Game Spotlights

Published: August 23, 2021

Jess C.

Meet our Staff – Stevil & Pablo’s Favorite Games

Meet Our Staff:  Stevil & Pablo


If you’ve ever met a game store employee, you know we are a bunch of nerds. Nerds who love games. Nerds who literally LIVE games. The kind of nerd who would love to tell you about games more than anything else. So when people ask us, “What do you recommend?” we have plenty of suggestions and staff picks for our website collection. (And we’re fun at parties.)

Today, we’d like to introduce you to a couple of our team members who make what we do possible. We’ll tell you about what they do here at Noble Knight, find out about their all-time most favorite and most played titles, and let them tell you why they love them. Meet our staff, Stevil and Pablo!

 

Meet Stevil (He/Him) Department: Curators

Title: Miniatures Curator & Identifier

SteviL of Noble Knight Games is shown as a tall man in a Dungeons & Dragons logo tee, holding a bunch of red balloons by the string, while he floats happily miles above the earth
No Stevils were harmed in the making of this photo. Image edit: Victor Perez.

No, Stevil is not a typo for Steve L. He’s Stevil, and he’s not evil, no matter what he might tell you. He’s actually quite good! We’ve been thrilled to have him aboard these past few years.

“I previously worked at Pegasus Games for fourteen years, winding up as manager for most of that time.   Now, much of my time at work is spent going through the largely uncharted mountain range known as the backlog of loose miniatures, trying to figure out what each particular piece is.  If you’ve bought a loose miniature or collection of loose minis in the last year, the odds are very strong that I had a hand in getting it to you.  (Read: It was me.)”

As Stevil mentioned, we purchase many pre-owned miniatures. Sometimes the seller knows exactly what it is, or we can identify it at an easy glance right away. Sometimes, not so much. It often takes a real expert to know exactly what it is, (or what it was once part of) who produced it, when, how well painted it is, and how we should list it. Very rarely does a miniature mystery go unsolved with folks like Stevil on hand to suss it out!  

More about Stevil

“I started at Noble Knight in November 2019, but I have been into miniatures, in particular painting them, since I was 14.  I am married and have a beautiful Pitbull/Golden Lab mix named Lucy who loves my grilling.  When I’m not working on miniatures or roleplaying game stuff I am almost always firing up my smoker and smoking meats of some kind, typically to be consumed with some sort of whiskey.”

We’re sure (from experience) that your wife and dog are not the only ones who enjoy your grill-skill.  We can also attest to his skill and expertise as a very experienced miniature painter. He recently did some new paint product tests for us, so check out his Review of the Army Painter Terrain Primer

 

Steve’s Staff Picks include…

Box cover of board game Blood Rage with armored Viking warrior

 Blood Rage– by CMON, Studio McVey and Guillotine Games

“The setting is Viking clans at war for control of Midgard at the age of Rag’Narok.  Players battle through three Ages, trying to dominate the board or have their warriors die in glorious battle.  Have monsters assist, get blessings from the gods and even upgrade existing warriors, ensuring every play experience is different.  This coupled with amazingly sculpted miniatures for the play pieces and incredible art by Adrian Smith makes this a must-have at my gaming table.”

 

Game box cover of The Witchborn, with a cloaked young woman holding a candleWitchborn – Enter Perdition – by Cory Kammer of the Witchborn Corp.

“The dead are not staying dead in this thrilling blend of fantasy roleplaying game and tactical miniatures combat.  And the undead which include centaurs (yes, ZOMBIE CENTAURS) are fast, smart and mean.  It is minis-ambiguous, meaning players may use whatever miniatures they choose as long as they are accurate representations of their warband members.  Very great art and a terrific layout makes the reading an easy and enjoyable experience.  Free apps drive the game for encounters, treasure hunt and continuation of the narrative.  This is a great one I keep at the ready in the event of my RPG group not being in full attendance.”

 

Incubation board game cover with cute cartoon dragons hatching from eggs  Incubation – by Synapses Games

“Everyone operates a hatchery, but for dragons!  Collect resources of fire, water and gold needed to hatch your eggs using the dice with a shifting board in tandem to find out what you accrue every round.  Various goal cards determined at the start of the game ensures the game doesn’t get stale over time.  The first time I played this game it genuinely surprised me.  It’s easy to learn, easy to teach and a lot of fun to play again and again.  Did I mention it has great art?  It has great art.”

