Thank you again for downloading the Chronic Command podcast. This is Josh, your host today in this interview as I have a really entertaining conversation with Bart over in Wales and he has his own YouTube channel and that's how I sort of discovered him. The YouTube channel is called Ryan Mouth Studios and I'll leave a link of course to everything that we talk and discuss about in this interview in the show notes of this podcast. So you can go and check it out yourself.
And we talk about, you know, Bart's early, early footsteps into tabletop wargaming. Like how he discovered miniatures and this thing called Wargaming, and how that led him to discover Futsal miniatures and the Barons War and his passions behind that and why he decided to make this YouTube channel. So I hope you find this conversation entertaining as you do your painting and hobbying this week, whatever it might be. Your old hammer, new hammer miniatures, it doesn't really matter.
We're all-encompassing a great hobby that we have here that we can share with others. So guys, look, take care this week, enjoy your hobby, hope you get some games in. Roll those sixes and we'll see you again next time. OK. Enjoy the interview. Yeah. So, but thanks very much for joining the Credit Command podcast today. I really appreciate you staying up a little bit later than normal in the UK. There now are you in Wales, is that right? I'm in Wales, yes, right.
I live in carefully, which is very close to Cardiff. We have a beautiful castle, I think the second biggest in Britain, just, I don't know, few meters away, 100 meters away or so. So it's brilliant. Oh wow, OK, that's awesome because I've. I see a lot of photographs on. Well, I don't really visit it
very much. The Twitter or X what it's called down from my good friend Owen State and he lives, he's obviously Welsh and lives in Wales and he's always, you know entertaining us with lots of beautiful photographs of scenery there in Wales. Looks like a beautiful place. It is a beautiful place. I'm in love with it, for sure. How did you actually make your way to Wales? What? What was, what was the journey like? How did you get connected there?
Because obviously you're not from Wales originally. No, no, I I was born in Poland and I left Poland in 2005 for adventure. I wanted to travel, travel the world and photograph the world. That's that. That was my aim and I did that for the first two years I I worked in Wales, then just travelled a little and then I found my now wife before. Before. Before that I I started to photo to study photography at University of Wales Newport Documentary Photography and on
2nd year I met my wife. Well now wife. And yeah, I just stayed family, children, everything. You know what I mean? It's it started as an adventure and became very kind of family orientated. Stay all. Right, OK. That's. Interesting like home in here. Yeah, it's a bit like my journey to Japan, kind of the same thing, you know, Got here. It's an adventure, yeah. Got married and had children and, you know, settled down and never went back to Australia, basically.
So that's great, mate. Excellent. Yeah. So yeah. Oh, I thought, I thought, I thought you you was originally from the UK. No, no, I've got a very Aussie accent, so. Yeah, well, you know, I I don't recognize that. Well, I can tell you a Scottish, I can tell you that this this person is Scottish and this person is Welsh. But you know the rest. You know it's still beyond me. Yeah, I know, mate. I know. Yeah, I've got a very, very.
Even though I don't consider myself to have an Aussie accent, but when I listen back to myself on on podcasts or whatever, I can certainly hear it in my voice. It's just one of those I. Understand that for a long time I didn't hear Polishness in my accent at all, and now when I hear it, I'm just saying that that thing will never go away. Exactly. That's good, mate.
OK, so now I discovered you through your YouTube channel and I think by chance the algorithm gods popped them up on my my feed and what was through Facebook group or whatever, because you guys interviewed Andy Hobday and Paul Hicks, So from football miniatures, yeah. Yes, yes.
I actually interviewed Paul Hicks in March last year and that was initially on my other kind of more photography related channel where I speak, when I speak, where I speak with people whose stuff I enjoy and the 1st 2 speakers were photographers like my childhood, childhood. Well, my first photographic hero, Joseph Rodriguez, the guy who actually helped me to understand how I want to photograph was there. So that was I, I, I asked Paul to take part in that.
And recently when we started to do stuff with Mark Vance, you know the rules with Mark for Barron's War, I was like, OK, let's let's post it here for the new audience, the audience that actually going to, you know, comes to the channel for stuff like this. So I was like, OK, so let's put that archival, let's let's, let's breathe new life in that archival material, basically. Right.
Excellent. And and with Andy, we tried to talk for a good year because I spoke with Paul in March and I'm pretty sure that I asked Andy back then to talk to talk about it. So I was very happy that we finally managed during the Christmas break. Yeah, I really enjoyed both of those interviews. And then I quickly stole Paul to get an under interview out of him for the Crown of Command recently. Yeah, he's really, really nice guy.
And not only is he this nice, nice guy to talk to, but we sort of reconnected afterwards. And I said, hey, you know, I'm sitting here working, you're sitting here there working and if you want to talk, just give me a call, you know, and we'll have a chat kind of thing, you know, talk about old Games Workshop days or whatever. And it's been really nice, so. And he said, hey, you know, can you get me some nice candy or sweets or chocolate for my daughter in Japan?
She was fascinated with Kit Kats and all the different flavors. And I said, yeah, yeah, no problem, I'll, I'll have a look for you. That, that that sounds great. It's when I listen to you, you had loads of in common. You knew all those places and you know your old old guard of
Game Workshop guys, isn't it? Yeah, because he knows Marcus Blackman. Marcus Blackman is my oldest, best friends from Australia. We went to the UK together back in 94 and Mark has already worked at Game Special previous to that. And yeah, he worked with Paul there at the Oxford Street store. So yeah, so he's a lot of connections there. That and people I know like Greg as well.
