Adepticon Clash of Kings 2017

In North America, Mantic sponsors two tournaments - The North American Clash of Kings Championship at Adepticon and the (newly renamed) King of Gencon tournament at Gencon (of course).

While not the largest Kings of War tournament in the US, it is the officially Championship sponsored by Mantic.  Ronnie has talked about having the winners being flown over to take part in the CoK across the pond, though it hasn't yet happened unfortunately.

This year the NACoK was held the weekend of March 25th and 26th, once again at Renaissance Schaumburg  Hotel and Convention center as part of Adepticon.

Attendance, unfortunately, was slightly down from last year with 27 people competing for the medal and golden Blaine trophy.

A great time was had by all!

Amazingly, we managed to keep on schedule Saturday and only were a little off (due to some players not checking the schedules posted all around the hall.

Round one was a basic Pillage! scenario, with each table having five tokens.

Round one gets started

Russ v Tim

Justin v Michelle

Steve v Kara

Kyle v Uriah

Andrew v Jesse

Dave v Jerry

Britton v Tim

Joe v Shannon

Tim v Jon

Erich v Bob

Grant v Caleb

Ron v Amy

Mar v Felix

On the suggestion of a couple of players, I changed up the schedule to take the longer lunch break after game 2 instead of game 1.  This worked out very well, as most people didn't need the big break after only one game, but really appreciated it after playing two.

Round 2 started right on time.

Mark v Tim

Tim v Jesse

Russ v Erich

Britton v Tim

Dave v Bob

Amy v Grant

Justin v Joe

Jon v Uriah

Ron v Caleb

Michele v Shannon

Grant v Kara

Cyle v Andrew

Kyle v Steve

Felix v Jerry

After the second round we took a late lunch break, and I did the paint judging.  There were some really fantastic armies displayed.

Jesse Cornwell's Ogres

Tim Akers Elves

Justin Fugate's Forces of the Abyss

Jon Carter's Undead

Uriah Mach's Forces of the Abyss

Joe Cottrell's Basileans

Tim Bowie's Brotherhood

Erich Trowbridge's Orcs

Brinton William's Dwarfs

Dave Baker's Forces of the Abyss

Amy Stamper's Dwarfs

Grant Barnes Orcs

Bob Woodhouse's Empire of Dust

Tim Bjur's Elves

Mark Rupp's Brotherhood

Ron Dille's Ratkin

Michele Olsen's Elves

Grant Smith's Brotherhood

Cyle Pool's Goblins

Kyle Przlenski's Twilight Kin

Felix Castro's Herd

Jerry Paige's Elves

Steve Malone's Twilight Kin

Kara Brown's Abyssal Dwarves

Shannon Shoemaker's Goblins

Caleb Easler's Dwarves

I have to apologize to Andrew Summers, as somehow I missed getting a picture of his Brotherhood army, though I do have this one from Daycon a few weeks ago

Andrew Summer's Brotherhood

I did try to snap some close ups of some of my favorite models as well

Jesse had a little fun with the banners on his ogres

Erich's banners for his Orcs were just amazing (though he admitted they were done by a friend of his)

Units need cool banners

Bob Woodhouse themed hi Empire of Dust on the classic Bruce Campbell's movie, "Army of Darkness".  After Ash leaves, the necronomicon takes over and converts everyone to Deadites.  This is Ash's car

Really cool, using the rule that allows monsters / heroes to be on bigger bases if necessary (though it did come back to bite him in a game where it could not pivot to countercharge because it was too close to the edge, and if it turned it would be off the board)

I've always been a greenskin fan, and Grant Barne's Orcs has dome very nice models.

I have a soft spot for the old Giants of Albion models from GW - as I've used them in my UGPS army as well

Uriah Mach had a really cool idea for a legion of larvae being driven into battle

Jon Carter's Wraiths surprise everyone when he shows they are converted Mantic models

Amy Stamper did a nice job on these Earth Elementals

Briton Williams' had some nice dwarf conversions - these rising from their graves to defend the keep

fun Dwarf knights as Brock Riders

Repurposing his dirigibles as Organ Guns

Don Dille did some nice Ratkin conversions for Hackpaws, using goblin fleabags

Ron's display had the pit where the ratkin were coming from, filled with smoke and fire (batting and LEDs)

Michele Olsen's elves were simply incredible.  She had LEDs in her Tree Herder (with a mushroom on the base as the switch)

I love these Drakon riders with butterfly wings

She sculpted the mushrooms that she used for Forest Shamblers

Even simple Palace Guard are awesome

Even her bolt throwers are extraordinary

Kyle Przlenski's Twilight Kin were top notch

a fantastic job on the light cav

The base of the spear men is tiered so each can reach over the one in front instead of between.

