And Yea, behold - the Lead was indeed Brought Out!

Pic courtesy of Foundry - I was too busy forgetting to document my Orc's Drift games!

Well it might seem an age ago but I for one am still basking in the warm afterglow of the Oldhammer Bring Out Your Lead weekend at Foundry.

And the reason for this prolonged feeling of euphoria...

We had a superb venue bedecked with artwork and miniature cases full of 80's splendour. Our extremely generous hosts, the Ansells, made us feel very welcome and even provided us with an evening meal on the Saturday night!

We finally got to meet each other, put faces to names and further cement friendships made over the marvellous medium of the interwebz.

We got to play a lot of Oldhammer.

We got to look at a lot of Oldhammer.

We went out and got pissed together.

We played a lot of Oldhammer hungover.

We all went home determined to make this kind of thing happen again - both in the local groups that have sprung up and, as I'm sure will no doubt happen again, another national (does that sound too grand?!) event next year.

My contribution was to run the Orc's Drift campaign that has been my raison d'etre for some time on this blog. Firstly can I apologise to any prospective Bloodbather's who didn't get a game because I was busy gassing! We had a bit of a slow start on the Saturday - both because I was busy chewing the fat, but also because I suspect quite a few chaps had been drawn to the excellent Realms of Chaos game run by Orlygg.

Anyhow we got the first three scenarios played over the two days - I think folk were flagging a bit thanks to the after effects of Saturday night and overdosing on gaming with actual real life opponents by Sunday afternoon to face the final battle at Orc's Drift - that and there were still quite  few games going on by then and we didn't have the optimum 6 players and GM to do it justice. Keep your eyes peeled though as we're planning on fighting this last scenario out at the first YOBBOS meeting, currently scheduled for the 3rd November I think.

The Battle for Kachas Pass

Thanks to Hetz for stepping up to plate and taking command of the Vile Rune Tribe - their objective - to destroy the Wood Elf garrison and kill the Half Orc spy Silas Meel, who has potentially damaging intelligence on Fangor Gripe, the Vile Rune Chieftain.

The sneaky Orcs use the woods for cover as some of the Elves (possibly unwisely!) leave the protection of the stockade to get a better angle of fire.

A few Orcs are picked off by surprisingly ineffective Elf archery (my usual dice rolling woes!).

The lead elements of the Vile Rune Tribe charge the stockade wall!

The rest of the tribe follow...

Guthrum Mane, the Rock Giant and Erdolas Thringal, the disgraced Wood elf Captain square off.

Guthrum succumbs to alcoholism and is pushed back - tripping over and narrowly missing squashing the Orcs fighting next to him! He presented a rather soft target for Erdolas to finish off in a most unheroic way in the next turn.

I seem to remember proceedings stopping for a great chat about the good old days (most of the pre-3rd edition days being before my time!) with Tony and Alec. Tony has a fantastic blog by the way which is well worth checking out. Thanks Alec for coming back and taking control of the sneaky Half Orc spy - a slightly limited brief as his objective was to flee the table and he was by then being pursued by two Wood elf archers!

Meanwhile the Orcs had reduced the defenders to a handful and pushed the desperate Elves into the centre of the compound - the rules state that the Elves are immune to rout tests whilst in the stockade.

Outside, the Elf flanking force let loose with some more woeful shooting...

Silas Meel uses the terrain to his advantage as his pursuers split to try and draw a bead on the slippery spy.

The Elf flanking force charge the Orcs in the side, realising too late that in 2nd edition this doesn't cause a panic test!

Oh oh...

However, Erdolas does kill Fangor Gripe as they duke it out.

As the Elves in the stockade refuse to rout, their attackers wrap around in an effort to finish off the last stubborn defender.

Predictably the Elves lose the combat and rout in the face of overwhelming odds.

One of the Elves gets a flesh wound on Silas Meel - unfortunately the arrow ended up sticking out of his arm rather than his leg and the Half Orc makes it off the table!

The last defender is slain...

Erdolas finally gets his Death wish - the last Elf alive in the stockade!

Although the Elves were nearly wiped out completely this was a bruising encounter for the Vile Rune Tribe. Both their chieftain, Fangor Gripe and Guthrum Mane, the Giant lay dead, as did a fair number of Orc warriors.

In terms of victory points this was actually an Elf (phyrric) victory! The Vile Rune Tribe will be delayed because of this setback and should arrive at Orc's Drift in Turn 10 of the final game.

