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Alright so im fresh outta college and have the world as my oyster... or is it clam? Regardless I must now figure out the most important thing in my life, and no its not where to get a job, it's what city in the US has the largest, kindest, and just all around best wargaming community? Specifically 40k but im open to others as well! So give me some tips here I currently live in Jacksonville, Fl and its a nice little community however Im looking for the biggest, baddest, and nicest setup and people around. Suggestions?

Well I am originally from MD and GW games are big there because of the population density, average income and that it used to be their NA HQ. I haven't lived there in 10 years so maybe it is different now. I can't speak for the quality of the gaming though. Having a good small group will trump a large crap group anytime. I personally would not move back to Maryland except int he most unusual of circumstances. It's too darn crowded, taxes and cost of living is too high and too many liberals for me so no matter how good the gaming was I could not go back. I live in NC now and love it, however GW games are just not that big in that state.

If the world is your oyster have you considered moving to Nottingham? Seems to me that would be the haven for 40K.

Well, if you don't want to get too far from your current location, the North side of Atlanta has a pretty robust gaming community. There are about a half dozen independent stores and one GW outlet in the area, though they're pretty spread out. At least one of them has a tournament every month. In the past, the stores have worked together to set up a series of tournaments hosted between the various stores to create a sort of Atlanta area championship.

Most of the stores do the majority of their gaming as 40K. There is also a large community of such games as Warmachine, Malifaux, Dark Age, Infiniti, etc. One of the stores has an impressively robust WHFB community, the largest WHFB community I have seen at a single store since the late 1980's.

If you're into the seriously competitive aspect of 40K, there are people who live and game here who have won national level Grand Tournaments, and one of the local guys made it to the final eight at the Adepticon elimination championship thing this year.

Overall, it's a pretty mellow gaming community with a decent level of competitiveness, if that's what you desire.

The North Jersey/NYC area has it pretty damned good. Lots of opponents although players tend to be a bit 'store loyal' (there are certain groups that only ever go their store and nowhere else, so unless you don't mind traveling there is limited crossover), and lots of events, there are times when there are multiple tournaments/gaming events to choose from on a given day, let alone back to back events (saturday/sunday).

Badass: ETC says its England baby - yeah!










Or Germany (nearly)

Sarasota, just south of Tampa, has a great store with a robust gaming community.

At Dark Side Comics?

Once upon a time it was Dakka Dakka in Manchester NH.

But now NH has devolved into a mishmash of kids and long beards all of whom will only play at the store they feel comfortable with.

Do I drive 3 minutes to a place with no tables or terrain? 8 minutes to a place with 3 tables and limited terrain?

15 minutes to a place with a bunch of tables, terrain and armies of kids playing Yugioh and Pokemon?

Perhaps 30 minutes to the place where everyone plays magic ans looks at your models as toys for children.

Or I can go all out and drive an hour to go to a tiny hole in the wall with a single 2'x2' "table" in the dead center of the shop.

Actually... forget NH. Go with Mass. They have better places there. And I could always drive down to challenge you.

@ Debbin: Yes. A great place that supports a variety of war games, rpg's, board games and other gamer related stuff.

A great bunch of players there too, which is really important.

I've bought some stuff there. They have a large gaming area too. I plan on going back to game, once I actually start painting up my models.

donteatthecookies wrote:
...however Im looking for the biggest, baddest, and nicest setup and people around. Suggestions?

The US Army.

There are two very distinct places that came to mind when considering this question.

1) Baltimore, MD - As mentioned this was GW's HQ for a very long time and is in a sense the 'cradle of life' for the GW hobby.

2. Chicago, IL - Chicago boasts one of GW's largest battle bunkers, tons of GW hobby centers, tons of indy. retailers (one of which if IIRC is the largest independent game store in north america) and has been made the new home city for Games Day North America (was Baltimore, MD until 2011).

We wrote:
Well I am originally from MD and GW games are big there because of the population density, average income and that it used to be their NA HQ. I haven't lived there in 10 years so maybe it is different now. I can't speak for the quality of the gaming though. Having a good small group will trump a large crap group anytime. I personally would not move back to Maryland except int he most unusual of circumstances. It's too darn crowded, taxes and cost of living is too high and too many liberals for me so no matter how good the gaming was I could not go back. I live in NC now and love it, however GW games are just not that big in that state.

If the world is your oyster have you considered moving to Nottingham? Seems to me that would be the haven for 40K.

