GAME STORES: Raleigh-Durham, NC, USA

If you live in or near the Raleigh, North Carolina area, or may have to travel here for some reason, this will be your resource to the local gaming stores where you can get your 40k fix. I guess you can consider the Raleigh area to be blessed with a large number of gaming stores. I have been to all of these stores, and I have supported all of these stores. By no means is this a "review" of the various places where you can throw down some 40k, merely a quick-and-dirty rundown of what to expect from them.

ALL FUN & GAMES
Apex, NC
All Fun & Games (AF&G) is the veteran of the bunch as they have been around the longest. They have survived several moves, and are now located immediately southwest of Raleigh in Apex, just beyond the Cary town limits. AF&G has a large gaming area, and can easily support half-dozen or more games of 40k at the same time. Monday nights are the dedicated 40k night, with a mix of "league" games and "pick-up" games occurring at the same time. However, you can always grab a friend and reserve a table for yourselves just about any time of the week. The store hosts about 4 leagues per year. These leagues always change the format and length to keep things fresh and interesting. The store also hosts approximately quarterly RTT events and have also hosted several past 'Ard Boys preliminary rounds. You can find their website HERE, and from it, you can jump to the calendar that lists all of their events. Their current Planetstrike Campaign League wraps up next Monday (3/8/2010), so I'm sure they'll be rolling out the details of their next league soon (they typically take a few weeks "off" between leagues). They also have a 1500 point 40k RTT scheduled for March 20, 2010 from 10am to 5pm - head over to their calendar and click on the event for the full details!

THE GAME CONNECTION
Knightdale, NC
Of the four stores I'm detailing here, The Game Connection (TGC) has been around the second longest. No, I'm not posting these in age-order (they are alphabetical sans "the"). ;-) TGC is located immediately northeast of Raleigh in Knightdale. TGC also happens to be the "home store" of a great 40k gaming group named The Lords of War. Although gaming space is limited at TGC, if Ron (the store owner) has the room, he'll happily hold you a table to play on. Their dedicated 40k night is on Mondays. The Lords of War will be running a tournament and subsequent league at the store. The tournament is scheduled for March 20, 2010 and participating in it will seed you for a challenge board league "War Without End." Don't worry if you can't make the tourney, though; you can always challenge yourself onto the WWE league board and from there, crawl your way (probably kicking and screaming) up to the pinnacle of the challenge pyramid. Check out the TGC website HERE.

GAME THEORY
Raleigh, NC
Game Theory (GT) is the "newcomer on the block." They opened just over a week ago on March 6 (happy 11th day open, GT), and are located in west-central Raleigh near the intersection of Edwards Mill Road and Duraleigh Road. They have a website HERE; but you'll probably just want to click over to their Meet-Up or Facebook page (I use the former as I refuse to be a "Facebooker"). I checked this store out last weekend and was pleasantly surprised by how nice Rob and Bo (store owners) are (not that ANY of the store owners of these stores aren't, I was just surprised because I had never actually met Rob or Bo before). GT has a moderate area for gaming. As they are new, they are still figuring out which nights work best for various things, and mostly doing things based on who is willing to do what and when. (on a side note, if you're a Warmachine fan, GT has had a couple of VERY successful WM demos the past few weeks - I anticipate a huge WM group to get going there before too long!) To try and top the heavily-attended WM demos, I may just have to talk to Rob & Bo tonight about doing some 40k demos (or *something*).

HANGAR 18 HOBBIES
Cary, NC
Hangar 18 Hobbies (H-18) is also a relative "newcomer" on the Raleigh-Durham gaming scene. Located in south-central Cary, H-18 has been open since November. All of the stores I'm detailing here (obviously) will give you your 40k fix, as well as almost any other type of gaming you may need (CCG, Miniatures, RPG, Boardgames, you name it). But H-18 stands out from the crowd by also having a large selection of Remote Control vehicles. And we're not talking about your Toys R Us type R/C for $10, we're talking SERIOUS R/C "build your own from parts" kind of hobby addiction. The store is limited in gaming space, but Sunday's is their typical 40k day. The scenery they have to play with, though, will absolutely knock your socks off - Kudos to Bryan on his awesome terrain building skills! H-18 is also heavily involved in the SPRING FEVER miniatures gaming convention that occurs in Raleigh every year (most recent one was 2 weeks ago, so you'll have to wait a bit for the next one). Recent discussion on their Yahoo! group site has indicated we can expect a good game of Apocalypse in the near future, once some "balance bugs" are worked out by the organizers. You can find their website HERE, and from there, you can follow them on Facebook (grrr...) or join their Yahoo! Group.

SCI FI GENRE
Durham, NC
Way over there in Durham (OK, so its not like Durham is THAT far from Raleigh - only the airport and Umstead State Park separate the two these days) is one last store I should point out - Sci-Fi Genre. I haven't been to Sci Fi in a while, but I have attended several of their 40k tournaments, which they host almost monthly. Gaming space used to be "moderate", but word on the street is that they have expanded that recently, and it now is much more comfortable. Check out their website HERE, and then head over to their 40k discussion forum HERE to catch up on what's going on in Durham (such as their 40k tournament on April 20).



Like I said, the Raleigh-Durham region is blessed with a good number of very high-quality gaming stores that will help you get your 40k fix (or just about any other gaming need you may be afflicted by). I highly recommend checking out ALL of these stores - one thing I didn't point out is that there (oddly) is little cross-over in the people who frequent these stores, so it is a good way for me to hit them all and really expand my gaming friends and community.