Chris Borer's Killzone Team

I don't have much time for blogging right now so tonight I just want to quickly show a few pictures I took at AdeptiCon of some really amazing Space Marines. I played in the Killzone event on the last day of the convention and had the good fortune of both playing against and then later teaming up with one of my favorite miniature painters, Chris Borer of Full Borer Miniatures. Having admired his painting for years and even taken one of his painting classes at the previous AdeptiCon, I had come to think of him only in terms of his work as an artist. It was therefore a particularly special treat for me to get to actually spend time gaming with him and have fun throwing dice with a winner of four Slayer Sword awards and more than twenty Golden Demon trophies. (Click here to see his tally of Golden Demons.) You can imagine then my elation when Chris even complemented my own Killzone team and said what a pleasure it was to play against a well-painted army!

For his Killzone team Chris brought a mix of Space Marines and Space Marine veterans primarily equipped for rather specialized roles, and complemented by a number of cheaper Space Marine Scouts. His team was lead by what I think was a Veteran Sergeant who had been upgraded to carry the special issue Medipack, and hence was modeled as a Space Marine Apothecary. The other members of the team included a Sternguard veteran, a Vanguard veteran, two basic Space Marines armed with a Heavy Bolter and a Flamer, and one more Space Marine with the standard equipment. Finally there were five Scouts, one carrying a shotgun and the other four armed with bolt pistols and close combat weapons. It seemed to me to be a really well balanced and quite lethal Killzone team and I believe Chris did fairy well with them in his games. Oh and they look fantastic, too! Check 'em out...

Apothecary (Team Leader)

Sternguard Veteran

Vanguard Veteran

There was also one more member of the Killzone team, a very cool Space Marine posed in the act of throwing a frag grenade, but unfortunately none of the pictures I took of him turned out well. Too bad as it was one of my favorites from the bunch and I apologize for not getting the complete set photographed. Chris was very kind and allowed anyone who was interested to handle his minis and set them up for photos, an opportunity of which a number of people took advantage. So who knows... maybe I can track down a decent picture of that last Space Marine from this team.

That's it for tonight, however. I hope you enjoyed taking a look at these beautifully painted miniatures, I'm very thankful for the chance to share them with you. Happy gaming, everyone!

It's How You Use It - Round 1

For my first game in the 1000 point Warhammer Fantasy tournament, my Dark Elf army was matched up against a Dwarf force commanded by Bill, one of the co-hosts of the Gamers Lounge podcast and author of The Dead Tau Project. Cool! There were some problems with the registration and check-in process for the tournament and so Bill and I had an extra long time to talk before the start of our game. It was a lot of fun and was good for my pre-game jitters too. Bill assured me that he was very new to WFB as well and that we'd be making mistakes and looking up rules together. Unfortunately we missed the announcement to begin playing as we chatted on about Malifaux and the upcoming NOVA Open, until we at last noticed all the players around us were already deep into their first turns. Oops! So in a rush we flipped open our mission packets and got underway.

The tournament used a closed-list format and required opponents to exchange army lists at the conclusion of the game. I therefore didn't know any of the following specifics about Bill's choice of runic items until learning about them during the course of our game. Otherwise we went over the units in our respective armies before deploying to make sure everything was clear. Details about my Dark Elf army can be found here, while Bill's army consisted of the following units:

Dwarf Lord: Shieldbearers, Rune of Might, Rune of Stone, Master Rune of Spite

Thane Battle Standard Bearer: Rune of Cleaving, Master Rune of Gromil

18 Longbeards: great weapons, shields, heavy armour, full command

14 Hammerers: great weapons, shields, heavy armour, full command

Cannon: Rune of Burning, Rune of Forging

Scenario 1: Line 'Em Up!

Every campaign begins with marching out to take what is yours, either rightfully or just because you want it. Sometimes we go to defend what is ours from others, either by right or by power.

Special Rules

Sudden Vanguard: One unit of your choice in your army that does not have a character in it or does not already have the Vanguard Special Rule gains the Vanguard Special Rule for this game.

