...and it's called Dead Games
After joining the Fans of Dead Games Society on facebook I have realised that there are gaping holes in my collections of Games Workshop bookcase format board games.
Some of the best games from my childhood are contained in these small boxes of fun which fit neatly onto your standard bookcase (unlike todays monstrosities). It was a popular form factor for many games publishers back in the 80s and popularized by the likes of
Avalon Hill and the mark of a serious game.
These were heavily advertised in the pages of White Dwarf,
The Space Gamer and
Imagine magazine
It was natural for Games Workshop to follow suit and begin publishing their own bookcase format games.
Games Workshop Bookcase Games
Apocalypse: The Game of Nuclear Devastation (1980)
This is a cut down 4 player version of Mike Hayes
Classic Warlord which focuses on the Western Europe part of the map. It has a strong 6.8 score on BoardGameGeek and a bit of a cult following.
I've never played or owned this game but always lusted after it, purely on the basis that the cover illustrations is from 70s Space Artist
Jim Burns.
If you like this artwork I strongly recommend that you
buy his art book Lightship, you will not be disappointed.
Availability is limited but you will still find copies at reasonable prices if you
search for Apocalypse on eBay.
Battlecars (1983)
Following in the footsteps of the very popular
Steve Jackson Games Car Wars, Battlecars is a very simplistic vehicular combat boardgame with an innovative diamond grid board rather than the more typical square grid. The games scale (10mm?) is compatible with Car Wars being and Citadel Miniatures even produced a range of metal vehicle minis as accessories and
more pictures of the C42 Battlecars minis range can be found at The Stuff of Legends.
I played a lot of Battlecars and really enjoyed the fast gameplay. I even scaled the game up to 1/64th hotwheels scale for participation play at a SELWG Open Day one year. We had a lot of fun with this game and if you're like me and a fan of post apocalyptic auto duelling it's one that you should consider including in your games collection.
Battlebikes (1984)
A year after the success of Battlecars, GW released an expansion to include rules for motorcycles and lots more pedestrians and scenery counters. This is not a standalone game and you will need a copy of Battlecars to play it.
Citadel expanded their
battlecars C42 range to include motorcycles to accompany the game but it was not long after this release that the game was ultimately shelved. The highlight of this range has to be the Sinclair C5 battletrike.
Games Workshop returned to the post apocalyptic auto duelling genre 4 years later with the much more accessible 1/64th scale
Dark Future game which I covered in my
A-Z of UK RPGs in the 80s: L is for Large Box Games post.
Block Mania (1987) - OWNED
A product of the licensing deal with 2000AD publisher IPC Magazines. Games Workshop released a slew of 2000AD related products also featured in this list.
A 2 player game in which the residents of Sammy Fox and Buddy Holly blocks have gone to war with each other and are determined to destroy as much of each others blocks as possible using whatever items they can lay their hands on. A very vibrant looking game and one which features the work of seminal Judge Dredd illustrator Brett Ewins.
Block Mania and it's expansion, Mega Mania, are games which slipped under the wire for me despite them being Judge Dredd related. Needess to say they are on the wanted list and still pretty affordable if you search for Block Mania Boardgame on eBay.
UPDATE: This was re-released by Rebellion Unplugged in 2021 along with the Mega-Mania expansion.
Blood Bowl (1986)
This game of Fantasy Football by Jervis Johnson has been a mainstay of the GW IP for many years and has spawned numerous editions, computer games and spin-offs like my favourite
Blood Bowl Team Manager.
The first edition was released in the bookcase format and there are some significant rule differences which make it a less fatal version of the game. Consequently, the board is a 4 piece jigsaw puzzle affair (something GW experimented with on a number of games at the time) and the miniatures are cardstock standees with plastic bases which kept the production costs low.
I own the 2nd Edition Large Box version with the Expanded Poly-Styrene foam field. I consider this to be the definitive edition which came fully supported with a huge range of extra star player and add-on team boxed sets from Citadel Miniatures. However, it all started here with this Bookcase version.
If I ever get this version it will be a curiosity filled spur of the moment purchase. There are plenty of copies available if you
search for Vintage Blood Bowl on eBay, but be prepared to wade through hundreds of listings for later versions.
Blood Royale (1987)
I've always thought of this as a cut down version of Warrior Knights but it is infact a completely different 3 to 5 player game of European political conquest in the Middle Ages.
