WHITE DWARF · SEPTEMBER 2005
The consolidated Middle-earth rules and Dwarrowdelf escape join Kemmler’s Cairns campaign, seasonal Wood Elf painting, Rhinox cavalry, anti-Tyranid tactics and John Cadice’s Howling Griffons.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
Plastic Assault Terminators and Scouts lead the model previews, while Forge World introduces the Taros Campaign’s Tau and Imperial forces. Andy Hall explains a redesigned Specialist Games website with linked resources, weekly Fanatic Online articles and plans for variant games. Reports also record the huge Armoured Assault tank event and the closing results stage of the online War of the Ring campaign.
The final event guide divides the NEC venue into Forum, Arena and Pavilion areas, identifying activities, displays, gaming tables and signing opportunities. It explains how visitors can find the studio, Golden Demon presentations and participation games rather than simply listing the models for sale. The map emphasizes the unusually broad range of attractions gathered under one roof.
Guy Haley recounts Bristol Conflict and an unsuccessful Battle Companies challenge, while preparing more Goblin artillery and chariots. Greg MacGregor’s zombie-pirate project accompanies his farewell, Christian Byrne finishes Minotaurs for a Chaos force, and Nick Kyme reports three victories that take the Border Princes campaign. A closing notice also marks Paul Rudge’s departure, making this a mixture of personal hobby results and editorial change.
Alessio Cavatore introduces a consolidated rules manual gathering the three film editions and their supplements, with a larger hobby section and themed forces. Detailed notes explain revisions to courage, barriers, weapons and cavalry, while the Mines of Moria set provides a compact route into the game. Adam Troke then interviews the Fellowship supplement’s writers, scenery makers and sculptors about combining narrative scenarios with reusable terrain and characterful new miniatures.
Alessio Cavatore explains the new manual’s deliberate simplification of familiar mechanics. Broken warriors now leave play after failed courage tests, Will can support courage, and isolated-model testing disappears; barrier fighting moves into advanced rules. Every model normally has a hand weapon, volley fire needs ten archers, and cavalry can use the better rider or mount characteristics. The notes explain the reasoning behind the changes rather than presenting them as an unconnected errata list.
The starter combines a newly posed plastic Fellowship, twenty-four Goblins and a two-weapon-option Cave Troll with tomb-room scenery. A thirty-two-page introduction teaches play through scenarios, while the small manual retains the full rules section but omits some profiles and extended hobby material. The discussion distinguishes this portable gaming reference from the larger hardback and suggests expanding the Goblins with a drum or Balrog.
Adam Troke asks Mat Ward, Dominic Murray, Mark Jones and the sculptors how the first journey supplement was assembled. Eighteen scenarios follow Frodo from the Shire through the Fellowship’s breaking, with progressively more demanding hobby projects. Modular Balin’s Tomb scenery becomes Dwarrowdelf and Khazad-dûm, while new Rangers, Ringwraiths and action-posed heroes translate particular passages and film moments into miniatures.
Dominic Murray explains how a sequence of increasingly ambitious scenery projects teaches skills while keeping pieces useful across several scenarios. Mat Ward’s tabletop mock-up clarified the Dwarrowdelf walkways, and Mark Jones broke Amon Sûl into reproducible sections after studying the Forge World version. Their approach treats a growing scenery collection as part of the journey rather than requiring a new display board for every encounter.
Alan and Michael Perry describe Rangers as a thin defensive line around the Shire and give Gildor an identity distinct from the film’s Elves. Weathertop footage guides additional Ringwraith poses. Dave Thomas and Juan Diaz explain how the new Fellowship models combine Amon Hen action with Gandalf’s last appearance at Khazad-dûm, balancing distinctive weapon choices against the smaller proportions and approval requirements of the range.
Steve Cumiskey guides the Fellowship across unstable elevated walkways while Adam Troke recycles Goblins, captains and Cave Trolls to block their route. Gandalf’s Blinding Light sharply reduces the archers’ effectiveness, and his spells let the fighters overcome repeated monsters. New chasms complicate movement and consume precious Might, while Merry and Pippin fall protecting the group.
