As all of us who are old enough to remember know, White Dwarf long ago stopped being the premier fantasy gaming magazine and became, instead, a "monthly gaming supplement" and "miniatures catalogue" exclusively for Games Workshop products. Which basically means - if you don't play one (or preferably more ) of their games then there's not going to be a great deal in the magazine for you. However, over the last couple of years there have been a number of special issues with complete (or near complete) games with which to tempt the occasional purchaser. I'll give a quick description of the games and any other generic interest articles in the issue and leave it to you to decide whether they sound good enough to be worth mounting a raid on your local Games Workshop store to pick up some back issues.
WHITE DWARF 215, November 1997. This issue has "Full Tilt", a set of jousting/tournament rules to add on to the Warhammer game system. This uses the normal Warhammer combat system, but adds rules for "special ploys" and skills for individual knights. Card scenery - two tents, a couple of tables, the tilt and a grandstand - are also supplied, and make up into quite useful pieces of tabletop decoration (especially the tents). The game's not bad, but you do need Warhammer. Other Articles of interest: not a great deal, but a "campaign tree" of linked scenarios and an experience system for the Epic 40,000 game has some interesting ideas.
WHITE DWARF 223, July 1998. The Free game is "Brewhouse Bash" - an "ork bar room brawl", complete with board and counters. This is a light hearted skirmish with all the things you'd expect of a "Hollywood" style bar fight - thrown chairs, broken bottles and heroic leaps from the balcony. Each Ork in the brawl gets a special ability such as "I'm dead 'ard, me!" (hard to knock down) or "Weep like a weedy grot" (puts his opponent off by cowering in the corner). I said it was light hearted ! The game is quick moving, and you'll soon come up with extra things to do - good fun for 1/2 an hour or so.Other Articles of interest: most of the rest of the magazine is promoting the Warhammer Siege and Introduction to Wargaming books. A piece on making jungle style terrain is quite good - useful for anyone with Aztec figures, as it is this area from which inspiration has been taken.
WHITE DWARF 225, September 1998. This contains a complete set of spaceship combat rules, complete with cardboard ships, weapon counters, and descriptions of four spaceships. These are very good, giving a well balanced game. They proved quite popular, so much so that an expanded set is to be released as a boxed game. Other Articles of interest : there are several pieces on making fortified strongholds for various fantasy races, which show that there's a lot that can be achieved with cheap materials and a fair bit of effort !
WHITE DWARF 229, January 1999. The free complete game this time is "Arena of Blood", which is a science fiction gladiatorial skirmish, supplied with counters and a poster sized board. Arena of Blood pits high jumping teams of Dark elf gladiators against each other in a fast and fun game - probably the best game in the magazine so far. If "Bommerz ovar da Sulphur River" was worth putting in a box, I'm amazed that this didn't make it as well! Other Articles of interest: most of the issue is devoted to plugging new figure releases for Warhammer and Warhammer 40K (well, it is the Christmas issue).
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