Take a look at how a partner and I won the biggest Warhammer: The Old World event in North America – the Adepticon 2026 Doubles.
The other weekend saw the 2026 Adepticon Doubles take place. Held in Milwaukee, in the US, Adepticon is one of the biggest events in the world. For the Doubles there were a total of 46 teams playing, for 92 players. That makes this the largest by person Old World event we’ve had in North America. (I’ve already covered the singles event here.) It had some significant comp you can find them here (only 2 Grand Cathay Lanterns, limits on flyers and monsters being the biggest) and did not use the Renegades pack. I was lucky enough to get to play in this event with my old partner Brandon and when the dust had settled, we took Best Overall, winning the event. So lets take a look at the list we ran and how it went.
Our Doubles List
Ride Out With Me
Bretonnian Exiles -999 pts
Characters -494 pts
Baron -232 pts
– Shield
– The Exile’s Vow (replaces the Knight’s Vow)
– General
– Barded Pegasus
– Frontier Axe
– Virtue of Knightly Temper
Paladin -186 pts
– Lance
– Shield
– The Exile’s Vow (replaces the Knight’s Vow)
– Battle Standard Bearer [War Banner]
– Barded Pegasus
– Gromril Great Helm
– Virtue of Duty
Damsel -76 pts
– Wizard [Level 1 Wizard]
– Bretonnian Warhorse
– Illusion
Core Units -300 pts
10 Peasant Bowmen -50 pts
– Skirmishers
9 Mounted Knights of the Realm -250 pts
– The Exile’s Vow (replaces the Knight’s Vow)
– First Knight (champion)
– Standard bearer [Banner of Châlons]
Rare Units -205 pts
Border Princes Bombard -100 pts
10 Border Princes Brigands -105 pts
– 4x Additional hand weapon
– 10x Blunderbusses
– Formation [Skirmishers]
– Scouts
– Desperado (champion)
High Elves
Characters -383 pts
Noble -154 pts
(Hand weapon, Lance, Full plate armour, Shield, General, Barded Elven Steed, Ring of Fury, Seed of Rebirth, Blood of Caledor)
Noble -229 pts
(Hand weapon, Lance, Full plate armour, Shield, Battle Standard Bearer [Totem of Wrath], Barded Elven Steed, Ring of Fury, Seed of Rebirth, Blood of Caledor)
Core Units -251 pts
6 Silver Helms -156 pts
(Hand weapons, Lances, Hand weapons (Hooves), Heavy armour, Barding, Shields, Standard bearer, Musician)
5 Ellyrian Reavers -95 pts
(Hand weapons, Cavalry spears, Light armour, Shortbows, Skirmishers)
Special Units -231 pts
5 Dragon Princes -231 pts
(Hand weapons, Lances, Full plate armour, Shields, Barding, Drakemaster [Ring of Fury], Standard bearer, Musician)
Rare Units -135 pts
9 Sisters of Avelorn -135 pts
(Hand weapons, Bows of Avelorn, Light armour)
How The Doubles List Plays
Brandon and I picked a pretty aggressive list with some strong hitting power, and some ranged support. With only 250 pts to spend on any character or unit you face some real limitations. The Bret Baron on a Barded Peg is just about hitting that point cap and one the best combat characters you can take at these points. My half the of the list was based around him and the BSB rocking in with a static 3 comabt res to fly around and do some damage. I had a bit of shooting and a nice block of knights to hit things.
Brandon’s Elves followed a similar hard hitting approach. He brought a very dangerous unit in the Dragon Princes. The two nobles rode with them for extra attacks. The unit also rocked in with 3 castings of Hammerhand, letting it put out a real ton of attacks. He also brought some chaff and light shooting. For magic we just had a single lvl 1, mostly there to cast glittering robes and maybe dispel something. Overall it was built to be flexible and hit hard.
