Well The Las Vegas Open (2017) is now officially over. Although I did not partake in any ‘official’ event, I still had a pretty decent time. I was actually doing really good with the vendors hall too, until later in the day on Friday (more on that below). This will be just a brief daily recap and then some photo dumps.
Category LVO
Daily Chronicle: 7 Days Until LVO
Just one week until my son and I will be driving from Phoenix to Las Vegas for the Las Vegas Open (LVO) that is being held at the Bally’s Events Center and Grand Ballroom (looks like they expanded their space for this year). I cannot wait to get out of the cold from the Midwest for a few days. This will be the second year that my son and I will be attending. Last year we both went to go and play in the Warmachine/Hordes Masters, this year I am going just to have fun while my son will once again play in the WM/H Masters on Saturday.
Originally we had planned this trip back when I was living in Arizona so it was a no brainer in attending again. But since I moved to Michigan in the Fall, I was not originally planning on going back for 2017. But in December I decided to go ahead and purchase a plane ticket down to Arizona to see the family and then drive up to Vegas with my son.
I am not officially entered in any events, so my plan is just to have fun for the weekend.
Thursday 2/2/2017: Thursday will mainly be just a travel day for us. We’ll take our time driving up and plan our arrival time to be about the same time we can check into our timeshare. Registration will be available from 4pm-8pm for early badge pickup, so I think my son and I will head over to Bally’s around that time and pick up our badges (so we do not have to worry about it on Friday). Then we’ll probably head out for a nice relaxing dinner and maybe some ‘real’ dice rolling.
Friday 2/3/2017: The plan for Friday is to have an open day for the two of us. Jeremy from ‘Chef of War‘ will be busy setting up tables for the weekend’s Bolt Action Tournament, so I offered our services to him if he needed any help. Then my son and I would like to get some smaller games of Bolt Action in so he can refresh on his rules and see whats new in Version 2. This will also give me some more freshening up for Saturday. I may also plan on watching some of the Malifaux events, since this game has peeked my interest lately and I have been debating about jumpinig into it.
Saturday 2/4/2017: My son on Saturday will be busy playing in the Warmachine/Hordes Masters Tournament so I was originally just going to plan my day walking around and checking out all the other events. Then with my recent revival of Bolt Action, I reached out to Jeremy who is running the event and offered my services as a ‘Ringer’ in case he needed one for Saturday. I could not commit to the Tournament myself (since I’d like to spend Sunday gaming with my son), so I thought getting in three real games of Bolt Action @ 1250 points would be fun. No pressure on me playing as the Ringer, so it will be a good time getting more games of BA in. I do not plan on flying with any of my Bolt Action armies, but my sons United States Army is still in Arizona with him, so I will just play with that army. I’m also letting Jeremy use that army for Sunday in case he needs to (one less thing for him to also travel with on the plane).
Sunday 2/5/2017: The plan for Sunday is just to have an open gaming day with my son playing Warmachine/Hordes. Since attending Lock & Load back in June, I only played one game of WM/H, so it will be a lot of re-learning the rules for me. All my WM/H armies are still back in Arizona so I obviously have not touched any of those models recently. I’d like to bring them back with me to Michigan, but that may have to wait until May when I pick up my wife and youngest kid and drive the van back. We’ll probably start with some smaller point games before we jump in and play a 75 point game. Hopefully my son will not be too bored with WM/H that day since he’ll be playing it all day on Saturday. If it comes up, we can always take a break and check out some of the other events. Then after the awards on Sunday, hopefully we can catch the end of Super Bowl LI.
Monday 2/6/2017: Monday will be another travel day back to Arizona. I’d like to get an early start and get back earlier so I can spend some time with my wife and kids before I fly back to Michigan on Tuesday.
