Loving this series of "insider" videos

Adeptus Titanicus is the best game I've ever played. I have converted and painted around 3000 points of corrupted nurgle titans and knights. So much fun.

I will forever love James Hewitt for Adeptus Titanicus

To actually have commentary and insight into the process of the workings of a games/minis studio has been such a delight to listen.

James is such a big gaming brain. I love hearing him chat about game design. Also, why isn’t his mash recipe in the show notes?!?

Gary needs a service award. I worked there and gary was my manager.

It was so hard telling you both apart. Like being interviewed by a mirror. Glad we are breaking the stigma

Love the "GW Manuals should come in a ring binder". Like they did in Rogue trader! Where you were encouraged to cut out stuff from WD etc to add them. Or all the Orc supplements.

Loving all the love for Gary in the maidstone store. Lovely chap. I worked for him there for a bit in 99 before heading to the studio.

Midway through, on the Jervis front he has made a set of 4 page Napoleonic rules for Perry's - on their site. Fascinating to look at as it if you read them you can clearly see lessons learned from the AoS experience even though they are very different rules

I love Gary at Maidstone GW and James is bang on. I'm in my late 30's and he's been one of the few consistent parts of my life - apart from a brief period in the early 2000's he's always been at GW Maidstone.

So many superb members of staff have jumped from GW. Imagine if they'd gone the extra mile to keep all these great people to design games and deliver their product. Their loss is incalculable, but the hobby community benefits

I learnt to play WFB at Games Workshop Maidstone! Early to mid 2000s.

These pod cast round table sessions are such fun. Made my morning when this popped up

Betrayal at Calth is a fantastic game, I still play it to this day!

Gary!!! That’s a blast from the past- Maidstone used to be my local GW

I had a supplier who had their catalog in a three ring and would mail updates from time to time. What a great idea.

you guys really kill it with these chat shows. Definitely the most professionally done podcast since the independent characters. Thanks for the content

I really like the tone you handle these chats. You keep it overall very positive even though every now and then some frustrations about the workshop might show a little. :D

Another thoroughly enjoyable experience, cheers chaps! Also: the audio definately was on point this episode.

James, thank you so much for Blitz Bowl! There was no way I was ever going to get my wife to play Blood Bowl (and she new another woman who played and ran Blood Bowl Sevens events), but she'll play Blitz Bowl with me, since we can play in less than an hour.

I went to school with James, he was in the year above but we were mates! He made an awesome ork/bike/racer game that we loved playing. I've always loved seeing him do things like this.

Shoutout to Maidstone Gary! Love popping into the Warhammer store to see him

I have loved watching this video, and it was a pleasure to work with you both (Peachy & James) on Betrayal at Calth for the play-through video. They were very fun times and I have some fantastic memories of you all! 🙂

It was absolutely called "Seigneurs de Guerre" (edited by MB Games) ! This episode is going to be awesome I can already tell.

Another Maidstonian here checking in; can certify Gary is a gentleman and a legend!

Fair play these interview shows are bloody awesome! Love this!

"It doesn't know what it wants to be." Nailed it. Horus Heresy is a heavy, crunchy ruleset geared more towards a simulation of narrative events rather than an abstracted game. AoS is filled with fantasy absurdity - the rules are very flavorful and match the faction lore, your heroes get to make heroic actions, your monsters roar at people, and there's as little math as possible between one epic thing and the next because you're not trying to simulate anything the mechanics are an abstraction to allow your Celestant Prime to smash in turn 3 after he's powered up or for your chaos hero to achieve the favor of the dark gods and ascend to Daemon Prince. I love playing both Horus Heresy and AoS. I tried to force myself to get into 40k because the Astartes fan film is what drew me into the hobby, but I just can't be bothered. 40k is like all of the number crunching and load-out obsessing with none of the simulation because the bodyguard rule is written in an abstract method so you can't actually shoot Celestine who's in front of you, you have to shoot her "bodyguards" who are sat behind a building but still within X inches of her. It ends up being the worst aspects of the two other games without either of the payoffs and I also have to wait 30 minutes while my opponent takes their whole turn too. Which is a massive shame because I love 40k sculpts.

Gary is a legend.

I was wondering why KZfaq kept putting this video in front of me so I decided to watching it. I get to the section talking about Blades In The Dark and realise what the algorithm was getting at. Enjoyed the interview even though 40k isn't really my thing

James was definitely a breath of fresh air for GW box games, awesome video as always guys. Makes driving in the car on long work trips enjoyable 👍.

FUCK YES, IT’S JAMES, THE LEGEND! Strapping in for this one.

