Let’s read – The second Citadel Compendium

I figured it was about time to return to my “Let’s Read” – this time with the Second Citadel Compendium (the first one that I actually own a physical copy of). Just like last time you can follow along over at Stuff of Legends, here (I'm only including a sample of pages in this post).

As you can see from the front page, this is the-one-with-the-amazons. We are also still firmly in 1^st edition, pre-slotta territory, so a lot of the content is admittedly too old for even die-hard oldhammerers to really care about, unless you really love amazons (and why wouldn’t you?).

There’s nothing really interesting in the “welcome” section (other than noting that Nick Lund’s Chronicle Miniatures was joining Citadel), so we’ll skip ahead to the first real article, the Rigg’s Shrine scenario.

“Scenario” may be stretching the definition by today’s standards. It’s closer to a gazetteer for an RPG with some extra rules for sneaking around and looting thrown in, but then again, 1^st edition Warhammer was an amalgamation of RPG and wargame.

Actual scenario ideas only take up a couple of paragraphs on page eight of the compendium, but before that, I feel we need to return to the drinking game from last time, as the introduction mentions the future Lustria supplement for Warhammer *drink*.

Other than that, I don’t have too much to say about the scenario. Zhu has written about it (and Warhammer’s amazons in general), so if you’re interested, I suggest you head over here.

The following article is in response to at lot of questions Citadel had been receiving (imagine that; interacting with your costumers, how very novel) and explains how figures were made back then.

I’ve never looked into the process before, so I found the article to be very informative, and I imaging that the readers back then felt the same way.

Next up are the results from a competition from the first compendium.

Seems like people really got into the spirit of things, and it’s cool to see the three best entries getting made into miniatures by one other than the Perry twins. Quite a collector’s object I should think!

We then get to the Compendium Selection of figures. Like in the first compendium they are line-drawings and not photos, which is sad, but at least the general quality of the drawings has gone up.

A lot of these figures are really iconic, not least because some of them were used in the popular 2^nd edition scenarios. The selections also include many stables of the Warhammer world, such as Cold Ones, Chaos Hounds, Goblin Fanatics, Chaos Warriors and Beastmen.

And let’s not forget the awesome Amazons:

After the general selection we get the first wave of Regiments of Renown. These are cornerstones of Citadel’s history and should be fairly recognizable to most of the Oldhammer community (Bugman’s Dwarf Rangers, of cause, being well-known even today).

We then have the Specialty Sets, which, like in the first compendium, are shown in photos instead of drawings, and which, once again, underscore just why Citadel preferred drawings at the time – the pictures are, frankly, barely legible.

Tony Ackland’s Arcane Monstrosities fare better (both as drawings and photos), probably because the models are larger.

I would dearly love to get my hands on these, but I’m not really prepared to pay the monstrous price they command (pun intended).

On the next page we have a model I just might shell out the cash for: The Great Spined Dragon. To this day some people will argue that it is the best dragon figure ever produced in this scale, and I’m inclined to agree.

A few pages later we have another very interesting page: an ad for the newly released citadel paints, along with a short note on how to use these new-fangled water-based paints. This includes some advice you certainly won’t find in official GW publications today, such as: “Car body primer is just as good and usually cheaper”.

A few pages later we have a painting article written by none other than Kevin Adams. Like the one in the first compendium it’s supposed to be a guide for beginners, though this one spans several pages and goes into much greater detail.

The article is actually really good (IMO), and it’s quite funny to glimpse into a time when acrylic paints weren’t the automatic choice for miniature painters. The section about painting skin also really made me want to try out some alkyd paints to see how smooth a blend I can achieve with them.

We also get another great quote from a Citadel/GW that cared about other things than selling more and more stuff, when Kev discusses the Citadel paint range and notes that: “If the price of the artists colours makes them an unrealistic proposition, then this range is a good alternative.”

After the painting article we get a primer on assembling metal miniatures. It’s basic but functional.

The following page is a contest, where you have to try to draw a cross between the eyes if an invisible Balrog. Can you find it (I certainly can’t)?

After a few pages of reader art we get to the Eldritch Epistles (i.e. the mailbox), which is always worth a close read.

There’s an interesting discussion on the merits of using D6’s vs. D10 or D100. The answer ends with the (to my knowledge) first account of GW using a 6+ followed by a 4+ roll of get something close to a 10% chance of something – something they would make regular use of in later editions.

Also of interest is a question about how many different Citadel models there actually were – the answer being “we honestly don’t know”. In this age of 3D-printed master sculpts and titanium molds, this might seem odd, but as we’ve learned from reading this compendium, back then the hand-crafted master sculpt would usually be destroyed to make a rubber mold that might then only last a few days.

Further molds could be made by using cast figures, but usually at the cost of reducing detail on the final product. In the end, the benefits of mass-producing a particular sculpt had to be weighed against the desire to make the best product possible, and to Citadel’s honor, they often chose the latter.

It also suggests to me that a collector of early Citadel figures should try to go for the unlisted (and thus not mass-produced to the same degree) ones, as they’d be more likely to be a “first generation” cast, but that’s just conjecture.

Rounding off the compendium are a couple of ads, including a color add for the Citadel paint set.

So that’s the second compendium. Not quite as many groundbreaking articles as the first, but with an absolutely iconic selection of miniatures. 

Next time I’ll take a look at the Citadel Journal from spring 1985.

Croaker

Let’s read – The very first Citadel Compendium, part 2

Welcome back to this “Let’s Read”. We pick up from Last time, roughly half way through the First Citadel Compendium, as we get to the miniatures.

The compendium immediately diverts from the previously stated policy of using line-drawings by giving us a photograph of the, magnificent, Citadel Giant (though they do use drawings to illustrate alternative heads and hands). I guess this decision can be explained by the sheer size of the figure, which probably made it a lot easier to take photos of.

I’d love to get my hands on this big fella, though, from what I hear, that would require selling the TV to raise the necessary cash. It’s also, strictly speaking, too big to really be practical in a game setting, but it’s quite awesome all the same.

After the giant we get to the aforementioned line drawings; in this case of the early C-series miniatures. The selection is firmly grounded in the RPG scene, with the minis being divided into the standard fighter/wizard/cleric/thief categories (dwarfs getting their own listing), in addition to goblins, armored orcs and so on.

To be perfectly honest, these pages leave me a little cold. It may just be because I’m quite uninterested in most of Citadel’s pre-slotta output, or that the actual figures rarely live up to the sketch, but I’m finding it difficult to visualize how the mini would look like in real life.

There are a couple of exceptions though, the first one being this page:

For all their virtues, Citadel produced preciously few good, and appropriately clothed, female miniatures during the 80’s, but the two in the top row might fit the bill (though I must confess that I haven’t seen the actual figures).

The second page I like is this:

Maybe I’m biased towards the larger figures, but these just look awesome. You can see the actual minis here.

Rounding out the line-drawing section, we have the figures for the Kremlo scenario.

These are quite evocative as well and in general the illustrations in the compendium seem to be better with the more outlandish characters, such as the Slann.

We then encounter another instance of Citadel breaking their own rule with three pages of photos. These perfectly illustrate the reasoning behind the rule – being nigh-indecipherable. I mean, I can see the general outline of the figures, but in many cases I’m left guessing at the details. 

It doesn’t help that many of the figures of this period are quite compact (probably necessitated by the casting process), which further blurs detail in the low-resolution prints. I like the stone thrower though.

Moving on, we return to our drinking game in a major way with two half-page ads for Realm of Chaos and Rogue Trader (and a half page for Forces of Fantasy, but that actually came out relatively soon afterwards). Time to *Drink! (or perhaps *drikn? at this point).

After this, we get something that would become something of a staple of the journals – a painting article. It’s worth dwelling a bit on the faux-articles above the headline for the chuckle it should elicit:

It’s all very basic (as it’s supposed to be), but the advice is good all the same – in fact, it’s exactly the kind of article I wish I’d had access to when I started out myself and didn’t have the faintest idea about how to do the shading on my figures.

We return to game-related stuff with an article about using Sci-Fi in games of Warhammer.

It’s interesting stuff, and the introduction gives a good insight into the original philosophy behind Warhammer. It reads: “The rules are designed to be used – if you wish to change rules […] anything should be possible”. This is surely a sentiment that would give modern tournament players fits, but it very nicely aligns with core Oldhammer values.

The main part of the article is a set of rules for various more-or-less futuristic weapons and types of equipment. Worthy of note is that bolters (for once) are actually as dangerous as rifles firing small self-propelled rockets should be (this includes possibly blowing up in their owners hands):

Remember to add one to the strength to get a contemporary value.

Also included are the, perhaps,  first use of the 2”-apart loose formation that would become standard in Rogue Trader/40k, as well as an outline of a campaign that uses the Sci-Fi rules. I'm actually very impressed by this article - you could likely get some very satisfying Sci-Fi games going just using this and a copy of the main rules (even the 2nd edition would work, I think).

The last article of the compendium is, I believe, another first; rules for generating chaotic attributes, along with an article on how to convert figures (quite useful if you intend to randomly generate your mutants).

Even though many of the exact rules are different from later iterations of the list, I can recognize a lot of the mutations, and there’s even mention of the concept of followers of Chaos gradually gaining attributes and maybe becoming chaos spawn if they gain too many.

Final thoughts

If there’s one thing I’ve taken away from this read-through, it’s just how many of the ideas we (or at least I) usually identify with much later publications are present at this early point in time. It’s pretty easy to see a clear line from this compendium to WFB 2^nd and 3^rd edition, WFRP, Realm of Chaos and Rogue Trader. I’d even go as far as saying that it should be essential reading for any fan of 1^st edition as well as anyone who’s interested in the development of the hobby.

I’m also generally amazed at the sheer amount of stuff they manage to cram in to less than 50 pages. It’s truly a treasure-trove of inspiration.

