Episode 39 - Martyn Kelly - Big Gaming in the USA

Welcome back everyone, it's been nearly 2 months since the last episode, doing 5 in December was like setting a flamethrower to both ends of the candle and I had burnt myself out.

But after a good rest and concentrating on my hobby projects for a while I'm back and ready to go again. I've got the next 8 episodes planned with some great guests, I have Manufacturers, Painters, Authors, Big Gamers, Hobby Legends and the like to bring to you, I also hope to bring episodes from countries we haven't visited before and get the low down from fellow wargamers around the world.

In addition to that I have a tester episode with a non wargaming Historian which will follow an obviously different format, but if it works its something I plan to do in the future if it works out well.

But that's the future, it's time to introduce my guest, I first became aware of Martyn Kelly from his Facebook posts regarding some huge participation games he has put on at Conventions in the US. He's done some brilliant Italian Wars games featuring a 196 figure Pike Block which in my opinion really represents the 9,500 men who were actually in that block, much better than 24 figures for sure.

I love talking from Gamers outside the UK and getting there perspective on a hobby we all love in so many different ways. All the usual features are here, Big Game Chat, Quiz, Wargame Room 101, Desert Island Wargame and the usual chat in between.

I talk to Martyn in the Big Topic about the set up of Conventions in the US, how they are organised and what a visitor expects to see. We then move on to talk about what visitors expect from a Big Game at a convention and the differences between putting such a game on between one with friends and one with total strangers at an event.

Its then a deep dive into how my guest goes from that first germ of an idea through to actually playing the game at a show. Trust me its a lot of work and guys like Martyn go a long way to make these events what they are, so if you haven't say thank you to your game organiser.

It wouldn't be Yarkshire Gamer with a bit of Italian Wars Chat (now apparently an extension of the Wars of the Roses ;-) and we start the Pavia Challenge live on the show. Martyn has gone for 1:25 scale so I've gone 1:24 !

It was a great chat and the fact that I thought that we had only done an hour and a half when we had done two and a half shows that the phrase "time flies when your enjoying yourself" is true.

Keep up to date with what Martyn is doing next as well as a wealth of information about his previous projects on his blog, College of Kings.

College of Kings - Posts about my miniature armies.

Thanks for listening and welcome back to the show, don't forget to subscribe, like and leave a review wherever you listen to this. Not much in life costs nowt, but this Podcast does so give us a like.

My next episode will be out in a fortnight and I'll be speaking with Steve Shann. I've known Steve for a long time and you will be familiar with the name if you've listened to previous episodes. Steve has a number of publications to his name covering diverse topics like WW2, Leipzig and The Franco Prussian War. On top of that Steve does a spot of painting so get ready for 2 hours on the correct shade of blue for French Uniforms !

Until next time, Sithee

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer