Fantasy wargaming in the 1970s: a look through some issues of Battle magazine

I recently happened upon a cache of Battle magazines from the 1970s - by no means a complete run, but still an interesting spread that give a taste of what the hobby was like in those days. From these vintage pages you can learn about a few things, like a) the apparently overlapping enthusiasm that some wargamers had for military (including Nazi) memorabilia and keeping up to speed on military hardware; and b) the emergence of an obscure subset of wargaming known as fantasy wargaming.


First couple I have - from 1975 and 1976 - are pretty standard wargaming fare. Notes on historical battles, columns from wargaming bigwigs Charles Grant and Tony Bath. Comments on military memorabilia like Goering's dagger thrown in on the presumption that wargamers would also be into that sort of thing.


January 1977, and we get this wonderful cover exhibiting what a fascinating spectator sport wargaming can be. Some dapper looking fellas in attendance there.




Then in February 1977, stepping ever so quietly around the cover featuring the military decotations of Col. Sir Henry Hollis, we get this advert from an obscure company called Games Workshop about "a totally new concept in game design... Create your own Fantasy Worlds of magic, monsters and treasures". Printed upsidedown. Wonder how that got along?


June 1977 and the disease is spreading. There's an advert for "Fantasy by Minot": "Thane Tostig, the Pagan Giant" on their "quest for the legendary sword 'BLOODDRINKER' that can cut through any known substance, except a Christian Cross". later on we get an article explaining the game that these figures relate to in a charmingly obscure way.



Also there's a minifigs ad with a selection of their hobgoblins. I actually own one of these ugly buggers.



November 1977's entirely historical contents offer some false hope that this whole thing has died down, but clearly it can't have been doing too badly because by December 1977 Games Workshop are able to afford to have an advert printed the right way up. What's more, Steve Jackson has been invited to provide an "Introduction to Fantasy Wargames", in which he reassures us with words like "Many new players have come across the hobby through interests in Science Fiction and Fantasy literature, the Occult, etc." A brief potted history is offered, tracing the interest in fantasy through board games, Tony Bath's Hyboria campaign, minifigs fantasy miniature releases, the Wargames Research Group's "short and rather scanty fantasy supplement" to their ancient rules, through to the explosion of interest that game from D&D.





In January 1978, Tony Bath begins a series outlining the history of his Hyboria campaign - the adaptation of Robert Howard's world for "fantasy" battles involving ancient armies maneouvering around a fictional continent. This campaign is widely acknowledged as one of the great ancestors of fantasy wargaming as we now know it, and it's worthy of more consideration on this blog at some stage (especially as I have a copy of Tony Bath's "How to Run a Wargaming Campaign"). Beyond adverts for D&D, however - and a review of D&D Revised Basic Set in March 1978- there's little else in the way of fantasy content. In March 1978, Steve Jackson pens this letter, "Fantasy not a threat", in defence of his beleaguered minority.




His plea seems to work, with April 1978 plastered with the promise of "EXTRA FANTASY FEATURES". There's a 2 page "Guide to Fantasy Figures" featuring Asgard, Ral Partha, Minifigs, but also others we hear rather less about, such as Barry Minot and Greenwood & Ball. I have to say, I find the sheer range of miniature possibilities on these pages quite exciting - is that just nostalgia for old lead, or is that the effect it would have had on the new fantasy gamer, opening up this world of possibilities?


Elsewhere in this issue there's a basic set of Science Fiction rules for spaceship combat by William York; more from Tony Bath on Hyboria; a Games Day review by Ian Livingstone; and an interesting essay from wargames grandee Charles Grant that touches on something of the prehistory of fantasy wargaming.






May 1978, and we're pretty much back to business as usual, though Tony Bath's series continues, and there are a couple of interesting adverts and reviews.



After that, I have no more issues of Battle. I presume the fantasy wargaming fad died out.

A Ratling Sniper and his mate

In which a pair of forgotten figures bring back memories of my short and ill-fated career as a writer of wargames rules...


Something a bit different today. Found this Ratling Sniper and Necromunda Goliath leader. I'd made a start on these when I was first into wargaming back in the 90s, but not finished them, so got out the paints and washes and reconditioned them. Whiskey Priest has been keen to bring us OGRE gamers into the 41st millennium and although I haven't had a chance to play Necromunda or RT or anything else with them yet, I'm keen, so I thought I'd have a rummage around for any figures that would serve as the start of a warband.

