All Hail Oldhammer...

Back in the early 1990s, the 4th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle came out...it had a boxed set of plastic Elves and Goblins and was the first time GW had done such an approach. I had already picked up some of the old 80s High Elves, but had never played... Soon, I had amassed a 2000pt army of the lovely new 90s Marauder and Citadel High Elf models and my journey back into Wargaming really began there. Stupidly, I got rid of all those early Elf models because, back then, I thought the (then) new ones were cooler...Stoopid, stoopid, stoopid...

Anyway, I haven't played WFB since version 6, cos I thought version 7 was complete bollox and I haven't even touched version 8, which I believe has been christened 'Monsterhammer' and is apparently tournament heaven...Hmmm...not my forte...
But I do REALLY miss playing with my old High Elves, some of which I tarted up to improve the paint jobs about 10 years ago for a club campaign, so it was with some interest that I picked up on the current trend for 'Oldhammer' gaming - guys playing really early versions of WFB, usually (but not exclusively) 3rd edition, which costs an arm and a leg to buy on EBAY and which is spoken of in hushed tones...and is apparently mega complex if you play EVERY advanced rule, but is allegedly VERY good...

So, I went to Scribd.com and downloaded it plus the army book....£6 for 24 hour access, job's a good 'un (better than paying 80 quid on EBAY at any rate, although it cost me 25 quid in ink to print the bugger out!!!!)

Wow! What a difference from what I played in versions 4-6!!! Interesting! It's a weighty 300 page tome, so I have only skimmed it, but I am very intrigued! There are some cool ideas...initiative determining combat strike order, +1 to hit if charging, push-backs, 'free hack' (free strikes when enemy rout) being just some things that made me go "ooohhh....interesting!"  That and loads of levels of heroes and wizards... We'll probably need to keep the more stoopidly dangerous spells out of the games at the scale we'll likely play, but even so... I wanna give it a go!

Andy MacTaggart from the club is also rather keen on playing it, as it's where he actually started gaming as a nipper, so we have kinda agreed that it'll be a long-term project. I have already fetched my High Elves out of the attic and dusted them down, picked the nicest painted ones and those that will fit the lists (some need a lot of patching up, others not so much) and I'm on my way!

Watch this space for developments. Once I have finished the current painting odds n sods, the 'patching up' will begin - they need re-basing for a start...

What with that and the LOTR stuff and playtests for a set called 'Ride to Ruin' (based on Dux Brit), I am looking forward to adding decent Fantasy gaming back into my gaming repertoire... I know that some may sneer, but it's where I started and I have really missed it!!

Next up, some more Dux Britanniarum, a new WAB 'Raiding Season' campaign that got off to what some would call my usual start (yup...shit dice, loads of dead Romano-Brits, you know the score...still great fun tho') and then, hopefully, some more actual painting!!!!!!