The Fellowship must get Frodo and at least four companions out across a winding platform network. Goblins enter at random and can return after death, with captains and Trolls consuming larger reinforcement rolls. High matching priority dice create chasms that may kill a failed jumper outright; reinforcements cease when the first hero escapes. The scenario makes advance, rearguard protection and safe movement more valuable than simply clearing every enemy.
Adam Troke organizes successful play around leadership, choosing the place of battle and identifying the right targets. The new broken-force rules make heroes’ courage and Stand Fast essential, while Might can seize movement, shooting or a second combat at a decisive moment. Terrain can protect a small force from encirclement or deny cavalry its charge, and threat assessment should include support models and hostile magic as well as obvious killers.
Heroes belong where their leadership and heroic actions can influence ordinary warriors. Troke shows how Stand Fast prevents a broken line from evaporating and how a carefully timed move can protect troops, intercept a fragile target or secure a cavalry charge. Heroic shooting has occasional decisive uses, while a successful heroic combat can propel a powerful fighter toward a more important threat.
A small army can anchor its flanks on difficult or impassable ground and reduce a larger enemy’s ability to surround it. Woods sharply reduce cavalry mobility and cancel charge advantages, but Woodland Creature lets Elves exploit the same terrain without that penalty. The examples show terrain as an active component of deployment and movement, supported by advice to use enough scenery to create meaningful decisions.
Troke separates targets into immediate killers, models that disrupt a plan and supports that improve the enemy army. Monsters and elite heroes may need concentrated melee force, while a vulnerable spellcaster or banner can often be neutralized more economically. Goblin drums combine several forms of influence, making apparently passive models worth extraordinary attention. The method encourages judging effects on the whole battle rather than ranking enemies only by personal fighting strength.
Phil Kelly traps a remnant of Saruman’s Uruk-hai inside Fangorn with Treebeard and moving Huorns. The fugitives win by escaping with a torch-bearer or killing Treebeard, while Good must extinguish both torches. Huorns envelop and crush victims instead of striking normally, but fear the light; the Uruks in turn panic when separated from it. Opposing fears turn the torches into moving tactical objectives.
Gandalf’s birthday-party delivery is ambushed by Goblins and Wargs on the Shire’s border, with three Dúnedain coming to help. Good must get the fragile cart away intact within ten turns; destroying it wins for Evil. The pony is reluctant to charge, but Gandalf can launch Shriekers, Goblin Barkers or Squibs, respectively frightening, stunning or severely wounding pursuers. The unusual weapons give an escort mission a deliberately playful character.
Adrian Wood builds a Númenórean bridge from scored foamboard, bending a separate roadway between arched sidewalls and adding buttresses and statue alcoves. A wooden base, shaped banks and textured water integrate it into a modular river. Painting instructions cover pale stone, stained roadway, vegetation and flowing green-blue water, then show ruined statues and alternative arch arrangements. Templates make the basic construction reusable beyond the Mitheithel scenario.
Grey and white drybrushing over Roughcoat establishes the pale masonry, with green streaks and earthy marks suggesting runoff and traffic. The banks progress from Snakebite Leather through lighter browns and bone before flock is attached. Dark green water becomes Scaly Green and blue mixes near the edges, with white streaks and Ardcoat supplying reflected light and shine. Damaged Gondorian figures serve as weathered architectural statues.
Mat Ward pits mounted Glorfindel against three Ringwraiths at the Mitheithel crossing while Frodo’s life hangs in the balance elsewhere. Good wins by holding the bridge at the end or destroying the wraiths; after ten turns a tied priority roll can end the game immediately. A single Nazgûl cry reduces Good courage for a turn, and the wraiths begin with minimal Will to represent Sauron’s still-growing power.
Mat Ward begins a three-part recreation of Heinrich Kemmler’s winter incursion into Athel Loren. The narrative explains his use of carrion as a distraction while he and Krell enter ancient burial mounds, followed by bespoke character profiles, an expanded necromantic lore and the first infiltration scenario. A historical chronology and a complete cairn-making workshop give the campaign both background and a physical setting.
Kemmler strikes when Athel Loren’s spirits sleep, concealing himself in a king’s tomb while Wood Elf riders chase summoned carrion. His ritual wakes bronze-armoured dead across the heath and drives them deep into the forest. Dryads and Waywatchers delay the invasion until Sceolan and Ythil muster a decisive defence, leaving the Elves determined to avenge the deepest penetration their realm has suffered.
