the giants lair

[Daniel36]

I love these kinds of pics! Keep 'em coming!!

Are you going to set up a club as well? Because that is what we did at my last wargame shop job and they kept the sales rate up really well! The boss opened the store part for an hour for people to buy stuff and that was always a good thing.

Something to think about.
Best wishes.

[pointyteeth]

It's awesome to see such a great turnout! I wish my area could support something like this.

[Tzarinchilla]

What a superb looking venue and good to see it full to the brim with gamers. I can see the Lair just growing from strength to strength as well.

[Swabilius]

This weekend we are holding our first mini tournament, a doubles Warhammer Fantasy tournament, pics are on our Facebook site.

It`s been a crazy few weeks and lots of lessons learned.

Just got to keep going building terrain and new boards.

Warmachine/Hordes has seen a massive intake of new players /MWHAHAHAHAHA more fodder for my Skorne army :P

Tyrant Swabs (I am the one usually holding my thumbs up and in a red top)

[nagged]

Hi Daniel, luckily the club we went to agreed to move, which was a relief as we didn't want to set up a rival club, and luckily the club has thrived going from 25-30 on agood eve to 40-50 plus another 10-15 just popping in and catching up. The quieter night (mondays) is also up although probably 10 people.
the mondays is starting to build up a specialist games following
with a necromunda league under way, blood bowl planned for january.
Gw has its vets night on thurs so we're happy with the turnout
Fridays is the main Magic night with events under way
oddly enough its the weekends that are quiet, trying to get people to come in and play the mega battles is difficult, and i thought that was the easy spot to fill.
being in charge of our own food and drink is a big success, and now just have to finish some of the scenary that is "wip" really want to keep new things popping up.

but after the first month we're doing ok,
testament to the local gamers and their support we new it was a "if you build it they will come" opportunity and not a "use it or lose it" statement

first tournaments are planned
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323720

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323719

and scenary nearly done

[juicytomatoes]

wow, it's looking fantastic! What a great place!

[Morkmillian]

dam i wish plymouth was closer to me!

[nagged]

lol if you lived in plymouth you'd wish everything was nearer

[Daniel36]

lol if you lived in plymouth you'd wish everything was nearer

Hahahaha... Well, at least Plymouth has one of the coolest wargame venues I have ever seen.

[nagged]

Well time flies, nearing the end of our first quarter and all things considered things are good! (touch wood). December has seen a flurry of activity at the lair with us finding our 40k and our fantasy champions. We've also had a couple of social events which have gone down a storm and dragged a few new hobbyists to our door with a busiest night bringing 93 people in playing fantasy, 40k, warmachine, rogue trader, magic and bloodbowl and some guys just chillin arranging games for other days etc.
deapite a few ruffled feathers locally, friendly tournaments and "home and away" games with other clubs we've still to have a day with no visitors, so we reckon it'll be only the weather,

some pics of our fantasy tournament

kevs scratchbuilt pump wagons


and his army


ric myhills ogres


adams warriors


more coming soon

[nagged]

To make the most of the space and time we have, it seems some massive campaign weekends are in order, sadly fantasy is having a slight lull at the moment, but warmachine and 40K are going from strength to strength.
It is the 40K campaign that is getting a lot intrest thought i'll post the planning and progress here.

The weekend will focus on an imperial planetry system under attack.

Each player who commits to the weekend, will need to commit to the forces of order or disorder with their chosen force and bring two lists 1X1500pt and 1X2000pt list.
The players on arrival sort themselves into the two factions and promote a commander.
Each commander then delegates a player to attack one of the planets moons or strategic points on the planet itself. the player then rolls a dice to see which list he takes to battle, with the other force doing the same. We should see various challenges thrown up for the gamers.
Each game will represent a day in the siege of the system culminating in a city fight battle for control of the capital, but extra rescources can be gained by controlling some of the moons.

Stay tuned for more updates

[Daniel36]

Nothing quite like tables filled with painted scenery and painted armies.
The campaign sounds like a cool thing. Hope it will turn out well!

[juicytomatoes]

Nothing quite like tables filled with painted scenery and painted armies.

Ditto! It all looks fantastic. Looking forward to hearing about your games.

And the scratch-built wagons are ace!

