Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of The Crown of
Command. Today.
I just wanted to give a explanation what's to what this
is. It's called my first White
Dwarf, and it's been a series that I've been running on the
YouTube channel for a number of years now.
It's one of my favorite videos to make with people because they
bring their story of where they found their first white dwarf.
It may have been through a friend or cousin or brother.
It could been through their father.
It could been through their local game store newsagent.
We'll all have our own tale to tell about where we discovered
our very first white dwarf. And of course, it took us down
this massive rabbit hole into Games Workshop products, most
namely one Third Edition, 4th edition, 140 K Second Edition,
and all those games that were released during the early 90s
during that, what we'd like to call the golden period of Games
Workshop. So this is a series we've been
running for quite a while. As I said, you can find all the
videos for that in a playlist on my YouTube channel at Chronic
Command Games. So just go to YouTube, put in
the search engine, Crown of Command Games to find my my
channel, and you can listen to all of those episodes there,
which are really entertaining. They're basically a visual
podcast. And during the process of that
podcast, they might go for about 40 minutes, if not less or more.
And I tend to edit them down to about 20 minutes.
But all the other footage in audio is it tends to be lost and
I delete it or what have you. But I thought that's quite a
shame because a lot of the things that people are talking
about related to the articles and everything like that would
be just nice to hear for people. So I thought I'd bring it to the
podcast so you can expect more of those in the future as kind
of fillers in between interviews, in between deep
dives or what other content we're doing later in the year.
Speaking of which, it's now the 4th of December.
So I just can't believe how fast this year is this sort of flown
by. So I hope you have reached your
hobby goals if you have or if there's something you've
achieved over the last 12 months, maybe you want to call
into a bedroom of battlefields. Not literally.
There's a little placement ad I put into the into the episodes.
Now, you may have heard those before where Matthew talks about
like a question of the month. And yeah, this one for December.
I've sort of missed those last couple ones, which are a real
shame because I did have a couple of things I wanted to
talk about. I think.
Let's see, October was about your favorite game store, local
local friendly game store. And for us here, it's in Chiba
called the Miniature Forest, run by a little guy, lovely Japanese
guy called Mori. And he has a store there that
has many tables where people game in tabletop role play,
board games, there's painting tables there.
And it's it's not so far from the station.
And that's where we congregate to have our Wahama Renaissance
days there. And whatever other gaming
related days that we all get together and have a fun social,
social time. So it's a real shame I couldn't
get that on the on the bedroom battlefields podcast for that
question of the month And November was about painting and
what it means to you. And it's a real shame.
I, I, I tried to get my audio clip through to, to Matthew
there, but for some reason the site wasn't, was down or
something like that and then it wouldn't accept my microphone or
something like that. So I had a few issues there.
But to wrap up that very quickly is that it's a pretty much an
integral part of my hobby, but it's not my complete hobby.
It's I paint to play and some people paint to display, but I'm
very much a painter play. I love playing.
Gaming is a big part. If not, it's not the biggest
part. I think it shares with painting
5050 with me. So, but everything I paint,
there's a purpose to it being eventually put on the tabletop
to game with. I want to, you know, physically
move that model around, roll dice and you know, be an active
part of the gameplay experience, whether it be on a on a board
game or on the tabletop. So painting for me is very much
a, an essential part of the visual aspects, the aesthetical
pleasing aspects of gaming. And if you play with unpainted
miniatures, which you know, is up to you, I think you're just
losing a massive part of what the gaming experience is all
about. So, so there you go, Matthew.
I've answered those questions for you mate.
So just not on your podcast, mate, Sorry.
I did try. I will, I will definitely get
the one in for December talking about, you know, what you've
achieved in the last 12 months and your hobby goals.
Now Mark the person that's featured in our first White
Dwarf article today is a big part of the bedroom battlefields
community there on Discord. And I think we met through
there. He he's he was a participant of
my painting tutorials and I think that's how he first
contacted me about that. So if you don't know, I'd, I run
one-on-one classes for people at very reasonable prices through
my Patreon and they're about 40 minutes long.
I record them, I edit a video and I send it back to them so
that they got like a permanent record of all the things they
wanted to learn during that lesson.
So Mark's been a part of that. So thanks again, Mark, for all
those lessons, mate. I think that was like a
Christmas present last year from his wife.
So, and we did, we covered lots of things, like really difficult
technical stuff that I haven't even tackled, like Translucent
white gowns covering these ladies bodies.
And you have to, you know, show the show their skin colour
through the sort of the veiled very thin fabrics that they're
wearing and that sort of stuff. He's got very specific, had very
specific needs for mini miniatures he was painting for
his games and stuff he was playing.
So yeah, it presents really good challenges for me, and I try to
do my best to bring a very practical way of giving you the
essential knowledge you need in order to get that, you know, get
your painting skills to the level where it's achievable.
So that's How I Met Mark and Mark's, yeah, like I said, he's
a big part of the Bedroom Battlefields Discord he runs.
And I'm going to forget what it's called.
The Royal Orc, I think it's called.
And that's like a group of people getting together during
the hours of the evening and painting and chatting and
there's like questions and stuff he does.
So if you're, if you're interested, I'll leave a Discord
link for the Bedroom Battlefields here in today's
episode and you can go and check it out.
You can also check out our Discord.
Our Discord also has a load of channels related to lots of
games in the 90s. It also has historical games.
It has things like I think battle tech, even though I don't
play battle tech, I think a few other guys are interested in
that. So we try to cover most things
about gaming and see what, what's hits, what's, what's a
hit, what's a miss kind of thing.
But they've got a great play locator channel so people can
find other people that they that's in their area.
So we had a gentleman today from Germany and he was asking
through our YouTube channel, you know, he's looking for people to
play second edition 40K with in Berlin.
I think it is. And yeah, so immediately he
contacted a few people in our Discord channel about that.
So that's great. I'm really happy that we're
making connections that way and getting people together to play
games and meet up and and enjoy their hobby together.
So that's the main aim, isn't it?
So now in other news, the big one is that from our last
interview, you would have heard Scott from Black Arrow Minis in
our interview together in our chat.
