Texas Greg's Fury Road to Adepticon

Regular Goonhammer readers may recall that last year Andrew “Hero of Team Imperium” Corban and I went on a multi-day train odyssey to and from Adepticon, playing Necromunda the entire way, right up until we were almost back and Andrew’s deferred maintenance on his Accord caught up to him. You’ve probably also noticed that the article isn’t the Railroad to Adepticon this time around.

That was hugely fun, and I absolutely want to do it again. Alas, Andrew wasn’t able to get the time off to do it again, and I wasn’t able to convince anyone else to repeat the adventure with me this year. I don't know why, I feel like we fairly thoroughly demonstrated that the Ham Train is the ideal Adepticon travel option. I expect Amtrak sightseer lounges across the western US will be filled to capacity with nerds playing nerd games this year, because Goonhammer readers are cool and want to arrive in Milwaukee with panache.

Pictured: the only way to travel.

Unfortunately, the whole concept of taking the train to Adepticon kind of falls apart without someone to game with along the way, as well as split the cost of a sleeper cabin. So this year, I will be solo, and I will be flying. It will be much faster, much cheaper, and much less fun. Also, as I write this, security lines at IAH Terminal C are about 90 minutes long due to the partial government shutdown, so I guess I have that extra wrinkle to deal with. Oh, and the only direct flights from Houston to Milwaukee are on little regional jets where there's a greater risk of having to <shudder> gate check my army case. Cool cool cool cool, really relaxing and pleasant way to start a vacation. Love to fly the friendly skies here in the 21st century.

Starting Line

When I signed up for Adepticon 2025, I was just getting out from a whirlwind of new parent life and job stress, and I was a man starving for nerd hobby time. I basically booked myself solid with gaming and paint classes, and as a result I had basically no chill hangout time during the con. I was always rushing to find food. I missed the Goonhammer contributors hangout. I had a good time at everything I did, but I was tired.

This year, I’m trying to not repeat that experience. I’ve left myself a lot more free time to spend exploring the convention and hanging out with people. I am not staying up to 11 PM every night in paint classes this year.

Thursday I’m playing Boarding Actions in the 40k Narrative. Cadian Sergeant Steele and his crew do a good job of running the Narrative, and Boarding Actions is probably the best narrative play format Games Workshop has ever done. The Narrative allows Legends units, and Colonel Straken is a lot of fun in Boarding Actions, so I think I’ll bring my Guardsmen of Dubious Loyalty for the second time.

Saturday I’m playing Necromunda again. Last year I brought my Goliaths; this year I want to bring my Dia de los Muertos themed Escher gang, the Sugar Skulls. The gang has been 85% finished since GHO US last July, so hopefully Adepticon is the incentive I need to get them over the finish line.

Rosa, Matriarch of the Sugar Skulls

Sunday I’ll be doing a hobby class in the morning, and then the plan is to go to a Brewers game with some other Goonhammer baseball aficionados. Look, I wasn’t kidding when I said I was going a lot lighter on the convention scheduling this year.

Witness Me

Friday is the most interesting day for me this year, because on a whim I signed myself up for a Gaslands narrative game in the afternoon. If you are not familiar with Gaslands, the concept is that you convert cheap Hot Wheels / Matchbox cars into Mad Max-esque post-apocalyptic death racers and, well, race to the death. Gaslands is not a new game, but it’s one I have been buy-curious about for a long time, and this was my excuse to pull the trigger. A rulebook and ten bucks worth of cars from Walmart, and I was on my way.

Time to mess up some children’s toys.

The event I’m playing in only requires one car, but I wanted two teams so that I could whip them out for pickup games in the evening. Gaslands feels like a fairly ideal “drink a beer and hang out” kind of game, especially since you can play it on almost any table in a pinch, with minimal terrain. I’m hoping to strongarm enough Goonhammer contributors into pickup games to get at least one in each hotel’s open gaming area, completing an unofficial Milwaukee Grand Prix.

