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E-mail StoryOpponents mix fantasy, critical thinking to reach ‘bloody’ ends
| Friday, May 2 2008 11:03 AM
Last Updated: Friday, May 2 2008 11:20 AM
Two men waged bloody battle inside a southwest Bakersfield strip mall Tuesday afternoon.
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Collectible card games
Players buy cards and build a deck giving them a variety of skills for use against an opponent. “There’s a lot of thinking that goes into it, not just cards,” said Tony Russo, owner of Russo’s Books and Sports Collectibles in Bakersfield.
Board games
Though similar in some respects to games like Monopoly, modern board games require participants, often numbering between two and six, to manage their resources carefully. “It’s about the people you play with, not about the game,” said Sean Guinn, owner of Cala Gaming on Wilson Road.
Military simulations
Made here in Bakersfield and exported worldwide by Decision Games, among other companies, these map-based games give players control of historic armies in the wars they fought.
“One of the funest things to do would be to play a game and to win with the side that historically lost — to literally change history,” said Paul Koenig, a game-tester, designer and warehouse clerk at Decision Games.
Miniatures
These games require players to set up their armies, some of which they may have painted themselves, and assemble them on a table for battle against an opponent’s force. “If you find out a really cool way to defeat your opponent, then that’s what makes it fun,” said Gary Peabody, a manager at Farrescape Gaming in Frazier Park.
Role-playing games
Games like Dungeons & Dragons let players create imaginary characters that then interact with other characters on heroic quests, encountering dangerous foes — as well as riches, magic spells and new powers. “It’s kind of like living your own action movie,” said Chad Thornton, co-owner of The Gaming Experience on New Stine Road.
Cala Gaming
Address: 3401 Wilson Road
Hours: noon to 8 p.m. daily, and “all night” Fridays.
Phone: 831-8849
Web site: tcgdealer.com
Farrescape Gaming
Address: 3608 Mt. Pinos Way, Frazier Park
Hours: 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 3 p.m. to midnight Friday; noon to midnight Saturday; closed Sundays and Mondays
Phone: 245-1404
Golden Glove Cards and Comics
Address: 2316 Brundage Lane
Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Phone: 633-2889
Paladin’s Game Castle
Address: 6300 White Lane, Suite B
Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Sunday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday
Phone: 201-8150
Web site: paladinsgamecastle.com
Russo’s Books and Sports Collectibles
Address: 3000 Mall View Road, in the East Hills Mall
Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday
Phone: 872-0029
Web site: russosbooks.com
The Gaming Experience
Address: 3202 New Stine Road
Hours: noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday
Phone: 836-0706
Web site: www.thegxp.com
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Wielding dice and a tape measure, Tom Ellenberger sent a war elephant full speed through a wheat field and straight at “The Butcher,” a reputedly insane warrior who leads Travis Rosenlieb’s army.
“This is going to hurt,” Rosenlieb said, realizing how badly he had underestimated the enemy. Lesser warriors have difficulty crossing a wheat field. Not a war elephant.
The impact sent The Butcher sailing well behind the line of battle, inflicting five damage points and tearing a new hole in Rosenlieb’s defense.
“Now I have an elephant standing on my head,” groaned the 18-year-old mobility aide at BARC.
The two men were playing a combination of two popular strategy games, Warmachine and Hordes, which involve moving elaborate miniatures — in this case two dozen of them — over a customized board for sessions averaging about two hours.
A few yards from the bloodshed, another battle with entirely different weapons and creatures raged between two other strategy game players. Nearby, two more sat working on their miniatures, a never-ending process for many who share the hobby.
So it goes inside The Gaming Experience, a store at 3202 New Stine Road. Customers, some women but mostly men ranging in age from teens to the middle-aged, pit their minds and luck against each other in an endless variety of battle scenarios.
Warmachine, like many of the games played at the store, involves the kind of strategy thinking used in chess, but also requires players to take into account factors such as characters’ power, distance and defense capabilities.
Between dice rolls when it’s his turn to attack, Ellenberger rattles off numbers indicating his warriors’ condition. Depending on how strong his character is in relation to its foe, he must roll a certain number or higher. A good string of rolls could cut off a limb or inflict brain damage, rendering the enemy unable to fight effectively.
Games can end in a variety of ways, but typically when one side kills the other’s leader.
Before the two agreed to a truce so they could go get some food, Ellenberger mounted another attack on Rosenlieb’s withering defense.
The 27-year-old ceramics scheduler and church youth leader measured the distance between one of his miniatures and one of Rosenlieb’s, then slid his tiny warrior across the board to engage in combat. He took up dice in one hand.
“This could be very bad,” he said. “But it’s going to be fun.”