So it was really nice because I didn't really know that until I started talking to him and he started talking about those kind of things. So it was lovely. Boy, that's a long time ago now. But yeah mate, yeah, it's been really good. So we're all sort of connected to, in some, some respects, all us in our age group or whatever are all connected to Games Workshop through the 90s. Was that the same for you as well? But like, were you also a gamer through the game Switcher hobby,
or how did you find? Well, yes, you have to say that, I think, but it came very late in my life actually. I wasn't doing it like in 20s like most of you guys. I mean, you know, when the game Games Workshop had that Lord of the Rings magazine, you know, the the, the, the gaming magazine that was actually translated to Polish and that's this. I remember buying a lot of that stuff and I still have like some of the metal miniatures from it,
but I never can. I was always fascinated by it, but I didn't understand it and I didn't know how to do it. So I remember once we tried to play a game with my brother and it was just like, you know, role-playing, I would say like no structure in there or anything like that. Painting seemed very difficult to me. I just couldn't focus on on on doing that. So that was the first kind of thing.
And then I am asking you to the world of War gaming as the 8th edition, because this is when I was like, OK, let me do it. Let let me try, you know, let let let me see what it's all about. Maybe maybe it's gonna be something that I'll enjoy. And I I did, but at the same time I was like, you know I get that a buyer frenzy I wanted
spaceful. So I bought the whole army and then I had like army of grey and that's actually frightened me like you know, in terms of I have to paint all this and I never could really, you know and then Kill team came out and that was very that that was gaming for me. I was like, OK, I can do that, paint 5 to 10 miniatures, you know, because I'm a very slow painter do that. And then Necromanda came, the new Necromanda, I discovered new Necromanda. I think that was the other way
around. But I was like, OK, that works. What about this game? And I just fell in love with that. And that was, that was it. I painted my first gang and then slowly. Then I painted a Bolt Action Army and I only played two games for it. And when I painted Bolt Action Army because my group was playing actually, I was like OK, I can paint armies now. So you know I'm I'm slowly I'm, I'm I'm a I'm a baby when it comes to hobby. If you think about it it's only it's only a few years.
Really. Yeah. One more Yeah. When was the 8th edition? Well, what? What's that was in? 2010 or 2000, I don't really know. It was a. Rap I'm a teenager. I'm a working teenager now. Yeah, mate, you are. Well, you're a very young man, a lot of gaming years ahead of you. That's excellent to hear. Yes, yes. OK. So that's, so that's interesting.
So you did have your leading to like obviously Games Workshop was a big influencer on you because you saw Lord of the Rings and obviously that's their biggest intellectual property they have and they'll probably have it forever. Why not? Because it's going to get a lot of people in through their doors and you know, buying their miniatures and playing their games because of the Lord of the Rings license they have, which is great. I always look at, you know, people who come through games,
worship in two eras. It's either the the 90s era when they came through the doors from Warhammer Fantasy Battle or Hero Quest and then you had the Lord of the Rings era where they captured a lot of the other young people coming through through the through the films and then through the miniatures and stuff like that. So you're in the later part.
Yeah you're the same I I think, I think that 8th edition as well brought a lot of people to it. We you know I would certainly few people that I know also like kind of started my brother as well you know kind of joined at the same time. So I think if Games Workshop is still obviously they are, they are massive, they they will be bringing new crowd and then you know everybody will find a niche for themselves. For me it's it's smaller games and it's historical games more
than anything. Like, you know, I don't play any any Games Workshop games at the moment. The only one that I'm kind of constantly romancing with is More Time and I do have band painted for it, but I still didn't have a except I think I played it once or twice. That's it. So I do have that in my in my collection and that way it's to be, you know, rediscovered again. But other than that I just moved to like more historical gaming. I'm sorry, I'm playing Star Wars
Legion as well. I do that game too. OK. I've heard. I've seen it obviously it's it's again it's another massive intellectual property will get people in and I think that's I don't know maybe that's just my opinion.
But I think now current trends within gaming is that they try to pick up a license from somewhere like either DC Comics, Marvel, you know, Star Wars, and then they, you know, obviously the price is pretty high, but they get the people in, they get the young guys, people who play card games or they play role-playing games. Look, there's a miniature game based on the my favorite TV show or whatever characters or whatever, and they get him in that way, which is a really good
tactic. Let let me tell you the amount of times I was looking at Batman's miniature game. But I I was like, you know what, No, let's just let's just stay away because there's a lot of great stuff out there right now. You can't have everything and you especially time wise, like I'm struggling to you know to paint miniatures for for for competitions, for tournaments and stuff.
So adding something on top of that is not the greatest idea for me personally, especially that I'm still struggling with like speed. I'm a very slow painter. I'm trying my best with every miniature instead of, you know, trying shortcuts, you know, I'm but I wouldn't call it New Year's resolution. But I do want to paint retinue, Viking retinue for Conquest. And I said that there's no way I will be able to paint it traditionally. So I'm just going to test the army painters.
Fast, fast paints. Sure. Speed paint, Yeah, and and and paint them that way. Probably you know some details. I'm going to touch it, you know, But I I think the most of the work will be done with the speed paints. I've got, I've got to admit, like the other day I went to my local art store and I actually went on behalf of Paul Hicks actually, because he was, he was looking that procreate that material the the party uses to create miniatures. And I said I'm sure they have it
at this massive art store. They've got everything there. So I said, look, you know, I'm going to go there today. I'm going to have a look for you mate. So he said OK, so I walked in there and lo and behold, they put a Citadel color stand in there. So they put some so games workshops, actually got in there, got their foot in there and they put a nice Citadel color stand and some they put some box sets and miniatures and stuff like that. Not interested in miniatures.
