The Word of Hashut - Part III, In the Trenches

The word I used in Part II covering the Word of Hashut production period was insane. As I look at the word now it is no less true: insane. Looking back, it is hard to believe it has been 15 years since I worked on this. In a way it seems like it was just yesterday.

I think the biggest thing that made it insane? The release schedule. For two and a half years we released an issue every quarter and to not sugar-coat it? It was brutal. No sooner than one issue was out the door and I would have maybe a month to do other things related to the hobby of Chaos Dwarfs Online or for Dogs of War Online. All the while with young kids, two jobs and a dog.

Now with say a quarterly magazine this would not be too bad in the “real world” but this was a gaggle of volunteers delivering a free ezine every quarter. That pace is not sustainable. Do I miss the pace? No, not really. Do I miss the frenetic nature of creating the ezine? Somewhat. Am I proud of what the team and I accomplished? You bet because there is no way I could have done it without all of them. This was me sure, but I had help to get there.

But what also stands out? Around 2011 when Issue #12 was out and a bit before Games Workshop had finally released stuff for “Infernal Dwarfs.” Can we say that we caused it? It is not likely but at the same time GW had to have been watching what was going on and said “Damn, these guys are not giving up.”

If I had to pick a single issue as my favorite, it is Issue #5. It was not that it was a high water mark per se, but it showed everything the fan community could be if we focused. Even the later issues were still quality in my opinion, but #5 was near pitch perfect. The cover was great. The interior art perfect and a great balance of articles: Thommy’s Campaign Pack, a great Battle Report, several ridiculous hobby articles by Tjub and Grimstonefire and Baggranor’s excellent "Shadow and Flame" graphic novel just to name a few.

Likewise Issue #8 was another stand out for me. Swissdictator and I ran the “Arena of Death” and low and behold Astragoth wins? People wondered if we rigged it at the time. We did not. Each round that went by he was plowing through opponents!

In terms of covers and the interior art we were blessed with a ton of talented artists who selflessly contributed to it no questions asked. In fact looking back? I do not think either Maul (our Submissions Coordinator) or I ever had to badger an artist. It was as simple as “we need x by y date.” And time and again the artists delivered.

On the subject of covers? My personal favorites are #6, #7 and #8. But I can not say we ever had a bad one. Each time it was an awesome feeling when it was delivered to me. In a way it felt like the issue was “complete” even if I still had more work to do.

Another thing I am proud of is we hit our stride early and the quality was excellent from the beginning. That is not to say there were not any missteps; there were. But on the balance of it, our successes far out-shined our missteps. The goal from the beginning was to compete with Skavenblight Gazette and I think we did. And if I can be biased (hey I also did Gold and Glory so I think I get a say!) I think we surpassed it. The page count, the variety and the sheer audacity of the project. Add to this we had a handicap that no other army faction had: they were current? Chaos Dwarfs were wandering the Plains of Zharr looking for a morsel from Games Workshop.

It was a wonderful time and a great time to be in the hobby. But like all things it would not last. In the final installment I will talk about some of the overall lessons, and the long view of history. Stay tuned

As a bonus, here are the unreleased covers of what Issues #12 and #13 would have looked like had I continued with the project. Issues were plotted out all the way to #15 with cover artists assigned and themes somewhat developed.

What was your impressions of the Word of Hashut? I'm open to hearing them! 

T1 Village of Hommlet Guard Tower Terrain Build – 28mm Oldhammer / Greyhawk Campaign Project

The Guard Tower in the Village of Hommlet

 

Over the years I’ve created a number of terrain pieces, many of them focusing on castles and forts, many featured here on the blog.

In that vein, for my Greyhawk Campaign I’m running I decided to make the Guard Tower from T1 - The The Village of Hommlet. The natural question is why not create the Moathouse, since that’s where the adventurers will mostly be plying their trade? The answer is simple: way back in 2006, Paul Stormberg commissioned a scale model version for a wargame of Chainmail which Gary Gygax himself participated in.

