For several months now, we have been planning a trip (probably more like a pilgrimage really) to Fitchburg, Wisconsin to visit Noble Knight Games. What is Noble Knight Games you say? Well, they are simply the premier reseller of gently used games, RPG’s, dice, miniatures, books, puzzles and other sundry geektastic items. But what makes them truly unique is that you can find some of the rarest games, out of print games, hand made games, imported games from overseas, even new release games and they also take trade-ins of games to resell. This means we all have a ready made feeder of our addiction as once we get tired of a game, we can trade them in for either cash or store credit and try something else out. NKG is simply fantastic! Now, full disclosure here, the Monthly Debrief Video Series is sponsored by Noble Knight Games and we are very fortunate for our relationship with them as it allows us to do more.

We have been collecting games over the past 10 years and we finally decided to rip off the band aid and purge that collection to give our games a new home. For years now, we have been setting games aside after playing and reviewing them, buying them and trading for them and our spouses both gave us an ultimatum as our shelves were full and creaking and games also covered the corners of our game room and the bunker. In fact, I had hidden a large stack of games behind the couch in my game room (which also doubles as our tv room) out of my wife’s view and it was time to get rid of the evidence of my problem.

We planned this trip for a week before we actually went but due to an unfortunate death in my family and the funeral arrangements, we had to postpone the trip to Friday and Saturday, September 22nd and 23rd.

As Friday, September 22nd neared, we each continued to add games to our trade-in piles and ended up with nearly 200 games between us. We were very excited, and similar to that feeling when I was a kid on Christmas Eve, I could barely sleep the night before we left and “awoke” bright and early at 5:30am to get ready and travel to meet up with Alexander.

We met at our in-laws house and began the process of transferring my games over to Alexander’s Jeep as he was driving due to his vehicle being considerably larger than my Ford Explorer and being able to hold more games! The car was packed to the gills and we took off around 7:30am for the 5 1/2 hour trip up I-65 through Chicago and then onto the Dan Ryan Expressway over to Wisconsin. As we started out, some of the games shifted and fell into holes in the back but after about 20 minutes it appeared that all had settled. We were both in good spirits as you can see in the picture below and were very excited to get going.

And look at all the games in the back there! In order to pair down our collections, we each had to make tough decisions and a lot of these games are good games but we just couldn’t justify them taking up space any longer on our shelves. And yes, I know you can see games like Atlantic Chase 2nd Printing in the pile but we retained our first printing copy. Remember, we had to make hard choices and some of the deciding criteria was if one of us already had the game.

On the trip up, we did two different car videos, which have become somewhat of a trademark for our channel as we travel and they were on really very interesting topics.

The first video was titled Favourite Wargame Topics (yes Alexander cannot spell properly!) and you can watch that at the following link:

Following that video, we felt ambitious and did another one called Right in the Feels – Games that Elicit Emotion and you can watch that at the following link:

I love doing those car videos. Normally, I am the one driving so I had to operate the camera but also as you noticed, I speak a lot with my hands, and each time I gestured in one of several ways the camera tried to focus in on my hands and messed with the image. Sorry about that!

We finally arrived in Fitchburg at around 12:30pm, checked into our hotel and then made our way over to Noble Knight Games. We walked in and spent the next 40 minutes perusing the retail store checking out their wares. It was very impressive and we spotted multiple games and other sundries that we desired, including dice, minis and some RPG’s. But, we put those aside and met with the Vice President Dan Leeder for a while in his office and then were given a tour of the facility!

We first made a stop in the shipping department and were very much impressed with their process and the space used to fill orders. They have 3 shifts of 4 order fulfillers each day and these people are really busy doing anywhere from 300-400 orders each shift per day! As you also might know, they have some fledgling artists on staff who will draw pictures on the packages and I think that is a nice touch.

We then moved to the 45,000 square foot warehouse where they keep the games. I was also told they have another storage space that they lease as the warehouse is literally floor to ceiling shelves with games. Here are a few pictures of the warehouse:

We were very impressed with the warehouse and frankly immediately thought about the famous ending scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Ark of the Covenant is stored away in a large warehouse. The comparison was palpable and I actually think that I saw a box that could have actually been the ark but it was burnt a bit on the outside and I couldn’t read the writing. Weird!

They actually have games stored on the shelves that have no connection. It is just a hodgepodge of euro games, family games, etc. mixed in with wargames. They have an organized system and are able to locate any game at a moment’s notice by checking their database. But, there were definitely a ton of wargames in there and each time we passed a shelf, my eye would try to scan the shelf quickly to get an idea for what they had. As we passed one shelf, I saw an unopened 2nd Edition copy of Pax Romana: The Ancient Mediterranean World 300 BC-50 BC from GMT Games and knew that I was going to buy it!

