Acceptable in the '80s: The Valley of Death : Lost Third Edition Scenario, a slice of history and some miniatures

INTRODUCTION

Warhammer II, or Second Edition, was famed for its scenarios. Lichemaster, Orc's Drift, The Magnificent Sven to name but a few, but Third Edition was a different beast that took a different path. With Bryan Ansell's realisation about the amount of money that could be made selling miniatures, the scope would have to shift away from small games, to massive battles with hundreds on hundreds of troops on both sides.

This was certainly possible for some, with individual collectors having gathered a huge number of metal models since the late 70s but was a pipe dream for many other gamers. But there was always hope!

The Valley of Death represents this shift. Gone were the quirky linked games, and in their place, larger and larger battles. The Valley of Death is indeed a large battle, so large that the article suggests that you play the game on the floor as your table may not be large enough.

Now there is no substitute for actually reading something. So for your pleasure, I include the complete scenario below for you to read, download or merely glance through. Once you have had a gander, we can move on to discuss the scenario in a little more detail. 

Valley of Death pdf

BACKGROUND 

Right, hopefully you have had a look at the article. As was traditional during this period, the scenario begins with one the amusing narratives concerning the major characters in the game. Something that many of us ape today in our own battle reports. 

The major factions being the nice (for a Dwarf) Barnok Blatterzarn and the not so nice (for an Orc) Vomitskrag Krusher and his Orc Nasties. According to the background, the goblinoids have been busy raiding through the early summer (the traditional time for such things, apparently) and have begun to squabble and fall out. To energise 'da gitz', Vomitskrag decides to attack a nearby Dwarf stronghold. The Dwarfs, of course, decide to resist. 

So the scenario sets us what is, to me anyway, the classic Warhammer scenario. A massive army of greenskins attacking the hardy dwarfs. Just thrown in a few human and elven allies, a whiff of undead and s sprinkling of chaos and you have the perfect recipe.

But the Valley of Death is not perfect. You need a huge amount of models to play it in its presented form. Vomitskrag's forces comprise of 65 models (three characters, 2 trolls and 60 orcs), Gan Greens' force (love the pun) exceeds 140 goblins while the Dwarfs are supposed to field over 120 models to boot. So that would comprise of over 380 models on the field, plus scenery! 

Even 'back in the day' that must have been some task! Sure, you could always divide by 2, 3 or 4 etc, but then the game would loose its epic battle feel. 

What I do like is the background material that describes each of the units. What is given isn't much, but there is enough to build the forces up, convert and paint them so that each unit is characterful and a little different. No reams of identikit troops here. Some of the background is positively Pythonesque (Slashing Slashers Slashing Slashers, for example) and has that dark humour you'd expect from GW during its heyday. 

TERRAIN AND DEPLOYMENT 

The first thing your probably noticed is the sheer size of the battlefield. Its certainly of Perry standards and is something that all of us should really aspire to create. Additionally, the range of terrain would pose some interesting tactical points. There are multiple crossing points, bridges and fords, as well as forest, boulderground and rivers. Quite a broad mix compared to the truly random mix in modern Warhammer. This makes for a more realistic battlefield (for a fantasy game anyway) that appears like it could be a real place.

The order of battle is also of interest, with specific units appearing on different parts of the battlefield and detailed rules based on race and terrain type. It seems complex, but you must remember that the scenario was designed to be played with a GM. Also of interest, are the complete lack of points values. The scenario is purely about a narrative, not an army list. Who will live and who will die, which characters will distinguish themselves on the field and which will disgrace themselves?!

One thing that really interests me is the nature of the victory points. I was impressed by the sheer amount of them. Perhaps this too is a factor of 80s Warhammer missing from the modern perspective? It shouldn't really be about the armylists that build the opposing forces, but the conditions for victory that both sides should meet.

Nest, I would like to discuss this little gem of an article, also culled from issue 97 of WD. Its a report about Ansell's vision towards the then new plastics technology and the views of the engineer behind these plans, Bob Naismith. Not only is it a fascinating piece of history, but it is written in a totally non patronising way and there is no sign of the dubious adjectives of cool and awesome that seems to pepper the pages of modern WD.

From Sprue to You

Dark Future, then called Highway Warrior, even gets a mention!

Ah, the Balgorg, or should that be the balrog? Early Warhammer's demon is obviously inspired by Tolkien's famous novel, so much so that these days a C and D letter may have been on the way! Great model though, suitably big and scary. The wings were later used on the Bloodthirsters. The beast shares the page with a Dark Elf repeating crossbow with full rules. I've never seen this on eBay, anyone out there got one?

A better resolution advert of the dwarf adventurers also appeared in the issue.

To end this post I shall include some of the lovely photographs that appeared of painted Citadel, via the skilled brushes of the 'Eavy Metal team.

