40k and the Tables at Tower

For the first time in the 2.3 years I’ve been playing Warhammer 40k I played at our local gaming store of choice, Tower Games.  Playing in a store always seemed like it would be some kind of a milestone.  Once upon a time I had lived to go to games shops, but until 40k it had been over a decade since I’d been in one.  So I had felt a mingled sense of insecurity and embarrassment upon those first visits, like I was trying to buy sex toys instead of Necron Warriors.

I quickly overcame this apprehension, but that still didn’t mean that I was going to actually hang out and play games at there.  I mean, why hang out in a store when you have David’s basement!  Not to wax nostalgic, but 40k was the featured weekend event for quite a while.  We had several consistent players, and everyone was a little green which made the games seem more significant.  We had a steady stream of coffee.  I also got to know a lot of new people and make a number of decent friends.

Things change, though, and there are a lot of great games out there.  I, for one, want to play WFB and Warmachine and will have to take advantage of the offers some of you have made about letting me borrow an army to test-drive them.  But 40k has been the game I’ve invested a lot of time and money into, and I still enjoy the game play and the hobbyist possibilities.  And there are only so many table-top wargames I can realistically fit into my life right now.

Which brings me to my first game at Tower.  BRose and I met there today after discussing our options.  It seemed like trying out the tables at Tower was a long overdue experience.  We played in the basement (where else?), which was probably a brisk 55 degrees.  The shop employee (the cool red-bearded guy whose name I should really know by now) told us that after the heating guy repaired the furnace, he closed the vents to the basement to redirect heat upstairs.  Unfortunately, they didn’t know how to open them.  The cool air was stimulating, we joked.

We were the only people downstairs, and we had a 2 hour time constraint due to the store’s closing hours.  We grabbed a table with a nice Autumn color scheme and a epoxy-based river.  We grabbed all the available terrain.  It looked pretty bitchin’.

BRose was playing a horrifying mix of Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons.  I was playing my beleaguered Necrons with a list that I think may be one of the best I’ve put together for them.  After cultivating some solid lists for my Blood Angels over the past several months, I figured it would be fun working with the challenge with a more limited and out-dated Codex.  Plus I missed fielding my Necrons, despite the serious shortcomings they have in the 5th Edition world.

We played a 2000 point game, and we managed to squeeze in a full 3 rounds.  Expecting to have deep-striking daemons bearing down on me the moment the game began, I expected the worst.  When my Monolith blew up after the first cannon was fired, I figured my expectations were well-founded.  However, by the time we had to wrap things up it looked like it might have been a close game had it gone the duration.  My interest in my evil robot zombies has been renewed as a result, so you might see them again in the near future.  It depends whether I’m feeling lucky or not.

Whether you see them in the basement of Tower or not is hard to say.  But I will say this, given the opportunity to play there again I would take it.  A change of venue is probably healthy, for the game and the gamer.  Plus, it’s handy when you need  a new set of dice and a Mountain Dew in a pinch.

So, in summary, if anyone is interested in dropping by Tower for a game, let me know.