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Warhammer 40K Conquest magazine

Started by geronimo, 29 August, 2018, 05:35:28 PM

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geronimo

I have never played war-games before, does this new collection/magazine seem like a good way into it, and will it be good value?

Also what is the relationship between 2000ad and Games Workshop, Tooth came first didn't it and GW seems to have absorbed a lot of Tooth's aestetic and attitude?

Dandontdare

There is no direct business between the two, but lots of, how shall we put it, creative influences.

GW used to be a general games company with shops selling D&D and all other RPG and boardgames. Warhammer gradually squeezed everything else out and now that's pretty much all GW do - their magazine White Dwarf used to be a fantastic read, full of articles, modules, cartoons etc - nowadays it's just a glossy sales catalogue for warhammer figures.

sheridan

Quote from: Dandontdare on 29 August, 2018, 07:33:38 PM
There is no direct business between the two, but lots of, how shall we put it, creative influences.

GW used to be a general games company with shops selling D&D and all other RPG and boardgames. Warhammer gradually squeezed everything else out and now that's pretty much all GW do - their magazine White Dwarf used to be a fantastic read, full of articles, modules, cartoons etc - nowadays it's just a glossy sales catalogue for warhammer figures.

Pretty much what he said, though I'll add a few bits.  First off, it started off as a general games company, importing and/or producing British editions of the early RPGs.  Once White Dwarf progressed past adolescent misogynistic content it had a golden period that lasted around 100 issues, after which is became a glorified sales brochure.  GW itself reacted to a bit of a lull in the RPG market by concentrating all its efforts on the bits of the business that brought in money.  You can play D&D or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay with the same books you bought twenty or thirty years ago, but that doesn't sustain a company - buying new editions of wargame rules and endless ranges of metal (and plastic) figures does.

There's no business connection now, but there have been a few in the past.

Games Workshop published the Judge Dredd boardgame in 1982 or 1983, followed by the Judge Dredd RPG, Block Mania boardgame (with wargamey elements) and Rogue Trooper boardgame.  Citadel Miniatures (not sure exactly what the relationship is between Citadel and Games Workshop, but they're basically the same company) produced a variety of miniatures around this time, in addition to a wide range of Judge Dredd figures, some Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dog figures. All of those were over and done with by the end of the 1980s.

In the middle of the 1990s the Black Library arm of GW started an imprint, Black Flame, which published a few 2000AD-related books*.  That's a bit of an understatement:

