I should write this a long, long time ago. Around August, right after the BOYL, I guess. As always though, I procrastinated a bit, I thrown myself into other stuff and one thing leads to another and there’s December all of the sudden, and the review of the best annual Oldhammer event is not done yet…

Better late than never, they say… so here it is. My review of Bring Out Your Lead Oldhammer Weekend 2018.

The Weekender was held at Foundry grounds near Newark-on-Trent, UK (3-5th August) and it was my 2nd time I had the chance to be there /not the last for sure!/

Oh, man that was awesome. The echo of the weekend still, even after a few months, ringing in my head. The lads, miniatures, games. That was wicked! And the next edition is in 8 months or so, and I’m already involved in BOYL preparations. I think, my life’s cycle has changed permanently. Every years will be divided into to parts – pre and after – BOYL.

…but back to the topic. The weekend started for me earlier. Thursday, I flew across half of the Europe and landed at Luton Airport, where Alex (https://leadballoony.com/) picked me up and together we drove up north to Newark/ exactly like last year/.

Evening at Newark – dinner, ciders and tinkering my Imperial Fists list to face Alex’s Space Slanns at the friendly game of Rogue trader the next day. And of course, little trouble sleeping due to pre-BOYL fever. Nothing too intense though. I woke up early in the morning ready for some action!

DAY 1

We arrived super early. Way before everyone else. So, after a short while when we finally got in into Foundry premises, we say hello to the lovely hosts, take a quick tour around and prepare our first game of the weekned.

Space Frogs Planet!

The first game of BOYL. Alex took his Space Frogs, made the small  force from the scratch and stood bravely defending intact tropical ecosystem of The Frog Planet from the blessings of the progress and civilisation that came with the outpost of Imperial Fists Space Marines /that is me trying to bring Imperial Peace to this forsaken place/.

The whole thing didn’t end well for the Imperium folks. Space Frogs destroyed most of the facility of the planet, and despite the bravery of The Space Marines, the nature prevailed. The Imperium were forced to abandon The Frog Planet.

That was a quick game. We used at the most of the time Rogue Trader rules, and at points where our knowledge of the rulebook were kind of blurry, we used a common sense to avoid unnecessary book digging. Simple as that.

Meantime under the main tent, the mighty Healsreach table was ready for action, and some folks were playing a massive Warhammer Fantasy game.

And I was waiting with anticipation for a main attraction of the day. After few months of online chatting, I finally had the opportunity to meet in real life Wojtek /https://frugelhofennews.wordpress.com// and his lovely girlfriend Ania. Both super crazy /in a positive way/ about old games and miniatures. Wojtek prepared specially for BOYL a complete Terror of The Lichemaster set with original miniatures! To play this game was truly special for me. Thanks a lot Wojtek for bringing this thing with you!

Terror of The Lichemaster

What a lovely, easygoing  game that was. Three scenarios, original miniatures, including Heinrich Kemmler himself, Krell, Mikael Jaksen or Fritzy the Dog. Pure fun. We gathered together in 4 or 5 people and with great help of Wojtek and Ania we managed to play this trough. Each of us took the control of small unit or even only one character /in scenario no. 2 I was controlling only Fritzy The Dog. Warhammer’s beloved pet unfortunately was killed by a passing zombie…/ and we had a blast for around 2 hours straight!

Too bad I had to leave the game during the third scenario. I got into Warhammer Fantasy Battle campaign called The Return of the Return to Thorkinson’s Island. However I was lurking to The Terror table to see what has happened there – and…surprise, surprise… Heinrich Kemmler The Lichemaster won the entire game. Not even his army /everyone on his side was annihilated/, but he stood alone to terrorize the town of Flugelhofen to the bone.

 

That was super fun game. Next year, on BOYL 2019, I hope we could play another scenario with The Lichemaster as a main role – yes, I’m mean The Vengeance of The Lichemaster!

The Return of the Return to Thorkinson’s Island

That was another awesome thing, I was amazingly happy to be involved. Three days clash between forces of Good, Evil and The Greenskins. The campaign prepared by Mark and Nick (https://sowingdragonsteeth.com/) was neat! Based loosely on White Dwarf #211 Fantasy Battle Campaign. Awesome stuff, I tell you! Although the campaign was designed for 6th edition rules set /they are not my favourite one/, I had amazing time with my Altdorf army! Four battles during three days. Amry list of 1000 points upgraded by some perks from random territories.

The first day I teamed up with Nick who was leading another Empire army and together we managed to chase away the evil allied forces of Undead and Dark Elves! Karl Franz undoubtedly was super proud of our heroic deeds on the battlefield.

My Helblaster Volleygun worked expectationally during this battle. The salvo completely annihilated the unit of Dark Riders and Cold One Knights. Bully for The Nuln’s Masters of Engineering!

At the same time, under the main tent, the massive game of Warhammer Fantasy was played by some folks and legendary Helsreach table have been set up already and ready for play (I need to prepare some gang of my own to get into this next year).

The Day One ended in a pub as usual when we talked about nerdy stuff and drink some proper British cider until the late hours!

DAY 2

The day the excitement peaked, so to say:). The night I was not able to sleep properly, due to thrilling anticipation of the mid-day of BOYL. Slower day that was, I got plenty of time to walk and talk around. And take a closer look at amazing tables that was set up under the main tent. I mentioned – Helsreach, impressive as the last year, but the Rigg’s Shrine massive table was something that caught everybody’s attention. Oh man, it was something special to look at. Simply superb!

