Lock and Load Recap

Since I went and qualified for the Iron Gauntlet a little ways back, I decided this year to attend Lock and Load for the first time. Long story short, if anyone else is considering it, I heartily recommend the experience. I've travelled to conventions and major tournaments a fair bit, I have never had as much fun playing this game as I did this past weekend. Starting with the pre-shot at Mox Boarding House, I was able to knock out a good four days of Warmachine. I spent a lot of time in the Iron Arena, but I also had the opportunity to play in two big events.

I don't have any pictures from the pre-show, but I did play a couple of practice games with Sturm and Drang in preparation for the weekend. The weekend really took off on day one of Lock and Load, where I was able to sneak into an event I had only made the waitlist for...

Stormbreaker

I absolutely adore Warmachine for its competitive element, but I got into wargaming originally for the stories. Having the opportunity to actually shape the narrative of the Iron Kingdoms with a game was an opportunity I couldn't pass up, especially after I sat and watched the Battle for Boarsgate so enviously two years ago. I joined up with Arkadius, happy to fight for either side, and ended up signing on with the Khadoran forces as they attempted to kick the meddling Cygnar and their allies off their airship. We each built 50 point armies for this battle, so Arkadius brought with her (I had my mini-crate Arkadius up to a playable standard in time for this):

Arkadius
-War Hog
-Road Hog
-Road Hog
-Gun Boar
-Gun Boar
-Gorax
-Targ
Valkyries
Bellows Crew
Witch Doctor

After some discussion with my teammates we decided that I should deploy on the prow of the ship. This was mostly because of the nature of the Stormbreaker tables. First of all, the table itself looked something like this:



In order across the top table, you can see the forces of Arkadius (joining up to get back at the Corvis University Ethics Department for their shortsightedness), Harkevich, Child (the Old Witch seemed to think the Grymkin should support Khador), and Vlad3. Right in front of my deployment is one of the skydrives that give Stormbreaker its lift. And just beyond that is a small, brass hatch. Those hatches correspond to ladders on the second Stormbreaker table, where another four Khador (and attendant allies) were facing off against four Liberators. While models couldn't move between decks, small and medium base models could shoot between them by standing within 2" of a hatch and ladder and then using the matching terrain piece on the other table as the point of origin of the attack. I deployed at the prow of the table because the Gun Boars and Targ with Raw Adrenaline could rain fire down upon the lower decks, and the Valkyries in my force could help protect myself and any nearby allies from return fire.

The objective of the game was to score a few central terrain pieces by having the most models within 2" of them. Scoring would begin at the start of the second turn, but unlike in Steamroller teams could only score on their own turns.

Fair warning, this report is going to be a bit all over the place because the game itself was... a bit all over the place. Just like Boarsgate, each player was issued with a single-use Plot Twist token that they could cash in during their turn and, in discussion with the game's GMs Seacat and Hungerford, have something cool and dramatic happen outside the scope of the rules.

Round One



Ok, so, on the top deck we ended up with Crucible Guard led by McKay and Cryx led by Aiakos2, which deployed at the prow (McKay flanking hard against the table edge) of the ship. Further down the ways were forces led by Nemo1 and a whole lot of Rocketmen commanded by Ashlynn. All of my fighting would be with McKay and Aiakos's forces, but it should be noted that directly beneath our feet on the lower deck were Mercenaries commanded by Caine3 on the Liberator side, and a treacherous Locke (perhaps actually a double agent here to steal Khadoran technology) on the Khador side.

Each side had 20 minutes to resolve their turns, and we were encouraged to act simultaneously. I raced up the table quickly, putting Forced Evolution on my War Hog and Guardian Beast on Arkadius. One brave Road Hog ran forward the as far as it could to take cover behind the forward ventilation system, directly above the ship's control panel.

It turned out to be a little too brave, however. As the Liberators took their turn, Caine popped his head up and proceeded to deal something like 24 damage to the Road Hog. A Dragon's Breath Rocket barely missed the Hog, but it was finished off anyway by a channelled White Squall from Aiakos that threw the Road Hog into its twin to kill it.

Round Two

It became rapidly apparent that my Khadoran neighbour was moving up the field too slowly to lend me much support, and I was under no illusions as to how long I'd last facing the brunt of two opponents plus attacks from below. I coordinated with the Crucible Guard down on the lower deck to get some debuffs onto Caine, since I had a plan to fix that problem. He managed to hit two Ice Cages with a Suppressor to get Caine's Defence to reasonable levels, and then drifted a Dragon's Breath Rocket onto him to make his stats something like 13/11 with no Focus. I then walked a Gun Boar up to the hatch and shot him, but his Rover Shield Guarded the shot. I had the set-up for two more shots, so I moved up my Bellows Crew to serve as Feat Beacons, Primal'd the War Hog, and activated Arkadius. He used Raw Adrenaline on the Gun Boar furthest from the hatch, put Primal on the Road Hog, and then Feated to send his remaining heavies towards McKay. They each took Counter Charges from the Toros to do so, but nothing was crippled and the War Hog was missed entirely thanks to Forced Evolution. The Gorax frenzied off down the table into the midst of the Cryx army, just to slow them down a little.