I just want to look at the paints and stuff like that. They got there and I picked up the contrast medium. It's it's a 24 mil pot which is just like a a whitish liquid that if you add it to your paint or ink it turns it into a contrast medium. Like it turns into a contrast paint, which I thought was right, quite fascinating and I thought I wanted to give it a go and I'm, I'm just like thinking this is the best stuff ever. This is like liquid gold, this
stuff. I'm really, I'm really surprised they actually released it because if you think about it, the contrast paints cost like something like $10 here, a pot. But you can buy for $10 a big part of that contrast medium. You can add it to anything and it becomes a contrast paint. It's it's absolutely beautiful. So I was always trying to say no, no, no, it's just a fad. I I I want, I don't want to get into this whole contrast speed paints thing.
But now that I've tried it, I can see the the real potential behind that. Yeah, yeah, 100%. I I like the the way I think about it right now and I'm by far you know you you are such an amazing painter but you know I'm I'm I am trying my best with with painting too and I just see it as it's just another tool isn't it. It's another tool. Yeah, it's another tool. And now I'm really interested in their other technical things that they have there because they've got a name on it, but it
doesn't tell you what it does. Like this Lemian Lemian, Lemian, whatever it's called, but it doesn't say what it does. So I need to check what it does. So it's good because I'm now I'm more interested in you know, looking at different kinds of ways or or not not sort of ways, but basically just adding things in that these more modernized formulas, additives if you like to your paints. I think that's a really nice
idea. I've heard of like you know things that increase your flow and you know thinning out your paint, that kind of stuff. But I think this contrast medium just so for me as a as a full time miniature painter, you know, I've got to work quite quickly. So to get things done each day I've got to, you know, I work on a pretty tight schedule. So painting up some Jean stealers the other day and some Jean stealer hybrids, yeah, for those flesh tones, for their armor and that kind of thing.
That really helped me a lot in getting a lot of base coverage done really quickly. And so, yeah, there is a lot behind a lot of these, you know, obviously these paint companies are making beautiful, you know, paints. And how should I say it sort of extensions to your paint that, you know, can help you get the results quickly.
And if my son was going to start miniature paintings, if he's going to get interested later on, I'm definitely going to get him into the speed paints or the contrast paints because it's just a instant gratification, You know, you just put the paint on. Wow, it looks amazing, That effect, you know? So that's what it is. It's really these paint effects they're adding now, which are
really interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I do like using some animal washes and then I use a lot of grime from AKA interactive. I paint base and then just slap that on and then remove it and then pick it up a little bit. I really like the feel of it. But that's again another tool in the in the arsenal, isn't it? You know, it depends what you
want to do with it, of course. It's incredible how many paint companies are out there at the moment, because when I started in the hobby there was Humble Tamiya, which are terrible paints. I mean, they're still selling those things, but as a person who's just starting out and painting, they're just horrible things to use because they're all, you know, either well, the the Tamia ones were water based, but they were never really, you know, beautiful things to work
with. And the hum rolls you needed like thinners and stuff like that, they're really smelly and just, you know, But nowadays you've got maybe 10 different companies you can go do to buy paints from, which I think is just incredible now. Yeah, I think it's a great time to be a teenager. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Gaming teenager. That's wonderful. So that's good. Yeah. So yeah, painting is real. Yeah. Pleasure of mine. And I hope other people can enjoy painting.
So if contrast paints or speed paints or whatever they're called gets you there, then that's great. That's that's one one really good advantage I think people have now. OK, So moving along. So you discovered gaming or Games Workshop through Lord of the Rings, and then you started playing 8th edition fantasy and necromander, and you're sort of looking at wartime, but then Baron's War came on your radar. How did that happen? Well, quite accidentally I I guess, but it was a good
coincidence. I saw the new release of Welsh miniatures, New Welsh miniatures from Futsore and I was like, oh wow, this looks great and they send it to my gaming group who back then was called Bolt Action Still because, you know, we kind of created the group for like a Christmas game and I painted an army for for that game specifically and never played it until last Christmas. So I played it twice, but anyway, I've sent it over there and Ian, who is actually the
marks opponent on the battle report that we did, Ian said. You know what? I know a guy who knows, who speaks of this game, who knows this game and I was chatting about it. So you know, and should I invite him to the group and stuff. So we invited him to the group. We started to discuss before, before I knew everybody was like saying oh what about this revenue?
They started to build a list. I said oh I'm not getting involved in another game so and then like 2 days later everybody was already buying stuff so so that was it. And I had a game demo in in Cardiff when Mark was here and I played Templar Retinue. He's Templar Retinue and I was just hooked from the first moment the game felt very flow, the flu, it flew very well. I mean you know there was, it just felt natural, if that makes sense.
It was clever and it was, it was clever and easy at the same time, if you know what I mean, The rule set, easy to pick up, but you could do a lot, a lot strategically and obviously I didn't know all that. I kind. I think I felt it after that first game because I became a much better player with time, obviously. So I'm speaking from perspective of time, so kind of, you know, but yeah, that was it. And I was hooked. I was hooked and didn't look back. I've been playing ever since, right?
I I think after that first demo, Mark organized the first ever Baron Tour tournament somewhere. It was Revolt Sheffield, I think. And I I bought the ticket without even having my retinue like, you know what I mean? I'm playing for it. So. So I was like, you know, just dropped in the ocean and learn how to swim, You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Nice, mate. That's wonderful.
So yeah, you you have now if people don't know you and I discover you through the a YouTube channel that you have that's pretty much dedicated to Barrens War, would that be right to say? I think you can say that.
