I spent last weekend in Nottingham playing and talking toy soldiers with similarly minded enthusiasts from around the world. It was a hoot.
Inquisimunda
Nine colossal egos squeeze into a confined space. And here is a photo of some of the miniatures that they used.
After being graciously ferried from the airport to the hotel I was taken to Warhammer World, where I took part in a remarkably rapid nine player game of Inquisimunda. Ambulls, genestealers, robot maniples, mutant space minotaurs, Santa… it covered a lot of bases as far as retro 40k is concerned.
A fairly puritan Inquisitor band…
…and a collection of inter-dimensional misfits creating another more radical faction.
A brute heavy (yes thats two ogryns and an ambull) faction explore the Tau ruins.
Genestealer cultists to the left of me, Space Santa and his ratling minions to the right…
The ‘steaers brought some mecha support.
The exceedingly well traveled Inquisitor Verhoeven and half of his retinue supports his comrades in the assault on the tower…
…while his erstwhile allies, the Botanifoaks of Foaksphere draw the dangerous but single minded brutes away from the main confrontation.
Bladerunner Rogue Trader
My MiB force, moonlighting as evil corporate suits in this game.
The following morning we made the trip to Foundry, which was about as appealing an environment to play games in that I have ever come across. First on the agenda was a cyberpunk skirmish game. My force was a definitive cyberpunk trope of evil corporate suits.
A number of my recently painted non-combatant miniatures hung around experiencing on the spot Voigt-Kampff tests and getting shot in this game. I got a kick out of that.
Agent Walken looks down the sights of his Series 4 De-Atomiser…
…and his Yamaha/Nikon optical wetware brings the sprawl into focus.
The Bosozoku egos write cheques that their bodies cant cash while buzzing the road crew.
Local law enforcement kettle the luddite protesters…
…only to be ousted by hover bike punks.
Impromptu Rogue Trader Skirmish
Curtis really has a fantastically atmospheric and theatrical way of painting his models.
I had a couple of hours set aside in between the Bladerunner game and the subsequent Underhive game. The idea was to have a look around at the other games and grab a bite to eat, but instead I ended up playing a quick three way game of Rogue Trader with Curtis from Ramshackle Games and Captain Crooks.
Not many people can field an army that they have sculpted, manufactured, marketed, sold and painted, but Curtis can.
My small force of orks lined up in cover, ready to receive the armoured assault. Note the autograph hunter pestering sonic assault specialists Mushrööm Klöwd.
A close up of Darrell Douchebag, the Klöwds number one fan who had made the trip all the way from Astro-France to pester his idols.
Captain Crooks borrowed Curtis Space Marine force for the game. Those original old Space Marine models have a retro chic style that brings out the nostalgic collector in me…
The armoured Imperial Guard dismount from their damaged transport.
Uzgob encourages Kaptin Fiddy Teef to return to cover, even as a predator explodes to the West.
Anarchy in the Underhive
Axioms fantastic underhive terrain.
The final game of the Saturday was a multiplayer based on Space Hulk rules mechanics. Each player had a VIP to escort through an underhive riot to the lift to the upper spire. Backstabbing was commonplace as the robust mechanics of Space Hulk again showed it to be a contender for the best GW ruleset of all time.
Despite their miniature complaints about “Not gettin’ on no plane”, you can take it from me, Mr P, that my decidedly un-classic 1995 plastic Goliath gang – “The Suckaz” – acquitted themselves well.
Deciding that they aint got no time for the jibb-jabba, the Suckaz advanced in a two by two covering formation with the Guilder VIP, blasting all frothing, crazy fools encountered en route.
Deathrace 40K
Da Mork 5 gets pole position…
…but disappointingly fails to flatten either of the brave souls announcing the start of the race.
If you mash up Wacky Races, Mario Kart and the grim darkness of the far future, you get the Deathrace 40,000 game played on Sunday. The variety in the customised vehicles used for the game was incredible, with every single one being worth a long look.
Early jostling for position.
If you cant hear engine sounds, gunfire and tyre squeals when you look at this image, then perhaps this isnt the blog for you…
The Activation plates – like the one visible on the ramp – powered up the various upgrades available to each vehicle (my Mork 5 had Buzzsaws, Jump Jacks and a Cannon for example).
Them Duke orks sure did know how to propel a large vehicle over a lava fissure…
…and then some. Yee haww!
The Twin Mustang misjudges a turn and gets into a “sticky situation”… geddit… amirite?
