GW Strikes Back!

So, another year has come and gone, so it’s time for the yearly look back to see what I got done. So, let’s take a look at what the goals were for 2018:

CAV – So this year I went with Talon Games to Adepticon to run CAV games, I painted up a few CAVs and the only games I got in where at Adepticon, I did get a few more CAV’s painted up, but do to work infringing on hobby time, I had to pull back on my commitment to writing for Talon, I hate when real life interferes with Hobby time. The 28mm Dictator is still awaiting to be built and painted as well as a ton of CAV’s. I will work on them when in the mood. So overall, I barely passed with CAV this year but I did have some effort completed.

Bolt Action – So I wish I could say I got a lot of games in of Bolt, but I think I only got in about four games. Now Robert & I did finish up the Bocage terrain we were working on for the Point 213 game and we did get it on the table. The game was one sided and the Brits got the major win. It was nice to see a project that we have been working for about 10 years get completed. I also started working on a new army, IJA Japanese for plans to do some Pacific gaming. I got the models assembled and for most of the year they have sat in the box until about two weeks ago when I started painting them. This past weekend I was able to get 500 points of stuff painted and Robert & I played our first 2^nd Edition game! We have been apprehensive to doing the newer version, but after this past weekend, not much has really changed. So with only a few games and a very big project completed I would say that I passed for 2018.

Blood Bowl – Well I ran my first ever Blood Bowl event at the beginning of the year, the Taco Bowl! I did get a couple of teams painted and I had plans to attend the Grumble Bowl at IO but could not attend. I also have been keeping up on the Spike magazines and been picking up teams here and there. I love Blood Bowl, but I just don’t get that much time to play. So this was a passing year for Blood Bowl.

Warhammer Quest – So I continued to run games of Quest this year, painted up a ton of figures and created some cool scenarios for the players. I even got a chance to play the rerelease of the game that Robert picked up, I prefer the older version, but there were a few things I will port over to the older version from the newer one (pass through for one!). So, I have to say Quest was a huge success this year, so passed with flying colors!

 Space Hulk – Well the goal was to have a fully painted Hulk game, well I only got the Terminators painted up. I did get a few games in, but overall that was about it. Now because of Hulk though, I will be working on a brand new 40K army, Blood Angels, but that’s for another post! So I would say I failed on getting this completed this year. But I don’t feel too bad with what I did get completed.

Frostgrave – Well this is a huge fail this year. About the only thing I did was by the Spell cards that came out. I kept wanting to get it to the table, but other games took the spot. I love Frostgrave but there is only so much gaming time in a year.

Saga – Well we did get a new version, and I ordered it from my local shop back in the beginning of the year, well I just got my copy of the rules about a month ago, due to the supplier being out of stock. I also had ordered the Dark Age supplement with the new battle boards, but that has not come in. Because the lack of getting the rules, Saga fell of the table and did not get back onto it! So, this was an epic fail for this year.

Black Powder – Well this was a huge success; Robert & I played a couple of smaller WAB sized games of BP ACW and then we did our huge ACW game. While it did not hit the table much, it sure did hit the paint table, I painted up a whole brigade of Union troops this year for the big game. So once again while not played a lot, it was a huge pass on this one.

Other Games – This was not on the list, but there were a few games that hit the table this year that I had not planned for, one being Necromunda. I painted up three gangs (Van Saar, Escher & Genestealer Cult) and played in a campaign for about 6 sessions. I also purchased the Death Ray Designs hallway set for the game and picked up the core game, each Gang War and finally the two big rulebooks. For a game that was not on the radar, it got a lot of attention this year.

Age of Sigmar was also another game that was not on the radar and got a bunch of play time this year. I painted up a huge Flesh Eaters army that I game with and purchased the main rules and army book. I am still struggling with this game, I want to love it, but I am not doing well with it. I need to spend more time with the rules other than the few hours before I play a game.

Shadespire is a late entry to this year and I have gotten in a few games and will continue to move forward with it. I did the skirmish feel and small model count of this board/card game with minis.

Tanks also saw the table a bunch of times and I purchased and painted up a bunch of new vehicles for the game. It all was because I introduced my brother to the game and we played a few times. I also purchased the Modern Tanks game due to having a blast with the WW2 set.

