3d printed terrain might be trendy right now, but let's not forget about the tremendous benefits of MDF buildings and scenery - especially as this medium has been levelled up recently at Warbases, who now run a pre-coloured range. They also run the fantastic Bifrost Miniatures range and there's loads of fun to be had in there, from giant Ettins to Haggisnadoes.

Also mentioned

• Question of the month
• The Fundamentals of Tabletop Miniatures Game Design
• Baron's war novels
• Oathsworn Miniatures

Frostgrave is one of the most recognisable games in the tabletop miniature wargame hobby. It's also one of the most popular outwith the Games Workshop Empire.

On this episode, we're joined by the architect of the frozen city himself - Joe McCullough. We're going to talk about the lay of the land when this miniature agnostic fantasy skirmish game was released back in 2015, and speculate on the key factors behind its success.

Joe's no one-trick pony though, and his scope extends well beyond Frostgrave. Stargrave may sound similar in name (and certainly shares a few core mechanics), but this sci-fi skirmish game is much more than just "Frostgrave in space".

Then there's Rangers of Shadow Deep - a solo and cooperative game that became a firm favourite during the year of global lockdowns that was 2020.

More often than not, Joe has appeared to release games in the right place and at the right time. One notable exception, however, is Oathmark. This mass fantasy battle rank and flank game was undoubtedly subdued by its Spring 2020 release date - a point in time where very few people could actually play it. Joe offers his thoughts on that as well as how the game might recover from this setback going forward.

One of the reoccurring themes of this conversation was that of miniature wargame terrain. Frostgrave and Stargrave in particular benefit from their tables being extremely busy. But does this create a barrier for players with no existing terrain collection or no budget? Joe tells us about many players using simple wooden blocks or polystyrene packaging to build their frozen cities and intergalactic outposts, and why it doesn’t need to look “real” to capture the imagination.

You can keep up with Joe on his blog The Renaissance Troll where he posts updates on his games, his hobby, his painting, and his thoughts in general. You’ll find the official range of Frostgrave miniatures over at North Star Military Figures, if you want to go down that route, as well as a raft of other games and supplements on DriveThruRPG.

If the world were about to end, but we could pack a big indestructible box full of the stuff that said "this was our hobby", what would you put in there?

Domien De Groot is one half of Audio Epics, a company specialising in fantasy audio storytelling. They've published a number of richly designed and immersive tales that will be of interest to listeners of this podcast, not least of all, the Witch Hunter series. Each story is available on YouTube or the audio podcast feed. I would also highly recommend sticking on a pair of headphones and listening to this introduction to The Fairy Tree, a 3D audio production written by Domien and produced by Owl Field.

The Bedroom Battlefields Discord community has spawned several "marquee" games in the past few years. The latest big game was somewhere in between a 28mm game of Man O'War and a giant Warhammer skirmish with moving terrain. Mark and Jason join me for a chat about the planning, prepping, and playing.

May's question of the month was a call to tell us about the games and rulesets you always find yourself coming back to, time and time again. And as for next month's question - here it is.

I'm joined by Lewis of the Oldhammer Fiction Podcast. On this episode, we chat about the show's origins and its role in the hobby. We also get into the topic of Oldhammer more broadly, as well as the brilliant annual Bring Out Your Lead event.

Question of the Month regular Dave joins me for a chat about hobbying with his sons, his legendary Necromunda campaign, and the pain of sitting on a D4.

A recent episode with Mantic's Ronnie Renton got into licensing IPs for tabletop miniature games. That prompted our question of the month for April, which was:

What classic, popular, or obscure IPs would you most like to see adapted into a miniatures game?

So, here are our answers. And if you want to get involved in this month's QotM, here's the link.

I wanted to find out more about Blood Bowl, so who better to speak to than Ben from The Bonehead Podcast?