Some people didn’t believe the first rumours, but now the day has come: The venerable monthly White Dwarf is no more, replaced by a thinner weekly edition and a new monthly magazine called Warhammer: Visions. In this combined post, Stahly takes a look at the first issue of White Dwarf Weekly, while Garfy shares his thoughts about Warhammer: Visions. Check out this epic review and learn what to expect from GW’s new publications (and what not).
Stahly: Let’s start with a look at White Dwarf, whichfrom now on is officially Games Workshop’s weekly magazine:
White Dwarf #1 – Contents
Cover – 1 page
Opening Salvo (Editorial) – 1 page
Contents/New Releases overview – 1 page
New Releases – 10 pages
Jervis Johnson (with a a mini game for seizing the initiative) – 2 pages
Monstrous Invasion (an article about playing with and against Tyranids) – 4 pages
Paint Splatter (painting Longbeards) – 2 pages
Sprues and Glue (a moddeling article for working with plastic glue) – 2 pages
Rules: Belagar Ironhammer (full rules for the dwarf king and tactical advise from Dan and Adam) – 2 pages
Designers Notes (interview with the designers of the Longbeards/Hammerers kit) – 2 pages
This Week in White Dwarf – 5 pages
Warhammer Visions advert – 1 page
Back Cover – 1 page
General Impressions
White Dwarf Weekly is offering 32 pages (including the cover) for 2.40 pounds/3,20 Euro. Size is the same as the monthly White Dwarf, as is the paper quality. There is no gloss/matte effect on the cover though or a fold-out. They didn’t change the design much, I feel the pictures are a bit smaller and the pages are a bit more crammed though. Most noticable is the low page count. In fact, it’s a very short magazine.
When you take a look at the contents list, you notice that they carried over a lot of features. As usually it starts with the new releases section, which makes up a large portion of the issue. A new addition is Sprue and Glue, a modelling guide which gives advice for using plastic glue this time. It’s clearly aimed at beginners. I remember when I started out I found such articles in WD useful, so I’ll let it pass. The article about Tyranids I found lacklustre. Even though four different people have their say about Tyranids, there is little advice except for “do what you think is cool”.
Also new is the inclusion of rules. As it seems, they won’t release army books in the first week anymore, so there are the rules for Belagar Ironhammer that you can use until you get the book. Arguably useful. What I enjoyed was “This week in White Dwarf”, 5 pages mixed with all kinds of funny blobs and pieces. Amongst others, there was a page with Dwarf trivia, some designer notes on Belagar, funny excerpts from various army books, a reader model of the week and a tongue-in-cheek Q&A.
In general, you can say that they took everything from old White Dwarf but did away with the showcase sections like Parade Ground or Kitbash, which can now be found in Warhammer: Visions. However, I feel that the showcases in the old “monthly” WD added a good portion of variety to the magazine. Weekly WD is all about the releases of the week and not much else. There might be little reason to pick up this magazine for someone who isn’t interested in Longbeards or Hammerers.
Garfy: Now over to the other new magazine.
Warhammer: Visions #1 – Contents
Tyranid New Releases
Hobbit New Releases
Forge World
Army of the Month
Parade Ground
Arhiman Must Die (battle report)
Kit Bash
Blanchitsu
The Hive Fleets
Paint Splatter
Store Finder
Subscriptions
Parting Shot
General Impression
Warhammer Visions is a smaller size, 21.5cm (h) x 16.5cm (w), a bit larger than A5. It has 232 pages, and the cover price is £7.50/9 Euro. The format was being advertised as having “a stunning new extended pictorial style” and “more fantastic photographs of Citadel miniatures than ever before”. Warhammer Visions is an art book and because of it’s nature the text is limited to a minimum, and comes as just short captions in three languages (English, German and French).
This compact sized monthly magazine is brought to you by the creators of White Dwarf. It isn’t White Dwarf, it’s a completely separate entity. It’s small size visual compendium with an expensive price tag. A lot of people are comparing and judging this to previous editions of White Dwarf which is unfair because it’s something completely new that Games Workshop has never done before. The closest thing you can compare this to is the old Golden Demon winner booklets that use to be given away with old issues of White Dwarf and people loved those and have been crying out for those for years.
