Merry Christmas

Do you remember this festive illustration? I found it among the pages of Tony Ackland's incredible portfolio of work at this summer's Oldhammer Weekend. Those warm, balmy days seem a million miles away tonight, on Christmas Eve, but I thought I might share this image once again. 

Happy Christmas to all who have contributed to, or indeed read, this blog. May your stockings be packed with bumper toy solider fare!

Orlygg

Acceptable in the '80s: Marauder Miniatures Dark Elf Army

It has been a fair few months since we last dipped into Acceptable in the '80s, my history of Warhammer Third Edition through its releases, supplements and associated publications. We are drawing close to the end now. With only seven issues remaining until the first Fourth Edition rules are published! Still, Warhammer sees a bit of a late surge of activity, after a long period of not really being discussed in the magazine. You will have to remember that this period was the mighty age of the Big Box Game, and Space Marine, Dark Future, Heroquest etc were all on the shelves and were often expanded on in the magazine. 

White Dwarf had by now lost it's community feel. 'Eavy Metal articles tail off for a while, largely due to the fact that Bryan took all of the models with him when he sold the company. New models, and indeed games, would follow along shortly, as the company was in dire need of cash. Still, there are one or two gems still to discuss and today's visit is no exception. 

For it is the turn of the Marauder Miniatures Dark Elf Army. 

Karasashalla's Reavers

I must admit to really admiring this army. Looking down at the yellow circle to read the price of this collection on release is enough to make a leadhead weep these days, with eighty four metal models for eighty pounds! The sculpts are nicely varied too, which is something I value deeply about Oldschool Warhammer forces but that is just a quirk peculiar to me I guess, give me fiddly to rank up models any day of the week over generic poses.

There are some fantastic models here, most notably the command figures. Both the mounted leaders are well designed, even if they are sitting on the same cold one sculpt, but it is the Deathcap Hero that has to be one of the finest Marauder Miniatures of all time. It is a tried and tested pose I know, but the combination of the armour, helm and gigantic sword really do tick all the fantasy boxes for me. I know that this range isn't as graceful as the earlier Bob Naismith one, produced for Citadel, but the chunky militant look really chimes a bell, don't you think?

The two crossbow 'regiments', if a unit of ten could be considered such, are probably the weakest design wise in the army. Still, they are solid enough models, even if some of the paint jobs here are a little to be desired. As we know from Tim Prow, Andy Craig and Darren Matthews - these models were often painted at speed during lunchbreaks as a favour to the Morrisons. 

The rest of the infantry models are suitably twisted and look nice and varied which grouped together. Worth mentioning here is the standard bearer model (which appears twice in the advert), as I am pretty certain that I have seen that standard at the Wargames Foundry in Bryan's collection, though it seems to have become detached from the original figure. 

The Whelp Masters are great figures. And the warhounds are unusual in that they are rather historical in nature. These models would serve just about any force that can deploy warhounds, as with a change of colour you can have chaos, undead - whatever. They are certainly worth looking out for, if dangerous canines are your thing. 

To round things off, we have the Dark Elf cavalry that we discussed way back when. They appeared originally in White Dwarf 125 if you are interested in such things. Sixty-five pounds would have seen you fielding twenty mounted Dark Elves. Not bad at all. 

All in all, a solid release from Marauder. Who at this time were the only regular source of new releases for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It makes me wonder if these deals were actually 'worth it' back in the early '80s. I mean, £80 is a fair bit of money today, twenty-five years later, and if you whack the amount into an online 'value' converter it states that the sum is equivalent to just over £160. 

That seems reasonable to me, if you think you'd be getting eighty odd models for your money. What do you think?

Orlygg

An Oldhammer Bookclub: A review of Brain Craig's Plague Daemon

Plague Daemon remains one of my favourite covers. Did you know that it was originally to have been published under the title, Ystareth?

"The dire magician stood back, and it was one of his unhuman companions who stepped forward, bearing a heavy halberd, ready to make a solitary charge. The three remaining monstrosities spread out, two with longbows at the ready, the third with a massive spear. the halberdier was the one with the scaly skin and snake-like tongue; he was the most powerfully built of the beastmen. When he charged the door, it seemed as though he would cover the distance in a matter of seconds. But the snake-tongued monster had covered no more than half the distance when something reached out of the water and caught his ankle, bringing him down on the narrowest part of the causeway. It was along, black tentacle, smooth and leech-like...

