I travelled to the UK last weekend to take part in the Bring Out Your Lead/Oldhammer event being hosted at Wargames Foundry in the middle of the English countryside. It was a veritable orgy of toy soldier nostalgia and an extremely pleasant way to spend a weekend.
This post is fairly long, but its largely photos. Many of the games and models that I photographed have been ably documented in other places since last weekend, so links are included when appropriate.
I was accompanied on the trip by two fellow countrymen also afflicted with vintage toy soldier fetish, shown here admiring some eighties and nineties dioramas in a cabinet in Warhammer World: theottovonbismark on the left and Just John on the right. Our trip to the “Lead Belt” also squeezed in a trip to Warlord games to pick up some Bolt Action and Judge Dredd stuff in addition to the trip to Warhammer World.
We arrived at 1630ish on Friday, technically early for the event and expected to find very few people in attendance. We didnt expect to find the massive Warhammer siege game in already in progress with ~15 players standing around a 6 x 12′ table covered in miniatures. I dont play many fantasy games – sci-fi is more my thing – but a game of this size has a lot of appeal all the same. I havent seen a game of that size in person before and unless the guys run the same thing again at a future event, I doubt I will again either.
The siege ran from Friday evening until Sunday evening, pausing for sleep. Pretty hardcore.
A selection of Skabsquigs Skallywags.
I had three games lined up for the weekend. The first was a narrative driven space pirate game of Rogue Trader (with a lot of 2nd edition streamlining mechanically) that was organised with Whiskey Priest (The Leadpile) and GM’ed by Asslessman (Lead Plague). My space ork pirate force – Skabsquigs Skallywags – was prepared specifically for this game over the last few months, so it was extra satisfying to finally get this game played on Whiskey Priests genuinely fantastic Ferrograd terrain.
Whiskey Priests space Pirates “Blovelts Buccaneers”. I really like how these guys look, with a great visual unity, but no sign of a uniform as such. A very desirable look in a miniature pirate force.
Both of the other gents involved have covered this game in detail already, so check out their blogs The Leadpile & Lead Plague for further details. The images below are some of the visual highlights as I saw them.
Elite infiltrating space pirate gretchin crawl from the sewers of Ferrograd.
The Buccaneers hang around The Rusty Blaster looking threatening…
…while downstairs Blovelt points accusingly at the local Eldar racketeer who is trying to shaft him out of some loot.
In order to save time the gretchin crawl out of the effluent and scamper down the main thoroughfare, drawing unwelcome attention from the local (corrupt) authorities.
A running firefight begins between the gretchin and the cops…
…allowing the Buccaneers to proceed past the preoccupied authorities in their search for the loot.
The gretchin make it to the access hatch and the full Skallywag force finally has access to Ferrograd.
Meanwhile the Buccaneers are held up by the tenacious Jenny Tong (and cameraman) of Channel Omega desperate to follow up on a possible lead on the whereabouts of the infamous Abdul Goldberg. Visions of accepting a future Astro-Pulitzer clouding her instincts for self-preservation, Jenny wasnt taking no for an answer.
The main body of the greenskins pour in and get stuck into bumping off the cops, which they do with surprising efficiency.
Crackers the astro-parrot leads Big BIlly to shakedown the Eldar racketeer. “Roaawk! Where be th’booty, y’pasty faced lubber!” says Crackers. “BIG BILLY!” says Big BIlly. “Security! Security!!! Not the face, NOT THE FACE! AAAArgh!” says the Racketeer
“Lucky” the pirate dodges repeated jets of flame and hails of fire, buying the Buccaneers time to get to one of the crates of treasure.
Bloveld attempts to get some of the loot shifted while under pressure from both the greenskins and the local (corrupt) law enforcement. Meanwhile two lucky cops manage to wound Big Billy, before Crackers squawking encouragement helps Billy to brain them.
“Hotshot” lines his plasma cannon up for a broadside from an unexpected quarter (its just about possible to see Blovelds turquoise coat through the tunnel and over the river, above Hotshots head in the image), vaporising a Buccaneer and setting Bloveld up for a one-two from a wounded and enraged Big Billy (and Crackers).
“Blow th’hornswagglin swab down Billy! SQUAWK!”
“BIG BILLY!!!”
Quartermaster Killgore carries more booty to the launchpad while Kaptin Fiddy Teef dispatches the servitor guard. “I would recommend Ferrograd as a holiday destination suitable for all Privateers, Old Salts an’ Scurvy Dogs , an’ no mistake!” he says.
