Locusts and Gentlemechs, Glitterboys and Canopian Catgirls, Adepticon 2024 has officially come to an end and after a merely mildly harrowing journey home, it's time to dig treads into dirt and get moving forward again.
The turnout was pretty staggering, with reports indicating something in the range of a 50% increase in attendees. Those of us with personal vehicles on site can attest to that, at least.
In addition to a total lack of parking, I've never seen the vendor hall so packed to the gills not only with excited players but with third party, independent game systems, model and terrain designers, painting professionals and general enthusiasm!
I always get a little overwhelmed at conventions. I met so many new people on both a personal and professional level that it's all I can do to keep moving to the next booth, handshake, or "I wanna talk to ya about something" and my ability to mentally process something like stopping and posting to social media is utterly short circuited.
It was an absolute pleasure to see so many Stormchasers this year, with our pizza night taking up one whole end of Lou Malnatti's dining area it was a lot to keep up with! I was also excited by just how many community members either entered their work in the various painting competitions or were talking about entering next year.
I, personally, managed to avoid buying too many things by limiting it to what I could fit in my checked bag, the majority of which was filled by the American v Russian Clash of Steel box from Gale Force Nine that I was kindly gifted. Other than that, the only game I significantly bought into was Lunar from Black Site Studios, which has such a fun and evocative theme that I finally caved and picked up some spacemen for moon war.
Metal Core Miniatures kindly accosted me in the hallway and handed me one of the Warhammer limited Kroot models, for which I am immensely thankful that I didn't have to wait in the appalling lines at the GW booth. Yikes.
There were a number of games I wanted to demo this year but, I find myself so allergic to being sold to that many I wound up merely observing, including Breachstorm (Which seems interesting if a bit overcomplex), the new Steel Rift Expansion (Which I'll be showcasing some of. I really like it), and the game BLKOUT which appears to be what happens when a Titanfall and an Infinity love eachother very much.
I briefly observed the new Mantic Halo game being tested and determined it was not to my taste. From what I could see it's largely aimed at recreating Halo deathmatch/PvP multiplayer modes in model form and I just can't care. I miss the older Halo wargames.
I also strongly considered demo-ing SW Shatterpoint but, I know in my heart I won't play that game, so why bother? Godspeed, AMG.
The terrain across the entire convention was wonderful this year, you can definitely see the impact that 3d printing is having on the hobby in a big way, and it was my pleasure to also meet with several distributors on site who are licensed Thunderhead Studio printers and see their work first hand.
I confess, some of the most fun I had was in walking through the Horus Heresy Age of Darkness hall, which was packed wall-to-wall with what seemed to be primarily narrative driven games, TONS of customized armies, and a generally non-sweaty environment where virtually everyone was laughing and having a gas. Well done, boys. A stark contrast to the sweat-swamps of the average 40k event.
