Published on 1st May 2025

Horsham Wargaming Club meets at the Roffey Club every Sunday evening. Club nights encompass multiple wargames including Warhammer 40,000, as well as role playing games and the occasional board game. AAH attended and met members Rick Frost, Rebecca Sayers, Daniel Wright and Becca Henderson to find out more… 

Rick: I co-founded Horsham Wargaming Club with Dan Payne (Chairman) and Neil Kilburn (Treasurer) two years ago. We recognised that there were many board game enthusiasts in Horsham, yet nowhere for them to meet. We wanted to establish a club where people with a shared interest could come together and enjoy creative games, at a venue close enough to town for people to walk or cycle to.  

Rebecca: I joined HWC soon after it was founded. My partner and I are both keen gamers and we were asked by Dan (Chairman) to come along and serve on the committee. We are also members of another club, South Downs Siegebreakers, which meets at The Crown Inn, Cootham, every Tuesday evening. But it’s wonderful to have a gaming club in Horsham too.   

Dan W: I moved to Horsham from the Midlands two years ago, as I work at Creative Assembly in town. Previously, I was a member of a gaming club in Coventry, where I made many friends, so I wanted to join a similar club in Horsham and meet new people. Unfortunately, there wasn’t one, so I was very pleased when HWC formed a short time later. I came along to play a few games and now attend regularly, as it has helped me settle into my new life.   

Becca: I first joined the club about a year ago. I am a content creator on Instagram and my focus was initially on parenting, until I discovered a passion for board games. I used to attend a couples’ evening where we would play games and one really piqued my interest. It was called Wingspan, where players compete to attract birds to their wildlife reserve. This led me to play a similar game, Wyrmspan, where you build sanctuaries for dragons. I decided to follow my heart and focus on board games for my Instagram page (@mammameeple). I have since immersed myself in that world and now have over 41,000 followers. 

Rick: The board game community is very supportive in terms of promoting new products and helping enthusiasts come together. If you go to Gobsmack Comics in Swan Walk and ask about local board game clubs, they will direct you to us. Gobsmack is an official outlet for Warhammer, a tabletop wargame with medieval fantasy themes. Warhammer is strongly represented at our club, with about half of the tables devoted to various editions of the game. 

Dan W: The first edition of Warhammer 40,000 (known as 40k) was launched in 1987 and inspired the fantasy games movement. I discovered Warhammer a few years later and remember when the second edition was released in 1993. At that time, branches of Games Workshop were opening across the UK and gaming enthusiasts could meet there, buy Warhammer figures and spend hours painting and playing games. I have fond memories of that time and although Warhammer has now released 10 editions, the second edition remains my favourite, although a lot of this passion is driven by nostalgia! 

Rick: The Games Workshop Group is based in Nottingham and Warhammer products are one of the UK’s great export success stories, as it has a global fan-base. Warhammer is a fantasy adventure, much like Lord of the Rings but set in space. Since the first edition, there have been countless Warhammer books developing the background story for various wars and characters and it would be almost impossible for someone new to the game to catch up on so much content. However, you can still enter a Warhammer shop (the nearest is in Crawley) and enjoy a painting workshop, just like many of us did years ago, and discover the game for yourself. 

Dan W: Painting the figures has always been an important part of Warhammer. Each edition comes with books which demonstrate how you can paint different factions, such as Chaos Space Marines and Black Templars. However, you can choose your own colour scheme, which I have done with several of my armies. During lockdown, it was nice to have something to focus on, as painting became a form of escapism. I am still growing my collection too, buying armies from the second edition on eBay. Warhammer also produced a Fantasy version of that edition, with characters such as Chaos Dwarves and Orcs and Goblins, which I sometimes play on club nights too.

Rebecca: There are Warhammer enthusiasts who spend a lot of money on their hobby. However, new players don’t need to spend a fortune to enjoy it. Some club members have multiple armies and are happy to lend them to others, as it encourages people to try the game out to see if they like it. 

Becca: My husband plays Warhammer 40k and I like painting the figures and build up armies. I don’t have quite the passion for playing it as others do, so I tend to set up other games for small groups to play on club nights. I don’t think people realise just how many great games are out there. In the past couple of years, I have played about 350 and yet that barely scratches the surface. This evening, we played Cobra Paw, a speed recognition game, and Mycelia, a game developed by a Worthing company called Split Stone Games, in which players build their own mushroom kingdom. Sometimes, scenes can be quite raucous, so we often set up in another room at The Roffey Club, to separate ourselves from the Warhammer tables.  

Rebecca: We also have a table for role playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons, and tonight we’re playing Maze Rats. RPGs are usually led by a games master, with players taking on a character who interacts with other characters in a fantasy world, with the story dependent on dice or cards. They are good fun as games are very collaborative and players often have to come together through their characters to achieve a common goal. Whereas Warhammer is based on strategy, with armies physically moved around a board with the aim of defeating an opponent, role play games often lead to ridiculous situations that you could never predict! 

Becca: Being involved in HWC has really opened my eyes as to how many great games there are waiting to be discovered. If someone tells me their favourite board games are Monopoly and Scrabble, I tell them that I’m about open their eyes to a world that they didn’t know existed! More people have sampled great ‘gateway’ games such as Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride and Catan, which is helping to drive interest in board gaming. 

Rebecca: Gaslands is another game that we sometimes play. It was something we played at SDS and proved popular, as it’s a game of car-on-car destruction set in a post-apocalyptic world. Players can use Hot Wheels and other die-cast cars, arming them with missile launchers and all kinds of artillery! It’s fun as it takes players back to their childhood, when they would race cars around their bedroom. While there is a core group of 40k players, people have been introduced to many games they would never have tried otherwise. 

Rick: One important aspect to the club is the social side. I’ve had bad experiences at Warhammer tournaments, where there is so much emphasis on competition that you don’t really enjoy it. Here, there is a far more casual and friendly environment.  

Dan W: Joining the club has been a great way of meeting people. Playing Warhammer on your own is difficult and not an enormous amount of fun, so it’s nice to share my passion with others. Club nights give me a chance to play against people with a similar mindset, who appreciate the narrative arch of classic Warhammer editions, which are perhaps less competitive than recent versions. This is meant to be fun and I enjoy using my model armies and generating a story around them. 

Rebecca: I didn’t know anyone at this club before coming down for the first time. The games bring people together, friendships develop and – in some cases – smaller social groups form and they even organise game nights outside of HWC. Someone could be struggling with their mental health, but here, nobody is judged. We just play and that gives us all at least one thing to look forward to.  

Rick: Initially, we met once a fortnight, but club nights have become so popular, with over 200 members on our Facebook page, that we now meet every Sunday night. Everyone here is a friend and we even meet for curry nights and other social events too. We are an Over-18s club, although younger gamers have joined us when accompanied by an adult. It’s nice to see the next generation enjoying board games and local schools such as Forest have supported this, establishing Warhammer or Dungeons & Dragons clubs. 

Becca: I have so many recommendations, but if people are interested in getting into gaming as a hobby, then Wingspan is a fun starting point, while Mycelia is a great game and supports a Sussex-based games publisher. However, my best advice is to come and play!  

WORDS: Ben Morris / PHOTOS: Alan Wright