Team Scarlett

I immediately had the image in my head of a Mini with a jolly roger instead of a Union Jack, so that one was the first one up. I took it easy on conversions on this one, but freehanding the evidence of a crewmember’s grisly demise turned out to be a lot of fun.

As an aside, special shout out to whoever designed the sculpt for the Mini. If you take the thing apart, there is a sculpted stack of gold bullion in the trunk/boot, as a nod to The Italian Job. It is completely inaccessible and hidden when the car is assembled, it's just a cool little easter egg for anybody who is crazy enough to dissect Hot Wheels in their spare time.

Next up was the Subaru Brat, which got a hood scoop, some mesh windshield reinforcement, and a roof-mounted harpoon launcher. This one is probably my favorite; I love how the chipping on the racing stripe came out. The mesh on the windshield is drywall repair tape. This is the one I’ll be running in the actual narrative scenario.

Third up, a Datsun 240Z with twin machine guns and some ramming protection. I also adjusted the rear wheels to give it a bit of a forward lean, and jammed a driver in there as well. At the last minute I also decided to make two panels green, as if the car had taken damage and then been reassembled with parts from a junkyard donor car.

Last of the Walmart Foursome, an AMC Javelin with a souped up engine, some stylish roof fins, and some rockets. I tried to paint this one as if the majority of the original paint had rusted off. That was harder than I initially expected; there’s a surprisingly fine line between “rusted hulk” and “leopard print,” as it turns out. I think it got there in the end. If anything I bring to Milwaukee breaks in transit, it will be the roof fins on this guy.

I still needed a few more cans to make the teams even, so I painted up a motorcycle from the North Star Games Gaslands sprue. This goober is very fast and very fragile, so I expect he’ll become roadkill early on in most games.

50 Cans of Scarlett & Miyazaki

Die Historic on the Fury Road

Andrew may not be coming to Adepticon, but he was up for a learning game of Gaslands to make sure I’ll at least somewhat know what I’m doing at the event. The tutorial mission is pretty basic, essential just a drag race, but Andrew proved to be just as committed to ill-advised vehicular decision-making in Gaslands as he is in real life, so we got to explore most of the rules.

Andrew's car rammed my buggy from behind in gear phase 2, causing only minimal damage since we were both in third gear, but in the following phase he cut in front of my buggy, leaving my fragile and wounded buggy the choice between ramming him back or attempting to crash through a heavy obstacle. My buggy shifted up to fifth gear and hit Andrew’s car, barely surviving while also inflicting enough hazard tokens on him to cause him to spin out.

Pit maneuver.

My car managed to cross the finish line first. Andrew's buggy shifted up to fifth gear to at least beat my buggy across the line, but he was slightly too close to the edge of the track, ramming into the light obstacle that marks the end of the line at high speed. On average dice you’d expect to take about 3-4 hull points of damage from that impact, but naturally his 6 HP buggy took exactly 6 HP from the collision, resulting in Andrew's buggy effectively dying by smashing directly into the checkered flag. I’m pretty sure this moment sold Andrew on the game as a whole.

Between the flags, Andrew!

Ride Eternal

It was fortunate Andrew volunteered for the learning game, because I got to reveal to him the secret sixth car I’m bringing to Adepticon: the Accursed Accord. Andrew may not be coming to Milwaukee this year, but I'm bringing him in spirit by commemorating the untrustworthy steed that (barely) brought us to and from the train station last year. True to form, Andrew's Accursed Accord is equipped with a ticket under the wiper for expired registration, a catastrophic oil leak, and a AAA tow truck to get it over the finish line.

The Accursed Accord, 1:1 scale

This was entirely too much work to put into something that I fully intend to use as a terrain piece to drive around, rather than a game piece, but never let it be said that I lacked commitment to a bit.

So, there’s the game plan for this year’s Adepticon. I’m really looking forward to it. See you there, reader. I hope that your last minute painting goes quickly, your travel goes smoothly, and that neither of us need to call a flatbed tow truck this year. Let’s ride.

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Tags: necromunda | Road to Adepticon