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Archive for February, 2012

White Dwarf 114 – June 1989

29 Feb

80 pages for £1.50.Would it be unfair to start costing the magazine based on the price per page and the number of 40k pages? Probably. 30% adverts this month, again due to the catalogue at the back.

Cultue Shock

Space Marine is coming! The first two GW books are too, Zaragoz by Brian Craig and Drachenfels by Jack Yeovil. Guess what? Prices are going up in June due to the price of Tin rocketing, but it is the first rise in 4 years. There’s an Ork book coming (little do they know yet…) and Ork Titans are coming with rules in a new book called Codex Titanicus.

‘Eavy Metal

Blood Bowl and Chaos

Storm Riders

Stormriders for Fantasy Battle.

Grey Knight

Grey Knight Terminator squads, which is impressive as there’s only one model… Nemesis force weapons and rules for using them in your Ordo Malleus lists from Slaves to Darkness. I don’t actually own those early Chaos books… To ebay!

Cyclone

Cyclone missile launcher for Terminators, can be taken instead of a heavy flamer.

Chainsaws

What is it with the obsession with chainsaws? More bloodbowl rules.

Star Players

Some more star players for Bloodbowl

Death Blow!

Advanced damage rules for Adeptus Titanicus.

‘Eavy Metal

Nurgle and Tzeentch models

Genestealers

First of a two part article on these new enemies. This is before they were Tyranids and they used to breed with native populations to make Hybrids. Any similarity with certain Aliens from films of the same name is purely coincidental!

Genestealers infect people using their tongues and their genetic structure is altered over time. There’s no indication that somebody is infected, and when they mate normally they produce a hybrid who can also infect new hosts. Each generation looks more and more human until 4th generation where they can no longer infect new hosts. They will, however give birth to humans, hybrids or pure genestealers. Now that’s going to hurt!

It was all a really nice idea and it’s a shame that they’ve pulled back from it. I loved the idea of a hiveworld being infected and gradually the stealers taking over.

Next month comes the rules and army lists.

Palaquins of Nurgle

Nurgle champions ride in style in Fantasy Battle.

Pitfall

A Space Hulk mission with new tokens and map pieces. This adds different levels into the game, along with holes and ladders.

‘Eavy Metal

More models, and discussion about the various pages.

Critical Mass

Back up to a page.

Colleges of Magic

More Fantasy Battle magic.

Chaos Chariots

I don’t think the people on these are that well. Rules for Fantasy Battle.

Attack!

Citadel Combat Cards, and a game that uses them.

New Releases

  • Warhammer 40k Compendium
  • Commissars (6)
  • Chaos Renegaes on Horseback (2 legs, 4 torsos)
  • Terminator Marines – Cyclone Missile Launcher and a Traitor

Another good fluff edition because of the Genestealer pages, as well as a new mission and pieces for Space Hulk. Add to that the introduction of Grey Knights, Cyclone Missile Lauchers and some new damage rules for Titans and it’s a pretty good issue.

 
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Posted in 40k, Epic, Space Hulk, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 113 – May 1989

28 Feb

Loverly Blood Angel Terminators fighting Genestealers on the cover. The shoulder pads look suspiciously like the plastic ones from Space Hulk. Probably because it’s the cover from the box…

£1.50 for 80 pages and a whopping 33% adverts because of a new innovation: black and white catalogue pages at the back. When people moan about White Dwarf just being a catalogue remember this era because it actually was.

Culture Shock

The Warhammer 40k Companion is coming, which are rules previously printed in White Dwarf.

Critical Mass

Half a page. That’s barely enough time to even getting around to mentioning books.

Volskheim Brotherhood

Two page black and white drawing of Squats.

‘Eavy Metal

Horses, a cute chaos squat set and soem Genestealers.

Colleges of Magic

New magic system for Fantasy Battle.

‘Eavy Metal

Prototype miniatures for Heroquest and some blood bowl models.

Space Hulk

Ah, Space Hulk. The finest game that Games Workshop have ever produced. This 6 page description is almost an advert (well technically it is) but who cares? Space Hulk!