So rather than create another one, I settled on the Guard Tower (area #31) and have been working events in my Greyhawk campaign in which the tower will feature. But that is very much in the future, so I will just focus on the construction of the tower itself for this post.

The first step in construction was making a copy of the tower floor plans and taping it to the shelving in front of me on the painting table for reference through the whole thing. This was very helpful as I didn’t have to keep looking over to the module itself.

On that subject the floor plans of the tower were helpful. The illustration on page 7 and the back cover were less so. At least the illustration on page 7 did give me a good idea of the stairs if nothing else for later. The back cover really doesn’t tell much for this nor does the original cover art. This isn’t a criticism per se, it’s just noting for what I needed they would not be used as my guides.

To start the Material List:

• Cardboard
• Thinner cardboard (the types from cereal, snack, or cracker boxes)
• Toothpicks (for the arrow loops and trap door on the middle tower)
• Popsicle sticks (for the drawbridge and flooring of the 2nd floor)
• A round container of oatmeal (serves as the middle tower)
• Small finishing nails (for the studs on the door to the middle tower)
• R4 residential foam (the base)
• Pressboard (for the base of the 2nd floor)
• Posterboard (for the battlements)
• Paint
• Superglue
• White glue
• Glue gun
• Xacto knife
• Stone gravel and green flock for the base
• Coping saw
• Dremel tool
• Small electric drill

Construction

I actually started on the creation of the tower in early November 2025, but got sidetracked. Sidetracked by what you ask? My Citadel Giant, that’s what! When I picked it back up the tower was in the basic state noted here in the first photo. One of the initial challenges I had to work out was creating it in 25/28mm scale. It was going to be big no matter what. As I noted, I’ve created several castles in 25/28mm scale before along with a lot of buildings, but the initial cuts always seem “too big.”

Very, very early WIP

The second challenge is that the interior was going to be a chore to even get remotely passable in terms of usability. For a while I debated on the wisdom of doing so. In the end I knew I’d have to create the interior and made peace with it. At the same time, looking at the floor plans I knew it would be impossible to do exactly as is. It was also at this stage that I decided to omit the lowest level as that was going to add another level of complexity and to the overall height.

The third and final challenge was using flat surfaces in a round structure. Trust me, it’s much more difficult than it sounds. Cardboard can be bent and cut, yes, but some shapes are not easy to do.

The first big task was to get the shape the right size for the tower proper along with the two flanking towers to be circular. I was ideally looking for a circle the size of a bucket but none fit what I was roughly measuring out. Through some trial and error I got it right after the second try.

Once that was done, creating the vertical walls was somewhat easier. The glue gun was invaluable here, keeping everything set while I added the next piece and the next. In short order the basic form was set and I went over the glue gun joints with white glue to reinforce them all. Then the tower sat for a number of months.

When I picked this back up about a month ago, I remembered the interiors would be a chore, but so too would the stone work for the outside. As you can see from the work in progress photos it was a LOT of cutting and gluing with the glue gun.

For the materials to make the stone I fortunately saved snack boxes over the years for construction. The excellent How to Make Wargames Terrain book from Games Workshop is invaluable for this. I have a copy but it has been out of print for decades (the 1996 version is the best in my opinion).

The attaching of the stone to the outer surface was a long process over about two weeks. As you can see it became something quite garish from all the clashing colors as I went! (see the photo to the right). The primary challenge here was containing/corralling the glue from the glue gun. The glue sets quickly and speed is needed to get the part in question into place before it sets without excess glue or wispy strings. The good thing is after doing it so many times it got to be second nature.

The first interior work was the hardest: the ramps. While it works fine for an adventure in role-playing

Color explosion!

games it does not work well for a modeling project, nor for lining up arrow slits. Hearkening back to my Nippon castle from several years ago I was eventually able to get the ramps passable and removable from the interior. Not perfect, just passable. I really, really wish Gary would have done something different here… The interior stones? As said it wasn’t easy, but I did get into a rhythm in some spots and listened to several podcasts to while away the time as I toiled.

