Part 2: Meet Teamforged | Warmachine & Iron Kingdoms Manifesto
You heard a lot from me in Part 1 (kudos to anyone who read the whole thing!). Today, I’m handing the mic to some of the other fantastic folks at Steamforged, a.k.a. Teamforged, who you’ll see in the Discord, Facebook group, and in our upcoming Warmachine journeyman league.
If you’re just joining us, I’m Mat Hart, founder and CCO. This post is the second in a series designed to take you behind the scenes as we tackle the triumphs and challenges of Warmachine and the Iron Kingdoms.
If you’ve been following Warmachine for a while, you might already be familiar with the Privateer Press team but new to Steamforged. So, where Part 1 focused on our vision and mission, Part 2 is about getting to know some of us better as we get to know you. Let’s start with my counterpart, Rich Loxam.
I’ve been playing Warmachine for many years now. It’s a running joke with the team how long it’ll take me to bring this up, so I’ll get it out of the way now: long before Mat and I founded Steamforged, I was the first UK Hardcore Champion for Warmachine. (I can already hear them laughing as they read this.)
Outside of playing in tournaments, I helped to grow the community, setting up the European Team Championships (ETC) in 2011 (alongside Jamie Perkins) and getting involved in the creation and running of Smogcon.
When we weren’t playing Warmachine, Mat and I were working on Guild Ball, which eventually led to the creation of Steamforged ten years ago. From there, I became CEO, handling the business side of things and keeping SFG on track with the board’s vision.
So, that’ll be my primary role when it comes to the Iron Kingdoms, as well as working closely with Team Blackflag, which is SFG’s equivalent of a Marketing team. (Considering the origins of Warmachine, the irony of this name is not lost on us.)
Right now, I’m having a lot of fun teaching my two kids, who are six and four, how to paint miniatures and play games. My six-year-old is just starting to wrap his head around wargames, which (of course) is incredibly exciting for me.
As the kids get older, I’m also finding time to reconnect with the Warmachine community and events. With time being as precious as it is, I’m focusing on having fun, painting cool armies, and meeting great people. Turning 40 this year means I’ve definitely got more grey hairs than when I started with Warmachine, but I can still give Perkins a run for his money on a good day! 😉
Although I’m a bit of a faction hopper, I’ve settled on Dusk for our upcoming journeyman league. Excited to run some vampire elves!
Hey! My name is Jamie Perkins, although some may remember me as "Jamie P".
After joining Steamforged as the first game developer over eight years ago, I’m now a senior Product Owner. I work directly under Mat and lead half the creative team, internally named ‘Team Cobra’ in honour of a fairly popular martial arts TV show.
As Mat covered in Part 1, we’ll be using all our creative and practical skills to support Privateer Press and enhance and grow the game. I’m extremely happy to be a part of that, alongside Mat and Sherwin.
On a personal level, I've been playing Warmachine for nearly 15 years now, and have had the privilege of competing in events across the UK, mainland Europe, and the USA. I won the UK Nationals four years in a row, as well as the TempleCon Masters (which I commemorated appropriately) and, more recently, the Welsh Masters.
On the community side, I helped found the World Team Championships (WTC), run SmogCon, and founded the ETC here in the UK.
In fact, I’ll be at the WTC this year as a Team England player, running Khador Winter Korps. I’m looking forward to meeting old and new friends and playing some games!
Although I’m definitely one of the more competitive players at SFG, casual games with friends and catching up with people at events are both a big part of what makes Warmachine so special to me. It really is a fantastic community, and I’m blessed to be in a position to help bring that experience to more people.
As for the journeyman league, I’ll be adjudicating, helping to organise match-ups, and giving pointers on battle reports. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Hey everyone, my name is Sherwin Matthews. I’m a senior product owner at Steamforged. Over the coming months, I’ll be involved with Warmachine on the design and development side, alongside the team at Privateer Press, and Mat and Jamie at Steamforged.
Hopefully, I’ll also find time to write some fiction for the setting—those who know me will recall I was the writer for Guild Ball, and have also written fiction for Horizon, Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, Dark Souls, Elden Ring, and others besides.
I first started playing Warmachine back in 2010, the same week the Forces of Hordes: Skorne book was released (how time has flown!). I quickly fell in love with the aforementioned mortitheurgical rogues, and spent the next four years waging war on tabletops across the UK, playing in just about every event I could get to.
It was around then I found a new army to sink my teeth into… the Convergence of Cyriss (as it happens, this decision stood me in good stead in later years, when David ‘DC’ Carl—formerly of Privateer Press, and one of the original minds behind Convergence—came to work at Steamforged).
Convergence were the new kid on the block back then, and a real departure from the Skorne in terms of playstyle. I played them for another couple of years, but by then another challenger for my attention had approached. My true love. The Thornfall Alliance (let’s be honest, you were either a Gator or Pig player in those days. Playing Surf’n Turf was definitely the preserve of a few radicals).
