The Canadian Wargamer

Mike and James are joined by our friend and wargaming dignitary Don Perrin to take a 360 degree view of the wargaming hobby in the midst of "the churn" of where we are as a society - "churn" being the vortex of technological, social, political and economic flux that we're all caught up in.   I think out conclusion is surprisingly optimistic, but have a listen and tell us what you think! More about...

In this episode James and Mike chat with Canadian wargamer and games designer Mike Hoyt.  Mike has been throwing dice since he was a kid and now brings his professional military expertise as a Canadian Armed Forces design to serious games design.      Battlespace Publishing:   https://www.battlespacepublishing.ca/about Mike's contributions to the CWP Digital Library: he Art of Maneuver, Robert Leo...

As we reached Episode 30 of the CWP, James and I had a terrifically enjoyable chat with Andrew Dobson.   Andrew is one of Canadian wargaming's rising stars, and is the proprietor of Dobbies Hobbies, a 3D printing factory licensed to produce a wide variety of models from a wide range of suppliers. We love Andrew's energy and his enthusiasm for the potential of 3D printing.  Andrew also has an inter...

It's a special Hands Across The Border episode with our favourite Yank, Jay Arnold, the Veteran Wargamer.  After a brief skirmish in which Jay tries to annex us, we talk about podcasting versus gaming, what Jay as a soldier looks for in a wargame, and of course, lots of Quar talk during which I went and made a sandwich.   Here's links to what we mentioned in our chat. Jay’s work in Professional Mi...

Mike and James have a great chat with Winnipeg's Byron Mudry, a lifelong gamer who also takes us behind the scenes in his MDF terrain business.  We also talk about the vibrant gaming scene on the Canadian prairies, and his love of wargaming Canada's storied First World War history.  Byron also schooled us about Trench Crusade and other games that the cool kids are playing. Byron's business: https:...

Not an episode per se, we just hit record for two hours while we tried to play Midgard using Zoom.   May or not be your cup of tea, certainly nothing slick and polished, but that wouldn't be us, would it?  Might amuse you while you're painting or lying on a gurney in the ER.  

After a very long hiatus, Mike and James emerge briefly from hibernation to chat with Irish warmer and friend Conrad Kinch.  CK publishes an irregular blog, Joy and Forgetfulness, and writes a regular column for Miniature Wargames. We recorded this just after Christmas, 2024, but due to his incorrigible slothfulness, Mike is only now finished editing and uploading this. CK's blog: https://joyandfo...

<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: Hot Lead, which took place just before E...

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 sur...

Wendy de Wolfe is a Canadian Armed Forces veteran, fine artist and freelance graphic designer, and wargamer with a particular interest in kriegspiels.   For the past year, she's ben running a large Napoleonic kriegspiel set in 1806 in which James and I were among the players, only to recently discover that James was the Prussian CinC.  It was terrific fun.     In this Now It Can Be Told episode, J...

Our blue ribboned panel of veteran HotLead game-masters and ne'er do wells, Keith Burnett, Dan Hutter, Don Perrin and Brian Hall join Mike and James in a shamelessly self-congratulatory chat about what we did, saw, and liked about HotLead, Ontario's premiere miniatures gaming event. In the back third of the episode, the podcast morphs into a bit of a 2024 planning committee meeting, but Lord knows...

In this episode, we detour from miniatures to chat to Marc Rodrigue, Montreal-based designer of the award-winning French and Indian Wars boardgame, Bayonets and Tomahawks, published by GMT Games.   We talk about Marc's abiding interest in the French and Indian War, and the design process that led to his game.   Marc's also a FIW reenactor, and has some interesting insights to the period from portr...

Mike and James chat with Roger Chrysler, a wargamer whose family history led him to a deep dive in early Ontario history and the War of 1812.   Roger tells us about his family and their involvement in the war, and we do our own deep dive into the many gaming possibilities (figures, rules, scenarios, books) that this fascinating but poorly known war offers.  If you aren't itching to refight Queenst...

Not a lot to say about this one except to wish a very Merry Christmas to our listeners, and hoping to have more for you in the new year. Cheers from Mike and James.

In Episode 20, Mike and James speak with Glenn Pearce, the Dean of Canadian Napoleonic Wargaming.     Glenn is the mastermind behind what may be the oldest Napoleonic miniature wargaming group in the world, based out of Toronto, Ontario.  Glenn describes how he and his group made a big decision to go small and only game with 6mm figures.   We also discuss Glenn's work with Baccus as a rules writer...

After a two month absence, which is explained in tedious detail, CWP is back.  No guest this month, just Mike and James having a long overdue natter and catchup. We talk about the Amazon pseudo-Silmarillion series Rings of Power, and whether it will have any influence on wargaming in Middle Earth.  Those who know James will know that he has strong opinions.  Will Games Workshop offer Rings of Powe...

In the first and longest part of the podcast, Mike speaks with Dr. Robert C. Engen, a Canadian military historian and educator with a passion for wargames.    I spoke with Robert while he's between jobs.  Until recently, he used wargames to teach operational process and planning to mid-career officers at the Canadian Forces Staff College in Toronto, and will be soon be on his way to teach the same...

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 spo...

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 o...

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 m...

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 s...

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 Guests: Joe Saunders https://www.youtube.com/c/MiniatureLandscapeHobbies/videos Keith Burnett and Brian Hall from KEGS (Kent Essex Ga...

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 h...

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, an...

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 applau...