September White Dwarf

This Saturday I managed to make it to the FLGS to pick up the September issue of White Dwarf.  This issue is centered on the 30th Anniversary of Warhammer 40k, and rather unusually came in an over-sized card envelope. This allowed for two posters to be included, one of which is the cover art, and the other an advertisement for Total War: Warhammer II, and also allowed for the actual magazine cover to be fairly spare, with just the White Dwarf and Warhammer 40k/30 logos.

Oversized 

Magazine and contents

Quite large poster of the cover image

You may also notice that I bought a Bones figure.  With the Reaper Bones IV kickstarter closing on Saturday, I was in a Bones sort of mood, and picked this guy up to add to my stockpile... not exactly sensible, but he should turn out nicely.  As for the kickstarter, it ended up breaking $3 million.  I have only put in $1 so far, but expect to add quite a bit before the pledge manager closes (in July!).

White Dwarf Monthly

Like many in the blogging world I picked up a copy of the "new" White Dwarf Monthly Magazine.  This issue was released on September 2, 2016, and since I was out of town (playing Risk legacy), I picked it up the following Monday from my FLGS.  Many of you have no doubt read all you need to about the magazine by now (or have a copy), but if not, read on.

As the bottom of the magazine states, it is in fact "Bigger, Better, Brand New"... well, at least the first two.  The magazine is fairly long, even by the standards of prior monthly White Dwarfs, and certainly in comparison to the weekly issues. The paper quality is very high, and as you can see from the picture above, it retains the weekly White Dwarf gloss/matte printing for the cover, which can really enhance the picture.  Photography is likewise excellent, with none of the muddy backgrounds that sometimes were an issue at the end of the prior monthly era.  You will also note that "Games Workshop" does not appear at the top, but rather "Warhmmer", in keeping with recent branding efforts I think. 

Another feature is that with more text there is more space for "British-isms", something that this Anglophile appreciates. The White Dwarf of the Paul Sawyer era was full of various references to local culture and turns of phrase, which added to the allure for me.  Letters to the editor return as well, including one by a former White Dwarf editor by the name of Guy Haley... 

This particular issue has a very large section on adding rules to the boxed games released in the last few years (including Space Hulk 2009/2014).  As I have none of the boxed games mentioned, this was interesting but of little use; however I am sure that it would be very interesting to anyone who had one or more of those.  

 One of the unfortunate aspects of the magazine returning to a monthly format is that advertisements returned as well. As you can see in the picture above the right page is an advertisement for various Warhammer digital products.  To be fair, you could call most of the magazine an "advertisement", but new product announcements and the like have at least some use (and more so now that they are more "secret" until the magazine is released.)  By my rough count there are 12 pages in this magazine that are solely advertisements for existing products, and therefore have little added value. Certainly not much compared to a non-hobby magazine, but still a bit annoying.

Another feature that I missed was the lack of new rules.  With the weekly format, miniatures often released before the codex/rulebook to which they belonged, and White Dwarf would fill the gap with the necessary rules.  I really enjoyed this feature, as I am unlikely to buy any new codexes, but may buy some of the miniatures for other purposes and games (mostly older GW games anyway). Hopefully this feature comes back (for the rumored Genestealers?) in future issues.

Blanchitsu - Inq28

One of the most exciting features, to me anyway, is that Blanchistu returns to White Dwarf!  In the era of the weekly White Dwarf, this "article" series was relegated to Visions instead, so seeing it return to an accessible location is quite nice. I am certainly looking forward to seeing some of the figures from various games and blogs in high resolution photography soon.

Anyway, enjoying the magazine very much, and unlike the last few monthly magazines (to say nothing of the weekly pamphlets), I am still reading it. I expect to pick up the next few from my local store, and if things keep up at this level, I will resubscribe for the first time in quite a few years now.

White Dwarf Weekly to End

White Dwarf is now to change back to a monthly magazine after two and a half years as a weekly.

