WHITE DWARF · APRIL 2005
The thirtieth-anniversary issue: Games Workshop and Terminator histories, Calgar against Necrons, Zealots, Iron Lords finale, Sigmarite faith and cults, Ogre tactics and extensive Shire and winter scenarios. Contents and complete substantive features were read, including image-only boxes and the hobby-supplies conversion tutorial. Release catalogues, advertisements, event/store listings and subscriptions are excluded; the cover-advertised separate Order of Battle booklet is not present in this copy.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
Phil Kelly introduces the Broodlord as a Tyranid leader for the smaller vanguard creatures, explicitly distinguishing it from a Genestealer Cult army. Simon Butler discusses the new role-playing edition and its expanded post-Storm of Chaos setting, while other reports cover repackaged Middle-earth characters, Elysian Drop Troops and redesigned hobby materials, brushes and water effects.
Guy Haley introduces the thirtieth-anniversary histories and celebrates the return of a UK letters page. Reflecting on the long evolution from detailed Rogue Trader games to quicker contemporary battles, he invites readers to discuss their projects, challenge the magazine’s reports and contribute useful ideas even when a submitted article cannot be published.
Nick converts a mounted good Saruman and Witch Hunter Zealots while Paul Rudge’s growing cavalry points toward a Harad army and a new Mordheim warband. Christian distinguishes quick army painting from experiments on individual figures, and Greg recalls an impromptu Battle Companies alliance whose promising game was interrupted when the studio’s power returned.
Guy Haley investigates the company’s change from traditional games and role-playing imports to a business centred on its own miniatures and tabletop worlds. John Stallard emphasises Citadel, Warhammer, focused shops and the appeal of owning a physical army, while the feature follows international growth, boxed games and the development of gaming spaces.
John Stallard identifies the miniatures business, Warhammer and a deliberate focus on the company’s own products as decisive changes. His account connects rapid shop growth, international expansion and the Nottingham facilities to a future ambition for Hobby Centres where people gather to play, treating the tactile pleasure of model armies as the company’s enduring attraction.
The retrospective follows Warhammer from a small collection of rules books without developed army lists through hardbacks, army books and miniature-filled starter boxes. It also considers the delayed Realms of Chaos volumes, the campaign possibilities of Mighty Empires and the different scales of adventure offered by Mordheim and Warhammer Quest.
Rogue Trader’s detailed individual-scale game gives way to army-level battles as the retrospective compares successive formats and starter sets. Epic and Space Hulk broaden the setting through very different scales of conflict, with the latter’s Terminators and Genestealers helping establish imagery and background that feed back into the main game.
Rick Priestley recalls developing a game before seeing a definitive film or script, when the available licence tied usable material to uncertain screen appearances. He credits those constraints with improving the result while describing the less glamorous effects of repeated international travel, placing the finished boxed games within an unusually demanding development process.
Jervis Johnson explains why games intended to need little further miniature support instead produced dedicated communities asking for more. Fanatic’s website supplies continuing rules, questions, discussion and release coverage, while the photographed games demonstrate the different scales and tactical experiences that sit alongside the main systems.
Older role-playing products, Talisman and licensed games sit beside stranger company experiments in Andy Jones’s recollections. A disastrous Dark Future paintball outing supplies the comedy, while the MB partnership’s HeroQuest and Space Crusade receive credit for introducing many eventual hobbyists to miniatures and imaginative adventure.
A retrospective gallery compares changes in sculpting, plastic construction and painting across several generations of Citadel models. Fantasy knights, Ogres and Chaos figures lead into Eldar, Orks and Tyranids, before classic Golden Demon winners show how competition painting helped raise expectations for both finished miniatures and the models themselves.
The Eldar display follows Guardians from metal figures with plastic weapon arms through simpler plastic bodies to the multipart range. A Great Harlequin and Farseer underline the continuing influence of Jes Goodwin’s designs, connecting changing manufacturing methods to a visual identity that survives successive miniature generations.
Early Zoats, Genestealer Hybrids and the Screamer Killer illustrate a Tyranid range whose background and appearance have changed markedly. Comparing the Advanced Space Crusade Warriors with their later counterparts highlights stronger chitin and more aggressive biological weapons, presenting the collection as an evolving alien ecosystem.
Classic competition entries pair a Knight Panther inspired by John Blanche with Matt Parkes’s Orion, Neil Thompson’s Ragnar Blackmane and Anthony De Pasquale’s Grey Wizard. The selection connects recognisable characters and older artwork to ambitious individual painting, illustrating the competition’s influence on the hobby’s standards.
Alex Boyd replaces overhead rotor blades with oversized rocket engines to make Ork aircraft he finds more plausible for reckless riders. Tank hatches, angled wheel spokes and Dreadnought fuel lines become mechanical details, with deliberately scavenged construction and large forward guns giving the improvised jetbikes their shared character.
