The Good Stuff:
A gallery of Duncan Rhode’s and Chris Peach’s Vampire Counts and Brets and a gallery of alternate paint schemes for the Chaos Dark Vengeance models.
What’s In There For Painters and Modellers?
An ‘Eavy Metal showcase of the Dark Vengeance models; a showcase of some painted 40k terrain (same paintjobs as a couple of years before); a showcase of some alternate Chaos Dark Vengeance paintjobs; a Space Marine modelling workshop (almost all of the models are from armies shown numerous times before); a Space Wolves Armies on Parade entry; Hall of Heroes with the Slann Mage Priest; Golden Demon gallery with some Daemons; a Forge World Red Scorpions showcase; a gallery of a Vampire Counts and Brets army.
About this issue:
When you read the list above, you must think this issue is packed with hobby stuff. Well, wrong. Most of the above articles are either too short or full of recyled material or both. For example, the Space Marine modelling workshop is full of models shown many times before, as is the terrain showcase. A real bummer was the army showcase with two awesomely painted and converted Vampire Counts and Brets armies – only 6 pages of only full-spread pictures with almost zero text. No talk about where the inspiration came from, no painting tips, just pictures. In fact, there isn’t a single tutorial in this issue.
On the Dark Vengeance coverage, as expected, pictures of the box contents are repeated all over the issue. On page 6 and 7 are the Dark Angels, 8 and 9 has the Chaos models, page 22 and 23 has both armies in a single picture for a change, page 25 Dark Angels in a full page picture, 26 the same for Chaos, page 32 and 33 has the Dark Angels models again (this time with a little fluff), page 34 and 35 is the same for the Chaos models, and then there comes four pages of an ‘Eavy Metal showcase with the same paintjobs again… Finally there is an 26 pages long playthrough through all of Dark Vengeance missions, again played with the same Dark Vengeance models like before… I mean the models are breathtaking, but this is even sillier than the Storm of Magic Chimera that was featured in over 40 pictures in a single magazine.
The Verdict:
The blandness and uninspiring articles in White Dwarf continue.. oh isn’t this the same sentence I started the last month’s verdict with? The whole purpose of this month’s issue is to shove Dark Vengeance down your throat, the rest of the magazine is pretty uninspired as usually. The article I enjoyed most was the Vampire Counts army, sadly it got so little space. If they would have cut down the lengthy Dark Vengeance coverage there would have been definately more room for the more interesting bits.
Also I was disappointed that there were no free models coming with this issue like with Assault on Black Reach back in the days (but after Island of Blood not really surprising). So, only a 3/10 from me. Please GW, give WD more staff capacities or a new editor, I really don’t like where the magazine is heading.
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Whilst it remains as an in house production WD will never improve or change from being an advert based brochure…
WD has become nothing but an advertising platform for whatever is new. And you'll see the same crap month after month until something newer comes along. It seems to me that if you want real, honest hobby talk, you have to come out here to the blogs.
Stunning, unbelievable, outstanding, fantastic – enough about the models in Dark Vengeance. This White Dwarf, in my opinion, was appalling. Trying to ram the new models down your throat and the continual repetition becomes mind numbing after the fifth time you see the same models. 42 pages of the new models? It's not even a catalogue, though, because of this, it's just a £4.50 advert. Sorry, Games Workshop, but you need to improve the quality of White Dwarf before you expect people to buy it.
I have to agree. This one was really bad; absolutely nothing of use or interest in this issue. I think it's high time the editor gets the boot. He seems completely incapable of providing what customers want in White Dwarf.
I don't think the top brass really care what the customer wants and the current editor is in place because he give the top brass what they want – a bland product catalogue focussed purely on trying to drive sales. Of course, I'm somewhat cynical about it all these days, but from years of collecting, it has seemed more and more recently that as soon as WD starts to show signs of some decent content, the editor is shifted out and we return to the current state.
recently posted by Darnok on warseer:
WD is changing in a fairly big way. They are moving out of the design studio into completely new offices and have brought in an outsider to head up the new format magazine (a former editor of a major successful magazine). The new magazine will have increased content and is being invested in with more money by GW in an attempt to break with the concept amongst many readers that it is little more than a figures advert. They've been working on the new mag since early May (4 WDs have been released since), so I'd expect the first of the new look fairly soon, but it would give us an idea on internal turn around times when it appears…
shamefully accurate review.
"Please GW, give WD more staff capacities or a new editor" you got it right
Man, I let my subscription go this month. I've been a subscriber for a few years now but I for last year I felt like I was just reading a product catalogue that I am paying for. Where's the hobby in this magazine? It felt like a waste of my time reading White Dwarf. I'll just look at the free Games Workshop blog and read their free emails to keep tabs on what's new. That's good enough for me.
"The blandness and uninspiring articles in White Dwarf continue.."
I would just make a template for this that automatically downloads the current issue's coverpage. 😀
The only reason I read WD is because I do so since issue 1. Gotta catch them all!
WD is just an advert these days. The saddest thing is you have to pay a premium for getting advertised to. Why pay for that?
agreed. Not bought WD for ages. I keep a scrap book with tips, techniques and inspirational ideas in it largely from WD's, but I've not added a snipping this year! unacceptable!
It seems as though GW are using WD purely as an advert for product. Of course, this is probably right – you invest in a magazine in order to secure sales. But must they go by the lowest common denominator and simply display pictures of the same stuff over and over? A good hobby article should be able to show off stuff, but also inspire the reader – that should in theory generate more sales than simply showing a picture and going "look how cool this looks, go buy it".
So sadly true. I've given up even trying to read WD, just have a quick look at the pics then up on the shelf. I only still receive it because I complained and got an extra year free, but that's come to an end and I have no intention of buying it till something serious changes.
There was a period maybe 6 or so months ago when it started to improve a little, but then that editor got shifted out and its just been terrible ever since.
Thanks again guys, fingers crossed for next month.