Tuesday 3 September 2013

Oldhammer Weekend: Bring Out Your Lead review. Part one.

Well then. That was a good weekend! I've been deliberately putting off posting about the Oldhammer event, Bring Out Your Lead, until now because I have been very busy riding a wave of hobby enthusiasm! I've been organising new units, new paint schemes and the inevitable new eBay purchases! Finally I have calmed down enough to start expressing how the whole event panned out in words, I will begin at the beginning by talking about the Realm of Chaos multiplayer game that celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Slaves to Darkness book (well done to Orlygg because this was his brainchild).


The Realm of Chaos! Looks a lot like middle England, I know. I always suspected as much! 


The tower in the above picture is one of many historic gaming aids that are available to use at Wargames Foundry, this one was apparently made way back in 'the day' by none other than Nigel Stillman.


Lord Savage shepherds the Beastmen into battle while the swift Ogres go off on a flanking manouevre and the Dark Elven crossbows pepper the Khornate lackeys from afar.


I played Lord Savage as I envisaged him, he makes up for what he lacks in killing power by being cunning and biding his time. He continually used the tough, survivable Ogres (and his foolish allies of course) to hold up units while he encircled them. This plan helped the Slaaneshi faction knock out three enemy warbands in quick succession. It was fun to witness the typical Chaos God's intervention as one Khorne champion rolled up six summoned Chaos Warriors (*gasp!*) for a meagre one turn, (*sigh*). The battle eventually split into two smaller conflicts separated by about three feet of empty table and when the dust settled a large Slaanesh force was facing a small but elite Khorne force. There will be many tales told elsewhere of the legendary number of foes reaped by Jeff's Chaos Dwarf champion with the 'singing axe' but ultimately Lord Savage's patience won the day. Having stood off to allow all his Slaanesh rivals to die horribly while weakening the two remaining Khorne champions he was finally goaded into battle; only for his fear-causing Chaos Steed to tip the balance and bring about the ultimate defeat of the Khornate faction!

As I'm sure some of you recall this wasn't in the script! Lord Savage is only a level 10 hero and the idea was to evolve him into my Undead army's general in the form of a Liche. As it turned out he was the last remaining champion on the battle field at the end of play! The job of Liche will have to go to Mausolus. Savage was suitably rewarded with increased strength and the ability to teleport by a grateful Slaanesh, while 9 Giant Wolves joined his warband. The Beastmen were awarded with growth (x2) and mutated to twice their original size while the Dark Elf crossbow unit can now breathe fire! Lord Savage will be strutting over the tables of Yorkshire for the next 12 months having proclaimed himself 'Champion of Champions' and will return next year to face his challengers once more.


The RoC game was repeated on the Sunday but because the Saturday game took a whopping seven hours to play many of the original champions were busy elsewhere trying to absorb everything else BOYL had to offer (thus rendering it a lesser affair than Lord Savage's triumph of course). ;)


*UPDATE* Special mention must go to Martin's Slaaneshi warband which fought the two most powerful Khorne warbands to a standstill before finally succumbing. I hope to see the return of Kashawa the Bringer of Unknown Pleasures next time!

Thanks for stopping by!


14 comments:

  1. so sorry to have missed it but will bust a gut to get their next time

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Life got in the way for a few people mate! Pity, but it was such a success it will definitely be at least an annual thing. Bryan Ansell would welcome us back as often as we can organise something (prepare to be amazed by his hospitality at Blog-Con). I am trying to organise a couple of us to come down to your bash on the Saturday and play some Oldhammer for the masses, fingers crossed.

      Delete
  2. Absolutely great. It's kind of refreshing seeing how these initiatives come along. I'm totally amazed and I'm glad that it went so good!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Amazing, isn't it? There is so much energy in the Oldhammer movement right now, who knows where it could yet lead?

      Delete
  3. Congrats on your Lord Savage! Sounds like it was amazing weekend! One day I hope to open up my Portal to Nottingham so I'll be all set for the next one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Weird! It was an amazing weekend, the sort of experience that gets you hooked ever deeper into your crazy hobby! It would be great if it was easier to get more of our American cousins over (just the one this time) so share that portal technology around.

      Delete
  4. A fantastic write up there Mr Warlord. I look forwards to seeing the return of Lord Savage.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much! If only I remembered everybody's fantastic Champion names too. There was something about some Slaaneshi twin sisters who were givers of endless pleasure!? Lord Savage will definitely be back for the next time, heck, I already got some bigger Beastmen models!

      Delete
  5. Hah! Lord Savage is just lucky I had something else to do on the day... When time permits I'll meandre on up there again and explain to him in no uncertain terms who the champion of champions is ;)

    But, congratulations in the mean time! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Gaj, and well done for all your hard work to make this event so great.

      Lord Savage is saying something, hang on... *whisper whisper*
      He says he will take your warband on anytime day or night; as soon as you finish all those battle reports!

      He loves a bit of banter!

      Delete
  6. Excellent result for Lord Savage, even if it does mess up the original story line. Thanks for recounting your games this weekend. "The Realms of Chaos look like middle England", too funny.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Sean! We all decided that for the Slaves to Darkness event warband generation and the game itself would be a 'let the dice fall as they may' affair so it was inevitable there would be a spanner in the works somewhere! Back to the drawing board.

    Couldn't resist making a joke about a traditional, historical wargaming table standing in for the Realm of Chaos!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Crikey - hadn't realised Savage had done so well such was your modesty when you joined me over at Orc's Drift!

    I'll have to see about painting up some of my Chaos monstrosities to take him down a peg or two.

    Giant Beastmen and fire breathing Dark Elf Crossbowmen sound a bit scary though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, I'm not one for bragging, least of all at an Oldhammer do!

      I surprised myself with how much I loved playing with Chaos again, I had written off all that Moorcockian stuff in preference of a more Hyborian style of marauder but the RoC books grab you and lure you in. I would love to have a few warband clashes with you, I am starting off a new one which you can play against if you like because Lord Savage has become a bit too tasty and will be reserved for special occasions. Of course, if you ever want a challenge...

      Delete