 

Thanks, Stevil!


 

Meet Pablo M. (He/him)  Department: Warehouse

Title: Warehouse Associate

Pablo M. of Noble Knight Games, wearing a blue shirt and Dr. Who Police Box lanyard
We see you with that Dr. Who lanyard, Pablo.

Pablo has been a fun addition to our warehouse and shipping team since March of this year. He’s been hard at work ever since, starting early in the morning, diligently retrieving hundreds of items from our warehouse to fill the day’s orders of games for customers worldwide. Simultaneously, he keeps everyone in good humor while taking care to treat each and every game and package as if it were his own.

What do you do the most of here at work?

“I work as a Warehouse Associate here at Noble Knight. My duties range from picking customer orders to packing them and helping to maintain the warehouse. I wear many hats in the back (no wizard hat yet though!) that help keep me busy throughout the work day, and I easily rank this job as one of my favourites!”

 

Metal miniature gaming figure in the likeness of Elvis wielding a Samurai sword
Samurai Elvis

That’s fantastic to hear! So, what’s your favorite thing you’ve seen in our warehouse of mysteries?

“My favourite things to have found back there are a Texas shaped Monopoly board game, and a Samurai Elvis mini figure. Why Elvis is a samurai, I will never know.”

 

Our incredible team of warehouse employees like Pablo are the backbone of this operation. They make our fast, carefully packaged shipments a reality for customers around the globe.  We couldn’t do it without this motivated team of gamers who genuinely want to treat your games the way they’d want their own to be treated.

An aerial view from the inside of a large warehouse extending off into the distance with many rows of boxed games on storage shelves
Inside part of the Noble Knight Games warehouse, containing the largest selection of games in the world

More about Pablo:

“My name is Pablo, and I come from the greatest country on Earth: Texas.  That’s not a typo. It’s a Texas thing.”

Hey now… We think Wisconsin’s pretty awesome!

“Living up here in Wisconsin has definitely been an experience. Still trying to  get use to the cooler weather up here. Don’t y’all even get me started on snow!”

What do you do for fun when you’re not here, aside from avoid the snow?

“I love to watch movies, write short stories, play D&D, paint miniatures, go bowling, play ping pong, and Pokemon Go! I’m an avid movie goer and have many favourites, but I’ll keep it to my personal top three: Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Baby Driver, and La Bamba. I’ve got a wide range of music these days, but my go-to artist will always be the King himself, Elvis Presley. My favorite food is of course Momma’s cookin’, but I also love What-A-Burger and Italian food.”

All that and time for D&D too? What do you play?

“I’m actually the Dungeon Master in my current group. I’m still pretty new to it, but I get really sucked into the world and character building aspect of it! Prepping for an upcoming session is my favourite part of the creative process.”

Pablo’s’ Staff Picks include…

 

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition – by Wizards of the CoastBook cover of the Dungeon Master's Guide for Dungeons and Dragons Role Playing Game 5th Edition“I’ve been playing D&D for a couple years now. My favourite edition is 5th edition, ’cause that’s the only one I’ve played!”

As a Dungeon Master in his group, the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual are indispensable resources.

 

 

Dungeon Crawl Classic limited edition core rulebook with brown leather cover and silver foil 'DCC RPG' and skull motifDungeon Crawl Classics by Goodman Games 

“Another game I like to play Dungeon Crawl Classics. I like these types of tabletop games because I love to world build, create characters and situations for my players to interact with, and telling a story that they’ll love.”

Too true. The only limit is the imagination. The only way to win, is to have fun.

 

The board of a Monopoly game

MonopolyBy Parker Brothers (and more)
“I also love to play Monopoly! Big game in my family, and I will play it all night until I win, lol!”

Ahh, Monopoly. The most polarizing of all games. The game that has started more fights than Alexander the Great.

 

 

Thanks, Pablo!

 

We hope you’ve enjoyed meeting our staff Pablo, Stevil, and some of their favorite games!

Visit our Staff Picks Collection to see these and more hand selected favorites for sale.

Meet more of our staff