The Founder Speaks
Welcome to StAB’s new website!
I thought I’d kick off this club with a little bit of history as to how StAB came about. I have been wargaming since I was about 6 having been introduced to the hobby by my father, Graeme, who has been gaming since he was a similar age. We primarily played historical games mainly in early WWII in 6mm scale and 15mm medieval period.
In 2001, when the Lord of the Rings wargame was introduced by Games Workshop and I got into fantasy gaming in a big way. I started to attend clubs in Brisbane on a fairly regular basis as a result of this. It was at these clubs that dad would bring along his WWI Aerials and encourage people to play a quick game, between rounds, or after main games were done but before the club wrapped for the day. These short demonstrations were popular, welcomed, and gained us a place demonstrating wargaming at Brisbane’s annual model railway expo.
Come 2010, I moved interstate for work, and gaming was low on the list of priorities. I moved back to assist a family business in Bendigo, and joined BADGA, where dad and I were quickly appointed to the committee. Through our contact with Nic from Eureka Miniatures, we demonstrated at Little Wars several years running, often with the assistance of members of the club in Bendigo. It was at Little Wars that I was approached one year by some of the crew from PAX AUS to do the same at their annual event and jumped at the opportunity. For 2 years, we demonstrated as BADGA, however, with me having moved to Melbourne, and my parents having moved to Queensland, our association with them ended. Living in Sunbury, I noted the lack of a club or community for gaming, and so with the guidance of a couple of stores that serve the area and some ideas from a housemate at the time, created StAB, Sunbury Tabletop And Board-gamers.
I asked a friend’s partner, a budding artist, to create a logo for us, and at the next PAX, debuted the new ‘club’ as the demonstration team. This was still made up mainly of the crew from Bendigo, though most had moved to Melbourne or, in Dad’s case, came down for the event from interstate. As a ‘club,’ meetings were ad-hoc get togethers, typically at my place, mainly for the purpose of doing hobby over a few beers, and occasionally having a game or three. Momentum gathered to improved and develop the PAX offering, and a larger team formed with the goal to demonstrate at the upcoming PAX, the planning commencing in early 2020. The COVID pandemic (rightly) prevented gatherings, and events like PAX were cancelled. Still, the community that existed, loosely identified as StAB, continued to meet virtually, and to provide that hobby space for friends, remotly done though it was. With 2020 and 2021 PAX being a wash, we came back to 2022 in force with our largest team yet, and now mainly featuring members who were local to the Sunbury group. Dad still came down from Brisbane and our offering was especially well received.
In 2023, we welcomed more interstate demonstrators in the team form Fjordserpents, as well as from a former enforcer who joined us after the paint and take event ended at PAX. With this larger, and more diverse team, it was decided to reinvigorate StAB as a club, community, and demo team, with the S changing its meaning to ‘Somewhere’ thanks to a timely suggestion over some beers. I strongly feel that this better shows what we are about, being a community of people who love our hobby, and want to bring it to as many people as possible in the best light we can. StAB has always attempted to demonstrate a culture of inclusiveness, fair play, and positivity. Both Dad and I take more joy out of demonstrating our great hobby than from tournaments. He and I, and the people who have now formed the leadership of our group, are strongly committed to the idea that gaming should be radically inclusive, and to that end, we will always promote a positive and inclusive culture in this group. We want tabletop hobbies to be a community. We want tabletop hobbies to be introduced to those people who wither may not know about them, or may not think they are welcome as members. We want people to have a place to come to organize a game, to develop a game, to discuss technique of hobby, or simply to be with like minded individuals. We welcome all, and hope you can join us on this journey.
