Warmachine: Lock and Load Wrap-up
Lock and Load was a blast this past weekend. With 6 tournaments, tons of seminars, painting contests and a huge Iron Arena, Lock and Load is one of the best Warmachine conventions in the country. Let’s look at some of what we saw over the weekend.
For the competitive players out there, let’s talk about what factions and casters were seen at the top tables. I only have information on the top 2 armies in each of the main events, so I don’t have stats on how many of each faction was represented.
The Warmachine-Hordes Meta
First off, we have the brand new Iron Gauntlet event. This is Privateer’s new tournament circuit, where players will compete all year for slots in the finals at next year’s Lock and Load. The big twist for this format is that you’re allowed to bring more than one faction to fill your two lists! Also, all models have to be painted to the Hardcore standards.
This year’s Iron Gauntlet final was between Kieth Christiansen from Iowa and Brandon Cating from California. Kieth brought epic Haley with a stormwall and lich lord Asphyxious, and Brandon brought epic Feora and Kallus. The final match was Asphyxious vs Kallus, and was finally won by Kieth.
The Masters event came down to Ryan Chiriboga with Cryx (Lich Lord Asphyxious/pSkarre/eSkarre) and Bryn Holdstock with Protectorate of Menoth (Harbinger/High Reclaimer/???). The final pairing was Asphyxious and Harbinger, which ended with a feated Bane Lord Tartarus turning Harbinger into a Bane.
Can we read anything into the results of the two main events in Lock and Load? One event doesn’t tell us much about the national meta, but it does seem that Cryx is still very strong, especially the dreaded eLich. Legion and Menoth are not surprising as high-ranking factions, either. We’ll have to wait and see if Cryx stays dominant through the rest of the convention season.
The big surprise (for me anyways) was in Hardcore. The final match came down to Trolls vs Circle, eDoomshaper vs eBaldur. And the winner was… Doomshaper, with a Mountain King! Hopefully this will at least slow the flow of complaints coming from the troll forums about how awful their Gargantuan is. It also goes to show that hardcore this year is going to really be about high armor brick lists, as those have done very well at both lock and load and adepticon this year.
Sneak Peeks and Minis
For those not quite as interested in the competitive side of Lock and Load, there were plenty of goodies for everyone. Seminars on the history of warmachine, details of the new Convergence army, and tons of painting seminars kept people busy. Hundreds of people played games in special scenarios and tables in Iron Arena. there were demos for Level7, High Command and the IKRPG. There was also the P3 Grand Master painting contest, and the fun and goofy Iron Painter competition that pitted 3 entrants against a Privateer Press professional painter in painting a brand new Convergence caster in 40 minutes, all while being heckled and challenged by the other Privateer staffers.
And of course there were the spoilers. if you didn’t catch Relasine’s summary of the spoiler panel, you can find that here.
In addition to the spoilers in the panel, we also got to see a bunch of new models in the display cases around the main convention hall:
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| Night Troll. look at those hands! |
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| Warders |
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| Kithkar |
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| A new troll model? Maybe a Highwayman? |
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| Kovnik |
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| sculpts for Eiryss3 |
And a whole bunch of new convergence models, but since I don’t have the book in front of me I have no idea what they’re called. they sure look pretty though!
And with that, Lock and Load 2013 is all wrapped up. I had a blast at my first Lock and Load, and am super excited about all the stuff we see coming from Privateer Press in the next months. Now to rest up for a few days and do it all over again next weekend with Wargamescon right here in Austin!
