Well, Adepticon was a few weeks ago. I have had plenty of time to recover (I took extra vacation afterwards for family time. If you ever go, especially if driving, I highly recommend this approach). Now I should start sharing my experience. Over the next week I'll be posting numerous articles covering it including
-A Song of Ice and Fire by CMoN
-40k Team Tournament
-Making our Team Tournament board
-Horus Heresy Knight Fight
-Kings of War Big Battle
-Medeival Times
-Space Hulk
-Bonus Roadshow Podcasts!
-And it will all wrap up with our Allies of Inconvenience post Adepticon podcast!
This was my 4th Adepticon and it was as fun as ever. This year I went into it signing up for as many events with models provided day 1 and 2. Just took a lot of personal prep pressure off (which got put right back on later, but I'll talk about that when I get to the 40k team tournament this year). And man did this approach pay off big time. I had a lot of fun games starting with my introduction to the A Song of Ice and Fire game by Cool Mini or Not.
What was nice was my opponent had played 2 to 3 times already, so he was able to help guide me along. The models were wonderful (even unpainted) and the rules quick to pick up while still feeling relatively unique and having some good strategic depth. And if you have been missing a good massed battle maneuver based game since WHFB bit the dust, this is definitely one to consider IMO.
I lost my first game playing as the Lannisters vs the Starks, but learned a lot really fast and I am interested in playing this game more in the future. If they run more event games next Adepticon, I would definitely consider signing up for them. And my initial taste made me glad I was signed up for 2 more games the next day.
What is really great for me is the Premium swag bag came with a copy of the game AND I was gifted another copy. SO now I have a massive Stark and Lannister army. If I happy into a bunch of money, I'd consider commissioning someone to paint them. For now though I am going to treat it more like a board game and leave the models unpainted (I have way to much to do already) and break it out as a fun distraction game.
After my Intro to ASoIF, I played the Horus Heresy Knight Fight. This was an awesome game. They provided all the knights needed (Cerastus and Questoris only. No Acastus or Armigers) and had some really fun and fluffy custom fast play rules.
I brought my own Adepticon themed Knight Atrapos... because why wouldn't I? There were 14 Knights on a super terrain dense table, 7 per side. I was my team king. The unfortunate thing meant I was last every turn. This really would not have been an issue had I been a shootier knight, but as a close range knight, earlier each turn would have been advantageous for me. I wouldn't hesitate to do this event again though, I would just ask to NOT be the king next time I play it.
After that I got to go experience my first real game of Kings of War in the big battle. I had fun, but probably something I only need to experience once. The board looked fantasitic, the models were great for an army done en masse. The people were great. And it is Kings of War, so the rules were easy to pick up, and they even provided each of use with a handy reference book of the units in our armies.
The only real issue I had with the game is it didn't feel that strategic. Because it was SOOOO dense in models, we just kinda mashed sides together and let the dice duke it out. No terrain other than rolling hills. It also was pre set up for us, and looking at how I did at the end and the order my units hit the enemy in, I definitely would have deployed differently and this would have made the game seem more strategic as well. As it was I just kinda had to pick what was in front and move it forward. So overall it was just a cool battle of Fire vs Water. In the end I was on the winning side though, so there is that. If you are a fan of KoW, this is probably a cool even for you. For me, I'll stick to just using the historical version for quick play games.
Afterwards, my friends and I loaded up and went to Medeival Times in Schaumburg! They are always running a Spring Break special while Adepticon is happening, so we just show up on a Thursday evening show which still has plenty of room and pay about $40 for a show and dinner. Always worth it and if you go to Adepticon, you should do it.
Our Yellow knight won (we referred to him as an Imperial Fist. Last time we went the Black and White "Black Templar" knight won for us, so there is something about the sons of Dorn). Really a cool great time.
And with that that's my day one. A little bonus content below, some ESR Napoleonics and Titanicus.
And I got to meet the Terrain Tutor Mel!
