Weekend In Review: AdeptiCon 2024

Another new convention in the books! Currently hosted in Schaumburg, Illinois, AdeptiCon has grown over the last 20 years to be one of the biggest miniature wargaming conventions in the world. And after hearing the hype from our gaming friends, the Calamity Crew wanted to see what it’s all about. AdeptiCon featured all the passion and creativity of the other cons we’ve attended, with the focus on beautifully constructed dioramas, sculptures, and painted models. And of course, we were there for some Warhammer 40k.

Thursday

The Crew consisted of my brother Mikey (@nighthawk7785) along with our friends Sam and Louis. Instead of loading the car with cosplays, we packed it with tiny plastic armies. Hobby supplies and boxes of miniatures take up about as much space as my costumes, so we had to play some road trip Tetris to make everything fit for the drive.

We stayed at the Hyatt Place, less than five minutes from the Convention Center. The special AdeptiCon rate made it very reasonably priced. A large room provided enough space for us to spread out our copious amounts of gear, snacks, and refreshments. I pack for every con like it’s DragonCon, so we always have plenty of food. If you’re ever hungry at a con, just find me. I will usually have snacks in my bag and am always happy to share!

Upon arrival, our first priority was dinner. There are tons of good food options in the area. We made our first attempt at Kuma’s Corner, which offered a special AdeptiCon burger. Being peak dinner hours, the long wait for a table would have made us late for the Star Wars trivia event. Lucky for us, two restaurant options were flanking the trivia space. We found an open table at the Gather Lounge and refueled. 

Star Wars trivia went about as well as you’d think. All four of us are lifelong fans of the franchise. It wasn’t enough to compete with the top few teams, whose knowledge encompassed an even larger view of the galaxy far, far away. Hell, I wrote my master’s thesis on pre-Disney Star Wars and even I didn’t know a few of the questions they asked! It was still a very fun time.

After trivia, we wanted to roll some dice. The open play area was easily accessible late in the evening, so we were able to quickly find a table. Since we’re all still learning 40k, we wanted to take every opportunity to play. We each built small squads for a 2-on-2 battle, Mikey and I against Sam and Louis. We didn’t finish, but we got to experience how narrative the game can be when my squad of Space Marine Infiltrators held off most of the opposing army by themselves until backup arrived. Dice tell stories, and we all love a good story. That’s why you’re here reading this, right?

Sam had the hilarious idea of rating bathrooms at a convention. Considering how conventions can be, I think it’s a fantastic bit of knowledge that would come in handy for convention goers. The Schaumburg Convention Center has some quality bathrooms. The ones outside the main convention halls were the cleanest and most accessible. A couple of the more popular ones would run out of paper towels each day, but they each had hand blowers to make up for the lack of paper. We’d continue to rate and comment on bathrooms over the weekend, but we’d say the best was up near the Gather Lounge, which wasn’t all that busy through most of the day.

Friday

Friday morning started with a free hotel breakfast, a quick workout, and a lot of snow. It was our first official instance of AdeptiCon parking. We searched each lot around the Convention Center for a while before getting lucky with a spot along the edge of the main lot. The inside, while much warmer, was just as populated. The halls were packed with tournament play, gamers, and artists alike. Our first stop was the Utopia hall, where we knew our STL friends Nick (@foreglyph) and Jeremy would be playing Adeptus Titanicus.

Utopia is where I also found Ken (@box2tabletop) running the Fallout Wasteland Warfare tournament. He provided a great setup, with an epic display of Fallout props and a whole table of beautiful immersive battlefields for each match. If I can dedicate the time for a tournament next year, I may have to suit up in my Vault 111 jumpsuit and join in for some wasteland action!

The next few hours were a whirlwind of fun games, stunning art, and great people. I stopped by several booths to check out game demos, including big names like AMG and Mantic. Those booths were packed all weekend with avid gamers trying out Star Wars and Halo games. The AMG booth had a queue system to schedule demos that filled up by 10am each morning. I also took a look at a few smaller game companies. An ancient Egyptian tomb valley made me stop at the Crocodile Games booth, where their terrain designer Chris gave me an inside look at their building process.