Congratulations on 50k + subscribers, keep up the good work! 🤘🏻

I love this show! It is brilliant! So much fun to listen to while doing some hobbying. Have binged all the talkshow episodes in the last 2 weeks and it has been a fantastic hobby aid. Thank you all for making this show! I know for certain that whenever you release an episode that will be a time in the week that gets me some hobbying done! Been working on both terrain pieces and miniatures during this episode. All the guests so far have been really interesting to listen to as well. Hope you'll keep bringing in some more guests from all over the hobby, because this format of the show is perfect. Cheers from Sweden! :)

Cheers! Great show. Any chance of hearing more about Jervis? He is a legend, IMHO

Alternating activation, one simultaneous turn, alternating: all units move, all units fire, all units, damage and model removal, then all models declare charges if available then melee, finally casualties are removed only after all models have had attacked.

Thanks for all the hard work gents! Love to see it 👍

I love listening to you guys while I paint my models. Awesome show to just chill out and listen to the banter.

Silver Tower is excellent, 3 of us are playing through the campaign now.

Another lovely one, you just keep knocking them out the park!

Really enjoyed that interview. Thanks guys

I love how Para Bellum handles their rules and updates for both versions of their "Conquest" game by making them instantly accessible yet have a gorgeously illustrated book available separately.

I'm proud to say I was a part of the team that watched this video.

Always enjoy a good Hewitt interview. Love the insight into the GW history as well.

Great episode yet again, absolutely smashing it guys. 👏

Another great guest and show. I really look forward to these chats

James: I believe you broke down and wept Peachy: They weren't tears, though

Congrats on 50k Gents. It has been a fun ride and this has become my favorite 40k Podcast

Fantastic chat again guys!! Always getting to learn something new from all these insights behind the scenes in the industry and laugh my head off at the same time, perfect combination! ^^

These interviews go from strength to strength, this was my favourite one yet. James was an amazing interviewee.

Awesome video again guys , and James was a brilliant guest and did know he did the silver tower , absolutely love that game , just a shame the app kept crashing .

This ia the only video i ever saw from you guys and i really loved it. The discussion was fun and interesting throughout the whole video and everyone seemd so interesting and passionate :D.

Oooh! Stargrunt is my favourite wargame, at least for anything involving infantry, and Jeff (Geoff?) is the first person in "40K KZfaq Land" who has ever encountered it. So happy now!

Love what I hear and learn. Great show chaps, I put everyone on that is into the hobby

I am not even of 'a certain age' and it was Hero Quest and Space Crusade that got me into wargaming with miniatures

Silver Tower is my all time fave game. I've been catching up on the sidetracked podcasts and this is a huge surprise. Can't wait to finish this episode 😁

Love it, looking forward to the next one.

Oh my god, out of nowhere - James Hewitt of Silver Tower legend. Excited to listen to this!

It was a real eye-opener hearing that GW artists get direction to avoid making models that can be easily converted. This probably explains why we have no standard Primaris marines with jump packs. It would be so easy to just convert them, GW probably doesn't think it's financially wise to produce. It's also probably the reason the new Decimators have such horrible weapon designs. Some poor artist was told "Make it NOT resemble a melta, heavy bolter, rocket launcher or a las cannon. Good luck."

Great interview. I did a little bit with James and Sophie on League of Infamy. That game really needed to be played with friends but dropped in the middle of covid which really hurt it.

Funny hearing you talk about the beginners and advanced rules in GW games. I always used to think of the two rulesets for games like blood bowl and space fleet as "fun" and "crap". As for 40k, I saw a 'tuber demonstrate a small battle recently. They had about 6 books on the table and every action took about 8 rolls and re rolls. One side got steamrollered. The comments were full of folks pointing out they'd forgotten a whole vital rule... but with 6 books to refer to, well, hardly f***in surprising, is it. 🙄

Great interview!

Great guest and interview

Calth and Silver Tower have some of my favourite mechanics ever, James Hewitt is my gave dev hero. Great interview! (and I'll have to try Titanicus someday)

Great video and interview!!!

These interviews are brilliant. Thank you for making them :)

Interesting that you mention introducing rules but by bit. I am subscribed to imperium magazine and that is how it is done going through rules and introducing them but by bit

In regards to the rules topic - the easy/hard version of the rules, this reminds me of Battletech. You can use the crazy advanced Battletech that simulates the ply # of toilet paper that your mech warrior uses, vs Alpha Strike, which is much more abstracted with LOADS of optional rules to bolt on to make it more advanced, as you want (like weather, visibility, artillery, air strikes, etc etc)

Another great episode. I'm in the RAF and we have a club at my current base, I never knew there was so many fans of the hobby in the military its great.

Always a pleasure to watch your weekly video :D

Wohoooo, you guys need to do this more often. Having it once a week doesn't satisfy my addiction listening to yer banter.

This was a lot of fun, I really like the talk about game design. I would love to gave more experts in the field of wargaming on the show.