I remember being shocked that the magazine would change to a weekly format, and it took me a while to get used to that.  I did like the "clean" formatting, and the comparatively tight focus on a single product release of the week that the change engendered, but the consequential rise in price meant that I would pick and choose issues to buy, which ended my collection of the magazine.

The newly monthly magazine will start in September, will be 156 pages, and will incorporate the new Golden Daemon material as well. (current rumor is that Visions will change only slightly, but will remain)  If you subscribe before August, you can get an introductory price of £50/$80 (including the postage), which works out to only $6.67 per issue... not too bad for a magazine which has the potential that White Dwarf does, and substantially cheaper than its price when the monthly magazine ended (to say nothing of buying 52 weeklies).  No word on the cover price, or regular subscription price.

Things really seem different with GW late, with discount bundles (that contain things people actually want), boxed game releases, return of fan favorite sub factions (Genestealers, Harlequins, and Adeptus Mechanicus), FAQs, and now a return to a monthly format for White Dwarf.

Horus Heresy II

Not a second Heresy, just a second post about it. Went to the FLGS this afternoon while running errands, and inquired about the Hours Heresy game, Betrayal at Calth. The guy working the counter had no idea what it was... So much for GW's assurances that there would be a demo copy in store... it will probably show up next week.

They did have the White Dwarf though, which was surprising as usual WDs accompanied by free gifts sell out.  Once I pointed it out to the guy at the counter he bought the last one himself.

Forthcoming Tau

Rumors of Tau models in the future are apparently correct, as these leaked images show:

New really big guy "KV128 Stormsurge"

New mid sized stealth suit "XV95 Ghostkeel" Seems like rumors of this being a Riptide upgrade spue are incorrect (or there is yet another large kit coming)

New firewarriors

Now you may recall that I have a bunch of Tau, and that I even painted some... so I am of mixed emotions about these new guys.  On the one hand, new kits might be more things I am interested in adding to my army, or at least new bitz, but on the other hand, I am not really keen on these new firewarriors, and large battle suits are pretty pricy. We will see how it goes in a month or so.

Age of Sigmar II

Well, I got White Dwarf 75, and it appears that all rumors about the new Age of Sigmar game are true.  It does replace Warhammer with some sort of rules light skirmish game, and it does have Sigmar Marines, sorry "Stormcast Eternals" as being the fluff drivers in a new era with a bunch of new worlds.

(Apologies for the hasty cellphone snaps throughout)

So the old world is dead... what is left?  Well, terrible "fluff", new names (Orruks instead of Orcs and so on), and I suspect new models being the only focus going forward. (There are rules for existing models on the website, but it seems likely that only new figures will be featured in the future, and certainly in the new campaign books.)  As someone with 4+ Warhammer armies, it is somewhat depressing, but to be fair, I have not ever played the game anyway, and was likely to stick with 6th edition when I did get around to it, so it is not much of a loss for me ruleswise... only in the demise of my beloved Empire.

After that depressing stuff, lets move on to the cool part about this post, which is the Sigmar marine included with the White Dwarf.  This is the first time since 5th Edition 40k that I have gotten a figure with the magazine (that time it was a Terminator and an Ork).  Indeed this is the newest GW figure that I have, since most of my kits are older.  I must say it was very sharply molded.  It may not be evident from pictures, but the figure is not a "press fit" one, in that the head, shield, and chest pieces need to be glued for permanency.  In the picture below I super glued the shield arm but left everything else loose. Interestingly, the pauldrons are split down the middle, even down the middle of the Sigmar symbol.  The fit is so tight though, that at least on the right side (the one with the symbol) you would never notice.

40mm base

The conversion potential of this figure, and indeed the others from this set is pretty good... if you are looking to make true scale marines that is. When the first rumor pictures started circulating, I thought that maybe these guys would be useful for inquisitors, but as you can see from the slightly blurry picture below, they are very large.  Fortunately they will work nicely as a true scale marine, with some judicious clipping, and marine arms. Mainly, I think that using marine arms, pauldrons, backpack, head, and a chest plate will be sufficient to do the job.

