Hello everyone. I just finished my article for community building <found here> . What are some of the things you think I missed? What works in your area?

Thanks guys, lets keep this constructive. The game is continuing to grow and a gathering of ideas like this is always good to help newer communities flourish.

In France, we use good old php boards !

One thing you could add is how to start creating a community from the ground up. Your articles covers on how to manage and enhance an existing community very well, but for areas where the game isn't that developed, it would be a good addition.

I can PM how I did for mine if you want, or share here. I just didn't want to cluster the thread with a side topic.

Share it here. I just made a group added my friends against their will and boom its slowly grown over the last few years.

Alright man, I'm in a bit of a rush today, but I'll bullet point the key elements for you

So, how to build a community out of nothing ? There are a few key aspects to keep in mind :

1) You want to build a community because you want to play, so the bigger it gets, the more chances you have to clock games. Pretty straightforward, but you're going to want to have to keep that in mind : early on go for numbers rather than go for very regular players.

2) There is generally two types of players that will be interested in Star Wars Armada : Fans of Star Wars and wargamers. TCG players could potentially be interested but I doubt it.

3) It's better to let the community grow organically after a while so you have less management to do. For it to grow organically, it has to have both enough numbers as well as a meeting place that allow players to coordinate without much effort.

4) Getting into wargaming is expensive, so this is a barrier to entry that you will want to deal with.

Now that this is out of the way, much like developing any business, there are a few steps to follow in order to build that community :

1) Target the people who will most likely be playing in your area : Easy, we've targeted both Star Wars fans as well as wargamers, the next step is identifying the places where they actually play at. One good profile for Armada potential players are X-Wing players because they're both wargamers and Star Wars fans, so look for stores that regularily host X-Wing tournaments.

2) "Product" Placement : The best way to interest people in the game is to "place" is where the target audience will likely be, which means actually playing it where people are likely to see it. What I did was to see with the FLGS if they could spare me a table during an X-Wing tournament (because remember, that was our target audience), so that people who weren't playing games would actually see it. The only thing you'll need is a friend to play with (and a starter set obviously). Doing this at the X-Wing tournament allowed me to get 10 contacts with people who either had the game, either were interested in getting in.

3) Engaging the customer : Take the time to talk to people that are spectating, present them the game and offer to play with them at some point. Because the game is hard and expensive to get in, having guidance and an engaging experience with a veteran player is always awesome. Also, chances are that you will encounter people who did get the starter set but don't know anyone to play with (about half of my contacts during the X-Wing Tournament).

4) Coordinate and facilitate : You'll need to make it easy for coordination, so as soon as you reach a critical mass, getting a public forum or a Facebook/Google group will help a lot, so that players can set their own games up without you. On top of that, you should develop a friendly community were people are "eased in" especially when they start out. That means sharing ships, sharing upgrade cards for testing, doing practice games, etc. Early on, you should also organize gaming nights of 2-3 tables simultaneously, so people are actually able to meet one another. This will facilitate a lot of the later communication and start that snowball effect.

5) Have fun and take risks : The goal of the community is to have fun, so you should always adapt the events you organize to what the most people are looking for. Organizing "risky" events is also going to be good and fun : we're going for example to organize a Battle of Endor game of 1600 points in a 4v4 setting next week, with custom rules for fun rather than full blown competitive. We have no idea how this is going to go, but it should be fun regardless !