What a fantastic war elephant! 

Some old favourites here as well as a few rarer pieces.

Love those mounted orcs!

Well, that is about your lot from issue 97. Next time we will be looking at the next issue's Chaos thug and centaur releases.

Until then, enjoy.

Orlygg.

Are you an Oldhammer General?

A flying visit today, just to prove that I am not dead really! The abomnible combination of work, family, commuting ( a new ill for me) and not to mention the wife's new desire to move house have all conspired to prevent me from blogging, or indeed, even painting!

One thing I can do is direct the many hundreds of visitors that this blog gets daily, thanks to you all, to quality third edition related links.

Last time it was the incredible Three Flies For Nurgle, and those of you who have not frequented that blog, then why not?

This time its the fascinating Oldhammer Generals blog. The propriator of said blog is none other than Jonathan Merry Esq. He has gone to the trouble of scanning for us some of the startling dioramas put together by the legendary Colin Dixon ( a man who deserves a post entirely devoted to his early 80s work ) which, though simple by model standards, have an immediacy and narrative often lost on more contemporary  efforts.

But that is quite enough from me, I like the images to speak for themselves.

How many of those classics are in your collection then?

Here are a few links you may find interesting.

http://www.solegends.com/citjour87a/index.htm

http://oldhammergenerals.blogspot.co.uk/

So do yourself a favour, support Jonathan over at his blog and (hopefully) he will put on more quality old school goodness like this soon.

Big post promised on the weekend. We will be having an in depth look at the only scenario published for Third outside the rulebooks.

Orlygg.

Three Flies For Nurgle! Outstanding Nurglesque miniatures!

The Dog's..? The Badger's..? The Flies eyes?

I get plenty of emails about Old School Citadel and Third Edition and I love to share with readers of this blog the photographs of incredible miniatures that I receive.

But when you receive a Nurgle (most of us owned one but flogged it cheap about 10 years back) Palanquin painted THIS WELL, you really stand up and take notice.

Forget Moriarty, Orlygg, this miniature painter (or leadsmith, to coin a phrase?) has gone above and beyond the call of the Realm of Chaos and gone totally painterly. The result? An astonishing blend of Blanche and Old Master. The culprit? None other than Loris Accaries, a new man on the blogger scene but someone who is certainly going to make a big (if slight putrid) splash!

If Da Vinci had got into Realm of Chaos, the result would probably looked something like this! 

Accaries skill as a painter has brought this twenty-five year old sculpt alive and given in an immediacy that is vibrant and very fresh (for a rotting corpse like daemon...)

And believe it or not, there is loads more to come. So do yourself a favour! Follow the link below and join this blog. I, for one, cannot wait to see what the master of the decayed delivers to us next!

http://three-flies-for-nurgle.blogspot.fr/

Orlygg.

Do you have a Miniature Moriarty? Or, a discussion about our lead nemesis.

Sherlock Holmes had one...

So did Luke Skywalker...

Here's mine... My miniature Moriarty... My Lead Nemesis!

Today, I want to talk about those miniatures that we all own. They sit unpainted, or, indeed, partially, if not completely painted, upon our painting desks. Not proudly. They are not ranked neatly, or lovingly positioned so all who may wander past will notice our proudest paint job and comment (positively, hopefully). They are usually crammed to one side, buried under rolls of tissue used for cleaning brushes, un-opened letters (if you are like me) and even half consumed meals or beverages.

They are our Moriartys in miniature!

If you are still not nodding your head knowingly, perhaps not yet casting a furtive glance in the direction of your painting hole in a guilty appraisal of shame, then let me explain what I mean by a Miniature Moriarty.

"Professor James Moriarty is the archenemy of Sherlock Holmes, a fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind whom Holmes describes as the "Napoleon of crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was referring to Adam Worth, one of the real life models of Moriarty. The character of Moriarty as Holmes's greatest enemy was introduced primarily as a narrative device to enable Conan Doyle to kill off Sherlock Holmes, and only featured directly in two of the Sherlock Holmes stories."

Thanks Wikipedia.

So a miniature Moriarty would be that (or those, if you are particularly cursed) models that you just CANNOT get a decent paint job on. No matter how hard you try, how many colour schemes you attempt, how often you leave it, you never feel satisfied with your work. 

The miniature always looks crap. It sits, unused and unloved until it is inevitably cast into the Bitz Box of Doom or stripped and sold on eBay. 

That is how I would like to describe the Skeleton Chariot I started some months ago in the early days of this blog. You may have even wondered why it hadn't appeared in a battle report or even as a 'look what I have finished lately' post. 

It was my Moriarty. 

It had defeated me.

I just couldn't get it to look the way I imagined it SHOULD look. 

Here is the chariot for another angle - at least its done!

