Adepticon, T-Minus 2 days and counting...

Well Adepticon starts for me in little less than 2 days. Thursday morning I board a plane at butt crack early time and fly to Chicago for one of, if not the largest in the USA game event run by players!

As some folks know, I will be rather busy while I am there and I thought I would list what I will be doing this coming weekend.

Thursday April 2nd

Flight leaves at 7:30am, but will be at the airport by 5:30am, so that means leaving my house by 4:30am, which also means getting up at 4:00am! On the way I will be picking up my buddy John ( http://azwargamer.blogspot.com/ ) and traveling with me on the leg out.

We arrive in Chicago around 1:00pm and our good friend Dean will be picking us up at O'Hare airport and taking us to the Westin. Dean then has to turn around and he has to pick up another friend Sean from Midway airport.

During the day we will meet up with the Adepticon crew & help set up this little thing called Adepticon! Sometime after Sean arrives the Phoenix gang (John, Sean Dean & I) are going out to catch dinner. Dean said there is a great place for some Italian beef sandwiches that I more than ready for. Will then head back to help set up and hang out.

Friday, April 3rd

John, Sean & I are all playing in the Lord of the Rings Singles Championship tourney which starts at 10:00am and goes until 6:30pm. I will be taking my Uruk-hai scouts and I think I have a pretty good feeling about them. I have gotten in about a dozen practice games now & feel pretty good about the list. So we shall see how well I do, I hope to make Arizona proud!

Right after the LotR event, I have to get everything set up for the 10 player Legends of the High Seas game that I am running. Each player will control 8 Pirates, Privateers or Royal Navy Crews with unique stats. The objective is to find the Cursed treasure that will be on the island, and to get it back to there starting point. So I had all these ideas of doing Undead pirates, crazy creatures and other cool things, but I ran out of time. Also I struggled with adding these Fantasy elements to the game. So I came up with a unique and real myth of what would cause an island to be "cursed". So if you want to know you will need to either watch the game or wait until I get back on Monday with full coverage!

Any how, this game will last until about 10:00pm but could go longer. Then off to bed to get ready for the next day.

Saturday April 4

Well I am up early again to get the Warhammer Ancients Battle Singles event going by 8:00am. It looks like we will have about 12+ players and this will last until 5:00pm, and we are also playing only three rounds similar to what I did last year. While I am busy doing this all day, John gets to run a few Legends of the High Seas & Old West Demos throughout the day. Then come 6:30 again I have the second game of LotHS group game until 10:00pm or so.

Sunday April 5

Up again early although the WAB Doubles event starts at 7:00am! Three rounds with about 6 teams right now. This ends at 4:00pm and then Adepticon starts winding down & tearing down after 5:00pm I think. Sunday night the Adepticon Crew usually goes out to dinner to unwind, and this year my good buddy Hank Eddley will be covering my dinner! He was going to last year but forgot, so we will see this year.

Monday April 6

Get to the airport early again & fly back home, I think I leave around 7:30am and get to Phoenix around 9:30am. John though has to catch a later flight around 2:00pm, so depending on if I am awake I may go pick him up from the airport, but we will see.

So there you have it, a busy weekend ahead, and after last weeks news, I will need this weekend. Once again I will have coverage from the event here in the coming weeks, so stay tuned...

TK

A Sign of the Times

Okay,

No hobby update today, just some depressing news in a way. Yesterday my office was told we are closing down on July 31, 2009 & everyone, I mean everyone is being let go. Now I work for Semperian which was formerly GMAC Auto Finance. It seems that this economy is taking a toll on the auto industry (well duh!) and Semperian has decided to shut our office down because of it. Not only is our office closing but so is our High Risk collection center here in Phoenix as well as our Hartford Connecticut office.