Graham McNeill traces Tactical Dreadnought armour from hazardous-environment exo-suits into a scarce and revered Space Marine weapon. He explains its life support, sensors, heavy weapon fittings and difficult training requirements, then considers how teleportation and Land Raiders compensate for the armour’s limited agility.
Terminator armour combines powered battle equipment with technology intended for reactor casings and other lethal environments. Although originally conceived more broadly, its cost, rarity and cumbersome bulk leave it concentrated among trained veterans and senior commanders, with surviving suits maintained as treasured relics rather than ordinary replaceable equipment.
Storm bolters and power fists let Terminators advance under fire before assaulting, while chainfists and heavier support weapons address specialised targets. Dedicated assault squads exchange shooting for claws or hammer-and-shield combinations; teleportation delivers them rapidly but imperfectly, making heavily protected Land Raiders an attractive alternative for Chapters distrustful of the technology.
Brother Sergeant Egil and Wolf Guard Kaarlson shelter amid a shattered battlefield when an enemy Night Gaunt Titan strides through their position. Egil escapes the collapsing structure with his jump pack, only to watch Kaarlson emerge alive from the rubble and calmly resume the advance, making the armour’s endurance the story’s central revelation.
The Ultramarines’ First Company dies defending Macragge’s polar fortress, leaving a legacy that shapes the Chapter’s banner and rebuilding. On Armageddon, Grey Knight Terminators banish Angron at enormous cost, but the Imperial authorities’ subsequent punishment of the population transforms a military triumph into a source of lasting bitterness for Logan Grimnar.
Pete Haines’s Terminator force, led by Marneus Calgar, races to secure a disabled Necron Monolith before dawn. Mat Ward uses two unusually equipped Lords, Flayed Ones and Tomb Spyders rather than relying on a Resurrection Orb, while the arrival of both armies’ reserves dictates a rapidly changing fight around the still-functioning portal.
A crashed Monolith becomes an objective the Space Marines must occupy at close range, while the Necrons can secure it from a wider perimeter if the attackers fail. Calgar begins in a Land Raider and the rest of his eligible force teleports in; limited Necron defenders await reserves, some of which may arrive through the portal despite the vehicle’s disabled state.
Pete builds around all the available Ultramarine Terminators and adds an Epistolary whose Vortex of Doom threatens low-Initiative Necrons. Different heavy weapons serve the early command group and later reinforcements, while Calgar’s initial push toward the objective depends on reserves arriving quickly enough to consolidate rather than being overwhelmed in isolation.
Mat rejects the familiar Resurrection Orb to explore more disruptive combinations of Lord equipment. Pariahs, Flayed Ones and a Nightmare Shroud are intended to exploit Leadership, while Tomb Spyders add armour-piercing attacks; the plan tries to defeat Terminators piecemeal rather than simply exchange fire with their superior protection.
Pete describes the pleasure and anxiety of relying on a small all-Terminator force, with Calgar’s survival and late reserves rescuing a precarious position. Mat accepts the loss without blaming the dice, arguing that earlier Pariahs and differently assigned Lord equipment could have made the central defence far harder to break.
Adam Troke and Andy Hoare follow Terminators from early Jes Goodwin concepts through Space Hulk, the first tabletop army list and successive plastic kits. Old weapon rules, Deathwing imagery, Chaos counterparts and Grey Knights show how models and background developed together before a new sculpting team revisited the silhouette without abandoning its familiar identity.
Space Hulk places heavily armed Blood Angels in cramped corridors against faster and more numerous Genestealers. Hidden action resources and the timing of attacks create its tension, while the article credits the game with establishing Terminator imagery and weapon combinations that become central to the broader science-fiction setting.
The first Terminator boxed set arrives with an exceptionally expensive Rogue Trader army entry and elaborate equipment options. Catastrophic Cyclone launches, powerful lightning claws and a thunder hammer’s dangerous full discharge illustrate an earlier style of rules whose theatrical complexity differs sharply from the contemporary game.
A Space Hulk mission brings Chaos Terminators into combat against several loyalist Chapters before dedicated metal figures and army rules follow. Later models expand the weapons and introduce Abaddon’s imposing miniature, making the traitor counterpart both a recognisable relative of the loyal design and a foundation for ambitious Chaos Lord conversions.
The Deathwing expansion establishes the Dark Angels’ First Company and the bone-white armour that commemorates a legendary victory over Genestealers on a recruiting world. The retrospective presents their exclusive use of Tactical Dreadnought armour as a distinctive identity that has remained recognisable across subsequent changes to models and game systems.
The second Space Hulk builds on a much more developed Tyranid background and replaces the original single-piece Marines with articulated plastics. Separate sale of those models then spreads the new Terminators into ordinary armies, showing how improvements made for a boxed specialist game can reshape a main range.
Early Grey Knights appear as a tiny, extraordinarily expensive psychic elite before Codex: Daemonhunters makes a complete army practical. Their ornate new figures expose the age of ordinary Terminator models, leading into the article’s explanation of a collaborative multipart kit designed to retain the established form while improving pose and detail.
