Hey Game Fans, we’re back with a different kind of an article for today. Me and the wookie went rampaging through the Olathe/Kansas City, Kansas suburbs yesterday (He’s out on work release, i mean Spring Break), checking out some game stores, getting a fabulous lunch, and otherwise having the time of our lives. We even managed to squeeze in a couple of games of Alpha Strike to boot. I was going to tweet the stops on our magical mystery tour but decided i’m a little old-fashioned to be prancing around with a smartphone live tweeting the day. What i am going to do is give you guys a bit of a look at the places we stopped along our expedition.
1st Stop
Gas Station
(We needed some fuel)
2nd Stop
31st Century Games and Hobbies
Our first gaming stop on our magical mystery tour of the burbs is 31st Century Games and Hobbies and we had a blast. The owner let us while he was unpacking his order from Games Workshop and showed us around the place. 31st has been a part of the Olathe gaming community for as long as i can remember, but has changed ownership within the last year. THe new owner is making some forward thinking decisions about inventory management and being smart about the product lines he supports. He’s using smart customer based data to support his inventory and the store is much more open and inviting than it has been in previous years.
One of the things that i look for in a gaming store is the ease of access new people would have coming into the environment. In many ways, Gaming stores are central hubs of activity for the hobby and serve as gathering points for groups looking to setup a game, play a pickup game of a wargame, or as a shopping center for specific game components. 31st has the available play space for at least four different full sized games of miniature wargames and a 12 person TCG tournament at the same time. They are supporting multiple game formats within the community, and if it’s not a product that they keep in stock, will be happy to order it in for a customer.
3rd Stop
Cinzetti’s
After we finished our business at 31st Century, it was time for lunch, and rather than the typical Chinese buffet we usually stop at when we’re in the city, we opted for an Italian buffet that i was introduced to by Sister in law for my nephew’s birthday a few years back. Cinzetti’s is an astonishingly nice, friendly Italian Buffet that’s got a lot of bits and pieces of Italy. They’ve got a lot of amazingly good food, including a glazed carrot that’s worth murdering people over, multiple presentations of pizzas from various regions of Italy, multiple pasta options, soups, Salads, the whole thing. (On weekends they have a brunch that’s fantastic). After we gorged ourselves on an assortment of wonderful things, we headed off to the next stop on our tour of fun/pain.
4th Stop
Tabletop Game and Hobby
Tabletop is one of my favorite places in the universe. It’s been a fixture of the KCK suburbs for years, and has moved to a new location within the last couple of years. It’s a store that caters to board and wargamers, while maintaining a healthy supply of RPG books, dice and other supplies. Now, I can’t that Tabletop has everything, (we were a day early and an undisclosed amount of dollars long for the Alpha Strike stuff we were looking for and the new Army Painter Paint Rack), but they come as close as i can see for any brick and mortar store in the area.
Tabletop basically divides its store into two sections, a large retail section that’s full of awesome cool stuff, and a play area that’s the same size. It’s a big space and can host a lot of events and games, and during open gaming nights, you can have a ton of different folks gaming in the space. The staff is knowledgeable and extremely friendly. It’s a frequent place that i like to stop when i’m in the area. (It’s also less than a half a block from Cinzetti’s, so there’s that) Given an ideal day, it would be the place i would relax and play games. This is where the Wookie and i played our first game of Warhammer fantasy (Not Age of Sigmar) and i’ve played in a couple of Warhammer 40,000 tournaments here. We however had other appointments to keep.
You can find Tabletop Game and Hobby on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TableTopGameandHobby/
You can also find them on the wider interwebs at http://www.tabletopgameandhobby.com/
5th Stop
The Geekery
The Geekery was our final stop for the day, and the location we were supposed to meet up for the games of Alpha Strike we were going to play later in the day. The Geekery is a fun shop that caters to a lot of different games. The thing i particularly enjoy are the tables and stools that the store owner built for his gaming area. They carry an assortment of Magic: the Gathering, Warmachine, Warhammer, and other product lines. They have used most of their square footage as gaming and hobby space, with the walls of the store being the primary retail outlets.
We settled in, put together a battlefield for our game of Alpha Strike, and proceeded to spend the afternoon blowing each other’s tiny plastic robots to bits. The store is large enough for model construction and painting while there are multiple tables of games going on simultaneously. We had a blast playing Alpha Strike, and we spent the rest of the day here. It’s a good community hub for gamers, and you can find a lot of things if you go looking.
You can find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Geekery.Shawnee/
You can also find them on the interwebs at http://www.geekery.us/
Last thoughts
The KCK suburbs sprawl out around Kansas City, Kansas in just about every direction. It seems like each of the little towns (and there are a box load of them) has its own game store, and these do a wonderful job of creating opportunities and supporting spaces for gamers to get together and play games. These are just three of the stores in the area, and we’re going to try and find a few more in the area. If you’re in the area, stop by and check them out.
Game On, Game Fans
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