No, I'm not switching gears and building a Dark Elf army. These scans from White Dwarf issue 144 (Dec. 1991 - I was 4 years old at the time) were posted in one of the Oldhammer groups on Facebook and I found them to be a really fascinating read and honestly, for me, thought-provoking.
My first visit to a Games Workshop store came almost a decade later, in August 2001. Warhammer Fantasy Battles 6th edition was in full swing and I loved the idea of building an army. However, the messaging I got at the time - less so from the staff at that Games Workshop store, but from other patrons of the store as well as message boards online - was that 2000 points was the absolute minimum army size that a game could be played with, and there was no point in me showing up for games with anything less than that.
Being a 14 year old who only really had spending money in the summer and after Christmas, and with an oversized case of "Ooh! Shiny!" syndrome, building a 2000 point army was daunting to the point of being out of the question. I built a couple regiments of plastic figures - Night Goblins, then Skeletons, Orcs, then the hunchbacked 6th edition Chaos Warriors - but eventually felt like I'd never get anywhere and moved on to other games.
I wonder what my hobby/gaming trajectory would have looked like if someone had sat down with me and said, "Let's make a plan to get you started with a basic, well-balanced 1000 point army, and then build from there if you want to continue"?
i remember years ago at a Historicon, there was a vendor with an actual Dark Elf army box set from the late 90's. good times.
ReplyDeletegotta love the classic oldhammer material, especially now.
everything was so simple back then.
i was the same way in 2nd ed. 40k, collecting stuff here and there but nothing came out of it. finally settled on a chaos space marine army. god miss those days. heh.
I missed out on it the first time around, but I've really come to appreciate classic oldhammer goodness, especially when it comes to fantasy miniatures. I've got a big box of Reaper Bones figures here and they've got so much fiddly detail sculpted on - pouches, bandoleers, layers of cloaks and tunics etc - that I get tired of painting them before I'm finished. Oldhammer sculpts aren't so crammed with detail and end up being much more enjoyable for me to paint.
DeleteHarmony House? I think they still have it.
DeleteMy first time with wfb minis was after WFRP sessions in 95 or 96. I found a small shop in Poland and bought first Bretonnian mini. One of the next was plastic Dark Elf warrior from 8 man clone box :)
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