Games Workshop: Fanboys Just Aren't Helping Any More.

For those who haven't heard, Games Workshop has released their latest quarterly investor update.

The results are.. not good.  In fact, they are about as far from good as you can get.

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/07/bombshell-gw-2014-annual-report.html

Basically income is down, and profit is WAAAAAY DOWN.  GW's continuing resolve to ignore anyone but whatever dinks in the company think is best is basically killing them more and more every financial quarter.

We are discussing this at Something Awful and even have a "Guess when GW goes out of business/gets bought out" thread.

A fellow named Bulbasaur found some choice quotes from GW fanboys explaining exactly what is killing GW games, and is honestly a bit of a hit on minis games as a whole:

More reports from the front lines:
A second hand army will never garner the same affection, pride or sense of accomplishment that building and painting a starter army yourself. As a starter army, this robs the gamer of 75% of the enjoyment of the hobby. Should never be recommended to new players. People who play miniature games just to play a game should stick to video games or heroscape.

This statement here?  This is what makes playing minis games such a goddamned colossal pain in the willy.

Its not about nifty toys to play a game, nope!  ITS AN ART PROJECT YOU SOMETIMES PLAY A GAME WITH!

NO.  NO NO NO NO.  If I want to just build stuff I would buy Japanese model kits.  The price and technology in them are light years beyond what GW has ever pulled out of their backsides.

This kit here?  US Store mark up to 30 bucks, or what some of those 1 inch Marine Commanders cost.  (JPN MSRP is closer to 20 US, or the other ripoff Marine HQs.)

Its molded in like 5 or 6 colors, snap fit, clear and complete instructions even if you don't speak any Japanese, and pose able as you like.  You can even buy little 5 dollar bases or 7 dollar upgrade kits to like give em new guns and gear or pose them in ways that wouldn't normally balance on their own.

Or for the same price without an import store markup (I should really get my Gundam kits from Amazon.  Closer to JPN MSRP.  A normal sized HG kit is 1575 yen.  Or about 22 bucks from Bandai's Amazon store.  Yeah.) this 1 inch tall glue only figure molded in grey.  Tough choice Art Project Shmucks!

http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2010/09/review-corner-high-grade-universal.html  Games Workshop doesn't even have PREMIUM QUALITY to fall back on!  Yet people kiss their butts and try to convince themselves getting ripped off because of skulls and silly proportioned figures and an absurd backstory currently being milked in ways that would make Peter Jackson ashamed.  (How many books is the Horus Heresy series now?  Over 30?)

And they kind of have to insist ITS REALLY AN ART PROJECT NOT A GAME because the rules are bad and generally getting worse over time as opposed to better.

AT-43 beat the SNOT out of 40K's ruleset and you could be playing within minutes of opening a box.  (Plus a nice universal mechanics chart that had auto succeed and fail levels to simulate things like a machinegun firing at point blank range or getting hit as a soldier by an anti tank weapon. And amazing prepaints.)

If you can handle my monotone nasal ass voice and 480p camera watch that.  SEE QUALITY AND VALUE.

OH GOD HOW WILL I HAVE OWNERSHIP IF I ONLY FLOCK THE BASES?  I MIGHT ACTUALLY PLAY PLEASING TO THE EYES MINIATURES GAMES WITH THEM AND REALIZE HOW BAD GW RULES ARE!!

Warmahordes has a continually evolving ruleset and metagame based around the tourney scene which makes it an appealing game.  I don't know what the UK is like but in the US the organized play/tourney scene basically rules all.  (Doesn't hurt that US gamers are fantastic at being antisocial and sort of need a SHOW UP AT X TIME AND PLAY SOMEONE YOU BUTTHEAD deal.  I hate GAMER ASPERGERS.)  GW games are designed around gentlemen playing friendly games then going round to the Pub.  Except very few people actually play that way and even good friends can be irredeemable power gamers who want to win at all cost.

(Because have a good time with folks is SILLY TALK.  WE MUST WIN AT ALL COSTS. *barf*)

Hell, buy a new Warcaster or swap one or two units out of your force and the entire army plays completely different thanks to synergies, strategies, and unit abilities!  (Which are all on the card of the unit you just bought as opposed to needing a 50 dollar hardback.  If you want you can get your army books for 40-30 hard or soft if its your bag but... you don't really NEED to!)

HEY LOOK KIDS!  FULL COLOR SOFT BACK RULEBOOK AND FACTION/ARMY BOOK.  30 DOLLARS EACH!  

X Wing ships cost less than those Marine HQs and its a great game system that you need few models for.  And its prepainted with all the rules and goodies you need in each pack.  For a massive IP the game company doesn't own and thus can't really exploit!

Prepainted?  Preassembled?  Tokens and other play aids?  Different ways to use the same miniature making it useful on its own, in multiples, or bits to help other models?  THIS IS NOT THE GAMES WORKSHOP WAY!

Yet GW has pushed on with its stupid prices (defended by comparing to other rich idiot hobbies.  Hell, almost anything can be considered cheaper to gambling.  Doesn't mean it is accurate or appropriate!  THIS IS TOY SOLDIERS.  A BOARDGAME WITH 3D BOARDS.), and insistence it is an art project instead of a game.

And its doing horrible Tumblr fangirls writing about Sherlock and Supernatural things the ass.  HARD.

Hero Quest and Space Crusade are really what got GW games going in the late 80s.  They don't have any jump in point any more.

This is my jam.  This is what made GW in the first place.

Provide the board game miniatures separate for people who want extras to expand their boardgames?  To use for their armies so they don't need to break up/buy the games?  NO NO NO.  GW DOES NOT AGREE WITH THIS GIVE US MORE MONEY.