Encounter at Ashak Rise

This game was played quite late on on the Saturday - Grumdril had managed to extricate himself from the Relams of Chaos and took control of the Gold mad Dwarf deserters of Ashak Rise and I was back having had to shift the car to the hotel car park. Gaj and Warlord Paul also joined in as the Severed Hand Tribe and King F'yar and his F'yar Guard respectively.

This is potentially a very tough scenario for the Orcs to win with minimal casualties. The Dwarves have two very strong heroes and the regular troops far outclass your average Orc. Added to that, the Dwarves start off with control of the bridge over the fast flowing River Canis - a natural and easily defended choke point.

However, I had made a roll earlier in the day to determine which scenario King F'yar would turn up in - he can normally choose any one of the initial three scenarios as well as the battle at Orc's Drift. Lo and behold he appeared at Ashak Rise, totally destroying the Dwarves' tactical advantage!

What follows is a heroic effort on Grumdril's part to hold the entire Vile Rune Tribe off whilst dodging a flying Wyvern and trying to get the gold off the table as fast as his Dwarves' little legs could carry them.

Borin and Snorrin get their priorities right and look to load up the mules with as much gold to scarper with, while their fellow deserters face off against the oncoming horde!

F'yar crosses the river with eases as the Hobhounds approach the defenders on the bridge.

Accurate crossbow fire whittles down the pack a little...

King F'yar steers his Wyvern towards the distant figures of the Dwarves fleeing with their gold.

The hounds are stopped in their tracks by the Dwarves on the bridge. The F'yar guard weigh up the chances of their crossing the river safely - I ruled that they would have to roll under their strength to withstand the current or else drown in the cold waters!

Borrin and Snorrin prepare to leave with fully laden mules. Another deserter brings up the third mule.

Four of the F'yar Guard make it over - one isn't so lucky and is swept away!

King F'yar closes in.

The hounds manage to push back the Dwarves in what was to become a real see-saw of a combat!

The F'yar Guard shake the water from their britches and advance.

A rather one-sided duel breaks out between the Orc archers and the Dwarf Crossbowmne. Still, the Orcs get a lucky shot in here and there, despite the Dwarves' well protected position.

F'yar swoops and kills off Borrin and Snorrin - the poor heroes struggled to land a blow in response as fliers count as having WS10 in 2nd ed!

I think Grumdril had to go somewhere around this point - hope you enjoyed it mate!

After that I took control of the Dwarves.

The F'yar Guard gain control of the road, bypassing the stubborn Dwarf defenders on the bridge.

Poor old Gaj had seen his hounds routed and now had his main unit of Orc warriors held up by these two plucky fighter!

King F'yar searches for more Wyvern food. The Dwarves look suspiciously like filler in an Orc sandwich here...

The Orc archers form into a Conga line... erm I mean single file and snake past the melee that grinds on on the bridge.

Tasty Dwarves!

The hounds rally and charge the last defender in the side. I think Hagar Sheol, Chieftain of the Severed Hand Tribe, landed the final killing blow, clearing the way for the Orcs to continue their advance on Orc's Drift, collecting the abandoned Dwarf gold on the way of course!

The Severed Hand and King F'yar win a resounding victory here (mostly thanks to all the victory points they earned for picking up most of the Dwarf gold) and apart from the Hobhounds didn't suffer horrendous casualties. They are due to arrive at Orc's Drift by Turn 4.

Massacre at Linden Way

A somewhat fragile Thantsants and Warlord Paul settled down on Sunday morning to play out the Linden Way scenario - an ill-prepared human Militia attempt to stop the advance of the Kwae Karr Orcs, while the terrified villagers flee and the schizophrenic Illusionist, Barrachus protects what he thinks is his gleaming palace of delights.

The Orc archers crest the ridge of the hill and look down on the ruins that Barrachus mistakenly sees as his beautiful palace.

The main column of warriors advance on the village as the militia form into one unit and bar their path.

A second unit of Kwae Karrs attempt to flank the human militia.

Bagrash, the Kwae Karr shaman unleashes deadly fireballs at the Guard tower that houses the five militia archers.

... and it crashes to the ground as a burning wreck, killing all its occupants!

The villagers flee and Bagrash, determined that none should escape, magically flies to cut off their advance. His cunning plan is foiled by a well placed Mystical mist cast by Barrachus! All the villagers manage to escape!

The archers attempt to put a stop to Barrachus' meddling with their archery - the walls of the ruins protect him however.

Frustrated at their lack of success, the archers charge him!

Meanwhile back in the village, the militia is steadily ground down, their pikes being the only thing stopping them being wiped out completely. However, with the arrival of the second unit of Orcs, they are forced to flee.

Barrachus flees too, but rallies and assumes a terrifying and ghostly appearance!

Thanks Gaj for the loan of the Ghoulie!

