Grown Men Playing with Toys

Send us Fan Mail

The Space Marine codex is here and Erik is more excited than he's been about anything not named Emperor's Children. With Cousin Josh along for the ride, the guys dig into how swapping Oath of Moment for combat doctrines changes the way Erik builds and plays his Space Marines' lists, as well as what he is worried that his opponent will do to counter those lists.

Along the way they cover:

• Tops down list building — Erik walks through how he starts list building with a play style and win condition in mind and then how he chooses detachments, Force Dispositions, and units to align to that macro strategy
• Goodbye Oath, hello Doctrines — why trading a point-and-click mechanic for turn-by-turn doctrine increases army flexibility but risks decision overload, and how Erik builds his lists to avoid it
• Elite and expensive — why Space Marine lists keep drifting toward a handful of Death Stars and why your favorite models might not make the cut anymore
• Sample list 1: Ironstorm — Erik walks through his Assault Brethren, Ironstorm Spearhead, and Gauntlet Task Force list and the guys debate two ways to beat it: a recon scoring machine that dances around it or a stat check that meets it head-on
• Sample list 2: Stormlance — Erik's all-gas, no-brakes melee build, and why without Oath of Moment, a well-placed screen or minus one to hit can bounce his big Assault Doctrine turn
• Ideas on how to beat them — Erik shares the matchups that worry him most and Steve closes with his key to facing Space Marines: pick your tactic and commit with confidence

Whether you're here for the list-building or just want to hear Steve get tricked into admitting he enjoyed a Space Marines episode, this one's for you.

📖 Read Erik's battle reports at gmpwt.blog
📺 Watch on YouTube at @GrownMenPlayingWithToys

Send us Fan Mail

Erik opens with a feeling of the day that turns Steve's stomach. With the Orks codex out, Space Marines days away, Custodes about to be on preorder, and balance updates coming fast, 11th Edition feels like the top of a rollercoaster's first hill. The guys dig into why 15-detachment codexes and rapid balancing can cause analysis paralysis and how to get your footing back, both as the player and as the opponent across the table.

Along the way they cover:

• The Ork paralysis problem — Erik explains why he hasn't put the new Orks codex on the table despite it dominating the meta and why he expects whatever list he builds to get nerfed this week
• The identity crisis — Steve argues that Orks have too many viable identities, which sparks a light-bulb moment for Erik: his favorite ways to play Orks are the weakest options in the new book
• Calling your shot on hobby — why Erik stopped letting list-building drive his hobby backlog and how he's picking a play style (melee, Terminators, Rhinos) to paint toward before the Space Marine codex lands
• The shape-shifting list — Steve lays out his 11th Edition mission: a take-all-comers list that can change its strategy mid-game, which earns high praise from Erik
• Snowflaking for advantage — the guys discuss why 11th may reward lists your opponents have never seen before and how to use the complexity of 11th responsibly

Whether you're here for the list-building theory or just want to hear Steve get dragged onto a rollercoaster he hates, this one's for you.

📖 Read Erik's battle reports at gmpwt.blog
📺 Watch on YouTube at @GrownMenPlayingWithToys

Send us Fan Mail

Cousin Josh joins Erik and Steve for a full hobby episode on the painting side of 40K. Erik sits at the assembly-line extreme, Steve at the masterpiece extreme, and Josh in the middle, where the guys hypothesize that most of the community lives. Walking through their process step by step, they find that how you paint depends less on skill than on what you think the point of the hobby is.

Along the way they cover:

• Michelangelo vs. the assembly line: Erik frames the three approaches, with Steve painting his Sistine Chapel, Erik cranking out the Model T, and Josh somewhere in between
• Five stages of painting: Steve's framework of prep, base coating, layering and detail, washes and effects, and finishing touches, with each host explaining what they do and what they skip entirely
• Painting to play: Erik never buys a model until it's in a list, gets his kids to assemble for a couple of bucks, and leans on contrast paints and shades to get a battle-worn look that gets his models to the table quickly
• Chore or passion?: Josh calls painting a chore, Erik throws the challenge flag, and Josh explains how leaving models off their bases keeps him from rushing to play with them
• Precision and prep: Steve makes the case for sanding mold lines, airbrushed base coats, zenithal priming from one direction for coherency, and dry brushing with his wife's old makeup brush
• Tools, tips and no wrong way: The hosts debate super glue vs. plastic glue and how to varnish. Steve makes his pitch for a couple of good brushes and all three land on "find what you enjoy."