NO STAND ALONE GAMES YOU CAN USE TO EXPAND YOUR TABLETOP WARGAMES OR TO USE ON IT'S OWN AND MAYBE GET INTO THE WIDER GAMES VIA EXPANDING THE GAME SHALL NOT HAPPEN.  GIVE US 80 DOLLARS FOR THE HARDBACK RULESBOOK, 50 FOR YOUR ARMY BOOK, ANOTHER 40 FOR THE SUPPLEMENT BOOK AND THEN BUY OUR OVERPRICED MODELS.

NO STARTER GAMES IN DEPARTMENT STORES DAMN YOU!  MARKETING IS FOR LOSERS!  COME TO OUR WEBSTORE OR OUR 1 MAN HOLE IN THE WALL SHOPS IF YOU LIVE IN SELECT AREAS.  YOU CAN ONLY FORGE THE NARRATIVE WE TELL YOU TO!  AND UNPAINTED MODELS AND HOUSE RULES ARE NOT NARRATIVE FORGING.  BUYING RIDICULOUS MODELS AND TOOLS YOU COULD GET FOR A TENTH THE PRICE AT HOME DEPOT IS!

 They treat retailers and the end customer like garbage.  They don't playtest or care about anything but seeing how much they can charge for silly overpriced figures you might one day get to play a poorly balanced, archaic, unfun game with.

This is why they are so screwed.

Operation Game Collection Warhammer 40K Special: Fan Magazines Part 7: Inquisitor 18

Well, it has taken a while, but let me finish with my Inquisitors before I either move on to a new project for a while, or at least say things are complete before reading a TON of nice big Citadel Journals.

(I also have a few more classic White Dwarf issues.  Plus I want to review a couple of the new weekly ones.  And my very first issue I ever bought.)

In between the 17th issue and this one, the final issue a BAD THING happened.

Warhammer 40,000 Third Edition.

Like Epic 40,000 before it, this ruleset involved Andy Chambers simplifying everything, making your old rules and armies completely irrelevant, and removing Squats entirely, only to replace them with the largely disliked Dark Eldar faction.

This changeover also involved my local 40K group effectively all quitting over the space of 2-3 months.

I was one of the few players who actually was ok with Third Edition, though the store owner basically told me I wasn't ALLOWED to tell the group if I disliked it.

Seriously.

Not surprisingly this store ceased to exist within a year, exacerbated by his employee who may or may not have killed their expansion store via using tax money for a vacation instead.

(Given the owner came back with a new store about 7 years later and taxes yet AGAIN took him out I no longer know what to believe there.)

This employee basically started using GW style rules and marketing for play at the store while in the Second edition era we pretty much played how we wanted, with house rules, campaigns, and massive team games.

(The latter actually had one guy hate my guts passive/agressively feeling as if I was some ringmaster preventing him from playing the one on one shorter games he only had time for.  In spite of the majority of us always wanting to play big team games, with a ton of nerd talk and the like.  I guess that time on my birthday when I splurged for pizza and breadsticks for everyone gaming meant I was really Super Space Hitler.  Oh wait.  I NEVER KNEW HE HAD AN ISSUE AND HE NEVER EVEN TALKED TO ME ABOUT IT.  I found out from someone he did tell.  Even though I tried to make sure everyone got games in every week.)

One week I decided to not show up and sleep as this was frustrating me.  Everyone else quickly quit after this week as the employee started saying how much better it was that I wasn't there.

He got fired shortly thereafter, but the damage he and Third Edition did to the community was well done.
(The fact a LOT of people from this timeframe are still happy to see me when we run into one another, and in some cases ask me to play or just what's up.  So maybe I was not a douche so much?  Hell, the weekly Second edition games was a really important thing to help me deal with my mother passing away a few months before we started playing 40K there.)

The only upside about Third was so many players sold off their miniatures cheaply, which netted me quite a few goodies.

Anyhow, let us get on to the magazine.

It is still Four Dollars.  Printed in May 1999, with Third Edition having come out in October 1998.  So roughly six months.

(We all know the deal.  Click for larger images.)

This issue is 28 pages including covers and ads.  The majority of the issue is for the Third Edition playtest rules, with only slightly less for the Second Edition articles.

Opening Shots is mostly mentioning the release of Third edition, and talk about how plenty of people were still playing Second.  In my region?  NO, NO THEY WERE NOT.

Any mention of future issues was a laugh as this was the final issue.  Meaning any of us who subscribed to the magazine got burned.

There are playtest rules for both Superheavy and Titan units.  Being Third edition tanks were VERY easy to kill over later editions, especially the current one with its' added Hull Point system.  

For the era the rules seemed.. OK.  About a year or so later some of these models would be redone by Games Workshop's Forge World division, costing 2-3 times as much.

 Initially, the books were inexpensive softbacks.  Later on GW would turn them into a bunch of very expensive hardback books that would be far less useful as anything other than a coffee table book, and a number of units would eventually even get more "official" rules to be used in normal pickup games.  (Originally the main 40K ruleset got the Apocalypse coffee table book for silly big games where such machines would be, later on selected units would become part of the regular game with Escalation.  Also a second Apocalypse rulebook for the 6th edition era.)

Here is the Imperial Armor softback version of Superheavy rules.  An odd year between when Inquisitor had it's rules and when Forge World was up and running.  Given the age of Third edition I don't want to confuse myself with the massive changes so if you wish, just click the images to see what they did different.

I have looked at the current Escalation points for the Baneblade.  It has now shrunk to 525 points plus a few tiny point upgrade items.  Now we have the stupidly powerful D weapons which go beyond even the AP 0 or other kludges these older rules had.

Without getting too deep, pages 5-11 are all Third edition rules and vehicle stats.  Given how different Sixth edition's vehicle rules are compared to back then, the few units from that day that still haven't had GW or Forge World redo them would still really not be that useful outside of giving one a ROUGH idea of how you could possibly remake and transplant them.

(And given Sixth edition being replaced next month already it could be even more complicated even if it is more or less supposed to be a cleaned up version of Sixth with some tweaks!)

