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Archive for the ‘White Dwarf’ Category

White Dwarf 144 – December 1991

13 May

After last months Epic-tastic issue it’ll be nice to see some other game systems get a look in again. 40k is seeming more and more like the second system behind Epic, which is why I stopped reading back then in the first place. Well there was also going to college and therefore distractions from girls and drink, but mainly it was too much Epic coverage.

We’ve lost all of the store housekeeping sections from the table of contents this week, but they’re all still there. There’s no news section though.

Epic Assault Scenarios (6, 8 pages)

More new rules for Space Marine. It adds fortifications, assault and defence strategies as well as being dug in and hidden setups. There’s some counters to support all of this as well as some colour templates for minefields and razorwire.

Elven Lords (14, 2 pages)

A page of pictures and one of text for the studio Elven Lords models.

Modelling Workshop (16, 7 pages)

What’s this? It’s not a fantasy building this month! What we have instead are similar techniques to make walls and bunkers for Epic. It does use my favourite thing in these articles though, which is to use a base as part of the model. In this case it’s a cavalry base as the roof to a bunker.

Their technique for razor wire is much cheaper than the solutions they sell today. You take the aluminum mesh you use to fix car bodywork and cut that into think strips. I must remember that trick.

Armies of the Imperium (24, 10 pages)

Actually this is a piece on new Epic units in general, with the following getting new rules.

  • Eldar Warp Hunter
  • Eldar Wave Serpent
  • Eldar Deathstalker Prism Cannon
  • Hellbore
  • The Mole
  • The Termite
  • Drop Pods
  • The Leviathan

‘Eavy Metal – Epic Vehicles and Titans (34, 2 pages)

Some more nicely painted epic vehicles. Well the Termites are too heavily drybrushed, but you can’t have everything.

Space Hulk Questions and Answers (36,  3 pages)

A selection of questions that came up at Games Day 1991.

Noise Marines (40, 2 pages)

40K content at last! Chaos get one of their iconic units. There is, of course, a song lyric from D-Rok included because of Warhammer Records still existing for reasons I still can’t fathom. I’ve said it before but why on earth did they become a record label?

Dark Elf Army (42, 5 pages)

Nice army overview piece and example list.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Playsheet (47, 2 pages)

Cut out and keep summary sheet.

Wardancers (50, 2 pages)

Clearing up more questions about Elven Wardancers for Fantasy.

Basic Terrain (52, 5 pages)

Really nice introductory piece on basic gaming terrain. How to make hills from polystyrene (that your models won’t fall off), Woods, Hedges and the table itself. Of course tables were 8×4 back then instead of 6×4 so no wonder people had a problem fitting a dedicated board into their homes.

Dwarf Army (58, 4 pages)

Wayne England runs through his expansions to his Dwarf army. I really like these pieces, but I do wonder if they are accurate about if you really would have those in a viable force. They’re almost the precursor to the tale of 5 gamers pieces today.

Titan Data Sheets (62, 11 pages)

Titan weapons and their data sheets.

New Releases

  • Noise Marine (£3.99 for 2)
  • Slasha Gargant (Epic)
  • Imperial Leviathan (Epic)
  • Eldar Wave Serpent (Epic)
  • Eldar Deathstalker (Epic)
  • Eldar Warp Hunter (Epic)
  • Super Cyboar and Snakebite warboss.
  • Bionik Boyz
  • Ork Heavy Weapons (extra options)
 
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Posted in 40k, Epic, Space Hulk, WHFB, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 142 – October 1991

15 Apr

We’re entering the last few months of old Games Workshop as a management buyout will happen very shortly after this issue is written and so must have been starting to kick off already. It’ll be interesting to see how the December 1991 management buyout effects the magazine as it certainly had an effect on the games that GW supported.

Games Workshop Store News (2, 2 pages)

I feel sorry for whoever had to do these pages each month.

Undead Army (4, 5 pages)

Another army creation piece. I would love them to do something along these lines nowadays.