You can say that definitely the most, the most stuff that is on the channel is related to it. But I also love Blood and Plunder game, and there will be stuff coming out for this as well, up to my two favorite games, Barons War and Blood and Plunder, and without a shadow of a doubt. So definitely most of the stuff will be related to these two games for sure. Nice now. So for people who people are wondering what Baron's War is, we're talking about Baron's War. What is Baron's War?
But what is Baron's? War, First of all, Baron's War is great fun. It's a great, great game, you know, focusing on the first Baron's War conflict, which is 2000, not 2012. Fifteen 1216 if I remember correctly, 13th century. Anyway, You know, to be honest with you, like Barons war is great in learning about history as well. You know, Barons War is just a very good rule set and time well spent with your friends and a lot of enjoyment of your approach of purchasing toys.
Violence War is just like really fun game, really fun thing to do. And I would, you know, I would say that whoever, whoever gets into it will find something for themselves. That's what I believe anyway. That's how I feel. It's it. It's just a great game. Good. OK, that's wonderful. That's a good. That's a good preset to introduce people to the game. Yeah. So it's a historical game.
It's not a fantasy game. It's based in history, as Bart was alluding to. And it's set, yeah, during the first Barrens War. So you'll you, you have, you build a retinue, which is probably about 15 to 20 guys maybe. So it's a. Well level game you know I mean if if, if you you can play bigger bigger battles as well. You know it depends how we how how you feel it. It's great for people who were
scared by the big battle games. So you have like you said it can be anything between 2030 miniatures. It's a good number units of eight maybe 10 miniatures. It's a game that have you know you're going to have to cut this out. I'm trying to find the words but they they don't come. I basically it's a it's it's a skirmish, skirmish game and player players alternate activations. You know each group have one
activation per turn. Unless they are command groups they they can have either three or two. It's a fast-paced game for sure with a lot of detail put in rules. A game that also requires a lot of terrain because loads of rules, line of sight and so on are kind of used better if there's lots of terrain on the table you can hide from, from troops, from crossbows and stuff that are very powerful otherwise.
So it's like almost like hide and seek type of game and you just have to you know better your opponent. I do. I do enjoy that stuff for sure. And a maid of mine in America just ordered Baron's War in his first retinue, thanks to the interview with Paul Hicks. So that's good. Another Baron's War player. Yes, yes, I'm happy to hear that.
I am actually like in terms of channel, Raymoff Studio had barons, were it just I'm glad we did it when we did it because it seems like a lot, a lot of people needed that, like the comments that people actually mention oh you know, I was on the edge with that game or blah blah blah. The content is actually like very useful and that's a really nice, I don't know if it's a surprise, but definitely like, it's good to see that the game is gaining momentum.
And it seems like ever since, like we did these videos with Mark, it's like so much content about Baron's War comes out on YouTube, suddenly it's like I'm. So glad you did those because I was waiting for someone to make any video based on how to play the game now. Yeah, I've never played Baron's War. And people are saying, Josh, why are you talking about Baron's War so much? Because you've even never actually played it.
And I've just recently got my first miniatures and painted them, and I've loved them because I've been dreaming about that. Just looking at those images, you know, the game itself looks interesting to me and I know it's a good game. The miniatures were just beautiful and I just had, I just had to have them, you know, I said to Paul, I just need those miniatures, mate. I just need to paint those figures just to get out of my
system. And I'm really glad I did because I'm, you know, I'm really, really happy with the quality. You know, they're like old school miniatures that really finely detailed. Nice scale, Great. You've done such a great work with it. When you post those pictures, I was like, oh wow, OK, you know what I mean? You know when we speak about the HMV bench or however it's it's
called, I'm. I'm sorry if I take the the name wrong but when I saw your stuff I was like wow man, it's like it's different style but in quality. There's like it's the same man, like you just need to photograph them in a specific way. I need your. Talents, man, I need your talents. Man, listen, when I looked at them, I was like, this is exactly what I always tried to do with my Templars. And I never did. So I I was like, I was like, wow, this stuff looks good. This stuff looks good.
I think they. Look fantastic. I said to Paul, you know, you know, you can create these beautiful models, but unless they're painted in a in a way that shows people how beautiful these models are, it's really important. And that person, Daniel Wegman, I think his name is the person responsible for those really beautiful images on their websites and in their books and
stuff like that. Yeah, that like I said to you that that got me into the game and I said the pool the same that that got me that note maybe noticed the game a lot more because of the presentation and looking at these beautiful models, how they painted and in modern sort of styles, you know, historical gaming for me is always lacked in a lot of ways
because of presentation. The models look pretty, you know, they weren't painted so well and you know, and you know, maybe the theme was not really my cup of tea. I'm not a big World War Two guy. It's probably too close in
history. My my grandparents were involved in the World War 2IN in Holland so it doesn't really give good a good feeling to me. I I don't think maybe and the Barons war is and you know anything to do with medieval combat or medieval history is so far back in the past it's almost has a mystique about it. Like we only know these because of these records and it it has this and you know you you think about a lot of fantasy games where it's all centered around
medieval times. You know I love the look at the terrain I love look at the the boards because it's reflects warhammer and Warhammer basically is just medieval combat with magic in a lot of sense. It's just that that's what fantasy is in generally. So Pretonians, for example, are basically just Knights of medieval times, but they have, you know, sorcerers and, you know, that kind of thing, and Dragons and Pegasus, Pegasi or
whatever. So that instantly brought me into Baron's War because I just think, OK, well, that's basically Warhammer, but in a historical sense, it got me into the history too. It got me, it got me interested in the history. I thought, wow, OK, I really want to know about this. And then when I looked at all the heraldry, the color schemes, it, the freedom of all that, it looks so cool, you know, the the all the different colors of all
the, you know, different. I suppose barons have this, their own coat of arms and that would carry on through the troops. But then you don't have to be restricted by that. You could have 11 retinue painted in a certain way with various different color schemes and coat of arms and another one in a different one. So yeah, that gave a lot of interesting painting options, I
think for me as well. But I just looked those military nights and I was like, OK, that's it, that I'm sold on this whole Crusader thing, you know, Kingdom of Heaven, the movie loved it, you know, And these miniatures just just call that to me saying, yes, we've got to play this. We've got to get this on the table. We've got to make a desert table, palm trees, you know the the Hospital of Fort that they released for Kickstarter is an amazing piece of kit, you know, So I.
