Frostgrave Warband 2023

Tips on Finding a Gaming Group

Howdy friends,

This post originally started as a script for a video I was going to do with my local shop Element Games. They've been trying to build up their online presence with a youtube channel you can check out here. Unfortunately the shoot wasn't able to happen before I left Manchester, but I thought people would still find it interesting.

I also thought it was appropriate as it's about offering some tips on how to find a gaming group in a new place, something that I will have to do very shortly once I've got myself set up here in Canada!

So firstly, I should preface this by saying these tips are not just pulled out of thin air. I moved to England four years ago to a city I had never been with no connections or friends there whatsoever. I ended up having my closest friends group stem from my miniature hobby, and it was one of the most fulfilling experiences I had in the UK. I developed my hobby skills hugely and built a really close relationship to Element, its employees, and its patrons. Element originally asked me to give these tips specifically because I'd ingratiated myself within the community so effectively. So without further ado:

Finding a play group in a new place.

There were three main routes that I took to start building connections. Note that this also works for boardgame/roleplaying/cardgame hobbies as well.

1. Check out all the gaming shops in your area and speak to the employees. Tell them outright that you're new to the area, what systems you play, and ask about the community there. I recommend checking out as many shops as you can so you can see if there's one you really connect with, whether through the space itself or the attitude of the employees.
2. Online forums for your system are a great resource, and most have "find a player" threads or sections. I originally found out about Element Games through the Infinity forums when a player invited me to meet there for a demo game. I would note that army-specific forums are probably too limited for doing this effectively, ideally you should be looking at forums that deal with whole game systems.
3. Local Facebook groups for the systems or shops you are interested in are definitely really useful, and probably the main method local players organise games. However, I would suggest introducing yourself properly when you first join. A one-line post from a stranger saying "when is 40k played?" is not particularly thrilling to an established play group who know nothing about you. Introduce yourself, toss up a picture of your army, how you like to play, tell a joke, briefly give that community a sense of who you are.

Connecting to a gaming community.

In my mind there are two main approaches to take if you're new to a community and want to ingratiate yourself.

Be Flexible - If you are unable to put lot of time and effort into the community I strongly encourage having a bit of flexibility in what you play and how you play it. Adapt yourself to your local scene. This is true both within the game and outside of it. Adapt to a group if it leans more towards a competitive or casual play styles. Maybe try a different system if your chosen one isn't popular at the moment. This is especially easy for skirmish level games where you can get a new army up quickly. Game systems tend to come in and out of popularity in cycles so your preferred one will probably pop back up soon!

Be a Leader - If you are able to put in time and effort you can make a positive impact on your playgroup by organising and introducing new things. If you want to play a different system, or play an established one in a different way, then you can absolutely make that happen on your own initiative. There is no better way to bring value to your local community than by taking the time to get people interested and excited about new things. During my time in the UK I ran a 40k narrative campaign, joined a bunch of RPG games, and built playgroups around the Game of Thrones card game and Infinity miniatures game by offering demos and organising weekly play nights. The great thing about this hobby is that people tend to be really open minded and up for trying different things. We all have systems or playstyles we want to try but haven't had a chance to yet.

Voicing issues within a gaming community.

If you do find there are some issues in your local scene that you can’t look past these can typically be solved by politely communicating to either players and/or the shop what your grievances are. In my experience about 90% of these problems can be solved through communication, and being upfront yet understanding about these problems is a great way to contribute to the quality of the community.

Some good examples I've dealt with myself is there not being enough terrain, people not showing up to gaming meetups, poor store support for a product, etc. Keep in mind it's good to phrase your complaints in a positive way. Instead of saying "it's annoying there isn't enough Infinity terrain" you can say "I really want to bring more Infinity players in but there isn't enough terrain, would you be able to help support the game a bit more?"

Obviously this gets a bit more complicated if we're talking about problem players. Not getting along with someone is heavily context dependant, and I'd encourage you to defer to how the established gaming group handles things.

Keeping up a hobby as a student.

I've been a University student for nine years and kept up a miniatures hobby for almost that entire time. I've got some good tips, especially for undergraduate students.

• Work on a smaller scale. Smaller armies. Less hobby supplies. Less storage needs. Don't buy too much. You're going to be moving a bunch. You're probably using public transportation. Keep it streamlined. As much as this might be a little painful, it does help in many ways, it keeps your budget tight, it means you have less to paint, it keeps you very focused. Be a hobby ascetic, take pride in the fact that you still manage to have a great time without the luxury of lots space, money, or a car.
• Quality instead of quantity with your supplies and purchases. Unless your really tight for cash buy a box at a time rather than getting a huge unpainted second-hand army.  Again it’s about keeping focused and keeping the hobby lean. Spend more time on a smaller number of figures rather than trying to shift through a huge backlog. This will also help improve your painting!
• Don't feel bad about taking breaks from the hobby. Being a student means that workload tends towards extremes of leisure and intensity. There might be months where you barely have time to pickup a brush, nevermind get games in. There also might be periods where you just lose interest for a while, burnout happens to everyone but because your space is so limited as a student its often tempting to jettison parts of the hobby entirely. That's okay, don't feel bad about it, don't beat yourself up about it. You can always come back.
• On the opposite end of the spectrum, do not let your hobby take over your life. Between the hobby and the gaming aspect it’s very very easy to go down a rabbit hole with miniature gaming. Like any sort of hobby it can lead to an obsessive mindset that's ultimately going to hurt you, and students are particularly vulnerable because it can be a way to procrastinate and still feel like you've done something productive. Be aware of how you're thinking about it and know when to ease off.
• Do some stuff that isn't geek-centric. It's always good to have variety in life, especially stuff that involves not sitting at a table or desk. Whether its hiking, going out with friends, playing music, sport, whatever, do try to have other stuff to focus on. Even if it’s largely secondary to your hobby you'll be very glad to have it!