Just a few feet away from Crocodile Games, I found the stunning miniatures of Ravaged Star. The collaboration from MiniWarGaming.com and Lazy Squire Games was beautifully displayed on a huge immersive play table, with all three of their starter factions set up in deadly combat. I’m not exaggerating when I say this booth was busy all weekend. On my first visit, I met Mubin (@mubinthroughthemultiverse) from PlayOn Tabletop. We talked about their Coliseum 40k series, their production process for shooting and editing their episodes, and how much work awaited him back at the studio.

The Ravaged Star booth provided an opportunity to meet MiniWarGaming Dave (@miniwargamer_dave) as well. As anyone who has met him can confirm, he is one of the friendliest and most energetic personalities in the YouTube wargaming scene, and a huge advocate of exercise. He was thrilled to talk about the Ravaged Star minis, playing Chaos in 40k, and workout routines. Upon showing him some of my Chaos projects (especially my Dethklok Noise Marines), he excitedly requested I share progress and finished photos to help boost their community builders efforts. That’s some major incentive to finish the project.

After taking a few photos of Matt from MWG running a demo for Dave and Mubin, I had the urge to hunt for cosplayers. I hadn’t seen many up to this point, which was a strange con experience for me. I didn’t even have to leave the Ravaged Star booth before Alex, aka Galactic Elephant Cosplay, came lumbering over in his giant Space Wolf armor. The conversation was a classic con experience, chatting about the struggles of costume building and navigating the crowded aisles. Shortly after, I would find another AdeptiCon cosplayer Miranda (@wargamergirl) stopping for a photo op with Nick (@nickfroese) and Michael (@michaelbuckthorppaints) from PlayOn Tabletop. I was able to capture a few other cosplayers through Friday and Saturday, which really amped up the con vibes.

Since their tournament was on Saturday and Sunday, the PlayOn crew spent Friday in front of the Baron of Dice booth selling shirts and meeting fans. I got a few moments to chat with them about AdeptiCon and how PlayOn inspired me to get into 40k. Michael and I talked about our beloved ancient murderbots the Necrons and his plans for the upcoming team tournament. I was thrilled when they invited me to come check out their tournament armies the next day.

Next was a tour of the 40k tournament space, where incredibly well-crafted armies clashed on the tabletop. Cheers and shouts from players brought high-energy excitement to the room. I was checking out the awesome display boards when I spotted a set of Grey Knights. Since Mikey is playing Grey Knights, I wanted to get a few photos to give him some painting inspiration. The team that brought the board, the Warham Nasterson’s, talked to me for a few minutes about their army lists and the efforts they put into the display and models.

Later in the afternoon, I rejoined the Calamity Crew for a game demo. Louis played a demo of HeroScape, while Sam and Mikey sat in to watch. I chatted with the Renegade Games team about the tumultuous history of this game that first reached shelves back in 2004. After several failed attempts by Hasbro to keep it alive, Renegade took up the license to carry it into a new era. All of the core components are still there: the unique heroes, the wild multiversal lore, and the interactive hex-grid terrain. And with more heroes, expanded rules, and generic squad units, there’s plenty of new stuff on the way!

Hunger struck, prompting us to seek out an early dinner. On the way out of the Convention Center, we stopped at the Goblins Hut booth for a quick demo of their Dirty Down products. I’ve been aware of these weathering products for a while now, many terrain and cosplay builders have had incredible results with them. Mark showed us just how quickly you can get some very real-looking rust, moss, and patina with a small application of the product. When Mikey and I mentioned our Fallout cosplays, Mark gave us two cans of Dirty Down weathering spray to try out for free! I am so excited to try it out on Fallout props and share it with some of our cosplay friends.