Between all the gaming events over the weekend, I will also be checking out all the vendor areas. I am sure I will probably find something that I want, and hopefully somehow get it to fit in my suitcase to bring it home. Like I mentioned above, I’d like to try and bring back a WM/H army, but it may have to wait. I may just jump into Malifaux when I get back to Michigan and start fresh with an army there. I did find a nice group out here that plays Malifaux, and I am still searching for WM/H players. So that is also part of my dilema on what I want to do……. or just stick with Bolt Action and concetrate on that. We shall see.
Daily Chronicle: ‘LVO 2016 Friday-Sunday February 5th-7th Recap’
I thought I was going to have time at the end of each day to write up a daily recap of the LVO Warmachine, but that did not happen, so I am going to try and recap all 3 days in one post.
Friday February 5th, 2016
For my son and I, Friday was going to just be a ‘fun’ day for us and get in a few practice games with our Masters lists. We headed downtairs to the Events Center just before 9AM so we could get in line at the Privateer Press store to pick up some of their pre-release models.
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| Privateer Press Store |
I ended up picking up the Khador Groler Warjack and Minion Swamp Gobber Chef for myself, and for my son we purchased the new re-sculpt of the Cygnar Thunderhead Warjack. We also picked up some faction patches for our Battlefoam bags.
Once we were done with the Privateer Press store, we then checked out the other stores that were at the event. Broken Egg Games and Battlefoam were both in attendance (both local companies of Arizona) and from Broken Egg Games we purchased their carrying bag for our tournament trays.
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| Broken Egg Games Tray Bag |
When we finally got down to the Battlefoam booth we noticed they also brought their game from Outlaw Miniatures called Wild West Exodus (WWX). It is a Wild West Sci-Fi miniatures game. The game has been out for about 3 years now and it always peaked my interest. When it came out I was still interested in Legends of the Old West from Warhammer Historicals so I never really jumped into WWX and we were still playing Warhammer 40K. Now that Warhammer Historicals is defunct, and the prices from Games Workshop is ridiculous, I decided to take a look at WWX.
Wild West Exodus is a miniatures game played by 2 to 4 players in control of the faction of their choice. In the world of WWX, every model has the potential to be a hero or a villain. The game mechanics and rule set feature exciting game play from the first dice roll. Each player will be allowed to field a posse of 3 to 40 models. The WWX rules have been designed to allow for scaling of the game to high or low model counts while maintaining a dynamic and fast-paced game tempo.
One of the most exciting parts of the Wild West Exodus game mechanic is the reusable influence pool. The influence pool will give players the option to gamble away a set amount of tokens in return for a reroll of the dice. Be careful what you gamble on because once the tokens are committed they are lost for that turn. The D10 system gives the game life and options that round out easily and allow for quick decision making.
They had the 2 Player Starter Box available that came with the Lawmen and Outlaws (the exact 2 armies my son and I were interested in), mini rulebook, dice, tokens for $110 and Battlefoam was offering a 10% discount at the event. So we decided to purchase the starter set and get in a demo of the game. The demo was really good and fun. I do not think this is something I am going to get involved in tournament wise, but it will be a nice change from Warmachine/Hordes once in awhile (and I always loved the Wild West). The models are also very nice and you can get a digital copy of the mini rulebook for free online at Wild West Exodus.
Now that we picked up WWX, I thought we needed a western looking game mat to play the game on (I already have Wild West terrain). Frontline Gaming were selling all their mats that were used at the event afterwards for a discounted price. There was a card on each mat and you write down your name on the card, turn it in and after the event you pay for it. So we decided to get the Barren Wastelands as it was closest to a desert setting.
2 hours later and we finally got settled in to get some practice games in. We played 2 games against each other and we both won one and lost one.
Between games 1 and 2 I decided to go back to the Battlefoam booth. I was always interested in their Tournament bags (smaller versions) and they had a Blue and Red one available (Cygnar and Khador). I thought getting these bags would make it easier to carry our armies on Saturday during the Masters (just bring the models that we needed for the tournament. It will also be good at home when we go out for a smaller game and we do not have to carry our entire army with us). Since I was on a spending spree, we each got a new bag.