Actually filmed. I filmed building it. Now it's time to paint it. So when it's all done, I I think I'm going to do maybe not another tutorial. I'm I'm not doing stuff like this, but kind of update and how I felt about it and stuff because the kit is just, I'm telling you it's phenomenal. That thing presents itself so well and it's wow, wow. When you have a chance you have to get it. I'm telling you it's it's really
nice. It's really nice and size wise as well, you know it's not too, it's not too big, but it does have a presence on the table very nicely. Everything works together beautifully, like you know, just great stuff, really good stuff. And from what Andy was saying, I think they will produce more and I really hope that some of it's going to be full drummer as well. Yes, it sounds like there's a lot more planned.
It's not like just this is it. And because there's a different theaters as well, you've got like Death and Taxes, which is basically Robin Hood in Sherwood, that's. That's where the first Templar retinue, actually first Templars rules are from. But like when I was getting into Baron's War, you know, the the Ultramar Kickstarter was very close to being fulfilled. So I I I I lived with Ultramar. I I just won't. I I was obsessed with Ultramar.
I was looking for everything, but like books about it, read about it. Like, you know, my he's by no means an expert in in medieval history, but I know so much more than I knew last, you know than I knew last year. It's just incredible how so much you can have so much fun learning. You know what I mean? There's there's so many great strategies there for education.
You know, children like to teach children the history, there's so many options over there and we just like, you know, doing all. Anyway, let's not get into it. It's fantastic. But I should fantastic. I should point out that the author in their book how we're going to pronounce it, you you said it really nicely. Actually. It actually has a lot of historic historical notes in it.
There's a lot of footnotes about history in it and talks about, I think, the 2nd Crusade and the Third Crusade, and it talks about the most, you know, obviously influential characters, part of those conquests. And then it goes into the retinues and you can have three different styles of retinue. And then you can go like completely Templar military, or you can go with the Frankish forces, or I think there's another one. Crusading France. That's right.
And you can talk about the, yeah, there's like several Franks, all those crusading Franks. And then you've got the Islamic forces as well that comprise that entire book. What is beautiful in Ultramar actually is like you can mix and match you can really do what you want. But because each of these specific types of revenues allow you to use troops from the other
groups. So you can have like if you if you use settled francs retinue you can use 40% of you know military orders in there as well. So it really gives you opportunity to build retinue you really want you passionate about. So what I am very slowly building right now is military order retinue and I aim to have I I aim to have all four military orders there that are listed with different weapon
choices. So I'm building that slowly, but I'm also looking at settled France because I was reading a little bit about Polish presence in crusades. And, you know, there's very little known, but there's enough to, like you said before, you know, use your imagination and create stories based on this, like one sentence written in the 13th century, you know what I mean? Or that nameless night that's, you know it just opened so much and then you can, you know, look about coats of arms.
Like from the time, OK, this guy's wolves from Silesia. I can't even say Shlonsky in English. But you can take stuff from there and use it in your you know, in your retinue because nothing stops you from it. And it's as historical as it can be because there's just not much information about it. And that's what I love about this game. It gives you freedom and you really learn history. And then when you finally get that threat in you and it's time to play, the game is just, Oh my
God, cherry on the cake. You know what I mean? It is. It is so well written and it's so much fun. It's it's great. Seriously. Like. Yeah, let's talk about the gameplay because you you've got a you've got a game report there with Mark Vance and another Welsh gentleman there. Sorry, I forgot his name, but. Ian Ian Jones. Ian playing the Welsh and Mark's playing the English, I think in that one, yes.
Now, one thing I'll say about it, because I was really interested in keen to see a battle report of Baron's War. One thing I'll note about it, and I think you touched on it before. It's very intuitive. So you're not flipping through books. It's just like they just you. You just filmed it and you didn't stop. Like you just filmed everything and that you didn't pause or you didn't edit it or anything like that. Is this like 1 continuous stream from turn to turn. So that was, that was.
The biggest thing This is the biggest compliment to my editing I've ever had in my life. We did a fantastic. Job No, we we did, we did we did two or three times pose but very shortly. But yes, once you play this game a few times you don't really you will look into rules obviously every now and then just to confirm certain things. But it it's it flows very well. It flows very well. It is one thing that have to be said. It might be slightly tricky at the beginning.
The setup of the book at times can be like you know you have to look for stuff and until you get to know the book. It may be tricky at the beginning but as soon as you flip that and you just beautiful beautiful experience. So actually the last game of the tournament that I play against some bliss, that was just, it was just incredible. We were just like I I thought it was the shortest game, but also like the fastest game I ever had.
Because if you have players that's kind of played enough, you just keep going and he'll remind you the rule. You'll remind him the rule. And together it just like it was flawless that probably one of the most enjoyable games I had. Oh, that's wonderful man, That's great.