And Scott emailed me later or messaged me later to say he went
to my Patreon and he saw that we had I had put up there some
sponsor sponsor tears. If you want to become a sponsor
of the channel as I really wanted someone that was, you
know, affiliated with gaming or in our sort of, you know, our
Nisha the hobby, so to speak. So he proposed and offered that
if he was the right match, you know, would, would I would be,
would I be interested? And I said, yeah, that's, that
sounds fine. Scott's a really nice guy and
we've had a quite a few sort of paint chat sessions through the
week. And yeah, I'm really happy and
very glad that Scott approached me about that.
I'm glad to make this association in collaboration
with him. And he runs a great little site.
I've actually ordered some stuff this week from him because I
just noticed that he had a lot of epic Space Marine stuff that
were quite rare. And I've been thinking maybe
I'll never get these models. And then I saw them on there.
I thought, I've got to get them so desperately, you know,
reached out to Scott. Put those aside.
I'll pay you straight away, mate.
You know, So yeah, he's, he's, he's got quite a large
collection of rare and collectible miniatures that I
think would be a great service to you guys, especially now if
you're in the US, you're in the great, in a great place because
that's where he's located. But if you're overseas, well, if
you spend $199, it's international shipping free,
which I think is a really good deal.
So, but anything just just going to have a look, just going to
check out what he's got. He's got, you know, one of the
fantasy ranges covering all the different races and factions,
40K the same mod, some, you know, more modern to really old
stuff. It's sort of, you know, this
layers of different ranges covering different years,
different eras, different editions.
And but most of it, most of it's all LED and and, and it's all
LED as well. You know, think of ranges like
Grenadier, for instance. That's on there as well.
Like I said, ton of epic stuff on there and he's uploading
stuff all the time. So it's going to be continual
kind of progress of just getting things photographed, catalogued
and then uploaded into the the website.
So he's got stuff like Battlefield Gothic, he's got,
let's see what else. He's got historical ranges on
there as well, not so much, but he's got some there.
So he tries to cater, caters and you know, tries to tries to
cover all aspects of war gaming for miniatures and that's his
passion. So, but if you can't find
something and you think, well, maybe Scott's got it sitting in
a tub, you know, or on a list of in his catalogue there, then you
can always contact him. I'll leave an e-mail down,
e-mail address down for him as well.
You can you can e-mail him to ask him.
I know he's got a slew of dwarves, a whole pile of those,
a lot of Marauder stuff on there as well, but he's going to
slowly put up there. He's got a tonne of beautiful
Perry Empire models there as well, which is very tempting.
So yeah, so it's really nice to see a lot of that stuff on
there. And it's cheaper than eBay, so
that's another incentive. So that's Black Arrow Minis.
So www.blackarrowminis.com and I'll leave a link in the show
notes. You can go down there and you
can find Scott's e-mail address if you want to e-mail him about
something, a query or maybe a deal of, you know, if you get so
much stuff, maybe he can give you a discount or something like
that, whatever. But I'm very, very happy that
Scott's jumped on. He's a great guy and I'm really
happy that he's associated with the Crown of Command.
So that's, that's one of the news topics I wanted to share
with you today. Apart from that, I'm doing a
let's see every day I'm uploading something to my
Patreon. It's it's totally free.
Everybody can access it. It's audio video content.
It could be me doing a splatter natter.
A splatter natter is basically me painting and talking rubbish
or whatever. I don't know, talking about
something hobby related or just socially related, whatever, and
just painting miniatures. I came to a point where I just
wasn't satisfied doing painting tutorials for videos.
I just just didn't find them fun.
I just didn't find find something that I just didn't
find those things. Something that was really engage
with doing. I think there are a load of
other people's there's, there's hundreds, if not thousands of
people doing that online already on YouTube.
And I think they do a great job. So shout out to Deetz at Anvil
of Doom, Ozzy mate down in in Cairns.
I think he was in, in Australia. He does fantastic work in terms
of if you want like 90s miniatures painted very, very
well. Deetz does a fantastic job
entertaining, engaging videos and I think you know those him
and, and there are others as well and I'm sure you know them
better than I do. I don't personally watch a lot
of painting videos. I, I tend to watch gaming
related stuff where people are playing games and that kind of
thing. That's my kind of entertainment
nation. That's where what I do on my
YouTube channel, I, I make battle reports.
That's my, that's my cup of tea. That's my Forte really.
And and I also do these White Dwarf magazines and and that
kind of stuff that's I found my niche of where I should be.
So the splatter natters and painting tutorials will cover
all of the other painting stuff needs that people want
specifically or just generally. So that's again that you can go
down to the link in the show notes.
Check that out. Again, it's all free, nothing
behind the pay wall. So don't worry, you can go in
there, watch and most of it's for free anyway.
Most of the stuff I post up there for free.
So anybody can watch it and anybody can engage with it.
So I sort of wanted to keep that like an open platform because
yeah, it's a great place to be. There's no ads, you know,
there's, there's no, no bollocks like that.
So it's, it's, it's just the creator making something that
they want to do and share with their their patrons and
followers. So if you haven't seen that or
go and be entertained for 25 days until Christmas.
And I hope there's something there that you will enjoy.
But for that, I think we're just going to leave it there for now.
And thank you so much again for tuning in to so many of the
Crown of Command podcast this year.
There is some great stuff on the way.
There's some more deep dives. I know they're very popular.
I really enjoy listening to them.
I always learn something from them.
So there's going to be a couple of maybe two, maybe 3 that'll
drop probably 3 this month leading up to the to Christmas
anyway before we go on a bit of a break.
But guys, enjoy it while you can.
Take care, enjoy your hobby. Until then, take care.
So, Mark, thanks very much mate for offering to come on to the
Chronic Command Games channel and talk all about this
wonderful issue 153 of White Dwarf.
Yeah, thanks for having me on, Josh.
It's this was the first White Dwarf that I ever bought myself.
It wasn't the first one I read because friends of mine were
buying it before me for about a year or so before me and some of
their older brothers had got copies back copies.
So I'd seen plenty. But this was the first issue
that I think I bought myself, and the main reason for it is
because this is the issue that was launching the 4th edition
box for Warhammer. So friends of mine had got the
third edition rules and I was kind of getting interested in
collecting things and I hadn't really bought anything at this
stage. It was all sort of just ideas
simmering around in my mind. And then when this issue
launched. So this is a September 1992
issue, so I would have bought this probably in the August.
They normally release me a couple of weeks before the month
that they're named after. I would have bought this in the
summer holidays after I finished the first year of secondary
school, around about my 12th birthday in August.
