Retro Review of Chapter Approved 1988

Hi over on Dakka Dakka I've been posting a Retro Review of the first Chapter Approved book from 1988. I thought people here might get a kick out of it as well.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/po ... 88008.page


So here's something special I've been meaning to do for a while, a Retro Review of the second ever 40k book, Chapter Approved (aka the First Book of the Astronomicon)! From WAAAY back in 1988.

Note ien the book being Retro Reviewed came out you must speak up and say so!

As you may recall from my Retro Review of Rogue Trader the original game looked nothing like the one it evolved into. No army lists, no missions, random equipment, GMs... It was more of an RPG than a 1-on-1 wargame. Well that's being charitable. The truth is Rogue Trader was a great fluff book with incredible production values but it was also an unplayable mess that didn't know what it wanted to be.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/po ... 48361.page

But it very quickly became obvious what direction GW would take it in. Chapter Approved introduced things like named characters and army lists. It even had the first campaign featuring Squat Hearthguard vs Zoat Fleshflayers!

No.

I kid.

It was Space Wolves and Orks.

Times may change but the standards must remain.

I got my copy on ebay a few years back during my single childless more money than sense days.



I forget just what I paid but know I left the £6.99 price tag (roughly ₹665) on it to depress myself.

Which reminds me does anyone know if this book was even released in the US? I didn't get into GW games until a few years later but I don't remember ever seeing this on shelves or in Dragon Magazine. In fact (as we will see) this entire book sort of vanished down the memory hole. While GW exhaustively mines its old fluff, most of the stuff in here was never seen again.

For this the first part I'll do a general overview then dive deep into the campaign, the army lists and the characters.

The book opens with a message from Rick Priestly himself talking about their future plans for the game, Realms of Chaos, plastic vehicles and a space combat game!



And then for some odd reason a paragraph on the Catachan Barking Toad. :nod:

The book is full of these little bits of background thrown in as filler (or fluff) and I really miss them. Modern books seem too sterile, no room for random nihilistic quotes or one-paragraph mini-stories.

Like this one...



I just love it. Less than 100 words and you're hooked. Who is Doctor Moenkhaus? What is Inquisitor Cynole looking for? What does the forest hide?

I'd read that book.

Then there's this one...



Wow that Horus Heresy thing sure sounds cool huh? Why I bet someone could fill a WHOLE BOOK talking about it. Maybe GW could even do a model or two and a booklet of scenarios.

Or this...



Hey it's that Leman Russ guy, the one with the resperator from Rogue Trader. He sure sounds cool huh? Why I bet GW could sell like dozens of models of him if they wanted.

The book also has few color pages thrown in. Color pages were just starting to appear in gaming books, GW might have been the first. I know Shadowrun and Rifts both had small color sections. But while they used them for art and other sissy stuff GW used their precious color space for...



Ads!

And before you judge just remember FASA has been out of business for 15 years while GW is still here.

So yes, 30 plastic space marines for £9.99. Obviously what with inflation and Reaganomics and all that you couldn't get a bargain like that today. Nah, now you'd get 1 plastic space marine for £25

And you'll like it FANBOY. You will LIKE it.

Of course that was always GW's plan, lure us in with cheap basic models then make us pay through the nose for the good stuff.



£3.50! Each! How can anyone afford this game?

OK they did use some of the color pages for artwork



But they may have had an ulterior motive



There's also a small shot of some sort of conversion



A Space Marine covered entirely in spikes... Some sort of traitor from what the text says.

I wonder if they'll return to them?

And there are some neat dioramas


The book closes with painting pages and letters.



But even the painting guides are written 'in universe' with a history of the great Jonjon Blanchisan, the Emperor's personal consultant on uniform design!



Even the letters page has whimsy.



I for one can't wait to see this tank they're making with room for metal weapons. I wonder what it will look like? I'll probably buy three, or even four!

And finally they close out the letters page with some words of wisdom...



