Oldhammer in the New World 2015. Event Recap Day 1

As you have seen by the flurry of other blog posts and FB posts the Oldhammer in the New World event is done and dusted.  It was an epic weekend full of laughs, hard fought battles, bleary eyed warriors...and yes...last minute paint jobs.  

But I digress...lets start from the beginning.

If you will recall from my last post...I spent Thursday night enjoying life with my wife and children at the local fair.  It was perfect night with lots of fun, and unhealthy food, for all.  

Upon returning home around 10pm I set about filling my miniatures case and packing my books and all the sundry things needed for a weekend of dice rolling and miniature talk.  It took way longer than expected and I didn't lay my weary head down to rest until well after midnight.

...this made the 6:30am alarm very unwelcome...but this turned out to be one of the better nights sleep that I would have for the whole weekend.

I was out the door and on the road by 8:30am heading south to Pennsylvania.  The first leg of my trip took me down familiar roads toward Albany NY, passing along the southern reaches of Lake Champlain, Lake George and the upper portions of the Hudson River.  Around Albany I picked up a college radio station that was playing a long uninterrupted set of Grateful Dead tunes and as I listened gleefully to "Sugar Magnolia" and "Box of Rain" I finally started to relax into what was bound to be an epic weekend.

As my journey carried me down along the Lower Hudson River the Grateful Dead started to break up and I switched my listening to my favorite Pandora Station: Cream!  With the thumping bass of Jack Bruce and the driving drums of Ginger Baker Blasting through my exceptionally hot car I cruised down past the Big Apple and into New Jersey.  At this point I turned my car westward and entered Pennsylvania itself.  

A constant stream of encouraging texts and messages from the crew that was already in Allentown propelled me forward and as I drew closer my excitement level continued to build.  As I exited the highway and began to pick my way through the bustling metropolis of Allentown...one of my all time favorite (and seemingly appropriate) classic rock and roll tunes helped me push through the heavy traffic and finally arrive at the event venue.

After a quick stop to relieve the incredible pressure in my bladder I strolled casually into the Magnolia Ball room (flash back to Grateful Dead tune) and found the lucky few that had arrived early already rolling dice and having fun. The Advance team had done a superb job of setting up the space and getting things kicked off as soon as possible.

In fact I found most folks engaged in the first play through of Brian's amazing Bretonnian Frog Hunt Game.  There was much laughter and many terrible jokes to flow out of this incredible game.

Watch out for that MASSIVE crab!!!

 

After meeting and greeting everyone who was in attendance Dustin and I quickly pulled together an RT 40k game...something we had been discussing for months...obviously neither of us could wait.  We took over half of Rusty's amazing table that he had provided and Dustin dressed it up with some scatter terrain that he had brought.  This game found my imperials facing off against Dustin's Orks in a struggle to recover the Transport Homing beacon that had been recently eaten (along with its owner) by a rampaging T-rex and unceremoniously "deposited" (some hours later) somewhere on an inhospitable planet.  And to make things even more interesting the T-rex was still in the neighborhood and protecting his "turf."

We had a great time with this game...it was quick and dirty with may feats of bravery and plenty of silliness as well....lets just say that the T-rex ate at least 30% of my forces...

As the afternoon turned into the evening we took a quick break for dinner and then returned to get Bulldog Lopez's RT Demo Game kicked off.  I merely observed this one as I was still frantically trying to get some painting done on my Bret Knights but suffice to say to was a well run and impressive looking 4-way game that continued until well after midnight.

At this point you may be thinking: "well...that sounds like a full day! I'm sure that was enough for day 1!"

Well...you'd be WRONG!

After much convincing and cajoling I was pressed into a late night round of the frog hunt game...and I'm glad of it.  Once again the constant frog leg jokes and attacks by random, and vicious, wandering monsters made this game a real joy to play.

My warband performed admirably...though I ended up losing by a single frog.

Bleary eyed and sore from laughing we all shuffled off to bed a little after 3am and collapsed onto our beds to dream of the excitement to come on Day 2!!!

Cheers for now,

Blue