Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Miniature Gaming at the Dragon's Den Part 2

With so many new miniature games being played at the Dragons Den, I figured I should mention that we still have table space on Wednesday and Thursday for mini games that are not listed in the post below.  We do see Warhammer 40K, Warhammer Fantasy, Malifaux, and Flames of War players on those night and sometimes on Saturday.

To continue with some of the new future events, I wanted to add a couple that are out a bit farther.  These may be subject to change, so check our calendar or in the store for more details.

November:

Wednesday nights: Privateer Press (Hordes & Warmachine) Escalation League
                             Infinity Escalation League
Thursday nights: Flames of War Early War Aces
                         Dystopian Wars Escalation League
Thursday November 24: Closed! Happy Thanksgiving
Saturday November 12: Malifaux Tournament
Saturday November 19: Warhammer 40K Tournament
Saturday daily: Open Play


December:

Wednesday nights: Privateer Press (Hordes & Warmachine) Escalation League
                             Infinity Escalation League
Thursday nights: Flames of War Early War Aces
                         Dystopian Wars Escalation League
Saturday December 10:  Privateer Press Warmahordes Tournament
Saturday December 17: Flames of War Early War Tournament
Saturday December 24: Wings of War: Snoopy vs The Red Baron (I hope you all get the reference for the holidays)

Remember that some events might change slightly or be modified, so check with the store or online to make sure you have the most recent information. So now we have made it almost all the way to Christmas break for schools.  We will be planning some other events with the students home for the holidays, so stay tuned for more information as it will be sure to follow... just maybe not for a month or two!

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

Monday, August 22, 2011

Miniature Gaming at the Dragon's Den

So we have a new staff member who is helping to focus on miniature games here at the store.  He has set up a list of events that we will have on our Google Calendar very soon, but I thought we could get a list posted here on our blog as well.  If you are interested in big games, skirmish games, or anything in between, check out the list and hopefully you will see an event that you like.

August:

Wednesday nights: Privateer Press (Hordes & Warmachine) demo games
                               Warhammer 40K demo games
                               Infinity demo games
Thursday nights: Flames of War demo games
                            Malifaux demo games
                            Flames of War: Aces of Aces event
Saturday daily: Open Play

September:

Wednesday nights: Privateer Press (Hordes & Warmachine) Assembly & Paint (Week 1 & 2)
                               Warhammer 40K Assembly & Paint (Week 1 & 2)
                               Privateer Press League: Sand Narrows (Week 3 & 4)
                               Warhammer 40K Escalation League (Week 3 & 4)
Thursday night: Flames of War Assembly & Paint (Week 2 & 3)
                          Malifaux Assembly & Paint (Week 2 & 3)
                          Flames of War Mid War Aces (Week 4 & 5)
                          Malifaux Escalation League (Week 4 & 5)
Saturday September 10: Infinity Tournament
Saturday daily: Open Play (unless other events scheduled)

October:

Wednesday night: Privateer Press League: Sand Narrows (Week 1 & 2)
                             Warhammer 40K Escalation League (Week 1, 2, 3, & 4)
                             Privateer Press (Hordes and Warmachine)Open Play (Week 3 & 4)
Thursday night: Flames of War Mid War Aces (Week 1, 2, 3, & 4)
                          Malifaux Escalation League (Week 1, 2, 3, & 4)
Saturday October 8:Flames of War: Late War Tournament, Battle for Salvation
Saturday October 22: Dystopian Wars Tournament
Saturday daily: Open Play (unless other events scheduled)
Sunday October 16: Privateer Press: Sand Narrows World End
Sunday October 30: Malifaux Story Encounters
Monday October 31: Malifaux Story Encounters (Happy Halloween)


We have more events planned for the rest of the year.  Stay tuned for more information about November and December as they will be posted soon... but may have changes made, and will be great save the date information.  For more details about the upcoming events in the store, check out our calendar of events on our website, or stop in and ask!

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Gen Con 2011 The Best 4 Days of Gaming

Welcome back from the "BEST 4 DAYS OF GAMING" also know as Gen Con!