After the warehouse tour, we got to the good part…unloading and trading in our games. We had a bunch of games as mentioned previously but it took just about 20 minutes to unload the Jeep and they took our shelf of games back to their area to catalog and give us prices on the trade value. While we were waiting, we sat down again with Dan Leeder and did an interview about Noble Knight Games and you can view that at the following link:

After the video interview, we went to dinner at a local brewery called Hop Hause with Dan Leeder and Eric who runs the store and had some great food, including the famous Wisconsin fried cheese curds which were to die for! We then returned to the gaming room at Noble Knight Games and played a 4-player game of Time of Crisis from GMT Games with Dan and Eric and had a great time with Alexander winning by the slimmest of margins over my small breakaway empire in the east. Good times were had by all and we returned to our room to sleep at around 11:00pm.

Saturday started bright and early with a trip to the Pancake Café for breakfast where we enjoyed their famous 1/4″ cut bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and delicious sour dough toast! We arrived at NKG promptly at 8:00am and had a chance to wander the warehouse for about 30 minutes before one of the absolute highlights of the trip getting the opportunity to meet up with one of the designers for Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398 from GMT Games Saverio Spagnolie and get to take a look at the game, play it and shoot a few videos. If you don’t know, in the March 2021 Monthly Update from GMT Games, a new series called the Irregular Conflicts Series was announced as well as the first game in that series called Vijayanagara. This new game is not a COIN Series game but it shares some of the same elements and its genesis was in a design contest held called Consim Game Jam where designers had to repurpose a COIN Series game and it’s components and make a new playable game in about 48 hours! The game that won the competition was Vijayanagara. The game is an asymmetric 1-3 player game depicting the epic, century-long rise and fall of medieval kingdoms in India over two dynastic periods. That game is nearing its publication and should be on our tables by the end of the year/first of 2024.

Here is a link to the rules overview video we did with Saverio prior to playing the game:

Here is the video where we discussed the game after playing (and man that game is very good!) and also asked Saverio a bit about the design process:

What a great time we had with Saverio. Vijayanagara is very COIN like but with some new tricks that keep the game fast paced and interesting. Alexander played the Vijayanagara Empire while I took the role of the Bahmani Kingdom and Saverio played as the Delhi Sultanate. The game played in about 90 minutes and when the dust settled Alexander walked away with a meager 1 point victory. One of the coolest things about the design is that events are very powerful and when they are taken about half of them allow the player taking the event to remain eligible. This makes the game very interesting and fast paced with little to no downtime for any player.

As you can see below, the game looks like a COIN Series game with multi-colored wooden discs, cubes and cylinders. The Vijayanagara Empire (yellow starts out in the south of India) while the Bahmani Kingdom (blue) starts in the west central portion of the board. The Delhi Sultanate has both green troop cubes s well as black Governors to enforce the rules and ensure that tribute is paid on time to the Sultanate.

Gameplay and turn order is organized around a deck of Event Cards, with each new card, factions have the option to carry out the event or to select from faction-specific Commands and special Decrees; Commands such as the Conscription of new troops, Governing in Tributary Provinces, and Migration to spread influence and claim new lands, and Decrees ranging from Demanding Tribute, Conspiring with Delhi’s Governors to betray the Sultan, and forming new Alliances with minor regional powers.

I love the graphic design and use of colors here and the whole package is going to simply be outstanding. Saverio was very kind to us and taught the game well. I can see that he is a proud designer and mentioned the work of all of his codesigners including Cory Graham, Mathieu Johnson and Aman Matthews.

At around 10:30am, we got ready for the main event as we were going to play some games in the game room with people that might be interested in wargames. We ended up only playing Charioteer from GMT Games but all had a good time. We had several fans show up to chat with us as they were picking up games and it was great to see people that we regularly read comments from on our YouTube Channel.

After a late pizza lunch provided by NKG, we departed at around 4:00pm for the 5 1/2 hour drive home. But, before leaving we picked up a few things including some dice, more dice and a few models for Alexander to paint and use in our upcoming Nations & Cannons RPG event at SDHistCon in November. I was proud of the fact that we brought 200 games and only returned with 2 new games. Pretty successful!

On the way home, we shot a debrief video about the experience but I will be sharing that later once it has posted on the Channel.

In summation, we had a grand time and really enjoyed our experience at Noble Knight Games! The staff was very friendly, as we got a chance to meet most of them, play games with some, discussed the business with others, geeked out over dice and had an all around good time! We have decided that we will do this trip every 2 years or so and I am already excited about 2025!

-Grant