The Battle Barn

Welcome. BRING MONEY!!!!

Well hello again. It's been some time since I posted here. I stopped by the Barn earlier this summer. I think it was around September possibly. Anyway, the move is official, and I will be heading to Hudsonville next weekend. Though I will not be there in time for Next Friday, I am curious if there will be anything going on the Friday after Thanksgiving? I will really like to possibly stop by if so, and really try to get some of my hometown friends who are closet 40k'ers out to meet your group. I will also have a fairly large space in my basement for games on off nights as well.

Currently I am sporting Dark Angels played as Vanilla Space Marines, unless I go Deathwing. I also have a lot of Orks and Gaurd sitting in boxes waiting for me to get my airbrush spray booth set up at my new place. I'm very excited to actively play 40K again, and look forward to stopping by.

Good to hear from you again Tielc. That's great that you'll be able to come out more regularly.

Make sure to keep an eye on the calendar to see what days we're open. For example, there actually won't be any gaming this friday the 11th. We're instead doing Saturday gaming on the 12th starting at 6pm.

As for day after thanksgiving, it's certainly something I'm going to look into in the next week. I'm fairly certain I have the day off from work, so can be around to open the Barn. When I get things planned out for sure, it'll be announced here on the boards.

Please for the love of Terra play your Orks. Xenos are always a welcome sight compared to fighting all of these damn traitor marines. Bastards keep opening fire on us thinking we're heretics or something.

Hello. I'm a 40k newb, haven't even decided on my army yet (necrons and marines and orks, oh my!!), but definitely interested. I did dabble, a little, back when I was in college (oh so many moons ago), so I know a little of the lingo, but not much, so pardon my ignorance.

Oh, and I also own "Alpha Omega Coffee & Games" in downtown Cedar Springs. I've been hoping to connect with the local miniature gaming community for a while now to find out how my store can help support and build the local gaming community. Thanks to Vern/James/Nate/Eric I've finally got on this forum (yea!).

Necrons have the newest codex, which is causing people to take a fresh look at them.

There are a lot of Space Marine players out there (especially since there are so many different flavors: Space Wolves, Blood Angels, etc). The number of Space Marine players can be a plus (plenty of people to learn from) or a negative (everyone is very experienced fighting Space Marines).

Some people just prefer to play an army because it looks cool or looks fun to play. For instance, my brother plays Orks and Skaven (fantasy) because they are crazy to play--lots of very random things can happen with both.

I went Space Marines for financial reasons--my brother and I bought 3 Assault on Black Reach box sets and split them. At the time, they could be gotten for around $65, so for $100 each, we got a good start on an army. Along the same lines, you may find someone who is selling an army (either to raise money for the real world or because they want to start a new army, such as the new Necrons).

Remember that Warhammer is best experienced as a full hobby. In other words, it is not just a game to kill your opponent (especially for me, since I am not good at adjusting my strategy and tend to lose a lot). Far more time is spent deciding strategies you want to try, collecting the pieces you need, assembling them and (hopefully) painting them (don't forget to flock the bases). Or you may simply go out and purchase all of the pieces you like, then go back through and figure out a strategy. This forum is really good at giving constructive feedback about how you might improve a given army or suggestions on how to use particular units.

Good Luck!

Hey there Jarvis, good to hear from ya!

I think the best way to support the local gaming community would be to offer some sort of open gaming. The issue we've always run into with current stores in Grand Rapids is that they don't offer tables for people to play on. It's for that reason that we created the Battle Barn gaming group. If a few people wanted to get a game in on a Saturday or Sunday, your location would be a good alternative to playing in someone's basement. Plus I hear you have great coffee!

Depending on if you have the space, another way to help the community would be to run events. As a store owner, I'm sure you can convince GW to offer up some prize support every few months. Tournaments and events are a great way to get new people into your store. The one caveat is that you'll need the space to host around 10-20 people or so. That may not always be feasible, but maybe a goal to shoot for.

Glad to have you part of the community though! If you're ever able too, stop by the Barn some Friday night when we're gaming. I'll see about heading up to your shop in the next few weeks or so to check things out!

Okay, I've decided on doing Necrons. Got a newb question, with the force org I understand I need to pick 1 HQ and 2 troops to start with, but the optional units are broken down into 2 columns, is there a reason for that, like I'm supposed to choose column A or column B? So if I choose column A my force could (at most) consist of 2 HQ, 6 troops, 3 elites, and nothing else, while if I choose column B my force could be 1 HQ, 2 troops, 3 fast attack and 3 hvy support? Or was breaking it out into two columns purely a visual thing, and really my force could be "all of the above"?

The force org is always 1 HQ and 2 Troops. You're then able to take up to an additional 4 Troops, 0-3 Elites, 0-3 Fast Attack, and 0-3 Heavy Support.

Hello all! I just moved up to Middleville from the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, specifically Mesa. (Going from molten-metal to deep-freeze was quite an adjustment...) I did some looking around for a couple weeks, didn't turn up too much in the way of gaming stores that actually host events/have play space. I actually went with my Dad to Rider's (Dad's a bit of a model train nut...) and saw their gaming section, and while they have a good variety of merchandise, I was again disappointed by the absence of play space. The awesome person behind the counter (Didn't catch his name) told me about you guys when I'd asked if there was anywhere to play in this area. So... here I am.

I (unfortunately) play Power-Armored armies. I started with the Wolves a few months after their codex came out, and I've been addicted to 40k ever since. I'm now working on a homebrew Space Marine army loosed based around Salamanders-esq lore, I even started the blog in my Sig because of them. Aside from that, I had a couple week love affair with the Orks, but I ended up trading them out for more Marine models. I love the idea of the Orks, but I despise the execution.

All that aside, I look forward to coming out to play. Cheers!

