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A wargaming Podcast covering that modern day rarity, The Big Game. No 10 figures a side on a 3ft square table here old chap. All scales, all periods, so long as its BIG. You know what they say ”Go Big or Go Home” We, my friends have gone Big ! Each episode will look at a different aspect of the Big Wargame and do a little bit to bring them back into fashion. Is it a coincidence that Warlord games bring an Epic scale box set out just after this podcast went to air ! I don’t think so, so get on board the Big Game Train and let’s ride it down a 30 foot table. Regards Ken The Yarkshire Gamer
Episodes
Friday Dec 02, 2022
Friday Dec 02, 2022
Welcome to Episode 34 of The Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast and hopefully the first of 3 December 2022 Episodes.
Today I am talking about the ultimate Napoleonic Wargame, Leipzig. Somewhat overshadowed in the UK by Waterloo but the numbers of troops and casualties are eye-watering and subsequently the number of figures needed to play this game are like wise not for the faint hearted.
But before we get into the Big Topic I chat with my guest Rohan Saravanamuttu about his wargaming history, his thoughts on Big Battles and of course he takes part in the Yarkshire Gamer Quiz.
In addition to the Quiz, there's a great wargame pet hate locked away in Wargames Room 101 and a new Desert Island Wargame feature.
We then move onto refighting Leipzig and Rohans new book published via Helion called Leipzig The Battle of the Nations - A Wargaming Guide and take a deep dive into his process for writing the book, his choice of contents and of course the contents.
The book can be bought directly from Helion on the link below
If you fancy seeing more of the book I did a flickthrough review on my Utubes Channel
Next episode will feature the wonderful Henry Hyde who is relatively new to the hobby 😆 so I'm sure you'll give him a Reet Big Yarkshire welcome. That should be out in 10 days to a couple of weeks.
So until then Sithee
Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Friday Nov 18, 2022
Friday Nov 18, 2022
Welcome to Episode 33 and the 3rd of our Catch Up Episodes.
A different format to usual for the new listener, today I've dipped into my previous guests and picked out 3 for a bit of a chat to see what they have been upto since we last talked.
First up from Episode 22 is Simon Miller. We had to cut the last interview short (well after 2 hours 😀) and we never got to hear about his wavy bases !
We talk about Simons current Projects and his plans for the future before he drops the bomb shell on me that he has co written a book on the Italian Wars, he kept that quiet.
Simons Big Red Bat Shop is here
Whilst the book can be bought from Helion here
My next guest Richard Harris goes way back to Episode 2 of the Podcast and he is one of the owners of Legendary Wargames, we chat about plans for the coming year as well as the forthcoming release of "Grand Skeedadle" a Peter Gilder inspired set of ACW rules. Enjoy it as me and Richard fail to take 1813 from 2014 😆
information and bookings for Legendary Wargames can be done here
https://legendarywargames.com/
And then up last to bat is good friend of the show, Nick Skinner from the Toofatlardies who was last seen in Episode 7. Nick has been a busy boy since we last spoke. We chat about his numerous visits to the continent, the goings on at Lard Island as well as a bonus entry into Wargames Room 101.
Toofatlardies goodies are available here
It's a long one but with three great guests 2 and a half hours will fly by.
My next guest will be Rohan Saravanamuttu who has just published a Wargamers guide to the ultimate Napoleonic Battle, Leipzig, hopefully out in a fortnight.
Until then, Sithee
Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Saturday Nov 05, 2022
Saturday Nov 05, 2022
Here is my 32nd attempt at getting a Podcast right !
Today my guest is another old friend and fellow Big Gamer, Chris Flowers. Last week I got on my bike and went to speak with him face to face in his wonderful wargames room.
Chris grew up in a military family and stand by for a couple of awesome name drops at the start of the show.
Chris has been putting on large display games on the UK Wargames Show Circuit since the early 1980s. Beginning with the S.O.D.S group he was part of an amazing series of exclusively Napoleonic Games which were truly In the Grand Manner and a regular highlight at many of the events I attended.
Chris moved on to putting games on under his own name, then with the Bramley Barn Group and more recently with Legendary Wargames (see Episode 2 of this Podcast), he has diversified from solely doing Napoleonics to covering 1950s Cold War, Ancients and ACW at shows but his true love I think will always be games like Eylau and Waterloo.
All the regular features are here including a new Desert Island Wargame Section so sit back with a good brew and enjoy.
Chris doesn't have a website etc so there is no link this episode, you'll just have to go and see him at a show.