My how times have changed. 'I can't see us getting through all 1000 chapters', yeah right, at this rate they'll all have codexes and their own special unique fliers before plastic Battle Sisters come out.

Anyway hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory late, join us back her tomorrow, or whenever, when we'll look at the very first 40k campaign, pitting Imperial Army Stegatanks against cyber-Ambulls!

Nah.

It'll be Space Wolves and Orks...

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing here too!

Very enjoyable read

Hope you don't spoil "The Wolf Time" scenario though.

optimus":24bwfe5e said:

Very enjoyable read

Hope you don't spoil "The Wolf Time" scenario though.

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SPOILERS


No seriously the next section talks about Wolf Time but I'm not sure if there's anything to spoil. I saw the link to your blog, awesome idea for a project!

The first third of Chapter Approved is taken up by the first ever 40k campaign pitting a squad of Imperial Guard Beastmen against Chaos Androids amongst the carnivorous plants of Cata...

No I kid, I kid, it's Space Wolves vs Orks. Even in 1988 GW knew what which side of their bread had the butter or something. Can't remember how that one goes...



Aptly named 'The Wolf Time' it details how the Emperor declared a five-year crusade (homage to a certain 5-year mission?) into the Wheel of Fire, a lost region of space with over 500 worlds. The Space Wolf cruisers Restitution and Vengeance (even then GW was using the Grimdark Name 2000 super computer to generate names) are sent in.

Oh wait. It's not an accident.

The voyages of the Spacewolves' (sic) five-year mission to uncover new worlds and cleanse them of the Emperor's enemies would provide sufficient material for a TV series, if not several high-budget feature films.

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Hmm... seems to me if you're going to do it, do it right. No winking or nodding, just play it completely straight. Let me try...

Local navigators called the Wheel of Fire, the sector's final frontier. The Space Wolves' starship Executioner was sent on a five-year mission to subjugate strange new worlds, exterminate new life and new civilizations and boldly cleanse worlds were no marine had gone before.

Click to expand...

Hmm, needs work. Not as easy as it looks is it?

ANYWAY...

The Wolves must fight four battles on the Ork world of Xit.



Each battle has both an Imperial and Ork briefing and require a GM to referee them and run NPCs



Which gives us this wonderful icon...



I give it 6/10, if it had been ChaptORK Approved it would get 10/10.

The first 3 battles are to take out the Ork generators so the sheilds and defence lasers are down when the final assault happens.



Commanders Enoch and Storm lead the Marines.



With help from Captain Greylock, Librarian Edrigar, Durlan Ocellatti and Captain Inferno.

I could be wrong, but this may be the first time Space Marine Psykers were called Librarians. As with Chaplains I always figured was a bit of an in joke, talking two of the wimpiest jobs around but making them totally badass.



The Marines are opposed by the Ork boss Kulo and his henchmen (hench-orks?) Rulko, Navigator Fogg and Doctor Spleenripper.



Each mission tells you exactly who you got and what they have, no list building here!

(Hope you bought exactly the right models!)



One thing I love in older books, which we never see now is Marines dying horribly. It seemed they were always getting blown up in RT era art. Which is cool because super warriors who are nonetheless out-matched and outnumbered in a hostile universe is cool. Super warriors who are invincible and always win... not so much.



The final battle depends on the previous 3. If the Space Wolves didn't win at least 2 of the initial battles then the assault is impossible. If they won 2 then they can assault with the survivors of the previous games but the Orks get their laser cannons which just outright kill 0-5 marines a turn. If Marines won all 3 the Orks have to fight them with no laser support.




Since the battle occurs inside a castle you'll need to go out and buy GW's Dungeon Floor Plans and the Judge-Dredd/40k supplement Citi-Block.

Because of course you have to. There's a reason GW is still in business and FASA ain't.

Well I'm being a bit unfair.

Of course you can always make your own rooms and corridors from card, although it will require a bit of effort on your part.

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And you will always know in your guy that you did it WRONG, you're a cheap-ass Poorhammer player and unworthy of our wonderful game.



