Tag Archives: game stores

Old, Fat & Lonely in Bangkok

I worked in Bangkok for more than 6 years.  Thai people are unfailingly nice but even for all of you who are young and slim, there are times when you can’t help but feel a little lonely.

These are times when you wonder, as exotic as this city is, perhaps you’ll find a wargame store?

I found one : Battlefield Bangkok

I am going to tell you how to get there.  I am nice like that.

Bangkok has an elevated rail system [ElRR B32.1] called the “BTS Skytrain”.  Everything’s in Thai & English so it’s not hard to navigate.  Get to a station called “E11 Punnawithi”.

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Once you get off the train, head towards the south exit, marked “Exit 6”.  You will find yourself walking along an elevated walkway under the elevated train tracks.  This keeps you away from the busy streets.

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When you see this, you should be ready to get off the elevated walkway and to make a left turn down the street.

You will see local food stalls and lines of motorcycle “taxis” as you walk eastwards.

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Don’t you feel at least a slight twang of excitement finding yourself walking towards the “Golden Pearl Hotel”, named like a bad 70s Hollywood movie?  Oh, if street food is not your thing, you will be happy see a courtyard of restaurants on your left.

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This is the Golden Pearl Hotel.  Go up those stairs.

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This is Battlefield Bangkok.

Once you push through the door, remember one thing [ALERT! ALERT!]: take your shoes off and put them on the rack.

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It’s a nice and airy place, with plenty of tables for people to game.  There seems to be another room behind doors where folks were playing.  I could only hear them.  Either that or they were unsuspecting victims of some sort.  I am rather happy about it either way because I was scouting this place out as an Advanced Squad Leader tournament venue!

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This guy here seems to be the owner.  I asked him for permission before I started taking photos and then I was too busy looking at the racks.  They have board wargames but it’s mostly miniatures.

Tourney

So here you go.  Please let me know if you have any questions or if you have made it here as well!

The Last Wargame Store in Town

Screenshot_2018-12-29 戰棋類現貨Today I was first in line at the closing sale of the last wargame store in HK.

They were selling big box games for $13, medium for $6.5 and small packs for $3.

Boy, once everyone rushed into the warehouse there was hardly room to turn. I had a look at their remaining inventory online last night and was looking for C3i 18 (Dragon’s Jaw), GMT Ran and perhaps Compass Games’ Warstorm series.

I unfortunately (or fortunately), I couldn’t find any wargames. They were all pretty board games (Catan, Star Wars). There were folks who dragged in huge bags and started stuffing them the second they made it through the door.

I am glad to report that no ASL games had to suffer such undignified ends. As a matter of fact I didn’t see any wargames, no MMP, no GMT, no Compass Games.

Perhaps they should have stocked more wargames?

Too bad eitherway as this is the last wargame store in HK, serving both China & Taiwan as well.  They were getting me ASL modules at a discount to MMP’s retail prices plus only $5.50 for delivery.  What are we to do next?

(I think they will continue to sell whatever’s left on one of China’s e-commerce platforms).

Waiting for the warehouse to open
These doors…

 

Looking for Wargames in Toronto? (Part 2)

Looking for Wargames in Toronto? (Part 1)

I visited the “remaining” of the 4 Toronto game stores today (Hairy Tarantula @ Gerrard & Yonge’s closed).

Hairy Tarantula North

This is the right place.  Take the door to the right.

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.. and this is what you will see on your right ..

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… further down the stairs ..

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The shop itself is a cavernous (big & dark) basement, focused primarily in comics and games like Dungeons & Dragons, Magic etc.  However, if you turn left and go all the way to the back of the store, there are a line of racks with some wargames.  Years ago I found a couple of Operation Watchtower here.  Today there are less than 5 copies of GMT games (There’s a dusty copy of Nightfighter stacked up top.).  The folks there thought they have a couple of ASL magazines but I think he’s confusing other games with ASL.

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Starbucks nearby.

Looking for Wargames in Toronto? (Part 1)

Looking for Wargames in Toronto? (Part 1)

I know of four game stores in Toronto

I visited two of them today.

401 Games



This is a big store.  They have a second level that offers gaming space and game rentals.  Unfortunately they don’t have too many wargames – a medium size bookshelf of GMT games and that’s it.  No ASL.

Then I took a walk from 401 Games to Meeplemart.

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@Kinka Izakaya

Meeplemart

Meeplemart is hard to spot from the street, you got to watch the street numbers (247 Spadina) or you will walk right by.

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You want to stop at the set of office building doors right beside the first “TD” sign.  It is an office building but if it’s “247 Spadina Avenue”, this is the place.  Immediately after you walk through the glass doors, you will see a set of staircases on your left leading down.

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Go down those stairs, it’s okay.

Folks there will greet you and asked that you check your bags at the counter.  They will clip half of a poker card to your bag and give you the other half.

(I should check what companies are in this building and whether they are looking to hire…)

If you walk down the left around the counter and up ahead, you will see a couple of tall shelves with a sign saying “Wargames”.

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They carry mostly GMT & Compass games but they also carry MMP, Avalanche and other lines as well.  There are definitely more here (about two/three big shelves) than 401 Games.  I also found some boxes sitting the floor and filed under “ASL” I found 3 x ASL Journal 2 and 1 x Turning the Tide.  The guy behind the counter said “That’s because ASL sells out the quickest.”.

So here we are, I hope this allows you to find these shops quicker the next time you are in town.

By the way, on my way back home my bus passed by Hairy Tarantula North.

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Looking for Wargames in Toronto?  (Part 2) – I went to Hairy Tarantula North the next day.