This confrontation was the gaming highlight of the weekend for me. It was intended as an icebreaker for a few guys to get chatting around and it turned out to be exactly the sort of fun, narrative driven game that the inspirational scenario tables at the back of the Rogue Trader rulebook have been promising since 1987. Many thanks to Asslessman and Whiskey Priest for making it such a memorable game.
As this post is a bit too long already, I will put up a second post covering the other highlights of the weekend over the next day or so.
Filed under: Events, Games in Progress | Tagged: 2014, BOYL |
sho3box 
Big Billy is fast becoming my favourite Skallywag.
It looked like Disney for Old lead fanciers. Count me in next year if ye are planning on going.
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Billy is a crowd pleaser alright. It has become quite apparent that Crackers is the brains of the operation.
Billy stomping through a hail of file from terrified cops before “leaning” on the local Eldar gangster was genuinely amusing to me. Fun miniatures tend to lead to funnier games I think.
Official plans for next ears event are already in progress I hear and I would be surprised if the majority of the O’Hammerers were not interested in attending next time. You will thoroughly enjoy it I reckon.
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I think I would enjoy it to an almost fatal level.
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Time Ghost says that its worth taking the risk of fatal repercussions next year, just in case someone “moves your cheese” (to mix my motivational metaphors).
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It’d be great to see you down there Mr S!
It was great to see Skabsquig’s motley bunch in the flesh too!
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I really would like to put names to the faces. I’ve been following Paul’s progress with the Skallywags for a while now, a more characterful bunch of orky pirates you’re not likely to come across. Yar.
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Our paths didnt cross as much as I would have liked Thantsants, but you had loads of exposure to the O’Hammerer contingent via Just John and theottovonbismark over the weekend anyway 🙂
I am hoping that a couple of days crawling up the walls at home last weekend will encourage Mr S to attend next year. You couldnt find a better place in the world for his Fimir to get some deserved attention.
As for the Skallywags, a (literal) delivery of 28mm parrots arrived this morning and I am expecting a (figurative) shipment of peg-legs over the next few weeks, so there should be more of the swabs appearing yet.
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28mm parrots eh? The things you can get these days…
Oh, I’m all in for next year.
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Love your pictures and the games look great as well 🙂
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Thanks 40kterminatus 🙂 The game was particularly good fun, with a reasonably involved, narrative driven scenario that managed to remain a nailbiter up to the end.
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Looks lovely. I’m glad to hear you all had such a good time. Roughly how long did the game take?
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Excluding set-up the game lasted roughly about two hours IIRC. Maybe two and a quarter hours. Each of the Pirate forces had about sixteen miniatures each and the GM controlled another eight or so that recycled as reinforcements.
The goal was very much for something small, characterful and finished on time rather than megabattleroyale. It worked out very well. Nice figures like the local Chief of Security (Rogue Trooper Traitor General), Jenny Tong and the Eldar Mobster made the objectives far more fun and engrossing.
Thanks for the feedback.
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I’m just surprised the cops managed to take wounds off Billy before he smushed them! that and the grots failing cool tests while lieing to the cops!
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It was one of those games with so many of the fun moments that make the hobby worthwhile that its easy to forget a lot of them.
Blovelds unreliable plasma pistol in concert with Billys unexpectedly wounded state made for an entertainingly edgy last couple of turns that could have gone very differently. Fiddy and Bloveld going toe-to-toe would have been nice, but the confrontation with Billy was probably more entertaining.
Billy had serious trouble with a door early on too, delaying him by at least three turns. Not the most cunning space pirate out there 😀
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So envious. Next year …
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Barring something drastic, Ill see you there gonzohistory 🙂
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That does sound like a good time. I’ve run pulpish 40K events off and on for a long time. You inspirede me to try Pulp Alley. I’m liking it. Thanks for posting and keep up the very fine work.
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It was an extremely well prepared hoot David, great fun.
I am glad to see that you were tempted to give PA a try. At an event like BOYL the point in some respects is to use the old rulesets, but if I were playing the same game at home I would definitely have run through the same scenario with Pulp Alley as the engine. I may do so some time in fact.
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
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This looks like so much fun! Great terrain, a fun narrative and a bunch of nicely painted miniatures. What more could you ask for?
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Exactly 🙂
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