Hey Nerds. On the last episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Neil, who is one of my oldest friends and a recent addition to the Canadian WTC Team for 2024. Neil has been my greatest supporter through this podcasting adventure and is more involved than ever in the Vancouver Warmachine meta. We chat about all the cool stuff Neil has been involved in this last year including the Cascadia Championship Series, the application process for WTC (and the implications of being a team member), and helping to run our local journeyperson league and steamroller circuit at our shop. Near the end, he turns some of my usual interview questions on me and I get to share the inspiration for some of them, as well as my own take. I also have some thank yous. This is not the end for me, although it is for Shop Talk. I plan to keep sharing, playing and creating.  Come check out our YouTube channel where we stream games occasionally. https://youtube.com/@thedescriptivebaker?si=BT8DgGcWYDXx4Hz1I truly hope that you enjoy listening as much as I have enjoyed creating. Peace and love kids. mario

Hey Nerds.On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Alex, one of our players from the Greater Vancouver area. Alex is a Warmachine veteran that has been part of the community for a long time, as a player, an organizer and a Podcaster. We chat a little about some of the armies Alex has experience with and some of his perspectives. We cover the Cascadia invitational event that took place last month, the culmination of 9 months of qualifying events this year. Alex ended up winning the event with Infernals this year and we discuss his strategies and games in the event. All hail Alexander Lee Franz Melanson, High Lord Mucky Muck, Grand Warmachine Poobah of the Cascade Mountain Range for 2024. Cheers kids. I hope you enjoy.

Hey Nerds.This recording is a less traditional Shop Talk episode that I did with Dan from Tried and True. It's an extension of a discord discussion we felt would function better over voice. We chat primarily about Steamroller 2024 and our thoughts and opinions about the upcomming document. Its a little rambly and a lot tangential, but I had fun making it with my internet pal. Just a couple nerds with unabashed opinions. Hurray!Cheers kids.

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Loren who is the organized play and playtest manager for Privateer Press. Since Loren is local to our wider meta here in the Pacific Northwest, it was a natural fit. We chat primarily about the steamroller 2024 preview that was shared on the community hub at Warfaire Weekend, and go over some of the goals, and changes to steamroller moving into the future. We discuss terrain and objectives, and I ask some more abstract questions about how the document is going to address some of the big issues in event play right now and moving into the new year. I was extremely pleased with this discussion and am excited to play more of the new steamroller.I hope you enjoy.

Hey Nerds.On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Cory, one of the team members for Canada at the World Team Championships.We chat about the lead up, travel, and give a round by round replay of the event in Copenhagen this past fall from the perspective of our hometown hero. We end of with some plans and aspirations for next year. If you are interested in helping or pursuing team Canada's WTC team for 2024 in Duesseldorf, please get in contact with us. We want to chat! Cheers friends, I hope you enjoy.

Hey Nerds.On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Patrick, who lives in the far off land of Halifax, on the eastern coast of Canada. Patrick was an active miniature wargamer in Vancouver for many years until he moved back east a few years ago. We chat about wargaming in a remote but commercial city, balancing family and wardollies, and cover legacy legion and a bit of Kymera (khymera? Chimera? Whatever). This was a fun interview to do. Patrick and I have a lot of similarities when it comes to interacting with warmachine, and I think we had good podcast chemistry. Cheers ad I hope you enjoy.

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Luke, who has gone from returning casual to practiced competitor in just a few short months. Luke has attended most of the events we have been holding out here and has made practice and participation a priority. We chat about directed practice and his perspectives on using events to incrementally see success. Wish him luck in his attempt to hold onto his spot in the Cascadia Championship Series after working all year yo gather the points necessary to qualify. Cheers everyone.

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 cover the St. Lawrence open, a recent mini con in Montreal, as well as a host of other topics, from language barrier to list discussion. This was a super fun one to record, and I'm excited to keep bringing more people from across the country onto the airwaves. Thanks everyone and I hope you enjoy.

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 prep going on for the event in Copenhagen this fall.  As one of the most experienced and well spoken Warmachine players in the country, I hope you enjoy listenin  to this conversation as much as I enjoyed recording it.

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 Vancouver as well as a bit about the history of Warmachine in the area. We discuss some of the challenges and successes Warmachine has had from a retailers perspective and meander into how the community has evolved over the years. Disclaimer: Quite a bit of the discussion is about the primary source of income for The Connection; Magic the Gathering. But mostly because it's the reason we have gaming space at all. We meander into chatting about my favorite game eventually. I've been looking forward to this discussion for some time and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I hope you enjoy.

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 the Warmachine app. We discuss the best and the worst and our favorites and talk about a whole mess of things. This was a good chat and I enjoyed it very much.

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 discovering,  learning and practicing. It's a pretty relaxed and open discussion and I really enjoyed it. I hope you do too.

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. We chat a little about this and the specifics of how mark 4 and Wartable have impacted us over the last few years. I think a lot of the topics we cover will resonate with other players out there. Cheers friends.

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 community over the past few years. This was a really constructive and deep discussion that I was very proud of. I hope you find it enjoyable. Cheers kids.

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 dissecting them, I thought it was interesting enough to post.Next time we will try a smaller group, but it was cool to include as many people as we did. Enjoy!

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 Championships, and I got to meet him for the first time a few weeks ago. We chat a little about his experiences, but the majority of the discussion is about the demo day he ran last weekend for a mix of new and returning players. It was a pretty involved project with lots of good tips from an old pro. I hope you enjoy!

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 offer. Cheers and I hope you enjoy!

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 Oregon. Players will score points in qualifying events and at the end of the year the player's with the most points will be invited to play in a 8 person steamroller. We chat about Shawn's experience with the new Winter Korps army and some of the things he learned at our event last weekend. We talk a bit about 75 vs 100 points and share some opinions about the WTC moving to a 100 point event from the perspective of someone who is likely to attend. This was an excellent interview that I think will prove interesting. Cheers everyone!

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 tricks and strategies to take advantage of their powerful pieces. As one of the former Canadian WTC players in the area, Aaron brings a wealth of high level experience to the table. I really enjoy listening to him, and I hope you do too.