Heroes for Wargames

A recent Twitter post bought this book to mind.

I brought a copy of this new from a bookshop in Slough, so it must have been quite late in my gaming life. In 1986 I was 15/16 and definitely not as much into this stuff as I had been for for the previous handful of years. I have no clue where I heard about this book but I have a definite memory of really wanting it. (And I remember showing it off to my friend Robbie, who was less impressed than I - perhaps gaming hadn’t gripped him as strongly as it had me, or perhaps he just wasn’t an idiot!!

So what is it? I guess you could say it was a kind of coffee table book showing nicely painted ( Citadel) miniatures. There is an intro from Ian Livingstone/ Steve Jackson that doesn’t say a lot and a large serving of John Blanche/ early Warhammer. It starts with an introduction to RPGs (dull) and then goes to fantasy battles. A bit about figure making then a section on painting - nothing new in today’s world but this must have been quite cool then.
The section on Master Painters is quite cool, who didn’t love THAT John Blanche minatour?

One note about the book that bears sharing is that many of the photos are on a black background so are actually often not that clear, a minor quibble, and my eyes were probably better then.

All of this interspersed with what can only be described as iconic GE art from the mid eighties as well as some crap line drawings of new mini ranges (why?).

To sum up, I loved it 34 years ago and I still love it now, though I’m not really sure why. All in all it should be on every gamer of a certain ages shelf - good fun.