Vintage White Dwarf 191. November 1995.

Hello and welcome to another hopefully weekly (maybe fortnightly) feature. I've recently been hunting on ebay for classic White Dwarfs that I remember for my early teens so I thought I'd share what's in them with everyone. Now my intention is not to try and prove that older issues are better than the newer ones, but if that turns out to be the case maybe we can see where things are going wrong in a constructive way, lofty ambitions indeed! These are going to be in the same vein as the new reviews breaking each issue down into its constituent parts. So here we go!

Editorial - Edited by Jake Thornton this was the first 'fat Dwarf' weighing in at 128 pages. The other photographed contributors were Adrian Wood, Gavin Thorpe, Ian Pickstock and Steve Anastasoff.

News - This spanned 6 pages and managed to cover new Dwarf Slayers for Fantasy, Ordinatus machines for Epic, an advert for Gaelcon, a page of Necromunda, the Screaming Death Warhammer roadshow, citadel Journal 11, Warhammer Quest Catacombs of Terror and Wardancer Warrior pack, 40k Assassins and Codex Imperial Guard. There's even space to squeeze in a box about what's coming in next month. That's a total of 5 different game systems!

Assassin! - This is a nice article from Ian detailing some of the background of the Officio Assassinorum and specifically the Eversor Temple. As well as the background there are rules (with points) for the Eversor and a box-out featuring Mike McVey's famous diorama.

'Eavy Metal - Mike McVey talks about how he goes about creating his dioramas. Most of these are still on display at Warhammer World and I can't wait to head back there on the 1st to get another look at them. The focus for these pages is his Warhammer Quest dungeon. There's plenty of close ups and captions to explain his thinking and processes behind creating something like this.

Questions & Answers - I don't know whether this section was created because the games used to be more complicated back then, or if they knew it was a great help to the community but this is a small collection of questions the now disbanded Roolz Boyz got sent about all the systems.

GW London Grand Re-opening - A one page ad for the newly refurbished store with loads of deals, offers and buddles such as - Buy 3 blisters, get the cheapest free! Amazing!

Wanna Join? - Necromunda had just been released and Andy Chambers wades in with a 6 page overview of the game. The words are brief but very descriptive and full of flavour and the photos of all the new miniatures really showcase the Goliath, Orlock and Cawdor gangs.

Dwarf Tacticus - Jeremy Vetock discusses how he goes about creating and collecting a Dwarf army, a subject close to my heart. He covers background, then links that to actual gameplay with examples, diagrams and tips. He also mentions keeping his own book of Grudges as a record of his armies exploits.

Card Pages - These are two thick card pages printed in full colour containing Treasure cards for WHQ, Epic Army cards and Wargear cards for 40k. These brought back so many memories of all the extra bits you used to need to play the games.

Ordinatus - Gavin Thorpe covers the new Golgotha, Armageddon and Mars pattern war machines for Epic with comprehensive rules for each.

'Eavy Metal Masterclass - Mike McVey answers some of the readers questions such as how to paint dried blood on swords. I guess this must have been invaluable back then before the net was widely available.

Tales of Victory - An interview with someone who isn't a member of the studio. Jervis was asking the questions all about the Chaos Dwarf army and went into quite a lot of detail over the 6 pages with plenty of shots of the army. Possibly a precursor to the current Armies on Parade.

Legions of Steel - This shows it's age now with tanks being so prevalent but back then tanks were a rarity so Ian talks about how to use them in a Guard army.

Modelling Workshop - A whole article about how to scratch-build your own Necromunda sub-urban decay! This wasn't using GW kits, just bits and pieces from around the house and has really sparked my interest in trying to build some myself.

Tyranid Invasion - Jervis introduces the new 40k campaign to decide the fate of Ichar IV.

A Horror Awakens - Warhammer Quest time and there are three new adventures to take your warriors through. It gives you all the rules and how to incorporate them into a campaign.

Gang Fight! - A gigantic Necromunda battle report between Gav's Goliaths and Rick Priestley's Orlocks. They show the full gang rosters and a two page spread each to explain their choices.There's a double page shot of the board and then each turn has photos, write up and maps to show us the action.

Mail Order - This is a blast from the past, showing prices of the recent releases (£9.99 for a codex) but the exciting part is the bits pages. Effectively a catalogue of all the individual bits from models so you can order them without needing to buy the whole kit. I really miss GWs old mail order department which i suppose has been replaced nowadays with all the internet bits stores.

So overall this was an action packed issue managing to cover so many systems and aspects of the hobby it blew my mind. When I read it years ago I don't think I really appreciated all the articles but now I'm a more rounded gamer it's a different story. If I had to give it a rating I'd maybe go as high as a 9/10!

ps I know some of the photos are the wrong orientation, Blogger seems to be making up it's own decisions!