Four way Orkyo drift.
AAAAGH!
Shortly after this pursuit the red Orkinator was forced to take an unexpected “Divershun” off a cliff. Guffaw.
A stretch of open road allows the heavily weaponised Blorkos Bullet to gain some ground.
With predictable, yet enjoyable-all-the-same cries of “MEDIOCRE!” the Chaos Marine D.O. fluffs the lava jump. Ten of the eleven players laugh loudly.
Da Mork 5 fires its jump jacks on the ramp to clear the lava, only to be damaged by incoming fore from the g-nomads on the outcrop (the gnomads were sculpted, cast and painted by Fimm from Oakbound Games specifically for the game. In addition to that, he gave all participants a free set of g-nomads just for taking part. Fimm is awaited in Valhalla, no question).
The Redback drives over the finish line to the frenzied cries and whoops of the unhinged post-apocalyptic crowd.
Other Things
I never get tired of looking at this. Click to embiggen.
A lot more of Bryan Ansells collection of studio painted Citadel miniatures were on general display this year, along with a huge selection of Foundry miniatures. Honestly, its worth a trip to Foundry just for a look at those.
Some Foundry 2000AD figs. Kevin Dallimore paint jobs I am pretty sure.
Previously unreleased Rogue Trader miniatures.
A set of previously unreleased miniatures was available at the event. Some of the sculpts are visible in the background of shots in the Rogue Trader rulebook, but at least one more has never been seen in a publication before. Detailed info is available here, here, here, here and here. From my perspective, it was fantastic to be able to buy something like that off-the-peg, although I dont know if they were event exclusives or not.
Kev Adams sculpts my face onto a model.
Another highlight in a weekend of highlights was that Kev Adams was one of the several GW/Citadel veteran creators present at the event. He was running a charity promotion where he would sculpt a different face onto the head of any miniature provided for a charge of £5. I was literally first in line for this after buying a suitable Foundry civilian model.
I am Kev Adams muse. Yeah, I said it.
Kev was concerned by the fact that I am in fact a human rather than a goblin, which in turn meant that making a 28mm version of my face might be beyond his considerable abilities. Frankly I didnt give a shit about that one way or another as having a unique Kev Adams sculpt to paint up for my games was going to be a win for me anyway regardless.
I will save the image of the sculpt until after I have painted it at some future date.
Finally, I have deliberately left the names of many of the people involved in the games and events out of this post. My concern is that due to how many friendly generous and helpful people were involved in each stage of the weekend, I may accidentally omit someone worthy of a shout out, so Im not going to do it. But thanks to any of you reading, as you know who you are.
Im planning for the 2016 trip already.
Filed under: Events, Games in Progress | Tagged: 2015, 40K Skirmish, BOYL, Deathrace 40k, Rogue Trader |
sho3box 
No idea how you found time to take so many quality photos, i didnt take a single one on Sunday – but I’m sure glad you did! BOYL15 was THE business, Eternal, shiny and chrome! Nice one 😀
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Being a neurotic, anal-retentive control freak occasionally has it’s upsides Captain. Hear me roar!
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Good seeing you again this weekend, cya next time!
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You too Chico, it was a great weekend, even more fun than last year I thought.
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This entire post is made entirely from ‘win’
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Contains 100% no non-artificial loss.
Im glad that you liked it though Argentbadger 🙂
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Cor, I’m reliving the event yet again. And it STILL rocks. It will probably still rock as long as I retain my memories! So glad you took all the Deathrace photos, if only i had a doppelganger to have enabled me to be in two places at once 🙂
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The Deathrace was pretty photogenic, thats for sure. It was pretty unique. Someone described it as being like a late night pub conversation made real. Thats not far off as a description.
Your clashing Underhive game was a triumph anyway, running it a second time entertained another six folks a lot I suspect.
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Thanks Paul, that was one very enjoyable read.
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Im glad that you liked it Frank. Its easy to document such a good weekend in a favourable light 🙂
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I very much enjoyed the weekend. Its all about the cool people, and I was glad to catch up and even game with you Paul! Brilliant!
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That impromptu game could have been a fiasco, but I think that the three of us were coming at it from a similar point of view Curtis, so it trundled along nicely. As I mentioned on the day, it was an interesting archaeological experience to use the original RT vehicle rules as written.
It was good to get a couple of games in with you Curtis. Ill see you again soon I am sure 🙂
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That looked like ALL the fun. I really need to get my house in order and get to one of these.