A gorgeous looking board stretches from England in the North to Spain and Portugal in the South and as far East as Germany and Italy. Unlike Warrior Knights, where forming banner armies, laying siege and raising cities to the ground, is the core of the game, Blood Royale focuses on the political machinations of the individual family members and the quest for wealth.
BoardGameGeek recommends that this is best played with 5 players so I imagine it takes some time to complete a game.
Prices remain a bit on the high side when you
search for Blood Royale on eBay. But with the right wind and a lack of interest from other snipers I just might be able to get a bargain. Fingers crossed.
Calamity: The International High-Risk Insurance Game (1983) - OWNED
This was early days for Games Workshop and they would still release these odd "traditional" boardgames. GW originally started out making chess boards and one of their first boardgame releases was the wine trading game
Grapevine (1980) in partnership with Colman's of Norwich, a well established winetrader.
Calamity is another such game and proudly advertises the name of its designer musical empresario
Andrew Lloyd Webber. Yes Games Workshop made a game designed by the man behind some of the most popular musicals of the 80s like Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express, Chess and Cats. Who woulda thunk it.
This is a fairly dry affair compared to their other games and modern satirical games like
Crunch or the glorious
The War on Terror boardgame by Terrorbull Games (if you haven't played them you should). I own a copy but purely out of curiosity. It has hit the table once in only 10 years and to be honest is only here for those who want to
complete their bookcase games collection.
Chainsaw Warrior (1987) - OWNED
A weird one this. Chainsaw Warrior is a rare, exclusively solo game with a 1 hour fixed time limit.
It sounds a bit like a boardgame version of The Raid before that movie was even a glint in the milkman's eye. You take on the role of a Special Forces veteran who has to come out of retirement to face the ultimate evil known as The Darkness (not the noughties rock band) who has taken over Manhattan. GW published a set of extra cards in White Dwarf #88 and the Chainsaw Warrior proved popular enough to be integrated into the Talisman game with a range of miniatures from Citadel.
Artwork by the sorely missed master illustrator of big combat boots, Brett Ewins, this game just screams 80s action movie horror and reminds me so much of the comic strip Bad Company which he drew in the 80s. This could be the perfect game for me, especially if Coronavirus Lockdown continues for another month.
Fortunately prices are reasonable when you search for Chainsaw Warrior on eBay so there is every chance that this could be gracing my bookcase in the coming weeks.
UPDATE: I managed to pick up an incomplete copy (missing just a handful of cards) which I intend to complete. If anyone reading this has the stats for the blaster, please comment below.
Chaos Marauders (1997)
I must confess that this is a bookcase game which has never really taken my fancy which is strange because I field an orc army in Warhammer. I have always loved the unpredictability of Orcs and my favourite unit are the ball and chain chucking goblin fanatics who are frankly more of a danger to their friends than their foes.
Designed by Stephen Hand of
Fury of Dracula fame, Chaos Marauders got a small form factor reprint from Fantasy Flight Games as part of their budget silverline range.
It is a reasonably available and affordable game if you
search for Chaos Marauders on eBay. I suppose I will bite the bullet and get a copy some day...
Cosmic Encounter (1986) - OWNED
Another licensed version of a West End Games classic although Cosmic Encounters has passed through many hands over the years and is the basis for Avalon Hill's Dune boardgame.
This is a fairly abstract and esoteric Player v Player game of stellar conflict in which each player tries to eliminate the others using their combat cards and their special power. The beauty of this game lies in the variety of powers available and something which has been expanded upon over the years with each edition. Games Workshop used the pages of
White Dwarf #78 to publish their own expansions whilst they owned the license. Ibelieve cover art is early John Blanche.
I own this and whilst I enjoy it, there is never any love for it among my group so it never makes it to the table. It's still a solid game and this bookcase version is considered to be one of the classics. They are readily available if you
search for Games Workshop Cosmic Encounter on eBay.
Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1988) - OWNED
This is the game that started my own personal journey down the rabbit hole of bookcase game collecting.
A 1 to 4 player game where you take on the role of explorers investigating the interior of the pyramid of Khonsu, trying to find the ultimate treasure, the mythical Elixir of Life. The thing that really makes this game stand out is the 3 tiered pyramid which adds a third dimension to the gameplay like some sort of Games Workshop vesion of Vulcan Chess (Kal-Toh). Sadly the rather flimsy construction and the lack of distance between levels causes more aggravation than I am comfortable with. Perhaps I will design a 3D printed, upgraded and sturdier pyramid.