Victory Conditions and Battle Points

Standard victory points per the main rulebook, requiring a margin of at least 100 points or more to count as a Victory. If the difference in victory points is 99 or less, the game is considered a Draw. 15 Battle Points are awarded for a Victory, 10 Battle Points for a Draw, and 5 Battle Points for a Loss.

Bonus Battle and Objective Points

+3 points for destroying your opponent's chosen unit completely.

+2 points for keeping your chosen unit alive or not fleeing at the end of the game.

+3 points for having a unit garrisoning the building feature (Pyramid) at the end of the game.

+2 points for having a non-fleeing unit in your opponent's deployment zone.

Terrain

All of the terrain was pre-set throughout the tournament and every table used a standardized layout of terrain pieces, though the actual style of pieces did vary somewhat. For the first game we played on a desert themed board that had on my left between the deployment zones a Pyramid which used the standard rules for buildings. Also on the left hand side but within my deployment zone there was a Mysterious Forest with scrub and a couple of cactus plants, though the exact nature of the terrain would be randomly determined once entered by a unit. On the right there was a hill located in my deployment zone and beyond it closer to Bill's side of the table there was a more conventional style building. In the middle of Bill's deployment zone there was a hill and then another Mysterious Forest on Bill's far left flank.

Deployment

We were starting our game so late that I really didn't put much thought into how I deployed my units, I just wanted to begin playing as soon as we could. In hopes of securing those 3 extra objective points, I expected my Shades to be able to Scout forward and outrun the Hammerers to arrive first at the Pyramid. To the right of where the Shades would go I deployed the Cold One Knights. Then the Corsairs and the Repeater Crossbowmen formed the center of the line, and finally the War Hydra and the Harpies took up position on the right flank. I chose the Harpies as my special Vanguard unit for the scenario and fianlly, having rolled for her spells and taken Fireball and Cascading Fire-Cloak, I placed my Sorceress within the unit of Corsairs for safe keeping.

Bill nominated his Hammerers to gain the Vanguard special rule for this game and deployed them in position to rush the Pyramid. He then deployed his Cannon on the hill in the middle of his deployment zone with the unit of Longbeards placed near the hill between the Cannon and Hammerers. Both his Dwarf Lord and Thane joined the Longbeards and he used his Vanguard move to get the Hammerers just inches from the Pyramid. I moved my Harpies from the hill on my right and began angling them toward the Cannon as they advanced forward. And with that we were ready to play!!

TURN 1

Bill won the roll to go first and quickly claimed the Pyramid with his Hammerers as the unit of Longbeards loaded up with his army's potent characters marched straight ahead at my battle line. With his movement phase complete Bill opened fire with the Cannon and targeted my Hydra. Fortunately for me it misfired and despite the Rune of Forging saving the artillery piece from a potentially disastrous first shot, the cannonball then failed to bounce and stopped a few inches in front of its intended target. Phew! There was nothing else for Bill to do at that point and so he concluded his half of the turn.

Right away I was faced with a dilemma. I had wanted to race my Shades into the Pyramid first but instead the building was now crammed full of elite Dwarf infantry, heavily armed and armored. It seemed like it would be very long odds to dislodge them from the building with my small unit of Dark Elf skirmishers. In hindsight I believe I should have opted to ignore them, concede the measly 3 bonus points awarded for occupying the Pyramid, and then concentrate my efforts on fighting the rest of Bill's army. That probably would have been the wiser thing to do, but come on... I didn't travel all this way to play it safe and NOT charge headlong into combat the first chance I could. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Therefore...

CHARGE!!!

The rest of my army moved forward in anticipation of potentially charging into combat on the next turn. Thanks to their Vanguard move I thought it might be possible to get a first turn charge against the Cannon with my Harpies but decided they would be too far to try. [A very helpful reader emailed me and pointed out that a unit which has made a Vanguard move cannot also declare a charge in the first turn, so the Harpies would not have been able to do so anyways. Thanks for the assistance!] With the Shades having disappeared into the Pyramid and the Harpies closing in on the Dwarf artillery crew, everything else in my army began to head toward the Longbeards. Although the Hydra had the farthest to go, I was happy that any further cannonballs fired at it would at least be bouncing away from the rest of my army rather than at them.