How To Paint Citadel Miniatures

8 pages of really good advice on building and painting miniatures. The quality of work in the magazine has gone up a staggering amount since I started this and although it’s not as good as today it’s probably of a level that remained static(ish) until the Internet got popular and people started sharing tips more.

The Lost and the Damned

Narrative campaigns for 40k and Fantasy Battle. Extract from the book.

Wandering Monsters

Dungeonbowl. Like blood bowl but in dungeons. This is rules for wandering monster encounters.

Imperial Guard

D company of the 7th Mordion Imperial Guard Regiment and the pacification of Flotis III.

Fluff and the description of the forces used.

Sentinel

The Imperial Guard get a bath on legs. Sorry, a walker. Rather optimistically they can take 12 of them!

‘Eavy Metal

Chaos models and notes on some of the miniatures spread out throughout the various sections.

New Miniatures

5 pages of what I’ve been summarising up until this point because I knew this was coming. Other releases from elsewhere in the magazine have been included here.

  • Adeptus Titanicus building set. 16 more buildings.
  • Land Raider (box of one)
  • Space Hulk
  • Eldar Scouts (6)
  • Imperial Guard Sentinel
  • Ogryns (6)
  • Squat Adventurers (12)
  • Hive World Gangers (2)
  • Chaos Squats (13)
  • Genestealers (3 pure, 4 hybrids)
  • Marine Scouts (3). Getting to be more like the upcoming plastics
  • Nurgle’s Palaquin. 4 different riders.
  • Ork Nobles (3)
  • Psykers (6)
  • Ork Renegades (3)
  • Grey Knight Terminator. And another army starts quietly in the corner.
  • Bloodbowl Snotlins (29) I include them as they were perfect for 40k too.

You know what I did after this issue? Yes, I got Space Hulk. A so-and-so edition except for the painting article. If you have guard then the sentinel was nice, but otherwise a bit of a letdown. It’s also the first issue in a while to have no Adeptus Titanicus. I wonder if they’re busy on that elsewhere…

 
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Posted in 40k, Space Hulk, White Dwarf

 

Updates to my White Dwarf posts

27 Feb

I’ve been having a good long think about my White Dwarf posts and I think I should make a couple of tweaks. I’ve decided that I need more images and so am going to post pictures of each magazine with each post. This has the benefit of showing I do actually own it, and as it is going to be lower resolution and not a straight on scan I don’t feel like I’m breaking my rule about not posting scans of the magazine. Hopefully GW will agree as people on ebay do it all the time. I’m also going to add page numbers and counts for the articles so you can see how long they are.

I might even get the whole of 1st edition together for a single picture so you can see how big the pile is. That’s really not going to fit in my small lighting rig!

I’m also going to start adding pie charts of the content for a bit of colour. That way it should be easy to see what the distribution of content is really like in each issue.

Lastly I’m working on an index so you can look up any articles you may want to read yourselves (you will still need to hit ebay for the copy of course). This is mainly going to be useful for fluff research, so if you want to know that the first description of the Ultramarines was in White Dwarf 97 then it’ll be easy to find out.

These changes will be made to all the old posts as well, but there may be a few more posts before the changes start being made as I’m working with a nice comfortable buffer of pre-written posts.

If anybody has any more suggestions then I’m interested in hearing them. Just remember that I’m trying not to break any rules that may upset Games Workshop. It would be nice not to have to be scared of the company behind all this, but there you go…

 
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Posted in White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 112 – April 1989

27 Feb

Terminator badge on the cover this month (which I had on a tshirt sometime around them. I wasn’t very cool back then), and the usual £1.50 for 80 pages. We’re up to 29% pages of adverts because although a lot of the catalogue pages are now painted they’re still just adverts.

Culture Shock

A game is coming… And it’s name is Space Hulk! This makes me very, very happy. Also some news about a new range of novels coming, which I’ve mentioned before on David Pringle’s column so he’s now off doing them and there’s a new person taking over that column.

