This is just a reminder that we have a painting competition taking place where the winner gets their choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box. We wouldn’t be able to give away this fantastic prize without the support of our good friends at SCN Hobby World. Why not join their emailing list and receive 25% off Games Workshop products whenever you place an order with them?
To enter you’ll need to paint a miniature with a base size no larger than 50mm and send it’s picture to thewoehammer@gmail.com. you’ll also need to send a small fee of £1 to the same address via PayPal. Your miniature doesn’t even have to be a Games Workshop model, it can be from any range you like.
One of your pictures must include a picture of your email address on a handwritten note. This should prevent people using internet photos for their submissions.
The closing date of the competition is 30th November where submissions will be placed into groupings of four and placed on the Woehammer Twitter account for a poll. The winner of these polls continue into the next round and so on until only one submission remains.
There you have it, get painting! If you want to find out more then either please leave a comment below, on my twitter profile or as an email to thewoehammer@gmail.com.
Solo Wargaming for your Favourite Games
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
Bryan Ansell started with his life in wargames by founding and designing for his own miniatures company Asgard Miniatures. He also had his own fanzine named Trollcrusher.
In 1979 Games Workshop approached Ansell to found their own miniatures branch Citadel Miniatures. The company was set up to allow Games Workshop to be self reliant for its miniature purposes, allowing her to create the miniatures for all the games which Games Workshop had the license for at the time. This took their reliance on other miniatures companies such as Ral Partha away.
In 1980 Ansell wrote his first wargaming rules called Laserburn which he had published via Tabletop Games. Although only a foot note in gaming history, Laserburn contained many elements and wargear of the future Warhammer 40,000 game, such as Power Armour, Dreadnoughts, Jet Cycles and Bolt Guns.
By 1982 Games Workshop was depending on the sales of Citadel Miniatures and Bryan Ansell brought out all of Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson’s shared in Games Workshop and all the operations were eventually moved from London to Nottingham.
Laserburn which you can still find today as a PDF.
Ansell worked with Richard Halliwell and Rick Priestley on Games Workshops‘ Warhammer Fantasy Battles. This was originally designed to be given out for free to encourage customers to buy the new Citadel Miniatures range.
He later left Games Workshop to Tom Kirby in 1991 and instead focused on his own company Wargames Foundry, a company which sells historical miniatures. These miniatures were originally sculpted by the Perry Twins for Citadel Miniatures, but were no longer sold as part of the Games Workshop fantasy ranges. Ansell took a number of figure molds used for historical and fantasy figures under Citadel Miniatures and Games Workshop, and they have become part of the Wargames Foundry range. Wargames Foundry continues to sell a range of metal figures for historical, sci-fi and fantasy war gaming.
Although not as prolific a writer as some of the other people focused on in “A Life in Wargames” Ansell has been involved in the rules development of 15+ games.
So it’s come to a close, War in the Heartlands touted by many present to be the best Age of Sigmar tournament this year.
The touches that have gone into the event is plain to see even for those of us following on twitch and Twitter. From the handouts, the food and the celebrity video intros to each round.
I’ve included a number of tweets from various Twitter users that have been posted throughout the weekend.
Great last game against clan Skyre. Ending on a 17-3 win, meaning I end 3-2! Chuffed, amazing weekend, great venue, players, games, hosts, rules pack and everything else. #WiTH was amazing and it’s an absolute must for next year! pic.twitter.com/y9AUxi4tfX
Game 4 v Nurgle in Apex Predators. He took the first turn but I had enough damage to get through eventually. A really close 12-8 win. I'm now on 4-0… #aos3#WitH
The classic metal Arbites from the 1990’s for Necromunda and Warhammer 40k.
All of these sales will end on Thursday this week.
Peter
Solo Wargaming for your Favourite Games
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
I’ve managed to get some painting down this week, even if it is some base colours.
Primaris Lieutenant
The Primaris Lieutenant nears ever closer to being finished with just some detailing, his backpack and the base to go.
Necron Warriors
The Necron Warriors are also nearly finished with their weapons and bases to be finished.
Assault Intercessors
The Assault Intercessors are some way from being completed with only their white armour segments having been laid down so far.
Skorpekh Destroyers
The Skorpekh Destroyers have only had their base coat of Iron warriors metal completed.
Issue 5
So issue five is here with a shiny new Space Marine Captain who is unique to the Imperium series. I’m not a massive fan of the sculpt but I’ll paint it up and see how I feel about it when it’s done.
This issue sees the usual painting guides and construction guides for the captain as well as the now very loved (by me at least) fluff generator.
We also learn a little about the wargear of the Space Marines in the 41st millennium. There’s also a short story which introduces you to the Chaos Space Marines of Crimson Slaughter as they clash with a chapter of loyal primaris marines.