In my first magic phase I was able to roast a single Longbeard with a Fireball and then put Cascading Fire-Cloak onto the Sorceress and her bodyguard of Black Ark Corsairs. The Repeater Crossbowmen fired a long-range volley on the move and managed a couple of hits, none of which made it past the Dwarfs' hefty armour save. That was it for the Shooting phase and it was now time for my first taste of combat. Ooh, so exciting!

Although outnumbered and outmatched in terms of equipment, I nonetheless reasoned that my Shades might still be able to pull off something spectacular with a heavy dose of luck in their favor. They would be striking first after all with two attacks each, while the Dwarfs would be without the benefit of their ranks or standard. So maybe, just maybe, the Shades could inflict a bunch of casualties, somehow survive the retaliatory attacks, and thus pull off an amazingly unlikely victory. Regardless it seemed like a dramatic way to start things off so I didn't care how badly the odds were stacked against my Dark Elf ninja squad.

It should therefore come as no surprise that in the ensuing combat my Shades were butchered mercilessly. I was able to inflict a single casualty on the Pyramid's defenders before having all five of the Shades killed in return by the Hammerers' great weapons. Not what I was hoping for but still nothing too upsetting... well, until I remembered Panic. With the Shades having been wiped out, the nearby Cold One Knights promptly failed their leadership test and broke off in a trot for my table edge. [Again another mistake on my part with the rules. The same reader explained to me that as the Cold One Knights are subject to Stupidity, they are also Immune to Psychology and hence would not have needed to test for Panic. D'oh!] Disorder spread down my line as the Corsairs next failed their leadership test and succumbed to Panic as well. I then had to test for the Repeater Crossbowmen who showed a little more courage and stood their ground. With half my army now either killed or running away, the first turn came to an end.

TURN 2

Spurred on by the success of the previous turn, Bill declared a charge with the Longbeards against my fleeing Cold One Knights. Showing off a surprising amount of speed, the Dwarf unit forced the Cold One Knights to move even closer to the board edge, the Dark Elf unit having stopped just a couple of inches away from leaving the battlefield entirely. With the Hammerers still occupying the Pyramid, the only other thing for the Dwarf army to do was fire their runic Cannon once again at my Hydra. This time the shot was on target and successfully bounced through the Hydra, inflicting three wounds and denying the monster its Regeneration save due to the Rune of Burning. There were no combats to fight and so ended the top of Turn 2.

Eager to protect my Hydra from anymore flaming cannonballs, first I declared a charge against the Cannon with the unit of Harpies. Next I was able to rally my fleeing units before moving the Hydra as fast as I could across the table. The Repeater Crossbowmen stood their ground and took aim at the menacing Longbeards. After losing another of their number to a Fireball cast by the Sorceress, the Longbeards took a few more casualties from the increasing volume of crossbow bolts directed at them. Meanwhile the Harpies launched their assault against the crew of the Cannon, killing two of the Dwarfs and taking one casualty in return. The last crewman stubbornly clung by his artillery piece, thus ending both the combat and the turn.

TURN 3

Bill declared a charge with his Longbeards against my Corsairs who in response held their ground. The Sorceress succeeded in burning a Dwarf with her Cascading Fire-Cloak and the Corsairs did a fair job cutting into the Longbeards' ranks, their attacks upgraded to Armour Piercing thanks to the unit's Banner of Murder. At the end of the Dark Elf attack however there were still too many Longbeards left alive, as well as the uninjured Dwarf Lord and Thane Battle Standard Bearer. The remaining Dwarfs attacked and inflicted a huge amount of pain on the Corsairs and also knocked a wound off the Sorceress, who only survived the carnage thanks to her Talisman of Endurance. Still the Dwarfs caused enough wounds to win the combat resolution by a difference of four. I failed the subsequent break test and watched helplessly as the speedy little Dwarfs caught up with my fleeing Dark Elves and cut them down from behind, running down and killing the Sorceress as well. Not done with the onslaught, the Dwarfs continued their pursuit into the recently rallied Cold One Knights. That fight however would have to wait until my half of the turn.

