Charge! A Warhammer Fantasy Battle Third Edition Era Skirmish Game?

One question that I get asked a lot is 'does WFB3 have any skirmish rules?' And the answer is always the same, 'no'. I would usually go on to say that the game was written in the age of the DIY gamer, who just changed the rules to suit their particular situation as and when. Sadly, this attitude is no longer present in many people who approach miniature wargaming in all its forms. Too often do I read the words of individuals who complain about rules not being balanced or fair, yet they remain hopelessly obsessed with keeping up with the Jones'.

"Oh, this version of 40K totally nerfs my list!" 

Play the other version then!

"Oh, but my gaming group only uses the latest version of the ruleset. And we only use the latest versions of the models, too!"

Find some new mates then! 

Over here in the Oldhammer Community we have no such problems. The rulesets we use are old, old and old. Still, I do sometimes yearn for a simple version of the game that could be used to play tiny narrative scenario using only a few figures. Then, flicking through issue 115 of White Dwarf I made a discovery. One of those 'hiding in plain sight' jobs. 

I am referring to the game 'Charge!', written by the bods in the Design Studio circa 1988 for use with the Combat Cards range. Reading through the rules, you can see that Warhammer and WFRP are clear influences. As are the streamlined rules used in the Fighting Fantasy books. Now I know my readership, you will not want a longwinded analysis of this ruleset, but would much rather just read the article in your own time. 

So here it is. 

Charge 0001 by orlygg

As you will now now if you have a flick through Charge!, the system is very simple. Yet character creation, magic, victory points, scenery creation and special rules and what not are also covered. All in 5 pages or so. It was rather satisfying to finally find out what all of the funny symbols that appeared on the front of the combat cards were actually for. 

Long time readers may well remember my article on 'Attack!', an even easier set of rules for using the Combat Cards with, though dependent on a chessboard for a playing surface. However, this article also had a series of special rules that may well be appropriate to using Charge! as a skirmish game. 

having read through these rules are a fairly confident that they could be used with little adaption to run a good sized skirmish game. With some clever photoshopping it would also be possible to photograph my miniatures and create my own 'Combat Cards' with their own stats. This would provide a really easy entry point for all of those people interested in Old School gaming but put off by perceived issues not being familiar enough with the rules. 

What do you lot think? Is there scope for a skirmish game in the spirit of old school Warhammer here?

Please share your opinion. 

Orlygg. 

Acceptable in the '80s: Dwarf Ski Troops from White Dwarf 116

Three things have inspired me to post today. 1) The grind of writing school reports - yes its that time of year in my house and I sit here with still 10,000 words to write and two days left to complete the job. So switching topic and doing some blogging is welcome release. 2) Because Jamie Loft is building a new dwarf army over on the Oldhammer Facebook Group. 3) I have lost another auction to win one of these beauties! 

I have said before that Warhammer Fantasy Battle was a victim of the success of 40k. And the terrible slide that we can see today, actually began in 1987 when the number one fantasy wargame was replaced by one involving space marines. The amount of WFB material dropped away in WD, but there were still some stunning articles that saw the light of day and this was one of them. 

I have always loved this model, and it seems that many others do to as, though the are not uncommon on eBay, that can fetch a relatively high price (about £20 seems to be the average in my experience). They are wondefully characterful, as is much of the '80s dwarf output, and have some interesting rules too. Really, they are perfect for a little conversion project as any suitably well dressed dwarf could have the tab cut away and home made skis attached! 

Not as nice as having the original mode though. 

Anyway, here are the rules. Its about time I got cracking on with the rest of this series but with everything else going on in Orlygg's life and other directions pulling at me its hard to focus on the rather tedious job of scanning documents. 

So enjoy them. 

WD Dwarf Mountaineer Rules by orlygg

The rules are fun, as you will have seen. Considering that this is just a one page hit to help promote a model the content is very good. You get a nice piece of fluff concerning the mountain ranges of the Od World. There there is the 'ski charge'! How cinematic would that be, eh? If you could get your hands on enough of the models! Imagine the painted models, in Swedish knitted style, hurtling down the mountain side into the flank of some lost goblins or orks! 

Then you could let loose with perhaps the greatest special rule of Warhammer Fantasy Battle Third Edition (or indeed any edition before or since) the Yodel of Doom! 