Now I have been through this before about 3 years ago and surprising I don't feel that bad. In fact I have been being more disgruntled at how the company has been doing things of late. So this closing is actually looking like a good thing. It looks like I will be getting about a 4 month severance package which is better than nothing. Its just sad that there will be a lot of folks loosing out more than me. I have a friend that just needed to make it to the end of the year in order to be able to retire with age & years of service and she will not get anything!

So while it may look like a terrible thing me loosing my job, I have complete trust that God will provide, he has to this point why would he not for the rest? So we shall see what happens, I will continue to work on my Hobby, in fact I may go into the Army painting business, heck I only charge my friends $3.00 per figure, but we will see.

Oh and I am still going to Adepticon, that has already been budgeted and paid for, so I will be looking forward to next weekends gaming extravaganza!

TK

Uruk - Hai Scouts & Display Board

Well,

First off, We made it back from Colorado okay, no major problems like when we left. Had a great time with friends, enjoyed the weather and had a blast experiencing Colorado. My wife tells me this morning that she wants to move to Parker CO, but unless she has money stored somewhere, it may be a while. But while I was up there I was able to meet up with a few folks in Parker and get in a few games of LotR. You can read about it here: http://www.adeptusmilehigh.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37

So with getting back to Arizona, I spent the weekend working on getting my Display board done for Adepticon. I am using a Uruk-hai scout list and themed it after the Uruk's have stolen Merry & Pippin from the books & movies. So while watching the movies before I went to CO, there is a scene in the Two Towers were the Uruks are running through Rohan. It showed them running next to a rock cliff and I thought I would try my hand at making something similar. Now I wanted the whole thing to be split on a diagonal but with 33 models I could not do it. So below are two shots of the completed board. I think it gives you the same feeling from the movie and it is something different than a flat board.

Now I have had a few people ask me about the board locally and thought I would show you what I am using. About a year or so ago I was wandering through my local craft store (Michael's) and saw this unfinished wooden serving tray 10 1/4" x 13 1/2". It was only $3.00 bucks & I decided to get it figuring I could use it for small games & transporting troops. Well I took it home & added a 1/4" piece of Masonite since the troops sat a little to ar inside the tray. I then sprayed it black to seal up the unfinished wood & then coated it with a gloss sealer.

Once this had dried, I cut a piece of Sheet metal to fit inside the tray. I use magnets to store my minis and this would hold them in place once I created the top. In hindsight I should have glued in the sheet metal, but leaving it free actually helps when you flip it over, which I will tell you about later.

Now I went into the garage & cut out a piece of PVC plastic stock that I have to drop into the tray. I then drew a quick sketch of the rocks and then marked where I would want my figures to go. Once I liked the placement I cut out 33, 1" (25mm) holes for the figures to sit in and one 1 1/4" (40mm) for the casualty figure. After this was done (sorry no pictures of this) I got to gluing down some foam that I cut out. Once that had set I went back and Liquetexed the rocks & the base using Liquetex Stucco. The Liquetex sticks nicely to the plastic and the foam was also glued down with Elmer's wood glue, which too hold well to the PVC. Once everything dried I sprayed it flat black & set about painting it. Here is the finished piece.

Now all I had to do was drop in the insert and I was done! Here it is with the insert in place.

And here it is with the army in it.

Now in the last two pictures you can see that there are handles to carry the tray with. What I found was that I could flip the whole thing over and put the insert in the other side for a cleaner look. So when the judges come around, I can have a better presentation and when I move the army after games I flip it back. Not bad for a $3.00 investment.

You can see this in person at Adepticon in about a week or so. In fact I think my buddy John of Arizona Wargamer http://azwargamer.blogspot.com/ will have his there as well. In fact there are a few of us here in Phoenix using these things now.

TK

Adepticon Info

Thought I would pass this info along for those of you planning on going to Adepticon 2009.

With only two weeks left until AdeptiCon 2009, hobbyists across the country and the world are furiously painting to finish up their armies for the “Can’t Miss” event of the year in the Games Workshop miniature wargaming hobby. April 3rd-5th, 2009 will bring hundreds of gamers and hobbyists from across the world to Chicago for a weekend of fun and excitement.

