Brushes & Bayonets Podcast

Today on Brushes & Bayonets, Edward and Carter discuss their process on working and writing SNAFU, a game Carter developed with input from Edward over the last two years. SNAFU is a company level WWII game focused on ease of playability and historical decision making. Releasing on July 10th, in the episode our hosts break down how the game was conceived, what it does differently to other WWII...

Josh and Edward are joined by two friends of the show and rules writing collaborators Carter and Michael to talk about their choices for unknown or underserved wargaming periods. They each make the case for a period they are passionate about, where to find miniatures and rules for the period, and where you can learn more about each era. 

After a school related hiatus, Josh and Edward tackle a passion project of theirs - balancing historical battles via different types of win conditions. They talk about taking historical battles from periods like WWII, Napoleonic, Pike & Shot, and Ancients that were lopsided for one side and how to turning them into fun games. 

It is Edward and Josh's pleasure to interview Mark Backhouse, a pillar of the wargaming community about his article writing for Wargames Soldiers & Strategy, his philosophy on game design, and thoughts on smaller scale miniatures. 

Edward and Josh are ecstatic to be joined by Chris McDowall, RPG & Wargame designer to talk about his new game MAC Attack along with the intersection of playing and designing both wargames and RPGs. We discuss how GMs have made their way into wargames, designing for theme or mechanics first, and where to interject chance vs resource management into games. 

Josh and Edward recorded this episode a bit later than usual... as Edward was traveling to see the Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields. Today on the show, the hosts discuss how terrain matters to wargames, a bit about how the travel experience influenced Edward's thoughts on grand tactical battles, and some techniques for setting up terrain for both historical an ahistorical battles. 

On today's episode, Josh and Edward dive into the topic of "Bathtubbing," or when a scenario designer changes the scale of a historical wargame to fit the battle they wish to portray. Your hosts discuss when bathtubbing works well, when it should be avoided, and a different way to think about the wargames rules on your shelf. 

Join Edward and Josh in learning from Miles of Little Wars TV as he shares his secrets to running a great convention game and how to put on an unforgettable wargaming experience. 

Today on the Brushes & Bayonets podcast Josh and Edward are joined by Evan and Patrick, two expert wargaming GMs who together have run the Race to the Dan and Overland campaigns for members of the Little Wars TV discord. Edward and Josh who played in both campaigns peer behind the curtain to figure out how hard it really is to run a campaign, how the listener can start, and learn a bit about w...

Today on the podcast, Edward and Josh dive into army or national characteristics in wargames. They discuss their uses, merits, and different historical periods that do or do not benefit from their inclusion.

Disclaimer: This episode was recorded just before the new year, but Edward got busy with his MBA program and forgot to edit - direct all complaints to him! In today's episode of Brushes and Bayonets, Edward and Josh discuss three different types of wargaming groups they have been a part of, along with how to grow the hobby and bring in new folks to wargaming.

Today Edward and Josh begin a new series where they talk about different periods and how to get into wargaming for them. First up is the venerable Napoleonic period, where they talk about why they love the period, what to look out for, what scales to try, and a few rules to consider when jumping in.  

Today on the podcast, it’s our pleasure to welcome Chris on the show, the host of the Gettysburg Campaign which was run on the Little Wars TV discord. Josh interviews him about the rules he came up with to create a full multiplayer campaign with fog of war, lost messages, big battles, and more. 

Today on Brushes & Bayonets, Edward and Josh broach a forbidden subject in miniature wargaming - our thoughts on scales and which we subjectively like best for certain periods. We go from 28mm to 2mm and for each major scale talk about what kind of game we think that size miniatures is best used for.

Today it is our pleasure to welcome Chris, the man behind Feldgrau Productions on Youtube. Chris was kind enough to join us for a playtest of our in progress Medieval rules called Strategoi. We ask Chris about his favorite scales to paint, why he loves to paint Medieval miniatures, and go on many digressions about playtesting and game design.

On today's episode of Brushes & Bayonets, Edward and Josh tackle the role of historical leaders in wargames, how they are modeled, and the way in which they factor into scenario design. They also talk about how the concerns of leaders on the battlefield are far divorced from wargamers, and how to bring these two different motivations together. The blog mentioned on today's podcast by Edward is...

On today's episode of Brushes & Bayonets, Josh and Edward continue their discussion on designing a Medieval wargame, diving into the command and control system, the combat system, and how to make their game reflect the historical realities of the period.

On today's episode of Brushes & Bayonets its our pleasure to interview Sam Mustafa, the esteemed designer of such games as Nimitz, Rommel, Blucher, and many others on https://sammustafa.com/ . Today's topic revolved around playtest new games and scenarios to be both historically accurate and fun. 

On today's episode of the Brushes & Bayonets podcast, Josh and Edward take a look at some of the issues that have been plaguing their own wargame and scenario design, and help each other with potential solutions. Also discussed - was Pyrrhus overrated, and can a WWII skirmish ruleset be adapted to a grand tactical Napoleonics battles?

On today's episode of Brushes & Bayonets its our pleasure to interview Miles from Little Wars TV to talk to us about a wide variety of wargaming topics, including the Medieval ruleset he designed, running convention games, the Russo-Japanese War, and more.

On today's episode of the Brushes & Bayonets podcast, we have our first guest Mark H on to talk about some of the games he has been playing recently, namely historical skirmish games and what he loves so much about them.

On today's episode of Brushes & Bayonets, Josh and Edward discuss a new project they are working on - the writing of a Medieval wargame. In this first part of the series, the conversation is around game design principles and scale of the game, with future episodes of this mini series going into combat resolution and other mechanics.

On today's episode, Edward and Josh discuss what operational wargames are, how operational wargaming is a bit mislabeled in the wargaming world, and how you can play operational level wargames on your table today. 

In the very first episode of the Brushes & Bayonets podcast, we introduce ourselves and the podcast, and discuss how we got into the hobby, what we love about it, and what some of our past and current projects. Please follow and leave us a review if you enjoy the show.