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ADEPTICON INFOAdeptiCon 2006 Where: Schaumburg Marriott, just outsideof Chicago, IllinoisWhen: March 24-26, 2006Featured Events:• 280-player Warhammer 40K

National Team Tournament • Warhammer 40K Gladiator Tournament• Warhammer 40K Championships• Warhammer Fantasy Battles

Team Tournament• Warhammer Fantasy Battles

Championships• Warhammer Fantasy Battles

Escalation Tournament• 26 Hobby Seminars• Rogue Demon Painting Competition• Bitz Trading• AdeptiCon Tournament Terrain• Codicer Contest and more!

LOG ON...Find out more about the event at:

www.adepticon.org

AdeptiCon is an enormous conventionand tournament organized by theAdeptus Windy City game cluband GW’s Midwest sales staff.Here, con organizers andveterans discuss the historyof the event and suggestways to prepare your teams,army lists, and models for the tournaments and othercompetitions that will take placeat AdeptiCon 2006.

GETTING READY FOR

Jeff Chua, one of the founders and organizers of AdeptiCon, explains a bit about the history of the con and what you can expect if you attend. Jeff: AdeptiCon started in 2003 through apartnership between the Adeptus Windy Citygame club founders, Matthias Weeks andmyself, and Games Workshop’s Midwestregion. AdeptiCon’s founding principle was asimple one: to use the collective experienceand wisdom of the veteran gamingcommunity to organize and plan the bestpossible Games Workshop weekend hobbyexperience. That concept seems to haveworked well, as AdeptiCon is now planning itsfourth annual convention and is the largestclub-run Games Workshop event in theUnited States. AdeptiCon is known for providing an insaneamount of gaming and hobby activity andespecially for pioneering the concept of theTeam Tournament for both Warhammer40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Infact, last year’s Warhammer 40K NationalTeam Tournament drew 52 four-person teams

ADEPTICON: A BRIEF HISTORY for a total of 208 players. Participating inlarge battles with well-painted armies is justhalf of the fun, however, as AdeptiCon alsoboasts some of the nicest themedtournament terrain around.

Because AdeptiCon features a weekend full oftournaments, it is only fitting that the personwho dominates and rises to the top aftercompeting in three separate tournamentevents over the course of the weekend beawarded the title of AdeptiCon Iron Man. It isa grueling feat that takes discipline, passion,stamina, and a bit of luck, too. Each year,hardened veterans return aspiring to win thiscoveted award – will you be one this year?

AdeptiCon is not just about competitivetournaments, though. It also features severaldozen instructional hobby seminars with well-known hobbyists, painters, and past GoldenDemon winners. Games Workshop Studioguests are also a welcome addition toAdeptiCon, and past guests have includedPaul Sawyer, Gary Morley, and Dave Taylor.

I hope you join us for AdeptiCon 2006. Youcan find more details and register for theconvention online at www.adepticon.org.

Thiscould

be you!

Dozens of gamers crowd just one corner of the AdeptiCon convention room.

GETTING READY FOR ADEPTICON 2006

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GOOD TIMES AND GREAT PRIZES!

Above: The handsome trophy forthe 2005 Warhammer 40,000National Team Tournament.Imagine this beauty hanging inyour gaming room or den. Whileit’s an effective strategy, bashingyour opponents in the head withthe axe is not recommended. Above Right: Gamers looking fornew challenges will not bedisappointed, as each tournamentat AdeptiCon features originalscenarios to put the contestants’armies through their paces. Right: Of course, AdeptiCon isprimarily about gaming, and fewevents boast as manyopportunities to get in so manygreat games against cannyopponents with fantasticallypainted armies on some of themost impressive tournamentterrain around! Lower Right: These medallions goto the winners of the RogueDemon Painting Competition.

Fantastic gaming tables like this one make the AdeptiCon experience even more rewarding.

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AdeptiCon’s Team Tournaments are popular and distinctive events. Below, Lucas Como of the B.L.O.I.D. gaming group explains how he and his team made tactical and logisticalpreparations for the 2005 Warhammer 40,000 Team Tournament event.

Lucas : The team-tournament experience is asdifferent from a normal tournament asWarhammer 40,000 is from Warhammer FantasyBattles. In the 40K Team Tournament, teams offour players combine their 1,000-point forces tocompete against other teams of four. When twoteams compete, two games are played at onetime, and each game involves two players fromone team competing against two from another.This pairing of two teammates is called a“coalition” in Team Tournament verbiage. In athree-game event, each player pairs up in acoalition with each of his three teammatesonce. It’s that easy.

Each player may have a 1,000-point armycreated from the following ForceOrganization Chart: 1 HQ, 2-3 Troops, 0-1Fast Attack, 0-1 Heavy Support, and 0-1Elites. Each team also has a “floater”Heavy, Fast Attack, and Elites slot.However, no player can have more thanone floater choice in his forces. Thisstructure ensures that, no matter how acoalition is created, it won’t include morethan 2 HQs, 6 Troops, 3 Heavy Supports, 3Fast Attacks, and 3 Elites. Thus, a coalitionwill be a legal army in its own right, withone major difference – the four armies donot have to use the same Codex. Thisflexibility is one of the major draws of theAdeptiCon Team Tournaments.