Painting Skeletons (6, 2 pages)

Some proper dedicated painting content for a change! In reality all they have done is expand out a bit of the army articles.

Space Hulk Questions and Answers (12, 8 pages)

A rather large piece about rules clarifications for the pre internet era. Actually I might have had access to the internet by this time if I think about it. Most people didn’t even know what it was though.

Painting Epic Armies (20, 16 pages)

How can it take 16 pages to say “paint your 6mm man one colour and then drybrush with a slightly lighter one?” Or was that just me. It’s actually one of those pieces that slips a bit more content in by having Blood Angels, Ultra-Marines (where did the hyphen come from?) and Dark Angels company colour schemes in there as well.

The Black Sail (36, 10 pages)

Fantasy fiction by Neil McIntosh. Think I’ll give this to Fantasy Roleplay.

Space Marine Titan Weapons (48, 12 pages)

A large amount of extra weapons and heads were released, and these are the rules for them. Fancy having a landing pad on your titan? How about a wrecking ball? There’s also some rules for the Ork Great Gargant and Imperial Reaver, which I assume means that they weren’t in the new rulebook.

Confrontation Weapons (60, 15 pages)

Page after page of weapon descriptions for Confrontation. It’s mainly a game of lists…

New Releases

  • Reaver Titan 072701 – Now with more options for weapons.
  • Titan Heads and Weapons 072812 A staggering number of heads and weapons. They came randomly in blisters which was annoying when you wanted something specific.
  • Ork Great Gargant 079854

No 40k content this issue, but some good things for Epic and Space Hulk.

 
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Posted in Confrontation, Epic, Space Hulk, WHFB, WHFRP, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 141 – September 1991

14 Apr

It’s our first proper 40k battle report! Yay! 4 years in for anybody who was counting…

Games Workshop Store News (2, 2 pages)

The usual. Still no Welsh store.

Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures News (4, 2 pages)

D-Rok have a new album out, but in gaming news Space Fleet is being joined by three new games in the easy beginner range. Mighty Warriors and Ultramarines are the Fantasy Battle and 40k equivalents, and Kerrunch is for Blood Bowl. I’m not sure any of these were ever that successful, and obviously GW don’t release beginner games nowadays so that probably says a lot about it.

Space Marine (6, 6 pages)

It’s the start of the Games Workshop obsession with cards as Epic gets a new edition as Space Marine. For years the game was dominated by these cards and in this case it replaced army lists. Of course in game the are actually useful as it stops you having to keep digging through books to find stats. I think it was the first time holding objectives was introduced as well.

The gap between 1st and 2nd edition of 40k was long and a lot of the innovation came from Epic. Shame the game is relegated to specialist games now, but who knows. Maybe GW will do a limited edition new game in the style of Space Hulk and Dreadfleet.

Canadian Grand Openings (12, 2 pages)

Adverts for new Canadian stores.

Wood Elf Army (14, 10 pages)

Another in the series of collecting/painting articles that they have been running recently. This time it’s for a Wood Elf force created by Mike McVey.

Games Day 1991 (25, 7 pages)

The programme for Games Day 1991.

Alaitoc Craftworld vs The Blood Angels (32, 14 pages)

Amazingly this is the first 40k battle report in the magazine. Andy Chambers and Jervis Johnson go at it with Space Marines and Eldar and of course Marines win. It’s a very substantial piece at 14 pages, but then again it is the only 40k content in this issue.

Golden Demon Awards 1991 (46, 4 pages)

Pictures of winning entries.

Space Fleet (50, 20 pages)

Flagships and new missions for Space Fleet.

New Models

  • Annihilator Battleship 077843/1+2
  • Dictator Battleship 077829/1+2
  • Thunderbolt Cruiser 077831/1
  • Stalwart Escort Ship 077856/1

Battle reports were still new and so I guess this wasn’t a bad issue, but the Space Fleet content is a little wasted with retrospect and the Space Marine piece is really just an overview of the new game so it’s not that great an issue for 40k and co.