Thorkinson’s Island campaign. Day 2

The wargaming continued on the second day.  First, I was designated to take control over abandoned Dark Elf army. The commander, Alex, unfortunately felt a bit down this day, and he didn’t show up. I bravely volunteered as substitute. Never played Dark Elves before, but I believe in the beginner’s luck. I needed that, with no army book, no army list, allied with Blood Dragon Vampires, we faced a massive Greenskins horde. Not easy to handle, definitely.

Beginner’s luck was obviously a hoax, and my tactical skills mislead me completely. Dice was not on my side as well.

First of all The Cold Ones – fail to pass Stupidity test two turns in the row. Second – Night Goblin Fanatics, damn them! Appearing all of the sudden, wandering around messing with my troops! How dare they!?

My Undead ally dealt with his side of the table with more successful approach, but due to the incompetence of the Naggaroth’s warriors the battle was lost. Lesson to be remember – learn your army before you go to war;)

The second battle of the day. This time my brave sons of Altorf faced another Greenskin army (are they everywhere on the island or what?) lead by Paul (https://golgfags.blogspot.com/). I had a little tactical advantage in this battle – the Knights Panther attacked the right flank of Orcs and Goblins, and they should trample entire enemy line. Well, they should but they didn’t… Covered by enemy missiles, a few knights were down and that causalities caused a panic in the regiment. The mightiest veteran of many wars, lead by Maximilian von Suskov, Empire general fled off the table.

So, half of my army was out, and another half apparently had their morale at the lowest possible level, and they lost miserably. Orks and Goblins overran the men. Widows in Altdorf wept for many months.

After these two games, thing started to be little slow, so I entered the painting competition (with my Imperial Fists, unsuccessfully attempt;), I walk around and make a few shots of Helsreach games (especially The Star Bastards were pretty impressive), Rigg’s Shrine and other fun activities of the Saturday.

Advanced Hero Quest

And all the sudden I noticed Matk and Nick started to set up The Advanced Hero Quest board. I asked if I can join in, and here I was – The Paladin, part of brave adventurers entering another dungeon filled with the most dangerous monsters of whole world. Fame, adventure and treasures! Here we come!

Nick as The Dungeon Master, Mark, Bill and Garth as co-andventurers. We passed trough the Skaven infested maze, and managed to grab great pile of gold and jewels. Quick and fun activity. Something simple between larger scale wargaming.

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The end of the gaming day was close, so I went easy on myself and simply rested a bit. Deserved a moment of relaxation before another trip to a pub.

And in the pub – something a bit unexpected happened. I had a great deal. Got the Bog Troll miniature from a man Drew Williams and superbly done model of Nagash /which is a recreation of cult Mark Gibbons illustration/ from Geoff of Oakbound Studio. I think now I have the only one Nagash like this in metal in Poland. This is exactly why you definitely attend BOYL (and post BOYL activities a well), folks!

 

DAY 3

That was a short day for me. Later this evening I had a plane to catch departing from Luton, so I needed to leave the event early afternoon. Thankfully, with great help of Alex (you’re the man!) the trip was easier for me. Anyway, I had enough time to play the last battle of Thorkinson’s Island campaign and join another Rogue Trade action.

Thorkinson’s Island campaign. The last battle.

Om my, I have this strange impression that Thorkinson Island was infected with Goblins, Orks and such. They were everywhere, hiding over every rock. The last battle, Empire/Dwarfs alliance face ANOTHER horrifying army of Greenskins. Thanks to superior fire power we managed to annihilate most of the incoming horde before they reach our lines. By winning this last battle, alliance of Empire and Dwarfs won entire campaign, by winning the most of the games.

The wife of The Governor /The Rogue Trader game/

This one was a chill out for me. I joined in the middle of the game /or even little bit closer to the finish line/ with a squad of Imperial Fist lead by Cpt. Brutus Stoss.

The narrative was great. Alex was the author and the GM in this scenario.

Several factions had various agendas. The Imperial town (defended by The Pretorians) of Tropical Planet was besieged by Space Slanns, overrun by Mutants and infiltrated by The Inquisition was the place for very complicated plot. Long story short – the wife of the Governor happened, all of the sudden, to be disguised Greater Chaos Daemon. That was a surprising twist fro everyone. At that point my Space Marines was struggling trough the jungle with a mission of annihilate all xenos life attacking the town. Daemon manifestation made The Marines even more determined. The daemoness started to cast powerful deadly spells at everyone around, so the main goal for every faction was to kill this abomination. And I must brag a little here – the direct shot from Imperial Fist melta gun finished the daemon and sent her back to The Warp. Hurray for me!

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And at the end some shots of collection of painted minis stored in the Foundry’s cabinets:

Oh, my BOYL!

That was great (again). The chance to meet the bosses of the community – Bryan Ansell, Tony Yates, Laurence Blanche or Kev Adams… To meet many brothers in hobby. To see such a great creations, dioramas, armies, miniatures… All of this priceless.

Right now, at the moment I write this – I have already booked the flights, the hotel in Newark and I’m in the middle of planning and preparations to the BOYL 2019 games. There’s no retreat for me – BOYL fever goes on!

PS. I should have write this earlier. Well, I didn’t feel like blogging in recent months to be honest, so there was no chance for me to force myself and write anything here. So, my apologies for that. Now, my head literally pumping with ideas for new entries. Just give me some time.

And meantime, this is last weekend for me in Thailand. It was a great time for me, as always. And I painted all the miniatures I planned for this. Plus, this Saturday I have arranged the Rogue Trader game with a Bangkok finest Oldhammer wargamer – Mr Papafakis. I promise to prepare separate report of this game.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned!