The Madaxeman.com Podcast

Series 3 Opener : Huge Grenadier Hat Malarkey

After a barren 5 month interregnum a mathematical majority of the Madaxeman Podcast crew stumble grudgingly back onto the airwaves with a near-2-hour episode to kickstart the 3rd series.

Any semblance of order, structure and giving the impression of planning is almost instantly thrown out of the window as we immediately go off tangent in a fascinating discussion around the origin (and ending) of the  entire concept of a Grenadier, before we swerve decisively into some surprisingly well informed opinions about 3D printing, consider whether the long time coming Dire Straits revival will include a remixed Europop single called "Gaming by the Pool", have a vote to decide if the 1980's RPG "Traveller" ever really existed in our stub, try to guess who won the 1936 Eurovision Song Contest, witter on about Contrast paints (again..), and then give a look back to Britcon and a heads-up to the SELWG show.

Of course, Andy's quiz also returns from the mists of time with something equally and typically topical too, aided and abetted by its timeless theme music.

Tamsin's 3D printer we discuss at some length is an Anycubic Kobra, but I've been asked to flag up that it's not necessarily a good one for a beginner - Tamsin instead suggests the Elegoo Neptune 3, or the Anycubic Vyper if you have a bit more bench space available. For both of those she'd recommend replacing the PTFE tubing they come with with Capricorn PTFE tubing (affilate links to Amazon). 

The pictures of some of the stuff we talked about is also online here:

• Tamsin's Blog
• The Madaxeman Blog 

 

Oh My Aachen Nuts!

A decidedly Carry On-flavoured episode title hides within it a pun-tastic "five-handed" episode this month/week, as we take you on a road trip the like of which has not been seen since the Blues Brothers set off for Chicago with half a tank of gas, two packets of cigarettes and their still-iconic-now Ray-Ban sunglasses all those years ago.

Our journey however thankfully avoids Dave and I duetting with Aretha Franklin and instead takes us through two world wars, a lot of stained glass, several centuries of Frederick Barbarossa's wedding gifting lists, 2 Sherman tanks, a castle on two rivers big enough to hold the entire Walloonian army (and then some), and some totally NUTS Belgian beer that you are served in, and have to drink from a ceramic WW2 US Paratroopers helmet (guess where folks...!).

Then, eventually and somewhat grudgingly we break from the travelogue to discuss playing ADLG in a castle on the Rhine at the recent Braubach tournament, then go on to cover Roll Call, the upcoming ADLG Worlds, go super-deep with some chubby printed 6-10-15mm Etruscans, build lamp-posts for Mega City One, cover ourselves in feathers as we don some Eagle Warrior Onesies with the Aztecs, and of course end by hitting up a Eurovsion-themed version of Andy's Quiz. 

There is also a bit of a gauntlet-laying-down challenge for all of our listener(s) this week. Let's just say that if any of you believe that you have been for a beer in in the ropiest bar in Belgium, well, I'm afraid we have some news for you...

 

The North Macedonia All Stars

In this March & April episode the full suite of seven engage in an unexpected discussion comparing Warlord and GW's "Contrast"/ "Speed" paints that occasionally veers into actual proper wargaming podcast territory at times. Keeping with this unusual approach there is also a bit of a chat about 3D printing and the gentle wave of retirements washing across the traditional manufacturers and retailers in the historical space, and what that may mean for the hobby in the short and medium term.

Fortunately this proper content is more than counterbalanced by an episode of World of Wor-Wor-War Sports punditry and analysis as we are joined by Roy Keane, Micah Richards and Alan Hansen to try and predict the winners of the upcoming 15mm ADLG competition at Roll Call 2022. This segment starts around the 55 minute mark, in case you really don't want to hear us talking about painting, or indeed trying our hands at actual proper podcast-like stuff.

Finally, Andy's Quiz return with some answers from the distant past and a topical Russian Naval Disasters-themed set of questions for this week. 

• Tamsin's Speedpaint Test Lab
• Roll Call 2022 Runners & Riders 

Badly Scripted Beer

The Ides of March are upon us, and so it must be time for Episode 5 of Series 2 of the Madaxeman Podcast.

This week a 6-handed episode sees extensive coverage of the Painting Challenge, discussion of competitions, restaurants and public houses of all flavours and dimensions in the pseudo-industrial brewing town of Burton Upon Trent, forward-planning of a kind rarely seen outside of a gold spray tan booth online booking system, an almost-ISITYAA discussion of Why DBA is the best ruleset ever written (and a simultaneous demonstration that we very clearly and absolutely don't script any of the rest of this podcast to boot) as well as the usual inane chat, observations about kitchen implement storage solutions, and links to pictures of Japanese soldiery of a 28mm variety.   

There is also an episode of Andy's Quiz, including the answers to the last episodes questions (for those of you old enough to remember it). 

• Tamsins Painting Challenge photos 
• The Coopers Tavern, Burton

Alicante Ahoy!

Another year, another brand new experiment as we unleash a multi-session podcast recorded "in the studio" in the UK (aka on Zoom), "in the field" abroad (aka in a bar in Spain), and "in the 1980's" (aka in a coffee shop back in London with overly loud music playing in the background) in which some of the regular crew initially preview, then discuss half way through, and finally review the recent L'Art de la Guerre competition held in Alicante in Spain in January 2022.

We are also joined by a number of special guests, and an even greater number of waitresses who all make a unwitting yet far more meaningful contribution than most of us can manage ourselves - especially after several bottles of red wine at lunchtime.