Brilliance!

And if anyone has a spare Dwarf Mountaineer for me just drop me a line and contact me at realmofchaos80s@yahoo.co.uk 

Cheers!

Orlygg

On Palanquins and Chariots

Today I want to talk about two of my favourite units in the third edition of Warhammer some twenty five years ago or more. Both were documented in White Dwarf 114 with interesting articles. I present both below to aid the discussion of them.

 

First up is the very well known Palanquin of Nurgle model. This was a thing of beauty upon its first release, if a follower of Nurgle could be described as such, and I was eager, nay desperate, to get my hands on a model. One of the things that really stood out for me were the varied riders of the Palanquin. The champion with the sword raised, the Nurgle sorcerer and the futuristic renegade. Sadly, I don't think you ever got all three in the kit, but I was fun wondering which you'd like to get hold of first.

 

It took me years to get one, scoring a complete kit (still in the blister) in about 2004. It was a lovely model, and came with the champion with the raised sword (seen in the illustration below) and was a joy to assemble. Like all the big models of the 80s/90s, it weighed a hefty amount and felt great in the hand. This is some important to me in my appreication of models. The weight just feels 'right' and the models are a joy to handle through the construction and painting process, as they are when the are let loose on the table top. I am sorry, but plastic and resin just don't have that same 'feel' to them for me!

 

Like an idiot, I sold mine for about £12.50 about a year later. Something I have come to regret because they are now very hard to get hold of for less than £50. This was made even more difficult by the new 40k version being released a few years back. It was an okay model but lacked the rotting horror of the original. Subsequently, I feel that the classic model has probably made its way into many modern forces. Hopefully, it will one day make it into one of mine.

 

What follows is the lovely fluff and rules supplement that appeared in WD114. It also has some entertaining rules, such as the Nurglings popping up from the slime left by the palanquin. The rules go on to explain that the palanquins were used both by champions and plaguebearers themselves! Now this is something I have never really thought about before. I am fairly sure no seated PB were ever released but it would be a simple matter to convert one.

Great illustrations support the article and a Realm of Chaos narrative too. The Lost and the Damned, from which these articles are taken I believe, are rich is short stories written by Rick Priestley, Bill King and a great number of other authors.

Adrian Smith's unique pencil style captured chaos like no one else. His illustrations of Nurgle are particularly horrific and here the seated champion with the sword is depicted.

In a Realm of Chaos double whammy, issue 114 also contained a detailed article on Chaos Chariots. These were fairly varied constructs, and full rules were included in the article about how to adopt different beasts for traction and how chaos dwarfs had to be present in the force for their construction. GW also released a model around this time sculpted by the Perry's but I was quite traditional in its form and for suitable for chaos warriors in the Empire rather than the Realms themselves. Unlike the palanquin, I own this model (despite selling it in the same purge as the palanquin) as I have managed to by the model back quite cheaply in recent times.

 

Have a look at the article here.

No narrative this time, but detailed background about how chariots are put together in the Realms of Chaos. There are lots of good ideas here, and this source is full of great ideas for narrative skirmishes between the forces of chaos. I am sure there is a reall y good campaign in here somewhere.

Just like most things in the Realm of Chaos books, the options and detail behind the chariots is extremely detailed, if not exhaustive.

Craziness abounds in the detail here when you chariot is damaged. You could probably play several games without ever getting the same result. Additionally, the last paragraph may be of particular interest to converters. Using unusual creatures to pull the chariot? Citadel Sheep anyone?







 



My restored and painted Chaos Chariot by the Perrys. Sculpted in 1987 but not released until later if my facts are correct. The model makes good use of the first Citadel plastic horses and has lots of baroque detailing and nasty faces here and there. The chariot's extras (here a flag pole and bow and quiver) and the same that fit other Khorne units of the time, most notably the Juggernauts.

Do you have any opinions about these two models? Are you lucky enough to own them, and if you have a link to a painted example please do share? Or are you not a fan? If so, what are your reasons?

Orlygg

The Magic of Warhammer Third Edition: The Colleges of Magic

I always love this time of year.

 

The nights draw in, and this results in candles flickering on fireplaces, the roaring glow of the fire itself and the need to draw back the curtains a shut out the long night of winter. With a great deal less time spent outside, the opportunities for miniature projects increase. I am sure that the sight of the enthusiast, bent in concentration over his desk, warmed by the mellow light of the modelling lamp is a familar sight in your home.

