is a print guy), James’ charming obsession with the Quar and Mike’s eagerness to try General D’Armee 2 from Reisswitz Press.
Finally we look ahead to some upcoming war-games shows in Ontario:
Ragnarok is more RPG and SF focused than Hot Lead but it’s in nearby Kitchener and worth supporting, April 20 and 21. See https://www.ragnarokxp.com/
Our friends in Hamilton are organizing a more war-games oriented event in Niagara Fallson Saturday May 4: https://allevents.in/niagara falls/dice-days-at-the-niagara-military-museum/200026103613028#google_vignette
Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 25: Just Mike and James Nattering
Episode 26
Monday, October 16, 2023 • Duration 01:14:55
I'm embarrassed to say that James and I recorded this chat on August 10, and then I totally forgot about uploading it in the business of my day job. So here we are, two whole months later and I owe big apologies to James and to you dear listeners, all two of you.
I vaguely recall that we talked about James' Quar fixation, the forthcoming Napoleon movie, and God knows what else. So I'll be as surprised listening to this as you will be. Hopefully we all enjoy it.
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 17 With Our Guest, Thomas Moore.
Episode 17
Sunday, July 17, 2022 • Duration 01:39:00
We're back for Episode 17 of CWP and we're chuffed that we are now over 5000 downloads. Of course, we have no idea how many of those downloads led to people wiping their hard drives after listening to us for a few minutes, but 5k is 5k, and we'll take it. Our gratitude to all of you who listen to the podcast and who tell their friends about us.
In this Episode, James and I managed despite a spotty Zoom connection to speak with Thomas Moore whose out in Whiterock, near Vancouver, British Columbia. Thomas' Twitter bio describes him as "Amateur Historian, Wargamer, Painter, Mpdeller, Voracious Reader, RCN Vet, NFL Seattle Seahawks Fan". All of those things are true. We would add that Thomas is possibly the nicest guy on wargaming Twitter, always a voice of encouragement and enthusiasm, and never a snarky or sarcastic word from his keyboard. We could all learn from him. OK, we could. Well, James, mostly.
We talked about Thomas' time in the Royal Canadian Navy as Cadet and Reservist, back when they let cadets do fun and really dangerous things, and about his wargaming career. Thomas had us salivating as he described the gaming group of true grognards he plays with in Whiterock, British Columbia, and we were both considering emigrating there before the end of the interview. Yes, he did say that one member of his group has 100,000 figures!
Also, have you ever valued your wargames and mini collection? No? Well, you should, because Thomas talks about how he and his wife Rita put their lives, and his hobby, back together after a fire in their apartment building. It's a sobering story, and on we could all learn from.
In the Canadian Content Corner, we speak with Thomas about his Twitter project of documenting Canadian military history in WW2 through his choosing photographs from the National Library. This salon is reason to follow his Twitter feed. Also in the CCC, as we're now calling it, we talk about finding, identifying, and laying to rest Canadian soldiers of the Great War, as well as long overdue honours to the African-Canadians of No. 2 Construction Battalion.
Our Guest
Thomas on Twitter: @Medical_Int
Mentioned: Wargamer's Terrain webstore:
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast, Episode 16 with our Special Guest Panel and Topic: Why Another Set of Napoleonics Rules?
Episode 16
Thursday, June 16, 2022 • Duration 02:10:38
In the first half, we convene a bona fide panel of some of our favourite grognards to talk about a burning question, why are there so many Napoleonic rules sets out there, with more arriving every year, and why are they still being written?
The conversation focuses on Naps, but could easily be ported to a discussion about ancients, WW2, etc. At the very least, what should we legitimately expect of a new rules set? Is it a vanity project, published by someone who simply doesn't like other peoples' games, or does it offer some new mechanism or insight? Should wargames authors at the very least have to tell us what are the assumptions behind their rules? It's a fascinating, lively and wide ranging conversation.
In the second half, James and Mike natter about Napoleonic wagon and artillery parks and how logistics never goes out of style, DBA as a guide to understanding the ancient world, and some of the great games to be seen at LardEh in May.
Glenn Pearce, Napoleonic Miniatures War-game Society of Toronto:
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 15, With Our Guest, Pierre-Yves Troel, Canadian Lard Ambassador
Episode 15
Tuesday, May 10, 2022 • Duration 02:46:02
It's been over a month since we published Ep 14, so here's TWO AND A HALF HOURS of nonsense and yakking to make up for our absence.
In the first half, we talk to Montreal-based gamer Pierre-Yves Troel, who wowed us all in March at HotLead with his participation game of What a Cowboy, a much-anticipated western gunfight game soon to be published (we hope) from Too Fat Lardies. P-Y (Mike totally mangled his name and variously called him Y-P, P-J, and God knows what else, though our guest was too polite to say anything) talks about his gaming career, discovering the TFL community through online gaming, and his growing expertise in 3D printing. We also talked about the gaming scene in La Belle Province of Quebec.
In the second half, during our Canadian Content Corner (CCC), friend of the podcast Chris Robinson checks in to give us a update on LardEh, Canuckistan's TFL-themed gaming day returning to Hamilton, Ontario on 28 March. Chris also tells us about what he and Big Rich chatted about when Chris was a guest of the TFL Oddcast. Rounding out the CCC, Mike reports on what he's learned about how the Canadian Army faced a massive challenge training an NCO Corps from scratch in WW2. We also chat about about the Guadalcanal Campaign, about gaming WW3, James' WW3 Imaginations (Mantovia and Borduria), Mike's discovery of DBA (talk about coming late to the party) and how many figures a horse and musket unit really needs. It's a wide ranging convo, good for an extra-long painting session.