Picture taken just after I began resolving my Feat.

Targ used Ancillary Attack to have the Gun Boar with Raw Adrenaline fire down through the hatch. The shot hit Caine bang on and rolled ridiculously high, blasting him off the table in one go. I used my Road Hog to throw the Toro in melee with my War Hog out of the way, and the War Hog then moved in on McKay and killed her just as the team ran out of time. I had a few seconds left to run my Valkyries to serve as Shield Guards and score my objective, along with the rest of the Khadoran team. All up I think we took the score to 6-0 from the get go.



I knew I'd overexposed myself for the Liberator Counter-Attack, but I hoped I'd made enough of a difference on the two decks (two top of two assassinations, one of them on a completely other board, has to be the most Arkadius move ever!). Down on the decks below, the Mercenary player used his Plot Twist to have Gastone commando crawl out of some nearby piping and join the battle. The player had to roll a d6, and on a 1-5 it was a Gastone1. On a 6 it was Gastone2. He rolled the 6, and thus my efforts in removing Caine were somewhat undone. At around the same time, another Liberator had one of their Rocketmen fly straight into the ship's rearmost skydrive and explode. The explosion rippled across the two decks, setting everyone towards the rear of the ship on fire.



Seen here: Hungerford working out exactly how many models are now on fire.

Not long after, the entire superstructure of the ship buckled and collapsed under the strain, crashing down through the decks.



I think a lot of those Uhlans died shortly after that picture was taken as the closest ones to where the superstructure had been took POW 20 hits from the collapse.

But back at the prow of the ship. Prospero, a Suppressor, the Combat Alchemists, and the Dragon's Breath Rocket were really all that remained of my opponent's army, but it was enough to carry out a nefarious plan. Between the Suppressor and the Rocket, Arkadius was on the receiving end of quite a lot of debuffs. The Suppressor took a Guardian Beast attack from the Road Hog when it moved in to spray, but I failed to cripple anything or get the Crit Knockdown. With Arkadius debuffed, Aiakos sent in his Stalker to finish the job and killed Arkadius on the spot.



I believe the Liberators managed to score four of the control points this round, putting the score at 6-4.

Round Three

The two remaining Valkyries, who had lost one of their number in the onslaught last round, rounded on the Stalker and managed to smash it up handily with their Vengeance attacks. I cashed in my Plot Twist token to have Targ go Epic. With Hungerford's approval, Targ snatched up all of Arkadius's serums and began injecting himself in a frenzy. He became a Fury 4 Warlock, immediately regained control of Arkadius's battlegroup, and picked up the Psycho Surgery and Forced Evolution spells (picked at random from Arkadius's spell list). I had the unbuffed Gun Boar finish off the Stalker, and the two Valkyries then charged into Prospero's Suppressor and left it with just two boxes left in Cortex. Targ put Forced Evolution on a Gun Boar and charged Kharybdis, who had managed to get all up in my business just as the Liberators' clock ran out. The Gun Boar and Targ's combined efforts managed to get the 'jack down to about half health. The Bellows Crew ran up to help score the zone. The Witch Doctor ran up behind them.

At the end of the turn I had to roll to see what random side effect would occur as a result of Targ's frenzied experimentation. I rolled a 1, so the result was "Targ explodes". Oops. The explosion did a little bit of damage to Kharybdis, at least.



I had just enough to score the centre, and I believe the Invaders were able to score a total of five points this turn to bring the score to 11-4.

At this point the Cryx player's attention was being drawn more towards the table's centre, where the Child's Grymkin had a firm hold and Harkevich was slowly coming into play. A unit of Cephalyx Overlords and some Warwitch Sirens were the main attention grabbers, but Deathjack did lock down one of my Gun Boars while smashing up a Khadoran 'jack.

The damage against my remaining models mostly came from the Crucible Guard, however. Prospero invoked his own Plot Twist to overload himself and all of McKay's Inert 'jacks, bringing them all back online at the cost of them being subject to the effects of Instability Equation (albeit with only d3 Focus). The 'jacks slew my War Hog and Road Hog, only one Toro detonating from the explosion, but Prospero himself opted to use Guided Fire and risk destruction in his own right as his body went haywire. He was exactly as fortunate as Targ, exploding on the spot to the great amusement of everyone at the prow of the ship. Even as the 'jacks powered down, however, things were looking grim. A Gobber or two, a Witch Doctor, and two Wild Gun Boars were all I had left:



Just to my right, the Khadoran and Grymkin forces were locked in heavy combat with Cryx and a large force of Rocketmen for control of the centre. The Liberators gained another 5 points this round, bringing the total score to 11-9.

Meanwhile, all the devastation down at the rear of the ship was having consequences for everyone onboard. The ship tilted, its prow rising into the air, and every model slid 6" towards the rear table edge. Any that made contact with a table edge from this point forward, for any reason, would be immediately removed from play.

