Hi Guys - as you know we recently decided that we needed to recruit a staff member (before we've even been open for a year.... cool!). We had a lot of amazing applications from awesome people and we were bowled over by how many people saw our little store as a great opportunity for a role. Unfortunately, we were only able to hire one person (as much as we'd have loved to hire you all) but after some very difficult decision making we think we picked the right man for the job.

So please everyone, put your hands together, and welcome Shaun Wright to the JustPlay team!

We love all things Fantasy Flight Games (FFG), in particluar their fantastic organised play programs which support all levels of play from casual to competitive. With that in mind, for 2017 we want to increase our stable of FFG games to cover their other great titles!

X-Wing is a fantastic game, and the last 6 months at JustPlay have shown that with a great base of friendly players, weekly game nights, monthly organised play kits and the full range of stock available in-store, we can build a great community that welcomes everyone, and make it easy to find a game.

This will continue in 2017 when we will continue to run our popular monthly X-Wing events on the last weekend of each month, starting with a Q1/Winter kit event on January 28th!

Initial dates: Saturday January 28th, Sunday February 26th and Saturday March 25th.

We will also be adding four more games to our supported events:

• Star Wars: Armada
• Star Wars: Imperial Assault
• Game of Thrones
• Netrunner

We will be running events for both Netrunner and Game of Thrones starting in Q1, and adding both Armada and Imperial Assault in Q2. We're really looking for your involvement and turnout for these, as they have to be ordered over 3 months in advance and the turnouts at these events will dictate how many we order going forward. Let us know if you're excited for these games!

Initial dates

Game of Thrones Sunday February 12th and Netrunner Sunday January 29th

Armada Will begin with the The Corellian Conflict in the first Quarter of 2017 (more info to follow) and the first kit event from April 2017

Imperial Assault events will begin April 2017

And last but not least, we'll be supporting FFG's latest game, Star Wars Destiny (which is launching at our launch party on 20/11), with a full schedule of organised play events - starting in January and running monthly!

Initial dates Saturday January 21st, Saturday February 11th and Sunday March 12th. 

If you are interested in any of these games, or play them already and want to get involved with your community at JustPlay, why not join our Facebook groups and meet the other local players?

X-Wing, Armada and Imperial Assault Group here 

FFG LCGs including Netrunner and Game of Thrones can be found here

Thanks for reading and we hope you're looking forward to a great 2017 of FFG gaming!

Ritchie

Bob: "Welcome sports fans, to our special piece on the little known Eirie Downs League, coming to you live from the Ostermark Province of the Empire. Stuck next to both Kislev and Sylvania, a dreary land of fog and rain on the best of days...why would anyone want to live here?"

Jim: "Well Bob, I asked the same thing when the sponsors, JustSwords, dragged us all the way here -  but all that makes for some great football and some diverse teams! One local story is that of Teebald Guymar, former pride of Reikland University and College Football. After a unfortunate incident involving a Halfling and minor Princess who's father had some pull with the league, he ended up banished to this backwater. We'll be following his progress with interest!

Our special correspondent, Richard Von Macanov, will be introducing the teams and following the league for us all whilst the Colleges of Magic broadcast the games to the civilized world, so stay tuned folks!"

In this blog series I will be reporting on our first Blood Bowl league. The league will be held in JustPlay throughout Winter 2016/2017, and is expected to run for around 8-12 weeks depending on numbers and Christmas/New Year.

I need to consume the new rule book and Death Zone to check for any major changes but we expect to run a standard league; each entrant should take on every opposing team twice, with a schedule we'll publish beforehand and a few weeks to play the currently scheduled block of games (to make sure everyone has ample time and opportunity to get their games in). At the end, there will be a Grand Finals to finish it all off; stay tuned to this blog series for more details on this!

So get your new copy of Blood Bowl, get painting, dust of your old teams and get involved! The league is COMPLETELY FREE to join so get ready and get set!

In addition, Richard Von Macanov is looking for teams to highlight for his league coverage, as he tries make it big and bag a major coverage job! So if you want to get involved, be thinking about your team, its history, and the story you can tell as your players develop. If they're from the Eirie Downs area check out the above map for ideas, or come up with your own! We'll be running league coverage articles right here on the blog so this is your chance to get featured!

If you haven't preordered your copy of Blood Bowl yet (and Death Zone, or the Skavenblight Scramblers), you can find it here at a special discounted pre-order price of just £55!

Don't forget to sign into the Blood Bowl event on Facebook!

Thanks sports fans!

Richard Von Macanov 

“Welcome sports fans to the new season of everyone’s favorite sport, Blood Bowl! It's back bigger and better than ever and we are looking forward to meeting all of the new coaches can vying to lead their team to victory!”

To celebrate the launch of Blood Bowl, we will be holding a number of events over the launch period, starting with us staying open through Thursday night until 1am Friday morning on the 25th so that you can grab your game and teams ready for the weekend!

Blood Bowl is just £55 at JustPlay if you preorder, or £58.50 on launch weekend - 10% off Games Workshop prices (available for preorder on our website on 12th November!)

In addition, we'll be running Blood Bowl intros all night on Thursday night with our classic Blood Bowl sets so you can learn to play whilst you wait to pick up your toys!

All events over the weekend will award raffle tickets in varying amounts for taking part, performing well and more, as well as simply for picking up your copy of Blood Bowl at JustPlay. Then, on Saturday evening we will hold the raffle for £25 worth of store credit!

Friday (Store Opens 12pm)

• Dungeon Bowl 2016

Saturday (Special early opening at 9am!)