The game came with 5 28mm metal pawns (a feature of GW games of this era) representing the four player characters Marlow Hammet, Rev Luther Kirkegard, Professor Nayland Cushing, Lt-Gen The Earl of Carmarthen and the titular Mummy. Sadly mine have become Player Characters and gone missing somewhere. I will track them down because I have an urge to play this game especially as the game has a rare solo play option thanks to the drawn movement mechanic.
Secondhand versions are readily available but good, unmolested and complete versions command reasonable prices because a lot of people have fond memories of this game. You can find rare bargains if you search for Curse of the Mummy's Tomb on eBay.
UPDATE: I Pimped my copy with a 3D Printed Pyramid of Konshu and new minis.
Doctor Who (1980)
I can't believe that I don't own this game, especially as #MyDoctor (Tom Baker) graces the cover.
However, a quick unboxing reveals a particularly uninspiring timey-wimey looking experience. The game gets a dissapointingly average 5.4 on BoardGameGeek and it's rather unfortunate that for such a great franchise it seems to get terrible boardgames.
What this game could do with is a customisation with 20mm pawns to replace the cardstock counters. That would look awesome but probably push the cost of owning this game several orders of magnitude into the stratosphere.
Availability is good and prices reasonable when you
search for Games Workshop Doctor Who on eBay. The completist in me is interested but the Doctor Who fan less so.
DungeonQuest (1987) - OWNED
I played this once a long time ago and the person who owned it didn't know the rules so we played it all wrong. But I loved it.
Basically a GW licensed version of the game
Drakborgen (
Dragon's Keep) it has the four players starting at different corners of the board revealling tiles as they go and trying to uncover a route which leads to the center of the board and their goal, the Dragon's hoard. To win the game you have to get out alive.
I love a good push your luck dungeon crawl. I am a fan of modern equivalents such as
Cave Troll,
Drakkon and
Dungeon Roll (despite it's irritating box shape) so this is right up my alley.
When you
search for Dungeonquest on eBay you can see some quite eyewatering prices. I guess this is a testament to how good the game is, I don't know but I will bide my time and if I can grab a bargain, I guess I will find out...
Fury of Dracula (1987) - OWNED
An amazing hidden movement game where you play one of 4 period correct heroes trying to track down and vanquish the evil Dracula. You travel around a wonderful map of Europe visiting towns and searching for clues to Dracula's location and fighting the minions he has left there. But be careful when you finally track him down and fight him as he is more powerful in the night and will probably kill you.
As with many of the bookcase games of this period it came with a set of 5 metal character miniatures. Strangely for GW/Citadel, these are not 28mm but 20mm sculpts and not really useable in RPGs. This is probably the reason I still have mine in the box.
This game has spawned a number of re-release versionsand is always a mark of quality and a large fanbase. If you are going to collect Bookcase games, this is a great starting place. The game was very popular and original editions are easily found when you
search for Fury of Dracula on eBay.
Judge Dredd the Boardgame (1982) - OWNED
This is a peculiar first use of the Judge Dredd license. A simple game where upto 6 players play Judges patrolling Mega City One trying to arrest random perps committing random crimes who pop up in random locations. Each perp has a Combat Factor which is added to the crimes seriousness to give you a number which you have to beat on a roll of 1d6 plus your Judges Combat Factor. Any player can use Action Cards to increase or decrease either sides Combat Factor and their chance of making the arrest. The player with the highest scoring perp count wins.
The triple random draw function leads to some bizarre and impossible combinations such as Judge Death (10) caught Littering (1) having the same basic Combat Factor as Filmore Fargo (7) caught Blackmailing (4). As an introduction to the often bizarre world of Judge Dredd it is a strange but fun game and the Player v Player element can get a bit heated. To top it all off it has a cover by the greatest Dredd cover artist ever, Brian Bolland. This game is serious zarjazz fun, it must be, as Tharg the Mighty himself is credited as a playtester.
There's a lot of love for this on the collector market but you can still grab a bargain if you search for Judge Dredd boardgame on eBay.
UPDATE: Rebellion Unplugged re-released this classic in 2022
Kings and Things* (1986) - OWNED
A West End Games licensed edition of the Tom Wham classic 2 to 4 player area conquest game. Each player must explore the shattered Kingdom of Kadab (randomly generated from a stock of 48 hexagonal terrain tiles) and conquer, construct and recruit whatever they find in a bid to become the most powerful (and benevolent) King.
