Finally caught up and am posting the second of two CWP podcasts that James and I did this summer. In Ep 31 we caught up with Mike Hoyt, owner of Battlespace Publishing. Mike is a military officer with an interest in the realistic modelling of conflict and with several rules sets to his name.
Showing posts with label Canadian Wargamer Podcast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canadian Wargamer Podcast. Show all posts
Friday, August 22, 2025
Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 30 With Andrew Dobson
Catching up here with recent activity from the highly intermittent Canadian Wargamer Podcast. Andrew Dobson is a promising young hobby entrepeneur and has a keen interest in naval history. He's a good illustration of how 3D printing is changing the supply chain for wargamers.
Monday, April 7, 2025
Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 28, With Byron Mudry of Northern Lights Terrain
James and I recently chatted with a lovely fellow named Byron Mudry, owner of a thriving Winnipeg-based business in MDF wargaming terrain and bits called Northern Lights Terrain. We also chatted about the wargaming scene on the Canadian prairies, as well as games he is currently excited about, including Trench Crusade, and finished up talking about wargaming Canadian Great War military history. Give it a listen! MP+
Thursday, March 13, 2025
Canadian Wargamer Podcast Special: Learning Midgard
Not an episode per se, we just left record on while we got together via Zoom and tried to figure out the Midgard rules from Reisswitz/Too Fat Lardies. Had a good time, but may be hard to follow. On the other hand, you might like this sort of thing.
Friday, February 7, 2025
Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 27 is Up!
We've been hibernating a lot lately, but the latest edition of our (me and James Manto) highly irregular podcast is up. Give it a listen. Will we do more? Hopefully, the mojo is seeping back, like maple syrup.
Monday, April 15, 2024
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Is Back
James and I catch up after a few months off, in a conversation that includes the recent Hot Lead event, Henry Hyde's new horse and musket rules Shot, Steel and Stone, and who is the best movie Napoleon.
Saturday, July 8, 2023
Monday, March 27, 2023
A Quick Video Tour of Hot Lead 2023
I had a great time as a punter at this year's Hot Lead, just wrapped up this last weekend in Stratford, Ontario. Once again the organizers put on a showcase event for the Canadian miniatures wargames hobby, with possibly a record attendance. Besides a full range of participation games, there were busy tournaments for Bolt Action, ancients (ADLG and DBA), as well as some wonderful looking all ages games, including one with pirate teddy bears!
I suspect that James and I will convene a panel for the second Canadian Wargamer Podcast Hot Lead After Action Report, hopefully soon. Enjoy this short 15 minute, very amateurish video tour. MP+
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Thursday, March 23, 2023
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Video Version of the Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 20, With Our Guest, Glenn Pearce
For those who don't like listening to audio. Cheers, MP+
Monday, December 12, 2022
Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 20 Is Out
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, with one set (Ruse de Guerre) published and another on WW2 divisional plus battles in the early stages. In the second half, James and I talk about a new Napoleonic STL Kickstarter, as well as how darn needy Austrian armies can be.
Our Guest:
Glenn Pearce, Napoleonic Miniatures War-game Society of Toronto:
Glenn's Ruse de Guerre rules:
Glenn's Contributions to Our Virtual Library:
The Anatomy of Victory: Battle Tactics 1689 - 1763 by Brent Noseworthy (1991)
Other Stuff That We Mentioned:
Closing Music:
Blue Bonnets Over the Border (Quick March of the Toronto Scottish Regiment)
https://youtu.be/j-gaPwPAU7g
Contact Us (We Love Hearing From You!):
Canadian Wargamer Podcast Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/canadianwargamerpodcast
Mike: madpadre@gmail.com
@MarshalLuigi
www.madpadrewargames.blogspot.com
James:
jamesmanto@gmail.com
@JamesManto4
www.rabbitsinmybasement.blogspot.com
Monday, October 31, 2022
Canadian Wargamer Podcast is Back
Fans of the podcast may be wondering what happened. Sometimes hobbies are fun, sometimes they feel like work. Sometimes real work intervenes. Bit of all three these last two months. Anyway, my friend James and I had a natter and a catch up, and you're welcome to listen to it while you watch paint dry, or cut your nails, or ... well, enjoy.
Thursday, June 16, 2022
#Thursday Napoleonics: CWP Episode 16 - Are Naps Wargames Rules the New Tower of Babel?
Picking up a somewhat neglected Thursday theme for this blog, there is some Napoleonics wargaming content to report on.