So we got back from Gen Con last night, and it was a fantastic show! We had a chance to try many different games, check out product that is not released just yet, and see all the greatest product that could be seen.  We are going to share some pictures, share some stories, and give some insight into some games.  To make life easy, I'm breaking it down by vendor so you can see the different areas you'd like more info about.  So if you are ready to read on and want to learn more, continue through the trip to Gen Con 2011!

Wizards of the Coast:

There is a lot to talk about with WotC. They had a great booth set up as a ruined castle, and a live action D&D event behind it.  The booth was amazing as was the D&D Mega Adventure that was set up through out Gen Con with QR Codes.  The players got into trying to find the codes and earn points for their faction.  All of this was for the soon to be released Neverwinter campaign setting.  Away from the booth you show the two locations for all the events: The Sagamore Ball Room and the TCG Hall.  At the TCG hall you had so many Magic events, it was almost overwhelming, with the highlight being Nationals!  So many players going in and between events, it was incredible to see.  Upstairs in the Sagamore there was Dungeons and Dragons. It was not just the RPG though, they also had 3 Dragon Ante, all the board games, and the D&D National event as well.A big announcement was for the Lords of Waterdeep board game which is a Euro style board game set in the Dungeons and Dragons world.



Wizkids:

What can I say about Wizkids other then WOW! The new Star Trek game that involves fleets of Federation and Klingon ships looks amazing.  The price point at first looked a bit high, until you started to count up all the ships you got in the base game.  We would love to get a copy of this game a give it a try to get the Trek fans into a great looking ship to ship minis game.  Another game that they had out was Quarriors! Quarriors is a fantastic game involving dice that is similar to the deck building games.  We had such a blast playing this game, that I had to buy a copy for myself then and there.  It played fast and had the option of adding new abilities to the dice without having to make all new dice.  We will be demoing this game soon and getting players excited to try a new type of game.  I really can't talk about Wizkids without mentioning the Heroclix.  They had a number of great items out for sale including Heroclix, Street Fight, and Gears of War... BUT the items that had people looking were the painted pieces (not on bases) of The Lord of the Rings and Pathfinder.  They all looked great!  Check back as more information becomes available we will be writing more.



AEG:

We had the opportunity to go over and talk with the people at AEG as well as attending their Big Game Night.  I would have liked a little more structure to the big game night and maybe in an area that was a little quieter so that we could really check out the games.  We did have a chance to play Ninja, which is a very secretive board game involving Ninjas and guards set in the L5R world..  It was a blast! We will have a copy in this week and will be running some demo games to give players a chance to check it out.  We also got a chance to see Thunderstone, Parthenon, and Legend of the 5 Rings CCG.  AEG has a bunch of really great games out now and if you are looking to give something new a try, they would make a great choice.

Gary Games:

Gary Games is the publisher of the game Ascension.  This is a great deck building game that was created by a number of Magic players who were looking for another game to play between Magic.  The same design group also created Redakai, but we can talk about that later.  I had a chance to play in a tournament for Ascension, but sadly came in second in my pod, so did not advance.  They also had a number of great promo cards that you could pick up at their booth.  We also had a chance to discuss the Dragon's Den becoming a part of the Game Day program that they run, so hopefully we will be a part of the next one which is coming up soon.  

Fantasy Flight Games: 



Well the big announcement here was that Fantasy Flight Games picked up the rights for Star Wars.  To show case this, they had several games on display and were running demo games of several of them.  Star Wars X-Wing looked fantastic! It is a miniatures ship to ship combat game that takes a few elements from Wings of War.  Instead of a deck of cards for movement, each ship has a disk that you pick your movement from and place face down next to the ship (for that hidden movement similar to Wings of War).  They used different templates then for movement and attacks.  They kept some of the flavor with the weapons and abilities on the different star fighters, but we only got to see the X-Wing and Tie Fighter.  They also did a new card game for the Star Wars universe, but we did not get a chance to demo that game.  Some other items of note at the booth would be their release of the Gears of War board game and the new revised edition of Dust Tactics. 

