The best tabletop gaming centres in Melbourne
FANCY a different type of gaming? If you’re looking to get into tabletop gaming or want to have a card game or board game night with friends, Justin Lim suggests some of Melbourne’s best tabletop gaming hangouts.
Consider yourself a serious board or card game geek but not sure where to go for that in Melbourne? Or are you just someone who wants to kickback with your friends for a games night?
Wherever you stand, Melbourne fortunately has a selection of comfortable places where hardcore games enthusiasts and casuals alike can converge, lay back and have fun.
So if you’re looking to throw dice, partake in Magic: The Gathering card play, or go to battle in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, consider visiting the following abodes for all types of tabletop gaming!
Games Laboratory
Open everyday from 10.00am | 328 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Be it your average board games, the more adventurous tabletop wargames or popular trading card games, Games Laboratory offers it all!
Games Laboratory is dedicated to creating a vibrant and social community, regularly hosting a wide variety of organised play. For a simple gold coin donation, visitors can have access to a wide range of board games.
For those of you who are into serious competitive play, the folks over at Games Laboratory regularly host events with huge, lucrative prizes from games such as Magic: The Gathering to Warmachine and Hordes, with championship events running up to the national levels.
Visitors who drop by will be greeted by welcoming and friendly staff and the space also boasts a wide variety of board games and card games for sale. Games Laboratory also buys trading cards from various card games for those of you who are looking to get rid of unneeded trading cards.
To learn more about Games Laboratory, visit its official website.
Good Games
Open everyday from 10.00am | 1/365 Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Photo: Yi Lin
As part of the largest Australian group of gaming environments, Good Games Melbourne is one of the premier places a gamer living in Melbourne could visit.
Good Games hosts many competitions and events with an active and vibrant community. Rows of tables are lined throughout the space for gamers to get together to play their respective game of choice and is capable of housing more than 100 players.
The space not only stocks a huge selection of miniatures and board games but also a strong selection of trading card games as well.
Located smack in the middle of the CBD and only a two minute walk away from Melbourne Central Station, Good Games is open everyday, including public holidays (with the exception of Christmas).
For more on Good Games, visit its official website.
Marche Board Game Cafe
Open everyday from 11.00am to late | 61 A’Beckett St, Melbourne
Photo: Yi Lin
Have you ever felt hungry in the middle of a gaming session but felt too reluctant to leave the table in the heat of a good game? Then you may want to check out the Marche Board Game Cafe!
As Melbourne’s first board game cafe, Marche offers a warm, comfortable and casual environment for you and your friends to sit down, unwind and chow down whilst duking it out on a board game.
If you’d like to have a private space to hang out with your friends, the cafe also offers five private board game rooms for individuals of four to ten people and ten private karaoke rooms operated by K-Box.
For those of you who are looking to host large game related events, the cafe also offers a space called Gamers 63 which can hold approximately 60 people on the lower floors and 200 people on the upper floors.
For only $12.00 for adults and $7.00 for children under 13, visitors will be able to access the cafe’s game library and play as many as they want, with the cafe’s staff ready to assist if patrons need to learn the ropes of a new game.
For further inquiriesm contact Marche Board Games Cafe at 9663 8898, visit its official website or send them an email.
Mortis Games
Tuesdays and Wednesdays (10.00am – 5.00pm) | 3/75A Chapel St, Windsor
Image courtesy of Mortis Miniatures.
For those of you who are into all things wargaming such as Warhammer40k or other products produced by Games Workshop, you should definitely check out Mortis Games. A dedicated tabletop wargaming space, Mortis Games offers six tables with loads of beautiful professionally painted scenery.
The store offers a wide range of Games Workshop and other tabletop wargame products from Warhammer to Malifaux and also offers a full selection of paints for your models. Loyal fans of Games Workshop will be glad to know that Mortis Games also offers substaintial discounts for Games Workshop products.
Though it is only open from 10.00am to 5.00pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Mortis Miniatures also run gaming nights from 7.00pm until late with Warhammer events on Tuesdays and Kings of War and Malifaux on Wednesdays.
For more on Mortis Miniatures, visit their official Facebook page.
Nekocards
Open everyday at various times | Level 1, 311 Elizabeth St, Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Photo: Yi Lin
If you’re an otaku and love Japanese popular culture, then you may want to check out Neko Cards. Tucked away in a shop-lot in the middle of the Melbourne CBD, Nekocards offers a wide selection of trading card games from Japan such as Weiss Schwarz, Cardfight!! Vanguard, and Gundam Duel Company.
The store also offers a wide variety of otaku-related accessories for your card collection and a selection of anime-related goods. Cardfight!! Vanguard players who are itching for a game can look forward to dueling with a competitive community that often takes the tables in the space.
For further inquiries call 9650 6356, visit their official website or send an email to Nekocards.