We are excited to introduce you to our May ‘Club of the Month’, The Wargames Club, which has been run by Mr Scott since he first joined Stewart’s Melville College 23 years ago. Playing wargames was one of Mr Scott’s favourite hobbies growing up and he wanted to share it with our pupils too!
The Wargames Club enjoy tucking into a variety of strategic tabletop games, such as the popular game ‘Warhammer,’ and the cognitive demands of the hobby can in many ways be deemed similar to those of chess. As a hobby which can be considered by some to be quite costly, the Club are proud to have built up a collection of miniatures over the years which means the club can be enjoyed for free, making it accessible to all of our pupils.
We caught up with Mr Scott to find out more about the Wargames Club and what its members have been up to recently!
When was the Wargames Club set up?
The Wargames Club was started when I joined the school 23 years ago. Wargaming has been my hobby since I was a young lad, so running the club has been a labour of love throughout my time at SMC.
When do you meet?
The Club meets in the Product Design Department after school on a Thursday until 5pm.
How many members do you have?
The Wargames Club is a social club and membership varies throughout the year as commitments to other activities allow – on any given week we might have anywhere from 6 to 12 gamers! The club is open to S1 to S6 pupils and currently we have pupils in each year group represented.
How can children join?
There is no pre-requisite for joining the club other than an interest in playing tabletop games. The club can supply all the miniatures, scenery, dice and rules to play a variety of games as well as teaching pupils how to play them. All that a pupil needs is an interest in learning fun and challenging games!
What happens during an average meeting?
The wider wargaming hobby involves collecting modelling and painting miniatures, learning (or even writing) game rules and developing tactics that will allow your army to take to the tabletop. However, in our Thursday afternoon sessions we concentrate on playing games.
What is one of your top highlights as a club?
The club has many highlights and attractions such as:
- Playing games with the beautifully painted toys and scenery that the club owns, creating impressive tabletop vistas that let the players’ imagination loose.
- Forging new friendships in the heat of battle – remembering games won and lost or the cinematic climatic moments where the outcome of a hard-fought game hangs in the balance.
- Talking and sharing information about the games and the wider hobby – The club has a Teams site where members can chat online, share images of the projects they are working on and ask for help and advice before their game.
For me, the best thing is hearing the peals of laughter as a daring move comes off, or the howls of anguish when it doesn’t – in wargaming nothing is ever certain. Tactics are devised and used but each game has an element of chance to it that can make the most unlikely courses of action succeed or the perfect plan fail.
What are the goals of the club?
Wargaming is a very wide hobby. The club goal, therefore, is to widen the knowledge that pupils have of the wonderful worlds that can be explored through playing tabletop games. I want to foster an enthusiasm for wargames that can last a lifetime. Along the way, I want pupils to form and cement friendships with their peers.
Thank you to the Wargames Club for taking the time to catch up with us!
If your child is interested in joining, Mr Scott would love to welcome them at their next meeting on Thursday at 5pm.
