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Hi Dakka!

(first some background on me, or you can skip down to the bottom 2 graphs and let me know about if you're in the Orange County area, or know about it, good stores, clubs or anything)

Dakka has always been one of my favorite spots on the internet for reading about, discussing, and sharing my own interests in 40K (and dips into WHFB and the like). I have been on here since I got back into the hobby around 2001, when I was living in Minneapolis. I met some great guys at a small tournament at the local games store (literally: I walked the 8 blocks there from my apartment). We played every weekend in the Book Bindery that was owned by one of the player's family (nobody worked at the plant on Sundays).

I moved from there to Florida in 2003, and through Dakka, met the totally great guy Iorek (a Mod now! moving up in the world!) I saw in his profile (or he saw in mine) that we were both in Gainesville, FL. at the time, so we got together to play and otherwise hang out.

I'm in Illinois now, and played a little with a friend in my graduate sschool program, but am moving to the city or Irvine in Orange County, California (about 1hr. southeast of LA). Are there any Dakkanauts out there, or nearby? I'd love to get hooked into a real robust scene of wargaming/hobbyists - I like this town (Champaign-Urbana) but it's too small to really support much of a community.

Anyone in the OC, give me a shout-out! I move there in late June/early July, and am finally getting together ennough assembled and partially primed/painted Necrons to lose a game

Thanks Dakka!

-C6

Hello Catharsix, I live in Irvine but I'm still kind of new to the hobby so I don't know every place but I'll let you know about the 2 I usually go to. I haven't gotten into any of the local tournament stuff but you can always find things posted in the Dakka Tournament forum.

First is the GW shop at Larwin Square. It is in Tustin, off of the 5 freeway and Newport Blvd. It is a small store with 2 tables but the community is very kind. People pay each other a lot of compliments and goof off. If you are nice to them, they will be to you. The current store manager got a promotion so he might be gone before you come out so I can't speak to who will replace him. The current store hours are Wed-Sun with the store hours around 12-8. But the current store manager would always let you finish your last turn even if it is after closing. This is the place I usually go to. This store doesn't have a big tournament scene. Monthly apoc games and painting competitions is about it. Everything else is mostly casual.

Next is the LA Bunker. It isn't actually in LA, it is in Westminster, but it is a big place with lots of tables. They are open 7 days a week and host a wide variety of events all year. Since it is a bigger place they can be a bit more stringent with the rules but it is all for safety of the people, products, and tables. I don't go to this store too often mainly because of traffic. Larwin square is closer to where I live and if you move to OC area you need to learn when traffic hits the freeways. Around 4-7pm traffic around the 5, 405, 91, 55, 57, and 22 freeways are terrible so try to plan your trips to the store around them.

I hope this helped some.

shamroll wrote:Hello Catharsix, I live in Irvine but I'm still kind of new to the hobby so I don't know every place but I'll let you know about the 2 I usually go to. I haven't gotten into any of the local tournament stuff but you can always find things posted in the Dakka Tournament forum.

First is the GW shop at Larwin Square...

Next is the LA Bunker...

I hope this helped some.

Thanks so much for the info! I'll be living on the campus of UC Irvine, but have a car, and it seems that both those stores are less than 30 minutes drive (though I imagine it all depends on the traffic).

Are there any good independent brick-and-mortar FLGS places? Both in terms of community/games/people/hanging out, as well as quantity and quality of selection of all kinds of things that gamers and hobbyists would want? Including the greater LA area, preferably the southern parts, since Irvine is south of LA proper).

Thanks again!

-C6

There is the GW Portola Plaza up here in Mission Viejo as well. I haven't personally been to the Tustin shop, but haven't heard positive things about it.

I live in L.A. proper.

I drive down to the Battle Bunker in Westminster every once in a while because it's a big, clean place to play with lots of top-notch terrain.

I don't know about LGS type stores in your neck of the woods. There is the Warhouse in Long Beach, but that's a pretty weird place... then there is Aero Hobbies in Santa Monica, but that's a bit of a drive for you. There is also Game Empire in Pasadena, which is really nice, but probably almost a 90 minute drive from Irvine.

I'd say the Bunker is your best bet. It's a nice place to play.

The Bunker is a considerable drive even from Irvine, especially if it is during rush hour.

Tustin is easily the closest store to you, unless you live in the part of Irvine that is up against Lake Forest, at which point Portola Plaza is likely closer.

The manager at Mission Viejo is a great guy, and the community there is excellent.

from my experience the battle bunker is very big and has a fairly large community .Next you have The realm in brea right next to the brea mall which is a smaller store , the store has good stock and the people are pretty nice, they have a warhammer day and some of the better tournament players in socal play there. Out side of those two places you have the smaller GW stores and burkhusrt hobbys to pick stuff up.

Welcome to OC. You are realistically about 20 minutes from the LA Battle Bunker in Westminster (traffic permitting). More importantly you are about 20 minutes away from Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove. They have a few tables, but more importantly they have an awesome staff of cool guys and they always give 20% off all GW boxes, and 20% off everything Privateer Press sells if you are into that too.

zeshin wrote:Welcome to OC. You are realistically about 20 minutes from the LA Battle Bunker in Westminster (traffic permitting). More importantly you are about 20 minutes away from Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove. They have a few tables, but more importantly they have an awesome staff of cool guys and they always give 20% off all GW boxes, and 20% off everything Privateer Press sells if you are into that too.

Wow, that sounds pretty great! I'll have to map how far it is from the Irvine campus (my wife, myself, and our 3-month old will be living in the graduate/family student housing complex on campus).

Thanks for the tip! I hope to meet some gamers when I get there. I haven't met many other gamers/hobbyists since I left Minneapolis, and the great group of friends/40k players/drinking buddies I had there

-C6