The campaign presents Kemmler near the height of his power as an ethereal Level Four wizard with extensive magical protections. He can repeat spells while power remains, carry a familiar and store a die between magic phases, while his chattering staff reveals nearby items and helps avoid miscasts. The accompanying history traces his ruin, bargain with Chaos and renewed ambition against Bretonnia; this fixed profile occupies both a Lord and a Hero choice.
Krell can accompany Kemmler as a fixed Hero choice, wielding an axe whose wounds may continue killing their victims in later magic phases. His improved Killing Blow and fused Crown of the Damned make him dangerous but increasingly dependent on the Lichemaster. Background recounts his ancient Chaos empire, death at Dwarf hands and resurrection within Nagash’s wider design, while shared rules explain the pair’s undead psychology and combat losses.
Kemmler automatically knows six enhanced necromantic spells. Invocation restores wounds or creates Skeleton units at several power levels; Desiccating Grasp turns slain victims into followers, and Eternal Vigour gives an undead unit first strikes and rerolls. Long-range destructive magic, an extra movement spell and an escalating curse round out the lore. Detailed limits on new units, restored numbers and formations keep the raising spell tied to the battle’s existing structure.
Kemmler and Krell attempt to cross the Wood Elves’ outer perimeter before the defenders fully assemble. Only Dryads begin on the table; each turn brings the next named reinforcement, ending with a Treeman. Kemmler must escape through the far edge to win, while winter makes Forest Spirits subject to Stupidity. Alternative forces preserve the unusual structure by limiting the attacker to characters rather than a conventional army.
A dated chronology follows Kemmler’s studies in the lands of the dead, rivalry with Brachnar and imprisonment by the lich Crovan. His subsequent fortress, attacks on Tilea and Bretonnia, defeats and madness lead to Krell’s awakening and renewed war. The introduction warns that Kemmler himself is the principal, biased source; the sequence gives the campaign a longer history of ambition, recovery and repeated catastrophe.
Foamboard ovals covered with mixed gravel and sand become quick burial cairns, varied with markers, open graves and exposed Skeletons. A larger two-layer polystyrene hill forms a barrow with a slate doorway and crawling corpse, while standing stones and skeletal totems add visual variety. The ground is painted fully before flocking so wear reveals natural earth rather than bare black undercoat.
Steve Cumiskey uses seasonal palettes to unify Wood Elf warbands without imposing a regimented uniform. Three colour groups for each season can be redistributed across clothing and equipment, while common cloaks and bases hold the force together. Bow, jewel and herb-base recipes accompany Christian Byrne’s quick Glade Guard and more elaborate characters, including tattoos, unusual skin mixes and varied hair.
Greens establish a growing forest, with paler yellows and rich reds or browns supplying contrast. The same three palette groups suit spring and summer by favouring lighter or darker greens respectively. The worked archer keeps the inside of the cloak dark so the brighter body stands out, and the guide recommends using the plastic sprues’ vegetation to strengthen the seasonal appearance.
The guide proposes very light or very dark wood as a stronger counterpoint to clothing than a middle tone. Bright sapwood moves from Snakebite Leather through Bubonic Brown to Bleached Bone; dark stained wood starts Scorched Brown, receives Dark Flesh and finishes with a bone-and-Bestial Brown highlight. The two compact recipes can be applied consistently across bows and other wooden equipment.
The autumn palette exchanges lush greens for fallen-leaf reds, yellows and browns, with dried herbs recommended for the bases. A worked model combines Terracotta shaded with Dark Flesh and highlighted orange, alongside leather and yellow-brown areas. Gold armour complements the warm scheme, and the three selectable groups offer enough variation for individual warriors to remain part of the same force.
Shining Gold receives Chestnut Ink and a Mithril Silver highlight to create a simple warm metal finish. The red jewel instead builds brighter colour toward its lower edge, reserving a white reflection near the opposite top corner. Gloss Varnish finishes the stone, making its imagined light source distinct from the surrounding metal and seasonal cloth.
Pale greys, blue-greys and subdued flesh tones give the Elves a spectral winter appearance, balanced by darker wood and brown. The example uses a light bow against the dark body, while a sparse base and exposed plastic roots replace summer vegetation. The text also reminds collectors that Orion’s seasonal nature makes him an awkward choice for a genuinely winter-themed army.
