Last week I went to AdeptiCon, one of the largest wargaming conventions going. Last year around 10,000 people attended, and it seemed like it was bigger this year. It is held annually in downtown Milwaukee, WI around the time of spring break for a lot of schools here in the Midwest. You can find pretty much any wargame you're interested in at AdeptiCon from Games Workshop games all the way to indie stuff that just launched on WargameVault.
Charlie stands with the Stormcast in the Vendor Hall. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
Things are a little different for me now. We used to go with four or five guys, all play in some of the same events, and room together. Now it's just me and my 13 year old son. This was the second year he's gone with me and it's been a great time. I likely have a little different experience than most recaps you'll read on websites - I run events and participation games, while also doing some tournament games as well.
Preparation
I almost always use AdeptiCon and other conventions as an excuse to finish painting a bunch of minis and terrain. In past years I'd plan to run a participation game in October with none of the models painted yet so that I could finish them and have a project done for AdeptiCon. Many times I also sign up for a tournament to use a new force and paint that one entirely.
We set out on Wednesday. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
This year I did the following events:
Thursday: The Silver Bayonet three game event that I ran. I provided ten tables of mats and terrain (thanks TABLEWAR and Grey Matter Gaming for the mats!) for people to play their games on, as well as all the minis for the monsters. I really didn't have to finish much for this one - I painted a few monsters and a little terrain, but mostly it was asking my buddy to print 20 minis from
Lost Heresy for the players to use and take home.
Friday: I ran two US-Mexican War participation games for four people each. We played Sharp Practice. I did manage to finish two Navy surfboats with sailors in them, based on ocean bases, from Old Glory. I really like the models but man they were a pain to paint.
Saturday: we played in the SAGA doubles team tournament. My Norse-Gaels were all finished up, but my son had a bunch of plastic minis I wasn't as happy with - I wanted him to have a full metal force just like I did. I ordered him 25 wolf-pelt clad pewter guys from Foundry and other sources and painted them up in a few weeks so he could have a really cool, characterful Viking army made up of wolf-clad nutjobs.
AdeptiCon has these sweet signs showing all the games going on in the hall you're at. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
The other focus for my preparation is just getting everything we'll need for Wednesday through Sunday. I have a text list on my Drive and I copy it over from year to year (I have a folder for each year with all the documents I need for each AdeptiCon) that includes pretty much anything we'll need for the week, from medicine to models to terrain to clothing. My anxiety makes it so I really don't want to forget anything. Two years in a row (back in the day) we forgot our SAGA sticks and fatigue markers - it was bad!
Charlie with the grognard at Old Guard Games. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
Travel
I have driven every year to AdeptiCon. I live in Michigan, so Chicago has always been a really quick ride, and you gain an hour from going into Central time. When they changed to Milwaukee I was worried it'd be a long haul, but really it's not much further up the coast of Lake Michigan. Once you get past Chicago there really isn't much - it's mostly just really wide highways with big box industrial centers on either side of the highway. We usually stop around the Michigan / Indiana border for lunch. Once you get to Indiana you have to be careful because the State Police there will pull you over for anything!
The drive from Michigan to Milwaukee. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
Thursday
AdeptiCon technically starts on Wednesday - there is always a big Games Workshop preview show Wednesday night. The rest of AdeptiCon starts on Thursday, when you can get into the Vendor Hall and also start playing all the games that we show up for.
All of our Silver Bayonet tables. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
Charlie and I ran a 20-person event for
The Silver Bayonet, the Napoleonic warband-sized game of gothic horror. Each player brings their Silver Bayonet unit of up to eight guys and plays three games. Between each game some of the player's soldiers will advance using the experience system built into the campaign part of the game.
Silver Bayonet games ongoing. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
This year I wrote up the
three-game campaign mostly adapting scenarios from the campaign books that have already been released. I based it heavily on the movie
Ravenous, starring Guy Pierce and Robert Carlyle (and David Arquette!). After each game the players learned more about their companion, Carlyle, and how he was a cannibal, and how he was getting stronger by eating more people and how their soldiers could as well.
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The first game was a four player game - two versus two - so that I could pair people who didn't have much experience with those who did, so everyone could learn the game really well and have a good rest of the day. That worked out great, with a lot of good feedback. After that we played one versus ones. I wasn't pairing people based on wins or losses, just on 'did you play this person? then don't play them again'. There were no W/L prizes, just Paint, Most Clues Investigated, and Most Monster Kills.
The Goonhammer sponsored Silver Bayonet event prizes. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
We had all 20 people show up, which was great. That definitely doesn't always happen, as people get pre-occupied with other stuff, sick, or don't finish their paint in time. Huge thanks to Badger Games for providing prize support, and huge thanks to Joseph McCullough for showing up and interacting with our players. It was a great day!
I finished a few officers in time for Friday. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
Friday
On Friday Charlie and I ran two participation games of Sharp Practice set in the US-Mexican War. This is part of our Lard America club where we do participation games on Friday and Saturday to show off the rules and get people interested in playing. Each gamemaster brings their own minis, mat, terrain, etc. and runs a game, usually for four people. Lots of times we get people who know how to play pretty well, but just don't often get time to play their favorite rules with people.
Surfboats hit the shore. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
Our scenario was part of Winfield Scott's campaign to take Vera Cruz. His plan was to land on the coast and take strategic points as well as take supplies. For this particular scenario we had two surfboats landing with sailors at the coast. Once they had landed (after the turn of a few blank cards) then the US soldiers could deploy from those boats as their deployment points. The Mexican defenders could move and deploy while the boats were rowing, trying to get into position. They could post the Mexican flag on the church in town to call in reinforcements.