Thus was Harmis Detz, soldier of the Border Princes, plunged into a desperate struggle against the plague-bearing forces of chaos. The story is told by Orfeo, first introduced in Brian Craig's Zaragoz. 

So reads the blurb.

Welcome back to the Oldhammer Bookclub, and a rather belated meeting it is too, considering I started reading the book in August and finished it in September. Life got busy is all I can say, and it took me much, much longer to complete this novel than I expected. In fact, I found myself reading a few pages each evening just before I put the light out and, looking back, I quite appreciated this slow-burn approach to the story. 

Like Zaragoz, Plague Daemon is a novel I have read before, several times. My first experience with the book was back in 1990 when a school friend (and Bloodbowl enthusiast) called Moley was given the book by his brother. I can recall seeing that dramatic cover on his bedroom floor to this day and getting the opportunity to flick through the novel. At this point in time, the only GW book I had in my possession was David Ferring's, Konrad, and I was disappointed to find that the specially drawn illustrations that had supported the narrative in my book, was not present in Plague Daemon. That is something that still disappoints today, though we do get some fine illustrations of the characters and images taken from the Realm of Chaos: Lost and the Damned book. 

I didn't actually get to read the book until I was at university later on in the 1990s. I had a girlfriend at the time called Nicola, and we whiled away the warmer months exploring the towns and villages of the West Country, particularly in Cornwall, and one of our favourite haunts were second hand book shops. I had just discovered the incredible Conan stories written by R.E.Howard, and unbelievable as it sounds now, they were out of print then and trying to find a copy seemed an impossibility. Whilst looking for Cimmerian adventures, I discovered an ex-library copy of Plague Daemon in a 'fantasy section' and, despite it being a later Boxtree edition, I was suitably pleased. 

I read the book over that weekend. Life was slow for me then and, apart from drinking in the pub come evening, there was little to do but read or socialise in the era before mobile technology, the internet and tablets. At this point, I was between painting kits and had been thoroughly turned off Warhammer by the Red Period - though Plague Daemon did inspire me to buy up some paints once again and dabble with a few pieces, some of which were used as window displays in the old Exeter GW shop. 

I have always loved maps, from Warhammer to Fighting Fantasy. Plague Daemon gives us quite a bit of information about the Khyprian Empire, a part of the Border Princes not chronicled before or since. 

The book took me back in time. I didn't know it then, but the changes I disliked about GW we down to a shift in leadership. Bryan was gone, with most of the painted miniatures. The new owners had debts to pay. So, launching full force at a younger market made perfect sense - but the product had, for me anyway, lost it's charm, and now seemed more child-like and 'toy' orientated. Ironic I know, considering Citadel miniatures are (and were) 'toys'. Plague Daemon took me back to the Warhammer World as I recognised it.

Twenty years later, Plague Daemon still draws me back into that chaos haunted world, doomed to destruction, but with a populace largely unaware of their imminent and horrific end. I loved every page. So, as before with Zaragoz, I present this review using the series of questions I used previously. As with the previous Oldhammer Bookclub review, the rest of this article will contains SPOILERS so if you haven't read Plague Daemon, and plan to do so, I recommend you cease reading now! 

As I have said, the specially crafted internal illustrations were replaced with character sketches.

1) Did the book engage you immediately or did it take time to draw you in?

Despite having read the novel before, I could recall little of it save the identity of Ystareth, the plague daemon, and the method it used to spread it's appalling pestilence. As before, the story starts with a quick prologue chronicling Orfeo's situation in Arjijil and shows us one of the travelling player's attempts to escape his captivity. I know others have found these little scenes distracting, but in all honesty, I rather enjoy them. This little escapade is no longer than ten pages and is easily completed, and serves to develop the relationship between Orfeo and his captor, Alkadi Nasreen. Of course, the escape is foiled, but it's outcome sets up this second tale of Chaos well. Wanting to know more about Orfeo's fate after Zaragoz, I was thoroughly absorbed by this brief prologue.

