Adepticon 2013

My Rohirim and the Sarumans Warg Riders in "Warg Attack" our 2013 Team Army.

Another short and sweet write up on Adepticon 2013 which took place last weekend in near Chicago western Suburbs. This was my 7th year at Adepticon, 2007 being my first year as a player..I was there in 2006 just checking it out as spectator. Adepticon began in 2003 and is now the largest miniatures only gaming convention there is.

I'm going to hit the bullet points here there are things people always ask me about when I talk Adepticon either with people curious who have never been there or those who has attended and missed it this year.



Organization: Adepticon occassionally takes criticism on it organizational prioritys. keep in mind this is a massive undertaking the majority of the work done by volunteers, these guys literary take about month off post event and launch right back into planning the next one..its that big.
Last year we had issues with that stupid Battle Foam free bag giving creating a massive log jam at initial registration. This year by expanding to Wednesday night, and Starting 40k events on Thursday
the huge registration rush was Wednesday night for the 40K tourney folk. So when I showed up at noon on Thursday..there was NO LINE..it was the smoothest registration to date. I just walked up saw two of my fellow LotR players and got my swag bag and off having fun. Overall any organizational issues boil down to specific events with their independent organizers, I wasn't involved in any so I wont speak to the criticism, as I know alot of these people and they are great folks that do what they can, I will say however that sometimes events can just get too big, and when they do you just have to say no. From the Adepticon staff and it coordination with the hotel to the meeting the needs of the attendees..If it was done any better than 2013, I wasn't there that year.

Swag Bag:  The infamous Adepticon swag bag. the full bag (i.e for the first 1000 attendees) sold out I think within 48 hours (or earlier) this year. having examined both my full bag and a "partial" ALL I could see different was the partial didnt have the Privateer Press Hordes plastic starter box that the full had meaning Privateer Press gave Adepticon 1000 boxes and thats it.  Considering I got the same one I got last year (Legionof Everblight) I have havent even be able to sell that one that still shrink wrapped sitting on a shelf, I sold mine to buddy for $20 , then bought a used plastic GW figure case for $20 from another friend..it was like I got that case in my swag bag!, win/win.  The contents of the bag weren't as good as last year, but that really depends on your taste..the miniatures weren't really to my liking, the new thing is vendor hall coupons for free miniatures or discounts..this was pretty cool and made me check out Mercs, Exodus Wild West, and Robotech, all interesting games with cool miniatures. Overall the swag bag, was good, but not as great as some in the past. I think in the future the dont sweat just getting the partial, unless the full bag is something you just have to have.

Vendor Hall: The Vendor hall was in its own ballroom this year as opposed to being in 1/4 of the main ballroom, this was a good thing, that kept the vendor traffic out of the gaming area. Alot of new Vendors this year, plus most of the older bigger ones. Cool Mini, or Not and Secret Weapon miniatures were out in force, as well as all the bigger regular names like GF9, Mantic Battlefront, Battlefoam, Armorcast, etc. At least two or three cool boutique miniature makers doing custom resin bases and figures. I didn't get a chance to check them all out close up but what I saw looked good. I was looking for Warlord Games Bolt Action stuff, and found everything I was looking for a about 15-20% off the Warlord website retail prices, good deal. The Forge World booth wasnt the usual debacle, either I just missed the giant lines of normal or interest is down, somehow I think its the former but I wish it was latter because they truly suck with the worst customer service of probably anyone in gaming industry but people eat their overpriced stuff up, like its last fresh food in the Zombie Apocalypse  so whatever. I dont think I saw more than a dozen people in the FW line at any point I was in hall all weekend.  Overall I though the hall was better that usual in content and execution.

My Games: I played in all three Lord of the Rings events this year, with the new "Hobbit" rules out there was a good turn out with alot of new faces.

Inn of the Prancing Pony by Jeremy at Wyrd Hobby services

Thursday was the March to Mount Doom singles event..single elimination tourney, I made it to round 3, before getting knocked out by the guy that eventually won it. tough, tough format, I mistakenly thought that with a 15 model count people would be trying to jam as much as possible into there 15 models , but the opposite was true most people ran 3-4 big guns, I saw very few armies with more than a half dozen models.  The winning army was "The Necromancer" paired with the "Shadow Lord" and The "Undying". Aragorn and the Army of the Dead on their highjacked corsair ship did well however, and I won the Best Appearance/ Theme for the event. all in all a good time, not sure I'd play in it again however. The format is somewhat limiting, especially if gravity is pulling people to run just a couple models..(I like the 15 model idea)..I guess it just depends whats going on.

