Adepticon 2024, the Beginnering

What is this, an Adepticon only blog? Sheesh! I haven't posted anything since the last one and guess what time of the year has already come to pass again? Oof!

Where to start? 

Ah yes, with food, naturally. The first thing we do every year is grab the sponsored Adepticon burger at Kuma's Corner. 

Not only is it always delicious, but it comes with dice!

I'm an avid dice collector, and these feature their bear symbol. I couldn't pass them up, as my familial nickname has always been the Bear. If you're in town, definitely hit them up for some metal burgers, as they're all pretty good.

After our meal we settled into the hotel (we stayed at the Hyatt as it was easier to get into and much quieter), and then it was off to the Ren to watch the madness unfold!

And unfold it did, but not in the way we were expecting. We got there and the line was all the way back down the longest hall, just like every year. We groaned at first, thinking it was all a lie and registration/badges would take as epically long as always. However, I spotted something and had a hunch. I said let's walk down and see what's up. So we started walking and I spotted more and more: people in the line already had their swag bags and were trading. I knew it! So it came to be that the epic long line was just for the bloody PREVIEW that was due to start in like 30 minutes. Yikes, considering they only had 7-800 chairs in there.

So we just strolled on by and picked up our badges and swag in less than 5 minutes, there was basically no line at all for that. There system/process this year was definitely much better than previous years and for that my applause was earned as it was a welcome change to the experience.

Since the Catalyst Games booth was open due to being in the hallway I snagged the limited edition loot I wanted to get nice and early, and then we waited for the line to shuffle into the preview hall. They didn't get all in until 30 minutes after it was supposed to start!!

The wait was worth it thought because then we could take some pictures with the event model: the terminator.

In all his chonky glory, I had to get more.

He tried to dissuade me.

But then he decided I was alright. Nice guy that guy.

Afterwards we wandered over to the GW booth, since they have that outside of the vendor hall so that it can be open later (makes sense, it's the titular sponsor of course), again getting any LE loot before it was picked over. Checked out the tables and livestream area, it all looked rather snazzy, and the tables looked quite solid with terrain for the first time!

After taking my wife to the room, I went back to "The Bits Guy" aka Toledo Game Room (again, because his booth is in a hallway and also because it's the emptiest on Wednesday night after midnight). I picked through the bins at my leisure, grabbing some choice bits of course. Then I dug into the Orks Vehicles bins because there are always winners in there, and this year was no exception. There was a bag with 6 Sentinels and a Leman Russ hull, no weapons or turret, for a mere $40. Score!

Nothing an extensive bits bin can't fix up!

And with that, I closed out my day and went to bed.