This past week was very special. I finally went to the Games Workshop HQ. I’ve been to England a few times but never made it up their HQ in Nottingham (yes it’s a real place; not just where Robin Hood lives). Since I’ve now been in this hobby for way more than a decade I finally decided that it’s time.
Store with exclusive items
After entering Warhammer World the first thing you see is a store. It’s your typical Games Workshop store except that they have a few unique items. They have swag like t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, etc as well as an exclusive miniature.
Gaming area
After the store you enter the gaming area where there is row after row of gorgeous tables. Since I visited at 10am on a random Wednesday morning the tables were mostly empty. But on the weekend I’m told that every table can fill up. I was really impressed at the diversity of the tables. They had every theme you could imagine.
Forge world
I’ve never walked into a Forge World shop before. I know some of the bigger stores used to have a forge world inside of them, like the Battle Bunker in Chicago, but I unfortunately never made it out to them while they had FW models. It was really impressive to see the Primarch models up close.
It’s worth mentioning at this point that I’m planning on picking up Imperial Fists so I picked up some imperial fist shoulder pads as well as waiting for the Dorn model to come out (some day).
Black library
I’ve been going through the Horus Heresy series and since I practically finished Flight of the Eisenstein on the plane it was useful to pick up Fulgrim for the return flight.
I enjoyed talking to the cashier who had some insight in the total number of books in the HH series. Since the war lasts about ~20 years and were ~13 years into the story line with ~30 books we can expect another 20 or so books in the series.
Exhibition centre
You have to pay to enter the exhibition centre but it’s definitely worth it. They have classic models like the emperor and Horus, Marneus Calgar, and a few others.
They also had a ridiculously awesome Ultramarines vs Khorne Daemonkin battle. It literally made my jaw drop when I went in the room.
Bugman’s Bar
At the end of everything you get to enter Bugman’s Bar which has a fun tavern feel to it.
Wrap up
I loved seeing the people play, the incredible miniatures, the exclusive items, and the little details. After focusing so much of my time and energy on work I’m really excited to get back into the hobby.
