AdeptiCon brings big-time miniatures action to Milwaukee

As the old saying goes: “March comes in like a lion and goes out with three nerdy weekends full of back-to-back-to-back conventions.”

This week, Gary Con celebrates the life of one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons in Lake Geneva, where the game was born. On April 4-6, Midwest Gaming Classic will bring a fleet of arcade classics and pinball wizards to downtown Milwaukee. Smack dab between them, from March 26 through the 30th, AdeptiCon will have tables full of tiny warfare scattered through the Baird Center.

If that name sounds familiar, that’s because this is technically the event’s 22nd year in existence—though it’s the first one here in Milwaukee. AdeptiCon began in 2003 in the Chicagoland area and has grown over the years into an event that has hosted thousands of miniatures players. These fans bring all sorts of carefully painted figures and terrain to the event space, playing games like Battletech, Bolt Action, Star Wars: Shatterpoint, and, of course, Warhammer.

“In the early 2000s, there were a bunch of us in the Chicagoland area that were playing Warhammer,” says Matt Weeks, co-founder of AdeptiCon. “We had been down to a couple of events in St. Louis. We saw they had a group and were organized. It was like this gang of people playing and doing organized events. We thought, ‘Why isn’t anybody doing that in Chicago?’ So we came back and started a little phpBB forum back in the day for local players. Started running one-off events like big floor games, small little campaigns, and things like that.”

Warhammer is the world’s most popular miniatures game. Games Workshop first released Warhammer Fantasy Battle in 1983, and the game has grown into a massive IP that includes tabletop games, video games, novels, and more. There are multiple versions of the tabletop miniatures game set in different times and places of the Warhammer world including Warhammer: The Old World, Warhammer: Age Of Sigmar, and Warhammer 40,000 (a.k.a. Henry Cavill’s favorite).

“Then there were two big events that happened,” says Weeks. “One, Games Workshop opened a Battle Bunker out here in Downer’s Grove in Illinois. They moved their Midwest operations into our backyard. The other one was that they stopped doing grand tournaments. We really liked those, we had a good time at those tournaments, and we’d like to see them continue. What if we did them independently? The Battle Bunker was actually very supportive of that idea.”

The event grew out of only supporting Games Workshop games, with other manufacturers seeing the value of a convention that focused solely on miniatures rather than pairing them with other nerdly pursuits such as board games or video games. Last year, the organizers announced they were moving out of the Schaumburg location where it has run for a while to the larger Baird Center in Milwaukee.

“We ran out of space,” says Weeks. “Schaumberg was our fifth venue over 20-ish years. With all these venues we would start off not using all of the space in the first year, thinking we’d never use it all. Two years later we’d used it all. Two years later we’d be spilling out into the hallways. In Schamburg we had to have an entire other facility where we had to run shuttles back and forth. In the middle of downtown Milwaukee, the attendee experience is going to open up to allow people to just walk out the door and hit up a pub or a good restaurant.”

In addition to the world champion tournaments, gorgeous miniature displays, and painting activities for young and old, AdeptiCon boasts a unique feature amongst conventions. The exhibit hall is open to the public without needing to buy a ticket. Checking out this new-to-the-city experience won’t cost the curious anything beyond a little time over the weekend—and maybe a little money in a downtown parking meter.

“If you’ve never been to AdeptiCon,” says Weeks, “or any convention ever before, this is your best opportunity to get a wide view of what occurs in the hobby. From gaming to exhibiting to hobby seminars to paint and takes, there’s all kinds of things going on. Everyone’s going to be extremely helpful and friendly. There are some demos going on in the exhibit halls. There will be some amazing models on display in the painting competitions. Lots of eye candy, lots of friendly people, and lots of experience to be had, I think.”

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