For some strange reason, this was one of the games I lusted after when scouring the pages of White Dwarf but I never had the funds to acuire it at the time. I own a copy of Tom Wham's The Great Khan Game released by TSR under their Forgotten Realms setting banner. It's a blast and I hope that Kings and Things lives up to the hype.
Thanks to a
search for Games Workshop Kings and Things eBay, I finally own a copy at a reasonable price. Just got to get through the Coronavirus Lockdown and get it on the table
Mega Mania (1987) - OWNED
Not a standalone game, rather a 3 & 4 player expansion for Block Mania which adds two new blocks; Sly Stalone and Millhouse Nixon and all the necessary extra counters. I find it rather prophetic that a game released in 1987 would use Sylvester Stalone's name who would later play Joseph Dredd in the movie Judge Dredd (1995).
GW also published an expansion in White Dwarf #94 called Happy hour.
The movie took a lot of flack back in the day for the cheesy portrayal of Dredd but, as I have said on many occasions, what the film gets right is its portrayal of Mega City One.
One of the best scenes is that of the residents of Heavenly Havens and the neighbouring block, Elysian Heights?, engaging in a full scale Block War. It really sets the scene of a city on the edge of social collapse, the normal state of affairs in Mega City One.
This is harder to acquire than the base game Block Mania but can still be found at reasonable prices if you search for Games Workshop Mega Mania on eBay.
UPDATE: Mega Mania was re-released by Rebellion along with the base game in 2021.
Quirks the game of un-natural selection (1980) - OWNED
This is another bizarre early boardgame for which Games Workshop was the UK license holder and publisher.
Designed by Peter Olotka (among others) who is most famous for Cosmic Encounter, Dune and the enticingly entitled Isaac Asimov's Robots VCR Mystery Game.
Quirks is an evolution game where you must create 3 creatures by putting 3 cards together, in a sort of Darwinian Identikit, in order to become the dominate species for the current environment. Each successive turn the environments evolve from Ocean thru Forest, Plains, Desert to Jungle. If your creatures don't evolve they risk becoming extinct. Lose 3 creatures and you lose the game.
This is an incredibly rare game and rarely comes up when you search for Quirks on eBay. However, despite this rareity, it does not command particularly high prices. I'm very much intrigued by this game and so I am on the hunt myself...
UPDATE: I managed to snag a mint never played copy from ebay for a very reasonable price. The rules are decidedly 80s and did not go down well with my friends when we tried to play it. I'm convinced that there is a game in there somewhere so will have to try to decipher the rules or come up with something better myself which uses just the metric ton of cards.
Rogue Trooper (1987) - OWNED
I was fortunate to pick up a pretty mint copy of this 2000AD licensed game at the Dragonmeet 2019 bring-and-buy for the princely sum of £15. Conventions are a great source of bargain vintage games as the seller is usually on a mission to clear shelf space and desperate to not take the game home unsold. I'm not really a fan of Rogue Trooper but the double pleasure from adding both a 2000AD related and a boolcase game to my collection was a "Double Whammy" I could not resist.
The board is another jigsaw puzzle hex map affair but this time it's a whopping 6 boards worth and features many of the iconic locations from the comic alongside helpful game reminders. There are plenty of components including pawns, impressive sculpts of the eponymous Genetic Infantryman, for each of the six players.
Whilst GW had the license Citadel pumped out a range of Rogue Trooper miniatures but they weren't intended as upgrades to this game even though they were advertised in the rulebook.
Unfortunately I have no experience with this game so can't tell you how it plays or wether or not it is fun. I have to get it to the table with the right set of 2000AD loving friends.
Availability is high and prices very reasonable when you
search for Rogue Trooper on eBay.
Super Power: The Game of Global Exploitation (1986) - OWNED
This game looks like it should have been released 3 or 4 years earlier than it was and features an esoteric flower shaped layout of the disputed territories of Africa, Asia, Latin America and The Middle East. These are the "Third World" regions in which Russia and the USA historically played out their detente foreign policies during the cold war.
I'm not much of a historical boardgamer to be honest and this has alway been one of those games that has left me feeling pretty meh. There are a couple of history buffs in my regular Friday night games group so it could be an interesting experiment to get it out on the table to see how it plays. I guess if I were to see a real bargain I might just pick it up out of curiosity.
