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The guys who run the Friendly--Brian and Jeff--are literally the nicest dudes in the world. It also helps that they're both super creative (their team tournament entry ends up in the army parade every year).

The presiding theory on why the Championships didn't sell out this year (there were five or ten spots left last i heard) is that the Friendly steals more and more players from the other events each year. So "infectious" is definitely the right word. They're probably going to have to up the registration limit for it next year.

Regards,
Camp No Fun

I think it sold out nearly instantly, just had some drops the day of.

 Valhallan42nd wrote:
It was a nice turn out, and good times were had. Where was the 40k? I didn't even get to that hall.

I heard a Fistfull of Seaman was there, and was hilarious.

The big space where registration was

 Eiluj The Farseer wrote:
Had a blast as well. Did the Friendly and Team. The friendly was a BLAST. Though being one of the team captains we kept doing captain challenges so the third game became a little fuzzy after my opponent and I drank a whole bottle of 'The Knot Irish whiskey, then broke into some canadian whiskey. So much fun. Thanks to all the Adepticon crew and volunteers.

Sounds like a lot of fun and it was great meeting you!

 Eiluj The Farseer wrote:
Had a blast as well. Did the Friendly and Team. The friendly was a BLAST. Though being one of the team captains we kept doing captain challenges so the third game became a little fuzzy after my opponent and I drank a whole bottle of 'The Knot Irish whiskey, then broke into some canadian whiskey. So much fun. Thanks to all the Adepticon crew and volunteers.

Sounds like a lot of fun and it was great meeting you!

Has Adepticon published the missions they used for the 40k Champs? I was watching their blog, and under the impression that they were using their custom Maelstrom cards for all missions, but must have missed something.

tag8833 wrote:
Has Adepticon published the missions they used for the 40k Champs? I was watching their blog, and under the impression that they were using their custom Maelstrom cards for all missions, but must have missed something.

Missions 1 and 3 were straight Maelstrom. Mission 2 was kill points and 4 was normal objectives.

Missions 2 and 4 each had a player-selected secondary as well. The same four missions were repeated for the finals.

We'll be posting the mission packets for most events later this week.

Missions 1 and 3 were straight Maelstrom, but they did utilize the custom card decks and the discard mechanic, which actually makes for something a bit different that what most people would consider straight Maelstrom.

While there was a minor fall off in Champs attendance, our overall number of people playing 40K was only down 6 players vs. last year (the Classic being the biggest draw from the Championship).

2014
13 people playing Exterminatus
44 playing Combat Patrol
226 in the Championship
16 Horus Heresy Massacre

299 people total playing 40K on Thursday (2014 posted results do include drops)

2015
6 people playing Exterminatus
39 playing Combat Patrol
196 in the Championship
36 in the Classic
16 Horus Heresy Theater of War

293 people total playing 40K on Thursday (2015 posted results do not include drops)

The 40K Team Tournament started off with 3 team less than 2014.

So overall, the 40K attendance was more or less the same, people just diversified into different events on Thursday as they were offered and events on Friday like the Friendly and the Highlander. In fact, the Friday 40K attendance was up by about 35: 184 in 2014 (72 in Friendly, 70 in Two-front Doubles, 16 in Warzone, 10 in Horus Heresy Apoc and 16 in the Champs finals) vs 219 in 2015 (32 in Champ finals, 78 in Friendly, 68 in Highlander, 27 in Horus Heresy Tournament and 14 in Combat RAT Patrol).

 Matthias wrote:
2015
6 people playing Exterminatus
39 playing Combat Patrol
196 in the Championship
36 in the Classic
16 Horus Heresy Theater of War

293 people total playing 40K on Thursday (2015 posted results do not include drops)

The 40K Team Tournament started off with 3 team less than 2014.

2015 (32 in Champ finals, 78 in Friendly, 68 in Highlander, 27 in Horus Heresy Tournament and 14 in Combat RAT Patrol).

This is probably the biggest thing to take away for people who read about Adepticon on forums or blogs and haven't actually been; sometimes the outward view seems to be that it's just the Championships and the Team Tournament and a couple "other" things on Friday, as if those events were just for people who didn't qualify for the Finals.

