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Adepticon summary, begun.

Thursday AM:

Finish display boards for 40k team tourney.

Do some touchup painting.

Pack stuff.

Thursday Afternoon:

Retype all army lists for tourney on wife’s laptop because mouse on my PC s*** the bed.

Install printer drivers on wife’s laptop.

Print lists.

Swear a lot when printer doesn’t want to print cool & funny advertisement/broadsheets I made for our team (Cold Steel Mercs).

After much struggling, and finally getting the ads to print and look awesome, forget said ads at home when I leave for the airport.

Thursday Afternoon/early evening:

Arrive at airport for 5:10pm flight.

Told at check in that due to weather in Chicago, may not take off until 9:25pm.

Meet up with team mate Jamie at gate.

Go directly to Bar.

Drink.

Flight attendant comes and gets us in bar at 6:45pm.

Board plane.

Have nice flight until approaching Chicago, when weather turns roller-coastery, and stomach gets unhappy.


Thursday Night:

Circle Chicago for a while (Captain says we need to re-approach from the Northwest?)

Land.

Grab shuttle to hotel, which happens to also have Yakface & Darrian13 on it.

Go to hall, say hi to Hank, Jeff, and others. Check out Greg Sparks’ ridiculous Eldar gateway display.

Go outside, walk in cool, windy air to get stomach back.

Around 11, try to find food. Concierge recommends place nearby (Giordano’s) for deep dish Chicago pizza.

Good news: They deliver to hotel. Bad news: 35min to bake it, 1 hour before it gets here. Good news: We have the fortitude to wait. Bad news: After tax & delivery, 12” pizza costs $28. Good news: Pizza is ridiculously thick, heavy, and tasty. Jamie (not a small dude) and I, hungry, are able to eat only half of the darn thing, and my other two slices stand me for breakfast and lunch Friday.



Begin to unpack stuff, get it ready for the morning.

Realize I forgot my Wild Riders & Glade Riders at home.

Panic!

Call recently-met and recruited 40k team mate Matthew back in Maine (around 1:30am EDT) who is flying here in the morning, and who also plays fantasy, to ask if he might have WE models. Good news: He was still up basing models. Bad news: No, he plays Orcs. Damn.

Go back down to hall, ask Hank if he has any ideas.

Hank says Marty (AKA Mr. Clean, the pretty amazing organizer of the Warhammer events) may be able to hook me up.

Hank calls Marty (who has gone to bed) and then puts me on the phone.

Marty is remarkably polite and concerned, despite me bothering him in the middle of the night. He says he thinks he can find some models for me, and asks me to talk to him when I check in for the tournament.

Go to bed.


More later.

Oops, should have let me know. I didn't play in the
tourneys and I get sick when I got home. Coulda lent you
five Wild Riders.

Ah! I should have thought of that! If I had your phone number it could have worked. Ah well.

Friday AM:

Get up early; Alex, third team mate for Saturday, arrives 8am.

Realize hotel prices for food are re-g**-d***-diculous.

Ask concierge about other options within walking distance.

Concierge says Denny’s is 5 blocks up the street, but we may want to consider a cab, as they’re long blocks.

Decide to walk it.

Get there 15 min later at a brisk pace. Nice day out, though.

Have big breakfast.

Back to hall.

Friday Noon-ish to afternoon:

Check out more displays, say hi to more people, fourth team mate (Matthew) arrives.

Matthew, Alex, and Jamie get ready for and start 40k Gladiator.

I see Marty, who advises he thinks he has someone who can lend me stuff.

Rejoice!

Check back in a couple of times before start of tournament. No models yet.

Sweat.

Anticipated lender of WE models does not arrive before start of WH Escalation.

Marty gets another organizer (Caius, also very nice guy) to scrounge up some models for me. Wild Riders will be represented by Empire knights. Glade Riders will be represented by Pistoliers. Thanks guys!

