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Post by rsdean on Sept 6, 2022 3:10:26 GMT -6
So, I received a package last week with a worn, but readable and complete, copy of Warhammer, the 1st edition. Oddly, this is billed as a combination tabletop wargame and RPG. When this came out in 1983, I had already been in “the hobby” for ~12 years, and was busy with the trials and tribulations of having graduated from college, moved to a new state, and started a job, so I didn’t really notice it. Most of my gaming was taken up with my 2nd reasonably long-running AD&D campaign, and, if I had thrown some minis on a table for a solo game, I’d probably have used Knights and Magick (Heritage Models, 1980) which I had obtained from a Heritage fire sale at Origins ‘82 in Baltimore.
Anyway, Warhammer 1st edition came and went, and I think the first (and last) time I tried WHFB was a couple of years later, into the 2nd edition period. Through the pandemic I was engaged in a collecting phase, picking up various 1970s sets of fantasy miniatures rules, and recently thought that Warhammer would be a good place to stop with the “early rules” survey. Given that it eventually dominated the market, I am imagining that there is something fun there…
Any fans? Back in the day, or still playing?
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Post by waysoftheearth on Sept 6, 2022 4:10:50 GMT -6
I had the 1st ed. WH Fantasy Battles boxed set, back when.
In those days (as teenagers, I guess) we used to melt down unwanted lead/tin/zinc movable type blocks discarded by a nearby printing press to cast our 25mm miniatures, using (from memory) Prince August molds. Later, we used to make our own latex molds of better miniatures. Ridiculously labour intensive. But we loved it. Made armies of hundreds of em!
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tedopon
Newly-Registered User
Posts: 86
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Post by tedopon on Sept 6, 2022 8:14:18 GMT -6
I visited my parents over the weekend and hung out with a friend from BITD who we played a TON of Warhammer in high school and a big part of us talking about it was that we remembered barely anything about how it worked...except that crits happened on doubles which may have not even been a feature of the game but it was about all we could recall.
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Post by jeffb on Sept 6, 2022 10:13:54 GMT -6
I bought it the day it hit the local shelves. I had no love for/desire to play minis, but I enjoyed the GW/FF/Sorcery/White Dwarf/TSR UK, i.e. English take on Fantasy RPGs. I read some of it as I recall but never played or did anything with it. That was my status quo then- I had a few dozen games I bought that I never played during the boom of the early to mid 80s and they just sat on my shelf for inspiration here or there, or with the hope to try them out "someday".
I had two trunks jammed full of boxes and supplements that got sold off I'm sure for pennies once I got married to my 1st wife and moved out. I only kept a few select items, and the rest went as part of an "estate sale" after my Dad became ill and Mom sold the house. That WH boxed set was part of that estate sale. I hadn't played any TTRPGs for 7 or 8 years, and I had no idea the worth some of that stuff would be today. I kept the stuff I did for sentimental reasons- no idea I would get back into it.
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Post by rsdean on Sept 7, 2022 3:54:34 GMT -6
I had the 1st ed. WH Fantasy Battles boxed set, back when. In those days (as teenagers, I guess) we used to melt down unwanted lead/tin/zinc movable type blocks discarded by a nearby printing press to cast our 25mm miniatures, using (from memory) Prince August molds. Later, we used to make our own latex molds of better miniatures. Ridiculously labour intensive. But we loved it. Made armies of hundreds of em! I suppose that first range of Prince August was released about that same time. I’m (still) a dedicated caster, so I have all of those small 25mm fantasy molds. I didn’t end up getting them until the 1990s, for the most part. I almost fell down a rabbit hole in considering the question of miniatures; I had to firmly suppress the impulse to start working up a game using only appropriately aged Citadel Miniatures. I have comparatively few in my collection, outside of those sold as Ral Partha Imports. I do, however, have a fair amount of Prince August. The cross-licensing with Ral Partha went both ways. The contemporary 1st Citadel Compendium shows that they sold the Ral Partha elves, and I have a goodly number of those.
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Post by rsdean on Sept 7, 2022 3:58:01 GMT -6
I visited my parents over the weekend and hung out with a friend from BITD who we played a TON of Warhammer in high school and a big part of us talking about it was that we remembered barely anything about how it worked...except that crits happened on doubles which may have not even been a feature of the game but it was about all we could recall. There’s a pretty good overview I found on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4nJprka298&t=808sI’m hoping to get a battle on the table by next month, and then put something on my blog…
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Post by rsdean on Sept 7, 2022 7:01:48 GMT -6
Speaking of putting on a battle, I was interested to see that WH1 had no point system at all. I gather the first supplement included one, but it does make the question of sizing up an initial battle interesting. The one included scenario is quite small, with 6 dwarves against 6d6 (~20) goblins.
For those who used this, did you put on battles in the time-honored scheme of “everything I’ve painted goes on the table” or … ?
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bobjester0e
Level 4 Theurgist
DDO, DCC, or more Lost City map work? Oh, the hardship of making adult decisions! ;)
Posts: 182
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Post by bobjester0e on Sept 7, 2022 17:03:55 GMT -6
I must have a 2nd revision 1st edition dated 1986.
I loved the concept of WHFRPG, loved creating characters in it, but could never find players for it. It is the only WH product I have, although I do love some Space Hulk! (3rd edition)
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Post by Starbeard on Sept 11, 2022 22:51:09 GMT -6
I have a great love of Original Warhammer and have posted about it here and there on these forums. The gist: Forces of Fantasy is very good for what it is, and I dip into it for a few things, but overall I avoid it because it immediately takes away everything that gives the original boxed set its charm, like the lack of army lists and unit point values.
A fifth level thief or an orc has no "point value" in D&D; the referee is just expected to create a set of challenging scenarios and the players have to decide how to proceed. Just take the same mindset with Warhammer. The small campaign in the back of volume 3 provides an excellent example of how you might do it. I've run it a few times—and usually not even with miniatures, plenty of encounters can just be visualized or crudely plotted out on scratch paper—and it has always come out interesting. Just like D&D, it's important to remember that not all encounters have to end in bloodshed, and you might even find allies willing to join you if the cause or price is right.
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Post by Starbeard on Sept 11, 2022 22:58:17 GMT -6
Basically, if all you want to do is host set-piece wargame scenarios, then Forces of Fantasy (or even just adopting 2nd edition) is probably necessary, at least until you can judge for yourself what forces might balance out for an interesting (if not equally weighted) game.
If you want what the game says it is on the box: a "mass combat role playing game," then a campaign structure is sort of implied and point values will have much less meaning.
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