So I will have bought this in WH Smith's in town, I would have
thought, and brought it back home.
And the great thing with this issue is in some ways it's not
necessarily a brilliant White Dwarf issue because it's quite
focused. But it really opened the door to
me to what this new Warhammer was going to be because I'd
played a couple of games, a third edition, you know,
probably not by the full rules with my friend and his older
brother. But just seeing that there's
going to be this new boxed version that, you know, looked
to me like Hero Quest. It looked like one of the things
that as a 12 year old, I could get my head around and
understand. And I knew that there was going
to be miniatures with the box set.
This was kind of everything that I wanted to know.
So it was, it was more than just a magazine.
It felt like a catalogue that was going to kind of transport
me into the Warhammer hobby. All right, that's wonderful
mate. Let's let's journey on through
the magazine page. And then obviously you've got
that absolute fantastic front cover, which is that brilliant
Jeff Taylor drawing that we see on the 4th edition box.
And you know that. And what I loved about it is it
looks great on the magazine, but looks even better in that big
landscape on the box when you see it and what what you see.
I remember this very vividly, the night goblins picture at the
top left corner on the inner inner left there, because it's
just something so iconic about the way that the night Goblins
looked. And it's almost like that image
kind of burnt into my mind for years afterwards, although I
never bought any night goblin has never had any.
But it was just something about how they looked in that that
big, that big block with the three fanatics coming out.
It's it's just that kind of captures that Hero Hammer era
for me perfectly. The aesthetic anyway, with the
red Spears and the and the and the black cloaks.
It it just and brilliantly painted as well.
Yeah, absolutely. I think I remembered having this
particular issue on the bus in high school and looking over all
the wonderful models as I just got into one of the 4th edition
and this this was just like you say, a wonderful catalogue of
looking looking at all the models that will be available
coming soon. Yeah, so I mean, if you look at
the contents page here, you see how much of the stuff is going
to be about High Elves, the Silver Helms, there's Mike
Mcveigh's Warhammer Regiments thing, There's things on there
about goblins. There's a, there's a, there's a
battle report, which is kind of a little bit weird because I can
only presume it's sort of a third edition, 4th edition kind
of hybrid battle report really. But it's when they're testing
out the Warhammer magic rules, which is quite cool actually,
because it doesn't go into too much of the detail about how the
game's actually working. It's more about what
possibilities there are for the magic system, which as we know
when it came out was really quite a major part of what made
4th edition so brilliant is having this magic system that's
just so. Kind of comprehensive and works
in its own right, and this is them playing around with it.
There's some really good content in here.
I think on the next page where it's got the news, there's a
really cool thing that I just noticed when I was looking back
through this, and it's just a very subtle, very casual
Systelle miniature news column. There's about 50 words.
It just says they've been very busy.
Jess Goodwin's been sculpting a whole series of elves.
The model shown here is a high elf wizard.
That's all it says one of the best models ever made, just very
casually. Oh, here's a wizard and you'll
be able to buy that soon. And here's some mighty empires
things as well. Below that, it's just like they
snuck in probably the best model release in just the most casual,
understated way, whereas now there'd be like a grand
unveiling on the stage. And it's just, it's just crazy
to think that that that Techlist model that is I, in my view,
probably the best fantasy miniature ever made.
It was just sort of subtly kind of just put out there as just a
generic wizard. Yeah, I think him and Tyrion
were two of my favourite models ever.
Yeah, they're just stunning, aren't they?
I really hope that they do do the made to order and put those
out to us because I haven't got either of mine and I'd love to
pick up a new copy of them at a better price than you can pay on
eBay, certainly. Yeah, mate, yeah, for sure,
absolutely. I hope so for you anyway mate.
It'd be lovely to see that. So it's, it's just cool, you've
got the all the little things in there.
Oh, it's sort of strange how you get like the vouchers in there,
like Toronto store 10% off and 15% off.
And there's a there's an advert for a store in Madrid and you
just think they weren't at this point doing any kind of
regionalisation. So, you know, you're picking up
the magazine in Australia, I'm picking it up in the UK thinking
we're never going to go to Madrid or Toronto, but nice to
know that there's something there for you if you if you
were, if you were living in those parts.
Yep, absolutely lucky buggers got a nice discount.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, they they stopped doing
that for, for, well, I don't know how long, but you know, in
the 90s I can remember them doing discounts or buy, buy 2,
get one free. But yeah, today's are long gone
now. Yeah, I think that, you know,
it's just something like those little tokens and just taking
them in it. I don't remember actually ever
doing it, but some of them were quite good.
Whereas if you bought like two big boxes, you get like a whole
third box for free, you know, involves shelling out quite a
bit of cash, but you can get a big old saving.
Yeah, definitely very cool. And.
Then kind of go into this 40K World Eaters article and I
remember at the time looking at this and being completely
confused what this might be. So I played hero quest.
I'd had a hero quest. I had I'd played Warhammer at my
friend's house. And all I knew is that there was
a sort of science fiction version of Warhammer called
Warhammer 40,000. And then looking at this, it
just, it just, it just seemed completely different to anything
that you might have seen on TV, whether that's, you know, Star
Trek or or Star Wars or Blake 7 or something like that.
This was like a sci-fi world to a 12 year old.
That was just like, what the hell is this?
This is absolutely crazy, especially when you kind of go
to the next page and they've got their the blood slaughter, a
demonic robot of corn. And it's a guy who's got kind of
a it almost looks like a old fashioned cannon with a robot on
the top. And it's just really crazy
stuff. And I remember just looking at
it as a kid and just completely and utterly confused as to what
was going on, but amazed by it as well at the same time,
entranced by it. But I had no idea whatsoever
what all this really meant. And all the rules seemed so
complicated compared to what I'd really seen up to that point.
Because I think even when I played a couple of games, the
3rd edition, it was with my friend's brother who was very
much guiding us through it all, really.
And we, oh, roll, roll 4 dice. Oh, OK.
And then, oh, how many fives did you get?
Oh, I got that many. And so you didn't really
understand the rules. He was kind of games mastering
it. And he really enjoyed that
because he was a few years older.
But yeah, this, this whole stuff, it's great looking back
at it now. But I just remember looking and
thinking, right, this is cool, but I've no idea what any of
this means. It was like looking at a
chemistry book. I bet there's a Bloodstone that.
That that template there as well is fantastic.
