Three days, 12 games, and 21 hours of 40K.  This year’s Adepticon was a blast.  I played the most games ever, participating in the 40K Championships on Friday, Combat Patrol Saturday and Killzone on Sunday.

The complete album of Adepticon photos can be found here .

Thursday evening:

This used to be a pretty relaxed day as people rolled into town.  This year thanks to Battlefoam‘s free bag give away to the first 500 attendees to register, it was pretty crazy with huge lines in the afternoon.  I didn’t get in until 6:30 and didn’t go down to registration until after 7:00 but there still was a line around the corner.  This was the tail end of the rush though and it  took less than 10 minutes to get through the line and get the huge swag bag.

The Adepticon SWAG bag

Lots of items in the bag, from a full Warmachine starter set (ebay) and full mini Malifaux rule book to paints and washes.

Main Hall Thursday Night - the calm before the storm

After checking in for the 40K Championships, I wandered around a little bit and then headed over to the attached Harry Caray’s to eat and watch the Blackhawks game with a bunch of Chicagoans.

Friday – the 40K Championships:

This year I brought an Ultramarine army again, but this time including Shrike.

Ultramarines

1850 Pts – Codex: Space Marines Roster – Adepticon 2012 Ultramarine “Shrike” Force    Total Roster Cost: 1846

Captain C.A. “Shrike” Varus (1#, 195 pts)
1 Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike, 195 pts

Librarian Sebastien Helios (1#, 140 pts)
1 Space Marine Librarian in Terminator Armour, 140 pts = (base cost 125 + Storm Shield 15)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 265 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 162 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Meltagun 5 + Lascannon 10 + Sergeant 66
1 Sergeant, 63 pts = (base cost 23 + Melta Bombs 5) + Combi-Meltagun x1 10 + Power Fist x1 25
1 Razorback, 40 pts

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 265 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 162 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Meltagun 5 + Lascannon 10 + Sergeant 66
1 Sergeant, 63 pts = (base cost 23 + Melta Bombs 5) + Combi-Plasmagun x1 10 + Power Fist x1 25
1 Razorback, 40 pts

Troops: Scout Squad (6#, 121 pts)
5 Scout Squad, 103 pts = 5 * 16 (base cost 13 + Camo Cloaks 3) + Missile Launcher 10 + Sergeant 31
1 Sergeant, 18 pts = (base cost 10 + Camo Cloaks 3 + Melta Bombs 5)

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad (7#, 280 pts)
6 Terminator Assault Squad, 240 pts = 6 * 40
1 Sergeant, 40 pts

Elite: Sternguard Veteran Squad (7#, 240 pts)
5 Sternguard Veteran Squad, 150 pts = 5 * 25 (base cost 25) + Combi-Meltagun x4 20 + Meltagun x1 5
1 Sergeant, 55 pts = (base cost 25) + Combi-Meltagun x1 5 + Power Fist x1 25
1 Drop Pod, 35 pts

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 140 pts)
1 Dreadnought, 105 pts
1 Drop Pod, 35 pts

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (2#, 200 pts)
2 Land Speeder Squadron, 200 pts = 2 * 50 (base cost 50) + Multi-melta x2 20 + Assault Cannon x2 80

The first game started around 10:30 am and was a rematch with an opponent from last year.  I played Dave’s IG army in the 3rd round last year and got completely run over.   This year was a little different.  It ended up being a very competitive game with the outcome being decided by how far my Librarian could run on the last turn.  It turned out he couldn’t run far enough (is 2 inches too much to ask?)

Ultramarine attack the IG "castle"

The second game was against a Necron army. Fun game and fun opponent but I made a few mistakes and wasn’t familiar with the new Necron units. The coolest thing was that Andrew had a keg of beer tablesize

My third game was against Nate and his Blood Angel Death Company army. Close game that I lost 1-2.

I ended up winning my final game of the day against an infantry Crimson Fist marine army. I went 1-3 on the day, same as last year but felt much better about it this time since all the games were competitive and I had a chance to win each one. I also improved my painting score.

Saturday:

Saturday morning I got up early to get on the wait list for the Combat Patrol tournament.  I had signed up for the evening event but I wanted to watch the Jones/Evans UFC fight.   Like most Adepticon events, getting in via the wait list was easy since there were plenty of no shows.

The Combat Patrol Force

While waiting for things to start I chatted with Teras from Geek Nation Tours.  Teras was playing in the Combat Patrol tournament and had a really cool ork grot army.

About this time John and Ashton showed up.  Ashton was my cheerleader for 3 of  my 4 games, giving me great advise like “why didn’t  you move up to shoot those Thunder Wolves?”.  All my opponents were great and even though I only won one game, it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon was spent exploring the rest of the convention since I hadn’t really been out of the main hall.  Ashton had found the guys demoing Hero Mages and challenged me to game.  Of course he beat me.

We also checked out the unbelievable miniatures entered in the Crystal Brush competition.  Last year there was a definite top tier of miniatures but this year almost all of them were incredible.  I don’t know how they picked the winners.

Ty showed up early evening and we all headed out to dinner. We then said goodbye to John and Ashton as they headed home and we headed to Lombard Ale House to watch the UFC fight.

Sunday:

I was really looking forward to playing Killzone and it didn’t disappoint.  My Ultramarines were recruited yet again.  I played 4 games over the afternoon and even won a couple of them.  Brian’s tables were awesome, so awesome in fact, that Ty and I purchased 3 to bring home.  You can follow Brian’s exploits at A Gentleman’s Ones

Ultras vs Wolves in Killzone

After helping Ty load up our new tables, I said goodbye to Adepticon and headed home. I then realized how exhausted I was but it was a good exhaustion of a well fought weekend.