Brushes & Bayonets Podcast

After a school related hiatus, Josh and Edward tackle a passion project of theirs - balancing historical battles via different types of win conditions. They talk about taking historical battles from periods like WWII, Napoleonic, Pike & Shot, and Ancients that were lopsided for one side and how to turning them into fun games. 

It is Edward and Josh's pleasure to interview Mark Backhouse, a pillar of the wargaming community about his article writing for Wargames Soldiers & Strategy, his philosophy on game design, and thoughts on smaller scale miniatures. 

Edward and Josh are ecstatic to be joined by Chris McDowall, RPG & Wargame designer to talk about his new game MAC Attack along with the intersection of playing and designing both wargames and RPGs. We discuss how GMs have made their way into wargames, designing for theme or mechanics first, and where to interject chance vs resource management into games. 

Josh and Edward recorded this episode a bit later than usual... as Edward was traveling to see the Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields. Today on the show, the hosts discuss how terrain matters to wargames, a bit about how the travel experience influenced Edward's thoughts on grand tactical battles, and some techniques for setting up terrain for both historical an ahistorical battles. 

On today's episode, Josh and Edward dive into the topic of "Bathtubbing," or when a scenario designer changes the scale of a historical wargame to fit the battle they wish to portray. Your hosts discuss when bathtubbing works well, when it should be avoided, and a different way to think about the wargames rules on your shelf.