For my part there wasn't a lot left that I could do. The Cold One Knights and the Harpies were already engaged and the Hydra was at last set to charge into the Longbeards' left flank. There was nothing for the Repeater Crossbowmen to fire at and nowhere helpful for them to go, so instead they nervously shuffled their feet and looked around for a convenient route away from the battlefield. The Hydra crashed into the Longbeards and combat began again. The Cold One Knights did nothing at all and were wiped out by the Dwarf General and Battle Standard Bearer. The Hydra succeeded in killing some of the remaining Longbeards and thundstomped another, but it wasn't enough and the Dwarfs won the combat. The Hydra broke and ran away although the Dwarfs this time were not able to move fast enough to catch him.

Finally the Harpies were able to kill the last of the Dwarf crewman from the Cannon but it was too late for the victory to matter any to the overall outcome of the battle. There would not have been enough time to complete another turn and so our game had to come to an end at the close of Turn 3. All that was left was to tally up our dead and to turn in our score cards for the round. Even before doing any of the math however it was clear though that Bill and his Dwarfs had won the battle.

Come get some!

Results and Aftermath

After an hour or so of intense maneuvering and furious combat, my first game at Adepticon was complete. My Dark Elves were bloodied and had taken a sound thrashing, but on the other hand I had a great time and enjoyed the game immensely. Bill was a fantastic opponent to play against and made my reintroduction to Warhammer Fantasy tremendous fun. I couldn't have hoped for a better first game and felt much more comfortable and relaxed going into the next round thanks to Bill's outstanding character and sportsmanship.

Having destroyed most of my army in exchange for losing only his Cannon, Bill did indeed get the Victory from our game. He received bonus points for keeping his chosen unit of Hammerers alive and for occupying the Pyramid at the end of the game. I took the Loss but picked up bonus points for keeping my chosen unit of Harpies alive and also for having them in the Dwarf army's deployment zone at the end of the game. Therefore the final score on Battle Points for this game was 20-9 in favor of the Dwarfs.

The tournament organizers were hustling to make up for the late start so there wasn't much time to reflect on the game or my army's performance between rounds. I was just very happy to have had a fun time and to have gotten through without making any big mistakes concerning actual gameplay. [Well, except for where noted above, and the many other likely errors I made that were simply never noted or remembered. Ha! I am very grateful for the help provided and welcome all such feedback as I am eager to learn and improve. Thanks!] For my first game of Warhammer Fantasy in six or sever years at least, I was more than satisfied with how things went. Sure it might have been helpful if I had remembered to use the re-rolls on misses in combat granted by my army's Eternal Hatred but oh well... too bad for those Shades!

With the table assignments posted I rushed off to find my opponent for Round 2. Next up... the Skaven!

Initial Plans for Raptors Legion

Well once again I apologize for the unplanned absence from the blog. Busy times, family stuff, taxes, etc... you know the routine. I am sorry though that I haven't gotten a chance to write anything lately, I'll get back to the Adepticon business soon enough hopefully. Staying true to diceRolla form, I'll be ready to go over my experiences at the convention once any remaining interest in the thing has finally died off. Tonight however I want to chat a little about the plans I've been working on for the Raptors Legion, a project which, along with my Dark Elves, I expect should receive a fair amount of my attention and hobby time for at least the next several months.

Sometime ago I decided I would aim for collecting an entire Battle Company of the Raptors Legion along with supporting elements attached from the first and the reserve companies. Once I began to seriously consider the scale of such an undertaking, it seemed a bit intimidating and so I realized I would need to break it down into more manageable chunks on which to work. But before writing any lists or building any more models for the army, I thought it would be best to check out the latest fluff concerning the chapter's organization and approach to warfare. So with all of the hustle leading up to Adepticon now past, I finally spent the previous few nights planning out the composition for my Battle Company, having only this past weekend opened my copy of IA9 for the first time.

