Tony Ackland

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Tony Ackland is an artist who has worked on pieces found in many works in the tabletop gaming genre over the years, although his primary claim to fame is quite literally designing most of the Chaos and Daemon aesthetic for Games Workshop and Citadel.

The Legend

Originally a freelance miniature sculptor, Ackland met Bryan Ansell at a convention and sculpted a few pieces and provides artwork for Ansell's cofounded company Asgard Miniatures. After Ansell sold his stock to his partners in 1981 and went to work with Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson to found Citadel Miniatures while Ackland followed his friend to do the same work for them.

While initially Ansell butter heads with Livingstone and Jackson over company policy followed by selling his shares and a leave of absence, the poor management of the other two lead to them to put Ansell entirely in charge of Citadel upon his return. Ansell immediately hired Ackland as a fulltime employee.

Ackland and the rest of the artists shared the workload between advert design, miniature concept, and illustrations.

By 1983 Citadel was the most financially successful part of the Games Workshop company under Ansell, while Livingstone and Jackson had used the Fighting Fantasy books to become millionaires. The two sold the company to Ansell with the result being, according to Ackland, more artistic freedom but more "decision by committee" resulting in Ackland focusing his work on Flame Productions, the Games Workshop branch that put out Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Creations

• Zoats - Ansell asked the Cutadel staff to create something similar to Adzel from Polesotechnic League but less reptilian. Ackland gave him Zoats.
• Fimir - Ansell tasked Graeme Davis with creating a unique race only found in Warhammer. Graeme enlisted Ansell and said they would base it on Fomorians from Celtic myth. Ackland based his design on the depictions of the artist Alan Lee.