AdeptiCon Preview Hype: Spearheads, Cathay, and One Very Late Night
We had one of those very familiar hobby mornings: someone drops a screenshot, someone else notices a cool new vampire rider, and suddenly the whole group is spiralling into a full-on Warhammer preview discussion instead of doing anything sensible.
This time the culprit was the AdeptiCon preview, and honestly? We get it. It completely derailed Michał’s morning plans to the point where, as he put it, this was the reason he went to sleep at 2:30 and only got up at 10.
And looking at that model, fair enough.
Spearhead is really getting its hooks into us
A big part of the conversation was about the new Spearhead boxes for Age of Sigmar. The general mood in chat was simple: these look really good.
We were especially excited by the variety. There was immediate discussion about who might jump into what, with Dubry landing somewhere between Stormcast Eternals and Slaves to Darkness. Meanwhile, Ender pointed out that fighting only one Spearhead so far — and specifically just battling the rats — is starting to get a little repetitive. Which is honestly one of the nicest “problems” to have: it means we want more people to get armies on the table.
There was also some joking about Stormcast being picked up because they feel a bit like Space Marines, especially if painted in a Black Templars style. Very on brand, very understandable. Of course, the counterpoint appeared immediately: if we’re talking “mini Space Marines” in AoS, then Kharadron Overlords deserve a mention too.
Early meta talk, because of course
No Warhammer preview discussion is complete without instant, wildly premature power-level speculation.
Michał called out Blades of Khorne and Idoneth Deepkin as super strong and currently among the top armies in Spearhead, which naturally led to wondering what the new boxes will bring. There was also curiosity about the Ossiarch Bonereapers Spearhead — mostly because it seems to have so few models that it just has to be ridiculously efficient, right?
And yes, the giants got mentioned too, because when someone says six models is a tiny force, the obvious answer is: “that’s still more than the mega-garg lot.”
Is this bad news for Warcry?
One of the more interesting bits of the chat was a slightly worried thought: if so many of last season’s Warcry-flavoured elements are now getting folded into Spearhead, does that mean Warcry itself might not be continued in the same way?
We don’t know, obviously, and there’s no point pretending we do. But it’s the kind of thing hobby groups immediately latch onto during preview season. Excitement and mild doomposting have always lived side by side in this hobby.
The Old World suddenly looks very tempting
Then the conversation took a sharp turn into Warhammer: The Old World, because of course it did.
The reveal of Grand Cathay hit hard. Michał’s reaction was basically instant: this army looks gorgeous, and if it had already existed when we were choosing which system to focus on, it might genuinely have changed his mind.
That says a lot.
We also noticed Beastmen and Wood Elves being part of the wider Old World excitement, but Cathay clearly stole the show for us.
That whole section of the preview had big “dangerous for the wallet” energy.
Also: new 40k Death Guard
Because Games Workshop apparently decided nobody should have a calm day, we also got new Death Guard stuff for Warhammer 40,000.
The reaction here was shorter, but very clear: nice. Sometimes that’s all you need.
Sand & Bone, dramatic dice, and hobby group nonsense
Not everything in the chat was serious analysis. There was also appreciation for a guy in the Sand & Bone video apparently putting his entire wrist into a dice roll like the fate of the Mortal Realms depended on it.
That kind of thing is why preview days are fun. Half reveals, half commentary, half jokes — yes, that’s three halves, but that’s how these days feel.
And what were those images we kept passing around?
Alongside all the reacting, we were also throwing preview screenshots into chat as fast as they appeared.
The “human tank” concept came back up in the conversation:
And later Dubry also dropped a couple more images into the channel while we were all still processing everything:
Final thoughts
This was one of those classic Warhammer news days where one preview manages to touch basically every part of the hobby brain at once:
- cool new models,
- speculation about game balance,
- concern for side systems,
- temptation to start yet another army,
- and at least one person losing sleep over it.
So yes, the AdeptiCon preview absolutely worked on us.
Now the only small problem is that after all this, we want to play more Spearhead, maybe start The Old World, keep an eye on Warcry, admire Death Guard, and somehow still finish painting the stuff we already own.
Business as usual, really.