So last night myself and Joe found ourselves at Games of war, Seaham which we found with no difficulties at all… First impression was that there was dogs there (four to be precise) which was unusual for a gaming shop and second was that it was fairly compact.  The shop front was fairly small and had a limited stock now you may suspect I am going to have a fairly negative review of the place, but this is far from the reality.

Whilst indeed the stock is limited and is only a real bare bones of Flames of war, rules of engagement, WFB and 40K in shop this isn’t a massive problem for them or for you as a customer. They do 10 % off RRP on their lines and they will order something for you and ship it to your house for no extra charge (apparently comes in between 1-3 days, Joe can confirm this) From a business point of view this makes a lot of sense as their shop is a little out of the way, certainly no high street position so they get very few off the street customers. Most of the people that come there have made plans to do so (like us)  know what they want already (like us) and are no newcomer to the hobby.  Apparently they make good business with the new releases (the space wolf battle force flew off the shelves) as they are new and the grizzled veterans don’t have them already. As you might suspect a lot of their patrons have established armies, hence it makes sense for Games of War to stock the way to to do even if the browser in me wished they had more stock, their business plan makes a lot of sense and if I was to start gaming there I’d likely buy/order from there. Joe was more than happy to place an order for a little tank (Grueber’s litle tank) and some paints.

Their gaming area is huge with probably at least 18 tables to play on at any one time with excellent scenery (they make and sell their own) including the obligatory massive castle sections and they have a fairly big painting area. When we were there we saw a game of WFB, a game of FoW and an ECW game (thats english civil war not extrem championship wrestling, though that might be more fun ) all going on with plenty more people there with armies. I spoke to Andy of NWA, warhammer.org fame and he seemed a very nice chap explaining that there are lots of different players who play in his club and they would be more than happy to use toned down armies, or ‘weaker books’ if I was to come down or harder lists if I needed practice (he could even break out the demons if I really wanted, he joked). But of course, demons are perfectly balanced right ben?! Mind his double ancient of the god’s (stegadons with crazy abilities) and slaan in temple guard didn’t look too friendly!

I do need tournament practice but it was good to know they were willing to start off easy, or play different types of games depending on whether you were a starter (soft lists), experienced player(balanced but challenging lists) or wanted tournament practice (the real filth- demons hoho). Their club has all sorts from beginners to a very competitive tournament team (came second at the club championship so I’m told)

It costs a credit crunch busting pound to play there (sorry, couldnt help the reference) which is fantastic value considering most clubs charge double that and don’t have a shop on site and I’ve played at a club which charged much more than that. The owners are very friendly and  happy to chat to you and the dogs friendly without getting in the way. Whilst games of war is a little out of the way for us gatesheaders truth be told it doesn’t take *that* much longer to get there than the north shields club is much cheaper and has a wide range of players there not just as in a wide range of games played which they do (one person apparently plays as many different games as ben who plays at last count, OVER NINE THOUSAND)but as in a wide range of skill levels/ approaches to playing the games.

Whilst I won’t be there every week I do intend to visit semi-regularly(once or twice a month) as overall I was fairly impressed with the place especially as a gaming haven where you could order product at a 10% off and Joe liked the manufacturing/industrial unit feel of the gaming area (they make their money from the industrial side of the business, I think I heard). Games of war is definitly recommended by me!