I recently acquired that most elusive of all things: a decent job. Armed with a bus pass and a disposable income, I really want to get back to playing 40k regularly again. Unfortunately it turns out that my local GW recently decided that you have to book tables before playing, and as I have no 40k playing friends in the area, I cannot therefore play at GW any more (special events notwithstanding, but they're all Fantasy at the moment).
With that in mind, I have this question for you all. Do any of you live in Nottingham and still play? Or do you know of any gaming clubs where I could get pick up games of 40k within the Nottingham area? Googling has proven them to be scarce, and I'm not keen on the idea of going to Warhammer World because it's at least an hour away on the bus and I've heard is more for friends to play together rather than strangers just looking for a quick battle.
I think GW have done the Booking tables thing for a while now, and I think you can book a table, and have it open to a challenger. That what I did a few years ago at least. If you feel you army can take anything on, even in the current Meta, then you could try it, but you'd likely face increadibly beardy lists.
If I had the funds and a place to stay, I could/would come over to Nots to play at WW. :P
Of course one option would be to start your own club, but you'd have to do the organising of everything yourself, including space, tables, scenary, so on.
I wouldn't give up on finding a gaming group. They're a little under supported by GW these days, but searching around sgould yeild some result. I think Dakka Dakka or another forum actually has a player database that shows where players are and if they're willing to play, so thats another thing.
Apologies for the incredibly slow reply here, but a thought occurs to me. Have you looked into gaming cafes? I know in Liverpool there's a place called the Scythe and Teacup that was made for gaming, whether it be 40k, magic etc, perhaps there's something similar in your area?
I had a look, but apprently no-one in Nottingham wants to compete with Warhammer World. That said, my local GW staff decided that on their Thursday gaming nights they would have one table set aside for gaming systems not involved in a campaign. Unfortunately, no 40k players turned up the first time they did this, and now they've started a campaign with the rule that you must create a new army (I might be able to get around this by using the small number of space marines I've accumulated over the years).