The battlements were the next stop after the interior. Once again, a previous project helped here. I have not posted it yet, but I have created an entire Empire castle (see the very end of the post for more on this) roughly based on the Warhammer Mighty Fortress. In that castle project I figured out how to make battlements from poster board and to do it in such a way to expedite the process. Basically the key breakthrough was to lightly score the flat section that forms “in between” each battlement and fold it down. Coupled with a slightly higher battlement section behind, the two were glued together leaving only the sides of each battlement “tooth” to be completed.

The big roadblock here? As you guessed it, doing this on a round surface made it tougher. I had to account for the circumference being smaller on the interior than the exterior. Through trial and error I worked it out and then started attaching sections to the upper tower base.

The next big challenge was the roof and machicolations on the removable tower top. The machicolations took quite a while to get right as the spacing was at best an inexact science. Several times I needed to cut already glued sections off to get the whole to fit right. But after a while—with a lot of putting the top on, marking the under-hang, and popping it off—I was able to add them one by one.

Another point of note was the central tower itself. I’m fairly sure oatmeal containers are not designed with hobby terrain in mind despite being the perfect size and shape (let alone being sawed through). Because of that, getting it to set level took some time and some shims. In the end it worked perfectly with the right shape and diameter.

Removable top and catapults

Once the base construction was done and I repeated the method for the battlements on the upper level, it was also time to repeat the steps for the machicolations on the middle tower to finish it off. The final push of the “stones” commenced, wrapping the middle tower surface all the way to the top and adding the trap door.

It’s important to note that I did not make the middle tower removable like the lower. The interior sections of the lower tower showed me that actually getting my hands into an even smaller diameter was going to be a problem. On the lower sections it was barely possible, and I wasn’t looking forward to that again. At that point I made the executive decision to skip it.

Next up was the base. The base was nothing more than cut R4 residential foam (which can be found at a home improvement store) with a depression hollowed out for the tower to sit in. That got to be quite messy with cutting and sanding to get it to fit right. In the end, like the middle tower, it required a few shims here and there for it to set level. This did not matter too much as I knew they would be covered up when I added the gravel to the base. The base was set with copious amounts of white glue and left to dry overnight.

The next night I scored the base in several sections and used white glue to attach the stone gravel and let that sit overnight.

Painting

When it finally came time to start painting, the weather does what it always does around here: turns the humidity up to 11. We all know what that means — no spray paint. But as I was contemplating that, I knew it would have to be primed by hand anyway. Spray paint and cardboard don’t usually adhere well. As it was, a solid evening ended up being devoted to priming the tower black. I needed two coats in most places as the “shiny side” of the thin cardboard needed to be facing out (the inner side is too rough and too porous, which would cause warping).

Once primed, the first step was to dry brush the tower gray. Now it might seem like the more straightforward thing to do is simply coat the whole thing gray. While that can be done, it also wasn’t what I was going for. Painting structures like this uniformly gray makes castles/towers look "cartoonish" in my opinion. I wanted the dark shades to come through.

After the initial color, next up was lightly dry brushing straight white onto the surface. This was done very lightly for highlights and not to turn it white. After the white came something that might seem unusual for a color, but something I did with the Empire Castle: a dry brush of a lighter orange. This might seem odd, but what it does is make the rock seem more realistic, especially with what I knew I’d be doing in the final painting step. I went from the base on up to the removable tower top. Once done I did notice the upper level was too "orangish," but no matter.

Why I didn’t worry about “too much orange” was because of the last step in painting the tower: a light wash of black. To achieve this a mix of a very watery black wash was all that was needed. In most cases water and cardboard do not mix; warping can occur. But because I sealed it off with two undercoats I was fairly certain it would hold up well. Rather than simply dousing it with the watery paint, it was applied via brush with broad strokes to cover all the surface areas. I actually did three passes in total to get the coverage desired, letting it fully dry between passes. What this achieved was a surface that looked like natural field stone, the kind that was likely being used as a building component for the small keep being constructed in Hommlet, of which the Guard Tower is part.