Next episode will be a Catch Up so lets see who, from my previous guests answers the phone when I call.
Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Friday Oct 07, 2022
Friday Oct 07, 2022
Welcome to the 31st Episode of The Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast and today my guest is Giles Allison.
Giles had a big influence on my American War of Independence collection as I was building it up through his excellent blog Tarleton's Quarter, that influence was felt by many others and I would rank Giles blog as one of the best out there. Full of information and inspiration for the AWI and many other periods, all available for free at the click of a button.
The show is in the usual 4 part format and as well as talking about wargaming we tackle heady topics like, is Avocado a Vegetable or a Fruit as well as the exact location of the North / South Avocado - Mushy Peas Line.
Hopefully the show has persuaded Giles to go back and keep adding to his blog and complete his AWI Collection. The blog can be found on the link below
Tarleton's Quarter (gilesallison.blogspot.com)
Hopefully I will be back in a couple of weeks chatting to an old friend and reet proper Big Gamer Chris Flowers.
Until then, Sithee
Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Friday Sep 02, 2022
Friday Sep 02, 2022
It's been a month or so since the last episode so it's great to be back with another Big Game Chat.
This time we are off to Perth, Australia to talk with Carlo Pagano about wargaming in general and his reconstitution of Peter Gilders Sands of Sudan Rules.
As usual we had disappeared down a rabbit hole within 15 minutes of the start but I'm sure you all tune into wargames Podcasts to discover the difference between Crown and Flat Green Bowling anyway !
It's back to the usual 4 part format, we learn about Carlos' wargaming history and his love of Big Games. Whilst the Quiz reveals yet more food choices from your Local Fish and Chip Shop as well as what pet hate has been banished into Wargames Room 101.
The Big Topic is all about Colonial Wargaming, something we haven't covered before on the show so there is a good chat about that before we move onto the Sands of Sudan Rules.
Carlo has managed to piece together the rules from old scraps of paper left at the Wargames Holiday Centre and information provided by former players. The rules have never been formally published as they were used as a bit of a palette cleanser between Big Napoleonic or ACW games during the Wargaming Weeks that Peter used to run.
Carlo has his website at
https://withpyjamasthroughthedessert.blogspot.com/
The rules can be obtained in the UK from Caliver Books
https://www.caliverbooks.com/bookview.php?ohv1los7ubv6b8hvnp80l19ea7&id=27069
And directly from Carlo in Australia.
it's great to be back on air and I've got guests booked in now till Xmas and pencilled in until Feb 2023, having too many guests is a nice problem to have.
My next guest is Painter and Author Mark Hides, a Yorkshire Lad, Tune in, in a couple of weeks time as we find out more about life as a Professional Figure Painter.
Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Friday Jul 22, 2022
Friday Jul 22, 2022
Its only been a week I know and you are either eagerly awaiting the second part of Brews in the Bin Yard Summer Special or still recovering from the first one.
Either way its here and in this part of the show we answer questions from different members of Yarkshire Gamer, Gods Own Scale and Storm of Steel audiences and try and keep you entertained. If you don't enjoy the first 30 seconds of the interview then its going to be a long two hours !
As always my guests for Brews, I say guests but they are more part of the furniture now, are
Sean Clark of Gods Own Scale Podcast
https://godsownscale6mm.podbean.com/
and Alex Sotheran of Storm of Steel Utubes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNUYwNznn-ZuNMoHoF3urwQ
Next episode we will return to the normal format and I hope to be speaking to my first guest for a while from Australia, Carlo Pagano and the story of him bringing back to life Peter Gilders Sands of Sudan Rules.
Until then, Sithee
Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Friday Jul 15, 2022
Friday Jul 15, 2022
Welcome to the Podcast within a Podcast, the irrelevant chat of three middle aged men who are old enough to know better.
In between mentions of 80s TV detective Eddie Shoestring, Avocado Bathroom Suites, the sad demise of Bob Point and of course Sean tells us more tales from his deep in depth knowledge of the Mexican Revolution, there is on occasion some wargames chat.
But if your looking for some informative discussion on your early medieval army list options for your next competition then much, much more serious podcasts are available.
We catch up on what the boys are doing with their channels before we take a deep dive into the Wargames Room 101 entries of my previous guests and see if any of them can be rescued from the Vault.
With nearly 4 hours of material recorded I decided once again to split this episode in half, with the second part released next week. So if you put a question forward it will be answered in the next episode.