There's ~10 different 40k events and they're all run by incredible people and have the resources and space to make something awesome out of it. It's hard to even describe the Friendly, but it's the event that seems to impress the most people when they come for the first time--it's also the event I'm most familiar with other than teams/champs because I pitched in to help out with it the prior couple years (and also because it's kinda hard to miss the Friendly when it's in progress, as those guys have a tendency of making themselves known).

It's seriously like a bizarre alternate universe is taking place ten feet away--I was playing games on the top tables at the Finals and after (or during) each round there'd be some absurd new thing happening. After Round 6, I discovered the remnants of a pie-eating contest I didn't even know had been taking place. After Round 7, team captains were reciting their team mottos to the hall for all to hear; during the round itself, some sort of insane parade occurred. Amidst all of it, everyone involved was wearing a boyscout sash and collecting merit badges through some means, and Jason (y'know, hockey mask guy) was destroying 40k units.

I'd be shocked if the Friendly has less than 100 players next year.

It also goes well beyond just 40K. We had large Malifaux, Warmachine, Saga, Warhammer Fantasy and Bolt Action events. X-Wing, Space Hulk, Wild West Exodus, board games, Infinity, Battletech, hobby seminars...the list is around 300 total events in 2015 and is ever-growing. All wargaming is given the opportunity to flourish at AdeptiCon. I'd love to see events like The Friendly continue to grow. The atmosphere and experience it cultivates is truly a unique experience that I think many people crave in a world of rigid tournaments, controlled expectations and sportslike mentality. There is plenty of room for both styles of play, and you realize just how different the same game can be when you are sitting on the "DMZ" line between events.

I saw the X-Wing tables set up near the HH events. There seemed to be a near-constant stream of tournaments/events with about 12-20 players. They all seemed to be having a good time.

There was also a Large Pirate Ship game that was roped off but looked pretty bitchin.

I'll echo what others have said, this location had twice the Elbow Room as last year's.

First year playing WHFB at adepticon this year, I did the Big Brawl, Team Tourney, and Championship and it was all a huge blast. Every single opponent was very chill and laid back, and I met a few super cool dudes I totally want to face again next year.

Congrats to all the winners, and my empathy to all the peeps who had to face the Nagash's, Franz's, and Malekith's. Those b@st@rds were tough nuts to crack.

Great times overall, definitely going back next year.

Does anybody know what Aaron Aelong was running in the 40k champs? He had the thunderwolf/bikes/speeder storm list. Couldn't really find any definitive lists anywhere.

Chance,
At first I thought...oh maybe chance can just look at the photo of his list and get an idea...then I started looking through them...and there are a ton of thunderwolf, landspeeder, bike lists....

Any idea on his scheme?

Chancetragedy wrote:
Does anybody know what Aaron Aelong was running in the 40k champs? He had the thunderwolf/bikes/speeder storm list. Couldn't really find any definitive lists anywhere.

He ran wolf star with dark angels and space marines in support. Basically hit and run 2+ cover save squads with fnp. He also had a couple of units with 2+ armor.


As for the friendly... it looked fun but on the receiving end it was not that fun. I had a headache for most of the day and when they continuously trolled the champs event it actually got kind of old and borderline annoying. I am all about fun as much as the next guy but my rounds had me right next to them as they went on these chants, hooting, and hollering. The event is fun based but please respect that other events are participating still and be mindful that your fun shouldn't be at their expense. Other then that I had fun throughout the weekend and enjoyed the team tournament in particular. The 40k champs kind of sucked me dry with all the various builds. It was interesting to see all the various builds that had a unique way of being unkillable.

It would seem that most of the big hitter lists included a giant deathball of unkillableness, even if its only job was to tie up the opponents... giant deathball of unkillableness. Is this good or bad for the meta?

Requizen wrote:
Yeah, I didn't know the Friendly was going to be that much fun, will totally sign up next year. Everyone seemed to be having a blast.

I think the theme for the friendly this year was brilliant as well...

Requizen wrote:
It would seem that most of the big hitter lists included a giant deathball of unkillableness, even if its only job was to tie up the opponents... giant deathball of unkillableness. Is this good or bad for the meta?

That is the meta right

Nothing new at all - 2++ re rollable was the rage during 6th edition.