The final part for the tower proper was the creation of the stone steps. Through some trial and error I got the foam “stones” to sit right for the most part and it was a simple matter of cutting, sanding, and gluing everything to get to its final shape. The painting process was the same as for the exterior of the tower itself.

Yet to Complete

At the time of posting this the second interior level is fully constructed, removable, and primed but not yet fully painted. I’ll add a followup post to this one when it’s complete. Also, the shield above the gatehouse likewise needs to be finished with the coat of arms of Hommlet.

Closing thoughts

In all I’m pleased with how it came out and it was a fun project to work on in the man cave. There are a few minor mistake areas, but not enough that people would notice unless looking really hard (one section of the battlements has a wider gap than I had anticipated and one arrow slit alignment issue).

One happy accident was the area of the placement for the catapults. I hadn’t set out with placing the engines there but imagine my surprise when the plastic ones from Wizkids just fit inside. Even better was the fact that I got four of them from the local gaming store reduction bin for something like a total of $10. I was originally going to create them out of balsa wood but this saved me time.

Another happy accident? Rufus the fighter who inhabits the tower? I was able to represent him with one of my Ral Partha miniatures which is actually one of the oldest minis I have in my collection. He was not mine originally but got passed down to me when my older brother stopped playing AD&D. There is something cool about the axe-wielding mini from the early 80s paired with the recently completed tower.

Overall, I hope when it’s needed in the campaign it will be a “big reveal” moment and the players will appreciate it. I’m not saying too much just yet as one of my players follows my blog. If nothing else

The finished Guardhouse!

then at least I got to share it with the wider gaming community.

I’m also pleased that in the end I decided against recreating the Moathouse itself. Others have already done it and done it quite well; no need to revisit. In a way it adds to the overall story of folks creating terrain for T1 – The Village of Hommlet… Does this now mean I need to make the Church of Saint Cuthbert too, or the Inn of the Welcome Wench?

One final note: as I’ve done plenty of these projects, one thing that always surprises me every time is the amount of waste material these things generate from all the cutting and sawing. It behooves you, at minimum, if attempting a project like this to clean up at least every night or it gets messy fast. This build I was very disciplined — after finishing each major section I had the hand broom out sweeping and was using the shop vac regularly. The sanding and cutting of the base was even more so. Trust me, your hobby area will thank you for the diligence.

For reference as completed: the tower is about 19½ inches tall, 13 inches wide, and 13 inches in depth.

There you have it — the Guard Tower of Rufus and Burne from TSR’s T1 - The Village of Hommlet.

As I noted about the Empire Fortress project above, that project really was using leftover parts from my abortive attempt to create Castle Von Wittgenstein from the Enemy Within campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play. I stopped that project because of the sheer size and scale along with the limited utility of it. The part I reused was what became the gatehouse. I’ll be posting about that in the not too distant future. It’s also ironic that project was inspired by the Moathouse too.

What are your thoughts on the project or the Village of Hommlet in general? 

End note: as I noted about the Empire Fortress project above. The project really was using leftover parts from my abortive attempt to create Castle Von Wittgenstein from the Enemy Within campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play. I stopped that project because of the sheer size and scale along with the limited utility of it. The part I reused was what became the gatehouse. I’ll be posting about that in the not too distant future. Its also ironic that project was inspired by the Moathouse too. 

HS1 – The Star Spangled Standoff, a module for Hurled into Eternity

As I noted at RPG Pub, the first module for Hurled into Eternity is ready to go: HS1 – The Star Spangled Standoff.

In keeping with the our 250th celebration of America’s Independence, likewise the townsfolk of Liberty Fork find themselves beset by outlaw forces of the Iron Confederation after the devastating Civil War. The good people of the town simply want a respite from the horrors of that conflict, but the Confederation has other ideas, yet somehow the Shattered Union staggers on.

