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Never played outside of my small group of friends but...well, why not.

Saturday morning seems the best then. If you let me know a start time I can figure out the best train.

Might even do Warhammer World/Forgeworld store if I have the time.

I'll bring my army list printed out via Battlescribe for the sake of saving space.

I'll be there around 10, I like to have a catch up with a few of the staff as a few of them are ex-colleagues, and get myself a cup of tea. If you have an hour and a half to spare I'd definitely look around the exhibition hall, it's well worth it.

It'll be the first time all of us have met (as far as I know), so we're all in the same boat. I've made a couple of good gaming mates through dakka, it's well worth a punt on meeting a stranger for a game (especially in a hall full of people with cctv and security...).

I'll probably roll up around then, as I don't get a lot of choices with the trains, it's either heinous early, or lunchtime.
By no means does anyone have to start gaming at opening, I'll probably be chatting with the FW guys if they're not busy, doing pickups, and trying to translate the bar menu from whimsy to English.

A better question is what time everyone will definitely be in by?

BTW James, do you know any if the history of the gaming hall itself? I've noticed on a few occasions that the stone archway decorations in the hall are clearly meant to be specific people, rather than generic gargoyles (I think one even has glasses). Any idea who they were?

Train gets me in to Nottingham station for either 09:30 or 10:30 on the 6th, so I'll probably get the earlier one and check out the FW store whilst people arrive.

I'll bring two packs of tactical cards so we can play Maelstrom (I prefer it and it's fun when doing doubles) and not mix up cards.

Finally:
- Do we need to book a table?
- How much does that cost?

@Shane Buttery already has a table booked under BC. There is no charge at present for tables.

@Buttery I've never noticed them before if I'm honest! I'll have a look and see if anyone looks familiar. I only worked for gw for just under a year before doing my teacher training, I needed a job when we moved to Nottingham and the salary didn't matter, as my missus has a good job, so I just saw it and went for it. However, I generally get on well with everyone, so found myself helping out at a few events in the time, which meant that I got to meet a lot of people. Plus I have been in and out of the hobby for a long time, so might recognize some of the older faces.

Without looking, I'd put money on the glasses being Rick Priestley.

Top. I'll book my train ticket and see you all there.

I don't think there's any photos of me online so if I don't find one - look for the Jason Statham lookalike.

My Avatar pic is of me, although now I have slightly less hair and slightly more waist. Finding the table for BC is probably the best way to find each other.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
I'll be there with a friend on the 23rd.
Enjoy your paranoia of where I am in the room.

I'm easily... Paranoiable? I'll be looking over my shoulder the entire time now. You monster.

We shouldn't be hard to spot though! Madden will be crying as his Tau are devoured by my Bloodletter swarms and I'll be the one laughing far too loud for a hall that echoes as much as that one does.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R6MlHxAzLXA

Saturday, we're on the Sector Imperialis board and have permission to poach terrain from any unattended non-feature table.
I went for something relatively flat, because we can always add to it, but you can't remove blocking terrain from the static boards.
All else fails, and we have indeed wandered off, look for a gloss black metal case with silver rims and a Mechanicus sticker/weird burlesque sticker/kittens.

@James: I'd have said faintly Simon Pegg, so you could be right with a younger Rick Priestly. The only other thought was a young Ronnie Renton. I'll point them out if there's not a table in that corner.
It is not a particular burning desire to know, but I'm curious who would even remember, apart from the older manager in the main store. I guess it is a brainworm.
Been tempted to ask on their dedicated FB page, as the guy updating it is quite prolific.

The Most Important Rule: The more terrain the better.

This has made me want to paint. So I'll be aiming to get stuff actually finished for this game day. Nothing like a bit of inspiration and a hard deadline.

@Buttery Lee only joined last year, he joined from Sky. I really like him and glad he's still there, when he got it there was a lot of 'he won't last a year' from long serving individuals whose applications were rejected. I look forward to seeing these gwargolyes, might bring the rt book and see if any match up.