Now it's AD 10 system too. DD 10 based system Yes these six is charging and I don't think you want to be charged by war horses anytime soon because if a War Horse, if your command is based on a War Horse or you have a War Horse unit in the game, they look just absolutely devastating which. Reflects. What they did, you know, it's not like Warhammer where they just hit a solid brick wall and then you know that's it. These will just go straight through, you know? It is wonderful.
So I love seeing. Unless, unless you, unless the unit is equipped in bills because they can cause 2 wounds and the strength of war horses is actually that they they need to be wounded twice in order to you know get the casualty. So that unless the opponent have war horses and that happened at the tournament as well. I had four war horses and the guy had five war horses and I was like oh Oh my God, what is going on here? I see. Yeah, yeah, he feels fragile and stuff, but.
Then there's certain counters like you got Archers, you got cross women, which can be really quite potent and deadly against cavalry as well. So you've got. Anything in Mail? Anything in in Mail? Yeah. And anything in in in short
range specifically. But Speaking of war horses that I think that's like my favorite rule of the game is related to them because like you said, you know when war horses charge you, let's say they win the battle, the the, the, the, the, the, the skirmish, the defending group is being pushed off and then the horses overcharge and they can while they overcharge, then they can hit another unit and it it it can be funny.
But when they overcharge they can leave the table as well And that will cause, you know, losing the units and you know if that was your commander and you didn't have another one that can cause you are gay. So it's beautiful. And I think another very, very strong part, very strong thing in rules is that no matter what you bring to the table, there's something you can counter it with. Like. You always can find a way to you
know you can you know you. You always can find a way to defeat the odds, if you know what I mean. And that's that's probably what's beautiful. About it, there's a lot of flexibility too, so you can arm your troops individually and you can give you can pay for abilities as well. So you've got that added little sweetener there. So every single time you play
you could play differently. So you could have one retinue of of, you know, men at arms which have inherent abilities and then you could pay for extra abilities for them. Likewise for your cavalry. Likewise for your levee troops or your arches, whatever they might be. So you've got each it's not like a not like a true historical game where they're just set in stone and you can't change them at all. This is gives a lot of flexibility to your units and the way you want to play.
So I find that really, really interesting as well. Again, I must say I've not played Barron's Wall, but I can. I can see just going through the rule book that it's a really interesting looking game and that's something that I would, it's more of a modernized historical game. Let's let's put it that way. It's not DBM or these kind of old fluffy wuffy type games where they're just really boring and intricate movements and all that kind of stuff.
It's all pre measured. You can pre measure everything, which is excellent. I think that's a really good way of doing it. It makes it open to play remotely too. So we could play a game through Discord or through through, through Zoom or whatever, and you can measure out and say, OK, Josh, you wanna move? Yeah, I gonna move me again. It's there and I just roll the dice. And you know, it sort of opens up for that kind of thing as well because it's only a small model count. Yeah, I found.
I found that interesting because I've seen you mention it on social media here and there, and I think Nick mentioned it as well. The Medieval War Gamer. I'm I'm actually intrigued to see how that works. Set it up. Set it up, Yeah, Because I'm not going. I'm not going to Wales anytime soon. So what do I need?
2 retinues, yeah. Is there 2 Red news, 2500 point red news and away you go. Another another thing I'll say about that's another great strength about the Barons war is that they actually have an online army builder and this is a big thing. So people who want to just tink around the rules and just have a look at Red News, how to build
them, that kind of thing. You can go to warhost.com and you can there's got like downloadable assets there like STLS for terrain and you've got the army builder which is just now in its in its sort of basic form just covering the Barrens war book and the red news covered in there. But I know that the other death and Taxes, Conquest and Altrima will come out at some point in the future too.
So you can have in particular sort of retinues to build those online as well and you can print out your lists and use those, which is really handy. So that's another great strength that they've got there already, another good asset. Yes, I think, I think it's world host dot online actually. And yeah, I I just recorded in this morning, I've recorded a very short video about how to use it.
It was more like showing an example of the my first revenue that they built on that and how because I built my first retinue and now I just tweak it for different you know use different
units for various things. So I did did something like that, explain certain things like for example one thing about, you know, range weapons is like it only shows like short range over there, like what you can need to roll for short range and just for people to remember that if they shoot from the long range they have to add 1 on top of that.
So I explained those little bits and pieces over there and showed really how easy it is. It's you know and you can really play with it like you know nothing stops you. You just update the numbers sorry the points you want to play the game with you you want to build your retinue for and then you just go ahead and it will tell you actually if you have, if you crossed, if you if you have.
I think that the rule is that your command groups cannot be more than 50% of your revenue and as soon as you go across you will have message, OK, you're command groups are more than 50%, so. So it's very useful, very helpful in that way for sure. And you're gonna have at least 10% green troops, so yes, inexperienced like farmers with the with clubs and that kind of thing. So yeah. The way I build my retinue or
like I didn't really. I think what's really got me into that gaming is like storytelling because I'm kind of storyteller in many, many ways and I love stories and I didn't go to the book. I said all let me build the greatest army already I can master from this. No. I just was oh, I want Templars.
I really want Templars. I want they are massive great Knights. Let me get like 4 war horses and then I I need some like you know foot nights as well And I made a group of foot nights and then I was like OK, I need some missile weapons so get some you know. And I, I, and then I, the rest
of my retinue are monks. So I have literally I have I have two strong groups a veteran, a veteran commander on his war horses who came from Ultramar on the mission, you know through Europe. You know they are veteran because they not only fought in Ultramar, but during the mission during you know they had their skirmishes. They are veterans. The Foot Knights are local Templar Knights. You know, in England, you know what I mean? They are just regular.
