" 2016 AdeptiCon?" Topic

Hello Gang
Anyone have any pics or chat about AdeptiCon that started today?
Clif

I checked it out today. I am staying in Northbrook visiting family so I have to commute to Schaumburg. I did a testdrive , it took me about a half an hour. I registered, looked around the place. Quite impressive, seems bigger than Historicon but of course hardly any miniature games except for tournaments. I am there to start DBA in the Midwest. There's tournaments, a demo session, and I'm putting on a giant king Arthur game. Arthur game. The dealer area does not seem as big as historicon or origins. It is cozier, with small booths spread apart which room for people to talk together about the games and to show demos.

The noise level in the main rooms seem so much less then at the historicon n is truly a put off for me. It is only a 5 Hour Trip from home so this might well be my spring convention instead of Cold wars anymore

There are some of the games I enjoy and it seems a big interest to lots of people
Clif

Little Elmo and I found a new game after a demo, did the paint and take then got crushed in the Bolt Action tournament. It was great!

Adepticon is focused more on tournaments and "modern" games. Ideally Little Wars should find a way to co locate. That would increase the number of participation games using older rulesets.

Since I can do only one Spring con and Adepticon has games I love: Bolt Action, X wing, Armada, etc. Little or Cold Wars are out.

That would be great if Little Wars co located with them.
It would become my go to Con if it had both sets of dealers and the variety of games.
Clif

Adepticon and Little Wars coordinating came up on a thread a while back, at the time Little Wars moved to its new digs when Adepticon upsized its convention space.

Reading between the lines in the various posts, IMHO, the Adepticon people are open to sharing space/times in some fashion, but there is a faction within the Little Wars group that strongly opposes any sort of merger. The stated reasons given by the Little Wars group revolved around some sort of concern about their mission and nonprofit status, and that these would be jeopardized by coordinating with Adepticon, along with the normal concerns that such a "merger" would dilute or detract from historical gaming.

Personally, I think all this is nonsense. I can see where a full-blown "merger" could possibly be a problem for HMGS-Midwest in some technical sense, but I cannot see (as a career business lawyer who has worked with nonprofits) how this keeps them from making some sort of arrangement to coordinate the conventions. Again, IMHO, this is driven by the egos and prejudices of historical gamers concerning interacting with the younger and larger fantasy/sci-fi crowd. It is a shame, because the Chicago miniatures-gaming scene could benefit greatly from a coordinated convention. This may be a harsh assessment, but unfortunately it is the conclusion I drew.

Does anyone know if Battlefront is selling Tanks (the new game) at Adepticon?

this is driven by the egos and prejudices of historical gamers concerning interacting with the younger and larger fantasy/sci-fi crowd

Exploration Hall is currently almost the wholly owned subsidiary of Fantasy Flight. It also has unused space that seems large enough for Little Wars. If an organization like FF can get space, I think HMGS could too. You could also concentrate on games and not hall rental, tickets, event signup, etc.

Yogi….I would not say your assessment is harsh. I would say that you have no idea what you are talking about. But it was an entertaining post.

Lassalle012,

If you go back to your comments of Sept. 21, 2014, I think you'll find YogiBears comments pretty accurate.

Ok, thanks. That was a good try.

"Does anyone know if Battlefront is selling Tanks (the new game) at Adepticon?"

I asked at the flames of war booth and was told it would be out in a few weeks, there was some sort of short brochure in the swag bag.

I have never found TMP discussions to be productive or very positive, just read any thread concerning HMGS, Inc. Bowman, if you would like to discuss this at Little Wars I would be most happy to. The same goes for Yogi.

Co locate, what does that mean exactly? I can shop at Adepticon for free. A one day, non-member, pass at Little Wars is $25.00 USD whether I shop, play or do both. Which do you think I'd rather do?

This is the 1st time I have gone to Adepticon and I must say I am impressed(with 1 exception ), smaller in attendance than HMGS cons (if HMGS numbers are believable), space is great and comfortable, well organized registration was a breeze -no need to but a pass if you just wanted to look and go to the dealer area .Hotels in the area are much better and cheaper than in Lancaster (Embassy suites 109 a night with free cooked breakfast and ,free drinks for 2 hours during evening and clean -compared to the host and other cold wars hotels -No Contest )
Staff is much friendlier and better organized ( yes, mostly volunteer there as well )

Gaming was plentiful (not just Tournaments ) and the terrain was a higher level than I have seen at HMGS in quite a while . Hotel food was better and cheaper than the host .

This is now my convention of choice – even with airfare from NY -it is a better deal than HMGS cons and more to my liking . Our club will be running Historical games there from now on .

Raffle was great as well (ok , self interest -I won 3 great prizes over the weekend)

the 1 exception was the "flea market " Badly run and worganized it makes HMGS flea markets(Fall in and Cold wars anyway ,I have no experience with Historicon flea markets )look well organized beacons of good management , Add to that the 2 kids that were the enforcers ,patrolling with copies of "the Adepticon Rules" clenched in their little hands looking for violations to tell their boss about .

Bowman, if you would like to discuss this at Little Wars I would be most happy to. The same goes for Yogi.