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This year was better than last year in my opinion, despite its slight loss of novelty factor from my perspective. Its hard to know how long the great atmosphere will last in its current form though, so I recommend getting stuck in sooner rather than later 🙂
You will love it, obviously.
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Awesomeness on every level.
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Multi-level awesomeness, in four dimensions!
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That is incredible. That’s some of the sweetest Oldhammering I’ve ever seen, your own contribution not the least. Glad you had a great time and thank you very much for reporting and recording.
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Not at all David, its very much the sort of thing that I think would appeal to you, its fun to report on.
The atmosphere is unique, its collaborative and enthusiastically amateur in some ways. It suits me 🙂
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Nice photos; looks like great fun! It is a matter of no small amount of regret that I am not presently in a position to travel from Australia to attend this event – one day perhaps! 😉
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Interestingly Captain Crooks – who organised and ran the Deathrace – is from Sydney. He made the trip to BOYL as a sub-part of a family trip. Not that I would expect many people to be able to be in a position to do something like that.
I do think that you would enjoy BOYL in its current iteration Warburton. Some day perhaps 🙂
Thanks for the feedback!
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Indeed, a very admirable effort by the Captain. My wife was born in Luton and has family there so a UK trip is definitely on the agenda though finances and the ages of our children mean if it was not for the prospect of playing with toy soldiers it would be more like 5 years away. But, I will see what I can do….
By the way, before I even read the (excellent by the way) captions on the pictures, when I looked at the Death Race pictures I definitely heard revving, gunfire, burnouts, and the raucous laughter of orks; so I guess this is the blog for me!!
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Great wrap up of the weekend’s activities.
The amount of work required to get all these games to this standard is astounding!
I’m incredibly green at the moment 🙂
Cheers.
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You even have a grav-attack Optimus, you would fit right in.
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Well, it looks like it all was pretty awesome!! All the pics I’m seeing over the blogs and forum are da bomb! Congratulations on achieving such an enjoyable weekend again. I really need to make it one year…
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Your name came up in conversation a couple of times Suber. For immediately obvious reasons, you and your toy soldiers would fit in with any of the games that I was involved in with very little effort.
Next year maybe?
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Awesome write-up dude, looks like a cracking weekend all round, some truely inspirational stuff going down! I’m going to be bending time & space in an effort to make it next year… I need to start sweet talking the long haired Chief-of-Staff as of right now!
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You are UK based arent you Alex? No excuses next year!
😉
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Yes indeed, but excuses will be needed to convince the gaffer that I should spend a weekend playing games 😉
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Im hope that the complex system of checks and balances that comprises your relationship with your partner can be modified to allow for APOCOTOYSOLDIERGEDDON for a single weekend.
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Oh man, looks like so much fun! Makes me want to play a game for a change, instead of just painting. Loved the racing game especially, just like I imagined – except 20% cooler.
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There are a few folks at that event who play pretty much once a year. I play games a little more regularly than that, maybe about six weekend long sessions a year approximately. The BOYL games are unique though, the environment and atmosphere make it something special.
An Aliens game would fit right in you know Mikko…
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I’d love to go all Gandalf and say “do not tempt me!” but I must admit to being more than a little interested…
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I think death race may have been our first ever game together, huge fun and you are are a real gent. Speed race ork was a mighty racing hero too, shame it was a hummie what won.
Oh and the inquisimunda game looked great, now I know it was a wasrhammer World I know why I missed it.
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Our first game together Erny, but surely not our last. I feared that my tinpot dictator approach to keeping the Deathrace moving may have been slightly abrasive, but the “gent” descriptor helps to put my neurotic paranoia at ease, thanks 🙂
As for winning, Speed Raceork is all about the journey, not the destination maaaan.
See you next time Erny!
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That death race looks well cool😀
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Doesnt it 🙂
The track was made by three different people based in the UK, the rules and the starting “Deathrace” sign were put together by Captain Crooks on the other side of the planet in Australia.
The vehicles and crews were each custom manufactured by eleven different competitors.
The game had no right to look as good as it did considering how many people were remotely involved, but just look at it, its spectacular.
A memorable highlight of my ~30 years of toy soldiering 🙂
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Sounds like I should get in on this next year, I’m only down in Bedfordshire on the M1 (not literally, but a few miles from it).
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Its a relaxed affair, filled with enthusiastic amateurs punching above their weight. This year was better than last year, more fun. I will keep going for as long as I am enjoying it 🙂
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