Colossals Diorama by Privateer Press: Final Update

As we come into the final stretch leading up to AdeptiCon, what is a diorama involving a train heist without a train?

The Trollbloods certainly picked the wrong train to hijack, as this one is packed full of Winter Guard escorting a pair of Conquests. Worse yet for the Trollblooods, with the train stopped on the tracks, the Khadoran forces can easily prep and deploy their colossals directly into the fray.

Building The Tower of Orthanc - Part II

Back for its fourth year, the AdeptiCon Lord of the Rings tournaments give players the chance to test their skills against each other throughout Middle-earth. Yet not all is battle and iron...witness the power of Orthanc!

This beautiful model will be on display in the Cypress room all weekend long, come look...yet gaze not overly long...

Welcome back to another installment of, Building Orthanc. If you were wondering, why lower whacker drive has not been finished, it is because the construction crews have been working on Orthanc... This will be the final update before its premier unveiling at AdeptiCon, Friday April 20th.

I give you the completed tower before it faces the paint brush. I can proudly say, not counting Lego versions, that this will be the 4th built recreation of this movie icon according to a definitive Google search.

Enter the AdeptiConstruct!

You may have noticed something missing in all of the news leading up to the tenth anniversary of AdeptiCon...what exactly is the exclusive swag bag model? Almost two years in the making, the AdeptiConstruct was originally envisioned by artist extraordinaire Nicolás Giacondino for AdeptiCon 2011, but a lack of time and proper resources prevented it from being completed. Shortly thereafter, it was realized that the AdeptiConstruct would in fact make the perfect model to help us celebrate ten years of dice and destruction...production began in haste!

Standing roughly 5 inches tall, the AdeptiConstruct has arrived! The first 1000 preregistered attendees with an AdeptiCon 2012 Weekend Badge will receive this monstrosity in their swag bag! Chilithium Fusion Cell not included.

Sculpted by The Ravages of Time | Painted by Tom Schadle

Click to enlarge photos.

Colossals Diorama by Privateer Press: Update

The Privateer Press Colossals Diorama will be on display all weekend long at AdeptiCon 2012. You will find this beast residing in the Magnolia Room along with endless hours upon hours of intense Warmachine and Hordes gaming. Stop by at any point to witness this truly colossal project in all it's glory!

Since our last update, the hobby team has been working on the stunning diorama display, and they have the photos to prove it. While Stuart Spengler set up the final touches for the main board and has started to lay down paint, Leo Carson completed the Khadoran Village, and Meg Maples lent her invaluable assistance to get the armies painted to the finest quality. This is a no-holds-barred confluence of effort, and we hope it shows.

Click on the image to the right to see a work-in-progress shot of the table being painted. The major ground features have been blocked and water effects have just been laid over the riverbed.

Colossals Diorama by Privateer Press at AdeptiCon 2012!

For the last two years Privateer Press has unveiled a new diorama at AdeptiCon that illustrates an iconic event from the WARMACHINE and HORDES world. When preparing for AdeptiCon 2012, we knew we wanted to feature perhaps the most exciting models we’ve yet produced: the mighty colossals.

This project began life, as many Privateer projects do, within the hallowed walls of our conference room. While there was no end of exciting possibilities discussed, two items in particular determined the final concept. First, we wanted to feature a climatic battle between WARMACHINE and HORDES factions. Second, we decided the central theme should revolve around a great train heist. After much deliberation over the details, these two ideas were shaped into a rough plan. This year’s AdeptiCon diorama features a Trollblood army, fronted by the mighty gargantuan Mountain Kings, assaulting a Khadoran supply train as it transports two of the hulking Khadoran Conquest colossals through a rugged mountain pass.

Themes Explained: An Inside Look at Killzone Design #3

Reposted from A Gentleman's Ones (02.27.12).

As stated previously, this series is designed to offer a peek behind the curtain, and to illuminate our collective thinking about the current state of Special Operations: Killzone as we run up to AdeptiCon.

Themes: During the process of revising the old, ambitious, but challenging version of Killzone in this last year, we stumbled square into a problem that, to my mind at least, seems utterly indicative of the tension fundamental to the fun and fluff v public stresses imposed on the peculiar nature of Special Operations in the 41st millennium. Killzone is, unerringly, a fluffy game –positively inviting characterful attention to individual teams, sportily indulging the desire to craft carefully small numbers of models, and yet also working extremely well when brought into the greater public sphere. Those basic impulses do not always sit well next to one another. Check the internet if you doubt me.