I have a bit of history with Ratling Snipers.

When I was a teenager I fancied myself as a bit of a games designer, and loved nothing better than to write all kinds of rules and scenarios - including all kinds of stuff for Necromunda - and shove them on the internet. So even though by 1999 I was drifting out of the hobby so as to devote more of my desperate energies towards wooing the lasses, I was still chuffed as anything to get an e-mail from GW saying that they were starting a new magazine to support Necromunda, and would I be happy for them to include some of the stuff I'd written? I replied that I was more than happy for them to use anything I'd put on the net - some of the scenarios I'd written were pretty cool, I thought, and I'd come up with a pretty nifty system for Undead gangs in Necromunda that I was very proud of. So I waited to see what they decided to publish.

When I finally did get a copy of Gang War Issue 5, I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed. The thing they'd decided to include was a throwaway set of houserules I'd written for Ratling Snipers in Necromunda simply so my mate could include one in his Orlock gang because he played Imperial Guard and liked the models. The rules weren't exactly watertight and not everyone liked them. I remember being on the receiving end of a certain amount of nerdrage.

So ended my very short career as a writer of wargames rules!

Anyway, for those with a bit of historical curiosity, here are the rules:


And if you don't like them in English, here's a Czech translation:

From the mud

In the beginning was mud. The mud was without time and without end, and the creatures who dwelled in the mud lived in peace.

The gods came and divided the mud into the wet and the dry. The wet they called "sea" and the dry they called "land". Mud remained only at the forgotten edges of the earth.

The gods created creatures to dwell in the sea and creatures to dwell on the land.
The gods said to the creatures of the sea, "go forth and multiply". The gods said to the creatures of the land, "go forth and multiply".

The creatures of the mud were forgotten. The creatures of the mud cowered together at the edges of the earth. They had not been told to go forth. They had not been told to multiply. They cursed the gods who had forgotten them. They cursed the creatures the gods had favoured.

Again and again they cried at the skies with curse after curse and profanity after profanity. And they waited and listened for the wrath of the gods who they had cursed. They heard nothing. Nothing but the silence of the mud, and the screaming desire to do that which the gods had denied them:

Go forth and multiply.



So near and yet so far! I made a good start on these fimir and hoped to have them ready for the end of the month of Marsh, but frustratingly it looks like I'm not quite going to finish. Above is as far as I got. It's particularly frustrating given that all around me in the oldhammer community, people are successfully completing one hour painting challenges, and I can't get these done within a month... but the thing is, I think without the dangling carrot of a wargame coming up, it's really hard for me to paint to a deadline. Anyway, I'm up to Liverpool tomorrow so the detail work on these will wait until I get back.

In the meantime, here's a couple of team photos of the whole of Clan Slea so far. Turning into quite the horde.

Battle Report: The Last Stand of Antonius De Blare

IT BEING CHARGED that he misled the poor of these lands with cruel illusions, deceptions, and frauds; FURTHER, that he waged war for the sake of his own vanity; FURTHER, that he plundered lands and left them barren; FURTHER, that he has entered into pacts with foul devils and daemons; be it known that ANTONIUS DE BLARE is wanted in all four corners of this isle, and is to be brought to justice and punished for his evil crimes.


A couple of weekends ago, Warlord Paul gathered together the finest that Albion has to offer - well, those of us with time on our hands anyway - and called us to Slayer Gaming at Mansfield for a 3rd ed scenario. Bridgend Steve, Nik, Ashley, Orlygg, and myself answered the call. (Incidentally, thanks to Orlygg for the vast majority of the pictures used in this battle report) n.b. I'm telling the story here primarily from the perspective of my own warband, with other events to make sense of the action thrown in - there are many other stories that could be told and I hope others write up accounts from their own perspective, but I'll leave the overarching account to Warlord Paul as it's his game.

The premise of the game: there are rumours of vile goings-on at Murdock Keep, said to be harbouring the war criminal Antonius de Blare and the rogue Aleck MacSolomon. A call has gone out to local adventurers to investigate and put a stop to the chaos that threatens to engulf the borderlands of Albion.