The militia rally and turn to face their tormentors!

The archers prepare to fire again on Barrachus but he is too quick for them!

Suffering from hatred (you have to roll each turn to see what psychology he suffers from due to his schizophrenia!), Barrachus charges the main Kwae Karr column!

Luckily they pass their Terror test and fight him off. Rather than engaging in close combat, Barrachus chooses to flee so as not to destroy his ghostly illusion.

My recollection of how Barrachus ended is hazy - I think he again suffered from hatred or was forced to charge again. This time he was slaughtered by the steadfast Orcs!

So the game ended with the fairly predictable result of a massacre at the hands of the Kwae Karr. I think they lost only a small handful of warriors to the human militia. It was a most entertaining game thanks to Barrachus and his madness, the magical duel between him and Bagrash and the cat and mouse with the villagers!

The Kwae Karr wina  convincing victory and enter the fray at Orc's Drift on turn 5.

Finally, and much belated - here are the Golden Gobbo entries. I'd agreed to take receipt of Blue in VT's entry (all the way from the US) and FimmMcCool's entry from the dark Southern Wastes of Bristol - a heavy responsibility indeed!

Anyhow I just about remembered to bring them with me, however we found ourselves up against the might of Nico's superbly crisp and bright style in the form of his amazing Ork Gargant - congratulations Nico on a well-deserved win.

Congrats to Fimm and Blue to - it was a privilege to look after and see your entries in the flesh!

Slammbo - by me! Must take a better shot!

Fimm's mad Chaos Warrior/Demon riding Chaos Goblin! Fantastic vivid colours and a clever conversion from a Squig Rider.

Nico's masterful Gargant - so crisp and clean while still being nice and Orky.

Blue's beautifully understated and naturalistic Glam - lovely skin tones and shading. Definitely picked up a few tips just seeing his brilliant painting style in the flesh.

Getting Close to the Bone...

Greetings dear readers - I think its about time I finished off the battle report of the game I played with Warlord Paul a few weeks back, especially as even Gaj has got himself moving ; )

We find ourselves back in the mist shrouded land of Albion with the Orcish and Undead battle lines poised ready to fall on one another.

The story so far from Warlord Paul's point of view -
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

The Tribal warriors of the Paylah Lifficks watched on impassively as a large proportion of the once proud Tyum Teem Tribe streamed past them, shouting and screaming as they went.

"Wut ur dey runnin fer - s'only sum funny lookin' goat with a lion's hed stuck on it..."

One of the Tyum Teem Orcs overheard this particular slur on their martial prowess,

"That's no ordenarrry goat wiv a lion hed on it! Dat's the mostest cruel, foul and bad-tempered goat weev ever set eyes on!"

Others joined in the chorus as they swept by,

"Yer - it'll do youze up a treat mate!"

"... Narsty, big pointy teef!"

And with that the panic-stricken mob were gone with the fearsome creature in pursuit.

The Savages and spear-armed Orcs pressed on to the right of the graveyard - a lone regiment of Skeletons blocking their way. However, a few wary glances were directed at the Undead cavalry edging around their right flank and the Chimera now rampaging through the routers to their rear.

Rob'imsun and the Giant veered to the left to threaten the Skeleton units skulking by the farside of the graveyard, just in case they should expose their flank.

Over on the far left the archers loosed a constant barrage of arrows at the Skeleton units advancing jerkily towards them. Surprisingly accurate archery saw the ranks of undead steadily whittled down. Maliss Grobhurtz further confounded the Undead's approach by conjuring up a Wind Blast spell against the skeletons facing them.

In the centre the Big 'Uns charged their opposing Skeleton unit, managing to put their unease about their supernatural foe behind them - for now...

Alas they failed to make the charge count and fell back before the superior numbers of the enemy. With the Undead snapping at their heels, the cream of the Tyum Teem were unmanned to a man and fled the battle!

The Giant, Mick Vast'Un was to fare little better...

Mick toyed absent mindedly with the bone that ran rather decoratively, or so he thought, through his nose. It was all he had to remind him of his dear old Mam these days - at least he and his brothers had eaten well that day. To say the Giant had a slight superstitious bent and various psychological problems would have been an understatement...

The object of his contemplation (beyond his nose that is) was the group of small humanoids advancing in a strange, jerky fashion. Mick wasn't so sure about these strange figures,

"Littul man fings made out of bones... bones. 

Ma is all bones now. Maybe she's angry we ate her all up. Maybe Ma is little man fings made of bones - we sure crunched 'er up gud...

 No Ma, we nevver ment it. Honest! We's woz just a bit peckish an' all..."

