What was the best experience you have ever had at a GW or local gaming store?

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**EagleArk**

At a LGS my dad walked into the shop to get me a necron warrior box, the box was going for like £5. (closig down sale) so what does my dad do? Buys FOUR boxes and pays the difference. 48 warriors for £2 more than 12...

**Generalian**

EagleArk wrote:At a LGS my dad walked into the shop to get me a necron warrior box, the box was going for like £5. (closig down sale) so what does my dad do? Buys FOUR boxes and pays the difference. 48 warriors for £2 more than 12...

wow... that makes me cry inside.... considering how much you actually need those in a necron army

**EagleArk**

Generalian wrote:
EagleArk wrote:At a LGS my dad walked into the shop to get me a necron warrior box, the box was going for like £5. (closig down sale) so what does my dad do? Buys FOUR boxes and pays the difference. 48 warriors for £2 more than 12...

wow... that makes me cry inside.... considering how much you actually need those in a necron army

**Captain Roderick**

Two wonderfully selfish events:
Firstly, back in the days when Perth had a GW, two of my friends were working there (they didn't stay for long) and just gave me loads of stuff out of laziness/madness. About £60 worth of Dark Elf stuff. They lost their jobs shortly after for stunts like that.

Secondly, being the defender against Blood Angels in a 3rd ed Meatgrinder, and tabling my opponent turn 3.

Also, once upon a time, you could play necromunda in a GW store! Oh, how I miss those days.

**brainscan**

MajorTom11 wrote:Being alone in the store and being taught how to paint goblin skin minus a background haze of screaming geeks saying geeky stuff lol

kinda the same. but getting a lesson on shading and washes!

**Flying Pooo**

My best experience was the first time I played WFB. It was in a GW store. My two Dwarf cannons killed about 40+ orks, and basically won the game for me. Probably the only time the dice gods have smiled down upon me.

**njpc**

I went to GW Voorhees to begin to process the thought of restarting 40K, and decided to go with Guard. As i'm explaining i've always wanted to play Sentinal Heavy but just cannot falmouth buying them all. The manager looks at me like i've got 2 heads. He reaches behind the counter and hands me the box of 9 sentinals for like $100 bucks. I buy it on the spot built them right there, paint them and return the next day, when their shipment comes in of the $100 bucks for 3 Russ's. I buy that and realize in reality i've saved $100 and i'm pretty close to a 1500 pt guard army. I walked out really happy. I felt I helped the local shop, AND was on my way to playing some thing fun.

**notprop**

Gather round young 'uns and I will tell you a tale of a benevolent wargaming behemoth that held sales whenever they opened a new store.

Back in the day I used to really love going to GW store openings or even re-openings. This was before the intanets and discount retailing.

They would have discount vouchers in White Dwarf of various percentages [upto about 30% IIRC], buy three blisters and get the cheapest free etc.

Living out in the sticks of Essex was not exactly wargaming HQ so any excuse to go somewhere and pick up loads of minis on the cheap was great. I think I must have gone to about 10 store openings across London and the home counties. They were pretty manic but well worth the effort.

I'm not even entirely sure that the discount would have covered the train fare, but at that age I'm not entirely sure I would have paid it!

**felixthecat345**

An apoc game with all 3 FLGS tables put together, 1 player brought thouand sons, pre-heresy, on the side of the imperium. I didn't know they were thousand sons at the time, so I put all my guard infantry among them and a PCS in a chimera. 1st turn.
"On a 1 they all turn traitor"
Well, only 1 in six chance of turning traitor.
He rolled a 1.
That was 4 10 man SM squads, 2 razorbacks, a devastator squad, a rhino, 2 dreadnoughts, an assualt squad and 20 prospero guardmen. And Ahriman. And a librarian. Who summoned a greater deamon of nurgle.
With 30 guardsmen, 3 HWS, a CCS and a PCS in a rhino within inches.
The situation looked hopeless...
But we went first. Oh, and did I mention the huuuuuuuge amount of heavy support we had?
10 earthshakers and 2 battle cannon shells later........
Well, that's them sorted.

Oh crap, we were fighting chaos anyway and then there was a second Ahriman and some landraiders on the way.

**ghosty**

Best experiance was a quiet day at the gw, there was 2 others in, playing a game quietly. So, i got a painting lesson, a modelling lesson and tips n' tricks with GS lesson all in a row. OH, and then proceeding to have a game of multiplayer kill team with everyone who was in.... goooood days.

**chaos0xomega**

Best time at a gw... probably the time I left.... only been one once, and never again...

At a local gaming store... Probably the time I found an Ogre Battalion Box for 20 USD.... yeah, I bought it.

