I recently spent four days near Chicago attending Adepticon, a major miniatures con.  It was my first time there, and I had a blast.

Thursday

First up was registration.  I arrived at about 10 am on Thursday, which would have been after the main rush.  I had splurged and gotten the VIG badge, which gives you a tshirt and other fancy bits in the swag bag.  I ended up with starter boxes for Dropzone Commander, Wrath of Kings, and Hordes, plus a bunch of individual minis.

My first event was a seminar on building scenery.  Marcin Ignasiak, the instructor, did a nice job of corralling people through making a foamcore tower.  I have kind of a catch-22 situation with terrain.  I don’t have any, because I don’t play at home, because I don’t have terrain.  Maybe I can get myself out, or at least make some pieces to donate to a store.

I then had a little time to check out the vendor hall, redeem some vouchers from the swag bag, and learn about some of the games on display.  I got a demo in for Aetherium, which is a minis game with a Matrix/Tron setting with a very interesting mechanic around manipulating the board.

My first game event was Combat Patrol, a rapid fire collection of 400 point 40k games.  I brought my Deathwatch, which was chosen more around models I had painted than what I thought would be good at 400 points.  I ended up pretty low in the rankings, but had three fun games.

Friday

My main event for Friday was the 40k Friendly.  I brought my Dark Eldar for this, which I only had one game in with the not-so-new codex.  They split us up into teams of about 15 players, and it had a camping theme, complete with merit badges.  During the breaks, I helped win the pie eating contest for Team Pink.  This was another fun three games, although my Reaper got its gun blown off all three games, and managed to immobilize itself between table quarters, making it completely useless.  I brought a bunch of small Reaver units, which were awesome.  I miss my drive-by attacks, but D6 S6 Rending hits on the charge are pretty nice.

I had a bit of time, so I learned a bit about Wreck Age, a post-apoc skirmish game.  I also demoed Broken Contract, a skirmish game which pits exploited miners against The Man (reminds me of Red Faction).  It just launched a Kickstarter for its miniature starter set.

In the evening, I went to a seminar on green stuff.  It was a nice introduction to actually sculpting.  Joe Orteza, the instructor, was clearly experienced at giving the class.  My one criticism would be that he would sometimes work on your piece without being entirely clear on what he was doing.  I’m hoping to put these new skills (and tools) to work.

Saturday morning I ran into Matt Stanley of Nova Open fame.  Once I said I was playing Malifaux, he went into sales mode.  Sadly, flying to just one game con this year is already pushing it a bit.

The main event of the day was the Masters of Malifaux.  I played Neverborn, and played all three of my masters across five rounds (Lynch once, and Lilith and Zoraida twice each).  I lost the first three rounds, although not by much.  The highlight for the first set was in game three, with Breakthrough and Deliver a Message in the pool.  I managed to Leap a Silurid to deliver to Seamus early in the game.  At the end of the game, there were a bunch of dudes converging on Zoraida.  I decided to Animal Shape her 15″ out of the way.  My opponent saw an opportunity.  He managed to walk Sybelle out of engagement with a Silurid to get close to Zoraida.  He then Called a Belle from across the board, who activated to Deliver a Message right back to me.  Even though it cost me the game, it was well played and exciting to see.

Game four I managed to pull out a win with Lilith vs Rasputina.  I threw Lilith into the fray, which got her killed.  She did manage to keep my opponent’s crew bottled up in a corner, though.  I had Waldgeists holding both Stash markers all game, and other models running around accomplishing schemes.

Game five started out rough.  I was so fried from playing all day that I could barely put a crew together and didn’t end up having a good idea how I wanted it to work.  It was my Zoraida vs Lilith.  He brought the twins, who messed up my left flank, while the rest of his crew advanced up the middle.  On my right flank, however, I was able to send a Silurid forward to get Breakthrough and Power Ritual scheme markers down.  The Performer ended up being the MVP of the game.  She pulled off the pseudo-Expunge trick pretty well with the Voodoo Doll and Nurse.  She also used her Siren Call to pull models into and out of position, foiling plans.  In the end, we managed a 5-5 draw.

All in all, a really fun set of games, although five rounds is rough.  Surprising enough. the 105 minute round time worked pretty well.  I finished all games except one.

I then had just enough time to shove some food in before heading into my final seminar, Blood, Pus, and Guts with Michelle Blastenbrei.  This class was largely showing a few techniques and materials, then a chance to play.  I was pretty worn out from Malifaux all day, so wasn’t able to get as much out of it as I would have liked.  I also managed to forget the handout in the room.

Sunday

I had signed up to do the Malifaux Story Encounter on Sunday, but I wasn’t feeling it.  My schedule had been full enough, and the Masters the day before long enough, that I wasn’t really interested in another full day event.  Instead, I spent more time in the vendor hall and attended the Crystal Brush awards ceremony, plus I actually ate lunch outside the convention center.  I got a demo for Dropzone Commander.  The apparent focus on mobility is very interesting, plus I have a army starter box now.  I also got a Wild West Exodus demo, although it didn’t grab me.  I think the demo may have glossed over enough of the details that it was hard to get a real flavor for the game.  Wreck Age and Deep Wars both look interesting, but I didn’t get a chance to demo them.  ModCube is working on customizable counters in a cube, which seems interesting for damage markers and the like.

I ran into the Swag Wagon just before I was about to head out, and got handed a $25 voucher for one of the vendors, Toledo Game Room.  They had a ton of new and used minis for sale. I considered getting some beat up vehicles to use for terrain, but in the end decided on Malifaux and got a shiny new The Kin Ophelia box.

Lessons

I scheduled myself for too much.  I wasn’t completely exhausted, but I ended up being happier skipping my Sunday event.  Even still, I didn’t get a chance to demo everything I wanted to.

Part of why I didn’t feel like the second day of Malifaux is that I didn’t feel like playing Neverborn again, even though the different masters mix it up.  So I should pick up another faction.  As luck would have it, I already have the Somer box and the Nightmare Whiskey Golem, since I’m a sucker for limited editions.  Combined with the Ophelia box, I should be in business.

I didn’t take enough notes or pictures.  I had a bunch of great games, but I can’t tell you too much about them, or even the names of most of my opponents.

By the time I decided to go (which was well before actual registration), the actual con hotel was sold out, and I ended up at the Embassy Suites a short walk away.  It was okay, but it meant I was hauling stuff back and forth, and didn’t really have an easy way to ditch my stuff and go be social or whatever.

I kind of wish I had opened my wallet a bit more in the vendor hall.  I resisted buying a bunch of things for a bunch of good reasons (how am I going to get it on the plane, con discounts aren’t any good if you don’t actually use the item, you can always buy it later from the FLGS or mail order if needed, plus do I really have time for another game?).  Still, I kind of regret not picking up the Aetherium base game.  Or some terrain from Tri-City Laser, which had some really neat stuff.  Or maybe something from Forge World.

All in all, I had a great time, and hope to go again next year.