There’s another battle, this time the captain faces of against the three Skorpekh Destroyers from last issue.
Next week we have three Primaris Aggressors, which again is a full unit and excellent value for only £8. The week after there are no models but at two paints. That week should give me the opportunity to catch up on this ever growing back log at least…..
Solo Wargaming for your Favourite Games
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
Following the developments of the three Johann’s wargames, wargaming attracted very little attention until 1870 when Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian war.
This victory over France was claimed by many to do with Prussia and her wargaming tradition as Prussia had no tactical edge in weapons, numbers or the training of its troops. The only difference were the Prussians were the only army in the world to practice wargaming.
Following this the first Kreigsspiel manual was published in English for the British Army in 1872. While in America, Krieggspiel was introduced in 1882 and used on US Naval Colleges from 1894.
Little Wars (1913)
H.G. Wells developed the first set of rules to play miniature wargames in 1913. Known as Little Wars, these rules were intended to be basic and fun. They did not use dice or tables for attacks. Spring loaded cannons would fire pellets to physically knock over enemy models while models in hand to hand combat had a specific number of models removed depending on the sizes of the two forces in combat.
Little Wars never caught on, which was perhaps due to the World Wars and public sentiment towards those wars.
Jack Scruby (1955)
In 1955 a Californian named Jack Scruby began making inexpensive wargame miniatures out of type metal. However, his major contribution to the hobby was in creating a network of wargamers across the US and UK. At the time waragming was niche and wargamers struggled to find each other. Scruby organised the first wargaming convention which was attended by fourteen people. From 1957 to 1962, he self-published the world’s first wargaming magazine The War Game Digest through which gamers could publish their own rules and battle reports.
War Games (1962)
Meanwhile in the UK, Donald Featherstone had started writing a series of influential wargame rules which represented the first main stream publishing of the hobby since Little Wars in 1913. Titles such as War Games, Advanced Wargames and Solo Wargaming saw such an uplift in the popularity of the subject that many other authors were able to publish their own rules as well. This combined with emergence of popular miniature manufacturers such as Heroic & Ros meant that the UK hobbyists had a large collection of rules and miniatures to use.
In 1956, Tony Bath published what was the first ruleset for a miniature wargame set in the medieval period. These rules were a major inspiration for Gary Gygax’s Chainmail (1971), which in turn became the basis for the roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons.
From 1983 to 2010, Games Workshop produced what was the first miniature wargame designed to be used with proprietary models: Warhammer Fantasy. Earlier miniature wargames were designed to be played using generic models that could be bought from any manufacturer, but Warhammer Fantasy’s setting featured original characters with distinctive visual designs, and their models were produced exclusively by Games Workshop.
Solo Wargaming for your Favourite Games
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
Following on from my previous article, I wanted to share my progression to date and how I envision the whole system working once its up and running.
There will be a total of three different card decks used in any game.
Battleplan Deployment Deck
This deck comes with a cover card denoting how the deployment draw is carried out, what each objective number is and how to layout any scenery.
Battleplan Card
The deck also includes a number of other cards. A card is drawn for each Card Controlled unit in the army. This card then details how that unit will be deployed and in what order. The order of their deployment is determined by the number on the shield at the bottom of the card. This acts as an initiative order for deployment.
Battle Tactic Action Deck
There is an overall Battle Tactic card for each tactic in the game. At the beginning of the game you would take the overall cards for Monstrous Takeover, Ferocious Advance, Aggressive Expansion and Conquer and shuffle these together. One is then drawn at random which will be the Card Controlled army’s Battle Tactic that turn. The following turn the Broken Ranks battle card is added in and the one used in the previous turn discarded. In turn three the remaining battle tactic cards are added with used cards continually being discarded.
The Broken Ranks Battle Tactic Card
The Battle Tactic Deck which contains the actions for the units are then shuffled together with 1/5 of the deck of Battleplan Action Cards and one of these is drawn for each Card Controlled unit in the game that turn. These cards denote how and when these units move and shoot etc.
Broken Ranks Action Card
I have started a Patreon for anyone who is wishing to support me in this endeavour, and you can support from as little as £1 per month. Proceeds of Patreon will go towards making these into Physical products.
Solo Wargaming for your Favourite Games
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
Rick Priestley grew up in Lincoln and dtart d writing wargames as a teenager with his friend Richard Halliwell. In 1979 the pair wrote their first game Reaper while still in school. Tabletop Games (a small games publishing company with no sales output) printed their rules and they contacted Brian Ansell who worked for Asgard Miniatures at the time before his move to Citadel Miniatures. Brian Ansell put them in contact with Nottingham Toy Soldier Shop who agreed to sell the Reaper rules.
