Hi Folks

[J65]

Rather than just continually spam the forum... er... I mean keep people informed of upcoming local events, I suppose I'd better join in a bit.

I'm Jonny Fisher aka Jonny65 and I'm addicted to buying toy soldiers. After many years as a Warhammer Fantasy Battle purist, I've swapped sides and I'm now playing the kiddy game (aka Warhammer 40K) almost exclusively. I really enjoy tournament play, and I've been known to travel to distant lands to battle against other... well... nerds and their tiny fighting men. As well as playing in them I'm also into organising tournaments, and over the years I've run a bunch of tournaments and campaign days. I took a break from that when GW rediscovered the small island and started to run their own events, but now that they've abandoned us again it's back to building piles of scenery and checking loads of army lists.

I'm a member of the Northern Wasters club, and also turn up occasionally at the Lisburn Gaming Club and Tabletop North. I'm also involved with Wargaming Ireland, a site dedicated to providing a centralised source of information and meeting place for players from all the various clubs on the island. My main thing at the minute though is helping to organise the Northern Ireland ETC (European Team Championships) team. The ETC is a huge annual tournament (well series of tournaments), which sees teams of players from all over the world come together to see which country is the best at battling with man-dollies. The event is continually growing, and last year there were 32 countries in the WFB event, and 24 in the 40K event (that's 448 players in one room, a veritable sea of geeks). In 2011 I'll be leading the TNI 40K team into battle again, trying desperately not to finish in last place for once (we have effortlessly claimed the wooden spoon every time we've attempted international competition).

I've been meaning to get a run up to Arkham since it opened, so hopefully I'll see youse up there at some stage.

[johnkell]

hope to see you there, if been a memeber from open day

[Guest]

Hi Jonny

Thanks for posting up a bit about yourself

I've never heard about Wargaming Ireland, or been invited to contribute something about Arkham. Our ethos at Arkham is similar, but providing a physical hub for gaming (war, board, card etc) in N.Ireland, and as you can see, a very active forum too. Any clubs or groups we've been able to find have been invited to Arkham to see our facilities and hopefully contribute to our goal of creating a non-partisan environment for gamers, all in the spirit of promoting gaming. Some groups have taken our aims to heart, especially TTN, and linked into events we've organised, hosted, or participated in. Hopefully the groups who haven't yet taken up the invite don't feel they would be unwelcome - far from it.

We want gaming groups and clubs to thrive and bring more people into the hobby. not segregate and compete against each other. I think anyone who's spent any time at Arkham knows this and i hope we can tempt prolific gamers such as yourself into taking the plunge and coming up for a visit. We'll not attempt to divide your loyalties, that's a promise, but it's a shame when so much effort and investment has been put into this project that there's key people in the scene (like yourself) who haven't yet visited. There's so much we can all do to help each other.

[Neil]

Hi mate and welcome to site

I'm from ballymena myself but never have made it down to the Michelin club, reason being it does seem like it's very competitive and with me being a newb and only getting back into wargaming it's off putting!

[J65]

Thanks for the welcome, I look forward to getting a run up to AGC.

@Neil, you should drop by the MAC sometime, we do have a bunch of competitive tourney players, but there are just as many at the club who play just for the craic.

@doblersdream, that all sounds great it seems we have the same goals. Btw, I emailed you on 15th April when I first found out about AGC, suggesting you check out the Wargaming Ireland site and let people there know about Arkham.

I have to admit that I'm totally confused by some of what you posted in that last paragraph. Call me Mr Oblivious but I don't see the elephant, and I'm unaware of any suspicions regarding AGC. The Wasters fully support cooperation between clubs, and many of our members are also members of other clubs, so there's really no issue of dividing loyalties. I've been meaning to get to get up to AGC for a while, but it's been lack of time that's prevented a visit. it's not that I'm actively avoiding the place. I haven't made it to the QUB Dragonslayers yet either for that matter. Hopefully that'll all change soon, though I'm a bit tied up with tournaments at the minute. Declaring that I would take a different army to every tournament this season seemed like a good idea at the time. The reality of having to paint 2 new armies in 4 weeks makes me think that maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew .

[Guest]

Apologies, i don't remember the 15th April email. The last paragraph was more a general observation and not aimed at you, so apologies for that, it was misplaced, especially with you new to the forum. In fact, i'm going to edit the post

[Neil]

Will try and get down for next day you guys are running, had a look at wasters site looks to be 24th oct

[weeivor]

You are very very welcome to the forum, my friend. One of the things we want to see at Arkham is that the hobby grows. We have a number of tables that are getting well used. You will be very welcome down at Arkham. In fact we will be running a 40k tournament in December at the club.

I have been a 40k player for donkeys and have recently started WFB. Even more recently Secrets of the Third Reich and Flames of War. Oh so many shinies.

We have a load of toy soldiers and systems for your delectation as well.

Let us know on the forum when you would be free to come down and we can have a game and a chat to see how we can all link up. I have been meaning to get up to Wasters for a while so you might be able to persuade me to come up to you to. I live in Ballyclare, so you are not too far away.

Just as an aside we are also running a WWII mini con on 20 November to link into that particular month and remembrance day. We hope to do a bit of collecting for charity on the day as well for the poppy appeal - so if you also know of anyone who would be interested pass it on. If you are on Facebook you can also go to facebook.com/arkhamgamingcentre to see what we are at. We have a fair sized Warmachine contingent as well as Firestorm Armada (the space combat game).

I like to think gamers i don't know are friends i have yet to meet! So I look forward to meeting you sometime soon!

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