This month’s White Dwarf magazine is a 152 pages and features the High Elves. Read on for the Tale of Painter’s in depth review of the publication.
Let’s break the magazine down into sections. I’ll write a brief paragraph about the section and then give it two scores out of 10. One score will be for usefulness, the second will be for rereadability (I think I just invented a word).
New Releases:
44 pages of all the latest High Elf releases, a single model for the Hobbit Strategy Battle Game, another t-shirt this month and new books from Black Library. This section has really come on in leaps and bounds since it’s reinvention. I like the prices at the end of the section. It’s convenient. Taking the prices away from the products and descriptions gives it less of a catalogue feel. The photos have improved significantly. The imagery is clear with no obscuring dark shadows or coloured light.
Usefulness – 8/10 (need to know about box options and prices).
Rereadability – 2/10 (no need to return).
Army of the Month:
Mark Bedford’s Blood Angels army is one of those rare beautiful sights that has a lot of gorgeous Forge World models in it. It’s enough to make you get your credit card out. My only concern is his inability to paint the same shade of red more then once (ultra-precise Stahly must be foaming at the mouth and twitching at this).
Usefulness – 5/10 (hardly any conversions and varying paint schemes are of no use to me)
Rereadability – 7/10 (pretty pictures will make me return).
Jervais Johnson
Jervais’ article is one of those soapbox sections where a senior individual at Games Workshop gets to tell us his thoughts and feelings. This month is the concluding part Games Masters. Quite inspirational, he talks a lot of sense, although sometimes he’s just stating the obvious. One of his word’s of wisdom for being a Games Master is Create a Narrative… well duh!
Usefulness – 7/10 (useful if you want to be a games master)
Rereadability – 5/10 (average score, you might return.
Battle Report
The High Elves march to war against Jes’ Ogre Kingdoms army. We last saw Jes’ Ogres back in November when they took on Adam Troke’s Chaos. I think it’s too soon to be seeing them again. I would have liked to see the High Elves take on Goblins personally. I think White Dwarf must read the Tale of Painter’s reviews because this month the images in the battle report are much bigger. The photography isn’t as good as some of the other areas, I’ve sen better pictures taken on an iPhone.
Usefulness – 8/10 (gives a basic but informative insight into what the new models are capable of)
Rereadability – 4/10 (slim chance of reading this again because we’ve seen too much of these Ogres)
Armchair General
OK, White Dwarf has definitely been reading Stahly’s magazine reviews… he’s been saying they need new articles and we have one! If you’ve ever wondered why Adam Troke likes Dark Angels then this article is for you. Inspired by this article, I will be posting an article on Tale of Painters telling you why I like dust. Seriously, this is a poor idea for an article. It’s too close to Army of the Month because it show’s models from Adam’s army.
Usefulness 1/10 (so poor I’m considering tearing the pages out to make paper rhino models so they have some use)
Rereadability 1/10 (nice pictures, but we’ve seen Adam’s models before)
Blanchitsu
We’re given a break this month from massaging John Blanche’s ego as he features some models from Julian Bayliss who is a multiple Golden Demon winner. Julian, it would seem, appears to like nipples on his models. In all fairness, they’re really nice conversions with a dark gritty feel to them.
Usefulness 7/10 (inspiring conversions)
Rereadability 5/10 (could do with more insight to make it even more interesting)
Hall of Fame
Helbrute makes it into the Hall of Fame this month. Interesting to read the thoughts of sculptor Oliver Norman.
Usefulness 2/10 (serves no purpose other then to award good work)
Rereadability 2/10 (no need to return to read this again)
The Time of Dragons
An interview with Mat Ward and Trish Carden about Dragons. Really interesting to read some background of Dragons in Warhammer Fantasy. Trish goes on to explain the ideas and processes to designing and creating dragons.
Usefulness 7/10 (always good to brush up on your fluff)
Rereadability 7/10 (I find it interesting to learn how the designers work)
Parade Ground, Kit Bash, Parade Ground 2 and Golden Demon 2012
I love these sections. We stray away from the gleaming paint jobs of the eavy metal team and get to be inspired but hobbyists of a similar level to ourselves. The first parade ground is all about Dreadnoughts. It’s mainly Imperial Dreads, with a single Helbrute from a reader at the end. They should have included Ork Dreadnoughts for variety. Kitbash has an impressive altar of Chaos conversion, some lovely converted cultists and a regiment of High Elves that don’t look converted in the slightest. I’ve never really considered weapon and head swaps to be true conversions. Parade Ground has a second article this month which features titans. They’re all Imperial Titans, whilst impressive what a let down! No Tyranid or Eldar titans. Golden Demon this month is just two pages featuring four Gold winners and a Silver. I’m not a golden demon winner (I have two UK finalist pins though) but I can’t help but feel the level in Japan isn’t as high as it is in Europe… anyone want to fly out to Japan next year and pick up a couple of Golden Demons (completely joking, before I start getting Japanese hate mail).
Usefulness 7/10 (inspiring stuff)
Rereadability 8/10 (I love looking at other people’s models)
Paint Splatter
Previous Paint Splatters have been a major disappointment which have just included lists of paints or basic three step guides. Is this month’s section any better? Well, actually it is. The guide on the Flamespyre Phoenix is actually quite comprehensive with a total of 23 steps. The sisters of Avelorn has a 21 step guide as well. The models are nice as well, they look good. There are some lists of paints for a few of the High Elf models. Matt Hutson’s guide to painting green icicles baffles me though… why green, is he colour blind? Dan Harden’s guide to painting horses is incredible though, 5 step guides to painting 8 different kinds of horses.
