Adepticon is the biggest miniature wargaming convention in the midwest. It features tournaments for just about every wargame on the market, and even some long-discontinued ones. I attended last year when it was in Chicago, but I didn't play in any events. This year the convention moved to Milwaukee, so it was even more convenient!
Mike wasn't able to make it to Adepticon this year, so I decided that the least I could do was take one of his units of Rats that he gifted to me. I picked the scabby little guys with hoods and scythes. Mike had done a beautiful job painting them but had never gotten around to painting their banner. I painted a little skeletal rat with a scythe on it and dubbed them "The Grim Squeakers". I then substituted them for Karlak's Venomfangs on my tournament list. From a gameplay perspective it made no difference. A Spear Rat Regiment is a Spear Rat Regiment.
Rob and I carpooled to the convention center and met up with our other clubmates there. The AdeptiClash Kings of War tournament was five games over two days. Rob brought his Halflings, and I brought my Rats. Will and Kenny brought Abyssal Dwarves, and Joe brought Northern Alliance Vikings. Grant brought an all angel Basilean army, and Shannon brought Nightstalkers. Jeanette didn't play in the tournament, but she spectated and cheered us on all weekend. Jess and Steve didn't play either but stopped by to visit us on Saturday. Elle was there but couldn't play in the Kings of War tournament because it conflicted with her Blood Bowl tournament (which she won 1st place!)
We also had a special guest appearance by my own kid, who was cosplaying as a 40k Sister Repentia for the convention, and their boyfriend Enrique, who was there to shop and take photographs.
Game one of the tournament had my Rats facing off against Dan Bryan's Rift Forged Orcs. I've fought RF Orcs before, but this list was very different. The RF Orcs I fought at Wildcat 24 were all infantry. Dan's army had scouts, cavalry, and flyers, too. The Hellstriker knights on winged manticores were the unit that concerned me the most. This unit flies up to twenty inches per turn and hit like Kenworth trucks. My opponent deployed his heavy infantry in the center. One wing had the flyers, the other had the cavalry. His scouts deployed in the woods between the infantry and the cavalry. The good news for me is that my army is almost all comprised of spear phalanxes. Spears are great at defending against cavalry and fliers, but only against front charges. If the Manticores could get a flank or a rear charge on me, my poor rats would be doomed! To discourage the Hellstrikers from jumping over my lines and landing behind me, I left three troops of Shock Troops in reserve well behind the front line. They were too far for him to charge, but within range to charge him if the Hellstrikers landed anywhere behind my line. Flying knights are kind of like glass cannons. They can put out a ton of damage on a charge, but if they ever receive a charge themselves they are in real trouble. My positioning effectively shut down that whole side of the board, and the Manticores ended sitting out much of the battle. The opposite wing of the battlefield was a vicious battle between Orc cavalry and Rat infantry. The Orcs eventually prevailed on that wing. At this point, each of us controlled one wing. It was all down to the grind in the center.
On the final turn of the game the humble and unproven spear regiment, "The Grim Squeakers", charged into a regiment of Rift Forged Legionares. Titmouse hit the Orcs in the flank, and Broodmother Ginger hit them with a drain life spell. The Tangle buffed the Squeakers with a banechant spell. The combined result of this team effort routed the RF Orc regiment! The Grim Squeakers rolled a 5/6 for their overrun. This landed them within 3 inches of the central objective. Dan had parked his shrine within 3 inches of the objective to claim it, but my Rat regiment had a higher unit strength, so the objective was ours! We rolled to see if there was a turn seven, and there was not. The game ended. That final charge by the Grim Squeakers had won me the game by just one point!
Game two was against Jason Birr's Elves. Jason's Elves are the classic Elf list. Lots of archery to soften up the enemy from a distance, and multiple units of flying Dragon rider knights to charge in and finish them off. The last thing those Dragon riders want to see across the board is spear phalanx, and once again I had zoned them out from landing behind me with the positioning of my Shock Troop reserves. Jason was undeterred, however, and came up with an unorthodox plan to defeat me. Instead of having his infantry carry loot tokens while the Dragons charged in to fight, he sent his infantry forward to block my Rats. The haughty Elven Princes on their beautiful Dragons were relegated to picking up cargo and serving as a supply convoy! This strategy may not have made General Birr popular amongst his own nobility, but it worked. Despite my army list advantages, Jason cleverly avoided my traps and out played me for a well-deserved victory!
I was now 1-1 going into game three.
Game three was against John Wach's Ogre Landsknechts. John's Ogre list is very small and very elite. My army was twice the size, and the scenario required units to move into the opponent's zone with loot tokens. John simply didn't have enough units in his army to screen the entire board. He wasn't going to be able to stop ALL the rats. His army could only effectively cover 1/3 of the table. My Rats could cover the entire length of it. Because I out deployed him, I was able to make it all but impossible for him to stop any of my three loot token carrying units. His best hope was to concentrate everything he had into the center. He would have to try to punch through my lines with his elite units and hopefully snag the tie-breaker token in the middle on the way. This would be no easy task, as I had walls on my side of the table that I could barricade behind. It was a bloody mess. Ogres got gunned down by Rats. Rats got flattened by Ogres. Titmouse punched the proud Ogre standard bearer in the face and kicked his poor Crocodog. The Ogres carrying the tokens made a desperate dash into my zone. Unfortunately for John, the unit that had picked up the tie-breaker token got shot down by my Rats, causing them to drop it. A brave Ogre berserker character made a heroic dash for the token and picked it up on John's turn six. At the moment, he was winning by one, but I still had one turn left. Frank the Tank disengaged from the chariot he was fighting, did a 1" withdraw move, pivoted, and charged the lone Ogre berserker in the flank. Despite the penalty for withdrawing and charging, Frank bulldozed into the hapless Ogre, sacking him like an NFL linebacker and stealing the token on the last move of the game! A narrow victory for the Rats!
