An interesting day out

[Leman]

I decided to ignore Desmond today and took the train up to Southport to do a spot of Christmas shopping. Tried out the new Costa, very pleasant staff and very roomy, found some good books for various people for Christmas, then came across the bumper '10 Best Commando World War I Stories'. What a gem. RNAS armoured cars mixing it up with uhlans as jealous, snobby British cavalry officers look on; scraps in the air over the Middle East, and old faithful xenophobia - "Take that you sausage scoffers!" Then to cap it all saw a new shop front being prepared on the main drag, Lord Street, carrying the sign Wargames. Is this going to be a blissful haven, a refuge for the fantasy geeks or some hell hole of a computer game place - or possibly all three? One can but live in hope, but it will be interesting to see what the proprietor means by wargames.

[Steve J]

Ah, the Commando xenophobia! The Japs (as they were always referred to IIRC) always seemed to have round glasses,very bad teeth and be bandy legged.

[jimduncanuk]

I decided to ignore Desmond today and took the train up to Southport to do a spot of Christmas shopping. Tried out the new Costa, very pleasant staff and very roomy, found some good books for various people for Christmas, then came across the bumper '10 Best Commando World War I Stories'. What a gem. RNAS armoured cars mixing it up with uhlans as jealous, snobby British cavalry officers look on; scraps in the air over the Middle East, and old faithful xenophobia - "Take that you sausage scoffers!" Then to cap it all saw a new shop front being prepared on the main drag, Lord Street, carrying the sign Wargames. Is this going to be a blissful haven, a refuge for the fantasy geeks or some hell hole of a computer game place - or possibly all three? One can but live in hope, but it will be interesting to see what the proprietor means by wargames.

I take it that this is 'Commando' as in a boys comic as opposed to 'commando' as in a military formation.

I can associate 'commando' with WW2 quite easily and also the South African War but not with WW1. Am I thinking poorly?

[Westmarcher]

Donner und blitzen!

Lucky you, Leman! I went to the supermarket with my wife. At the toilet paper shelf, I was somewhat perplexed by the sale of water pistols. Was this to make skid mark removal, fun? But my wife assured me that special reduced items for sale just happened to be stocked on the adjacent shelves. I then saw basted chickens for sale. Wondering why a chicken's parentage would make the meat tastier, I was then assured by my wife that it was pronounced bay-sted and not baa-sted. Finally, when walking past the vegetable shelves, I thought I heard two onions discussing the Bee-Jees. But when I turned round, it was just the chives talking.

Didn't see any Commando comics.  

[Leman]

  This was a bumper paperback of ten comics in one volume, for sale in one of those remainder shops for £4.99.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I went to Battlefield Hobbies in Daventry, nice shop, but all the wrong scale!

[Subedai]

I remember wargames shops from my youth!

[fred.]

The Southport shop is supposed to be a proper wargames shop - though they will need to do a lot of trade to support Lord Street rents!

They have more info on Facebook and ran a kickstarter earlier in the year.

It will be cool to have a games shop on my doorstep.

[Leman]

Have to check that out myself. Only 15 minutes away on the freebie train.

[Leman]

I checked out the Facebook page. Oh dear, it is as I suspected. A refuge for those keen on dystopian war hound, blood-drenched, winged-beasts of...........need I go on! No mention of Tommies, grognards, legionaries or even Vikings.

[FierceKitty]

The South African version should really be spelled with a k. I

[Norm]

It is a very large venue. Downstairs sells product, which in addition to things like Batman and Games Workshop, will be selling Perry 28's, Warlord (Bolt Action) and paints etc. The front of the shop will have a coffee lounge.

The upper two floor will hold 50 dedicated gaming tables.

In a world in which our retail sector on the high street is in decline and hobby / model / wargame shops were amongst the first shops to go and most vacant shops become coffee or charity shops or restaurants that boost the night economy,  it is encouraging to see someone who has the confidence in bringing the hobby back onto the high street and using the word 'Wargame' on the front of their shop.

It would be interesting to take a couple of Napoleonic armies and book a table and then some  youngsters from the next table might come over and start to take an interest. My passion in wargaming (pre-internet) could only have happened because of things I saw on the high street.

[fred.]

I popped into the new Southport Wargames shop yesterday - its a big venue. There are some couches at the front, the till area in the middle, several gaming tables towards the back, with various stock nicely displayed along the side walls. And another seating / coffee bar area at the back. There is an upstairs area that I didn't go to.

Its all very nicely presented - a good space, with things spread around at good intervals.

The staff were friendly, without being pushy.

Unfortunately there were no other customers. Though when my wife had gone in before Christmas she had seen people playing.

They have a bunch of different stock, mainly 28mm focused. At lot of GW stuff (which was a bit of a surprise to me); Bolt Action rules and plastic figure boxes; Mantic stuff, mainly KoW figures; Infinity (I think); some laser cut MDF buildings, mainly Wild West.
I didn't see any Perry plastics, which was a shame as I would probably have picked up a box, and no terrain stuff, which I thought would have been good sellers, as it is scale and game independent.

I ended up just picking up a GW yellow paint, and a pot of Army Painter Soft Tone Ink - a massive £4.45 total spend, which seemed a reasonable cost, though at this level of spend they will struggle. Sightly strangely nothing has prices on it, I'm not sure if this a policy, or just that they aren't fully organised yet!

As it seems there are a bunch of us local - it would be good to meet up, and show off some 10mm games.

[Nosher]

This sort of thing is good to see and it would be good if the local wargaming fraternity got behind it and threw their money at it whenever possible.

The only shop (other than GW) we have here disappeared at least five years ago. Again it was more a games shop with an online presence than wargaming but I did drop in and drop the odd tenner here and there on paints dice and generic gaming paraphernalia. Even its online presence has gone now which is a shame.

[paulr]

I didn't see any Perry plastics, which was a shame as I would probably have picked up a box, and no terrain stuff, which I thought would have been good sellers, as it is scale and game independent.

Did you discuss this with the staff? This sort of feedback might help guide them

As it seems there are a bunch of us local - it would be good to meet up, and show off some 10mm games.

A damn fine idea Sir