They really have no clue over at Bell of Lost Souls if your game doesn't involve trying to melt the face off your opponent with your ridiculous army build before the dice even start rolling...
Oldhammer Doesn't Work
The funniest part to me is this:
You may have heard this term bandied about quite a bit during the whole birth of Age of Sigmar. Many people who thought negatively about the Age of Sigmar rules decided to just keep playing 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
I really don't think the article is about Oldhammer at all and the author grabbed the term without knowing what it meant. Likely he 'heard this term bandied about', probably by those raging against Age of Sigmar.
The entire concept of the article is foreign to the concept of Oldhammer as it's been built by the community that coined the term...
In short: your game gets stale. The Power Curve gets stale, the codices get stale, the unit entries get stale. You lose all hope for a better codex. If you play the same edition and same codices for, let’s say ten years, the armies that were on top at the beginning will undoubtedly be on top at the end. There is a 0% chance that they will get any worse and that other armies will get any better. The game would almost become rock-paper-scissors after you’ve played enough games. When Army A fights Army B, the battle will probably go the same way it always did every game previous; generally speaking.
That description has ZERO to do with Oldhammer. I'm not going to go into what Oldhammer IS... I've posted this link before and you can go to The Realm of Zhu to read it if you are unfamiliar with what I'm on about.
I'm stealing that pic. LOL
ReplyDeleteFeel free to spread it around!
DeleteThat's why I always play Oldhammer left handed.
DeleteI actually found that article very enjoyable...
ReplyDelete...In a Plan 9 From Outer Space/Mystery Science Theater 3000 kind of way.
Wot??!! No new codex every four years? Incontheevable!!!!
BoLS cannot conceive of a game played for fun. To them it's all - ONLY about egotistm and winning. They can't conceive of anything else.
ReplyDeleteCheck of the 9th Age, with a release due next month and balancing over the next 6 months things look promising. One good thing about 9th Age is they plan to regularly update it :D
ReplyDeleteCheck out 3rd ed, 25 years of balance, no extra work needed, just fun.
DeleteAah BoLS... The place for scarmongering, clickbait and rage comments. I hardly visit the place anymore. Not even for the rumours.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair to Pimpcron (what a handle?!?) he did declare up front what his experience of Oldhammer is, although "experience" might be overdoing that a bit.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found unpalatable was the fact that when writing an "authorititive" piece you would hope the author would do a smattering of actual research. Clearly he hasn't and doesn't understand what Oldhammer means to the many and varied practitioners.
Most disturbing of all perhaps is the mindset that goes with the anti-Oldhammer attitutude - a distinct case of firmly believing your fun is 100% in the hands of someone else and what they sell you...
There was a post on the Gates of Antares Facebook page recently that started "people in the Warhammer 40K community have told me that Gates of Antares" couldn't possibly work for competition play. Much virtual laughing resulted.
ReplyDeleteBell of Lost Souls ... with no due respect to that piece of garbage site ... is basically a Rickroll every time one clicks on it. It is meaningless drivel, 100% clickbait. The "community" there is comprised entirely of guys who like to beat up 12 year olds in dingy game shops to make themselves feel better about their meaningless existence.
ReplyDeleteI am sad I clicked the link to that article. I have to admit I made it about a paragraph before I realized that I was again, being Rickrolled (in my defense it has been a year or so since it happened last).
Oldhammer is what it is. It is at its core, just gamers taking control of their own gaming. It doesn't matter if it is oldhammer, RPGs, growing your own food, learning to make something on your own, without depending entirely on someone else. Any currently supported game, is what it is, if you want to have something currently supported ... that doesn't make you a bad person, or stupid, but you are not, and never will be, in control of that. You buy your box of cereal at the market, and eat it ... you buy your box of 40K from GW and it is what it is.
Oldhammer, marks a return, on one's own terms, to a place in time that the individual gamer enjoyed the game. By doing that, you gain control. You gain ownership. It can be endlessly debated how much control, ownership, etc. that all depends on you, your group, how you are approaching things, etc. But it is indisputable that you gain ownership, and more control, by playing now OOP versions of the rules. They exist on their own ... you can decide what minis ... what rules (or not) to use, adding house rules, increasing complexity, decreasing it, etc.
This has happened long ago in the realm of role playing games ... Oldhammer is still somewhat new in the world of mini games ... but then again it is the basis for historical gaming and really has been since the beginning.
Anyway sorry to rant. Oldhammer is in the eye of the beholder. I enjoy your blog, and your take on things ...
Thank you! Keep up the fine work sir!
You are welcome to the rant here any time! Well said...
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