I also got in a few games of Fistful of Lead this year which has quickly become my new favorite Old West game rules, its quick, fast and deadly. I also picked up a bunch of new old west figures for this game as well as a few other supplements.

So there you have it, what I did for 2018, overall I did very well, this was truly the Year GW Strikes back for me. Do I regret it, no, I have had a ton of fun gaming and working on new projects and playing all the games!  So, I look forward to 2019 and what that brings. Merry Christmas to you all, I will see you at the start of 2019!

TK

MIA

Well,

Been MIA again, but that doesn't mean I have not been busy. Been enjoying my freedom from having to paint for others and been playing more games. Recently just finished up my Flesh Eaters army, but as soon as I thought I was finished, I ended up with a bunch more models!

Grumble Bowl is a bust for me, my wife, as a gift for my Birthday, has got me tickets to a concert and we will be going to dinner before the event, so I will not be able be able to stay for the whole event. With that, I would not be eligible to win the coveted Cactus Trophy which I am sure that my Orcs would have just stole anyway!

So I will be getting back to posting here, have lots of updates to show off, so stay tuned!

TK

Who's ready for Grumble Bowl 2018???

Good Morning Blood Bowl Fans,

So my local store will be running a one day Blood Bowl event on September 29th, 2018 called Grumble Bowl! They are wanting to make this a once a year event and I have always wanted to play in a Blood Bowl Tournament, so here is my chance.

I pretty much decided that I would run an Orc team and it would be a great chance to bring out my Azog Ardinals team, the only time they have been out was Taco Bowl I, which was earlier this year that I ran for a few friends. My Orcs were run by a friend of mine, Derek Rider. He did very well with them getting Mr. Assassin award, although he was playing against a elf team to get all those casualties!

Any way, I decided that the Ardinals would make another appearance for Grumble Bowl, but I needed to finish off the team. Now when I started the team about a year ago, I had plans to make a few extra models for the Coaching staff, so I dug through my unpainted minis and found a few models to use for coaching staff. First up was a Savage Orc Shaman that would be great for an apothecary,  no real conversion work, just painted him up in the Ardinals colors. Next was the cheer leader, which was a Savage Orc musician that I converted and gave him a banner for the team. I am on the look out for a second edition orc cheer leader and if you have ever seen this model, it is a very disturbing model, but perfect for Orcs! The Head coach model is a 3rd (or 4th or 5th) edition plastic Black Orc Blocker that just seemed to be perfect for the coach.

Apothecary, Head Coach and Cheerleader

So with that I had my coaching staff, which I will use for my Re roll, TD and turn markers for the game. I plan to add a back drop that has the Azog Ardinals name and logo on it for the event, but we will see how the inspiration for that goes. All in all I am very happy with how this team came out and I was worried that the Red/White uniform color with their green skins would give off a xmas vibe, but I don't think so. So now I just have to get in a few practice games with them before Grumble Bowl 2018. here are a few more pictures of the team.

The award winning coaching staff for the AZog Ardinals (Which they looted from the Blood Bowl Hall of Fame!)

2018 AZog Ardinals

TK

How do you paint so fast???

So,

This past Saturday I painted up 50 Ghouls for my AoS Flesh Eaters army and I had a couple of friends ask me how I did it? Well the trick is to just do it!

Now, as some know, I did commission painting with my own company for about 9 years up until I decided to take a break this year from the business. I would always take large commissions in and it would not be unheard of to have at least three paint commissions on the desk at one time. I would always hit my 4-6 week mark that I promised my clients. Many of my customers were very impressed in the turn around time and that's what kept them coming back.

So what was my secret? Well much like the Nike commercial, you need to just Do It! Meaning that you just have to sit down and do the work, that's it, just put your head down and paint! I would spend at least three hours a day painting, and hour before I went to work and two hours in the evening after getting home from work. But I always painted! I stayed on track by not letting other things get in between my painting time, like Facebook, Twitter, video games, binge watching Netflix or other time sinks. I also only worked on those commissions that I had deadlines for. So if I got tired of painting, I prepped other commissions for paint or got them assembled. But I always stay focused on the project at hand and just put forth the effort to finishing up the current project.

