How do you start Oldhammer?

Something that came up during this whole 'Is Warhammer dead?' kerfuffle is the underlying suggestion that Oldhammer is a little bit elitist and that the 'scene' (you can tell some of spent out late teens as indie kids!) is kind of off-putting to people who might otherwise want to join in. In the Warhammer RIP? thread on the Oldhammer forum there was a moment when I thought we were going descend into a 'you're doing Olhammer wrong!' kind of argument. I hope we can sail away from those kind of dangerous waters. The last thing I and many other members of the community would want is for the whole idea to disappear up it's own po-faced fundament!




Let's face it, the whole reason that most of were drawn to this loose collection of like minded individuals is that we weren't happy with the way our games of Warhammer or 40k were being led. We were fed up of the constant rules changes, unimpressed by the latest in figure making technology and bored of a pointless face off between two increasingly large 'armies' of figures who may or may not have had any particular reason to dislike the other. We longed for the kind of games that we thought we remembered from our youths, games that we may have not actually played and armies that we only half remembered owning. We longed for the days when we scoured through the pages of magazines and ached for the miniatures we saw knowing that our paltry pocket money would never allow us to buy a fraction of he figures we longed for.


Now that we are older and greyer, we can try to get the armies we've always wanted and the Oldhammer scene makes it possible for us to actually put them on table and shove them round a bit rather than just horde them in immense, groaning piles, begging to be painted and regimented.

The problem that was alluded to in the thread on the Oldhammer forum and in my post about pigeons and cats the other day, is that we are in danger of giving an out an image that it's all about the figures! That the value in the scene is about who can collect the most obscure miniatures. That only when you have a fully pre 1990 painted army that adheres to a 'warhammer armies' list can you be accepted. Only when you've spent countless hours in the ebay trenches can you become part of the in crowd and come and play.

Well, lets not have it that way.

Let's try to show everybody that we are the open minded, easily impressed, naive bunch of overgrown nerds that we actually are.


Let's do something to show that it's all about the game and camaraderie rather than the rules and the figures.
Let's show people who are swithering about joining in with our happy crew that it's easy and fun.
Let's do something that look amazing, be fun to take part in and read and paint the scene in a positive and inclusive way!

I'm calling for volunteers!

This is the plan!
Let's put on a game. It can be small at first. Building to a campaign in time. The idea is all about showing what is possible without having to remortgage your house, lie to your wife about the amount of little brown packages and selling your soul.
We need some blokes (if there are women out there reading this then we need you too!) to commit.
We each make a warband - a tiny army - a posse, based in the Warhammer world. A maximum of 21 figures. Two units of 10 and a hero or any similar configuration. You are entirely free to do what you want!
The figures must be either a) insultingly cheap from ebay or b) easily bought from current manufacturer.
We open a thread on the Oldhammer Forum to show what we are doing, where we got our figs, WIP's and discussions of our fluff for our warbands. And then, when it's all ready!

We get together and we play a game based around a scenario with a GM! 

This gets photographed, spread around on people blogs, displayed in a thread on the forum and a continuing story arc gets followed. In essence it'll be a beginners guide to Oldhammering!

If all goes well we could take it all the way! We could.........wait for it!

Book a table at Salute!

(2015 obviously, lets not get carried away!)

Obviously, without others to take part and enjoy it with me them this is going to fall flat on it's arse but all it takes is a bunch of happy souls and a bit of imagination and we'd be doing the whole scene a favour. And have a really cool game of Toy Soldiers!

As soon as I've got a couple of volunteers I'll start a thread on the Oldhammer forum.

What are you waiting for?

Sign up!

Comments

  1. Great idea and I happen to have a bunch of mantic skellies lying around. Come to think of it my halflings have a unit of BTD archers in the mix and Hasslefree tree men. Who knows, they might even make it Salute 2015.

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  2. (raises hand) I'm in.

    I like this idea a lot. I would add if you just browse th eforum, you will see Padre's incredible battle rports played with 8th ed ruled, you will see Harry use any cheap toy he can and mixing all sorts of lovely models, you will see hardcore fans of rogue trader and hardcore fans of 2nd ed. Some people will have every single model of a certain range while some will speepaint their cheap models to play as many fn games as they humanly can...
    Oldhammer is just that : how you have fun with your hobby the way you want to have fun with it, making sure the other lads in front of you have as much fun as you do.

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  3. Well done gents! For a moment I thought I might be pissing in the wind! As soon as I get home I'll open a thread (or either of you two gents can do it in the mean time ) and we'll start sharing ideas and pictures! Brilliant!

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    1. I just got a cheap complete battlemasters box to make a unit of 10 archer thugs and 10 chaos warriors with a chaos chmapion on horse !
      I'm registering them as soon as you open the thread !

