[Review Corner] Battle Systems Outlands Delta Garrison Terrain Kit

  Yes I still function.  Kinda.  Ish.  Maybe.  I sadly haven't done a whole lot of gaming this year at all tabletop wise and not a massive amount of buying especially once a 6,000 USD plumbing bill hit me not counting all the time lost to it and what said issue damaged beforehand.

  But I have gotten to buy a few things here and there as my finances and brainmeats permit.  And one of those is a couple of cardboard terrain kits from Battle Systems out of the UK.  See a small indie game store opened up in the same small business park community center thing as a place I get my Warhammer 40K things from once in a while.  (They don't step on each other's toes.)  Looking into this new store it sadly is mostly Magic and other CCGs but they did have a huge amount of these terrain kits and its associated game. 

  I bought one of the cheaper sets, the Engineering Sector and I really enjoyed putting it together.  The kit needed some simple white glue to go together at its best along with sadly the instructions being linked videos on the company Youtube page.  Now this I DO NOT LIKE as I vastly prefer physical instructions that do not depend on the whims of the Internet to assemble a 20 dollar product. (Note on their website this 20 and the main 50 dollar product are listed cheaper but I presume after shipping the price is probably close to equal if not more given the hell of overseas shipping.  Plus this store locally has a buyer program that helps a touch.) 

  In my view if they cannot understandably afford to print out instructions PDFs or images on their website is vastly superior to having to watch and listen to someone tell you how to assemble it.  While looking at the box front and back helps somewhat a few of these parts are very odd and tricky to assemble.

(As always click for bigger.)

I assembled this initial kit relatively quickly as it was a small set made of quite thick cardboard.  Would have been faster with proper instructions. 

 And with a variety of miniatures and toys for scale purposes.

  Now much of the above can mostly be put together without glue it is made of cardboard thus it has some give to it and while it is all die cut or half cut in the case of parts intended to bend or fold on itself many parts are going to look MUCH better and be far more stable if glued with said basic white glue.  Some things are not quite as perfectly held together by friction or at the perfect angle otherwise.  However with some thickening agent ala "the wax trick" where some superglue, floor wax, or nail polish is used to tighten the joint you could make it easy to reassemble instead of leaving together saving space.  

  (And another trick to make it look even better involves colored markers.  Go with black on all the exposed cardboard centers for a cel shaded feel!  The same color for a more realistic feel!  Its your stuff.  Heck, I am sure some enterprising sorts might even figure a way to put some kind of plastic coating over it and make it practically invulnerable!)

  For veterans of 90s Necromunda I would say the cardboard is roughly twice the thickness or so from that game and its Gorkamorka Orky sibling.  So its not cheap junk.  

  Anyhow let us get on to the BIG SET.  (They sell bigger though.  But again money is a thing.  I would be lying if I said I won't ever get them though!)

 The box front.  You will need it for reference if you do not want to hover over a couple Youtube videos.

 The back.  Also shows another angle of the set plus another way to assemble it since its modular.  Also none of this is going back in the box afterwards.  Some sets like the Engineering one aren't even in a box.  Just a paper and some plastic wrap.

 Most of the cards in this set.  3 each of Outland Tiles and Ports.  2 Walls cards.

 The Crates & Barriers card was in the Engineering set as well.  You can see some assembled examples in the lower left.  This set also includes plastic connectors that they honestly don't quite give you enough of to be flexible in my opinion though you can buy more.

 The cards are double sided with one side generally intended to be say the interior walls or double duty as either floor or ceiling tiles.  I really like this flexibility although it means you won't be leaving it 100% assembled and thus it will be a little wobblier and less sharp looking than it might otherwise be if you pick a setup and leave it.  Some bits can be "Blu Tack"ed to be things like room cards above the doors or various little computer type displays.  The doors and windows can be left in or taken out.  The cardboard is thick enough that you can generally put them back in but I would say you might wish to use the joint tricks I mentioned above for these purposes long term.  

 For the glue I recommend a tiny tab into the female part of a join then slide it in.  Wipe off most of the excess or use a toothpick or whatnot to fill in any gaps that might appear.  Being this sort of glue gives you time to wiggle it into a proper position too.

