Lock n Load Tournament Results and Reflections.

After going to PAX for a good many years the beauty of a small convention can sometimes be lost on people. It was on me as when I arrived at the Red Lion in Seattle only a ferry ride from my home. I was taken aback by how many people I saw trying to cram themselves into one convention room. Needless to say it was an amazing weekend. I competed in 3 tournaments, walked away with some sweet swag and met some folks from the forums(some of you might not have known it though) who were a true pleasure to play against/meet. I'm going to break the tourney stuff down and then I will come back to the awesome meet and great and other reflections, so enjoy the ride.

-> TheGreatBlah -> Goris
The lesson here is TheGreatBlah isn't photogenic.






Saturday

Masters Qualifier 1
1-2 Record

About 10am I registered for masters handing in my 3 lists with hope in my heart and the worst tournament headache I have had in my life. It was warm inside and I stupidly left my headache medicine in a backpack far from the con. In short, the morning wasn't going well. Strangely enough as I was registering I was behind 2 individuals you might know. First registering his minions into Masters was none other then PG_Joedj. The next was the kicker as I had no idea who he was and was searching for a guy in an orange shirt. Our very own PG_TheGreatBlah was registering right in front of me. Talk about timing. Anyway, fuzzy first time meeting story over, time for the action.

Strength of Schedule

Round 1
Borka v eGaspy
This was a hellish match for me as I was already under the weather and lucky for me I was matched with the second place finishing Cryxx player in all of masters Ryan Tomlinson. Needless to say, he spanked me and was very polite about it. He even lent me a wall template for the tourney as I had misplaced mine. Overall, good match. I had one chance as an assassination attempt with burrowers, but he managed to cap Borka off before the pop turn. In short, not a good way to ease into my first major tourney event.

Round 2
eMadrak v eVlad
This round was a little more favorable to me. My khador opponent gave me a soda to try and abate my headache. I thanked him profusely the next day by buying him a very large amount of the same thing as a thanks. At any rate. Game went well for me. I won by objective by crushing a flank on an objective with a random removal of objective markers. Was a good but short match.

Round 3
Calandra v Harbinger
Ugh, tough match, lost by scenario to Danny Modesto who was 3rd overall in Masters. At this point I was still feeling awful and lost horribly to a well played Harbinger list. He was a super nice guy and I had fun losing to him.

Reflections
After taking a critical look at my lists I found they were all too similar. People were not having a hard time figuring out what I was going to do with what and I think that hurt me overall. It makes me think that Trolls really need some game changing units that make your opponent play to you, more then just Burrowers. Scenario play was interesting, but I felt like it castors to jam lists or denial lists and the rest get left blowing in the wind because they can't cope. My opponents were super nice,my games were fun despite my splitting headache, but I think it taught me a lot about list building for scenarios and I will be better prepared for Scenario play in the future.

Hardcore
2-1 Record
After Masters TheGreatBlah came through with some Excedrin and I was feeling great finally and ready to tackle Hardcore. I was using a tried and true Calandra list that has graced the forums a few times that I think as no surprise to my opponents. However the overall sentiment was that people genuinely don't like playing against her for obvious reasons. I might take other casters next time to throw people off.

Round 1
Calandra v Vayl

If you watch the interview with my Will Pagani the Masters winner, the person doing the interview was my first opponent. Shout out toAndy fromSanta Barbara Wargaming. It was both of our first major tournament. His list was beast heavy but had 2 ravagores in it. Sadly it didn't fair well once he was engaged by as much of my list as I could manage and eventually the bomber closed the deal. Netted me 50+pts for his Battlegroup and my first win. Really nice guy and a fun match.

Round 2
Calandra v Siege
My opponent this round was a real class act. His name was Billy and one of the Masters 1 Qualifiers playing Cygnar. He won first turn and after I advanced on my turn he proceeded to pump 1 Hunter, 2 Defender and 1 Ground Pounder shot into Calandra. His list was perfectly designed to bust high Def targets with all it's varied buffs. Calandra toughed the final shot which he needed to roll better then 12(not exact on this) to hit with. After which Burrowers failed to kill siege under feat turn so I slammed a Long Rider over him to finish the round. He said he had never seen that before and I told him I had a tactica thread he could read...lol! (I didn't really say that, but I thought it!)

Round 3
Calandra v eSkarre
This round I am both embarrassed and impressed by at the same time. My opponent manged to get the fastest caster kill of the tournament off me here and made me look like a total noob. Which I was for a brief moment. I was starring down a death jack and a nightmare who preyed Calandra and I moved up fairly close. I had a wall and 1 Fury to transfer because I had an inkling I might need it for some strange reason. Sadly I got a little to overzaelous in trying to deny his arc node and load both my beasts up to make. My opponent then cleverly used one of Skarre's spells to slingshot Nightmare right at Calandra and his last attack finished her. I made one simple mistake that lost it for me, but alas, that's how it goes.