Terminators

A full set of rules for Terminators in 40k. Interestingly the picture on the cover is of a Dark Angel who is light coloured (black and white picture) so is this the first evidence in the changes of colours for the DA away from black? Of course we’ve never had a black terminator for them so I’ll keep my eye out for some green. 9 glorious pages that I must have read a thousand times back then.

Critical Mass

Now penned by David V Barrett.

Ork Wartrak and Field Gun

I have a couple of loves in 40k, and Orks are one of them. This brings the rules for the wartrack and field gun to 40k and by doing so we’re a step closer to the earliest 40k model I still own. Interesting rules mean that the wartrack can tow the field gun into place on the battlefield.

Vulture Warriors

A strange beast this one, a scenario for paranoia or 40k. This is a proper cross over and needs a GM to play properly. I don’t think Paranoia Troubleshooters really stand a chance against 40k Orks, but you never know.

Did you know that 40k gaming demands that the table be dignified and elegant? Me neither, I think they may have been joking.

Predator

What makes a Rhino even better? Two las-cannons and an auto-cannon. The first of the Rhino variants arrives, and it is good. Of course back then they always had something of the Dalek about their design I thought…

St Louis Blues

Dark Future isn’t dead yet. To the time machine!

Wardancers

More Wardancers for Fantasy Roleplay.

Death Roller

The Dwarfs bring steam powered death to Blood Bowl.

Conqueror

You remember how Robots survived into modern 40k? Well they are introduced for Adeptus Titanicus here. Thankfully you don’t have to program them this time.

There’s also a picture of one of the wonderful kitbashed ships from existing toys. There was a pair of spaceships in the 80s that used infra red to detect when they shot each other, if I remember rightly the front o this ship is from the bad one. 40k needs more kitbashing.

‘Eavy Metal

Horses, Eldar, Squats and random models. The text pages are on how to paint horses.

New 40k Releases this month

  • Predator (40k, plastic. One per box)
  • Death Eagle Space Marines (3)
  • Imperial Guard Wounded. (4). Isn’t that their default state? Oh wait, that’s dead.
  • Squat trikes and bikes. Interchangeable wheels and headlamps. 3 wheel types (2 trike, 1 bike) and two headlamps. Also a heavy weapon trike.
  • Terminators (8 metal). The classic design we know and love today with those very static poses.
  • Ork Renegade
  • Ork Noble
  • Gretchins (14 models)
  • Ork Field Gun
  • Ork Wartrack
  • Eldar Scouts (3)

My favourite edition so far because of the Terminators. Combined with the Predator and some Orks it’s a rather handy edition to have owned at the time.

 
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Posted in 40k, Epic, White Dwarf

 

My second crazy 40k 25th anniversary idea: Paint them all

26 Feb

I had a mad idea for the 20th anniversary of 40k that I would blog every White Dwarf. That obviously didn’t happen as I lost interest in the game again as things happened in my life, but for the 25th I’m doing it and although it’s mainly for my own amusement I hope it can tell us something interesting about the state of White Dwarf over the years. I had another idea last year that was also a bit mad, and so I’m going to give that a go as well.

I’m going to paint everything new (ish) that Games Workshop releases for 40k this year. I would have mentioned it a few months back but they kind of forgot to release anything so far this year. Well all that is changing with some second wave releases for ‘Nids and Space Wolves and so I can get stuck in. It will of course cover the move to 6th edition so there will be a brand new starter box as well to get my teeth into later in the year.

So what am I painting? All new non-limited edition 40k releases from Games Workshop. This doesn’t include Forgeworld or anything insanely expensive like that, and limited edition models such as the games day and subscriber models are excluded as well. I’m excluding Battleforces as well as they are just collections of existing models but they may be convenient ways to cut the costs. I’m also ignoring models that have been re-released as Finecast when they were previously metal as they’re not new models. Any metal/finecast models that go plastic are fair game though as they will add something new to the model.