For dinner, we decided to attempt Kuma’s again. Our late afternoon timing was perfect, with plenty of tables open to seat us immediately. We picked up on familiar vibes in the restaurant. The heavy metal decor and atmosphere resembled the St. Louis restaurant, The Crow’s Nest. In addition to our burgers of choice, we ordered an AdeptiCon special for the table so we could each try it. This monster of a burger featured an Angus beef patty, fried pickles, a Code Red chicken tender, house-made jalapeno queso, Spicy Nacho Cheese Doritos, and a side of Mountain Dew aioli for dipping. Insane, right? We thought so too. 

It wasn’t bad, but honestly, I preferred my burger – The Black Sabbath, from their usual menu. The cheesy Doritos made the queso near impossible to taste and the Code Red chicken tender, while very crispy, was bland. The best part for me was the Mountain Dew aioli, which had a similar taste to honey mustard (my favorite condiment). The special came with a pair of Kuma’s dice, which Sam won in a roll-off. Overall it was a great experience and we will absolutely return to try more of their epic burgers.

We wanted to try a full 2000-point game of 40k, so we packed up all of the minis we had and brought them to the open play area. It was still early in the evening, so it took us a little while to find an open table. One of the staff members was swapping terrain from a tournament that had just happened and graciously helped us reserve a spot. It certainly pays to be courteous and respectful to con staff.

While waiting for a space, we checked out “The Meat Grinder”. This unofficial AdeptiCon event blew up last year when several popular hobby YouTubers attended. To enter, you give them a dollar and a painted miniature. Once they have a group of ten, everyone votes on which mini has the best paint job, and then all of them go into the arena. They battle until one is left standing. When a miniature dies in the game, you have to take it to the LITERAL MEAT GRINDER nearby and grind it up into little bits! They will take off the head or any other interesting bits before grinding to contribute to the winner’s trophy at the end of the tournament. We didn’t compete this year, but certainly plan on throwing some minis in the grinder next AdeptiCon.

The rest of the night was a bit of a slog for the Calamity Crew, as we were all tired from the exciting day. We played through the first two rounds of a 3-on-1 game of 40k, with my Necrons taking on the combined forces of Grey Knights, Orks, and T’au. It was a valuable learning experience for us, seeing how bigger games with specific mission rules can function. Even though we weren’t able to finish any games over the weekend, the small taste was enough to make us excited for more. It’s a lot of fun to move models and roll dice, and super satisfying to see my painted army go into battle.

After packing up the game and heading back to the hotel, we all crashed pretty quick. The accumulated exhaustion made for a much better sleep than the previous night.

Saturday

We all needed a longer rest in the wake of two exciting days. Lucky for us, that free hotel breakfast was open later during the weekend. Considering how expensive some con hotels can be (looking at you, Atlanta Marriott), we all greatly appreciated the chance to fill up before starting a day.

Since I missed the opportunity to shoot the Star Wars tournaments on Friday, I decided to start Saturday with Star Wars Legion and Shatterpoint. Not long into my walk, I spotted a speeder that was painted to look like Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal. The captain of said vehicle, known as the 82nd Legion in the SWL community, showed me the electronics he installed including lights, a Bluetooth speaker, and a USB charging port. A wave of recognition hit me, as I realized I had seen this setup in the Legion Discord server. His work was the inspiration for me buying the speeder for my own Rebel army! I have yet to assemble it…

After checking out all the Star Wars games, I went over to the 40k area to find the PlayOn team getting ready for a round of their doubles tournament. I snapped a few photos of their army display board, which featured a model of their studio with an Ork camera crew. Theirs was just the first of many army displays I would photograph that day. I saw some truly incredible dioramas, including a collection of daemon lords featuring a cursed Thomas the Tank Engine and a coffin-sized box with a Halloween skeleton sculpted into an image of the Warhammer daemon god Khorne.