Also at this point most armies did not even have codexes so Inquisitor was really just guessing.  Look at the images above and compare yourself!

 We get a conversion/creation points guide for making your own Second edition units which I suppose has some utility even now.  Actually for those of us nutters who prefer the older days this article is very helpful!  It is just not helpful ENOUGH overall.  Needed info for vehicles, wargear, weaponry, and maybe even creating entirely new army lists really.

Then is the other BIG article this issue.  Codex Harlequin!  These 12 pages give Harlequins their own full Second edition list.  It is kind of nifty but honestly?  Mostly useless outside of bringing a handful of Rogue Trader Harlequin players into Second edition.  Seven months into Third.  Yeah.

 Harlequin Psyker powers are sometimes useful, sometimes junk.  Much like their vehicle choices which seem more like Ork Looted Vehicles than what an elite group like Harlequins would use.

Also Harlequin Psykers don't get to really choose a power.  They get what they draw first off.  And most of the above kind of.. stink.

We get most of a page covering Q&A from previous issues but not really referring to what question is for what thing from what issue which could lead to some confusion if you didn't have the last few years of issues.

We end the era of Inquisitor with the Second edition Datafax for the Eldar Knight, which would now be known as the Wraithknight.  As of this writing, only 115 US Dollars for a plastic model kit costing treble the price yet a third the quality of a Gundam Master Grade model kit.  

The Knight seems decent though.  So the current Eldar players with their small army of Wraithlords can now bring big robot cheese to 2nd ed games!

A tiny Hot Lead section just covers plastic minis in the starter set Sci Fi games of the day.   A subscription section that probably screwed a few dozen people over (including me if I am remembering correctly), and that is it.

The back page is an ad for the miniatures gaming disaster of Clan War and Inquisitor is done!

This issue wasn't too hot.  For a current 40K player it isn't really useful at all outside as a bit of historical interest.  For 2nd ed folks it mostly is only useful to Eldar players with Wraithknights, and Rogue Trader fans who want to bring their Harlequin lists over to Second even though they probably stuck with Rogue Trader anyhow.

It is just an.. OK issue.  It is full of melancholy for the changeover.  

Given the age and multiple ruleset changes (albeit not to the level that 2nd to 3rd was mind you...) it just doesn't have a lot of utility.  If for some odd reason you play Third or "Three Point Five" edition still (why would you?) this issue has a LOT of use and would get a GOOD rating.

For the rest of us?  Its just... Ok.  An end of an era.  Not awful, but a step backwards.

Much like Third edition itself.  

Operation Game Collection Special: White Dwarf Through the Ages 1:Issue 159

It is less than a year before I get into Warhammer 40K properly.  (Ish.  My earliest games were.. kind of stupid with really badly built armies that I hang my head in shame about.  Even if nobody else cared because I still really didn't cheese while everyone else was running around with nothing but Land Raiders, Terminator Squads, and every hero character possible and more proxied weapons than any sane person could keep track of.)  The Fourth Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle was less than a year old.  That is where this issue of White Dwarf , Games Workshop's long running gaming magazine who had by this point effectively become a house organ since the issues numbered around the 90s.  (40K Rogue Trader was famously covered around issues 93 and 94.)

In between my fanzine coverage and other projects I will sometimes review an issue of White Dwarf from random eras based on my ownership of them, and which ones I buy to support existing games I own.

(As always I am an overly goody goody wiener.  While I have very little issue with looking for and printing up articles from online and scans I ALWAYS prefer and try to own the legit thing.  To me its the right thing to do.  STUPID, but the right thing.)

This issue I purchased recently for the article on Eldar in Tyranid Attack, a game I own the components for, but not the box or miniatures.  About a year ago for a fair price I got a mostly complete boxed copy of its mostly same componented sister game Advanced Space Crusade so they can be stored together and I am slowly collecting what pieces I want to replace from the sets for whatever reason.  (Like the Space Marine Scouts which are the ugliest and goofiest things ever.  The early 3rd edition era metal scouts, or the plastic ones out nowadays are MUCH nicer in every way.)

While sadly this glorious bit of quality and value is no longer in production and if it was GW would charge an easy 100 dollars plus for it, I can now and then get deals and replace or complete both TA and ASC, and possibly find people interested in playing it where they might not want to play 40K of any edition.  (Mainly because its expensive and most editions suck in some way.)

(As usual Click for Bigger Images)

I think about getting this set for around 40 dollars and I am immediately sent to my happy place.  This place also includes tons of 80s robot toys and old computer games.  

The Five out of Six Tyranid Warriors that came with my copy of Advanced Space Crusade, with my old Tyranid army one in the back left so I can get their paint scheme as close as possible.  As of when I am doing most of this post, a first coat of orange touch up paint has been applied where I made mistakes with the blue paint pen or even the "properly" painted yellow bits.  I need another "Bucktooth" Warrior to complete the set for both games and then the fellow in the back there can go back with his proper 40K army in not being used as the 5th and 6th edition codexes really really suck unless I want to spend a lot of money.  Guess what I don't wish to do?

As always, click the images for larger.  Unlike the previous Inquisitor review, I have gone back to my digital camera with a flash.  Sadly White Dwarf uses shiny paper so sometimes I have to either turn the flash off, or deal with it.  Anyhow, it is supposed to be a review not a form of piracy.  Given how GW is infamous for their litigiousness even fair use is something they hate.  So images with a flash or mostly just whatever lighting is nearby makes it not scans, but photographs for REVIEW AND DISCUSSION.  

So there!  IT IS MARCH 1993.  IT IS TIME FOR KLAX.

The back cover on the left showing the studio Blood Angels up against pretty much all of the available Tyranid models of the time.  Ok.. no Patriarch or Hybrids or Zoats but..  A lot.  The right is the cover, which I think was the 4th edition Dwarf army book cover.

