Monday 12 November 2012

Discovering old gems

I have been rummaging around in my shelves looking for all the old books and magazines I have that are related to Oldhammer. Some that I know for sure I own are nowhere to be seen - much to my growing sadness my Fantasy Miniatures book that has such wonderful artwork by John Blanche and Ian Miller is one of those that's missing (actually I can't remember the exact name of the book but it had loads of images of Citadel miniatures from the 80s although I am not certain it was an official Citadel publication). I must find it. Also missing is the Fighting Fantasy Titan book. 

However I did dig up my ancient copies of the original Citadel Journals. The second ever Citadel Journal from 1985


The Citadel Journal from Spring of 1986


and the Citadel Journal of Spring 1987


I haven't been able to find any pdfs of these online (although I suspect they are out there) so I thought I would have a look at some of the pages inside that seemed relevant to us :)

First up the Citadel Journal of Autumn 1985. This magazine is in excellent condition despite being read numerous times in my youth. It being older than the others and less relevant to my gaming days back then probably saved it a lot of ware though. Naturally the focus of this journal is on 2nd edition Warhammer and features a scenario called the Dolgan Raider that came with cardboard cut outs. The scenario pits a tribe of Hobgoblins and Goblins against a raiding party of Steppe Humans and Centaurs who are intent on robbing the Hobgoblin caravan. I intend to play this scenario out one day (once I have the necessary miniatures) using 3rd Edition rules.



I realise now of course that all these scans are already available on the Stuff of Legends website! But my scans are of a higher quality so there! hahaha.

I have also managed to find the book I was talking about earlier. It was Heroes for Wargames by Stewart Parkinson. A really useful book for anyone interested in Oldhammer. There are loads of wonderful photos of mid 80s miniatures and dioramas. Only not the book with all the illustrations by Ian Miller...  I was clearly thinking of something else there! Such is nostalgia :D



6 comments:

  1. Very cool...I look forward to hearing more about the first two issues. I have the third...was just looking at it last night in fact...and its fair to say that this publication was my "gateway drug" seeing the dioramas in that issue had me hooked from the start!

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  2. The '86 Journal has another scenario that is a follow on from the Terror of the Lichemaster campaign, where as the '87 Journal has some great photos and dioramas but little in the way of articles. I will post more for both at a later date.

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  3. I'd love to get hold of some of these journals - bet there's loads of stuff that passed me.

    I did manage to bag the 2nd Compendium for a good price - invaluable for my Lustrian escapades!

    The Hobgoblin scenario sounds great - especially as I have a modest horde of them. Always bugged me that, for a steppe tribe themselves, there were never any mounted hobgoblins produced.

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  4. These journals were also a great source of inspiration for me, mostly from looking at all the miniatures they contained.By and large they were essentially a catalogue of the current miniature ranges with a few articles thrown in. Some of more value than others.

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  5. Heroes for Wargames... I looked at my copy the other day and it was quite a jolt. There is a ton of content begging to be scanned. Unfortunately that means someone sacrificing a copy to get a good scan. Not mine - uh uh... tatty copy required.

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  6. I will see if I can scan a few items from the Heros for Wargames book and post them up here. You are right in saying there is a ton that could make it into this blog

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