Usefulness 9/10 (completely turned it around this month, very good)
Rereadability 9/10 (it’s worth saving this section)
Jeremy Vetock
Unlike Jervis’ patronising articles where he spells out the obvious, Jeremy has a really friendly, humorous style and it’s genuinely interesting to read about his hobby adventures.
Usefulness 5/10 (more interesting then useful)
Rereadability 6/10 (yeah it’s nice, read it again)
What’s on and Where to Buy
Long section of information you’d use your iPhone to find out. In today’s day and age this section is redundant. I did a double take on page 126 when I thought I saw a sculpt of a new Tyranid Bio-Titan, but alas it’s the 3-up model of the Tyrannofex.
Usefulness 8/10 (really useful if you want to know what’s on and where)
Rereadability 1/10 (no need to ever return to this because they will put it in next months issue)
This month in
This is our doorway into the behind the scenes at Games Workshop Headquarters. I always find it interesting to read about what the White Dwarf team have been working on. We also get to hear from the design studio on the latest model and rules releases. They’ve also crow-barred in some Lord of the Rings models which are sorely missing in this issue. It’s like they put the magazine together and at the end said “oh crap, we’ve forgotten that other game we make!” The Forgeworld section is always good to see something new and exciting and this month doesn’t disappoint with a cool image of the Fellglaive super heavy tank which must be an early prototype because it different to the one I saw at the Forge World openday. Jes also interviews Guy Healy who now writes for Black Library.
Usefulness 6/10 (nice to see what the team has been up to)
Rereadability 7/10 (insightful)
Conclusion
This issue lacks variety. It’s two sided. It’s all High Elves (obviously) and Space Marine (including chaos) orientated. Article about Dark Angels, Dreadnoughts, Blood Angel Army of the Month, Helbrute Hall of Fame. Whilst I enjoyed all the articles and feel inspired to pick up my hobby tools and spend today working on my own models I just feel they could have done more for other areas of the hobby like some of the xenos races in 40k, or at least include some articles on the Hobbit.
This issue also lacks anything in the way of scenarios, special rules, data sheets etc.
I’m going to give this issue two scores. One from a painter’s point of view and one from a wargamer’s perspective.
Painter 7/10
Wargamer 3/10
Do you agree or have I got it drastically wrong? Tell me in the comments.
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This is a great review! I am also dissapointed a bit with the magazine( as every month), even being a HE player. I really miss the old battle reports…they had an narrative! (that's why it is so annoying to read Jervis articles…it seems to me that nobody in GW reads his articles, they could learn some useful stuff).
I really, really, miss some tactics articles in the magazine as well.
I liked your point about the rereadibility. There are some old WD issues that I have read several times, just because of the joy of it; they had good articles, great battle reports, and beautiful miniatures…
Unless they start doing something different with the magazine, and adding more variety, I will start selecting the issues I buy….
some space marine chapters have not a clear marking style. we know that an ultramarine sergent has a red skull in his omega but what about other chapters?
many chapters seem to not even follow the red or white helet pattern for sergents and veterans, or reading forge world books it is difficult to understand how they work the company markings. every month can be dedicated to markings of a chapter. or an ork clan. or a cabal color and insignias. i don t know the correct markings for the crows for an exemple. i red somewhere thar crimson fists veterans have not a white elmet but two red fists. nothing official anyway.
White Dwarf.. or as i see it same crap, different year. Articles re-hashed every few years, like lets take a look at the phases in WFB… yeah yeah BORING!!!
and isn't i funny how every new army wins in the battle report used to promote it, or as i see it battle report = you must but this new army because its the best yadda yadda… dull!
I agree with you on the paint splatter article as this months was easily the most useful yet. Still I'd much prefer the more in depth articles of yesteryear.
Another gripe I have is with the battle reports. I miss the narrative driven battle reports we used to get and rarely bother to read the full report these days.
I didnt really find much to enjoy in this issue (as a 40k player).
Agree the painting guides in this issue are really useful though and will make use of them in the future.
Poor old Hobbit. There s just no real desire to market and develop the game. There isn't the same phenomenon with the Hobbit tat came from LOTR but they could do more amongst the gaming community to get gamers to play it. You wonder when it will finally be abandoned by GW.
12 months after the last movie…
A good review I reckon. My biggest gripe at the moment is the same armies every month. You wait those nids will be in again next month… They need to start putting in some variety it's not as if there aren't a while load of amazing models up in Nottingham!
Hi, generally fair I think. The only two points I'd bring you up on are: The Jervis article is only patronising if you know what the hell a GM is. There will be people reading this who don't have 20-odd years of wargaming and have never roleplayed. I think they've deliberately given Jeremy "our" end of the hobby and Jervis the newer players. Just a thought.
The other one is the Chrace unit, I thought it was a nice idea to show people that they are "allowed" to do nifty little things like putting pennants in units or a white lion (including green stuff but that is being picky) in as the champion. You again forget that just as you like Parade Ground as it is more the level of mortals so too is weapon swops the entry level of converting and to ignore it as an option would seem perverse.
Like I say, mostly fair, just try to remember that it isn't just for hoary old vets like us. 😉
This was exactly what I was thinking! I've played D&D for donkeys years but it takes effort to get the idea of a GM into the minds of younger or less experinced wargamers!