Computer + Video Games - Commodore Is Awesome

REVIEWS1;14"(41"e4' Mtt/rurielbolieftwle4/1TOWN 1 OF BALDEMAR11.1BLAKEGli• PUBLISHER: NEW.INFINITIES PRODUCTIONSAINCMUIP PRICE: £7.95ET:HFOGygax. the grandfather of• F.R.P. A has returned with aRN: new company and even newerTproduct.RA The first thing that catchesOSyour eye when you open thisBY book is the detachable, well-full-colour 17in byEMproduced,/R1 22sn A town map. It is divided upHTSinto four major areas with aeITriver and a major road'Eresponsible for this divide. Onthe reverse side is a chart onsRwhich you recall the currentb:political situation of the towna and a list of the mostc important townspeople.It gives an in-depthkdescription of over 125 citizens! plus the shops and the guildsY they run. It has a helpfulintroduction which containsemany useful hints and tips. Itseven has a section so you can, create your own politicalE power struggle between. whatever section of societyyou want, be it the church, theGguilds or the ordinarya populace.rMy only criticism of theybooklet is that the artworkleaves a lot to be desired andsome of the statistical chartsare complex. However, if youare feeling lazy and want acomplete town setting in amedieval-style which iscompatible with any F.R_P.system and that is good valuefor money, then this roleplayingaccessory is for you.As the man said, you can havethis converted to your systemwithin an hour.E. Gary Gygax is back andit's good to see him.• RATING: II8/0IP. GAME; LORDS OF THEMIDDLE EARTH — Vol. II; THEMANNISH RACES: A FANTASY'GAME CHARACTERCOMPENDIUMII. PUBLISHER: IRON CROWNENTERPRISESPw PRICE: 0.95This book is NOT a game initself. It is a source ofsubsidiary information for arole-playing system calledMiddle Earth Role Playing(M,E.R.P. for short).goFor the uninitiated,M,E.R.P. is a F.R.P, systembased on J. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Hobbit and Lord of theRings. It provides thestructure and framework forrole-playing in Tolkien'smystical mythical world, soyou can play characters andenjoy the universe that he sostylishly wrote about.If you have read any ofTolkien's book you will reallyappreciate the work that hasgone into this supplement.Basically, what it does is allowyou to have at your finger tipsaccess to almost all of thehumanoid that occupied theMiddle Earth realm.Spread over 108 detailedpages are hundreds ofdescriptions of the mostprominent or powerfulindividuals Tolkien created.The descriptions are written intwo formats either long orshort (short being up to 50words). They contain detailednotes on the character'spersonality, as well as theirhistory, traits, abilities,magical powers and specialweapons, if any. Furthermore,it gives a full breakdown of acharacter's statistics from levelrating to Skill bonuses and iscross-referenced with theTolkien's actual books andother M.E.R.P. aids.You also get a fairly lengthyprecis of the history of theMiddle Earth plus a veryhandy abbreviation table. Totop this all off, it gives amassive 25-page spread to theNine Nardgul, which is worthreading on its own.To be honest, when I firstread it, The Mannish Racestook my breath away. Fromthe minute you look at theexceptional artwork on thecover to the time you finish thelast page, you can appreciatethe awesome amount of workthat has gone into researchingthis_ The artwork throughout(and there is a lot of it) is of ahigh quality. The tablesprovided are easy tounderstand and the familytrees of the most importanthumans are a sheer joy toread. It is also written in a veryfriendly manner, which makesyou want to get up and playimmediately.If you play M.E.R.P. it is anessential buy, if you playanother F.R.P. system buy itanyway, you'll get years of useTablvtop Games (formerlyAsguard Miniatures) have sentme most of the figures in theiraptly named 'TortureChamber' range amongstothers. These little beautiesvary from The Rack, whereyou get a victim, a torturer, asadistic onlooker and theactual rack itself, to the IronMaiden. where you just getthe spiked maiden andscreaming victim.There are 12 models in theTorture Chamber Range andthey vary from 75p to £2.50.The set I got did not includeassembly instructions andwithout them aninexperienced modeller couldrun into a few minorproblem's.All the figures are relativelyflash free and only a smallamount of tidying up work wasnecessary.Some figures have to beglued together, so a smallamount of modelling skill withlead figures would be anadvantage, but not essential.I was also sent a selection ofTabktops• Orc range andyou'll have a hard time findinga more nastier, evil lookingbunch of characters. Themodels come armed with afrightening array of weaponswith massive maces towhopping whips. Well worth alook! The cost is anythingfrom 45p upwards.Turning now to PrinceAugust Gaming. They sent mea selection of figures fromtheir Fantasy Armies range,their catalogue and a poster.The poster, which can beobtained by sending an s.s.a.e.and three backing cards to anyof their models, shows the fullrange of their products.Out of all the figures theysent me I was most impressedwith their ranger. It is posed inan all action fashion, sworddrawn and ready to swing.whilst his ankle length capeflutters behind him.A neat touch that I likedwas the addition ofgroundwork to the base. Itmeans that even if you areinexperienced at modelling,you can still give the figure apresentable base setting with afew strokes of a brush. Allmodels come in a blister pack,with a foam backing.One thing that makes PrinceAugust different from themajority of the modellingcompanies is that they giveyou the chance to mould yourown models.You can buy casts, mouldsand soft metal at veryreasonable prices, so you cancreate your own figures.Their handbook (which isfree) shows you step by stephow you can turn lumps of softlead into crisp sharp paintedfigures in a fairly short time.It also contains a faultfinding table to tell you whathappens if. your moulds gowrong_They have a large range offantasy moulds ready andwaiting to be used. If you wantreally big armies then this isfor you, because after youmake the initial outlay for themoulding start up set, figurescost around 10p each to make.For full details of start up '-packs etc, please contactPrince August at the addressbelow.