Felix Castro's Stampede perfectly fits the theme of the unit - big out of control animals that run over everything

Jerry Paige has some fantastic Drakon Rider conversions

and some very nicely painted Forest Shamblers

Steve Malone may not have finished this unit yet, but it is already looking good

Andrew Summer's Forsaken Beasts are reaper dragon turtles

Kara Brown added an new hero to her army

She also built a Dragon Fie Team

Shannon Shoemaker went all out on his spider themed Goblin army, including this arachanok spider as a slasher

Spiders for fleabag riders

Goblin Testudo's (that almost look like spider egg sacks)

and some pretty cool war trombones

I love the model Caleb Easler used for his steel behemoth.

I barely finished all the paint judging and got round three off on time.

Kara v Tim

Grant v Joe

Bob v Steve

Tim v Felix

Kyle v Shannon

Justin v David

Erich v Britton

Andrew v Jerry

Ron v Grant

Uriah v Tim

Cyle v Caleb

Jesse v Russel

Michele v Mark

Jon v Amy

The fourth and final round for Saturday started and ended on time, so people could attend Mantic night if they wanted.

Felix v Grant

Mark v Dave

Erich v Jerry

Jesse v Shannon

Joe v Steve

Ron v Michele

Caleb v Russ

Uriah v Justin

Jon v Kyle

Tim v  Tim

Tim v Bob

Amy v Cyle

Kara v Brinton

Sunday dawned bright and early, and unfortunately we lost two people (I'm thinking due to hangovers from Mantic night), and we got started late as we had to wait for a few players that couldn't seem to be able to read the schedule, but otherwise round five went very well

Joe v Jerry

Grant v Tim

Russ v Justin

Steve v Amy

Mark v Rupp

Ron v Tim

Kyle v Jesse

Shannon v Erich

Cyle v David

Michele v Uriah

Caleb v Briton

Felix v Jon

Andrew v Kara

And then it was round six.  Dice were rolled, scores were tabulated and votes were cast.

Tim v Michele

Grant v Britton

Russ v Bob

Steve v Tim

Justin v Kyle

Amy v Jesse

Ron v Uriah

Joe v Erich

Jerry v Cyle

Andrew v Mark

Kara v Shannon

Jon v David

Caleb v Felix

I did not know until this year the Adepticon provides not only the packets and awards, but also the prize support for the tournaments (vendors can pay their booth fees either with cash or product for prize support).  This is how they have gotten their reputation for huge prize support.  We had more than I've ever given out at a tournament before

All the prizes

First place - Gold Blaine, medal, mega starter, three regiments and a handful of blisters

Second gets a silver Blaine and medal, with four regiments and a pair of blisters

Third get copper Blaine and medal, three regiments and a blister.

Best Painted Mantic Army gets a medal, K&$ Multicase, regiment and terrain piece.

Best sportsman gets a medal, case, regiment and terrain

Of course last place gets a wooden spoon, plus some counter charge dice (and pen) and a Manticon tape measure (a finely crafted measuring device, definitely not a dollar store tape measure with a sticker on it).

So at the end of two days, we had our winners!

Wooden Spoon goes to Ron Dille

Honorable Mention was given to Michele Olsen for the highest scored (and voted) army, but unfortunately it did not have 90% Mantic models (or any for that matter), so wasn't eligible to win a prize.

The Best Painted Mantic Army went to Jon Carter

I didn't feel too bad for Michele, as she went on to win Most Sporting (She tied with Kyle Przlenski, but this award goes to the person with the LOWER battle score on a tie).

3rd Place went to Jesse Cornwell (who had the highest sports score, but you can only win one award)

Second place, for the second year in a row, went to Shannon Shoemaker

And first Place went to Erich Trowbridge - with a 6-0 record!

and some loser standing around (that is NOT a fanny pack, it is a speaker so I have some bit of a voice left after four days)

Immediate feedback was that 50 minutes per player for 2250 points was not enough time, and needs to be at least 55 minutes (and I don't really have a problem upping it next year).  The difference between last years 2500 points and this years 2250 was significant - people were not as drained for the fourth game as before, so I think it is a good size to stick to.

You can, of course, see all the results on the warscore page for the event.

It seemed that everyone had a great time, and I look forward to running it again next year.

Because it is all fun and games . . .