AdeptiCon 2009 Online Registration Closes on March 27th, 2009, at 1700 (5:00 PM) CSTIf you haven’t registered yet for AdeptiCon 2009, what are you waiting for? Online registration will close at five PM on Friday, March 27th. After that, you will be able to register onsite at AdeptiCon beginning Friday, April 3rd…but who want’s to risk not participating in your events of choice? Register online today at http://www.adepticon.org/cart to make sure that your weekend is packed full of miniature wargaming goodness.

New AdeptiCon 2009 Guest of Honor: Gav ThorpeDue to circumstances outside of our control, Alessio Cavatore will be unable to attend AdeptiCon 2009. Never fear – because Gav Thorpe has just confirmed that he will be in attendance. Prior to becoming a freelance writer, Gav Thorpe worked for Games Workshop as lead background designer, overseeing and contributing to the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 worlds. He has written numerous novels and short stories set in the fictional worlds of Games Workshop, including the Time of Legends 'The Sundering' series, the seminal Dark Angels novel Angels of Darkness, and the Last Chancers omnibus. He lives in Nottingham, UK, with his mechanical hamster, Dennis. Find out more about Gav at his blog: Mechanical Hamster

I Spy With My Little Eye, Something That Begins with an F…Free Swag! The first 800 AdeptiCon attendees will receive an Chaos Dwarf Lord from Avatars of War
http://www.arena-deathmatch.com/images/aow15_blister.jpg

I Spy With My Little Eye, Something That Begins with an M…More Free Swag! The first 750 AdeptiCon attendees will also receive a set of special AdeptiCon deployment zone markers, courtesy of AdeptiCon sponsor Gale Force http://www.gf9.com/
http://www.adepticon.org/images/gf9dz.jpg

I Spy With My Little Eye, Something That Begins with an E…Even More Free Swag! Additionally, players in many of our tournaments will receive objective markers and/or tokens that will be used during the event, and taken home afterwards! Check out some of our tournament marker/tokens below, created by Flying Tricycle (http://www.flyingtricycle.com/):

Lord of the Ring Tokens http://www.adepticon.org/images/lotrtoken3.jpg (Shot of both/Skull side

40K Team Tournament Tokens
http://www.adepticon.org/images/ttcc5.jpg (all four head on)

From the High Seas, to Middle Earth, to the Red Orktober Due to the popularity of our non-competitive open gaming and demo events, we’ve worked to add more such events to our roster. We’re adding demos of Warhammer Historical: Trafalgar, War of the Rings, and the Sabol Designs-sponsored “Hunt Within Red Orktober!”

Trafalgar – Age of Sail Naval Combat – Times TBD – Sign up onsite! Sponsored by the Last Square, Warhammer Historical and Lithko Aerosystems.

War of the Rings Demos – Times TBD – Sign up onsite! Sponsored by the Games Workshop Chicago Battle Bunker.

Sunday 10:30 AM – 3:00 PM – The Hunt Within Red Orktober - Sponsored by Sabol Designs. For more information download the PDF below:http://www.adepticon.org/files/2009Orktober.pdf

Sponsor Spotlights: Sabol Designs & Armorcast We’ve created two more Sponsor Spotlights, highlighting longtime AdeptiCon Sponsors Armorcast and Sabol Designs. Find out more about these two companies by clicking on the links below.http://www.adepticon.org/files/2009armorcast.pdfhttp://www.adepticon.org/files/2009sabol.pdf

40K Tournament Rules Update With the recent release of new FAQs and datasheets by Games Workshop, we’ve updated the INAT FAQ and our allowed armies/units lists to reflect these changes. We’ve also added some new questions to the INAT FAQ that have been asked by attendees.