Fortunately for the townsfolk, The Masked Rider and Spirit Hawk, heroes of the dusty trail, are there to render aid and set the wrong things right!

With all that said as an introduction, I invite you to take a look at the free PDF of the module to see just how things work in Hurled into Eternity. But I also add that it is very much a work in progress. What do I mean? Unlike most types of role-playing games, the western genre can’t fall back onto tropes like exploring dungeons and fighting monsters. Westerns are about shootouts and high stakes. But they also follow a script in a way. By that I mean the Judge needs to think more like a movie director to keep the action flowing.

So with all that said, I present the Alpha scenario of HS1 – The Star Spangled Standoff. I very much look forward to feedback because, unlike writing the rules for the game, modules have proved to be trickier. I’m not saying this as a cop out, but rather I think this is the best idea I’ve put forward so far. It needs input to determine if this is the right track.

So there it is. Download it, give it a whirl, and let me know your thoughts.

The Frontier beckons.

Link to the Alpha version of: HS1 – The Star Spangled Standoff

Link to the Alpha rules of: Hurled into Eternity

The Invaders: A License to Print Money That Disney Would Probably Burn Instead

With Supergirl's opening right around the corner, I went back to a post I made on a forum right after the disastrous release of The Marvels in 2023. I suspect Supergirl will suffer the same fate. But the funny thing about superhero movies? I don’t think it needs to be that way.

So what do the two have in common?

After watching the MCU chase its tail with lectures, multiverse homework, and diminishing returns, I returned to that forum post d and the idea that actually makes more sense now. Pure, unadulterated entertain-first superhero action. No modern baggage. No deconstruction. Just WWII-era heroes punching Nazis and super-villains like they mean it.

The Invaders. 

 

Clear-cut good versus evil. High-stakes spectacle. Legacy heroics done right. This is the period piece that feels like a return to Captain America: The First Avenger energy: but expanded into a full team book. Heroes being heroes. Audiences are starving for exactly this after years of gray morality, “messy heroines,” and "singing planets" nonsense. No flerkins need apply.

Why This Prints Money (If Done Right)

• Nostalgia + Fresh Hook: Digitally de-aged Chris Evans as Steve Rogers leading the charge? Instant credibility for the core audience that built the MCU. Pair him with classic WWII aesthetics, practical effects where possible, and massive action set pieces: D-Day landings, Atlantic naval battles, occult Nazi threats. No one’s tired of watching good guys win against actual evil.

• Avoids Every Post-2019 Trap: Straightforward plot. Axis super-soldiers. Vampire Nazis. Ancient threats. Earned heroism, real camaraderie, and decisive victories. No bait-and-switch marketing. No sidelining the lead to push new characters with identity arcs. Just pulp adventure done with modern budgets.

• Franchise Potential: One solid event film that can spawn sequels (post-war All-Winners Squad), a Disney+ series, or smart Avengers ties without forcing the multiverse garbage. Low-risk, high-reward compared to another mid-tier "modern hero has relevance issues" story.’ Hell, the Howling Commandos were in Captain America: The First Avenger, why not spin them off too?

Casting Breakdown & Suggestions

Here’s my take on who should be which character (I’m open to better suggestions, hit the comments):

• Captain America — Digitally de-aged Chris Evans. Non-negotiable. He is Steve Rogers. The de-aging tech worked for old Cap; it can absolutely deliver 1940s Steve kicking ass and taking names. Of course if Cap is in this, we need a de-aged Peggy Carter (Hailey Atwell) and Howard Stark (Dominic Carter) making appearances.

• Union Jack — Timothy Chalamet nails the British aristocrat/adventurer vibe: lean, intense, period-appropriate. He could bring that needed charisma to the Union Jack reveal.

• Spitfire — Freya Allen. Elegant, British. Perfect look and intensity for a super-speed heroine with that golden age flair.