At the end of day one I was 2-1. Both of my wins had been VERY close! I was having a great time, and despite my aching feet and back from standing all day, I was eager to get back for day two.
Before we left for the evening our club was pulled aside to do a quick interview for the Countercharge Podcast! After the interview Rob and I grabbed some dinner and he dropped me off at home. It had been a long day!
My wife and I got settled into bed when suddenly her phone rang. A mare out at Blue Ridge was in labor, and foaling was imminent. Rebecca quickly got dressed and ran out to deliver a baby. The dogs were very upset by her sudden nighttime departure, and they didn't let me get much sleep until she came home around 1AM. The foal was healthy and strong, and the delivery was textbook. This isn't our horse, but Rebecca loves all the animals that she works with, so it was a relief that things went smoothly.
Baby girl is named Blossom
Rob picked me up on Sunday morning and we headed back to the convention center for games four and five. I drank lots of coffee to make up for my lack of sleep.
Game four pitted my Rats against Ben Stoddard's Abyssal Demons. Ben's army is beautiful. The entire army is painted with flames, shadows, and one source lighting. Despite my experience playing with Abyssals, this was a very different list than what I used to run. It had a lot of healing and regeneration. It was also very fast. The list has lots of Abyssal Berserkers and Abyssal Horsemen. Ben did a great job shutting down my Tangle with his Seductress. It basically didn't get to cast any spells all game. We had a big rumble in the middle of the battlefield, and a smaller one off on my left flank. I had a big blunder here, where I thought his unit of Horsemen couldn't see my unit because of the hill, but they could. This allowed them to declare a charge that I wasn't prepared to deal with. Losing that unit strength meant that I wouldn't be able to contest that table section. The only good news was that his Horsemen couldn't capitalize on their kill because they were now stuck guarding the section that they had just claimed and so could not contribute to the fight in the middle. Big shoutout to the Grim Squeakers for stubbornly holding up a regiment of Abyssal Guard in combat for the entire game! Abyssal Guard are mean, but those brave Squeakers refused to budge! On the final turn of the game I was winning by one scoring zone because of a little rat swarm that had ventured off all by itself deep behind enemy lines. Ben's Abyssal Warlock took a potshot at them with a firebolt. He rolled well and killed them! This meant that the game was a draw! I was now 2-1-1 going into the final game of the tournament.
The final game was against Brinton Williams and his Trident Realm of Neretica. Brinton's army was comprised entirely of Frogs. Frog infantry. Frog cavalry. Frog monsters. As he looked at my army list he lamented the fact that my army was all phalanx. Because the Frogs can leap over other units they are considered flyers and therefore suffer penalties when fighting phalanx units. This was going to be a tough matchup for him. Truth be told, though, it was a tough matchup for me as well. The Frogs have two special rules that make them very difficult for Rats to fight. The Frogs have "ensnare" and "stealthy". These rules are very effective against Rat melee and Rat shooting. My army doesn't put out much damage to begin with, and these rules further hinder my offensive ability. Brinton's speedy Frog cavalry made a wide hook around a building on my left flank. The Rats were in a good defensive formation, though, and we received the charges and held. Again, I zoned out my opponents potential landing areas with my reserves. Because both of our armies were weak at fighting each other the battlelines were pretty static and not a lot really happened. With just a couple turns left in the game I sent Titmouse and the spear horde known as Skeever's Sharpclaws up the right side of the board to bully a frog troop off of their objective. The Rats didn't even fight the Frogs. They just marched up to them, stopped an inch away, and claimed the objective token with their higher unit strength. The little troop of Frogs couldn't do anything about it except stand there and look sad while the Rats took their lunch money. The Frog cavalry over on the left side of the board finally managed to rout the Rat Spears protecting my flank, but were immediately overwhelmed by the Shock Troops and two angry Broodmothers charging in. One of my central spear regiments adjusted position slightly to make sure that the central objective was safe. It was a hard fought victory for the Rats. The Frogs had played a good game but just hadn't been able to punch through my lines, or stop me from claiming the objectives on the right. The final game was over, and my record for the tournament was 3 wins, 1 loss, and 1 draw.
It was a great tournament and all of my opponents were fantastic! Despite only having one loss all weekend my overall ranking was 28th place out of 52 players. This was due to the scoring system putting a lot of emphasis on attrition. My Rats aren't that good at killing stuff, and even when we win we have very high casualties ourselves. If I were a more competetive player that might bother me, but I'm not. I'm here to test my skills and present my army list with different challenges than it might face on the local scene. Rats don't get big wins, but at least we win.
In related news Rob qualified for US Masters 2025! He will be part of the team representing the Midwest region in Reno, Nevada this summer.
Will won 3rd place AdeptiClash Sportsmanship!
Joe won 2nd place in the Ambush! Tournament on Friday night!
Elle won the two-day Blood Bowl tournament!
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