 
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Posted in 40k, Epic, Space Fleet, WHFB, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 140 – August 1991

09 Apr

Interesting stat time. Last year White Dwarf was audited at 58,597 copies per month, this year it’s at 63,847 copies. It’s a shame that they don’t seem to be audited in the same way any more. Still we’re 4 years into 40k this month so where’s the 40k content? In fact this issue feels very odd structure wise.

Games Workshop National Gaming Leagues (2, 2 pages)

This looks suspiciously like the store news pages, only with a new name…

Modelling Workshop: Fantasy Barn (4, 4 pages)

More foam board and balsa wood buildings. Really, we’ve got the technique by now!

Warhammer Novels (9, 9 pages)

5 pages of adverts for novels and then 4 pages of useful Fantasy Battle fluff.

Golden Demon Awards 1991 (19, 19 pages)

19 whole pages of pictures of the winners. That’s really going to tip the modelling numbers for this issue!

Beasts in Velvet (28, 6 pages)

More Fantasy Roleplay content about a book.

Space Fleet (46, 

Games Workshop Liverpool Grand Re-Opening (55, 

‘Eavy Metal (62, 16 pages)

14 pages of fluff and new ships followed by two pages of painting.

Now there’s two words we’ve not seen in the contents for a while.

Space Fleet (64, 12 pages)

New rules for Space Fleet.

New Releases

  • Eldar Shadowhunter 077817
  • Tryant Battleship 077804 + 077797
  • Dominator Battleship 077797 + 077797
  • Goliath Factory Ship
  • Galaxy Troop Ship

Another disappointment with zero 40k this month. Space Fleet really didn’t cut it and most of this issue was filler.

 
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Posted in Space Fleet, WHFB, WHFRP, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 139 – July 1991

08 Apr

It’s time for Space Fleet, the latest Games Workshop boxed game.

Games Workshop Store News (2, 2 pages)

More shops have opened. Wales still has none.

Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures News (4,  2 pages)

Mighty Warriors is coming, a game aimed at younger players (see also Space Fleet later on). They’re really making a push to get younger games into the hobby.

Golden Demon Awards 1991 (6, 2 pages)

Words and pictures about that year’s competition. No model shots, just pictures of crowds.

Space Fleet (8, 27 pages)

The game has only just come out, but already the are expanding the rules in order to make them a bit more complex for more experienced gamers. For those who don’t remember, Space Fleet was a game like Battleship Gothic but only a lot simpler. It came with four ships (two Imperial and two Eldar) and so was very small scale battling. Extra ships were sold of course and this issue has rules for the first batch.

Games Workshop Coventry Grand Opening (37, 1 page)

Advert with money off tokens.

Illuminations – John Blanche (42, 3 pages)

Illuminations returns with more John Blanche black and white pictures.

Blood Angels Space Marine Army (46, 9 pages)

Another piece that gives an army list and then details how it was built and painted. They’re getting to really be a form of filler as they really don’t need that many pages to say what they do.

Games Workshop Cambridge Grand Opening (55, 1 page)

Another advert.

Advanced Heroquest Treasures (57, 16 pages)

New treasure rules for Advanced Heroquest.

New Releases

  • Emperor Capital Ship 077733
  • Gothic Battleship 077772
  • Ironclad Battleship 077721
  • Firestorm Cruiser 077719
  • Cobra Destroyer 077706
  • Castellan Shield Ship 077721
  • Eldar Wraithship 077784

A disappointing issue with only the new rules for Space Fleet really being worth it, and even then that still wasn’t a very engaging game in my experience. Still, I’ll add it to the list of games I should replay one day so I can be proven wrong.

 

 
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Posted in 40k, Advanced Heroquest, Space Fleet, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 138 – June 1991

06 Apr

More adverts this month, mainly because the catalogue pages at the back are back.

