AdeptiCon – billed as the World’s Premiere Wargaming Convention – had humble beginnings in Chicago in 2003, with 110 people coming out to game. It gradually moved venues over the years until it hosted 8,000 gamers in 2024, outgrowing the Renaissance Center in Schaumburg, Illinois. This year it moved an hour-ish north to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the home of brats and beer. Goonhammer authors were on-hand to give you all the details on the new location.
Venue
Greggles: New AdeptiCon at the Baird is big. Like really really big. It took me multiple days to get my bearings, and figure out where everything was going to be. It’s two buildings and four levels. Each level seems larger than the whole of AdeptiCons main floor area used to be. I feel really bad for anyone who showed up on Saturday and tried to get their bearings. It would have been impossible.
Navigation is pretty easy, with tons of space for games and events which had almost no space at the old venue. Prepare for a lot of walking.
The one downside of this (at least for this year), is unless you knew where someone was at a particular time for a particular event, it was significantly difficult to run into them. Scheduling and communication is a very important skill set at Baird if you want to meet some of your con friends you only see once a year!
One major change was that all bags are checked (with various random levels of thoroughness) when you enter the center. This means if you used to bring a keg to the Friendly or Narrative events, you won’t be able to without an intelligence check.
Main gaming areas (40k/AoS/Narrative/Friendly/MCP/Xwing/Shatterpoint/etc) [Editor’s Note: Historicals are main games! See, they’re in the Core Games section above!] and exhibitor hall all were on concrete. Other areas were padded carpet – as such the larger scale games are in an extremely loud hall again.
The 30k area got a massive upgrade, not only on carpet, but in a big hall, with much more space. It was the same area as BattleTech.
TheArmorOfContempt: Another AdeptiCon in the books! I had a fantastic time with my schedule nearly mirroring last years with me deciding to go all in on Kill Team once again. I participated in The Pods, Doubles, and Grand Tournament coming out with a 9-2-2 record for the weekend. Additionally, I made my annual return to the Wednesday Necromunda Narrative, Warhammer 40K Trivia, and AdeptiCon Poker Night.
The Good: I walked away with four separate awards over the course of the weekend. One for a competitive event and three for painting. The highlight being winning Best in Show for the Skirmish Game Category at the Army Showcase on Saturday. On top of this I found myself in the top bracket for the Kill Team Grand Tournament, making this my third appearance in a row at the top tables.
The Venue itself was great, perfectly placed between the two main hotels that feed into it. Prices and parking were not demonstrably different from the Schaumburg. Food prices were roughly what you’d expect at this point with vendor drinks perhaps being the most exorbitantly priced item, however security was permissive with outside food and drink allowing me to avoid bankrupting myself to get a buzz, while also allowing me to share shots with my opponents.
The event staff were awesome as ever, and if there were any major issues when it comes to setup they went entirely unnoticed by convention participants. Tear down went much more efficiently than previous years as a company was hired to handle table breakdown, which often adds something like two hours to the process.
The Bad: There isn’t really much to complain about here. As noted by others the hotel bars and restaurants seemed entirely overwhelmed by the amount of attendees meaning you were best off moving to a nearby restaurant if you didn’t want to wait an hour for food.
While the security wasn’t that big of a hassle it did mean you needed to get a bigger head start on attending your event as there were some delays entering the Baird Center early on Friday and Saturday. They also would lock the outside doors at 10:00 P.M. making the hotel access to skywalks the only method of entrance at late hours, meaning if you were caught outside after a late dinner or corousing you had to take a much longer foot path to re-enter the convention. A minor inconvenience if not a little annoying.
Conclusion: 9/10 simply because there is always room for improvement, but once again AdeptiCon has been my hobby highlight for the year. It is always great to see so many familiar faces with the worst thing being that it all ends way too soon. I am already thinking of what I want to do for next year, and have many ideas.
Michael O “mugginns”: The con space was absolutely massive. Ballrooms were well-lit. Escalators make it easy to get around if you’re not carrying a bunch of stuff or moving carts. I played on the 4th Floor exclusively, and while I wish our Historicals area had been easier to find (including moving it to the front ballroom, instead of using that for previews), the light from the balcony was amazing. Overall I loved the place.