• Bucky — Hold off for now. Save de-aged Sebastian Stan for a sequel or post-credits stinger. Keep the first film focused on Cap commanding the team.

• Namor — Toughest call, but worth including for the classic big-three dynamic. Tenoch Huerta (from Wakanda Forever) or a recast with someone imposing. Make him the anti-hero who still punches fascists hard. Also there is a some unusual restrictions on Namor in film owing to Universal owning the film rights.

• Miss America — A young, actress with that all-American presence. Sydney Sweeney, or Sadie Sink, for fresh energy.

• Whizzer — Speedster slot. Go athletic and charming: Glen Powell could work, or keep budget on effects with a strong unknown.

• Human Torch / Toro — Xolo Maridueña seems well suited to this. Practical fire work plus CGI spectacle.

All that said? To avoid the sprawl of Eternals in terms of characters on the big screen, I’d drop Namor and potentially Whizzer to keep the team leaner. Five to maybe six works and avoids the audience going “who?”

Villains: Baron Blood for vampire Nazi horror. Master Man as the super-soldier rival to Cap. Maybe some Red Skull ties. Again, Pure pulp fun, no moral ambiguity required.

Production Notes to Make It Epic

The tone should be Captain America: The First Avenger meets Raiders of the Lost Ark with strong team dynamics. Heavy on practical stunts and real location/period sets for that authentic WWII grit, then cut loose with the superpowers when it counts for maximum spectacle.

But let’s be real about Disney’s likely 180: they’d probably mess up with the casting of half the team, inject modern commentary, or turn it into another “found family with issues” vehicle. That’s why this stays a fantasy pitch for now. It highlights exactly what could work if they stopped fighting the audience.

Budget it as a 2.5-hour event film. Market it as “The Avengers of WWII” with the tagline: “Before the Avengers, there were the Invaders.”

This is the kind of movie that reminds people why they fell in love with superheroes in the first place: aspirational, fun, and entertaining. It dodges every lecture trap and delivers exactly what (nearly) everyone has been begging for.

Hollywood keeps wondering why the genre is struggling. Ideas like this are the answer. They just have to stop being Hollywood about it.

Am I way off base here or is a great idea? You tell me. 

When We Were Wizards- The Story of D&D, An Oral History of Dungeons and Dragons

 

I went into When We Were Wizards expecting the usual: a polished nostalgia piece about the “good old days,” a bit of myth-making, and the same recycled narrative about how it all came together like lightning in a bottle.

That’s not what this is.

This is very well done.

Production-wise, it’s tight. Clean narration, strong pacing, and it actually respects the listener’s time. No rambling, no filler. It moves. More importantly, it builds. Each episode adds weight instead of just circling the same talking points you’ve heard a hundred times before.

But where it really stands out?

It’s willing to get uncomfortable.

The story of TSR, and the people behind it, especially Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson isn’t told like a campfire legend. It’s messy. It’s human. It’s full of ego, missteps, clashes, and decisions that don’t always age well.

And here’s the part that’s going to ruffle feathers:

If even half of what’s presented here is true, then the online narrative that paints Gygax as some flawless architect of the hobby is complete nonsense.

Absolute nonsense.

This doesn’t diminish what he accomplished. Not even close. Co-creating D&D is still one of the most important moments in gaming history. That doesn’t change.

But this podcast does something a lot of people don’t want to do: it separates achievement from myth.

Gygax comes across as brilliant, driven…and flawed. Very flawed. Same goes for Arneson. Same goes for just about everyone involved. Which, frankly, makes the whole story more compelling, not less.

Because now it actually feels real.

What you get here isn’t a sanitized origin story. It’s a collision of personalities at the exact moment this hobby was being born. Deals, disagreements, credit disputes, business decisions; some smart, some questionable, some outright disastrous.

That’s the story.

And it’s a better one than the polished version.

