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Author Topic: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?  (Read 9097 times)

Offline GamesPoet

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #50 on: November 15, 2021, 11:42:40 AM »
So it's almost the holiday season 2021 ...

Have you been to your local hobby store recently?

Whether W:AoS or 40K or something else ... what games have been seeing played?

I've popped into some local stores in last couple of weeks, and it seems most have become more of a buying location than a game  playing spot.  I did see a half dozen guys playing a giant apocalyptic 40K game in one store.  Saw two different pairs of guys playing 40K in another. Haven't seen much else.

Recall walking into hobby stores pre-plague and finding all kinds of games going on.  Perhaps many folks aren't ready for in person at hobby stores yet, and maybe many owners just aren't sponsoring activities as previously yet either.
"Not all who wander are lost ... " Tolkien

"... my old suggestion is forget it, take two aspirins and go paint" steveb

"The beauty of curiosity and creativity is so much more useful than the passion of fear." me

"Until death it is all life." Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Offline Gankom

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #51 on: November 16, 2021, 02:28:06 AM »
My local store is still closed for gaming, so all the tables just have stock on them.

Offline Jmash

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #52 on: November 18, 2021, 10:05:44 AM »
Not been into Bolton for a while - the town is sadly dying so don't have much reason to go these days.

The last I'd seen though the GW store has moved to the most prominent position it's ever occupied (it has re-located about 3 times over my lifetime), it used to be tucked away upstairs in an obscure corner of a shopping centre, now it's front and centre on the main road and is no longer Games Workshop but simply 'WARHAMMER'...

I only spoke to a young girl in there when I briefly popped in so not sure whether the old store manager was still around, he was actually a really cool guy from when I went into the old store so I really hope he's still there with the new one. I am nearing the stage where I need to think about buying myself some paints so I guess I'll be popping in sooner rather than later anyway.

Offline GamesPoet

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #53 on: November 18, 2021, 12:02:20 PM »
Don't forget to share your experience when ya go! :icon_cool:
"Not all who wander are lost ... " Tolkien

"... my old suggestion is forget it, take two aspirins and go paint" steveb

"The beauty of curiosity and creativity is so much more useful than the passion of fear." me

"Until death it is all life." Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Offline StealthKnightSteg

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #54 on: November 23, 2021, 09:02:48 AM »
our local store just moved shop to a bigger place and we helped with the move on a couple of days. So far as I know games won't be played there still, but there will be room for demo games once the dust settles of moving.

Though our local play club is still at it every Tuesday evening, only I haven't been there yet. I only recently became active again in the hobby.
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Offline Jmash

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #55 on: January 10, 2022, 05:35:54 PM »
I popped into GW in town this weekend to grab a shed load of paints (yes, it's finally happening!). I made a list of the ones I was after from the website then inevitably ended up buying the ones to either side of them as the representation of the colours online is always pants! Anyway I got what I needed, I think... :unsure:

I've mentioned before that the GW store has moved to a more prominent location than ever before, it's nice and light and roomy compared to the old place and when I went down there, there was a couple of lads painting stuff, two parents with a younger child chatting to the guy who worked there as he was helping them paint stuff too, and maybe one or two other guys as well as myself who were browsing the shelves.

When I was in there I overheard one fella (sounds like a regular) asking the guy from the store about how a recent 40k event was and when I paid for my stuff I had a chat to him about my project and was told they were running a 'new year new army' event where the idea is to get a combat patrol starter type set (or equivalent) and paint them up by the end of the month, then they show them off as a mini armies on parade. The idea then is to add more and more to the army month on month and do the same mini parade at regular intervals to show how it grows. I may be tempted to join in but as ever my progress is always slow so we'll see...

In unrelated news I got a parking fine whilst I was in there, despite having paid for parking. My local town has apparently been notorious for it in recent times, they've even issued fines to AMBULANCES outside the health centre on numerous occasions, so much so that the ambulance service now refuse to attend the health centre if requested! It's no wonder our town centres are dying when you can't easily park anywhere anymore and when you do you get hit with s****y fines for petty nonsense. GW is now LITERALLY (and I never use that word lightly) the only place I would ever have need to visit in town now, it isn't a regular occurrence and after this I'm genuinely thinking I doubt I'll ever bother going into the town again, it's the final nail in the coffin - but I digress, not GW's fault on that front but they may end up losing my business because of it :dry:

Offline GamesPoet

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #56 on: January 10, 2022, 08:37:34 PM »
Sounds like a good event! :icon_biggrin: :::cheers:::

Would love to do something like that.  maybe even have this site host such a project.
"Not all who wander are lost ... " Tolkien

"... my old suggestion is forget it, take two aspirins and go paint" steveb

"The beauty of curiosity and creativity is so much more useful than the passion of fear." me

"Until death it is all life." Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Offline Tyvw

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #57 on: January 12, 2022, 03:42:34 PM »
I went to my local shop the other day to pick up a few paints and a wetpallete I had ordered online. There wasn't much going because of the lockdown, but  "in-store pick-up" meant I could atleast go in there and have a quick chat with the owner. I also ordered some greatswords whilst I was there; support the shop a little and show GW people there's still interest in the Empire/old world.