 

It is in mine.

 

My family and I have lived through about six months of chaos. Building work, extensions, new jobs, young children... the works. Now, things seem to be settling down and getting back to normal. In fact, I am typing this at work, just before I head off to remove my vast lead collection from storage. Initially, I thought it would need to be store for a couple of weeks, but problems just dragged on and on and freeing my collection was right down at the bottom of my wife's priorities! Largely due to the success of the Oldhammer Weekend (my wife could see pictures of what we do, rather than the mess of miniatures that is my usual working space) she has authorised a new miniature painting storage area alongside the Welsh Dresser display I posted up a while back. I have a new desk, mini gaming table set up and she has even warrented a new computer/printer/scanner set-up so I can blog with greater ease then ever before!

 

At last! I'll update you, loyal followers, of my 'Oldhammer Area' once its set up. You shoudl also see lots of new painted models from me, including the Nightmare Legion, Foundry Bretonnians, the Marauder Giant and Old Spiney himself in the coming weeks!

Before I depart to the secret lead cave and remove the weighty boxes of old school goodness from their dust wreathed sheets, I want to talk about Gary Chalk. Now, if you are not aware of the man, here's a little video from his website that will enlighten you further.

 

As you will have seen, there are plenty of illustrations here that make you aware of his bright, distinctive style. In fact, his style is so distinctive that he deserves to sit alongside the likes of Ackland, Blanche and Miller for his contribution to early Games Workshop (Livingstone/Jackson and Ansell eras) though, of course, his work is in no way gRiMdArKtm so hasn't a hope in hell of being mentioned or refered to in the mainstream GW hobby these days. One of the images shown on the video is that of a wizard casting a spell. This image is important to the nature of today's post, namely the rather unknown articles published across WD113-114 about magic in Warhammer '80s style.

What follows is a major article (or should that be articles?) that give us the most indepth look at magic in Warhammer Third Edition, with details about Colour Magic, the Colleges, New Spells for games of Third Edition and plenty more. All richly illustrated by Gary Chalk himself. Now, this article has been a bit of a mystery to me for some years. It is just so different to everything else that ever appeared in the magazine, partly due to the art style. Now, we know that there were several projects (most notably Confrontation) that were initially intended to be supplement released, but later saw publication in White Dwarf. Could these pages reflect something to do with magic that never saw the light of day? Or perhaps material that was part of the cancelled 'Realms of Sorcery' project to support Warhammer Third and WFRP in the later '80s? Who knows, but what we get is a wonderful article full of old school wonder. Additionally, its is interesting to note how the background has changed regarding the nature of magic in the Warhammer world and how the colleges have developed. Now, I won't spoil this for readers, I'll just leave you to enjoy the articles, but if you have an opinion about what you have read, please do share it below.

Orlygg

Collages of Magic by orlygg

Oldhammer Weekend: Slaves to Darkness Warbands: Mustering your Army Roster

With barely a week to go until the Oldhammer Weekender at the Foundry, I have started to organise quite how Dan and I are going to run a massive clash of over thirty warbands during the day. Its quite a task, and I will be posting my thoughts on the matter over the next few days.

Tonight's post is about how we can best go about creating our, dare I say it, armylists for our warbands. In truth, we don't need armylists. We need army rosters. These are less about points management and are more about game management, creating a handy sheet or two with all the information you require (or the GMs may require) to play. Luckily, suitable sheets were produced for The Lost and the Damned and I include them here for use. Of course, if you have your own system of organising your warband, feel free to use them. These sheets are merely a suggestion and not a prequisite.

So, to start us off. The army roster for your Chaos Champion complete with a section to record those gifts, attributes and magic spells.

Acceptable in the '80s: White Dwarf 110: Dwarf Fire Throwers and Dwarf Crossbows

As a follow up to this mornings visit to the '80s, I present the Warhammer content from White Dwarf 110. As has now become standard, this issue is packed with articles for all of the 'new' Games Workshop games. Warhammer gets a tiny addition, but it's a gem!

Here we see the standard Warhammer Armies square only the amusing narrative is missing from background. From this point, WD begins to feel more formal. The zany 'homemade' editorial style has been replaced with a more serious attitude to the Warhammer Worlds. Still, there is plenty of background material here. Interestingly, the actual miniature itself for the fire thrower is barely mentioned in the magazine, apart from a black and white shot on the mail order page.

