Privateer Press Lock & Load, Part 2
Posted By Dan on June 28, 2011
I woke up on Sunday with a decision to make. I had signed up for the second Hardcore tournament but I was really enjoying the casual Iron Arena play. Also I was kind obsessed with maximizing ticket return for each game. So although I had painted a bunch of stuff in preparation for said tournament, I bailed.
And I didn’t regret that decision once.
I started out the day playing on another of the scenario boards with my roommate Shane. I don’t have a good overall picture of the board but it basically consisted of a fortified bunker surrounded by trenches. The attacker’s goal was to destroy the bunker, the defender’s goal was to kill the attacker’s Warcaster/Warlock. I ended losing but after one of the best games I have played in a long time. We used rules that very rarely enter play including structures and falling. And I got some pictures.
Caine and his Gun Mages hunker down in the bunker
Did I say good pictures? Oh, I meant f’ing amazing pictures. Especially this one:
The last thing the enemies of the crown see...
After that I went back to the store and got some miniatures for a few of my locals who weren’t able to attend.
I was feeling hungry as were some of the Utah boys so we set out in pursuit of a purportedly awesome hotdog from Dog In The Park. I had heard of the place and was really looking forward to it, but when we got near, we encountered this:
I don't care if you are sluts, I just want a hot dog
The Seattle Slut Walk, in protest of some ill-chosen words from a cop to an alleged rape victim, had set up in the same plaza as Dog in the Park. And while I enjoyed the inflatable bee-hive hairdo, the near-naked ladies and the dude dressed as ‘Ronald McFondle’, there were a lot of self-proclaimed sluts in line for a dog and we didn’t have time to wait for them. Next time I will have my hot dog, sluts be damned.
Back at the convention, I got a 100 point game with another of my roommates, Spencer. He was having a bad time of it though and conceded after my Stormblades and Gun Mages took most of the punch out of his army. He had a headache, apparently due to dehydration, and went back to the room to lay down.
My final game of the weekend was a team game: Epic Stryker and Phinneus Shae vs Calandra and the Butcher. Freakin’ Calandra and her stupid spell Star Crossed. I couldn’t catch a break this entire game. Sadly for me neither could my opponent since he took the full force of the Trollblood assault and lost nearly all his models by the end of turn 2. I held out pretty well but when I went for the assassination run on the Butcher, I made a rookie mistake: I forgot to kill the War Dog first. Thus the Butcher’s defense was too high and Stryker missed his charge attack, pretty much guaranteeing that I would fail. I bought a few more attacks with Stryker’s remaining focus but sadly nothing was going to save my butt at that point.
As we were finishing the game they started the closing ceremonies as well as the costume contest. There weren’t many entries but those few entries were fantastic. I didn’t get pictures of the Winterguard trooper or the Gun Mage but I did get pictures of the following costumes:
Rhyas and Thagrosh
Lillith
The closing ceremonies were nice but I had to call Sarah before my phone died so I was out of the room for most of the festivities. But I didn’t need to be there to know that this had been a very successful convention. A million thanks go out to Matt Wilson and everyone at Privateer who made this an excellent event.
With Lock and Load officially closed, the entire Utah crew + a few others and I set out in search of a meal fit to conclude our weekend. With there being 11 of us and the time being after 8pm in the business district of Seattle on a Sunday our options were limited. We tried to go to the Rock Bottom, but they only had booths or some such nonsense and we were pretty much all in agreement that while Elephant and Castle was nice, we had all been there multiple times throughout the weekend and it was kinda played out. On the suggestion of the hostess at the Rock Bottom we went a few blocks north to a place called the Tap Room. Upon passing through the door to what I was expecting to be a standard brewpub kinda place we were greeted with a long hallway filled with odd, expensive-looking furniture, lurid colors and NOT A DAMNED SOUL IN SIGHT. We proceed down this strange hallway (even thought I was convinced that were were going to end up in a even more disturbing version of ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ or maybe all wake up in bathtubs of ice with notes informing us about the various organs we were now missing) to some stairs. As we descended the stairs we saw that this was a pretty standard restaurant with tables, food and no Leelee Sobieski ushering us down the hallway for disturbing activities. What did catch my eye was the curved gold wall behind the bar with strange objects protruding from it. Seconds later, I and several of my companions realized what those objects were: Beer Taps. One hundred and sixty beer taps to be precise.
Unnamed hostess at the Rock Bottom, I owe you one.
After perusing the extensive beer menu and less extensive food menu, we all fell into talking about the convention, some of the new models in Wrath, our various online endeavors, politics, etc. The food was good, the beer was excellent and the company was even better. This was the perfect way to end the weekend.
The following morning, the roommates and I all packed up and said our good-byes. I stopped in the event hall to say some final farewells to the Privateer folks as they continued to clean up after the convention. Then I hopped on the light rail to the airport and home.
I’m totally jealous.
Sounds like it was an awesome time.
It’s never too early to start saving up for next year.
Purchases and food aside you could do the trip for about $500.