NOVAOSGROT 2018

This month saw my first attendance of NOVAOSGROT 2018, generously hosted by Brian Kirkell and his lovely family at their house in Maryland. NOVAOSGROT is an acronym for Northern Virginia and Other States Grand Regional Oldhammer Tournament. And in true Oldhammer fashion, there was nothing tournament-like about it. Rather, it was a mishmash of gamers getting together to play whatever games they wanted, at whatever points level they fancied with whatever rules they decided were appropriate. Now that's my idea of gaming!

There were about 10 attendees from the North Virginia-Maryland-East Coast'ish regions. I myself made the trip from central Pennsylvania, a pleasant two-and-a-half hour drive from home. I headed out on Saturday early morning and made it to Brian's house by late morning. After some socializing, I was fortunate enough to play Jeff McCaffrey's beautifully painted Wood Elf army in a 1000 point throw down against my Dark Elves. We had a great time considering that it was my first game of third edition and Jeff had to walk me through the rules. I got into Warhammer at the tail end of 4th edition/beginning of 5th edition. The most stark differences I noticed were in the way combat is resolved in third edition, including pushback. Didn't take too much getting used to, though, and it was great fun. Some shots from the key points in the battle below (sorry for the poor quality of the pictures taken with my phone camera)

My Dark Elf Lord, Battle Standard Bearer and unit of Dark Elf warriors charge  Jeff's block of Wood Elf
archers. Unfortunately, the archer block routed and got cut down at the last turn of the game

Witch elves try to catch another unit of dicey archers playing the old bait/shoot/flee game 

Here stand the most stalwart halflings in the Old World. Passing two or three break checks on a leadership of 6,
these stunty fellows gave the Dark Elves pause for thought

Thanks again Jeff for having the patience to teach me and the grace to not clobber me over the head after I asked the same questions turn after turn. My first game of third ed couldn't be any better.

My second game of third edition fantasy was against Evan Callaway and his Empire army. Evan and Jeff form the core of the Northern Virginia contingent of Oldhammer (way to represent, guys) and made a 4+ hour trip over to Maryland. Unfortunately, the dice gods did not favor the kingdoms of men, and Evan's block of knights (which I had absolutely no way to deal with given my Toughness 3 troops, no armor and no armor-modifying weapons) panicked and fled after his troops saw some crossbow fire. A total fluke, but those are the ways of war with toy soldiers.

Empire knights showing us their booty as they flee the table

I spent the rest of Saturday chatting with fellow Oldhammerers and watching a game of Rogue Trader between Brian/ Kamza (Imperial Guard) and Bulldoglopez (Genestealer cult)

Imperial Guard come onto the right side of the table as reinforcements, as the Genestealer cult vehicles
wrap around an abandoned Ork outpost to flank them 

We had big plans for a 2v2 or 3v3 game of Warhammer fantasy 3rd edition on Sunday morning, but decided to play some Mordheim instead. Jeff Kirkell was kind enough to lend me his beautifully painted Carnival of Chaos warband, and we played an impromptu free-for all game whose objective was to retrieve one (or all) of 4 warpstone-infused  giant mushrooms. We were lucky to play on a table lavish with custom-made scenery including bridges, ladders and ruins. The competitors were Will's empire troops, Lissanne's competing empire contingent and Anna's undead mob.

As we played, there was another game of Mordheim happening on the neighboring table. No doubt, word had spread across Mordheim that there was fresh warpstone for the taking 

Eager to refresh myself on the game mechanics, I decided to make my way as high up on the board as possible. My 'plan' was to dive-bomb unsuspecting victims below.

Up they go

And across

And further up

They're coming for us

Some skirmish action on the planes below

Suffice to say that my strategy didn't work as well as I anticipated, and I pretty much took out most of my own warband with my diving blunders and a few bad rolls. It appears that the plaguebearers weren't as nimble as they thought themselves to be, as evidenced by several newfound piles of daemon protoplasm scattered across Mordheim by the end of the game.

There was, however, an MVP who needs to be mentioned. Amidst the clatter of weapons below and the splattering of plaguebearers as they hit the ground, Earl the nurgling sought to claim the fungal growth at the top of the battlefield in honor of Papa Nurgle.

He looks so proud, bless him

In true Oldhammer fashion, the physics of such a diminutive creature carrying such a large mushroom was completely irrelevant. However, it is known that nurglings have quite the appetite, and we presumed that Earl consumed the warpstone mushroom only to regurgitate it when he was reunited with his daemon patron.

I must take this opportunity to thank Brian again for organizing this fantastic event. I would highly recommend it to anyone in the area. This was my third Oldhammer event in the past 2 years, and it didn't disappoint. I look forward to attending more in the future. Thanks for reading!