Another of the lovely bright color painted minis in a game play type scene.  Interesting to note at this point 75000 copies of WD were printed.  So if we presume around 10% of the active player base was buying the magazine we have 750k players or so in 93.  I would say that is pretty good.  Funny to see things listed as ads that isn't just the whole magazine as it mostly has been since 2005 or so.

And the news.  GW takes advantage of a bit of US legislation banning lead figurines to go to pewter/white metal type formulas as the entire games industry does.  And everyone shoots prices up on our little metal mans.  On the upside lead is very bad for you and the few lead minis I get I handle with rubber gloves on until they are primed.  GW mentions some independent retailers in the days they planned on hosing the US game shop markets the way they did the Uk.  A little game called Magic basically saved many stores and killed many companies and thus prevented this.  An add for the first half of the 4th ed WHFB Magic expansion is shown.  Buy a 50 dollar game.  Drop another 35-40 for the practically required expansion box.  This was the GW sales design back then.  40k would do the same with Dark Millenium.  Blood Bowl had one.  Gorkamorka and Necromunda had em.  

Man o War.  A well regarded game I never got to play.  GW made a game inspired by it recently that was loathed.  And Spartan Games had Uncharted Seas that is great but they dropped it because reasons.

Next up on the docket is Jervis Johnson's article allowing Eldar to be used in Tyranid Attack.  He has some basic Eldar fluff for people who might not know of the Space Elves, then a force list allowing for Avatars, Guardians of all types, Fire Dragons, Dire Avengers, Howling Banshees, Striking Scorpions, Swooping Hawks, Dark Reapers, Aspect Exarchs, Warlocks, and Farseers to go have some quick n fun fighting in a Tyranid Hive Ship.  

There is a set of item and power cards to cut out and glue together with a bit of user supplied cardboard in between.  And the editors helpfully put a lovely ad for the game in between so it wouldn't cause an article to get ripped up while doing so!

See?  And what VALUE.  6 Tyranid Warriors.  8 Genestealers.  1 Terminator Librarian, 4 Terminators.  10 Scouts including Sergeants and Heavy Weapons.  I got just the game bits from this set for like 5 bucks back in 1995 or so.  I am slowly getting replacement figures so I don't have to raid my army boxes when I hope to play this game.  Getting it's sister game (Advanced Space Crusade) helped with this.

Hopefully I can one day do a full review of Tyrand Attack and test out the two rules expansions from White Dwarf.  (The other one has Dreadnought rules.)

A proper ad page for a Space Wolf Blood Claws squad box is next. 

Then Andy Chambers gives us rules to use Marine and Eldar Scouts in Rogue Trader!

It seems pretty solid.  The Eldar Longrifle isn't as amazing as it is nowadays but it isn't BAD.  S3 when Marines were still T3 (unless you had all the rulesbooks or appropriate WD articles), -1 Armor Save (when Power Armor was usually 4+), and no Save if you roll a 6 to hit.  They would make nice Terminator hunters I think.  10 of em for 170 points means you can wipe out a Termie a turn.  Or 4 squads and basically for the same cost as 5 Terminators you can eliminate them as a genuine threat in a couple of turns.  Even if they have a Cyclone Launcher.  450 points for a Termie Squad without any upgrades.  Versus TWENTY FIVE ELDAR SCOUTS FOR 425!

(Playing MATH HAMMER for a moment: At normal range, 12 Scouts are going to hit a turn.  6 will wound.  At least 1 will roll a 6 to hit ignoring armor.  In general a Terminator will die to this volley every single round.)

OH GOD I WANT TO PLAY ROGUE TRADER 40K NOW.

We have an ad for a 30 pack of plastic WHFB miniatures called Fantasy Fighters.  Five each of six different factions.  It seems a bit strange to do this, but for RPGs or the like it could be ideal.  Or for people building multiple armies or forces with allies.   

Then it is time for the Eavy Metal section where we see lots of lovely new minis all painted up in what would now probably only be 7 out of 10 CMON (Cool Mini or Not) scale.

That Space Wolf Iron Priest is a sweet mini!  I love the GAME IN ACTION Eavy Metal pictures too.  One of the pages has a nice step by step guide for Orc and Goblin painting.  Seven fine pages of "Miniatures Porn".

Rick Priestley himself gives us rules and fluff for Gorfang Rotgut, an Orc Big Boss in WHFB 4th.  He really doesn't like Dwarves.  

Then we have a nice two page spread covering half of the known North American stores selling GW's goods.  Anyone know how many of these places are still open and if they still sell GW?  The first store on the second column (Crazy Egor) is what kind of got me into 40K at all.  Called in an order for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay book.  I was sent 40K Rogue Trader instead.  Best retailer mistake EVER.  Even if I didn't actually get into the game itself till 94 thereabouts.

Andy Chambers is back with Space Marine 2nd ed (Aka: Epic or Titan Legions) rules for Tzeentch flying and floating units.  I can make use of this as I have some Silver Towers.  No Fire Lord or Doom Wing though.  And I sort of need them to deal with indirect weapon armies.  Which is most of them, especially in the terrible Epic 40K ruleset.  (Maybe not having a couple Wings and Lords is why I hated Epic 40K so much?)

I believe the Doom Wings are now known as Heldrakes .  Though the Hell Talon/Blades from Ripoff... I mean FORGE WORLD yes , might be Doom Wings as well.  Depends on which one spits fire down at stuff more I guess.  The Heldrake also looks more like a silly mechanical birdie like the Fire Lord and Doom Wing models.

We then get an ad for Space Marine as you might expect to pimp out the stuff for the game they just provided a supplement article to, more cutout templates for said Tzeentch fliers (with an ad for a High Elf on a Griffon from Marauder Miniatures which was like an allied minis company with a couple of ex Citadel sculptors running it as to be something irrelevant to keeping in issue), and then we have another game content article!