Dried mixed herbs imitate accumulated leaves rather than grass. A Graveyard Earth foundation supports green spring and summer overbrushing, varied warm autumn patches or pale winter drybrushing. Snow scatter and optional Gloss Varnish make the winter ground look wet and cold. The same inexpensive basing material therefore links the army to its chosen season through colour and finish.
Christian Byrne paints several archers together, staggering stages so drying time does not halt the work. Green and earth clothing, mixed flesh and yellow-brown hair receive a unifying Brown Ink wash before selected overbrushes and highlights restore their colour. The final skin uses the following page’s pale mixture, and a little yellow brightens the clothing edges. The demonstrated method aims for an attractive rank-and-file model in roughly ninety minutes.
Byrne extends the Glade Guard approach to a Wardancer Noble, adding green ink effects to the weapon and carefully layered talismanic tattoos. A Spellsinger uses a mixed green-grey cloth highlighted toward white, with turquoise and blue-ink spites and jewels. Sidebar recipes explain pale skin, four hair colours and a scatter mixture for bases, showing where extra time can make leaders stand apart from the army.
The account follows Losteriksson’s first disastrous treasure expedition and return with settlers to found Skeggi. Honey mead, timber buildings, a protected harbour and waves of ambitious raiders turn it into a prosperous but violent gateway to Lustria. Later sections explain its Chaos-aspected gods, flood-prone geography, temporary warleaders and raids, followed by light-armoured Norse character options and a Cold One rider conversion.
The Norse worship numerous gods of bloodshed, plunder, fate and hardiness, each ultimately an aspect of the four great Chaos powers. The text distinguishes this many-named devotion from the more overt practices of northern Kurgan and Hung peoples. It stresses that the Norse knowingly honour the powers of their world and seek their blessings, rather than presenting the relationship as a trick played upon unsuspecting worshippers.
Two character entries give Skeggi’s warriors leadership suited to hot Lustrian campaigning rather than heavy northern armour. Lords and Heroes can choose Chaos marks, weapons and magical equipment, with Cold Ones available alongside horses and a lord’s chariot option. The article limits the intended setting to Lustria jungle games or campaigns and recommends arranging other use with the opponent; it also specifies the army’s battle-standard restrictions.
A Cold One loses its Lizardman glyphs through cutting, filing and filled joins. Marauder Horseman legs, a plastic Marauder torso and a Chaos Warrior head make the rider, with sculpted chainmail descending from the saddle. The compact example shows how existing plastics can communicate a Norse warrior accustomed to Lustria without requiring a new model or an invented unit profile.
Phil Kelly explains the brutal rite by which young Ogres capture exhausted Rhinoxen, then introduces Ghark Ironskin’s metal-obsessed tribe and its Chaos Dwarf-built mechanical mount. Full rules cover Ghark, the Ironskin army’s rearranged unit categories and mercenary Rhinox cavalry. Converted and scratch-built examples lead into Mike Anderson’s detailed modelling masterclass, connecting the new rules to several practical ways of representing the enormous riders.
Ghark’s reverence for iron shapes a tribe famous for its Rhinox riders and an alliance trading slaves and gold to the Chaos Dwarfs. After Bretonnian knights kill Bladehorn, his allies supply a daemon-fuelled Iron Rhinox. The fixed character profile combines a steam attack, armour and a powerful monstrous mount, while a dedicated army organization promotes Ironguts and Leadbelchers to Core and permits additional Rhinox riders.
Graham Davey fits a plastic Ogre Bull to the Scraplauncher Rhinox by removing the legs, testing their position with adhesive putty and rebuilding the thighs in Green Stuff. Chain reins and spare equipment complete the rider. Alongside it, Scibor Teleszynski’s entirely sculpted example and Dave Taylor’s Juggernaut-based Ghark demonstrate how widely the same subject can vary in construction and ambition.
Small units of mounted Ogres deliver impact hits after a sufficiently long charge, with full-grown Bull Rhinoxen adding terror and greater size. Bad Tempered can force unwanted charges, while Single-Minded restricts wheeling and formation changes. Equipment, command and magic-banner options complete the entry, and Dogs of War rules let the expensive cavalry serve other armies at a substantial cost in army-list selections.
