I'm Back, from Adepticon!

Well,

I am back from frigid Chicago and I am finally starting to warm up! Besides that, Adepticon was a blast and I had a good, but tiring time out there. So be warned, this will be a rather large post with a few pictures plus me rambling on about what I did and experienced.

So, my trip out started out a bit bumpy in regards to in that my flight was delayed due to mechanical issues. We were told that it would be an hour delay, but luckily we were only delayed 30 minutes. Which leads me to believe that the airlines build delay times into their flight times to make them look better with arrival times. The flight was uneventful except for the older woman that sat next to me that smelled like garlic and onions, that was fun!

Somewhere over New Mexico

Once I landed my buddy Jay picked me up and as I stepped outside I was greeted by 40 degree weather, which was a bit of a shock since I left high 80's! Anyway Jay dropped me off at the Westin and I got settled in. My plan was to help with set up, but once I checked in with Hank Eddley, everything was set already set up. So I got together with Kyle, Chris and Tim C for dinner at the Brickyard. Prior to us going to get something to eat we decided to pick up our swag bags that you get for attending Adepticon. Below is the this years haul. For the $30.00 badge, you get a a lot of cool stuff if your one of the first folks to sign up, its always nice to get this stuff.

Swag Bag!

So Thursday was spent wandering around Adepticon to see some of the games going on. One thing that I was a bit disappointed in was the vendor hall was not open on Thursday, it was only open Friday thru Sunday. The only events I signed up for was the Legends of the Old West tournament and a Gladiator ad Chariot racing game. The LotOW was scheduled for Thursday night, so I had time to catch up with old friends while wandering around.

LotOW Little Bighorn game.

40K room in full swing and smell!

Battletech ad other Demo games.

So after wandering around and helping my buddy Merle out with his LotOW game, I headed up to get my Posse for the LotOW tourney. Merle was running this event and we had 8 players signed up and he brought three tables worth of terrain, most of it being from 4Ground miniatures. Let me say this, I have to order me some of those buildings! They are amazing and I will be buying me a few in the near future.

The LotOW tourney was a 4 round game without us doing any sort of upgrades and it was a blast of a good time. Each person I played was great and everyone had an awesome attitude, it was very laid back and casual. In the end, I had two wins and two draws and ended up taking home the Best Sportsman award, which I got a set of cool laser cut counters, thanks Merle for running a great event. In fact I had such a great time, I will be rounding up the guys here for a few games of LotOW.

Merle aka Mother setting up!

 Friday morning started with me lending my help with the Lord of the Rings event for the paint judging. There were a few that were heads above most and I had to look at 6 of the top leaders. All in all it was awesome to be a judge and being able to sit and really look at the top contenders, in the end my buddy Jeremy squeaked it out, but it was very close (something like 1 point difference amongst the leaders).

Kyle Toth Game of Thornes

Jeremy's Orc leader

Jeremy's display board.

Besides helping with judging, I sat down with my buddy Merle for lunch and I asked him to show me the Gladiator game that he and Jon Cleaves of DGS games came up with. The rules are based off the Freeblades system from DGS games. I never had an urge to do Gladiator games, but I thought why not try it out. I had a blast and actually won a copy of the rules and it looks to be a great little system that I may be getting into.

Freeblade Arena

After the Gladiator game, I wandered around talking to folks and just taking in Adepticon. Friday night though was set for the Legends of the High Seas game and the Guns April. There was only one problem, both games were due to start around the same time! Since I promised my buddy John Humphrey I would help out with the LotHS game, I had to bow out of the Guns of April game.

We had 20 people show up for a huge Pirate game that John set up, and all I can say is that we were the loudest group in the room and everyone was having a blast. Oh and there was a lot of Rum going around to those that were of age.

Pirate Captains and Navy men gathering for the game!

Battle is joined and so is the rum!

So while Pirates were being Pirates, at the other end of the table the Gentleman of the Guns of April Crew were getting under way. First let me say, the buildings were gorgeous and they had that Egyptian feel to them. The painting was perfect on these and all the cool little details (pillows, planters, rugs, drapes) just put this table over the top for me. It had just enough detail to draw you in but not too much to make it cluttered.

A Beautiful table!

Details, details, details!

Here comes the cavalry! Sort of!

Turks on a shopping spree (pic from Dave Taylor)

Hey Whats over there? (Pic from Dave Taylor)

As you can see from the pictures above, my Turks were in action even though I was not. I loaned out my troops so another guy could play and I have to say, I was worried that my painting would not measure up to some of the folks there (Dave T, Jamie W, Dave P, Merle D and a few others). But Dave Taylor assured me that my painting was up to par with the rest of the guys. In fact, Merle loved my Turks so much, they went home with him, I did a swap for some Flames of War models.

Saturday came quickly since I was up until around two in the morning with the Pirate game and watching Vikings on TV when I got to the room. So I was scheduled to play a game of Chariot racing with Merle. This was another Freeblades game and it was fun even though I was the first one to wreck!

Wow, who was the first wreck? Me!

The rest of my Saturday was spent with Kyle and he offered to take me shooting. That was a nice change to get out of the hotel. We went out and threw out about 500 rounds and it was a blast. It was nice to shoot real weapons instead of rolling dice for weapons. Later that night Kyle, Jay, Suzi and I went to dinner at Harry Caray's thanks to my boss and work. A great time was had over dinner.

Sunday started early (6:00am) as I headed down to start setting up the Bolt Action tournament. I had 20 folks signed up so I needed to set up 10 tables. Good thing was that a few folks stepped up to supply terrain.

After an hour of stressing out, the players started to wander down and get checked in. One problem was that out of 20 players, we only had 12 show up! This was a bit of a disappointment but I rolled with it and made the best out of the low attendance. The players all seemed to have a good time and hopefully they will all be back next year.

Battle commences!

Terrain from GitD

Japanese on the move!

Jeremy's Airfield

John Humphrey Red Devils

John's armoured car!

After the event, we had the breakdown of the con and Aaron, Jamie and Myself started taking everything down. We spent about an hour and a half breaking everything down and getting it all put away. We then had the task of packing Jamies car with a ton of stuff.

Once we had finished, Merle and the DGS crew invited me to go see Captain America Winter Soldier at the 3D IMAX screen right next door. I then hung out with Merle, Chris and Jay until I headed off to my room to get packed up to head home. So that was pretty much my Adepticon trip in a nutshell. If you have never been to Adepticon, it is a must see. If your bold and strong enough, I would suggest stepping up to help out, they always need the help.

TK