A complete two level adventure for Advanced Heroquest!  Carl Sargent gives us a whopping TWELVE pages covering a nifty adventure involving the Undead including rules for new monsters and spells.  (Presumably.  I do not own Advanced Heroquest or its expansion though after reading this article I REALLY want to even though I have Heroquest original AND Warhammer Quest!)  

It looks like a fun and challenging adventure that could probably be tweaked and mined for use in most modern RPGs or RPG lite boardgames.  (Like D&D 4th.  Descent.  Warhammer Quest.  Maybe even Heroquest if you are willing to make your own maptiles.)

Within the article and before the next one we get ads for two Warhammer Armies army books (Empire and High Elves), and a US subscription offer.  35 bucks for 12 issues a year and get an embroidered ball cap with either WHFB or Games Workshop on it.  Or 63 for TWO and get a plastic minis case with foam holders for around 50 figures.  Either a 15 dollar value for the cap, or 20 for the case.

That is how you get subscriptions folks!  GIVE US FREE GOODIES.  The one year I subscribed to GW was when they were giving away Gorkamorka boxed games.  Because two sets made for a great foundation for a 40K Ork army.  That I eventually sold to a chubby pothead drunk from Australia.  Who then gave it to someone else.  

The ciiirrrccllleeee oooof  WAAAAGH!!!

Speaking of DA LADZ, Jervis Johnson is back with fluff writer boss Bill King for a WHFB battle report!  SEVENTEEN PAGES of fluff story, army strategies, and battle reporting on a turn by turn basis.  If you couldn't get in a game often (or at all for whatever reason.  AND THIS INCLUDES NOT WASHIN YO ASS!) battle reports were almost like a life line at experiencing a game.

Jervis is running the Orcs and this here is his force, based on what miniatures they had available at the time.  This is what GW people thought a 2000 point WHFB 4th edition army should look like.  Actual PLAYER armies usually had about half as many figures as everyone just loaded up on beefed up heroes and wizards.  And artillery pieces.  Jervis' force is a bit restrained in comparison.

The report goes on with pictures of the game in play (probably reconstructions done by a professional photographer), and the fancy art battle reference pictures that were probably computer generated.  (Anyone know for sure?)  Bill King's hair is.. special.  Also the Orcs won.  So Jervis was victorious.  

The final thirteen pages of our 84 pages including covers issue is the catalog section.  Excellent high quality images of all the models that were either new or something GW wanted to spotlight sell thanks to the issue's articles.  For converters and the like (GW actually sold components and back catalog minis in those days.  It would have been a pain for non UK folks but you could do it!) every single part of the models were listed with a code so you could get exactly the bits you needed.

An example of the catalog action.  Somewhere someone has taken that Empire model and painted it up like Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy from MLP.  I don't know if I find this pathetic or hilarious.  Depends on what miserable neckbeards think or react to it upon seeing it I suppose.  (Even Brony crap beats those ridiculous Marine Scouts.  Man do I hate those Shakespearean fluffy bicep thingies!)

So we have a twenty one year old issue of White Dwarf.  I read the entire thing for this review and to make the 10 bucks or so it cost to ship to me (because lots of Ebay sellers like to rip you off.  This was one of the CHEAPER options!) fully worthwhile.

What did I think?

I LIKED IT.  It provided me with plenty of useful material for games I own and now has me jonesing to own Advanced Heroquest!  While I am no fan of battle reports I am apparently in the minority there.

So my review score?  GOOD.  

I can recommend this issue to fans of the early 90s Games Workshop era!

I will do this again sometime soon.  I am still reading the final issue of Inquisitor and starting the first issue of Citadel Journal I have, but this was a nice break from the fanzines!

Operation Game Collection Warhammer 40K Special: Fan Magazines Part 6: Inquisitor 17

I am trying a little something different with this one.  I am seeing how my iPad Air does for photo taking to see if I can't get better pictures without having to deal with my 14 megapixel camera's annoying flash.

Let us see what we can see in the second to last issue of Inquisitor!

(Well for those few who may care the images aren't bad but they need to be transferred back to the PC and edited there if I want to put them at a decent click to see them large size in this blog.  So yay I guess?)

Well, still four dollars.  Twenty eight pages including covers this time.  The Amorcast ad page lists what was probably a dream item for most of us at the time, and it is now probably one of the more rare 40K minis.  A super detailed Baneblade for 130 1998 dollars.  And an extra 30 bones if you wanted METAL TRACKS.  That's pretty sweet.  I recall once GW's Forge World took over their own Baneblade cost like 250.  Without said metal tracks.  The 2005 Forge World catalog lists their two Baneblade models as 270 and 285 US dollars.  Their current PLASTIC Baneblade kit?  LOOK AT IT. LOOK AND DESPAIR .

Also we see how GW is pulling the plug on Armorcast in general.  They claim their 40K kits were only a minor part of their business.  They are still around as of this writing so.. maybe it was true?    But Games Workshop is infamous for being awful in new and horrible ways.  This week their subsidiary companies pulled themselves off of Social Media websites (like Facebook and Twitter) entirely at behest of the higher ups.  For those who wish to read or remember if this is read in the future:  http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/03/gws-recent-decisions.html

 This is a picture I took at a local game shop showing what Games Workshop thinks someone will now pay 30 dollars for.  The left side is the same model in the blister.  Yep.  

Tim opens the issue mentioning their Combat Engineer rules have been updated from issue 8 which was apparently during the Rogue Trader era.  His mention of Third Edition rumors were correct.  (Contents.)

The big article this month is a five page Combat Engineer ruleset.  A bit of fluff on them, some new gear to use, fortification rules for mines and wires, conversion/modelling tips, and four squad types.  Overall it seems fun, but probably not for most games.  Now six plus turn games or a GM run scenario?  Could be super fun and interesting.