Also please note that I did not mention the word “competitive” above for a good reason. To be clear, Killzone can never be competitive as such. I mean, we have rewoven a game notorious for its intuitive approach to “balance” and then asked enthusiasts to play said game in a manner it was absolutely never intended. When played in the basement with your mates, these issues should never be a problem, see any Standard Bearer column to confirm; however, in the setting of a public event like AdeptiCon (even among players fully aware that they are playing a system in a manner it was never originally intended, nor designed to withstand) there are stresses of balance and propriety looming like an 8 foot bio-engineered monstrosity in the corner.

Building The Tower of Orthanc - Part I

One day while sitting around, a faint voice crawled over the ground. Not down the chimney, not quite like a mouse, but a booming whisper that soon shook the whole house. This tell tale heart could not be forgot.

A look in the kitchen, a look by the TV, but no source could be found for this mysterious clamor. A creak of the door, and a look in my room, where a dull glow shown through the gloom. A slab of black lay on the desk, menacing and brooding, hummed the muffled voice.

A lift of the lid, and that dark palantir opened. A dark burning eye that grabbed my innards. I saw a tower of white, with a dead white sign, it read Westin; erupt with red flame. And from that thick smoke, the Dark Lord Jamie Welling did spoke, “Build me a tower, worthy of AdeptiCon...”

Telling Better Stories, Period

This year, I open the Warhammer 40K Combat Patrol update with a statement for everyone to think about and comment on. Every Warhammer 40K player has a story about that one time...

Aside from any story involving a Shokk Attack gun, most players can recall at least one game where a model defied the dice gods and proved that no unit is to be overlooked. This is what I hope the AdeptiCon Warhammer 40K Combat Patrol tournament embodies.

Five year ago, Combat Patrol began as a free-form tournament at AdeptiCon. A handful of players banded together to enjoy a series of games, while avoiding the infamous ‘Gladiator’ event. Loosely based off the 40K in 40 Minutes format, a tournament event was born that focused on small scale actions in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The rules were heavily exclusive on units, focusing on troops and less on the super heavy tanks of the 41st Millennium.

Team Building: An Inside Look at Killzone Design #2

Reposted from A Gentleman's Ones (02.24.12).

This series of posts, apart from getting the gears engaged as we spin into AdeptiCon and the Killzone events featured therein, is designed to offer insight into the machinations that formed Killzone into the hearty and robust mechanism that it is currently. More than simple promotion of the game itself, this series hopes to present a kind of RaI blueprint for how we got from the broad (and largely unmanageable) Kill Teams dynamic suggested in previous 40K editions and loosely suggested in the contemporary Battle Missions book, to last year’s Special Operations: Killzone ruleset, and finally to the extraordinarily fun, rounded dynamic that we have conjured for AdeptiCon this year.

This first installment covers some ground that might already be familiar to enthusiasts of Joe and Skarvald’s timely and sporting blog (Wolves for the Wolf God. Go check it out if you are unfamiliar), but the topic is worth visiting once more. Although the series might cover some expected territory, the idea –simply- is to discuss what on earth we were thinking.

For those of you not versed or familiar, there are a number of basic restrictions that act as the foundation for a standard team -250 points. These restrictions are essential and act as the leveling skeleton upon which all teams are built. There are a few simple guidelines that I will not discuss here for practicality’s sake –so please have a gander at the larger ruleset for the whole picture.

Inquiries From the Underhive

I received an interesting question via email today in regards to Redemptionist gangs in the tournament. Specifically:

I know that you cannot recruit new fighters as per the tournament rules. But Redemptionists have this special rule:

The death of the faithful only serves to fuel the belief of the devout and may attract new Devotees to join a gang. So as Redemptionists fall others take their place. After a game in which a Redemptionist of any type dies (11-16 on the serious injury chart) roll a D6 for each member of the gang who died. On a 4+ the gang gains a Devotee armed with a knife for free. Additional equipment may be given to the new Devotee using the gangs stash or income.

Does that rule still apply or not?

That's a really great question and one I haven't been faced with before. So now I'm faced with a difficult ruling to make in regards to this issue.