Monday, 11 August 2014

Oldhammer Aftermath

I had a fantastic weekend at Bring Out Your Lead 2014 and took the opportunity to put faces to (forum) names, view some absolutely beautiful armies and get some old-fashioned gaming done. This was my first time going as I didn't even know about the Oldhammer community this time last year and I couldn't have been more impressed with the venue, the organisation and the friendliness of the attendees.

But first and foremost, a big thank-you to Harry and Paul for getting me to and from the event, I couldn't have been there without their help.

For those who don't know, this year Bring Out Your Lead was hosted by Foundry at their new premises in Stoke Hall. They very kindly provided a marquee for us to play under, lots of tables both inside and outside, hot food, cold drinks and access to their shop for all three days. 

One of four rooms they had full of blister packs. Just imagine the battles you could have with all of them...

The Friday was entirely taken up by the precursor to the massive three-day siege battle. It took a good three hours to set up but the turns actually progressed at quite a pace with around a half dozen generals per side. The forces of those were divided up into those of Law vs. those of Chaos and that evening represented the opening engagement where the massed cavalry of the Chaos side had the job of harassing the retreating Law army.

I'm sure there are a million little anecdotes that could be written about the battle - such as the sheer quantity of Treemen on the field, the Undead crumbling in the presence of a solitary unicorn and the circle of goblin bolt throwers acting as an AA battery - so it would be impossible for me to give a fair account. However, I hope these pictures give a sense of scale to the engagement. 

Day 1: The Chaos cavalry in hot pursuit of the retreating Law forces

My freshly painted units in hot pursuit!

Day 2/3: The view from the Mage's tower

Day 3: The forces of Law arrayed on the battlements.

On the Saturday, I took part in a couple of Warband battles, including the Shadow of Rensburg scenario run by Bane with my established Khornate warband lead by Dorrin Blissbane.

Rival Champions - worshippers of Tzeentch and Nurgle

Unfortunately I don't seem to have a picture of the Human warbands and the other Khornate Chaos Dwarf from game 2. So if anybody has some more pics then I'd love to see them.

The first game went very well with Dorrin seeing off an Ogre and the Other Chaos dwarf champion with his retinue, all whilst fighting off assailants from all sides until the Tzeentchian wizard, now out of precious magic points, retreated from the field leaving Dorrin victorious! 

The second game went less well with my entire warband waylaid by a single Nurgle sorcerer sitting high in a tower who I just couldn't deal with. It didn't help that my Goblins (after their stellar performance game 1) couldn't hit him!

The Sorcerer cast an aura that reduced the statistics of everyone within 6" by half which meant that my very fighty warband couldn't do much about him!

Dorrin now has an Irrational Hatred for Towers...

Nurgle magic is horrible. That was once a Beastman...

Still, some good came out of it, Dorrin has four new Beastmen amongst his followers (at the cost of a Skaven) and he's further unlocked some of the potential of his chaos axe. On the other hand he's slowly becoming mentally deranged from his constant battling, and having a tower collapse under him has given him a bit of a concussion. Also, a particularly plucky goblin has found a magic ring that he's keeping very quiet about...

I'll do a full write-up of the current standing of the warband as soon as I have the newest recruits painted. In the meantime, enjoy some more eye-candy of the other forces involved.

A Bear, an Ogre and a Necromancer walk into a church. Stop me if you've heard this one.

I've yet to lay my eyes upon a more deranged, and better painted, group of misfits

Sunday was no less exciting as I got to play Heroquest for the first time in well over a decade. The game was expertly run by Geoff and played on his custom made, laser cut gaming board and character 'sheets'. It was a real treat.

There's got to be a market for these, right?

The loot/xp carriers, err.. I mean monsters, lined up behind the GM screen

Our plucky heroes with my Barbarian, Sally Forth, in the middle.

We fought through Orcs, half naked swordswomen...

...Fimir, Chaos Warriors..

... and finally a Daemon in our quest to save the local village girls who were taken captive.

Needless to say I had a great time, even if I didn't manage to come away with any treasure (grumble, grumble). Despite Geoff trying to convince me that it hadn't gone quiet as planned, apparently he was holding his copy of the map upside down, everyone was enthralled by the game. The beautifully painted board and minis drew a fair crowd of spectators.

Unfortunately with that game over it was time to go home, but I'm certain I'll be attending again next year, rumour has it that there may be pirate ships on the horizon, including a tribe of Lizardmen on the back of a giant turtle.

I wish I could have seen more of the event and gotten involved in even more games, but sadly there wasn't enough time. So all I have are these pictures which I hope you'll enjoy. If you've read down this far, then please let me know what your favourite part of BOYL14 was in the comments.

If you recognise any of your minis in this post please let me know and I'll make sure to credit them appropriately. Unfortunately I don't have a head for names at the best of times, let alone when I need to cross-reference them against forum aliases!

Carrion Crawlers tuck into a Giant Owl during the siege

Khorne warriors with a stunning banner arrayed for battle - painted by James

A host of Wood Elf creatures and their handlers

Asslessman's Sensei and retinue

A stunning greenskin horde belonging to Erny

A Confrontation (I think) gang

A lovely unit/lance/squadron/group of Titans from LegioCustodes

Epic battles ran on throughout the weekend

Did I mention that the surroundings of the venue were absolutely stunning?

My purchases for the weekend. Yes that's an entire baggage train!

Time to get painting for next year I think.

11 comments:

  1. You played a good mix of games and a good account to. great to have nyour centaurs ion the first game of the siege. It was good to met you by the way.

    The orc army in the photos is mine. The wood elf animals are Harry's, the Sensei is is asslessman's and the Khorne warriors are James. I think the Titans are legio Custodius's.

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    1. It was great to meet you too. :)

      The Centaurs did fine,although I ended up doing exactly what I promised I wouldn't do - use them as heavy cavalry. Oops. I'll get some proper credits up for the armies later today, thank you for picking out the owners.

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  2. Replies
    1. Yeah, it was an absolute dream weekend. Seeing all those lovely models on tables was really inspiring. I just want to paint all the time now.

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  3. A great write up of a fabulous weekend. Was great to meet you and play heroquest and warbands with you, a particular highlight was your sharpshooting, bearded and now slightly tougher gobbos!

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    1. Yeah, I had an absolute blast in all our games. We'll have to arrange something for next year along the same lines as well. I really like the idea of completely fresh warbands. Also, I need a suitable name for the plucky goblin, any thoughts?

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  4. Cheers for the additional cavalry for the Siege on Friday - glad you enjoyed the game.

    That Heroquest game looked like a blast and I had some serious Heroquest envy for that board!

    The Chaos warband games looked like a lot of fun too - something I must get round to trying some day...

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    1. You are very welcome, it was great to get involved in a big battle, if only to see how the game plays out in practice. I learnt a lot about the rules that weekend.

      I'm sure that Heroquest board, and the character sheets, should be marketable. Although I guess the board design itself is copyrighted. I'm sure that there are many people who would love to own something similar though.

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  5. The whole weekend was great, but I think fighting in the biggest second edition space marine battle this decade was my highlight. Chico; Thantsants and the gang were great players, it was great fun.

    I can confirm the titans are mine; as are the epic flesh Tearers and dark angels in the same picture, also the elbow is also mine. :-)

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    1. And a fine elbow it is too!

      DO you know how many points (roughly) the epic battle ended up being?

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  6. I absolutely adore Epic 40'000 (not Armageddon so much). So cool to see it arrayed in a large scale battle again, takes me back, ahhhhh.
    Very jealous of that Pete!!!

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