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    2. I'll see you there assless one!

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  4. The topic of what is Oldhammer always frustrates me. This topic was brought up last year and it nearly 'caused the collapse of the forum with every mod resigning there position. IMO Oldhammer is about including everyone and everything and enjoying areselves like we did as kids rather then X Ruleset or X figures.

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    1. Exactly Chico. does that mean I can count you in?

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  5. Hi!

    Sounds like a plan! I doubt I'd manage to make it down for a game but I'd be up for a bit of a collecting and painting challenge!

    All the best

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    1. Whether you get a game in or not it's the joining in that counts!

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  6. Feck it why not. I need some excuse to paint some of those Perry plastics I got over Xmas.

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    1. Brilliant! The Perry's will be ideal! can't wait to see what you come up with.

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  7. This sounds dangerously like enthusiasm! Be prepared to get sneered at!

    Rule number one for getting into Oldhammer: Steer clear of the forum, it is a silly place.

    That said, I'd love to take part in something like this if I could be kept updated here in the blogosphere.

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    1. Mr Paul, you are more than welcome to join in any way you want! If we all link back and forward to each others efforts then we spread the blog love as well and help any nervous noobs to find all the glorious stuff people are doing outside of the forum. Glad to have you on board!

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  8. Thread now exists!
    http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1840

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  9. What a great post and a great idea! Not got any idea immediately up my sleeve - though given that my fimir army largely consists of HQ plastics and in production minis from Impact!/Oakbound/Blood Moon (soon) rather than expensive oop GW minis I guess it's somewhat in keeping with this challenge... but I feel I should get in the spirit of things by doing something fresh...

    oho! even just prevaricating typing this out I've had an idea, based largely on in production stuff I now have in my possession. Great!

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    1. Good to see you joining in Lenihan, can't wait to see what you produce.

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  10. I really like the idea, but right now am in the middle of a couple of big projects. I think I'm likely to watch with interest for now!

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    1. Ah come on! It's 21 figures! Glad to have you supporting though. Buy a flag!

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  11. I may be interested, it may kick restart my Oldhammer Dwarves drop me a mail at
    exilespainting hotmail com

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    1. You could maybe have a test run and Blog-Con 2014 (end of Sep)

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    2. Just paint the dwarves! Then everybody would be happy. Especially the Dwarves!

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  12. count myself as someone sitting on the sidelines of the Oldhammer community - quietly painting, reading and soaking up the vibes, fannying about with half a blog, not fussed whether it's 2nd or 3rd edition and trying to convince myself that I'm not just on a nostalgia trip for the 80's. However...I like yer enthusiasm Whiskey Priest, and if I'm convinced, I reckon others that may feel a wee bit excluded to date might get on board too.

    And by 2015 I may have enough goodwill banked to get out of the house for a weekend. I think I might be in...

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  13. A great initiative, well done sir. Count me in, not sure with what yet...

    Personally I feel the elitest / cliquey issue isn't as real as it's sometimes made out to be - as with any community, but perhaps especially online communities, there's a tendency to navel gaze.

    The reception at my local wargames club has been very positive, both amongst the historical gamers and those playing current 40K. We've not managed to lure them in yet, but the campaign is ongoing... :)

    I've heard anecdotal evidence the other way as well though, so more time spent playing games, talking about the games, and generally enjoying the hobby, the better all round.

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    1. I think the elitist thing is more to do with other peoples perceptions rather than anything I've read or witnessed.
      Pick up some mini's and join in!

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  14. Fantastic idea. I still need to see what's going on with Oldhammer USA. Good luck with this idea.

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    1. While you are finding out how about you put together a little warband so that you've got the start of an army when you get a game in!

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    2. Hey! I can help head up the Oldhammer USA front! Probably wouldn't ever make it to Salute (a man can dream, though) but I just so happen to have a rather large order of EM-4 figures winging its way to me...including a largish contingent of barbarians and orcs...

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    3. Mattias, just saw this. Cagn you make it to Baltimore in October? Check the oldhammer facebook page for why....

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  15. Really good post ... thank you sir!

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  16. I'd love to have a go at this, I'll have a rummage and find something fun to paint.

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  17. By the way this post really encouraged me to just call myself an "oldhammer" player. I really do not have much of a vintage lead collection (actually none as I'm lead free due to little under 5 year old kids in the house). The concept of just enjoying the hobby and avoiding the elitism was what sold me. Great post and I hope to watch you guys from afar (Utah to be exact). I'll be supporting you all in spirit! I might even join in on the warband challenge myself!

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    1. Glad to hear it mate. I wouldn't worry about distance stopping you from joining in, just get stuck in and share your toys!

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  18. I'm in with the rules is a big box of discarded bits that yielded alot of models from my mate.moving stores count as technically I didn't pay for them

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