Games to Die For

Getting one star because there isn’t an option for no star. Not your friendly neighborhood game store. Bathroom is so dirty the department of health would close them down (they can thank me for cleaning the toilet seat and rim). The bathroom sink gross and floor was sticky with urine and layers of dirt that had turned to black gunk. The Shopkeeper of the day was bad mouthing our group to everyone else in the shop. He was loud enough for us to hear and we were in another room. He made it a point to talk to as many people as would listen– which in turn had our group receiving ‘looks’. Our group had to pay for the table space to play — so basically he was biting the hand that’s feeding him. The shop had recently moved which means this paid game room looked more like a storage closet with discarded boxes, office equipment, and tools that had not found a home lining every wall. I stood as there wasn’t room to unfold the chairs. I doubt they ever will have this room cleared as clean and tidy are not in the vocabulary of this shop. Bonus — Parking is horrid.

It’s 7pm and we check to see what the hours are online and closing is listed as 9pm. We head out and arrive between 7pm and 730pm. We walk up to the door and there is a sign stating all merch (besides Magic) is 25% off… we walk in and are greeted with a «hello…we’re actually closed right now…» we look back and see the sign on the window says closing is at 8:30pm…we tell him online says 9pm and he as well as some girl babble something about the store switching locations and they would be closed but the owner forgot to tell some group that had a previous planned game there they wouldn’t be open that late so he allowed them to play… as we were walked out she immediately locked the door (should have been done before to prevent people like us from just walking in.) Games to die for is usually a last resort stop for us but making the drive to greenwood tonight wasn’t going to happen so we decided to give it another shot and got exactly what we assumed we would… poor to no service. Not only did you lose a potential sale tonight, we definitely won’t be back (to this location or the new one). I feel a simple note on the door explaining the store is moving, here are the new hours… etc would have made all the difference. We will continue to visit our two store that are a further drive for us. Good luck with your new location.

A decent sized store with a variety of products from paints, miniatures, Magic Cards, D&D books and tabletop games. They have a lot of events that go on from day to day like tournaments to open gaming and Dungeons and Dragons sessions.
Prices are comparable to any other gaming store. The staff is friendly and personable. This is my go-​to spot for games in Avon.

I’ve been going to this store for quite a while and feel that I can give the ‘goods” and the «bads» to it. The general location is at the Rockville/​Raceway Intersection which is well known for its red light runners and resulting auto crashes (2 – 3 a week sometimes). The general location is nice; A Panera bread is the corner anchor store and an Asian café is next door. The space next to it which is now empty used to be a bookstore but closed down and is occasionally opened up for the games stores über-​size mega size Flames of War events.
The store doesn’t allow outside food or drink in, (that’s a good thing).
A normal size game store with a good amount of space devoted to the playing area, the store has numerous tables for multiple venues of play.
The Owner Jerry, is a good guy and very personable and professional. If you have a problem looking for specific color paints, or questioning a game, he will do his best to help you. Unfortunately it seems he suffers from high staff turnover. I don’t know if this is due to expenses, working conditions, the shrill of retail, or the well-​known issue with game store counter monkeys; but it does seem prevalent here. I’ve counted at least six employees at the store, whose knowledge ranged from excellent to just plain rude. One of the employees told me that something I wanted to special order «didn’t exist», simply because he wasn’t familiar with that line of products.
Now for the goods:
1: If you are a Flames of War fanboy, this is the place. Open play, club play, league play and tournament play, with the open area next door used for mega FoW tournaments.
2: Ditto for Warhammer 40K… less for Warhammer…
3: They are trying to expand into other mini game systems, but it’s a hard fight. The local FoW and 40K clique are used to power gaming and it can be a bit of a problem for some new players who are used to «the way things are done FoW style»… They’ve run Modern, Pulp, Sci-​Fi, Western, Pirates, Star Wars, and other historical games. Hooray for those of us that don’t focus on FoW!!! Good job!
4: The bathroom is generally pretty clean with a working toilet, toilet paper and air freshener. Those of you that have never set foot in a game store before won’t understand the appreciation that little luxury affords us there.
5: Prices are generally reasonable, and he is pretty quick with first releases.
6: A decent selection of board games and a good selection of card games. Magic Pre-​Release games, tournaments, leagues, etc. if you are a MtG player… this is the place here for you.
7: A decent web site with a nicely kept up event schedule so you can see what’s being played on what weekends.
Now for «the bads»:
If there is really only three things I can complain about, (one of which he really doesn’t have any control over) it’s the following:
1: Hygiene: Although he can’t control it, I think perhaps a well-​spoken private word or two with some of the local fanboys as to the existence of soap and water and that «used frequently, it is a good thing»…would help.
2: Fanboys: All hobbies have fanboys… game stores and comice book stores have what seem to be the worst of the lot. Fanboys usually lack common sense and have a bad habit of standing at the counter talking to their buddy the counter monkey and telling them «Allllllllllllll about their level 37 lawful good vampiric drow cavalier», completely out of the common sense mode that they are occupying a business’s time and that someone might be standing there wanting to purchase something. In some stores it’s gotten so bad, I’ve thrown the merchandise down and just walked out. Here sometimes, it’s the same way, although it has gotten better, (see the earlier remark on Employee turnover).
3: Product line: Sales generates product and product generates sales as well as interest. Currently his top lines are essentially FoW, CCG’s, BG’s and 40K. They are his moneymakers and his crowd drawers. Thus his stock for other items is limited and based on his budget. His RPG stuff is limited and his LARP (WoD) is non-​existent. I do hope that in the future he can expand his product line.
Final: G2D4 is a pretty good store and in the age of the internet and online ordering is doing well as so many Brick and Mortar game stores are closing due to being forced out by online ordering and digital storefronts. It’s a very good store and with a little more tweaking and fine tuning, (especially in fanboy control, and employee training,) it will be a fantastic store. I’ll continue going there and doing what I can to support it.

I used to be a regular here, and have (mostly) fond memories of making friends and gaming (I was a Magic player) at this shop. If you’re looking for a place to play Friday Night Magic, Games to Die For has pretty much everything you could want. There’s an active community of gamers, plenty of table space in the back (although it can get a bit cramped during larger events), and they keep a decent stock of drinks and snacks in the front. Whether you’re a hardcore gamer or you’re just looking for a neat board game to play with your kids, the staff is nice and friendly as you please.
One caveat — if you’re going to come to play Magic or Warhammer or some other game, some of the regulars can be a bit… unsavory. It’s not too terrible, but every so often you do encounter someone who is either unwashed, rude, or just plain weird. Unfortunately, there are still some people who are just unwilling to take a damn shower before leaving the house and heading down to their local game shop. Please don’t be that guy.

Locally owned gaming store has tables for gaming, & stocks a little bit of everything, including prepackaged snacks & card games. However, seems to be geared toward Warhammer gamers, since there’s not so much for D&D players. They don’t even keep any World of Darkness stuff in the store, so if you play any of those, don’t bother, but they’ll pre-​order it. If you play Warhammer & its ilk, with all the little minis that need painted, you’ll probably enjoy it more than me. There was precious little to entice me back out to Avon, even with it being locally owned.