I stopped by Draxtar Games in Batavia (a suburb about 40 miles west of Chicago) last Thursday. The far western suburbs aren't my normal territory, but I've got family nearby and am not one to miss a chance to visit a new game store (Draxtar Games has been open 5 months).
I didn't have a good camera with me, so I've borrowed a few representative shots from their Facebook page for this report. Two things jump out at you when you first walk into Draxtar. The first is a 6-foot tall, 8-foot wide glass case filled with beautiful painted miniatures. And it's not only the usual Warhammer 40,000 stuff either -- they've got 28mm figures from Bolt Action, 15mm Flames of War units, Warmachine groups and others.
Once you peel your eyes away from the cabinet of wonders, you realize just how large the place is. The overall floor space is impressive, certainly bigger than the floor space of any just-opened game store I've ever seen. This is a game store made for playing, as the actual shopping area is only about 1/4 of the total space. The shot below shows most of the store. The low glass cabinets to the right contain Magic cards and the register and staff area. Not visible is the retail area, the tall miniatures display cabinets and entrance, which are on the opposite side of the glass cabinets.
And this shot shows the rest of the central staff/display area, the entrance and the retail area.
About half the gaming area consists of tables for collectible card games. The rest is filled with nicely done standard-sized gaming tables (waist high, recessed edges, sturdy construction, etc) of the sort you might see at a Games Workshop store.
Perusing their terrain I saw the usual batch of 40k ruined cityscapes, but also some crisp futuristic terrain that would fit in well with Infinity or Warpath, as well as some Wild West buldings, small-scale European terrain, buildings for Flames of War and custom space gaming mats that were being used for X-Wing while I was there.
The terrain was all to a good standard as well. Except for a table which was being used to prep terrain, I didn't see any flimsy, half-finished items that often appear in gaming shops. Obviously, they've put quite an effort into their terrain selection and construction.
The service was good. The manager greeted me after I'd been in the store for a minute, asked a few things and left me to my own devices. Whether this was the usual service or just because only one person was on duty (it was a slow night) I appreciated that he didn't hover in the manner of some GW redshirts.
Like most game stores (especially new shops), this one has a huge selection of Magic cards and a good selection of Games Workshop and Privateer Press games. However, it's clear that they are already trying to branch out into other miniatures games. X-Wing, Flames of War and a few other major players shared space with small selections of lesser known games like Warpath, Dystopian Legions and Dreadball. Even a few items from smaller peripheral companies like Dreamforge and Secret Weapon Miniatures were present.
Outside of CCGs and miniatures, there is a small selection of board games and an impressive selection of "Munchkin" products. Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder comprised most of their RPG section, but their were quite a lot of vintage D&D and Shadowrun products as well. The D&D items were in such good shape that I wondered (I know little about RPGs) if they might be reissues. Definitely worth a trip for any old school RPG fans out there!
In the end, I was quite impressed with Draxtar. They're obviously going all-in trying to create a full gaming experience from the very start, and that's quite an undertaking for a new game shop. With my eclectic taste in miniatures and penchant for "indie" games, there wasn't much in their selection to tempt me. However, I won't hold that against them, as Games Plus is the only store in Illinois that carries items I'm interested in, and comparing a 20-year-old establishment to a 5-month-old startup is not a fair match.
As to Draxtar there isn't a comparable shop in the area offering the selection and gaming space that they do. I think folks in the Batavia area and other western suburbs up and down the Fox River will find Draxtar to be an excellent gaming destination and retail location, and I wish them all the best. Support your local game store!
-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member
2 comments:
Nice to see a real gaming store. Do they carry odd ball stuff too? Or just the "big names"?
For anyone who doesn't already know, most of that "not GW" terrain is O scale model railroad. Nearly all of the non-middle eastern looking buildings look like Bachmann's plasticville.
The only odd-ish stuff is the ones I mentioned, like bits of Dystopian wars, Secret weapon, Mantic and Dreamforge. Not much truely out of the ordinary in terms of miniatures. Still, it's nice to see a new store already branching out a touch. You're absolutely right about the buildings. in the foreground of the picture (from their facebook page) are definitely modified plasticville. I even recognize some from my own collection.
Most of the ones I saw in person on my visit were some cool multi-level western buildings that I couldn't place,some lasercut sci-fi buildings and the tan and grey buildings (can be seen in the far back of the picture) that have a nice modern look. I asked the owner and they're cheap clear jewlery boxes that are masked and painted to create windowed office buildings. definitely something I'd like to try sometime.
Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames
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