Resign self to being out of contention due to proxied models (not to mention comp implications of crazy character-heavy 3000pt list I designed due to space restrictions on flight).

First game:
Jeff Shea, with very fluffy Lizard army. Fluff is survivors of city captured by enemy during Lustria campaign. No wizards. Two blocks of 19 saurus, two units of skinks w/blowpipes, two heroes (one a BSB) with +1 dispel die mark, among other stuff.

Jeff was a great guy, but just didn’t have enough maneuver elements. Swapping one of those blocks for some mobility (kroxies and sallies would have helped a lot) might have given him a reasonable chance, but as it was I surrounded him. I initially thought I wouldn’t do much damage due to the hardness of saurus blocks and lizard heroes, but one lucky break check kept his general’s block stuck for me to rear-charge with wild riders, and then an irresistible movement spell allowed the same thing to happen to his BSB’s block. I wound up wiping him out. The tournament had 15 for win, 10 draw, 5 loss, with NINE separate bonus vp conditions, one of them worth two points, the others one point each. I got all of them.

Second game:

Gary Luther, with Dwarves. Good opponent. Good sport and knew his stuff. Very classic list. No anvil. Lord on Shieldbearers in block of Hammerers Runesmith in Ironbreakers, Block of warriors on far left flank with Slayer hero running around their flank, two units thunderers, two bolt throwers, volley gun.

Very good game. I got faked out by his naked slayer hero and avoided flanking the warrior block, figuring he’d have magic weapon and/or strike first rune and kick my dryads and/or warhawks around. Volley gun wiped out my Wild Riders and a unit of Wardancers. My shooting and magic did practically nothing for the first two-three turns. Eventually I started getting to the support units, and my Treeman got into the flank of the ironbreakers. I managed to cover him from a rear charge from the hammerers by treesinging a wood behind him. Tree eventually got lucky and broke the ironbreakers, running them down. I sustained some substantial damage, but got a pretty solid win. +6 instead of +10 bonus points.


In the middle of all this I ruminated to myself that things were probably going so well just because I had the proxied models, and thus wasn’t in contention. I mentioned this to Marty, and he very kindly informed me that my painting would be judged not including the proxied stuff, and I wouldn’t be penalized for the units I left in New Hampshire. Very kind.


Third game:

Travis (blanking on last name). High Elves, Naggarythe themed. Awesome looking army. Initially thought they were Dark Elves. Led by Highborn, also including Alith Anar, but he wasn’t the general (which I initially didn’t realize). Three L2 wizards, + BSB with gem of being a L1 wizard. General had great weapon, in block of spears with Fire L2. Alith Anar in block of 10 Swordmasters. BSB in block of 15 White Lions (all converted from new WL chariot crew!) Dragon Princes on my far right flank (march-blocked for most of game, all converted from plastic HE lord!) had item to give them magic attacks. Two RBTs. Two units of archers (a mage in each). Two tiranoc chariots on far left flank.

Travis was a great guy, and we had a super tactical game. I felt pretty good about it overall, until on turn three or so, I moved my Treeman ancient out of the woods on the left flank to face off with Travis’ general’s block, a chariot, an RBT, and a unit of archers with second mage. He had suffered one wound already, and I cast the regen spell on him to keep him safe. I can’t remember exactly how (RBTs? Chariot?), but my tree suffered four more wounds all at once, failed all armor saves, all wards, and all regens. AND the two re-rolls I had due to the scenario. Ugh. After that the general’s block overran through a unit of my Dryads into the general, into the ancient.

I had my L4 general, L2, and BSB about 10” behind, behind a wood. My Wild Riders were on the left, facing off with a tiranoc chariot, and I decided to start them over to the right to get back in the game. Stupid me, I decided to move the Wild Riders directly through the wood, about 7” behind the tree. You can see this coming, I’m sure.

