I am fortunate, nay, blessed to have 'come up' at a time just before the Warhammer Fantasy Battles rules hit the shelves - and stayed there, being sold off for a  mere fraction of the RRP in literal stacks at the front of GW store. It's something that we who refuse to die and in not doing so, irritate others, comment on quite often at our coffee and bullshit 'salons' - no, really... And then we get teary eyed over whatever metal based figures one of us has brought to the table for discussion and pawing over, that day, before the conversation turns to the scourge that is 'Oldhammer'. Now, don't get me wrong, the idea of preserving what was arguably the high water mark of fantasy gaming, and introducing others to it, is a fine sentiment. But, re-writing history and claiming that paintwork and styles which were not contempraneous or even available  in the case of materials as 'authentic' is taking it a step too far. If you were not there, you canno...

Be the first to get the first Satanic Panic Miniatures'Regiment of Repute' 'The Doombringers' 12 different command options, 4 troopers and 2 shield designs with both a regiment set and 'Trooper Booster' (TM) expansion set.   These figures ooze with authentic Old School detail and they are heroically statured to frighten the daylights out of other armies.   The preorder is limited to 15 sets of each at a slight discount. If you buy multiple sets we'll endeavour to make the commands all different.   You can buy them now, here:   https://www.macrocosm.co.uk/product/chaos-regiment-troopers/   https://www.macrocosm.co.uk/product/chaos-regiment/

    Well, Vapnartak was , in my humble opinion (and you foaming at the mouthed fan-boys can bite me, if you disagree) was at the best bland. I heard more than just I saying this. My wife didn't even bother going to see her many friends in the hobby, which is saying a lot. Of course, if people come through the door and pay their £5 (cash only please) it's 'a great success'. I remember another great and now no more Northern show having a similar take on things whilst their Rome burnd and the bring and buy got fiddled... But that could never happen here could it? I confess that I looked at the list of traders and thought 'How bland...' and went twice around the tabletop sale, where, an entire section of tables were manned by dealers, who really should - if they were not already, and if so, I apologise - be in the main hall paying as traders, and incidentally filling some of the yawning chasm which I photographet just after 12:00 as we decided to call it an expensiv...

 I have always had an interest in the power of ritual and ritualistic behaviour.  Any hobby is ritualistic, in that it has it's rules, secrets, paraphenalia and knowledge. At their best, wargaming/roleplaying were the most occult of all hobbies, save perhaps folk dancing. As the hobby has been exposed to the light, in that constant chasing of profit and an 'angle'. I guess that being reliant on the hobby for my own living, I am guilty in my own way, but in my defence, I do try to keep alive the wonder and creativity which I myself encountered over 4 decades ago now. As you know, I made a hard decision to not continue simply piling up 'stuff', engaging in that self deceit so many of us seem to believe, that a gamer cannot die whilst they have unpainted figures. Let me tell you straight, that they can and some truly great ones, have. The late Pete Armstrong was one of those taken way to early, leaving three young daughters and a loving wife, a few years back. Pete as ...

 I was chatting with my better and less opinionated half this morning about how one of my clients had been quite guarded when they first came on board. It turned out, that they had previous issues with so-called professional painters in the past and were rightly wary of getting taken around the corner and having their financial (and metaphorical) trousers taken down. This really pisses me off, as someone who paints every day over 46 weeks of the year and who has done so for well over a decade and for 30+ years on an ad-hoc basis before that. As I have covered previously, there was a certain painter whose 'schtick' was the dead relative ruse, which when the same relative dies three times, becomes a bit of an obvious load of bollocks.  I tried to help him out and stopped him getting himself de-bagged, but he then went back to his bad ways and the rest as they say is history. When you do something for a living or purport to be 'professional' you should by instinct, treat y...

I love the old Forces Of Fantasy supplement for Warhammer.  It's still a brilliant read after 40 years and was, in my humble opinion one of the greatest of the early GW products. It was a rambling three book set which gave you additional rules - some of which you never used at the time, but which, 4 decades later, are brilliant for role playing based actions (you remember that 3rd book in the original Warhammer set, right?) or really small battles. But for me, the true beauty of this supplement came from the lists and descriptions of the forces available. Lets take a look at what constituted a list back then by grabbing the book and selecting a list at random - Wood Elves: If you click on the image and enlarge it you'll see that the common troop types (those available at the time) are all given a single line, with basic weapons and notes on whether armour can be worn. Rare units are also note. Beneath this, you get special rules for the army and character model stats. And that...

Oldhammer... Or as we old timers call it , Warhammer is as we know all the craze. But, I think what separates the old sweats from the Johnny-Come-3rd-Ed-&-Afters is a 'vibe' which you don't just get from buying a set of rules and some over-priced old figures. Indeed as I opined previously, Citadel figures do not an Oldhammer army make. Let's take a couple of moments to look at what the middle of the road Warhammer 1st ed player looked like in 1982. I know there will always be exceptions, but there are some themes which ran deep in those days. First of all, most gamers were literate, dreamers and creatively minded. That may sound like a no-brainer, but believe me, the general intellect these days is not what it was in your local corporate gaming store. And that goes for the staff too, I fear... Secondly, there was a definite slant towards rock music, particularly progressive rock by the likes of Genesis, Pink Floyd, Marillion, Starcastle, Rush and YES. Now as...

As you all know, I am an unapologetic 80s throwback - actually I can't be a throw back if I never came forward can I?  And as you may also glean from my previous posts I cut my teeth back on Warhammer Fantasy right from day 1, moving on to 2nd and then 3rd edition and merely dabbling with later editions which lacked the feel of creative freedom and the sense that the designers 'cared' about their game. It may have been unbalanced, not really made for competitive gaming until 3rd edition but it was FUN. I can say hand on heart that I never had anything like as many (if any) arguments over WHFB compared to historical games rules - even when we simply turned up en masse to a game with totally unbalanced armies - you know, like real battles. I've spent what little spare time I have had recently, reading my old Warhammer rules and supplements from square one and also reading through the first of my books put out in the 80s by Christian Fundamentalists who th...

I'm something of a gaming culture vulture. I'm not only interested in the games themselves, but also the people, trends and history of this fine hobby. Anyone who takes in the various shows, will now see not only couples but in many cases large family groupings at shows. This was not always the case however... If one, looks at photographs (remember those?) from the 1970s there will be a noticeable swathe of middle aged men and young boys (no, not like that) with just the odd female in the shot, usually looking either over-enthusiastic or in the majority of cases attentively bored. Back then, culturally, it was more often than not the preserve of the male to go out and protect hearth and home from rampaging 25mm invading hordes, and for the 'little woman' to prepare food and raise those children who were either too young to wield dice or whom wore dresses (don't go there eh?). Another reason for the lack of female companions in those early years, may be due t...

For a while, I have been considering how fashion and social groups have re-modelled the hobby over the years. Now, I really got involved in the hobby proper around 1980/81; at the start of a decade which was creatively unsurpassed in the 20th century.  The music (although at the time I ignored much of it) the fashions (ditto) and indeed the gaming hobby was more varied than at any other time. The Cold War was winding down, the drab colours of the 70s were fading to black, to be replaced by vibrant hues. Hair was big, the Baby Boomers had bred and their offspring embraced life, big time.We had Heavy Rockers, Prog' Rockers, Punks, Skinheads, Glams, Goths, Townies, Urban Vagabonds, New Romantics, Mods and probably a few more youth sub cultures that in the befuddled LateSummer Season of life have slipped my mind.  Whatever your taste in clothes, cause of adult deafness or outlook on life; there was something for you. Apropos of nothing, I was listen...