Mexicans defend against the Americans. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
In both games the Americans made landing on the coast pretty quickly, not giving the Mexican forces a ton of time to setup. While the Mexican infantry did kill the American overall commander in the first game, it wasn't enough to force them back to the sand - the Americans were able to make contact in close combat and force the Mexican forces back. It's a tough fight for the Mexican forces as their equipment is not nearly as good as the US equipment and their commanders aren't as skilled.
Cavalry charge! Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
Both games showed some really good use of Sharp Practice as well as other maneuvers, like using four command cards to double activate. The Mexican forces did manage to get the Americans close to losing a command card the first game but in the end they had to retreat. In the second game the Mexican forces did better, moving up and laying fire into the advancing Americans, but were not able to hold on when the Americans pushed forward.
Our display board with our warbands. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
Saturday
Charlie and I played in the
SAGA Clash of Ages: Historical Doubles Grand Melee. Every player brought four points of their chosen faction, with teams not doubling up on a faction. Charlie and I brought Norse-Gaels and Vikings. Our lists were like this:
Vikings
Warlord
3 pts Warriors
1 pt Hearthguard
Norse Gaels
Warlord
1.5 pts Warriors
1 pt Levy
1.5 pt Hearthguard
Setting up to fight against the Age of Chivarly factions. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
It's a very offensive team, with Norse-Gaels having a ton of ways to generate extra attack dice and Vikings having Valhalla, Ullr, and Ragnarok to generate all kinds of offense. Charlie's plan was to move forward with Warriors, try to use Ullr and Thor as force multipliers, and then use Valhalla to win other fights.
I broke my warriors up into two groups of six, had a group of six hearthguard, and two groups of six levy. The hearthguard were there to use Norse to boost their armor and Determination to win a melee and then be un-chargeable. The rest of my guys were there to Spill Blood and use a bunch of extra combat die with Heavy Weapons to take down hard targets.
Fighting on the hill in the third game. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
Overall we had a great time. Game one we faced off against Last Romans and Anglo-Danes. It's been a while since I played against Anglo-Danes - they're tough! The Last Romans are great at shooting and really ground us down. In the end we tried some late-game Warlord runs that didn't work out. We lost game one but had a good time. SAGA is a game where you have to plan out your turn, obviously, since you have to put all your dice down and then think about what you're doing. Norse-Gaels are definitely about powering up a dice machine - and if you do a step wrong or out of turn then you can screw it up. I definitely screwed mine up the first or second turn, probably both. The first scenario has us fighting it out in the middle with a champion, while our guys nearby would fight and score points for kills.
Our champions fighting in the first match. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
Our second game was against Age of Chivalry factions - Burgundians and Free Companies. I'm still learning more about Age of Chivalry, as they have some tricks on their boards. We don't have any multi-activate abilities, while we definitely fought some during the tournament. Each turn we had a bard who would somehow buff our guys - like our Warlord could move an extra S, or roll more attacks in combat. It was pretty neato. We did manage some better kills this match but ended up losing this one fairly handily.
The hill in the third match. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
The final game was a King of the Hill type scenario where we had to fight and hold a hill in the center of the board. It was an interesting mission - scoring units had to be on the hill, so they couldn't be exhausted or under minimum number to generate a SAGA die. We were lined up against Vikings and Irish, so we knew what to do pretty well. Both sides moved forward near the hill and attempted to hold it. We got points for killing units on the hill, killing warlords on the hill, and just killing models on the hill. We managed a few kills that were really good at fatigue bombing the enemies (as fatigue bombs would go from teammate to teammate). We ended up winning in a close but really fun match! We actually had back to back Ragnaroks in our game, so we shouted 'RAGNAROK' each time as is the custom at the Grand Melee.
Vendor Hall
In general, our days were pretty full. We didn't have a ton of time to hit the vendor hall, unfortunately. If you're a gamer who likes a lot of historical or indie games like I do, it is definitely a great place to peruse and find stuff you're looking for without paying for shipping. I don't know the official numbers, but it seemed like the hall was 25% bigger this year with way more vendors - it is a massive shopping experience that could take an entire day just to look at everything.
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Hyatt Hotel
The Hyatt hotel is connected to the convention center and it's pretty okay. It's convenient being able to walk over the skywalk thingy to your games. Parking is rather expensive but doable. The rooms are dated, but for this gamer really all I need is a place to sleep and shower, so that wasn't too bad. Overall I liked it and will stay there again.
Being a Dadgamer
I've been trying, successfully and unsuccessfully at times, to get my kids into wargaming. They've enjoyed Age of Sigmar, but it can be complicated at times and usually I am playing my army and theirs at the same time. SAGA has been such a breath of fresh air; my son and I practiced once a week for months and he has everything down, and he's really enjoying it. I spent a lot of time painting Charlie's new Vikings and I often think about him keeping these miniatures and showing them to his own kids.
The start of the SAGA team tournament. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"
I feel like I've finally really made a connection; we make time to play and he's not just waiting until we're done so that he can get back to whatever he wants to do. I only have four or five more years of having him around my house, so I'm trying to spend all this time (outside of school and sports stuff we already do) developing stuff we can do together. I'm trying to build a love of history in him and also my daughter, who is younger. She has an entire Shieldmaiden warband that I've painted that I'll be playing against her with.
Final Thoughts
AdeptiCon 2026 was a great time, as usual. I'll be back next year, as usual. If you're in driving distance or have the ability to fly to it I definitely recommend it as one of the best ways to spend your wargaming dollars and time. I hope to see you there next year!
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Goonhammer Historicals: Mugginns' Historical Experience at AdeptiCon 2026