Visions starts with pictures of the new releases – in fact, last month’s Tyranid and Hobbit releases, as the magazine will be a recapitulation of the month that passed. We’ve already seen a lot of these pictures from last month’s White Dwarf which is unfortunate for a brand new magazine (unless you really love the Hobbit and Tyranids then it’s double bonus for you). There is a fold out section which gives you a large battle scene featuring Tyranids. Army of the Month looks great but it’s missing the dialogue from the featured painter explaining their ideas and thought processes. 50 pages of parade ground focusses on Golden Demon winners and this is the best bit of Warhammer Visions because it doesn’t need text, it’s a shame they use to give these Golden Demon Winner books away for free with White Dwarf and they don’t anymore.
The battle report is pictorial with minimal amounts of text. We were all shocked when new White Dwarf took away our turn by turn battle maps, well they’ve taken our words now. How long before they remove the pictures as well ;-). Kit bash is nice, it works in the new format, nice close ups and a few notes. Hive Fleets is just more Tyranid pictures, I felt we had enough Tyranid pictures earlier on in the book. 11 pages of paint splatter on Tyranids. These are just paint recipes, useful if you’re just starting out but this Visions isn’t for newbies, it’s an artbook showcasing world class painting, the tutorials need to reflect that. Store lists are at the back and feature more words then the rest of the magazine.
Conclusion
Stahly – For my taste, White Dwarf weekly is too one-dimensional with the only focus on the releases of the week. Even for the low price, the page count is woefully short, especially considering a full month of WD weekly will cost you 9,60 pounds/12,80 Euro for 128 pages, while the monthly WD had on average 148 pages for 5,50 pounds/8,00 Euro before. In my opinion, they need to increase the page by 8 or 12 pages and bring back more variety in terms of what armies and game systems are featured. I wouldn’t mind seeing them bringing back features like Army of the Month or Kitbash from Visions. 32 pages are so short, chances are you’ll probably flick through this issue one time and put it on your shelf left to gather dust for all eternity. 4/10
When it comes to Warhammer Visions, I was very disappointed. I predict the format will tank in less than a year, either to disappear completely or to be overhauled majorly. I just don’t see a target group for what is essentially a model p*rn magazine. Or a picture book for adults. Don’t get me wrong. Hobby showcases are great, I love looking at neatly painted and well photographed miniatures – as a part of a magazine which has a lot of other stuff thrown into the mix. But a magazine merely consisting of pictures? Even though the photography is high-class, there are millions of beautifully painted models all over the WWW. Most people just won’t feel the need to shell out extra money when they can find all those inspiration online for free. Especially considering that despite the high page count, Warhammer Visions is lacking variety – most of the issue are made up of the same ‘Eavy Metal and studio models on the same Realm of Battle boards with the same Citadel terrain kits over and over again. 2/10
Garfy – I really like White Dwarf weekly. I love the idea of getting a weekly hobby fix. I like the streamlined feel to it. I like the content. There is paint splatter, a gaming article, rules, design notes and no store listings. This is like old white dwarf from the early 1990’s but with better photography but no battle report. 7/10 (would have been 9/10 if it had included a battle report and army of the month and 10/10 if had included a free gift like a model on the front).
As for Warhammer Visions, my excitement turned to disappointment really quickly. Whilst some of the features work, such as Kit Bash and Parade Ground. All the other features are seriously lacking context. By that I mean explanatory text. Imagine you’re brand new to the hobby and you pick up Visions. It wouldn’t answer any of your questions. You have to have prior knowledge to understand Visions and if you already have that knowledge then you kinda don’t need Visions. I’ve already seen a lot of the Golden Demon winners online and I’ve already seen the Tyranid models in the Codex. The paint splatter pictures with no advice or guidance isn’t up to the quality of the painting featured in the magazine. This magazine is a solution to a problem that never existed. Gutted. 3/10.
