Citadel Combat Cards History & 1st Edition Rules

Citadel Combat Cards

For those that don’t know the first version of the Citadel Combat Cards were packs of cards, similar to Top Trumps, produced by Games Workshop in 1988. They were the brainchild of Jervis Johnson (Games Workshop game designer known for Blood Bowl, Advanced Heroquest and many many others) and were conceived following his visits to newsagents in Nottingham and seeing the popularity of collectible cards.

Each set consisted of a title card and 35 playing cards, each showing a Citadel Miniature along with a name, type and statistics. There were 6 sets Chaos, Dwarfs, Goblinoids, Monsters, Spacewar and Warriors.

White Dwarf 106 (October 1988)         

White Dwarf 108 (December 1988)

Evidently the release was delayed. So it is likely they were available at the very back end of 1988, early 1989.

Something also worth noting is the background colours of four of the released sets were changed from that shown in the adverts.

Chaos

Changed from black to red.

Dwarfs

Changed from light blue to dark blue.

Goblinoids

Monsters

Spacewar

Changed from grey to light blue.

Warriors

Changed from red to purple.

In addition to the basic rules there were bonus games included in the packs for the first releases. These were dropped on later revisions which only came with the basic rules.

Basic Rules

Imposter!

(Citadel Combat Cards - Chaos Deck Bonus Game)

Battle Lines

(Citadel Combat Cards - Dwarfs Deck Bonus Game)

Duel to the Death

(Citadel Combat Cards - Goblinoids Deck Bonus Game)

All or Nothing

(Citadel Combat Cards - Monsters Deck Bonus Game)

Deadly Doubles

(Citadel Combat Cards - Spacewar Deck Bonus Game)

Snivlin’ Snotling

(Citadel Combat Cards - Warriors Deck Bonus Game)

Games Workshop didn’t just leave it at the bonus games on the back of the cards they also published two additional sets of rules by Jervis Johnson in White Dwarf.

White Dwarf 114 (June 1989) - Attack!

White Dwarf 115 (July 1989) - Charge!

Following the initial flurry following the release of the 1st edition, apart from the odd advertisement and appearance in the catalogues there was nothing until the 2nd Edition being released in the early 90’s followed by two further editions. Further information on the history of the later releases can be found in Jordan Sorcery’s video.

If you are interested in collecting the miniatures that appear in the cards why not join the Facebook Group. I will post more details of the miniatures later.

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