The Crucible Hub
Since the 17th February 2026, The Crucible has been a registered body with OSCR, making us a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). The decision to become a charity was made to further our continuing dedication to helping improve Mental Health, Inclusivity and Social Interactions among the local community.
Our relocation to our own premises in Saltcoats Town Centre, at the old Landsborough and Trinity Church in Dockhead Street was key to this. The extra space and freedom of time allows the Group to expand in several exciting new ways in order to involve evermore members of the local areas.
Our overall intent is to bring together people of all backgrounds, types and ages in a way that we all interact on the level. We believe games are a great way of doing that, and no-one should feel that they can't take part.
Read on to see what is currently available.
The group that started it all!
Thursday Nights is still the West Coast Crucible wargaming night.
Over 3 booths and a larger central space, there are a total of 9 full size tables that will be permanently set up. These tables are custom made, thanks to the Ardrossan Mens Shed, and stand about a metre tall, so its less painful on the backs of us oldies, being taller tables. The tables will have a small shelf underneath to help keep your stuff safer and not kicking about the floor.
Terrain and Templates are available for all the tables which are compliant to 11th Edition of Warhammer 40k. The tables are also fully usable for any other wargame, only requiring the terrain to be swapped out! We supply everything you need for most games.
Thursdays will still be the Crucible club night and the matchmaking will still operate in the same way though the Discord and/or Facebook. The smaller tables will still be available and will be set up in the Event space across from the main booths.
We are beginning to introduce other games to our nights, and plan to bring you Battletech, Konflict 49, Wastland Warfare and Trench Crusade, among others in the future. As always, if anyone has a game we don't have, they are more than welcome to bring it along and introduce it to the club.
Book Nook and Sit & Play
The backbone of our new venture is a small cafe to service the community. Our aim is to offer an affordable service to those who visit us.
The Cafe will also cater to providing refreshments to our Club Days/Nights that will be running over the course of the week.
We have soft drinks, tea and coffee (from an actual barista machine!), cakes, crisps as well as more filling options like Paninis, Loaded Fries and more. Things to keep you all fuelled up for your games.
Of course, you don't have to play anything if you don't want to. Just sit and chill with a coffee with your friends and family.
The Sit & Play area offers everyone access to our shelves of general games for a nominal fee. They are all be labelled for number of players, length of play time, and difficulty so it's easier to make a choice that suits you. Then you can sit down with a friend, have a cuppa and a snack, and play a game with them to pass the time.
The games include a wide range from niche games you may never have heard of, all the way down to classics like Chess and Dominoes.
If you are in by yourself and you spot something that you'd like to play, ask one of our staff, there will always be someone on who will be happy to engage in a game with you.
The Nook is a small area in the back left next to the cafe counter that has some comfy armchairs, a bookshelf to browse from, and a few tables. This is intended for getting away from the main busy parts to offer a quieter space for you, or any older patrons to sit in comfort. They can still choose to play a game, or they can pick up a book to read while they have a tea.
As part of our community based aims, we are also currently exploring several options to best allow us to do our part in fighting local food poverty.
Wednesdays
Collectible Card Games and Deck Builder Games have been dominating the gaming industry for some time now. We have several members who have asked if we have any plans to begin some of these games. Yes, we are!
We have several decks available to run Magic the Gathering, YuGiOh!, Pokemon, One Piece, Dominion, Star Realms and others.
If you play any of these, we'd love to see you, as we'll need experienced players in the mix.
Saturdays
A dedicated booth is permanently set up for Roleplaying games. We have a massive heavy wooden 7ft table with 8 chairs. This is set up at all times for anyone who wants to run or play whatever RPG they wish.
We have access to a multitude of resources for Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, Deadlands, Warhammer FRP, Call of Cthulhu, amongst others, and it will all be available for everyone to use.
As well as running our own one-shots and campaigns, we are more than happy for anyone to bring in their own stuff too and run their own games and campaigns.
There will be a fee per person to play, however the DM will play for free. They are doing the heavy lifting, after all!
Fridays
Everyone has played a tabletop game. There are thousands of them, some dating back thousands of years!
As well as anyone being able to sit and play while having something from the cafe, we also have a dedicated day to play anything tabletop. Come along and join in a game with others, or bring along a friend and try out a new game that catches your interest.
We already have quite a selection of games and this grows by the day! Everything from the Settlers of Catan through to the timeworn classic, Chess. Have a game you want to introduce others to? Bring that along too!
Event Space
In the middle of the building is a larger space for general use and Event space. Each day we're open, this area is used for one of our weekly clubs or drop-in sessions.
Wednesdays
The Event space will be set up for playing CCG's, deck builders and other card games. There will be a large central table and several smaller tables for this. The area has quite a big following for these kinds of game, so it should be fun seeing how this develops.
Thursdays
The area will be use small tables for the wargaming clubs smaller scale games; 1k games, Blood Bowl, Kill Team, or any other game that people want to play, or try out.
Fridays
A general tabletop board game club will be played here, so any game from our extensive collection will be available to play. Blood Bowl? Sure... Catan? Go for it.... Ticket to ride? Yup... Chess? No problem. Anything goes on Fridays! Well, within reason...
Saturdays
A few extra tables will be set up to hold a day of RPGs along with our RPG booth, so there will be several tables running different games for people to get involved with.
Sundays
We will be holding our own Mental Health Wellbeing group, Check In. Anyone is welcome to come along, have a chat if you feel like it, and a cuppa to just chill and decompress.
Bookings
This space will also be used for any number of community led things when booked. Small hobby craft fayres, a grotto at Christmas, mental health drop ins. If there is a need for it, we hope we can accommodate it. Any booking enquiries can be sent to us here.
Hobby Studio
To begin with, this area will be fairly light on resources. We'll have table space enough for people to come along to build, craft, paint or whatever else they wish to do. Paints and basic hobby tools will be available to use at any time for anyone who does not have access to their own.
Given time, we will eventually have a spray booth for an airbrush and a photo booth for you to take cool pictures of your works of art! Easels will be available for anyone who is looking to use the space for canvas painting. Our selection of paint will be acrylic, but if demand requires it, we will invest in oils and watercolours too.
We will run tutorials on basic painting and techniques periodically for anyone that wants to learn or update their painting knowledge.
