Battle of Kursk – Adepticon 2017

For a second year, my friend Aaron and I hosted a Bolt Action Kursk game at Adepticon.  This year’s battle was armor only – not historically accurate, but a necessary change to run a large scale battle planned for 8 players.  The table was 12×5 with two large hills, a village on one end, and plenty of wrecks/smoke breaking up line of sight.  The teams each had objectives to achieve – both sides needed to inflict casualties on the other and also achieve a movement goal.  The Soviets needed to place four tanks into the German deployment zone.  The Germans needed to move two tanks onto an objective on one of the hills.

The Soviet players elected to mass their tanks in the central section of the table.   While the Germans stayed put behind the smoke.  For several turns, the longer range of the German guns picked off tank after tank.  It was starting to look like an easy German victory when the Soviets crossed into the German zone and scored their movement objective.  Suddenly, the Soviet team was ahead on points.  After a brief panic, the Germans rushed to claim their hill & continued to pound the Soviet tanks. Final score was 16 to 10 in favor of the Germans.

Set up for the battle:  20 Soviet tanks face off against 12 German tanks

Burning Soviet tanks fill the fields

Aaron created lite smoke columns using tea lights.  Awesome effect.

In the end, nearly all of the Soviet tanks were destroyed.

Panzers in the Smoke   Mission brief and tank list

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Harold’s Saxon Army

Harold’s Saxon army from my Adepticon game back in March.  Played in 2 ranks each, these figures gave me two divisions with a unit of Huscarls, two units of Coerls (and a small unit of archers not pictured here).  Most figures are Gripping Beast with the exception of the commander in purple with horn, which is from FootSore.

I need to thank my friend John, these were originally his figures which he gifted to me as part of his hobby clean out last year.  Having all these figures based and base coated saved me a huge amount of time when getting ready for Adepticon.

Rather than the lighter shades of my Crusader/Ancients armies, I chose to go with a darker/wetter looking ground effect.  Bases are rimmed with Bittersweet Chocolate with a Raw Sienna top coat, then flocked with pasture green grass.

 

Adepticon: Battle of Hastings

My third and final Adepticon battle of 2016.  The Battle of Hastings was fought in the Saga Hall on Saturday night with copious amounts of wine, women and song (or at least beer and pizza).  Nine players joined the battle with 5 playing the role of Harold and his troops and 4 fighting as William and his Normans.

The challenge with Hastings is that the Saxons have zero mobility and a strong defensive position, while the Normans have plenty of fast knights as well as a strong rank of bows/crossbows.  Given that combination, motivation needs to be provided for the Saxons to do more than sit there and take on arrows the whole game.  The motivation took the form of an objective marker place behind the Norman left flank.  The second element is the historical death of Harold and his brothers. This was solved by giving three of the commanders 5 attacks, with the rule that any wound taken would count as a kill.

As luck would have it, the game played out nicely with the Saxons coming off the hill to engage the Britions and capture the objective.  The lure of 5 additional dice proved too much and successfully lead to the glorious deaths of Harold and his brothers.  With the death of its leaders, the Saxon line was broken and victory was declared for the Normans.

Event Documents:

Adepticon Hastings HC Hastings Objectives

 

 

Adepticon: Battle of Arsuf

The iconic Battle of Arsuf almost did not happen this year at Adepticon.  I had a bit of an incident moving the armies into the hall.

Imagine this times four!  Took every minute I had before the game started to just get the figures back on their trays.

Despite the setback, we had a wonderful game with 7 players.  Bucking the trend from prior games, the Arab players pulled out a victory this year by taking the action to the Norman players.  King Richard was kept busy while the Saracens sent the Hospitallers packing.

Event documents:

Arsuf Objectives Adepticon 2016 – Battle of Arsuf

Battle of Arsuf at Adepticon 2015

The Battle of Arsuf done with Hail Caesar rules at Adepticon 2015.  A glorious battle with a full table of 8 players.

The game was a close run affair taking up the full three hours.  After many lost units on both sides, the Hospitallers were lost & Saladin’s bodyguards were driven from the field, ending the battle in a draw.

Adepticon 2012: WAB Doubles

Warhammer Ancient Battles – Doubles competition with 6 teams and 12 players.  The team event drew in a number of newer WAB players, with only 5 players returning from Saturday’s singles event.  As with the Singles, the missions used a battle point system based on multiple goals for each round.

Event package download

#	Team	Teammate 1	Teammate 2	Total	Award
1	Grumpy Old Coots	Mike Butcher	Shawn Welte	47	Best General
2	Circle City Gamers	Christopher Watson	Matt Beaty	36
3	Mercenaries	Tony Strahota	Abe Warpinski	34	Best Sportsmanship
4	The Real McNeil	John McNeil	Jay L	22
5	Just Roman	Mike Mansfield	Ariel Thompson	11
6	Team Normantium	Jeff Pfaffmann	Matt Beauchamp	2	Best Appearance

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Adepticon 2012: WAB Singles

Warhammer Ancient Battles – singles competition with 14 players.  Tournament proceeded smoothly with good sportsmanship demonstrated by all.   Appearance was at a high level with a number of well painted armies.  This year’s missions used a battle point system, replacing a simple win/lose with multiple objectives worth a variety of points.

