Oldhammer at Fall In 2019

Living in the US, we have a slowly growing cult of Oldhammerers, many of whom are located on the East Coast of the USA. I live in Pennsylvania, so I thought it my duty (and pleasure, of course) to help to establish our presence at one of the big yearly nerd fests in the area. The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS) organizes three events in Pennsylvania every year - Historicon, Fall In, and Cold Wars. As the society's name implies, these events mostly feature historical games, although in the past I am told that Warhammer games featured quite regularly.



So I signed up as the Games Master for a table on which we could play Warhammer 3rd edition at Fall In all day on the Saturday of the convention, and I annoyed enough fellow Oldhammerers from the region to come join me. There ended up being 2 games played over the course of the day. The first was between myself and a gentleman named Bob, who had a large 'Big Hat' Chaos Dwarf army which was gathering dust (I am told) since the death of the Old World happened. He had seen the listing for our Oldhammer game in the Fall In convention brochure, and he had come to the convention just to play. Success! This was exactly the intent of establishing our presence at the convention - to make people aware that there is still a thriving community of like-minded Oldhammerers who revel in playing Classic Warhammer.

Chaos Dwarf battle line

that earthshaker is gonna be a problem ...

In true Oldhammer style, we did not play 3rd edition, since the Chaos Dwarf book didn't come out until 4th. However, we fudged the rules and played "Warhammer 3.5", and we did just fine. My Orcs and Goblins lost the game, but I count the fact that my army didn't turn tail and flee to be a true moral victory. Here are some pictures of the game - frankly, I have no recollection of what the course of events was, nor does it matter to me. A fun time was had by all.

Orc and Goblin battle line

boom!

there goes the heavy cav!

The second game was played between Dustin's goblin army and the world-famous Blue-In-Vermont and his puff-and-slash dwarfs. Two beautifully painted armies faced off over Dustin's newly acquired gaming mat which, judging by its appearance, surely formed the pelt of some majestic animal in its previous life. Karma must have favored this former creature, now destined forever to host glorious Oldhammer games on its back!

As I understand it, the story behind this game was the ambush of a Dwarf army by marauding goblins. Thus, Blue deployed his army marching across the center of the table, with Dustin's troops on either side of it (some of whom were hidden until Blue got within a certain distance of them)

Again, some pictures attached here. I'm sure Blue will post a full write-up of the game at some point. More excitingly, however, Blue has sworn a solemn blood-oath to host a large Siege game at the coming Cold Wars convention (March 12-15, 2020) hosted by HMGS. Oldhammerers, consider this your official call to arms! As mentioned, we intend to establish (re-establish?) our presence at each of these 3 yearly events hosted by HGMS. There are enough of us East-coasters in the US to make this happen.

In the meantime, please enjoy the eye-candy