 Yes all these bits form that one little vent.  I used glue on it and this one meaning I cannot easily switch between damaged and undamaged vents.  But it is more stable and means less I can misplace.  It is your call!

 The crates I choose to assemble in an open or closed manner.  There is a little piece you glue to the lid that helps it stay shut and flush with a little glue on the egg crate part! 

 The stairs are kind of wobbly and all but demand glue for long term use.  You will need to wiggle and jiggle and move the steps into proper position where the die cuts aren't perfect.  (You know, some will be deeper or wider or shorter than they should be.)  If you really want to get classy they recommend 2 colors of magic marker to get the hazard stripes on the unprinted center of the cardboard.  I don't know if I am quite that nutters but I appreciate their commitment to (Twilight) Sparkle Motion...

 And now we come to the building part itself.  You need to put in some L shaped plastic connectors at an angle to build it.  I used some glue up at the top to make it more stable as it doesn't particularly go together any other way but this.  Like other parts the plastic connectors do need some adjustment to be properly aligned.  You can also slide other parts on top of them or rest up against them as you will see later on.  

 These bulkhead shutters can be in or out just like the doors and windows.  With a little nudging and or glue/thickener they can even be raised.  Long term maybe a tiny bit of magnetization or velcro connecting the parts in an inconspicuous place would be great.

 There are 2 different shutter types as my flash is trying to hide.

 A little detail of an interior section with door and a closeup of a few other connectors.  Note the central divot there.  I will mention that next image.

 I do a little tweaking and install a small room.  Some of the walls demand to be assembled a certain way vertically as they do not have a connection slide point and merely a divot that can slide over the connectors.

 I spend a while and play with things and build this big outpost type building.

 My EFF THE BOX I BUILD WHAT I WANT leftovers.

 The inside of the building.  I smooshed it together a little bit better from this image.  The top comes off easily and the bottom stays on as well.  If I was willing to save connectors I could have had the bottom not directly connected to the rest of the structure.  I left the small front room sealed but it can be accessed from the front anyhow.

 An idea of what it looks like inside with some miniatures for scale.

 Scale on top.  Also shows that the front shutter can hold a few models while up just with friction.  Yeah my little 2nd floor walkways are not exactly current GW figure sized.  Oh well.  I would say in general it is best for 15-25mm truescale models though other scaled figures could be used without too much effort albeit with some things looking too small.  With some of the other sets obviously the chairs and tables and other such goodies they come with are not exactly gonna work for your Godzilla or Battletech games and won't be your Primaris Marine's favorite lounger.  The two sets I cover you can easily get away with using it for just about any sort of Sci Fi or Near Future type game and scale thankfully.

The extras.  I made a small 2 room building and half of another.  The interior wall is merely resting with friction and up against one of the connection pieces.  Some weird connection parts I used to make the roof of that building quickly and easily removable.  The rest of the stuff can either be glued on later where I want things like computer screens and all.  Or is general parts like ladders and crates.  Or maybe I will rip it up and build something closer to the box cover?  Or get more connection pieces and get creative?  Who knows?

  So overall what do I think?  If it was a little cheaper in price and came with some form of physical instruction or a downloadable one as opposed to watching some dude in a Youtube video it would be Good.  But those little annoyances mean I can merely give it an OK. I like it and its very fun to build but those little annoyances keep it from being as good as it could be.

[Review Corner] Retro Computing Why Bother/Atari 8 Bit Computer Thing: User's Guide to Atari

Yep.  I gots me a big old cheapo lot of Atari 8 bit books to improve and enhance my Atari computing experience, and maybe even teach myself some programming finally!

Well one of the books from 1983 both comfortably fits in most of my work pants pockets and was short enough (240 pages) to be read in a couple hours without doing the tutorials.

The book?

 I have never heard of this magazine before but let's just presume it somehow covered computers and such without it being a focus kind of like Consumer Reports.  Given the massive title we will just call it The User's Guide to save my sanity.  Running 3.95 in December 1983 US Dollars this book is basically a newbie's guide to both setting up the computer and basic core operations.

