Talking Miniatures

This 2-volume book arrived in the post yesterday.

"Talking Miniatures" , by John Stallard and Robin Dews, chronicles the early days (most notably the 80s and early 90s) of Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures through interviews of many people who worked there at the time. I already read a few of the interviews, and it brings back a lot of memories and nostalgia. It is also a nice complement to "Dice Men" (by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson), which described the very early days of Games Workshop.

I was a real GW junkie during my early gaming days. I bought the 1st edition of Warhammer when it was first published, and it opened a whole new gaming world for me (before that, I played mostly board wargames, I had'nt even played an rpg yet :-)). So many of the events and games and miniatures described feel very familiar to me, although I never knew or met any of the GW/Citadel staff. But I was an avid GW gamer (these days are long gone, I'm not the target audience anymore), and still have quite a lot of those early games and books and miniatures.

But anyway, after reading through a few of the interviews, I realized a couple of things:

• Although I didn't feel like that at the time, as a gamer I experienced a period in the history of fantasy gaming that was still very close to the early days. So perhaps I was a pioneer without realizing it ;-)
• It is stated several times that the Warhammer books (and especially the 3rd edition book) created an ideal to strive for as a wargamer: photographs of spectacular gaming tables, which were the dream of many starting hobbyists. I do indeed remember me drooling over many of these photographs, thinking it was something I could never achieve ...
• Something else which struck me, but I also never gave much thought, is that the slottabase was a very clever invention. It allowed for miniatures to be manufactured with less metal, but it also allowed for regiments to be formed in neat blocks without having to cut out one's own bases.
• Rick Priestley (one of my wargaming heroes!) mentioned that Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition was quite unplayable ... which I found very odd, because this is the edition I played many battles with., and which I felt was perfectly playable at the time. But anyway, thanks for letting us know! :-)
  

An enjoyable read, and a must for all GW/Citadel fanboyz, past or present ...

And here are some of my early credentials ... (my 1st edition box is gone, all 1st edition stuff is in the 2nd edition box ;-)).

Bryan Ansell

Through various wargaming forums, I heard that Bryan Ansell passed away yesterday.

Although I never met or talked to him, he had a large influence on me when I was starting out in wargaming during the 80s. As a Games Workshop afficionado during those days, his name was very familiar to me, most notably because he was mentioned as first author on my very first miniature ruleset I ever bought, Warhammer 1st edition.

He also was featured with his chaos army in Warhammer Armies for the 3rd edition, in a very iconic photograph.

Thank you for everything you did for the wargaming hobby!

History of Games Workshop

It finally arrived ...

I already browsed through the book, lots of interesting pictures.

Now to see how many games I recognize and how many events I have a vague awareness of ... ;-)

Mighty Empires (2)

I played 2 campaign seasons with the Mighty Empires setup I described a few posts ago, using the original 1990 rules.

So what did I learn?

• There's a lot of dice rolling. A lot! 
• There's more dice rolling!
• And even more!

To summarize, a lot of dice rolling on all sorts of tables: to determine the content of a tile when scouted; to determine whether you can move over mountains and how much troops that will cost you; to determine the strength of independent settlements; to see what happens when an army banner doesn't have enough subsistence; and so on...

So is Mighty Empires  a good game? Hmmm, no, not so good. But then, it was never meant as a standalone game. You should really see it as a campaign world generator, with a lot of unexpected events happening, and for that, it does the job.

Here are pictures after campaign season 1. You see each of three empires has spent most of the time exploring.

Here's the situation after campaign season 2.  There has been quite some fighting near the borders, and as a winter event, a Dragon Rage happened, razing some tiles in the middle of the board.

Mighty Empires

Reading up on Tony Bath's Hyboria campaign (I should start a separate page and collect all sorts of resources there), I started wondering what game might come close to recreate such a campaign.

Then I remembered Mighty Empires.

Back in the late 80s,early 90s I was a hardcore Games Workshop fanboy. To be honest, I wasn't even aware other miniature wargames did exist outside of Games Workshop, that realization only came later. So naturally I also bought Mighty Empires when it was first published. I do not recall we ever played it completely or used it as a campaign engine for our regular Warhammer Fantasy 3rd edition battles, but I do recall I owned some of the metal miniatures as well, and most likely some of the White Dwarf stuff (I was a subscriber).

Then somewhere during the early 2000s I had a major clean-out of my games collection, and Mighty Empires was sold. Last year, an old gaming buddy donated some of his old gaming stuff to me, and suddenly, I had a box of Mighty Empires again. Everything was still there, except the rulebook (but that can be found online).

So, I couldn't resist and generated 2 maps according to the rules in the rulebook, the result of which you see below.

I also browsed through the rulebook again, and there are some good ideas in there. I am almost sure the designers were heavily influenced by Bath's Hyboria, some of the similarities are too strong. But there's probably a reason we never finished a game 30 years ago. The game is not so much game, but indeed, a campaign engine. Lots of rolling on random tables etc. Fun as a way to generate an imaginary world, but perhaps not so fun to use on a game.

Inaugural game - 6mm Scifi

Last Friday we had an inaugural game at Koen D. wargaming mansion (i.e. his living room). Since Koen is known for his fondness of 6mm science fiction, he had chosen a golden oldie for us to play: Space Marine 2nd edition, published by Games Workshop during the early nineties. Koen is a SpaceMarine/Epic afficionado, so it was quite natural he selected Space Marine as the first game to be hosted at his place.

We used a few rules modifications, such as using hexes to count for movement and ranges. The scenario involved an Eldar force attacking an urban area defended by Space Marines.

The game went well, although we were a bit surprised by the special powers of some of the units. Eldar wave serpents seem brutal!

Nevertheless, the game was a lot of fun, although it also reminded us also why we moved away from GW rules in a distant past. But it might serve as a good basis to start developing our own 6mm scifi house rules.

A few finished miniatures

I have to admit wargaming activity has been on the slow side lately. I barely managed to do any painting, and due to a variety of reasons, actual number of games also has suffered.

Anyway, here are some finished miniatures.

First, some old Runequest miniatures which I identified earlier in this blogpost. From left to right: Smitten Broo, Broo with Mace and Orlanth Adventurer. The Broo with Mace required a small repair, since the mace was broken off.

Second, a large siege engine from Games Workshop, published several years ago as part of their Lord of the Rings range. I originally bought this set in 2005 or 2006, for the Lowenheim game, but I only got around painting it now.

Third, not really a paintjob, but a hangman stand put together. This set is produced by 4Ground. The figure is one I had lying around, and was (is?) part of Foundry's Old West range. Time to play some more Shootist games!