So if you blessed by not having a shameful secret (or think you are) how can you recognise a Miniature Moriarty? To help you decide I have created a little checklist that you can run through if you are unsure.

Here we go...

1) No matter how hard you try your paint always 'does its own thing' and blobs and runs in places you don't want it to go.
2) The colour scheme always looks awful, not matter what you try. Either too flat and lacking depth or cartoony.
3) Base looks awful, even though you have used the very same technique that you always use.
4) You start to despise the figure you are working on.
5) This feeling of dislike spreads to other models and you become reluctant to paint anything else in case the 'contagion' spreads to other models.
6) The 'contagion' spreads, you become disinterested in painting, your miniatures stand idle and the jar full of models you just bought from eBay float in their dettol bath unloved for weeks. Your table becomes a dumping ground for random objects placed their by your wife, dust breeds, the table becomes an embarrassment that you just cannot face tidying up
7) You blame it all on that one miniature that started the whole downward spiral.

And now, the most important aspect of a Moriarty Miniature! Number 8 in the list. Remember, that we are talking about a nemesis here, an archenemy. Its a personal thing, between you and the lead.

So...

8)Only YOU can see the faults. Only YOU care about the flaws. So only YOU can make the change... Everyone else will just look at the model and say... "I like the way to did the...'

So...

Just paint.

Cheap chaos warrior from eBay. 99p I think. I didn't even bother stripping this one, I just whacked a purple/black ink wash over the top of the original paint, waited for it to dry and them drybrushed with chainmail and silver. 

The only way to escape your Moriarty is to paint. Better you get the lead mountain painted than quibble over the quality of your painting. We all have models that we love the finished result of and we all have models that are a bit, well, naff. 

At least they are painted.

Believe me, before I went retro I could spend ENTIRE editions of Warhammer and 40k trying to get an army finished because I was never happy with the result and endlessly re-painted and re-painted and became miserable. 

Now I just 'get 'em painted'! 

So, have you ever had a lead nemesis? Have you ever tangled with a Miniature Moriarty?

I guess I found MY Adventure of the Empty House.

It was a Chaos Dwarf!

Orlygg.

Acceptable in the 80s: White Dwarf 97 part one

Long time no see, or so it seems. Welcome back to another edition of 'Acceptable in the 80s', the history of Warhammer Third Edition. Today, we are moving on to a brand new issue of WD, this time number 97.

Have a quick gander at the cover.

I feel that this issue is an important one for several reasons;

1) It was the first issue where Rogue Trader content outstripped that of fantasy,

2) It saw the only true scenario published for Third Edition

3) The Ultramarines and their background were introduced for the first time.

Obviously, this is not the place for 40k, you can check out my Rogue Trader blog for that analysis but we shall be focusing on that scenario in exhaustive detail in a future post. 

The gobbos who guarded Bryan Ansell's cigars must have choked on their mushrooms when this issue was published as there were stunties aplenty for sale in the guise of halflings and dwarfs.

Let us have a look at the miniatures.

Halflings

Sculpted by the prolific hands of the Perrys and Trish Morrison, this range of heroic hobbits positively drips with humorous character, so no grimdark going on here. As we have come to expect from miniatures of this period, the sculpts are varied and detailed. The little folk are armed with a wide range of weaponry, from forks to improbable two handed blades. There is even a piggy back job, a boozer with a barrel and even a 'lady' armed with a crossbow. I cannot say how frequently these models appear for sale but you don't have be an eBay addict to realise that these amusing and characterful models are going to be well sought after. Just looking at this collection gets the creative juice flowing does it not? These models are just begging to be painted!

Dwarfs
And then came the dwarfs, like many of the hobbits before them, plenty of these dwarfs had been released before, but here they were in full colour. Some of these models would later be Norse, Troll Slayers, Giant Slayers and so on (or, indeed, had previously been so). There are also character models that I haven't seen anywhere else, such as assassin, pistolleer and the samurai (which I've seen go for £15 online in the past). Again, like the hobbits these are engaging and exciting sculpts that beg to be painted, ranked and set against a unit of filthy gobbos!

Only a quick stop today, but a few links to other stuff. I have been busy with Dark Future models recently...

If you are interested in seeing more follow this link.

http://route666darkfuture.blogspot.co.uk/

Orlygg.

DA RETURN OF DA GOLDEN GOBBOS! The second Oldhammer painting competition: This time, it's MONSTERS!

After the success (if you could call it that) of the first competition, and discussions with other members of the community I am proud to officially launch the second Oldhammer painting competition.

This time, it's monsters!

Yes, that is correct! Anything goes! Be it big, be it small, be it good, be it evil! As long as its a monster it can be entered into this competition.

To be precise, any 'creature' that would have been mounted on a large 40mm square base in the Warhammer Third Edition rulebook. Or, indeed a base larger than that, if that tickles your fancy! 