Mike Anderson develops a Rhinox rider as a narrative display piece, first repositioning the beast’s head and building its neck in separate putty stages. Wood putty creates ragged fur, while selected Ogre legs, a rebuilt torso and repeated temporary assembly establish a convincing seated pose. Practical finishing details include a drilled halberd, armour straps, cross-range shoulder pads and trophies. Anderson explains changing his original character concept when a simpler rank-and-file rider improved the composition.
Rob Starling’s sketchbook drives a collection dominated by scratch-sculpted monsters and unusual interpretations of familiar creatures. Kroot riders, a larger feral beast and a Stegadon-based Ankylodon sit beside a sinister Blood Bowl Treeman, Cold One knight and large-scale Sigmarite priest. A crowded bar-room brawl provides a lighter counterpoint, made while travel restricted his tools and materials. The interview connects his preference for sculpting to old monster films, stop-motion animation and the desire to build subjects that do not already exist.
Nicholas Patey adapts the old metal Vindicator components to a newer Immolator/Rhino hull. Thin strips cut from the front armour compensate for the kits’ different widths, then filing centers the gun mount. The old rear door fits directly, while the Immolator roof, Rhino hatch assembly, gunner and accessories complete the vehicle. The tutorial concentrates on the dimensional adjustment needed to combine generations of kits.
Pete Haines argues that scenery creates movement, narrative and meaningful shooting decisions, even for armies with strong firepower. He recommends a portable, army-themed collection covering about a quarter of the table, then shows how irregular shapes and central placement encourage attacking play. The final pages explain true line of sight, representative area terrain and agreed elevated viewpoints, treating terrain definitions as a practical shared tool rather than a reason to balance models on trees.
Haines plans irregular woods, multi-level hills and low ruins instead of a collection of square obstacles. Individual trees stand on larger area bases so troops can occupy the wood precisely, while old scenery can be repaired and expanded into a useful starting set. Moving the pieces away from table edges creates reasons to advance and extra routes of approach, demonstrating that arrangement matters as much as the quantity of terrain.
The explanation separates literal scenery, such as a single building, from a representative area feature whose base defines its extent. Size categories determine cover and visibility, with a six-inch fringe allowing models to see into or out of area terrain. Haines also addresses an omitted rulebook clarification: players should agree which elevated positions provide a Size Three view, or a rarer taller category for exceptional towers, before the game begins.
Pete Haines counters defeatism about the new Tyranid codex with three principles: exploit weaknesses, keep acting instead of freezing, and concentrate on chosen targets. Isolated Synapse creatures can expose low-leadership broods, while armour, cover, mobile shooting and deliberate countercharges reduce the swarm’s strengths. Adam Troke adds Imperial tricks and Graham McNeill discusses Necron teleportation, with the closing advice using barrage, transports and bait to disrupt a single-axis advance.
Adam Troke suggests an Inquisitor’s Mystics and retinue as an answer to deep-striking threats, then highlights the Culexus Assassin’s unusual strength against a concentration of Synapse psykers. Space Marines can exploit Furious Charge or the Suffer Not the Alien to Live trait, accepting the accompanying modelling demands. These are targeted codex combinations intended to punish particular Tyranid capabilities rather than a universal substitute for manoeuvre.
Graham McNeill recommends concentrated Necron shooting while backing away, using different gauss weapons against broods and larger armoured targets. A Veil of Darkness or Monolith can extract units from combat and expose the attackers to fresh fire, with the portal also helping failed repair rolls. Pariahs or the Nightbringer provide counterattacks, while a Lightning Field offers a particularly unpleasant trap for numerous low-strength Gaunts.
Andy Hoare and Phil Kelly describe a conquered world’s final conversion into nutrients: feeder organisms consume its life, digestion pools render the biomass, and capillary towers transfer it to the fleet. Even the atmosphere and seas are harvested. A last-chance infiltration scenario accompanies Dominic Murray’s pool and hive-node terrain projects, while Roberto Cirillo illustrates a single landscape changing from civilized world to barren remnant.
The last guerrillas on a doomed world try to place a teleport beacon in a digestion pool so an elite force can reach the heart of a bio-ship. Ten separate Ripper bases act as sentries, remaining in play after the alarm while accelerated Tyranid reserves arrive from random corners. The beacon can change hands but must remain at the pool through the next Tyranid turn to win, making stealth, timing and a final defended position essential.
