When think back over the last twenty something years there isn’t a game I can think of that I am still interested in except 40k. This year it turns 25 and although I started playing a year or two after launch I think I just managed to miss the initial lack of models and managed to start when things were truly interesting. I still have a fondness for the old Rhino and Land Raider that colours my view of Marines even to today.
The thing that I remember most from back then was White Dwarf, and how I would read each issue again and again. I remember the plans for the whirlwind and vindicator coming along as simple conversions for the Rhino. I remember plans to make a baneblade from plastic card. I remember being taught how to build cottages from foam board and balsa wood. I basically just remember it all being great!
Compare it with today and everybody is saying how bad White Dwarf is, and how it is just a catalogue that is designed to sell the latest, greatest model. The battle reports are designed to get you excited about that months releases, and the modeling articles are all so basic that there’s no point in us reading them.
The question is this: is that true? Was White Dwarf ever better? Was it ever worse than now?
Well this is something I can answer as I have a rather large collection of issues, so I’ll run through the entire run and say what was covered, give some opinions and most
importantly what was released that month so I can put together some kind of history.
So join me next post in September 1987 with the release of some new game called Warhammer 40k and a magazine that doesn’t look very much like what we have today at all.
