BOYL is completely free

That's right. There is no entrance or booking fee at all.

Foundry have generously allowed us to use their premises at no cost whatsoever, and as a result, there is no cost to you. This is the reason that BOYL is different to a normal wargames event:

It means you’re not a customer – you’re a guest of Foundry and the Ansell family. And that changes everything – you’re not entitled to a table, or a game, or an event miniature, or anything like that. Of course, you’ll be able to get all that stuff^*, but as a gift from Foundry, or a kind oldhammerer, or by sheer happenstance – not because you’re a customer. Please remember this and act with grace, kindness and humility as a result.

What about trading?

This is a VERY IMPORTANT POINT, so pay attention, kids.

We DON’T allow trading on the Foundry premises. This is to accommodate two things:

• Foundry is still a shop in it’s own right. Given that we’re not being charged for the premises and the many benefits it offers us, we think it’s a little cheeky to transact directly in front of them, without allowing their due competitive advantage their premises should provide. If we were paying customers, the view might well be different, but we’re not – we’re guests of theirs and feel it entirely right to respect their commercial nature.
• We want to prevent people from attending just to trade. We’ve not seen this before, but as a pre-emptive move, we want to eliminate the possibility of people coming just to ‘set up shop’ and then shove off. Remember, BOYL is free – this drives a culture of kindness, generosity and general good-spiritedness you won’t see at any other wargaming event. That culture could be corrupted by wanton and unchecked opportunism by figure traders, so we’re putting it in check.

But hang on! I’m not an opportunistic evil figure trader – I just want to save some postage costs and see if I can get a figure or two!

Quite right, and we know that.

We (and Foundry) are very realistic about this and understand that people want to trade old lead, most of which is out of production anyway and so clearly not competitive to the Foundry product range. We get that. This is very much a spirit-of-the-law principle – of course you’re going to talk about trades and uhm-and-ah over figures you see on the tables that you wouldn’t mind getting your hands on.

This is a key part of Oldhammer. So a few figures here and there are fine. We couldn’t stop that even if we tried, so we won’t.

What we’re asking is that you don’t conduct the actual trade on site. Don’t leave a tray full of miniatures with a price and a contact name on a table somewhere. Don’t exchange the figures or cash on site. You can talk about the trade all you like during the event, but please conduct the actual transaction at the pub later.

We need to emphasise this point: Foundry do NOT charge us for the facility, which is why BOYL is free, which is what drives the culture of BOYL and makes it the event it is. Please do not jeopardise this position. It would be great to trade at BOYL, and we get that. But having a free and long-running BOYL is far more important (we think) than any benefit short term trades would bring you.

Is there a Painting Contest?

As you may or may not know, Bring Out Your Lead is NOT A TOURNAMENT!

... except, uh, for the painting contest. Which is pretty haphazard, really. Officially, BOYL never actually offers a painting contest, but we’ve not offered one every year now for several years and it seems to be catching on. Of course, we’re not offering one this year either, so when you don’t enter, you won’t have to worry about the fact that we don’t have any categories, as follows:

• Best Single Miniature
• Best Squad
• Best Large Thing^†
• I’m-a-judge-and-I-feel-like-making-up-a-category-on-the-spot^‡

As there isn’t a cost and there isn’t a painting contest, there aren’t any prizes either. Unless there are. Look, just put stuff you’ve painted that you like in the cabinet and hold thumbs, okay?

NOTE: we only allow painters to win one category - so whilst you may enter any or all of them, you can only win one of the categories. We do this to enable other painters to participate and to prevent the total domination of the event by rockstar painters.

The event miniature

Every year, we strive to produce an event miniature. In keeping with the spirit of BOYL, the figure is free and you don't have to do anything other than turn up to get one.

There is a small cabal of necromancers, elementalists, adult film actors^◊ and bakers that come together once a year to determine what the figure should be, who should sculpt it, and how to pay for it.

These folk spend a lot of time and money making sure the event mini comes into being, and they do it with love for the hobby and their strong desire to make BOYL awesome. Whilst it should go without saying, to take your free event miniature and then immediately put it on eBay (or attempt anything commercial with it, frankly) is a slap in the face to these good folk.

To be clear: the event miniature is NOT FOR ONWARD SALE. It is intended solely for your personal gaming. In keeping with the spirit of BOYL, if you don't want yours, please give it freely to someone who does - just don't sell it.

Please.

All figures are welcome!

All figures, from all eras, are welcome at BOYL. Whilst there is a definite element of nostalgia which means many of the miniatures present will be from the 80s, you are as welcome to bring ancient Copplestone barbarians as you are to bring 90s G.I. Joes or 21st century heroic scale plastic Space Marines.

There is only one rule: no unpainted figures on the tables!

Equally, all gaming systems are welcomed.