Now, as a commission painter, there are tricks that I have used for painting, here are a few things I do which are not in order.

• Know what and how you are going to paint. If your doing a Space marine army, and you know its going to be blue, then why not use a blue primer for them to start? 
• Work on one section of the model at a time, if you have a hundred 15mm models to paint, do all the boots at once and don't think about painting now 200 boots, that will drive you insane! 
• Set your self some goals, say after painting 200 tiny boots, you get up to grab something to drink from the fridge, then go back to the paint desk to start on the next thing. 
• Make sure you have everything you need before you start, if you know you are going to need two bottles of Strong Tone wash, make sure you have them before you start, nothing worse than having to stop to run to the store!
• Have a good chair to sit in, your going to be sitting for a while, might as well have a good comfortable chair to sit in.
• Have a dedicated space to work, nothing kills the urge to paint then having to get everything out and put it all away.
• Listen to music, TV, Podcasts or what ever. I find music and pod casts are the best for me, I used to have a TV in my area, but I found I would just start watching it and did less painting, so now its music or podcasts.
• Enjoy what you are working on, as a commission painter, I had to work on a few commissions that I was not super excited about, that kills the mood and turns painting into a chore. So enjoy what your working on.
• If painting a certain project starts to become a chore, then paint up one miniature out of the blue for no reason. I found that doing a figure at random for nothing I am working on helps me to stay focused on the job at hand.
• Last but not least, keep the end goal in mind, at the end of this, your going to have a painted model, unit or army to show for it!

So there you go, there are a few of my secrets and tips to painting large amounts of models. I find it very satisfying to get my painted  armies onto the table and it is a feeling of accomplishment. Every weekend I go into my local game shop and I see the same tired looking armies that have not had anything done to them in weeks or years. Part of this hobby is all about painting and it really is not that hard to do, but you just have to Do IT!

TK

GW does it again...

So,

Just last week GW released Age of Sigmar Soul Wars on the public and a bunch of my gaming group took notice. Now, I am an old Warhammer Fantasy Battle player from back in third-fifth edition. I thought I walked away from GW for good, but with the re release of Blood Bowl, then Necromunda, GW was pulling me back in. But I really had no interest in Age of Sigmar (AoS) when it first came out, as I wanted to go with smaller armies and fewer models on the table. I was a skirmish gamer now and large blocks of infantry were not my thing anymore. But...

There is always a but, isn't there? Well my but was for a longing to go back to my first army I ever had with Undead/Vampire Counts, but as AoS had blown up the Old World, I felt pretty safe with not seeing that army. But with the release of Soul Wars, there were new undead models about to be released onto the world and these models are incredible. But I felt safe with the fact that a few of my friends (Drunken Samurai being one of them) wanted to build this new Haunt army. As cool as the models are, it really didn't fit my idea of a Vampire army.

So as Drunken and I talked the weeks leading up to the release of Soul Wars, he mentioned that Vampires were still alive (meaning undead of course) in the game world under the Nagash lists. But something caught my eyes while looking at books at my local store, the Flesh Eaters army book. Here is an army that is all based around Ghouls and a Ghoul King. It was different, and only really had a few models and it became a possibility to build.

I had pretty much decided that if Drunken Samurai took the plunge, then what could it hurt, right? Well He did take the plunge by picking up the first edition AoS box game that he found for 40% off while we were out checking out game stores. With him buying it, it sort of solidified me into picking up an army. And in my mind I said if I find a Get started collecting box and a big reinforcement box that I would take the plunge with him. Well as karma would have it, at the very same store where Drunken picked up the 40% of 1st edition box set, low and behold there was exactly what I was looking for on the shelf. So as an addict does, I grabbed both boxes and headed for the sales counter!

What happened next is still a blur, but as I started assembling models, I knew I had to have more. So I went out a few days later and bought another reinforcement box and the Flesh Eaters army book. I still had not looked at the rules or even bought the new rules, I was just happy building up Ghoul models again. And before I even read one page of the rule book, I had three Crypt Flayers painted up!