@Shane I hear you, sadly I am having to wait until Saturday to pick up my replacement fluid nozzle before I can crack on with the sea of navy blue power armour on my side-desk :(

If it's who I think (broad, pale hair, probably has ten years on the rest of the staff) definitely a very solid guy, though usually far too busy to stop and talk during the hours I'm there (weekend afternoons). I can only assume that he kept his job because I've never seen him stand in one place for more than five minutes! He always comes through on answers, though, and knows the books backwards.

"Alex" (I think. Dark hair, beard. Bounces a lot), and the short lass with dark hair and glasses in the GW store are also incredibly devoted to what they do. You can tell, I think, by what a person spends their time doing when customers aren't there. I'm vaguely familiar enough that they're not on shop-floor mode with me unless I bring family. I never see them faffing about with displays models or lint-picking on the merch.
Hell, FW store guys are also amazing, as is the older chap in the black library store. As long as you understand your convo may resume in ten minutes (or in some cases, a month), it's a great place to spend a casual time wandering about.

I'm not 100% sure I'd like to work there (a small part of my brain goes "it's still retail!", but it's one of the best atmospheres I've visited.

If you have time, yeah, bring the book. I'll bring my weird Dwarf thing for you to boggle at.

Alex is a friendly guy, he was one of my regulars when I was at Friar Lane. James in bl is an awesome guy, I always have a good chat with him when I see him. They are all really nice, but no I couldn't work there, the cost of the investment means that senior staff are always in there checking how well it's doing, so there is always a slight edge in stores.

Working for gw was odd, I'd been a retail manager for years before hand, and had experienced retail at its best and worst. Because of my situation I didn't have to take it seriously, so I was able to enjoy it for what it was, and do a good job with an overly healthy amount of detachment. If I had to manage a store and had to take it seriously, I think I'd very quickly quit in frustration at how unnecessarily difficult they sometimes make it to retail their own product. I loved working for them, but if you imagine enjoying your favorite activity, but having to stop every 45 minutes to punch yourself in the face, I think it would feel something like that.

Yeah, there's a rather noticeable handful of people that are no longer on the shop floor since about December. I would like to think they moved to another department, or store, but they weren't IMO long enough there...

A friend of mine took on managing a one man store recently, and basically approached it with a "it's good while it lasts." attitude, and is determined to do his best. He understands that good will cannot make up for sales targets, and it's no personal failing if he ends up out after 2-3 years.

We lost our last (superb) GW manager in town due to sales targets, which I was peripherally aware of. He'd managed to excell beyond previous staff, but the percentage change didn't matter because it was still below the required amount.

I think I'd like a job in the physical side, boxing, demoulding, etc. Far less point of sale stress, no need to paint display models, but nice people, a process/product I find interesting and a task that stops when you go home. I briefly had a spot demoulding for a uk company and absolutely loved it, despite it being mindless, and having no interest in the figures.
My long term career goal is to drive a bus, because (no offense) I've seen first hand what teaching does to the body and soul. A job that ends when you take off the uniform is what I can cope with, even if it means living tighter.

Alex helped me out when I decided to get back into the hobby and visited the shop to pick up some paints to paint the rest of my army. He let me buy one of the paint sets and switch out all the ones I didnt need which saved me some money. Which to be quite honest surprised me. Had a good chat about how the game had moved on and what in the hell happened to fantasy since I didn't fully get what had happened with AOS at the time. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

I've felt a little awkward at times with some of the other guys in there as they seem a bit pushy. But I can imagine theyre under a lot of pressure, so it's no biggy.

Edit: Oh and CaoCaoTipper... It's Oooooooon

Yeah, I'm okay with naming people who do a good job, and when I'm on my own, the staff there leave me be. But one or two have tried hard-sell in there and it's got my back up.
Just told you that I don't play AoS, so no, I don't want an £85 army scroll for your badly renamed lizards.

Oddly those are the staff I couldn't name if I wanted to.
I wish I did know the lass's name as she's a gem too.

 AEIOUMadden wrote:
Alex helped me out when I decided to get back into the hobby and visited the shop to pick up some paints to paint the rest of my army. He let me buy one of the paint sets and switch out all the ones I didnt need which saved me some money. Which to be quite honest surprised me. Had a good chat about how the game had moved on and what in the hell happened to fantasy since I didn't fully get what had happened with AOS at the time. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

I've felt a little awkward at times with some of the other guys in there as they seem a bit pushy. But I can imagine theyre under a lot of pressure, so it's no biggy.

