Flesh and Blood Nationals 2022 - Londoner's Guide part 1

Hey folks!

The London crew have bestowed upon the Armoury Line the honour of hosting an article which serves as a guide to having a good weekend at Nationals this year, which takes place in London!

This 2-parter article is written by Matthew Tuck, with contributions from others of the London Flesh and Blood scene. Without further adieu, enjoy your read of their work!

Part 1: Nationals and Dark Sphere

This year, the Flesh and Blood UK Nationals will be hosted at Dark Sphere, a major part of the London gaming scene that is currently located in a large spacious store in Shepherds Bush. Mimicking the excellent work by Kate Dunstone, who gave a guide to Leeds ahead of last year’s Nationals, and as a long suffering London resident and regular visitor to Shepards Bush in support of my beloved Queen Park Rangers  – I have pulled together a short article to give visitors to London, and to the area, some tips, tricks and travel advice to help make Nats the best possible experience for everyone.

About Dark Sphere

A long standing lynchpin of the London gaming scene for over 15 years, Dark Sphere began life in a small store selling Warhammer just off York Road in central London. After a few years, they moved to the legendary Waterloo store at 186 Lambeth road, a location that has embedded itself in the minds of many visitors and residents over the years. As their Waterloo store filled out and became somewhat cramped, Dark Sphere subsequently opened an additional shop, in a former sports direct in the W12 shopping centre in Shepherds Bush. Covid and subsequent lockdowns have obviously left an impact on them, just as much as any store, and only the Shepherds Bush store remains open today.

The Shepherds Bush venue is possibly the largest LGS in the country, and certainly the largest in London, with a huge variety of stock ranging from card games to board games, Funko Pops and beyond. Not satisfied with just offering a huge range of stock, the store has a huge air conditioned play space and has held significant events, including Final Fantasy World Champs, huge MTG PTQs, Yu-Gi-Oh and Vanguard Regionals and Calling level events.

Where Should I stay?

London is flush with a huge number of hotels. The cheap nature of transport across London means that you can stay in a wide variety of areas and still reach DS in reasonable time. In general, anywhere that is close to the Central line, Elizabeth line, Jubilee line or the northern sections of the Circle line or the Hammersmith and City line will be within less than an hour of DS. Likewise, anywhere on the west london line (part of the Overground) will be a good location.

Nonetheless, if you were looking for specific recommendations, I’ve worked with others to crowdsource some ideas for hotels in a range of budgets and locations.

Within a walkable distance to DS, the absolute closest hotel is the IBIS located in the same shopping centre – prices are around £400 for a double room over three nights. Slightly further away, but still walkable, are the Dao Hotel (£104 a night) and two Premier Inns in Hammersmith (£70 a night)

Moving away from the immediate area, there are a range of hotels in London. The Travelodge in Balham is well connected for Shepards Bush and is very affordable (£70 a night). There are the usual range of chain hotels around Hammersmith (Holiday Inn ext) and in central London – which are usually around an additional £10/20 quid a night for a similar quality.

Alternatively, and especially if you are likely to be staying as part of a group, you might want to explore booking an AirBnB near the venue - places with space for four people can be found for around £280-400 a night - which, when split across four people, can prove to be cheaper than a similar quality hotel.

What Can I eat?

Sitting as it does in a bit of a retail park, Dark Sphere is not blessed with the best nearby culinary delights. It is, however, nonetheless very functional – and is obviously well connected to central London and its wide range of restaurants.

Breakfast
You probably won’t have time for a sit down breakfast on day 1 of Nats at least - so your best bet will probably be something from a Greggs or similar. If you have more time however, Caffè Bonego and Proud Marys (Both about 20 minutes walk from the store) do excellent breakfast in a classic Balkan and British style respectively. There are also a range of chain venues that serve breakfast just outside Shepherds Bush station including a Cafe Nero, Leon and Black Sheep Coffee

Snacks
Dark Sphere sells a variety of drinks and snacks at around RRP, with the usual range of soft drinks, chocolate bars and crisps. They have also started stocking some vegan options and more unusual snacks.

