Road To Adepticon - And 'Ere We Go!

Adepticon kicks off tomorrow night. I am finally finished painting, basing and packing my models, my lists are printed and triple-checked, and everything is in the car ready to go. tonight we will be on our way to Chicago for the biggest tournament I have ever played in. I've never been to Adepticon before, so I am super pumped about it.

On top of that, I actually managed to get everything finished. There were a few spots in there where it looked like I would run out of time, and I was worried that a squad or two would have to make do with little to no detailing just to get a legal fully-painted army on the table. Somehow I managed to build, convert, paint and base an entire 1850 point army in 3 months. Sweet! and on top of that, I painted up the last 15 or so models I needed for gladiator, should I lose on Friday.

with that said, I wanted to post some pictures of my army I took last night as a finished project. I am also putting up my finalized list for the championship tournament. Enjoy




to start off, I wanted to talk about the tournament itself. I will be playign in the 40K championship tournament, which is spread over Friday and Sunday. Four rounds on Friday, making the first day a very full day. Friday also has all of the extra parts of the competition such as the rules quiz, painting judging and players' choice. If somehow I manage to pull top 16, I will get to play on sunday for all the marbles. I'm not considering this to be very likely, considering the hobby nature of this army project. but hey, you never know. I didn't expect to do anything at all at the first BOLSCON, and managed to nab second overall.

The missions themselves look like they will be pretty normal. Adepticon put out the Primer missions a few months back, followed by a list of potential mission objectives. after playing a few of the special primer missions, I am pretty confident in my army's ability to at least hold their own. I won almost all of the primer missions I tried. however, the two games I lost, I lost terribly.

The whole board, ready to go

THE LIST:
The list itself is the following:

Archon - Blast pistol, huskblade/soultrap, combat drugs, shadowfield - 160
Haemonculus #1 - WWP, venom blade, shattershard - 105
Haemonculus #2 - WWP, venom blade, liquifier gun - 100

7 Incubi - klaivex w/demiklaives - 189
7 Harlequins - shadowseer, troupe master, 4 harlequin kisses, 2 fusion pistols - 212
4 trueborn - blasters, venom with extra cannon - 108 (+65)

15 Wyches - 2 razorflails, hexatrix with agonizer and blast pistol, haywires - 245
15 Wyches - 2 shardnets, hexatrix with agonizer and blast pistol, haywires - 245
10 Wyches - haywire grnades, Hexatrix with blast pistol, phantasm grenades - 155

6 Reavers - 2 heat lances - 156

Cronos Parasite Engine - spirit probe and vortex - 110

Harlequins leaping from the webway

THOUGHTS:
it's a fun list to play. It has really challenged the opponents I have played with it because it works so much differently than the standard raider rush that you see most DE players running. it really hurts gunlines who don't really get a chance to shoot before stuff is all over their backfield. a lot of people have to ask "wait... that thing does what??" when I drop a portal. shooty armies don't like the idea of the enemy board edge being a foot away from them.

In addition, there are a few fun tricks with the HQs. shattershard is amazing, and can really put the hurt on units that are built to withstand a lot of firepower. nobs, terminators, etc fall a lot easier to a T test than their multitude of saves/wound alocation games. shattershard is the best way to get rid of hidden special characters like Vect, Edlrad, etc. I had the crucible for a while but wasn't seeing results. when codex: Grey Knights hits I may bring it back, but not for Adepticon.

A solitaire and warlock lead the charge

And finally, I decided to take the Cronos over the Talos. I tossed them both around a bit, but finally settled on taking the support creature. I tend to lack a little bit of anti-tank punch at range, but the Talos didn't make a significant difference in that area. he is scary in CC, but I have plenty of CC already. the Cronos' ability to put out pain tokens BEFORE an assault is priceless with this many wyches on the table. with a little luck I can get Furious Charge on before I even see an assault. Wyches with FnP are mean, a full squad of 15 entering their first combat with FnP is gross.

Harlequin Wraithlord flanked by Mimes

So there you have it, my Harlequins' debut list. I played them in a local tourney, but they weren't fully painted or built yet. this will be their first real test, and I am excited to see what happens.

THE BACKUP PLAN:

in the very probable case that I don't make the top 16 cut, I will be playing the Gladiator event on sunday. for this one, I won't be taking the elves. Mostly because I don't own enough models yet to make 2250 points, but also because I feel like they lack the punch needed for a big heavy round like this.

A kabalite warrior in trouble

Instead i will be bringing my Orks. I don't have any Forgeworld stuff, so no Stompas or Squiggoths, or any cool stuff like that. It will be interesting to see what I can do against the titans and everything else that will be showing up for the gladiator. once again I really don't see myself doing that well, but this one is just for fun. I want to see how my Orks will do against the real tough stuff out there. they have capped a baneblade before in the one Apoc game I was a part of, so anything could happen. If they get crushed this week, they will be back with a vengeance at WarGamesCon later this year.

The Heavy Hitters

THE ARMY:

There are a few pictures throughout this article of the army itself. I will likely be doing some articles in the future describing each unit and the conversions that went into making this army what it is today. If you have any comments, criticism or whatever, feel free to leave it in the comments section below.

A shoutout to RealGenius from BOLS, he built the display board for this army. I just picked it up from him last night, so I got it literally just in time for the big event. I am very happy with it, and it looks great with my resin bases. the board is the one thing that will tie everything together and really make for a good display at Adepticon, hopefully bumping my painting score up a tad.