Building a Local Warmachine Community

There is no real Warmachine community where I live. And it sucks. I would love to play against different people, make new friends, and participate in leagues or tournaments. I get along very well with the local Press Ganger, and we play when we can (adult schedules and all). Having never been part of an organized gaming community, I find myself wanting more and more to be part of something like that. Sure, I could find myself back in the caressing, torturous arms of Magic: The Gathering or the cold indifference of Games Workshop. With either of those I could have my organized play tomorrow. But...well, I'm not rich.

Earlier this year I was contacted by a reasonably local Press Ganger (Anubys on the PP forums) who had found my post looking for local players. Since then we've played several games and talked alot about how to try and get a community going. Our local game store has three full racks of Warmachine/Hordes. Someone has to be buying it!

Well, this last weekend Anubys ran a demo/game day at the store we normally meet at. We played a 50 point MkII game while in the corner there was some huge 6-7 player 40K scenario going on. It was an odd phenomenon. Several of the 40K players found themselves wandering over to our table while others where taking their turns. And while none of them actually played the demo, they were pretty interested in what was going on at our table. It seemed like none of them had actually seen WM being played before. In some of those cases it was sheer curiosity, but not all. There where sparks of genuine interest.

A bit later three guys came up to the table, eyes wide. They seemed really surprised at the fact that we were playing WM. They all had models of some quantity at home, from the starter boxes to more full collections. We had begun to find the people who play the game!

Emails where exchanged and all of that. And that's good. But I think what we discovered is that it's not enough to stock the game. It's not even enough to like the game. You have to be out there with it. It really is an "if you build it they will come" scenario. But you have to build it in their backyard, not yours.

They key, from now on, is going to be visibility. Anubys and I might very well become "Anubys and I +3" very soon. And the more space we take up while they are playing...whatever it is they play, the harder it is going to be to ignore WM. And once they get that first taste...the game will take care of the rest.

And it helps that Privateer Press isn't cold and indifferent.

As things develop I hope to update this blog and talk about the strategies we come up with to try and get the game out there. I'll also talk about what works, what doesn't, and why I think we get the results we get. Hopefully someone, or a couple of someones out there can take something away from this and can use the info in building a local WM community where they live.