Great video guys. Interesting to hear how games are designed 👍🏻

This might be my favorite episode so far. What a pleasure to listen to. Thank you James for all your work

Greatest episode yet! Love it! you guys just addressed every question I had about what 40k game mechanics seems like most of my assumptions were very similar and most of the thoughts regarding how it could be better. Hey Peach can you guys have the mighty John Blanche, I would love to hear his thoughts on working with GW and his approach during the glory years 80’s

Came for the >DAKKA!< stayed for the Sidetracks. Another great video guys. I'm looking forward to the Necromunda content

Really love this episode. I'm the same, always been writing little extras and rules. Always wanted to put some ideas on paper but just don't know if it's worth the time.

the points system is fine but not necessary for casual play. the biggest problem (failure) of 40k, is the game turn sequence. the IGYG format may work for the competitive tournament players, but is useless for campaign or story driven gaming. the better methods include; alternating unit activation, simultaneous damage, removal of CP and strategems. using rules from rogue trader that improve individual stats on models. less rigid on unit size and/or load outs. these are the biggest complaints that are keeping people from enjoying the game. (aside from cost and constant rules changes and various model availability)

These videos are tremendous. I love hearing about the ins and outs of GW and the different departments within. In regards to "fixing 40k" is there an argument to be made that a D6 based system is too limiting with the variety of units/models/rules these days?

Great episode!

Class guest! Thanks guys!

Just stumbled upon this, what a great podcast!

The best thing about hero quest… is all the great gamers that started in the hobby because of hero quest

Oh, hey, James Hewitt! I work in video game dev and do some tabletop game dev on the side, and I've always found your professional insights really useful, so thanks for that! That bit about needing the gear change speaks to me on a profound level. I've got three or four tabletop projects I bounce between, and it's such a refresher. And the point about writing rules with the intention to minimise the "friction" between the mechanics and the events and strategy on the tabletop is very much something that I aim for. You want people who give a shit about the source material and the themes to be able to translate that knowledge and care and investment into their gaming actions AND for those actions to be the way the game encourages and rewards you for playing - the "meta" choices, so to speak.

I’ve always wondered why gw don’t take the Lotr SBG approach with 40k where you release a main rulebook and a book with every profile in it. I’ve bought so many models after reading profiles I wasn’t previously interested in. They started with the indices in 8th but just dropped it.

The anecdote about players stealing the good destiny dice is interesting - Blackstone Fortress had a few events that leaned into that sort of competitive PVP spirit, which my wife and I looked at and thought "why would we compete for that? That would be dumb." - but hearing this it sounds like the competitive events were a direct response to that kind of rivalry in the Silver Tower playtest games!

53:51 I LOVE Blades in the Dark!!!!

I LOVE Silver Tower! It was the gateway game for me that brought me to AoS, 40K, and most recently Horus Heresy.

Yes!!!! Makes my morning when I see a new episode!

Another great chat! :)

I love these style of videos you get some really interesting takes on parts of the hobby that you may not have had an interest in before. I totally agree that rules should be online and updateable I mean the apps already there so it is possible, and your still going to get people who just want a book anyway.

In regards to your point on how do you make Custodes thematic but not overpowered, shooting/hitting isn't all that big a problem and can be neutered or buffed when wounding. By getting rid of the wounding/toughness table in 8th/9th you've really reduced your options on making weapons stronger or weaker depending on the opponent you are shooting at.

in high school i would throw parties when my mom was out of town and i would hide all my minis in fear of people finding out how big of a nerd i was

This was an excellent video! Great to hear James discuss his experiences in designing games. I've attended one of his workshops before and it was superb. I must do more. Discount code?! Yes, please....

Great video and great chat. Agree with the 40k v Skirmish games debate. I have around 2000pts of a 40K army I have enjoyed painting and bought models that looked good rather than competitive. Look the setting and the feel but I just want a basic ruleset and no more swamping of books upon books to be able to play. I have no problem with that side of it being there, but I want a lite version alongside it. Xenos rampant is now where im looking to use the 40k models

O man I remember Gary from working in GW Eastbourne, think he might have been a regional or cell manager at the time and would occasionally be in the store.

NGL James looks like an absolute blast to hang out with.

Absolutely fantastic!

One day it would be interesting to get someone from the business to explain how difficult it is align the ability to be creative with the business alignment. When you have a small company to a degree you have more freedom. When you are a massive global company you dont have the time to be herding cats that want to be creative and often unfocused. It is always easy to see it purely from the creative side without perhaps understanding how impossible it is to manage and deal with them on the daily basis. The problem is we cannot really talk about from the business aspect and certainly nobody outside wants to understand those demands. It is a difficult balance to deal with.

"I wish I had this when I was in school." Now you know how us comic book geeks felt about all of this post MCU. I remember constantly thinking that the idea of the Avengers would never EVER work...then we had X-Men. Arguably Blade, and then Spider-Man, and so on. It took baby-steps (and technology to catch up, with competent screen-writers). Dungeons & Dragons fans more than likely feel the same. I constantly tell my kids that they have it lucky now. It's now difficult to imagine being bullied or weirdly looked down upon for having comics to read during school lunch, or some bullies pointing it out in class like I was a weirdo. Less Bible thumping, more imagination works! Less relying of video games as main entertainment...more...plastic painting? I don't know, but I'm glad tabletop stuff is still a thing.