Stahly: Garfy raises a good point. From my professional point of view as someone who works in the media industry, I think Visions won’t work at newsagents. The small size will go under, and you need a flashy cover with big headlines to grab the attention between all the magazines at the newsagents’ shelves. And for someone who has never heard of the hobby and just picked up this magazine when browsing the shelves because he liked the cool alien on the cover, there is no explanation what this all is about. On the other hand, the more “coverage” White Dwarf will be only available at GW shops and indepandant retailers (currently with no subscription option), while it should really be the other way round. I think GW felt clever because they thought that with a weekly publication they would get people into their stores every week, picking up their copy and hopefully buying something else. But it isn’t said that people who bought one magazine a month will suddenly buy 5 magazines a month now. And if you don’t have a shop carrying White Dwarf around, you will miss out completely or need to buy a poorly made ebook conversion online. Exactly for this reason I predict a a large increase in waste circulation and shrinking print runs as the magazines will cannibalise themselves. Not a great prospect, as I imagine there is a lot of pressure on the White Dwarf team after the horrible last year results that became public a little while ago.
Garfy: Visions also creates a bigger problem for White Dwarf that no one has picked up on… if they can produce a 232 page full colour book for just over £7 then why are they charging £20 for the armies on parade book which is recycled articles and less pages?
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I've been buying White Dwarf since 1988 and collected GW stuff for almost as long. I recognise that GW is a business and needs to make a profit to survive and I have not been blind to the gradual commercialisation of GW over the years and the continued disconnect with long term gamers in the process. I've put up with it DESPITE GW, not because of them. However, I think the new changes to White Dwarf are the last straw for me. There are a number of reasons for this; first I don't want to go to GW every Saturday (my nearest store is 40mins away); second the expensive visions magazine is a collection of photo's that contains nothing useful for me as a hobbyist; third; the weekly magazine is too superficial and lacking the depth to maintain my interest; fourth the new weekly magazine maintains the long-term GW trend of making no effort to engage with the day-to-day of the hobby. By this I mean I'm reading a sales brochure rather than a magazine for fans. Why are there never any sections talking about you and I? Questions and answers sections/hobbyist reviews/amateur armies showcased/a classified section for gamers to contact one another – hook up and game. Are GW so arrogant that they don't need the input of their customers or so frightened of being criticised by gamers that they refuse to go there; have you ever tried contacting GW? It's virtually impossible to find any outlet to provide feedback. I find it absolutely staggering that an organisation such as GW that is solely dependant upon the goodwill of it's customers and their love of the hobby, does not recognise the long term commercial value of engaging with them. How on earth can GW produce a credible strategic business plan for the longer term if it does not understand who is buying it's products and what they want for the future. For example the demographic of the hobby must be changing and centred around affluent long-term gamers like myself rather than hooking into today's kids and sustaining their interest against obvious competition from computer games. This is short sited and unsustainable and the changes to White Dwarf will only accelerate this process and serve to minimise even further GW's core customer base. This isn't conjecture either, WD's sales figures are dropping -I can't tell you how disappointed I am at this -it genuinely feels like the end of an era.
My question would be well, if WD weekly basically focuses on telling you about new releases, and you have to go into a GW to buy it, wouldn't you have already spoken to the staff and been told everything you needed anyway?
I don't understand why all these "White Dwarfs Bunker Folks" are so dead set against giving advice other than rudimentary painting skills… I remember old White Dwarf Magazines having great repeat reading value as you could see how people played their armies, how battle reports might have changed if someone had done something differently, and how changes to the game or new armies would affect the game… now it seems like even with new editions of the game and supplement after supplement coming out, there is so little discussion of tactics and strategy… all they want to do is show the same 1/2 dozen painted armies and advertise next months releases… it is a shame… thanks as always for the reviews! you guys do a great job!!!
I find both magazines pretty poor. The weekly is far too expensive, for the limited content that is in it, and no sales pitches arent content. And that tyranid "article" was all that was "MC's are dope, buy them all".
The Visions mag is just insulting. The internet exists GW! Piccys of minis is free there 🙂 And often painted by much more talented painters then you seem to find 🙂
I am out on both accounts.
A nice balanced review.
I did appriciate when both dropped through my door on Saturday. To be fair I have long given up reading White Dwarf as it was not the magazine from my gaming past. I still subscribed to get my monthly cool miniatures update.
However I do think that you have missed one of the major reason for the weekly White Dwarf in yoru review, it is very good way of getting hobbyists back into the store to pick up their copy.
I mulled over the weekend to think if I would subscribe to Visions or not, and decided not to. Not out of any rage in fact quite the opposite which surprised me.