First of many

With those done I quickly started assembling the rest of the models, in fact, Drunken and I set up a game the next weekend so I needed to get everything assembled for the game. Since both of us had never played, this would be a test game. He brought all his Stormcast and I put down all my Flesh eaters, which included Zombie Dragon and King, 4 Crypt Horrors, 5 Crypt Flayers and about 50 ghouls.

The game was a blast and we learned a lot about how AoS works, which has similarities to Lord of the Rings, but different. I was so jazzed up about the game that I started painting on more models, which has been rare for me to get excited about painting anything. I knocked out the Crypt Horrors and then had either start on the 50 Ghouls or start on the Zombie Dragon (which I really wanted to paint!).

Cyrpt Horrors

Well this past weekend I had another game set up for Sunday with Drunken or another buddy, Randy. So on Saturday I decided to start painting on the 50 Ghouls. I painted all day Saturday and was in the zone to have them all finished by about 8:00pm that night.

50 Ghouls ready for action!

So with that done in time for Sunday's game all I had to do was start working on the zombie dragon, something I really really want to paint.

Well it was decided that I would battle Randy and his Khorne Boys in a battle, he had 780 points and I decided that I would try to match points. I wanted to see just how sturdy my army was, so i took the Zombie Dragon and King, three Crypt Horrors an three Crypt Flayers, a total of 7 models up against Randy's 37 models or so.

A Flayer takes on some Khorne troops! 

 Everyone kept asking me where my army was and laughing and making jokes, but as the game progressed, the Flesh Eaters started killing Khorne models pretty quickly. And about that time I realized that the King has a special Command ability to bring on free models, and then the game turned in my favor. At the end, I lost about 36 wounds to Randy's 68 wounds, which left nothing left on the table top.

So, after two games, I think I am in love with this army and will be expanding it to at least another get you started collecting and a few other models. It took me a long time to come around to AoS, but no that I am here, I think I like it! And I didn't know GW had such a hard pull on me, I thought I was strong, but I was fooling myself!

Now, as to what other army do I start???

TK

Building a town...

So,

About 6 months ago I decided to pick up a few models from Sarissa Precision Ltd to add to my old west collection. Now last year I built there Old West Train for my buddy Merle and after building it, I knew I wanted one of those for sure.

With that in the cart,  I then wanted a few more buildings. But having a good selection of 4Ground old west buildings I wanted something a bit different, so I went for the South of the Boarder set 2, which had a cool looking church and train station!

With those ordered, I sat and waited for my order to arrive. My plan was to slowly assemble and build each kit, taking my time and adding a few extras to each kit as I go. The great thing about Sarissa kits is that they are a great starting point to add extras to them and they are half the cost of 4Ground kits.

So when my box of laser cut pieces arrived, I had to decide which to work on. I started with the Market stalls and quickly assembled them. I didn't take any pictures of them as they are pretty basic and I still need to decide what I want to have on each table for a market.

The first building up was a simple Adobe building, the plus I did to it was to cover the entire outside walls with model paste as I wanted it to look more like adobe. I also added working doors on the kit by taking a cue from Crescent Root Studios and just used a simple piece of black duct tape to allow the door to open. I also textured the base so it would look better on the table.

Two story adobe

The next building up was the cantina as i needed a proper Mexican looking bar. I was excited about this kit, but once I pre assembled it, I was bummed by the overall size inside the cantina. I had wanted to add a few tables but it would be too tight to move any other models around in it. But I still love to overall look of the building. I added working doors as well as modeling paste to the outside as well.

Cantina on left with 2 story adobe on the right.

My next building was the Hacienda kit, once again I loved the look of the kit but I wanted to do something with the roof. Mexican buildings have a Spanish style look to them and I wanted to do a Spanish tile roof, but struggled to find anything that looked right. But then Drunken Samurai came to my aid by giving me some very finely corrugated card board that he got from another friend. This stuff must be for dollhouses as once it was cut into strips and glued on, it gave a very nice Spanish style roof. So big shout out to Drunken for saving the day!!!

Nice simple building.

I also made all the doors work but opted out of adding modeling paste to this one as it had some nice detail etched into the wood. The only down sided to this kit is there is no stair way up to the second floor, neither on the outside of inside, that's not a deal breaker but just bummed that there is no way up there.