Dominic Murray cuts an inset pool into foamcard on a wooden base, then adds sliced foam and wooden balls as swelling bubbles. PVA, talc, sand and gravel create slippery liquid and half-digested debris. Fleshy drybrush layers, red-purple discolouration and orange-yellow patches make the surface deliberately unpleasant, with gloss supplying a wet finish. The scenery can join the preceding invasion projects to show a world’s final state.
Roberto Cirillo repeats the same viewpoint through five stages of planetary destruction. A civilized moon first receives spores and infiltrators, then Gargoyles and full assault forces; digestion pools and orbital feeding tubes replace the native landscape. The last image is a lifeless wasteland with even its atmosphere consumed, presenting the invasion’s ecological progression visually rather than as a sequence of battlefield victories.
Dark Flesh over black sets the pool’s depth, followed by Graveyard Earth and Dwarf Flesh while a darker rim is retained. Scab Red and Liche Purple surround the bubbles; Blazing Orange and Golden Yellow pick out rough areas. A gloss finish makes the resulting flesh-like texture look liquid, turning ordinary construction materials into a convincing mass of dissolved organic matter.
A Battle for Macragge hive node becomes a durable objective or smaller infestation marker. An oval foamcard base is bevelled to meet the gaming surface, and filler blends the plastic piece into the ground before sand is added. The guide asks players to match their existing invasion scenery when painting it, giving no additional named colour recipe.
John Cadice revisits a chapter he first encountered in White Dwarf 101, building a new Fifth Company around red-and-yellow quartered armour and individual heraldry. Converted commanders, a dynamically posed Dreadnought, named infantry squads and a mixed vehicle collection give the army a knightly identity. His thirteen-step armour recipe and discussions of chapter markings show how the force stays recognizable even when tanks use more subdued desert colours.
Captain Alvaro combines a Catachan Sentinel head, ornate borrowed crest and a pointing power fist with a mounted storm bolter, while a cradled helmet keeps him bareheaded without losing the heraldic detail. The Dreadnought steps onto masonry with twisted body and gun arm, using Macragge power-field parts to fill the repositioned joint. Banners and a black identification badge provide personal and Fifth Company identity despite the chapter’s absence of conventional company trim.
Dilute Golden Yellow over a white undercoat establishes the light quartering before straight Red Gore divisions are filled. Separate inks line the yellow and red recesses, then pale yellow and Blood Red restore their highlights. Black equipment receives grey edges, lenses build from Enchanted Blue through Ice Blue to a white reflection, and Boltgun Metal finishes the weapons. Final black heraldry and white squad numbers complete the thirteen-stage guide.
The chapter’s historical sidebar connects its heraldic appearance to the Badab conflict, then describes severe casualties defending Armistead Majoris during the Eye of Terror war. Reinforcements arrive through a plague-fleet blockade to support the Drookian Fen Guard, and the survivors fight beside Titans. A separate First Company mission pursues Night Lords and Periclitor, explaining the chapter’s unusually fierce hatred of that enemy.
Cadice applies the bright chapter colours selectively to tank hatches and heraldic areas, leaving large hulls in neutral desert tones with contrasting red weapons. Banners distinguish troop carriers, while identification markings communicate company allegiance. Bikes retain the full infantry livery and the Land Speeder adapts the muted vehicle approach. The text names Bubonic Brown for the Predator but Desert Yellow for the Speeder, so both are retained in the index.
A hollowed polystyrene hill on hardboard becomes a small fighting arena lined with uneven wooden stakes. Sand, embedded rocks and extra Goblin spear points roughen the construction, while different drybrush sequences distinguish earth, old wood and stone. Flock, discarded weapons and brown-red blood splashes finish a piece designed around Orcs’ enthusiasm for fighting even their own neighbours.
Guy Haley publishes reader miniatures and revisits earlier debates about army collecting, explaining that individual experiments and renewed enthusiasm matter alongside technical consistency. Letters correct a Lizardmen allies omission, offer old Whirlwind templates and ask why studio Ogres have grey skin. A veteran painter describes refreshing Cadian bases with a diluted Flesh Wash and static grass, illustrating how a simple conversation in a store can change a long-established habit.