Daily Chronicle: 'Decisions, Decisions, Decisions, What Lists For 2016 Lock & Load'

We are a little over 3 months away from the Privateer Press 2016 Lock & Load Gamefest (June 10-12) in Bellevue, WA and I need to decide on what I want to play at this event.

The 'official' event listings have not been announced yet (hopefully very soon), so I am basing my decisions on the events that were posted the previous 2 years (the last 2 years were pretty close in the event types and I honestly do not see them changing it to drastically).

The event is 3 days, Friday-Sunday and my son and I plan on arriving there sometime Thursday afternoon and heading back home (with a stop in San Franciso) early Monday morning.

Just like when we attended the LVO Warmachine a few weeks ago in Las Vegas, my plan is to have fun at this event. At the LVO we did not load up our schedule with event after event, we played in the Masters and then had fun with some open gaming. That will be the plan again for Lock & Load.

Friday: The Masters event has been played on Friday the past few years with the finals on Sunday, so the plan is too definitely play in the Masters on Friday. We both know we won't be advancing to the finals, so we plan on adding another event for Sunday.

Saturday: I think Saturday will be an open gaming day for the two of us. Get in some Iron Arena games, fun games, and possible sit in on some of the workshops. Also last year, Privateer Press brought in a tattoo artist on Saturday offering free faction logo tattoos.... Now which faction tattoo should I get.....

Sunday: Since we are driving 24 hours to attend Lock & Load, on Sunday I would like to be entered into another official event. Last year there were 2 events that looked to be fun. The first one is called 'Speed Machine', 25 points Caster/Warlock and their Battle Group. I really enjoy playing Mangled Metal type of games so this is one of our options. Then the other day I noticed they also had an event called 'Double Threat', this one is 50 points, 2 Casters/Warlocks with separate Battle Groups. I have never played a game with 2 Casters/Warlocks before and this one also sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

Now down to the decisions on what lists to play. More than likely I see ourselves playing in Masters and Double Threat (so I will base my decisions on those 2 events)(unless Privateer Press does not have Double Threat this year and replaces it with another event, then depending on that event, we may play Speed Machine instead).

Masters:
The Masters event requires 2-50 point lists and you have to play each list at least once (this is a norm for Masters events and at the LVO this year, the 2nd list was optional, so it was not a problem for me). I like to play with fully painted armies at events like this (even when I play just for fun), so part of my decision process is what can I get done in time.

First let's look at Khador. Khador is 'my' army for Warmachine/Hordes and I am most comfortable playing with this army. Part of my problem though is the 2nd list. In your 2nd list there are certain requirements that must be met (you can not duplicate 'Character' type Solo's / Units) in your 2 lists. A lot of my Solo's / Units have this 'Character' label on them, so my 2nd list is pretty close to painting another 50 point army. I have already started painting this list (will be using Buthcher 3) and I am down to 16 models to complete this list (Butcher 3 and his dogs, Fenris, and 2 Units of Doom Reavers).

My second option is my Gators. This army is my closest to being completed for 2 lists. All I have left to do is a paint a Unit of Croak Raiders (10 models) and then they are completed. One list will be lead by Rask and the other by Barnabas. One problem with this army is experience, or the lack of.

Finally my third option would be my Trollbloods army. I just purchased the models needed to have 2 complete 50 point lists. One list being lead by the Warlock Captain Gunnbjorn Tier 4 (because I think he is a cool model) and the other by Doomy 3 Tier 4 with 2 Glacier Kings (I think playing with 2 Gargantuans would be really fun). So there are two problems with this army. The first, just like with the Gators would be my experience playing with them and Hordes in general. The second problem is the model count needed to complete both of these lists. Between the 2 lists there are 51 models, and I only have 6 painted so far. That leaves 45 models to be completed by June 10th along with some playtesting. I really love the look of the Trollbloods army, as much as I would love to get them painted in time, I do not want them to look like crap.

My goal would be to have the Trollbloods completed and use them for the Masters and Khador/Gators as a backup plan. So I think during the month of March I will concentrate on painting my Trollbloods and at the same time mix in some Khador and Gators (to change it up a bit and too make progress on those armies), then I will reevaluate where I am with my Trollbloods and to see if it is doable to have them completed in time. If it looks promising I will probably continue down that path, if it does not, then I will have to shift to one of the others.

Double Threat:
As mentioned above, my options are 1 of the 3 above armies (I will not have time to even think about getting any work done on the Cryx army). So for Double Threat I will probably use 1 of 2 armies left after I decide on which I am playing for the Masters. If by chance my Trollbloods get completed for the Masters, then I am heavily leaning towards my Khador to be played in Double Threat. If Trollbloods will not be done in time, then more than likely play Gators in the Masters and once again Khador in Double Threat.


The point is too have fun at this event, playing with Trollbloods and Gators will be different for me, it will be fun and a learning experience. What better way to learn an army then getting in a weekend of games with them.

Whatever army does not make the cut into the 2 above events, will then probably be played on Saturday for some open gaming and Iron Arena games.

I think today's Daily Chroicle is long enough for today....stay tuned for what my decisions will be as we get closer to 2016 Lock & Load.