Shop Talk: The Cross-section of a Meta

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