BOYL 2025
It’s August, and that means that I have been to Newark for Bring Out Your Lead (BOYL for short), the annual gathering of the Oldhammer community — that is to say, people who enjoy collecting old miniatures and playing the games of the 80s (and other eras). Over the years, BOYL has evolved to become its own specific thing — although you’ll still see a lot of classic Games Workshop games and Citadel miniatures, and maybe meet some of the people responsible for classic games and models, there are also old games with new figures, new games with old figures, and just plain new games with new figures. There’s a certain overlap between the Oldhammer and indie miniatures communities. It’s a relaxed gathering, mostly but not only made up of older gentlemen, but although the community tries not to take itself too seriously, it certainly takes games seriously. Sort of. It’s … being serious about being silly? I don’t quite know how to describe it. Anyway, here are some games I played:
The first game of the weekend was a Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition game (with some substantial house rules) that saw crews of Norse and Old Worlder “explorers” trying to loot the famous Temple of the Golden Frog. Werewolves fought dinosaurs, a guy that looked like Kirk Douglas jumped up on a fern, and although we did get to kiss the legendary golden frog we returned to the shore to find that the other explorers had given up on the whole temple concept and just stolen our boat and sailed off with the rest of the treasure. Pal Aidan of Warfactory Miniatures hosted this game.
Saturday’s first game was this six-player Mordheim game, part of a three-game series focused on the Siege of Praag. The game was cohosted by Lewis of the Oldhammer Fiction Podcast. My witch hunters acquitted themselves pretty well, clearing Skaven out of one building and holding off human attackers in a second, thus preventing them from claiming it for themselves even if we didn’t get it. The end result was a good day for the good guys, despite what seemed like a very rocky start. Beautiful scenery, as you can see from the photos, and lovely models. I am not the world’s greatest Mordheim fan, but this seemed like a terrific use of it.
The third game of the weekend was Necropolis, an indie skirmish game that seems to mostly be on Discord at the moment. The board and figures were created by Curtis of Ramshackle Games. I played a game with one of the people who was there showing off the game, whose name I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t recall! Anyway, it was great fun and I am thinking of getting into it myself.
Next up was a game of my high school standby, Warhammer 40K 2nd edition, on this beautiful board created by local(ish) player Chris. The scenario’s creator, Daniel, had been watching the marines win all day, and as we started to play he was resolved to prove that the orks could win. One walloping later, I think he was reconsidering the scenario’s balance, but the important thing was that we were both having a great time.
That was the last game I played on Saturday; I headed out to dinner with some friends, then to the pub, then to a well-deserved sleep. Sunday morning is always quieter at BOYL, and I had a relaxing morning with just one game, of which I only took one photo:
This was a game of Hobgoblin, the new fantasy wargame from Gaslands and Space Gits creator Mike Hutchinson. It was Mike who was running it, and I found a lot to like: four people who had never played the game at all got through a pretty large battle in around two hours, and every turn had lots of exciting stuff happening. There is maybe a little more clutter on the table in play than is my personal preference, in the form of tokens, cards, counters and so on, but I think you could pretty easily solve that by tracking details on the army sheet itself, maybe laminating it or similar. Or just by modelling something a bit more atmospheric for the counters. Not an insurmountable problem at all. And it was good fun. Something for a slightly bigger game than Dragon Rampant, which is my usual go-to.
Anyway, those are the games I played, but for me, BOYL isn’t mainly, or at least not only about the games I play. It’s also looking at all the great things everyone else has worked on, and most of all about seeing friends I mainly see only at the event. Here are some shots of the other things going on:
A sad note at this year’s BOYL was that a longtime member of the community wasn’t able to be there because he’d passed away not long before the event. The guy who organises BOYL — and does a splendid job of it — said a few words in his memory on Saturday, encouraging us all to emulate his example and build on the connections we make at events. It hit home for me; I’m not always good about staying in touch with people in the community if we’re not actively playing a game or collaborating at the time. I shall try to work on it.
Anyway, that’s what I did at BOYL. If you have any interest in the thing at all, you should try to go to it. It’s free!