**gorgon**

The old GW grand opening sales are definitely something I miss.

**tiny5th**

I have two that instantly jump to my mind.

Back in the summer of 2005 before i took a break from Warhammer my local GW held a large tank battle, where they placed all of the gaming tables together so they nearly filled the whole store, and ended up having it so everyone turned up with every tank or aircraft they could, including a couple of Eldar titans that appeared.

I took my two Tau Devilfish and hammerhead, the only tanks I owned at the time, which i seem to remember ended up being loaned to a friend on the xenos side, and the store gave me control of their IG tanks, not sure which exactly.

They offered trophies for certain accomplishments, and i ended up earning the one for last man standing as my tank blasted the final tau barracuda from the sky.

Second time wasn't exactly local, but the same GW store got my good friend and I tickets to Devourer 2005, and arranged a coach to take us and a couple of other teams to it in Nottingham.

We turned up and proudly lined our armies up along the table, my Tau fire warriors and his IG Praetorian models (Painted up to look like the redcoats from Zulu) both looked beautiful ranked up in their firing lines, wish I still had photos.

In the end we ended up coming 40th, out of how many I cannot remember, but fun was had all round.

**KingCracker**

My best is a local FLGS called Riders. The GW section is in the back, and the people that work there seem pretty nice (other then eyeing everyone at first, dont want to have things stolen, and I dont blame them)

But they actually have a few set people that work the GW/minis games section. One is a bit annoying, the others are average but pretty nice. But one guy, I can never remember his name but hes one of those your happy when you see him working. Totally cool guy, talks 40k like a pro, shares stories and even jokes around with ya.
One time my brother and I were in there, and I brought up a funny moment while we were browsing and the guy laughed and instantly did the "Oh man, this one time I was playing CSM" and we spent a good hour just shooting the gak with him. Very cool

**Generalian**

gorgon wrote:The old GW grand opening sales are definitely something I miss.

remind me again what it was like...

**MagickalMemories**

I think the best experience I ever had in an FLGS was when they made me feel like family.

I'd "grown up" gaming at the shop and, at 22, was moving 850 miles away. On the last day I'd be there gaming, the owner & his wife brought in a cake from a local bakery for a kind of "going away" party.

Probably the best thing to ever happen to me at a game store.

Whenever I made it back home, I'd make sure I stopped in to say, "Hi." After moving back here, I tried to get out ther whenever possible (about 40 miles from me, at that point).

Sadly, they were underinsured... as was the driver who ran through the front of their store. After a long closing to get the place functional again, they reopened but were just never able to gt back on their feet.

Whenever I need a "FLGS" now, I head to Miniature Market. It's a bit less personal than that old place, but the staff is spectacular, and the shop seems to always have what you're looking for in stock. Best shop around!

Eric

**SwanCo**

MagickalMemories wrote:I think the best experience I ever had in an FLGS was when they made me feel like family.

I'd "grown up" gaming at the shop and, at 22, was moving 850 miles away. On the last day I'd be there gaming, the owner & his wife brought in a cake from a local bakery for a kind of "going away" party.

Probably the best thing to ever happen to me at a game store.

Whenever I made it back home, I'd make sure I stopped in to say, "Hi." After moving back here, I tried to get out ther whenever possible (about 40 miles from me, at that point).

Sadly, they were underinsured... as was the driver who ran through the front of their store. After a long closing to get the place functional again, they reopened but were just never able to gt back on their feet.

Whenever I need a "FLGS" now, I head to Miniature Market. It's a bit less personal than that old place, but the staff is spectacular, and the shop seems to always have what you're looking for in stock. Best shop around!

Eric

That was a heart wrenching story

**Fiestamonkey**

When my dwarves were playing vc and his lord magicy thing caast this uber powerful spell and got sucked into a vortex and ........ died.

**Fiestamonkey**

When my dwarves were playing vc and his lord magicy thing caast this uber powerful spell and got sucked into a vortex and ........ died.

**Krauser**

Fiestamonkey wrote:When my dwarves were playing vc and his lord magicy thing caast this uber powerful spell and got sucked into a vortex and ........ died.

Seen that happen in a game between 2 friends. loled as hell.
Then the VC guy challanged me to play against him with my dwarfs, I one the game on turn 1 has a cannon shot found the exposed head of a vampire lord (his general).
All I had to do after that was sit back and watch his army crumble and take a couple of shots, just for fun.

**MagickalMemories**

SwanCo wrote:That was a heart wrenching story

...and to think, I didn't go into the details about the hundreds of professionally (Yes. PROFESSIONALLY) painted models that were in the display case that was right in the car's path... or how the wrecker that pulled the car out didn't move anything before backing into the building or before actually pulling the car out (and wouldn't let the owner or others there do it, either).

