A Second Bite of the Spore Mine

Did you read this?

Well, what could be more exciting to a 10-year old than their first White Dwarf magazine?

Could their second ever live up to that?

Let's go back to 1995 and enter White Dwarf 188.

As much as the Dark Elf cover of 187 was neat, this Tyranid piece is acid etched into my memory. This issue pushes them hard as the cool new 40k faction. They'd been around a while in various forms, but this really felt like they were being lifted up to another level. 

Their design has gone back and forth over the years, but I always liked the less bug-like versions like we see here.

I've never collected Tyranids, but I suspect this issue is part of the reason I have such a soft spot for them. 

Naturally, we turn to the back cover piece before actually reading this thing. That Rough Rider charge into the Tyranids nicely sums up so much of 40k's vibe.

Always good to see those classic alien cacti too. 

Okay, it's time for me to embarrass myself. 

Despite them becoming my first army, there were no Skaven miniatures at all in the previous issue, so until now I had no idea they existed.

With this piece being my first exposure... can you see why I thought they were called "Ska Ven" as two separate words? 

And no, I suspect at this age I wasn't familiar with Ska yet. 

Pre-internet I'm not sure when I got corrected, but the shame still lives within me. 

That kerning has a lot to answer for, but the image clearly resonated with me enough to join team-rat. 

I won't be going through every article, but I remember this one fondly.

Early on I realised that Space Marines were the poster-boys of the world, so I quickly developed a natural hatred toward them. This would only grow as I found myself having to play against them so often and grew envious of their luxurious amount of plastic multi-pose options. 

Still, I see the Blood Angels as one of the lesser evils, perhaps because the Death Company were one of the first examples I saw of marines actually being awesome and interesting. 

I've talked before about the power of these battle reports, but I just love how much space is given over for each player to talk about how they chose their force, and how they're going to tackle the scenario at hand. 

Gavin... Thorpe? Must have been some kid on work experience I guess. 

I could still look at these things all day. 

In the debrief our players get to reflect on their mistakes or successes. Although I love the stories that emerge from wargames, there's something special about seeing each general pour over their decisions, just as they would if they were on the field.

Well, maybe the Ork Warboss doesn't do that. 

Also, check out that Imperator Titan with an axe blade and titanic claw. Was that ever a real thing?

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