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 14, with our guest, Shawn Taylor of Great War Spearhead
Episode 14
Friday, April 1, 2022 • Duration 01:33:00
Shawn Taylor is the first published Canadian rules writer that we've had on the podcast. (James has also published rules, but he's a host, so he gets an honourable mention). Shawn is an amazingly prolific rules writer. He's best known for his collaborative work with Robert Dunlop on Great War Spearhead, a popular set of rules for fighting large (corps level) First World War battles in small scales. Besides GWS, Shawn has authored rules for clandestine warfare in Nazi occupied Europe, SF skirmish actions defending Earth from alien invaders, and French-Viet Minh actions in IndoChina.
Shawn was an enthusiastic and talkative guest. Our guest bio conversation covered his long military career and family heritage and how that informs his gaming and choice of subjects. We spent a lot of time discussing the Great War, a subject that arguably has been poorly served by war-games rules and not well understood by wargamers. Shawn walked us through the mechanics of GWS and how it puts players in the role of senior commanders, thus challenging players to resist their own possible stereotypes about lions led by donkeys.
We also talked about Shawn's other projects, including Mourir Pour L'Indochine and its recent successful Kickstarter, as well as the gaming scene in Victoria and the Lower Mainland, which we hope to visit (virtually) in a future podcast interview.
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 13: The Hotlead 2022 Blue Ribbon Panel Wrap-up
Episode 13
Sunday, March 27, 2022 • Duration 01:22:01
James and Mike convene a stellar panel of new and veteran game masters to compare notes about what we saw, played, bought and did at Hotlead, Southern Ontario's best and biggest tabletop miniatures event and the first one since March 2020 and the start of Covid.
Our Current Contest: Somewhere in this episode is a contest. Listen to win a set of Bob Murch / Pulp Figures Cossacks. Proceeds from these figures go to the UNHCR appeal for Ukraine.
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 12 With Our Guest, Cynthia Jing of the Laurentian Tabletop Gaming Organization
Episode 12
Tuesday, March 15, 2022 • Duration 01:22:33
Cynthia Jing is the youngest person to appear on our podcast to date, and is arguably the most famous, because she and her group have been featured on Little Wars TV, and we haven't (not that we're jealous). Cynthia is part of the Laurentian Tabletop Organization, a Canadian club that supports college and university gamers in Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto.
We had a great chat with Cynthia about how her group is firmly rooted in tabletop miniatures gaming, particularly at the crunchy end (Napoleonics and Seven Years War) while, thanks to Covid (thanks, Covid! >said ironically
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 11 With Our Guest Joe Saunders of Miniature Landscape Hobbies
Episode 11
Wednesday, February 9, 2022 • Duration 02:12:43
Joe Saunders is one of the nicest guys you'll ever hope to meet in the hobby - he's an artist, a modeller, and a gifted teacher who wants to share his many skills so the rest of us can build better looking models and fight our miniature battles on better looking tables. In this interview, we talk about Joe's background with Games Workshop Canada (remember them?), building his YouTube channel, and his work with Battlefront. We also discuss Joe's recent decision to get into Napoleonics gaming (One of Us! One of Us! One of Us!).
In the second half of the podcast, Mike and James go into the Canadian Content Corner to talk about a little known and horrific battle, Kapelsche Veer, in the winter of 1945 as Canadian troops (Lincoln and Welland Regiment, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), some of them in canoes (!), cleared stubborn German defenders in a brutal week of fighting along the Maas River in northern Holland.
In the What We're Doing segment, Mike talks about his early adventures in 3D printing, and his favourable impressions of Sam Mustafa's Napoleonics rules, Lasalle 2. James talks about how artillery takes up a lot of space on the battlefield, and revisits his beloved Bavarians being annoying to Napoleon at Hanau in 1813. We also talk about how things are looking better for HotLead in March (woot! woot!) and we look ahead to CanGames in Ottawa on the Victoria Day Weekend in May (hmmmm, gaming, or gardening????).
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 10 With Our Guest Jason Weiser of Military Miniature Magazine
Episode 10
Thursday, January 13, 2022 • Duration 01:30:48
In our January Episode, we speak with our guest Jason Weiser, the genius behind the first hobby magazine aimed at North American readers in twenty years! Jason's been on a tour of all the posh podcasts, from Yorkshire to the Great White North. We slaved in the studio to get this month's podcast ready just a day before the second edition of MM is released! It's a nervy thing to do and we applaud the chutzpah of Jason and his team. Listeners may recall that we talked with our guest Don Perrin about the demise of hobby magazines on this side of the Atlantic, so we wish the newcomer every success.
The interview begins at 14:45 in the podcast. You can check out the magazine at https://militaryminiature.com and we encourage you to subscribe or at least order an issue.
Elsewhere in this podcast, James talks about getting the Russian Napoleonic army for Christmas, Mike talks about his problems and hopes in getting started in 3D printing, and we nervously cross our fingers as we discuss plans for Hot Lead 2022 in the Time of Omicron.
Our March Out this month is in honour of the Royal Canadian Navy and of ou Canuck wargamer friend, @Medical_Int (Cheers, Thomas!). The HMCS Naden Band:
LardEh, Hamilton, May 28: https://twothreesixmm.blogspot.com/2022/03/lardehs-game-day-ii.html?fbclid=IwAR03DIVymyCg_GqCWmHkxIwb7LcUEUCQhJuLZOZg6bzh5Z4Kq-w1HGTYBm0
Listen closely to the podcast for details on how to win some of Bob Murch's fabulous Cossack miniatures, proceeds go to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Fund for Ukraine.
Listen closely to the podcast for details on how to win some of Bob Murch's fabulous Cossack miniatures, proceeds go to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Fund for Ukraine.
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