For the June (E16) edition of the Canadian Wargamer Podcast, James and I put together an impressive panel of four veteran grognards of the Naps side of the hobby to discuss why everyone and his/her dog seems to want to write and publish a set of Napoleonics miniature rules, and what any self-respecting new set of rules should bring to the table.
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
A Too Fat Lardies Game Day in Canada
Last Saturday I made the two hour trek south from Barrie to Hamilton, Ontario, for LardEhs, the second such event run by some dedicated Canuck gamers, the first being in November. The name LardEhs is a play on Canadian speech patterns (IYKYK, if not, Bob and Doug will explain it to you here). I ran a game in the afternoon, of which more in a subsequent post, but here quickly are some of the photos I had time to take in the morning. The event attracted about 40 game masters and players, a small but impressive selection of vendors, and brought in at least one person from out of province.
Thomas Sero ran a Large Chain of Command game in 20mm featuring British and German troops fighting for Rauray, Normandy. Thomas’ village, seen here, featured many of his own scratch-built structures, including a rather fine looking church. I ran the British armour, and made the mistake of rolling too far forward in my Sherman, paying the price for not looking to my right and noticing the Panther in the orchard (top right). It was a close fought game still in the balance when we had to finish the session. Well done Thomas!
Howard Tulloch made an even longer drive than I did, coming down from Orillia to host morning and afternoon games of What A Tanker! Howard’s skills running games, honed running DBA events for years, were fully on display here, with a novel and very interesting table taking the players to somewhere in Burma later in the war.
Japanese tanks, not often seen on the wargames table, stalked British Shermans and Stuarts for much of the day. Tanks were continuously exploding, new players came and went, and much laughter was heard.
Roger Chrysler hosted one of two games of Sharp Practice, featuring a War of 1812 scenario by the late Mike Hobbs in which British troops and their First Nations allies are wreaking their revenge on Americans as they stumble out of their tents. My friend and podcast partner James (top left) along with Dan played the British/Indians, and appeared to have victory well in hand as the Mohawk warriors were last seen crashing into what was left of the American flank. Ouch.
Sean Malcomson ran a game of Infamy! Infamy! pitting angry Britons against Claudian Romans, seeking to impose their evil metric ways. I played in Sean’s Infamy game at Hot Lead this March, and was glad to have the chance again to see his colourful armies on the table.
I do love me a chariot. These are very tasty. Somebody should write a chariot rules set called “Wicker and Whinnies”, I’d buy it.
Romans grimly hold the line. I didn’t see how the game finished, but it looked like the Romans were a tough nut to crack.
Chis Robinson, a friend of the Canadian Wargamer Podcast, ran another game of Sharp Practice, an ACW battle that featured abundant numbers of cavalry. Chris ran two distinct but linked games, with the morning game having a bearing on how the afternoon game played out. Chris’ 18mm figures are highly distinct, sitting in the sweet spot for size and detail between 15s and 28s, and are very well painted. Both Chris’ games were popular and well subscribed.
A high point of this event was the $400ish dollars raised from the charity raffle to support the local university children’s hospital foundation. I want to thank Richard Clarke of TFL for donating a handsome number of red Lardies dice, which we sold as part of the fundraiser. That along with other prizes donated by various vendors and by a certain Canadian podcast show the spirit of our Lardies community.
There were a few notable absences - no games of I Aint Been Shot Mum or its successor, O Group, no flying games, and it seems that the latest Lardie publication, Mark Backhouse’s ancient big battles rules, Strength and Honour, haven’t made it over the water yet. There will be a LardEh 3 in late September, I hear, so maybe we’ll see the newest Lardie game then. It would also be wonderful to see Lardies fans in other parts of Canada follow Ontario’s lead and run similar events.
Well done to Chris, Barnaby, and all the good folk who made this event a success.
Blessings to your die rolls!
MP+
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 15 Is Out
Hello friends:
It's been a few weeks since James and I released the May edition of our podcast. We took a distinctly Too Fat Lardies approach since our guest is one of the most prolific Lard ambassadors in the Great White North. A wide ranging, longish conversation with the usual natter between me and James after the interview. Very gratifying that we are ticking towards 4500 downloads since we started this a year ago. There's a give-away contest as well, have a listen for the details, answers here are eligible. Will be doing the draw at the end of May. Cheers, and thanks for listening, MP
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 mangled his name and variously called him Y-P, P-J, and God knows what else, though our guest was too polite to say anything) talks about his gaming career, discovering the TFL community through online gaming, and his growing expertise in 3D printing. We also talked about the gaming scene in La Belle Province of Quebec.