Louis joined me as I circled the play area, so I took the opportunity to introduce him to Nick so they could chat about their T’au armies. This time I got to meet the fourth member of the team Matt, aka Dr. Rhino (@drrhino_). We talked for a while about his radical Sisters of the Iron Maiden army, kitbashing models, and telling stories with our art. He told us about his charity efforts, and how he’s helping to provide children with the tools to learn painting. As someone who has found so much value in the creative expression of this hobby, I can really appreciate that.

Shortly after, I caught Mikey getting ready to attend the 3D Lab class to learn Zbrush. He’s been interested in 3D design for a while, so he was excited to finally get an opportunity to study with a pro like Africa Mir (@africa.mir_sculpture). Once he was inside, I went to look for Aaron and Ted of Da Gof Rockerz (@dagofrockerz) for a quick interview. 

The Ork rockers were a consistent source of entertainment throughout the afternoon with their boys dressed as a couple of rowdy Grots (the goblins of Warhammer). Ted told me about how he got started years ago at AdeptiCon playing Battlefleet Gothic. The group of musician friends started to make music together using the themes of Ork war chants and phrases. They’ve played shows at cons like Gen Con, with plans to play AdeptiCon as well. Unfortunately, their venue was canceled at the last minute due to renovations. I really hope I get another chance to see them perform someday. After listening to their music on YouTube, I can imagine it’s a really fun show.

They let me know of their schedule for the afternoon, so I agreed to come back and shoot a few photos once Ted got into costume. Louis had sent me a picture of a Necron dice tray at the Baron of Dice booth, so I had to go looking for it. A consistent issue we had with our 40k games was the lack of a proper dice tray, so I sought to fix that problem. There I met Steven Long, the Baron himself, running the booth. 

I met up with Sam and Louis shortly after on the way up to visit Nick and Jeremy to see their Imperialis game. It happened to be the same time that the free-for-all Knight Fight event was in full swing. This battle pitted Imperial and Chaos knights, massive walking mechs, against each other in a huge cityscape.

After taking a few photos of the games, I returned to the floor to catch the PlayOn team in their next tournament match. While taking photos, I met photographers Ben and Jose (@save.progress) watching the match as well. We had a great time talking about the show and the con, it being their first AdeptiCon also.

On another stop at the Ravaged Star booth, I got a chance to meet Matt from MWG (@mwgmatthew) and chat for a bit about our love of terrain and world-building. If you haven’t seen his studio tours, the MWG bunker has a TON of terrain and elaborate tables for gaming. Each set is a world of its own, just waiting to be explored. Matt was running demos all weekend, and said he had done 20-30 up to that point. It sounded like they all had a great busy time.

After rejoining with Sam and Louis, we decided to do a bit of shopping while I waited on an update from Aaron. My first stop was at a booth selling Chibi miniatures. I saw them the previous day and thought they’d make good Christmas gifts, especially a select few. Unfortunately though, several of those were already sold out. Literally the first four I asked for were all gone: Karlach, Mothman, Ludo, and Ambrosius. I underestimated the popularity of those characters, but was still able to get a few choice picks.

While looking through the beautiful fantasy miniatures at the DGS Games booth, we were offered a demo of their game Freeblades. Louis and I played through a small skirmish in which an all-male faction and an all-female faction went head to head in a grudge match. The dice were not on my side for most of the fight, but when Louis’s leader made an attempt on mine, my Parry and Riposte rolls came out swinging! I landed such a severe critical hit that I was able to take out his leader in a single turn. The look of absolute shock told us that ours was probably the wildest demo they ran all weekend. It ended just as I got the text from Aaron, so we went off lookin for Da Gof Rockerz.

By the time we got there, Ted had donned Da Big Mek costume. They gathered a small crowd to watch the Grots go a couple of rounds in a makeshift boxing ring. Ted then picked up his massive weapon and went hunting for Space Marines. We picked up MWG Dave along the way with Sean (@itwouldbesean) recording the moments. With a little help from some friendly con-goers, we were able to get Ted and his Grots to the massive Terminator statue set up in the lobby for some photos.

