Well...Its a festivus Miracle!! I've finally found a way to attend a Bring Out Your Lead (BOYL) event!! BOYL was the first and is largest of the purely Oldhammer events that happens every year. It was first held in 2012....and every year since then I have been dissapointed to NOT be able to attend.
...But that all changed this year! Due to some unexpected life changes in the Blue household the opportunity presented it self and I jumped at the option to attend. This decision was made rather last minute (2 weeks before the event) but I was able to get a reasonably priced ticket and impose upon my friends Airborne Grove and Bulldog Lopez for transportation and a place to crash.
My BOYL experience actually started at Warhammer World were I joined a number of other Oldhammer compatriots for fantastic Rogue trader Realms of Chaos Warband Rumble...hosted by Colin.
this was a really fun series of games that occupied the majority of the day...I had the opportunity to get some of my Renegades on the table as well as some Orks and we faced off against a whole host of chaosy goodness...here are a few pics from the events on Friday at Warhammer World.
Saturday saw us up and out of our Nottingham hotel fairly early for the drive to Foundry for the first full day of BOYL. The place was already hopping by the time we arrived and I walked straight into a game with Nico Realms of Chaos himself!! Nico's Space Hulk board and figures was one of the very best highlights of the weekend for me....and many others...and I felt privileged to be the first to play on it that day. I mean everything was near perfect with this game....the table was Gorgeous, the figures were impeccable...and the Game Master was flawless...it was just superb all around.
Of course I was also finally getting to meet so many people who I've chatted with online for many years but had never met in person! this was yet another of the magical things about BOYL....so many Old online friends made flesh! fantastic!
My second game of the day was a game of Strontium Dog put on by Michael C. this was a fun fast paced game that saw four Dogs travel back in time to capture Hitler out of Berlin....and to eliminate the other Strontium Dogs if they got in your way! It was great fun and I really enjoyed playing (thanks again to Jon B. For allowing me to use one of his spare figures as my SD).
Another benefit to playing the SD game...was that it was right next to the Wolf Time Campaign that Alex Jelly was running....check out these superb Space Wolves!!!
The final game of Saturday was the Ash Waste Racers going head to head for a mounted road race, run by that giant amongst men Jon Boyce!. This game consisted of tons of interesting and odd creations that battled their way around the course...with hilarious consequences! While I didn't participate in this one directly I greatly enjoyed watching it. However I failed to get many pics of the race itself and instead got some shots of the players...I'm sure you can find more pics of the actual race on others blogs.
As I stroll back through my camera I realize that I took very few pictures on Sunday for some reason. In the morning I participated in a Terminator game put on my Cheetor which was a ton of fun and which saw our entire rescue force wiped out by Skynet forces...though we managed to save a few scientists!
After that I had a chance to play a few turns of the Temple of Rigg scenario hosted by Steve Beales on his amazing home cast temple! this thing is massive...and massively impressive...though for some reason I only have a few pictures of my troops on the table and thats it!
In addition to all the great gaming that I participated in there were many many games going on around that I failed to take pictures of...there were also cases of classic figures to photograph and then there was Stoke Hall itself....the home of Foundry. For a colonial like myself this place felt pretty special and it even had it own historic battle that took place right outside the event venue.
here are a selection of other pics from the weekend.
Sorry for the roughness of this post...It would take to long to write up the long description of my BOYL experience...but suffice to say it was fantastic! The Ansell family and their crew put on a wonderful event. Garth once again proved that he is the master of ceremonies. I met so many amazing, freindly, and welcoming folks it would take three blog posts to acknowledge them all...you guys are awesome. Of course there were new freinds to be had there as well...if I failed to say hi I apologise and I hope to have the chance to do so in the future!
Cheers for now