I’ll be playing Cygnar in our upcoming journeyman league—definitely a departure in playstyle again, and one I’m looking forward to. Sadly, despite my best efforts to convince people otherwise, Carver doesn’t count as a playable faction just yet…
I'm Richard August, lead roleplaying game designer and product owner at SFG. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I'll be involved in the RPG side of things with Privateer Press alongside Mat.
I really like Skorne because civilisations of blood-crazed killers have always been close to my heart. As a result, my new favourite is Orgoth.
I'm extremely bad at the wargame but, fortunately, the phenomenal depth of the Iron Kingdoms world means there's still plenty of amazing gaming space for those who aren't strategic thinkers. I will still play Warmachine, however, and do so in character for a lot of the game. So, expect evil laughter and claims my beverage is, in fact, the blood of my enemies. (Mostly Carl's.)
Hi! I’m Russ, Art Director and Lead Sculptor at SFG. I first picked up Cygnar back around 2009 but switched to trolls in 2010, and now I can't imagine playing anything else!
Trolls will always be my OTF (one true faction). At one point, I even had a Dire Troll-themed shed in my garden to play in…
I had the pleasure of meeting Mat, Rich, Sherwin and Jamie through Warmachine. The Iron Kingdoms would have quite the impact on my eventual career, as it turned out. From teaching and sculpting in my spare time, I went on to create miniatures for Privateer Press, including Una the Falconer, Bradigus Thorle, and the redesign of Grissel Bloodsong, before eventually joining Steamforged.
Which brings us to now! As well as sculpting and overseeing new miniatures, I’ll be deep-diving into the creative possibilities of HIPS, and continuing to paint and play my beloved trolls—which I’ll of course be playing in the upcoming journeyman league. (What else?)
Hello! I’m Chynna-Blue, Marketing Manager at Steamforged.
When I joined five years ago, one of the first things I learned was that pretty much the entire team met playing Warmachine. It may even have been during my interview, which should give you some idea just how fundamental this game is and always has been to SFG.
I’m sure I don’t need to explain my role in all this. If you’re in the Discord or Facebook group, there’s a good chance we’ve spoken already, and ‘Marketing’ doesn’t need much explanation. So, I’ll skip those details and move on to the game.
I believe I’m guilty of something the community calls, ‘Watchmachine’, which means I enjoy living vicariously through the cinematic wins and epic defeats of others.
So much so, in fact, that I’ve already helped organise and attended multiple Warmachine events around the UK.
Still, there’s a good chance I’ll be persuaded to take a seat at the table in the very near future. I mean, when I first joined SFG, the most complicated board game I’d played was Risk… now I’ve got Kallaxes for days.
On that note, I just painted my very first miniature, pictured above. Be gentle, please. 😅
Greetings! Although I’m new to the Steamforged team, I’m definitely not new to Warmachine. Previously of Privateer Press, I recently joined Steamforged as the new Marketing Associate for the Iron Kingdoms, and I can’t wait to dive in!
Located over in the US, I’ve been in the games industry for over a decade, with most of that time focused on the Iron Kingdoms world. Since I got my first demo of Warmachine back in 2008, I’ve been hooked!
Much as I’d love to participate in the journeyman league, distance unfortunately gets in the way, so I’ll be rolling dice with the team at Gen Con instead.
In the meantime, you’ll catch me putting up painting tutorials, hanging out at conventions, rolling dice, and talking about pretty much all things gaming. Outside of games, I’m a total petrol head watching F1 or working on restoring my car.
And lastly, a bit about me. As I mentioned at the top of this post, my name is Mat Hart, and I’m the CCO and founder here at SFG.
Practically my entire career has been in the creative industry, with nearly 20 years in video game development and 10 years in tabletop design and development. Yes, I’m kinda old, but I try to act like a 20-year-old as often as I can.
I first started Warmachine with a Denny battle box back in MKI. My rulebook even had the errata stickers in it! MKII was the best time for me, playing in loads of events and getting into competitive painting. It was during this time that I met Lox, Jamie, and Sherwin, along with hundreds of other friends. It was a great time to be a gamer. MKIII slipped by me a little—we were heads down with Steamforged at that time, so I missed out on that journey—but I rekindled my interest with MKIV and I'm loving it.
I’m predominantly a casual player but would describe myself as a painter first and foremost. I’m one of those annoying people who can paint armies quickly to a decent standard (I post stuff on the subreddit often) but have also been known to win the odd competition here and there, when I can be fussed with 60+ hours on a single model... which ain’t often!
Beyond that, I’m a dog lover (with two crazy chihuahuas) and an avid football fan, Arsenal being my one and only true love... which kinda explains why I love painting red and white, or yellow and blue, I guess.
That’s me. I wear my heart on my sleeve, I'm not perfect, but I work hard to make great games and have as much as I can fun along the way.
There are plenty more talented folks working hard on the Iron Kingdoms at SFG. Way more than I could fit in one post, and some of whom you’ll meet over the course of the journeyman league. Make sure you’ve subscribed to the newsletter so you don’t miss the updates.
Otherwise, I’ll be in the Warmachine subreddit next Tuesday from 7pm BST for another AMA. In the meantime, if you’ve got questions or just want to chat, you’ll find the team in the Discord and Facebook group.