Graham McNeill explains how massed religious fanatics accompany the Ecclesiarchy despite the prohibition on standing armies of men. Their enthusiasm makes them useful but unpredictable auxiliaries, and the optional Witch Hunter unit combines improvised weapons, Demagogues, Eviscerator-bearing Fanatics and one-shot Exterminators with unusual resistance to morale penalties.
Zealots supplement compulsory Witch Hunter Troops rather than replacing them and cannot ride in transports or freely receive attached characters. Negative morale modifiers become bonuses, while optional Fanatics and a Demagogue strengthen the mob; Exterminators reward large coordinated charges by improving the chances of their single close-range volley hitting home.
Captain Grumman expects the Church of Mortification’s fanatics to die clearing a path for his Gudrun Rifles across a sodden battlefield. Their suicidal assault instead tears open the heretics’ trench line, and a dying priest finally draws an answer in his own language of faith from the officer who had dismissed their beliefs as incomprehensible dogma.
Nick Kyme makes Uriah Jacobus into a suitably grand Demagogue with a chainsword and meltagun, then adapts Hierophants and Flagellants into flamer-bearing followers. A Possessed Dark Soul supplies a wild Fanatic once its Chaos symbol is hidden and its flail becomes an Eviscerator; smaller wrist swaps give the remaining mob pistols and chainswords.
Adrian Wood describes building a chapter-specific modelling and painting book that complements the general Citadel guide and the army codex. A hundred illustrated uniforms provide inspiration, detailed Ultramarine company markings establish a reference structure, and named individual troops, personalised liturgy and unusual Chapter examples encourage readers to make an army recognisably their own.
More than six hundred Northern European entries are reduced to a final group judged for overall achievement, conversion and painting. Tapio Miettinen’s Angel Guard takes the main award, Tue Kaae’s Sons of Thor wins conversion honours and John Thompson’s Storm Ghosts wins painting, alongside a gallery of distinctive runner-up Chapters and their invented identities.
Gideon Lorr’s protection of Imperial pilgrims masks a fanatical distrust of psychic power following a horrifying incident in the warp. His executions increasingly threaten institutions on which the Imperium depends, placing extreme puritanism near its own form of heresy; the accompanying profile and cell confrontation show both his authority and ruthless personal capability.
Lorr comes with a fixed array of investigative and combat equipment and three shotgun-armed Imperial Guard veterans whose cost and influence are built into his profile. Iron Will lets him choose the outcome of morale and pinning checks, while the destruction of his retinue changes how he operates as an independent character.
Summoned to investigate supposed witchcraft at a remote outpost, Lorr notices that the accused prisoner has no tongue and cannot have spoken the alleged spell. He turns on the guards and Lieutenant Barak before their ambush succeeds, then prepares to extract the truth about the uprising from the officer who tried to deceive him.
Nick Kyme closes the Ironyard campaign with the struggle for two ancient factories and a final four-gang contest for the archeotech dome. The Brotherhood wins the Chem Wells, HiveNet retains its technological momentum and the Spectres exploit their developing skills, while individual diaries review the campaign’s injuries, recruitment, lessons and rivalries.
Reactivating Factorum Alpha briefly restores its munitions production, rewarding the controlling gang with reliable ammunition for the final battle. All its fighters can reroll failed Ammo rolls and a small randomly determined group receives frag grenades, giving territorial success a concrete effect in the decisive scenario.
Factorum Beta’s surviving machinery can supply armour once enough power is restored. Its owner chooses between different quantities of flak, mesh or carapace suits for the final battle, making the quality-versus-quantity decision another way a campaign territory can shape the gang that enters the dome.
Andy Smillie celebrates reaching the four-player finale after a fluctuating and fiercely contested campaign. His reflections mix a newly learned rules vocabulary with office rivalries and mock apocalyptic confidence, showing how a gang chosen almost by elimination has become a personal stake in the struggle for the Ironyard.
Paul Rudge ends a frustrating campaign in which empty weapons spoil an early advantage against zombies and his gang again fails against Cawdor. Promoted Juve Drew’s victory over three opponents offers a rare bright point, while the promise of fresh Necromunda and Mordheim campaigns gives the disappointing record somewhere productive to lead.
Paul Foulkes continues playing frequently, survives a raid on his water still and brings experienced bounty hunter MuckGyver back for the finale. A multiplayer victory and the purchase of an autocannon reinforce HiveNet’s strength, while frustration with Smelly Bob and the Enforcers keeps personal revenge alongside the broader ambition of total hive domination.
Andy Holmes preserves funds for five Underhive Scum while developing accurate shooters and an inspirational leader. Rare equipment repeatedly delays the planned second Heavy, but useful skills, medical support and Aristotle’s control of bottle tests create a balanced force capable of contesting the final dome battle.