Chapter One begins the tale proper with a scene setting overview of the land of Khypris and it's periodic threat of invasion by the tribal, Zani. In fact, much of their society to geared around these invasions and Harmis, the central character, has spent his life training to deal with them. Where Zaragoz was very much a slow burning adventure with much of the early book setting up the character of Orfeo, with Plague Daemon the reader is flung into the action from the very beginning. Harmis finds his outpost overrun by what he assumes is a Zani invasion, we the reader are better informed and can recognise the strange signs Harmis uncovers to be the work of a far darker power.  

Thinking about the question once again, I have to say that I was both engaged immediately (by the premise of the tale) but drawn in over time by the experiences of the characters, and in the ways that they changed. 

2) What was your overall 'feeling' about the novel once its was complete?

I found the ending to be rather sad. So sadness remains my overall feeling about the novel. GrimDark is a term thrown around fairly liberally now, but in truth the tone of Plague Daemon is much darker, and far grimmer than anything Black Library would put out now. Women give birth to mutated fetuses, which require burning, children are killed and young people are butchered because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is no 'Boy's Own' tale about Imperial Knights or Space Marines. Actions can have dire consequences and the 'goodies' often die painful, inglorious and futile deaths. 

"He could not bear to look at the hollow eyes of the little children. He could not bear to see what had been done to them!

Bleak.

3) Pick a character - are their actions justified?

When reviewing a book of this type, it is easy to cling to the main character and analyse their journey through the narrative in some detail, and indeed, there is nothing wrong in this at all. Personally, I often find the supporting characters more interesting, especially when they are actually characterised with a little depth. So I am going to pick Astyanax. He appears at the very beginning of the novel and is mortally wounded in battle with chaos mutants, but the echoes of his actions resonate through the rest of the story as to make his a far more important character than he initially appears to be. 

Astyanax is a powerful wizard in the mould of many fantasy wizards; he lives in a remote tower, along with his apprentices and works tirelessly to extend and enrich his knowledge. However, his purpose is the protection of the land from chaos, and he seems to be well versed in the threat Ystareth poses to Khypris. So well versed, that he has prepared agents to act in defence of the realm once the daemon is lose - with one of their responsibilities being to break the bridges that span the waterways in an effort to slow the daemon's progress.

He has also spent a long period enchanting the local waterway, the Black Tarn, so that it's waters can help nullify the effects of Ystareth's magic. Averil, one of Astyanax's apprentices, uses the magic of this water source to prevent the disease that cripples the land consuming Harmis along with it. 

Though Astyanax is killed in battle against the forces of Chaos, his actions are thoroughly justified and if anyone can take the credit for preserving the state of Khypris, it should be he. Without the knowledge he passes to Averil and Nicodemous, and the magical properties of the Tarnwine, there would be no way that the forces of good could stem the tide of corruption that Ystareth wroughts across the land. 

4) Is the overall plot engaging?

I would say so, yes. Though the plot seems to unfold far slower than in Zaragoz. Brian Craig gives the reader plenty of time to experience the impact a plague daemon (and the Zani invasion) has on a remote society. As I have said before, much of this is pretty bleak and compares the fragility of human nature when under pressure with the hideous evil of chaotic power. The temptation to abandon your humanity lies manifold during the journey, and through greed or fear many a minor character succumbs all too easily. Despite the depressing circumstances, I never gave up willing Harmis to victory - an easy feat considering I knew that he'd emerge victorious in the end. I felt myself concerned for the fates of the other characters too, particularly Averil, and Craig adds a nice little sexual tension sub-plot involving her, which was nicely wrapped up at the end of the tale. 

The tension builds nicely as the novel develops and I felt like I too was being drawn inexorably towards the daemon too. The final battle inside the plague choked palace of Khypris is atmospheric, if a little short. Some of the best writing in the novel can be found there, but I felt the final battle was a little rushed, almost as if Craig was approaching his word limit.

And images taken from other publications, such as White Dwarf and the Lost and the Damned.

7) Which passage in the book strikes you as being the most poignant or memorable? 