Heads-up - some of the audio is a bit murky, but you should be able to hear the clinking of wine and beer glasses clearly enough to get the gist of it, even in the bits when the words might get a little lost in the background hubbub. 

This podcast accompanies the Alicante Battle Reports on Madaxeman.com. 

• The Spanish music in this podcast is used under a creative commons license and is from the Watcha Clan. The original track can be found here.

Christmas for Badgers

In what is likely to become this year's Christmas episode by dint of us almost certainly failing to find time to record another one in the next few weeks, the full Madaxeman podcast crew reconvene online to witter aimlessly about what they have been up to since the last podcast (which could be a description for almost any podcast on any subject come to think of it..) 

As well as the usual painting chat, we unpick the piratey bones from the recent Brixham Devonian Classic ADLG competition, which saw 36 players gather for chips, beer, invigorating coastal walks and some incidental games of ADLG at the very site of the landing point of William of Orange on his way to claim the English crown, before going into the freezing details of the Warfare event held recently in Ascot. 

Along the way there's a painting challenge, lots of cold-weather outdoor undercoating, several Samurai excursions, the Kingdom of Benin gets a mention, Perry plastics are yet again lauded to the heavens (Christmas is coming after all..), and a vaguely informed debate as to whether competitions actually have to be competitive to be enjoyable (spoiler alert, the answer is "no").

So, sit back, make sure to keep dipping your brush in the water pot rather than that glass of gently steaming mulled wine, and revel in listening to the 205th most popular hobby podcast in Finland right now !

• Tamsins Blog
• Xyston Generals as Companions
• Brixham Match Reports
• Red3 Miniatures

Oim Spartacus!

After every hiatus comes a podcast, and this week is no different as the full Madaxeman podcast team return somewhat grudgingly from an extended break of actually playing games, going outside and doing proper things in the real world - or in Tamsin's case, making one helluva lot of trees and shaving a few towels in the process - and step up out of their basements, dust off their parchment rulesets and head to their microphones to share their lack of wargames wisdom... 

The end result is a decidedly unscripted second (and first non-ADLG-specific) podcast of a new series, as we compare notes on painting and not painting, discuss how weird it is to go to a show again (SELWG), engage in a pretty piratey Andy's Quiz and see a welcome return for Micah Richards and the World of Wor-Wor-WarSports as we preview part of the upcoming Devonian Classic competition next weekend and try and predict the winners of the 25mm pool in a more random than random sort of way.

• Refurbished Medievals in 15mm 
• Tamsin's SELWG Demo Games report
• Tamsin's Jungle Terrain 
• The God's Own Scale Podcast Site

ADLGv4 List Building : The BHGS Teams 2021 - the top 6 lists

Another tentative step back towards recording and publishing a regular podcast this autumn sees the usual list review team of me, Dave and Richard pore over the 6 lists used by the members of the top 2 placed teams from the recent BHGS Teams L'Art de la Guerre event held in London in September 2021.

The event was themed into 3 separate pools : Biblical, armies with Steppe terrain, and Sub Zero (pre 0AD) and so we have a very eclectic group of lists to share and discuss in this podcast: Hittites and Assyrians, Parthians and Abbasids, and Later Persians and Ptolemaic Successors. 

The lists all are reproduced on the Madaxeman ADLG Wiki so you can read them at your leisure, or read along as you listen.

As usual this podcast is also being published on the Madaxeman YouTube Channel with pictures of some vaguely relevant figures and more importantly frequent appearances of all of the lists as well.  

 

ISITYAA tackles The Problem With Paint (Summer - ahem - 2021 Bonus Episode #2)

After much promise and very little delivery, another lazily rehashed cut-and-paste job recycles an old episode of I'm Sorry I Think You're An Arse and plops it out into the audio-ether for your delight and tangible disappointment.

This segment was originally published at the start of 2021, probably when we were all working under some sort of lockdown scenario, and addresses head-on the vexed issue of whether modern gaming and modelling paint ranges have just gone too goddam far, and instead puts forward the entirely reasonable proposition that we should all simply go back to the halcyon days when the Humbrol range of enamels was the be all and end all of painting toy soldiers, and further expounds the theory that we would all be far happier if someone important just drew a big fat Gloss 208 Day-glo Green line under any further paint-based development shenanigans going forward.

As well as this recycling initiative, there are actually some other new podcast episodes in gestation - a list pod is in production as we speak, and there are mutterings and vague talk of restarting the full team pod in a few weeks as well, most probably with some World of War-War-War Sports punditry and predictions on upcoming tournaments.

But in the meantime, a bit like finding an open petrol station, then realising that it only has LPG in stock, this is about as good as it is going to get for this week I'm afraid ... 

 

ISITYAA tackles The Greying of the Hobby (Summer 2021 Bonus Episode #1)

As threatened, The Madaxeman Podcast returns to punctuate your summer with a lazily cobbled together series of repeats of our barely tongue in cheek I'm Sorry I Think You're an Arse feature.

This 30 minute snippet of Madaxeman Podcast is an ideal way to brighten your already sunny day (between showers), and this time around features an ISITYAA from way back in March of this year in which Adam takes on the vexed subject of why anyone who comes out with the hoary old line of "The Hobby is Greying, And we need to do something about it!" actually needs to get right back in their box (ideally quite quickly, as otherwise Adam may assist them in an overly proactive manner). 

Look out for more ISITYAA repeats in the coming weeks!