Availability is high and it goes for a song when you search for Super Power on eBay.
UPDATE: Another game which now thanks to ebay is now in my collection.
Talisman: The Magical Quest Game (1983)
There is a lot of love for this game but in my experience and opinion it's misplaced thanks to the poor game play. Essentially a role-and-move game where you land on various spaces on your journey to the centre of the board where you chance your arm at acquiring the crown of power and must complete encounters gaining magical items or defeating monsters along the way. It's a fantasy version of monopoly meets snakes and ladders as there are plenty of ways you can be kicked back into an outer ring by an unlucky dice roll.
It has had numerous reissues and expansions over the years but I just don't understand why this game is so popular.
Prices for the more plentiful 2nd Edition are much better than the 1st when you
search for Talisman on eBay. It's not something that really interests even the comlpletist in me so I will only pick this up if I find a real bargain.
Valley of the Four Winds (1980)
The cover of this game just screams buy me. I remember it being heavily plugged in adverts on the pages of early White Dwarf. Created by Lewis Pulsipher, the well respected designer of the highly rated Britannia and the founder of Pulsipher Games, this is an epic old school wargame.
I'm not a square counter pushing Grognard so I'm not sure if this is the kind of game I would enjoy. The components look excellent (for the period) but it has an average score on BoardGameGeek.
Availability is good when you
search for Valley of the Four Winds on eBay, but with prices between £30 and £50 it's too rich for my blood. This is probably a mistake on my part and I will have to pay much more in 10 years time. LOL.
Warlock: The Game of Duelling Wizards (1980)
Another early game from GW this magical take that card game is one I've always been aware of but never pulled the trigger on.
Something about this game suggests that the mechanics will be pretty old school and uninspiring particularly when this sub-genre is full of much better and more exciting modern games like Steve Jacksons Munchkin. Yes I said it, Munchkin. Every gamer household should have at least one copy of Munchkin.
There are copies out there when you
search for Warlock on eBay which, for a 40 year old game is suprising. You will need to wade through a lot of listings for the next game on the list.
Prices are pretty steady in the upper ranges of reasonable. My problem is how badly do I want it?
Warlock of Firetop Mountain (1986)
Hot off the popularity of the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook came the bookcase boardgame of the same name.
This is another big name game that I have never played and it looks like a rip-off of TSR's Dungeon but I have no idea if it continues along with the same gameplay. There is a lot of nostalgia surrounding this game and I suspect it has some quite dated mechanics. It is a very heavy player v player game and one of the rules encourages deal making between players. However, it is a drawn out race to the finish which includes the frowned upon player elimination mechanic so I suspect that its not a game with much fun factor.
Availiability is good when you
search for Warlock of Firetop mountain on eBay. However, having that secondary Fighting Fantasy collector base means that prices for this game are much higher than I am prepared to pay.
Warrior Knights (1985) - OWNED
Finally we get to the end of this monstrous list and I have saved the best till last. Frankly this is the best bookcase game I own, period. It has huge amounts of gameplay, counters galore, variety in strategy and lots for you to think about as you wait to take your next turn. In fact this game is so good I bought it twice as a spares backup for the many, many components.
You play one of four Barons vying for total dominance over the kingdom and you must build and maintain your banner armies under your allied nobles, moving around the board laying siege to cities and building your strongholds as you go. The acquisition of wealth through siege and foreign exploration is an important and necessary part of the game as you must always pay the upkeep on your troops or they will leave in a huff.
This tends to be a long but very rewarding light wargame and very accessible to non Grognards like myself. It has had a series of re-releases but I consider this version to be the definitive one and there are a few mechanics in the newer ones that don't sit well with me.
Availability and prices are very good but there are a lot of incomplete copies when you
search for Warrior Knights on eBay. This is a gem of a game and should be on everyones shelf.
Thank you for getting to the bottom of this monster post and putting up with the amount of affiliate links I added. They are there as much for my benefit as yours as I am actively searching for many of the games on this list.
I have tried my best to create search phrases which will put you in touch with the most relevant listings on eBay and weed out all the crap you get when you search for old Games Workshop games.
If you are a fellow collector, please consider following those links as they cost you nothing extra but help to fund this blog. You will also have my eternal thanks and appreciation.