It's just, it's just the kind of thing that's it looks totally
like it's out of a really dry historical war gaming set of
rules for like a, you know, the tank in 1940 or something.
And it's just got this crazy thing on it.
So it's kind of this really weird combination of this really
detailed approach, but with something absolutely mad going
on, which is kind of cool. And then we've got these squat
war machines again. I don't think I even knew that
Epic existed at this point, or maybe I did.
But I remember looking at these, I'm thinking they were
absolutely brilliant. But I remember distinctly at
first looking at this and thinking that maybe this was in
28 mil scale and that the figures, the squats on the
picture below were were, you know, full size.
And then realising, oh, they can't be.
But I was thinking how cool it be for that squat colossus to
actually exist as a, as a full scale model.
It would be absolutely enormous, especially if it was made of
metal. Yeah, they're brilliant as well,
and beautiful colours and just so great that that just totally
honestly you, you know, that there's this, this complete
alignment of the 40K in the fantasy world.
It's like, you just can look at these and go, yeah, that's
dwarves. That's exactly what dwarves look
like. It doesn't it?
It just feels really. I know that they probably have
needed to define 40K as being quite different to fantasy, but
I think I really enjoyed the period of time where there was a
hell of a lot crossover and things really looked like they
were from the same world in a sense.
And I think that's why, you know, some of the Hero Hammer
stuff is brilliant. Now this is a place that you'll
know. So this is the grand reopening
of your old gaffe. My old gaffe, yeah.
Oxford. Street, Yeah.
Plaza, Yeah. So I, I, I went to that shop
once and I don't know when it would have been.
It would have been about 1994 or 1995, something like that,
because we were down in London for the day, just doing
whatever. I can't remember a bit of
sightseeing or something. And I remember going into there,
but I don't remember particularly much of it.
And it's kind of blurred into one.
But was it upstairs in in the Plaza?
Yeah, right. OK.
And because it was like a smallish sort of modern shopping
centre off Oxford Street, I don't think it's even there at
all anymore. The Plaza at all.
From what? I I have no idea, mate.
Yeah, yeah. But it was the only, it was the
only central London 1 though, wasn't it?
Because all the others were like, you know, Hammersmith or
Hammersmith. Was the other one I went to and
that's as far as I know. I don't remember any other ones
apart from that. No, and there weren't very.
I mean, there's an advert a bit later on in the magazine back
which where the branches are, but I remember going to this one
and thinking it was going to maybe I thought it was going to
be like 20 times bigger than the one that I've been to before in
Birmingham. But of course it wasn't.
It was relatively similar, but it still was a really great
branch and really, really busy on the day I went in.
I just remember it being absolutely packed full of people
my age, sort of 1314 year olds, just tons of us.
You know, there was to the point where you couldn't really get to
look at stuff. You had to kind of wait for
people to shuffle out the way and look at things.
You know, I haven't, I've only been into one branch relatively
recently and it was, it was absolutely silent in there, very
different, you know, and you know, they're friendly people,
but it was, it just didn't have that kind of crowded buzz that
you get used to. That's right.
Yeah. And that's what I feel about
too. But the modern to the old, it
just doesn't have the same feeling, the same culture,
nothing about it. No, it's very different.
I think even even the the the sort of the fact that they were
very much explicitly hobby shops where you went in and you could
get advice and you could do things and be shown how to do
stuff. It was kind of, it very much
felt part of it all. Whereas whereas now it feels
like they're just a shop and you go into and if you're not
buying, then you really just, you know, you might as well head
out. And it's not that they're not
welcoming, but it just operates like a very ordinary shop now.
Whereas I felt like they were really operate as a, as a space
that, you know, for people who are interested and not just
people who are into it. They were really good at taking
people in, going, oh, you know, you've walked past the door, you
saw the bright colours. Let me tell you all about it.
They were really good at introducing people to the whole
concept of war gaming and miniatures, which maybe they're
just sort of lack that a bit now and they they they're just
maintaining that High Street presence.
Well, the next page is the is the Warhammer gaming fantasy
battles advert and then we go into the the advert for it all,
which looks fantastic, some brilliantly painted models.
Interestingly, like, I mean, they've got loads of empire
stuff out there, but and and just elves, those generic elves
that like, you know, very kind of third editiony.
But what's interesting is they've they've lined all the
pictures up and everything's kind of more in not quite a
skirmish formation, but sort of offset and all raggedy blocks,
which looks really cool, But it's not something that you're
used to seeing really in White Dwarf as a sort of photography
style. They generally used to try and
show it looking as good as possible but still set up for
actual play, whereas this is a little bit of a different
approach. But still.
I remember looking at it and just thinking, Oh my God, if
this is if this is what you can do if you buy this box, then I'm
in. It just looks absolutely
gorgeous and I mean the paint jobs on these are just stunning
as well. I can see why they chose so many
empire models to go in. I mean, I presume they had a lot
of them, but also just just the colours are just absolutely
stunning. And this is kind of, you know,
this is only just the launch of 4th edition, but this is very
4th edition in colour and in tone and in style.
And it kind of shows, doesn't it, that even towards the end of
third, you know, the steam tank was coming out, the war wagon
was coming out, things in the Empire range were becoming that
more bright balls spectacular kind of look and feel and it and
it's just really cool how they've done it.
But yeah, that's really nice. And if you go to the next page,
then you you get the the box content and, and really sort of
crossed my mind, but 104 plastic miniatures, you know, that's a
lot of miniatures. And I remember this box set was
30 lbs when it came out. And that's what I paid for it.
What what was paid for it? I had it for Christmas that year
and it was 30 lbs. And you know, even in today's
money with inflation adjusted, that's still a really brilliant
price. I've sort of gone back and
looked at other things. At the time, if you wanted to
buy a copy of Monopoly or Risk or Pluto or something like that,
you know, you would have paid 20 or 15 then this was not
significantly more money than a couple of Reg.
There was a price of two very ordinary board games and the
kind of board games that now would set you back £20 each or
something, you know, and yet a starter set with 104 plastic
miniatures, if you were to get such a thing, you know, Games
Workshop would probably charge you £250 or something nowadays.
And it just means that the whole group of teenagers and who are
buying this, who are getting it for Christmas, just wouldn't
have done so because you would have gone, oh, it looks quite
good, but Oh no, it's too much money, move on.
I think they really got that entry point right.
You know, the amount of stuff you got in that box as well, all
the cards or the rules or the templates.