I am in Asheboro NC, anywhere near here?

my first thought was Chicago, like Oni said...
for gaming, i think it trumps Baltimore now that Games Day has moved...
so you have Games Day and Adepticon in the same town, plus a short drive down to GenCon...
the level of local painting talent in Chicago is incredible, probably the best concentration of artists in the country...
plus it's a cool city, with loads of sports, food, and museums...

being from L.A., i'm a little biased...
aside from the fact that So. Cal. is huge, and everything is really spread out, the talent and amount of gamers is quite high...
there are four local cons each year at LAX, some great stores like Brookhurst Hobbies, a Battle Bunker, and gaming nights on weekends at most stores...
i'm from Redondo Beach, and hung out a lot at Third Planet in Torrance...
the crew is very active, and i've made a few lifelong friends there, like Angry Mike (as well as at the Strategicon conventions, like Steve from Fantization)...
good people...
so yeah, my heart is definitely in L.A., where the gaming community has been a part of my life for 25 years, and is still going strong...

by contrast, was in Portland, Oregon just before moving to Mexico...
there were a few stores, and a good painting night at Guardian Games, but it didn't really feel like a community, and i didn't attend a single con or enter a painting contest for two years...
as oppossed to LA, where i would enter 5 or 6 a year...

enough ramble...
good luck with your quest...

cheers
jah

Here's another suggestion for Chicago. If you're into the GW thing, then there is a huge presence, but there's also a very active Warmachine and FoW community. In Chicago, "Chicagoland Games Dice Dojo" does a pretty good job of anchoring these three games as well as some Malifaux and a few others.

However, in the suburbs "Games Plus" is the huge game store alluded to above. In addition to the big 3 it also provides something of an anchor for alot of smaller gaming communities playing things like Infinity, Tomorrow's War, Battletech and a fairly active historical community.

The Historical crowd also has "Little Wars" a fairly large Historical gaming convention held in the Chicago Suburbs each year.

I'm the organizer for a club that plays alot of indie and generic miniatures games and I'm quite sure that Chicago is one of the few places where such a club would survive.

One other area to check out is Portland, OR. I visited there and they seem to have a pretty active gaming community and a couple of good gaming stores. There seemed to be more gamers-per-capita there than Chicago.

Austin and St. Louis also have pretty large and active groups in different games.

Atlanta is pretty solid, but its spread out which can be an issue. We have great local vendors! CMON and Wyrd! There may be others that I can't think of at the moment.

Phoenix has a great wargaming community

 Consul Scipio wrote:

donteatthecookies wrote:
...however Im looking for the biggest, baddest, and nicest setup and people around. Suggestions?

The US Army.

The US Coast Guard

 pities2004 wrote:
Phoenix has a great wargaming community

A friend of mine who graduated a few years back agrees

The washington or texas areas seem to have the largest number of competitive or podcasting players.

California has an okay community in the Bay Area...sort of... I think.

Eilif wrote:
Here's another suggestion for Chicago. If you're into the GW thing, then there is a huge presence, but there's also a very active Warmachine and FoW community. In Chicago, "Chicagoland Games Dice Dojo" does a pretty good job of anchoring these three games as well as some Malifaux and a few others.

However, in the suburbs "Games Plus" is the huge game store alluded to above. In addition to the big 3 it also provides something of an anchor for alot of smaller gaming communities playing things like Infinity, Tomorrow's War, Battletech and a fairly active historical community.

The Historical crowd also has "Little Wars" a fairly large Historical gaming convention held in the Chicago Suburbs each year.

I'm the organizer for a club that plays alot of indie and generic miniatures games and I'm quite sure that Chicago is one of the few places where such a club would survive.

One other area to check out is Portland, OR. I visited there and they seem to have a pretty active gaming community and a couple of good gaming stores. There seemed to be more gamers-per-capita there than Chicago.

Careful. Gotta drive to hit up all these spots

Game Empire Pasadena, California.

San Antonio. Alamo GT baby.

Not in the "Land of 10K lakes" (MN).

Memphis, Tennessee has the new GW HQ and the guys there are pretty nice. My buddy and I stopped in on a work trip and said hello, bought some minis, and took pictures by the Space Marine outside. Also, Memphis isn't too bad of an area, there are houses RIGHT near GW that you can walk from that only cost $700 a month to live. Big houses. Of course, we were told jobs were harder to come by there, and public schools aren't so hot (private schools were great), so maybe that helps. If you have a job you can take with you (doesn't matter where you live), it might be a great place to hunker down.

Not here in my hometown, stay away from its neckbeard infested hellholes

Also, Memphis isn't too bad of an area

LOL thats like saying Detroit is a lively happening place.

I would have to say Chicago myself. 4 GW stores within an hour drive, one of which is almost as big as warhammer world in the UK. Not to mention prolly 30 or so flgs in an 50 mile radius, and as an added bonus they have Gamesday every year there. Plus its Chicago with all the non wargamming stuff it has to offer.