by Armchair Dragoons PAO, 16 August 2026
Continuing our spotlight series on the Friendly Local (War)Game Stores around the US & Canada
Citadel Game Cellar is located in Groton, CT
In our key ratings for the FLGS directory, Citadel Game Cellar scores
- 7 – Wargame Friendliness
- 4 – Wargame Inventory On-Hand
- 5 – Wargaming Event Frequency
This is a 1-7 scale, where higher numbers are better; see bottom of article for details
And no they do not offer online ordering; but you can find other info at their homepage
What makes this store awesome?
Bill says
Best selection of wargames I’ve ever seen. Staff is knowledgeable about them. Plenty of older titles and many new releases readily available. The % of stock is misleading for this store as they have a lot of euro games, ameritrash, and RPGs. They have some CCG stock, but it is a small part of the footprint. They also have a significant selection of Osprey military history books. Lots of
War and fantasy minis.That have about 10 tables for gaming. (No pictures since many were in use – at 4pm on a Wednesday!) They have dedicated, scheduled times twice/month for historical minis, once/month for historical board games, and once/month for dedicated ASL play.
Citadel Games is part of wargame history as well. From Citadel’s Facebook page:
“One of our proudest and most fun facts is that the hit game, Axis and Allies was invented in our game store! Designed by Larry Harris, we hosted some of the original game demos, and helped facilitate practice games to perfect the mechanics and flow- the game was originally called “1942”! In 1981 we partnered with Larry to publish the first version of the game but our owner and founder Pat Flory thought it needed a different name. He suggested the now famous title “Axis and Allies”! The game went on to be republished in 1984 by the Milton Bradley company, and the rest is history!” (source)
Citadel Game Cellar has Eurogames as their main product inventory, and also carries board wargames, minis wargames, Eurogames, big-box “ameritrash” games, tabletop RPGs, non-wargame minis (fantasy and/or space), collectible card games, general game accessories (dice, game mats, markers, etc), minis accessories (terrain, paint, etc), non-game hobby merchandise (RC vehicles, crafts, puzzles, etc).
On the shelves, it’s new games only
For in-store gaming, you’ve got a few tables
Snacks for sale? Yes!
Take a look at the store!
click images to enlarge
(photos submitted by Bill)
Don’t forget to check out our overall FLGS directory, which will grow in listings as you folks submit your own nominations for inclusion!
Ranking scale for the stores
- Wargame Friendliness: 1 (What’s a Wargame?) through 7 (Wargaming Nirvana)
- Wargame Inventory On-Hand: 1 (A stray lonely copy of one game) through 7 (Inventory is at least least 90% wargames)
- Wargaming Event Frequency: 1 (Monthly or less) through 7 (Nightly)
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Then we were driving down some road and Joe said, “Wait, was that a game store?” so we turned around and went back… and it was Citadel Games!
(though in 2009 it was at a different address, but same general neighbourhood I think)
We walked in and it was amazing… it was mostly wargames, and the new stuff was all at the front so as you walked further and further back in the store the stock got older so it was as if you were travelling back in time… I remember a pegboard at the back wall with a copy of SSI’s Computer Bismarck on it, with 5 1/4″ floppy disk.
We got an armload of old stuff each because the prices weren’t bad.
I’m not entirely sure whether the guy at the till that day was Lawrence Harris or not, but whoever it was he was certainly underwhelmed when we told him we were wargame designers ourselves.
In 2009 Joe Miranda and I went to the Military Operations Research Society’s annual symposium held that year at the USCG Academy in Mystic, CT.
Neither one of us had a security clearance so there was not a lot we could attend and still less we could contribute to (except for the inaugural meeting of their Wargaming Community of Practice, which was unclas) so we drove around the area a little bit.
We went to see the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, the place where they build the big subs… or rather, Joe pulled into the entrance road to that huge monolithic black building with no windows then reversed quickly out of there as the security guards started popping out of places.
Then we went to see the Submarine Force museum with the USS Nautilus display, that was neat.