As an added bonus each room has its own rules, classic D&D style and there's 4 optional subplots. It looks like a lot of fun, with subplots ranging from wild beasts breaking in, to an Ork trying to overthrow Kulo. Just the thing for a GM to keep one player from getting an easy victory.

So it's very different from the game we play now. Partly an RPG, partly a narrative-driven wargame. And it's not a bad idea. But... it requires you either proxy or buy exactly the right models to play this particular scenario, and it requires at least 3 people to play.

So you can see why the 2 person pick up game became the standard.

Join us next time when we see how that happened with our look at the first ever army lists!

But, but....those space wolves don't have beards and Viking names! How can this be???

as far as i can tell, the Catachan Barking Toad was stolen from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, whose Derek & Clive characters were much beloved of students and people who think swearing is funny,

On their LP Ad Nauseaum, there is a track called Endangered Species, which goes a little something like this...

.....


And, er-, precisely. Anyway, these, er, people from, er, the Ministry of Environment come round and they said, er, "'scuse me, er, before you, er, take these, er, y-fronts down to the, er, Laundromat we'd like to inspect them."
DEREK:
Why not?
CLIVE:
And, er, he thought it was-
DEREK:
They've every right.
CLIVE:
He thought it was something to do with, er, you know, Britain going decimal, but it wasn't. And, er, they, er, looked in his y-fronts and, er, fuck me, they discovered this endangered species.
DEREK:
W-
CLIVE:
They found, er, the only two living examples of, er, the barking toad.
DEREK:
The Barking toad?
CLIVE:
Yeah, everybody thought the barking toad was extinct, but no! There was two of them in Damien's y-fronts.
DEREK:
Was it the Barking and Romford toad? Or the .....
CLIVE:
No, tha-, the-, the-, the- .....
DEREK:
Bar-
CLIVE:
No, it's not called the barking toad because it lives in Barking, it's called the barking toad 'cause it goes 'woof'. And, er, .....
DEREK:
Oh.
CLIVE:
..... they said, "This is an endangered species", and they'd been flourishing there .....
DEREK:
Fucking right.
CLIVE:
..... they'd been flourishing there because it was exactly the right environment, you know.
DEREK:
Yeah-h.
CLIVE:
'Cause they like it humid. They like, you know, er-r, plenty of, erm, plenty of humidity and, er, sort of 'body temperature', which Damien has, you know. His body-
DEREK:
Well, he's got-
CLIVE:
His body is usually body temperature.
DEREK:
Well, if he's got anything, mate, it's body temperature.
CLIVE:
He's got body temperature, I'll grant him that.
DEREK:
Yeah.
CLIVE:
And .....
DEREK:
That's true.
CLIVE:
..... he said, er, "Well, I've got these barking toads in my y-fronts, what do I do?" And they said, "Well, we-, we want them to breed and, er, you'll have to keep these y-fronts on for at least four years .....
DEREK:
Yeah.
CLIVE:
..... 'cause we're hoping these two toads will, you know, get the horn and, er, get in the mood and, you know, spawn some more."
DEREK:
But, you see, I'd heard that they-
CLIVE:
And, you know, he's hoping that they'd, er, spawn in his socks and he has to keep his socks on for the next two years.
DEREK:
Mmm.
CLIVE:
The man from the Environment Ministry, he thought the reason why these barking toads had taken refuge in Damien's y-fronts was because of the similarity of the bollocks that were hanging there in the first place.


------

Note for northerners and other foreigners, Barking is a ghastly shithole in the far East of London. A famous hospital for the insane was there during the late Victorian period, from whence we get the expression 'barking mad'.

---

i bet everyone knew that and this was a complete waste of everybodys time.

It was news to me, thanks.

Amazing. Didn't know about 'barking mad'.

Great review btw. Space wolves that aren't vikings feels libeating, really. lol
Does anyone know if there is a decently scanned PDF of the book in circulation? It's the one book I never got at the time.

