Realm of Chaos 80s

Welcome traveller to my blog. Before we begin, I have a small confession to make - this is my first ever blog so please forgive any mistakes, dead links or poor quality pictures. It wasn't the blog, it isn't your display settings, its just me!


How to start? Well I have been inspired to produce this blog by the inspirational work of Gaj over at Warhammer for Adults and with the limitations of my project log over at Warseer click here to see! However, I am in no way as eloquent as Gaj so I am afraid you will have to put up with my ramblings. 

So why third edition then? Well, it was my first and you never forget the first time - do you? I can still remember the trip I took with my father to Wonderworld in Bournemouth in 1988 (when I was 9 years old) to purchase the book. Some months previously, I had been bored in a newsagents with the old man as he flicked through issue after issue of railway modelling magazines- a constant chore of my childhood I can tell you! Gazing around, I spotted an incredible image of a gigantic orange robot creature blasting away with its weaponry. I was transfixed. It was issue 108 of White Dwarf and my life changed forever! 


So nostalgia played a big part but then the actions of Games Workshop PLC. I left the hobby around 1991-2. The Amiga beckoned, as did the pull of beer and girls and my childhood collection was left behind. Then in 2004 I returned to GW and got into 40K. This was at the end of the Paul Sawyer years at White Dwarf and the magazine was continuously producing decent articles. I built a Sisters of Battle army, read many of the Black Library novels and generally loved it once again. Sadly, things changed. The giant issue, endless editions of 40k and WHFB, price increases etc and by the summer of 2011 I had had enough. Games Workshop was no longer for me. The soul had gone. It was over. 


Only I missed it. To sate the need for a citadel fix I dug out my old, battered copy of Third Edition and had a flick through. The inspiration flowed back through me once again and for a moment, I  returned to the newsagents.  I visited eBay and put a bid on issue 108. That bid led to to other casual bids  and I started collecting the old 80s chaos champions that Jes Goodwin did back in '88. Opening the small brown packets as the arrived at the front door reminded me of the excitement of ripping open blister packs back in the day. The detail and character of the miniatures also impressed me. While I cannot deny the sculpting prowess of GW these days their output seems to lack something for me. Something hard to define is missing. Whatever it is, the classic models I was buying filled the void and I became hooked. One thing that surprised me was the price of miniatures from the period I am interested in (1985-92) as they seemed to be consistently the most expensive models to buy. The rule books too! Warhammer 7th edition, 6th edition, 5th edition, 4th edition rulebooks were selling (or even not selling) for tiny amounts. Third edition was different. I had to fight to purchase the books. There were certainly other collectors out there as keen as I was. My discovery of solegends cemented the fact. I made the decision to switch back to Third and started selling off my entire collection of GW stuff that I had amassed since 2004. In all, I must have made several thousand and re-invested the cash into collecting as much citadel stuff as I could from the 80s. 


However, I wanted to play. A mate (who had just got into 40k) expressed an interest in trying out a game or two and we settled on Realms of Chaos warband skirmishes based on the rules presented in Slaves to Darkness. They seemed to offer lots of opportunities to paint and game with a wide range of figure types. Also, the warbands could be relatively small so would be easy to assemble. I agreed to do the bulk of the painting and we began at the end of July 2011. We have not looked back since! 


This blog will attempt to chronicle our exploits.