8 August 2014

BOYL 2014 - day one (Friday)

Well, I guess it's officially "Day minus one", being the Friday. Whatever - dice have been cast, beautifully painted miniatures long out of production have been shuffled around enormous tables, and plenty of decent chaps in their thirties and forties have chatted beer, their first car, and the intricacies of a hobby that no-one else cares too much about. A huge amount of fun has already been had. Oh, and the Mighty Dark-Winged Avenging Lord of Chaos himself has given me a personal tour of the new Foundry facilities while the almost biblical storm pelted down. More on that later.

First, here is a stream of pictures from the opening stages of the Siege of Avalone, in which the good people of that enlightened city try to get safely behind the walls with enough food to withstand the inevitable blockade.

Look at all those Mighty Fortress pieces!!!!!!


More Mighty Fortress!!!



I killed one of those centaurs with a lucky cannon shot









The tour was cool and prompted by me admiring the display case of Bryan's old painted models which included some gems that have appeared on other blogs already, particularly Realm of Chaos 80s and Eldritch Epistles. I got to see the hundreds of feet of molds (seventeen tons of them, apparently!), some neatly arranged into sections like "Seven Years War", "Samurai", etc. Others just row upon row upon row...... The casting room was interesting to an engineer-by-training like myself and the vulcanisers for the molds themselves were glorious affairs made from lorry jacks and hot plates!

I had an interesting chat with Bryan about exactly which figures he has the rights to produce and might be able to locate, but I want to double check I understood correctly before saying anything here. There might be a fair bit more in the way of "lost" figures like the ex-Citadel mercenaries reappearing in time, however! If it hasn't been tidied away in preparation for a battlefields tour group that are using part of the venue tomorrow, I might also get to rummage through a bag of "fifty or so unreleased models from that era" that Bryan just had lying around. I hope it's not been put somewhere safe!

More photos, battle reports, and name-dropping to come.
Rab

15 comments:

  1. I am envious being stuck in Aus. Thanks for posting these pics, its the second best thing to being there. The table's set-up is amazing and worth fighting for. You guys have done an excellent job getting your forces ready for the big event.

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    1. You'll just have to come over next year, Rob - I promise you it's worth it. The game was amazing. Almost unplayable with that many figures/generals, but we kept up the pace and enjoyment through goodwill and determination. Wait till I get the next pictures up with the whole besieging army on the table. Literally jaw-dropping stuff :)

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  2. Thanks, it good to see the photo's. Really envious of you lot, as Rob S above said, it sucks being in Australia!

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    1. Hitch-hike to the UK? You'd be very welcome!

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  3. Congrats on a great start to the weekend. Enjoy!

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    1. I did! Now to sort out photos and make sense of the narrative....

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  4. I guess as more and more Aussies get onboard the forum, we may have to organise the event to happen at the same time across the planet! Looks absolutely fantastic.

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    1. Sounds like there's at least three of you on this comments page alone, so why not?

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  5. It would be great to be able to do it here in Australia, but I fear it may be a little more difficult to organise compared to the UK, due to the distances involved. It would still be great......if it could be done.

    Looks like a great game Rab! How's the siege game going? Have you got people there that know the rules inside out? Siege is quite a handful for the uninitiated to take in in a day.

    Cheers

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    1. Ok, four of you from Oz just on this post - sort it out! I'd love to see a viable Oldhammer event in Australia, just like they're sorting out in the States. A worldwide movement of gamers!

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    2. Oh, and Erny ("Erny's Place" - check my blog roll) was The Man Who Knew when we were sorting out the Siege bits. Nobody knew all the rules, though. And it didn't matter, we were too busy having fun :)

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  6. Yeah! Super nice to see these photos right away like this!! Thanks for posting!

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  7. Yo , I too have awakened aged 35 and taken back up this righteous hobby after a 20 year gap!

    Check out my plog at warhammer empire dot com, ''chumley warner''

    loving your mighty fortress and conflix buildings :)

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    1. Hi, and welcome back to the fold :)

      I wish I could claim all those buildings as mine, but alas my budget is constrained as I have children to feed! I couldn't get to warhammerempire.com - is that the right address?

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