With a great cry Mick swiped madly at the skeletons but the swing went wild, crushing only one of them. The great brute stumbled backwards trying to fend off the oncoming horde with outstretched arms, caught in the throes of his strange reverse-Oedipal complict, before turning tail and fleeing with an anguished cry of "Muvveerrrrr!"

Having sated itself on Orc flesh the Chimera turned and licked its bloodied chops as a bigger quarry began lumbering blindly towards it.

"Roight den me Laddo's! Let's be 'aving a bit 'o fire in ye bellies! Let's 'ear ya - Oi've got a brand new spiky, flint axe and I'll give it you in da 'ed! Oi've got a brand new spiky, flint axe and I'll give it you in da 'ed! Oi've got a brand new spiky, flint axe and I'll give it you in da 'ed..."

Having taken the edge off the Undead assault with a couple of Zones of Sanctuary spells, Fillhar Dring, leader and shaman of the Paylah Lifficks exhorted the spear-armed Orcs of the Tyum Teem to join his boys in a good old frenzy. This was to be the saving grace for a rather flaky looking right flank!

The two Orc units duly got stuck in and had a right good scrum with the skellies facing them - safely immune from all those pesky fear tests I was doing a fine job of failing!

Things were not so good in the centre...

Rob'imsun paused momentarily, or at least as much as one could do when seated on a frothing Warboar with hordes of Undead seemingly pouring in from all sides. Something wasn't quite right.

Is it me... Nope I'm in da fick of it where there's good crumping to be 'ad. 

Is dose ded fings up to any nasty lowdown tricks? Nah, dey's jus trampin' about - got less brains than my lads, hur, hur.

Then it struck the Orc General that it was mighty quiet, other than the rattle of re-animated bones and the dull jingle of ancient and rusted battle gear. 

"Oi lads - where's youze goin' ya yeller bellied Curs! Get back 'ere an' bash sum bleedin' skullz afore I knock sum o' your sorry 'eds togevver!"

But alas it was to no avail. The Big' Uns had already departed and the large mob of armoured Orcs - the best equipped and nastiest set of boys in the tribe had hightailed it back up the hill, rather than charge the Deadites swarming across the valley!

"Bugger dis den!" Roared the furious Rob'imsun, as he swung his manic steed around and launched it at the rear of the Skeleton unit that had crested the ridge his once glorious army had deployed along.

Of course on catching up with the Skeletons, Rob'imsun promptly failed to cause many casualties and was soon rather ignominiously fleeing himself.

Further down the line Maliss wiped the sweat from his brow, or he would have done if he had a spare hand from maintaining the Windblast spell that had just saved him from being charged by a rather nasty looking Dark Elf on a funny looking horse. The skeletons of course still languished at the bottom of the valley futilely marching into the gale they couldn't overcome.

Meanwhile the archers indulged in a rather dangerous game of poke the Ogre over the edge of the crag they occupied. Thanks to their long Dwarf Ticklers and the rocky outcrops they cowered behind, the Orcs managed to fight the Ogres to a standstill for a few turns.

Over by the graveyard the Paylah Lifficks and Frenzied Spears were doing a stirling job of de-constructing their reanimated foes. With the assistance of Fillhar Dring's Zone of Sanctuary, the other Undead units threatening their flanks had either been kept away or weakened by instability. Not that the Orcs would have cared as they were lost in that happy place Orcs go to when they are doing what they do best - frenzied slaughter!

A desperate flank charge by the unstable Undead  Cavalry was easily shrugged off and the remaining  Horsemen reduced to incorporeal shadows.

Seeing the danger, more skeletons give chase...

... and in true Benny Hill fashion, the newly rallied Armoured Orcs join in too!

The archers finally lose their game of Poke the Ogre and flee - the pervy Slanneshi brutes only just managing to stop themselves from following them off table. Lord Savage can be seen gnashing his teeth at the cackling Orc Shaman - still blocked by the Wind Blast spell!

The Battle for the Barrow reaches new heights - beset on all sides, frenzy keeps the Savages and Spears in the fight with an ever decreasing number (apart from when instability majicks a few back!) of skeletons in front of them.

Bones to da left ov us. Bones to da right ov us. Bones in bleedin' front ov us!
Jabbed at and poked, spiked wiv spear and blade,
Boldly we gots stuck right in
to keep on making our dearest war and raidings!

We don't likes the look of dat bloody Goat fing though....

And well might the Orcs at the back look nervously over their shoulders. Nemesis of the right flank and devourer of whole Orc Regiments and Giants alike, the mighty Chimera charges the Paylah Lifficks, leaving only a red mist behind and a rather terrified Fillhar Dring in front!

