Adepticon 2015 part 1, I finally have time to sit down and write about my experiences. I finally got to be a con attendee and just spend time walking around talking to people who allow us to experience events like this.
I did a lot over the four days of the con so this is going to be broken up in to two or three articles, there was way too much to do for me to fit it all in one article.
-1 Day: Wednesday
check-in day, we headed to the con venue, and the bit’s and parts trader stand is all up and running, and doing a brisk trade, I however line up in the VIG line and we start to get checked in, and I get handed a rather full Swag Bag.
And in all that, I got a lot of free mini vouchers that I would have to collect. I can not complain about the swag, it was cool to get, and had some great stuff in it.
0 Day: Thursday
I had a painting class with Meg Maples on Thursday morning, so we headed to the convention center and kicked off the tour. I have used 2Brush blending for a while, but I felt something was off with the way I was doing things, during the class Meg showed off her incredible work, as well as showed us what we should be doing, we each got some reaper bones to try this on, and of we went. I was shown with in 5 minutes what I was doing incorrectly, it is a surprising how much paint you really have to use, I was using very little and so my results were not as good as they could have been, now I will use a lot more point so I should end up with a better finished product. Sorry no photos here…
I thanked Meg for the lesson, and headed out to meet the rush of gamer’s.
Vendors hall.
This was a good chance for me to go and check out some games I have not played, and I never get a chance to do this normally so it was pretty good to go and do.
My first stop was Cool Mini or Not, this year they just had loads of Wrath of Kings, Zombiecide, etc. had a great chat to the guys about the Wrath of Kings and picked up my free box set as part of my VIG package. I am pretty pleased with this idea, I have no idea where I will ever use it, but I have some now.
Then it was on to Palladium Books, I got the chance to talk to Wayne Smith about the robotech kickstarter, I have been very critical on them over the last couple of months on the handling of everything, they have taken a lot on board and they were happy to admit they still some due processes they need to do to better service the games. I am going to now say after our 30 minutes together (cause nobody was at the stand) I am going to wait and see what happens next before I totally blow them off and never deal with them again. They have addressed some of the problems in the models, they are looking at the global economy etc.
Hawk wargames was there, they had a lot of cool stuff around, it was a good we had a chat about the resistance, and space combat game that is going to come out at the end of the year. I also managed to pickup a whole lot of stuff I did not have either.
Secret Weapon Miniatures was there, a full stand with soooo much stuff, they had a great range, loads of bases, pigments, led’s etc. There was too much to look at it. Mantic, had a great stand, Mars attacks was there, they wanted to talk to everybody, a really nice group of people. Battlefront was there had possibly the biggest stand it had a lot of GF9, Dust, and Flames items there, they also had the two new books coming out soon, Brown Water Navy and the painting book. Knuckleduster was there showing off the wild west miniatures, Warlord Miniatures was there showing off everything they do.
Ninja division, had a great stand loads of everything they are doing, had a good chat to them as well, they are looking forward to the new kickstarter Ninja AllStars. KR Multicase and Battlefoam were there, as I am moving to Australia in six weeks, it was good to talk to those guys to get ideas for what I can use to move all my stuff. They were always doing a brisk trade, and that is good to see, I have some of both companies cases and they are both great.
Fantasy Flight was there, demoing everything they have, the new Armada, which looks interesting, but I am just not sure if I can go down that path either.
Footsore Miniatures, Bombshell Miniatures, Musketeer Miniatures, selling everything they make. All of these companies make some really good stuff, if you can get a chance to look do it.
Prodos Games, was there, I had a great chat to those guys, the AvP Kickstarter is wearing on those guys, however most of the problems they are having seem to come from having to get every piece of IP approved by the IP holder. I don’t think they will be doing it another game based of somebody elses IP.
And the list’s go, I was really happy to get a chance to go and be a con goer instead of always playing a games all weekend. Getting through the vendors part didn’t really take that long, but I did stop and talk to alot of people so it was a good hour and a half or so. As it was now close to 2pm was time to go to the bar and get some refreshments and food.
I also ran in to a whole lot of people it was really good to catch up with.
+1 Day: Friday
It was time to check out what was being played and talk to more people that I had not yet seen.
First up is a game called ‘A Fist Full of Seamen’
I am not even sure that the Photos I have do this justice. The group that run this are crazy, all in 28mm, most of the terrain is scratch built. The ships are incredible, I needs 3 x 4 foot x 8 foot tables and 3 more 4 x 4’s It is huge.
The Sage tables were fantastic as well.
Just incase you need a clan hall of your own this thing was very nice.
There were many 40K armies, but this one caught my eye, I like weathering, but I think in this case it is colour contrast I see that I like the most.
The Malifaux tables were sweet as well, there was quite a bit done by just one company
This is one of the other tables that Cracked Earth did.
It is pretty nice when you get to see games played on really good tables.
But for the masterpieces of Tables there were two places that just stood out. First is Infinity
Yes that is a table playing Anime as a billboard.
And Bolt Action
Yes that is a sub pen, it was not quite finished for this weekend but who cares it is a super nice table.
There were lots of spoiled gamers, the craftsmen and craftswomen that make these works of art should be thanked by everybody it is really great to see and play on nice tables.
Some old school Necromunda and Warmarster action
Flames of war.
I also got to check out some games that were demos
Leviathan, was fun, it will be interesting to see what Catalyst does with this in the future, they are re-working some of the battle tech stuff as well, it was good to see that was getting a run, they had some fantastic play mats to play on as well, all printed, with real areal photos, and topography layered over the top.
Gates of Anteres, this is very much like Bolt action, plays and feels the same with some added rules that give that Scifi feel
Space Hulk.
Space hulk took a long time, I was able to run off and get refreshments between marine turns. (not that I was playing, but I was segulling and that is important)
There was also Wreck-age, think of a game like Fallout for table top RPG – skirmish. This is not the first time I have seen this, it is a nice looking game, plays very fast, and is rather deadly. loads of fun, I got caught up playing and didn’t take any photo’s (that happens a lot). Check out the website
Finally the last game is called Squirrel or Die. Not really a table top game, more like a Beer and pretzel 4 player memory game, loads of fun, it is made of small wooden tiles that you pick, place and move stuff around depending whether it is face up or down, once all the tiles are down you start picking up the face down tiles. If you pick food, good, a cat bad. Three bad things your Squirrel dies.
So that was day two, I think I left the con at 9pm. There was more I say and did, but really, I might save some of the other things for when I have nothing left to post. It was a load of fun, big thanks to all the people that brought down the terrain we (gamers) thankyou all for that. Please check out all the games I have talked about, alot of these producers are small and community keeps them going, they have some great stuff to bring to us, so any support is good support.
Next time, it is all about the comps I entered.