I didn't know about it either, so no, it wasn't a complete waste of time

@area23, you could try scribd it you haven't already. I got most of my old PDFs off of that pirate ship thingy site, wink, wink, nod, nod but that was wayyyyyy back. It's pretty shite now.

Thanks for the post Kid (and welcome to the forums)!

Was it you who posted retro reviews of old White Dwarf on Dakka ages ago? They are one of those things that sucked me back into the hobby around 2009. Definitely a catalyst for my own retro obsession... Cheers! I just stumbled across your threads by google. Good thing, that.

Yep that was me, I keep meaning to turn them into articles or at least do an index.

And here's part 3, shown on tape delay...

-------------------------------------------------

& we're back again, this tie with a look at the very first army lists for 40k.

As mentioned the original Rogue Trader rules assumed a GM who would decide the forces and balance things as needed. IE: if the Marines are doing too well, them maybe some Ambulls will burst out of the ground in the middle of their lines and even things up. :thumbsup:

There was an archane point system but it always seemed an afterthought to me. Equipment was determined randomly, like the old D&D Monster Manuals.

But with this book, GW took a step towards making 40k a head-to-head competitive game. And never looked back.

The advantages are obvious, you look at the models you own, make an army list then play whoever's handy at an agreed-upon point level. No need to decide/design a scenario, buy & paint the right models (or proxy) in advance.



Even so these lists are still a bit odd. First off there's none of the special rules that have flavored (or polluted) later versions of the game. The only difference between a Space Marine, an Ork and a Zoat is the statline and equipment. I makes for a (much) cleaner game (the only example I see of RT being cleaner than later edition) but also makes for a somewhat tedious read.

And there's still some odd randomness to it.



Oh you painted up an Inquisitor? Sorry you rolled a Navigator, better go buy another model kid.

Yep.

There's a reason GW is in business while TSR ain't.

(See! I listen! I stopped picking on FASA)




The honor of the first 40k army list goes to the White Scars of all people. These White Scars have nothing in common with later version, no Mongol flavor, no focus on bikes, but the do set the template for all marine army lists to follow.

Wait... Tyranids are foul servants of Chaos? :question:

Their special squads are Soul Drinkers (never let a good name go to waste eh Ben Counter), close combat specialists with power swords and refractor fields. And Cobra squads, assault squads with JUMP PACKS! What an awesome idea!



Then there are Tactical Squads with flamers and heavy bolters



"Switchblade" assault squads with 2 bolt pistols



And "Thunderer" support squads with 4 heavy weapons.



Support is limited to Land Raiders and the infamous 'Grav Attack" tank, AKA the flying deodorant canister.



No rhinos, scouts or terminators yet, but in many ways they already set the template for all marine armies that would follow.

The Imperial Army however, well...





Led by a brigadier general (in real Life that's a one-star) they have 3 kinds of assault squads - human, squat and a new troop type called an Ogryn.



Tactical squads can be human or squat, and have no heavy weapon. Those are found in Hurricane and Volcano Squads.



So in this book Squats are not a separate faction but an alternate to human troops (slower but tougher and with better leadership).



The book also has a list for Rogue Traders and another for Pirates.




The Rogue Trader force is a mashing of Marine and Imperial Army units.





Someone has to make this model. Please?




Nothing too special rules-wise but at least the trader gets a Shuriken Catapult.


While the Pirates are a mash of Imperial Army and Eldar units (which we'll come to).



The orks have almost the same stat line as humans, and quite different names.





Including an early use of 'Commissar'



And Orks would continue to carry bolt guns through 2nd edition



The Eldar raiders are kind of half formed.



This guy for instance could be put in a contemporary codex and no one would say a word.

But things like craftworlds and aspect warriors and the Eldar Path would not come for a bit longer. So we have Eldar as vaguely aristocratic pirates with their loyal Zoat allies and oddly Roman titles like Imperator and Probati.



One thing that was in place though is that the Shuriken catapult was the Eldar's signature weapon.



Well them and roller-blading guardsmen in a city made of glass.