It was just jam packed and just everything looks spectacular.
I, I don't imagine they made a huge amount of money on each
unit they sold. They will have made their money
further down the line when when people actually wanted to buy
more stuff to go alongside with what they had, I'm sure.
But yeah, no, they've done a really good job on it.
One thing that's really interesting is in the bottom
left corner there you've got the future Warhammer releases.
I mean, they've been quite bold saying what?
What's coming out? So Warhammer magic was like the
first thing to come out, but then they're saying Warhammer
army books, everything you need to know.
They include full army lists, background histories.
The first book is about the armies of the Empire, released
in the fall of 1992, which is strange because there's an
autumn in the paragraph above. More army lists will follow,
with the following books planned for release before the summer of
93. The orcs rather than orcs and
goblins, Britannia, the high Elves, and there's orcs.
And of course, we never got the Britannia book in 4th edition,
so they evidently were planning on Britannia being an important
race that they were going their support, but it never came until
the 5th edition. I don't quite know why, but you
know, they obviously just felt that there was just other things
to move onto. And how those decisions happened
at the time, I don't know. But maybe they just sold so much
Empire stuff, they were pretty happy with that and they just
wanted to kind of crack on with other things or who knows why.
But yeah, there's certainly, it's it's certainly not the
first time that what that Games Workshop have been very explicit
in saying exactly what they're going to release.
I mean, the Realm of Chaos books is the classic 1, isn't it,
where they were saying they were going to release it and it took
about seven years or something like that and and Rogue Trader
and all these kind of things. So, but I don't imagine they
would ever do that in a million years now promised what they
were exactly going to do unless they knew for definitely it was
going to happen. But yeah, there may have been
some disappointed Brutonian players from 3rd edition who
were getting very excited that their book was going to be the
the third one coming and it never appeared.
Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it?
I just noticed that myself, actually, Mark.
Yeah, I just read that and thought, oh, York's Brutonium.
So yeah, it's interesting. Maybe the models they just
didn't have time or schedule in for them to be reproduced in.
Yeah. Because they were pretty much
historical models anyway when you look at them, and they're
pretty ordinary in most cases. Yeah.
So. The, the Empire and the
Britannian stuff just rarely felt very similar in 1st to 3rd
edition, I think. And I think that that idea of
oh, well, what's it going to be? And maybe it was just a case of
there's still very much at the time when you're like, OK, who's
who? Who does elves, right?
Get Jessica when he's going to do the elves.
Kev Adams, he's doing the orcs, the Peris, they can do the
Empire. You know, it would have been
that kind of real sense of rather than just the design
studio needs to get all this stuff done.
There will have been a sense of, well, if the Peris aren't yet
ready to come up with an idea for what Britannia is going to
look like and sculpt all those models, then maybe you don't do
it yet. And perhaps as well, they
recognise as they were making the Empire so, so kind of
exaggerating and different to his historical counterpart that
they really needed to do a kind of spectacular version for Brit
Britannia. Britannia needed to look like it
did when it came out. This kind of over the top nights
thing, you know, that they really kind of lent into a very
sort of bright and interesting aesthetic, but they kind of
needed to get that ready. I don't know, but it's be
fascinating to see if someone who was there at the time knows
that history of why things like that got dropped.
But I'm sure that a lot of it just disappears into into
forgotten memories. Then we've got an advert on the
right for the the Wraith album, Danger Calling, with those
pretty cool looking guys there, their bare chests and their
leather. Yeah, very much Spinal Tap
inspired. Yeah, and I love the fact that
there's just an absolutely massive picture of the Chaos
Space Marine and then just a little picture of them.
It's just they must have opened it up going, oh, we're going to
be in the magazine. And it was like, oh, there's our
picture. This is the bottom left corner.
They've shoved the stand there. But they look pretty cool, those
guys. I think that that that crossover
between like metal and and Games Workshop was always really
noticeable. It was something I'm never into
metal, but I but like whenever you went into a game for a shop
shop or you went to something and there's people there,
there's always been a lot of a lot of metalheads wherever you
went and there really is that crossover.
I think Brian was probably pretty instrumental in deciding
that because of his love of that kind of all things spiky and
chaotic. Then we've got dwarf rune
weapons by Nigel Stillman. So this is kind of rune rules in
great detail for the next, you know, number of pages, but it's
presumably kind of legacy 3rd edition dwarf ring rules.
I haven't really read it in detail.
I don't really fully and know all the the 4th edition green
rules and where what what's similar and what's different.
But yeah, I can only presume that there's an element of
things that were carried across and brought into the 4th edition
book because that will have come out not very long after this.
But it's pretty comprehensive and all sorts of things on
there. But as to exactly how whether it
all works fully in 4th edition and or not, or whether you have
to do a bit of adjustment, I'm not really sure.
But classic sort of Nigel Stillman, very detailed kind of
approach to something. But I remember if, if anything,
just thinking it was really cool that things like this could
exist. Just I think that's one of the
things that's great with Warhammer.
And I know it's a complicated game and I know that there can
be a lot of rules and you can get bogged down in a lot of
special rules, but it really does add to a lot of the
flavour. And I think that that
role-playing background to the design really comes out with
something like this. But yeah, if you were trying to
do this with hundreds of units and every unit had got a
different set of combination of rooms, you'd get very
complicated very quickly, I'm sure.
But cool stuff, though, that question of the month for you in
December is tell us about your 2024 Hobby Highlights.
Maybe you finally got that miniature you've wanted since
1991. Maybe you leveled up your
painting or finally finished that army.
Or perhaps it was something on the game in front that stood out
to you most. No matter what your 2024 Hobby
highlights were, we'd love to hear them head on over to
bedroombattlefields.com/voicemail to submit.
And I need them in by Monday the 30th of December.
That's bedroom battlefields.com/voicemail.
And now back to the show. Just really nice looking.
And then if we go on through that, then you get to a nice
heavy metal section, which is very much focused on the on the
Spearman and the arches from the box set.
Remember being a tiny bit bit disappointed that they showed
the command models, because I think I thought that you'd get
those in the box because I remember I remember the
regimental champion with the sword and the antler things and
thinking, Oh, that's really cool.
Really want to get that model. But of course, I think that they
would presumably a blister Packers with the Archer command
to go alongside with what you got in the box set.
But either way, you still got them.
