Advertise on podcast: Shop Talk: The Cross-section of a Meta

Hey Nerds.On this episode of Shop Talk, I sit down with local Warmachine player and YouTube creator Andrei. Andrei runs the Knowledge of the Damned YouTube Video Battle report series. After a very long hiatus we are happy to be back this time chatting about growth and boxology; framing techniques to help digest how to assess and digest games in the pursuit of getting better. We discuss examples and try to give our perspective on good post game discussion without overloading yourself and your opponents. I'm happy to be back chatting from a Pacific Northwest perspective. Thanks to everyone for joining us on this one. mario

Hey Nerds.On this episode of Shop Talk, I sit down with Travis and Seth, two of the most accomplished Warmachine event organizers in North America. Travis is from the Mid West and Seth from the East coast so it felt like we had representation from across the continent which felt super cool.We chat about running great Warmachine Steamroller events. We swap stories and advice and give some good tips to potential new organizers. We also go over the Steamroller 2025 packet as a year in review and discuss some of our thoughts about the scenarios from a judge perspective.I am extremely pleased with this discussion. These are two wonderful people that I have chatted with and asked many questions of in the past and it was so great to finally gather them both and chat about something we are all passionate about. This is the 10th offering from me in 2025. I got this one in under the wire. I am extremely proud of what we have made this year. Best wishes for 2026 folks.

Hey Nerds.On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Luke who was the Captain of team Canada Frederick Banting at the World Team Championships 2025 in Ronneby Sweden. We've followed Luke's progress as a developing player over the years and I'm very pleased to have had the opportunity to recount his team's WTC experience this year. We chat about the team selection, travel out to Europe and go through Team Frederick Banting's progression through the event. At the end we share some thoughts about specific practices and some take aways from a team that improved greatly in its second year.Congratulations to all of our players on a successful year. Here is to 2026 in Poland. Thanks again for listening folks.

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Warmachine YouTuber Ice King who has been a fellow dusk player and hobby enthusiast that I've shared some conversations with as of late. We chat about a wide variety of things mainly focused around balancing hobby time, competitive practice and the burn out cycle that can come with deep investment in a hobby. We cover painting philosophy, army painting vs model painting and share some perspectives. I'm very happy to have got one of our chats recorded. Check out Taylor's work on YouTube. https://youtube.com/@theice_king?si=_xsaB41BHwBxbcSJ

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Patrick, an old friend who lives on the opposite side of the country. I took this opportunity to catch up with him and what is going on in the small but very active Atlantic Canada meta. We end up chatting a bunch about Shadowflame and looking back at where we left the discussion a year ago. Patrick attended a team event in Ottawa a few weeks ago and we chat about match ups, games and the overall experience with Canada's first cross country event of Mark IV.Cheers folks. We are looking forward to promoting more Canadian events and travel.

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk, I sit down with Lars the creator of Wartable. Wartable is a wargaming simulator website that has become popular to play Warmachine online. We chat about the birth of Wartable and the popularity it gained during the pandemic and beyond for online play as well as the community it has spawned over the last few years. We chat about dice, randomness and measurements. We discuss some of the pros and cons of online play as well as some of the very cool concepts and ideas that have come out of Wartable.I really enjoyed thos conversation and this opportunity. Im am excited to share this with all of you. Best.mario

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Alex Kosma who is a fellow West Coast community member, Podcaster and accomplished competitive player. Alex was a host of the Dominate for Two podcast and has represented the USA in several WTCs. We warm up chatting a bit about Brinebloods and discuss their position in the 2025 metagame. Alex took Brinebloods to WTC 2024 and has some thoughts to share about the evolution of the army in the last year or so. The bulk of the episode is a discussion about the history of knowledge transfer in Warmachine and how it interacts with player development. We discuss how this phenomenon has ebbed and flowed through the various editions and postulate on how media and travel interact with the speed and intensity of knowledge growth. We chat about the state of knowledge sharing and the fate of preserved and renewed knowledge in the community and get excited for the media Renaissance we believe we are experiencing right now. This was a deep and fulfilling discussio. I truly feel what we were able to capture was an idea that really needed to be recorded and put out for people to experience especiallynow in this toime and space. I am really proud of this podcast and I hope you all enjoy it too. Cheersmario

