Phoenix Games in Buford, GA (For Stewie)

About a year ago, my family and I wandered in to the Games Workshop store in the Mall of Georgia.  It's situated right across from the Apple Store, and because my boys had recently started playing the Heroscape boardgame, we thought that looking into Warhammer might be fun.  On our first visit in we met Alan, who gave us a quick tour of the 40k game, and answered some of the questions my oldest son had.  He did a good job of explaining the story line of the game with detail and enthusiasm, and helped capture my son's imagination.  We went back in a few times, eventually meeting Matt and Ken as well, and picked up the "starter set" for Warhammer 40k.

Whenever we had questions about the rules, or wanted suggestions on how to get more out of the game, Alan, Matt, and particularly Ken were extremely helpful.  They never pressured us into buying anything, but were always very helpful and enthusiastic about our interest in the game.  As we finished our first set of models, my eldest son and I brought them into the store and Ken walked us through the setup of a full game, and helped us with rule interpretations, tactics, etc.  It was a lot of fun, and they were always very welcoming.  

The space at the GW store is rather small, though, so it was sometimes difficult to get around while folks were playing games, and sometimes it felt like you were always bumping into someone.  As a parent who usually had a couple of kids in tow, I always felt particularly guilty about that, because, well, kids bump into people - it's part of who they are.  Of course, everyone in the store (employees and customers) were always very friendly towards me and the kids, but it was hard not to feel claustrophobic on days when it was really crowded.

In August we learned that Ken & Matt were going to be leaving Games Workshop to launch their own store a couple of miles away and Alan would also be joining them at the new site.  They wanted to build a store that could foster a real gaming community in the area, and were branching out beyond Games Workshop products.  Since we first heard about that, we've been waiting with great anticipation.

This Saturday was the grand opening of their store, Phoenix Games, here in Buford, GA.  As I mentioned, we've been looking forward to this day back in August, so the boys and I wanted to be there for the official Grand Opening to show our support and have some fun.  So we packed up all our miniatures, rule books and dice and headed to the new store.

We "sorta" arrived in time to be first in line.  A lot of the long-time customers from the GW Store are, of course, good friends with Ken, Matt, and Alan, so they've been helping get the store up and running for the last month, and have been doing work behind the scenes since.  So, we were the first in line for the Grand Opening, but several folks had been in the store most of the morning helping with the setup.  About 10 minutes before the official opening, everyone in the store cleared out and waited in line.  I had warned my boys that the other folks had really been there first, and prepared them to concede their first and second place spots when the other folks came out.  We left enough room between us and the door for them stand in front of us but everyone was kind enough to let my boys stand up front while they assembled at the back of the line.  I imagine, as seasoned gamers who had been in and out of the store for a few weeks, it wasn't that big of a deal to them, but for my two boys it was really awesome, so I'm really grateful for the treatment we received.  My oldest was the first through the door, and my youngest quickly followed him.

The store is setup to allow customers to buy products for and enjoy every aspect of the hobby.  The front of the store is dedicated to retail space with two small tables setup to give demonstration games to new hobbyists.  They also have a "Mess" table up front where folks can  sand and assemble models they've brought in or purchased, or even work on scratch build projects like Terrain, etc.  It's a neat aspect of the store because you can buy something and immediately get help assembling the models.  Also, there are a lot of in-process projects on the table, so you can see some of the creative work that other folks are working on.

In the center of the store is a large paint table that surrounds the employee area.  It seats about a dozen people in comfortable stools.  Because it's a wrap-around setup, Ken and crew can work inside the area, ringing up customers, etc, but can also sit across from a hobbyist to help them with painting instruction without inconveniencing anyone, or just sit and chat.  The store, literally, has no place for the employees to hide, unless they camp out in the bathrooms, so it's a very open and welcoming environment.

The vast majority of the store is dedicated to gaming space.  They have a dozen or so full sized tables (4x8) that can be used to play games.  They're all on wheels, so they can be moved around as needed, but there's enough space that you can enjoy a game without worrying about bothering the person next to you.

The floor is painted concrete, which lets them allow food and drinks in the store without having to worry about carpet stains or what not.  As a customer with kids, it's a huge relief, though you definitely want to be wearing comfortable shoes if you're planning on standing next to a table all day (I understand they've got some stools coming for the gaming tables; right now all the stools are at the painting station).  They have bathrooms, a cooler for buying drinks, and a utility sink in the back for cleaning your stuff.

When we first arrived, my oldest son and I wanted to finally sit down and figure out the real point values of our Armies (up until now we've mainly just put "everything we have" on the table), so Ken gave us a demo of some Army Builder software and let my son play around with it for a while.  After we sorted all that out, my youngest sat down to do some painting while my oldest and I started a battle on one of the many tables.  We played our first 1000 point battle.  My son set up the terrain, using a set of cliffs we had built a few months back as the center piece of the battlefield.  He setup for looks, not strategic advantage, so my Tyranids ended up crushing his Tau in the end. Another Tyranid gamer (alas, I also forget his name ; I'm really bad with names) watched most of our game, and helped us with the rules along the way, explaining certain tactics and rules for both armies - he was extremely helpful (and patient).  It was like that most of the day - people would stop by the table to watch, introduce themselves, point out tactics or comment on the general state of the game, and then wander around the rest of the store to check out the other games that were going on.

 

Most everyone there knows each other, except for us - we're pretty much the Newbies in the house.  We ended up staying about 6 hours - my oldest and I got to play our full game, and browse through a lot of the product that was out.  My youngest painted half a dozen Tyranids, and also bought some Necrons and started to assemble some of them on the Mess table. 

The one thing we forgot to do was eat; there are lots of restaurants around the store, but we were pretty well immersed in the activities, so it wasn't until we were packed up that we realized we were starving.  The Phoenix guys had T-shirts and dog tags for everyone who showed up for the Grand Opening, so we had a full day of fun, and got some cool stuff as well.

Their stock is still coming in slowly - they had a lot of the Flames of War stuff, and almost all the newly released GW product.  The rest is supposed to be coming in over the next few days.  We did manage to pick up a new set of Necron Warriors for my youngest, plus some Ork Lootas and the new Space Marine codex.

If you're anywhere in the Metro Atlanta area, it's definitely worth the trip up to Buford, particularly if you're new to War Gaming and are looking for a non-threatening atmosphere to figure it all out.  The guys at Phoenix are extremely friendly and really know their stuff.  I should mention that Matt's a rather tall and intimidating looking fellow that sort of looks like he could crush your head pretty easily. . .My youngest son is somewhat afraid of him. . . But he's a nice guy and, to my knowledge, hasn't crushed anyone's head since I've been learning the game.