Greetings Terrans, I’m just in the process of getting back to the real world after BOYL, but thought I’d take a moment to get some thoughts down and share some pics. I got to play 3 full games over 3 days, and each one was an absolute joy.

Friday was the Temple of the Golden Frog – a fully GMed game lead by Aidan Boustred, who never fails to deliver a superb experience. There were a number of factions, all with competing agendas and objectives. My Nuln wizard and his mercenary band was teamed up with Richard Irvine’s salty crew of Sea Elves, and we were given the goal of ‘recovering’ cultural treasures away from the jungles of Lustria… (presumably so we could keep them safe in museums – where anyone is more than welcome to come and see them of course). We had a range of obstacles to us doing this, including natives, (who didn’t want us taking their stuff for safe keeping for some reason!), angry Slann & Lizard Men, Pygmies, Amazons, Norse, and I’m pretty sure I saw a T-Rex as well… Rules were WFB 3rd ed, and warband sizes were 600 pts (with caps to % spent on heroes, magic levels and so on).

Richard and I were immediately ambushed by a group of Lizard Men on Cold Ones… very nasty, very tough fear-causing cavalry… My spearmen had a half hearted poke, then routed, rallied, rejoined the fight & then routed again… Running away from things would become a recurring theme for these guys, but luckily, Richard’s Elves had the measure of the Lizard Men & managed to deal with them. Meanwhile my Pirates & Wizard started making their way towards the port, dealing with native ambushes along the way. The Pirate Queen and her half-Ogre step brother were pretty handy in a fight, but I was losing crew members and was in real danger of getting bogged down when a lucky rout of a whole bunch of natives gave me a bit of space to start using magic. I had ‘Cause Hatred’ in my repertoire, and this was very useful in terms of getting other factions to fight each other rather than me. The best fight is the one unfought!! This tactic cleared the way for Richard and I to loot our way back to the port, where some more Old Worlders had managed to deal with a band of pygmies and Amazons, though they had also sailed off into the sunset, leaving us without a ship home… Nothing else for it – we had to get involved with the Norse faction in order to steal their ships! They had other ideas of course, and we had to fight in order to subdue the guards that were protecting the boats, (though my Nuln Spearmen started routing again following a lucky javelin cast). During the dock fight, a sizeable mob of berserkers deep in the jungle realised what was going on, and began racing back to the docks to stop us stealing their ship. After a brief chat with the GM, we determined that I could cast Hatred (of Norse) on our pack horses, so the loyal and usually placid beasts charged the approaching berserkers, forcing combat (because Berserkers) and tying them up for a couple of rounds. This just about gave Richard and I enough time to overpower the guards and cast off. We even managed to pick up my routing Nuln Spearmen on the way out to sea. All in all, a resounding success, and Richard was a joy to team up with :-)

Saturday was an open table Rogue Trader game with my Praetorians lead by my Rogue Trader vs. an eclectic coalition of competing factions, each with their own agenda & objectives. Steve Beales had his Rogue Trader & Guard retinue, intent on looting some archeotech, Jesper Moberg and his Khorne worshipers looking for skulls, Toby’s Marine squad on an assassination mission, a crime syndicate (complete with limo) intent on hacking a data vault, and a mercenary DreadMob who seemed intent on destroying the Praetorian Tripod. (sorry, can’t remember all the names!!). The game was pretty loose and easy going, with the Praetorians effectively acting as a barrier to all of the objectives, which pretty much made everyone else allies of convenience. I think almost everyone got to complete their missions apart from the crime syndicate (?) but it was an absolute bloodbath with many funny and cinematic moments such as Jesper’s incredibly inept multi-melta Squat, the Crime Syndicate’s tendency to try and stop heavy bolter rounds with their heads, and the two Rogue Traders trading shots in the most ineffective way imaginable. All was played in good spirits, and it was Toby’s first game of RT as well, so that was nice. I didn’t take any photos of this game – there was a lot to keep track of and my lil’ brain forgot :-)

Sunday was more Rogue Trader, where it was a privilege to have Jesper Mo-Skulls-berg, Bulldog Chris Lopez, and Chaos Lord Garth ‘Girth the Unkillable’ throw down. Jesper and Garth teamed up with their Khorne forces, Chris had his Slaanesh/Genestealer cultists, and I got my Space Wolves out. We figured that the Slaaneshi ‘Stealers were just quietly taking over an imperial industrial outpost, generally having a good time with nice vibes, when the Marines turned up for a SarbOx audit… at exactly the same time as the Khorne boys turned up to do some face punching… perfect setting for some hot three-way RT action.

This game was a blast, with gorgeous minis and a great company. Jesper’s multi-melta dorf continued to miss at every opportunity, my jetbikes were spectacularly successful at blowing up and catapulting their riders into the dirt, while Garth’s chaos lord cemented his title as ‘Girth the unkillable’ by taking 13 wounds in a single round and then regenerating to full health like nothing had happened. We also found out what you get when Juggernaut-riding chaos lords meet angry genestealers in a dark ally… turns out it’s kind of a Juggernaut mist… Good job Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows!

Here are some pics:

One of the best bits of BOYL is the inspiration and motivation to ‘do things for next year’… Aidan is probably going to be working on a set of games that expand on the Ryn’s World setting from RT (Crimson Fists vs. Orks), and I’ve offered to support that game with more Orksor civvies, and I’m supper stoked with Steve’s ‘Tyranid Pyramid’ idea (think Aliens v Predator v Colonial Marines & anything else 80’s we can think of). I’m already hatching plans for a previously unknown Aspect Warrior shrine that combines camouflage and advanced weaponry with a passion for skull-collecting, (i.e. Predators), which may itself grow into a broader Eldar project… Also there was a great pub-chat about vertical boards, and a Realm of Chaos game with an interactive board representing a solo journey through each of the 4 realms… loads of potential there. All in all, fun stuff to ideas on over the next 52 weeks! Suffice it to say that my juices are flowing again, and I’m looking forward to sharing the results with you :-)