Plaid Hat:

Plaid Hat is the maker of Summoner Wars.They have a new starter box that will be coming out in a month or so... or maybe we will have several copies in a few days! We had the chance to demo the game with them at Gen Con, and they allowed us to get a few copies while we were there.  The new starter has new factions, which if I remember correctly is an addition 6 new factions.  It also has a double board so that it is a little easier to play on and see your side of the board.


I hope that you have found some new information or got to experience some of the Gen Con trip from the write up.  We will be adding more information over the week and get some other impressions so you can hear about some other games and events.  There will always be more to add about Gen Con, but I think this is long enough, so watch for the next post soon.

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

Monday, August 8, 2011

Magic Innistrad Corrected Information

Welcome Magic players! 

So I'm here to talk to you about the stupidity of some of the newest (or oldest) posts that now have players in a tizzy over what might or might not be in Innistrad.  We have had many players come in freaking out over the new 8 card format for booster packs, as well as the new rarity or time shifted add  into the set.  As an Advanced Level TO who can call Wizards and ask silly questions about this, I'd like to set the record straight.  So if you would like some new info, read on... if you would like to stick your head in the sand and believe the nonsense then stop right here.

8 Card Boosters:
 So here we have a picture of the new boosters... or a clever fake.  First off, as confirmed from Wizards, there will not be a 8 card booster pack.  Second, do we think that Baron Sengir, Apocalypse Chime, and Willow Priestess will be the cover art for the set? Come on players, I think we can be a little smarter and not just blindly believe everything that some dope posts on a website to get players excited.  Remember that we will have the boosters and events here at the Dragon's Den... and they will be 15 cards not 8!

New Color Rarity:


Well here it is, I see 5 colors with purple just like a Time Shifted card from Timespiral... but wait, that can't be correct... can it??? NO it is not correct! Again, after contacting my rep at Wizards to confirm or deny these crazy stories, I have found that there is no truth in these wild tales.  So we will only have the normal 4 levels of rarity, there will NOT be any time shifted cards or a new rarity! Come on players, do I have to spell it out for you?!?!

So I hope this helps clear up some questions and helps players to calm down and relax.  I'm glad that so many players have come in concerned about these possible changes and brought this to our attention so we can try and answer the questions and kill the bad rumors.  As we run many events at the Dragon's Den, we really do try to give our players some good information and have great events.  So stop in and play a (real) game!

Public Service Announcement:

Please do not believe everything you read on the internet! We have called Wizards and asked these questions to get correct information. If any of this information is faulty, then it is faulty from Wizards, the people who MAKE MAGIC!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Magic 2012 Prerelease and Launch Party Events July

As we get set up for our weekend of crazy prerelease events, I thought I would take some time to post some bits and blurbs from the Magic 2012 Prerelease. We will begin with a Midnight event Saturday morning.  Many people get confused by this, which is why I will clarify it is Saturday morning and not Friday morning! So with that in mind, here is a list of our events we will run for the weekend:
  1. Midnight Saturday July 9: Sealed
  2. Noon Saturday July 9: Sealed
  3. 5:00pm Saturday July 9: Draft
  4. Noon Sunday July 10: Sealed
  5. 2:00pm Sunday July 10: Draft
  6. Open Play both days with the Intro Decks
We will have product and promo cards as long as they last.  We have had several average events for prereleases in the past at 60+ with several that have been over 100 players.  Magic has been a great game here and we have had many great players come through the store.

So we ended up with 74 for the midnight event and another 28 for the noon that day! With over 100 players doing sealed it was a great day.  We saw all the Planeswalkers during the course of the events and we even had one player pull 2 different ones in the midnight event Saturday.  Sundays events were much smaller, but it did bring the total number of players in all the events closer to 150 (counting all the drafts).

Launch Party we did a Draft and ended up with 29 players.  It was a great turn out on a Friday night for draft and so many players are now getting excited for the set.  I've now heard many players talking about combos and how the new cards will work in Standard.