    Judge Dredd:
        Dredd vs Death (Gordon Rennie, October 2003, ISBN 1-84416-061-0)
        Bad Moon Rising (David Bishop, June 2004, ISBN 1-84416-107-2)
        Black Atlantic (Simon Jowett and Peter J Evans, June 2004, ISBN 1-84416-108-0)
        Eclipse (James Swallow, August 2004, ISBN 1-84416-122-6)
        Kingdom of the Blind (David Bishop, November 2004, ISBN 1-84416-133-1)
        The Final Cut (Matt Smith, January 2005, ISBN 1-84416-135-8)
        Swine Fever (Andrew Cartmel, May 2005, ISBN 1-84416-174-9)
        Whiteout (James Swallow, September 2005, ISBN 1-84416-219-2)
        Psykogeddon (Dave Stone, January 2006, ISBN 1-84416-321-0)
    ABC Warriors:
        The Medusa War (Pat Mills, April 2004, ISBN 1-84416-109-9)
        Rage Against the Machines (Mike Wild, June 2005, ISBN 1-84416-178-1)
    Strontium Dog:
        Bad Timing (Rebecca Levene, June 2004, ISBN 1-84416-110-2)
        Prophet Margin (Simon Spurrier, December 2004, ISBN 1-84416-134-X)
        Ruthless (Jonathan Clements, April 2005, ISBN 1-84416-136-6)
        Day of the Dogs (Andrew Cartmel, July 2005, ISBN 1-84416-218-4)
        A Fistful of Strontium (Jaspre Bark and Steve Lyons, October 2005, ISBN 1-84416-270-2)
    Durham Red (all by Peter J. Evans):
        The Unquiet Grave (August 2004, ISBN 1-84416-159-5)
        The Omega Solution (May 2005, ISBN 1-84416-175-7)
        The Encoded Heart (October 2005, ISBN 1-84416-272-9)
        Manticore Reborn (January 2006, ISBN 1-84416-323-7)
        Black Dawn (July 2006, ISBN 1-84416-382-2)
    Rogue Trooper:
        Crucible (Gordon Rennie, October 2004, ISBN 1-84416-061-0)
        Blood Relative (James Swallow, March 2005, ISBN 1-84416-061-0)
        The Quartz Massacre (Rebecca Levene, March 2006, ISBN 1-84416-110-2)
    Nikolai Dante (all by David Bishop):
        From Russia with Lust: The Nikolai Dante Omnibus (672 pages, March 2007, ISBN 1-84416-454-3) collects:
            The Strangelove Gambit (January 2005, ISBN 1-84416-139-0)
            Imperial Black (August 2005, ISBN 1-84416-180-3)
            Honour Be Damned (March 2006, ISBN 1-84416-324-5)
    Fiends of the Eastern Front (all by David Bishop):
        Fiends of the Eastern Front (672 pages, February 2007, ISBN 1-84416-455-1) collects:
            Operation Vampyr (December 2005 ISBN 1-84416-274-5)
            The Blood Red Army (April 2006, ISBN 1-84416-325-3)
            Twilight of the Dead (August 2006, ISBN 1-84416-384-9)
        Fiends of the Rising Sun (July 2007, ISBN 1-84416-494-2)
    Anderson: Psi Division (all by Mitchel Scanlon):
        Fear the Darkness (February 2006)
        Red Shadows (May 2006)
        Sins of the Father (February 2007)
    Caballistics, Inc. (all by Mike Wild):
        Hell on Earth (August 2006, ISBN 1-84416-386-5)
        Better the Devil (March 2007, ISBN 1-84416-432-2)
    Sláine (all by Steven Savile):
        Slaine the Exile (, December 2006, ISBN 1-84416-387-3)
        Slaine the Defiler (September 2007, ISBN 1-84416-493-4)


* the copyright for this entire range of books has been bought by Rebellion, and quite a few are still available as eBooks.

Dandontdare

I'd forgotten that GW were behind the Dredd and Stront games - and I had no idea the Black Flame books were a spin-off of GW (or that there were so many of them - must dust off my Dredd ones!)

Bolt-01

There are some very good books in that list, the Nikolai Dante and Fiends books particularly work well and I remember really enjoying the Durham red books too.

NapalmKev

Quote from: geronimo on 29 August, 2018, 05:35:28 PM

I have never played war-games before, does this new collection/magazine seem like a good way into it, and will it be good value?



A few videos I've seen on Youtube regarding the price/value have suggested around £650 - £700 outlay for around £1000 of product. This is with the understanding that you will continue to get three mini's plus at least one pot of paint per issue. Then you have the Premium add-on (extra £1.50 per issue) which gets you game mats, scenery and other bits which haven't been revealed yet.

I like the modelling aspect but can't be arsed with the actual Table-top gaming. I tend to use my models to bulk out games I already own, Space Crusade/Space Hulk and such.

Cheers
"Where once you fought to stop the trap from closing...Now you lay the bait!"