Event package download

#	First Name	Last Name	Total	Award
1	Bennett	Blalock-Doane	42	Best General
2	Mike	Butcher	42
3	Kevin	Bruins	30
4	Aaron	Loomis	29	Best Appearance
5	Matthew	Jayjack	28
6	Abe	Warpinski	27
7	Mike	Gerold	26	Best Sportsmanship
8	Edward	Lowinger	23
9	Alexander	Akers	23
10	Tony	Strahota	20
11	Aaron	Schmidt	18
12	Shawn	Welte	10
13	Merle	Delinger	4
14	Jay	Luehring	0

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Adepticon 2012: Princes Crusade

The Princes Crusade:  Return to Jacob’s Ford was a multiplayer Warhammer Ancients game from Adepticon 2012.  8+ players fielded 12,000 points per side of AOA Crusaders and Caliphates.   The table was 15 foot of desert terrain with hills to the left, the ruined castle of Jacobs Ford in the center and a town to the right.  The game was a smashing success, playing out over 4 hours with few issues despite the size of the event.   The game ended with the Crusaders in control of the supply wagon, the Saracens in control of the loot counters and neither in possession of the central castle.

A few items came as a surprise.   I fully expect 15 foot by 5 1/2 foot to provide a gigantic playing surface.  Instead – the 12K of figures filled the board from edge to edge.  Having only five hours to set up and play, I expected the game to run out of time before turns would be an issue and I did not set a turn limit or keep track of turns.  The game would have come to a more dramatic conclusion with an enforced turn limit.

Event Description:

Princes Crusade:  Return to Jacob’s Ford

The Templar boarder fort at Jacob’s Ford was destroyed in 1179.  Fueled by this defeat, fresh forces from Europe arrive to re-take the castle and avenge the fallen Crusaders.  Advancing late in the season, the Saracen commander has little choice but to engage the invading army or watch his forces return home to harvest crops.

Chastellet Castle:  claim the Templar castle ruins by have the most Generals and/or Army Battle Standard bearers within 12 inches of the ruin center.  Characters must be attached to formed unit which is not fleeing.  Value:  10 Battle Points

City of Beit She’an:  the civilian population of Beit She’an must be ‘protected’ from the Franks/Saracens.   Four loot counters are available in the city.  Claim the counter by moving over it with a unit of more than 5 figures.  Units fleeing or broken in combat will drop any loot counters they hold.  No more than 2 counters per unit.  Value:  2 Battle Points per counter retained at end of game

Supply Wagon:  fresh supplies from the coast are eagerly awaited by the Crusading forces.  Unfortunately, the baggage train has become lost in the foot hills.  Contact & remain within 4 inches of the supply wagon with a formed unit to take possession.  Units in combat lose possession of the supply wagon.  Wagon may be moved at 4 inches per turn by the possessing team.  Value:  6 Battle Points

Death or Glory:   Troops can be replaced – good leaders are hard to find.  Each opposing General or Army Battle Standard killed or having fled the board by the end of the game counts for Death or Glory.  Value:  1 Battle Point

Figures/players lined up for game.

Saracens

Crusaders

Crusaders with crossbow block

Warriors of the Caliphate

Armies lined up for battle.

Crusader wall of cavalry.

Crusaders hitting the Caliphate lines.

Canyons containing the lost baggage train.

Castle at Jacob’s Ford

Crusades Table. 15 foot of gaming space.

Town of Beit She’an

Adepticon – High Seas, Old West and Warmachine

One of the great things about Adepticon is how its a venue for all sorts of games that are not 40K.

High Seas had its own tournament this year.  My friend John created 5 custom tables each with its own mission.  Makes for a bit more work but the results are fabulous.

Old West returned for a 2nd year, this time under new management.  I was very impressed by both the event and the terrain created by Irv.  Card and printed paper make up the majority of this terrain project.  These techniques are so very different from the plaster and paint styles I normally work with – great to see such alternatives put to good use.

Privateer Press came to Adepticon and made a huge impact.  Corporate support is not quite Gen Con level, but its getting close.  Every swag bag at Adepticon contained a $50 box set for Warmachine.  The company shipped in 4 top end terrain tables for the event hall.  Staff and volunteers were everywhere.  They were even running micro demo tables at the front doors to the 40K hall.  GW are you paying attention?

Pirate Castle

Pirate Jungle board

High Seas Pirate city

Old West

Old West

Old West

Old West

Warmachine City

Warmachine City

Warmachine City

Warmachine City

Warmachine Train

Warmachine Train

Warmachine Bunker

Warmachine Lab

Warmachine Lab

Warmachine Bunker

Warmachine tables

Warmachine tables

Warmachine tables

Adepticon Malifaux terrain

One of my major projects for Adepticon was creating terrain for the new Malifaux tournaments. Its a fun game to create terrain for – a wide variety of archetypes are in play.

Hollow Halls is made up mostly from Manor House terrain kits. These kits are rather a chore to work with, detail is worn down from over casting the molds, pieces are large & heavy and instructions are non-existent. No wonder they were going cheap on Ebay.
Infestation is made from Hirst kits, building molds I made for Adepticon a few years back and a bit of sculpting.
Grey City is an old 40K table made from Hirst components.
Cairn Hills and Grave Yard are old fantasy tables made from pink foam and (once again) Hirst blocks.

Hollow Halls

Hollow Halls

Hollow Halls

Hollow Halls

Infestation

Infestation

Infestation

Grey City

Cairn Hills

Grave Yard