AdeptiCon, the annual wargaming convention in the midwestern United States, has come and gone. 2025 was the first year it was held in Milwaukee and not in Chicago. We’ll detail our experiences elsewhere with food, location, etc, so you can get a good idea of what to expect in 2026 if you didn’t go – but short story, it was great. AdeptiCon bills itself as ‘The World’s Premiere Wargaming Convention’ and for this writer it lived up to the bill.
My AdeptiCon experience is usually a bit different from most of our writers – I help organize the Historicals area of AdeptiCon and spend all of my time there. Thursday I ran a 20 person Silver Bayonet event, Friday I ran a Sharp Practice participation game, Saturday I did the same with What a Cowboy and Sharp Practice, and Sunday I played in the SAGA Age of Darkness tournament. I’m going to detail each experience here to give you an idea what it was like to be in the Historicals area at AdeptiCon!
Thursday – The Silver Bayonet Event
Last year I ran a Silver Bayonet event for the first time at AdeptiCon. It was on Sunday and we had 14 players show up – not bad for a first effort. I think the fact that it was on Sunday, which many gamers use to return home, and that it was at an offsite from the main building affected attendance a little. This year we had 20 signups and at times four waitlists, so it was very full.
Easily the most difficult part of this event was having enough stuff for ten tables. I use 3×3′ mats for TSB so it’s not ten 6x4s, but you still need a variety of items on each table to make them look good and work well. Transporting all that stuff was annoying but I managed to mostly use stuff I was using later in the weekend anyway. Huge shoutout to Tablewar and Grey Matter Games for providing some of our mats. Huge shoutout to Goonhammer for sponsoring our awards and other items!
I set this up as an event day, so entry was $10. Players could expect to play three games and have a great time, but there weren’t going to be huge massive awards and super serious business competition. It wasn’t a tournament.
Just like last year I created a narrative for the day – the players were traveling up the Rouge River to defeat Col. Blurtz, who had taken his command to defeat local militia, setup a small outpost, and become a deity to the local people. Players were tasked with terminating his command with extreme prejudice.
If you’d like to have a look, you can see the event pack here – 2025 Silver Bayonet
The first two scenarios were variations of book scenarios from TSB. The first one found them fighting ghouls, goblins, revenants, etc. – smaller low level monsters that could be killed fairly easily. I do not have enough of one type of enemy to provide ten tables worth of dudes, so I randomized which enemies were on which table. The second game had the soldiers’ camp disrupted by invaders at night, which turned out to be vampire acolytes. Players learned how scary Soul Shear is and how strong Vampires can be.
How the Event Ran
After each game, I instructed the players to level up a few guys like they had played a longer campaign. Eventually the players’ warband would be decently advanced in Game Three. I also stressed the difference between red and blue die (skill vs power) and how that works, as well as other small things to remember. Each player received a quick reference sheet and I included the monster stats in the event packet so they wouldn’t have to look stuff up. Newrecruit.eu has a catalog for Silver Bayonet that works really well, so I had players print out their roster there, with the ‘pretty’ output basically producing soldier cards for each guy.
The third game was a bit of a FUBAR for me – I had it planned as two big games, where players teamed up to fight all the other players. So one board would have five teams (of two) vs five teams, while the other had five vs five. Except I forgot my ocean mats that I needed to do this, so I had to beg and borrow other organizers for some. It ended up being … okay, but I don’t think I’ll do a big game next time. Maybe 2v2 on a 3×3′ board? They did end up taking down Col. Blurtz but there was a lot of waiting. I’ll do better next time, I promise.
Our event was in a BIG hallway with tons of natural light – it was pretty great. People walking by got to see our games and it really built up the event. I loved it. It wasn’t too loud at all. I’ve attached pics in a gallery below of our games – it was a great time and I can’t wait for next year!
Second Seminole War Sharp Practice
Phalanx Games and Sundry sent some Second Seminole War models for us to review (that’ll be up soon!) and I purchased a ton more so I decided to run a Second Seminole War Sharp Practice game at AdeptiCon. This is a participation game – where I bring the models, terrain, rules, etc. and four players play in it. I have delved deep into the rules and writings of Sharp Practice to really figure out how to best represent the Seminoles in this game and I think I’m about halfway there.
The US Regulars were tasked with destroying two storehouses where the Seminoles were keeping arms and supplies. There was a little bad luck on the part of the Seminoles – their main leader got knocked down for a while and couldn’t do anything. I think overall I need to add a few more Seminoles to the list and maybe restrict the US Regulars formation a bit more. It wasn’t a close game, although there were close moments. The Seminoles lost on Force Morale.
I’m excited to paint some more guys (this was a smaller SP game – about 35 models on either side) and do more research. I love the uniforms, kits, and terrain.
What a Cowboy
I had received my order from Great Escape Games of the Confederados and Mormon Family for Dead Man’s Hand and couldn’t wait to paint them, so I used them for this What a Cowboy game. This was the first time I ran a WaC game at a con and I had some learning and questions but luckily another Lard American was nearby who played a ton.
It was a close game with a lot of back and forth, lots of learning the rules, and some epic moments – but eventually the Mormons took too many bullets and had to retreat. Melvina was the Mormon MVP, wounding and killing two Confederados with her double barreled shotgun. Overall it was an enjoyable experience and I can see us doing more WAC at cons.