Dwarfs were obviously on the minds of someone at Citadel, as we also see these nice dwarf crossbow  miniatures that make use of the plastic crossbow. I have several of these and I really do prefer these incarnations of the stunty ones. The 'cod Viking' dwarfs of these times are too ostentatious for my taste. Give me these old school 'snow white' versions any day.

Orlygg.

Acceptable in the '80s: White Dwarf 109: Monsters, Roks and Wheelz

Issue 109 of White Dwarf continued the trend of supporting GW's wealth of own brand games. And, if like me, that was your bread and butter, you'd be very happy. Additional background and rules for Rogue Trader, Bloodbowl, Adeptus Mechanicus and Dark Future, not to mention adventure for WFRP! Playing this 'family of games', I remember the time well. Each month would bring something new to the table. 

Issue 109 was the second White Dwarf I ever bought. It had a fantastic cover too, a Cossack adventurer fleeing from hordes of Zombies. It was, of course, to be used later as the cover of Something Rotten in Kislev.

As I said previously in this series, Warhammer 3rd edition was essentially 'done'. All its supplements had been released, save The Lost and the Damned, and coverage for the game began to wane as the giant of RT began to assert its influence, and the devirse 'Big Box Games' began to be supported.

Still some great little articles remained to be published here and there. And it is towards these that we should now turn our attention.

Now, though not exclusively for Warhammer, the greater daemons of Nurgle and Tzeentch were released at this time, alongside an extract detailing them from The Lost and the Damned. Looking nearly identical to the illustrations, these two kits are, for me, the definitive ones. And considering that the models that replaced them were, quite frankly, appalling ( save, perhaps the Lord of Change ) it wouldn't be until Forge World released there resin versions many years later that these entities got the sculpts they deserved. The Great Unclean One shown here would later be released with a range of different heads, arms, torsos and so on, as would the Lord of Change. This allowed some variation between the daemons which has yet to be replicated.

Though Iron Claw was no longer branded, Bob Olley was still producing miniatures for Citadel, or had sculpts left over that had yet to see the light of day. Here we see one of his later ogres, which as far as I am aware, can reach impressive prices on eBay. I can see why.

Warhammer's article here was a series of rules for (yet, another) orc stone thrower and the Bob Olley goblin chariot that we had seen before. As previously, these articles contained a mix of narrative/ background, rules and a Warhammer Armies Square. What was new, however, were the photocopiable banner designs that were added to the goblin chariot rules. Giving designs out like this became more common as the years went by, and here is is an early example.

Before I disappear once more into the Wastes, I would just like to say sorry about the crinkly nature of these scans. My copy of issue 109 was soaked by my curious daughter. At one year old, she found her way into our bedroom and split her drink over a pile of old school mags.

Bless her!

Orlygg.

Realm of Chaos 25th Anniversary: Survival of the fittest (what to do with your warband after the battle)

By now, I'd hope, many of you readers have got out there and got yourselves a copy of Third Edition and Slaves to Darkness and had a crack at warband creation and conflict. Certainly judging by the page views my original article has received, it may be a great number of you! 

The silent majority of Oldhammerers! 

But the question 'what do we do now?' may be buzzing around inside your mind like the last scraps of a daemonic possession. Where do we go from here beyond rolling for rewards and collecting and painting the new units or characters?

Today's post concerns a very influential article for me. I have vivid memories of reading it in bed as a 'yoof' back in the 1980s and having my mind blown away with the possibilities of developing an army through narrative. And so must have the seeds of Oldhammer been sown, eh? Little did I know that it would take 25 years to come to be a reality! Now there is a similar article within The Lost and the Damned, which includes a wonderfully hackneyed 'narrative generator' but I find this one superior. It was the system Dan and I used for our original Realm of Chaos campaign we fought a long while ago and has loads of exciting things to include in your games. The stuff here is transferable too. So it would be quite straight forward to use it with any type of wargaming.

Let's have a look. 

Survival by orlygg

I am going to talk about a few things I really loved from this article. Things that I think may be of use after the RoC game at The Foundry and may well be of use to those of you playing old school Warhammer as lurkers. 