This was my first "big" gt/convention, and I gotta say it was a blast. The staff are pros. They ran the events seemlessly, without hitch or hiccup. They even offered to buy me a beer, after my last match ended in with my blood pressure through the roof. Otherwise the attendees were all user friendly. It was great seeing a few cats I know winning the big tourneys. I had hoped to make it to the qualifiers but sadly I was 2 points shy . Guess I'll have to sharpen my presentation a bit better next year


Damn plaguedrones! /shakesfist

Remember that time when people were worried about summoning armies and everyone dismissed those worries? Then the top two armies at Adepticon were summoning armies? If you got the cash the daemon summoning armies are the best armies to have. They are perfect for maelstrom and they have an easier time getting the 2++ re-rollable thanks to Daemonology.

Were they actually summoning? I thought they were just deathstar lists.

Requizen wrote:
Were they actually summoning? I thought they were just deathstar lists.

They seem to be a mix, not pure deathstar nor pure summoning.

In my game with Nick round 1 he only summoned 2 units of Flamers and a unit of Nettes. So the summoning is minimal.

 Tomb King wrote:
Remember that time when people were worried about summoning armies and every dismissed those worries? Then the top two armies at Adepticon were summoning armies? If you got the cash the daemon summoning armies are the best armies to have. They are perfect for maelstrom and they have an easier time getting the 2++ re-rollable thanks to Daemonology.

Neither me or Nick actually do much summoning, and we had a pretty long conversation about how over-hyped it is, and how the over-reliance on summoning is the main reason why Daemons aren't being perceived as being as strong as they really are. The same thing has been happening ever since 7th came out--people who aren't familiar with Daemons pick up the army, think the key is to just summon a bunch of Daemonettes, get tabled by Wave Serpents and then go back to their original army. Virtually none of the top players who tend to shift to the "powerful" armies of the time have actually stuck with Daemons; everybody's still playing Eldar or Knights.

Through my first three games I summoned two units total; I summoned a lot of Heralds in Game 4 (and then Game 8) due to how the secondaries worked. Games 5-7 I think I summoned about five units total. And this was after I invested ~80 points to get a Death of Kasyr Lutien Rhino into my list to have a more viable summoning option; Nick didn't have that and had fewer Warp Charge than me, so I assume he did even less summoning than I did.

The most important thing is having the option to summon, and all the tools that gives to your army. My "army" fits on a 6x10" plastic tray. Meanwhile, I came to the tournament with two fully loaded Battlefoam bags and an extra cardboard box, full of models I never even used. I had 40+ of every Troop option on me and never used any of them (except a handful of Horrors popping out of my Portalglyph).

But if I'd played Green Tide, I would have needed those 40 Daemonettes. If I'd played Knights, I'd have needed those 40 Plaguebearers. If I'd played full Serpent Spam, I'd have needed those 20 Flesh Hounds. If I'd played Guard Blobs, I'd have needed those 12 Flamers. Etc etc etc.

90% of the time my army (and Nick's army as well) is a pretty standard Deathstar build and plays very similarly to a Bikewolf/Wraithstar/etc build; I view summoning as a secondary option to cover gaps against certain matchups. Comparably to those other Deathstars, the price I pay for that option is a reliance on the Psychic phase/Grimoire/Fateweaver to provide my Deathstar's survivability, instead of having it be an innate part of the unit itself.

DJ3 wrote:
Neither me or Nick actually do much summoning, and we had a pretty long conversation about how over-hyped it is, and how the over-reliance on summoning is the main reason why Daemons aren't being perceived as being as strong as they really are. The same thing has been happening ever since 7th came out--people who aren't familiar with Daemons pick up the army, think the key is to just summon a bunch of Daemonettes, get tabled by Wave Serpents and then go back to their original army. Virtually none of the top players who tend to shift to the "powerful" armies of the time have actually stuck with Daemons; everybody's still playing Eldar or Knights.

Through my first three games I summoned two units total; I summoned a lot of Heralds in Game 4 (and then Game 8) due to how the secondaries worked. Games 5-7 I think I summoned about five units total. And this was after I invested ~80 points to get a Death of Kasyr Lutien Rhino into my list to have a more viable summoning option; Nick didn't have that and had fewer Warp Charge than me, so I assume he did even less summoning than I did.

The most important thing is having the option to summon, and all the tools that gives to your army. My "army" fits on a 6x10" plastic tray. Meanwhile, I came to the tournament with two fully loaded Battlefoam bags and an extra cardboard box, full of models I never even used. I had 40+ of every Troop option on me and never used any of them (except a handful of Horrors popping out of my Portalglyph).