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Tom and Peter, two pillars of the community, to chat a little about 3D printing as it pertains to Warmachine. We chat about the updates to the subscription for the Warmachin app as well as the new My Mini Factory subscription, announced during the keynote address at Adepticon. We discuss our thoughts about this new direction, and break down how we think this is going to impact SFG and the hobby community. We move into a discussion about terrain at the WTC as both my guests are on the administrative team for this year's event. This was a really fun chat with some seasoned podcasters. Check out these folks on social media if you have more questions. Links below. They are super awesome people. Cheers and happy printing. Tom Wiggins Video on 3D printers:https://youtu.be/crRJM-QoRVo?si=kRdLC6nipgOHmunIEuromachine Cephalix Cadre Speed Painting:https://youtube.com/@theeuromachinepodcast?si=EMRLXwCv_oTXPfKa

Hey Nerds.On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Will who is a BC local from Kelowna BC. Will has been a long time Warmachine player helping his local group return to the game over the last year or so. We turned on the paint cams for this one and recorded live. We chat about returning to Warmachine, converting and painting Will's "underwater Khymera", being a dad and playing Warmachine and a host of other topics. I had a lot of fun making this one. Apologies for the audio. I am still working out the voice filters on OBS. The youtube video can be found here:https://www.youtube.com/live/jy1X6EZkuoE?si=qJRIAZnFbaGRW24a

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Tyson who is a long time community leader from northern California. He is the head organizer for Warmachine at the Las Vegas Open and the engineer behind some of the most iconic tables in the history of the game. We chat about the history of community in the area and the birth of LVO as well as the philosophy and execution behind the tables and terrain that people have fallen in love with at the con. Check out his new endeavor with 3D printed terrain at Terrainiacs https://www.facebook.com/share/15uUkWHd25/?mibextid=qi2Omg.

Hey Nerds. Welcome to Season 2. Same great show, different inspiration. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down Cory, who attended and happened to win in the finals of the Warmachin event at the Las Vegas Open Sunday January 19th 2025 playing Khador 5th Division of all things. We chat about lists and lead up before we go through his games. We chat a little about the January update and looking forward to Steamroller 2025. It's always a good time when Cory is on the mics. If you haven't checked out LVO I highly recommend it. Look forward to more coverage soon. Best. mario

Hey Nerds. On this special bonus episode of Shop Talk I sit down with Joseph from Tyrants on the Field to digest and discuss Steamroller in the year 2024 in anticipation of the new packet dropping shortly. Joe is one of the other content creators that I have met through doing paint and chat hangouts on discord. He and I have very similar ways of seeing and discussing the game and I really wanted to get some of the topics we have been discussing into a recording. We chat about many of the successes and failures of Steamroller 2024 and dive pretty deeply into opinions and speculation. I had a lot of fun with this one. I will see you all in the new year. Peace and love kids.

Hey Nerds. On this very special collaboration project, I sit down with some of the other Podcasters and media people of the Warmachine world to discuss a few topics surrounding the game and where we are at as a community. This state of the game broadcast was a very fun project to be a part of. You may recognize a few of the people involved as most of them are actively talking and engaging with the community.  We discuss community growth, Steamroller generally as it pertains to this new 2024 format, and go over some constructive criticisms for narrative play, the barrier to entry and share some ideas for running events. I was honored to be part of this Clash of the Casts endeavor. I hope you find some value in what we had to say. Peace and love kids.

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I sit down with David, Luke, Bryan and Andrei to discuss our experience playing in the North American Wartable League last month. This particular 4 week league was held as a WTC style 5 person Team event. We discuss the team formation, lead up and describe our games round by round. We had a phenomenal time discussing all kinds of topics as a team, sharing our knowledge and rooting for each other. This team has truly been a beautiful experience and I had hoped to share a little bit of that with all of you.

Hey Nerds. On this episode of Shop Talk I put together some of the shorter WTC wrap up interviews I did with the remaining members of team Canada. I chat with Alex, Luke and Steven about their experiences in Duesseldorf. We discuss their trips, their lists, do a few game recaps and then finish with some overall event thoughts. Hopefully these stories will inspire next year's potential team members and share some cool stories with our international friends. Cheers everyone ad thank you for your support.