What foul and cruel beast is this that besets me so and chews upon my 'Arris?

Back over in the centre, tiring of the effort of thinking, let alone sustaining Windblast for the past several turns, Maliss scuttles off to join the Armoured Orcs in a bid to escape the attentions of Lord Savage.

His newly adopted regiment continues to make mincemeat(?) of the skeletons in front of them.

Lord Savage and his sinister retinue take the opportunity to begin sneaking past to the rear of the Orc lines, while his Dark Elf Crossbows continue to try and bring Rob'imsun down.

In amongst this Toady Rob'imsun once more sits astride his mount and contemplates life. For a long time.

Now den, let me see iv I've got dis strait. Dere's not much point crumpin' up dem dedites - cos dere alredy ded. Not cos I'm scared ov 'em - no, no, no. Nuffink scares me. 

But den again, dey move aroun' an all dat - looks like dey follow orders. Not so different to my boys perraps? Anyway, wot iz life afterall apart from a condishun wot distingwishis organik stuff wot moves and inorganik stuff wot dusn't. 

When push comes to shove wot duz it all meen? Wun can live meeningfully in an uncondishunnal commitmunt to summat finite, while devoatin' dat meeningful life to sed uncondishunnal commitmunt and nevermind the vulnerbility inherunt to doing jus' that.  

Bluddy 'Ell, I meen - wot's even the point of askin' wot's da meening o' life?! The stuff like stuff 'appening and folks you wont to bash up have meening as parts of da hole, but as for a meening for life sepurrated from all dat stuff - well it can't be discurned...

Ah, bugger dis - dem pointy eared gits is annoyin' me with dere littul peashooters - CHARGE!!!"

Newly freed from the eldritch winds that assailed them, the indefatigible Undead wheel to block the Armoured Orcs path to the graveyard.

Seeing the beast that ate all their mates, the Orc Spears overcome there fear and terror and charge the Chimera. Now otherwise occupied, the Chimera turns its attention away from the bedraggled Savage Orc Shaman and prepares for its 4th course...

And that's when we had to call it quits.

I have to say it was a really fun game and actually quite a nail-biter too. Although we forgot animosity again(!), I had more than enough on my plate with fear tests left, right and centre. It wasn't much of a surprise to see a large proportion of my rather basic (in terms of characters and special troop types) Orc army running for the hills. I'm just glad a few came back to fight a little later on and that my usual atrocious dice rolling finally evened itself out.

The real stars of the show for me were the Orc Shamans - the less said about my navel gazing General the better! I must admit feeling the slightest twinge of guilt when I chose such spells as Cause Frenzy and Zone of Sanctuary as I knew their pschology negating, frenzy inducing and anti-Undead properties would come in handy. In my defence I had offered to roll up spells randomly!

Anyhow I hope I didn't overuse certain spells and I must say without them the Undead wouldn't have had much to get their teeth into - mind you we did both agree that frenzy is a real force to be reckoned with and definitely the bane of the Undead who are rather weak once you take the fear factor away. As it turned out though the game saw a real, tense see-sawing of the balance of power - early Undead success in the Centre and Right flanks was slowly countered as the Orcs rallied and became frenzied. Who knows what might have happened if we'd got a few more turns in...

So the overall result (apart from two very happy gamers) was a draw - The relic of untold power was left safely underground, the Orc Shamans and General escaped death and Lord Savage sidled off to greater things in the fight against Khorne in the Realm of Chaos battle at the Oldhammer weekend.

If only I had just plowed my Giant into that graveyard...

Talking of the Oldhammer weekend - post coming up soon.

As soon as I can stop grinning like an idiot every time I think about how good it was!

A Grave Matter....

So I got to play a bit of 3rd ed. yesterday which turned a good Bank Holiday Weekend into a great one! Once again Warlord Paul did a fine job of hosting the game and came up with a great little scenario - if you haven't done so, check out the background and victory conditions on his blog.

Here's my take on things...

Toady Rob'imsun shifted uncomfortably in what passed for the saddle lashed carelessly across the rough shoulders of his irritable boar. Bristles had worked their way through the tattered leather and matted cloth and were well on their way to doing the same to the Chief's filthy britches.

This fog didn't help matters either. Made the lads jittery. Especially those lunatic Savages who'd tagged along. Usually the only communication between Rob'imsun's Ty 'Um Teem Tribe and the somewhat backward Paylah Liffik Tribe was a lot of shouting and throwing of rocks. But that had all changed.