Whether you're here for the painting tips or just want to hear Steve wince at Erik's paintbrushes, this one's for you.

Blog: https://gmpwt.blog
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@grownmenplayingwithtoys

Send us Fan Mail

Cousin Josh joins Erik and Steve again as they break down a game between Erik and his oldest son that turns into a masterclass on underdog strategy. Erik's son, fully back into 11th Edition, decides he can't beat his dad's Custodes in a straight fight, so he doesn't try. Instead, he turns the game into a race to 100 points, trades units for board position instead of value, and nearly pulls off the upset. The guys turn it into a full discussion of playing as the underdog versus the overdog and how knowing which one you are should change your win condition.

Along the way they cover:

• The boat race strategy — Erik's son writes off killing Custodes entirely and instead sprints for 100 victory points, forcing Erik to play a perfect final three turns just to survive
• Trading for board space, not points — why sacrificing Fuegan and five Fire Dragons on a bad points trade made total sense once you realize he was trading for tempo and secondary pressure instead
• Cousin Josh's quadruple C'tan callback — the guys connect the dots between Erik's son's plan and Josh's own C'Tan spam overdog strategy from a prior Necrons game
• Overdog vs. underdog theory — Erik and Steve build out a framework for identifying which one you are before the game starts
• Strategy vs. plan — Cousin Josh admits he never plans while the guys work through the difference between a rigid tactical plan and a flexible overarching strategy
• Next Barnhammer teaser — Erik pitches deliberately assigning underdog and overdog roles at the next event, while Steve makes his pitch for a hobby-focused episode

Whether you're here for the underdog theory or just want to hear a kid race his dad to a nail-biter finish, this one's for you.

📖 Read Erik's battle reports at gmpwt.blog
📺 Watch on YouTube at @GrownMenPlayingWithToys

Send us Fan Mail

Cousin Josh joins the chat (literally) for the first time, heckling Erik and Steve from the sidelines while they take a step back from the week-to-week to talk macro direction of where their favorite factions are headed.  The guys trade perspectives, Erik on rules and direction, Steve on models and aesthetics, and work through their factions to figure out who's cooking, who's stalled, and who just needs someone to "shake the snow globe".

Along the way they cover:

• League of Votann's identity crisis — Steve likes where the rules are going but isn't sold on the trench coat aesthetic, and the guys agree "Rock and Stone" should just be the whole pitch
• Space Marines get elite — why adding toughness granularity across armor types and pointing marines to be more elite could speed up games and make Phobos, Tacticus, and Terminators feel different from each other
• Guard's too-many-cooks problem — Steve is not feeling Guard right now and Erik argues it is because Guard has an identity problem where it is split across several aesthetically different regiments all competing for the same design space
• CSM needs a shakeup — Erik loves the new models and lore flexibility but is bored of Defilers being the correct way to play.  The guys really just want the balance team to shake things up a bit
• Death Guard's redemption arc — Steve declares Death Guard back on the menu and commits to bringing them to the next Barnhammer game weekend
• Necrons and Tyranids, the calm ones — Erik hopes the Necron Warriors get left as chaff instead of also getting buffed up with Space Marines and both guys are cautiously optimistic waiting on a Tyranids codex

Whether you're here for the faction deep dive or just want to hear Erik lose a bet to Cousin Josh when Steve is able to make it an hour without mentioning wings, this one's for you.