Round 1 VS Grant
Round one found us facing Team Grant. This mixed Brettonian/Wood Elf army was gorgeous, indeed it won best painted. I mean just check this out.
Unfortunately they did not submit their lists online so I don’t have an exact copy of what they ran. The Brets had a lance of Grail Knight, two small Knights of the Realm, a unit of Grail Pilgrims, a Baron on Peg, and a small unit if Men-At-Arms. The Wood Elves had some Sisters of the Throne, archers, an eagle and a big block of Rangers. I can’t recall what they had for characters. Both Grant and Cody were really great guys and a ton of fun to play, but didn’t have a ton of experience with the game.
The game went pretty quick. On the left my block of knights fled from the Grail Knights, who then ended up getting shot to death. On the right, but Brigands started off by killing the Great Eagle, and then managed to panic the Knights of the Realm off the Table. The enemy Sisters of the Throne where able to run off most of that flank in the end. In the center my two Pegs destroyed the final Bret Lance, while the DPs annihilated the Pilgrims. We managed to weather the shooting well and ended up coming together to destroy the Rangers.
Sliver Helms and Knights of the Realm In Front, Baron and BSB in the rear and even some brigands in the flank for fun. Ouch! This game ended in a blow out with max 17 points for us. A really fun game vs some great guys.
Round 2 VS Raising Havok
Round 2 saw us paired into Dylan and Tyler with their Beastmen/Wolves of The Sea army, they had the following list:
Beastmen Brayherds -999 pts
Characters -220 pts
Great Bray-Shaman -220 pts
– Wizard [Level 3 Wizard]
– General
– Hagtree Fetish
– Flying Carpet
– Daemonology
Core Units -311 pts
15 Gor Herd -127 pts
– Additional hand weapons
– Ambushers
– True-horn (champion)
15 Ungor Herd -80 pts
– Shortbows
– Musician
1 Razorgor Herd -52 pts
1 Razorgor Herd -52 pts-
Special Units -298 pts
3 Dragon Ogres -198 pts
– Great weapons
– Heavy armour
Herdstone -100 pts-
Rare Units –170 pts
Gigantic Spawn of Chaos -170 pts
– Gigantic Spawn of Nurgle
Wolves of the Sea -1000 pts
Characters -268 pts
Exalted Champion -152 pts
– Lance
– Heavy armour
– Shield
– Mark of Chaos [Mark of Chaos Undivided]
– General
– Chaos Steed
– Favour of the Gods
Aspiring Champion -116 pts
– Hand weapon
– Great weapon
– Heavy armour
– Shield
– Mark of Chaos [Mark of Chaos Undivided]
– On foot
– Favour of the Gods
– Ruby Ring of Ruin
Core Units -250 pts
26 Chaos Marauders -250 pts
– Hand weapons
– Flails
– Light armour
– Shields
– Chaotic Cult [None]
– Formation [Close Order]
– Marauder Headman (champion)
– Standard bearer [War Banner]
– Musician
Special Units -312 pts
3 Skin Wolves -135 pts
6 Marauder Tribe Huscarls -177 pts
– Hand weapons
– Flails
– Heavy armour
– Shields
– Mark of Chaos [Mark of Slaanesh]
– First Sword (champion) [Sword of Might + Charmed Shield]
– Standard bearer
Rare Units -170 pts
Gigantic Spawn of Chaos -170 pts
– Gigantic Spawn of Nurgle
How The Game Went
This was by far the hardest game we fought, but man was it a blast. Dylan and Tyler were amazing guys and this was a tense and really fun game. Luck however was very much on our side this game. We started out with the Dragon Prince champion besting the Huscarl champ in the duel to let us steal first turn. Between the Brgiands and some other shooting we took out the rest of the Huscarls. The Exalted Champ with them ended up fighting several rounds of combat with Brigands and other chaf on our flank, and rolled something like 4 1s on eye of the gods making him very very stupid, but as he was in combat so much it never mattered.