 Our chapters!  Chapter 1 and 2 are like bog simple instructions anyone reading this blog or actually having a copy of the manual that came with your computer already would know.  But it has a nice basic overview of the Atari line they cover (The 400, 800, and 1200XL.  The other XLs are not mentioned nor is much made of the 1200's incompatibilities.), and how to hook them up to a normal VHF screw TV set of the era.  Not even Cable Ready Coax is mentioned!  There is info on the disk and tape drive peripherals as well which is nice and handy!

 A major portion of this book is these tutorial exercises with photographs of the screen output and diagrams of what keys to press on the keyboard, usually showing the mighty 800 unit but not always.  Some of these are stupidly simple but given the time and how few people actually knew anything about operating any electronic devices it does kind of make a lot of sense.

The book uses a large and easy to read font, and gives excellent tutorials on getting used to computer keys and how said keys operate on these here Atari computers.

The book is an excellent way to get used to your Atari 8 bit computer and how they operate, albeit from a pre popular XL/XE mindset.  A number of peripherals are covered with advice and info about what to buy, plus a very simple introduction to the simplest of BASIC programming commands.  For historian types there is mentions of pricing on various items such as TV Set/Color Monitor combo units being available for 500 to 800 dollars in 1983 money, or monochrome monitors capable of 80 column use for 100-250 bucks.  (And the need of a Bit3 Board.  Nothing we really need today unless you insist on coding directly on your old computer.)  

The memory section has me salivating at the thought of Mosaic Memory Boards for the 800 which came in 32K and 64K versions. Could the 800's three memory slots work with them?  Could one get their original 800 up to 196K of RAM?  Would there be any incompatibilities?  These are questions I am now asking myself.  Because I want them.  It might make it so I wouldn't really ever need the 130XE again outside of being a backup machine.  (Or because I prefer its generally better video output.  Which could be even better if I want to spend around 120 dollars to solder a Lotharek board into it.)

Modems are pretty much useless nowadays, but the printer coverage really shows me I might want a Plotter type printer just because it is COOL.  (And depending on getting pens that work with it.  And software that can use it.)

The Software section covers how to make backup copies when possible on either tape or disk and lists some programs to buy and what machines said programs will work on and what format they come in.  They cover a handful of games and various educational and applications programs and also cover some programming languages since really until the 90s most people were generally expected to at least do some programming.

(Even if we all just mostly played games on the things!)

The book then covers User Groups which of course have none listed in Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts. They even go into Compuserve and BBS stuff ending with a nearly two page listing of then active Atari BBS numbers and basic info about them.  No Connecticut or Rhode Island numbers yet again. 

Connecticut just doesn't have that nerdy Soul it really ought to have.  A boring state most people try to run the hell away from outside of rich SOBs living on the western side who go to work in New York City.  A shameful state.   

So overall this book is not really a must have for any retro Atari computer person but it is a NICE and HELPFUL book to have if you can score a copy cheap.

My review score?  Good.  If you can get it for under 10 dollars shipped and are a novice to the Ataris it is a really useful book.  Veterans probably can skip it though historians might enjoy some of the background information of the time.

[Review Corner] Bandai Action Base

Have you ever built a cool model kit or bought a rad toy but due to physics and the like you couldn't make it display as cool as it could be?

Well, if you have some compatible models and toys, the Bandai Action Base is the item for you!  Running roughly 10 bucks these bases come in a couple different colors and styles, and are designed for 1/144th scale and 1/100th scale Bandai Gundam model kits.  I went with their normal base in white.  Because that is all the store I bought it from had.

 It comes in this big old plastic bag.  The front has a bunch of stuff in Japanese I can't read but is mostly clear as to what it can do.

 Flip it over and you see what is in the bag, and some images showing how you connect them to your model robots.  (The taint.  Its all about the taint.)

 Opening the bag you get three sprues, the main octagonal base, and a couple screws/bolts.