HOW TO FORM A TEAMTeams are usually formed from fourdifferent pools of players: regular gaminggroups or friends, online forumcommunities, ad hoc coalitions, and like-minded craftsmen. Most tournament teamscome from regular gaming groups who

know each other’s playing styles, painting andmodeling skills, competitive attitudes, and armycollections. Online communities have given birth toa number of teams, particularly for those whoaren’t involved in a regular gaming group. Therewere teams at the last AdeptiCon whose membershadn’t even met face-to-face until they werewaiting in line at the registration desk! Ad hoccoalitions generally arise when four players showup to the tournament without a team and form analliance on the spot. Finally, like-mindedcraftsmen – folks who are often more enthusiastichobbyists than they are gamers – sometimescoordinate their creative skills to accomplishsomething grand and amazing that would bedifficult for a single individual to accomplish.

One strategy for forming a team is to recruitmembers with as many different “Warhammerskills” as possible. Find a great general and armyplanner, an excellent painter, a graphic designer, adisplay-base builder, and finally someone who canwrite checks! If you can find all those abilities infour willing players, you’re set.

HOW TO CHOOSE ARMIESThere are three basic ways to choose armies for aTeam Tournament: combine armies already owned,build from the ground up, or try a little of both.The most ambitious and potentially mostrewarding method is to build armies from theground up. Start with a clean slate, and thencollect and build a force first and foremost for usein the Team Tournament. There are no pre-existinglimits or restrictions on your creativity!

Have you ever said to yourself, “One lance strike iscool, but having two would be better. Too bad it’snot legal.” It’s legal now. You can’t do that in anyother type of tournament, can you? The same goesfor Assassins, Bloodthirsters, Chaos Lords, SpaceMarine Librarians, and Archons.

If time or money is an issue, you can combinearmies that you and your teammates already own.Try to base your forces in a complementary wayand have at it.

THE NUANCES OF A TEAM TOURNAMENT

You must consider your HQ selections carefully, as Luke did with his Canoness.

Shown here are three out of the four HQ selections for the B.L.O.I.D. team.

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Most teams find themselves using a combinationof the two methods. Together, teammates can takestock of what they have, make up a few army lists,and come up with a plan to collect, model, andpaint a few additional forces to fill in the holes.

WHAT DID B.L.O.I.D. DO?Maybe a real-life example is in order (well, as“real” as Space Marines, Orks, and Warp travelcan be). My team was formed in July of 2004 forthe April 2005 AdeptiCon National Warhammer40,000 Team Tournament. We decided to use 1,000points of my pre-existing Cadians (the Cadian318the Cadian Crawdads) and to create 2,000points worth of Witch Hunters and 1,000 pointsworth of Black Templars to finish out the army. Wechose a team theme and the team name ofBlessed Ladies of Immaculate Deceptions(B.L.O.I.D.). Assignments were handed out, and weall went to work. My job was to pay all the bills;

assemble, convert, and base many of the models;and design the lists. Mark Maxey’s job was topaint the infantry and the characters. Joe Adam’sjob was to paint all the tanks and the jumptroops, and design our shirts. Jason Siebert’s jobwas to design the army list layout, touch up hisBlack Templars, and paint our scratch-built“Adeptus Munitorium Heavy Orbital TransportLander,” the centerpiece of our team force [anamazing model that, unfortunately, uses partsfrom another company’s range, and thus wecannot show it due to copyright restrictions – Ed.].

We stayed the course until January 2005 when weattended the organizer-sponsored Primer Event.There, we did not do so well. The weak links werethe Black Templars, both in terms of battlefieldperformance and opponent-judged themescoring. Even though Sisters of Battle and BlackTemplars are the two most religious Imperialforces, people did not like seeing them teamed

up. Since team-theme scoring wasimportant to B.L.O.I.D.’s overallstrategy, we decided to replace theTemplars with more of Sisters of Battle.Yep, we traded religious zeal forreligious fanaticism.

With this change, the painting velocity had to be stepped up, and we almost sacrificed the MunitoriumLander to get other models completed.However, I did not wish to sacrifice this keystone model and thus crackedthe whip and promised the world.Needless to say, my team finishedahead of schedule, above expectations, and way over budget.

How did we do? Well, we did as badlyas we did at the Primer Event and went1-1-6. However, we won the award forBest Team Appearance. I’m very proudof my team for doing all that and more.

Joe’s Canoness is highly mobile and well equipped.

For tournament play, it’s always a good idea to strive for the right balance of special weapons. You never know what you’ll end up facing.

These converted Exorcists were integral parts of B.L.O.I.D.’s plan to win both battles and the Best Appearance award.