I brought a selection of my highlanders from East of Albion:
Robert the Grim, serjeant at arms and sadistic bastard, level 15 hero (represented by a clansman of Lamedon from one of the current GW LotR range)
Preacher Knox, priest and temperance advocate, level 10 magic user (represented by a figure from Reaper miniatures)
Tetli, dwarf brewmaster, last seen left behind in "A Dwarf With No Beer" (represented by a figure from Oathsworn miniatures)
Wee Eck, blackguard and drunkard (represented by one of the arrant scum from Warlord Games' Pike and Shotte range)

Last time we saw these warriors, they were hiding out having made the strategic decision to withdraw from a battle that wasn't quite going their way. Now they need to do something singularly noteworthy to restore their honour and return home with pride intact. Something like bringing De Blare to justice...

They had a choice: they could take the high road, or the low road. And so they found themselves on the high road towards Murdock Keep, along with some snooty peace-loving elves, and a barbarian known as Bryon Anvil who was accompanied by his formidable and somewhat outspoken family.

Confronting them on the road was a crossbow armed drow, and a wolf. Turning their attention away from the nagging tones of Bryon Anvil's wife ("well, are you just going to stand there and let him point that thing at us, Bryon? Bryon? Are you listening to me, Bryon?"), the arrant highlanders saw a troll chained to a crumbling pillar. The chaotic milking stool of stools next to the troll revealed the true horror of the creature: this was Malky the Milk Troll, one of De Blare's vile chaotic experimentations. Wee Eck was heard to mutter, "I think I've seen yon udders on page 3 of one of Murdock's pamphlets..."


Raising aloft a barrel of Tetli's beer (in spite of the protestations of Preacher Knox), the highlanders offered an unlimited supply of strong ale to the troll in return for its loyal service. Now, loyalty is not typically something at the uppermost of a troll's mind. Nevertheless, the thought of escaping cruel and perverse servitude (not to mention the promise of beer) was persuasion enough for this most simple of creatures. All that was needed was for the warriors of the highlanders to smash the chains with their great weapons...

...which did not go so well. It took several attempts each before the priest finally showed his embarassed looking companions how to break the chain. ("Well I loosened it for you", growled a flushed looking Tetli.)


Meanwhile, the pretentious elves had rendered the crossbow weilding drow unconscious, but refused to kill him. "Violence never solved anything", one of them was heard to lisp. Robert the Grim was sorely tempted to continue what the elves had started, with a good old-fashioned disembollocking and a few well-placed boots to the head. However, there were more pressing priorities. Some of Murdocks's hackerz, yelling their warcry of "GOTCHA!", burst out of the shack where the propagandist printing presses were kept.


The first batch of hackerz were easily cut down, but Murdock himself and his amoral henchmen the editorz would prove a sterner test.

Trading blow for blow, it was the recruitment of Malky the Milk Troll, driven to hate of the Murdock, the Editorz, and Hackerz by years of exploitation, that gave the highlanders the advantage in spite of Murdock's sneers and smears. Murdock himself found his skull crushed under Robert the Grim's sword. Yet this advantage was not without a price; The Reverend Knox was wounded, and Wee Eck was brought down, caught off guard as he tried to take a sip from his tankard during the fight. "Ach, I'd only come along because I was following yon beer barrel", he groaned as he bled on the floor.

Reverend Knox offered his opinion with a sigh and a shake of the head: "Another victim of the demon drink". He prepared to cast a healing spell on himself, but was left with no time to intone the words before a bolt plunged into his chest.

It had come from the crossbow of the drow, who had now awoken from his unconscious state. Malky the Milk Troll charged over to cut down the perpetrator, though it was too late for Preacher Knox, the second highlander casualty of the action.


As soon as the last of the Hackerz was out of the way, the highlanders took refuge in the shack where the printing presses were kept, not liking the look of the Chimera proceeding in their direction. Some other adventurers had pretty much the same idea: Lucky Jack the Swift flew in through the window after casting a levitation spell, and was followed by some of his companions taking a more conventional route through the door.