-Tim

Hey Tim, good to meet ya! Always nice to see new people show up in town who are looking to play.

As you've noticed, we sadly have no real local game store. Which was the primary reason for us putting our own club together. If we can't find a store to do open gaming and run events, then we'll go about and do it ourselves!

While we do have a good amount of power armor armies at the Barn right now, there's nothing wrong with seeing some more. Especially some more vanilla styled ones. Love to see what you have planned for the custom chapter.

Be sure to check the calendar here on the forum to see when we game. Usually it's every Friday night from 7pm until about midnight or so. We often times head out for wings and beer at the local BW3 afterwords to talk shop and just relax. I know we all look forward to seeing you out at the Barn! Feel free to peruse the rest of the boards and join in on any of the discussion around.

Hello everyone. My names Yancy, I've met a few of you in Cedar Springs at Alpha Omega. I'm working on a Tau army atm, but have some Sisters of Battle (waiting on a new codex) and about 500 pts of space marines and orks. (the boxed set ones, plus one land speeder and a rhino). I haven't played in years, and very few times then, but I'm hoping to play regularly now.

So, Yancy again, stopped down to the barn Friday night and met a few of you.. seemed cool.. I hope to return this Friday with some mini's and game.. My Tau are now 2 wins 3 losses.. that's 1 vs generic space marines, 1 vs Necron, and losses to the same Necron, Tyranid, and Space wolves.. Looking forward to the 750 pt stage, though not looking forward to the cost.. *Shakes fists at GW* And thanks to everyone who showed up at Alpha Omega on Saturday.. Hopefully I'll bring a better force next Saturday for that. But it was nice to meet you all.. Any suggestions toward the 750 army are welcome, though my current plan is to fill it with some broadsides and crisis suits.. Especially after getting schooled by the Space wolves.. I feel like I've failed if I let my opponent get within 30" of my army at this point.

Playing Tau? Suits and shield drones. Don't listen to what some people will tell you, the shield drones are 100% worth it.

Hiya! My name's Cadence, but my friends call me Cay. I played Tyranids and Chaos in high school, oh so many moons ago. I'm looking into getting into Dark Eldar. So far, I have the codex(studystudystudy), and I think I'll start collecting the miniatures soon. I'd like to stop by the Barn on a Friday to get a feel for the atmosphere. I see no other intro posts by persons of the female persuasion - will I be the token girl gamer? :/ My friend will prob come with me - she's an artist and has a desire to work on terrain and models. Also, are there any resources that you can recommend as far as army building, army management(like autotallying spreadsheets, etc), and an online store that has fair(or as close as you can get to fair) prices?

Laters,
Cay

Howdy there Cay! Good to meet you.

For product, a great place to check out is http://www.thewarstore.com/ They sell all GW product at 20% off retail, which is a pretty good deal. Otherwise you could check out eBay for some good deals on used models. You could probably find some used armies that are already assembled and possibly even painted.

At the moment, we don't have any women who game. We've had a few girlfriends/wives come out for a bit, but so far none have taken up the game. We do try to keep a friendly atmosphere, so you and your friend would be more than welcome to come check things out. We do on occasion curse like a bunch of sailors, so hopefully that isn't an issue.

We'll be open this upcoming Friday from 7pm until 11-12am or so. Feel free to stop on by and check things out, and let us know if you have any other questions.

Army Builder is the standard program for building lists and can be found at http://www.wolflair.com. As far as an online store for 40k goes http://www.thewarstore.com or http://www.miniaturemarket.com are the best that I've used. It's a pain to order Games Workshop products online though since they don't allow their products to be purchased through an online shopping cart. Generally you'll have to e-mail/call the store and they'll tell you what you need to do. Dumb isn't it?

And yes...you'll probably be the token girl gamer. Try not to let that go to your head.

Hello Cay. As of right now you would pretty much be the token girl gamer, but I think we'd be ok with that We are open most Friday nights, but it's always a good idea to check the Calendar to make sure as we are closed once in a while.

Army builder is probably the most popular army building spreadsheet software out there. Its produced by Lone Wolf Development and you can check it out here http://www.wolflair.com/. I'm pretty sure they have a free sample that will let you play around with it, to see if you like it before you buy it. It is a bit pricey at $40, but you get two license's for that so you can always split the cost with a friend if you know someone else who wants a copy.

Like Arander said, thewarstore.com is a good internet store. I've done my fair share of shopping there in the past and have always gotten good, fast service.

And always more Xenos armies are always welcome!

Those of us with appreciation of social graces will attempt to keep the more unkempt among us from being, well, creepy.

Its almost all good peoples at the barn though, I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks for the warm welcome, guys! I'm not sure what's on my calendar and her calendar for Friday night, but it's a possibility that we'll stop by. No worries on the curses or social graces - I can drop an f-bomb with the best of them and let out some raucous belches. However, I'll take Vedo up on his offer of holding the creepers at bay!

I'll check out those websites. Thanks so much for directing me to them. This afternoon, I hit Riders and picked up a Ravager and a Wyche unit. Now I gotta look online for some more Wyches and a Succubus to lead them bitches! <--- and so begins the sailor talk!

Oh, will we get charged for browsing but not playing?

We give all new members about a month or so to visit and check us out before we ask for dues. So no charge for the first few weeks. We like to make sure people want to hang out with us before we start charging.

This makes us sound like prostitutes.

A big welcome to Cadence, who happens to be a friend of mine. I'm trying to get her to join us at Alpha Omega on Saturdays as well, though she found us at the barn on her own, always a pleasant surprise to discover how small of a world it is.. I like that saying cuz my last name is Small.. so it's kind of my world when that sort of thing happens.. lol

Hey Cay,

I grew up in Caledonia, are you from or just living in?