Mark Chambers credits his unusually resilient plague zombies and celebrates wins over several gangs, including a flamer-assisted Shoot-Out victory against HiveNet. The Defilers’ ongoing feud with Smelly Bob becomes a highlight of friendly office competition, and the completed gang remains ready for the next occasion Uncle Jo awakens his followers.
Andy Hobday’s Cawdor enjoy a better second half and win the Chem Wells, but finish outside the final four despite growing to sixteen members. Smelly Bob’s repeated failed bottle tests contrast with the personality the gang develops, and Hobday values the shifting conditions and shared narrative enough to look immediately toward Mordheim.
Rob MacTaggart reflects on becoming attached to individual Goliaths while learning against more experienced players. His surviving close-combat force may gain more shooting support in future, but the campaign’s lasting achievement is a gang with a personal history and unfinished grudges rather than a place in the final battle.
Pinyo Gulashart’s Escher win a teamed game but do not reach the finale. He identifies overreliance on hired fighters and habits imported from Warhammer 40,000 as lessons learned, ending with a developed gang whose survival and individual histories make future Necromunda games worth pursuing.
Four gangs deploy into the corners of a densely built battlefield and fight until three have bottled out. Vents and tunnels cannot bypass the opening positions, experience still rewards surviving fighters, and the winner claims rare trade; an accompanying multiplayer adjustment resolves a melee only during turns belonging to fighters actually involved in it.
HiveNet’s ammunition advantage and the Spectres’ factory armour meet gangs padded with hired Scummers, including the Phantoms’ remarkably large contingent. Shifting pacts repeatedly change the gunfight, but the Defilers and Phantoms eventually withdraw; with HiveNet still strong, Aristotle leads the Spectres away and leaves the cyborg gang to claim the Ironyard.
The campaign newspaper reports the factories’ reactivation, resulting blackouts and the Enforcers’ embarrassing withdrawal. Sales of the Phantoms’ possessions, alleged gang disbandments and threatening wanted notices turn the finale’s preparations into Underhive gossip, before the publication announces its own closure under pressure from bailiffs.
Andy Hoare previews Lustria as a dangerous setting for any army, where terrain and encounters can oppose an expedition as actively as the enemy. The book combines jungle formations, six scenarios, a node-map campaign and veteran honours with the Rise of Sotek’s long war, introducing Tehenhauin’s Skink-led host and Nurglitch’s diseased Skaven court.
The long struggle between Lizardmen and Clan Pestilens supplies the background for two contrasting variant armies. Tehenhauin leads hardy Red Crested Skinks in sudden, concentrated attacks, while Nurglitch’s followers embrace disease and field Plague Monks, Censer Bearers and new grotesque elements, turning the jungle’s hazards into rival religious identities.
Graham McNeill follows Sigmar from tribal warlord and ally of the Dwarfs to the founding figure of the Empire and the centre of a powerful church. The history explains the Grand Theogonist, Arch Lectors, competing orders and the uneasy relationship between national identity, personal faith and political influence.
Imperial Witch Hunters pursue sorcery, mutants and forbidden cults under secular authority rather than belonging automatically to the Sigmarite priesthood. Their powers can destroy innocent people as well as genuine threats, and the article sets that brutality against the very real dangers their investigations are intended to prevent.
The Knights of the Hammer trace their charter to Magnus the Pious and express devotion through steel armour and warhammers. Their exemplary record comes at a severe cost in the Storm of Chaos, where only twenty of the hundred knights sent north return, leaving the order facing years of rebuilding.
A new Empire Lord option combines strong personal equipment choices with two extra dispel dice and two prayers each turn. His hatred benefits suitable followers against specified enemies, while restrictions prevent him joining Ulrican or Kislevite units, making religious allegiance a meaningful limitation alongside the character’s considerable support abilities.
Marius van Diesi hunts the Empire’s enemies during the Age of the Three Emperors with a reputation for grim dedication and unusual understanding of people. Weathered by years on the road, he combines menace with a capacity for gentleness, offering a more individual portrait of a Witch Hunter than the profession’s usual public image.
Ottilia’s disputed claim to the throne and alliance with Ulric’s high priest turn theological rivalry into persecution. Declaring Sigmar’s church founded on a false interpretation permits the outlawing of its worship in Talabecland, illustrating how religious doctrine can become a weapon in the Empire’s struggle over succession and authority.
Warrior Priests accompany armies as religious advisers and fighters, most closely associated with the Reikland and the Emperor. Flagellants emerge instead from catastrophe and despair, rejecting ordinary life in expectation of doom; both can display extraordinary battlefield courage, though their institutions and relationship to Imperial authority differ sharply.
Huss’s rejection of clerical corruption leads him to the young Valten, whom he brings before Karl Franz as a sign of Sigmar’s return. Recognition by men, Elves and Dwarfs precedes the great battle against Archaon, but Valten’s murder while recovering transforms the moment of deliverance into another source of grief for the damaged Empire.