The rest of the afternoon involved chicken tenders, some pricey but epic tactical bags from Equilibrium, and watching people bring boxes up to the food court for Bitz Trading. We had wanted to partake in the Bitz Trading event, but opted to go get dinner and prep for the evening activities instead. We picked up Mikey on the way out, who had a very encouraging experience in the Zbrush class. He’s very excited to get further into the world of 3D design and modeling, and I’m excited to paint whatever he comes up with.

Dinner was a combination of Kuma’s leftovers and IHOP, where we met up with Nick and Jeremy to discuss their experience in the tournaments. We talked about the state of wargaming, and how certain games are falling a bit flat while others are offering much better balanced play. I was delighted to hear their anticipation for the new Fallout Factions game from Modiphius. As someone who’s been collecting the Fallout minis since their original pre-orders, I’m interested in a new game system that uses stuff I already have. 

After a quick stop to load up our hobby gear at the hotel, we went back to the Convention Center to check out the Armies on Parade in the lobby. I met up with Jose there and talked about how he and Ben got started in streaming and photography, as well as my history with the comic con community while taking photos of the incredibly creative displays. While I took photos, Louis, Sam, and Mikey went upstairs to join Nick and Jeremy for a demo of Guild Ball.

As my camera finally started to die, I went upstairs to take photos of the entries in the Golden Demon painting competition. I caught Michael and Dr. Rhino and chatted them up about the various entrants and their progress in the doubles tournament. Rhino ended up with a Notable Entry award for his first entry into the Golden Demon competition. There were some truly inspiring pieces on display. After talking to them about it, I’ve decided I would like to enter a piece next year. I know my skills can’t touch the top-tier finalists, but I think I’ve developed enough to have a shot at the middle tier. The question is, what do I want to paint for it?

Mikey joined me for the last bit of the Golden Demon walkthrough, then we went to find Sam and Louis in the open-play area. Playing more 40k wasn’t on our minds at the time. We were really more interested in painting. There was no clear advantage to painting at the Convention Center though, so we returned to the hotel for some late-night hobbying. We watched the coverage of the 40k singles finals while I ended the night literally painting in bed. I didn’t accomplish much, but I figured out the skin tone for one of my Chaos characters.

Sunday

As with every Sunday at a con, it started with packing up and loading the car. We had to play yet another round of Tetris to make sure everything fit securely. Upon returning to the full parking lot, we got lucky with someone leaving just as we arrived. Our priorities were saying goodbyes and shopping for last-day deals.

The first stop was Goblins Hut, where we collected the bottles of Dirty Down we wanted to use in our future painting endeavors. We then hit a booth near the back of the hall that had bins of dollar paints and dice. I was able to find the dice I was looking for, but just like the Chibi minis I waited too long and missed out on some of the better paints. So if you see a good deal at a con, don’t wait to claim it! The final leg of the shopping trip involved finding a variety of miniature plants and grass tufts for terrain, picking out a full 40k sized playmat, and me buying my first Ravaged Star model. I’m looking forward to painting this big beasty!

We said goodbye to Nick and Jeremy, making plans to talk and play more games once we’re all back in STL. Finally, we swung by the tournament area to say goodbye to the PlayOn team, where they were slogging through another tournament round with Nick feeling under the weather and the whole team exhausted from an exciting weekend.

Soon we were quickly back on the road to St. Louis. All that stood between us and home was a long-awaited stop at Taco John’s.

Our first AdeptiCon was one to remember. All four of us had a stellar time and are already making plans to return next year. I’m setting goals of playing in a tournament and entering a model into the Golden Demon competition. I’ve got a year to prepare for that, but in the meantime… there are more adventures to be had! We’ve got C2E2 and DragonCon to look forward to this year. And with the release of the new Fallout show on Amazon Prime, I’m hoping to see plenty of wastelanders!

Thank you for taking the time to follow my journey. I hope my stories and tips can help guide you to a better and more fulfilling convention experience.