Games Workshop Store News (2, 2 pages)

Stores are opening late every weekend over the summer, which is nice. The rest is just generics and a list of shops.

Games Workshop and Citadel Miniature News (4, 2 pages)

Space Fleet is coming! The precursor to Battlefleet Gothic was quite a different beast, so that should be interesting. Aimed at a younger demographic it was never exactly complicated… Also coming is the Warhammer 40,000 Compilation, which contains some of the last few years White Dwarf articles for those who don’t want to fiddle with backissues. There’s also a book of Space Hulk campaigns coming that contains the White Dwarf content as well as four new campaigns to play.

Finally Games Workshop have moved to Howard House in Nottingham.

Games Workshop Middlesbrough Grand Opening (10, 1 page)

Money off coupons and an advert for the store.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Social Level (11, 8 pages)

Whats a fantasy world without a strict social order? Fantasy Roleplay rules for letting you know your place in life.

Altaitoc Craftworld Eldar Army (20, 10 pages)

Tough one this, but in reflection I’d have to say it’s more 40k than just modelling. This piece details the studio 2000 point army, how it was painted and how it is organised.

Space Hulk: Necromunda (30, 16 pages)

Space Hulk isn’t just for space hulks you know. It’s also for Hive Worlds such as Necromunda. This is a campaign set there and has the usual new room piece.

Advanced Heroquest: Henchmen (30, 6 pages)

Expanded and clarified henchmen rules for Advanced Heroquest.

Bretonnian Knights (52, 4 pages)

A slightly less tough call, this is more modelling than anything else and continues with the painting Bretonnians theme of the last few issues.

Confrontation (59, 15 pages)

The second part of the combat rules.

New Releases

  • Eldar Guardians 071584
  • Eldar Scouts 071545
  • Eldar Avatar 091597
  • Eldar Warlocks and Farseer 071604 (expanded range)

Another lacking 40k month that is good for other games in the universe. Confrontation is taking up a lot of space at the moment, and that is hurting the content for the core games. The question is whether this is a good or a bad thing…

 
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Posted in 40k, Advanced Heroquest, Space Hulk, WHFRP, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 137 – May 1991

05 Apr

New game system time! Well not that new as it’s been trailed for a while with articles. In other news somebody remembered Fantasy Battle exists. Also there’s hardly any adverts! This traditionally means something is about to happen…

Games Workshop Store News (2, 4 pages)

Where can you buy these fantastic things? Stores listed here. The North American stores get a list of events.

Golden Demon ’91 Grand Finals (7, 6 pages)

What’s happening at the Golden Demon awards.

Bretonnian Retainers (14, 3 pages)

Two pages of ‘Eavy metal of Bretonnian Foot Troops.

Bretonnian Army List (16, 1 page)

Bretonnian foot troop army list.

Skaven Army (17, 13 pages)

Andy Chambers describes his Skaven army.

Modelling Workshop: Fantasy Townhouse (34, 8 pages)

More foam board and balsa wood building templates. You know, by now you should be able to make whatever you want as they just keep repeating the same techniques…

Space Hulk: The Last Stand (42, 9 pages)

A Space Hulk campaign.

Storm Warriors (52, 5 pages)

Fantasy Roleplay characters from the book of the same name.

Confrontation: Combat Rules (52, 18 pages)

Finally we have rules to play with!

Confrontation: Trading Charts (75, 6 pages)

Awkward rules for trading equipment between gangs. Again it seems more suited to friendly play sessions in a group than competitive play.

New Releases

  • Eldar Guardians (20 plastic models)

A really bad 40k month with zero articles. On the other hand there’s some Space Hulk and Confrontation that counts for making the universe better. The confrontation part alone makes Necromunda sound like a brilliant vacation spot.

 
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Posted in Confrontation, Space Hulk, WHFB, WHFRP, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 136 – April 1991

03 Apr

Hope you like Orks…

Games Workshop Store News (2, 3 pages)

Change in format this month. There’s no longer a big list of events listed by store, now it just says the kind of thing that is happening and has a map of the stores in Britain and Scotland. Poor Wales gets none. Poor Northern Ireland doesn’t even get a map.