 GI JOE MEETS 40K!

Leland Erickson is back with his Hot Lead miniatures reviews.  Its a page and a half with the other half taken up by a wishlist of minis, about half of which have been produced since.  He covers some Geo Hex tanks and scenery kits, and a 15mm scale sci fi minis line by Irregular Miniatures out of York in the UK.  He continues to use silly Ork speak from time to time in his coverage but overall is positive on the goodies he mentions.  

Jim Dieter gives us four pages on painting Chaos Marines with some semi useful black and white phots and a fair step by step guide on painting them.  Seems useful enough.  But I am a weird heretic who plays minis games for the GAME PRIMARILY so don't care too much anyhow.  Nice enough info though.

Now we get SEVEN vehicle datafaxes, and their rules when needed.

The Tyranid Dactylis is up first.  It is a conversion of their Haruspex kit and uses much of the same rules as its' three cousins from last issue.  This one throws 2" S8 2d6 Damage, -4 Save Modifier Bile Pods up to 72".  However the rules mention models within 1" of the blast marker are hit on a 4+ so presumably this means that when it lands things not even within the template but within 1" of it have a chance to be hit as if they were half under a normal template.  Kinda nasty really.   200 points for you conversion types out there.

 The Hydra gets a day in the Second Edition sun with options for extra wargear cards only it can use.  Not a bad little vehicle against Eldar or naughty naughty Tyranids with lots of Gargoyles.  It is kind of funny that apparently it's Heavy Bolter is also designed for air defense in spite of obviously being for ground defense of the tank.  The rules say it's targeters give it problems with ground units.  Well this IS Imperial Guard.  They probably would be dumb enough to do that.  It seems like a good little vehicle.  Dunno if I would burn 200 points on one in 2nd ed games however.

Next up the Vindicator, Ork Two Armed Dreadnought, and Mk1 Imperial and Space Marine Land Speeders are up.  The Vindicator in this is kind of a weaker Demolisher Cannon from the Leman Russ variant but still pretty nasty for 145 points.  (Plus gives 3rd-now era players a fair set of rules to use them in early era games!)  The Two Armed Ork Dreadnought brings the old metal mini back to life for 75 points plus 10-25 for weaponry.  Killa Kan rules for those units going back?  I say yes sir!  They also recommend the current Four armed Dreadnought to be reduced in cost to 110.  I dunno about that...

They finish up with rules for the original ugly old lead Land Speeders with their open everything.  Nice if you want to have cheaper but easier to kill Speeders I suppose.  Those things were hideous.  Now I love the 2nd ed era metal Speeders in spite of them being a big pain to assemble.  They just looked.. COOL.

We finish up with the Blood Slaughterer as Inquisitor thinks it should be.  It takes advantage of the Chaos Codex for their current vehicle rules and makes a fair little infantry support unit.  Run it near a squad to aid it in both close and ranged combat.  I can dig this one over Fallout's.  The BS is back now but it is Forge World and looks a bit dumb:  http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Chaos/DAEMONS_AND__BEASTS/KHORNE-BLOOD-SLAUGHTERER.html

We get some Q&A on our Titan and Superheavy rules from a few issues back, some Squat errata, and then we close the issue out with Convention News, Want Ads, a full page advertisement for the miniatures game Clan War (A terrible game similar to WHFB but in the Legend of the Five Rings setting.  It had "exploding dice" mechanics and still ended up being similar to that era's WHFB with it being hero and magic happy except with also buying a game card deck.  Some nice minis and a great setting though!), and the back page shows us some nice Armorcast scenery to buy.  The Bone Walls and Tech Bridge looked really nice!

http://armorcast.com/store/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=10&products_id=89

Sadly it seems like the Tech Bridge is no longer available.  A shame because it looked cool.  Most of the other items on the back cover are still available however.

Overall this was another GOOD ISSUE.  So on my scale I shall score it:  GOOD.

Join us next time for the final issue of Inquisitor.  That review might not go up for another week or two as I both need to read said issue, then do some research.  (Which I am already working on to some degree.)

Operation Game Collection Warhammer 40K Special: Fan Magazines Part 5: Inquisitor 16

It is now Inquisitor's Sweet 16 issue.

And you know what?  It is actually pretty sweet.  Not quite as amazing as last issue but.. mighty good nonetheless.

Let's get going before my attention span moves on to some other bit of shiny, shall we?

 Still Four Bucks.  28 pages including covers.  Actually a quarterly release from the last issue for a change.  That Medium Mantrap terrain item looks really cool.  They still sell it, currently for 20 US Dollars.  Yay!

I have tried the URL there but no joy.  Armorcast acts like it doesn't even want to remember this magazine.  Come on Timmy Dee!  Put this stuff online for us to enjoy!  Hell, make PDFs we can buy for a buck or two!  I have already had folks on the Oldhammer Community Facebook Page ask me if I had PDFs of this stuff.  And I have had to tell them to contact Armorcast and ASK FOR IT.  Or hell, just for Tim D. to give me permission to scan & share.  As is, I am merely taking okish photos of a couple of pages just for review purposes.  I went to the Internet Archive and the last known issue was issue 18.

This in 2004 being the last time even the Archive shows anything Inquisitor related from their site.

This being the EARLIEST Archive entry for Inquisitor.

FREE THE KNOWLEDGE TIM.  FREE IT.

(Or again, let me go through and scan issues 14-18 and share them.  Course knowing Games Workshop they would fire off a Cease and Desist for a fanzine from 1996-1998 covering editions of Warhammer 40,000 that are well over 15 years out of print.)