I mean, the plastics still hold up fantastically well, don't
they? They monopos, Archers and
Spearman. I think because they're elves
and they're you imagine that they would stand neatly in the
line and be all disciplined. Then they look even better than
the goblins in my opinion, because I think they just, it,
it feels right that they all look the same.
And just seeing these, you know, just classic gobbling green
bases, the blue sky backgrounds. And but I mean, the paint jobs
on them are still absolutely wonderful.
And I love the fact that you got the you got the banners that you
could cut out as well, remember? But I remember not cutting them
out because I don't want to ruin my magazine, which I'm sure a
lot of people did as well. They didn't.
They're probably like, oh, it's great that you get them, but I
don't actually want to cut anything out of my magazine.
So, but yeah, brilliant, brilliant models just.
I think they still hold up today.
I think that they look absolutely fantastic.
They're 30 years old, but but 32 years old, they don't look it at
all. Yep.
Not at all mate. I still love them, I think
they're still beautiful and glad to have painted them now.
And if you consider at the time in 1992 when these came out,
models that were 32 years old then would have come out in
1960. I can only imagine what
miniatures like were like in 1960.
The few that existed, they would have been very rough around the
edges. I mean, these are, it is a top
drawer and it just shows that how ahead of their time, yes,
the studio was operating. Very much so, mate.
Yeah, absolutely. And over the page, you've got
some real detail about how to I used to really like articles
like this with a sort of long form, you know, Mike, where they
sat down and written, you know, a good 1000 words or so on on
this. It's it's not just it's not just
quick. I'll here's some captions.
Here's some stuff. Shove it in a magazine.
It was you could sit and read this magazine, you could sit and
read White Dwarf like a book and I always really enjoyed that.
I felt like it was good value as a magazine as a result.
And then and then the next page after that was the first unit
that I bought after buying the the box that I remember got a
bit of Christmas money. So I got the box set for
Christmas. I had a bit of Christmas money
and I went into Birmingham probably a couple of days after
Christmas. I bought the silver Helms box
and I never did paint them absolutely fully.
I don't really know why. I was think I was too
intimidated and this picture is partly to blame.
So for as wonderful as these heavy metal pages are, there is
something when you're 12, when you look at it, you can just
feel a little bit like like, I don't know if I can if I can do
it that well. And I remember that being being
a bit caught in that paralysis of being overwhelmed by what
someone else could do. And because I didn't have any
friends who were collecting high holes.
Whereas if I had have done and I'd seen theirs and gone, Oh
yeah, they're cool, they're good.
I would have been able to aspire to maybe that level rather than
Mike's level, which was a little bit overwhelming.
This is the Orkin squat Warlords supplement for space Marine.
Like I said before, I wasn't really quite that sure what
Space Marine was. Interestingly, they, they use
the phrase epic in a sort of way to describe the scale.
Still at this point they're describing, they're calling the
game Space Marine and they've just got that little thing down
in the bottom corner that epic battles.
You know, it's just, it's just like, oh, this is just a type of
gaming or a, or an approach with a different scale, which I think
is cool, but it's strange because I think that a lot of
people would use the word epic now, but if you said Space
Marine to them, maybe they wouldn't necessarily know that
you meant that second edition epic and so on.
But either way, it was something that I always kind of never
bought anything for it, but I always thought it always looked
at it from afar as being something very cool.
I think it's because none of my friends were particularly
playing any of it. It was all very much fantasy
battles that we were all playing for that time that was in the
hobby, which was probably, you know, certainly from Warhammer,
it would feel like 92 to about 94, So not very long.
But yeah, that it was. It was just that high off army
that I had really this night goblin article, though, it's
over the next few pages. This is this tempted me.
I this was this was very much what I was thinking.
You know what night goblins that if I buy the box set, I could
have a night goblin army using the goblins from it as well as a
high off army. But funds as a as a person with
only a paper round just didn't allow for it.
And I think I was conscious as well of the huge volume of
bottles that you needed to collect.
I mean, if you go on to the next page and you just see a kind of,
you know, there's a Spearman unit there.
I don't know how many are in that 40 or something.
You know, it's a pretty big units and you know, there's
plastics in there. But if you were looking at the
night goblins, you'd be looking at metals at the time, which I
don't know how much money they would have been, but it still
would have tottered up to a good old amount of cash.
But it was something about the night goblins.
They definitely looked. I mean, I like the I like the
the the goblins Spearman, but I think the night goblins, I'm
sure you'd agree as a night goblin and aficionado, there's
just they're just a cut above. There's just something about
them that's even more definitively Warhammery.
They're just really beautiful models.
They're full of character. I like how they look funny and
evil at the same time. They're just they're just the
exact right balance. And then we've got some rules in
there for for night goblins and how they work.
I don't know if this is the first point that Night Goblins
were sort of officially introduced as a as a thing,
because I don't think 3rd edition's got Night Goblins as
such as far as I'm aware. But yeah, they certainly have
stuck around and they've become a real fan favorite, haven't
they? Night Goblins over the years.
Absolutely. Yeah, I think they, I think they
were in 3rd edition actually. OK.
They are sort of a, a more what I like about, I think the stuff
that works best in Warhammer is the stuff where it's not so much
generic fantasy. It's something that they've come
up with themselves where there's an element of, oh, OK, that's a
really cool thing. Whether that's dwarf slayers or
whether it's the Empire looking the way they do and having all
the kind of unusual things or it's the Scaven, whatever it
might be, it's those things are always really iconic, I think.
So we can go into, there's a page with the with the stores
there. There's not many stores at this
point, but I imagine there's there's not many more nowadays
days actually, to be honest. I imagine they've contracted
back to having not very many, but yeah, just a sort of a
handful really. But, you know, they were all
spaced out and there's one that you can get to wherever you live
really. That was, they were very
strategic about it. Then you've got this brilliant
battle report from Nigel Stillman.
It's just unusual. They're testing out the magic.
They've got these. They've got quite cool scenario.
They're using Brutonians, which has, we know, you know, weren't
really a 4th edition thing, but there's there's still featuring
them heavily here, which suggests that they really were
thinking that they were going to be coming out soon and some
beautiful dwarves there. But there's also like a, a
Kislev scout as a single character and there's a wood elf
scout in with the Britonians. That's quite a cool little
thing. They've got this interesting
scenario where there's a, there's like a tomb and there's
undead that come out the tomb and they've got to protect
different things. It, it feels, it feels very much
like the kind of game that I like to play these days where
there's a really good story to be told rather than just a pitch
battle. And it feels like it's, even
though 4th edition probably was the start of things being more
simplified, straightforward, able to kind of turn up and
play. Don't need the games master,
don't need this. You know, the beginning of what
became the sort of tournament scene perhaps for for Warhammer.
