Adepticon 2023 Haul

 Hello.

2 posts in one day. Crazy right? This ones super quick and dirty. We went to Adepticon for Saturday and part of Sunday. I spent a fraction of what I thought I would this year. I had a couple key purchases in mind and was sort of surprised at just how much stuff was out of stock or vendors didn't bring. I was also surprised at how many vendors were there with booths but no, or very little, actual product. 

Heres the haul.

First of all, I set out with the specific intention of purchasing the Firefight Veermyn Starter box. No one had it. Mantic told me they sold out of everything veermyn except one vehicle on Thursday. These things happen but it was a touch disappointing to find that out.

I ended up ebaying one from the show but for obvious reasons its not in the photo. 

The surprise highlight was Demon Ship. This is a nice quick "microgame" from Malev Minis (thru Blacksite Studio) I've been following the progress of on instagram. I got a chance to demo the game with Malev himself and had him sign my demo copy. What I was not expecting was to be able to preorder the set from the booth. I was told it would ship in a couple weeks and I'm gonna cover the game in full when it gets here. It was a definite Highlight of the show for me though.

I picked up a couple packs of figs from them as well but didnt go to heavy as theres a second edition on preorder now and I wasn't sure what would translate and how.

I also picked up some eightbound and a couple chibi figures from Impact to put on my shelf. Five Leagues is a solo/coop fantasy game. My wife was interested in rangers of shadow deep this time last year but we've found the figure and terrain requirements a bit of a road block and I'm wondering if this might be an easier sell.

The angry chicken is a con exclusive mini and scenario for conquest. 

Finally with money still burning a hole in my pocket I picked up two sets of Mazon Labs for Deadzone. I was not expecting these to be single part casts (except one figure) and theyve already been cleaned, primed, and by the time this posts at least partially painted. 

I also got a sweet leatherface bust from Black Heart but don't have a good pic at the moment and I also picked up a Game Envy wet palette which was sold out but will ship soon I'm told.

We did try a few games and I will give super brief thoughts below

Demon Core - No relation to the above game. This is a "warcry like" skirmish game in development from Bestiarum Minis. It was great to meet the designer and we chatted at length about having a great excuse to finally print the figures. More on this in a month or two when the patreon or kickstarter is announced.

Creature Caster Judgement - A year ago I would've bought this in a heartbeat. Now a days I'm more aware of what will hit my table and I just can't imagine I'll ever play it. I enjoyed the demo but ultimately passed. If its at adepticon next year I may cave. I really wish this was out before Aristeia as I really only have room for one of these arena type games and this was a little more fun.

 Hobgoblin - This is a mass battle game from the creator of Gaslands. I got to meet the other author (whos name I don't remember, a fact I feel awful about) who is also the editor of Blaster Mag. The game was neat but frankly uninspiring. It seems to be a mass battle game with generic units where you can points buy keywords. I loved the system in Fantastic Battles but this isnt anything new. What was inspiring was the demo giver's army. 3d printing from One Page Rules, he had a nice sized beastman army. I will probably pick up the rules based on simplicity but we'll see what the kickstarter looks like.

All in all, I had a great time catching up with friends and looking at inspiring stuff. "visit a convention" was on my list for the year, though I'd still like to attend an event before years end where I play a game or two. 

Follow up posts coming soon.