They they they experience, they've seen, you know, they've seen conflict. But they didn't have that journey. They haven't been in Ultramar. They are not as experienced. And then I have just like green the green monks who are like, you know, some local priests or whatnot and and that it's somehow I managed to work quite well. I mean play quite well with that red in you. It works very well.
That power, you have a little bit of power and then you're just surrounded by crowd and it seems to work. It's great for getting losing. The words come on objectives, here we go. It's very great to hold objectives if you need to. It's very go to go and grab objective if you need to. Because what I like about Baron's War, it's not just, I don't like kill games.
I like, you know, specific scenarios and that brings joy to me. You have to think, you know, yes, your opponent may like almost destroyed your retinue, but you hold what is the most important in that scenario and that's your aim not to kill them. You just want to and and that's what I love about it, you know, you have that specific focus. Otherwise it would just get very boring to me very quickly I think. Yeah, that's really important to me too.
And that's another thing like about Test of Honor, it's got like these linked scenarios in there. So once if when you play the first one, it has consequences for the second one and that has consequences for the third one. And it sort of goes along like that. And it's got a nice little footnote of the background of the story. And it gives you sort of this immersive feeling that you you know that you're actually involved in something and it actually matters.
And I think Barons War does the same thing. It gives you these different scenarios, maybe not linked, but on that War host.com site, I'll leave a link in the show notes for people to access that website because I might be saying it wrong. But in there they've got like downloadable campaigns. So you've got specific scenarios or campaign games you can download and play. So there's lots of options here. It's not just, it's not just sit
in one little shoe box. It's got quite a lot of different, you know, branches leading out into different areas and different theaters and that kind of thing as well. So there's a lot to take in there.
You know, it's not just Knights, you know, a crusading out in the Middle East. It could be your your merry men with Robin Hood fighting off the fighting off the Knights in the forests of of Nottingham, you know, or it could be you're just a Baron fighting another Baron, you know, in a certain type of scenario. So there's there's lots, lots to like basically, you know, it's got something for everybody
there. And if I'm honest with you, like that Robin Hood, that was a very clever move on the future site because like the, you know, going back to that moment where Ian started to talk about Mark and everything and we started to look on the website and I was like, oh, and there's a little Robin Hood too. I in the end, I never get it. But I was like, oh man, you know what I mean?
And I and then some of our friends, John, who actually I will be doing a video for another game as well because he just produced a fun storm ship. Storm, no storm ship troopers. Is that how? What's the movie called? Starship Troopers, I think. Starship Troopers here we go. He created 6mm game and it looks beautiful and I will be filming that for the channel as well on on Saturday.
And he got into barons were as well, and he got the merry man and he actually won the first battle of Cardiff with them. So like the little tournament that I organized in Cardiff. So yeah, yeah, yeah. The Robin Hood is definitely a clever, clever move from from the company. It's a beautiful like they've got an army deal on on futsal miniature.com website and I was so tempted to get that because it's like only 100 bucks and you get basically a huge 500 point
retinue. You get the books for free because you like, you get the death and taxes book and then you get the PDF for Barons War. I mean it's really good. Like, it's really good and the quality of the sculpts are beautiful, you know? And yeah, so you can find. Any, any any of them of these boxes that they actually have online are definitely worth worth getting. Like, you know, I just had like the box of well, I, I, I, I did kind of win it. But we are speaking about what's
inside. I just got the Vikings. I thought because I I would like to get into Conquest and it's just like the stuff that is in the box, that's it's like 50 lbs in you know in EU KS money or like you know some, some are 60 or some. There are different things that you can choose and it's definitely it's enough to start playing and very, very good 100%. Yep, Yep. So they're deals there, and a lot of the deals have either books in physical form or PDF
form. Yeah. So you can you can get in there quite easily without a huge expense and out huge outline especially if you look at the new old world prices. I mean that's that's that's not to turn anybody off war gaming I think. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 100%. And the miniatures are so you've got some really good quality old school miniatures, all metal. And yeah, it's a good product.
I mean that's the only only reason why I'm sort of harping on about and I'm sure some people out in the crank and man think I'm going completely crazy maybe because I'm turning 50 this year and I'm sort of looking more to a historical game. I'm getting older now. Maybe that's why gems from, you know, really, you know and and Futsal is a small operation. It's a small company.
And he, I really urge people to go and check out your interview you did with Andy talking very humbly about his experiences forming well in partnership with Futsal and the difficulties they have to overcome. And the expense it costs, you know, the the enormous amount of money it costs to to make games to make these miniatures, you know to produce something so beautiful like this. It's not free. It comes at a huge amount of expense and and a big risk, you
know. So he was very candid in his interview about talking about that and his experiences with it. I think 1 the the the massive strength and something that's really that I really enjoy about Futser is how community driven company it is. I think I I I I don't think I witness anything like that in gaming. Of course I'm a gaming teenager, but you know what I mean? You know, they are open.
They are always there to answer questions and see, you know, even the tournaments, like the comp tournaments. I've done a tournament at Britt Gun in Nottingham actually last August for them and spent a great evening with them, like you know, just just just being out, having food and just chatting about everything and how how much they supported the tournament with the prizes they brought in. It was just like, I mean I I had no words.
I still have no words. Just really, really great community driven company and really nice guys. Seriously. So yeah, definitely worth looking into it and just like, you know, get involved because it's it's, it's it's not only the amazing quality product, but there is there are also great people behind it for sure.