In the second half, during our Canadian Content Corner (CCC), friend of the podcast Chris Robinson checks in to give us a update on LardEh, Canuckistan's TFL-themed gaming day returning to Hamilton, Ontario on 28 March. Chris also tells us about what he and Big Rich chatted about when Chris was a guest of the TFL Oddcast. Rounding out the CCC, Mike reports on what he's learned about how the Canadian Army faced a massive challenge training an NCO Corps from scratch in WW2. We also chat about about the Guadalcanal Campaign, about gaming WW3, James' WW3 Imaginations (Mantovia and Borduria), Mike's discovery of DBA (talk about coming late to the party) and how many figures a horse and musket unit really needs. It's a wide ranging convo, good for an extra-long painting session.
Our Guest:
Pierre-Yves on Twitter: @iwouldlike2rage
P-Y's minis and painting website: http://www.iwouldliketorage.com
P-Y's contributions to the CWP Virtual Library:
Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WW2 by Damien Lewis. Quercus Publishing, 2014.
https://www.amazon.ca/Churchills-Secret-Warriors-Explosive-Desperadoes/dp/1848668554
Behind Japanese Lines: With the OSS in Burma by Richard Dunlop. Skyhorse Publishing, 2014.
https://www.amazon.ca/Behind-Japanese-Lines-OSS-Burma/dp/1626365385
Other Subjects Mentioned In This Podcast:
Events:
LardEh, Hamilton, May 28: https://twothreesixmm.blogspot.com/2022/03/lardehs-game-day-ii.html?fbclid=IwAR03DIVymyCg_GqCWmHkxIwb7LcUEUCQhJuLZOZg6bzh5Z4Kq-w1HGTYBm0
Frozen Lard Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/frozenlard
Books Mentioned:
Battlegroup! The Lessons of the Unfought Battles of the Cold War, by Jim Storr (Hellion, 2021).
https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/battlegroup-the-lessons-of-the-unfought-battles-of-the-cold-war.php
Neptune's Inferno: The US Navy at Guadalcanal, by James D. Hornfishcher. (Bantam, 2012).
Building the Army's Backbone: Canadian Non-Commissioned Officers in the Second World War, by Andrew L. Brown (UBC Press, 2021).
https://www.ubcpress.ca/building-the-armys-backbone
George MacDonald Frazer, Quartered Safe Out There. (2007)
DBA 3.0 Rules, by Phil Barker (WRG).
https://www.amazon.ca/Bellis-Antiquitatis-Version-3-0/dp/024469768X
Our Closing March:
The Meeting of the Waters (Quick March of the Rocky Mountain Rangers), played by the band of the Royal Highland Fusiliers:
Contest:
Listen closely to the podcast for details on how to win some of Bob Murch's fabulous Cossack miniatures, proceeds go to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Fund for Ukraine.
Contact Us:
Canadian Wargamer Podcast Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/canadianwargamerpodcast
Mike: madpadre@gmail.com
@MarshalLuigi
www.madpadrewargames.blogspot.com
James:
@JamesManto4
Friday, March 25, 2022
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode 12 Is Out!
I’m totally remiss in not posting more frequent updates on the Podcast. We’re at Ep 12 now and closing in on 4000 downloads. Woot!
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 how her group is firmly rooted in tabletop miniatures gaming, particularly at the crunchy end (Napoleonics and Seven Years War) while, thanks to Covid (thanks, Covid! >said ironically<), has pivoted to digital platforms such as Tabletop Simulator and Twitch. We talked about how Laurentian helps college-age gamers discover the hobby, about the secrets of running successful campaigns, and about how it's cool to be a nerd. As two aging nerds in cardigans, James and I were grateful to learn that we're cool.
One of the secrets of getting people into historical gaming is playable rules that have complexity but are not ridiculously complicated, have a strategic aspect for campaign games, and which can play to a quick conclusion. We talked about how Sam Mustafa's horse and musket rules, particularly Blucher and Might and Reason, work well for this purpose. Cynthia recently hosted a fascinating chat with Sam on her Twitch channel and there's a link below.
We also talked about how the folks in Cynthia's group move between tabletop gaming (or it's digital equivalent) and highly complex video strategy games like Hearts of Iron (think Avalon Hill's Third Reich crossed with Sid Meier's Civilization. Cynthia's contribution to our CWP Digital Library includes a publisher of these games.
