u/AxeC

My company has informed me they're going to make me redundant and offered me a settlement agreement lieu of that (they specify 'risk of redundancy' but essentially they are saying we will make you redundant if you don't accept this).

They've offered me 3 month PILON plus 1 month wages ex gratia. I did some research, spoke to a lawyer and was informed the average tends to be a fair bit higher than that, so I countered for 4 months plus a few others bits. They've come back offering 2 weeks more pay and rejecting the other pieces.

I've worked there for 5 years and earn £115k at director level (basically middle management).

I can obviously keep trying to negotiate, and clearly I am getting lowballed. They do want me to stay and do a handover pre the notice period for a few weeks, but other than the threat of potentially a poor handover (which I don't think they'd feel is the end of the world), I don't really see what cards I hold from a negotiating standpoint. I'm happy to negotiate hard, but you have to actually have some cards in hand, and potentially I'm ignorant of cards I do have from a legal or HR perspective.

Any thoughts on how, or whether, I could actually get a better deal?

I've spent the last few months working with store and club owners near me (South East UK) on a problem I keep running into: how do you actually grow a community game night - most obviously, how do you get solo new players to come along?

Loads of people would happily play - new to the area, new to the hobby, coming back after years out. But they either can't find where to play, or they won't walk into a room of strangers on the chance they get a game. So they don't come, and the night stays the same few faces.

My belief is that what grows a casual night isn't more promotion, it's a promise: turn up, even on your own, and you'll get a good game and make new friends. Once a night reliably delivers that, word of mouth does the rest.

For people who actually run nights - store owners, club organisers - I'd like to know where I'm wrong:

1. Is "I don't want to show up alone" really what keeps new people away, or is it something else?

2. What's made a night at your place grow, versus flatline or quietly die?

3. If you started one from scratch, what was the hardest part - the first dozen regulars, keeping it going, or something you didn't see coming?

4. When you organise a night, what eats your time that you wish it didn't?

I'll leave a link to what I'm building, only because someone always asks - not to pitch it here: https://nerdnight.gg. I'm genuinely just trying to learn and build something as useful as possible, and I want the widest range of views I can get.

I've always had trouble finding the specific games I want to practice locally ahead of events; the club night two towns over where someone runs the list I'm dreading, someone new to grind reps with instead of the same five opponents I've played twenty times.

Historically I've ended up defaulting to "search Facebook for [your town] wargaming" and that's a total pain in the ass.

My answer

https://www.nerdnight.gg - type in your area, see what's happening. Clubs, events, store nights, other players looking for games. Filter by game, faction, points, playstyle and get matched into the kind of games you want.

I think the moment I knew I was building what I wanted as a player was when through my own app I found a bunch of players in my town I've now made friends with who I never knew lived here before.

Where it's at

7 clubs, 140 players, 42 upcoming events. All in Essex (UK) so far, because that's where I am. Transparently, if you're outside Essex you won't see much yet. That changes when people sign up and also if they add their club or events. If you want what I've described, a place where we can all go to and find new friends, opponents, communities, I'd love for you to do that.

If you run a community

It's a place where you can manage, run and advertise all your events. If you run club nights or casual events through Eventbrite, Facebook, Whatsapp, Discord, etc this is intended as a direct upgrade for you to take away your admin headaches around capacity, matchmaking, dropout handling, etc. Whether it's your local club night, BCP tournaments, painting / teachings day, you can have everything in one place. We handle RSVPs, recurring events, member management, matchmaking automation. Free tier covers the basics. About 15 minutes to set up.

Multi-round, competitive events aren't supported yet, but you can easily display events hosted externally, eg in BCP.

What's coming next

I've been rapidly improving the platform and intend to keep doing so. My next plans are:

• Find players to play against online (eg via TTS)
• More club tools - terrain/table capacity, self-pairing where players book their own table with their opponent / pod

FAQ

Is there a mobile app?

There's a mobile app, just not in the stores yet. Install it from the site (on Android, Chrome will prompt you; on iPhone, Share → Add to Home Screen). Native store app comes if I get enough traction.

What does it cost?

Players will never pay for finding games. I might add useful standalone features later that I'd charge for, but only ones that genuinely add value. Anything I add that you'd reasonably regard as basic functionality, let's say match history, would stay free.

Clubs get a free tier (RSVPs, members, events) and an optional paid tier ($25 / £20 per month) for matchmaking automation, recurring events, integrations, and so on. The paid tier gets more features over time.

What games does it support?

It supports essentially all games, but GW games are my first focus and the most well supported, but our collective community plays all sorts of games and I want to knit all those interests together.

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If the idea sounds like a thing the hobby needs, sign up and have a look around. If it's outside your area, that just means you're early.

I'd really like to build this with and for the community. so I'd be deeply grateful for anything feedback - good or bad.

https://www.nerdnight.gg