📖 Read Erik's battle reports at gmpwt.blog
📺 Watch on YouTube at @GrownMenPlayingWithToys

Send us Fan Mail

A balance update dropped this past week and several of Erik's favorite factions got hit with nerfs. Steve declares it a "feelings podcast" and the guys work through Erik's frustration before landing on the real point: how to pivot a list instead of just complaining about it.

Along the way they cover:

• The nerfing Eye of Sauron comes for Slaanesh — why Erik's strongest lists in Emperor's Children and Chaos Daemons ate the biggest points hikes in the update and how he is pivoting as a result
• Custodes lose their combo — Lions of the Emperor jumps from 2DP to 3DP and can no longer pair with Might of the Moritoi, why the change was well-designed, and how it introduces additional detachment options even though it stings
• The Balance Update upset — Steve catches a rules change before Erik does for what he swears is the first time ever and Erik has to admit it on air
• Force disposition shuffling — small, targeted swaps like Huron's Marauders and Aspect Host switching to new Force Dispositions quietly open up entirely new ways to play old favorites and why Erik's oldest son is thrilled about one of them
• Crusher Stampede vs War Dog spam - Erik's youngest son challenges him to a game of bug vs robot and proceeds to blow up all of his Norns on the way to a ton of fun

Whether you're here for the balance update postmortem or just want to hear Steve's victory lap for catching a change before Erik, this one's for you.

📖 Read Erik's battle reports at gmpwt.blog
📺 Watch on YouTube at @GrownMenPlayingWithToys

Send us Fan Mail

Team USA won WTC and Steve blindsides Erik by admitting that he has fanboyed over it a bit.  The guys break down how a Guard player ground out key tournament-clinching wins and why "keep it simple and execute flawlessly" beat out other teams that tried to cook up secret-sauce lists. Somewhere in there it turns into a full discussion of force disposition specialization vs faction specialization.

Along the way they cover:

• WTC's grind — how a Guard player known for playing a grind it out, death-by-a-thousand-cuts list sealed the WTC title for Team USA and why the tactic was more genius than luck
• Team USA's "keep it simple" strategy — why the winning approach wasn't secret tech or off-the-wall lists, but trusting elite pilots to execute simple, proven lists better than anyone else in the room
• Faction specialist vs. force disposition specialist — the theory Erik and Steve build out live, that your favorite army might not be the reason you win or lose, it might be whether that army's best force disposition actually fits how your brain plays
• The kid outplays the dad — Erik's son builds a 30-point lead against him, hangs on to win despite getting outscored in the later rounds, and then calmly explains why Erik was playing the wrong force disposition the entire game
• The Blood Angels pop quiz — Erik reads Steve a Take and Hold list cold and Steve's "board control, board control, board control" read is close enough to the list's design philosophy to be awkward

Whether you're here for the WTC postmortem or just want to hear Erik's son casually call his Dad out for self nerfing via a Force Disposition mismatch, this one's for you.

📖 Read Erik's battle reports at gmpwt.blog
📺 Watch on YouTube at @GrownMenPlayingWithToys

Send us Fan Mail

Erik is back on Orks and built a "just for fun" Da Big Hunt list that somehow tabled a CSM Defiler heavy army despite calling the Waaagh! in Round 1.  This has Steve's attention and the guys dive into why this strategy might have been the correct move, not just dumb luck, and what they can learn from it to help with future games.   

Along the way they cover:

• The defensive Waaagh! — Erik calls the Waaagh! turn one, but instead of using it for damage, he uses it to tag and pin two Defilers against terrain.
• Deliverability, durability, damage — the three-part framework from top tier competitive players that Erik leans on to explain why his Ork list worked and why his CSM list did not. 
• The engineer's flowchart — Erik distills 11th Edition mission design into four questions every list has to answer every turn and can confirm that it is kid-approved by his son
• Archetype vs. identity — why "my faction's lore says it shouldn't play this way" isn't a real excuse and why playing the mission matters more than playing the vibe
• Cousin Josh's callout — the "Orks are an army with no plan" jab that kicked off the whole experiment and Erik's very smug rebuttal
• Knights Thunderdome, coming soon — Erik and Steve pencil in a cross-faction deployment breakdown using Chaos Knights and Imperial Knights, protractor optional but strongly implied

Whether you're here for the tactical deep dive or just want to hear Erik's horror that Steve wants to bring a protractor to a tabletop game, this one's for you.

