Reloaded, Redefined, Recharge

It's just been a week since Steamforged Games' prestigious EU event for Warmachine - Lock and Load, held at the Magna Science Adventure Centre just outside of Sheffield. Four days back at work, a four-day weekend, and then three more days at work, and I will be back with Steamforged Games at UKGE, running demos and promoting the game to new and old players alike at the third-largest tabletop games expo in the world.

So what was L&L EU like?

Chill. That seems too simple an answer. But chill fits. The weekend was filled with games, either tournament games, narrative games, or just pick-up games. Plus the painting and sculpting seminars, lore seminars, big reveals, pre-release models, and the opportunity to chat with fellow fans of the games, and the SFG game creators themselves.

For me personally, it was an opportunity to see Warmachine as a competitive game in motion, and as far as tournament games go, again it seemed quite relaxed. Likely because the hall dampened any noise, and the tables had plenty of space between them. It also helps that Warmachine is a well-written game. I also had the chance to get to know the SFG team a bit better, which is good for future opportunities at events, as well as work related to the RPG (which is going back to the 2D6 system).

However, for me, the real highlight was seeing some of the influencers that were invited along connecting with the game, miniatures and setting, which, for me, having worked on the RPG, makes me proud. The joy of seeing diversity in the miniatures. Or how well the game plays. Or how it isn't just "Grim Dark" more.

An interesting addition to the event was the presence of Playseer and their Augmented Reality platform for playing Warmachine. So how does this work?

Rather than playing fully virtually, what Playseer has is a way for you to play with your physical minis, with an opponent who is in a different location (who has their own minis). So the headset is recording your minis and sending that information to your opponent while showing you virtual doubles of your opponent's minis on the board, overlaid on your physical reality.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/0181c4_16e7a61ae2ef486a9cf1105a30eebf03/720p/mp4/file.mp4

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/0181c4_59755034b63e4745ad9fb040376fcb34/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Beyond just letting you play a game against a person located remotely somewhere else in the world, it also opens up ways of interacting with the rules (HUD of rules from the Warmachine app), and new features like fog of war, or even ways to interact with players through campaigns. Critically, the player is still moving their models and rolling dice, and measuring ranges. So the way you play has not changed, not the way you interact with the table.

The future of wargaming is certainly interesting. Miniatures and gaming spaces are not being replaced. But having a further way to game, and one that is still as close to how we game, feels more natural than say Wartable.

On top of the games, and demos, we had the reveals. Fane of Nyrro presents a really interesting, inverted approach to how a Hordes style army works. Something I will delve into in a separate blog post next week. We also learnt that Protectorate of Menoth is coming back with designs that harken back to their original designs, while also learning that the Blackfleet of Cryx is coming to STL. Also, from the lore updates we learnt new things, and had some old theories confirmed.

So what more can I say really. I hope that Lock and Load EU stays in the same venue for next year, and is bigger and busier again. It's a real opportunity to have all manner of ways to explore the Iron Kingdoms, including the next edition of the rpg. One thing is for certain, Warmachine has an exciting year ahead.