Space Marine – An Epic Battle (5, 13 pages)

We have our first battle report! It’s for Epic though so poor old 40k is still a way off from getting one. Orks (Burzuruk’s Bad Boyz) face off against Marines (Valedictors) in an Epic struggle (see what I did there?) on an 8×4 table (remember those?)

The Marines of course won. I’m going to keep a running tally of these I think! So far the Marines have a 100% win rate then.

Eldar Guardians (18, 4 pages)

How to paint Eldar Guardians. It’s a nice enough piece, and one I remember working from back in the day.

The Magician’s Son (22, 8 pages)

A short story taken from a book. I’m going to be generous and call this Fantasy Battle content as it’s the main system.

Games Workshop Croydon Grand Opening (25, 1 page)

Advert.

Bretonnian Knights (36, 5 pages)

‘Eavy Metal for painting tin cans on horseback.

Games Workshop Reading Grand Re-Opening (25, 1 page)

This was my local store at the time. More useless information about me coming soon.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Questions and Answers (42, 2 pages)

Another FAQ. Was the current version of Fantasy Battle really that complicated? We’ve still not got one for 40k beyond a small clarification in a new rules section.

Ork Freebooterz (44, 14 pages)

More rules for Ork Freebooterz.

Ork Stormboyz (52, 2 pages)

There was a time when Stormboyz were very different. No jetpacks here, just a very military feel.

Marauder Undead (60, 1 page)

More painting information that includes the difficult technique known as drybrushing. I guess before the Internet then you would have to explain this every so often for new people…

This is actually an ‘Eavy Metal

Modelling Workshop: Ork Battlewagons (62, 10 pages)

More scratch built vehicles! These are templates that you make out of card. My brother actually made the Gobsmasha, but the glue would never hold it together.

New Models

These all look like older models to me.

 

Another Ork heavy issue, and I can see why we all loved Orks at the time. Some people rebelled a bit and went Eldar but it was always between the big three. Imperial Guard and Squats really were on the back burner for most of the time.

 
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Posted in 40k, Epic, WHFB, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 135 – March 1991

30 Mar

It’s happened! We’re now up to £1.95 for 80 pages. That’s 1.875p a page! Compare that to the current price of £4.50 for 120 pages and you get 3.75p a page. Actually when you take inflation into account that’s not too bad… Anyway.

Games Workshop And Citadel News (2, 1 page)

It’s been three years (apparently) since a price rise and so it’s about time for one now. Large boxed games like Space Hulk will now be £22.99 and Warhammer 40k will be £11.99. Metal miniatures are now typically £3.99 for 4.

It’s no wonder I could afford to play back then. How do kids today manage?

Games Workshop Store News (4, 3 pages)

Events at stores in the past.

Wayne England’s Dwarf Longbeards (8, 2 pages)

A quick rundown of a Dwarf army being assembled by some of the artists.

Mighty Empires (10, 3 pages)

Some rules tweaks that have been made as the studio play a rather large game and some rules clarifications.

Modelling Workshop: Ruined Temple (14, 4 pages)

The default state of all buildings in Warhammer (both fantasy and 40k) is ruined, and this tells you how to build a ruined temple from foam core board and plaster wedding cake decoration pillars. It’s actually a very nice looking building and the techniques again wouldn’t be out of place today. Mind you sticking foam board together, adding balsa wood detailing and then texturing before painting isn’t exactly hard. Would be nice to see GW go down this route again, even if they were selling overpriced foam board and balsa wood in stores to cash in on it.

