Durban War Games Club

Welcome to the Durban War Games Club

The Durban War Games Club (DWGC) as it is now known has been around for many years under several different names. From the, 'Durban Miniature Wargames club' to 'Durban Area Wargamers' and 'Westville Historical Military Modelling Society' (WHAMM) which regularly met at the Westville Library in Durban.

Each club name representing the same hobby club, initiated by different gentlemen who have played their part in the clubs history and have been instrumental in it's history, these the revered "veteran" gamers who still roll their dice in defiance of the odds today.

When the club was officially constituted is lost in the vagaries of time, however to paraphrase and borrow a quote, "a wargames club needs two people and two armies". With this in mind Noel Zaal can attest that the first wargames in Durban was played as early as 1969, making DWGC arguably the oldest wargames club in SA (at least until someone proves otherwise).

In his personal account Shawn Comrie (a co founder of the Bluff Chess Club) writes that in late 1975 while browsing through Adam's Bookstore, "amongst the thousands of books at Adam's shelves, I chanced upon a book, "The War game" by Terence Wise (Which I still have). Inside was a small note from Noel Zaal advertising his war games club in Durban." This clever piece of marketing at the target audience is what drew people to the hobby along with the friendly atmosphere, a genuine love of war gaming, history and fun that is present in the club.

Another mentionable name is that of Grant McKenna, who joined the war gaming scene in Davenport after reading about war gamming in a newspaper article in 1977. Later he ran a group from the Wizards Bookstore in Windermere centre, demonstrating Warhammer Fantasy and 40k games for them in the early 2000's. The bookstore sponsored tournaments and benefitted from the sales driven by new converts and enthusiast.

An enterprising and young Andrew Martins bought distributer rights from Games Workshop and sold models from his newly formed gaming store, Blaze Gaming, ran from his mother's garage in Avondale road, right across from Greyville racecourse, where he also hosted regular games session on thursdays. He held painting workshops and terrain building days; one club member recalls building the hall of Meduseld (from LoTR) right out of the White Dwarf article. Around 2002 Andrew joined forces with "Eric's Hobby Specialist" store in Kensington Durban North, where Eric hosted our gaming space. Attendance and stock grew dramatically. Unfortunately when Eric moved his shop to Gateway we had to find a new venue.

In 2005 the Warhammer players and the Historical players formally joined forces to fall under one club name with a purpose of growing the war gaming scene in Durban.

Membership Fees

We collect a yearly membership fee that covers the costs of maintaining our terrain and gaming boards. The cost is R300 for the employed "working stiffs" while students pay only R150.

Every year in January we hold an AGM to discuss any important matters that need to be taken care of in the new year and elect committee members.

Current committee members are:

• Darryn Puth (Chairman)
• Travis Catlett (Treasurer)
• James Wakefield (Secretary)

Shop representatives:

• The Unseen Shoppe: Brandon Weber
• The Batcave: Gareth Burmeister

Game Champions:

• Warhammer 40K: Neal & Kyle
• Competitive Warhammer 40K: Neal & Kyle
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: James & Jonno
• Warhammer Horus Heresy: Gareth F & Marc
• Kill Team: Madison
• Blood Bowl: Carl
• The Old World: Gareth F
• Legion Imperialis: Gareth F & Marc
• Adeptus Titanicus: Gareth F & Marc
• Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle: Marc
• Warcry: Darryn
• Star Wars Armada: Marc
• Star Wars Legion: Braiden