Spanish Church in the rough

The next building that is on the bench is the Spanish Church, it is currently being painted but the few additions I did too this one are Spanish tile on the roof, the front doors open and I added a bell to the bell tower. with this kit I also pre-painted the inside white, as I now have learned that doing this is much easier than trying to do it while assembled.

Next up will be the Spanish style railroad station, i will be adding the tile roof to this one, this will be pretty much it. I may add some details to the inside of the station, we will see.

From Sarissa's website.

So stay tuned, more pictures will be coming as I get ready to start on the train!

TK

Life in the Underhive is Harsh!

So,

I really have been enjoying going back to the Necromunda and playing the game again. For me Necromunda was one of the coolest settings in the 40K universe, and I thoroughly enjoyed the game back in the day. Now that it has been out, DrunkenSamurai and I have played through the basic scenarios, both of us enjoying the standard 2-D game.

Well this past weekend I brought out an old favorite, the Van Saars (with new Models) onto the table to show our buddy Tom how well the game works. I took a stock gang equipped just like the instructions for the new box came and headed into the Under Hive to face Drunken Goliath's in scenario one.

Now you may notice the walls, these are from Death Ray Designs that I picked up for Drunken while at Adepticon this year. By adding these walls, it really changes the game, you start to loose where your enemies are on the board and just bring a cool vibe to the game. Drunken is still painting them and they are paint heavy on details, so it will take him some time to get through them. I am looking forward to getting a set for myself in the very near future.

So below are a few shots from this weekends game, enjoy!

Champion and two Gangers

Leader, ganger and Champion.

Leader shoots at charging Ganger!

The Van Saar leader is Taken out of Action!

So there you go, a brief update as to what I have been playing recently and I am loving it! Now onto bigger things...

TK

Van Saars ready for action!

Well,

I spent this weekend getting paint on too my new Van Saar gang for Necromunda. This is my gang and I had said when they come back out, I was getting them. Well I did and spent about 12 hours building them. Now since I had the older metals fully painted, I decided to paint these new ones up very similar to those so I could use them to mix in if I needed more for the gang.

New vs old

Well seeing how I painted the older ones well over 15 years ago, I got pretty close to the original scheme. I may take my older models and change their bases to the newer style to get them to blend in better. I also may go back to the older ones and paint the faces like I did with the newer ones. After reading the new back story, the Van Saars suffer from radiation poisoning due to some of the machines that they covet. So I went with more of a paler skin tone as to make them look more sickly as if the radiation was effecting them. 

New Gang in the hood!

All in all I like the look of the new models, as I mentioned before, they have a very Infinity Nomad feel to them and still feel like the older models. Now I just need to get them on the table to see how well the perform.

TK

Van Saar on the Work Bench

So,

A quick update to the Necromunda, I ended up picking up a box of Van Saars on Saturday and started building. Now one thing I will say, these kits are awesome! They are also true model kits that do take some time to assemble. In fact, it took me about an hour for each model shown below, so about three hours of work. The figures are so complex that when I first saw them I almost pulled out my old metal Van Saars and said forget it, but I pushed on.

First New Van Sarrs

Now one thing I noticed while assembling these figures is that they looked very familiar to me. Now they did not have the same old school look, but something newer. Then it dawned on me, these figures look very similar to Infinity Nomad models! Take a look.

These look strangely familiar, hmmm??

Anyway, that gives me hope to possibly some of my larger Nomad suits for Van Saar Brutes, so we shall see.

TK

The More you try to get out, the more they pull you back in!

Well,

Games Workshop has done it to me again, either they are really good or I am really weak, but here is what I did yesterday!

New Box Set for and old favorite.

So ever since GW released Necromunda, I have been keeping it an arms length justifying to myself that I did not need it. GW already had me back with Bloodbowl and I thought I could stay away from this one. Drunkensamurai had picked up the game when it came out and was pulled back in and we played a few games and I loved it. But I rationalized to myself that I would allow Drunkensamurai to pick up the game and I would stay focused on Bloodbowl and keep up with their releases.

