April Edition Live Magazine - April 2014 Issue. | Page 136

Rainbow Marines

wargaming

Retro Wargaming
This month we turn our collective
brains at Retro in a big way, retro arcades, PC and Console games, TV
shows and even Wargaming all have
a Retro past.

Rainbow Warrior Space Marine

As I mentioned in last month’s article, modern wargaming really began
in the 1930s and when we go back
that far we’re out of Retro territory.
Dial it forward into the ‘70s and ‘80s
and we’re in a true Retro time-space.
When I think Retro wargaming, my
first thought turns to Rogue Trader.
This game is the precursor to Games
Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000, it’s
the first edition of the current Sci-Fi
wargame. The game took typical
fantasy archetypes such as nights,
elves, goblins, rat-men, dwarfs and
jumped them all 40,000 years into
the future! What really marks this
in my retro field of vision is the inclusion of tongue-in-cheek elements
of which there are far too many to
name and highlight, but here are a
few choice examples:

There was the Marine chapter with
a multicoloured emblem called the
Rainbow Warriors.

Ork Rock-Band models known as
Goff Rockers.

And it’s this retro ‘look’ to vehicles
that leads to the second wargame
that comes up when I ask people
about Retro wargaming; Battletech.
Giant mechs/battlesuits with angled
armour, lasers and an arsenal of
weapons at their disposal really connects to the Retro imagery for me.
Having them stalking around the bat-

Chaos Noise Marines, the cock rock
hair-metal bands of the grim dark future. When they were first introduced
to the game, they had Mohawks,
leopard-print armour and guitarguns.

They included all sorts of human
colonies with strong, hyped-up Mad
Max imagery and feel.
I also feel like the tanks and armour
of the time really embody the Retro
fee;, tanks such as the iconic Space
Marine Razorback with its jutting angl \