And for a quick glimpse at the state of play below decks:







Round Four

The slide towards the rear deck made things pretty tricky, because inert 'jacks and Wild Warbeasts still counted for scoring these central objectives. And, as you can see, I didn't have a lot of models and a lot of inert Warjacks had just piled up into the objective.



Finally, at this point, Harkevich came to the rescue. Not directly, but by handing me a second Plot Twist token. After some consultation with Seacat, we agreed that all this slaughter had fuelled the Witch Doctor's Bokur powers immensely. He called upon the spirits of the dead to let the fallen Warbeasts rise. All the dead Warbeasts returned to the field within 3" of the Witch Doctor, unable to be forced, with the Undead special rule and rendered autonomous. More or less Midas's Feat. This effort required the Witch Doctor, already wounded, to cut down to one health to fuel the ritual. The resurrected Gorax charged and killed the Suppressor, and the War Hog smashed an Overlord and a Combat Alchemist. One of the Road Hogs aimed a spray and killed a second Overlord but couldn't hit the Warwitch Sirens beyond, while the Witch Doctor continued the sacrifice theme and used Ritual Sacrifice on a Gobber from the Bellows Crew to kill a second Combat Alchemist. It was just enough to keep me in the game at the prow, allowing me to score again.



The Invaders only scored four points this round, bringing us to 15-9.

The Liberators counter-attacked with everything they had. Alyce shifted into her 'beast form and killed the Gorax with one attack, and missed her attack on the Witch Doctor. The Warwith Sirens and the remaining Cephalyx Overlord both tried to kill the Doctor but missed all their attacks.



That lucky bastard.

The Dragon's Breath Rocket, meanwhile, was happy enough just shooting the War Hog off the table.

Then came another great rumble through the ship, as the Liberators below decks detonated the bombs in the launch bay. The explosion ripped through the hull, but the greatest casualties were the Liberators' own soldiers on the upper deck. Over 15 of their own soldiers, including nearly a dozen Rocketmen, were torn apart in the conflagration. It sabotaged their own efforts to score the central point, and left their armies in the centre-deck reeling.

Before:


After:


Another Liberator Plot Twist was used to try and bring the damaged Stormbreaker down. One of the port side skydrives was disabled, sending the ship twisting even further in the air. Hungerford rolled for distances as the tilt sent all models sliding 3" towards the stern, and then a whopping 12" towards the Liberator side of the board. This effectively cleared everything from my side of the table as the Dragon's Breath Rocket fell off the ship. Somewhere on the below deck, Malakov fell to his doom and Magnus only survived thanks to a Plot Twist granting him a swiftly MacGuyver'd Parachute. He was still gone from the board, but odds are he'll survive the final act of Stormbreaker thanks to that particular player.



With the Inert 'jacks unable to get back into position and most of the other models swept clear, the forward point was basically mine to take.

Round Five

I can't remember what the exact score was this round, but it was possible for the Khadoran team to wrack up an insurmountable lead. The Witch Doctor decided to contribute by charging Alyce, hitting both attacks, spiking high for damage and killing her.


Man, or reptile, of the match right there.

The Road Hog killed the Warwitch Siren and the Gun Boars ran to secure my position at the prow.



The barren table of the shattered, blasted, and definitely crashing airship still sat firmly in Khadoran hands as above and below decks scored the points they needed to make recovery by the Liberators impossible.



Victory to Khador! And pigs!

...sorta. Stormbreaker is in dire need of repairs, but technically it still sits in Khadoran hands.

This event was absolutely incredible, a pure joy to play in. I've read people talk about how Warmachine's competitive edge and clean rules somehow disqualify make it less capable of being a good narrative, funsies game, but if anything was going to demonstrate how much pure silly fun the game can be it was this event. I didn't have the time to follow all the ins and outs of the rear end of my table, where models were falling from the ship and being set on fire and crushed beneath collapsing super structures, let alone whatever insanity was unfolding from below decks. I know I blinked at some point and Kharybdis had disappeared, and that Harkevich managed to kill a Paralysed Aiakos with shots from a Broadside, but there was just so much going on and I was too busy laughing. The Crucible Guard player sitting across from me was a riot, we actually brainstormed together to figure out what could make "turn all these inert 'jacks on again" as a plot twist interesting (Instability Equation, obviously, it was right there on Prospero's card), and neither of us could quite believe it when both our Lessers blew up from their own Plot Twists.

This was the most fun I have ever had playing Warmachine, and it gave me a ton of ideas for running narrative events at home. It was big and wild and violated every rule of balance in the aid of just making the event a fun time. I hope to be able to scrounge up some people at home to give something like it a try once I've sussed out the details.

Anyway, I hope that all ended up somewhat legible. I've got quite a few more games to share from Lock and Load, hopefully a bit more easy to follow. But that was the highlight of my weekend, indeed, it was the highlight of the last eight-and-a-half years playing Warmachine. Guys, if you ever get a chance to play in something like this, do it.