Ninety-six pages of rules. A twenty four page army booklet, one hundred & four miniatures, two terrain pieces, special characters, artillery, magic spell cards, dice, templates & not forgetting the awesome ninety-six page bestiary. THIS was my own first ever set of citadel miniatures. Technically a ‘starter’ set, on an epic scale. Taking pride of place in a variety of positions within the catalogues given to me by my Aunty, the Warhammer (4th edition) starter set was everything I wanted in a new hobby.
The day after my birthday, I was barely seen for weeks. Especially throughout the Easter holidays that were spent absorbing as much lore about the Warhammer world as I could. All the miniatures were one-piece, with only the shields to attach separately to the troops. The ‘special’ units were double sided card with colour illustrations of Gromm the Paunch (and his Battle Standard Bearer goblin Nibblit) on scythed chariot, the ‘rock lobber’ catapult, high elf repeater bolt thrower, Azhag the Slaughterer and Eltharion the Grimm on Griffon (Now available in ghost form in the new Lumineth Realm Lords range)
As excited as I was to already own to armies complete with special characters & artillery, the best part of owning the boxed set was the accompanying Battle Bestriary. This was were I truly fell for the hobby. I learned all about the Old World, the embattled Empire, Kislev & the northern Chaos Wastes, Athel Loren, the isles of Ulthuan, Naggaroth, the Misty Mountains, Skavenblight, and the many Karaks of the Dwarves. Inside the bestiary I learned about Nehekara, the land of the dead, and with a pre-exsisting fascination with the Egyptians from an early age stumbled upon my still favourite character in all of Warhammer: Nagash.
Fratricide, civil war, the birth of vampirism, domination & necromancy all follow Nagash’s fantastic origin story. Their play style on the tabletop is still something I look for in an army today: Magic heavy, hordes of troops lead by iconic characters. My current collection still contains models that I originally owned. Some of which have been re-animated true to the armies characters as the game has evolved. I still own many of the original character models such as Arkhan the Black & Nagash himself, as well as all his associated novels & stories. My prized possession is an original copy of the Liber Necris, the complete history of the undead, as written by Manfred von Carstein.
Armed with everything I needed to know about this new found world, my Dad took me into Leicester city for my first visit to Games Workshop…………
Over to you. Let us know about your first Warhammer starter set, boxed game or novel that got you into the hobby
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