 The one page of assembly instructions.  I was working slowly and watching Peter Capaldi being awesome in his famous role before he became the current Doctor of Gallifrey so it took me a little over an hour.  The instructions are generally clear except for one part I looked at incorrectly in the second step for the support beam.  Overall though it was a really easy build and being clear the gate marks are nowhere near as noticeable as they would be on any other of this type of base outside of white.  Except being clear one doesn't really have to care about sprucing it up with a wash or inking or anything.  I guess you COULD though.  Or even use a metallic flake spray on the underside of the main base to look darn fancy.  I am not sure I would recommend painting the poles though as they do have mechanical bits.

 And here we go!  All assembled and pretty!  I have the default taint connector in place with the extra bits there in case I want to try any other kit or model with it.  The main poles can be moved around the holes on the base and the optional square extender piece.  With a couple sets you could use these extenders to display really large and heavy models safely, even possibly connecting them up to form battle scenes and whatnot!  (Something the Gundam faction logo bases or the GP Base look unable to do.  But they have their appeal as well..)  

The bends are lightly ratcheted with indents to get a more reliable and sturdy stand and the core pole and the support strut both have locking elements to keep them put once you decide how to put it.

 Here is a future blog review in it's 2/3rds or so of the way finished glory on the base.  Gundam X Divider, a 1/144 scale model kit of a more recent Bandai High Grade vintage.  It stands loud and proud being all Gundamy and such.

 A close up of the locking elements.  The support strut has a slide and turn groove system while the main pole has a bunch of divots in the inside of it and a lever that will lock into place.  Nice!  You can also see a bit of a nameplate hiding out behind the support strut.

Raise the base high!  Make it low to the ground! Angle it for all sorts of poses!

And we finish up with me showing one of the other connector parts shoved into a mid 90s 1/144 Gundam X kit.  It fits in alright but I had to test out all three of them to find the one that fit best and it does have some bending which is kind of a disquieting thing.

But with a little tweaking the possibilities for this nifty little device are endless.  At the 12 dollars I paid it is a bit too much but at the 7-9 they tend to run online it becomes almost a no brainer to pick a couple up to display current models.  Or even as a tool to help paint them.  Or to use in hobby gaming to denote height in a 3D space.  

My score:  Good.

If you build models you probably want one.  If you build Gundam kits you REALLY want it!

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!

[Review Corner] [Operation Game Collection] Citi-Block by Games Workshop

Got out of work early today.  Going back in tomorrow.  So I don't have time to make a super mega fancy post before October starts up. Also y'all might like to see these things at a higher size.  (So click pictures for bigger if you wish.)  Please forgive any oversaturated colors via the meh but free photo editor I am using (only thing I miss on Macs now is iPhoto, circa the Tiger/Snow Leopard era), and any flash effects.  It will give us clearer pictures vs no flash.  And I have no light box anyway so we get what we get eh?

Now as to what I am covering?
Citi Block by Games Workshop

Why?
Because it is another of the products I need to have a complete run of Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader books.  Going by my old post here: http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-games-workshop-rogue-trader-era-book.html I was just missing Vehicle Manual and The First Book of the Astronomican. Both of these books go for a LOT more usually than I am willing to pay.  This product I have seen go for a bit and be nearly as rare.

Except unlike the other two it has actual modern gaming uses.  And tends to go for a lot less.  I paid under 20 including shipping.

 Our lovely box cover.  It is a dual use product from 1987, the year 40K was born.  Primarily a Judge Dredd supplement, with 40K mostly being a secondary use thing.  The majority of the rulebook is for Dredd but you can make use of a lot of those rules for your RT era 40K game.  Or any sci fi/dystopian urban game really..

Back of the box showing some RT era 40K minis alongside some Dredd ones and a variety of the maps and tile counters put on top to build a layout.  I kind of adore how the 40K bits say it has been approved by the Inquisition for use.  

A picture of the manual in the box with a current plastic Space Marine Scout for scale.  The counters and mapsheets are all under the book.

Of the 18 pages in this booklet (they number the cover as 1 for some idiotic reason..), only the last 6 have actual 40K RT rules.  The little fluff story is kind of hilarious, from the early days when 40K's setting was more a parody of grimdark stuff like Judge Dredd and Dune instead of the king of miserable settings.  Also these days GW would NEVER let an Inquisitor get away with just capping a Space Wolf Sergeant.

