Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast

Welcome to Episode 86 of the Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast. My guest today is Mr Barry Hilton, a rule writer, figure producer and a man, like myself who loves a Big Flag ! You will no doubt recognise the names of his rules, Beneath the Lily Banners, Donnybrook, From Republic to Empire, Mad for War and the soon to be released Dreadnoughts. Barry specialises in the 1660 to 1720 period w...

Hi all, Its been a while since the last podcast but I couldn't miss a Summer Brews in the Binyard ! I'm joined by Alex Sotheran from Storm of Steel and Iain Mcdonald of Flags of War for our half yearly loo at the Wargaming World. WARNING - This podcast contains naughty words and jokes about Wargaming, if you are of a nervous disposition I would turn off this podcast and go and do something more in...

Hi all, I've been allocating most of my hobby time to painting over the last couple of months and its the Podcast which has taken a bit of a back seat, but with the upcoming Salute Wargames Show in that there London (which I have been busy painting figures for) only a couple of weeks away, I thought it would be a good idea to have a quick catch up with Martin and Phil from The South London Warlord...

Hi all, Welcome to the show and today I have a bit of a spontaneous episode (for me) with Joe and Aaron from Dads War Room over in Hull (or is it 'ull) in the East Riding of Yorkshire. I saw what the lads were doing via the Yarkshire Gamer Facebook page and I knew I had to get them on and help to get their message out to the world. Mens Mental Health has come a long way in my lifetime and Mens She...

Welcome to 2026 and Happy New Year. No mucking about this year as we are straight into the first episode of the year, only 10 days in. My guest today is Paul Mackay, a name I am sure you will recognise if you read any of the Wargames Magazines, Paul is a regular contributor to those tomes with his painting tutorials, which cover a wide range of scales, periods and styles. Paul is a lapsed Wargamer...

Hello all, and welcome to the Christmas 2025 edition of the Podcast and as always I spend the festive celebrations with the Brews in the Binyard crew, tonight its a full house. I'm joined by Alex Sotheran from Storm of Steel and Iain McDonald of Flags of War as usual but there is also a return for the "voice of reason" Sean Clark. If you haven't listened to a Brews before it contains a lot of opin...

Welcome to the show and today my guest is another Yorkshire resident Mr John Savage. John is well known on the show and Lardy Day circuit for putting on high quality, fun participation games and we spend the final section of the show talking about those games and getting some tips for putting them on ourselves. Before that there is all the usual mayhem of a "normal" episode. John has been seen doi...

A change in Programming Schedule as the difficult birthing of the Wargames Time Machine episode continues. I took the opportunity to take a ginormous microphone down to that there Newark and the T'Other Partizan show where I spoke to the organisers and a variety of people including former guests and potential new ones, here is the full running order Running Order Live at T'Other Partizan  Side 1 1...

Hi everyone, welcome once again to Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast. Today sees a continuation of our round the world trip with a visit to New Zealand and my guest Mark Strachan. Marks Blog 1866 and all that has been a popular stop off point for many wargamers over the years, it covers many things but specialises in the Franco Prussian War and other similar wars around that time. https:/...

Earlier this year one of the early Wargaming Pioneers Charlie Wesencraft passed away at the age of 97.  I thought it would be a fitting tribute to get some of my former guests together and have them tell Charlies story and there memories of him.  In between the various interview sections I read passages from his first book, written in 1974, Practical Wargaming. See if you can spot any phrases from...

Hello everyone and here's something for the weekend ! This is the hangover from Episode 74 when in the Brews in the Binyard Episode where we talked rubbish for that long we didn't get chance to cover the listener questions ! So here they are. We spend an hour catching up as one or two things have happened between this episode and the last brews and then its into the questions. As always for the pr...

Hello everyone and welcome to the shows Diamond Jubilee. Todays guest is Ken Hanning. Ken has a wonderful wargaming shed (its a lot better than a shed !) which is named The Perthshire War Room. It is a wonderful spot and the envy of many when he shows the room off on his Big Wargames Website and YouTube Chanel. Ken has many links with the Leeds Wargaming Scene and it was lovely to chat about old f...

Welcome to the Summer Edition of the Brews in the Binyard side Podcast within a Podcast. Its the 9th time we have done one of these and they are very different to the usual shows, so after a run of 7 or 8 "normal" episodes I suppose I best warn newcomers that there may be a spot of bad language and you really don't want to play this with kids in the room. Someone will no doubt be offended, but tha...