Henckler’s unthreatening appearance conceals a patient investigator directing a substantial network of informants. His destruction of the Grey Haze rests on carefully gathered evidence and a coordinated mass arrest, contrasting the distant, methodical work of this Witch Hunter with the more familiar image of a lone zealot pursuing enemies openly.
Arch Lector Kolach’s attempt to aid persecuted Sigmarites meets Ar-Ulric Bardolph’s opposing army during the Sigmarian Heresy. Both forces gain religiously driven stubbornness and hatred while their generals live, and killing the rival general carries a major points reward, making commanders the centre of both morale and victory.
Adam Troke examines the Empire’s secret organisations in a society shaken by war, mutation and fear. Recruitment, indoctrination and ritual bind vulnerable followers to ambitious leaders, but the survey also distinguishes destructive Chaos cells, Skaven collaborators and mutant alliances from tolerated societies whose secrecy need not conceal treachery.
An exclusive University of Altdorf society binds noble students through humiliating initiation and a recognisable jacket. Corruption, riots and indulgence by university authorities give the League a poor reputation, but no formal religious investigation has followed, illustrating how an unpleasant secret society can remain distinct from a genuine Chaos cult.
Leaders exploit fear, poverty and isolation before deepening their followers’ obligations through indoctrination and escalating transgression. The article follows recruitment toward ritual or rebellion and explains why a successful purge can arrive only after terrible damage, while mutant and Skaven-backed organisations create further investigative problems beyond conventional human cults.
Reiksguard captain Quintis Baumann believes destiny has chosen him to kill the Everchosen and attracts followers from several human realms. Their clandestine lethal duels fail to identify a champion before Archaon invades, so the group departs together, leaving apparently virtuous purpose entangled with vanity and a grimly uncertain outcome.
Two hostile Tzeentchian cults share the aim of destroying the Empire but pursue it differently. The Purple Hand infiltrates positions of religious and political authority and seeks renewed schism, while the Red Crown organises mutants and Beastmen for open uprising, making their rivalry as significant as their common allegiance.
Wealthy and influential members seek to shape the Empire through financial resources and privileged access rather than devotion to a single god. The Builders have broken no known law, but their concealed connections across offices and religious institutions attract close Witch Hunter attention, placing acceptable influence and dangerous manipulation in uneasy proximity.
Alfrict Schade gains entry to Dieter IV’s court by claiming to speak for Sigmar while drawing courtiers into Chaos-inspired gatherings. The Emperor’s cousins eventually abduct him and, according to lurid rumour, employ extraordinary violence to ensure his death before firing his remains across the Reik, capturing the story’s mixture of intrigue and grotesque folklore.
Opponents can nominate one or both Empire forces as cultist armies for a civil war or inter-cult battle. A Captain, Warrior Priest or Wizard represents the leader and gains access to Chaos magic items and optional Marks, letting a recognisable state army acquire a hidden allegiance without replacing its entire troop structure.
Moritz Mellinger’s cult force faces a larger loyalist army raised by Arch Lector Kaslein near ruined Gerdinger. Only a randomly chosen third of the attackers begins on the table, with remaining contingents arriving from different sides as the game progresses; the cult must exploit that temporary weakness and inflict damage before the encirclement closes.
The collectors display their developing armies while offering increasingly concrete advice and modelling projects. Stephen shares Tomb King lessons, Paul personalises a River Patrol and heirloom mortar, Asger explains his chariot and Nurgle palette, and Dave learns advanced Grimgor repairs while turning a revised Gork effigy into convincing stone terrain.
Stephen Green passes on Pete Scholey’s advice about Tomb Scorpions, Screaming Skull Catapults and enough magical support to make incantations reliable. He recommends coordinated attacks instead of fair infantry fights, using fear, outnumbering and resurrected troops to turn one successful combat round into a recovery from an otherwise poor position.
Paul Scott makes his Stirland River Patrol visibly more uniform with matching quilted torsos, then shortens legs and adds putty and brush-bristle reeds to create troops wading through water. The project renews his interest in an army shaped by personal background, with Knights of Morr and a cleric conversion planned as the next extensions.
Paul gives his tempting new mortar a background-compatible identity by removing the ordinary wheeled presentation. Extra cannon and mortar bracings create a broad fixed carriage, turning the weapon into an old defensive piece brought out of the Bull’s barn rather than an anonymous addition chosen only for its battlefield effect.
Asger keeps the converted chariot within his existing army palette, building the beast’s flesh from a warm mixed base and using drybrushing for grainy wood. A shared brown ink wash ages both wood and metal, while bright eyes and familiar innards link the unusual creature to the Plaguebearers rather than making it an isolated centrepiece.
A brown base progresses through green mixtures for the flesh, with separate red and bone steps for tongues and exposed anatomy. Cloth, teeth and streaked metallic blades receive their own highlights before a unifying ink wash; red staining and occasional yellow sores then create the diseased, slimy finish that defines Asger’s army.