I'm not too far into the book but based on what I've seen I am impressed with this first volume covering the Badab War and think it looks like a cool resource. All the background material provided concerning the Raptors chapter seems fantastic to me and I am really quite happy that I picked them out. I've a minor quibble or two with their special character, Lias Issodon, but otherwise I think he presents some interesting options for the army and should be a fun model to build. In general though I don't anticipate having to do anything drastically unusual in collecting and designing the army so as to stay faithful to their fluff. Although they are described as being an unorthodox chapter of Space Marines, my impression is that they are not distinguished by having an unusual organization or selection of equipment and weapons. Instead they come across as more distinctive attitudinally with regard to their combat doctrine and wider strategic vision. Refreshing stuff for the 41st millennium. :)

Enough about background for now, let's get on to the army lists. So as I mentioned above, I've decided to break up this project into several large sections to help me move things along and not get overwhelmed by the total number of models still to be built and painted. First off I want to be ale to start playing as soon as possible, and therefore my initial focus will be on getting a usable army ready to hit the table. With this army project I want to take the time to include squad markings and all those other fun little details I usually end up leaving off for the sake of flexibility with my collection of miniatures. To help me stay consistent with the assignment of minis to their various squads, over the weekend I wrote out a master list for the complete Battle Company from which I will select units to build whatever size army list I need.

Therefore to guide my early efforts on this project, I have put together an 1850 point army list along with some simple variants for different sized games. These are largely based on what I had already assembled before looking over the Imperial Armour book, and so I do not mean to suggest there is anything particularly characteristic of the Raptors Legions with the lists. Also a primary goal of mine was to use full units as they will appear in the completed Battle Company, and with their dedicated transports, so this is certainly not meant to be an "optimized" list either. Once the first 2000 points of my Raptors are built and painted I will figure out the next block to work on, but for now this is all I'm going to be concerned with. Like I said, I'm eager to begin playing some games while still being somewhat deliberate in my approach.

HQ

Space Marine Captain - combi-melta, power fist

ELITES

Dreadnought - heavy flamer, multi-melta, Drop Pod

Dreadnought - twin linked autocannons x 2

TROOPS

Tactical Squad - 5 additional Space Marines, plasma gun, lascannon, power weapon, Rhino

Tactical Squad - 5 additional Space Marines, meltagun, multi-melta, combi-melta, power fist, Drop Pod

Tactical Squad - 5 additional Space Marines, flamer, missile launcher, melta bombs, Rhino

Scout Squad - 5 additional Scouts, sniper rifles x 4, heavy bolter, camo cloaks

FAST ATTACK

Assault Squad - 5 additional Space Marines, flamers x 2, power fist and combat shield

Land Speeder Squadron - 1 Land Speeder with a multi-melta

HEAVY SUPPORT

Devastator Squad - 5 additional Space Marines, missile launchers x 4, Rhino

TOTAL POINTS = 1850

2000 point variant: Add an additional Land Speeder with multi-melta, add a Predator with Heavy bolter sponsons, add melta bombs to the first Tactical squad sergeant.

1750 point variant: Drop the 5 additional Scouts, the camo cloaks, and the sniper rifles from the Scout Squad, drop the melta bombs from the third Tactical squad sergeant.

1500 point variant: Drop the first Dreadnought and Drop Pod, drop the Scout Squad, drop the Captain, add either a Chaplin with a jump pack OR a Librarian with a plasma pistol (Null Zone and Might of the Ancients, perhaps?), switch the Drop Pod for a Rhino in the second Tactical Squad.

So all of that should keep me busy for a long time to come, as well as providing ample time for me to plan out the next block of Raptors that I will work on once these guys are done. I have a fairly clear sense of what units will comprise the other half of my Battle Company, in addition to some extras I will want to include. I imagine however there will be lots of occasions in which I can refine my plans as I get some experience playing these initial army lists. For now though I am happy with my starting point and feel comfortable enough with the lists to begin in earnest.

Hmmm, I suppose that's it for tonight. Happy gaming, everyone!

It's How You Use It - My Army

Even though I would occasionally mention the other events, the last few weeks leading up to Adepticon my primary focus here was on preparations for the 1000 point Fantasy tournament, 'It's How You Use It.' I therefore thought it would be appropriate to first look over the army I used in those games since so many of my recent posts covered the initial assembly and painting stages. Despite having more than six months to get ready for this one, I was of course painting bases (and even still reading the rulebook for the first time!) the morning of the tournament. Maybe not how I envisioned things back in October but it was nonetheless tremendous fun and I was thoroughly happy with my introduction to 8th edition WHFB.

