Accolade wrote:Verviedi, since I am also from the same area, I will give you a breakdown of a couple of other stores to help you compare.
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Endless Gaming: This store caters a bit more to college-age folks since it's right next to NC State. They have some absolutely gorgeous
FW terrain, including some of the special Realms of Battle pieces (in addition to the regular ROB) and the *entire* set of Battle Zone Mortalis. The guy(s) who runs it competes in the Adepticon every year, so the store has some pretty cool toys, including a very well-painted Reaver Titan. They have two super boards with
FW terrain and like 10 secondary boards they bring out for
40k night and tourneys. They play
WH40k (including Kill-team on the Battle Zone board), some WMH, and even have a decent following of Blood Bowl! Plus the usual
MTG and a ton of computers for people to get their DOTA fix and whatnot.
I can understand that this one might be out of your age range right now, but when you're a little older I highly recommend it, it's a fantastic store.
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Gamer's Armory: Another fantastic store that is more teenager-friendly, they have a massive range of things. There are about equal amounts of WMH and
40k going on, both of which are very popular (there's even a smidgen of
WHFB, which is pretty dead these days). They also have Flames of War and X-Wing being played a lot, plus all the
MTG,
RPGs (D&D and such), and a ton of board games like Setters of Catan. This place feels the most like a large and open community, there are people playing all sorts of games and everyone has at least a passing curiosity in what you're doing. It's one of the best because it covers
40k well, but if you ever have any other interest in other games (which, frankly, why not?), it's all right there. PLUS they offer a discount off retail, and their
40k tables are respectable (6-8 tables with a ton of
GW and custom terrain).
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Atomic Empire: I know less about this store because I, too, lived farther from it. It's a lot like Gamer's Armory- their selection is a bit wider, especially in table top games (they have things like Dystopian Wars and Infinity). They have a bar where you can get drinks and snacks, and overall it's a place I liked a lot but was out of my typical driving range...of course, the fact that the other two stores had so much going for them, I didn't feel as obligated to make the trek.
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Event Horizon: I honestly don't know much about this place since it was still coming into itself when I had to move. From the one visit I had there, it was pretty full of things,
40k and everything else. I'll leave Peregrine to talk about it since my knowledge is less so, but again I have to stress that it offers a whole range of things that people are interested in more than just
40k will find appealing.
Now, is the
GW store there nice? Yeah, I think it's fine. The manager's a good guy, knows a lot about the current state of the game, and is enthusiastic about the systems. But the limitations of the
GW store have nothing to do with him and everything to do with what
GW designs these stores to do- get you to come in, buy some kits, maybe play a game or two, and leave. The hours are relatively short (most of the other stores I mentioned are open till like 10 or 11pm most days), and they are obligated to close up shop because they only have one guy in the store.
GW stores didn't all used to be like this, but for some reason
GW feels they should be. And for that, they simply can't compete with the likes of the independents.