Dave Allen asks Chris Straw to help replace Grimgor’s Empire-specific trophy pose with an aggressive axe and reaching hand. Brass formers reinforce newly sculpted fingers, pins strengthen joins and putty sleeves repair the weapon haft; a surviving ribbon becomes a deliberate trophy rather than unexplained damage from the conversion.
Revised facial proportions improve Dave’s carved polystyrene idol, and a hot-wire cutter adds rock strata before masonry paint and Roughcoat provide texture. Salvaged Titan bases, skulls and pre-undercoat flock make the finished effigy durable and consistent, even as his accompanying battle diary admits that the army’s improving appearance has not produced victories.
Phil Kelly challenges the idea that Ogre tactics consist only of charging straight forward. Gnoblar Trappers preserve the distance needed for impact hits, Hunters and Sabretusks remove vulnerable support pieces, Maneaters hold dangerous cavalry and carefully timed Leadbelcher volleys support an army whose expensive units cannot afford to fight unsupported.
Ogres need sufficient charging distance to generate their impact hits, but opponents can frustrate that advantage by moving close and relying on ranks. Scouting Gnoblar Trappers deny march moves and help preserve the desired gap, giving the main units a better chance to land a properly supported Bull Charge instead of a costly ordinary fight.
A Hunter’s independently charging Sabretusks can attack Wizards, standards and war-machine crews before their own vulnerability to shooting becomes decisive. The Hunter can combine those threats with a harpoon shot or a flank attack, while the Greyback Pelt offers access through terrain and additional combat protection at the cost of compatibility with Yhetees.
Mark Owen uses Bulls to support Empire attacks against fear-causing enemies and heavy chariots, while Leadbelchers protect artillery. In his Chaos Dwarf army, Bulls or Ironguts absorb punishment more reliably than fragile Bull Centaurs; different paint themes make the same mercenary concept appear as paid Ostermark troops or brutalised slaves.
Heavy cavalry threatens Ogres through longer charges, strong attacks and superior armour, so Phil proposes stubborn Maneaters with Cathayan longswords as a blocking force. Mixed weapons, redirecting Gnoblars, terrain-crossing Yhetees and a terror-causing Slavegiant provide alternatives, encouraging a planned response rather than trusting ordinary Bulls to endure the charge.
Adam Troke finds Leadbelchers less essential in an Empire army already rich in missile support, but values Maneaters as dependable anchors against difficult enemy units. Their equipment options and stubbornness let them hold until friendly cavalry arrives, especially when a nearby Battle Standard Bearer makes that delaying role more reliable.
Pete Haines recommends mercenaries that strengthen a core army’s character rather than automatically conceal its weaknesses. For his existing Ogre-heavy Chaos force, hard-hitting Ironguts and stubborn Maneaters fit naturally, while he resists the tempting Leadbelcher solution to the army’s missing firepower in favour of choices that support its established style.
Leadbelchers need suitable targets and patient timing because cover and scattered opponents waste their dramatic volley. Small units can protect rear flanks with limited risk, while a larger group can punish a dense infantry regiment and still fight effectively if the enemy closes; the advice draws on both successful and disappointing shots in the earlier Ogre battle report.
Cheap Gnoblars supply ranks, outnumbering and flank protection that expensive Ogres struggle to generate efficiently. Phil also uses them for screening, sacrificial redirection, deployment feints, missile distraction and uncontested table quarters, with the ability to flee without spreading panic making their expendability particularly useful; bickering remains the principal danger to an overly rigid screen.
Selafyn’s hereditary task is to hunt the dangerous creatures emerging from the magic-haunted Annulii Mountains. A spectacular hydra kill wins courtly recognition, yet he prefers the isolated life of a Warden; the accompanying profile and cockatrice story present monster-hunting skill as both his public reputation and an unending private burden.
Selafyn joins any High Elf army as a fixed Hero choice with Shadow Armour, a Foe Bane sword and shield. His predetermined equipment keeps the character tied to a stealthy monster-hunting identity instead of offering a freely customised noble, giving the anniversary miniature a direct tabletop role.
Selafyn tracks a cockatrice feeding on a dead Elf and defeats it by keeping clear of its petrifying gaze, blinding it with a desperate shield-assisted attack. The apparent victory becomes ominous when its nest reveals that he has killed only a surviving chick, just as the returning mother can be heard through the storm.
Andy Smillie and Adam Hall prepare for a doubles tournament by selecting two complementary five-hundred-point Wood Elf forces. Their apparently ruthless shooting plan survives several test matchups but suffers a chastening loss to a Chaos-and-Goblin alliance, while individually converted archers and coordinated autumn colours add the character that the competitive army list alone would lack.
Practice against High Elves, Khornate Chaos and Undead tests the partners’ expectations about shooting, armour and summoning. The Wood Elves can conserve points or overwhelm selected threats, but a real opponents’ Chaos-and-Goblin force exposes poor deployment and target choices, reminding them to exploit their own strengths rather than chase an impervious chariot.
