Wayland Games Yearly Round-up: 2023
Welcome to our 2023 round-up where we look back at everything Wayland Games has been up to this past year and celebrate our highlights - what a year it has been!
2023 brought with it a new website, charity bake-offs, our support for the British Library, and much more. Scroll on through to take in everything Wayland Games or click on the links below to see a particular section.
Key Moments
New Website Launch
We excitedly announced the new update to the Wayland Games website back in March, introducing a series of exciting new features and a fresh look with the same great deals you love.
What changed in the update?
UK Games Expo
We were delighted to be welcomed back as Major Sponsors for the UK Games Expo in 2023.
The UK Games Expo is such a key show for the UK gaming community, where we all get to celebrate everything we enjoy about analogue gaming.
Wayland Turns 15
In September, Wayland Games turned 15 and it only felt like yesterday that we were celebrating turning 10!
So much has happened in the last 15 years and you can read all about it here.
British Library - Realms of Imagination
Wayland Games enables our customers to journey into fantastical tabletop gaming worlds, filled with mythical creatures inspired by iconic stories in fantasy literature. So we jumped at the chance to support the British Library’s latest exhibition on the genre of fantasy.
Sponsored Tabletop Events
Malifaux
This year we didn’t support just one, nor two, Malifaux tournaments... we sponsored THREE Malifaux tournaments. Clearly we just couldn’t get enough of the ‘faux.
The community that surrounds Malifaux is always so warm and welcoming and we’ve gladly supported these fantastic competitive events.
Mordheim
Ken, who runs the Mordheim, City of the Damned, tournaments got in touch with us for some extra support for his Mordheim event held in May of this year.
Warcradle Studios answered his call with some Warcradle Scenics terrain.
Community Support
Although we are not able to support all the requests we get through to our Customer Service team, Wayland Games prides itself on supporting the community where possible and here are a few of our favourites from 2023.
Trinity Football Club
We’ve sponsored many a local sports club over the years but our most recent was Trinity Football Club - a Southend based Football Club which caters to ages ranging from 3 to 18+.
We loved the emphasis placed on fostering values like sportsmanship and camaraderie, important in both tabletop and sports games.
May they continue for many years to come!
World Indoor Field Archery Championships
In February, we sponsored the World Indoor Field Archery Championships after the English Field Archery Association (EFAA) reached out to us for support.
Many of our staff are keen archery enthusiasts so we were more than willing to support such a prestigious event being held on British soil.
Charity Board Game Raffle
Having donated items to Fotios in 2022 when he was raising funds for Bath Cats & Dogs Home, we were very happy to see a new email pop up letting us know he was running a new raffle for Barnardos.
We donated a selection of board games to support the raffle and were pleased that they were able to raise funds for such an important charity.
KokoroCon 2
Anime! Gaming! Anime!
The team at KokoroCon reached out to us for support for their charity raffle. They sounded like such a friendly bunch and we wanted to help how we could.
We supported their efforts by sending them copies of Bill and Ted’s: Riff in Time, hopeful that the theme would appeal to their attendees and help raise funds for a good cause.
Men’s Workshop: Model Making
The Bedfordshire and Luton Recovery College got in touch with us in June of this year, they were planning on starting a new course to support men’s mental wellbeing but needed support to get enough items for groups of people to assemble.
We got talking to the team at Warcradle Studios and sent over a large amount of Commonwealth and Enlightened sprues for Dystopian Wars for the workshop.
The prospectus went live in September and we’ve heard the workshop was well attended.
Eastwood Academy
It can be difficult for school games clubs to stock enough terrain and scenery for miniature games - budgets for school clubs are small and it’s hard to stretch to incorporate all those young minds eager to learn tabletop gaming.
When the store started to clear out all the older and now unnecessary terrain and scenery from the Wayland Games Centre, we asked Eastwood Academy if they would like to have it for their school club and they said yes!
These boxes of scenery and terrain havel found a nice new home - and will be used a bunch too.
Christmas Toy Drive 2023
As with Christmas in 2022, we donated a selection of toys, puzzles, and games to Southend Council’s Toy Drive - now in it’s tenth year. Started by Southend-on-Sea City Council's benefits team back in 2013, we are proud to support this initiative which ensures every child in the city has a new toy at Christmas.
Exhibited Events
Salute
We were back at the London ExCel in April for South London Warlord’s Salute.
