Extended Gaming Group - Northern Virginia

Huzzah Hobbies - Ashburn, VA

For those that do not know me, my job frequently necessitates traveling up and down the East Coast of the United States. The stars seemed to align last week as I was going to northern Virginia for work. I contacted Bill from The Gamers Lounge in hope of meeting up with him and some other locals to play some Malifaux. Everything came together nicely and I was able to get some games in two out of the four nights I was in town.

I actually stopped into the local gaming shop in Ashburn, VA called Huzzah Hobbies on Monday night when I got into town. This gave me the chance to make sure I could find the location with my outdated GPS which is about 6 years old on the map side of things. The area is relatively new by the looks of the roads and the buildings. Of course my GPS unit wasn't very accurate because of these two factors. Luckily I had Google searched the store a couple of days prior and found an image of the storefront which helped me find it on the back end (highway side) of the shopping center.

My first impression of the store was that it was kept very neat, clean and organized. There appeared to be some card games going on that night in the back half of the shop. I believe I was greeted by the store owner when I entered and offered any help if I would need it. The front half of the store had a good selection of merchandise ranging from hobby supplies (basing, paints, glues, tools, etc.) to table top games (Flames of War, Warmachine, Malifaux, etc.) to a good selection of card and board games. I decided to pick up some Micro Art Studio bases to put my new Lilith Box Set on for another project. I also grabbed some Gale Force 9 Hobby Glue and their Rapid Cure product. The last item I purchased was something I had been meaning to get for a couple of months, which was some Games Workshop brush on Gloss Varnish. I had been wanting this for gems and other such things I wanted to stand out after I typically matte finish my models.

I returned to the shop Tuesday night which Bill informed me was their usual Malifaux gaming night. I believe there were 6 to 8 Malifaux players there at any given time from about 6:00pm to 10:00pm. I watched a couple of games that were already in progress when I arrived. As I still only had four games under my belt, three of which were with another brand new player, I felt there was plenty I could still learn just watching.

My first game was with eChris and we decided to keep it small at 25 soulstones. eChris was using Ramos and the Arcanists (The other guys said he wasn't allowed to play Neverborn against me) versus my Kirai crew. I think his list consisted of Ramos, Kaeris, Fire Gamin, Gunsmith, Mobile Toolkit and Student of Conflict. I was fielding Kirai, 3 Seishin, Shikome, Lost Love and Onryo. This left him 2 soulstones and me 7. I didn't do much in this game other than listen to eChris as he gave me some pointers on my crew as I kept doing stupid stuff. We finished our game with eChris having a 4-0 win in victory points. We then watched the weeks main event which happened to be Bill Vs. eChris. eChris won this game 4-2 and then six of us went out for a late (according to my usual standard) dinner where we continued to discuss models, tournaments, rules, tactics and future plans. All in all, it was a great night of gaming and good company. I honestly didn't feel like I was out of town with strangers. It seemed like a local shop that I had been going to for months if not years.

Thursday night was a return to Huzzah Hobbies for a 35 soulstone game between me and Bill. Mike ended up joining us and taught me a tremendous amount about Kirai from his own experiences. Bill was testing some things out with a Dreamer crew consisting also of Lelu, Lilitu, 2 Daydreams, Coppelius and a Stitched Together. I fielded Kirai, Lost Love, Seishin, Shikome, 2 Onryo, Datsue-Ba and a Canine Remains. I only own 3 Seishin models so I started with one as I wanted to try the trick of killing the Canine remains with Datsue-Ba getting another Seishin and Gaki. Ultimately, the trick worked and her trigger went off giving me the Seishin and an Onryo. So I turned a 2 soulstone model into another 2 soulstone model and ended up with a free 5 soulstone model. For what it is worth the game remained close and ended in a 6-2 win for the Resurrectionists. I chalk this more up to a massive training session as both Bill and Mike fed me a ton of info on the game and my crew.

I had a great time gaming down in northern Virginia and I definitely plan on getting back down there from time to time. The drive is only about 5.5 hours from my home to Huzzah Hobbies which for most people would be quite the commute but as much as I travel already that isn't bad at all. I could very easily work Friday and drive down that night, get some sleep and game all weekend driving back Sunday night. I know they do hold some weekend tournaments so I plan on making as many as I can work into my crazy schedule.

I left with a better understand both of my crew and the game. I also got some ideas for some new YouTube video segments to work on. I also bounced some ideas back and forth with Bill about some video recording capabilities so looking forward to that project down the road. We also discussed some Adepticon trip details which I am really looking forward to. Lastly, Bill gave me a couple of Black Library books to read and review. Once read I will hopefully be able to do some review segments on the Gamers Lounge No Gamer Left Behind.

Great times and some great stuff coming down the pipe...