Changes 

After running the first competition, we have obviously learnt a little bit about running a competition of this type. 

1) One, be tighter on the deadlines. You miss the deadline and that its it. We will not be stretching the closing date as we did last time. Voting will be handled over at the Bloodforum. The poll will become active as soon as the closing date has passed. Voting will be carried out over the next 14 days and will then cease and the winner announced.

2) Never ending stories! Narratives that support the monster's background. This was inspired by Gaj's lengthy, and very entertaining, narratives that he writes in support of his battle reports. They are an amusing nod to classic Citadel ads that often included stories of this type. Here are a few examples from 'back in the day'!

As you can see, each ad was support by full rules and an amusing story to introduce the 'flavour' or the unit or creature type. I feel that this is a perfect addition to our competition and one that many entrants included previously. If you are particularly flash with photoshop style programs and feel like you could create your own 'ad' like the examples illustrated then please feel free to do so (just enclose them alongside your pdfs and Word documents.)

Regulations for Entry

1) Miniatures entered into the competition can be from any manufacturer or even private sculpts but need to be in spirit of the 'citadelesque' nature of Warhammer and Rogue Trader mythos. Original Citadel, Marauder, Ral Partha, Grenadier etc miniatures are, obviously, the main focus of these blogs but don't be afraid to enter something else if your really passionate about it. 

Considering that we are drawing on the 1980s and early 90s as inspiration that gives you a great deal of freedom. One thing that is important in Oldhammer is the freedom to do what YOU want with no restrictions about paint schemes or army lists etc to interfere with your imagination. 

2) Miniatures are to be based monsters, preferably mounted on a square 40-50mm base (the monster base) though there is no real restriction on the shape of the base. 

3) Miniatures need to be accompanied with full stats, equipment and narrative 'fluff' background story!

Obviously the stats and equipment are pretty straight forwards, but as Warhammer 3rd edition is the main focus of Oldhammer, 3rd edition stats are preferred but are not necessary. Feel free to use 1st, 2nd or even WFRP stats if you prefer. Rogue Trader stats are also very welcomed. As for the fluffy background story, there is no need to write Lord of the Rings. I would suggest a word limit of about 300 words to make reading backgrounds easier for us all but to give a little bit of space for development if you so wish. Obviously, the theme of your background is up to you but existence in, relevance to the worlds of Warhammer 3rd and Rogue Trader are preferred.

4) The winner is to be judged by us all. 

Voting will be organised over at the specialist Oldhammer forum after the closing date has passed (5th January 2013). If you are unaware of this essential resource for retro lead and classic Warhammer gaming then follow this link (http://bloodforum.treps.net/)

5) Have fun! 

Get out there and hunt through that mountain of lead and find that figure you have been meaning to paint for years but haven't because it doesn't fit in with the army or armies you are currently working on. The emphasis is on creativity here rather than straight up flash painting, after all, there are other competitions out there for being anal about your skills. DON'T FEEL INTIMIDATED TO ENTER!

6) KEEP THINGS SECRET! In the spirit of competition, don't post WIP on blogs or forums.

Let's keep things nice and secretive before the big day. I am sure you will agree with me when I say the thing that excites me the most about this little competition is having a good look at what other collectors and painters enter.

7) Send in your entries as jpeg images (or equivalent) with written texts, rules and equipment lists attached as a Word document. 

This should stop the problem of not having images available to browse when voting. In the previous competition, entries arrived in a large number of different formats. This should make things easier for us at this end and should ultimately raise your viewing pleasure after the closing date has passed. 

Launch Date: 1st November 2012

Closing Date: 5th January 2013

Voting 6th - 20th January

Winner Announced 21st January 

If you are interested in entering a miniature in Oldhammer's Golden Gobbos then just email me at:

orlyggjafnakol@hotmail.com

Provide your name (real or nick), preferred email address and link to your blog/web page if you have one.

Plenty of time to mull things over, I am sure that you will agree! Additionally, there were some very generous (and modest) individuals who offered prizes for the last competition. We have been discussing the notion of an 'online trophy' but donations as prizes would be very well received - thank you!

Contact me if you have any further questions.

Enjoy!

Orlygg.

Another day, another set of fantastic retro miniatures!

Hello and welcome to my first Kindle Fire HD blog post! Yes, Orlygg has gone mobile and wireless, which means more updates of classic retro warhammer action where ever I am in the world! 

Today I am typing from Great Yarmouth on a holiday with the non-leadhead and the children. I am snatching a moment or two to share these brilliant images of Dungeon Quest miniatures that I received recently. Hopefuly, when I check back later this post will have worked!

Big thanks to Michael from Germany for sending in these great images of thes iconic miniatures. So if you have anything that you feel will make a great addition to this blog just email me here.

Orlygg.