Our mid game plans also ran into some crazy luck. We had planed to charge both their Giant Spawn, one with the BSB and DPs and the other with the my Knights and Baron. However both my characters failed fear checks on re-rollable 9s. This forced us to send both units of Knights into the same spawn, which they just barely managed to kill. This in turn let my Knights get into the Dragon Ogres and the DPs into the Marauders. At the same time our left collapsed (despite a miscast that blew up a lot of Ungors), with my cannon doing nothing. Some ambushing Gors also run into Silver Helms who somehow managed to win that combat.
At this point the Chaos side was looking pretty thin, but we were beat up. Figuring we were ahead on points we pulled back and attempted to avoid any more risk. However Raising Havok wasn’t having any of it. They threw everything at us in one last ditch effort. The managed to vile tide my BSB and we had a big complicated fight int he center with a lot of what was left of both sides there. The turning point was me making 5 out of 6 6+ Lady’s Blessing saves with my knights, and then doing 4 wounds in return with the Knights (not charging) to the Skin Wolves. This was the final straw and let us mop up. In the end though our units had taken a real beating we pulled off a 14 point win.
Round 3 VS Double Dragons
Our third and final game was against another Chaos/Beastmen team. Brandon and Jim were running the following:
Beastmen Brayherds
65 – Bray-Shaman, Wizard Level 1, Daemonology
250 – Doombull, General, Mangelder
35 – 5 Gor Herds, Additional Hand Weapon
244 – 5 Minotaur Herds
• 1x Minotaur, Additional Hand Weapon, Bloodkine
Standard Bearer
• 4x Minotaur, Additional Hand Weapon
202 – 3 Dragon Ogres, Heavy Armour, Halberd, Shartak
202 – 3 Dragon Ogres, Heavy Armour, Halberd, Shartak
Warriors of Chaos
213 – Aspiring Champion, Mark of Khorne, Halberd, Chaos Chariot
136 – Chaos Knights, lances, standard bearer, champion
136 – Chaos Knights, lances, standard bearer, champion
137 – Dragon Ogres, 1 Shartak, halberds
137 – Dragon Ogres, 1 Shartak, halberds
240 – Dragon Ogre Shaggoth
How The Game Went
This was another fun game and Brandon and Jim were great guys. It was also pretty intimidating setting up across from a solid wall of 10 Dragon Ogres. This was also a pretty straight forward game, they went first and came right as us. On the flanks we were able to kite their frenzied units. This kept the chariot lord from doing anything, and let us shoot up the Knights, though they did eventually get the Brigands and Cannon (after it Misfired 3 turns in a row).
In the center we decided to also go all in, avoiding the Shaggoth we charged the all 10 of the Dragon Ogres. On the right my Baron and the DPs destroyed 5 of them. However on the left the weaker punch of my Knights and BSB only managed to hurt them and make both units Fall Back in Good Order. But that was just turn 1.
Despite failing some tests to reform, none of the Dragon Ogres, nor the Shaggoth made it through turn 3 alive. At this point we had the bulk of of striking powers still alive. Meanwhile the other team had some beat up units, so it was mostly clean up from here.
In the end this was another 17 pt victory for us. While my knights once again got beat up, we still most of our real killing power around. This was a really fun game vs some great guys.
Final Thoughts
Adepticon Doubles was a huge blast. At the end of the day we went 3-0 and scored 48 points, 3 points shy of a perfect score. 4 other teams did go 3-0 at the event, however we were 9 points above the next team, putting us comfortably in first place for best overall. A bit of discloser here, I was judging the other events, however I purposefully had nothing to do with doubles and did not see the missions or lists before hand. We had 3 really fun games against some great players. Doubles allows some fun team ups and combos. I think our list managed to take advantage of this. We did have decent match ups and some luck, but thats the game. I know I’m looking forward to next year!
Let us know what you thought about the event, down in the comments!
Don’t Miss:
Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.
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