Reflections
I thought my Balanced list would really work well for me, but from what I observed, the lists that tended to work were really focused one way or the other. Ranged or melee. I started poking holes in my list and found a few things I would change for my next tourney should I use Calandra again. Killbox is super fun and prevents a lot of kiting factions to do their thing, but apparently doesn't stop gun lines. After 2 tournaments I am noticing power players do NOT joke with you at all. I really try to make the match fun and social when I play with people because it's a good way yo ease dice hate or strange things that happen. But the folks I saw move on were stone walled for the most part during the match.

Sunday

Hardcore 2

I was licking my chops after do fairly well for myself in Hardcore 1. Refreshed, ready and without a tournament headache I was good to go. I went in, picked up the Scattergunner UA and eAlexia before hand and was riding pretty high.

Round 1
Calandra v pSeverius

This was a grind of epic proportions and at the end of the match my opponent and I were matched in army points killed. So it came down to what was left in the kill box. Where he edged me out. I lot, but I had put 10 damage on Sevy and honestly should have made the assassination run, but my dice went cold during Calandra's feat. It was a good game and I should have won, but oh well.

Round 2
Calandra v eDoomy
Holy shit, Trolls vs Trolls. I was not thrilled. My list struggles with regenerating high armor targets. Not only that but eDoomy out threats me really bad. During this match, my opponents dice hated him more then just about anything I have ever seen. Sadly he failed to kill a single Fennblade 4 times by not rolling a 6 on 3 dice under Star Crossed. I felt really bad, but it wouldn't have been game breaking.

Round 3
Calandra v Sloan
All I can say is, "holy shit 5 defenders..." This list was ridiculous. A ranged threat that mostly doesn't worry about star crossed, out threats me for 2 turns and has the potential to simply annihilate my warlock if I am not careful. Oye... I go second, deploy my burrowers first turn behind an obstacle. I run my Long Riders on a flank super far to bait him that direction and give him something to worry about other then burrowers. He moves up and shoots taking a all my Long Riders to death, leaving Horthol alive on the same flank but leaving me in range for Calandra's feat turn on Burrowers. I get 9 charges and 2 defenders fall, everything else gets engaged and turn ends. He makes an attempt on Calandra and fails so I hit Sloan with a force blow and drop 1 keg on her head for the win.

Reflections
I almost rescinded my thoughts on balanced list after this tourney. My Balanced list took me through without being outmatched really by a focused list. The whole tourney was fun, but I truly feel bad about my Troll opponents dice. He has the green Trolls with Mulg having a Mauler head. I think it's Captain Smash on the PP forums. I am truly sorry for your dice friend. It was a close match and I wish things had gone more favorably for you.


Overall Weekend Reflections

I was so ready for this weekend to happen for months. So when it finally arrived it was almost surreal. I was driven by a friend to the con in the morning, not knowing where to go. I was helped by a few nice folks outside the main entrance and proceeded to enter. I walked in seeing Big Blue for the first time and I was blown away. I wished it had perhaps been a Dire Troll Mauler instead, but.... Maybe next year.... I registered, got all my initial swag and stood in line to get stuff at the store until I needed to register for Masters in the morning. Shot the shit with PG_Annichka and some folks from my Area before I had to go play.

From here, tournament play ensued nearly all day on Saturday. There were briefs moments to decompress and watch a few things going on. After I gave up the fastest caster kill in Hardcore, I watched my best friend Legion Player defeat Lord Tyrant Watts and his Xerxes list, which was Grueling. I didn't hang around for the Hardcore finals as I knew I had to play in the morning. My friend went on to take 3rd in Hardcore 1.

Sunday morning I purchased a few models, hung around with some friend, including Thegreatblah. Talked with HandCannon about websites and such alongside Thegreatblah. Then went over to go 2-1 in hardcore yet again.

Afterwards I scored a game with a staff member who's name I forget and I am sorry about this. He was extremely tall, a Khador player, and a super nice guy.

I waited and Watched the team Tourney then a grueling team game which were super sweet and hung out during the award ceremony.

Everything was amazing during the entire weekend. I hope that PP chooses a larger venue and expands it's attendance next year because this was perhaps the best small con I have been to. The atmosphere was chill, the events were tight and calm and it simply makes me want to pursue this hobby more and more.

Well folks, thanks for listening to my musings. Lock n Load was an amazing weekend and I hope to see all of you there next weekend.