1. The Nicely Complex Serious Injury Table

In the tradition of hyper detailed RPGs, this article contains a quite comprehensive guide to working out just how your characters have become injured. As you will have seen, its very easy to just 'be okay' for the next game, with only a 1 in 6 chance of actually being dead and even if you are wounded, there is a 50% chance that your character was 'just knocked out'. But if your models are unlucky enough to get seriously injured, there is quite a lot that can go wrong, from nasty looking flesh wounds (which don't affect the profile) to fairly debilitating injuries that result in a major penalty (such as a character losing a leg). This throws up some nice ideas into the mix. The most obvious would be the need to paint (or model) the damage onto the characters. But Dan and I discussed how it might be fun if we logged who slayed or injured who during the game, to create rivalries or mini narratives within the game. This can become rather interesting if you start developing your background. We thought about characters (and even models) having 'archenemies', namely, particular individuals who they hate due to the injuries that they have inflicted upon them in previous skirmishes. We never really developed the idea, but always thought we could devise special rules for situations like this. Of course, suddenly seeing on of your key champions losing his leg and having his movement cut can cause all kinds of strategic headaches too! 

2. Pillaging 

Again, this was thought about. We knew that the idea of the winner rooting through the equipment of the dead and stealing all the best stuff would involve a lot of (gentlemanly) banter. You can probably imagine the showmanship on display as one of us gleefully decided to loot that daemon weapon that had been causing so much grief and turning the tide with it during the next game. We never used banners, but thought that such thefts would be possible and indeed these models could be 'borrowed' and taken home as the ultimate insult, only to be paraded mercilessly at the start of the next game. Of course, there would be a real reason to have a next game in that regard; the battle to reclaim the flag. See how the narrative just creeps in when using this stuff.

Well, I will leave things here for now. Please do share your thoughts about the injury table and pillaging as part of a campaign game, or indeed any other gems from the article that you feel are worth discussion. Of course, if you have a fresh idea to bring to the pot, please share that too!

Orlygg.

Acceptable in the '80s: Chaos Dwarf Ballistics

Last post I discussed, in my rambling way, my view about the 'Golden Age' of White Dwarf. That issue 107 of White Dwarf is the beginning of a very special period of the magazine. A highly creative period where we learnt about the background of the Imperium, The Horus Heresy, Titans to name just a few wonderful ideas. So here's one of them!

Today's post concerns Chaos Dwarfs. 

Now while we are discussing the evil stunty ones, it is important to remember the was no concept of a Chaos Dwarf army in the early versions of Warhammer. They were part of the armylist in Warhammer Armies, and using this as a basis it is fairly straight forwards to build a chaos dwarf force. Its not really that interesting though, just a few units and there were certainly no big hats or comical beards. Slaves to Darkness also included chaos dwarfs in their armylists, but again no actual army. Chaos dwarfs were just another unit at this time, but of course with the flexibility of 3rd edition it was, and still is, very easy to create your own. Even so, Chaos Dwarf forces lacked something.

This was remedied in White Dwarf 108 with a range of new models, namely crossbows and a swivel gun. As you would expect at this release was accompanied with narrative, background and rules. Shall we have a look at them?

The story above is typical of WD at this time. Jokes abound but with a subtle slice of darkness. I for one would not want to face a defended position supported by a cannon. Nice artwork too, though i don't know who the artist is.

On with the background and the rules. I really like the idea of a portable piece of artillery like this, especially on a vast battlefield with many targets. I also like the fact that this weapon only inflicts hits on the first rank. Makes those big units rather tempting. I am glad I have a couple of these models in my collection ( somewhere ) and I plan to add them to my Khornate army some point in the future.

It seems they can be grouped into units of four if you so wish. Here are the stats cards for Warhammer Armies and Slaves to Darkness. Below is the ad for the Chaos Dwarf crossbows from WD 107 and these are lovely models. I got hold of 5 of these recently though they lack the plastic crossbows. I have one or two of the crossbows in my collection and am wondering if it is possible to create a mould to copy them and arm the whole unit.

There is enough here to make most gamers happy. Two new units, intetesting models and fluff in WD. 

Do you own these models? What are your opinions on them? What about their effectiveness? Have you a recount about how they performed on a battlefield near you? If so,  please share the details.