It was that Maliss Grobhurtz' fault - the mad old shaman had been worse than usual for the past week, constantly ranting and raving about his visions of some Demon called Jeeyofizz and the treasure it had revealed to him buried in the Dead Place. Fillhar Dring, Shaman and leader of the Paylah Liffiks, had had the same vision, and between them they had bullied and cajoled Rob'imsun into setting out on this treasure hunt.

Now it looked like the boys were having second thoughts. Strange sounds floated up out of the dead valley, drifting like spectres in the mist. Whispered voices snaked sibilantly out of the gloom and ominous creaks and groans emanated from every direction. Even the Shamans had become strangely quiet.

Rob'imsun bristled with a mixture of anticipation at the coming battle and a frisson of fear as Grobhurtz' eyes rolled back and his crooked claw swung round to point down the hillside, in the direction of the ancient relic lying hidden there.

The tramp of bony feet confirmed the Shaman's premonition and as the mists swirled in a sudden eddy of wind, the Orcs got a glimpse of what awaited them in the valley below.

 

The line waivered slightly at the sight of the legion of skeletal warriors drawing up in their ranks on the other side of the shallow valley. But between them lay their prize - buried somewhere in the place of death was the relic Grobhurtz spoke of.

 

Rob'imsun growled his orders and fixed those who had gone a paler shade of green with his best stern gaze to keep them in line. With a braying of horns and the crash of drum and mailed boot, the Orc line advanced into the gloom.

 

 On the right the Hobhounds dashed forward along with the main column of Orc warriors. To their left came a unit of Spear armed Orcs and the warriors of the Paylah Lifficks, led by the Savage Orc Shaman, Fillhar Dring. Alongside them, wrinkling his nose at the fusty smell wafting up out of the valley, the Giant, Mick Vast'un, strode forwards. Anchoring the centre was Rob'imsun himself and a regiment of heavily armoured Orcs. Grobhurtz and a unit of Orc Archers made up the left flank.

 



The two sides marched steadily forwards towards each other, when suddenly a terrifying apparition tore through the mist and into the main Orc column. The savage appearance of a Chimera was too much for them, despite their great numbers and they turned tail and fled. As they ran the beast gave chase, filling the air with the terrible screams of those who didn't flee fast enough!

Over on the far left, the archers flexed their bow strings but their quarry was just out of range. In the centre red eyes narrowed and glared at the unseeing sockets of their Undead foes as the two armies stood poised for the charge...

And that's all for now folks as its getting late!

Stay tuned for the next exciting instalment...

Maxing your Oldhammer

So how do you go about getting the best out of Oldhammer? Is it just about being rosey-eyed about WFB 3rd ed. or drooling over the latest amazing ebay bargain someone got on a Leaping Slomm Twoface? Are we backing ourselves down a rather narrow passageway in celebrating all things Citadel and 80's? Heaven forbid, are we becoming as prescriptive as the current GW scene?

An unattainable goal for many aspiring Oldhammerers?

I don't necessarily presume to speak for others as we all have our own personal take on what Oldhammer means to us. However, there are certain trends I'll refer to and I apologise in advance for the sweeping statements I will no doubt end up making!

Let me address those questions in two ways. Firstly, our (well definitely mine!) apparent 3rd ed. and 3rd ed. era miniatures fetish. Don't get me wrong - I love all that stuff, as is somewhat obvious by much of the content of this blog. However, this is just the vehicle I (and many others) have chosen for my personal Oldhammer Odyssey because this was the stuff I always wanted to own as a kid. Unfortunately though, as a movement, it seems that concentrating so much on the collecting and painting of old Citadel lead that the perception of Oldhammer is becoming a little skewed. Just look at the difference in the number of posts in the WIP and Showroom boards to the Battle Reports board on the Oldhammer forum, as well as the content of many of our Oldhammer blogs.

This of course (the preponderence painting and collecting) is partly down to not having the time and in many cases, being geographically remote from each other to play many games. Of course there is the need to polish up our old collections models and get our various ebay binges painted up and ready for the table top too. However, Oldhammer is a way of getting the most out of playing the early editions of Warhammer. Its life blood must surely be in the act of playing and sharing the enjoyment of these games with an opponent and hopefully the GM running them.

A rare and wonderful thing - Oldhammer battle report from Nico's blog Realms of Chaos.
Yes that is Chaos V. Slann!

That's not to say that posts about painting and modelling old lead are a bad thing in themselves - the Oldhammer forum would be a dull place without seeing the wonderful work folk put on there and we know the motivational effect of receiving praise for and positive criticism of our efforts with the paint brush. Its more the case that its the relative absence of battle reports and discussions on approaches to game play that is the problem.

