About us

Who we are?

The tabletop gaming corner is made up of Nick (35) and Zoey (34). Most of the stuff will be written by Nick with Zoey's opinion added in. We live and play in Belgrade, Serbia.

What we do?

We play many games, some widely known, some less so. We enjoy playing board games, absolutely love miniatures, and I (Nick) do commission painting, as well as terrain building. We also love playing retro video games.

As a couple, we play most of our stuff together, at home, though some titles we play in our local gaming club with others. Our most favorite part of gaming would have to be the narrative (if available, or if suitable to be added). Since we don't yet have a regular gaming group for board games, we're really missing out on some great titles and especially mechanics.

Our goal here is to share our experiences with everyone through unboxings, reviews, previews, session reports and hobby articles.

Our gaming history

I discovered miniature games some 20 years ago, while on a trip to Amsterdam with my family. As I was maybe 15 at the time, walking into my first Games Workshop, seeing so many fantasy models, all in one place, I had no clue my world was about to change forever. And there, in the corner, was a small glass cabinet with some 40k models whispering “go on little grasshopper, you will discover us eventually”. All my previous tabletop experiences were based on playing EarthDawn and D&D, with no minis, no maps or terrain, everything had to be imagined in our heads. I even embarrassed myself in front of the shop guy, asking for figures for role-playing games, not having a clue where I was or what those minis are for. An hour later I walked out with my very own 6th ed starter set for Warhammer fantasy battles (the one with Empire and Orcs in it), a character riding a dragon, a bag of trees (which are still around) and a set of Mordheim ruins.Yup, everyone said a trip to Amsterdam changes a man, and that was the way it changed me. Later that same year I discovered our local community which eventually lead me into 40k and other games.

At the time, the internet was still on dial up, there were no regular game stores like we have today. You got your stuff by having a friend travel abroad and bring you a few boxes. There were barely any board games available in the local community, everyone was playing either Warhammer fantasy battles (40k was still in its infancy with only a couple of players) or Magic the gathering. Dark times indeed.

It took a few years, but eventually we got more than a few game stores, proper hobby tools and materials were now available on the market, and you could now walk into any of those game stores and find any of the new or popular games and minis. The only exception were (and still are) the classic hex and counter wargames. But times are definitely changing, and we now even have more than a few local games publishers.

As for Zoey's and my collective gaming history, we played many games over the years. Some we liked, some not so much, and some are still with us. There was a phase many years ago where we would buy games without much thought, unlike we do today, it was enough that it was a franchise we cared about and that it had a mechanic we thought we would enjoy. There was even a period where I had more than a few solo wargames for all the wrong reasons.

We tried tabletop rpg's for a while. As we enjoy playing with each other the most, it's difficult to find a local group for rpg's in order for us both to be players. We tried duets (1 DM and 1 Player) with mixed results. She preferred to be a player and found DM-ing too much work, while I put far to much effort into the smallest details, only for her to take a wrong turn and skip it all. Some game systems allowed us to handle npc's as the missing player characters, some were complicated enough as is, where I as a DM had to boost her character to a much higher level or alter some of the rules to make it easier for her to handle things on her own.

Miniatures were our passion for many years, and for a long time we tried to avoid getting a card or board game if we could have a similar mechanic or theme with a miniature game (for a more recent example, we would prefer to go with Marvel crisis protocol instead of Marvel champions Lcg, as that would allow us to play with minis instead of cards). Recently we found ourselves questioning this reasoning more and more.

As a part of miniature gaming, painting and terrain building came as no surprise really. At some point along the way someone in our local gameclub saw some minis I did for myself, and asked if I would do the same for them. And just like that, some 10 years later, I'm still doing commission painting. So much in fact that most of my own minis remain unpainted. Terrain building was a whole different matter. At first we improvised, like in those older Warhammer books where they tell the new player to use some books as hills, or some boxes as buildings etc. Then came the first steps with building our own stuff, mostly out of cardboard, foamcore and styrofoam (pink foam). A lack of experience meant that we would rather buy terrain than try and try again. Some 3-4 years ago we discovered 3d printing, which among other things, changed our perspective on terrain building as well. We could now have pieces made for waaaaay less than usual. And after some experimenting with 3d modeling, I tried my hand again with making my own pieces, and in different scales.

Many years and even more games later, in the present, we are writing about our experiences, in the hopes that others might discover the wonderful world of tabletop games. Gaming in general, is what we believe, what ultimately shaped us into who we are today.