Accommodations
Klobasnek: The accommodations in Milwaukee are a win over Schaumburg by default because there are multiple solid options within easy walking distance. Nobody gets exiled to walk across the Renaissance’s parking lot or wait for a shuttle.
Andrew and I stayed at the Hyatt. The Hyatt is closest to the 40k events, which is nice. It also has a huge 18 story atrium which echoes any conversation at the ground floor all the way up to every room in the building, which is a definite annoyance. It’s not as good as staying inside the Renaissance in Schaumburg, but those hotel reservations were unobtainium the last few years, so it’s an academic exercise to compare them. The Hilton would be my first choice for next time, but I’m not going to be upset if I end up back in the Hyatt.
Contemptor Kevin: I’ll second what Klobasnek said – I also stayed at the Hyatt and the Atrium was extremely loud and echo-y. While part of that is a side effect of how much fun everyone was having at the convention, it did make it difficult to go to bed when so amped up.
The Hyatt’s breakfast buffet was fine – it wasn’t *great*, but it was under $20 which is a win because usually these things are $30. It was also raining heavily a few of the mornings we were there, which gave a vibe to the breakfast because the Hotel felt like 70s-80s beige and awkward.
Next year I am going to the Hilton, if I can.
Greggles: I stayed at the Hilton.
Positives: Excellent rooms (quite large). Good beds, bad pillows, average shower (low water pressure)
Great lounge space for table top gaming. Tables were in use almost every evening.
Easy access to the convention hall. Excellent location for nearby food hall, coffee. Good elevators. Quiet at night. Some construction (renovating rooms) during the day which made it difficult to nap if you needed a recharge. Very friendly and helpful staff.
Negatives:
- Breakfast was expensive and mediocre (in hotel). Nearby offerings significantly better (Stone Creek Coffee is amazing and 5 min walk)
- Starbucks was meh. (long waits, just walk to Stone Creek).
- The bar was understaffed (lounge)
- The pub restaurant was understaffed with long wait times. Decent food.
- The pub restaurant required seating for the bar, so you couldn’t just walk in and sit at the bar.
- The staffing problem for the amount of people was such that many people would walk upstairs to the lounge to get drinks, to then bring back downstairs to the pub restaurant because it was taking too long.
- 4 and 5 both fixed by walking across the street to the market. (2 blocks)
Michael O “mugginns”: I stayed at the Saint Kate Arts hotel. Rooms were very nice, beautifully decorated, but the dang AC didn’t work. Bathroom and shower were clean. Getting around the hotel was easy. Getting to the convention center was a short walk and wouldn’t be a chore if you didn’t have to carry much. We actually pushed carts of terrain from the Baird to the Hotel and it was only mildly inconveniencing. They had live bands in there at night which was a shock when you’re coming back from a long day gaming and step into a SUPER LOUD lobby. Overall, I liked it a lot.
Food
Contemptor Kevin: Do you like cheese curds? Then you’re going to love AdeptiCon. I will talk more about this in my review of the event, but the food was outstanding. There are many restaurants nearby with a wide selection of food (Major Goolsby’s, the Miller Pub in the Hilton), and the Third Street Market had a beer wall with an amazing selection of beers as well as the second best chicken tenders I have come across in my adventures. One of my regrets was not exploring *more* of the local food options because I was busy with classes.
Klobasnek: There are a ton of good options within a short walk of the Baird Center, if you have a long enough break between rounds to take advantage of them. The food in the actual Baird Center was, well, con food, but at least it was adequately staffed so the lines weren’t unmanageable.
Either way, do not expect to find many fruits or vegetables on offer. Milwaukee is a place of meat, dairy, beer, and fried things, all of which they do very well. Maybe pack some vitamins and/or antacids.
Greggles: LEAVE the convention and LEAVE the hotels. The food in the area is absolutely fantastic. There are excellent brew pubs, great coffee, a public market, good food hall, and more restaurants and bars than you can possibly go to during a four night stay. Here are some standouts.
Coffee:
Canary Coffee: Opens 8am. Understaffed for the event (just one excellent barista). Good coffee, decent pastries. VERY close to Baird.