The shop has started working together with a local 3d printing service; they have a big FDM printer set up in the store that is printing buildings for a fantasy table/display. Both the table and the printer look really cool, and it's good to see that they are embracing this new side of the hobby.

As for a 'new year, new army' project; I started an Empire army :-P I've not seen any similar events in my local area (I've also not looked very hard) so I'm just doing it on my own. A tale of 'x' painters type of campaign is still something I'd like to do someday, the Whitedwarf ones were always a good read. I tried organizing one once but it fizzled out rather quickly.

Offline Rowsdower

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #58 on: January 14, 2022, 08:00:59 AM »
The local store is opened and caters to a wide variety of table top and RPG gamers. HOWEVER it is rarely ever open and on the off chance it is, only for a few hours.  :x
I wonder if it has anything to do with the 'house of negotiable affection' which is half a block away

Offline Wolfgang aus Wien

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #59 on: January 18, 2024, 11:53:07 AM »
The last decent game store had to close last Summer due to a massive rent increase - and the fact that the owner insisted on face diapers even after the 'official mandate' had long expired didn't help, either.
I went into a newly opened game store the other day and was reminded of an airport Starbucks.
There's another very small one fairly nearby, but they have very inconvenient hours, it's probably not worth my time.

Offline GamesPoet

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #60 on: January 18, 2024, 12:59:30 PM »
I was just in a local store the other day, and there was no one around playing any form of Warhammer.  Instead it must have been some sort of a roleplaying afternoon because there were at least 4 different tables of roleplay games happening.
"Not all who wander are lost ... " Tolkien

"... my old suggestion is forget it, take two aspirins and go paint" steveb

"The beauty of curiosity and creativity is so much more useful than the passion of fear." me

"Until death it is all life." Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Offline Gankom

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #61 on: January 18, 2024, 05:40:24 PM »
I'm pretty lucky to have one main local store, a fairly local GW store, and 2 or 3 local hobby stores I don't really frequent as much. They tend to be mostly cards with just a small group of tabletop players, but my main one is much more diverse.

Not counting the GW store, because your not actually allowed to play there much anymore, but in the other 3 its all broadly similar. Both Age of Sigmar and 40k are going strong. There's dedicated leagues, both narrative and competitive, for both. At my main store the 40k league is consistently around 60 players, and the AoS around 40ish. It depends a lot on schedule cause most of the players are into other games to. The Game of Thrones tabletop war game is picking up a fair bit of steam, D&D's always around, but I feel like Warmachine and the other wargames have fallen a little bit.

Fantasy never really went away, but did get much smaller. When I talked to the store owner back on the 6th during preorder day we were shooting the breeze about numbers. He figures there's 5-10 games of Fantasy played each week for the last few years. Mostly 8th edition, but followed up by a good number of 6th and 3rd edition respectively, with a scattering of other stuff. We're all curious to see how that changes with old world release, but there's been a bit of uh, drama in that regard recently that might make things stay a bit quiet.

I'm very involved in the narrative scene with the local store. Often serving as one of the main campaign writers and I run a lot of the tutorials or getting started stuff for new players. We're planning to wait till the spring or possibly summer, and then run a fun, easy mode Border Princes style campaign for Fantasy players using the new rules. There's a fair bit of interest, and as the hot new thing we're pretty confident a lot of the other players will take a break from their usual stuff to give it a go.

Offline GamesPoet

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Re: What's going on regarding Warhammer at your local game store?
« Reply #62 on: January 21, 2024, 08:41:10 PM »
Reporting from local hobby stores on how things are going with W:TOW ...

1. The store which is usually my go to for picking up 40K figures, and they sold out of all things W:TOW

2. Another store didn't get their order of W:TOW yet, apparently due to the bad weather that prevented multiple flights at southern U.S. airports from flying out in time due to winter weather issues.

3.  This store, where I got my Bret army /starter box today (last one from their initial shipment), had a small selection of items available, and most Bretonnian items were sold out, while not one Tomb Kings army/starter box had sold, plus all rule books and such were gone except, except a few Arcane Journals.
"Not all who wander are lost ... " Tolkien

"... my old suggestion is forget it, take two aspirins and go paint" steveb

"The beauty of curiosity and creativity is so much more useful than the passion of fear." me

"Until death it is all life." Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra