Little Wars FM

Our classic "15 Questions" interview format returns with game designer James Morris, the author of Midgard Heroic Battles (2024). You saw us play this game in the recent Battle of Bosworth episode, but we've been enjoying Midgard here in the club for about a year now. In this interview, James talks about his design influences, the biggest challenges writing the game, and whether he considers Midga...

Today on Little Wars FM, Greg interviews Dr. Prit Buttar to learn about the critical period of late November through December 1942. Dr. Buttar is a prolific historian with many published books, but today's conversation focuses on his 2018 book "On a Knife's Edge," which details the fall of Stalingrad and the failed relief effort to save Paulus's 6th Army. Should Paulus have initiated a breakout? W...

Little Wars FM returns with two new guests--Adam and Dave of the Thomas Hill Wargame Club. If the name sounds familiar, it may be because you've seen their award-winning games at Historicon. Or, it may be because you watched their award-winning Quick Strike AAR, "Rommel v. Tolkien!" These guys took home our overall Best AAR prize in the recently-concluded 2025 challenge. In this conversation, they...

If you listened to our podcast conversation with legendary game designer Rick Priestley, you heard him suggest the reason Warmaster failed to take off may have been because the retail staff weren't interested in promoting it. Today Greg accepts Rick's challenge and tracks down someone with experience working for Games Workshop. "North" (as he's known on YouTube) has a channel discussing all things...

Games Workshop released Warmaster in 2000 as its first epic scale, mass battle game set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe. But did you know Warmaster was supposed to be released two years earlier? Or that the inspiration for Warmaster's iconic command and control system came from a trip Rick Priestley took to Gettysburg battlefield? Today on Little Wars FM podcast, Greg connects with the author an...

Today on Little Wars FM we're joined by Gary Blevins of Board Game Nation . Last year Gary produced a viral YouTube sensation with his multi-part video series recapping the 2023 Axis & Allies World Championship. Not only did he film and edit a series, he played in the championship and advanced to the finals. Did he win? We won't spoil the ending, but we will spoil the topic of today's podcast!...

For our club-versus-club Thermopylae wargame against Mark's Game Room, we used Men of Bronze as the rules for our land battle. Today, the author joins Little Wars FM for an in-depth discussion. Eric Farrington is the author of multiple game systems and he talks to Greg about his past and future projects. Eric also reflects on working with Osprey Games as a publisher and how their development proce...

Greg talks to author and game designer Mark Backhouse about a 2013 article written in WSS Magazine called "Hail Agrippa." That article is freely available here , from WSS. A decade ago, Mark turned to Warlord Games' "Hail Caesar" rules when seeking out a mass battle, ancient naval system. With a few modifications, he turned the popular land-battle system into a trireme-smashing, quinquereme good t...

Little Wars FM officially turns 50! Our Patreon fans voted on the topic for our 50th podcast, and here it is. Miles and Ed chat with the International Kriegsspiel Society about all things Kriegsspiel. They'll go into the origins of the game, which was first released in 1824 by a Prussian staff officer, and track the evolution of the rules since the 1800s. Today, members of the society run Kriegssp...

Plenty of miniature games for air combat exist--Check Your Six and Wings of Glory are played in our club--but they do have their limitations. Something both of those rule sets share in common (along with most others) is that they are dogfighting games. As a player, you control a plane. Maybe two or three at most. You're in the cockpit trying to out-turn, out-dive, and out-maneuver your opponents i...

Today on Little Wars FM, we interview a legendary American game designer, Frank Chadwick. Frank's wargaming roots go back decades and include major titles like Volley & Bayonet and Command Decision. He remains very active developing new games, including an operational World War 2 game he's finishing now. Greg talks to Frank about that new project, his design philosophy, and how he writes warga...

With the Little Wars TV 1813 campaign concluded, we check in with two expert Napoleonic historians for their reaction. Who won our campaign? Would Napoleon's tactical and operational success change history and keep him on the French throne? Professor Alexander Mikaberidze and Dr. Zack White offer a surprising take on our game, blending historical insight with wargaming for a fascinating chat. They...

In the aftermath of our Spring 1813 Napoleonic campaign, Napoleon and Tsar Alexander meet for a heated negotiation. Many issues are on the table as both sides jockey for advantage in the Fall. Will any cities be swapped? Will Napoleon evacuate his stranded fortress garrisons? Can the French tempt Austria into remaining neutral? What about the lesser German states and the Saxons? To mediate our tal...