Choosing a memorable moment is never as easy as it sounds. And in doing so I considered, and discarded,several key scenes. The first was the attack on Astyanax's tower at the beginning of the novel, an action scene that best resembles what a 'great Warhammer battle' requires, at least to me. The 'goodies' of the mythos defending themselves against the horrors of the world, and prevailing despite the heroic cost of doing so. In fact, I have long thought about designing a scenario based around this small conflict, as it would require but a handful of models, a few pieces of custom scenery and a whole load of narrative and tactical choices for both sides. Perhaps I will one day. 

The second would be the aftermath of the attack on the gypsy camp. There are no heroics here, just the awful suffering of a survivor. But such scenes help to show the consequences of evil upon the world the characters seek to save. It helps with connection. For me, many of the later Black Library books were so shallow I felt little, or no connection with the world or it's characters at all, nor did I feel that their choices would have any real impact on the wider, or smaller, world in which they lived. 

My favourite moment has to be when Harmis faces the daemon, and knowing it's true name can finally exert his power over it. There is a lovely exchange between the two opposing characters that continue the theme of what chaos is that Craig began in Zaragoz. Here it is:

"Know, Harmis, that every nation of the earth is but appearance and illusion, and that the power of kings and princes have is but a shabby shadow of the real power which stands astride the world. Your rulers are but puppet clowns, dancing on the strings which gods and daemons tug for their own amusement. This world is but an eddy of dust in the whirlwind of eternity, infinitisimal in the eye of time. What do you think it can signify, to save a nation? What do you think it can matter to the masters of chaos, if a world such as yours were here, or gone, or never at all, when there are so many worlds in the universe of stars?"

"I do not believe that there are masters of Chaos," Harmis replied, as steadily as he could. "Not even those who style themselves as its gods. And I do not care at all what matters to them, or to you or your monstrous kind. I care about what happens to me- which is this world, this nation, and my friends. You have murdered my brother, and thousands of our kin, but you still have me to face, and in the power which Astyanax and fate have given me you will meet your last reckoning. Come down from the throne Ystareth, for it is I who am the judge here, not you."

Ystareth, like so many lost to chaos, have lost sight of what it means to be human. That mortals will fight, not for power, but for the earth upon which they live. For their family and friends. For the very things that make us human. And that characters such as Harmis will sacrifice far more than their souls to do so. 

During my games of Warhammer, I have always attempted to orchestrate such meetings between characters. That final duel between good and evil that will decide the fate, not of nations, but of the characters themselves. Once all that stood between victory or defeat was a single halfling, alone between the broken barricades. A troll squared up to that fragile break in the battle line and charged, yet that halfling summoned his courage and passed his fear test and stood his ground, preventing the troll from breaking through and ultimately winning the battle. So incredible (an unexpected) was this feat, that all the players clapped and cheered the little chap, even those on the 'loosing' side, and everyone agreed that that small event was one of the finest moments in their gaming lives. 

True heroism. 

Overall Score: 4/5 - another worthy read that builds on the successes of Zaragoz. An unexpectedly bleak vision of the Warhammer world. 

So, have you read Plague Daemon recently, or long in the past? What are your thoughts and memories of the novel? 

Orlygg

The Dread of the Dead Leadhead?

I was aimlessly flicking through the channels the other night while the wife served up our dinner and I stumbled across an episode of Coupling - a sitcom from about ten or so years ago. I didn't really pay the programme much mind, initially, beyond the usual 'isn't Sarah Alexander really good looking?' contemplation. 

Then this little scene cropped up. Go on watch it!

"That Steve guy - how well do you know him? Are you close?"

"Close? We're porn buddies."

These words triggered something in my mind. I knew a Steve! And I also knew he was sitting on a collection of Citadel lead of incredible proportions (just like me) whose depths even he (just like me) had probably not yet fathomed. I also went as far as to predict (just like me) that he had told his 'significant other' a widely undervalued price tag on the said collection. 

I know that I have been guilty of this. Picture the scene. I arrive home from work to find a small mountain of parcels on the kitchen workshop. After a few minutes of blissful unwrapping, I am left with a pile of gorgeous lead figures, which may or may not contain models from the McDeath, Lichemaster or Orc's Drift scenario packs. Then wife walks in and I quote once more that enduring chestnut - 'don't worry love, each figure only cost me a couple of quid - honest!'