In a shortened conclusion, James and I talk about Hotlead (just around the corner!), and the difficulties of finding joy in the hobby during this stressful time of war that lives on our phones and tears our hearts. We'll be back soon with a post-Hot Lead episode.
Links to This Episode:
Our Guest, Cynthia Jing:
Laurentian Tabletop Gaming Organization: https://www.facebook.com/groups/582653558459668
Cynthia's Channel on Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/absolutestqueen
Cynthia's Interview with Sam Mustafa:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1306893612
Cynthia's Game Recommendations for the CWP Virtual Library:
Paradox Interactive: https://www.paradoxinteractive.com
Our Closing March
The Great Little Army (Kenneth J. Alford), Quick March of the Canadian Army
Contact Us:
Mike: madpadre@gmail.com
@MarshalLuigi
www.madpadrewargames.blogspot.com
James:
@JamesManto4
Tuesday, March 1, 2022
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Ep 11 Is Out!
I
It’s been out for a while now, but hasn’t been noted here until now. Here’s the description below. I can’t say enough times what a pleasure it was to meet Joe Saunders, a totally friendly guy with enormous modelling skills and a passion for teaching them to others. I’ve started to incorporate some of his techniques into my modelling and I’ll showcase them in posts downstream. MP
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, and his work with Battlefront. We also discuss Joe's recent decision to get into Napoleonics gaming (One of Us! One of Us! One of Us!).
In the second half of the podcast, Mike and James go into the Canadian Content Corner to talk about a little known and horrific battle, Kapelsche Veer, in the winter of 1945 as Canadian troops (Lincoln and Welland Regiment, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), some of them in canoes (!), cleared stubborn German defenders in a brutal week of fighting along the Maas River in northern Holland.
In the What We're Doing segment, Mike talks about his early adventures in 3D printing, and his favourable impressions of Sam Mustafa's Napoleonics rules, Lasalle 2. James talks about how artillery takes up a lot of space on the battlefield, and revisits his beloved Bavarians being annoying to Napoleon at Hanau in 1813. We also talk about how things are looking better for HotLead in March (woot! woot!) and we look ahead to CanGames in Ottawa on the Victoria Day Weekend in May (hmmmm, gaming, or gardening????).
Links to This Episode:
Our Guest, Joe Saunders:
Miniature Landscape Hobbies YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/MiniatureLandscapeHobbies/about
Joe's livestream on Building Terrain:
Joe's Etsy Store:
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/JoeSaundersTerrain
Joe on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/Miniaturelandscapehobbies
Joe's Books for the CWP Virtual Library:
Peter Morby, Creating a Napoleonic Wargames Army, 1809-1815 (Crowood Wargaming Guides) Creating A Napoleonic Wargames Army 1809-1815 (Crowood Wargaming Guides) eBook : Morbey, Peter: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store
David Miller, Fighting Men of World War Two: Axis (Simon and Schuster) Fighting Men of World War II - Axis eBook : Miller, David, Smith, Graham: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store
Canadian Content Corner:
Paul Woodage of WW2TV talks to Edwin Popken on the Battle of Kapelsche Veer: https://youtu.be/8_LzRfAuARY
James Holland and Al Murray of We Have Ways podcast talk to Mark Zuehlke about the Canadian Army in NW Europe:
https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/the-canadian-story/id1457552694?i=1000548427211
Other Stuff Mentioned:
Becke and Summerfield, Hanau 1813: Napoleon's Retreat from Liepzig
https://kentrotman.co.uk/newbooks/hanau-1813-napoleons-retreat-from-leipzig/
Sam Mustafa's Lasalle II rules: https://sammustafa.com/lasalle/
HotLead 2022 (Mar 18-20) https://hotlead.ca
CanGames 2022 (May 20-22) http://cangames.ca
Our Closing March
The Lincoln and Welland Regiment:
The Lincoln and Welland Regiment - Wikipedia
The Lincolnshire Poacher: March of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment https://youtu.be/s6vyUcF_F2k
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Episode Ten Is Out!
In early January, my Pod Partner (hmm, that sounds awkward!) and I had a chance to speak with Jason Weiser, the genius behind Military Miniature, the first miniature wages magazine to be published in North America in almost a generation. Jason had sent us a complimentary copy of their first edition, and we were quite impressed. Here are the podcast notes.
