So, for the first time since being up here in Grand Forks, I had the opportunity to hit up the "open" Warhammer 40k night at the local shop. As I mentioned previously, this store is small. Very small. I've only managed to get a couple random games when I've shown up, with whomever was there.
But my eyes were opened to how big the community is here. WAY bigger than I remembered it being back in the early 2000's. There were 15-20 people crammed into the store on Tuesday night. Some of whom I remember way back when from our Hobbytown USA days. And I'm told there are probably another 10-15 players in the area, plus those that are on University of North Dakota's campus. Which isn't surprising considering there are 10k+ people on campus every semester.
I didn't bring my army sadly, as I wanted to meet people and socialize, but I should have because they started an escalation league this week. Wanted to feel my way around before I dropped the "I'm a competitive player bomb." Sure enough, most of them are casual gamers, but I don't even care. There are enough players to give me a good time and I can get my competitive gaming elsewhere (national GTs). Though, the small few tournament players here have said they would be willing to help playtest things so long as I'm not one of those asshole WAAC gamers. And it seems they agree I'm not. They even notified me of several local tournaments coming up, so I'm going to be hitting those up as well. :)
Anyway, I think I left a good impression. Refereed a couple of games, gave some advice to a fledgling competitive player, and chatted for well into the night. The shop owners are pretty cool too, as they are more than happy to stay open later if there are games or conversations going on (and told me as such). Hell, the store closes at like 7 or 8pm, but we were there almost to 11pm. Sounds like this is a common occurrence, but I'm not sure how I feel about the abuse of that courtesy.
In the next month or so, they are moving to a larger location, so the gaming space will be drastically improved. As it stands now, there are only room for 2 6x4 boards and 1 4x4 board. Which is fine, as they simply split the tables in half for the 500 point games. They are trying to build on the recent resurrection of Warhammer 40k in the area (apparently everyone stopped playing in 4th Edition...imagine that), as well as getting more merchandise for other games like Malifaux and Warmachine. I'm excited. Now to just work on getting my Tuesday nights off...
Side note: Tonight I'm going to catch up on the comments here on the blog. I'm way behind.
But my eyes were opened to how big the community is here. WAY bigger than I remembered it being back in the early 2000's. There were 15-20 people crammed into the store on Tuesday night. Some of whom I remember way back when from our Hobbytown USA days. And I'm told there are probably another 10-15 players in the area, plus those that are on University of North Dakota's campus. Which isn't surprising considering there are 10k+ people on campus every semester.
I didn't bring my army sadly, as I wanted to meet people and socialize, but I should have because they started an escalation league this week. Wanted to feel my way around before I dropped the "I'm a competitive player bomb." Sure enough, most of them are casual gamers, but I don't even care. There are enough players to give me a good time and I can get my competitive gaming elsewhere (national GTs). Though, the small few tournament players here have said they would be willing to help playtest things so long as I'm not one of those asshole WAAC gamers. And it seems they agree I'm not. They even notified me of several local tournaments coming up, so I'm going to be hitting those up as well. :)
Anyway, I think I left a good impression. Refereed a couple of games, gave some advice to a fledgling competitive player, and chatted for well into the night. The shop owners are pretty cool too, as they are more than happy to stay open later if there are games or conversations going on (and told me as such). Hell, the store closes at like 7 or 8pm, but we were there almost to 11pm. Sounds like this is a common occurrence, but I'm not sure how I feel about the abuse of that courtesy.
In the next month or so, they are moving to a larger location, so the gaming space will be drastically improved. As it stands now, there are only room for 2 6x4 boards and 1 4x4 board. Which is fine, as they simply split the tables in half for the 500 point games. They are trying to build on the recent resurrection of Warhammer 40k in the area (apparently everyone stopped playing in 4th Edition...imagine that), as well as getting more merchandise for other games like Malifaux and Warmachine. I'm excited. Now to just work on getting my Tuesday nights off...
Side note: Tonight I'm going to catch up on the comments here on the blog. I'm way behind.
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