Does this little scenario bare any relation to your life? 

Return now to the scene in the video, and replace the stack of jazz Jeff refers to with a deep trough of ancient '80s lead. I mean, what WOULD happen to your collection if your were, heaven forbid, snuffed out tomorrow? Where would it go? 

Asking myself these questions, I would hope that my darling wife would hunt down one of my Oldhammer cronies and pass over my collection, so that another enthusiast could get to enjoy them as much as I. Financial reimbursement would be unnecessary. But the thought of my lead pile just being, well, chucked out would be a travesty. 

I once spoke with another Oldhammer gamer who told me a rather poignant tale. Back in the glory days of the late '80s, his mother had a work colleague who had heard about his interest in Warhammer. That colleague had had a son with very similar interests, but sadly he had died some years previously. So unbeknown to the Oldhammer gamer, this kind lady boxed up her deceased son's collection and passed it on to his mother, who in turn passed it to her son. Over the next couple of decades, he would periodically retrieve part of this collection from storage and enjoy the books and mags again, though in his head he always made a mental nod of recognition to that long gone (and unknown) gamer. 

A nice story, with a good sentiment don't you think?

So what do we do with our collections to preserve them for the future? Thinking about this now, I would hope that my family kept the painted part of my collection - as they are part of me I suppose - but sensibly dispose of the rest to some other enthusiast. 

Returning to Coupling as we conclude, do we need miniature-porn buddies? No! Forget that - it is an awful term. We Grognards require something more gentlemanly, surely? Someone to send the family to if the worst should happen, with the remit to enjoy whatever we retain in our collections to the full. 

"That Steve guy - how well do you know him? Are you close?"

"Close? We're Leadfellows."

Night of the Living Lead III: Wayne England and his incredible sketchbook

Good evening Oldhammerers and apologies once again for the sudden cut in transmission. Life has proved challenging in several ways in the last weeks, work on this blog ground to a halt and my painting station is now a sorry morass of unfulfilled potential. Still, there is always the work of Wayne England to bring a welcome bit of festive fantasy cheer and makes a suitable topic for a return to work for Realm of Chaos 80s. We have spoken about Wayne before and delved deep into his highly influential dwarf army from the late '80s. 

Those of you who attended the Oldhammer Weekend 2015 were probably saddened by the news that Wayne had fallen ill and could not make the event after all, I know I was, so it was with great pleasure that I finally got to meet the iconic artist face to face. Especially considering that his famous cover to White Dwarf 110 (the third issue of the magazine I ever bought) is my favourite piece of GW art, ever. 

Nothing said more to me about Warhammer 40,000 than that image. The marines were crazed, almost cybernetic killers that seemed, to me anyway, be lacking in any obvious martial code beyond the iconography adorning their armour.  And here it is, many years later, looking just as vibrant, exciting and most importantly (to me at least) unique. And to think it was done with crayons! 

I cannot easily begin to imagine the hours I put into just looking at that astonishing front cover, or the following pages from the accompanying Illuminations article. I have very fond memories of 2nd Edition Bloodbowl and the art that went along with it, not to mention the miniatures - but Frank N Stein, the Star Player, was the epitome of the 'feel' of the game for me. I can recall doodling a sad travesty of Wayne's magnificent artwork in the back of my Middle School dictionary, and thank the Ruinous Powers that it no longer exists too! 

Thankfully, we still have Mr England's fantastic original!

This battle scene also appears among the pieces of Wayne's work in the illuminations piece. I have always really enjoyed work like this - one of those cases of discovering something new every time you look. And it came as quite the surprise that there was another picture in a similar vein that, as far I can tell, was never released found in the collection of Tim Pollard - who, incidentally owns the magnificent front cover illustration from WD 110!

Chatting with Wayne was a dream come true and like many an Oldhammerer you are keen to meet the architects of the fabulous mythos we all so enjoy. He was full of amusing tales about the creative days of the famous '80s Design Studio and perhaps his most riotous story involved Bryan Ansell being responsible for the creation of Robot Wars - the once popular BBC show. Interestingly, Rick Priestley has mentioned the same project in a recent article which is well worth a look. Just clink the source below for the full article. 