Dark green-and-brown foundations keep the partners’ Wood Elves visually related while reversing the balance between their two forces. Andy demonstrates brown cloth, shaded flesh and metallic detail, then changes the trousers to green when the figure looks too uniformly brown, showing colour balance as an active decision during painting.
Each partner selects a tightly restricted five-hundred-point force led by one Hero, with limits on units, large models, chariots and war machines. An alliance matrix determines which armies can cooperate and when proximity causes distrust, making force selection and mutual support part of the challenge before either player deploys.
Mat Ward examines Saruman’s fall as a tragedy of pride: an accomplished leader increasingly views both Sauron and his own allies as rivals for the Ring. His manipulation of the White Council, envy of Gandalf and dangerous use of Orthanc’s palantír lead from genuine service to secret military preparations, with good-hero rules and a historical Isengard encounter recalling the path he abandoned.
The article distinguishes known members of the White Council from possible participants and suggests existing profiles for figures without their own models or entries. Círdan, Gildor and Erestor can therefore appear in alternate Fellowships through agreed substitutions, expanding scenario possibilities while acknowledging uncertainty about the council’s exact membership.
The earlier Saruman uses his existing Return of the King profile and spells but loses Voice of Command and the Palantír. A horse becomes available as extra wargear, and opponents must agree on his inclusion to avoid two versions of the same Wizard appearing in one battle, keeping the adaptation rooted in a specific earlier period.
Nick Kyme turns Gandalf on Shadowfax into mounted Saruman by replacing the staff arm and head with pieces from the Orthanc figure. Putty fills the joins and rebuilds hair lost during cutting, producing the missing mounted good-hero model through a small number of carefully chosen substitutions.
In the aftermath of Rohan’s earlier siege, Saruman and an honour guard help Rohirrim confront Goblins and Cave Trolls in the vale of Isengard. Good must severely reduce the enemy, while Evil needs both heavy losses among the defenders and Saruman’s death; the Citadel Guard’s bodyguard rule is explicitly redirected to the White Wizard for this encounter.
Steve Cumiskey damages ordinary Hobbit terrain to evoke Sharkey’s occupation, opening collapsed roofs, exposing rafters and blackening burned dwellings. Log barricades and a devastated copse use inexpensive dowel, filler and putty, with distinct bark, timber and ash painting stages making the reused techniques suitable for several different terrain pieces.
Gouged openings and inserted balsa rafters turn a normal polystyrene Hobbit-hole into a partly collapsed home. Painted interiors remain visible beneath torn paper and filler, while blackened edges around roof damage, windows and door establish arson without requiring an entirely different method for constructing the underlying building.
Broken balsa dowels become logs once a glue-and-filler mixture supplies rough bark, and shaved contact surfaces make them sit convincingly on the ground. Supports and a narrow base assemble a useful Hobbit barricade, while separate dark bark and pale exposed-wood recipes preserve the difference between outer surface and cut ends.
Putty roots and partially cut, hand-broken dowels create tree stumps with recognisably splintered tops. Painting the copse normally before adding black scorch marks keeps the remaining landscape convincing, and stippled grey and white create ash deposits that make the destruction readable without covering the whole base in a single colour.
Paladin Took leads a raid to free prisoners from Sharkey’s improvised jail, where extracting Lobelia or Fredegar contributes more to the rescue target than an ordinary captive. Only one prisoner can emerge each turn and the weakened Hobbits may stumble or fail to fight aggressively, while arriving Ruffians and the automatic loss if Paladin dies force the rescuers to balance speed with protection.
Steve Cumiskey offers both temporary snow scatter and permanent painted winter terrain, including a modular frozen river and small watchfires. Adrian Wood converts distinctive White Warg Chieftains for the season’s invaders, and the final scenario puts the completed setting to work as Rangers defend the frozen Brandywine against hungry Wargs.
A sieve and irregular piles of snow scatter can transform an existing table for an evening, with a large brush clearing paths where needed. The scatter is recovered afterwards, while the comparison with baking soda and salt explains practical problems that can make superficially similar household substitutes harder to use or remove.
Textured surfaces drybrushed through cool greys to white give permanent boards and hills a durable snow effect, while retained grass patches suggest thawing ground. Trees and buildings can instead receive fixed snow scatter, applied from above and built into drifts so the placement follows how snow would settle rather than coating every surface evenly.
Matching-width sections allow the river to be rearranged and stored, with shaped polystyrene banks blended onto a wooden or card base. Dark water painted in grey patches sits beneath a clear document-wallet surface, and snow scatter along brown banks completes an inexpensive impression of ice over the Brandywine.
Adrian Wood studies the interchangeable plastic Warg components before creating three subtly different leaders. A charging beast gains a raised slate base, another stands over a remodelled dead horse, and a third menaces a cowering Pippin; altered head angles, restrained putty fur repairs and secure pins provide character without exaggerated decoration.