Absolutely. And I really want to support Futsal because, and for that reason, they were really good guys and I really want to see them succeed because I know they don't get a lot, a lot of sorry exposure online and social media platforms. I've noticed on Instagram they get very little likes or very little, you know, you just need more eyes on their product, more people looking at this stuff. And and then of course people playing the games.
If people see them playing the games in the stores like they do in your store in Wales, I think at Firestorm you guys play a lot there people. Firestorm and the antics as well. So there are two, two stores that we, yeah. That's a big that's a big motivator for people. If they see people playing it, they get engaged with it. They find out what it's all about and they go, oh cool, I'm I'll get a rent you then I'll I'll see you next next weekend and have a game with you.
You know what I mean? So, and then the you know your YouTube is a big help and I hope at some point in the future, long, long in the future I suppose me getting my stuff together and actually getting a game and filming it on the Crown of Command channel, which would be really exciting.
But in the meantime, I can interview you guys talking about it and getting me more motivated and hopefully inspiring other people in our community to sort of have a look at it and picking up their own starter set and start getting painting and start getting yeah. 100 percent, 100%, that would be great. We actually, we are meeting now on Wednesday and with Mark and Ian. So we're gonna film a battle report and more you know introduction to Baron's War
videos as well. So there will, there's definitely more content coming for the game and I think with we're going to do 700 points, continuation of of battle reports. So again the same, you know, Retinue Commanders will face off, but we're going to play 700 points game now instead of 500 to see how you know because 700 points, 500 points is great. This is the first, not the first. The first game of my retinue that I played was 500 points actually, with Ian at his place.
Just because you know. You have to paint all stuff you have to you know, so and so 500 is great introduction, but the game feels amazingly at 7 hundred 750 points and that's I would say that this is the standard we kind of play now and 700 seems to be standard for the tournaments that that are being
organized. But yeah, and you know, with Ultramar, actually that 700 points doesn't necessarily gives you more miniatures, that your miniatures kind of can be more expensive if you know point wise. So yeah, definitely more content, definitely more content coming and we're gonna do Ultramar soon as well. Oh. OK, I look forward to that because that's really my of of of passion at the moment. Yeah, yeah. There, there's, there's, there are some things planned for Ultramar that we can't talk
about, yeah. I'm very excited then. But definitely some battle reports coming from that. One now I'm really looking forward to seeing you a nice desert table with all the with the with the fortification, the hospital on there and the palm trees. Yes, yes. You know, that's my dream, that's my, that's my sort of layout.
I'm going to try to work towards this year, everything going well and then getting my good friend Stephen up here to to play out the scenarios because he's got AI painted a massive saga army for him of all the Islam force forces. So he's got all the miniatures, basically. Brilliant for that. He would also need to concentrate on my Crusader army and then we're right, we're right way to go. So hopefully I'll get well. Here, Crusader, the army will look phenomenal.
That's the one thing that I know already after seeing this first quarter miniatures. Well, I'll, I'll. I'll. Work on it. I'll work on a painting video for doing the the military order commander, the foot soldier guy. So I'll release that on my channel at some point. Hopefully towards the end of this month. I'll have that up and so people can see how I'm painting them and you know. I will, I will try to, I will try to to do my best to imitate your. Style.
I hope so, mate. Yeah, honestly, because the beauty of it and they'll yeah, the beauty of painting those miniatures because of the scale, because of the size. And of course I'm painting them all black because they're hospital at nights. Yeah. So it's it's kind of easy for me. So I can get them done pretty quickly because it's really just black. And then for their for their cloth, you know their cloaks and that kind of thing.
Silver for their weapons and armor and then just brown for their belts and and that's kind of thing and that's really it. And the Shields and stuff like that. So it's not an enormous task, you know?
I think what I think what brings yours pops out is like you you you work a little bit gently on on edge highlights you know you you you I can see the mid tones there and then you know you have a highlight much brighter and I think that's that's the strength of it that that contrast actually and pops them out where when I paint mine I use much darker colors to bring get up a
little bit. So if you look closer, you kind of see what's going on there, but from the distance you don't have it and yours are just like popping out and that's I think that may be something I I I I need to try. So I'm waiting for that. Well, I'll be coming soon, man for sure. For for for yourself and anybody else who's interested. And I hope then they can see what I'm doing with them with the barons wall miniatures and there'll be more to come and more content to come.
So as I really feel passionate about this game and the miniature line and I think people should really give it a go and hopefully jump on board with us. OK guys so. But it's been a wonderful, wonderful chance to catch up with you now to talk with you. And I hope we can bring you back with Mark at some point in the future to talk about how you're going with your YouTube channel now. Your YouTube channel is called Rye Mouth. Yes, yes, it's, it's actually Boleswarf Chivoste. It is Ramov.
It's it's it's the name of one of Polish kings from medieval times, and that's where that comes from. That's where. It comes from version of, I believe. I think Ramov is much easier to say than chivoste, so I thought I'll just call it like with the English meaning. OK, great. OK, that's nice. It's got a bit of history there too, in the name. That's nice. That's wonderful. I thought it was. I thought it was the the Township you lived in or something in Wales. So, OK, great.
Yeah, I'll leave links for your YouTube channel. I'll leave links for Futsal Miniatures and the War Host website, so people can get in touch with that and then they can make up their own minds and have a look, even pick up the rule book as APDF. Just look through it and just check it out. You know it's not very expensive, so but for now mate, I'll let you go. You're probably really tired and want to go back to bed, so thanks again. We'll paint your miniatures,
mate. That's all you need to paint your miniatures. I. Think it's great for that, but yeah, nice and great to talk to you. Thanks for inviting me. My pleasure, bud. Take care. Take care, mate. Thank you.