Jeremy's custom "watcher" model converted from toy.

Friday was the Lord of the Rings Team Tournament,  You played separate games in this format but were scored as a team, I am in the minority in I like this better than paired play, which I find difficult if your partner isnt someone you play with all the time..plus it feels awkward and crowded in those conditions. That wasnt the case this year and we had single games, despite the fact my Rohan drew TWO balrogs back to back in my games..I still had a 2 Major wins and 1 Major loss, my partner having, I think 1 minor victory, 1 minor loss, and 1 major loss...in the end with soft scores  we came in 4th of 10 teams....but as luck would have it My Rohirim and the Warg counter parts again won the Best Appearance theme award..wining max votes/points.  Originally slotted for 12 teams. Four people were no shows...we had some really bad weather that week here specifically the day before but I find it odd four people no showed at the Team event, it just seems odd.  Anyway my partner chris is a great hobbyist and we built the army just for the event, it paid off as we were validated with the award..but not sure I would do it again..it really depends on the team format, its alot of work.

Another shot of out team display, it was too big, I couldnt get the dismounts and sign in the photo..what you get when you run 50+ cav models (too big), I hope I have some pics of my partner's chris freehand shields..cant seem here but they look great!

Saturday- Was the Lord of the Ring Championships. Last year I won the overall so I was just hoping to pull my weight again this year. I ran my Rohirim from my team army, as I just figured out how to play them on friday, so I would figure I'd run them instead of my Rangers this year. Not a bad idea but I didn't do that well.  I got crushed in round 1 in Reconnoitre of all scenarios with an all Cav list because I played the new goblin list, which the first thing I'd call "broken" in the game yet, lots of people told me, beware of asking for GW to support the game, you wont like what you get and this was it, Regenerating cheap goblins subject to 5+ ward save from characters and then Goblin King who has a 3+ ward save along with Might and Fate (if you dont play the game, no one has a 3+ ward, there are no ward saves in general, I am just using it for reference point, but thats the effect)
In short if you are running Thorin's Company (which doesnt make the point format) this is very difficult list to beat, In fact the kid running it, beat everything thrown at it, and with a sportsmanship ding for tussle with one player and basic paint scores he won best overall, he had that many battle points. This is not the norm for this game, so it was kinds of a drag, I am going to seriously bum out if this list shows up in masse at BBB in fall, its not at all fun to play against, win or lose.
My other two games were good, I had a minor victory in round 2 and took a major loss in the 3rd round that basically came to 1 model dying or not making the game a draw, it lived., It was a fluky situation based on whether you were broken at the end of the game or not that changed the scoring metric.  So in the end my battle points were low, I was pretty confident in my appearance scores..but appearance here is a combo of checklist and players choice...my Rohirm were tied again my friend Brents all eagle force. (which looked really cool being all eagles)  I won on technical points he won on player votes..it went to three tie breakers...and Brent won it, so it goes...I'm glad for him, but considering my crappy battle score, thats all I had going for me, so in the end not the best showing considering my luck last year. So I was close to all winning all three appearance awards which would have been the ultimate validation for the amount of work I put into LotR this year, but come on, I'm not going to complain I "only" won two of three events. I'm just telling you how it went down, I'm just thankful people like my stuff, there is ALOT of great stuff out there.

The twins I brought home this year.

Overall a good time, really looking forward to Bilbos Birthday Bash in the fall, especially this is the first year its a hotel and not at the GW battle bunker. I am already planning armies , display etc. I definitely want to try some other games next year at Adepticon, I'll hit at least one LotR event, but I want give Bolt Action or Empire of Dead, or Hail Caesar a go..no idea yet..there is alot of talk of Legends of the High Seas returning...we will see. another Adepticon in the books!

I've got alot more photos to go thru including some great WFB stuff, I'll get those up next..