Pretty much i go into town every saturday to do one thing or another, so thought I would make my local GW store a stop off point to pick up White Dwarf and read through whilst I sit down for a coffee whilst the wife finds some more shoes that will be worn once.
In fact I think I have hit on a new store idea. SHOE WORKSHOP. where you are introduced to the world of shoes and we have new releases each week. Not sure how I would intro game a shoe in the same way…………..
If only White Dwarf Weekly was more like the old LOTR Battle Games magazine about 22 pages plus a miniature for £4 every 2 Weeks. I got most of my LOTR collection through that mag. Plus I remember my first white dwarf 163 was £2.25 after 20 years my subscription has come to a END and that was the only thing I have bought from GW for the last 5 years.
That is a great and honest opinion, thank you guys for that.
I got the Visions magazine on Saturday and went thru it quickly, and I have to say, very nice pictures. That's it. No interest at all. It is something that you can find online anytime, maybe the quality of the pictures won't be the same as most of us are not professional photographers, but just fans. Still, variation, step by step pictures and great explanations (like the tutorials that you guys publish) is 1000% times better than an end picture that I can find online. It is totally useless, unless it is the month when something for your army gets released.
I haven’t got the weekly white dwarf yet, as I got the Visions in a store in Germany and it was in German. But I am not surprised with the reviews either, and I am very very disappointed that they totally eliminated the battle report, it was a classic on the magazine, and since they removed the tactics and strategy articles, the only way to figure out how to do something different/new with your army.
They have lost someone who has bought the White Dwarf for over 14 years with this.
I cancelled my subscription this morning. I telephoned GW almost immediately after customer services opened, and was tenth in the queue, but waited less than 2 minutes before I spoke to a rep. I was then put through to subscriptions ( who are independent of GW) and had was on hold for quite a while. When I got through, I got a refund without any problem for the remaining 6 issues I had left to run. The rep in subscriptions was very helpful, and said they were inundated with cancellation.I did consider letting my subscription run to the end, but then decided the Vision has been in the pipe line for some time, and therefore the first issue should be an exemplar for future issues requiring some adjustments, but not the complete rethink, and start again I feel it needs
Great reviews as always guys, and I totally agree with the review of the first Visions scoring. 2/3 out of 10 is about right. You cannot have a battle report without army lists, and turn by turn words and maps. When will they learn this? They had it before, why f**k it up again?
Apparently the digital version is "better" in format as you have no folds in the image, and you get some 360views and so on, but its still in essence, nothing more than what you can get when you type "Tyranid images" into google. Its a waste of paper and ink. I am going to give it one more issue so that the rehashed old images from the final monthly WD are finished with and can see something new, then cancel my sub. Although I have avery old bargain quarterly direct debit version saving me a lot of cash on the cover price, I am not buying this crap unless something magical happens overnight.Lets look at pretty models, then NOT show you how to paint them in Splatter.
Now the WD weekly was not so bad IMO. What it does need as Stahyl and Garfy stated is 10 more pages, and move kit bash to it, and to be honest you could get a 6 page bat rep in there too. They play enough games at WD HQ to take some snaps and do a few words. However, with weekly model releases now, checking GW online will show you the same stuff anyway. The good thing is you can pick and choose your issue that interests. If its a week of Goblins and you don't do Goblins, then you skip a week.
But yes, in summary, WAY OFF THE MARK, Even further off the price point, and drastically short of the mark for content.
I wonder how may will be cancelling subs other than those in the thread here!
I think some of the problems here might solve themselves over the next few months. Whatever inherent problems it has (of which there are many) Visions might be a bit more interesting after the first issue, which as noted contained far too many models that were showcased in the final White Dwarf. Weekly might need some time to get on its feet, but if it regularly includes rules for new miniatures and mini-games (that was the first JJ article I've read in years that I couldn't predict in its entirety from the first two sentences), one can at least see how it would be useful. It depends on how many miniatures GW plan to release without Codex/Army Book support, I suppose.
In any case, things may not look quite so bleak in February. Of course, the best we can hope for is a strong-ish Weekly and a Visions that is no longer a complete train-wreck, and by that point; the damage will have been done. If ever something needed a strong early showing, it was Visions, and I'm just not seeing it.