Halliwell & Preistley’s first game
With one rulebook for sale, Halliwell and Priestley collaborated on a second effort, a science fiction miniatures wargame titled Combat 3000, also published by Tabletop, that used 15mm/25mm “space marine” miniatures from Asgard. Around this time Brian Ansell left Asgard Miniatures, and with backing from Games Workshop set up Citadel Miniatures.
Priestley joined Games Workshop in 1982 as part of their subsidiary company Citadel Miniatures. At that time Citadel produced the miniatures for use in Dungeons and Dragons. Brian Ansell the manager of Citadel asked Richard Halliwell to develop Games Workshops’ first in-house game, Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Rick Priestley and Tony Ackland developed the product. Warhammer Fantasy contained many of the core mechanics or Priestley and Halliwell’s earlier game Reaper. Warhammer Fantasy was released in 1983 and was a huge success.
It allowed them a vehicle through which they could sell their own Citadel Miniatures. Earlier miniature wargames were designed to be played using generic models that could be bought from any manufacturer, but Warhammer Fantasy’s setting featured original characters with distinctive visual designs, and their models were produced exclusively by Games Workshop. This paved the way for Games Workshop to become the company it is today – all thanks to the three men who developed that first game.
Since before his time at Games Workshop Priestley had been working on a set of rules of Spaceship Combat called Rogue Trader which mixed Science fiction and fantasy elements. Priestley incorporated many aspects of this setting such as the lore and space travel into Warhammer 40,000 and dropped the ship combat element due to not having enough room in the book.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
Games Workshop planned to sell conversion kits for their fantasy line to make them useable in Rogue Trader but eventually decided to instead dedicate an entire production line to the game and in 1987 Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader was born.
During his years with Games Workshop he was involved in the design of virtually all of their top games such as Necromunda, Mordheim, Warmaster, Lord of the Rings, Gorkamorka, Mighty Empires and Warhammer Ancient Battles (affectionately known as WAB by those in Historical gaming circles).
Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB)
Rick Priestley left Games Workshop in 2009 stating that the corporate culture had grown too focused on sales and no longer cared about innovation in Games Design. He expanded on his view of Games Workshop in an article with Bell of Lost Souls in March 2015. In that, his thoughts on where Games Workshop was heading, was as a manufacturer of collectible miniatures and not games design.
After Games Workshop, Priestley co-founded Warlord Games which after Games Workshop is arguably the next biggest games and miniature manufacturer in Europe.
With Warlord Games, Rick Priestley has continued to develop fantastic wargame rulesets and being no longer held back by Games Workshop, these have included historical as well as Fantasy and Sci-Fi. The biggest games at Warlord such as Bolt Action, Black Powder, Gates of Antares, Hail Caesar, Pike and Shotte and Warlords or Erehwon have all been designed with Priestley’s input.
Bolt Action
In 2011 Rick Priestley was elected to the committee of the Society of Ancients. The Society of Ancients is a non-profit organisation that intends to promote interest in Ancient and Medieval history and wargaming.
This man is a true legend of Wargaming, is the father of Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 and has done a lot that Games Workshop fans and historical wargaming fans have to thank him for.
I have tried to give a flavour of the 115+ rules and add-on’s he’s developed below. But as with Jervis’ article, this really does not even scrape the surface as to the lore and depth of his many games. Rick, thank you! I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
Two submissions this week under the #Woehammer on Twitter. Both members of the team.
If you want to see your miniatures on the site remember to use the hashtag #woehammer either on Twitter or Instagram.
Dave has started a new 40k 9th Edition army, this time focusing on the Space Marine Chapter the Imperial Fists. The model below is his first Marine for the army, and I think you’ll agree its a stunner!
Dave’s Imperial Fist
Dave has gone for an awesome golden yellow armour tone and black trim denoting the 5th Company.
The detail on the base is great, and I especially love the coiled barbed wire and spent casings next to the dismembered head.
It’s little different this week for Declan’s submission, here we have an army shot of the force he took to Mancunian Carnage last weekend.
The blue armour really stands out along with the spots of Red. Declan has joked in the past that his Orcs have been called the Crimson Fists. It’s a great army and Declan finished the weekend 3-2!
And talking of Declan’s fantastic tournament performance, only yesterday he was interviewed by the AOS Coach on YouTube about the Gloomspite Gitz! I’ve included the video below for you to watch.
Remember to use the #woehammer for your painting. While you’re at it why don’t you check out our painting competition below where you could win a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box of your choice all thanks to our sponsors SCN Hobby World. By signing up to their mailing list you receive 25% off all GW products or 15% for the web only products.
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