Anyhow, Tim opens the issue up with mentions of Datafaxes only being allowed in this magazine and not included with the models.  He mentions the super heavy tank datafaxes are well revised over the originals to be far more accurate to what is on the models.  He gives an address for Simtac who made the Kryomek tanks he used for #15's Squat tanks.  (A company out of East Lyme CT.  The models still available from the line are now sold by MSD Games .  The problem is?  Can't tell if they are the same models or not due to the lack of photos.  Only some of the figures have VERY small photos.  Maybe I should email them and ask if they have any photographs of these kits?  They are still located in Connecticut.  I will do so and if I find anything out I will mention it.)

 The first big article of this issue has Tim D. giving a pair of Datafaxes, and the rules plus modelling tips for making three different Imperial Guard Chimera variants.  You are limited to one variant Chimera for every normal Chimera.  The Chimerro doesn't have a proper Datafax with the rules and restrictions the other two do as Tim says it is just a Chimera with FOUR HUNTER KILLER MISSILES mounted on it.  This basically breaks multiple rules for 40K even though the conversion pictured looks sweet as hell.  I would say it is banned and shouldn't be allowed PERIOD.  The other two are pretty cool and fair however.  The 200 point Chimerax has Quad mounted Autocannons and the 170 point Chimadon gets a Battle Cannon for when your Guard army wants to get into battle without CS Goto's Multilaser fetish.  (Check http://1d4chan.org/ if you are willing and able to put up with 4chan shenanigans covering tabletop gaming and more than likely enough NSFW content to make a whole army of Mormons "Lose their battle" if you know what I mean.  But there is some fantastically useful or funny material there in between things to make you want to drink until you can no longer feel feelings.)

Then Leland Erickson is back with another Hot Lead installment.  A mere two pages this time, mostly pictures.  No star ratings this time but he gives praise to more Geo Hex, RAFM, and ICE models including many gorgeous Silent Death miniatures.  Such an excellent "Machine Sheet" game deserves equally quality miniatures don't you think?  He also covers some terrain and a Texas mail order retailer called Squadron Mail Order.  ICE's plastic sci fi minis are still available from Red Shirt Games out of Canada and EM4 Miniatures out of the British Isles and are still a pretty good deal though with shipping outside of their home region it might make the decent but not fantastic mid 90s plastic sculpts not quite as great of a value.  

We then get our corrected Eldar Phantom Titan Datafax, which was apparently mostly just a lot of fixed typos because in the age of Windows 95 I guess there wasn't any spell check features available.  (Inquisitor has a LOT of these in nearly every issue.)  Tim then explains the changes to the three Super Heavy tanks included, the point changes to Vehicle Wargear cards if used on these machines, and how a Tank Commander works for them.  (Basically directing fire and providing a +1 to hit against a target.)

There is a small box out mentioning models they want Games Workshop to produce.

Of the twenty or so things they list a good half of them have been made either by GW or their Forge World subsidiary.  (Primarchs, new Sentinel, Land Raider, and Rhino being the biggies.  Some of the others like Chaos Androids and Slaaneshi Eldar became their own entire army of a sort!  The Shining Spears Eldar Aspect was another one I am glad they finally did.  Even at GW prices!)

 Then we get the three big guys!  The 400 point Baneblade!  The 350 point Shadowsword!  The 320 point Eldar Tempest Grav Tank!

These 38-60 dollar (as of the magazine's printing)  terrors actually cause that effect in game and all of them are full of dead hard weapons and lots of them without being ridiculous.  Though the Tempest follows the Falcon rules and can even make Pop Up attacks with its' turret mounted TWIN LINKED Pulse Laser.  Each laser has a Sustained Fire die, Lascannon 60" range, S9, 2D8 Damage, -6 Armor save attack with a Targeter!  Its Front Hull armor is a mere 22 however compared to the 24 of the IG Supers.  The 18 Armor Shuriken Cannons and Grav Engines make this one a bit risky for Eldar to take in smaller games.  It is just one giant target!

After that Chaos gets Datafaxes for The Cannon of Khorne & The Cauldron of Blood.  I own both models though only the Cannon is painted to my poor standards.  (And as the picture will show, both it and the Tempest need some touch up, extra linework, another coat here and there, and to be dusted more than once every 4-5 years!)  

The Cannon is a slow and pokey S10, 2d6 Dam, -6 Save Mod UNLIMITED RANGE artillery gun that blows itself up if you roll a Misfire + Arrow and always hits on Hit with a D10 divided by two for blast radius.  Its chaotic but could make many big resin toys cry.

The Cauldron is basically a Demonically Possessed, Destroyer vehicle that uses a slightly superior version of the Imperial Guard's Inferno Cannon.  (Heavy Flamer template weapon with S6, D6 Dam, -4 Save Modifier.)  It is a MUCH cooler looking model than the Cannon but of less actual gameplay use.  Especially since half of its' Damage Tables have Armor of 20 or less for a close in unit.)  The Cannon is a reasonable 140 points to the Cauldron's less useful 180.

Even with a bit of toothbrush cleaning these two special little guys need more dusting.  But the Tempest might have been one of the first times I tried to Panel Ink.

Next up are the three Tyranid critters with a Subscription and Convention Schedule page in between them.  Each model has a Datafax and a rules page.  Two of these guys are available in normal 40K games now as a 73 Dollar dual build kit.

The Haruspex which is the coolest looking of the three Armorcast kits and is basically a line smasher with a nasty Acid Jet attack that can cause a S5 hit on secondary targets within 3", and being a vehicle for most purposes but allowed to ram with less risk.  Also those nasty claws that can even grab Infantry units as it scuttles by!

The troop carrying Malefactor has Spore Cysts that explode when things get too close to it and gives 2nd edition Nids a troop transport for 80 points.

The 165 point Exocrine (Who shares a GW kit box with the Haruspex.) has the Cysts plus a S8, 3d6 Damage, -6 Save Modifier Bio Cannon that can keep damaging a location it penetrates at a -1 roll to the effect every Tyranid player's turn until you get a 0 result.  Nasty!