Entering into an orgy of destruction, the highlanders smashed the printing presses responsible for so many poisonous lies (as a native of Liverpool, I have to admit this gave me a certain satisfaction); then admist the shattered machinery they found a trapdoor that had been covered up by the press. Surely this would lead them to De Blare's crypt and the dark secrets concealed there?


The passageways had an oppressive feel, dank air thick with the screams of those led to their death by De Blare's lies. Around each corner was evidence of his foul experiments, demanding the austere remedy of a thousand cuts.


Yet the prancing elves had got to De Blare first! Enchanting him with songs of love and peace, they implored him to leave this place and "have a good long think about what you've done". Placing the illusion in his mind that he was in truth an Envoy of Peace to Araby, they set De Blare free. Would the Elves be complicit in allowing De Blare to escape justice?


But they had reckoned without Bryon Anvil and his nagging wife. "DO SOMETHING BRYON!" shrieked the missus.

The surviving highlanders, along with the other adventuring parties, charged down the passageway. All around them echoed the sound of a man finally losing his patience:

"WILL... YOU... SHUT... UP! JUST SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUUUT UUP!" yelled Bryon, who had apparently had a long day and could take no more. He took out all the the rage of a henpecked man on De Blare, bludgeoning the wanted war criminal to death. "THERE! I'VE DONE IT! NOW WILL YOU NOW PLEEEEEASE JUST SHUUUUT UP!"

Bryon looked down at the dead body of De Blare. "Who was that anyway?" he asked, while his wife rolled her eyes.

The month of Marsh

Following on from the mild success of Gnomevember, I figure it's time for yet another arbitrary thematic challenge.

Welcome to (drumroll)... the month of Marsh!
And what is 'Marsh' all about? Why, everybody's favourite marsh dwellers the Fimir, of course! Nothing says "oldhammer" like these club-tailed, one eyed, reproductively deviant buggers.


The dying race of the fens needs you! Do you have any fimir (or not-fimir!) that you've yet to paint up? Do you want to develop fimir background? Do you want to engage in philosophical discussion on the ethics of including rape themes in wargaming? Well, now is the time!

To get you started, here are some of the key resources for understanding these misunderstood creatures:

* The most authoritative writeup of the history of the fimir's development in Games Workshop is by Luke Maciak on the blog Terminally Incoherent, including recollections from designers Graeme Davis (who gave birth to the species) and Tony Ackland.

* Zhu Bajie has a cultural history of the design of the fimir in three parts: Part 1: Origin of the Species, Part 2: Dawn of the Scredling, and Part 3: Alan Lee's Formorian. Across the series he explores their rooting in influences ranging from Irish Mythology to the Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal. Indeed, in Part 3, he shows us the back cover for Michael Scott's Irish Folk and Fairy Tales Volume 2, which is the very piece of artwork (by Alan Lee) that inspired the creators of the fimir:


* The authoritative (albeit unofficial, but who cares?) source for Fimir background is Warpstone Issue 25. Which I'm yet to read, because I haven't got a copy. Something to put on my "to do" list for Marsh!

* And in terms of official GW print sources White Dwarf 102 included background for the race, a 3rd ed army list, and a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay adventure with the fimir in a starring role. Read all about it over at Realm of Chaos 80s, which includes a link to the WD article on scribd.


So what am I planning on doing for Marsh? Well, I'd like to get at least one article on this blog exploring their background, but in essence my plan for painting and gaming is very straightforward and hopefully achievable within this month or soon after: paint up the Diego Serrate and Nick Bibby fimir I've not yet finished (including the Meargh!), build myself a village for my fimm, and issue a challenge to Warlord Paul to come and take back the Elf sorceress Fayana, who Clan Slea have taken captive!

Ask not what the fimir can do for you, but what you can do for the fimir!

Belated New Year's Resolutions

Feeling a bit fed up at the moment. Fractured my arm on Friday and so can't really paint. Well, I can, but it's painful and even less precise than usual. But I can type. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to get around to posting about my game-related New Year's Resolutions. Ok, it's late, but most people fail with their resolutions within a few days of the new year, maybe holding off on them for a while like I'm doing increases the likelihood of success?