Salute is truly the backbone for miniature gaming in the London and Essex area and we always look forward to seeing our community and customers in person.
Plus, we got permission to ‘borrow’ Lydia from Wayland Games Centre for the day… much to the chagrin of our centre community!
UK Games Expo
June brought with it our annual trip to Birmingham for the UK Games Expo where we not only get to see our lovely customers in person - but we also meet up with our range partners and associated influencers.
Sam, from Marketing, got to step away from SEO for the weekend and meet up with miniwargaming, MS_Paints, and warhammergirl whilst making sure visitors to our stand got to take away a free copy of Rufus’ Remix for Bill & Ted’s Riff in Time. Party on!
Board Game Day at the British Library
In December, we attended Board Games Day at the British Library as part of their Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition.
We got to support the UK Games Expo team and the British Library at the first event of its kind ever to be held at the British Library.
Not forgetting that Sam and Craig did many an Age of Sigmar demo for the crowds, and Jim got to boardgame his heart out (very Jim).
Green Journey
Recycling Plastic Sprues
We understand that the tabletop gaming industry is rather resource heavy and the amount of plastics that are involved can be pretty daunting. So, since we started our plastics process in 2020, we have made sure that all our unusable plastic is recycled.
You can read more about it in our blog from October.
Landfill? Not for us
100% of our wasteflow was successfully diverted from landfills by our waste refuge company Veolia with nearly 60% of this being recycled.
Take a look at our Going Green page to see how our green journey is progressing.
Staff Team Building
Center Parcs
Our latest Team Building trip took us all to Elveden Center Parcs for Laser Combat, Quad Biking, Carriage Rides… and some good old fashioned nights in playing tabletop games!
These events are fantastic at bringing the whole company together, not only from different departments but from different parts of the country too.
Staff Association
International Women’s Day
In March, our Staff Assocation celebrated International Women's Day by throwing a Bake Off to raise donations for Women in Games. We all ate a lot the exact right amount of cake, raised almost £100 for an important non-profit, and named our three Star Bakers.
Summer Quiz & PotLuck
In the summer, due to popular demand, the Staff Association threw their first ever Summer Quiz at Wayland Games.
Halloween PotLuck
We all love a bit of Halloween here - something about the pumpkins, the horror, the toasted marshmallows….
Alongside good old-fashioned PotLuck, Spider Splat, a Pumpkin Carve competition, Jar of Eyes, and a Halloween Headgear parade - all our staff got to cast their votes for the painting competition. You can view our Wayland Games Halloween Miniature Painting Competition 2023 right here.
International Men’s Day
In November, our Staff Association hosted their International Men's Day Bake Off raising money for the charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).
We're proud of the effort all our staff make for these events and our bakers really went above and beyond this time! Altogether, our staff raised more than £300... and ate their body weight in sausage rolls.
Christmas Jumper Day
At the start of December, we joined the nation for Christmas Jumper Day. It’s by far one of our favourite days to take part in - and the office dogs get involved too which makes it even better.
We raised over £200 for Save the Children - all donated by our fantastic staff.
Christmas Meal
Mid-December, all staff were invited to dress to impress and attend the Staff Association Christmas Meal. Apparently nothing tempts like the promise of a decent roast dinner - and we all scrub up quite well too!
There was food, there was wine, and there was dancing to very cheesy music as we celebrated Christmas and shared stories of the last year together.
Just look at us all in our finery.
Festive Quiz & Secret Santa
A week before Christmas, we all gathered for our now customary Staff Association Very Merry QUIZmas Quiz!
We gather to test our festive knowledge, share food, take part in Secret Santa, ogle tree decorations, and vote for our favourite painted miniatures for the Wayland Games Festive Miniature Painting Competition (of course). You can trust us that we all had a great time - but you can take a look at the miniature painting competition on our blog.
Office Dog Update
We couldn’t finish the blog without a quick office dog update...
Next up, 2024
What will 2024 bring?
We’ve already announced our sponsorship, and attendance, of UK Games Expo, we are working with the team behind Salute for something we’re very passionate about, our staff are looking forward to the next team building Center Parcs retreat, and our green journey is always changing the way we think and work. Plus the Staff Association are already busy preparing the next Charity and Social activities for everyone at Wayland Games HQ.
2024 is going to be another good year, see you there!