Although the final few days were indeed hectic, I am satisfied that everything in my army was painted well enough to just make the deadline and thus I was able to play in all the games. So... yippee! For the tournament there was a three color minimum painting standard with 1000 point armies, but otherwise there were no composition restrictions of which I was aware beyond the normal ones found in the rulebook. Listed beneath the following picture are the essential features of my army list, although I have also included photos of the actual lists at the end of this post should you enjoy looking at all those mundane little details.

Sorceress (General) - level 2 wizard, Lore of Fire, Talisman of Endurance

12 Dark Elf Repeater Crossbowmen - full command

15 Bark Ark Corsairs - additional hand weapons, full command, Banner of Murder

5 Harpies

5 Shades

5 Cold One Knights - full command, Banner of Eternal Flame

War Hydra

Total: 1000 points

At first I was intent on using a Sorceress mounted on a Cold One to lead my army, but I was eventually persuaded by Nikephoros of the Bringer of Victory blog that I would be better off leaving her on foot. This made sense to me as I considered the prospects of having a T3 W2 general riding atop a big lizard who suffers from Stupidity. I hence thought she would be safer located within either the unit of Repeater Crossbowmen or the unit of Black Ark Corsairs. I elected to give her spells from the Lore of Fire because of their generally simple and direct method of application, something which appealed to me as a I expected to have a hard enough time keeping up with everything else during my games. As a newcomer to this, the principle of throwing fireballs around seemed thankfully easy for me to understand.

I planned my main line of battle to be comprised of the Repeater Crossbowmen, the Black Ark Corsairs, and the War Hydra, with the Harpies and Cold One Knights protecting the army's flanks. The Sorceress would deploy with the Corsairs or Crossbowmen depending largely on the terms of the scenario and the opposing army, perhaps moving from one unit to the other if necessary as the battle raged. And finally the Shades would deploy if possible forward in cover and in a position to threaten or weaken enemy units with crossbow fire in the opening turns of the game.

Thanks to its reputation I expected the War Hydra to be a formidable combatant but nonetheless still in need of support in order to reliably win combats. I therefore envisioned supporting it with the ranks and standard bonuses of the Black Ark Corsairs, or if those guys should be otherwise occupied, then I would support the beast with a timely charge from the Cold One Knights. The Repeater Crossbowmen would advance only as far as necessary to engage their targets, hopefully inflicting enough casualties as to knock an enemy regiment's rank bonus down a notch or two. With the Shades firing opportunistically as well, the last part of my battle plan was to fly the Harpies forward and charge enemy war machines as early as possible. If there were no war machines, the Harpies would then go after either other skirmishers or else ranged units, or as a last resort just act as a general nuisance to the opposing formations.

Having selected the units I would use, the last issue to sort out for my army were its magic items. Rarely are magic items a critical element of my armies and this time was no different as I had only 65 points left to spend on enchanted goodies. First off I gave the Sorceress a Talisman of Endurance so that my general would have at least a small chance of avoiding damage. With so many of my meager 1000 points already invested in this single model, I thought even that 5+ ward save would be worthwhile. Next I picked out the Banner of Murder for the Black Ark Corsairs to give their potential flurry of S3 attacks a little more bite against armored foes. Finally with just 10 points left I gave the Cold One Knights the Banner of Eternal Flame. I wasn't sure what else to do with the points and thought the magical banner would be cheap insurance in case I happened to run into another Hydra during the tournament.

So that was the army list and the basic strategy I had devised for my first foray into Warhammer Fantasy. There were a few areas that I was unsure of concerning my list, such as the relative value of command groups, but in general I felt pretty good about my army. I also felt however that it didn't really matter too much as I was likely going to lose and lose badly. I knew realistically I stood little chance as the first game of the tournament was also going to be my first time ever playing this game. Therefore all I wanted to do was have fun, learn some basic things about my army, and hopefully not irritate my opponent by having to ask too many questions or look up too many forgotten rules. On that account, then, I thought my chances at AdeptiCon were fair....

