Conventions are all about memories…

From the experience of walking in and seeing everything set up, ready to go, to the satisfaction of talking about it with your friends on the way home, the biggest takeaway from any show is what rattles around in your head long after the doors close. And with another Lock & Load in the books, I wanted to share some of the tabletop war stories that stuck in my mind.

I always look forward to the (theoretically) controlled chaos that is our Iron Painter competition. Dreaming up the horrible hoops our painters have to jump through is always a blast, so watching Dallas and the Speedy Three (a decent band name, by the way) try to figure out what I had given them a pancake for? Amazing. If you didn’t get a chance to check it out live, we archived it on both our Twitch and Youtube channels. Dallas Kemp gets his head painted on, Will Shick gets turned into a Muppet (though not like he wanted), and I eat a taco. Yet somehow all of this is a speed-painting competition? Congratulations to all three competitors—you managed to emerge mostly unscathed.

Chatting with Travis Marg and various players in the tournament hall until the wee hours of the morning was an unexpected happy memory. Everybody I talked to was in high spirits, excited to talk about the day, and the game, and what might be coming with Infernals. We checked out people’s awesome paint schemes and joked about how the next day would go. There was painting, laughing, and shared stories until we had to move everything up to the Iron Arena.

I managed to finish the display board for and painting of my blighted kriel, Dhunia’s Sorrow. I won’t forget gathering the last pieces together during Lock & Load and making sure to snag the best lighting in the window (sorry, Danny). A lot of work went into the conversions for each piece, and I get to hold onto the feeling of pride knowing that I did it, from building them to all the way through painting and displaying. And then I got to show off my mad-science approach to models and talk to people about equally crazy things they are working on (remember, you can always take a picture and tweet it to us, @privateerpress). I’m now excited to show off the Shardbearers, my blighted company of iron, at upcoming shows.

While the Keynote always contains amazing reveals (seriously, if you haven’t seen it yet go check it out; I’ll wait), this year, it was the closing ceremonies that held a special place for me. Gathering together a handful of the amazing people who worked on the show, we got to look out at a crowd of people happy to be part of our world. Will Shick tied the memory up with a bow, noting how it is truly a show about and for the community. People helping each other find new games, painting their armies, or throwing down on Widower’s Wood—everybody at the show is a part of our extended family.

If you get a chance, let me know what your favorite memories were from this year, dealer’s choice of Twitter or Facebook.

I have to say, some of my favorite memories were made at Lock & Load 2018, but I still can’t wait to see what next year brings.