It’s good to see that GW are pushing the boat out well with the first proper releases of the year because who doesn’t like big Tyranids and Marines on Wolfback? After two light months March looks like a bit of a nightmare as I’ll have to paint:

  • Tyranid Hive Tyrant/Swarm Lord, which is now in plastic. Who thinks I can resist those massive wings?
  • Tyrannofex/Tervigon.
  • Space Wolves Thunderwolf Cavalry
  • Space Wolves Fenrisian Wolf Pack
  • Arjac Rockfist, The Anvil of Fenris
  • Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf
  • Space Wolves Grey Hunter with Wolf Standard
  • Space Wolves Cyberwolf
Luckily for my bank balance and sanity the rest of the new releases are old models going to Finecast or weapon packs. In other news GW are doing weapon packs.

To be honest all this seemed a lot saner before this set of advance orders went up… Still, it’s not too bad as long as April is a Fantasy month. They’re surely due a new army release aren’t they? Please?

In the meantime I’ll sit here and watch the door for my 25th anniversary 40K marine to turn up. It’s not part of all of this but how could I resist with all of what I’ve been doing?

 
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Posted in 40k, Paint Everything

 

White Dwarf Summary Week 4

25 Feb

Each week summary is just getting better and better. This week we’ve received Adeptus Titanicus and a lot of rules to expand that into more than just Titans. The enormity of Epic as a system for many years at Games Workshop is probably hard to believe now, but back in the day it was almost more important than 40k at times and a lot of development of the universe and units happened at this smaller scale before transferring over into 28mm.

The biggest change was the change in format for the magazine, with the smaller pages that we still have today coming in because of their strange desire to get people to cut up their magazines and put them in rules binders. It made sense at the time, but you’d get forums full of hate if you did it today. It’s the same with the new rules as people would complain that there’s not a level playing field and if you missed an issue then you can’t then get those rules until they are put into a book (see Sisters of Battle recently for an example of that). I guess you just can’t win.

Other game systems are still rather too prominent and take away pages from the real games. I’ll let Blood Bowl off as it’s still going today, but I always remember thinking of Dark Future much like some people regard Lord of the Rings today. As for all the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay nonsense, that should just go away if you ask me.

We’ve been very well served with new 40k armies over this week with Chaos Renegades and Squats getting single articles while Imperial Guard got three and enough pages to justify a real book release nowadays.

Marines saw the introduction of Chaplains and Terminators, which are some of the most iconic images for them but I seem to say that a lot at this early stage.

Adeptus Titanicus got new rules for close combat, craters and also tanks and infantry. This pretty much changed the game dramatically right off the bat and really has to be seen as playtesting for the upcoming Space Marine game.

The term golden age really is overused, and I’m not sure it can even be used here despite the fact that we are getting more content each month than we know what to do with rules wise. This was game development through the magazine where rules would be replaced throughout the year and then summarised in a book or new expansion later.

One one hand this is a good thing as the rules got playtested by lots of eager players. On the other hand feedback from this was purely through letters for most of those players and who bothers doing that? We are still in a pre-codex book age and so you needed to buy specific issues to get rules for your armies at this stage and so that made it a lot harder for new players to come into the game, even taking being able to buy back issues into account.

All of this is due to change of course as more books are released and Games Workshop work on expanding the games.

 
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Posted in 40k, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 111 – March 1989

24 Feb

80 pages for £1.50 and 25% adverts again this month. It’s nice and stable at the moment after the rebranding has settled down.

Culture Shock

A new 40k tank is coming, the Predator. Heroquest will also be out for Christmas. The letters page is gone and replaced with Battle Lines, which is a more detailed format that starts this issue with Turning the Tide.

Critical Mass

Books are back. Of note is Beyond lies the Wub, which I have on my shelf because I’m a total Dick Head. Yeah, I mention that just for a cheap laugh but if you don’t like Phillip K. Dick then you’re bored of drug and paranoia fueled sci-fi.

Rough Riders and Whiteshields

Even I’m getting a bit bored of Imperial Guard now! Another 7 pages about them, this time about mounted cavalry (Horse, meet bolter) and poor Whiteshields who are youngsters trying to come of age by not being killed in battle.