Next time I will discuss the tournament itself and describe what happened in the my first four games of Warhammer 8th edition. I had meant to cover more of the painting aspect tonight with this post but it is getting late and my pictures from earlier today did not turn out very well. I'll therefore save the painting chatter and a few words about my 5-minute display board for another time, too. Goodnight!

AdeptiDone - I'm Home!

With the dust settling from AdeptiCon and the sounds of battle finally fading away, I am happy to report that I had an absolutely marvelous time! I will have plenty to report on in the coming days though it will take me a little while to get things in order and to sort out my thoughts on what took place. Unfortunately after spending almost all of Monday dealing with some... ahem, car troubles... it wasn't until after 6pm before I at last departed Chicago and began the thousand mile drive back to Charleston. I therefore did not arrive home till the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday and only now am starting to feel recovered from the past week. It was an amazingly good trip but has nonetheless certainly taken its toll on me. :)

AdeptiCon was a fantastic weekend, by far one of my most enjoyable hobby experiences and well worth the long journey and the associated expense. Every one of the twelve games I played in was a blast and in the process I didn't meet a single gamer whom I'd avoid playing against in the future. The games were fun and exciting and the opposing players were uniformly good sports, patient and fair. I couldn't have asked for a better lineup of people with whom to spend a few days rolling dice.

Besides the games which I enjoyed thoroughly and the huge amount of inspiring models, another highlight from AdeptiCon was meeting and befriending so many wonderful people, either across from me at the gaming tables or else those I randomly encountered while wandering the site. Along with all of my opponents from the weekend, I was also fortunate to have met many wonderful gamers and painters and enjoyed every minute spent talking with them about our shared hobbies. So that I don't forget to do so later, I would like to thank and say hello to the following new friends:

TheDude (aka GopherDave) of Armored Gopher Games.

Neil from the Dark Future Games crew.

Bill/Nix of The Dead Tau Project and Gamers Lounge.

Dave Pauwels of Gogon Studios.

Hoagy from When Cannons Fade...,

Dethtron of Dick Move fame,

and their bandmates from Crusader, Joe, Ian, and Brad.

Aaron V., Nick H., and Robert C. from the Friday tournament.

The members of Team Snake Eyes - Iron Hands contingent.

The members of Checkmate Hobbies and Skull-N-Bonz.

Brent of Strictly Average whom I accosted in the elevator.

My teammates Wolf Lord Pat and Company Commander Josh.

Chris Borer of Full Borer Miniatures

b.smoove of A Gentleman's Ones

Also I want to thank all the staff and volunteers who obviously put in a ridiculous amount of effort into making AdeptiCon as much fun as it was. Lastly I want to thank my good friend who has tolerated my antics for many years, DrGabe of DrGabe's Miniatures. Once again being able to hangout like old times was the best part of the weekend... thanks, buddy! It's my hope that I will get to see lots of these same good people again before next year's event, but if not until then, that will be yet another reason for me to look forward to AdeptiCon in 2012.

I do intend on reviewing the various events I played in at AdeptiCon though I haven't decided yet on the manner in which I will do so. Since I'm not sure if I was ever clear about my schedule before leaving for Chicago, essentially it was the 1000pt Fantasy tournament on Friday, the 40k Team Tournament on Saturday, and the Killzone event on Sunday. I expect I'll at least put together a separate report discussing each of those tournaments although I likely won't try to do a full battle report for every one of my games. But for now I've picked out a sampling of pictures from my weekend to sort of preview what I will be posting and talking about over the coming days.

"Follow me, men, I know the way to VICTORY!" Famous last words...

Mere seconds before rolling three of my many twin-linked misses of the day....

"Uh, guys... hello? Where did you go? Weren't you alive just a minute ago?"

One of Chris Borer's amazing marines from his Killzone team, of which I will show more in its own post...

Beasts of Annihilation enter the Killzone, never to be seen again.

I will begin organizing my AdeptiReports later this evening so hopefully I'll have more ready to post soon... until next time, take care and happy gaming!