Well this week, the Van Saars came out for Necromunda and the models look amazing and it was my gang back in the day. I had mentally told myself that if the Van Saars came out and they looked good, I would pick up a box of figures and possibly start playing again. If they looked just okay, I would pass.

Well guess what, the figures are awesome and I succumbed to picking up the box game, tactic cards for the Van Saars and the Gang War booklet for the Van Saars, but as luck would have it, my local shop was out of the figures!!! Doh!

So, hopefully my local store will get a restock so I can pick up my gang, so I guess the saying about trying to leave is true, they keep pulling you back!

Man I am weak!

TK

Mars is a Lie!

So,

I have been bitten by the Gaslands bug and started modifying Hot wheel cars for this Post Apocalyptic car game by Osprey! 

Bonehead, the first of many!

Gaslands by Osprey Publishing is a post apocalyptic setting where earth is now a desolate waste land after a war with mars. The folks left on earth get to participate in the Gaslands TV show for the entertainment of their martian overlords. The winners get to leave earth and live on mars, in theory anyway. 

The nice thing is that the rules were written to use Hot Wheels or Match box cars, which are 1/64th scale. I had picked up the rules when they came out and put them on the shelf until recently when I talked to my buddy Mike G about the rules, as he had purchased them as well.

Well with my rekindled interest in the rules I went out to good old Wallmart to pick up a few cars. I spent a whole $10.00 on ten cars to use for the game. Now the good thing is that you can either use the cars right out of the packaging or you can modify them, this system dosn't use the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get), its just really whats on the dashboard card that matters. But being a gamer of many moons, I could not resist the urge to modify and repaint my cars!

Stock Bone Crusher

 Now, I have been watching a few Youtube videos of folks modifying their cars and most people disassemble the cars by drilling out the rivets on the cars. So I figured why not try it, after all if I messed up I could always go and get another car for .94 cents! So I grabbed my drill and the correct size bit and started drilling, taking it very slowly as I was only holding the car in my hand and not using a vice to hold it. It only took about a minute to drill out the rivet on each end of the car and once that was done the car came apart without any issues.

Car disassembled, not much too it!

 Next up I wanted to scratch up the factory paint, I had watched a video that used a file to put marks and scratches on the car. this set took only a few minutes and I could have probably done this with the car fully assembled, but with just the body it went pretty quickly.

Distressing the paint and body.

 I then dug out my Flames of War bitz box and started looking for interesting parts to add to the car. I added two Russian MG's from my box as all I wanted this car to have is two MGs as it had only two slots for weapons per the rules. I also added a few gas cans and boxes to the bed of the vehicle and added mesh screen to the main windshield. I then found two pieces to add to the side windows to make it look more armored up. The hardest part was trying to decide what to put on and how much to add to the car, in the end I went pretty simple with just a few additions.

I then glued the car back together and shot the whole thing in a red primer color I had in the garage. Once that dried, I then painted on Reaper black in thin coats so that some of the primer red showed through. The engine, header pipes and rims got P3 Pig Iron on them. I then did a dry brush of Reaper Grey Stone to highlight all the edges of the model. I also painted the skull on the front with Reaper Skeletal Bone as well. I then used Army Painter Strong Tone on the model to darken it up and let it dry thoroughly. 

 Once the wash was dry, I went back and added Vallejo Environmental  Rust Texture in places and also used Pig Iron again on scratches and wear areas. I then dry brushed Americana Desert Sand on the lower areas as well as the tires to finish off the model.

New vs Old!

 Total time from start to finish was maybe two hours of work and paint, so pretty quick really. Total cost on this car was only .94 cents, that is an awesome price for a game piece. I have about 9 more cars that I need to start working on, I just bought some plastic tubing to add header pipes and other misc stuff to the cars.

Bone Head ready to race!

So welcome to Gaslands race fans, lets see what other cars my mind can create!

TK

Red Devils Attack!

So,

A few weeks ago Drunkensamurai and I threw down a game of Bolt Action, version 1. We took about 1000 points ( I actually had about 1022 points) each with him taking his Red Devils vs a Veteran Grenadier Force. This game we used the new Bocage pieces that we have been working on and set up a very Normandy looking table. 