📖 Orks vs CSm game discussed: https://gmpwt.blog/2026/08/14/orks-da-big-hunt-vs-chaos-space-marines-pactbound-zealots/

📖 Read Erik's battle reports at gmpwt.blog
📺 Watch on YouTube at @GrownMenPlayingWithToys

Send us Fan Mail

Erik and Steve were supposed to sneak out for a game at the Local Game Store (LGS) this week and instead got stuck at home, so naturally they spent forty-five minutes turning that disappointment into a full breakdown of why playing 40K at the LGS hits different than Barnhammer, Officehammer, or TTS ever will. Somewhere in there it also becomes a card game vs. tabletop philosophy seminar, and Erik accidentally reveals that he has no interest in running clubs and only exercises to "not be fat".

Along the way they cover:

• The LGS effect — why playing on neutral ground in front of an audience of strangers and excited store owners adds something Barnhammer and TTS just can't replicate
• Cards vs. minis — Erik's hot take that he thinks trading card games are more one-dimensional than 40K and why it hits a nerve with Steve harder than either of them expected
• The "I don't want to be fat" tangent — an endurance-sports rabbit hole that somehow explains why community matters more than either of them wants to admit
• Deck stacking, but make it transparent — how WTC's first defender/attacker pairing system turns the thing that would ruin a casual LGS game into the actual point of the tournament, while somehow still also being open and transparent
• WTC list geek out — a Squighog Boyz Waaagh built entirely to run people over, a Slaanesh Daemons alpha strike, and a Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard charge out of a Land Raider that neither of them saw coming
• The next LGS attempt — Erik and Steve pencil in a rematch and its definitely not just an excuse to buy more models

Whether you're here for the "are you not entertained" energy of playing at your local shop or just want to hear two grown men overanalyze why cardboard hits different than plastic, this one's for you.

📖 Read Erik's battle reports at gmpwt.blog
📺 Watch on YouTube at @GrownMenPlayingWithToys

Send us Fan Mail

Steve is fighting off a Nurgle infection, Erik is fighting off bad habits with Cursed Legion Necrons, and everybody on the internet is convinced their faction is dead. Spoiler....they're not dead yet. 

Erik and Steve are back to discuss 11th Edition's first balance update, dig into what's really going on across Erik's now ten-army tour of the new edition, and somehow turn the whole thing into a conversation about Agile development methodology.

Along the way they cover:

• The first balance update — why this wasn't a major Nerfing Eye of Sauron event and why the guys think GW is running what amounts to a data normalization exercise disguised as a balance patch
• Agile Warhammer — Steve connects the dots between sprint planning, backlog management, and how to actually play your secondaries in 11th Edition and neither of them can quite believe the conversation they're having
• Ten armies, every force disposition — Erik's running observations from playing across the full breadth of 11th, including why he's not sure he's a great Purge the Foe player despite being one of the most aggressive players in the room
• The Cursed Legion problem — why Erik keeps going back to a list he can't quite make work, what he's getting wrong, and why he's pretty sure it's a him problem and not a list problem
• WTC roster hot take — the rosters are out, the lists are coming, and Erik has a cautionary tale about why "everyone at WTC is playing X" doesn't mean X is the best way to play that faction
• Papa Nurgle weighs in — Steve sounds like a Muppet, Erik recommends the Emperor's Children approach to cold medicine, and somehow they end the episode with a Death Guard game on the calendar

Whether you're here for the data engineering deep dive or just want to hear Steve suffer through forty minutes of podcast while visibly dying, this one's for you.

📖 Read Erik's battle reports at gmpwt.blog
📺 Watch on YouTube at @GrownMenPlayingWithToys