First, let's see how I got on with last year's goals:

Goal 1: Collect and paint a chaos warband for the OGRE meeting
Errr... well OGRE never got around to having a warbands game, so I have the models for the warband I rolled up, but never painted them up. Ooops. Well, at least OGRE has met up a couple of times, with more meetups in the pipeline, so that's a plus. Just not got round to playing a chaos warbands game!

Goal 2: Paint all of the Heroes for Dungeonquest
Oh dear. Made absolutely no progress on this either. In fact, I was in the process of painting the ninja, Tori Jima, to include in a game of Ronin with Whiskey Priest and the OGRE lot. But the aforementioned buggering up of my arm has put paid to that, for now anyway.

Goal 3: Collect a force for Doctor Who: Invasion Earth, and take on Thantsants and his wonderful Doctor Who collection

Finally! Something I actually accomplished! I got this done and played a wonderful mini-campaign up at his place in the lake district last Easter. Great times. Never did put a battle report up of these 3 games (arrgh, failure in the midst of success), though the reports for 2 of the 3 scenarios are over at Thantsants' blog: War of the Daleks, and One of our Dictators is missing... - but looks like we're missing the Grand Finale. Well, I have the notes and the photos, one day, maybe...

Goal 4: Make Clan Slea a force to be reckoned with


Plenty of work done here. Lots of new fimm infantry and even some artillery pieces. They've been in some great fights at The Poison River and The Siege of Avalone (at Bring Out Your Lead 2014). They're not finished (is any army truly finished?) - for a start, I still have to paint up several of the Nick Bibby fimir - but they're still a pretty impressive lot. However, there was one thing Clan Slea never got around to...

Goal 5: Fight Warlord Paul in a sequel to "Trouble at Nobridge"
It's now over a year since this very fun game at Blog-Con, which left so many loose threads crying out for a sequel. But I've never got around to organising it. I do have a suitable miniature for the captured Elf Elementalist, however, so I haven't given up hope entirely!

Goal 6: Collect more McDeath miniatures
Not doing too badly on this. I have the Monster of Loch Lorm, and 6 of the character models. In terms of painting, I've painted up the monster and a unit of suitable clansmen (the citadel models along with Warlord and other minis), and they're growing into a nice characterful warband in their own right.

See the fella tossing his caber there?

I'm not abandoning this task for the next year - I'll pick minis up when I can find them - but prices are getting stupid on ebay, so I'm not going to make it such a priority that I bankrupt myself.

Goal 7: Attend the Oldhammer Weekend
And what a weekend it was!




Ok, so having evaluated the past year's successes and failures, what are my top priorities for the coming year?

1) Build up my Sea Elf army

The first thing I did when I got back into this hobby was to paint up sea elves. This year, I want to build them up to a sizeable force in their own right. In terms of what I own but have yet to paint up: I have archers for the ship's company, wardancers, and a unit of Lothern City Guard who I think will work well in this force; in terms of what I still need to buy, I'm looking for another bolt thrower, and also pondering whether I could incorporate some of White Knight's wonderful sea elves.

2) Send my Sea Elves off to sea
With plans afoot for naval battles at BOYL15, I need to get some suitable boats for my sea elves to conquer the waves.

3) Take a journey to the East
I want to try and organise a game with an Eastern feel at BOYL15, exploring some of the lesser known territory of the Warhammer world and getting people to bring Cathayans, Nipponese, eastern-looking Hobgoblins, that sort of thing. With that in mind, I've been collecting minitures with an oriental feel, some of which will also see usage in games like Ronin and Fistful of Kung Fu.

4) Play The Dolgan Raiders scenario

Related to the above goal, I want to collect a force of Dolgan steppe warriors and face off against Hobgoblins in this classic scenario from the Second Citadel Journal. I have a handful of Mongol-looking old citadel minis, and so I'm looking for suitable proxies for the rest of the army.

5) Continue to collect for McDeath - without breaking the bank
I'm still going to pick up McDeath minis when I see them and when they're not expensive, but a lot of the rank and file I want to collect for McDeath will be suitable proxies. Last year, I picked up plenty of clansmen to go with the old citadel; this year my priority is to collect and paint militant dwarf miners to fight alongside Arka Zargul.

6) Paint all of the Heroes for Dungeonquest
Well, maybe I'll get around to it this year, eh?