Referees

In most sports you aren’t allowed to attack the referee. Blood bowl positively encourages it.

Squats

21 pages of yet another new army, Space Dwarves. We’re not even allowed to mention them nowadays, but they were cool.

Chain Fist!

Advanced close combat rules for Adeptus Titanicus.

Wardancers

Warhammer fantasy roleplay page wastage. 7 pages of it.

Turning the Tide

I’m not sure this is a letter that got out of hand or what, but tactical tips for fighting Chaos that now passes for the letters page

Craters

Much like the crater rules for 40k a while back, but now for Epic.

‘Eavy Metal

Six pages of pictures and descriptions.

New 40k and Epic Releases

  • Space Dwarves – 36 plastic models
  • Imperial Guard Rough Riders (Two left, two right plastic horse halves, a couple of heads and 11 torsos. Also Jetbike and Motorbike to replace the horses.
  • Greater Daemon on Tzeentch (Lots of optional bits to make up a scary number of combinations)
  • Greater Daemon of Nurgle. Another pile of bits, this time with added puss and decay.
  • Adeptus Mechanicus. Now a range of 7.
  • Ratling Snipers. Range of 3
  • Sqats. Range of 17 metal bodies with plastic arms.
  • Adeptus Mechanicus Squat Tech Priest. Brilliant model.
  • Squat Exo-armour. Why Squats should be brought back.

So now we have two new armies for 40k on the go at the same time, and one of them is the fabled Squats. We also have more content for Adeptus Titanicus in the form of rules and the miniature releases for both games are coming thick and fast.

 
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Posted in 40k, Epic, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 110 – February 1989

23 Feb

Another 80 pages for £1.50 and a grand total of 26% adverts means that we’ve settled down a bit. The cover is of Marines so hopefully it’s a good month for us.

Culture Shock

Nothing of note, except a manual cut out and paste patch for the Dark Future rulebook.

Illuminations

Pictures by Wayne England.

Ogryns

If last months Imperial Guard piece wasn’t large enough it’s continued with an extra seven pages of information about Ogryns.

Dwarf Firethrower

Flamethrower for Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Dark Future Tournaments

Tournament rules.

Space Marine!

Infantry in Adeptus Titanicus. We edge closer to proper Epic as we get rules for infantry. Just don’t get under foot… Guard and Marines for now.

Morglum’s Marauders

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay wastes another 9 pages

Eldar

Rules for Eldar in Adeptus Titanicus

‘Eavy Metal

Quick methods for painting Imperial Guard. Six pages of not bad advice.

New Warhammer 40k Releases

  • Ogryns. Range of 19
  • Imperial Guard (Plastic arms, metal bodies) Now a range of 12
  • Warlord Battle Titans (Plastic pack of 6)
  • Eldar Titan (Epic)
  • Eldar Vampire Spirit Warrior (Epic)
  • Eldar War-walker (Epic)
  • Eldar War Cry Dreadnought (Epic)
  • Eldar Banshee Dreadnought (Epic)
  • Eldar Field Artillery (Epic troops)
  • Land Raider (Epic)
  • Rhino (Epic)
  • Contemptor Dreadnought (Epic)
  • Contemptor with Banner (Epic)
  • Furibundus Dreadnought (Epic)
  • Deredeo Dreadnought (Epic)
  • Imperial Guard. 36 fully plastic 40k miniatures

Another corking edition if you embrace Epic as a system, which for the purposes of this I will because it was awesome. 40k continues with the Imperial Guard, who are a lot more interesting than Space Marines if you think at all in narratives for the game and there’s a nice number of pages dedicated to it. Adeptus Titanicus gets a load of new rules and a new army so it’s really dominating at the moment. Another very positive edition of the magazine.

 
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Posted in 40k, Epic, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 109 – January 1989

22 Feb

£1.50 for 80 pages and just 25% ads this month as we start a new year. Well actually it’s December in the real world as they are released a month early, but that just confuses things. The game that will come to be known as Epic has launched and things are good.

