Adepticon 2014 - Post Mortem review

FOR GAMERS - BY GAMERS!

Yet another Adepticon has come and gone.   Truly one of the biggest events in the 40K hobby.   Believe this was my 7th year now of attending.   Here are my general thoughts on the event.

Organization:

Adepticon sets the example for Tournaments as far as I'm concerned for this facet.  They have a ton of people, vendors, events, etc.  As a attendee, this seems to go off without a hitch every year.   True there are a few nit's (example - this years glasses came back bad from vendor) but they always make up for it.  

This year they had the vendors back in the 40K main hall.  I thought that a great touch - as last year it was in a separate wing of the hotel and harder to get to.   Forgeworld and Black Library in the main lobby was interesting.  It seemed like the Forgeworld line was pretty short this year compared to earlier years.

Swag Bag was pretty nice as well.   A good deal of stuff included.

Vendors:

Nice assortment of vendors.   From my favorites (Dice Head and SpikeyBitz - both run by friends) to Cool Mini and Secret Weapon (other favorites) to Battlefoam (awesome product and great deals at Adepticon) to misc vendors I don't know.   Lot's of interesting things.  Seemed a bit smaller this year - but still good.

Black Library and Forgeworld are way cool to have there.  Seemed like less crowds.   Enjoyed getting Graham McNeil to autograph his new Horus Heresy book for me. 

Game Play:

I only play 40K at Adepticon.  I was a bit apprehensive this year as 40K is a bit broken now compared to past years - but was pleasantly surprised.  I had competitive lists and actually am starting to think that the current parity in army lists is making things a bit more balanced.   That being said, every year it seems like there is one army that is "over-represented".  This year - hands down - was Eldar.   In the team tournament - every game we played had Eldar in it.  Literally a bazillion Eldar and Tau-Dar lists in the team.  Champions was  a little less prevalent - but still a lot of Eldar armies.   Chaos Demons in Champs was also very common and believe won it all.

I have to say I really enjoyed all my games.   In the Championship - I had a tough fought game that I managed to win, got tabled by a child-genius running a triple Heldrake list that raped me, then played a seven demon prince chaos demon list that I won in perhaps my finest 40K hour in 5 years or more, to a tough matchup against another bike list - that beat me in the war of attrition.  The entire spectrum of gaming in one tournament for me.   But most of all.....I HAD A BLAST!  In all honesty - 40K had gotten a little stale - but this has done a lot to re-energize my love of the game.

Team was the same.   I really go for the team tourney.  Missed my battle brother Gimli - but our buddy Swanson was a great team mate.  Again I really appreciated him joining us.   I was on a roll in team tourney and was on winning side of all 5 games.   Appreciated our team captain letting Sabote and I team for three games.   We simply play doubles games very well together and have great synergy in team games.   But again - Four of our games were absolute blasts to play - 1 was a little tense at times - but nothing over the top.   I had a blast again! 

Tournaments:

Overall again a great job by the Adepticon team and staff.  Well organized, well run, great timing.  Only thing I noticed was it seemed like prize support was a little down this year.  I personally don't really care about that - but some do and the winner swag seemed less than previous years.  Games Workshop is really screwing up not supporting tournaments and the tourney scene.  Especially Adepticon - which is unlike anything else in the hobby world wide.   I truly don't understand their marketing direction and why they wouldn't throw prize support to this.  Oh well - the gang that puts on Adepticon is great.   One note - there was some noise because a staff member won the raffle (actually two years in a row).  Ok - it is Chicago and everyone knows about politics and Chicago - but don't think a bunch of gamer enthusiasts would go so far as to throw a tournament for this.  They are volunteers - so think it cool that "Ogre" won - although would have been cooler had "AL" won.

Summary:

If you love the hobby and haven't been to Adepticon - you need to go.   It's amazing what they do and how much there is to do.   Keep it coming!