It kind of wrenches my stomach to even think about it.

Eric

**notprop**

This happened today [copied pretty much verbatum from another thread so my apolgies if you have read this twice]

While comparing prices for a some Guard tanks noticed [just a few weeks ago] that Wayland Games is actually based locally to me in Southend. How I missed that for two years I don't know? I had even been past it probably a dozen times going to Southend RFC, talk about right under your nose!

So I pitched up there today to check out their [small but perfectly formed] shop at the front of the warehouse. Sure enough lots of GW and FoW stuff on display plus a few other odds and sods. I quickly picked up the half dozen or so kits I wanted and then noticed that there was no one there for me to pay? I waited patiently contemplating how many box sets I could carry and how far I would be able to run with them on my chubby little legs. I then discarded larceny as a new career choice and perused the FoW stuff. This was clearly a clever marketing trick by WG as I then added a couple of Vietnam US airborne blisters to my pile of booty [dam you impulse buying!].

Realising I would be skint if this carried on I made my presence known to the staff in warehouse and was joined by Jerry and Adam who were then able to furnish me with a battleforce box from the stores and allow me to pay.

All very good, but here is where the visit really got interesting as Jerry asked if I would like to have a look around their new warehouse. I was really impressed with the set up, it all looked very organised to me, lots of ranges and lots of stock. I really appreciated the time that Jerry took to show me around and chat about what WG are all about, including the points that rich1231 made above about the weekly orders.

To top it all off when asked whether the had any distilled water to thin airbrush paints they even gave me a bottle of Vallejo acrylic thinner to try out gratis!

Overall the discount was good, the customer service was great and the free stuff was win. If I had to add P&P to that I suggest that I would probably still come out better than MG and they have stock.

Thanks to Jerry and Adam and a good work fella to rich1231 for running a great business, I wish you every success.

**cormz**

This shop opened up near me and the owner was this awesome guy. i came to the store every day and we became good friends. One day he gave a free store t-shirt and a 5% discount on everything i but. he also lets me use his paints, brushes, etc. when i want to.

**Generalian**

SwanCo wrote:
MagickalMemories wrote:I think the best experience I ever had in an FLGS was when they made me feel like family.

I'd "grown up" gaming at the shop and, at 22, was moving 850 miles away. On the last day I'd be there gaming, the owner & his wife brought in a cake from a local bakery for a kind of "going away" party.

Probably the best thing to ever happen to me at a game store.

Whenever I made it back home, I'd make sure I stopped in to say, "Hi." After moving back here, I tried to get out ther whenever possible (about 40 miles from me, at that point).

Sadly, they were underinsured... as was the driver who ran through the front of their store. After a long closing to get the place functional again, they reopened but were just never able to gt back on their feet.

Whenever I need a "FLGS" now, I head to Miniature Market. It's a bit less personal than that old place, but the staff is spectacular, and the shop seems to always have what you're looking for in stock. Best shop around!

Eric

That was a heart wrenching story

awww

**Drummerboy**

GW opened a store within 30 mins of 3 other FLGS's in Nashville once. I'd say my best memory was it closing down so the good stores' sales picked back up. Though I have lost contact with a couple of good friends.

But yea, the damn store closing was probably my best.

**Generalian**

nice

**SwanCo**

not really at a gaming store, but when i was gaming once a squad of imp guard took out a buffed up hive tyrant in close combat when the tyrant charged. they didnt take a single wound. it was wonderful

**Laughing Man**

MagickalMemories wrote:
SwanCo wrote:That was a heart wrenching story

...and to think, I didn't go into the details about the hundreds of professionally (Yes. PROFESSIONALLY) painted models that were in the display case that was right in the car's path... or how the wrecker that pulled the car out didn't move anything before backing into the building or before actually pulling the car out (and wouldn't let the owner or others there do it, either).

It kind of wrenches my stomach to even think about it.

Eric

Saint Louisan, right? You forgot to tell 'em about the second car that ploughed through the store, closed 'em down permanently.

**MagickalMemories**

There was no second car. Don't know where you heard that.
I was there for Ken's "Going Out of Business" sale. The shop was in fine condition up until the last day.

If a second car happened to hit the place, it did so after he sold it. He told me who'd been clamoring for the property, but I don't remember any more.

Eric

**BrookM**

Buying a massive pile of Guard stuff back in the day when Swan was in the Netherlands as the manager of the Amsterdam store. He rung it all up for me and threw in a few Guard blisters, including Macharius for free.