 The rule mods for playing with squares is concise and simple, but could mostly be used with modern 40K without much effort.  Mostly.  You can tell it is early 40K as things like armor and turning affect model movement distance.  And facing obviously.  Note the Hive Worlds mention.  This is almost the first prototype of Necromunda as it does allow you to generate gangs.  (No mention of that place however.)

 A section from the Dredd part of the book showing use of the sheets and tile counters to make a themed location and some of the charts so you can populate your arcology/hive/building.  Useful!

 And the 8 map sheets.  They come folded in half, most of which having a tiny 1/4" or so border around them.  The sheets are slightly smaller than a normal US sheet of printer paper.  About 1/16" taller, and said 1/4" thinner.  The squares are 7/8" meaning they are slightly smaller than they should be.  You get road, interior, garden, and heliport type sheets.

 With a little aligning you can make good use of multiple sheets to make varying layouts.  It isn't really a traditional geomorphic style but it'll do Pig. 

 Obviously 1987 printing and art tech are lower than now but it is still nice and effective looking.  Here is a variety of figures to show you what they look like.    Kreo Trailbreaker and Character Building Doctor Who fit in the squares pretty well outside of accessories.  Our 40K Marine Scout has a tiny bit of base overlap.  A old 25mm scale Star Wars Bounty Hunter (that short bug dude) fits on it completely even with a penny base.  An AT 43 3 Star large base infantry (think akin to 40K Terminator) effectively takes up 4 squares.  Much like the Marine Scout, an infantryman from Sedition Wars (scale is roughly 25-28mm.) again has a slight base overlap but looks good.  (Also you know, Sedition Wars has non cartoon proportions.)  The Warmachine Khador Manhunter's lipped base goes a lot more over the square but is pretty ok.  The two unbased DreadBall miniatures (a Goblin star player and a NOT 40K ORK NOPE) fit fine though like a lot of minis their poses and such go well beyond their square.  And the Lego Cyclops figure fits much like his Kreo and Character Building cousins.

I honestly would more recommend taking the sheets and seeing if you couldn't scan and blow them up a tad so the 7/8ths of an inch becomes a full inch.  The problem would be those weird UK page dimensions.  I suppose if you didn't mind the thick black of the walls being cut off a tad and some of the blank edge removed it would work fine.    But if not or you play 15 and 25mm scaled figures these sheets are great without any effort.  28-32s you might have to reposition figures or deal with bases overlapping each other.

But that's not all!  WE HAVE (cut out by some dude probably years ago) TILES!

 A bunch of vehicle tiles which are great for more cyberpunk styled games.

 A bunch of stairs, escalators, walls, and doors to let you make those sheets do a near infinite amount of layouts.

 A bunch of multi square tiles with things like machinery, pools, tables, counters, and other such things.  (And err.. a couple more vehicle and door tiles I missed.)

 And even things like conveyor belts, shelves, and those oh so prevalent crates no modern game with modern or sci fi shooting can go without.  Meaning Games Workshop in 1987 was INNOVATING perhaps?  

All these tiles are decent and would make a battle or adventure map REAL.  Toilets and bathtubs even!

I divided the tiles up into 4 zip baggies of various size to keep them roughly organized.

So what is my verdict on this set?

For a Rogue Trader collector it is probably an alright pickup but by no means a must have.  Same with a regular 40K collector.  It is the beginning of 40k's era so there wasn't much fluff set in stone and it was honestly more an afterthought product, primarily being for Judge Dredd gamers.  These tiles aren't exactly 40K's technogothic grimdark after all.  

For anyone needing sci fi or modern/near modern square based maps for miniatures games and RPGs though this set is great.  While the tiles are thin cardboard and the map sheets are thin single sided paper, they should hold up to reasonable use fine and are easily scanned for more copies.  You can make a ton of different maps with the set as is, and the block generation rules in the Dredd section have major use for basically any RPG or skirmish game.

So the score is:  GOOD.  While I wouldn't pay more than 20 or so including shipping if you can get it under that I do recommend it.  I wouldn't pay more than that even if it is MISB as there are plenty of more modern sci fi and modern map and tile sets available with thicker cardboard and slicker art assets you can buy or print out.