Now, is everything in this podcast gospel? Probably not. No historical retelling ever is. There’s always framing, always perspective. But that’s not really the point.

The point is that it challenges the comfortable version of events.

And honestly? That alone makes it worth your time.

So where do I land?

This is one of the better pieces of RPG history content I’ve come across. Not because it tells you what you want to hear...but because it doesn’t. If you’re looking for hero worship, this isn’t it.

If you want something closer to the truth; even if that truth is a little inconvenient? Then yeah, this is absolutely worth a listen.

And to close? I have immense respect for Gary and Dave. That also does not blind me to totality of the story. 

The Citadel Giant Saga- Part III: Survival, Scarcity, and Why You Rarely See Them

My giant and reproduction box!

There has been a lot of discussion over the years about how rare the Citadel Giant actually is. 

With me being lucky enough to acquire one as I've noted here and here, my mind turned to scarcity and actually how many of these still exist. 

Rather than relying on vague statements like “very rare” or “hard to find,” it is possible to build a structured model that explains both how many were likely produced and how many still exist today. This is not about claiming exact numbers. It is about building a model that matches what we actually see in the hobby.

The accepted starting point is that roughly 1,000 Citadel Giants were produced. There is no surviving ledger or official production record, but this number aligns with long standing collector consensus and is a reasonable baseline.

From there, the real story is attrition. Over more than forty years, these models were not preserved with future collectors in mind. They were used, broken, discarded, and in some cases intentionally destroyed.

Attrition Buckets (40+ years)

• Melted for scrap or recasting: approximately 150 to 300
  Large metal models had real scrap value, and hobbyists also melted miniatures for home casting projects
• Catastrophic damage (unrecoverable): approximately 100 to 150
  Snapped ankles, failed joints, corrosion, and early adhesive failures often rendered examples unusable
• Lost or discarded (moves, cleanouts): approximately 150 to 250
  Entire collections were thrown out or abandoned, especially during the 1990s when early Citadel models were not valued
• Unknown or inaccessible (attics, estates): approximately 75 to 150
  Not destroyed, but effectively removed from circulation

When these categories are combined, the result is a surviving population of approximately 150 to 300 Citadel Giants in any condition worldwide. This is the core number that matters.

From that pool, further filtering is required. Not all survivors are meaningful to collectors. Many are fragments, incomplete, or heavily damaged. When those are removed, the number of recognizable Giants falls to roughly 120 to 200. From there, collector grade or restorable examples likely fall in the range of 50 to 100.

High completeness examples are rarer still. These are models retaining most of their interchangeable components and structural integrity. That group likely numbers between 20 and 40 worldwide.

At this point it becomes useful to break things down into tiers.

Tier I – NITB (Museum Tier)

• Original box
• Complete contents
• Untouched
• Estimated: 0 to 10 worldwide, likely closer to 0 to 5

Tier II – Full Component Survivor

• All five heads
• All three right hands
• All three victims
• Estimated: approximately 10 to 20 worldwide
• North America: approximately 3 to 8

Tier III – High Completeness

• Four or more heads
• Partial hands
• Most victims
• Estimated: approximately 20 to 40 worldwide

Tier IV – Standard Survivor

• One to three heads
• Limited parts
• Estimated: approximately 60 to 120 worldwide

Tier V – Fragment or Wreck

• Broken
• Partial
• Parts only
• Estimated: remainder of the surviving population

Geography introduces another layer of scarcity. By the time Warhammer began to gain traction in the United States, the Citadel Giant had already been out of production for nearly a decade. This created a structural imbalance that still exists today.

In the United Kingdom, the Giant was part of the original ecosystem. It was produced, sold, and used there. In North America, it was largely absent. Very few were imported during its production run, and most examples seen today arrived later through secondary market transfers.

As a result, North America likely has only 40 to 65 surviving examples across all tiers. When broken down further, the number of high completeness or full component examples becomes extremely small. It is realistic to estimate that only a handful of top tier examples exist across the entire continent.