We’ve taken a conscious effort to not reverse previous rulings or listings, but if you’re playing in a 40K Tournament and want to make sure your army list is legal, or how the judges will rule on contentious issues, check out the documents below:

INAT v2.2 http://www.adepticon.org/files/INATFAQv2.2.pdf

Allowed 40K Army Lists: http://www.adepticon.org/09rules/0940KArmyList.pdf

Allowed Forgeworld/Apocalypse Units (only applies to the 40K Gladiator): http://www.adepticon.org/09rules/0940KIAList.pdf

Sponsor Highlight: DragonflyMini.com In need of a commission painter? Well then your search might be over! For your next painting project consider DragonflyMini.com. Professional, quality service is their standby. With a list of services from army, to character painting and gift certificates there's something for everyone. DragonflyMini.com- your home for high end artistry, without the high end price!

I will be doing another post tonight on my status on my Adepticon adventure...

TK

Colorado

Well, the wife & I made it too Colorado on Saturday, took us 13.5 hours to get here, but we were in no rush. Funny thing happened outside of Flagstaff on the way out, we got pulled over by DPS on the I40. You see we rented a car for the road trip and we are cruising around in a 2009 Dodge Magnum. Nice car! Well anyway, the Magnum has tinted factory windows and seeing how this is so new we have no plates, but a temporary registration in the window.

Well we are cruising at 75mph and a DPS officer comes up behind us, he noticed that we did not have plates and decided to pull us over. So my wife (who was driving) pulls over and the officer comes up to the passenger window and asks us for her license & registration, so we give him the license and the rental agreement (which is the registration). So he ask my wife where we are headed and does his usual routine. Well do to the factory tinted window, he could not see the temp registration in the window. So he gives us a fix it warning to give to Enterprise Rental since the vehicle is not ours. So after 20 minutes we get going again and had a great laugh! But we realized that we needed to be careful so as not to get pulled over again.

Anyway, yesterday we took a trip to Winter Park CO to go tubing with our friends. I have to tell you, the Rockies are awesome! It is so gorgeous up here in the mountains. Today we are off to do more sight seeing. Thursday I will be meeting a few friends at a local shop to play some LotR. I need to get some practice with the Uruk-hai I am taking to Adepticon.

Anyway time to go, see you later...

TK

Closer to Adepticon

Well, with the GitD behind me, I have to now get ready like so many other people for Adepticon. Once again I will be running the Warhammer Ancient Battles tournaments as well as running a large 10 player game of Legends of the High Seas.

So I thought I would take stock of what I need to bring as well as what is left to do before getting on the plane for Chicago. So here are my "What needs to go" & "What needs to be Done" lists.

What Needs To Go:
Both of my 2000 Point WAB Armies which is a Orkney Viking List with about 168 figures & my Norman Army which has only 88 figures but its mostly cavalry models.

80 Pirates + 30 Island Natives for the Legends of the High Seas game on Friday & Saturday night.

33 Uruk-hai Scouts as well as a Display board for the Lord of the Rings Singles Championship game on Friday.

Prize Support for the WAB Events which includes some of the New Viking Hero's, a 12 man Unit of Teutonic Knights on foot, 18 Pict Nobles, 10 13th Century Russian Cav models and about a dozen Black Scorpion Pirate Figures.

All the paper work for the WAB Events like scoring sheets and reference sheets. I also need to bring the Crew sheets for the LotHS games as well as the Reference sheets for that.

All the rule books for LotHS & WAB.

Now here is the list for :What Needs to Be Done" List:

Finish painting 30 Island Natives

Build a display board for LotR

Create all the Crew Sheets for the LotHS game (Which means taking pictures of each figure & placing it on the sheet).

Pack all the stuff up!

So not too much to do, but just to add a slight twist to things, this Saturday (3/13) the wife & I are going to Colorado for Spring Break. We have friends in Parker Colorado that we will be staying with & Our son & his girlfriend are driving in from Kansas to meet us. So I will be getting nothing done while I am gone for a whole week. About the only things that i will be able to do is play a few games in Colorado, you see there are a few folks up in Parker that just happen to play LotR, so I will be taking my Uruk-hai Scouts up north to get in a few practice games for Adepticon. And whats funny about this is when I told my wife about it, she rolled her eyes and was about to say something when I mentioned that "Playing games is free Dear, & I will not have to spend money on this!" She could not argue and the Uruks are in for a road trip!