TordelBack

I picked up a second copy of the first issue, so good was the deal - 3 solidly useful paints,  three nice models and a bog-standard brush for €2.79!  We muck about with an older starter set,  but don't have any if the newer bigger Primaris chaps and they make me wish we did - finally space marines with vaguely workable proportions. The mag is squarely aimed at older tweens/young teens (toy-catalogue style photography of happy kids playing is going to be off-putting for any kid over 10, bad move) but that's about my level.  I was toying with subscribing to get the mountain of swag,   but we have most of the free gifts, and I can't really justify it - but I'll get the next couple and we'll see how it goes.

radiator

I had a quick browse of the WH40k stuff in my local board game shop the other day. Bloody hell - and I thought they were expensive back when I collected them in the early 90s  :o

Haven't played/collected/painted in well over 20 years, but I admit that I do have a lot of nostalgia/affection for all things GW and especially the 40k universe. I've read a couple of Dan Abnett's Horus Heresy novels, and they're surprisingly good. The first one - Horus Rising - is especially just a straight up decent sci fi story with some really interesting concepts.

geronimo

Gotta admit that having read the first magazine the Warhammer universe sounds fascinating, kinda like if Tharg back in the golden era of Tooth rewrote Lord Of The Rings!
But damn those miniatures are small and my poor old eyes are just not up to the job anymore!

TordelBack

#9
Quote from: geronimo on 30 August, 2018, 11:01:12 PM
But damn those miniatures are small and my poor old eyes are just not up to the job anymore!

Probably not the time to tell you they're the largest Space Marines yet made! 

I'm in the happy, albeit temporary, situation where my distance vision has got so bad that my close vision is now pretty much perfect once I take off my specs: so I intend to exploit this window to make some progress through the mountain of unpainted lead and plastic that I have been accumulating since 1982.  Now if I could just hold a brush steady...

I'm currently struggling with the idea that Ultramarines are not only elite genetically-engineered marines that wear deep blue armour, which is quite Abnetty enough, but they actually come from the planet Ultramar.  Presumably its main exports are lapis lazuli and decrypted Nazi naval transmissions.


NapalmKev

There was a massive box of 'part one' in the local Newsagents so I bought 2 of them! 12 models, six pots of paint and two brushes for £3.98. Bargain!

My custom army, complete with homemade fan-wank, will strike terror against the forces of Chaos as they journey into the Warp in search of ancient Space-Hulks. Or something.

Cheers
"Where once you fought to stop the trap from closing...Now you lay the bait!"

geronimo

  Now if I could just hold a brush steady...

:D LOL! thanks, that was worth starting this thread for!!

sheridan

Quote from: TordelBack on 31 August, 2018, 08:08:04 AM
I'm currently struggling with the idea that Ultramarines are not only elite genetically-engineered marines that wear deep blue armour, which is quite Abnetty enough, but they actually come from the planet Ultramar.  Presumably its main exports are lapis lazuli and decrypted Nazi naval transmissions.

The planet was renamed, it used to be called Turquois ;)

TordelBack

#13
Picked up the second of these,  the crispness and level of detail in the models really is very impressive. I pulled out my surviving sprues of Psychostyrene Dwarfs and Drastik Plastik Orcs,  GW/Citadel's very first plastic kit minis from '87 (75p for 3!) and the contrast is incredible. They even seem significantly better than the ones we got in the Dark Vengeance starter set a few years back.

However,  I do worry that quality is going to dip once we're past these initital offerings, which all appear to use existing 3-man promotional frames. What will happen when new smaller sprues have to be cast for later issues? Most figures currently seem to come on much larger multiple-figure frames, which is hardly what we're going to be getting.

While I have plenty of more pressing things to spend time and money on,  I confess that I've really enjoyed farting about with this - not really caring about the outcome,  I've felt a lot freer slapping paint on these than I usually do when faced with some prized piece of metal that I don't want to ruin. In addition,  if you follow the magazine's scheme you don't actually finish the job in one go, as you don't have all the paints yet, so there's a reduction in pressure there too.  This might be the ideal way for me to get back into regularly painting minis,  and eventually tackle the foothills of my lead mountain.   


Theblazeuk

Useful place for building Warhammer armies for less than £50 (warning may not be 'legal' to Games Workshop referees or whatever but honestly who gives a nurgling) run by Kieron Gillen: http://hipsterhammer.tumblr.com/