Orlygg

Champions of Chaos and Warhammer Armies Errata

I return to the Realm after a rather frustrating hiatus. If you recall my situation, I had to relocate to, frankly, an unusable location though I managed to get Trigger the horse painted. My collection was inaccessible, which meant that trades, projects and eBay sales all had to be put on hold. As did this blog.

Thankfully, today is the first day of my 6 week summer holiday and also the day I return to my regular modelling room. The builders have completed the wife's new kitchen and completed construction of the extension and in doing so have cleared access. I hope to use my free time to produce plenty of interesting old school articles for 80s Warhammer written in the coming days and begin this new sequence of blogging with the fantastic collection of painted Chaos Champions from inside WD107. I own most of these champions, save three, though none of them are painted. I have always thought that this page would be useful to inform a future painting project where all these models's paint schemes are copied. It's certainly something that others may be interested in doing so I have included the page here.

Also inside WD 107 was some little seen errata produced for Warhammer Armies. I felt that these three pages may be of use to Oldhammer fans as Warhammer Armies is probably the most influential book in the Oldhammern Scene.

Acceptable in the '80s: Iron Claw Rock Lobber and Goblins, Skaven, Combat Cards and Warhammer Townscape.

Apps aren't always the easiest way to communicate. I fancied trying out the Blogger app available on the iTunes app network on the wife's iPad. I wrote out a long and detailed post about the releases below. It was erudite, amusing and informative. Sadly, it didn't save as the app is poor at best so you will have to put up with this far inferior re-write I am afraid. 

As you may know, we have been exploring what Citadel put out for Warhammer Third Edition through issues 104, 105 and 106 of White Dwarf. In truth, these three issues are of great importance to fans of the era because they saw the release of two very important supplements, namely Slaves to Darkness and Warhammer Armies. They also contained a wealth of fantasy models, mostly chaos, but there were also a number of ads for further Iron Claw miniatures, sculpted by Bob Olley.

Now we have discussed Olley's work before. Though we neglected to discuss his goblin range, focusing on his Gothic Dwarfs and Undead models of 1987.

His work is best described as the 'Marmite' of miniatures (those of you not an Anglophile or resident here in the UK need to know that Marmite is a vegetable starch product used on bread and toast- its distinctive taste divides opinion, people either love it or hate it, a view not lost of the manufacturers) with collectors and old school gamers either raving madly with frothy lips about his work or casting their eyes away in disgust as soon as one of his strangely fungoid models appears in front of them. Back in the day, I did not like his work at all. But as I have become used to handling more models as I grew older, I learnt to really appreciate his distinctive and original style, especially in today's market of near generic sculpting. 

Olley's goblins are fun and varied. They have the sense of depth and realism that most of his work shares. The models in this selection contain a wide range of suitable weapons, from spears and axes to the iconic ball and chain. The clothes too are suitably goblinoid, and a special mention must got to the wonderful mushroom (or should that be toadstool?) inspired hat! Less sneaky than Kevin Adam's work, these sculpts don't lack charm however. These greenskins seem to have a rather cowardly menace to them (if such an oxymoron is possible) but they rank up nicely alongside their Citadel brethren, indeed they were later incorporated into the line when Iron Claw was dropped. 

Of special note here are the shields. There are some lovely designs here for any old school style painter who wants to begin work of developing a free hand style. Not as complex as the shields of Blanche or Dixon, these examples are no less than effective. 

The stone thrower released as part of the Iron Claw range has been discussed before. Though I doubt many enthusiasts have had the chance to read the fluff that was published for it, nor have a quick gander at the Warhammer Armies rules box so it has been presented for you below. 

However, we haven't talked about the skaven models in the lower part of the colour ad. These expand on the models released in 1985 with some additional models. Now, these are not really War Machines are they? More gun powder and chemical based weapons. All are worth collecting, and in my view, these models remain the best ratmen the Citadel have ever produced. The skaven Jessail is worth a particular mention as these models are quite collectable. 

Before I sign off, I thought I would share with you these two ads. Both are a sign of what is to come on this blog, as both releases are worth posts dedicated to them, namely the Citadel Combat Cards and Warhammer Townscape. 

As always, if you have a memory or an opinion to share about anything discussed today, please do.

Orlygg.

