(and what we have been up to since my last post over 18 months ago!)
Despite promises to the contrary, this is my first post in over 18 months - lots of reasons but one particularly good one - I now have my own "War Room". This involved some delicate negotiations with my better half and some trade offs. However, I am chuffed to bits to have our own space to paint, model and game in, and room enough to store all of our treasures. I say "our" because my kids and I are the gamers here - about half my games are with the kids and the other half solo.Anyway, here is what we started with, the old boiler/junk room, 10 feet by 8 feet:
We emptied out the junk, removed the old heating system and started to see the potential:
Added paint, panelling and lino flooring:
Then added the fun stuff!
And finally, the key ingredient, my gaming club:
We spent a lot of time and a fair bit of money on the project but we are all happy - the kids and I for obvious reasons and Mrs.W because the deal is that everything to do with wargaming lives in here!
Storage solutions by Ikea, Ebay and the local butcher. We like the open trays for terrain as it makes it easy to get at, especially for the kids who love making "layouts". Figures not on display live in the A4 clear boxes, figures being painted or based are on the shelves to the left along with my huge rules collection.
Under that is the painting table that can seat three (not all mine - two of the neighbours'):
As you can see it is a happy place and has made the world of difference to all of us. I am very grateful to my wife for all her work in getting it ready, as well as agreeing to it in the first place. You will appreciate that it has completely changed our ability to game and removed much of the pressure that I used to feel to make games small and portable. That said, we are only generally playing on a 3'x3' surface rather than the nirvana of a 6'x4'. The table does open out to 5'x3' but restricts access to most of the room so we generally don't bother - the kids sometimes struggle to reach anyway.
The painting area on a tidy day:
Soon I will post some pictures of the games we have played over the last 18 months.
Here's a photo of our "Battle in a Box" that pre-dates the War Room:
Yes, it's the Rules With No Name again - both my kids just love the card/chit draw mechanic of this game so most things we play are TRWNNish. That's a foot square table mat as the base with 10mm buildings and 15mm figures. The wooden chits thrown in a bag and drawn out replace the card deck but we still use the cards for character reference.
I hope to post more about the last year and a half over the coming days and weeks - Gears of War, Scifi Ambush Alley, Viking Song of Blades & Heroes & Chain Reaction 3 Swordplay, Spacejackers Throwdown, Necromunda, Crossfire, Star Wars Fighter Pods, X-wing, Space Crusade and most recently of all my introduction to TooFatLardies rules which I can't get enough of and have similarities to TRWNN - Sharp Practice, Troops, Weapons & Tactics and Chain of Command so far.
