Little Wars FM

Our classic "15 Questions" interview format returns with game designer James Morris, the author of Midgard Heroic Battles (2024). You saw us play this game in the recent Battle of Bosworth episode, but we've been enjoying Midgard here in the club for about a year now. In this interview, James talks about his design influences, the biggest challenges writing the game, and whether he considers Midgard's roots to be more historical or fantasy-based. Of course, we also peer ahead into the future to find out what's coming next!

It's a wide ranging, hour-long chat and we want to thank James for joining us! If you want to learn more about Midgard, you should join the official Facebook Group or go directly to the author's blog, Mogsymakes. James is extremely active and offers exceptional ongoing support. To pick up a copy, visit Too Fat Lardies for PDF or print editions.

Today on Little Wars FM, Greg interviews Dr. Prit Buttar to learn about the critical period of late November through December 1942. Dr. Buttar is a prolific historian with many published books, but today's conversation focuses on his 2018 book "On a Knife's Edge," which details the fall of Stalingrad and the failed relief effort to save Paulus's 6th Army. Should Paulus have initiated a breakout? Was a breakout even logistically possible? Is Manstein's legend overhyped in the context of Operation Winter Storm? And what about Zhukov's role...in his own memoirs did he steal the spotlight from other Red Army commanders? Why did Operation Winter Storm make such excellent progress on its first day before grinding to a halt in the ensuing week? Could Hitler have authorized the release of more divisions? Those questions are just the beginning of a fascinating, two-hour talk.

You can read Dr. Buttar's book, "On a Knife's Edge" and get a copy directly from the publisher, Osprey. Also, you can learn more about his work on his personal website. We want to thank Prit Buttar for being so generous with his time and chatting with Little Wars TV for our Winter Storm campaign series on YouTube!

Little Wars FM returns with two new guests--Adam and Dave of the Thomas Hill Wargame Club. If the name sounds familiar, it may be because you've seen their award-winning games at Historicon. Or, it may be because you watched their award-winning Quick Strike AAR, "Rommel v. Tolkien!" These guys took home our overall Best AAR prize in the recently-concluded 2025 challenge. In this conversation, they pull back the curtain on how they researched and constructed this incredible custom 28mm tabletop, how they learned to edit their first wargame video, and whether they'll ever do a second. How long did it take to learn and edit a Quick Strike, anyway? You'll find out!

We also talk about the origin of their gaming group, how it's grown, and their best advice for sustaining a club for nearly 40 years. That's right--these guys have been gaming together for the better part of 40 years! What's the secret to that kind of longevity?

Finally, speaking of secrets...what wildly ambitious 28mm project are they working on right now? They claim we'll all get to see it at Historicon 2027, so stay tuned. If you want to follow the club on their Instagram page, you'll find them right here!

If you listened to our podcast conversation with legendary game designer Rick Priestley, you heard him suggest the reason Warmaster failed to take off may have been because the retail staff weren't interested in promoting it. Today Greg accepts Rick's challenge and tracks down someone with experience working for Games Workshop. "North" (as he's known on YouTube) has a channel discussing all things Games Workshop with the benefit of years working for them at the retail level in the UK. In a recent video on his own channel, North reflected on the consequences of GW abandoning Specialist Games and getting away from its roots as a design studio. You know...a workshop that made new games. It's a fun watch and directly related to our discussion about Warmaster--one of the many games killed when GW put Specialist Games out to pasture.

In today's podcast, we talk to Northern Exile about Warmaster, about what it's like to work for the largest wargame company in the world, and how that company continues to evolve. We even discover a dirty little secret at the end. North is a historical wargamer! Thanks again to North for participating and speaking so openly and freely. If you enjoy that kind of talk, check out his channel, Northern Exile.

Games Workshop released Warmaster in 2000 as its first epic scale, mass battle game set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe. But did you know Warmaster was supposed to be released two years earlier? Or that the inspiration for Warmaster's iconic command and control system came from a trip Rick Priestley took to Gettysburg battlefield? Today on Little Wars FM podcast, Greg connects with the author and creator of Warmaster, Mr. Rick Priestley himself, to learn about the origins of the game and pry for insider information about what happened to it. Why did Games Workshop delay the game, deny it a big starter box release, and then fail to fully embrace the concept? What about the short-lived Battle of the Five Armies boxed set that used the Warmaster rules years later?

In upcoming podcasts and interviews we'll talk to members of the Warmaster community today, over a decade after Games Workshop abandoned the game. A thriving fanbase of players still enjoys Warmaster and a free, updated version of the rules is available for download. We'll be exploring all of this and much more. Our thanks to Rick for generously taking so much of his time to join us for this chat!