Herrick Games and Hobbies
By Julie Horner
Skye Herrick started his gaming enterprise in September of 2019 in the back of his brother’s hardware store in Virginia. Itching to do something different and using the pandemic as a pivot point, he moved his family to Boulder Creek with the idea of starting a new store. Two days after the family moved in, they were evacuated, forced to flee the CZU fire. With gratitude, the family returned to an intact home, and Skye and his wife Jade opened Herrick Games and Hobbies above Jenna Sue’s Cafe in October of 2021.
Balancing a young family and a high-tech day job, gaming melds hard work with fantasy world adventure. According to Herrick, there are several genres of gaming, for example, board games, role-playing games (RPG), and tabletop wargaming. The main game Herrick plays is Warhammer, which he’s been playing since he was 14. “Instead of having a board,” he said, “you have a table and use dice and a ruler to determine how the game plays out.” Using a complex statistical system, each game piece has its own superpowers. The dice determine how each piece is allowed to move within the overall combat strategy. He demonstrates by positioning a handful of toy army pieces on the game table called the Space Marines. The opposing combatants are robotic humanoid warriors called the Necrons. Depending on the edition of the game you have (Warhammer 40K 9th Edition being the most challenging), options to defeat the Necron horde include locking game pieces into a melee, applying focus fire, and spreading out to surround the objective marker. This is not your grandfather’s Monopoly game.
While 90% of Herrick’s inventory is sold online, Warhammer can only be purchased in an officially sanctioned store. Herrick Games and Hobbies sells game kits of all kinds and paint supplies for a vast array of otherworld vehicles and action figures. Look for Second Saturday Open Gaming nights and the Adopt-A-Gamer program for community members suffering hardship. “Charity is a core piece of what we do and who we are,” Herrick said.
13090 Highway 9, Unit 5, Boulder Creek | (408) 318-3165
FB and IG: @herrickgames
herrickgames.com
Featured photo of Skye Herrick at Herrick Games and Hobbies by Julie Horner
