Wayland’s Forge

I’m now at a stage in my life where going out clubbing every Friday and Saturday just seems like a bit of a nightmare… Don’t get me wrong, I like a good night out with friends, but another activity I love to do of a weekend is game.
Board game or card game… There is nothing finer than laying out an intricate game, looking through rule books and ultimately fighting alongside (or against) friends in an epic battle to take over railway routes/​trading paths/​portals (with a drink in hand and snacks at the ready, obviously). Gaming has evolved since I was a youngun’ and we’re not talking Monopoly here. We’re talking saving Arkham from demons, killing off families in Gloom, riding the ultimate rule changes of Fluxx or trading your ass off in Jaipur… Anything that has a good premise and is fun to play with friends.
There isn’t too many shops that cater to this particular brand of geek. You get a small choice in some of the comic book shops, but the ultimate place for any gamer is Wayland’s Forge. Although the store is relatively small, it’s rammed to the rafters with card games, booster packs, board games, models to paint and make and tables where you can watch other’s get their particular choice of geek on.
I hadn’t even realised this place had moved from it’s previous incarnation in Fletchers walk until we were having a leisurely look around the Custard Factory one weekend. Seeing as we’ve now played most of the games that we have time and time again, we decided to pop in and check out the range of boosters, modifiers and add-​ons to enhance the games that we already had.
We were greeted as we walked in (and at some point asked if we needed any help), but we were more or less left to our own devices to paw through the stock and see if anything jumped out at as as we browsed. We didn’t end up picking anything up on this particular visit, but we did get some inspiration for other games we might want to check out in the future.
The service here isn’t «in your face» at all, but I imagine if you needed help or anything explaining, the guys would be more than willing to give you the basics of a particular game and recommend things you might like depending on your existing tastes.
Whether you’re into mainstream, epic quests or just supplies to paint your Warhammer models, I recommend a visit to Wayland’s Forge in the Custard Factory.