Little Wars FM is the companion podcast to our YouTube channel, Little Wars TV, which we started over 5 years ago! A lot has changed on YouTube since then. What's it like to start a new wargaming channel now, in 2023? Our friends at Mark's Game Room are finding out! Mark and his crew have appeared on our channel in the past and we're thrilled their club decided to take the plunge and start a histo...

This week on Little Wars FM, we return to the topic of wargaming campaigns. In Part 1 we talked about linear, or "ladder style" campaign systems. Today we tackle map-based campaigning like you saw in our YouTube Pyrrhic War campaign. Miles, Tony and Greg reminisce over some of the club's most successful map based campaigns...and some of the least successful. What are the pitfalls to avoid? What un...

In Part 1 of our series "How to Design Wargaming Campaigns," we talked to Henry Hyde. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more knowledgeable historian of our miniature tabletop hobby than Henry! In Part 1, you heard just a few brief segments of our much-longer and wider-ranging chat with him. As promised in that episode, we're releasing the full version of the conversation between Miles, Greg, and Hen...

This week on Little Wars FM, we dive into a juicy topic--miniature wargaming campaigns. Our Pyrrhic War campaign this summer was a huge success, both within the club and on YouTube. But if we're being totally honest...we've had our fair share of duds when it comes to tabletop campaigning. It's not easy to design a good campaign experience that's balanced, winnable for both sides, and can be played...

This week on Little Wars FM, Josh and Dieter review "Fistful of Lead: Reloaded" from Wiley Games. The first edition of this Wild West skirmish game debuted almost 20 years ago but the "Reloaded" update appeared in 2016. The Old West rule review round up will continue in future podcasts, as Josh and Dieter continue their hunt for the perfect Wild West shootout game. They compare multiple systems, d...

This week on Little Wars FM, Josh and Dieter review Gunfighter's Ball from Knuckleduster Miniatures. This is a Wild West skirmish game written by Forrest Harris and Brian Martin in 2018. And it's just the first of several stops we have coming on our Old West rule review tour! In future podcasts Josh and Dieter will return to compare other popular tabletop miniature systems. Grab your six shooter,...

Do you remember the early days of COVID lockdowns, when there was a sudden surge of interest in virtual tabletop gaming? Tabletop Simulator, Vassal, Roll20, and old-fashioned web cams suddenly felt indispensable. Even conventions tried to adapt with new virtual formats.  That was two years ago, which makes this a good time to ask, "What happened?" Are those virtual platforms still popular? Are you...

If you listened to our 6-part series on designing homebrew rules, you heard Tom and Greg reference Andy Callan's name many times as the original designer of "Loose Files and American Scramble" back in the 1980s. Loose Files served as the inspiration and jumping off point for what would eventually become British Grenadier and own own modern spin, Live Free or Die . But Andy has been writing games f...

It's been a long journey, and today our homebrew rules writing guide takes its final steps. This is the last chapter in our exhaustive, multi-part podcast series on how to write a wargame. Months ago we started back at the brainstorming phase and several hours of podcasting later, Tom & Greg make it to the finish line. In this episode we talk to Dave Taylor, a freelance graphic designer with a dee...

In the fifth chapter of our multi-part series "How to Write a Wargame," we approach the finish line. Now that you have a fun game refined through playtesting, you may start to wonder about next steps. Is this a homebrew game you'll keep on the shelf for you and your friends? Or is this a game you should consider publishing? Tom & Greg weigh the considerations in publishing and debate final game ad...

In the fourth chapter of our multi-part series "How to Write a Wargame," we discuss the role of play-testing. This is an absolutely critical part of the development process and we'll share some real-time feedback from our first round of play-testing at the club. Then, Tom & Greg head back to the drawing board to assess the necessary adjustments for further rounds of testing. Part 4 is a long one,...

After a lost year due to COVID, tabletop wargaming conventions and events are back! Today we're talking to the organizer of the largest single-day historical gaming show in the world, Salute. The Salute show is put on by the South London Warlords and was rescheduled for November 2021 this year. How will this year's event be different and what are the challenges to putting on a convention of this s...