I know that probably kicked off most around 6th edition perhaps.
But either way, 4th edition probably was the point where it
became a more straightforward product and less complex.
But they're still leaning into the oh, the best way to play,
and this is probably Nigel Stillman all over, really.
But the best way to play is to to tell an interesting story.
I remember looking at this, reading through it several times
and, and it just being really exciting at how it's told as a
really cool story rather than kind of going through the
individual dice rolls. It wasn't really a rules based
battle report. It's very much a narrative 1.
And you know, and the maps as well really appeal to me.
We still do. It's just something about maps
in fantasy books in, in things and whatever it is, if there's a
map in it, I'm always interested and drawn to it.
And it just looks fantastic. The backdrops, the trees, the
hills, just everything looks absolutely perfect.
You know, this is this, this really sums up the kind of
experience of Warhammer that I, I want to have.
You know, it just feels like all of the fun and all of the
enjoyment that you can get from it, but none of the none of the
kind of balance issues or who's got the better side or, or is
that fair or isn't it fair? It's kind of a lot more based
around a storytelling experiences.
It's really cool. I like as well how it goes on
for about 10 or 12 pages. You know, it's a it's it's
really is the kind of flagship article in this magazine.
And that's how it should be. I think that battle reports
should be the main thing that you get in a white door,
something that you can really understand what went on and
really read it back multiple times.
And yeah, stacks up as a really cool short story as well.
It's it's great. It's really well done.
It's just from every picture, every everything is just it just
ticks all the boxes. It really looks great.
And we've got a a game stay thing here.
We've got ticket hotline at the top, which is they've put the
phone number on a lot of times so you're not going to forget
how to get tickets for that. It's funny that you have to ring
someone to buy tickets, but and you know, they've, they've shown
you all the stuff that's going on.
It looks absolutely frantic. There's that photo on the right
hand page where they're up on the sort of raised stall bending
over. People are grabbing miniatures
and they're trying to do things and take payments.
You can only imagine if you work there for the day, you would be
absolutely exhausted. It looks like they're in, you
know, in a nightclub in Ibiza or something.
It's just absolutely mental and I can only imagine how
exhausting it was to go. Now, I never went to games
today, which is really stupid because it's about 15 miles from
my house and I think it was 5 lbs to go.
But I never went and I kind of ruined the fact that I never
experienced it because I could have gone for a couple of years,
definitely, and I just didn't. But yeah, it looks like the kind
of thing that we will never see again, unfortunately.
Yeah, unfortunately. And if you actually look, I
mean, basically everyone, pretty much everyone there is a
teenager there. There's a few adults, but it's
it's very much a kind of a youth oriented activity.
And I think if you went to an event nowadays, you'd see people
who are, you know, adults. And that's a shame in a way,
because, you know, you might not feel like a greying hobby if you
go, Oh no, everyone's, you know, under under 50 or whatever.
But well, they might be, but they won't be always.
And, you know, we need that new blood coming through.
And I'm just not sure if we are getting it.
We will see over the page they've got a bit more
information to try and get you there.
I really like this. They've got a little rail map of
how to get to the NEC. And this is just like classic
Games Workshop where they're like, there is absolutely no
excuse to get there. They've got a train in the
bottom left that goes to Penzance, which is the bottom
tip of the country. And then they've got the train
that goes all the way up to Inverness in the north of
Scotland. So they're covering about about
700 miles worth of railway there.
And they're like, you know, there is, there's no excuse not
to get it, even if it means having an 8 hour train journey
each way that you're still coming.
So yeah, they're, they're really banging on about it.
And it, it's just, it also, it speaks of the, the pre Internet
stuff here where you've got to ring the number to get the
ticket. They've got a really, really
complicated detailed map with all the car parks and all the
arrows exactly describing how you get in the building.
It's the kind of thing that no one would do nowadays.
You're just like, yeah, that's where I'm going.
Stick it in your phone and turn up there.
But yeah, when you used to go to things in these days, you had
to, I had to be super prepared because you were, you were, it
was a big old expedition. But yeah, it's, it's really
cool. I really like the fact they've
really gone to town on that. Running this event must have
been a massive investment of time and effort for them.
And, you know, I don't know how much money they made on it, but
it's more about perpetuating the hobby.
It will have just created so much positive energy that it
will have paid back in dividends.
I'm sure it's a cool event, but I don't think we're going to see
it again. Always something on that level.
And then we conclude with a really nice Part 2 of the story.
And this was the only slightly disappointing part of this issue
when I bought it, is that I hadn't read the Part 1.
But it's still it's a Bill King story and as you'd expect,
really nicely written, really flavourful, really kind of
evocative of of what scavener like and and, you know, just has
it's got that real Warhammer fantasy role play feel to it, I
imagine. But, you know, at the time, I
remember it was, you know, it's a Got trick and Felix story or a
Got trick story and Scaven. And it was very cool.
Yeah. Really, really just kind of made
you go, oh, OK, this is the world.
And following that battle report as well.
It just makes you kind of feel that you're very much the hobby.
It's not just a set of rules or a set of products.
It's a it's a whole experience, really.
And then very unusually for the magazine, you go on to some
relatively generic Space Marine and battle manual stuff for 40K.
You know, the only 40K stuff we've seen at the start was the
was the chaos stuff. And then this is the, this is
the only picture of a normal Space Marine I think that you
see in the whole magazine, other than maybe the catalogue, which
is crazy really. And then we're back on to more
pages of of the Gotrek and Felix story.
That is very odd, isn't it? Yeah, it feels like they needed
to break it up with an advert for it to get the advert in.
But yeah, it's just strange really just chucking in that
devastate a Squad advert there. But yeah, it's just an unusual
layout decision to do that because then when you finish the
Gotrek and Felix story, you then go into some adverts, which I
didn't really, but then, Oh no, it goes back to the story again.
So it's kind of, it's almost like they're kind of oh, it's
like an advertisement break. So you're busily happily reading
that and then subconsciously you suddenly find yourself ordering
some devastated Space Marines, a subscription to White Dwarf and
an Imperial steam tank before you know it.
