Why Don't You Start a Wargaming Club?

There are many benefits to being in a wargaming club, and Uncle Atom will tell you about them. But what if you want to start a wargaming club?

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[Buchwald]

We are not a club, but I just started inviting people into my home directly from wargaming groups on Facebook. It was a bit scary at first, but within the first couple of minutes of meeting them, you realize that: in the wargaming community, we are all the same "kind" of people. I had seen alot of people searching for a club in our Island area (in Denmark) and in time I just felt that *someone* just needed to take charge, else people would stop collecting. So I took it upon myself, and I have no regrets, I had alot of battlemats and all the 4Ground terrain and lots of custom terrain too, so it was an obvious choice that I should host, and Its so much fun to meet new people from the comfort of your home. We started with just 2 people. Now we are around 9. And I'm considering a fee, with all the Tea and Coffee people drink :D But in all seriousness. If you have the least amount of surplus courage. Just do it :) Sometimes we just talk about the hobby, sometimes we assemble and/or paint, and sometimes we play. It's alot of fun :)

[Lord_Lambert]

Why don't I start a club? Because I'd be the only one attending.

[Steve_Keen]

It's always funny when you do the "PA-CHOW" and I have annotations off. Makes you look a little mad ;P

[WarGamerGirl]

Some of the best gaming groups I've met tend to have strong "leadership".  In a club or otherwise, they tend to be a strong personality who comes up with reasons for the group to meet even outside of gaming.  A few years back, I went to AMA-Con in Amarillo and met the Warmachine group in the gaming area of the convention.  That same night I found myself hanging out with everyone at one of the guys' houses.  He was making chicken fajitas for the group while we played Guitar Hero and celebrated a birthday.  It was a really fun and tight-knit gaming group.  Good times =)

[Linkedition]

If I wasn't taking my army to club events I would never get any of it painted.

[commanderbacara]

A friend and I started an unofficial wargaming club at our university 2 years ago. We originally planned to have a small community of 6-15 people who share likeminded interests. Fast forward to 2023, we have expanded immensely and currently have over 120 active members (both student and alumni) playing every wargaming community in the hobby. We even managed to get the club officiated in the school club roster and opened collaborations with an enthusiastic FLGS to run university events. In the end, all of this happened because two people decided to start a club.

[krzto]

I'm a member/blog contributor for Chicago Skirmish Wargames, so thanks for the club shoutout! A little story: about 1.5 yrs ago, I was a lone hobbyist in terms of mini gaming. I'd just paint models I liked for fun, but never play due to lack of ppl interested. I had heard about Adepticon for a few years but decided to attend for the first time in 2017. Mentioning my plans to go, another friend in a board gaming group also expressed his interest, and I discovered another local person interested in minis! My first time at the con was inspiring enough that I started my own local group in NWI. That's also where I met the CSW guys and started gaming with them a month or two after we met (still close enough for me to travel.)
Over this past year, I have played way more games, painted more models, learned a crazy amount about this hobby, and met some extraordinarily nice, creative people simply from taking these initial steps. My own group has gone from 8 ppl to approx 40 locals who are interested in miniatures gaming.
Some tips:
1) don't be ~too~ cautious to put your interests out there and see who responds. Enthusiasm is contagious.
2) if you plan on STARTING a club, be prepared to do 110% of the initial work! When I try to build interest by demoing at events or meetups you better believe I have 2 warbands painted and attempt some eye catching table setups!
3) Don't restrict yourself to 1 gaming system...be open about generic systems (SoBH, Frostgrave, etc) where people can use a variety of minis since they might not be invested in another particular system. Some systems that promote player counts beyond 1v1 (Gaslands, Frostgrave, etc) are also nice because you can get more people involved quickly.

More than likely there ARE people who enjoy the things you do within a reasonable distance. Sometimes you might just have to ignite that enthusiasm.

[cammerclimbs]

Could you show what you hobby table looks like? How you have it laid out? If you already have one, could you pachow it in your next video? I’m new to the hobby and really enjoy your videos.

[gitgoodpainting]

10 more skaven to paint, then yeah, I’m going to be doing exactly this. Need me a B.B. league to join.

[samsendell]

The gaming club im part of in the uk is great. A group of friends started a facebook group for AOS gamers in the area and told everyone they thought mighr like it. We play at a local gaming hall and we have a single club night every month but the fb group lets us grab an oppenent for a game any day we want. We now have close to 150 members.

[benitopulatso]

"My head is garbage." - Uncle Atom, 2018

I feel ya, man. Right there with you.

[yaboyzzz]

I hate losing to thousand sons every time I play against my friend

[ironwolf]

Going to talk to a few guys about this. We got people doing X-Wing and that Star Wars Rebellion wargame thing.... and they want to set up a league. We might as well get with them to make a schedule and make things easier, and possibly get people just to do more wargames in genreal. I don't know how many times I have on lookers at my 40K matches and ask them how they are then they just walk

[zandosdwarf-king]

I won't start a club, because:
1. I can't afford it.
2. There are plenty already.

What I'm going to start, however, is Konflikt 47 going on in this city.

[AoSCoach]

It’s such a rewarding feeling when you see club members in club attire at large events. It really makes you feel you’re apart of something greater

[chrisyck]

Recently started collecting miniatures again and I never played the table top games due to lack of friends that shared the same interest. Found a local club via FB and they are great, it’s £3 an evening to play but they supply the place, the table tops and scenery and have a active roster of about 25+ people on top of that the guys got discount sorted at local stores and also run tournaments, was so worth looking for a club.

[MrLigonater]

I’ve seen a lot of comments about having trouble finding gaming partners. I can sympathize. My wife and I move around a lot and we tend to loose our gaming groups when we do. We have found that it helps to be a part of different hobby scenes to find gamers. We both swing dance and reenact, and usually there is a group for one of those nearby. That’s how we have had the most success meeting gamers. (Outside of a game store obviously). I guess my advice is, if you want to meet nerdy people, try different nerdy hobbies.

[VJMorph]

Our little Shadespire club is going strong, have knocked out a couple of big 4 way games the last couple of Friday’s.

The local GW manager has asked if we want to come and play in store, which is a possibility or we are looking at maybe doing an overhead cam & putting our games on YT.

Hobby strong 💪

[neef]

I look forward to your videos every Friday. Keep up the great work.

[leekielblock]

A friend started a gaming club 3 years ago for tabletop gaming. We still play 8th edition WHFB and meet once a month for gaming. We started with 4 people and now have 8 showing up on a regular basis with 2-4 more some months. Last year we had a yearlong campaign and this year we are trying a round robin style of play. 8 players each with a different army. We play each other player once and total up the points at the end of the cycle to determine a winner. It is great fun to get together and battle the different armies. We are even going to run a mini-tournament this fall at a local public hall as an introduction of tabletop games to hopefully get more people interested.