These larger Tyranids lose access to Biomorphs and have their rules for how Psychic attacks affect them, and their Instinctive Behavior when the Hive Mind isn't nearby.  

Overall this was a REALLY solid and useful issue of Inquisitor.  Outside of that Chimera with all the Hunter Killer Missiles everything seems fairly pointed out and balanced.

Plus many of them are things you can purchase today at the GW price level of PAIN.

Even if the Haruspex is 73 dollars and looks like a Tyranid got transplanted into THE THING.

(The Exocrine isn't too bad.  He looks more like a giant Tyranid Warrior who is VERY HAPPY to see you and wants to love you with his thing.  That is on his back.  Yeah.....)

So my rating for this issue?  Good!  Another issue 2nd edition players should probably try to get a copy of if they can.

Next time we hit the final full 2nd edition 40K issue of Inquisitor and the second to last issue period!

Operation Game Collection Warhammer 40K Special: Fan Magazines Part 4: Inquisitor 15

Its now August 1997, a massive ELEVEN months since the last "Quarterly" issue of Inquisitor.  Tim DuPertuis mentions how he and his wife moved, he mentions the release of my arch enemy game Epic 40,000  (BOO HISS!), and says that GW has now forced him to take the Datafaxes for the models he sells out of them, because they are only for models and not for gaming in their eyes as how they want them sold.  So next issue will be full of Datafaxes!  Yay?  Yes yay.

Because now one can see what a toy can do before buying it, or nowadays to convert or buy the ridiculously priced (but honestly better looking though not a good FOUR TIMES or so better looking Forge World kits.  Even if I would adore getting a Chaos Warhound.

Last time we had some overly long and complicated Titan class rules and very little else.  Let's see what a year gives us!

 Notice in a year some prices have gone up.  50 dollar superheavy tanks now 60.  30 dollar Eldar superheavy now 38.  Ouch!  The issue itself is also 4 pages less and costs another buck.  Eh, its all still worth it really.

 The highlight of this 32 pages including the covers issue is the Squat Brotherhood and Engineer army list.  Being a mixture of conversions (many figures shown with what they were converted from) and figures from both Games Workshop and other companies like the tanks.  

I have played with the Brotherhood list before which is actually quite nice without having remotely the absurdness of most of the official GW Codex lists.  Its flavorful and fun.  I had to proxy a lot or use toy vehicles that were close enough though.  But you can have Exo Armored heroes with AT weapons!  (Like Space Marine Terminators but its 4+ on 2D6) Troop Transports with Heavy Stubbers!  (Unlike the Space Marine Rhino, most other transports in 2nd edition tended to have infantry support or light antitank weaponry on them.

Squats gain the parry ability with axes (BECAUSE DWARVES AND AXES!) but it only works on a 4+ roll.  The Guild Engineers list has some fun motorbike and demolitions weapon goodies which are cool but do not overwhelm and generally require stationary targets to work on.

The points are overall fair and the basic statline of M3, WS4, BS3, S3, T4, I2, A1, and Ld9 is solid but not mindblowing.  Dependable but not overwhelming.  14 points a basic Squat trooper with Laspistol, Mesh Armor, and Frag Grenades.  Not ridiculous by any stretch.  You can combine Brotherhood and Guild Engineers as a team list but most wargear restrictions apply to BOTH forces and not just one.

The normal Strategy Rating is 2, raised with an extra D3 if an Ancestor Lord is taken.  Once in a while they will tie the Marines but not often.

There are also a couple of fun bits like Throwing Axes, Hammers with Jump Packs installed, and a hover option for their tanks which merely allow them to float over terrain and not to make pop up attacks.

 The tanks were from a line called Kryomek.  I wouldn't mind getting a couple honestly.  But any 25mm scale tank with the same basic weapons loadouts would work for them.  

Nowadays Mantic Games is probably your one stop shop for NOT SQUAT models.  In fact an upcoming project may involve said Mantic figures.  (They call them Forgefathers.)

And the other feature this month!  Datafax rules for Titans.  Four total rules pages as opposed to the TEN in Issue 14 (not counting the multiple reference sheets and charts and table of contents that ruleset contained) makes this version a LOT better.  You can see some of the same basic rules and concepts but they are sped up, simplified, and streamlined with the Warhound, Reaver, Eldar Revenant, and Eldar Phantom given said cards as you can see our friend the Warhound here.  As opposed to 14's Shield system, now the shields work like Khornate Terminator armor and nonsense like "flicker" are removed.

It is better in every way though it may generally make Titans a bit weaker.  I am ok with that.  As is, these things really shouldn't be showing up till 3000 point games as even the cheapest Titan will burn through 460 points out of your normal 25% Support choice cost.  (My own house rules we will get to brings up the percentage, but some of the more overpowered Troops choices get moved over.  Like Long Fangs, Wolf Guard Terminators with the Assault Cannon and Cyclone Spam, Chaos Veteran Teams with Two Heavy Weapons out of Three Man Teams, ect.)

The points on everything seems really fair and balanced, and while these Titan rules do still add some more things to deal with, it is honestly fine for the size of games they are intended for.

This issue has far less spelling and grammatical errors too.  A damn fine issue and almost a MUST BUY for 2nd edition 40K players.

My Rating:  Good!  

The only reason it didn't get the special rating of DRACULA is because it is all unofficial rules and thus some people are really unlikely to let anyone actually use them in a game.  And the Phantom gets a slightly revised Datafax in the next issue whose changes I was unable to discern so it is probably in the damage table part.

(Though to be fair if you are playing 40K 2nd edition at this point and have a game group you are probably using far dodgier fan made works than that of a playtested out set of works from a longtime 40K fan who has made it a bit of a business.  And you know, most of your fellow players are probably your friends at this point.  Who else are they gonna play?  Nobody?)

See you next time for Datafaxes!  Tyranids!  Super Heavy Tanks!  Some normal non mega articles!