So this also means that I will not be updating the Blog unless I can get on someones computer while I am gone. So see you in a week unless I find a computer...

TK

Red Dragon Painting Competition at GitD

Well, we decided to run a painting competition at GitD this year, we had a few entries and it was a success in my opinion. The store Staff at Empire Games did the judging over the two days of the event. This was done since one of the organizers (Me) had some entries in the event. We also did not tell the store staff which entries belonged to which people who entered, this made it a fair playing field. So here are the entries and the categories from this year,

Categories Category 1 - THE LORD OF THE RINGS SINGLE MINIATURE (25mm)This is open to any single miniature from The Lord of The Rings range of models. All models must be presented on their standard 25mm gaming base.

Roberts Brightwell - Aragorn

Jerry Auteri - Faramier

Howard Beam - Celeborn

Not sure who's entry this was - Dain Ironfoot

Brent Sinclair - Ghan-buri-ghan

Tim Kulinski - Gandalf the Grey

Category 2 - THE LORD OF THE RINGS LARGE MINIATURE (40mm or larger)This is open to any single miniature from The Lord of The Rings range of models. All models must be presented on their standard 40mm or larger gaming base.

Tim Kulinski - The Dark Lord Sauron

Howard Beam - Arwen Evenstar

Jerry Auteri - Boromir

Brent Sinclair - Gamling

Tim Kulinski - Mordor Troll

Robert Brightwell - Gulavhar the Terror of Arnor

John Long - Ent

Jeremy Williams - Dragon

Category 3 - THE LORD OF THE RINGS BATTLE SCENE (Diorama)This is open to any single/multiple miniatures from The Lord of The Rings range of models. All models must be presented on a diorama base.

Tim Kulinski - Wizards Duel

Well here are the winners:

CategoriesCategory 1 - THE LORD OF THE RINGS SINGLE MINIATURE (25mm)

Tim Kulinski - Gandalf the Grey

Category 2 - THE LORD OF THE RINGS LARGE MINIATURE (40mm or larger)

Howard Beam - Arwen Evenstar

Category 3 - THE LORD OF THE RINGS BATTLE SCENE (Diorama)

Tim Kulinski - Wizards Duel

Well thanks to all that entered the First Red Dragon Painting Competition, I am sure there will many more in years to come.
TK

The players of Gathering in the Desert 2009!

Here are a few of the guys that made Gathering in the Desert a huge success, without these guys there would have been no GitD!

First up a Big thank you to our Venue

The next shots are from the various rounds, what a Motley group we had!

Tom Opalka & Brent Sinclair square off to do battle on the fields off Angmar.

Next up is Frank Brown & John Long battle atop Amon Hen.

Damian Schumm, Andrey Zubkov (on left side) & Tim Kulinski, David Bishop (on the right side).

Jerry Autieri & Howard Beam plotting their moves.

Sean Ramirez & Tim Hixon fight in the Mirkwood Forrest.

Travis Paul & Kyle Kinghorn fight a bloody Dwarf Civil war!

Anthony Pigati & Chris Langland-Shula advance on the Seeing Seat.

Robert Brightwell & Mike Gingold fight over the spoils of Hobbiton!

Keith Hruska & Frank Brown clash on the desolate fields of Mordor.

Kyle Kinghorn & Dean Vuckovich fight in Mirkwood.

And if anyone ever asks you if Hobbits are real, I have proof of it here at this event!

No Photo shop picture here, this is the real thing! But I will say that this table was tall & poor Keith did need the chair to reach across the table.

Next up will be the Red Dragon Painting competition...

TK

More Coverage from GitD

More action pictures from GitD...

More tomorrow...

TK