Culture Shock

Adeptus Titanicus is getting marines and tanks.

Critical Mass

Books.

Land Raider!

Vehicles in Adeptus Titanicus. Already it’s more than just titans and we also get dreadnoughts along with Rhinos and Land Raiders.

The Lost and the Damned: Greater Daemons

Nurgle and Tzeentch for Fantasy Battle and roleplay.

Goblin Fanatics in Blood Bowl

Some less than serious rules for Blood Bowl.

Terminator Armour

Something else that’s appearing way before I remember it is the introduction of Terminators. They didn’t look like modern ones, or even slightly later early ones but the basics of the 2+ save and storm bolters are there. What’s not to love? Well the models for a start…

The Imperial Guard

A staggering 22 pages of army list for the Imperial Guard. That’s just insane.

Illuminations

Some uncredited artwork. Well it is credited if you know what the symbols mean. Which I don’t. [Edit: Oh yeah, they're on the contents page]

Roks and Wheelz

Goblin War Chariot and Orc Stone Thrower for Fantasy Battle.

‘Eavy Metal

Chaos conversions.

Reaver and Warhound

Rules for the reaver and warhound models, along with their cards.

New 40k and Epic Model Releases

  • Adeptus Titanicus. 6 plastic Warlord titans, Eight polystyrene buildings and four dice. Oh and rules, counters and rulers that are probably more accurate than the swishy sticks of today. I wonder where mine are so I can check?
  • Reaver Class Titan
  • Warhound Class Titan
  • Imperial Guard Beastmen (2)
  • Adeptus Mechanicus. A figure I always loved.
  • Terminator Marine. This one looks slightly better than the previous model, but still stays clear of the “good” category.
  • Imperial Guard. 8 metal bodies and plastic arms and weapons.

OK, let me get this right. This month gave us Adeptus Titanicus and some new rules for it already, Imperial Guard as we know them today and Terminators? This has to be the best issue yet.

It also gave us the evil that was metal bodies and plastic arms. They never stuck on for me because I didn’t understand pinning yet.

 
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Posted in 40k, Epic, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 108 – December 1988

21 Feb

It’s Christmas time again, so a great time to release new games I would say. £1.50 for 80 pages as usual, and with 29% adverts. The picture is of a Titan. Epic has arrived.

Illuminations

Pictures of Chaos from the two released books.

Chaos Dwarf Ballistics

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Chaos Dwarf shooting units. Swivel guns and crossbows.

Advanced Shooting

More Dark Future rules.

Survival of the Fittest

Chaos armies in 40k and Fantasy and how to mutate and grow them between battles in a campaign. Great fun if you want half your army to have serious injuries at the start of the next battle.

Witch Elves of Naggaroth.

Regiments of renown. Fluff for fantasy battle.

Warhammer Armies Errata

More cut out and glue patches for a book.

Chaplains and Commissars

Two new units for 40k.

Terror In The Darkness

Warhammer fantasy roleplay. 8 whole pages of it.

Critical Mass

Book reviews

Star Players

Blood Bowl new rules

‘Eavy Metal

Titans! As a tease for the upcoming game we get to see the first look at the titan models. You also see some marines and Land Raiders as well, and I don’t remember them having announced that yet.

New Warhammer 40k Releases

  • Chaplains (set of 6)
  • Techmarine on Bike
  • Techmarine on Jetbike
  • Chaplain on Vincent Black Shadow motorbike
  • Chaplain on Jetbike
  • Terminator Marine. The dumb one with shoulder pads that go above the head.
  • Squats. Range of 28
  • Reaver class battle titan (Epic)

Another light-ish month with some pretty useless Chaos campaign rules and some iconic units for Marines and Guard with the chaplains and commissars. The star f the show was of course ‘Eavy Metal with the first look at what would turn out to be a very important game system over the next few years. In some ways it even eclipsed 40k for a while…

 
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Posted in 40k, Epic, White Dwarf

 
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