Hi Everyone, Welcome back and today in episode 73 we return to the fascinating events surrounding a potential German Raid on the radar station at St Lawrence on the Isle of Wight in August 1943. My guest Paul Thompson has spent a lot of time and effort supported by others to greatly further the investigation into the "rumour" on the Island of a raid to a point where the evidence is really looking...

Welcome to the Show and today I have a couple of guests on the show who I have known for a few years via the Analogue Hobbies Winter Paint Challenge (see Episode 18 for more). Ray Rousell and Big Lee Hadley have been around the hobby for many years, both running successful wargaming blogs, with Lee branching off into the world of the Utubes in recent years, having his popular question of the week...

Hello everyone and welcome once again to the Yarkshire Gamer Reet Big Wargames Podcast. Today for the 71st episode I have three guests, Steve Bomford who runs the Company of Makers (CoM) Organisation which helps Veterans adapt to civilian life post service. Nick Denning who is a former British Army Infantry Officer who is developing a near future Wargame with the assistance of CoM and Conrad Steel...

Welcome to Episode 70 of the show and today I sit down with fellow gamer and podcaster Jared Fishman. Jared runs the US based 20 Sided Gamified show and its a Wargaming show with a broad topic base which has a slant towards the educational value of our hobby in a wider context. My guest is a teacher and has used gaming in his lessons as a great teaching tool, something I'm sure all of us would hav...

Hello all and welcome to Episode 69 of the Reet Big Wargames Podcast. My guest today is Arran Johnston, Arran works with the Scottish Battlefield Trust and the Battle of Prestonpans Museum increasing awareness of the History of conflicts in the Highlands, Lowlands and Isles. A specialist in the Jacobite Rising Arran has had a number of books published on that subject as well as Cromwells earlier c...

On the 500th Anniversary of one of the most pivotable battles of the Great Italian Wars, what better to do that a deep dive into the battle of Pavia, with a specific slant on recreating the battle on the tabletop. I'm joined by Martyn Kelly who has last on the show 2 years ago. He is well known for his exquisite Big Games at Historicon in the US and this year he will be putting on a huge recreatio...

Hello everyone and welcome to my first ever Wargamers phone in ! I'm joined on the show by 8 different guests for 8 very different conversations about different aspects of our wonderful hobby, in order of appearance we have. 1. Gary Wills - we talk about the War of the First Coalition or the Revolutionary Wars and his book Throwing Thunderbolts about the period https://www.helion.co.uk/military-hi...

Hi there, Welcome to the first episode of 2025 and today I combine two of my favourite things in life Wargaming and Italy. My guest is Lorenzo Sartori who runs the Italian based wargames publishers Dadi & Piombo. Lorenzo has been publishing a magazine of the same name for over 25 years, along with various sets of rules and books relating to wargaming, including the very popular Impetus Rules....

Welcome back to the Yarkshire Gamer Podcast with our usual Xmas Special with the Brews in the Binyard Boys, Alex Sotheran from Storm of Steel and Iain McDonald from Flags of War. In what is now tradition I butcher a Xmas song at the start of the show so get ready for a version of Fairy Tale of New York which you have never heard before ! The show ended up being 4 hours long, but lets face it, you'...

Hi everyone, Welcome back to the first, long form "normal" Podcast for a while and todays guest is Andy Johnson. Andy was born in York which gets a big tick in a box on this show ! and in the first part of the show we chat about Andys Wargaming life and the old Little Soldier Shop on Gillygate in his home town. Section 2 covers Andys extensive military career in the Coldstream Guards and how warga...

Hi everyone, This was planned initially as a bit of a catch up episode with a number of guests but I wasn't able to get all the  interviews done and I've been away myself so rather than have this lying around for weeks I've put my catch up with Paul out as an individual episode. Paul was my guest on Episode 43 and we chatted in depth on that occasion about Early War Miniatures and at the start of...

Welcome back everyone to Episode 63 of the Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast and today I've got off my backside and driven down t'road to Honley just outside Holmfirth where I sat down with Trevor Dixon of Dixon Miniatures to chat about his time in the hobby. He got his first break with Hinchliffe Miniatures before striking out on his own in the 1970s with a range of Monguls, much much mo...