Next time we continue our exploration into 1^st edition territory with The Second Citadel Compendium.

Croaker

Let’s read – The very first Citadel Compendium

Some time ago I bought these on eBay:

What you see there is almost all of the first round of Citadel journals and compendia (everything except the very first compendium) in excellent condition – near mint in fact.

I got them at an oddly low price through an auction, but I guess that the otherwise ubiquitous inflation that seems to have hit the rest of the oldhammer market hasn’t reached the old journals yet (for brevity’s sake, I’m including the compendia under the heading of “journal”). Considering the dedication it takes to keep paper journals safe for this many years, I consider myself very fortunate, though I’m now facing the problem of almost not wanting to touch them for fear of causing damage – something I wouldn’t worry about if they were in worse shape.

There is an easy solution though. Through the grace of Orclord over at solegends.com we can all read these old journals right here. You could also get a Scribd-account (something I’d recommend that any oldhammer-fan do anyway), though sometimes the scans at SoLegends are better. I then have the opportunity to (very carefully) browse through the actual journal and take in all the really small details, which is a great pleasure I can assure you.

Looking through the journals, I got the idea of doing a “let’s read” – very much inspired by Orlygg “Acceptable in the 80’s”-series, which you should absolutely read as well if you haven’t already.

The journals were published during the days of 1^st and 2^nd edition WFB, and as such might be too “retro” even for dedicated oldhammeres. However, appearing at the very nascence of WFB they give a really unique insight into the development of the game and associated miniatures.

They also precede my own entry into the hobby (I was still in diapers at this point in time), so I’m reading them with a fresh face – ready to be amazed at the wonders of a time when using oil-paints wasn’t unheard of.

To keep these posts from getting too long, I’ll only discuss sections of special interest (I also won’t post a picture of each and every page), though I still urge you to read through the entre journal.

Even then, I’ll probably end up splitting each journal into several entries.

So, without further ado (except for noting that I’m looking at the US-version), Let’s read: The first Citadel Compendium

First up, we have an introduction to the compendium itself:

Here we are introduced to two very interesting concepts. The first, and most important, was Citadel’s policy of constantly reworking their range of figures, which meant that a particular sculpt might go out of production at any time. The compendium merely catalogues those sculpts which Citadel intended to keep in stock – at least until the release of the next compendium.

I know that the limited durability of the molds used at the time was a large part of the reason for this, but it still seems like a strange thing in this age of near-unlimited availability of individual sculpts. Interestingly, though I don’t follow GW all that closely these days, it seems to me that they’ve been trying to re-implement this situation with a string of more-or-less limited edition releases over the recent years.

The second concept is Citadel’s reason for initially using line-drawings in their catalogues; which is that printed photographs at the time lacked the necessary quality to fully illustrate miniatures. As someone who still haven’t got the faintest idea what Sigrid and Hilda from the DotR set are actually supposed to look like (and I even own the original poster), I can sort of get behind this idea. On the other hand, the drawings do lack a certain je ne sais quoi, so on balance I guess I’m glad they eventually changed that policy.

Can you identify them?

At the bottom of the page is something that I’ll probably have to make a running joke (or possibly a drinking game) out of; the “near future” plans for the release of something that wouldn’t be published for several years, in this case Rogue Trader (*drink). This goes hand in hand with a mention of the Realm of Chaos supplement for WFB a few pages later (*drink again).

Next is an introduction to WFB.

I won’t go too much into this as 1^st edition is very much an unknown quantity to me. Most of the features described seem to line up with later editions though.

After that we have an article with additional rules for WFB, some of which definitely didn’t make it into later editions (return fire, dismounting opponents), though it also includes rules that we’d consider quite natural today, such as firing arcs and the rule against wizards using armor.

We can also see a bit of WFRP in the section on “personal characteristics in special situation”. The two situations in the example, bluffing and persuading, are thing that any WFRP player will have tried countless times and even establishes the later percentage based tests.

Next up is the one thing I actually knew would be in the compendium: The Legend of Kremelo the Slann – A Warhammer scenario.

It’s a wonderfully weird idea. An orphan slann, raised by Norse settlers in Lustria, who’s leading a raid on his old tribe after it attacks his adoptive village. This is about as oldhammer as it gets. Slann, Lustria, alcoholism and a scenario where you can’t be quite sure that your allies aren’t trying to kill you (something that’ll be a recurring theme in later scenarios).

Being someone who previously didn’t have any real interest in Lustria, as I read more of the old stuff about it I’m increasingly saddened that Richard Halliwell’s supplement on the continent (also mentioned in this compendium - *drink, I guess) never saw the light of day.

After this little gem we have something that’s become a bit of a stable in Warhammer; Goblinoid animosity.

The exact rules have changed a lot over the different editions, but the basic concept is a familiar one. If you are interested in the subject, Zhu has written more about it in a broader context here.

We now get to the meat-and-potatoes of the compendium, the models, but I think I’ll save that for next time. 

End of part one…

Croaker