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The accomplished painters and hobbyists of “theUntouchables” gaming group, many of whom havewon Golden Demon trophies, are preparing tocompete in the AdeptiCon 2006 Warhammer40,000 Team Tournament. Jamie Welling, onbehalf of his fellow gamers Jesse Arias, DavePauwels, and Corey Sapp, discusses how he andhis teammates are crafting their models.

Jamie: The Untouchables began contemplatingthe fun of competing in the 2006 40K TeamTournament soon after AdeptiCon 2005. Most of ushad been planning to start new 40K armies forgeneral gaming, and these loose plans becamethe jumping off point for our Team Tournamentdiscussions. Corey had started a few models for hisCadian Guard force, and I had begun painting afew Space Marines. After Dave suggested the ideaof Inquisitors, we had our team.

We wanted to make each force distinct whilemaintaining some kind of unified theme. SinceCorey and I and already started developingImperial Guard and Space Marine forces, wedecided to take on the role of the “mixed”Inquisitors. Jesse and Dave would put together the “pure” Inquisitor forces. Next, we decided tosplit up into the two Ordos of the Inquisition. Jesse and I would take Daemonhunters, whileCorey and Dave would take Witch Hunters. Coreyhad already painted a few Cadians in black, grey,and red, and we decided this would be our basiccolor scheme. Each team member would use thesecolors as he deemed appropriate but could addadditional colors to allow his force to be a bitmore distinctive.

MODELING AND PAINTING FOR A TEAM TOURNAMENTTo unify our team’s forces further, we decided tobase our models in the same way. The base onDave’s already completed Death Cult Assassinmade the decision for us. The basic color choicewas an earthy brown coupled with grey. Our ideawas that our Inquisitorial forces were leading thepurge of a bombed-out Imperial city, and thesecolors seemed appropriate.

Finally, we decided that each of our forces shouldbe led by an Inquisitor Lord with retinue. To keepthe forces distinct, we each chose different modelsfor our commanders.

These incredibly dynamic Assault Marinesare part of a squad for Jamie Welling’sportion of the force. Eager to capture thefeeling of flight, Jamie mounted thesemodels on pieces of wire high above thebases. Jamie chose to attach some of themodels to the wires in nearly horizontalpositions like the model shown above.These positions make the models appear asthough they are zipping about thebattlefield, only pausing to finish off theirfoes before taking flight once more. Jamieis also quite skilled with green stuff, asevidenced by the sculpted tabards andpurity seals that adorn the models. Hismodels have primarily red armor to fit inwith the Untouchable’s color scheme.

Dave Pauwels is a regular prize winner inGames Workshop’s Golden Demoncompetitions, held at each and everyGames Day. The models shown below areevidence of his skill. The Death CultAssassin shown below inspired theUntouchables’ basing style. Below left, youcan see one of Dave’s heavily convertedArco-Flagellant models. The grisly visage ofthis model fits in well with the dark andfanatical theme of the Witch Hunters.

DAVE PAUWELS

JAMIE WELLING

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Corey’s Imperial Guardsmen feature skillful detail painting and an eye-catching use ofred. Corey’s Guardsmen inspired the Untouchable’s red, grey, and black color scheme,and as you can see, this choice yields striking results. Though someof the models shown here are still in progress, the autocannonteam shows how the four players’ consistent basing style will helpto unify the disparate models of the force.

These Grey Knights by Jesse Arias are carefully painted in a style thatmakes use of both traditional metallic and non-metallic metaltechniques. Though Jesse’s teammates did not use any non-metallicmetals in their forces, these Grey Knights fit in well and remainvisually linked to the rest of the force. In particular, Jesse’s selectiveuse of red as an accent color helps his models fit in. Above, you cansee Jesse’s Dreadnought in progress. The definition of detail, theexpert blending, and the subtle transition of highlights areparticularly well handled. Of course, Jesse plans to finish his modelsby basing them to match the rest of B.L.O.I.D.’s army.

COREY SAPP

JESSE ARIAS

OTHER EVENTSWhether or not you plan to attendAdeptiCon 2006, check out these greatweb sites for the latest information onlarge GW tournaments! [Note thatGames Workshop is not necessarilyaffiliated with these tournaments. Enterand compete at your own risk.] Wehope to see you across the table!

• The Alamo, San Antonio, TXwww.alamogt.com

• Astronomi-con, Winnipeg,Toronto, and Vancouver, Canadawww.astronomi-con.com

• Dragonflight, Bellevue, WAwww.dragonflight.org

• Hillbilly Invitational, Little Rock,ARwww.hillbillyinvite.com

• Indy GTs, many locationswww.indygt.com

• KublaCon, Burlingame, CAwww.kublacon.com

• OrcCon, Los Angeles, CAwww.strategicon.net

• Necronomicon, Orlando, FLwww.thenecro.com

• SAWS Challenge, Sacramento,CAwww.sactosaws.com

• Sooiepalooza, Fayetteville, ARwww.sooiehammer.com

• Wasteland Wars, Lubbock, TXwww.wastelandwars.org