Old/Midhammer: what is it?
Oldhammer is an increasingly popular subdivision of Warhammer and Warhammer 40k that focuses on the aesthetics and gameplay of early games workshop. Now I have never played Warhammer fantasy so I will only be talking about warhammer 40k. Oldhammer refers to editions 1-3 of warhammer 40k, with the first edition also being known as rogue trader. Whilst a lot of the attraction of Oldhammer is undoubtedly nostalgia related, the aesthetics of those early editions surely have a large role in why so many people have an interest in Oldhammer.
That aesthetic is lead and pewter miniatures made from moulds cast from hand sculpted originals. Goblin green bases supporting half squatting space soldiers with ham hands as large as their heads. Pockets and pouches and bandoliers alongside striped pantaloons and cuff boots. Grimacing faces and hunched backs are the hallmark of the oldhammer visual design.
Having only discovered warhammer 40k in the 4th edition I can only assume that my fascination with oldhammer is anemoia- nostalgia for events that you did not personally experience. Of course a short analysis of these old models will quickly reveal good practical reasons for people’s love of oldhammer
For one thing, Oldhammer, and games that I associate with Oldhammer, like classic Necromunda and Mordheim as well as inq-28 focus on small scale skirmishes. this lends itself well to short, manageable projects that aren’t susceptible to project scale creep. This makes it relatively cheap compared to the 2000 point armies that are the gold standard of modern 40k.
What’s more, the hand sculpted nature of these miniatures as well as the casting limitations of the time means that painting is relatively simple, with lots of detail being captured by sculpting of shape rather than lots of separate knick-knacks that all require different colours in order to read correctly.
I bought these old necron warriors intending to strip and repaint them, but when they arrived I found them too charming to take the paint off.
Notice that I say that Oldhammer is cheap compared to full fat 40k. It is by no means cheap in absolute terms and growing interest in Oldhammer has only caused prices to rise even further. This price rise has had a knock on effect on the price of certain made-to-order reruns of classic games workshop miniatures like the steel legion, which in my opinion were exorbitant.
Speaking of the steel legion; Middlehammer. Middlehammer is a less tangible aesthetic, but can be roughly described as 4th-6th edition 40k. I imagine that Middlehammer is going to become a whole lot more popular in the next 10 years as recent changes to GW’s space marine line shows that the “firstborn” space marine range’s days are numbered.
Middlehammer’s appeal to me is the 4th edition force organization chart, in which each army has a core consisting of 1 HQ and 2 Troop selections. Leafing through the 4th edition rule book and codices shows many armies parked neatly on green meadows and hills as if posing for the photos. Nowadays armies are shown of on their own display board or an armies on parade type diorama. The simplicity of those early editions has something to be said for it.
For all that I’ve talked about games workshop and a “return to simplicity” (Which likely never existed), my favourite part of the Oldhammer is taking models that are old favourites and making them useful in miniature agnostic games systems. I’ve made several warbands for these types of games and they’ll be making an appearance on this blog in the near future.