Now this subscription offer that.
I remember taking this out 25 lbs for a year and you got the
two, the blue and the red catalogues, which were
absolutely brilliant. And I had those and they used to
pour over those who were fantastic.
Again, very old school, fill in the thing, write your card
number on there, put it in the post, hope it doesn't get
intercepted and you get defrauded.
But you just used to send money off to random people in those
days and stuff came back through the post.
So that's what it was like. And then the steam tank, I
remember looking at this and just being like, Oh my God, this
is amazing. And that exploded diagram as
well, showing how it all goes together.
Just really cool, Really, really cool.
And just hilariously, I remember it saying diagram not to scale.
So you just so you don't think that the steam tank is about an
inch wide or something like that.
But yeah, but it's just, it's ace, isn't it?
And and also that that little thing that you still get written
on stuff, but requires a degree of modelling skill.
We do not recommend this kit for young or inexperienced
modellers. So I think you'd feel really
grown up if you bought 1 and you were young.
You blah. I I can do this.
I can take on the challenge of the steam tank.
And then 3 bottles of stupid glue and four hours in A&E later
here, there, you realize the error of your ways.
And then we go back onto the story.
So it's really quite a long story actually.
Silver helm advert then concluding and then into the
mail order section that you always got.
Now my paper copy here has got the mail order pages cut out,
which obviously whoever had it will have done so.
But you know when you get into the prices there, you realise
how good value some of the things were.
Something's quite expensive though.
I mean, one thing I noticed that was fascinating is that like
the, you know, the, the box set for Warhammer, like I say, was
30 lbs, but I think it's £20 was steam tank or something.
I don't know where I've, I can't find that now, you know, 20 for
a war wagon. So actually it was 20 for a war
wagon, but 30 for the whole box set.
So I think that it was very much priced to kind of wow you,
whereas 20 for the war wagon back in 1992, that was a lot of
cash. Yeah.
You know, so I, I think when I got my paper round, I was
earning, you know, something like 5 lbs a week or something.
You know, so you're talking about four week, a month's worth
of paper round to buy a war wagon.
So, you know, they, they, they did sell expensive stuff.
So when people say, oh, it used to be cheaper, it's like, well,
something's worth, but something's worth a lot of money
and they just work. But I think they just have a
different pricing model where it's more about hooking you in
with those kind of cheap prices. And then the very final sort of
inner Backpage that I've got is the Battle for Armageddon advert
for the Jervis Johnson game, which was something I never
bought. I don't know whether it's you
can track down copies of this, but it looks interesting.
I've never played it. Have you played any of these
games, Josh? I've played, I've played
Armageddon, Yeah, Battle Armageddon when it first came
out in 19. Two or so when it first came
out, yeah. Yeah, Yeah, I presume they're
kind of more like the sort of Avalon Hill traditional type war
games, more like that style. Yeah, chit encounter.
Yeah. Bent cards you can play as well.
So I'd actually like to revisit that at some point and play it
again. I know that Ed did on a mini
Sods and it got me fired up to play it again.
I would like to do it, yeah. It's kind of thing.
You could even make your own like print and play version,
couldn't you? Theoretically if you get the
scans and print out a few sheets and make a a little board and
back some tokens it. Having some possible my good
friend Davide in Italy, he sent me the files to print everything
out. You can print it all out.
Oh wow, well I just haven't done something.
Around doing it so yeah, but it is.
A print for. Sure mate.
Fantastic. And then we conclude with a
stunning picture. This is not a lot more than you
get in the box set. And that I think is testament to
A, how good the box set is, B, how good you can make it look.
But also it, yes, the paint job's brilliant.
Yes, the terrain's fantastic. But I remember looking at her
and thinking, OK, I can paint up my box set.
I can, I can get something like this and, and this, this what a
brilliant way of having something super aspirational,
incredibly beautiful to look at, but possible.
And that terrain is, is just absolutely wonderful.
Those buildings. I I don't know how they made
those buildings with those unusual cone like angles, you
know, out of card or paper or whatever they're using.
They they, they're very complex compared to like the medieval
kind of half timbered buildings or, you know, Inns and things
that you've seen on other pages. You know that they're really,
really nicely done, blended into the bases.
Just stunning work. I don't know who made those
buildings originally, do you know?
Would have been Adrian Wilde mate.
Right, OK, they're fantastic, aren't they?
And they just, they're just perfectly go with the Jess
Goodwin high elf aesthetic. It's just spot on.
I know that Doctor Spork has been looking at recreating
these, hasn't he? He has.
He's recreated that those two towers in the bridge and it
looks stunning. So yes, it's it's something you
can get in order from his website at 3D.
Is it Cult 3D? Is that Yeah.
So if you search for Doctor Spork on Cult 3, DI think you'll
find them. But he's done.
He's done those. I know that he's he he mentioned
he was looking at doing the obelisk as well.
So you know, stuff like that, which would be.
Because I love scratch built homemade terrain, but I don't
really know how you'd begin to do that, to be honest, with
paper and cardboard and you know, ordinary materials.
So that 3D printed option is definitely probably the most
viable for getting something that looks like that on the
table. And you 2 could have this
amazing picture in front of you. It's just brilliant.
It just looks just, it's just sums up that era of Warhammer
perfectly for me. No, there's a there's a guy in
Scotland making a lot of these iconic buildings.
I can't recall his name offhand, but he's making them exactly
like those original ones and they're incredibles.
Oh wow. Yeah, someone with a lot of
skill and who really loves making terrain.
So it is possible, but in the in the right hands I think mate.
Yeah, Richard, it's not mine, I'm afraid.
But yeah, no, these, these are, this is just great.
And, you know, so that's, that's the, that's the magazine from
start to finish. And it's very much got that
theme of, you know, it's all about it's the Warhammer 4th
edition launch issue and what a great place to jump into the
hobby. It is made, it's a it's a
classic issue and it's the start and catalyst for many of us who
got into Games Workshop and discovered Warhammer and
discovered the the bright, beautiful colours of Hirahama.
So thank you so much again, Mark, for sharing that with us
here at the Crown of Command. And mate, if we've got anything
else we can share in the future, I'll get you get you back on
again. Wonderful.
Thank you very much for giving me the time, Josh, to reminisce
and go through this. That's great.
Take care.