A central cocktail stick supports sharpened dowel logs, twigs form the fuel and glued wire wool represents flame and smoke. The painting begins with believable wood before introducing black char and increasingly bright stippled colours near the fire’s base, producing small atmospheric pieces that also function as watchfires in the winter scenarios.
Six Rangers attempt to kill enough White Wargs crossing the frozen Brandywine to ease the later defence of the Shire. Watchfires make nearby defenders terrifying to animals but can burn out, while the icy river may send moving models sprawling; the vastly outnumbered Good side therefore relies on position, fire and a limited delaying objective rather than complete victory over the pack.
Four players control mushroom-thieving Hobbits while a fifth defends Maggot’s farm with his dogs. Each thief must return three loads to a personal stash, but fights can make him drop food and wounds represent bruises rather than death; injured hounds retreat until the alerted farmer restores them, creating a deliberately mischievous multiplayer contest with familiar heroes on the raiding side.
The forthcoming War of the Ring campaign offers twelve territories with distinctive benefits and a travelling Fellowship that opens temporary scenarios and areas. The team’s Battle Companies continue growing toward larger armies, with Harad unbeaten, Gondor recovering, Dol Amroth adapting to losses and Guy’s badly injured Orc hero becoming a rescue objective rather than a dependable leader.
Campaign results carry different weight according to the territory and the side fighting there, while local rules give armies reasons to choose their battleground carefully. The Fellowship’s predetermined journey opens brief special opportunities, and results in one Fellowship scenario affect the next, adding a linked narrative layer to the wider Good-versus-Evil struggle.
Nick Kyme’s improved use of Knights and supporting infantry wins a contested Recovery game against Dol Amroth, while concentrated Ranger shooting dismantles Guy’s Mordor force. Hero advances and another promotion strengthen the company, and Ugbrag’s capture creates a new campaign obligation for the badly battered Orcs.
Paul Rudge overcomes Isengard’s armour with an unexpectedly effective Raider charge and retrieves the Recovery objective. Even a large underdog allowance cannot help Mordor stop the next Harad victory, though the loss of a bowman briefly removes volley fire; new horses, lances and additional warriors push the unbeaten force toward its future army.
Guy Haley counts a growing list of deaths and Ugbrag’s debilitating injuries after six unsuccessful games. Harad inflicts further losses and Gondor captures the crippled hero, but plentiful reinforcements and a faster brown-and-ink painting method keep the project moving despite its disastrous battlefield record.
Greg MacGregor converts missing Fiefdom troop types and uses a growing Dol Amroth company against Gondor and Isengard. A careful defeat to Nick costs a Swan Knight, but favourable deployment and a timely game-ending roll let one archer secure high ground before Christian’s Uruks can complete their comeback.
The weaker company attacks a stronger force camped around fires, with wandering sentries and distance-based detection determining when the alarm sounds. Quiet kills can preserve surprise, attackers may release tethered mounts, and restricted shooting range makes darkness consequential; once detected, the raiders retain one initiative advantage before normal play resumes.
Christian Byrne replaces inappropriate Mordor Uruks with pike-armed Isengard figures by agreement, keeping the developing company aligned with his intended army. Harad wins despite his numerical advantage in the main fight, and Dol Amroth benefits from an early ending on the high ground; spare models and fresh recruitment keep the force viable through both setbacks.
Guy Haley spreads modelling clay over a card core to make weathered ruins, using a ruler to flatten surfaces and score masonry joints. Thick plastic bases resist drying-induced warping, while extra cornerstones, rubble and flocked ivy give the simple structure age; sealing and texturing then prepare it for straightforward stone drybrushing.
Adrian Wood gives Orc leaders greater presence by combining larger Mordor Orc bodies with Warg Rider legs. One sword arm becomes a downward strike, a shortened axe and shield adapt another warrior to riding, and an oversized armoured head distinguishes a third, demonstrating three useful variations through relatively small plastic cuts.
The revived letters page opens with Steve Jackson correcting the impression that he left games behind after FIST, recounting Battlecards, journalism, Lionhead and the Fighting Fantasy relaunch. Other readers debate the balance of collecting and playing in A Tale of Four Gamers and ask for different miniature showcases, prompting Guy Haley to explain editorial choices and invite strong reader contributions.
Steve Jackson fills in the career omitted from the earlier magazine history, moving from telephone games and scratch-off Battlecards to an art gallery and newspaper games coverage. Friendship with Peter Molyneux leads to Lionhead, while renewed ownership and licensing of Fighting Fantasy provides an ongoing creative business rather than the retirement the earlier account appeared to imply.
Owen Rees introduces a regular view of online hobby material, with links to snow bases, Ogre army ideas, damaged armour and Witch Hunter conversions. Rik Turner describes Terminators and a planned Blood Ravens project, while Dave Allen explains the challenge of updating dozens of army sections, connecting the website’s production work to the subjects appearing in the magazine.