Black Friday Tabletop Gaming Guide.

TV's and TV Dinners... must be Black Friday at Wal-Mart.

So it's no secret that Black Friday, through some amazingly-contrived calendrical logic, technically already started as of yesterday on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Yes, this is disgusting, no, that's not what I'm here to talk about. Some of us don't want to be at Old Navy at the very second Thanksgiving technically dies and the Christmas season begins. Of course there are some amazing deals to be had online for books, game, movies, and electronics, but I'm not (entirely) here to talk about that either. Instead, I'd like to provide a mini guide to the Black Friday gaming deals I've found online. I would greatly encourage anyone to post anything I've missed here in the comments section. It's a small list, but I hope I'm missing something and gaming and geek vendors world-wide are also taking advantage of this consumer holiday. The items listed below are in a random order, so make sure to read the whole thing. I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of companies and online stores participating this year. It's hard to get good deals on new gaming products like we can on electronics and clothes, so this is a trend I hope to see grow in the future. Make with the deals already!

Ok!

Mantic Games - Kings of War Christmas Starter Set: Our first deal is item-specific, but it's a pretty great one. Mantic has been on a roll lately releasing waves of new and interesting armies at pretty great prices. Want to give the mini's a shot? What about their original game? This is a great present for someone just starting out in the hobby or someone who wants to get back in - mini's, paints, hobby tools - you've got it all.

Nothing says "Christmas" like giant robot fighting!

Dream Pod 9/Heavy Gear Christmas Sale: Dream Pod 9 produces some really fun little products including the games in the Heavy Gear universe. DP9 has once again started their christmas sale. It's not so much as a sale as much as it is as a reward for shopping directly through DP9 themselves. Here's the schtick: 

"The sale will work like our other recent sales where we give you a free $10 or less gift of your choice for every $50 in purchases, a $100 purchase gets you a $20 or less gift (or two $10 or less gifts), a $150 purchase gets you a $30 or less gift (or three $10 or less gifts or a $20 and $10 gift), etc." 

While you're there, don't forget to check out the pre-orders up for the new rule set - Heavy Gear: Arena that follows the tradition of mecha gladiatorial combat and produces some really cool looking campaign rules to the game.

Battleroad Games: Looks like Battleroad is new to the game selling business and have decided to kick off their website opening by offering 20% off when you order through their phone line from Friday through Cyber Monday. They do free shipping on orders over $50.00, which, if you're buying miniatures or board games, you know is a good deal. Make sure to follow this link to their post on Tabletop Gaming News to find all the details.

The War Store: They seem to have really kicked Black Friday up a notch and look like they have a ton to offer. If you're not familiar with The War Store, they're pretty much the best source online for mini's for any game... ever. They've got your Warmachines, your Hordes, your Reapers, your terrain, your hobby tools, your... I don't know, but they've got it. This year they really seem to be focusing on moving old and clearance stock out their doors to under your Christmas tree. I may just have to let them...

On the Lamb Games Black Friday - Week: We first found out about On the Lamb at Gencon when we were introduced to their tabletop skirmish game, Brushfire - Historia Rodentia. While the rules didn't blow us away, it was a lot of fun to pit an army of giant badger men versus mice men. The mini's look nice, and it's sort of like taking our beloved Mouse Guard and throwing in into a much larger scale. Intrigued? Now's the perfect time to take a leap and give the game a shot as you get 30% when using the coupon code (which you can find by following the first link in this entry).


Troll and Toad Black Friday - Week: Uber online game store Troll and Toad has their Black Friday sales up. They've pinpointed some specific product lines to throw up for sale, and it looks like it's a good time to get your collectible mini's fix. They also have a couple of decent RPG sale items coming in at just a couple of bucks less than what Amazon offers (not too shabby considering how little Amazon must make off each item they sell).

I'm afraid I'm out of ideas for the time being. I want to remind everyone to post their own deals they've found in our comments section so we can share the gaming love. We need to show these game companies who put themselves out there for Black Friday that it pays to offer incentives to their fans and that we'll actually - you know - buy stuff directly from them and support them. Meanwhile I'll be busy gobbling up as many ps3 games as possible come this Friday morning!