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My friend and I are going to be starting a club at our school for wargaming. I know that the British have a school league, but what dose that do/ what do they have? Any info would be great. We plan on buying a gaming mat and to build our own terrain, but beyond that we are lost.

A couple of tables to game on and another for people to put their stuff on (bags, books, boxes of plastic space mens) also make sure you have enough terrain on hand to fill the tables appropriately. People will hopefully bring their own terrain latter but it is always a good idea to be prepared.

Also chairs, people like to sit so their bodies can bank calories.

Also maybe have a couple dozen dice and a set of templates incase people forget theirs or don't have any.

If you get any money from the school for your club (ask about it getting some btw) spend it on cheep cookies and juice (NO CHIPS, unless you want chip oil everywhere).

No school money. We have to raise it ourselves. But our school can afford its THIRD VP and 7+ flat screens. Warrking and I plan to get a citidal battle mat and then AoBR, and to add one unit to each to make them even in points and legal armies. Would it be unreasonable to ask people to use their own armies?

Happygrunt wrote:No school money. We have to raise it ourselves. But our school can afford its THIRD VP and 7+ flat screens. Warrking and I plan to get a citidal battle mat and then AoBR, and to add one unit to each to make them even in points and legal armies. Would it be unreasonable to ask people to use their own armies?

err, no... but its cool that your going to set up AoB for the New kids!

Happygrunt wrote:Would it be unreasonable to ask people to use their own armies?

No, though having an army on hand for new people to try out the game isn't a bad idea.

However it could get rather expensive(quick guess makes it $182 for all the stuff you said you wanted to get), remember you would have to get the proper codex's for SM and orks (another $60 if you don't have them already) and the AoBR armies are not equal in terms of points fresh out of the box. The SM side has a point advantage, so you would need to buff out the orks with a more expensive unit than the one you give the SM side.

Do you have anyone else at school lined up for this?

Well, my friend plays orks and I play SM, so codex's are not the issue.

Are there a couple other kids who play at your school?

A club with two members can said to be both highly exclusive and rather lonely.

We know of at least 5 people, including us, who play. Hence the starter armies.

Go for it I suppose, I wish you luck.

Cool T Shirts so everyone at school knows ur in the warhammer club.

Calling it gaming club

Happygrunt wrote:Calling it gaming club

People who play Cod and Halo and World of Warcraft will show up, its a wargaming club if anything.

But yea you should have a shirt that says, FOR THE EMPORER!, and then it should say WARHAMMER GAMING CLUB.

I'm not sure if they do it anymore, but back when I was in middle school, we actually had a GW rep come to our club. This was back in the early 90's, so i'm almost positive they wouldn't, but hell if it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Stuff to have on hand

-Templates
-Rulebook (AoB)
-Organization Charts
-Lots of Dice
-Lots of Terrain
-Instruments for measuring
-Noob armies (for noobs)
-Gaming mats (like the GW ones)

I think one of the most important things is not to restrict yourself and the club to 40k. Have elements of other games too, be it BFG, WHFB, Warmachine, Firestorm Armade/Dystopian Wars, or any number of historical rulesets, including Flames of War.

You want secure storage for your armies and gaming materials. Things get lost / ruined quickly at schools.

Members will bring their own armies. You should establish rules in advance about level of paint coverage, proxying and so on. You will also need to decide if it is a wargaming club or a 40K exclusive club

Useful
Tape measures and dice
A couple of dice towers
Terrain

You don’t have to buy Citadel for the terrain.

It could be fun and instructive for people to pitch in and make terrain. Raw materials are a lot cheaper than kits.

I would probably buy battle mats to cover the tables, and make hills and buildings to provide features on top.

If you are in a school and have access to an art teacher you should be able to bribe/blackmail them into getting a few classes to make terrain for you

Contact GW regards starting a club - I think they will help you out with info and things, though I am not sure if they will then try to limit you to "GW only" games.

Dice - lots of them. Different colours. They will get nicked, eaten etc.

Probably 2 ABR kits - paint one as UM and the other as BA or imp fists or something.

These are good as they mean you have 'loaner' armies and also 2 rulebooks.

Tape measures 1/player - they are annoying to have to share.

Temples - 1 set per table is good

I would also suggest running a mini tournament once it's established with the prize being something like a codex This is good as it means that people will have a *reading* prize all very edumicational and stuff.

i used to go into a school and run a gaming club. the important part to note is at what time you are going to do it, if it's afterschool- make sure you find out how much time you get. The club i ran was in lunchtime, so we only had approx 45 mins on the ground- so something to consider is limiting the game sizes to about 750-1000 pts. we also had a painting table (just a table with newspaper on it) if people wanted to just come and paint.

but most of all, as cheesy as it is- it takes passion, i would make the assumption you are of the older part of the school, so it will be your job to get people excited about it and patience, there will always be peopl who have no idea what they are doing and will eventually get annoying asking the same question again and again, so sticking with it can be hard.