But if I'd played Green Tide, I would have needed those 40 Daemonettes. If I'd played Knights, I'd have needed those 40 Plaguebearers. If I'd played full Serpent Spam, I'd have needed those 20 Flesh Hounds. If I'd played Guard Blobs, I'd have needed those 12 Flamers. Etc etc etc.

90% of the time my army (and Nick's army as well) is a pretty standard Deathstar build and plays very similarly to a Bikewolf/Wraithstar/etc build; I view summoning as a secondary option to cover gaps against certain matchups. Comparably to those other Deathstars, the price I pay for that option is a reliance on the Psychic phase/Grimoire/Fateweaver to provide my Deathstar's survivability, instead of having it be an innate part of the unit itself.

Well said, sir.

Also, GW fully approves the above message!

DJ3 wrote:

 Tomb King wrote:
Remember that time when people were worried about summoning armies and every dismissed those worries? Then the top two armies at Adepticon were summoning armies? If you got the cash the daemon summoning armies are the best armies to have. They are perfect for maelstrom and they have an easier time getting the 2++ re-rollable thanks to Daemonology.

Neither me or Nick actually do much summoning, and we had a pretty long conversation about how over-hyped it is, and how the over-reliance on summoning is the main reason why Daemons aren't being perceived as being as strong as they really are. The same thing has been happening ever since 7th came out--people who aren't familiar with Daemons pick up the army, think the key is to just summon a bunch of Daemonettes, get tabled by Wave Serpents and then go back to their original army. Virtually none of the top players who tend to shift to the "powerful" armies of the time have actually stuck with Daemons; everybody's still playing Eldar or Knights.

Through my first three games I summoned two units total; I summoned a lot of Heralds in Game 4 (and then Game 8) due to how the secondaries worked. Games 5-7 I think I summoned about five units total. And this was after I invested ~80 points to get a Death of Kasyr Lutien Rhino into my list to have a more viable summoning option; Nick didn't have that and had fewer Warp Charge than me, so I assume he did even less summoning than I did.

The most important thing is having the option to summon, and all the tools that gives to your army. My "army" fits on a 6x10" plastic tray. Meanwhile, I came to the tournament with two fully loaded Battlefoam bags and an extra cardboard box, full of models I never even used. I had 40+ of every Troop option on me and never used any of them (except a handful of Horrors popping out of my Portalglyph).

But if I'd played Green Tide, I would have needed those 40 Daemonettes. If I'd played Knights, I'd have needed those 40 Plaguebearers. If I'd played full Serpent Spam, I'd have needed those 20 Flesh Hounds. If I'd played Guard Blobs, I'd have needed those 12 Flamers. Etc etc etc.

90% of the time my army (and Nick's army as well) is a pretty standard Deathstar build and plays very similarly to a Bikewolf/Wraithstar/etc build; I view summoning as a secondary option to cover gaps against certain matchups. Comparably to those other Deathstars, the price I pay for that option is a reliance on the Psychic phase/Grimoire/Fateweaver to provide my Deathstar's survivability, instead of having it be an innate part of the unit itself.

Respectively... a terrible counter argument considering my initial post. You have the same re-rollable shenanigans with the ability to summon models to counter just about any build. The post was targeting that the army is good at maelstrom and that it was easier to get the 2++ re-rollable with daemonology. Summoning is just icing on the cake for an already good army.

 Tomb King wrote:
Respectively... a terrible counter argument considering my initial post. You have the same re-rollable shenanigans with the ability to summon models to counter just about any build. The post was targeting that the army is good at maelstrom and that it was easier to get the 2++ re-rollable with daemonology. Summoning is just icing on the cake for an already good army.

It's definitely just a semantic thing, but I still feel it's an important distinction, because it seems to be where everyone goes wrong with Daemons right now.

Saying "summoning army" seems to indicate that summoning is the primary, intended offensive mechanic of the army--which it's not. Mine is a pretty straight Screamerstar, with the Kasyr Lutien Rhino being my only sacrifice towards a "real" summoning army. "Real" summoning armies don't work, and not just because of Kill Point missions.

I've consistently told people your army has to be able to function with zero summons to be able to work in the current meta, and if it can, it's definitely not a "summoning army". If having the option to summon as necessary makes you a summoning army, every Daemon army would be a summoning army by default.

