Yet another distraction...

I thought I had covered all the bases, I really did.

I contacted people I knew in the areas, and they said there were no wargaming clubs in York. I checked with GCN, and they have no clubs recorded in York. I asked on on-line forums: no one knew of any gaming clubs in York. I even went to the local GW and asked them if there were any gaming clubs in York. They said that there weren't.

There is.

York Wargames Society has, by all accounts, been there for quite a long time. Long enough to have their own wargames conference and trade fair, the Vapnartak (which presumably means something in Viking). GW York even takes a trade stand there, so you'd think that they would know it existed!

So, anyway, I've contacted them. This could be the end of the project, of course. After all, I don't want to be setting up a competing club, because then everyone loses out. However, I know from experience that if you find a wargaming club that doesn't have good links with GW, that doesn't register with GCN and which doesn't make in-roads with local schools to garner fresh members, well...

Look, to be blunt, they're usually inhabited by hairy geography teachers who wax lyrical about the Sumerians or Napoleon's Legions or the Confederate Cavalry. When I mention Warhammer, they get all superior and start sneering at "primitive, turn-based gaming systems" and "the fallacy of science fiction wargames". They get hostile if I mention Warhammer: Historical and if I should so much as breathe the word "Bloodbowl", they start fashioning surprisingly realistic mock-ups of Rick Priestley* and Tom Kirby**.

Now, I'm not saying for a second that York Wargames Society is like that at all. For a start they do LARPing (Live Action Role Play) and normal RPGs (Role-Play Games), including Warhammer Quest. But part of me is kind of hoping that they don't support GW games. Because however much I would welcome players of historical wargames, personally I find them a bit dull.

But this is a potential learning experience, so I thought I share it with you.

*Author of the world's most successful wargames... for GW.
**GW Chairman and the man who made those games the most succesful in the world.