[nagged]

Well we've been open just over 6 months now and an update is well overdue!! Touch wood things are going well, steady and a few hiccupsbut overall we're happy and hopefully going in the right direction. Our biggest challenge over the winter was the cold and its been mild compared to the last couple of winters. But the realities of a corner unit with plenty of windows and 5000sq feet of largely open plan space..... yup it got cold. It did keep a few people away but lots of regulars brought in heaters although they didn't quite have the magic wand effect the gesture was greatly appreciated. Buisness has been good thru the store but there is no way way we can hold the entire range of GW or Privateer Press, and with there being a GW store in town we do lose a few sales to those who can't wait, but we make our minimum order each week. Then there was the bombshell of the new paint range, theres no way we could afford the new range would have been easier if the older range was returnable but hey ho, damned if you damned if you don't. that being said we've been able to add new ranges which keeps everyone happy.
Gaming wise we're seeing a steady stream of new people, word of mouth spreading and all that so far the record for gaming is 92 with our worst day being mothers day. we've had a re-jig of the tables down stairs with 27 gaming tables, and 1x12 3x8 1x4 1x2 seater tables in the bar area. Tournaments have been steady around 20-30 people attending and have now entered some challenges with local clubs, bragging rights and the knowledge our gaming community getting stronger keeping the monotony of playing the same few people at bay, and the road trips have been a welcome distraction
So what's new well a revamp of the bar area, on page 1 of this thread was how it looked originally
then as it was when we opened (photo was the best in race winners in nov)
http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/...r/DSC_0220.jpg
now after revamp
http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/...DSC_0215-1.jpg
loot on the walls
http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/...DSC_0216-1.jpg
just need upholstry on the benches.
at the moment we're working hard getting some terrain done on the 9 new tables we've built so more photos soon

[juicytomatoes]

everytime i come to this thread, only one word comes to mind:

AWESOME!

[glenning]

kevs scratchbuilt pump wagons

Now that's just awesome!!

[nagged]

Well Things have been hectic, we've taken down a dividing wall upstairs in what was two rooms each with room for 6 6x4 tables, the room now has 18 tables, the challenge here was to make something different. Unlike our situation before where scenery and tables had to be packed away, now we want a room that you walk into and go wow. (going back thru the pictures I don't have one of the room all laid out but will rectify that this week).
The tables are all themed, 6 are 12ft x 4ft, allowing for epic, warhammer and warmachine. The themes we have are desert, jungle, volcano, ice, swamp and cavern. Laid outaround the outside of the room, then in the centre still under construction are some 40k specific tables a tank factory, fortified bridge and imperial palace.
Event wise we've hosted a fantasy team event, 12 teams of 4, this was really intriuging to watch as each team engineered the match ups to their advantage and drawing lots as to who would take one for the team!!
Also held a "warhammer academy" here in the UK at the end of the school year, the schools have an activities week, where they go off and enjoy variuos pursuits. We had 1 school at the Lair for a week bringing 34 kids who shared the isle of blood, learning to play build and paint, with the week ending with a tournament and painting competition.

[nagged]

Our most recent event has been the 40k campaign weekend. Fluff driven,

we split the players into 4 teams, Imperial, Ork, Chaos and Xenos.
Using our battlefleet gothic boards we created a 3d map.



The teams were then briefed on developments in the system and could nominate a taskforce to attack planets or moons (the next turn the victors would be defenders) after three games holding certain planets would give the teams resource cards to use in the climatic city fight.


the refinery

jungle

desert

ice world

and a city fight table

the red planet

mine world

volcano

[nagged]

As the warp waxed and waned strange things happened in the system.
On day 2 we split the games up, we had a spawn hunt as fantasy beasts burst out of tears in the warp

We Had a kill team on the “chalice of hatred” using our space hulk table


Arena of Death on our warmachine boards



As a build up to the climatic battle we had a tank duel as the teams raced to take no-mans land.

Unfortunately it was impossible to award trophies the players had team goals, secret missions and in game achievements medals were awarded.


Tale of the campaign has to be the duel between John Beswetheric’s Orks against Lee Stubbs’s Eldar who due to the nature of how games were arranged played each other 3 times, Eldar winning all 3 times, much to Johns disgust. Lee’s secret mission was to turn traitor which he did in the last turn for the forces of order (thinking he would in theory get another turn) Johns secret mission was to kill a friendly commander which he did by turning him into a squig


a link to the fluff
http://www.thegiantslair.co.uk/gl_fo...ad.php?tid=475

[Daniel36]

Man oh man... If you guys had built this store near where I live... I would never be anywhere else!! Amazing!!
So, are you guys going to stock Dropzone Commander? The new kid in town, but it looks like they've struck gold in terms of models and the feel of the game!!