US-Mexican War Sharp Practice
I’ve been running US-Mexican War games at cons for a few years now and this game was probably the best one (I still have lots to paint for it so I’ll be running these games a lot more still!). I’ve never had a Mexican major victory – I try to balance the scenarios well enough that they can fight back, but their lack of firepower close in makes it hard once the US Regulars close. This game was a Mexican major victory – they lost some Force Morale, but managed to get the US team to zero by forcing back their Dragoons and one line formation. It was amazing.
I think the scenario was very balanced and one of the first in a while that I’ve run where it was from long board edge to long board edge – I think this definitely helped space out the troops and create smaller fights all along the board instead of one big scrum.
Other Lard America Games
I apologize that I didn’t get more pics from our games all weekend. We had a ton of games going on and hit all these systems: What a Cowboy, Sharp Practice, Chain of Command, Strength and Honour, Bag the Hun, What a Tanker, and General d’Armee. It was a great weekend to show how awesome our stuff is!
SAGA Age of Darkness Tournament
Committing to an entire tourney on Sunday after playing all week is a tough one but I love SAGA and wanted to do it. Charlie and I woke up early, got all our stuff in the car to check out of the hotel, and drove to the main convention parking area.
I have played in SAGA events over the years at AdeptiCon and they’ve always, every single time, been a chill and fun experience. I unfortunately don’t get to play as much SAGA as I’d like, so I’m still relatively inexperienced at the game.
The packet for our tournament was similar to the last time I played in the Age of Darkness tournament. The three scenarios were Swords Will Sing, Sacred Ground, and Wrath of the Warlords. Here are the event rules: 2025SAGAAgeofDarknessv2
My warband was as follows:
Norse Gaels (6 pts) Warlord w/ Heavy Weapon Hearthguard x4 w/ Heavy Weapon Hearthguard x4 w/ Heavy Weapon Warriors x8 w/ Heavy Weapon Warriors x8 w/ Heavy Weapon Warriors x8 w/ Javelins Levy x12 w/ Javelins
My first game was against Last Romans. My opponent informed me that every model in his warband could shoot, and the scenario didn’t require him to move to the center or take objectives like the others did. He was a nice guy, he was just helping me understand what could happen. Norse Gaels don’t have any protection from shooting abilities and just minor movement shenanigans they can do. I did eventually make it into my opponents line but not in time for me to make up the massacre points. It was a pretty big loss.
Game two was against Anglo-Saxons. They’re focused on multiple large units of Levy that they can then buff up to be like Warriors. I felt confident I could swing it my way with a ton of Combat Bonus dice. There were three objectives in the center (flank objectives were offset a bit) that we had to take and hold in our opponent’s turn. I did pretty well this game! I killed a lot of dudes and lost just barely in the last turn on one objective.
The last game was another Massacre Point focused game where you had to move toward the middle or your guys would count as dead at the end of the game. I was facing Carolingians, another shooty faction. I tried to push them more toward one place with the terrain placement, and it worked okay-ish for me. I did end up killing a ton of dudes in this game, but ended up losing my Warlord in the last turn which definitely cost me in the Massacre Point game.
It was a close game, but I went 0-3 on the day. I had a TON of fun though – which sounds weird being 0-3 – but I did a lot of the things that I wanted to do in games Two and Three and really learned for next time. Props to the dude blowing the Viking horn, by the way.
I had a ton of fun playing and I’m considering doing the doubles tourney on Saturday with my son next year. I love SAGA – it’s easily my #2 game after Sharp Practice.
Vendor Hall Purchases
We ended up hitting the Vendor Hall a few times and I definitely tried to limit my purchases a bit more this year as I already have a ton of stuff. I tried to grab stuff I know I’m going to do in 2025 and not just hoard. It felt like the vendor hall was at least 25% bigger, with tons of vendors I’ve never seen before. It was great.
Overall Thoughts
Regarding the Historicals Hall, I had a great time and a great overall experience. The hall was well lit, not super loud, the bathrooms nearby were accessible and clean. The water bottle stations were close. Our AdeptiCon organizer was responsive and had planned everything well. The really huge windows nearby made a nice place to go and get some ‘outside feel’ if you were tired of being inside all day, and you could actually go outside on a balcony and see all of Milwaukee if you wanted.
I had two gripes – one can be fixed and one is just how it is. The Historicals Hall was basically the furthest possible place you could put it, on the fourth floor way up a bunch of escalators. There was an elevator for those who needed it or for transporting stuff. While it’s further away, it’s also quieter and less crowded, so there is that. I actually didn’t have any players missing from my games, which happened quite often at the old location – I think because it was offsite and people got stuck at the main place. People seemed to find us easily, which I was anxious about.
My other gripe would be the lack of a map of tables in the Historicals Hall, assigning each table a game etc. so players could find stuff easily. We have signs for our individual games and people did find us, so maybe it’s not that big of a gripe at all. I think that can be improved next year with some more time.
On the balance, I felt that our Historicals area was really well-run, tight-knit, and well-represented with a ton of different games and tournaments present. If you’re a historicals fan in the Midwest or want to fly out, you should be here in 2026.
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