Adepticon 2026 pt. 1
Yesterday, I returned from my third annual trip to Adepticon. As with the previous installments, this year did not disappoint! I expect this will be at least a two-parter, if not more. My Adepticon adventure is about more than the event itself, so the first part will cover the lead up, trip to Mecha (spelling intentional), and first couple days.
The main reason that I have gone to Adepticon for the last three years is the opportunity to spend a week or so with Chris. As usual, I flew into Alabama and we drove up to Adepticon with Doug and Connor. This year, everything happening with TSA and whatnot had me a bit nervous about traveling to the US. I flew through Charlotte where I had to go back through security. That process took me no more than 10-15 minutes. In fact, other than hitting every extra security check on both sides of the pond, I have nothing to complain about during my trip. Everything was smooth and was generally as pleasant as you can expect with international travel.
We spent Monday at High Ground Hobbies, the premier game store in Alabama. Wes is the owner of the store, as well as Stiff Neck Studio. If you are looking for a top commission paint studio, I highly recommend them! I am a bit biased as my friends all paint for them (Wes, Chris, Trinity, Bailey…), but I have seen them work up close as well as their final product.
Last year, we spent some time painting miniatures in the studio, but this year we were able to get a fun game against Bailey. Chris and I wanted some doubles practice, so we ran our 1500-point lists against Bailey’s 3k Sons of Horus list. He has a great mechanized list, with elite infantry, and he is both a skillful player and joy to game with. During the Heresy Hammer event in January, I played the special mission during the second round. So, we played Mission 2: Location Denial. The board is divided into four 12”x48” zones, one of which is your deployment zone. This is a zone control mission, with scoring at the end of the game. Zones are worth between 3 and 9 victory points, lowest being your own deployment zone to highest being the opponent’s deployment zone. Line (x) units are worth a higher value for determining control, but do not score more points. Interestingly, all vehicles have Line (1) for this mission. As I said, Bailey had a highly mechanized force. I also ran two Predators and a Rhino, and Chris had two Rhinos.
I mentioned in my write-up on the event, but the Heresy Hammer missions are great. They are straightforward, so you don’t have a bunch of chaff rules to think about. The mechanics are all fun and allow you to lose yourself in the mission. I think many of the Black Book missions are overly complicated, which can be fun for a narrative game amongst friends when everyone is keeping track of all the extra rules together. I will talk about this more later when I talk about the Doubles Event (spoiler: those missions were also great).
It was also nice to spend time visiting with Wes and Trinity, and our friend Steve drove 3 hours one-way just to spend a few hours with us! Steve is an old Army friend of mine, and I was hoping to see him. However, it ended up being a bit of a surprise that he made it. I should also mention, Steve just retired from the Army (I think officially yesterday, as I write this). He is an amazing painter but has been primarily 40k for a long time. Chris, Wes, and I chipped in to get him a few Solar Auxilia things to get him started in Heresy. So, I look forward to seeing those come along!
Chris modeling our new hoodie. Then we snapped a couple photos at lunch with Steve.
We took a break from our game for the six of us to have an amazing lunch. We had kinda planned to get two games that day, but it was obvious early that was not going to happen. And as much fun as playing was, having lunch and catching up with friends was my favorite part of the day.
Tuesday was the 10.5-hour trip to Milwaukee. As I said before, we convoy up with Doug and Connor in two vehicles. Chris and I talk the whole time, so that time blows by. We had some navigation issues in Chicago that could have been potentially problematic but ended up a non-issue.
Wednesday is more of a set-up day than anything. Doug runs Lead Pursuit, which is everything to do with tiny airplane games. They have a store and podcast, as well as running a number of events. If you like small-scale aviation, check them out! That day, we also had time to explore, meet up with other friends setting up (Heresy Accountabilibuddies), and get a game in. Chris and I wanted to get a game in anyway, but a couple of the historical guys were Heresy curious, so we set up some random stuff to make a 4’x4’ board and played through the 1st game for the Friday Doubles event. Those guys were nice enough to post the missions a few days prior to the event, so we had the opportunity to play though two out of three of the missions prior to the event. I think I will talk about the specifics of the missions when I detail the event because they are tailored for doubles rather than one-on-one. Nevertheless, getting a run through prior to the event really helped on the day!
Some game photos (Thousand Sons v. War Hounds), interspersed with pictures of Heresy game boards and action photos.
Wednesday night, we met Blake and Tez at Safehouse for a Bama Heresy meet-up. Tez signed us up for trivia, which ended up being a blast. Blake has been a friend since my first Adepticon in 2024, but this was my first time meeting Tez. At the end of trivia, we found out there were eight total teams. The top three teams finished with 63, 64, and 65 points. The gulf between third and fourth was much greater, but can you imagine? Each team was named with their score until we were last. Yes, we won trivia! How cool? We aren’t only nerds when it comes to toy soldiers. We know shit, too!
On Thursday, the vendor hall opened. Like last year, we stood in a long line/queue for Monument Hobbies. I really wanted to get the 1-Step thinner that allows you to thin their normal paint range to use like a Contrast/Speedpaint. In the previous days, I had said that some paint range should do a line of these that correspond directly to their normal paint range, same name, and everything. While we were standing in line, I looked at the new 1-Step paint range, and they have the same names as their normal acrylics. So, I was sold! I will have to mess around with them to see how well they will match, but I expect they will. Anyone that has tried to touch up Contrast knows the pain. Also, Contrast can be great for banging out infantry but often don’t work as well on larger models, such as tanks. This can be impactful when developing a paint scheme across an entire army. Anyway, this was my large purchase for the entire convention.
Chris and I also got another practice game in. We played the third mission from the Doubles pack because it was a zone control mission. As opposed to the mission we played on Monday, each zone was worth 3 points and scored at the end of the turn. Each zone counting the same simplified the math, but scoring at the end of each turn made it more dynamic. It’s hard to say which version I liked better because Heresy Hammer giving vehicles Line (1) mixed things up. However, I did find Heresy Hammer’s method of counting control by unit easier than counting Tactical Strength. I often prefer when missions utilize mechanisms like that because they are in the rules for a reason. Also, it is often easy to sus out who has secured a given zone without counting every model and mathing the Tactical Strength. I should also say that the Doubles mission also gave Vanguard units the equivalent Line (x) in the opponent’s half of the table. The Heresy Hammer deliberately did not give Vanguard units anything. As someone that does not rely on Vanguard, it doesn’t usually affect me, but it is a feel-bad when someone does. I did run a Veteran Assault Squad at Adepticon, so that wrinkle ended up being super useful for me.
Some game photos (Thousand Sons v. War Hounds), followed by some Heresy Hall shots, including Blake’s Ultramarines in action!
I should also mention that it was great catching up with Duncan, Bryan, and the rest of the crew on Wednesday and Thursday. I even got some super useful status effect tokens that Chris and I used for the rest of the time. (And that I will continue to use!) I also want to shout out Doug as my breakfast buddy for the last three years. We happened to start meeting up for breakfast on accident three cons ago, and have met nearly every morning since! Great company and great convo!
Conclusion
Well, I am going to wrap this up for now. In Part 2, I will cover the Heresy Doubles event, at a minimum. If you are reading this and you were there and not linked here, please shoot me a message! I am happy to go back and revise this.
In the meantime, you can check me out Instagram or Facebook!