On the top of 4 my tree gets whacked, the general’s block overruns 7”, which would have left them harmlessly in the middle of a wood, ready to be Treesung to death on my turn. IF I hadn’t put the Wild Riders there. So instead, they hit the riders. In my turn the general whiffs, but 13 spear attacks result in 8 hits, of which all 8 wound. No saves. Wild Riders wiped out, overrun into my three characters. The L2 died immediately. The BSB and L4 held on for a couple of rounds, helped by Travis forgetting to move the general back into contact in his first chance to do so. My general died in the top of turn 6. My BSB hung on until the bottom of 6. Challenge with his general (Great Weapon, ASF). 4 attacks from him. 4 hits. 4 ones to wound! He had a re-roll from the scenario. There goes my BSB!

The rest of the game was going not quite as well as hoped, though my magic was still clicking okay until my general died. At the end Travis was up by ~529 points, but the margin of victory was 750. Losing draw, though I got one or two bonus points. Good game. Just kicked myself for that stupid move with the wild riders.

At the award ceremony they announce my name for Close But Not Quite! Bittersweet. Very happy to be called up and have my picture taken in my Lost Legion shirt, but bummed I dropped the ball in the third round. With a win perhaps I would have had it.

Caius comes up after and informs me that I missed winning by 7 points.

And that they gave me a zero on painting for the proxies.

I quietly flip out in my head, while being (I am fairly certain) very polite to Caius, and noting that wasn’t what Marty had said would happen.

On my way back up to the room I decide to double-check with Marty, who has already talked to Caius and confirmed that they actually DID give me an 8 of 10 for painting (which if anything, is generous), and no, I wasn’t robbed. Whew.

Go to Denny’s again for late dinner.

More touch up painting.

Go to bed.

Friggin' LOVE Giordanos. And Denny's.

Also wood elves.

In fact, there's very little about this post I don't love.

Giordano's is usually worth the wait.

Dunno about Denny's. The only thing I can say about them
is Open at All Odd Hours, Including Christmas.

More details and pictures from tournament posted here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/210457.page

#1. We went to dinner Thursday night at Giordano's with Yak and Darrian and wanted you to come with, but we did not have your number.

#2. I took a shuttle to the airport with Matthew of Maine, and he seemed like a really nice guy.

#3. I liked your dog tags. You should put a picture up of them.

#4. I forgot my striking scorpions for the last day, and I was lucky that I had some spare harlies.

Next time I'm swapping phone #s ahead of time with people, and wearing some piece of gear with Dakka Dakka and Mannahnin on it. Last year I had a Dakka button, but I felt like I was wearing too much bling. We need to work out something else for the Dakka stalwarts.

It was good to see you. I was definitely bummed not to hang out more with you, Yak, or Darrian. Any chance you’re going to do Baltimore in November?

Matthew is a good guy. I just met him in a team tournament near Boston (he was one of my third round opponents) in February, in the last ditch desperate attempt to find a fourth since one of last year’s team had dropped out. And he turned out to rock. He’s not very experienced, but won three games in the Gladiator with a very non-optimal list (see Redbeard’s report), went 3-0-1 in the team tourney, and did well again on Sunday.

In a token of respect to how well his speed orks part of our force did in the team tourney, we might actually run speed orks next year. Horde orks is just kind of an unfun PITA, but speed orks seems competitive and fun to play.

I’ll get a picture of us and of the dog tags up at some point.

Mannahnin wrote:Next time I'm swapping phone #s ahead of time with people, and wearing some piece of gear with Dakka Dakka and Mannahnin on it. Last year I had a Dakka button, but I felt like I was wearing too much bling.

The word is flair.

I'd wear a button, but I tend to shy from strangers and have spent more than
one convention seeing people I knew on the internet without them knowing
I was there.

Oops. Stalker.

"Horde orks is just kind of an unfun PITA"

How so?