Nice review for both magazines. I would have touched on the subject of the digital edition as well (if you have access to it of course).
Two months ago I subscribed for a year of White Dwarf on iPad and since the split into WH Visions and the weekly magazine, the digital edition only gets WH Visions. Suffice to say I am not impressed at all about the quality of the digital version. As stated previously, if I want to look up interesting and quality paint schemes I'd look for it online. This really needs an overhaul, and by that I mean more articles.
Really interesting and honest review – want to get Crodon's opinion? Hop over to Citadel of Paint (http://citadelofpaint.blogspot.co.uk/) for his own review of the new magazines (http://citadelofpaint.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-white-dwarf-is-dead.html) and more articles
Been away for the weekend so just had chance to have my initial look through Visions and White Dwarf Weekly. White Dwarf weekly – is just a weekly version of the previous mag in my view – I'd suggest that moving to weekly format means its intended to eventually end up as a digital publication only. Garfy – think you nailed it with your Visions review – its answering a question no-one asked. Really not sure what to make of it – has a few nice model photos in it (nothing a quick trawl on the web wouldn't find), but the layout and format is awful, like they just threw it together. The battle report was just very very bad….where was the report?? I am a big fan of GW stuff and have been since the mid-1980's (started with WFB 2nd ed and 40K 1st ed) but now thinking of cancelling my Visions subscription. I'd rather pay my monthly sub for your website content…seriously its better !!
Sigh…
I loved my iPad WDs and how convinient they were. Big fan of WFB and 40K so I had high hopes for these new mags. Gaming wise I probably have never been as disappointed as I am now. I wonder who is making all of these calls over at GW because they have no clue what the fans want. I do not care about prices, because the competition that are close in quality cost similar, but I do care about content.
These mags haven't got any.
I disagree on Visions. I didn't particularly care for Kitbash as it felt a little too forced, but it essentially delivered what it promises on page 1 – a "celebration of tyranids" with golden demon usa and some other stuff thrown in.
Whether there is a market for "model porn" remains to be seen, however I haven't bought WD in years, but I'm not at all disappointed with Visions. I doubt I'll buy every issue but if they do an Eldar celebration I'll almost certainly do so.
I'll let my subscription run out for Visions, and if it stays the same then I wont renew, amd I'll just pick up a weekly if it applies to my armies.
I picked up White Dwarf Weekly yesterday and had the feeling I had seen everything I needed before I even got back to my car. Well probably still buy the remaining issues in February, just to give it a chance, but if it stays the way it is, I'm out.
Visions, not really interested. If I'm looking for inspirational pictures, I usually just goggle them up. Besides, I don't really like the size, and the layout seems questionable, to say the least (especially the ever changing rotation). I like the kit bash, but it's just so tiny and can be found online for free, too.
So after having bought every White Dwarf since I came back into the hobby in early 2012, consider me out now.
Sad, but i agree with all.
I have cancelled my abo last monday and was thursday confirmed (but 2 months will be send til it really ends -> March will be last).
Cancelled because of the "Picture book" which was mentioned monday at the GW HP. And it is.
I had an abo about White Dwarf (several years) and not for a new published unknown picture book. Sorry GW but that is not what i wanted. I wanted a Hobby Magazine. You know the abo will be changed AUTOMATICALLY to Vision.
To mention: 52 weeks x 3,2 Euro = 166,4 € compared with 12 months x 8 € = 96 € ??? and Visions will cost now 9€ -> 108€
extreme price increase.
and all was known 2-3 months before, but not published. You know that the editing and publishing need this time.
I'm glad I'm not the only one to be disappointed with the new 'Visions'. I have had a subscription for the White Dwarf mag, since issue 152, and kept everyone. This month would have been issue 409. At 12 issues a year, that's a lot of years collecting. On Monday I will be cancelling my subscription. This is not the magazine I subscribed to. It is very interesting to look back on the earlier copies, which were about the hobby, with modelling articles on sculpting, and painting, scratch building terrain, gaming boards, even the vehicles, admittedly very few vehicle kits, were available back then. I accept that Games Workshop is a business and needs to promote it's products, but the White dwarf had become little more than an advertising tool, rather than a modelling magazine to support and promote the hobby. I had hoped that the new Visions would correct this, but I feel it has even lost the few remaining good point of the White Dwarf monthly mag. For me a small page crammed with photos, and a couple of word caption, does not make a useful article, or promote the hobby.
