Thursday 4 August 2011

Welcome to the SWG Blog


SkibbWargamers was started in 2008 as a way for four nerds, (myself, Caolán, Pa and Martin) to hang out whilst playing board games and anything else involving dice and toy figures. At Pa's urging, we had returned to playing 40k, something we had abandoned before. Out in my garage one day, I showed 40k to Eoin(who most of ye know as the guy who's Marines get back up and glance on sixes; except when they pen), and he took to the game like a fish to water. Having taught Eoin the mechanics of the game, (except assualts) we decided his first game should be playing Tau at WarpconXIX. Warpcon was great craic, as usual, nerding it up, so 40k became a staple part of our nerd diet again.



Dice. Part of our diet.

After Warpcon I decided to start a 40k campaign to introduce both Eoin and Martin to 40k and to teach Caolán how Blast weapons worked in 5th ed.. Martin grew his hair, became asexual, and changed his name to Tadhg, (No, seriously, he went home to Poland and Tadhg joined about a week later). Caolán met Sylvan at an Other Realms gaming thing, and as he was the only person there who didn't know what Blizzard was, Sylvan felt talking to Caolán was reasonably safe. Thus our group became larger (and taller).


World of What? Never heard of it.


SWG's first full outing was the now infamous GT in Athlone. We had an absolute ball and many traditions were born, and some great stories, including: Eoin and Caolán getting horrendously drunk, Tadhg crashing Caolán's car, friendly rivalry with the Warheads, and hurling levels of abuse which shocked anyone who didn't know we're all friends, right okay?





Caolán's car.


In accordance with local by-laws, our ranks now include Chris, our token ginger, and Emma, Sylvan's wife and token woman. As most of our members live in Cork due to college, and I can only produce so many childern to swell our ranks, I have taken to recuiting Youngbloods as the next generation of SkibbWargamers and playing regularly in our local hangout, Russagh Mill.


Even kids like Space Marines.


Russagh Mill will be familiar to many of you as the location of our now yearly event, SkibbCon. For those of you who don't know, SkibbCon is a non-ranking, doubles event, held in June, in Russagh Mill Hostel, Skibbereen. It's a two-day event, and the money you pay covers accomodation, food, con-entry and prize support. It's popularity has grown to an extent that we now offer spectator tickets for those who come for the craic rather than the games, a source of great pride for us. For more information see up coming articles.


SkibbCon!


Now that we find our club name is known across the island, we run our own con and we have our own forum, we decided we needed a blog to further make our opinion, (which everyone is entitled to) known. As well as inflating our own egos, (mainly Eoin's), this blog will hopefully serve to promote and expand Ireland's gaming scene, which is growing from strength to strength, thanks to nerds all over Ireland and SkibbWargamers will do its part. So here it is, the SkibbWargamers blog, read and enjoy.


-Cian O'Mahony (Club President, SWG)

3 comments:

  1. I seriously wish I lived closer to Russagh Mill.
    Best of luck with the blog & club of course.
    For the record, I would like to reserve my place (partnered with Mr. Paul Quigley no less) for Skibbcon 2012.

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  2. Heh, the blog has started well, anyway.

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  3. Cheers for the kind words lads. More to come on SkibbCon.

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