No need to on my part. Personally, I have no need to see Little Wars come into an agreement with Adepticon. I was simply responding to your comment to Yogi.

I wouldn't presume to tell you what to do with Little Wars. It is a well run convention and should be even better in the new location. Sadly, I'll have to wait for next year to visit again. Best wishes on Little Wars '16. Already anticipating seeing the pictures on TMP.

I had a great time at Adepticon this year. I played in several historical games, attended a few hobby classes but no tournaments. I did see a DBA demo table being set up but I was already scheduled for a session so couldn't drop by.

Bowman,

Sorry to hear that you will not be attending Little Wars this year. I think it will be another good convention, and I like the mix of games as well. I do believe next years convention will be just as good if not better. The success of Little Wars is do to the volunteers…they do great work. Send me an email if your like and I will properly respond to your posting. My email address is jeffriecohen@aol.com

Adepticon is a very well run convention. I was there from Wednesday during set up till Saturday. I was also there last year, if the parking is any indication on attendance they had a significant increase in attendance. I am very impressed by many things that they do there, very smart people.
I was also able to talk with several vendors that are interested in attending Little Wars next year, as well as some Game Masters.
I expect that they will only grow in size, and surpass Historicon in both number of games and attendance.

Here are some Age of Sigmar pictures from Adopticon. I didn't take them.

The "flea market" aka Bitz Swap at Adepticon was under new management this year. 2015 was an absolute zoo with no rules at all. This year there was sign ups for spaces and efforts made to restrict dealers from taking over multiple tables. The enforcement of the rules was deliberate to facilitate the change.

grtbrt – if you have feedback, would love to hear it.

I was one of those running the big pirate game (Fistfull of Seamen) and we were supper impressed with Adepticon, once again. Not just impressed with those running the Con (probably the smoothest operation we visit, no hitches at all, and they are fantastic hosts) but with the players. I was told long ago "oh, don't go there, it's a 40k only convention and you'll get zero interest" and we have found that Adepticon attendees are a fantastic group of people that are will to play just about anything, and happily! We had a great time. Won't hesitate to visit again!

I need to address Yogi's comments about Adepticon and HMGS. As a lawyer he should be wary of "reading between the lines". The simple fact of the matter is that many of our HMGS members attend Adepticon to play other games. I was there for 4 days and recognized 100+ HMGS members in attendance. Isn't better to be able to play in over a dozen games games in a 5 week period as opposed to have to choose?

HMGS-Midwest was graciously provided a room by the staff at Adepticon. We ran a number of games and had information about our Little Wars convention. Our events were well attended by potential HMGS members as well as those from other HMGS chapters. I am looking forward to coordinating the efforts to work with Adepticon in 2017.

Ran the Cid.
I will be happy to give feedback -would you prefer here or via off site e-mail ?
Kevin

I think that some people are not aware of the reason for organizing HMGS (Historical Miniatures Gaming Society) in the first place. It grew out of a realization that most of the gaming conventions in the early 1980s catered to the Fantasy gamers and that there was little in the way of "Historical Miniatures" at these conventions.

So HMGS was organized in the East to provide game conventions that were exclusively for historical miniatures gaming (the idea being that Fantasy players had plenty of other options to go to).

The purpose of HMGS and its affiliates around the country is to organize and host historical wargames conventions, not to organize the largest game conventions.

On the surface, merging with the Adepticon convention sounds like an interesting idea, but I would agree that such a move would dilute the historical gaming component. Secondly, what is the point of having a 6,000 visitor convention other than to be big? Bigger conventions come with bigger logistical problems and just bigger problems in general.

Little Wars seems to be doing just fine on its own and IIRC attracts around 2,000 visitors or more each year. It is large enough to have some "buzz" and excitement to it, but not so large that the halls are jam packed with people or the parking lots are full and thus there is no place to park your car.

I don't believe that any of this has to do with egos and a fear of interacting with younger teens and children. BTW, Little Wars and other HMGS conventions have their fair share of Fantasy games too.

If you like largely Fantasy games with some historical games, then go to Adepticon. If you prefer more historical games and less hectic convention experience, then Little Wars is just the thing for you. It is nice to have a choice.

grtbrt – go ahead and email me Richard1nelson @hotmail.com
I'll get your comments to the person who organized the bitz trading.

ok .will do

How Little Wars has counted attendance is simple and straight forward. Each person that registers is counted once, each vendor submits how many badges they request for the convention, each of those people are counted once. Then we count each person issued a guest pass. We do not double count people for cross overs or multiple days.

Once again, Saga was amazing at AdeptiCon.

We have a great team that really puts their heart and soul into these events.

Some nice coverage of the 2016 US SAGA Grand Melee here:

link

link

Additionally the team ran a number of pickup games, and over 30 demos throughout the weekend.

I plan to post more thoughts related to other AdeptiCon topics later ..

Hank Edley
AdeptiCon Director

Hank, if your coming to Little Wars I would like to continue the conversation we were having at Adepticon. I have some thoughts on the matter I think would be of interest to you. Great Convention by the way.

I will definitely be at Little Wars, as it is my time to get in some hobby. :)

Look forward to talking again, and rolling some dice.

-Hank