There is also a simple way to validate this model. If more examples existed in circulation, we would see them. There would be more listings, more restoration threads, more parts trading, and more casual mentions. Instead, each appearance is an event. Years can pass between meaningful sightings. The same examples are recognized when they reappear. There is no steady market, only intermittent visibility.

That absence of chatter is not coincidence. It is evidence.

Of approximately 1,000 Citadel Giants produced, it is likely that only 150 to 300 survive in any condition today. Of those, perhaps 10 to 20 retain full component completeness, with only a small number located in North America. This is not a claim of precision. It is a model that fits what collectors actually observe.

And that is what matters.

(More details on my quest for the giant can be found here and here on Oldhammer.org.) 

Have you quested for this legendary model? if so, let me know your expediences. 

Gangbusters: TSR's Best Game You Never Played

 

“Gangbusters? What now?” I hear some of you (younger) gamers ask.

Believe it or not, there was a time before Grand Theft Auto, before Vice City, and before the immortal line, “… here we go again.” A time when games about gangsters doing gangster things didn’t require consoles, modded skins, or five-star wanted levels.

True story.

And beyond that true story sits an incredible game.

Before all that, there was a brief, but brilliant, epoch in tabletop gaming history when TSR (yes, that TSR, the company behind Dungeons & Dragons) published a slew of games that weren’t about elves, dungeons, or beholders. One of the brightest gems in that overlooked crown was a little game called Gangbusters.

Let me tell you about it.

The Forgotten Classic

One kick-ass game

Released in 1982 and designed by Rick Krebs, Gangbusters is one of the finest games TSR ever produced. A crime-and-corruption sandbox set in the roaring 1920s and ’30s, it offered players a world of Prohibition, tommy guns, crooked cops, backroom deals, and political ambition.

Think The Untouchables, but on your table.
Think Boardwalk Empire, decades before it existed.

At a lean 64 pages, the rules are elegant, tight, and; frankly—better than a lot of what came out of TSR at the time. While Dungeons & Dragons (in all its forms) was soaking up the spotlight and the dollars, Gangbusters quietly delivered a complete, flavorful, and intelligently designed role-playing experience.

And then?

It vanished.

Not because it was bad. Far from it.

It vanished in the whirlwind of TSR’s own making;a company rising fast, flying too close to the sun, and eventually burning itself out in palace intrigue that would’ve made Hamlet roll his eyes. In that mad scramble to expand, monetize, and outproduce the competition, Gangbusters got lost in the shuffle.

A casualty of success.
Like a corpse in a back-alley gutter in Lakefront City.

And that’s a damn shame.

Not Just Nostalgia

You can find deep dives elsewhere: YouTube retrospectives, blog series, forum threads, even posts from Rick Krebs himself. That’s not what this piece is about.

This is about design.

More specifically: intentional design.

Gangbusters knew exactly what it was and never flinched. It didn’t try to be all things to all people. It wasn’t built to chase trends or contort itself into whatever TSR thought would sell more boxed sets that quarter.

It was clear.
It was focused.
And it was un-apologetically about one thing: Living, thriving, or dying in a world of 1920s crime and corruption.

With decades of hindsight. After wading through countless bloated systems since, I appreciate that clarity more than ever.

Why It Matters Now

There’s something special about a game that knows exactly what it is and leans into it, hard.

Gangbusters didn’t apologize for its tone, its scope, or its play style. It carved out a corner of the RPG landscape and said:

“Here’s your world. Bootleg or bust.”

And in an era of sprawling mega-corebooks, endless supplements, and hyper-optimized character builds, there’s a refreshing honesty in that approach. It’s one I didn’t always appreciate when I was younger.

I do now.

So if you’ve never cracked the cover on Gangbusters, maybe it’s time. You might be surprised what treasures are buried in those 64 pages.

Not everything old is outdated.

Some things were just ahead of their time.

Played it? Just Read it? Admired it from afar? Let me know in the comments.