It was a hard fought game with the Germans barely pulling out a victory defeating the Red Devils. Some folks asked why we were still using the version one rules, well, to be honest, we like the rules and have not read the newer version yet. We are going to be doing one more large game (Point 213 Hill battle) in June which will be the last time we use the older rules. So here are a few pictures i snapped off while playing.

The Normandy Table

The Sunrise over the battlefield

A German MMG covering the road. 

Germans advancing next to the fields.

Covering the gap in the Bocage

Red Devils take the ruined farmhouse.

Germans rushing across the open road.

Advancing on the ruined farmhouse.

Squad one with Mortar support.

Charging the farmhouse

Oh, and after the game i was so inspired to play Bolt Action again I busted out an army that has been sitting waiting to get painted, my Japanese Force. So stay tuned for more pics of them in the future.

Next New army IJA

TK

Adepticon 2018 Recap

So,

I survived Adepticon 2018 and it was an interesting show to say the least. I flew out the Wednesday before everything started to help set up the CAV Strike Ops booth with the Talon Crew (Jon, Nate Luke and Myself). Jon of Talon Games had built a new booth for this show and it looked awesome! It was big, bright and full of all kinds of CAV Strike Ops love, what more could a CAV player want!

Another view of our Awesome Looking Booth!

Our goal was to make a splash with the booth and Jon and Nate would operate the booth while Luke and myself would run the big CAV Strike Ops game throughout the weekend. But do to some miscommunication with the Adepticon crew, they had scheduled the big game for a solid 6 hour block. We wanted it to be set up so that players could cycle into the game every two hours, that way folks could play in other games or attend classes. But with it showing for a 6 hour block, no one wanted to sign up for a 6 hour game. So instead we ran folks through demos of the game and kept score of the folks that did the most kills.

Large board for the Big Game/demos

As for Adepticon itself, it had a strange vibe to it this year, I really can't put my finger on it as to what felt different though. Maybe it was because I was in a different role this time as a vendor, maybe its been a few years since I last attended. But I did meet up with a bunch of friends that I have made throughout the years and it was also very good to catch up. I have always stated that Adepticon is a great place to build new friendships over our hobby.

Some of my haul this year!

Now, with being a vendor this time around, I had early access to the vendor haul, so once we got our booth set up, I started wandering around looking at all the cool vendors. Fantasy Flight was there in Force with all the Star Wars games including Legions that released while I was there. Two of the companies that I knew i would spend money with was Pulp Figures (which I did spend about $85.00 with!) and Knuckleduster Miniatures which I bought about $80.00 in minis from them. I also picked up a few Blood Eagle models from Footsore miniatures for myself and a few friends. I also picked up a few terrain items from Death Ray Designs for Drunkensaumari.

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza!

As mentioned above, I did get a chance to make the rounds and see a few games that were being hosted at the event. One in particular was the new Fallout miniature game. I couldn't get any good pictures due to the amount of folks around the table. It did look pretty cool, but I noticed that it uses specialty dice much like Fantasy Flight games for Star Wars. This seems to be a trend I am noticing in the game world. I also got to see the new Blood Red Skies WW2 game from Warlord, it looks interesting but with so many new games coming out, I really can't seem to get to excited about buying. There is just only so many games one can actually get to the table in a year and I am not sure I am ready to jump into a new game right now.

One last thing, Jon Walker of Talon Games and his two boys, Nate & Luke were awesome to be around all weekend. Jon seems to know most of the vendors and I got to meet and hang out with a few of them, especially Ed from Reaper (who owns the company). So it was rather interesting to hear how other vendors deal with this hobby of ours and I got to see behind the current of the game industry.

So overall, the show was good, not great like it had been in years past, but overall it was good. I do believe that Adepticon is changing as more big game companies come on board with Adepticon. It seems that this con is now looking to expand into the realms of Gencon status as it grows larger every year. So if you have never been to Adepticon, go, it is an experiance, but as a long time traveler to Adepticon, I may not be back for sometime. It really depends if Talon Games goes back and they need me for the trip to help out again. But I think my days of going as a gamer are just about done, it was still an expensive trip for me even with the help of Talon Games.

TK