Acceptable in the '80s: White Dwarf 103: Chaos Dwarf Whirlwind and Tenderiser

White_Dwarf__103 by Ryan Radgoski

Hey, here's a first! An article in my series about the history of Warhammer Third Edition when we have the actual issue available online to read through. I found this copy on Scribd, and thanks must go to Ryan for publishing this on the site. Well, issue 103 continued the Dark Future theme of imposing vehicle hurtling down a post-apocalyptic highway, only this time the painting was by Jim Burns. The issue continued the tradition of printing extracts from Realm of Chaos (extracts that I have not included in this history, as there are largely identical to those published later in Slaves to Darkness and The Lost and the Damned), more detail for Bloodbowl and Dark Future and a wealth of other stuff. Feel free to have a browse through the issue before reading my commentary about the Warhammer releases. 

One of the Warhammer highlights of the issue is this advert for the forthcoming Warhammer Armies (see my next post for my retro-review of this controversial book) that uses Chris Collingwood's classic cover painting as its basis. The advert contains a little detail about what to expect in the new supplement; namely new rules for daemonic summoning, new creatures and war machines a plenty. As a little related taster, one of the Warhammer releases that month were the Chaos Dwarf War Machines - the Tenderiser and the Whirlwind. 

As is typical during this period of White Dwarf, the article about the war machines begins with a little piece of narrative fluff related the the models. Sadly, this piece of throwaway fiction if far superior to the writing published in today's WD, or indeed many of the Black Library 'novels'. But as Rick Priestley has told us here at Realm of Chaos 80s, the studio staff were a fairly literate bunch back in the day and amusing little background pieces like this were knocked out with regular aplomb. As you'd expect, the tone of the piece is more light-hearted and self aware than the po-faced GrImDaRkTM of more recent times. 

Kev Walker provides a rather evocative, if simplistic, illustration of the Tenderiser in action which helps the viewer imagine just what one of these war machines would do to a packed rank or two of chaos thugs. Underneath, we have a detailed diagram of the different pieces to the war machines, just in case, I suppose, you had difficulty putting them together.

The article goes on to provide full rules and a Warhammer Armies list box detailing all you need to know to field these bizarre machines. And, as far as I know, this issue is the only place that these rules were ever published. Now I won't critique the rules here, I leave that to you. Read them, indulge them (maybe even try them out if you own the models - which I don't sadly, but I would very much like too, so if you have any rolling around I love to hear from you) but don't expect balance or fairness with what is published here. In the '80s, that was up to you and your opponent and it wasn't necessary to attempt to hardwire it into rules mechanic. 

Above we have the colour examples of the Tenderiser and the Whirlwind. I love these paint jobs! The green and orange faces really give the models a daemonic edge. And even today, with all the range and versatility of wargames figures, especially those in the fantasy genre, I have yet to see something this bizarre. After all, these machines are handcarts loaded up with whips, chains and massive hammers pushed along by a cross between a dwarf and a bull. Still, you could be looking at a fair price to pay for these classic models. I've seen individuals go for £30 on a good day (if you are a seller) and less than a tenner if its a bad day (again, if you are a seller) so they are obviously 'miniature marmite' to some people. 

And I thought the '60s were inspired by #ahem# natural substances!

Tacked on the end, we have nine 'proper' orcs sculpted by the Goblin Master himself, Kevin Adams. These ones were designed to fit the then new plastic crossbows (and they are a bugger to find on eBay now) rather than being part of the model. Perhaps a forerunner to what came later, true multi-part metal/plastic figures, for Kevin Adams' early '90s RT orks were the first in a long line of miniatures with plastic arms and weapons. I haven't seen many of these models on-line these days, nor do they turn up much on painted forums or blogs, or at least not seen by me, so I cannot state how rare these greenskins are today.

Perhaps you, dear reader, can tell me?

Orlygg.

Acceptable in the '80s: White Dwarf 102

Issue 102 hit newsagents with the sound of a heavily laden renegade class pursuit vehicle colliding with a stainless steel girder. Dark Future, the game of highway warriors, was finally released onto the gaming world. That game, and its associated releases is part of one of my other long term projects, and will, one day, be resurrected. Today, we will be discussing the Warhammer Third Edition releases from this issue, so lets sit back and enjoy a slice of retro Warhammer at its best.