Outside food is not allowed to be consumed in the venue – but bottled drinks are and there is a Poundland located next to the store, as well as a Lidl and nearby Sainsburys, Greggs, Costa and Starbucks just across the road from the W12 centre.

Lunch
Within the W12 shopping centre there are a couple of possible lunch options. There is an Esquires coffee that sells toasties and fresh sandwiches of reasonable quality and Lidl sells some lunch options. There is also a Subway on the outside of the centre, although this is a very small venue and tends to become extremely crowded. As mentioned above there is also a Greggs, Sainsburys, Wenzles, McDonalds, Costa and Starbucks across the road from the centre.

A post event pint
There is a spoons just above Dark Sphere - it's okay as spoons go and is pretty cheap. If you want something nicer there is a BrewDog nearby as well as a couple of local pubs, of which i can highly recommend the Defectors Weld and the Green - both of which are slightly quirky and do good pints.

Slightly further away (an overground journey to Clapham Junction) is the Four Thieves, which is a unique pub that includes arcade games , VR experiences and RC racing track.

Dinner
Westfield has a wide range of chain restaurants, including some of the standard fare such as Pizza Express, Zizzis, Wagamamas ext, as well as a range of London chain restaurants including Wahaca (Good fast Mexican food) and the Real Greek (self explanatory).

Slightly further away, but still in a walkable distance, includes a number of good local food places. Esarn Kheaw is a good local Thai restaurant just up the road and there is a good Vietnamese restaurant called Jasmine a similar distance away. If you are hankering for classic British/London food there is a pie and mash shop that is open during the day called Bush Pie and Mash, up the road at Wood Lane is also a fish and chip restaurant called fish’n’chic that serves amazing battered food and chips.

Depending on when you finish for the day, you might also want to travel slightly further into central london for something slightly fancier; Some personal recommendations from myself and others include Dishoom in Covent Garden, which serves excellent indian food, Lima, located off Tottenham Court road which serves Peruvian fine dining - with a very affordable evening set menu if you are staying beyond the weekend.

What can I do on either side of nats?

Tourism
London is a great city to visit and there's lots to do as a tourist. You could catch a show in the west end, although this is pretty expensive. As a cheap way to view the city you could take an uber boat from Battersea to Barking, which lets you see all the sights from the river at relatively low cost.

London also has lots of free museums - three of which (The Science, Natural History and Victoria and Albert) are handily clustered around the South Kensington tube station, which is only a short distance from DS via the tube.

If you only had a day outside of Nats and it was your first time in London as a tourist, I would personally recommend trying to spend some time around Westminster, take a ride on the London Eye and potentially go into the National Gallery. I’d then catch a boat to the Tate Modern (depending on your fondness for art or otherwise) or to Tower Hill for the Tower of London - which is expensive, but fascinating.

Other interesting tourist sites include the British Museum near Holborn and the British Library near Euston.

Geekery
If playing a whole weekend of Flesh and Blood isn’t enough of a fix for your inner geek, London has a variety of shops and venues that may be of interest. Obviously, if you are looking for board games, miniatures or cards then Dark Sphere has a considerable stock that will likely provide what you are looking for.

If you are looking to buy comics or other collectibles then Forbidden Planet off Tottenham Court Road has a considerable, if expensive stock where most things can be purchased.

Some other highlights in the city includes Four Quarters Arcade (multiple locations), Gravity in Wandsworth, which offers indoor karting and high tech bowling, as well as the Sherlock Holmes museum on Baker Street.

If you have a burning desire to play FaB even more then Dark Sphere holds its weekly armouries on the Friday evening, whilst Bad Moon Cafe in Borough hosts its weekly event on a Monday evening.

Shopping
As mentioned, Westfield is directly opposite the venue - but if you want to visit other big shops in London you can head to Oxford Street and the surrounding area, where you can find Fortnum and Masons (Green Park), a large John Lewis and the countries largest waterstones (Piccadilly Circus).