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 applaud the chutzpah of Jason and his team. Listeners may recall that we talked with our guest Don Perrin about the demise of hobby magazines on this side of the Atlantic, so we wish the newcomer every success.
The interview begins at 14:45 in the podcast. You can check out the magazine at https://militaryminiature.com and we encourage you to subscribe or at least order an issue.
Elsewhere in this podcast, James talks about getting the Russian Napoleonic army for Christmas, Mike talks about his problems and hopes in getting started in 3D printing, and we nervously cross our fingers as we discuss plans for Hot Lead 2022 in the Time of Omicron.
Links for some of the stuff what we talk about:
Tadenac Games Canada:
@TadenacGames tadenac.canada@gmail.com
Legions IV Hire:
https://www.legionsivhire.ca/index.php?
Hot Lead 2022:
Our March Out this month is in honour of the Royal Canadian Navy and of ou Canuck wargamer friend, @Medical_Int (Cheers, Thomas!). The HMCS Naden Band:
Contact Us:
Mike: madpadre@gmail.com
@MarshalLuigi
www.madpadrewargames.blogspot.com
James:
@JamesManto4
www.rabbitsinmybasement.blogspot.com
Friday, December 24, 2021
The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Christmas Party
James and Mike welcomed some friends to our CWP Christmas Podparty. We also had a special visitor, Santa Grognard, though he seemed more interested in the Moose Milk than in our Christmas wish lists.
The usual silly seasonal natter and year end predictions. We hope it gives you a laugh and a bit of cheer.
James and Mike with you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and thank you for your kind interest in our podcast!
PS
"Moose milk" is a Canadian military tradition, favoured particularly at Christmas and year end mess parties and unit "sticky floor" parties. There are a variety of recipes, and they should be approached with extreme caution:
Thursday, December 23, 2021
Episode 8 of The Canadian Wargamer Podcast is Out
In this Edition of CWP, James and I catch up after a month off the air by recounting our adventure at Lard, Eh?, the first Canadian wargaming event (to our knowledge) dedicated exclusively to Too Fat Lardies miniatures games. We're joined by our friend and one of Lard, Eh?'s organizers, Chris Robinson. Our conversation covers the planning of this event in the time of plague and whether it bodes well for the reopening of the live wargaming convention scene in the Great White North. James and I also talk about our reactions to O Group; BLUF, it's fun, it makes your noggin a bit sore trying to figure it out, but it's an exciting game and very good at putting the player in the role of a battalion commander without worrying about which section has so many 2" smoke rounds left.
In the Canadian Content Corner, we're joined by our friend Dr. Brad St. Croix, making his second appearance on CWP. We recorded this conversation on Dec 9 (the Defence and Fall of Hong Kong began on Dec 8, 1941), so it's a fitting date to speak to Brad about his speciality, the Canadian role in Hong Kong and the way it's been obscured over the years by some unfortunate historiography. Though Brad isn't himself a wargamer, he was a good sport and helped us work through the battle and how it might be modelled on the table top. Rumour has it that Mike ran straight from the interview to the Peter Pig website to grab some 15mm Japanese infantry!
Continuing the CWP tradition of finishing with some relevant Canadian military music, we end the episode with the march of the Royal Rifles of Canada, one of the two gallant Canadian battalions that were destroyed in the battle.
Brad's contributions to the CWP Virtual Library:
Tony Banham, Not the Slightest Chance: The Defence of Hong Kong, 1941. UBC Press, 2003.
Marc Milner, Stopping the Panzers: The Untold Story of D-Day. U of Kansas Press, 2014.
Review on Stopping the Panzers: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1908&context=cmh
Info on Our Guests:
Chis' Blog: http://twothreesixmm.blogspot.com
Chis on Twitter: @LegendaryNoize
Dr. Brad St. Croix on Twitter: @OTDCanMilHis
Brian Hall: @Brian34586884
Brad's You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQZZQKAo8CqUzsUoOhuQdYw
Brad's Patreon Page:
https://www.patreon.com/OTDCanMilHistory/posts
Brad talks with the Juno Beach Centre about Hong Kong:
https://www.junobeach.org/podcast/c-force-to-hong-kong-with-brad-st-croix/
Closing Music:
"I'm Ninety Five": Quick March of the Royal Rifles of Canada: https://youtu.be/9DGOCtbJg48
Royal Rifles of Canada:
https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/official-military-history-lineages/lineages/infantry-regiments/royal-rifles.html
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