Vintage White Dwarf 202. October 1996.

Time for another blast from the past and this one is another classic from the Jake Thornton 'fat dwarf' era. The special thing about this one was it came with either 2 free Skinks or 2  Bretonnians. Man I'd love a Lizardmen army!

News - Plenty going on this month. A few releases for Warhammer Quest, some Lizardmen for fantasy, and some Chaos bits for 40k. It's the other boxes that are really interesting... An advert for a colour component artist. It paid £6000pa but you did get free accommodation and a GW owned house, crazy! They also gave us fore-warning that Epic was going to be leaving the shelves soon. The biggest news though was the release of...

Warhammer - Rick Priestly talks us through the release of the new edition (possibly 5th?). The box has Lizardmen v Bretonnians along with all the usual books, dice and templates but also some lush card scenery. As Rick guides us through all the newness he does a few interesting things. He actually tells us that they're working on an expansion that's coming out soon about magic, and he thanks us, the gamers, for all the feedback and letters that were sent in to inspire the designers. Not sure either of those things would happen nowadays.

The Sorcerer - Andy Chambers dishes the dirt on one of this months Chaos releases, Ahriman. There's background about the Thousand Sons, Tzeentch and all  the rules.

Out of the Darkness - A really interesting article all about how to change your perspective on Warhammer Quest so it doesn't have to always be a dungeon crawl, it could be anything we want it to be. Loads of great ideas and concepts to explore.

Lost in the Warp - A look at Chaos conversions and the introduction of the bits box! There's some really amazing artwork that really captured my attention as a boy. The converted models were quite a mixed bag, most of them in garish colours but a few of them were cool.

Lords of Lustria - Nigel Stillman takes a closer look at the Lizards. He mostly covers the history and some famous locations and then there are stats for Skinks and Saurus Warriors.

'Eavy Metal Masterclass - Mike McVey presents an article all about banners. How to design them, paint them and attach them. Much of this artform has disappeared now with moulded details but it's something I attempted years ago and would like to get around to trying again sometime.

Lionheart - Stillman is wheeled out again to go over the details of Louen Leoncoeur for the Bretonnians. He's a dude on a Hippogriff, nuff said.

Modelling Workshop - A bloke called  Owen shows us his concept for some scenery. It's based on a crashed spaceship so there's debris and wreckage, plenty of Necromunda bulkheads and drinking straws. It actually looks quite impressive.

Frontline News - Army Cards are introduced! I really wish this concept was still around, getting free stuff if you buy enough other stuff.

We Will Rock You - A look at fantasy warmachines, specifically stone throwers. There's plenty of tactics but definitely not enough Dwarf action for my tastes.

A Warrior's Duty - Imperial Guard Catachans and Cadians go up against an amazing all Aspect Warrior Eldar army. I don't know if you can still make that kind of army, I hope that it comes back when the next iteration of the codex is released.

This was quite a nice issue, nothing spectacular happened but everything had that cool feeling about it from the free stuff to the chaos conversions to the home made terrain. It's difficult to judge but it's above average, maybe a 6/10.