"Adepticon or LIttle Wars?" Topic

Yes, yes . . . I know it's tantamount to comparing apples and oranges.

However, given the steep admission fee for Little Wars and the commute compared to zero admission fee and short drive to Adepticon, I think I will have to choose one over the other in 2015.

Resignedly,

Chris

It depends on what kind of game you want to play. From what I understand, Adepticon is a big tournament scene catering to the GW/FOW/PP crowd. Little Wars is pretty wide open in terms of what kind of games you might find.

Personally I dont mind the admission fee to Little Wars. I normally go for all three days. I think last year I paid $35 USD plus a flea market table and membership. If I went to a movie Id be in for at least $20 USD fro two hours of entertainment. YMMV.

I've never been to, and just heard of Adepticon, but glancing at the events list I can't see myself ever going to it (I'm not a tournament player); Little Wars would be the choice. I'd have to drive south in any case so it's a matter of the games being played. I don't factor in the cost since I look at cons as vacations. If the money (especially an entrance fee) is the deciding factor that's my signal I can't afford to go at all. Different people have different criteria.

There is no admission fee for Adepticon if you just want to look at the games and go to the dealer's area. If you want to participate in demo games, seminars, etc. you have to pay the weekend fee of $45 USD (there is no by-the-day entry fee). If you get into any tournaments, you'll have to pay additional tournament fees, dependent upon the tournament.

Personally, I thought the Little Wars dealer's area was better this year.

The way I see it, Adepticon is focused on competitive gaming (tournaments) in "corporate games" with proprietary IP: Games Workshop, Warmachine, Flames of War, etc.

Little Wars is focused on participation gaming using rules the person volunteering to run the game wants to use.

There is some crossover as both events had FoW, Warmachine and Saga tournaments but the Adepticon ones probably had more participants.

In the end, if one of the HMGS Midwest members with a marketing background wants to help Little Wars that would be great because Adepticon is clearly the marketing pro: social media, daily videos, podcast mention, etc.

IMHO BOTH!!!Mike Adams

They are great at Marketing, and woulkd love to have someone to help us in that area. We are a Volunteer based organization, they are not. So they can afford things we cannot unless we get volunteers to step forward.

we cannot unless we get volunteers to step forward

Marketing is not my profession. You would think it would be for some HMGS member.

That said, given the number of gray haired heads and canes at Little Wars, you'd be more likely to get a "we don't need no stinkin' Facebook" response. Never mind Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

Just Plain Chris-

Where are you coming from that the distance between going to Adepticon and Little Wars is that big of a difference in time? I went to both this year and had to drive over two hours for each. Hell, if I lived in the Chicago area, going to both would be a no-brainer for me.

As others have said, it's all about emphasis. If you want historical gaming, LW is your ticket. If you want fantasy/sci-fi gaming emphasis, then Adepticon might be for you. You'll find a bit of each at both, but that's how it breaks down.

Despite being a sci-fi guy and the admission fee, I've done LW for the past 4 years. I like the flea market, dealers and general feel and I get a nice table to do my sci-fi game.

I keep meaning to check out Adepticon, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Having been to both this year (Adepticon for the first time) I have to say they are both well worth going to, but offer vastly different things.

Adepticon is a tournament convention. I don't think I saw a single non tournament game being run, so unless you want to play in a tournament of one of the mainstream games you are sort of out of luck for gaming. What interested me though (I went for a single non-playing day) was the number of small-mid range dealers there with demos of new games. If you like playing demo games this was the place to be.

This contrasts nicely with Little Wars where you have dozens of individually run games with a myriad of rules. For one of the first times in my memory I didn't see a single demo game at Little Wars this year.

The thing that would really help both conventions I think is a little cross pollination. I am 41 years old. At Adepticon I felt like a senior. At Little Wars I felt like a kid. I know Adepticon had tournaments for Bolt Action, Flames of War, and SAGA. Little wars had 2 of those 3 that I know of. I wonder how many people played at both conventions.

If it's necessary to choose one or the other, I'd go with the variety of Little Wars personally, but it all depends on what you like.