Edit: Oh and CaoCaoTipper... It's Oooooooon

It might have been Alex, I'm not sure, but when I brought the Dark Vengeance set with my freind they were doing a bonus where they'd give you a £20 voucher if you were buying it with someone who was new to the hobby. Me being the hopelessly honest prat I am admitted at the counter that my freind wasn't new and that he'd actually been doing this for years. Whomever it was at the till just kind of looked around and muttered "I'm giving you free money" and stamped my voucher anway.

They can go for the "hard sell" at times because I imagine there's some kind of policy for them to live up to. I litterally had a time where I was looking at a Heldrake box and one of the guys walked up to me and opened with "You've been looking at that a lot, why not buy it?". But most of the time you find yourself chatting with them about the hobby when they get a moment to. They generally are swell guys/gals ^^

I think it's Emma.

I do miss jobs where the responsibility ends with a door frame, but the satisfaction of teaching is worth the extra work. As are the extra lie ins.

Reg people who have left, some were in the company prior to the relaunch, Andy (bald, beard, Scottish) is now in black library, Amy writes the new product descriptions on the website, and Dan (rugby player looking lad) is back behind the scenes painting the exhibition hall models.

Only two have actually left the business that I am aware of.

I think you're right.

And those aren't the folk I'm thinking of. Could just be they're not on weekends any more, but my friend living nearby hasn't seen them either during the week. I'll stay out of describing/naming because it's not fun to speculate.

Teaching has always been something I really wished to do, specifically design... I just watched my mother working until 6pm at school, then until midnight once home, 35 years, until very recentky. The brain haemorrhage was a sign to slow down at age 50, but she persisted to 60. I physically couldn't cope with what I saw her doing, or the politics if I landed somewhere unpleasant, etc.
Up there with firemen on the respect ladder, in all honesty.

I've only just started as a teacher; I'm still in my first year, so I've yet to encounter the really stressful side of the profession. Something to look forward too. Teachers unfortunately don't seem to enjoy very long retirements, sorry to hear that your mother wasn't able to enjoy what would clearly have been a well deserved retirement.
I don't blame you for keeping away from it. The drunken nutters aside, I think bus driving would be a great job for the diversity of people and sights you get to enjoy, and being able to choose where you want to live knowing that you'll be able to find a good job. I always liked the idea of being a train driver, but could never find a straight forward route into it. I suppose the world doesn't need to see some idiot pretending he's superman as he hurtles through train stops.

I know someone who became a bus driver and loves it.

Started painting last night. Working on one unit at a time for the sake of my sanity.

Last night's progress:

Looking good. Only ever seen SoB up close once, so I'm intrigued.

So I finally finished assembling my set of crisis suits. I hope you dont mind the lack of painting on these. Now that I have the actual models sorted I'll be painting them to make ready our meet up

So long as you can point at it and say what's happening, I'm good with any form of painting.

Besides the commander there arent any characters so no need to differentiate and the weapons are wyswig. Also it's an old commander model so it's gonna look a little peculiar on a smaller base than the normal crisis suits

It seems to take me ages to paint anything.

Here's the weekend progress:

Yeah I'm not fussed about others having painted armies, although I prefer using painted myself. All my crimson fists are now blue, but I've been a bit too focussed on pedro kantor this week to progress much with the army. Will probably bring the old Gk as I have enough of the whole army painted to field a fully painted 1-2k list. Will try to get pedro finished tonight though so I can get back to units.

My problem at the minute is I haven't got a spray booth and its far too cold to be spraying outside at the minute. Did that years ago and ended up with mottled plastic. Ill get to work on the ones I have got base coated at least.

I haven't bought a can of spray since getting an airbrush. Priming might not be as quick, but at least you aren't weather dependent.

If it's personal pride, get them done. If you are worried about any of our reactions to bare plastic, don't even give it a second thought.

I'm lucky if my friends turn up with complete models. And half the time I'm in the middle of repainting my own stuff.