My First Battle Bunker: A View From Seattle

Upon arriving at a wonderful and exciting business conference in Seattle, I began searching for an LGS to satisfy my tabletop gaming nerdery. Lo and Behold... the state of Washington has a GW Battle Bunker!



As I made the 15 minute trip to the strip mall just outside of Seattle containing the aforementioned Bunker, I found two Starbucks in the same plaza. Go figure, right?

I stopped into one of them for a coffee. The Barista and I joked about the Seattle stereotype; two Starbucks within a stone's throw from each other. We talked briefly of my trip from Michigan and he graciously provided my cup of java gratis. Very cool! Everyone I've ran into in this town has been extremely friendly.



Making my way into the Bunker, I was met by Aric; your typical GW store employee. He wanted to know what armies I played and what was I missing from my collection that he could sell me, of course. Nice guy too; we chatted about how they typically get upwards of 40 to 60 players at every 40k tournament they hold.

My LGS, The Gamers Sanctuary, is one of the best in the midwest... but I'm still envious of the folks in Seattle. The Battle Bunker was awesome. With at least 25 tables full of spectacular terrain and pieces of GW history and lore adorned on walls and in cases throughout the store, the place was something to see. Meticulously clean and completely devoid of B.O.



About a dozen folks were playing on the picture perfect tables (and even one attractive gal who was schooling a couple guys on how to properly play Grey Knights).

My favorite item was the 7 foot tall Space Marine.



There were also cases containing things like old school 40k box sets, beautifully painted armies, and even a collection of about 40 different Space Marine chapters.





Privateer Press, Inc. is also about 20 minutes from my hotel and Aric said a lot of those guys come play at the Bunker. However, there is no PP storefront and they don't usually take walk-ins. I may do a drive-by before my exit on Thursday, just to see the famed offices of Warmachine/Hordes.

Here's to a safe trip back home!