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.

Welcome to the Invasion

Hello and thank you for taking a minute to read the first post of my new blog; Invasion: IK. I'm a pretty new player to the Warmachine/Hordes world. A friend and I bought our first Hordes models back in February of 2007. We played once or twice proxying in some D&D Minis before life kind of took us away from the game.

Earlier this year (2009) I found myself needing to fill my free time with a hobby that wasn't World of Warcraft. I also was wanted to get involved in some kind of regular group or community gaming activity. I knew that 40K was huge at a local game store and found myself researching that game and playing a demo or two. In late May I realized that I just couldn't justify the financial requirements that 40K makes just to field a standard sized army, let alone a good one. After remembering those Hordes models in my basement I gave up on the idea of playing 40K and began searching for local WM/H players. All I really found was a Press Ganger who lived 40 or so miles away. Fortunately for us, the local game store that actively stocks WM/H is about halfway between the two of us.

Since then I switched my focus from that Trollblood warpack to developing my Protectorate collection. I have so much that I want from all kinds of factions, but for now Menoth is my primary and with the Hordes MkII info being released I may take another look at my trolls.

Outside of painting and gaming, I want to also focus on community building with the blog. There is yet to be a coherent WM community in my local area. With the proper release of MkII looming just past the horizon, my new friend and I are looking to bring the few occasional players some encouragement in coming together and forming a community. We are also hoping to make some inroads with some of the local GW players as well as bring in those who might have never played any tabletop wargames before.

This will be my first hand account of the Invasion.