Brothers show they're game with Battle Lounge business (From Swindon Advertiser)

Brothers show they're game with Battle Lounge business

5:20pm Wednesday 15th February 2012 in Local By Barrie Hudson

IN a building behind a bespoke denture manufacturer’s, empires rise and fall.

Civilisations are planned, thrive, grow old and die; vast business conglomerates send tendrils across the globe; fabulous beasts are subdued at swordpoint and harsh landscapes explored by the adventurous and the reckless.

Sometimes entire universes wink in and out of existence at the whim of their creators.

And sometimes these creators, not to mention the adventurers, the business tycoons and the odd zombie, pause to buy a snack from the nearby refreshment counter.

All of this happens at Battle Lounge, a business recently opened by Swindon brothers and lifelong gamers Chris, Stuart and Simon Miles in Beechcroft Road.

It’s based in an old outbuilding at the rear of another, much better known, Miles family business, Smiles Denture Care.

Gaming enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds come to play table top wargames such as Warhammer 40,000, roleplayers including Dungeons and Dragons, trading card games such as Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, and a selection of board and puzzle games such as Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride.

They also play Conflicting Kingdoms, a trading card adventure game devised by the brothers and which has fans as far afield as the US and the Phillippines.

As well as playing games, they can buy games and accessories, improve their skills, learn from veterans and swap tales of past exploits.

Of course, it’s a well-known ‘fact’ that anybody who plays such games is a socially awkward adolescent who has difficulty with social interaction. They also shun daylight like some pale cave-dwelling creature from one of their own fantasy scenarios.

If that really is the case, the news hasn’t reached the burgeoning clientele at Battle Lounge, who range from teenagers to adults – and some of the adults come along with their own children.

All are welcome, whether curious novices or veteran players.

The news has also yet to reach the three founders. Each is the father of a young child and each believes face-to-face gaming is an excellent way to tempt young people away from the siren song of the games console and other electronic time-sinks.

“It’s trying to find things that get them off the computer,” said Stuart. “Gaming is great for maths, great for social skills and great for confidence.”

Simon added: “It’s growing in popularity. There was a time when, with the growth of computer games, it lost some of that popularity, but now I think it’s making a comeback.”

Chris said: “The reason why games like these are not as popular as computer games is because of convenience. You have to get people together and find somewhere to go and play.”

And that is where Battle Lounge comes in.

Simon, 39, is Smiles’ Clinical Dental Technician as well as being a co-founder of Battle Lounge.

He said: “I suppose I’m the artistic one, so my background is that I always liked wargaming and painting the little miniatures, right from a young age. I didn’t really play the games too much – I was more interested in the creative side of things such as making my own scenarios.”

Stuart, 33, is practice manager at Smiles. “Design is my background and my thing,” he said. “Games and the mathematics behind them. I was always designing games.”

Chris, 24, a dental technician at Smiles, spent much of his childhood playing the games invented by Stuart. “That’s where I started about eight or nine years ago,” he said, “from ideas Stuart planted in my head about games he was inventing.”

The brothers have plans for the future of Battle Lounge.

Simon said: “I’d like to think that we could expand to bigger premises, so rather than just one room we had several rooms.

“There would be a room dedicated to each type of game.”