Monday, April 23, 2012

Adeption 2012 - A Great Finish

Another successful Adepticon convention! My thanks and congrats to all the organizers and volunteers who pulled off a great event. This year I ended up attending the 40k Championships, the Necromunda by Night, and the 40k Gladiator which brings me to the gist of this post - what will I be doing at Adepticon next year?

I am definitely attending next year but will change a few things about my personal gaming itinerary. First off, only one 40k event for me - three was just too many. The championships are fun but the tournament culture at this point really means that my foot guard suffer a bit and I am too stubborn to crack open my old Daemonhunters given the plethora of Grey Knight armies out there. There may be a new power game 'dex next year but I have a feeling the Knights are going to be a top tier book for a while. Perhaps my biggest frustration with the Adepticon champs format was the fact that all three mission objectives were weighted equally and three out of the four missions had kill points as one of the objectives. My guard army had 22 kill points! My first game was against a Draigowing list that had all of ten killpoints.

Having said that, the missions themselves aren't the reason I am taking a future pass on the 40k champs. At this point, 4 games of 40k in a row does not make for a fun day for me. After game three, I was seriously tired and serious tempted to leave. I grabbed a little food, restored my energy levels, and had a great game four against a younger Necron player - all's well that ends well... but it was still a bit much for me. Which brings me to the event in which I will continue to participate - the Adepticon 40k Gladiator!

Gladiator is a three game tourney that is just about pure fun. And this year I added to that fun by creating a personal "scrapyard challenge". In a nutshell, on Saturday (Gladiator is Sunday), after scrounging through various scrap vehicles at the con bits sellers I found an unpainted, untracked Griffon heavy mortar. After finding some tracks and a hull mounted flamer, I decided to get this guy painted up before Sunday and added to one of the two Gladiator sidebars. Much props to Lo Pan for a clever use of staples to mount the vinyl tracks to my griffon - super glue does not work on vinyl.

So for next year, I am formalizing my own Scrapyard Challenge. Basically it means bringing my paints and modelling supplies, scrounging through the amazing selection of bits, and painting up a vehicle or squad for inclusion in the Gladiator on the following day. Gladiator allows two 500 point sidebars, so I will keep one of my sidebars available for whatever I put together for the scrapyard challenge.

Once again, a great convention. Lessons learned: play one 40k event, take classes, and scrounge up a vehicle or squad for the challenge.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Adepticon Championships Kick-Off

The Champs this year have a 9am check-in with the first game starting at 10:30am. Presumably this is to give time for paint judging and gives me some time to take pics and blog.

First off, my humble guard army. No where near best painted but I do have a number of conversions I am proud of:
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Next up is a fellow NOVAnite, Kevin Comer with a gorgeous Vostroyan army:
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Doug McNaron's chaos marine army is always a crowd pleaser with LED lights and a smoking skull volcano to strike fear in the hearts of his opponents:
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Finally we have Tony Kopach's champs winning Space Wolf army. He took this tourney last year... Can he make it a twofer?
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Made it to Adepticon!

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Group pic from the final rest stop. We managed to meet up with Andrew, Mark, Mike, and Tony's bus. We are about 2 hours out at this point.

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And here we are at Giordano's enjoying a classic Chicago deep dish. The camera is actually in focus but the people of buzzing so fast due to all the excitement in the air!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The Madness Within... The Adepticon Roadtrip!


Currently listening to the 40k audio drama The Madness Within as we trek through the wilds of Ohio. Gorgeous countryside, fields streaking by, so flat horizon only broken by copse of trees blossoming in the early Spring. There is a kind of quantifiable metric to this flatness betrayed by the height of water towers and the distance between them. Multiple stories high, gravity working unseen to irrigate the surrounding fields and farms.
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Live Blogging: Somewhere in Ohio

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So we are somewhere in Ohio at this point. The general tenor of the trip is accurately represented in the photo above. 

Just finished rocking out to the D! Next up... Wugazi

Live blogging: New Stanton on the Penn Turnpike



3 hours in and still rock and roll. So far we've espoused the virtues of the NOVA format, reviewed GWs failings as a rules company, and extolled the virtues of Infinity...

Good times ahead!
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Prose before hos

Ode to the road
The car, a full load.
Three gamers, insane
With dice on the brain.
Coffee and gas,
Big trucks to pass.
On to Chicago,
For the weekend.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Ode to the Accelerant

And now on a very special episode of 23lines.... we are very proud to present the literary styling of a giant in our community... I present to you 'Ode to the Accelerant'


The apothecary of modeling, am I
Accelerator be my inspiration, and cyanoacrylite my muse
Be my acrylics and solvents ever within reach, 
and deftly honed blades forever mine to use
Nay, shall I not want for a styrene accouterments, 
nor resin accents, 
nor acrylic rod 
nor photo-etched details
Shall I be beholden to the immutable stain of enamel?
Nay! For mine is the access to alcohol, terpentine and napthol, 
against which all discolrants shall fall.

What care have I for the challenge of the hobby?  
None... as naught but a challenge beneath my contempt;
For have I such tremendous amounts of varied shit around mine house 
That no obstacle cannot be overcome!
-Kevin the Kovarcik