Stone Creek Coffee: Tons of staff (3-4 people each time I went). Opens at 6am weekday, and 7am on the weekend. Great coffee (Starbucks 2/10, Canary 6/10, Stone Creek 8/10). Good selection of pastries and crust free quiches.
Lunch:
3rd Street Market Hall (1 block from Baird, 2 from Hilton, 1 from Hyatt), 6/10. Lots of great choices here. Great central bar, tacos, sushi/ramen, American faire, pizza, hot dogs, pies, italian deli, big list. Has a beer tap wall to try lots of beers with a card. The fact it’s right next to Baird means its a great spot to head over instead of trying to eat convention food.
Milwaukee Public Market (The Wurst Bar 15-20 min walk). This one is a bit of a hike, but a good spot if you want to get out of the con area for a while. A very nice public market, with excellent food. Of particular standout is the Wurst bar, which is a bar attached to a butcher shop. You can literally pick out the sausages you want, and they’ll grill them right there for you, while you have a great selection of local on draft beers.
Dinner/Pubs:
Milwaukee Brat House (2 blocks from Baird). I had the best meal of my trip here. For 20 bucks you got 4 full size sausages, sauerkraut, onions, and mushrooms. It was outstanding. 100% worth the couple blocks to get here. As a bonus, they serve both lunch and dinner.
The Explorium (15 min walk from Hilton or Baird). This place was so good I went back twice. Some of the best beer I had (and even the best I’ve had this year). Food was decent, but the beer was an absolute standout. If you’re a beer lover, you have to stop by here. Had such a good time here, entire catch phrases were formed.
Michael O “mugginns”: I had my 12yo son with me, and we had events most of the time, so we didn’t have a ton of time to get out and explore. I also like to try to keep huge lunch/dinner bills to once a day, so we generally would either bring / eat lunch or dinner at our hotel room if and then get food once per day. The little food tents at the venue were really nice, basically like food trucks. While somewhat expensive, the food was good and better than the convention grease huts at the ends of the hall.
Distance
Greggles: This is a massive venue. Many spoke of it being larger than GenCon in relative space. (I did not confirm this). As such, there is a lot of walking, a lot of escalators, and a lot of elevators. I averaged about 12.7k steps a day (Wed-Sun). Most of the con (outside of the “main” floor) is carpeted and pleasant to walk on.
To give you an example. To walk from the Hilton, to the Hyatt via the skywalks (not changing any floors), was roughly 0.3 miles, or roughly half a kilometer. Depending on your fitness level, you will need to plan ahead. (There are 4 floors). AdeptiCon used the cvent app, but some of the rooms were so massive, it took time just to figure out where in the room your event was. The 40k area was large enough to run multiple events simultaneously, (friendly, doubles, kill team, flex, narrative/apoc) and each event was LARGER than it was at Schaumburg.
If you are primarily concerned with hanging out with the painting crew (fort wappel), make sure to stay at the Hilton. It’s very close to the skywalk after you get in, and very far from everywhere else. Of course they could move its location next year, so this information may be completely useless.
Michael O “mugginns”: I don’t have much to add other than it seemed like the Vendor Hall was MUCH bigger this year with lots more vendors. Could be totally wrong. But it felt like there were a lot of vendors I’ve never seen there.
Parking
Klobasnek: Have you considered taking the train to the convention instead?
Michael O “mugginns”: After being at the off-site for the last few years at AdeptiCon where parking was easy and free, paying that chunk of change for parking each day was a ball-buster. Super not hugely enthused about that, but our hotel did have a deal on it so it wasn’t terribly as bad. We did have to move the car to the main Baird site on Sunday since our hotel’s deal was up and we paid $37 for one day of parking. Yikes. I’d rather spend that on minis, man.
The actual drive for me (from Michigan) was really easy, and the extra part from Chicago to Milwaukee was basically nothing.
Bonus
Contemptor Kevin: GW released the first preview mini since the ill-fated AdeptiCon 2020, in the form of a preview Space Wolves Grey Hunter. This almost didn’t make it to the con because of the recent fire at Heathrow, so getting it was a treat.
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