I've been doing a little research to see how the other half lives. If you know what Cheese Lists, Death Stars and Leadership Bombs are you'll know what I'm on about...

Now I'm not here to ridicule, criticise or badmouth others' interpretation of wargaming - most of this stuff is pretty unintelligible to me and I've never experienced it first hand myself. If that's how some folk like to roll then fair enough but its obviously not my cup of tea. I suppose the nearest I've been (or want to be) to suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of Skaven slave spam dual hell pits or a DE dual Hydra unkillable lord is playing games like Wolfenstein 3D online and literally not being able to stay alive for more than a few seconds unless I'd got lost in some remote and unimportant corner of the map - not fun!

Why venture into such apparently arid territory for Oldhammer? Well it seems there is a great deal of energy invested in these communities in working out the best ways to win, max out your army list and counter killer combinations in your opponent's army - all based on the regular playing and desire to win the game.

So I thought why not flip this on its head. 

Bear with me - I'm not proposing we begin endless debates on the best army lists to be mined out of the Warhammer Armies book - such a thing would be anathema to the Oldhammer concept that there are no Army lists, or rather that you shouldn't feel constrained in building a scenario or organising a game by the limitations enforced by such lists.

Nor am I suggesting that tactics for winning against various armies become a hot topic for debate.

And you thought your Space Marines were AWESUM!

Instead we need to talk more about "winning" at Oldhammer and by that I mean how do we go about organising, playing and making the experience enjoyable, fun and fulfilling for all concerned. 

Ideally we'd have lots of games that have been played and could be up for discussion in terms of what worked and what didn't. However, as we know, time and distance are a little against us for that. 

As a lot of us haven't played regularly or GM'ed a game for a long time and it seems to be a bit of a worry for some with the Oldhammer Weekend approaching, might I suggest we see more topics along the lines of tips for GM'ing. Ask the question - how do I set up/tweak a scenario idea to provide both players with a suspenseful and exciting experience? What makes a good scenario? Share ideas on cooperative play that might also have conflicting objectives to spice it up a little. Begin discussions on how to map hidden movement or use wandering monsters and third party forces. I know various folk have dabbled in this already, I just think we need moar! I would imagine the upcoming Oldhammer event will change this in terms of the amount of games that will be played over the weekend and I look forward to reading about people's experiences as players and GM's.

Oops - wrong one!

I recently reread Dr Bargle's excellent article on the Pathetic Aesthetic in Old School Gaming. This kind of intelligent and self-deprecating debate is great too. Personally I love it as an intellectual exercise but the argument is a strong one and the pathetic aesthetic is essentially key to getting the right flavour for Oldhammer gaming - for this see especially what he says about the Magnificent Sven and Lichemaster scenarios. Further exploration of the ways these ideas could be put to practical use as a GM would be another valuable avenue of discussion.

In fact all that talk of RPG's has got me thinking and I've long been enamoured of the idea of including elements of them on the tabletop. There is some excellent material at Oldhammer as RPG for gaming in this way - either going down the line of playing 1st ed. as an RPG or adding meat to tabletop characters in the form of random characteristics generation, character progression and injury charts. I rather like the idea of taking some lowly character and playing a series of scenarios that widen in scope as he/she advances, until they either meet an untimely demise or retire with their ill-gotten gains.

Influences from other sources is another valuable topic - personally, having finally tracked down copies of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy books, Dungeoneer and Blacksand,  I'd love to translate them to the table top somehow - possibly using 1st or 2nd ed. rules and stats.

Fighting the Trolltooth Wars would be another good one - either from the two evil and warring Wizard's point of view, or from some lowly Captain in there armies, be that Hill Goblin Chieftain or Rhinoman Officer.

Think of all the fun you could have putting together and converting the miniatures for Zharradan Marr and Balthus Dire's Chaotic forces together from umpteen different manufacturers!

I'll wrap up my long and rambling post by doing my bit for Oldhammer style meta-gaming - here are a few scenarios I posted some time ago on the Oldhammer Forum. I can't remember whether or not I ever put them on the blog so either way here they are again. For the sake of giving some form to the possible forces that could be used I used the Warhammer Armies book for the various troop types - feel free to use whatever is in your collections though!

Bluster's Last Stand

Bridge Over the River Whye

The Engines of Avalone

Here's a more basic scenario from when we were thinking about putting together a retroclone WFB

The Battle of Wunoewun

Enjoy and do share your thoughts on the matter - perhaps we could even have a set of rules that has its tongue stuck firmly in its cheek on how to be a good Oldhammerer like this send up of WAAC players!

Stop - Its almost Hammer Time!

Yes folk the big day is almost upon us!

