Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

"Tabletop Nation is excited to announce that plans are now moving ahead to deliver the first phase in the exciting partnership created between Beasts of War and Wayland Games."

What this means is that the Tabletop Nation Venue and Gaming Centre will open its doors in early September 2012, with a state of the art retail store, and gaming venue for between 70 and 100 players, depending on the gaming system. The venue is located in Essex, and within easy reach of London, the south and Europe.

http://www.tabletopnation.com/


I've done a search and haven't found any threads about this. Or maybe the search is rubbish, hah.

I was very excited to receive an email from Wayland about this gaming centre opening in Hockley, Essex around September this year. I don't know of any other such centres near me (could be just ignorance) and this is really close to where I live. I'm particularly keen to try non-GW wargaming and with a big centre like this I'll finally have someone to play with! Anyone else excited? Planning on going? Know anything else about it?

I too got an email about it from Wayland. Shame its not close to us (live in the southwest) but sounds good for you guys who are closer.!

That's not too far from me......I hope it will offer some Thursday night gaming similar to warhammer world

Yeah, Wayland have been talking about this development for some time and one of the fellers there told me last week to keep an eye out for the next email. And I'm impressed by the scale.

The visualisation looks interesting and the prospect of having upto 200 hundred gamer spaces is impressive but it seems like it will take some time to build up ta a level where you couls say it equals or betters Warhammer World in terms of space and amenities.

Its about 20 minutes drive from me an i have a client on an adjacent site so i'll be having a nose about as soon as I can. I'll be interested what clubs set up there.

Looks good. Hope it's very successful but me being in Hampshire means I'll never go there, unfortunately.

My advice to them would be to shy away from white-brick interior lest it feel like a school gym!

Better that than your stereotypical dingy stink pit LGS. The bright interior should scare off the TFG element.

notprop wrote:Better that than your stereotypical dingy stink pit LGS. The bright interior should scare off the TFG element.

Might get down there when it opens if you fancy a game matey

Defo mate but please leave the Nob bikers at home this time or I'll have to get a Baneblade from somewhere!

Don't worry mate....sixth edition will make them poop.....I still have plenty of hurt left for you though mate. Lol

Davylove21 wrote:My advice to them would be to shy away from white-brick interior lest it feel like a school gym!

Lol, didn't think of that. I think they do need to keep it bright and airy though to prevent it from feeling like a "Stinkpit"

I'm also very excited about the shop, it says it'll stock the entire Wayland range which means you can actually see all the models from lesser-known games before buying. And actually buy it without suffering Wayland's tempremental delivery speeds (Not a beef, I <3 Wayland really).

I look forward to maybe seeing some Dakka people there!

Seems interesting enough but without wishing to denigrate Essex, I wonder why they have chosen to situate it in the arse end of nowhere?

One would have thought if they wished to attract a wider audience from all over the country, they would have been better served locating it a bit more centrally.

Yes, I'm sure Hockley has great rail links but it doesn't change the fact that this is located in what amounts to the 'wrong' side of London - meaning most people will have to go around/through London to get to it.

Nice idea but unless they open more around the uk its pointless as not everyone wants or can go to essex

I should temper my comment by applauding the move however. The UK needs more independent FLGS in the same manner as they do in the US. We suffer from a glut of GW stores but very few independent alternatives. This is partly due to the fact that the comic scene is not as pronounced here in the UK( comics and wargaming go hand in hand in the US) and partly because shop rents are so high at the moment, pricing all but large chains out of running stores.

Not everyone wants or is able to play in a GW - having a FLGS enables more people to access wargaming and helps grow the hobby as a whole rather than just having a GW centric market.

filbert wrote:Seems interesting enough but without wishing to denigrate Essex, I wonder why they have chosen to situate it in the arse end of nowhere?

One would have thought if they wished to attract a wider audience from all over the country, they would have been better served locating it a bit more centrally.

I'm guessing first off that as it's something to do with Wayland, they decided to situate it at/near Wayland's new warehouses. They were based in Southend before and I guess they didn't want to move too far.

I know it is a bit isolated, but it is easily reachable from London (a London one of these would be nice too) and London is obviously a major transport hub. It's easy to get to from the airport too, if you feel like *really* travelling I fully understand the "wrong side of London" feeling though. But we do get better weather here!

I suppose I am biased having lived in this area all my life, but I am glad the South will have an option to contend with Warhammer World up North. I've always wanted somewhere like that to go to, but Nottingham is further than I'm prepared to travel to. I agree with what someone said about opening more around the country. Perhaps if we can show this one to be a success, they will?

It would be at least 3hrs to travel there from bristol via Train or car, maybe as a day trip but thats a lot of travel to get some games in, and hope that Wayland will have the things we want in stock lol

About an hour from me, so its certainly an option for tournie attendance.

Will be keeping an eye on it.

Arse-end of the country.

Ah, its just nice to have something of fair size in the south east.

Midlands already have Warhammer World itself, and Maelstrom, but both are three ish hours away thanks to the local gakky roads.

I suspect the London crowd will be happy with this one appearing as well.

It'll be interesting to see whether it catches on and turns a profit; being 400 miles away, however, it is unlikely that I will experience its success or failure in person.

Essex actually has a good catchment area taking in London, East Anglia and potentially Kent.

It's poor for people living west of London but jealousy aside I think that just means we need a similar venue in the Berkshire/Oxfordshire area.

Good luck to Tabletop Nation anyway. I hope it succeeds because that will prove the concept for other regions.

Although I myself live in Essex, it's still about an hour and a half drive away from me so I probably won't be gaming there, but it's really good to see more places like this opening up.

Alsath wrote:

filbert wrote:Seems interesting enough but without wishing to denigrate Essex, I wonder why they have chosen to situate it in the arse end of nowhere?

One would have thought if they wished to attract a wider audience from all over the country, they would have been better served locating it a bit more centrally.

I'm guessing first off that as it's something to do with Wayland, they decided to situate it at/near Wayland's new warehouses. They were based in Southend before and I guess they didn't want to move too far.

I know it is a bit isolated, but it is easily reachable from London (a London one of these would be nice too) and London is obviously a major transport hub. It's easy to get to from the airport too, if you feel like *really* travelling I fully understand the "wrong side of London" feeling though. But we do get better weather here!

..........

It is indeed part of the Wayland set up. Wayland had been talking about a move to a bigger location for sometime. I used to go to their old location which was just a basic standard 30-40' warehousing unit and they were always overflowing with stock in and packages heading out; even after their last move!

So I have been waiting on this for sometime as a gaming hall (and associated clubs) is right up my strasa.

When Wayland moved to this site they released an email showing their existing storage in one (of 5!) warehouses in their new unit. So using all that extra space is a good idea.

The Tabletop Nation bit is news to me though, I imagine that this is a wholely owned subsiduary of Wayland for the purposes of keeping online activities seperate form site ones. Sensible really and since the ground rent is more than likely covered by online sales (or why else move there?) they can set this up with no more than notional overhead for the TN (UK) part of the business.

As for Hockley, it only about 40 mins from Liverpool street with trains every 20mins, so thats pretty good. Its not too far from the A127 so the drive isn't too bad either from London and is on a relaively small trading estate so no getting lost like WW!

It is about an hour away for me.

Hoping they have some good people on board for the Warmachine side of things!

Thursday night Necromunda Campaign then?