“Bryan and I even had this idea for doing robots. You know those Robot Wars shows? We were going to manufacture robot kits where all of the electronic circuitry was built into their casings. They’d fight each other and the outer casings would be knocked off and they’d gradually lose their abilities, I thought it was a brilliant idea.”

http://unpluggedgames.co.uk

As he promised, Wayne brought along his sketch book and I had a chance to have a goof flick through it and took a number of snaps to share with you today. Of course, these images don't really do the artwork justice but they give to a great idea about how his style has continued to develop. 

To conclude, a huge thanks to Wayne for coming along to Night of the Living Lead and being so generous of his time. During one of our chats he mentioned the 'new' dwarf army he is working on, and hopefully, one day, I can bring you some pictures of that too!

Orlygg

The Pantheon Of Chaos Miniatures Project: An update!

Way back in August I spoke to you about a really exciting project; Pantheon of Chaos. If you don't recall this work in progress range, let me explain a little further. Essentially, a group of sculptors aim to create a series of miniatures (and later rules) inspired by the seminal Realm of Chaos books from the late '80s. 

Well, I had a message from Mustafa Bekir (one of the key players in the project) the other day about some further images from the forthcoming range, so I jumped at the chance of sharing them here. They are, quite frankly, incredible and perfectly capture that mid-to-late '80s Citadel Chaos feel, as the two chaos warrior WIP greens above this writing will attest. 

Mustafa had a great deal to share, so let us have a sneak peak at what they have in store for us!

First up, a range of concept art. I will let the illustrations speak for themselves, but I will say this - don't they look like they were culled from old issues of White Dwarf? The style has been nailed down remarkably well!

There is an excellent Facebook group that the masterminds behind the project have set up. With nearly 700 members at the time of writing, there are certainly a great number of interested people following the development. And like many great community projects, the sculptors are very keen for leadheads to share their ideas and critique the work in progress. 

It is a closed group, so you will have to join. It can be found here: Pantheon on FB.

Next up, the greens! Now remember, most of what you are seeing must be considered to be work in progress but the work that has gone into some of these models is incredible. Just like with this hobgoblin in chaos armour!

Oh, and their beastman range too!!

You are probably thinking - I wonder how well they paint up? Well, I can answer that one too. First up a chaos thug, sculpted in such a way as to represent any one of the major chaotic powers. 

And a superb chaos warrior of Nurgle. Outstanding I am sure you will agree.

I was also lucky enough to be given a copy of a new concept artwork from Tony Ackland - who is continuing to support the creative procress. 

And here is the work in progress sculpt. What fantastic work on that armour, eh?

Big thanks to Mustafa for sharing these with me. I shall be continuing to share content in support of this project and will let you all know when the kickstarter begins in February. I can't wait!!

Orlygg

A return to normal services?

This is one of those obligatory 'I am not dead' posts that crop up on dormant blogs the world over, and those of you who grew up in the United Kingdom (like I did) will well recognise the image I chose to open this post with. It is a 'telly test card' if you didn't know, and used to appear quite regularly when nothing was available for broadcast, usually very late or extremely early, and it was a constant companion of childhood. Well, for those children who did not tarry long in bed. 

So where have I been? The answer is simple - I have been here all along, but I just haven't had the time (through a series of events that have no place here) to really engage at all with the Oldhammer Community. Sure, I was able to drop in through social media - but any real Oldhammering long ground to a halt. 

This is my first attempt at getting it going again. 

I have a number of half-finished posts loitering around to complete, including my write ups from Night of the Living Lead, and I hope to get them out shortly, time permitting. I am also mulling over a mini project to get be back into the swing of things. I am months behind in the Tale of Four Oldhammerers thing that Steve, Chico and Paul are racing ahead with too. Luckily, Christmas beckons and with it some much needed opportunities to sit at my modelling table, when I've tided it up! 

But before any of that, I have a great post to share about that Pantheon of Chaos project that I blogged about a few months back. I just need to finish writing it up. I think readers of this blog will find it most interesting!

Until then! 

Orlygg