Well said. I also have most issues of WD going back to #77. WDW is OK but Visions is a total miss. I will not be re-subscribing unless they can turn it into the useful content laden hobby magazine such as it was in the '90's. I can hope but I am prepared for disappointment.
Thanks for the review. I really don't know what their strategy is behind this more. I recently got into this hobby and bought myself the WD subscription, but I think the subscription only applies to Vision, which I cannot see what it will gives/inspires me that the internet don't. They should have focused on adding more quality to the monthly WD. Last month I only read once and it didn't provide me further interest.
It's not a creative magazine but basic journalism to spoon feed info to you.
Not sure if newstands are really an issue as I have not seen a GW magazine anywhere but a gaming store in years. Thanks for the reviews. Interesting that white dwarf is now thinner than the lego club magazine that lego sends people free every other month.
I have stopped buying WD for years. I only pick up one or two issues a year depending on the content. If it interests me or has articles about my favourite armies – then I buy it. Otherwise I just flick through it and put it back on the stand. I will do the same with the WDW, so it is no concern to me. I have moved on to more interesting gaming systems, but I love the 30k & 40K universe too much to leave it completely.
I am a bit disappointed with Visions. My vision and hope for this mag was a publication aimed for veteran gamers and modellers. I was expecting 'in depth' articles on techniques for modelling and painting, interviews with modellers and sculptors giving tips and insights into their aspect of the hobby. Well, I guess I will buy even less of this mag. It's a pity I wont be able to skim through it to see if there is anything that I might find interesting. I will have to check the reviews online beforehand I guess.
I agree totally with the author. Visions will tank eventually, probably within the year, and will start to evolve and address the lack of sales. It will change, hopefully for the better, as the WD team start to re-adjust to the aftershocks.
Thanks for the extensive review. When details about the split spilled out over the interweb I thought the whole thing would be pretty cool and I think I still do.
Weekly sounds exactly like the thing one would pick up at the GW store along with other things just to have something to flick through on the transit home. That's a thing WD of recent just wasn't due to the high price. Seems to have a fair amount of humour as well so that's always good. Also surprised about the seemingly high quality in terms of paper and so on. For that price on a weekly publication – not bad.
The small format of Visions really surprised me. If you're releasing a monthly coffee table book of GW porn I certainly would have expected A4 format. I do like the idea of having the little captions in different languages.
Personally, I'm not the target audience for these magazines but in theory I think I like WD Weekly. Might pick it up at some point. Visions not so much.
It's sad, what I think GW really needed was a total revamp of White Dwarf, to make it a magazine that could truly compete on the news stand as you say. Said mag would have lots more artwork and fluff from their archive, short fiction, fan art, Fantasy Flight games content, 40k video game content, experimental rules, "dataslates" etc. as well as painted minis on parade. In short, everything WD was before ten years ago or so, only better.
I haven't been a huge fan of the recent White Dwarfs, but I miss them now. I love reading big articles about the hobby, painting, armies, tactics, or really anything that has to do with WHFB or WH40K. Neither of these new features seem to have big articles to read about, with only the weekly having real articles. The only plus side I can think of is I can purchase individual weekly magazines for things that I'm interested in, instead of getting a monthly mag with some things I don't really care for. I thought Warhammer Visions was going to be peoples insights and thoughts on different aspects of the hobby with painting guides and showcases, but it just seems like recycled pictures. Pretty disappointing :/
Thanks for a honest well written review. I was curious to hear what you had to say as I felt quite depressed flicking through the new weekly which I picked up earlier today. I did not pick up Visions and probably never will, due to everything you pointed out.
Even with the small £2.40 price for the weekly I felt let down with how little content the magazine had. I really wish White Dwarf would go back to how it used to be before the initial change in 2012. I picked up a few copies to look at from 2011 and before and the magazine had a lot going for it. It used to be a lot of fun to look at and read.
Wow I didn't even buy the magazines but they ended up being just what I thought they would: a weekly shopping catalog and a monthly flickr album on paper…