Into The Archives - My Early White Dwarf Reads (Part Three)

White Dwarf #126

We are now into the June 1990 issue...

The cover artwork this month is an untitled piece by Colin Sullivan.

As with the previous two posts the Contents page shows the diversity of content.

Interestingly you can also see that there is a boxed section at the bottom listing the adverts. Unsurprisingly this wasn't in later White Dwarfs, you could argue in later ones any advert listings would have been longer than the contents listing.

News Section:

There are a few things to note in the News Section, mention of upcoming releases such as Genestealer for Space Hulk, the Eldar army list for 40k and new Epic army lists (Squats!). Also the Space Ork Battlewagon - one of the first GW kits I ever got (a Christmas present I think, awesome kit).

Also Space Crusade is announced with some previews of the models. Heroquest was my first real foray into GW games, I never actually bought Space Crusade, though I played it may times. I did pick up Advanced Space Crusade which was a blast.

Now who else remembers that at one point Games Workshop had a Record Label...? I can remember that in one White Dwarf it was mentioned Brian May from Queen visited and had actually played on a couple of tracks for a band on the label. Odd to think that actually happened now.

Even back in 1990 people were looking at a possible Warhammer or 40k film...and in this issue GW actually made mention of a possible Deathwing film, alas (or maybe that was for the best) it didn't happen.

Something worth showing is how few stores there were back in 1990. Even with full addresses being shown they more than easily fit on one page...25 in total, of which only three were outside the UK.

Space Marine - Epic Space Marines.

Space Marine Regiments in the Horus Heresy to be exact, with the news coming out of Warhammer Fest recently this is an appropriate time to show this article.

I have to admit even though I hadn't picked up Epic yet I still got photocopies of the pages and cut out the counters to create my own Marine Regiment.

The vast bulk of the article is how to form the regiments, organise things and rules etc. There is still some nice background information contained within though about the organisations and how they work.

A couple of the most interesting pages to now look back on are those discussing some of the Founding Chapters (note, Chapters not Legions), though the Ultramarines possessing the largest number of Techmarines doesn't really ring true anymore.

The bit of background each one gets sounds familiar all these years later, but there are a few things to note. In particular The Dark Angel's Death Wing was not just Terminators as it also included Devastators and Assault Marines, though these could be upgraded to Elite.

Space Marine - Knights.

Another article for Epic, this time covering both Human and Eldar Knights. Quite a comprehensive piece giving all the background to both factions and all the rules to select and use Knights in games of Space Marine.

Since their reintroduction into 40k in recent years the background has been revised significantly, though many of the core points still remain, especially with the human Knightly Houses.

Hey, Forge World, any chance we can have a Bright Stallion? A four legged Knight would be so cool.

Space Hulk - Genestealer.

This is not an article but one of the adverts (as listed on the Contents Page...) for the Space Hulk expansion I mentioned earlier in the News section.

I did love Space Hulk. My first 'full' GW game, rather than the GW/MB combined effort that was (also excellent) Heroquest.

Genestealer introduced two big things to Space Hulk, Psychic Powers and Hybrids. The recent Genestealer Cult models owe a lot of their design heritage to the Hybrids brought in with Genestealer. While I avidly added Librarians and psychic powers to my games of Space Hulk looking back now I can see it was a bit clunky with how the psychic powers worked. It was fun though.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - Marienburg.

Now you may remember me saying I loved the WFRP articles, even though I never played it. In the last WD we had the Plague Daemon WFRP article which I liked but this is the sort of article I really loved to read (and re-read).

Here we have the sort of 'low-level' characters that would have no place in a Warhammer Fantasy Battle army or article. Instead of Kings, Wizards, Generals or great warriors these people are the run of the mill citizens of the Old World, though they may not be so run of the mill as you might think...which is what makes them so interesting. The dark secrets or hidden tales they have can be fascinating. Even if they are the dregs of society they always have a story to tell.

I don't know why I liked the maps and plans so much but they were always a highlight to me.

Warhammer 40,000 - Madboyz

What can you say about Madboyz? They are the Orks of this period at their most unpredictable and, well, mad.

Much has been said about how the early Ork character in 40k had far more comedy (for want of a better term). They were more drunken yobs than the bestial ferocity of today.

As a 13 year old this article was brilliant and I can still look at it now with amusement, but would despair at trying to use them in 40k nowadays due to there being so many tables and random rolls etc.

But they were fun.

I would love if Madboyz could be brought back to the Orks, a more streamlined version bringing back some fun to the Greenskins of the Grimdark.

So much of the Ork nature has been changed over the years and so much of their character has been cut away that I look at the recent Codex books and despair. The Klans have all but gone other than in paint scheme, the fun has been cut away, units have been lost and the madness and creativity seems to have been forgotten about.

Have a read of the tables below (just two of the 10 behaviour tables they had), don't you want a bit of this madness in your life?*

* though not ten bloody tables of it obviously...

'Eavy Metal.

Final thing to show, this is the back cover of the issue showing Genestealers, Hybrids and Terminators.

I had that Patriarch model once. I can't remember when I got rid of it, wish I hadn't.

And that is that for #126.

Next up #127 in a week or so, including the Eldar Army List...