another suggestion is with the newer players is to teach them how to collect an army and to write a list, otherwise you get people turning up with random things that are nowhere near fair or legal (the memorable one being someon who showed up at our club and used a lesser demon and 3 obliterators against a tactical squad with 2 missile launchers. a lascannon,and about 4 power weps)

LASTLY if you do that suggestion, it may be worth printing off the summary sheets if gw still do them, with all the tables on (shooting/wounding etc) and the army stat summarys.

sorry if that was all slightly disorganised, many things were randomly coming into mind

USEFUL
Those red measuring sticks you get in starter boxes, keep a bunch of them to hand, not for measuring (apparently even the concept of an inch is RAI for GW) but for whipping unruly members into touch/coercing stinky gamers to shower etc

L_Z you are thinking of the S&M Club!

I would suggest adult supervision - Are there any teachers interested in this venture? It would make it infinitely easier to get rooms, supplies even sponsorship.

Speak nicely to your local GW manager.
I've been involved in starting several clubs, and I have had loads of help.
GW shops often get rid of terrain when they change their tables, this, while often worn, can be tidied up an used. I've had plenty of free club terrain that way.
I've also had free paint (the pot strips from the starter sets)

I'd also go for a rulebook or two, dice, tape measures, pencils and paper, a printout of all the FAQ's in a binder for reference.

The way I figure it - if you have people that play already, they are gonna have ALL this stuff - models, dice, rules, etc. I think the following are basic but important:

A dedicated table if you can get it, maybe 2.
A safe place to store terrain, but if it can be left out all the time, that would be awesome.
If you could BUILD your own table, how cool would that be? You could recruit the Shop Teacher for help.

Beyond the table and terrain, the most important thing you can do is have a regular time that you meet. For example, every thursday after school. Be sure to make it EVERY Thursday. Don't skip days. The way you get new members is through consistency. Once you've been running for a few sessions, advertise.

I suspect it is best for the club to ask players to bring their own (small) armies to the sessions. Keep it small unless you have a LOT of time to play. Experience will teach you what works best.

It might be nice to have a starter army or two for newbies, but I think this would not be required at first. Almost everyone who plays would want their own army anyway (and can build it over time).

People who don't have armies yet might be willing to help build terrain. Which you will need.

Those are my thoughts. The most important thing for you to do is JUST DO IT. If you do it every week for, say, 10 weeks, you will then know how many regulars you have, who shows up every week, and more about what people want out of it.

If the only thing you accomplish is a small but friendly game every week for 3 or 4 friends, hey, it is still well worth the effort.

Hygiene instructions.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=700001§ion=community&aId=3400061

GW has this tutorial.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=700001§ion=community&aId=9900021a

Sorry forget the other link, this one is a lot better. I'm afraid some of this refers to british law, like CRB (criminal records bureau). I am not sure if this and other terms are the same, similar or just differently named in other countries.

Okay, so a quick summary of how our schools clubs work:
You need a teacher to host the club. Otherwise, no go. We only get from 2:03pm (Schools out) to 4:00pm, then we have to be gone. We plan on trying for one of the bio labs, as it has the big lab stations to use. And the teacher is really nice.

We need a mat, but all the terrain will be made from old sprues/ bits that the players have. We were thinking, to limit games to 1000-1250 points (Be able to run more then one/ fast games), and if we ran a tournament, we cant use school money or "buy ins", so every tournament is out of pocket for me and my friend. We get $0 school funding, and little support from the school. We have a considerable group who would be willing to play, so students isnt an issue.

And to those wondering, Warrking (Man behind the idea, I am helping by gathering the info, credit to him) and I are both sophomores, so 16. No where near the top of the school.

Happygrunt wrote:Okay, so a quick summary of how our schools clubs work:
You need a teacher to host the club. Otherwise, no go. We only get from 2:03pm (Schools out) to 4:00pm, then we have to be gone. We plan on trying for one of the bio labs, as it has the big lab stations to use. And the teacher is really nice.

We need a mat, but all the terrain will be made from old sprues/ bits that the players have. We were thinking, to limit games to 1000-1250 points (Be able to run more then one/ fast games), and if we ran a tournament, we cant use school money or "buy ins", so every tournament is out of pocket for me and my friend. We get $0 school funding, and little support from the school. We have a considerable group who would be willing to play, so students isnt an issue.

And to those wondering, Warrking (Man behind the idea, I am helping by gathering the info, credit to him) and I are both sophomores, so 16. No where near the top of the school.

T Shirts so everyone in your highschool knows you play warhammer 40k, its literally the only way to go.

When I went to highschool people either refered to me as Autarch or Warhost Field Marshal or I didnt respond back.

Just tossing this out there for those who are wondering: i have quite a few people im going to be asking if they will join... i have 5 definites, and atleast 4 other people i havent asked yet

Also, would advertising this club via the club fair/ announcements be a good idea if we require people to have their own armies? I mean, it would feel like we say "Hey, come check us out, but only if you already play".