HMS Gaming Table

When we moved into the new place in 2019, we lucked out with the neighbours.  Dave, the guy next door is really friendly, couldn’t wait to meet the new neighbours , you know, all that good stuff.  Then he saw the wargames stuff being moved in.  Huge boxes of miniatures and pieces of scenery and I am pretty sure was hooked right there and then – he’d already bought his son a Stranger Things D&D set based solely on seeing the show but had never played it.  My brother is a huge D&D nutter so he was all like “yeah, I will definitely run a game for you!”

Obviously it took us a while to get settled in, get things unpacked and the the event happened and we all had to hide away from the world.  During that time we built the table in the garage over a period of several months which he saw, sometimes watched (from a safe distance of course) and we would chat, talk about all the games.  He told us he was a massive Star Wars fan and he showed us his box of (quite possibly priceless) Star Wars memorabilia -books, toys, all sorts most of it still in shrink wrap and boxes.

For Christmas, we extended an invitation that, once all the silliness was over and done with that both he and his son could come over and we would run a game of something for them.  Obviously the lockdown seems to be never ending however, as soon as they said you could meet people outside and in gardens, he sent us a WhatsApp messages that just said “does your garage count as outside if the door is open” – we agreed that it did and within a couple of days the table had its inaugral game.  Due to their love of Star Wars, we opted for Xwing – it’s easy, it’s fast, it’s fun and it’s something they both already know and understand.

I can only apologise for the bad hair styles, this was a week before the barbers opened again.  However this is Ian (my brother) helping Noah to defeat Darth Dave

This has also lead to the table being named The Second Deathstar:

• It’s the second version of the table.
• It’s bigger and badder than the first.
• It’s got a hole through the middle that leads to its power supply.
• It was fully armed and operational before it was technically finished.
• It had Xwings and TIE Fighters buzzing around shooting each other

Following that game, as they were leaving Dave dropped a bit of insight on us with this line.

“Do you know what I would really like to try?  A massive game of 40k”

He knows about it, has seen a tank somewhere (we think it was an Ultramarines Land Raider from the description) and he’s desperate to give it a try.  tonight he got his wish.  Partly at least.  My brother ran a 500 point introduction for him and it turns out he absolutely loved it.

So in summary, the table is if not finished, operational and we have used it to SNAG A NORMY!  Was it all worth it?  Abso-feckin-lutely

There may be a couple of extra updates on this when I come to add the sound system but there won’t be much more now.  It’s time to call it done, leave it alone and really just enjoy it