First up, and the major article of the issue, the Fimir. Now, way back when in the early days of this blog I published a link to this excellent article and discussed the nature of the Fimir in the context of Warhammer Third Edition. I see no reason to repeat myself, but the online world has moved on and it is now possible to embed items onto blogs, so I present the article again in this form. 

So what do we get?

Well first off, a little bit of narrative fluff that sets up the premise of the new race well. Mists, horror and hideousness. The article moves on to deliver a Warhammer Armies style armylist and a detailed WFRP adventure. This is a really good article and is well worth a read if you haven't seen it before. The art is also excellent, with some evocative pictures provided by Paul Bonner. 

Fimir Armylist, Background and WHFRP Adv by orlygg

Next up is an 'Eavy Metal article deals with that old chestnut, faces. As well as some interesting old school painting advice, there are a great deal of quality miniatures to gawp at, including the famous Dwarf wizard and many other rare models, including an early glimpse at some, then, forthcoming daemonettes. The eye candy ends with a rather wordy discussion about how to get the best out of a miniature's face. 

Then we have these crossbowmen. At first flick through the magazine its easy to miss these little shooty chaps. What we get is a set of sculpts, based on the same dollies, that provide troops for Imperial and Bretonnian armies. Anyone know if these models are now part of Foundry's ever expanded ex-citadel models?

Orlygg

Acceptable in the '80s: May 1988's Warhammer Releases

Issue 101 launched Bloodbowl 2nd Edition and contained the final non-GW related article published in WD. One hundred issues of roleplaying was over!

Welcome back to the ongoing series of articles entitled 'Acceptable in the '80s'; the history of Warhammer Third Edition through its releases, supplements and literature. This time, we will be wandering down the dusty lanes of May 1988 to come face to face with chaos and the greenskin menace, oh, with a rare article for Warhammer Siege with some fantastic Russ Nicholson (he of Fighting Fantasy fame) illustrations.

So let's tarry not!

Chaos Thugs

These are one of my favourite Citadel ranges. The chaos thugs were produced over a number of years by a wide range of sculptors. Amongst their varied ranks we have work by Jes Goodwin, Mark Copplestone, the Perrys, Trish and Aly Morrison and the very Scottish, Bob Naismith to name but a few. As you might expect with such a pedigree of creation, the range is rather eclectic and varies wildly in quality. There are also a large number of variants, with heads, bodies and weapons being interchanged wily-nily and so, thugs make an ideal and fascinating set of models to collect. 

In fact, it was a pack of thugs that were among the very first models that I ever owned. I still own them, and was just painting one of them this very day. It was not one of the examples above, however. By this time, Citadel were beginning to phase out naming individual models and gave them instead a number. This would later change to a number code. 

Right then, the models shown above have some real classics among them, particularly 1, 2, 4 and 21. I am sure that you agree that the thug in the bone armour (21) is a wonderful sculpt and is worthy of champion status (it was later released as such if I remember correctly). I own quite a few of this range, and you will be seeing some of them in my WIP Khorne and Slaanesh RoC armies as I work on them. 

As for the painting - what can I say? The air was obviously pretty thick with aerosol spray when many of these models were painted as some of the schemes are pretty loathsome, but chaotic as hell. There are also some rather nice shield designs, especially those sported by models 8 and 13 that I shall definitely have to steal in the future as I have a load of models that need shields. 

Orc Bolt Thrower and Chaos Warriors

I have discussed the Orc Bolt Thrower before, though it is nice to see a painted example. As ever, Kev Adams produced a characterful bunch of orc models, though model 2 had a far longer life than the other miniatures here, appearing in blisters into the early '90s. 

The Chaos Warriors are, like the thugs, a mixed bag. Many of these were re-released models from the mid '80s and again, like the thugs, have a number of variants for many of these models. In my opinion, most of these sculpts are ghastly, though there is an absolute classic in number 10, who would later appear on the Combat Cards. The 'Eavy Metal boys must have been high as kites on car-body paint spray when they painted some of these- look at those wild colour schemes, including some ink of bare metal insanity!

There was a bit of fluff produced alongside the Bolt Thrower, including a little not for Warhammer Armies. I publish it here for those of you who are lucky enough to own this model and want to field it with a little extra guidance. Additionally, there was a final article produced alongside Warhammer Siege. Written by Nigel Stillman, I include it below for any Oldhammerer's eager for siege warfare.

Orlygg.