Podcast History

Meeples & Minatures is a podcast about all aspects of Miniature Wargaming and Strategy Boardgames. The first episode was produced in January 2007, which makes it one of the longest running wargaming podcasts globally and the longest running UK gaming podcast. The show published its final ‘official’ episode in December 2019, thus ending a run of 12 years and 283 episodes.

Although the production schedule has varied over the years, the show was produced roughly every two weeks until November 2016. At this point it switched to a weekly format, before moving back to fortnightly a year later.  It discussed all aspects of Miniature Wargaming and Strategy Boardgames – concentrating on historical wargaming and the ‘smaller’ titles in fantasy and sci-fi, so you will find very little about Warhammer, W40K, Warmachine/Hordes or Flames of War on this podcast. Some boardgames were also discussed, with the emphasis being on those that involve either miniatures, or some form of conflict.

Up until January 2009, the show had been a solo podcast, hosted by Neil Shuck (aka Earthquake on many online forums). However, from the start of 2009, several guest presenters joined Neil on a more regular basis, and the show grew to 3 co-hosts in the shape of Mike Hobbs (who joined in 2012), Mike Whitaker (who joined in 2013), and Dave Luff (who finally became a regular co-host in 2016, after appearing on the show on a number of occasions). Mike Whitaker left the show after Episode 250, when the hosting format switched to having a different ‘third chair’ for each episode.

Previous co-hosts have included Rich Jones (who appeared on a regular basis for a couple of years), Jere Koskela, and Steve Archibald.

In addition, a regular guest slot with Henry Hyde – the editor of Miniature Wargames with Battlegames magazine – became so popular that is spawned into a podcast of it’s own – View from the Veranda.

Given the duration of the podcast, and the fact that the presenters are good friends, there are a number of running jokes that may aid in your understanding of the host banter:

Painting – For many years Neil collected miniatures, but hardly painted any of them. Whilst his painting output has improved recently, his co-hosts still tease him about his lack of painted models.

Cake – Podcast listener Mervyn Douglas once presented Neil with a cake at the Hereward Wargames show. Mike Whitaker ‘put it somewhere safe’ for Neil, and subsequently ate it after Neil forgot to take it home. Neil reminds Mike of this incident at every opportunity.

Guru Luff – Dave is known for his careful frugality: he hardly ever buys any games or miniatures, arguing that new purchases simply dilute the number of games you can play. Neil & Mike Hobbs have accused him of starting a foul cult of frugality in the hobby, and labelled him the ‘Guru’ of said cult.