Their mainstays were Serpent Squads, Dragon Squads and of course that iconic Eldar unit, the Zoat terror squad.



Who were armed with weapons that GW never made models for...

Join us next time when we look at some of the named characters this book had to offer, including some of the most badass clerks ever to grace the 41st millennium.

Kid_Kyoto":3qzszs35 said:

It was newts to me, thanks.

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Come on! You missed the perfect pun.

And we're back with the third and final section of the book, the special characters.

Unlike the somewhat dry army lists this section just oozes character off the pages till it leaks onto the floor and collects in little puddles like some kind of overly extended metaphor.

The focus is entirely on the Imperium but rather than Marines or Guard it's all about the secondary (and tertiary and quadrinary) Imperial factions like the Arbites, the Inquisition, Rogue Traders, Navigators and even the Administratum.

Even odder, although Rogue Trader had a rich line of miniatures including all the factions I listed none of these characters seem to be based on existing models. Instead they all get unique and very characterful art by Ian Miller. One day (ONE DAY!) I'm going to sit down with a mountain of plastic and convert models for every one of these guys.

And yeah, they are all guys. GW has changed a lot over time, but it ain't changed that much.

So let's jump in...



Stugen Deathwalker (son of Suzy and Gary Deathwalker, they had a little grox farm near the river) is responsible for the trial and execution of his own close family, including Aunt Hilda Deathwalker, Cousin Marty Deathwalker and even his little brother Gary Deathwalker Jr. And OMG, if can squint as his equipment it includes (besides Bionic Lungs and 18 doses of web solvent) a power board! Because nothing say unrelenting grimdark administrator of the law quite like a power board!


PH34R ME!



Moharn 'Porky' Piett is another penal legion commander, one with rather eccentric culinary tastes, even on the front lines he never seems to run short on rations, though his command has an oddly high number of missing troopers. I love it. I'm thinking of something like at the start of the battle he can remove d3 models from any squad, gain an extra wound for himself and make that squad fearless. How did he never get a model but Col Schafer did? I mean is there anything about Col Schaefer that's remotely interesting?



Representing the Adeptus Mechanicus we have Erasmus Darvin a Praefect Acquisitor whose job is to find and remove alien artifacts on the battlefield. He's a native of Luna (yes that Luna, the one out your window) and because of his high-born status he was denied his ambition of becoming an enginseer. Instead he was given an electrograft (basically burning information into his brain) and send to evaluate alien artifacts. Unfortunately the graft is breaking down and he's starting to go insane. His weapons and armor are a mishmash of Eldar, Jokaero and Tyranid (!!) gear.

So yeah, nothing interesting here, certainly nothing as worthy of a model as Col Schaefer.



Pala Gruet is an Enginseer on the Dreadnaut Wotan, belonging to the Iron Fist Marine Chapter. He loves his engines but alas he is sometimes forced to go to the front lines to advise on technical matters. So he stays up late practicing his quick draw techniques in the mirror, just in case.



Representing the scribes, accountants and clerks of the galaxy is Corwen Quilp, Field Notary. He has all the personality of a filing cabinet, which is useful since his job is to go to the front lines and write down everything that is done and said.



Friar Yodus Mange - Mission Confessor is a former Inquisitor who decided to dedicate himself to life of spreading the faith and punishing lapses. Right there he has more of a story arc than most of the current special characters. Just think of it, after years of punishing the guilty he quits and tries to build something up rather than tearing stuff down, to inspire hope and faith rather than fear. But he just can't help sliding back to his old ways when he find fault.



Jaku Dihardis (Jack Die Hard?) is a hive world assassin specializing in assassination and impersonation of rebellious officials. Nothing too interesting (though his weapons list is hysterical, a flamer? he carries a flamer? for assassination work?) I think his needle fingers and general MO inspired both the Calidus and Eversore assassins who followed. Also his armor list is amazing, 4 different invulnerable saves and back then he got to take all 4! Course he does come in at over 600 points so there's that.



