Favorite Games: Oldhammer (Warhammer)

I saw an article the other day about how us "Boomers" loved the old Warhammer which is now referred to as Old Hammer. Dang how I loved this game; according to the article we could not adapt (even though most of my "boomer" friends also like other skirmish games!). For me Warhammer 4th Edition, and then 6th Edition was the fantasy big battle game (we will talk about Warmaster later!). An innovative concept provided everything you needed straight from the box: two armies, rules, terrain, etc. Everyone has an opinion on the rules and I personally felt it reached its epitome with Edition 6: Heroes and Monsters were Heroes and Monsters but you still needed an army to win.

 Who doesn't like trolls? Just lay off those Billy Goat jokes that make them mad.

I was never a tournament player searching for that "perfect" army. I was the guy who saw something and thought to myself. "Self, that will look cool in such and such army." I was lucky that I had my 5 Honorable Sons who liked to play plus several friends who were not into the tournament aspect of the game. By the way, I'm not criticizing tournaments, just not my thing.

Yikes! Night Goblins!

Then came the other editions (sigh) which just didn't feel right to me.. Some of the models were great, the prices rose (I know, the purpose of a business is to make money), and unfortunately for me, all of the armies became too "gothic" with a definite feel of darkness. Suddenly the new Warhammer wasn't fun. With the drop in sales of "big battle" fantasy games (though I would still argue that the prices and not giving the consumer what they wanted) turned Warhammer into the monstrosity that is the "Age of Sigmar." Needs more skulls. (Just my opinion that others also share - I also know some guys and gals that love the Age of Sigmar)

 The Empire to the rescue!

 The Imperial Knights Panther.

 Artillery is cool.

Anyway, the armies my Honorable Sons and I did were the Orks and Goblins, The Empire, The Kingdom of Bretonnia, the High Elves and the Dwarves.

Of course you have to have Knights and a Jester for the Royal Army of Bretonnia.

Stout Men-at-Arms.

 Speaking of Stout - who doesn't love Dwarves?

 Dwarf Troll Slayers or maybe football hooligans. I'm not sure which.

The Grey Beards. "The Orks and Goblins were bigger, smellier, and meaner in the ole days."

 It was a good run but now the White Dwarf and Josef Bugman have one last toast for an epic Fantasy Game . . .

The two veteran warriors meet to have one last toast . . .

 Josef sighs, "Who would have thought that we would have to fight Chaos Space Marines now?"

 "I know . . . I laughed silly when I saw the Space Marines on our side!"

 "Back in the day those Chaos Space Marines were a lot tougher . . . these new ones have round bases!  They have no rank bonus and will be easy to cleave in two! "

Well . . . at least the XXX Brew is still a trade secret!

 Oh well, to each his own. My preferred rules for Fantasy Gaming is now the wonderful Dragon Rampant by Daniel Mersey. I usually don't editorialize on my blog but now I'm inspired to show off my "old" Warhammer armies - a separate entry for each! See you next time.