Grown Men Playing with Toys

Send us Fan Mail Erik is back from the tabletop trenches with a full debrief.  He is two games deep into 11th Edition, has played four factions, and is ready to hype Steve up for an upcoming week of Barnhammer gaming.  Along the way they cover: First impressions of 11th Edition — Erik's surprisingly enthusiastic early verdict and why going from 10th to 11th feels nothing like the chaos of 9th...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve dive headfirst into the early days of 11th edition.  Fresh off the MFM drop, deep in terrain mechanics, and (for one of them) staring down a freshly nuked wasteland of 10th Edition lists, the guys approach the discussion from a perspective of "there's a green field of list-building pos...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve take a hard left turn from their planned agenda and end up somewhere much more interesting. The cliffhanger from the All-Star Game has been rattling around in Steve's head, Erik has been 3D printing armies at an alarming rate, and somewhere in there "we lost Dad". Along the way th...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, the GMPWT 10th Edition All-Star Game gets its dramatic conclusion. The lists are built, the terrain is set, the store owner has been recruited as celebrity dice roller, and absolutely nobody is ready for what the Einhyr Champion is about to do to Steve's blood pressure. Along the way they cover: Roll For...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik emerges from his mad science cave with an idea to help Steve with the end-of-edition doldrums. The result is the most creative thing they've attempted yet.....the GMPWT 10th Edition All-Star Game. The rules are simple.  Pull from up to three factions within the larger groupings of Imperium, Chaos, an...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik shows up to record still licking his wounds, this time from a rough road race -except this time his own son quoted the podcast back at him like a tiny, devastating life coach.   Steve is delighted. Erik is not sure how to feel about that. What follows is an off-the-cuff deep dive into one of the most unde...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik confesses to a crime against his own hobby — being a grouch for two days because he played poorly in a game that he was playing against himself. Steve holds it together long enough to let Erik tell the story......Barely. What follows is a full autopsy of a Necrons vs. Ultramarines battle report that had n...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve do something they probably should have seen a therapist about first — they apply the science of birth order psychology to the entire Warhammer 40K universe. The guys break down the stereotypes of oldest, middle, and youngest children and then systematically sort every faction in the game into on...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve do something a little different — Steve takes the wheel while Erik rides shotgun, and together they explore what happens when you step completely outside your comfort zone and learn a brand new game from scratch. While Erik was on away, Steve spent the weekend with Cousin Josh diving headfirst i...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve do something a little different — they look backwards and forwards at the same time, connecting the dots between the past seven months of Erik's Crusade League and the most anticipated edition change in years. Erik is approaching the finish line of his local game store's Crusade League...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve do one of the most uncomfortable things in 40K — they turn the camera on themselves and ask the question: what kind of mistakes do I actually make, and why do I keep making them? Erik spent the downtime between episodes doing what any self-respecting 40K nerd would do — combing through every bat...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve tackle one of the most common experiences in the Warhammer 40K hobby — the impulse buy — and discover that they couldn't possibly approach it more differently. Steve is the guy who walks into a GW store for a battle line unit for his current army and walks out with a flashy monster for a fa...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve do what grown men do best — argue about made-up words on plastic soldiers and ask the question no Warhammer 40K content creator has been serious enough to tackle: are the game's keywords and abilities actually fun ? The guys work their way through the most common keywords and special abilit...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve discuss the community’s negative reaction to a recent Warhammer 40K Balance Dataslate. The conversation frames players’ reactions as a progression thru the steps of:  “Slate Hammer” - establishing pre-slate expectations that a Dataslate needs to meet to be "good" "List Hammer&quot...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve discuss being intentional about monitoring the pace of a game of Warhamer 40K.  They share a framework for breaking pacing into two approaches—“tempo and trade”  versus “stage and push.  They then explore how codex rules and lore can nudge armies toward one style while sometimes creating traps o...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve recap their recent Tabletop Simulator game of Warhammer 40K, where Steve took on Cousin Josh. They talk about how the matchup was setup as a "Steve faces the Boogeyman" where he would play against the current meta menace - Necrons C'Tan spam in Pantheon of Woe.  The guys summarize...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast, Erik and Steve delve into what constitutes a 'good game' in their Warhammer 40K sessions. They emphasize the importance of immersion, challenge, and long-term strategic value. Erik discusses his writers block with choosing "good" practice matchups for his various army lists, including Blood...

Send us Fan Mail Join Erik and Steve from the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast as they dive into an entertaining and detailed discussion about Warhammer models with wings. The episode features a "wing tier list", where Steve passionately evaluates models from various factions based on their aesthetic appeal and painting potential. From angelic figures to terrifying demons,...

Send us Fan Mail Join Erik and Steve from the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast as they dive into the ongoing debate within the Warhammer 40K community about "competitive" versus "casual" play. They discuss the two stereotypes and why they don't think they adequately describe the beauty and complexity that is Warhammer 40K. They highlight their own experience...

Send us Fan Mail Join Erik and Steve from the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast as they discuss how to deal with the potentially overwhelming influx of new detachments and model releases in Warhammer 40K recently. Erik shares his mixed feelings about the recent surge in game updates, expressing both excitement and a sense of being overwhelmed. The guys then discuss how they prioritiz...

Send us Fan Mail Join Erik and Steve from the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast as they talk about their Warhammer 40K goals for 2026.  The guys will define a structure for how they are thinking of improving their Warhammer 40K gameplay. The episode explores six categories of:  Macro Strategy Micro Strategy Flexibility Tenacity Positivity Transparency They discuss how each category c...

Send us Fan Mail Join Erik and Steve from the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast as they discuss their recent Barn Hammer session, featuring a variety of Warhammer 40K armies and a pseudo crusade event that they put Cousin Josh through. The guys reflects on key takeaways and the significance of understanding win conditions for your army and the mission being played. They share details...

Send us Fan Mail Join Erik and Steve from the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast as they reflect on a recent practice game featuring the Leagues of Votann list crafted in prior episodes. The guys delve into a holistic after-action discussion, analyze what worked vs what didn't, and share other lessons learned from the game. They talk about the need to make in-game adjustments bas...

Send us Fan Mail Join Erik and Steve from the "Grown Men Playing With Toys" podcast as they dive into how they define "overpowered" (or OP) units in Warhammer 40K. The guys will establish rough criteria for how they differentiate OP vs powerful /splashy but not OP vs "The Highway to the Danger Zone" units in the game. They will then analyze the December 2025 Balance D...

Send us Fan Mail Join Erik and Steve from the "Grown Men Playing with Toys" podcast as they dive into the importance of marrying the optimization of a list to different play styles. After receiving listener feedback, the guys discuss the importance of building lists that align with personal gameplay preferences, whether aggressive or defensive, and how that impacts list optimization.  Th...