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| Battlefoam Tournament Bags |
After our games we decided to look around the venue for a little bit and check out some of the other armies. Another player from Arizona, Alan O’Bryan had his Trollbloods army with him. This is a beautifully painted army (and it turns out he won the Master Craftsmans award for Best Painted). Here is a few pics of his Trollbloods.
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| Alan O’Bryan’s Trollbloods |
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| Alan O’Bryan’s Trollbloods |
It was finally time now to go and get some dinner. We decided to go to Hobrauhaus Las Vegas where a I enjoyed one of the best meals that I have ever eaten, along with a cold beer.
Saturday February 6th, 2016
Today was the Warmachine/Hordes Masters Tournament. I have only been in 1 Warmachine Tournament years ago at 25 points, so a 50 point Masters was a first for me.
We got down to venue pretty early to setup of armies and get ready for th action. They announced that day 1 was going to be 4 games and the final 16 players will move on to the next day for the finals.
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| My 50 points of Khador |
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| My sons’ 50 points of Cygnar |
Game 1 vs Tom Guan (Cygnar: Haley 2)
Scenario: ‘Close Quarters’ LOSS (Assination)
Tom is a member of Team USA at the Worlds Team Championship (WTC) so this game was over before it even started. Tom got first turn, and at the top of Turn 2 he assinated my Warcaster. Tom also moved onto the final 16 for the next day. After our game he was kind enough to show me some pointers (since I did mention I was a newb).
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| Tom G: Cygnar |
Game 2 vs Roger Ortiz (Circle: Kromac 2)
Scenario: ‘Two Fronts’ WIN (Assination)
This game was pretty fun to play (not because I won) but because it was going back and forth. Right away he sent in his 2 big Warbeasts to go after my Colossal and they did a great job taking out my Conquest. I followed back and was able to eliminate one of his Warbeasts with my Ruin Warjack. Roger then saw an opening to assinate my Butcher. He teleported Kromac 2 to get within reach of Butcher and attacked. Kromac 2 did 19 points of damage leaving just a pulse on Butcher. It was time for payback. Butcher popped his Feat and it was all over…. Kromac 2 went down for the count. An Assination win for me and 35 Army Points destroyed.
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| Butcher getting the win on Kromac 2 |
Game 3 vs Alex Smith (Khador: Vlad 3)
Scenario: ‘Recon’ LOSS (Scenario)
Alex was playing an all mounted Khador army. I have never seen this before so it was going to be a nice learning experience what my army can do all mounted. Alex is a much more experienced player than I am and it showed. He knew exactly what he was doing. I was able to hold my own and kill some models/units, but it was not enough and Alex secured 5 Control Points to win the game. I did manage 17 Army Points destroyed to his 12 Army Points.
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| Khador vs Khador |
So after 3 games I was sitting 1-2. My son was 0-3 in his games. Seeing how the Masters only the Top 16 advance to next round, we both decided to then drop our 4th game. It was already nearing 5PM and we did not have a lunch break and we were getting hungry. Do I regret not playing the 4th game? Part of me does because of the learning experience, but I was OK with it since the weekend was all about having fun. The two of us decided that we walk to Luxor and take advantage of the buffet since we were starving.
After diner when we arrived back at the hotel, we decided we were going to play another fun game. We thought a Colossal vs Colossal ‘Mangled Metal’ game would be fun.
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| Mangled Metal |
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| Mangled Metal |
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| Mangled Metal…bye bye Cygnar |
My Khador was able to get the win by eliminating all of the Cygnar Warjacks.
Sunday February 7th, 2016
Originally today we were going to play in the Who’s the Boss 35 point Tournament, but we elected to sleep in just a little bit and make another fun day out of it. We also both wanted to get in a game of Hordes today since we brought those armies with us as well.