Yep - I am this excited!

In four week's time we will be descending on Nottingham for a weekend of Oldhammer antics at the Wargames Foundry.

Hammer Time - Old World Style

Dark clouds hang over the troubled kingdom of Ramalia as King F'yar marshals his invading Orc Tribes against the weakening Alliance of Men, Dwarves and Elves. Will Orc's Drift hold or will its defenders' failure see the Goblinoid hordes free to descend on the capital, Palesandre? As you might guess I'm quite excited about running Orc's Drift - the first time around it was for a bunch of lads and lasses at the Explorer Scout Group I used to help out at. They were keen and enthusuastic and it was great to give them a taste of wargaming and we all  had a blast,  but I'm keen to see what a bunch of Oldhammerers will make of it. I for one won't feel I have to hold back a little with the GM controlled characters as I did with the young'uns because of their inexperience!

Although I probably won't have masses of time away from Orc's Drift I'm also really looking forward to seeing the Realms of Chaos ringing with the clamour of battle in a huge free for all between Khorne and Slaanesh. Orlygg's Bring and Battle game is going to have some seriously twisted warbands and there looks to be some fantastic painting and conversion work happening on the various participants blogs!

Coop is running a Rogue Trader showdown in which you can enter a squad of Space Marines - sorely tempted by this one but time is against me alas! Again I'm sure the table will look a treat with Marines old and new duking it out.

Then there's the Rumble in the Jungle game that I hope to get some time off Orc's Drift for - a mad melange of Lizardmen, Norse, Slann, Amazons, Pygmies, Undead Pirates, High and Sea Elf expeditionary force and whatever randomness gets spewed forth from the dimesion of the Black Yungon! The object of the game will be to raid the Pygmy temples and get away with whatever treasure you can.

There's tons of other games going on too, including a chance to participate in the Forenrond's Last Stand scenario from the 3rd ed Rule book, a mega battle against Golgfag's huge Orc horde and various other engagements that have been organised between fellow Oldhammerers through the Blood Forum.

There has recently been a bit of a debate about the inclusivity of the event and Orlygg has posted a great article on his blog. Living in my little Oldhammer bubble - I usually just frequent the Blood forum, the LAF and all the fantastic blogs you chaps produce - I wasn't aware that Oldhammer had been noticed and what's more been somewhat misunderstood in some quarters.

Seeing sellers on ebay using the Oldhammer label to sell old lead made me laugh (but not necessarily at the prices!) but the misconception that Oldhammer is a set of rules and requirements that have to be met to participate is one that needs setting straight.

Now I haven't played much of the later editions of WFB or 40K, nor have I been part of the tournament scene so I don't have much first hand knowledge of what drove many other folk away from it all and into the arms of Oldhammer. 

However, what I do perceive from the occasional forays I have made into other forums that seem only to discuss the best combinations of magic weapons, Death Star units and constantly bemoan the lack of balance in the latest Army book is a mindset that needs a stringent set of rules and parameters that can be fine tuned so the ultimate goal of winning all the time can be achieved. 

Not my cup of tea I must say! Part of all this is also the need to make everything official so no-one can cheat and beat your uber army of awesomeness with something that's "not in the rules". This all smacks of little kids spitting their dummies out in the playground because little Timmy isn't playing fair and I didn't win! This is pretty much the polar opposite of what Oldhammer is about.

Oldhammer is an ethos - a set of beliefs and aspirations, if that doesn't sound too lofty and evangelical! It is about enjoying yourself and ensuring your opponent enjoys his or herself too. Its about revisiting simpler wargaming times and the minis you loved as a kid - or if you're not an 80's Citadel devotee like myself and others, its about using whatever miniatures you hold dear.

Oldhammer is the zen of wargaming (probably getting a bit carried away here!) - by that I mean its about being laid back about trivial things like having the "right" miniatures, making the rules work for you and your opponent (or better still letting the GM worry about the rules!) and achieving a state of inner peace because you don't have to win. Ritual worship of the false Gods of Game Balance, Rules Lawyership and Official Army Lists it is not!

So what is the thing I am most looking forward to about the Oldhammer Weekend? 

Chilling out with a bunch of mature, like-minded gamers who are there to enjoy each others' company, make new friends and have a great time playing the games we played in our youth. I for one don't want to get too militant about anything when we should be having fun!

I won't repeat too much of what has been said already as Orlygg has done a fine job of addressing the misconceptions that are apparently flying about the internetz. Instead I'll point you towards what some other Oldhammerers think about our ethos. Apologies if I've missed anyone else out there who has set out their thoughts on the subject - let me know and I'll add a link.