WARNING - This episode contains some bouts of mild cursing, all references to that lot over the hill have been removed in editing.
My guests are of course Sean Clark of Gods Own Scale
https://godsownscale6mm.podbean.com/
And Alex Sotheran of Storm of Steel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNUYwNznn-ZuNMoHoF3urwQ
Until next week, Sithee
Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Friday Jun 24, 2022
Friday Jun 24, 2022
If you have recovered from the first part (Episode 26 Crack on Lad) then its time to conclude my marathon chat with Martin and Ste from The Plastic Crack Podcast.
This is the normal final section on the show and we chat with the guys about their own Utubes channels, their accidental arrival on the show and how they are still technically squatting !
We discuss the musical merits of Jazz as a background to videos and the typical Wargamers timeline going from Project to Collection to Obsession and finally Divorce.
Its a one hit show without the normal breaks so if your of a certain age you might want to visit the loo first before pressing play.
Thanks again to my guests, Martin from 7th Son
and Ste from On Point HQ
The next episode will hopefully be a Brews in the Binyard Summer Special, stay tuned !
Until then, Sithee
Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Friday Jun 17, 2022
Friday Jun 17, 2022
Its time to meet the other half of the Plastic Crack Podcast Crew, you heard the story of Dom and Ken in Episode 20 so now its time to hear the truth from Martin and Ste !
It was a monster of a recording tipping in at nearly 4 hours, so rather than cut it down I've split it into two episodes so this one covers the usual Intro, Quiz and Room 101 sections, tune in next week for the main topic, PCP and Crackcon.
It wouldn't be a Reet Big Wargames Podcast without the odd diversion and this week we treat you to the wonders of Serial Killer Top Trumps and the northern culinary delight that is "Pea Wet".
Martin runs the highly successful You Tube Channel 7th Son, covering lots of different periods but probably best known for his Wars of the Roses features, you can find his channel here,
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgF5_KhcgdvNiRcrI0ZSJCg
Ste is the owner of the On Point HQ Channel, he is well known for his Bolt Action 28mm armies as well as the weirdness that is Turnip 28 !
https://www.youtube.com/c/OnPointHQ
Hope you enjoy this half of the episode and we will be back next Friday for the second half, in the meantime to save you Googling it, heres a link to the Top Trumps
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Notorious-Serial-Killers-Quartett-Spiel-ber%C3%BCchtigsten/dp/B076WLNRW3
Until then, Sithee
Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Friday May 27, 2022
Friday May 27, 2022
25 episodes done ! and for this, Yarkshire Gamers Silver Jubilee I have gone back into the mists of time.
My guest Stephen Barker is not only a Historian, Author and Battlefield Guide he is one of my oldest Wargaming friends. So if you want to hear a couple of old chums, being all misty eyed, talking about their Big Game origins, this is the episode for you.
Stephen has been away from Wargaming for quite some time now and it was interesting to chat with him about his observations on the hobby after a lengthy gap and how he is enjoying his rebirth into the hobby. We had met up at the Partizan Show (May 2022) the day before our recording and that influenced the conversation and was a good reference point for our chat about the state of the hobby today.
We come back to earth with the Yarkshire Gamer Quiz and Wargames Room 101, listen as another pet hate is banished to the Wargames Tip !
The usual Big Topic Chat at the end of the show covers a number of topics. Stephen runs a number of Battlefield Tours around the Oxford area featuring the English Civil War and The Great War covering both general histories and Battlefield Tours of Edgehill, Naseby and Cropredy Bridge. Walking these hallowed fields is a topic we haven't covered before on this Podcast so it was great to get an insight behind the scenes.
Stephen has also brought out a couple of books, his first a history of the 8th East Lancs Battalion brings to life on of those short lived units of the 1st World War.
Then finally after a couple of hours of chat we get to the title of the episode. The Flying Sikh is the title of my guests new book which has just been released. It tells the fascinating story of the only Sikh airman to fly with the RAF/RFC during the First World War. We discuss the origins of the book and get some tasters of this unique story. The book is published by Pen and Sword and can be purchased via the link below,
Pen and Sword Books: The Flying Sikh - Hardback (pen-and-sword.co.uk)
I hope you enjoy my chat with Stephen, it explains a lot about my own Big Game obsession. I plan to be back in a couple of weeks time with the other half of the Plastic Crack Pod Cast, Martin (7th Son) and Ste (On Point HQ) will be my guests.
Until then, Sithee
Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer