GW Store Sugarland - Grand Opening

June 13 and 14 marked the grand opening of the GW store in Sterling, VA (Sugarland Plaza). Throughout the day they offered various gaming events, challenges, and raffles. I arrived late in the day while a 40k Apocalypse game was well underway and a scenery “make and take” challenge had just begun. Both events were fully booked yet there was amble staff to greet each new customer and explain the hobby. The store was a little too crowded for idle exploration so we decided to come back later to watch the “speed demon” painting competition and play in the multiverse (LotR, Fantasy, 40k) character battle.
The speed demon competition gave each competitor a bare plastic space marine model and two hours to create the best painted character. I would have liked to participate in this challenge but players had to supply their own paints and brushes and mine were unfortunately waiting to be delivered with my other household goods. As a side note: the judge turned out to be the same guy that judged my army during the Baltimore GT last year so I’m not sure my model would have done well. There were a total of 10 competitors, some sitting and some standing (which seems impossible to me), during this two hour challenge. The resulting models were diverse but not entirely remarkable (which is understandable given the time limit). Most models were simply base-coated and washed. I saw no blending (aside from one flame shoulder icon) and zero hard lining. The model that placed first had a simple base coat but also had a hand painted crimson fist icon on his shoulder. The second place model had a very rough base coat but an extreme amount of weathering. Just goes to show that those extra runes, icons, and emblems shouldn’t be skipped (if being entered into a painting competition).
The multiverse character challenge was a neat idea that fell prey to the standard multi-player problems (progressed very slowly and subject to player grouping biases). The idea was that each model (from any of the three game systems) competed in a battle to the death while picking up characteristic boosting tokens along the game board. All characters started with the exact same stats and weapons, so choice of model was completely unimportant. I formed an alliance with my closest two neighbors and ended up being one of the last three (out of 20) players remaining even though I was the only one on the board not to get a power up token (because my starting location was crap). Perhaps my lack of stat boost kept me from being a target. Nevertheless, the game was a good time and the store left a very good impression.