Tarik Gortsuker is a psi assassin. I wonder why GW didn't continue with the idea of psi assassins, we have anti psi assassins of course, but no pro psi assassins. Interesingly he likes to fry his opponents' brains before finishing them off with conventional weapons, but as far as I can tell he doesn't actually have any powers that fry brains. Likes of buff powers, lots of stealth, some moral powers, but no actual mind melting powers. So he's probably quite frustrated with his lot in life, always wishing he could melt minds but never able to do it...



Inquisitor Tharg, scary dude, bionic eye, carries a portable rack, not much to add.



Psi-Inquisitor Thor Malkin, scary x2, level 4 psy, 3 different invulnerable saves, and a cool illustration.



Hernando Jurkantz is a Navigator and suffers from many of the secondary mutations that afflict them. After surviving a crash on a feral world he's a bit more combat ready than his peers.

Navigators never really got much attention in 40k. Just one RT model, no special rules, even the 3rd eye deal didn't pop up till later. Which is a shame because they were very cool in both the Dune books and film and they are supposed to be very important in the Imperium.

If you want to see their potential realized check out Wierding Way's gallery.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/image ... ehold.html





The other navigator is Seeken, disowned by his family he seeks his fortune where ever he can find it.



Rogue Traders are another iconic faction that, till the RPG got almost no attention. Other than this book and an unofficial set of 2nd edition rules in the Citadel Journal I don't think they've ever had a table top role. It's a shame.

Tyrel 'Destroyer' Cathek is just awesome. With his short stature and overlong arms (and silly hat, I mean dude what's up with that?) people tend to underestimate him. So he exterminates them. All of them.

"As his decisions to terminate are based on his many deep-seated phobias and prejudices, Tyrel has yet to find a planet where the inhabitants are not a threat."

Note his equipment includes 'extensive supplies of every item in the equipment section' as well as noting he has 100 marines of the Stone Hearts Chapter and 2 companies of Imperial Army.

And finally we have...


Pataex Hitsen, Psi Trader is easily bored. How easily? He once jettisoned his troops into space because he hated their uniformity. So now he recruits from new worlds he find which makes for an exotic and at times not-too-boring bunch.

Now that my friends, is how you write with character.

Join us next time when I'll post some final thoughts on this long-forgotten chapter of 40k history.

Ach, Cathek...*sigh*
My all-time favorite and imaginary long term project (with a concept for everything but not one miniature started as it would never be perfect enough)

A very amusing review there Kid

I've been thinking about the gripe we all have at some stage, that GW never made the mini for this or that illustration or scenario. He'll, I'm in the midst of that right now with Kulo. But if you think about it, it's actually a great boon for us oldschool wargamers. It gives us something to create. If everything was made by GW, then it'd be very limiting for us, conversion wise.....don't you think?

I kinda see it as a blessing in disguise now.

Haha, cool memories! Thanks for all he work, it's always worth of a re-read!

Excellent stuff! Never seen this stuff. I wonder why I never actually got the book. Maybe the cover was too weird?

Niibl":1xgzxy9z said:

Ach, Cathek...*sigh*
My all-time favorite and imaginary long term project (with a concept for everything but not one miniature started as it would never be perfect enough)

Click to expand...

Partly inspired by your comment I had a burst of inspiration the other night and cooked up this



Rogue Trader Tyrel 'Destroyer' Cathek, which as a tribute to a 1st edition character makes him a Rogue Trader Rogue Trader.

Not a bad likeness, he even has 'overlong arms' from his description.



I think the silly flag adds a certain something to him.

Not pictured: His power sword, bolt pistol, neural disruptor, web gun, needler, and power glove.

He looks fkn awesome Kid! Are you gunna add those missing elements or would it be too difficult?

I thought about adding a dozen more guns he's supposed to have but no, maybe if I wanted a humor figure but I think this one kind of works as is.

rules wise he's an Inquisitor with an orbital strike relay, power axe and plasma pistol. not a great model effetiveness wise but a cool homage.

Next up... Porky.