Freebooterz (18, 8 pages)

Rules for Ork Freebooterz. Generated from a random table (still the worse mechanic ever for games) they let you have some interesting new units in your Ork army. My favourtites are the Ork Genestealer hybrids. Of course Genestealers would infect Orks, and that’s a range of models I really wish they had made. Speaking of which…

Modelling Guide (26, 14 pages)

A massive piece on how to convert models. How to cut them, pin them and fill gaps. It then has a few examples such as Ork Genestealer hybrids and some Flash Gitz with converted weapons.

Kustom Weapons (40, 8 pages)

Rules for how to make kustom weapons for Orks using a D6 and D100 (2D10 for those who have never experienced it, not a hundred sided die). Stop with the random rules!

Games Workshop Sheffield Grand Reopening (47, 1 page)

Advert with a money off coupon for the opening event. Whoever owned this magazine at the time lived in Sheffield I suspect as it’s gone.

Warhammer 40,000 Vehicle Points Values (50, 2 pages)

Vehicles used to be costed according to the sum of all the points of the characteristics of the vehicle plus points for weapons. This was of course far too complicated and more suited for kitbashing vehicles. Now that there’s a good range it’s time to go to fixed points as we have today.

Guess how many points the Land Raider is? Yep, 250. The whole range is here, including all of the scratch built models and conversions such as the Whirlwind and Baneblade.

Warhammer 40,000 Vehicle Data Records (52, 2 pages)

To hit pictures for Imperial and Eldar Jet Bikes.

Genestealer Invasion (57, 5 pages)

Missions for Space Hulk and the expansions. These can be played as a campaign.

Games Workshop Oxford Grand Reopening (59, 1 page)

An advert by any other name is still an advert.

Marienburg (64, 9 pages)

Another chunk of roleplaying filler. Should I admit I have some of the current 40k roleplaying books? Probably not.

New Releases

  • Ork Freebooterz 070683
  • Aspect Warriors (extra models) 071572, 071560

Wow, that’s a lot of modelling. Some really good content this month.

 
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Posted in 40k, Mighty Empires, Space Hulk, WHFB, WHFRP, White Dwarf

 

White Dwarf 134 – February 1991

28 Mar

£1.50, 80 pages. Surely this can’t go on for ever? Down to 15% adverts too. There’s even a less store focused view coming in as the store news isn’t right up front.

Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures News (2, 1 page)

Oh no! Incoming price increase coming for the magazine!

Games Workshop Luton Grand Opening (3, 1 page)

Money off coupons for the Hull store.

Space Crusade (4, 8 pages)

Terminators, Space Marine Scouts, Orks, Tyranids and Genestealers for the original Space Crusade.

Advanced Heroquest: The Trollslayer’s Oath (12, 16 pages)

Dwarves take on Skaven in somewhere that isn’t Moria, right?

Heroquest: The Halls of Durrag-Dol (30, 3 pages)

Heroquest adventure that adds Skaven to the game.

Waa-Ghazgkull (34, 10 pages)

A Goff warband led by somebody called Ghazghkull. Bet he never caught on.

How To Paint Your Warband (42, 7 pages)

How to paint Orks. Not a bad guide actually.

Golden Demon Awards 91 (52, 2 pages)

How to enter.

Games Workshop Store News (54, 3 pages)

Events at GW stores.

Games Workshop Hull Grand Opening (57, 1 page)

More money off coupons.

Modelling Workshop: Ork Building (60, 4 pages)

It’s more scratch built buildings, and these are for 40k for a change. Foam board, balsa wood and now textured wall paint/polyfiller as well.

‘Eavy Metal: Richard Wright, Adrian Dyson and Steve Mussared (64, 2 pages)

The decline of ‘Eavy Metal sees us down to two pages as well as the back cover. There’s not even any words.

Advanced Space Crusade: Ork Warbands (66, 10 pages)

Orks in Advanced Space Crusade, as well as a new board section that doesn’t fit on one page…

New Releases

  • Nothing, it’s all existing models

Well this is a good issue if you like the MB games, but probably useless for much else if you don’t like Orks.

 
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Posted in 40k, Advanced Heroquest, Advanced Space Crusade, White Dwarf

 
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