First we played a 25 point Khador vs Cygnar where we both actually played with different Warcasters. I decided to give Harkevich a try with his Black Ivan Warjack, and my son played with Caine. Khador and Harkevich got the Assination by slamming the Cygnar Warjack into Caine and followed up with Winterguad shots into Caine. A Win for Khador.
We then broke for lunch and headed downstairs to the food court and grabbed some Johnny Rockets. Afterwards it was back upstairs for our game of Hordes.
I was playing my new 50 point Gator army and my son played with his Circle of Orboros. Seeing how this was just my second game of Hordes, I was using it to still learn the mechanics of the game and all the spells and abilities of my models. It looked like the Gators were going to loss early on, but they held their own and tied the game up in Control Points 3-3, but then on the next turn Circle was able to grab 2 more Control Points for the win. A Loss for the Gators.
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| Gators vs Circle |
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| Gators vs Circle |
By the time we wrapped up our Hordes game, it was time for the raffle and tournament awards. I also then picked up or new Barren Wasteland gaming mat. We managed to get back to our room with 5 minutes left in the Super Bowl and caught the ending of the game and then got some pizza for dinner.
So after 3 days of gaming, getting in 8 games of Warmachine/Hordes, I finished the weekend 4-4. It was fun. The LVO was exactly has I expected it to be. It is not quite like AdeptiCon in Chicago, but it is getting pretty close.
Looking forward to going back again next year.
Daily Chronicle: ‘LVO 2016 Thursday February 4th Travel Day’
Thursday February 4th was my son’s and I travel day up to the Las Vegas Open 2016. We left Phoenix, AZ at 9:00 AM and arrived in Las Vegas, NV around 2:00 PM local time.
Since we arrived a little early for hotel check-in, I decided to get some shopping done for my family at the M&M’s store. Once we finished with that, it just about time to check-in.
After check-in at the Bally’s Las Vegas we rested for a little bit until 6:00 PM when badge pick up and registration opens for the event.
We headed downstairs to the events center to check out the venue. Once we picked up our badges we walked around the hall for a little bit and snapped a few photos.
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| Warmachine Final Table |
After walking around for a little bit, my son and I headed next door to Paris and enjoyed dinner at their buffett.
Once dinner was completed we headed across the street to Caesar’s Palace and my son and I walked the Forum shops to close out the evening.
It was now getting late an we headed back to our hotel so we can wake up early Friday and hit the Privateer Press store for some new releases.
Stay tuned for the official Day 1 of the LVO.
Daily Chronicle: ‘LVO 2016 This Weekend’
Well the time has come since I first announced back in September that my son and I will be heading to Las Vegas, NV for the LVO 2016 Warmachine. This weekend marks the big event for the two of us and I am going to have a fun time.
Back in Semptember when I announced that we were attending, I posted a new Khador list that I was going to play…Sorcha 2. Well I finished painting that army last year, but as I stated I seem to always fall back to using Butcher 1. After some playtesting, I decided I was going back to Butcher 1. I seem to enjoy his playstyle and I am more comfortable with him. I also had to cut down the number of models in my list. I realized at 50 points with that many models, I was running out of time on the clock. I am still ‘learning’ Warmachine since I really do not have much time to get games in, so I figure I better limit my number of models to speed things up a bit. Since I am playing in Saturdays Master Tournament for ‘fun’, more than likely I’ll finish 0-5. But I am really OK with that as long as I have 5 fun games and I can learn something by my losses.
My son and I will be driving out to Las Vegas tomorrow taking our time getting there, and then registration and badge pick up will be at 6:00 PM tomorrow night. Then we’ll enjoy the rest of the evening ‘Vegas Style’.
Friday we will do some fun open gaming, trying out our lists again and getting some Hordes in also.
Stay tuned for a daily recap of the Las Vegas Open 2016: Warmachine.
The Old West Chronicle 