07 June 2012

Blah's Lock and Load Recap

Day 1 - My Day 1 schedule was packed, last year I had a job interview the day they opened up signups and didn't get into anything but the Masters Qualifier (which I tanked) so this year I tried to get into all the classes I didn't get to do last year.

First order of business go to the store and buy Sons of Bragg. 

10AM  to 12Noon - Concept to Book a Model's Journey.  This was by far the most awesome class of all the awesome classes I attended.  It was run by Ed & DC.  They spent the first hour talking about how they start and finish the process of making new models.  Then they opened up the class to us to make a couple of 'possible' future league models.  What a blast, if you see Borka's Wingmen in the league this fall it was our brain child.

2PM to 3PM - Life in the Iron Kingdoms - Simon and Mr. Seacat gave us all the information we ever thought we knew about what it was like the live in the IK.  Being a GIANT fiction fan and having read through old IK material this class was a bit redundant for me, however, I loved the opporutnity to pick the brains of these two setting creators on exactly how certain things work... like is it possible that a small Kahdoran woman in steam armor could actually be a cleric of Ciryss?

4PM to 5PM - Customizing Miniatures - Totally missed this class unfortunetly.  But my plane arrived late Thursday night and I was dead to the world sleeping in my hotel room at this point.

7PM to 8PM - Cosmology of the Iron Kingdoms - Again taught by Simon and Mr. Seacat this class focused on the Gods and Religions that exist among the races.  This background will be invaluable to me when I start an IKRPG campaign upon the release of the new books. 

After this class we were supposed to go to the AFK tavern with Meg Maples except both Goris, Duck, and Baka were all in the Masters Qualifiers still.  Once the dust settled both Bakaryu and Duckboy had made it to the Finals to be played on Sunday.

So a few of us headed to a pub up the street (I forget the name) it was Skywise, Phreaker, Sid, Myself and Dave.  Dave by the way is both a scolar and a gentlemen for picking up the tab while I slept in the corner of the booth.

Day 2 -  This day I spent my first 12 hours sitting at the registration table for the tournaments.  Officialially James Kater and I were helping with Blood Sweat and Tiers while two others ran Hardcore though really we all helped werever we could.  Running tournaments of this scales was unreal, but with the Prize Support offered by Privateer Press it becomes quite easy to stay on top of it and keep everyone from staging a revolt. 

The tiers tournament was brutal and while I was pulling for our Troll Player 'Elkap' from the forums who was in position to upset one of the undefeated players. The day was won by another, though he did win a free copy of Infernal Contraption and Heap.  Elkap has a sweet Champ Hero conversion...

The best part of helping with these tourneys was being able to have candid discussions with guys like Will Shick, our Quarmaster Will Hungerford, and the one and only DC.  This game has truely some of the most stand up folks in charge I have ever met. 


Some time during the day I went to check out the sculpting as I wanted to get a better look at Grim and his Hunting Buddies also sculptor Ben Misenar let me grab a few shots of the 3d art for Galleon (which will be the only colossal I will buy since Mercs are my second faction)
After the tourney I missed yet another class but got there right at the end to thank both Simon and Mr. Seacat with a six pack of beer that Goris said was good, for the interview they gave us last August.  Then I hit the gaming tables.  It was time to get in some Iron Arena games in prep for 3 Commanders the next day.

As the day closed word hit that the Mountain King would go on sale Sunday morning so Sid took the bullet for us and camped out in line all night and called us in the morning when people started showing up so we could all get one.


Day 3 - Woke up earlier than I thought due to a work phone call that lasted about 4 hours while I should have been in line for a MK.  Got there around 7ish and stood in line with the guys.  At about 10minutes to 8 I went to get OJ and bagels.  While I was out they opened the store early and gave everyone in line a voucher for the MK... so even though I didn't get an MK the Giant Blueberry Muffin from the Bakery was fabulous.

Since everyone stayed up late nobody wanted to do the 3 commanders tournament except myself.  So I committed the day to playing Iron Arena mostly.  Annachika taught me how to play Heap and I watched while Skywise took the elevator and beat everyone out in the new Level 7 game.  Goris and I played a giant MM/T&C game against Joseph and another random citizen and for once in my lifetime I was a measurement savant... good games happen from time to time.   My Calandra 13 Champions list stayed undefeated in 1v1 games and I got to kill a caster from each faction at least once.  Though beating Geist eluded me since I couldn't roll a 10 on three dice for like seven rolls in a row.

Towards the end of the day I watched most of the game in which Flanzer fought it out with pDoomy and a mess of Runeshapers against Legion.  Both players were amazing by the way, but Flanzer has proved what a few of us have been saying all along, pDoomy is great.  That said, the player Flanzer is totally amazing and he will probably win most of the tournaments he plays regardless of the army he wields.

Just had a blast playing games most of the day, once it was all said and done Joedj took us all to a very awesome and affordable (which is good since we were all pretty much tapped out) tai restraunt a few blocks down the street.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for pulling for me Blah and for letting me borrow a second Champion Hero! Mulg needed to hit eButcher one final time (under fortune) for a shot at the win, but apparently the king of the trolls just wasn't feeling it that day. You ran one hell of a smooth tournament though. I was stoked that I got best-in-faction, until realizing I was the only troll player...

    Painting and conversion credit on the Kilt Lifter go to Tyson (http://www.figurepainters.com/) -- both an amazing painter and better troll player than me.

    -Elkap

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