Shop Talk: The Cross-section of a Meta

Hey Nerds.  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Maxime, who is one of the organizers in Quebec City, a small but important city in Eastern Canada about 400 miles north of Boston.  As one of the few remaining large Canadian groups still running events in Canada, we explore a little about how the group survived the edition change and talk about how events and game nights are structured.  We...

Hey Nerds.  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Marc Andre who is a Warmachine player from Ottowa Canada. He has both an impressive competitive resume and a long history of community involvement in Eastern Canada.  We chat about the Ottawa meta and touch on the rich history Warmachine has had in Ontario over the years. We move on to discuss team Canada for WTC this year and some of the pr...

Hey Nerds.  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Matthew who is the owner of our friendly local gaming store called The Connection Games and Hobbies in Vancouver British Colombia.  Matthew and his store has been an integral part of the Warmachine story over the years in BC both as a source of product as well as for  gaming space. We chat about some of products that are popular here in Vanc...

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk, I sit down with Greg and Bryan who are running the Warmachine event at Kipper's Melee, a miniature gaming convention held yearly in Nanaimo BC. This will be the first convention to feature a Warmachine event in BC in some time and we are pretty excited about it.  We also wanted to talk about our opinions on the Colossal release that was recently added to th...

Hey Nerds.  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Alan who is a new player in our area. Alan has been playing miniatures games for many years but has recently started collecting Grymkin models.  In the last few weeks we have managed to get him some intro games.  Alan also happens to live in my townhouse complex.  We chat about transitioning from other games to warmachine and his experiences...

Hey Nerds. On this episode I sit down with David who is a long time member of our Warmachine community and one of my good friends. We've been playing Warmachine together since getting back into mark 2 many years ago and is my most common opponent.  David and I share a lot of things in common when it comes to making time for the game. We both have young kid and struggle to balance life and gaming....

Hey Nerds.  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Geoff, who has been a community organizer, Press Ganger and gaming enthusiasts for a very long time.  We chat a lot about the history of warmachine in Vancouver and dive into some of his experiences with the different level of investment he has had over the years. We talk about some of the challenges he has had personally and with his local...

Hey Nerds.  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Andrew who is one of our local Cryx enthusiasts in addition to being an accomplished player.  We chat a bit about Andrew's WTC experience before diving into all things legacy Cryx. Andrew has quite a bit of experience with Skarre 3 over the years and has a lot to share about his exploits and knowledge.  Enjoy everyone!

Hey Nerds.  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with most of the attendees of the Oddfellows 2023 Warmachine Charity Tournament. Since this was the first mark 4 event that I attended as a participant I wanted to sit down with everyone and chat about a couple things.  Mostly this was an experiment, and although the sound quality was not great and we kinda grazed the topics instead of really dis...

Hey Nerds.  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Richard who, despite being new to the area, had been running warmachine events for a long time. Richard is the community advocate for Warmachine at Mox Boarding House Bellview. As such he organizes events and demos for new and existing warmachine players in the Seattle area. He is one of the EOs in the area helping organize the Cascadia Cham...

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Philip, another friend from across the border. Philip attended the IG qualifier we ran last month as well as being a past participant in events along the coast for some time.  We chat about Talion Charter, and his experience playing the army for the past few months. We chat about his lists and his games and all the cool stuff pirates has to o...

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Shawn, who lives just across the border in Washington state. Shawn is a longtime warmachine player and community organizer that makes the trip up to many of our local and regional events.  Shawn announces the Cascadia Championship Series, a new invitational style warmachine Mark 4 event that will encompass players from BC, Washington and Oreg...

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Aaron, one of the staples for events in our area for quite some time. Aaron is a person of few words, but has a great wisdom of experience and a very logical, fair minded way of looking at Warmachine.  We chat about Storm of the North, his mark 4 experience and lists, some of the challenges and strengths of mark 4 trolls. We also discuss tric...

Hey Nerds.  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Brant who is a long time regular player in our area here in Vancouver. He is a former Canadian WTC player, and has been involved in community organization and promotion.  We chat about Skorne and some of the challenges the army has faced moving into mark 4. We discuss some of the models that feel compelling, and how they contribute to list b...

Hey Nerds,  I had a few topics I cut from my latest interview. We have 2 discussions that I cut together. The first is a pretty deep dive on sportsmanship, perspective taking and reminiscing about older editions.  The second is a very independent discussion about orgoth models and the lists Andrei has been building. If you liked the orgoth talk on the last episode you will like all this crunchy co...

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Andrei who has been a long time local player in Vancouver BC. Having owned and played many different armies, he has a great wealth of knowledge and experience.  Andrei is really excited about the new Orgoth models and has been painting and assembling over the last few months. He was able to get lists together for our local steamroller a few w...

Hey Nerds,  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Sean who is a long time warmachine player in our area.  Sean was able to gather enough storm legion models last week to play them in the event we ran on January 15th. We chat about acquiring, assembling and list building for an army that he had 2 days to pull together. We cover his games and his thoughts in regards to his experience in the e...

Hey Nerds,  I have what I think is a pretty in depth editing process. I end up cutting up a fair amount of the audio from some of the interviews I do partly to stay on topic (nerds are a rambling bunch)  and partly to get the time down. I also fiddle with things because that's the way I am.  I ended up wanting to save a lot of the random tangents that I cut from the original interview this week. I...

Hey Nerds,  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down Cory who is one of the most publically recognized players in this part of the world.  Cory lives just a few hours North of the Vancouver meta but travels frequently around North America to play.  We talk primarily about sportsmanship in Warmachine, the power of intent statements and bridging the skill gap between veterans and new players.  Cory i...

Hey Nerds,  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Bryan who is a longstanding player and community organizer in Victoria BC. He is the organizer of one of the largest annual tournaments in our area and is also on the Canadian WTC committee that helps organize the WTC team members.  We talk about the distribution of warmachine players in the country and how the attitudes around the game have...

Hey Nerds,  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Blayne who has an impressive resume as a Warmachine connoisseur in the Vancouver meta. He has played at a high competitive level, has undertaken some impressive community building projects and is all around a positive force for good in our area.  We talk about Infernals as Blayne has been pretty involved with the faction since they were firs...

Hey Nerds,  On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Gregory who has had a lot of tournament success in the past and is returning to play mark 4 after a 2 year hiatus.  Gregory has multiple LVO wins under his belt and 2 WTC attendances for Canada as entries in his list of accolades. We chat about competition and steamroller as well as his perspectives on returning to mark 4 after a break.  I h...

Hey Nerds,  On this Episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Trevor who is returning to play casuall for mark 4. He is excited to get games but has found some challenges on his quest to seek out information.  We chat about searching for communities, dissect the casual vs competative argument and talk about the impact of negativity on new and returning players.  There are some crunchy topics here. I re...

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk, I sit down with Gareth who has been our event organizer and a major community advocate for many years in Vancouver.  Gareth is a competition focused player who has a lot of experience playing in the con circuit. We chat about running the kind of events you are interested in playing and discuss putting in the work to build up and support the community you wa...

Hey Nerds, On this episode of Shop Talk, I sit down with Jack who is one of our strongest community builders in the Vancouver area. Jack has merged his 3D printing skills with great painting and a dedication to being present to birth a Warcaster Neo Mechanica community into existence.  We talk about maintaining a player base, painting, and a whole mess of stuff. Hope you enjoy!