With those pieces of advice in mind, I will say that being a geek is a magnificent way to spend your student years. It's communal, it’s competitive, you build skills as both a hobbyist and a gamer, it is a superb way to relax and decompress. Get out there and have a blast!

Update VII: Gorkanaut Finished!

Hi friends,

Apologies for the absence from the blog. I'm currently heading into the last few months before I aim to submit my doctoral thesis and life is busy. I'm planning to be a lot more active on here from early June onwards, although there will be a very large and detailed article i've been working on for a long time going up in the next few days.

However I I have managed to finished painting the Gorkanaut to bring my ork 40k forces up to 1000pts! Here's some pictures for yah!

A Clock-Gork Orange

Da Gork Booty

As per the other units, this guy was painted with speed in mind. While there is a lot I could do to make it better, this still represents about 35 hours of labor on my end if you include assembly.

This is also my first time using chipping medium, which I had a lot of fun with. It was very time consuming to do on a model of this size and with this many angles but its a great effect. In retrospect though I should have accompanied it with some sponging, as I don't think that the chips show enough wear and tear in-and-of themselves.

The "dripping" rust/oil effect was achieved with AK interactive "Rust Streaks" effect. It's a great product, but note that you do need to varnish the model before using it as it behaves just like an oil wash.

Freehand handprints along the front plate.

The handprints were done via freehand on a whim. I was looking for a way to tie in the unique skin-color of my forces (and an important visual counterpoint to the blue) on a model with no skin. The handprints were my solution, although in retrospect I definitely should have made a stamp. It ties in nicely with my army fluff though, as my boyz are hyper concious of their strange skin colour and are out to prove that ORANGE IS BEST.

Here is a side-by-side comparison between a boy, my converted big mek, and the Gork!

This represents my 1000 point army that I have painted since January. Pretty great to see it all together like this!

A final shot under some different light.

The Gork has already received a warm welcome on a reddit thread I started about him. Sorry for the delay getting him up on here! I have an itch to paint something that isn't 40k and might come back to some Infinity figures i've been eyeballing so expect some more of that.

As ever, thanks for looking!

Big Update V: Ork Army - January/February 2016

Apologies for the lengthy absence from the blogosphere. After my visit home to Canada things have been very busy both in terms of my work and the hobby and I just haven't found the time to post!

The big news is that the 40k narrative escalation campaign I'm running will be starting very soon from March 1st onwards! I have been furiously painting to meet the deadline and I'm extremely proud to showcase my initial 500 points of Orks. With the exception of basecoating the boyz units before Christmas, everything here has been done from January 20th onwards, so I've been setting a really furious pace!

This force represents a conscious effort to paint to a tabletop standard, and I don't think I've ever been more efficient with my painting. While I am not challenging myself with any new techniques it is interesting trying to get a decent result when everything is calibrated towards a minimum expenditure of effort. There is no highlighting or even drybrushing involved with any of these figures. Outside of the initial basecoats the only thing I do to add depth (outside of a single coat of airbrush zenithal highlighting on the skin) is to build multiple layers of washes over the skin, turquoise, and metals. Overall I'm pleased with how everything has turned out, and I feel this is a good standard of quality to aim for with any non-skirmish system that requires such a large force.

Naturally I had to name all my characters and units, it is a narrative campaign after all! So lets go through them one by one.

Here is my warboss, Da Glorious Leada' Gorgot!
This is the forge-world Ork bikerboss model. Although I felt the buzzsaw he comes with was far too weedy looking, so I converted him a propa' power klaw using one from Kromlech's wonderful "Juggernaut Armor" Orks.

This is Gorgot's biker retinue, Da Bootstrapz.
Their Boss Nob is "Bunky da Bootz".

My two shoota boyz squads.
"Rugnut Irongobz's Band-O-Boyz" and
"Snagabob's Spleenbenderz"!

I had my first game of 40k this past week in a four-way battle designed to introduce the new players in our campaign to the system. I admit I was slightly nervous about it, as I really didn't want a repeat of the Batman Miniatures Game, where I felt like all my hard hours of painting had been for a game I didn't actually enjoy playing that much. My only previous Games Workshop system had been eight edition Fantasy, which had felt immensely clunky an unintuitive.

However I'm very pleased to announce that I enjoyed myself enormously. I didn't end up winning, but the system itself is far simpler than the clunkiness of pre-AoS Fantasy, and allows for some great narrative moments in a way that is really casual, fun, and smooth to play. I'll provide some more detailed thoughts on it after we're stuck into the campaign, but my initial impression was extremely positive. It also really helped me understand the direction Games Workshop took with Age of Sigmar in regards to making a system that was more intuitive to play.

I also have to say that I love my choice of faction and that Orks are a joy to play. They have tons of character and make for some great narrative moments. I'm extremely happy about my decision not to continue building on the Grey Knights I had painted earlier and make the (admittedly difficult) switch to Orks.

The highlight of my first game was my Gorgot charging a unit of tyranid warriors to do (what I can only imagine to be) a huge burnout that beheaded all three of them in a single round of combat. He then miraculously survived being charged by both a Hive Tyrant and Carnifex in the ensuing turn only to immediately blow himself up with his own item when he attempted to retaliate. It. was. brilliant.

Snagabob Snotgob makes a defiant last stand before getting blasted into the side of a mountain by a Predator's lascannon.

Having finished my initial 500 points I am frantically getting started on the rest of the army list I have planned for the campaign. I will post a full army list once it is finalized, but in the meantime here is a teaser shot of a converted Big Mek I've created. His name is Zagnatz and he managed to salvage a Kastelan Robot for parts!

WAAAAAAGH!