• Dungeon Bowl continues - the same rules as Friday!
• Free Play Blood Bowl all day; bring your team, grab one of our pitches and score some goals (or some heads!)
• Display Your Colours - Painting Contest

(Bring your own paints and brushes!)

Sunday (Doors open 10.30am)

• The Victory Doughnut Autumn Cup

Cheers, and we look forward to seeing you for some Blood Bowl!
Jim, Bob and Ritchie

Introducing new players to Magic the Gathering is easy. It's an incredible game, it's easy to learn, and there is lots of support from your local community (and of course, us!)

The next step to learning is getting involved with all of the great events at your local game store, and for some players this seems a lot more daunting - this is something that we frequently see new players face.

We want to do our best to try and offer support to new players looking to play in more local events, starting with FNM. We want you to know that FNM is not the "local pro tour" but a fun place to hang out with fellow players, play cards and enjoy yourselves. As such, we're restructuring our FNM’s to include a low entry fee, participation-based standard tournament each week.

Starting Friday 21/10/16 we will have a £3 entry Standard tournament every week with every player receiving a booster pack on entry along with an FNM promo.

This will run alongside, not instead of, our current FNM (£5 entry / 400 JustPlay Points in the prize pool per player). Now that we're coming to the end of the new set draft scycle, we'll be returning to running Modern and Legacy formats at FNM, alternating with standard. This means a regular month of FNM at JustPlay would look like this:

Week 1

Standard - £3 entry, each player receives 1 booster on entry 

Modern - £5 entry, each player adds 400 JustPlay Points to the prize pool

Week 2

Standard - £3 entry, each player receives 1 booster on entry 

Standard - £5 entry, each player adds 400 JustPlay Points to the prize pool

Week 3

Standard - £3 entry, each player receives 1 booster on entry 

Legacy - £5 entry, each player adds 400 JustPlay Points to the prize pool

Week 4

Standard - £3 entry, each player receives 1 booster on entry 

Standard - £5 entry, each player adds 400 JustPlay Points to the prize pool

If this seems in any way confusing, we're making it very easy to see what your options are week to week; our events calendar is always up to date week to week as is Russell's local event round-up in the Magic the Gathering: Liverpool Central Facebook group.

Coming up for the next two weeks (21/10 and 28/10) we'll still be running

Draft (£14pp)
New Player Standard (£3, booster on entry)
Standard (£5, 400 JPP per entrant)

And then switching to the new format cycle at the start of November. All of this is in the calendar.

We look forward to seeing you at FNM - no matter your level of magic experience or the format that you enjoy we have something for you at JustPlay's FNM!

Today I'd like to talk about a new program we're launching, which we're calling Store Champions!

As players in a hobby that is generally a little niche, we're always looking to recruit new players. Whether those are existing gamers that play other games, or people that are completely new to the hobby, one thing is always true; without passionate players to champion games, our community doesn't grow.

JustPlay, like any games store, has some players that do just that - give demos to potential new players, help people organise games, and sing the praises of their favourite game. We want to recognise, reward, and most of all support the players who do that at our store which is what the Store Champion program is all about.

What is a Store Champion?

We feel that a perfect store champion is someone who...

• Is outgoing, approachable, personable, and gives a great impression of our gaming community
• Is at JustPlay on the game night for their game come hell or high water - that way potential players know that they can always turn up and get a game without having to ask "is anyone playing tonight" on Facebook
• Is proficient, prepared, and easily available to demo their game to potential new players - mostly on game night, but potentially on other nights too
• Actively participates in their game's wider community - frequently attends events, is an active member of popular forums, facebook groups and twitter
• Actively participates in our community - helps people to find opponents on Facebook, introduces new players to the area, and is passionate about the game
• Wants to help organise and promote both their own and JustPlay's events
• Is willing to become an official rep for their game where applicable - Guild Ball Pundits, Malifaux Henchmen, and so on

What do I get for being a Store Champion?

• Actively help the community for your favourite game grow and flourish
• Become (or continue to be) a community leader for your game
• Dedicated support from JustPlay for any events that you want to run or cool things that you want to do for your game
• Additional 10% discount on products for your game at JustPlay
• Free entry to events for your game at JustPlay
• Other free benefits in the future as the Store Champion program matures!

What games are you looking for Store Champions for?

We are currently looking for Store Champions for the following games:

• Star Wars: Armada
• Star Wars: Imperial Assault
• Flames of War

How do I apply to become a Store Champion?

Get in touch with us in store, or via Facebook or email (hello@justplaygames.uk)

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to hearing from anyone who's interested!

Today sees the launch of JustPlay Points, our combined tournament prize and rewards program!

JustPlay Points lets you generate yourself free store credit every time you make a purchase from us either in-store or online. You can also earn yourself free store credit for simply signing up to the program, sharing our page on Facebook and Twitter, and more.

The highlight of our rewards program is our "refer a friend" bonus - give your referral link to a friend and they'll get 10% off their first order, and you'll earn yourself a cool £5 in JustPlay points!

To get started earning free stuff, simply head to http://justplaygames.uk, click the "rewards program" button in the bottom right corner, and get started!

In addition to free stuff for helping spread the word of JustPlay, our events that award store credit will award JustPlay Points too. This means that you can see easily at a glance how much you have to spend your well-deserved points on; spend them quickly or save them up for something later on, the choice is yours. And of course, you can combine them with points earned from sharing and referrals to get even bigger free things!

Thanks for reading - we hope you're as excited about free stuff as we are about giving it away.

Go to https://justplaygames.uk now and get started earning free things!