Fighting the virus

With the demise of just about every wargaming event this year things have been bleak for war gamers in the UK. Hopefully next year will be a more positive picture. As the number of local Covid 19 cases dropped away our club has returned to gaming again albeit under a new ‘normal’ set of conditions. A bit of care and thought needs to go into this to protect your gamers and community. Working with your venue will be very important so that both parties are happy. Supporting your local venues is critical as many of them will currently be in a funding crisis as their normal revenue has been destroyed over the past few months.

How have things changed? Before we meet at the club we now sign up in advance and we have contact details updated for all members so any potential cases can be quickly followed up. There is hand sanitiser by the door as people enter. Make sure there is a table by the door where gamers can put their heavy armies or they have their hands full and don’t wash them!

The tables are carefully spaced to avoid them being too close. We restrict the number of gamers to a table depending on size of the board. This allows social distancing to be maintained.  Limiting the number of players has been challenge for me as my favourite games involve teams on each side. Still, safety first!

Wearing of masks during games is compulsory in the room we hire. That generally has been ok, although we are still allowed to part them to take a drink! At times this Summer it has made gaming a little uncomfortable, but after a while you get used to it.

We still have a bar, but just like in the pub, we order and pay by mobile phone. The barman then delivers the drinks to a safe place. I’m afraid the customary handshake after a game has had to be abandoned. After we finish our games we need to spray and wipe down the tables.

Hopefully, over time, we can ease back on these restrictions. In the meantime, we are all pleased to roll some dice and catch up with friends over a few games. The challenges of foreign travel have meant many of us have stayed at home over the Summer and club membership levels have if anything increased rather than dropping off.