For instance, when I played Kopach in the 5th round, I didn't roll a single Daemonology power on any of my Heralds--I needed Misfortune to counter his Wraithknights, got rather unlucky rolling powers, and didn't get it until my last roll.

I've also traditionally carried nowhere near this many models with me to tournaments; I went pretty over-the-top since it was Adepticon (and the venue was about five minutes from my house, so there were no travel concerns with having so many models) but I've been doing just fine without them. In most cases I just have a couple units of Daemonetttes and Plaguebearers, ten or so extra Horrors for the Portalglyph, and one unit of everything else.

That said, I can definitely see how the prospect would be overwhelming for anyone trying to jump into the army, cash-wise. I'm lucky to have only ever played Daemons and had a pretty huge backlog of "bad" units built up from the past seven years, so when summoning made some of those bad units relevant, all I had to do was pull them out of storage. I think the only new models I've bought in 7th was some Plague Drones.

DJ3 wrote:

 Tomb King wrote:
Respectively... a terrible counter argument considering my initial post. You have the same re-rollable shenanigans with the ability to summon models to counter just about any build. The post was targeting that the army is good at maelstrom and that it was easier to get the 2++ re-rollable with daemonology. Summoning is just icing on the cake for an already good army.

It's definitely just a semantic thing, but I still feel it's an important distinction, because it seems to be where everyone goes wrong with Daemons right now.

Saying "summoning army" seems to indicate that summoning is the primary, intended offensive mechanic of the army--which it's not. Mine is a pretty straight Screamerstar, with the Kasyr Lutien Rhino being my only sacrifice towards a "real" summoning army. "Real" summoning armies don't work, and not just because of Kill Point missions.

I've consistently told people your army has to be able to function with zero summons to be able to work in the current meta, and if it can, it's definitely not a "summoning army". If having the option to summon as necessary makes you a summoning army, every Daemon army would be a summoning army by default.

For instance, when I played Kopach in the 5th round, I didn't roll a single Daemonology power on any of my Heralds--I needed Misfortune to counter his Wraithknights, got rather unlucky rolling powers, and didn't get it until my last roll.

I've also traditionally carried nowhere near this many models with me to tournaments; I went pretty over-the-top since it was Adepticon (and the venue was about five minutes from my house, so there were no travel concerns with having so many models) but I've been doing just fine without them. In most cases I just have a couple units of Daemonetttes and Plaguebearers, ten or so extra Horrors for the Portalglyph, and one unit of everything else.

That said, I can definitely see how the prospect would be overwhelming for anyone trying to jump into the army, cash-wise. I'm lucky to have only ever played Daemons and had a pretty huge backlog of "bad" units built up from the past seven years, so when summoning made some of those bad units relevant, all I had to do was pull them out of storage. I think the only new models I've bought in 7th was some Plague Drones.

Also to add to my last little post... I am not taking anything from either player... IE you an Nick. You all outplayed the field in the set format. In addiiton, I guess rewording the name of the army. Summoning is but one possible way of running the same army list. I guess the proper name would be a warp charge heavy daemon army.

Justin,

I think Mission 4 was huge though for daemons. I was fine with all of the other missions expect on that mission.

The secondaries could be blown out so much that the objectives didn't matter. When Nick (Yermon) and I played the table behind us had a portal glyph and summon on the opponents side and created something like 15 units. Just heard the opponent stated that the game was dumb.

Overal it was fun but Daemons right now or clearly stronger then every book when you think about the following:

fateweaver gives you 10 to 14 rerolls a game
2++ reroll
Summoning
Resilience of units
ability to deny first blood

Makes it for a real hard game giving the above and so many options that summoning brings.

On a different topic (and maybe this isn't the best place for it)

I really enjoyed the competitive nature of Adepticon. It was a lot different than just meeting up with friends and playing a game during the week, and I'd like to try another tournament or event to sate my competitive nature. But, alas, I don't particularly have the funds to fly out to the West Coast to do all of the events over there.

Are there other Chicagoland or indeed just midwest 40k events? Obviously aren't going to be as big as Adepticon, but something interesting at least would be fun.

@Requizen

Bugeater in Omaha in June (Normally 60+ for 40k)
Renegade in Minneapolis in November (Normally) (Normally 70+ for 40k)
Michigan GT in Lansing(?) in September (50+ for 40k)
And I dont' know if the Indy Open is happening this year or it's date but the Indy Open in Indianapolis. (no idea on size)

All are 2 day events.