White Dwarf 137

Due to a delay in my painting schedule, I thought I'd get cracking on what I hope will build to be a comprehensive look at issues of White Dwarf from the 'Oldhammer' era. By 'comprehensive', I mean I hope to look at all the issues as I re-read or acquire them. I will mainly be referring to articles for Warhammer Fantasy and Rogue Trader in my write-ups. Each post will be noted under the tab at the top of the blog for easy reference as well.

To kick things off, I thought I'd take a peek at issue 137, notable for a change to the Bretonnian army lists...

Page 14-15 show some painted up figures from the new range. This is one of the things which inspired me to start this blog and reproduce the units pictured in White Dwarf, so I hope to have 15mm versions to show you soon. Although I am not playing in that scale, I do really like the old 28mm figures from that era. Much more pleasant to look at than the new ranges, which are far to 'busy' for my liking with every tiny thing rendered in complete detail!

Page 16 contains the stats for the new figures. I think this is a large improvement over the page in Warhammer armies. All of the options and variation is pretty much still there, but contained within fewer troop types. Plus you get the addition of Foot Knights as some harder hitting infantry. This unit type was to be done away with when the Bretonnians were 'reinvented' for 5th edition, but still existed in 4th edition during the 'dark days' when Bretonnia didn't warrant it's own army book!

Next up, Andy Chambers describes his Skaven Army. This is an interesting and thorough piece with plenty of pictures. Having just extolled the virtues of 'old' figures, I have to say I am not a huge fan of the grimy brown mass that his units look like. But never mind. It is interesting to read how the army came about from playing Mighty Empires. But even more interesting to read a reference to a 'new magic system "using randomly dealt power cards". This sounds more like 4th Edition, but this was a while off at this point. Guess they were play-testing at that point? I don't know of any such magic system for 3rd edition at this time...

For people interested in modelling, there is an article about how to build a 'fantasy townhouse'. I find it interesting to compare this to the house described many issues later. The one in this issue is quite detailed and you stick on strips of balsa wood for the timber framing. I'm pretty sure the one later on does the same with just card. In any case, it is an interesting article.

Finally, while not technically Rogue Trader, this issue has two parts of the ongoing serialisation of the Confrontation rules, dealing with combat and trading. Readers may know this is what eventually became Necromunda, although the original Confrontation was a much more complicated set of rules. I'll definitely have to give it a go when I collect all the issues. Probably worthy of having a few blog posts dedicated to it!

So that's it for this issue. There was also coverage of the Golden Demon finals and a Space Hulk scenario. Let's finish off with a pic of the back cover, depicting the noble Bretonnians from earlier in the issue defending a town against some rampaging Orcs!