Speaking as an opponent, I think horde Orks are a kick-butt army, and would have no problem playing them in friendly games with no time limits, but my experience with them so far is that they’re not well suited to giving a very fun, tactically-interesting game within a timed tournament environment. Unless you have a great deal of practice with them (like an Eric Hobin), the Ork turns take forever, and the games are highly unlikely to go all six turns.

As a player, I’d never want to run the army, though I find the speedier/lower model count (trucks, bikes, maybe a couple squads of infantry) lists kind of appealing. Even the Hobins complained about the back pain they were suffering from moving the darn hordes all weekend.

Giordano's makes truly *excellent* pizza - when I'm in Chi-town, I try to eat there at least once, along with Lawry's for a really good prime rib.

Good call on the eating!

Great write-up for those too lazy to attend. Maybe next year (though I say that every year).

Thanks, Ragnar.

Mmmm... Giordano's. I head out to Rosemont quite often for business trips and that place is one of my favorites.

Next year I will be at Adepticon (the future wife already said it was ok). I haven't met most of you in the flesh and I will be new to Adepticon so I'd appreciate meeting up with some of the veterans.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

@Ozy, you can always meet up with the So Cal contingent during the year. There were 7 of us from So Cal at Adepticon this year. We have an RTT in Pasadena next month if you want to drop by.

Darrian

Darrian13 wrote:@Ozy, you can always meet up with the So Cal contingent during the year. There were 7 of us from So Cal at Adepticon this year. We have an RTT in Pasadena next month if you want to drop by.

Darrian

Where is Pasadena in relation to Vandenberg AFB? My future wife is going to be stationed there starting August. I'm being brought along for the ride and have no idea where I'm going to be able to flex my gaming muscles.

It's a bit over 150 miles, but it is quite a beautiful drive along the coast, so that alone should make it worth doing at least once.

I should fly down and get my ass handed to me.

You definitely should. It may help you restart your stalled maturation process.

Darrian

Darrian: What's the date on the Pasadena RTT? I grew up in SoCal and still have family in Santa Clarita. One of the guys in my group is a transplant from Yakface's old group up in the bay area. I'm gonna try to get him to go as well next year. He posts here (rarely) as umungaz.

Platuan: Vandenburg isn't too far from me here in SLO, I have a good friend who works at Lockheed there. Depending on where you live we do some regular gaming in the Nipomo and SLO area. We have a yahoo group, Central Coast Miniatures Gaming: groups.yahoo.com/groups/ccmg_slo

Ozymandias, King of Kings

I want pizza.

I want Wood Elves.

... wait... what are we talking about?

BYE

Awww Darrian, here I thought I wasn't going to like you.

@Ozy, the next 40K RTT at Game Empire Pasadena will be May 10.

Darrian

I looked up Game Empire's site and saw that, thanks. Funny, I will actually be in Pasadena on May 10, but I'll be competing in the Pacific Coast Championships which is a qualifier for the Summer Nationals in Fencing. Depending on when I'm done I'll come by and at least introduce myself (though I'll be sweaty and smelly... so I'll fit right in with the gamers).

It looks like there is a RTT every month?

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Mannahnin wrote:Even the Hobins complained about the back pain they were suffering from moving the darn hordes all weekend.

LOL. I used to call it "Nid back," but I can see how the Ork players can be similarly afflicted.

I'm really going to have to attend one of these years. Thanks for the writeup.

Nothing like a brisk walk in the rain to Denny's after 12 hours of 40k.

Ragnar,


I should have grabbed your phone number on the shuttle. Next year we definitely need to hang out a bit more and chat about Dakka (at the very least).

I wasn't planning on going to Baltimore, the only other GT on my radar this year is Vegas.

Yak,

You planning to bring your Orks to Vegas?

inquisitor_bob wrote:Yak,

You planning to bring your Orks to Vegas?

Nope. My Orks are basically unplayable since the new codex came out. I need to add quite a few models to the army before I can use it.