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.
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.
This weekend Games Workshop releases their latest Warhammer Underworlds boxed set Harrow Deep.
This week’s GW releases
Warlord are releasing a massive amount of kits for Blood Red Skies, Hail Caesar and Black Powder.
Mordiphius have a number of new releases for their fall out miniatures game.
Reaper Miniatures have a massive amount of sets being released this month.
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 been toying with the idea for a while now on creating a solo wargaming experience for wargames, but primarily at this point focused on Age of Sigmar.
The idea behind the system is relatively simple, with a deck of cards for each battle tactic. The battle tactics will be decided some simple mechanics at the start of the turn, and depending on which is chosen that deck of cards would be used.
Each faction would be classed as either Aggressive, Neutral or Cautious. For example an army such as Orruk Warclans would be Aggressive, Cities of Sigmar Neutral and Kharadron Overlords would be Cautious. This categories would have purpose when units are interacting with objectives on the battlefield.
When an AI unit is near an objective, you would roll a D6 and refer to their aggression level:
Aggressive
4+
Neutral
5+
Cautious
6+
If the score is equal to or higher than these scores then the AI unit will draw a card from the deck and carry out its instructions.
These would be on regular playing card size cards and a card would be drawn for each AI unit on the battlefield.
Below is an example card from the Broken Ranks deck that I’ve created for Age of Sigmar.
Based on the units keywords you would choose the relevant box for its instructions. For example Orruk Brutes may be classed as Melee, while Archeon could be classed as a Monster or as a Hero, however as the Monster box is above the Hero box on this card the Monster box takes priority.
I am developing these not only for AoS but for other major game systems as well. It’s early days by I’m hoping to have the first full deck ready to download from my Patreon page in the next couple of months.
If you’re interested in joining and supporting me on Patreon then please follow this link. You can become a supporter for as little as £1 per month.
The Woeful Brush Painting Competition Sponsored by SCN Hobby World
Closing date for entries 30th November. £1 entry, win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box set!
This weekend sees the Black Templar army set go up for pre-order. Games Workshop are also releasing two old Blood Bowl teams from the 90’s as made to order for a limited time period.
This week’s GW releases
Warlord are releasing a supplement for Bolt Action – Italy: Soft Underbelly. To go with this they are also releasing a shed load of miniature sets for World War 2 Italian armies.
Warlord are also releasing Project Z this month, which is their Zombie Apocalypse survival game.
A number of new releases this month for Mantic for Deadzone, Kings of War and Armada.
The Woeful Brush Painting Competition Sponsored by SCN Hobby World
Closing date for entries 30th November. £1 entry, win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box set!
Woehammer has been affiliated with SCN Hobby World for some time now and all the members of the team purchase their plastic crack supplies through SCN rather than others such as Element Games, Goblin Gaming or Wayland Games.
Why?
Because if you sign up to the mailing list of SCN Hobby World you can benefit up to 25% off the recommended retail price of Games Workshop products. What’s more is that you’ll also benefit from 10% off on web only products.
SCN Hobby World also stock a variety of other manufacturers and game systems as well. From Warlord Games to Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering.
Why don’t you check out there website today SCN Hobby World.
To join the mailing list email scnhobbyworld@outlook.com.
The Woeful Brush Painting Competition Sponsored by SCN Hobby World
Closing date for entries 30th November. £1 entry, win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box set!
Following on from the success of my article on Jervis Johnson. I thought I would continue this into a series with another great games designer, Alessio Cavatore.
Alessio who hails from the City of Turin in Italy moved to the UK in 1995 and joined Games Workshop in the same year as a translator.
A year later and Alessio was made a games developer and was set to work writing several supplements for Warhammer Fantasy Battles before heading up the Lord of the Rings Strategy Game.
2004 was the year that saw Alessio made responsible for all the rules published for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer 40k and Lord of the Rings. Two years later and he would write the rules for the 7th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
As well as writing the rules for Mordheim alongside Rick Priestley and Tuomas Pirinen, Alessio has been involved in games for both Warlord Games and Mantic Games. With Bolt Action (Warlord Games) and Kings of War (Mantic) all receiving input from this talented writer.
Out of the 73 games and add-ons that Alessio has worked on to date, that number includes;
Mordheim (Games Workshop)
Warhammer Fantasy Battles – 7th Edition (Games Workshop)
Kings of War (Mantic)
Bolt Action (Warlord Games)
The Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game (Games Workshop)
Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings (Para-Bellum)
Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition (Games Workshop)
As a side note, Alessio, Brian Nelson and the Perry Twins all had cameo appearances in The Return of the King film as Rohirrim at the Battle of Pelennor Fields. They can be seen near the Mumakil when Pippin goes searching for Merry after the battle.
Behindtherules.com conducted an excellent interview with Alessio back in 2010, if you would like to learn more about Alessio and his rules writing you can find the 1st part of the interview here.
Like Jervis, the wargames community owes a lot to Alessio for his contribution to the industry and for what he continues to contribute.
I’m also hoping that articles like this will show that many of the rules sets you may dismiss out of hand have often been worked on by a writer you know and love that has worked for Games Workshop at one time or another.
Why don’t you let us know in the comments below which of Alessio’s games is your favourite, and why not suggest someone to focus a future article on.