He is a large fellow

bit of a perspective issue here, but the head seems to fit nicely...

Originally I thought that I would convert the Sigmar Marine into another Deathwatch marine, but I decided that I did not want to wait for a bitz order.  Now I have a selection of Chaos bitz on one hand and some imperial ones on the other, trying to decide which way to go...

White Dwarf Weekend

This weekend I made it into the local game store to get the new weekly White Dwarf, the new monthly Warhammer Visions, and also to scope out all the newest and greatest things.

I was partly successful, in that they did not have any copies of Warhammer Visions, but I did manage to get the weekly White Dwarf, as well as the previous two months' magazines.  I also noticed that Flames of War is down to about 3 feet of space in the very large store, and Bolt Action has taken all of its wall space.  X-wing was down to a couple of starter boxes and some TIE fighters, where as Star Trek Fleet Action took up all of its former space. The store was pretty quiet, but there were some older guys playing Battletech (with unpainted miniatures of course).

In regards to the weekly White Dwarf, it seems like a nice enough little magazine to me, and with a few tweaks I would be happy to subscribe to it.  However, there is currently no subscription option for the White Dwarf (just the Warhammer Visions), and having to go down to the shop weekly and spend $208 a year is a bit more than I can stomach.  So, in the absence of some sort of money saving subscription, I think that I will have to restrict myself to buying only the magazines associated with the games/armies I have, which will be difficult, as they are not announced in advance.

I have only had the chance to flip through the new magazine, so all I can say is that I liked the articles and material that were retained as compared to what was cut (no more store listings!).  I will also say that I was surprised that a more "disposable" version of the magazine has an even higher print quality, as the cover and pages are quite thick and durable.  Indeed, it compares to the quality of a Warhammer 40k 3rd edition Codex, but full color.

FLASH - White Dwarf to end?

There are numerous rumors floating about that White Dwarf magazine, Games Workshop's house organ since 1977, will end in February.

White Dwarf is possibly being replaced by a weekly smaller magazine (?) and another magazine of much larger size.

Seems astounding if true, but I guess time will tell.  As someone who has been reading the magazine for... well, a long time, I would be pretty upset to see it go.

Dark Elves II

This weekend I got the new White Dwarf magazine at the FLGS, and I have been fairly avidly paging through it when I have the time.  This issue is featuring the redone Dark Elves.  Specifically, there are new kits for the basic Dark Elf warrior, Witch Elves, Hydra, and the Cauldron of Blood.  Naturally each of those has alternate builds, yielding three types of warrior, two types of witch elves, a hydra or a new monster, a cauldron of blood, or a showcase vehicle for a Medusa type monster.   These kits join the earlier, and quite excellent corsairs and cold one knights, and the line will be added to next month with a chariot kit, dark rider kit, and a Executioner/Black Guard kit.

Now, as I mentioned in the last post about Dark Elves, I have long wanted a Dark Elf army, and while I am not about to rush out and get one (with several more remaining in boxes and on sprues, I think that my wife might kill me), I do like to list build and fantasize about such things, so I put together a "reasonable" list, and priced it out.  Let me preface this by saying that "reasonable" in my mind is heavy on infantry and other basic units, and is over 2000 points.  If it gets close to 100 or more figures, I think that is reasonable.  Anyway, for my "reasonable" army I got to to approximately 115 figures... and over $600.  For a plastic army. Yeah, nothing reasonable about that.

Picture from GW

Breaking down my imaginary, and now no longer reasonable list, I find that part of the problem is that Witch Elves are $0.50 a point (in the US, ~$0.46 in the UK and undoubtedly more elsewhere).  This is not helped by 40 regular warriors at $35 for a box of ten. (10 monopose fixed head figures too btw, which is a significant step back for humanoid figures).  Without a battalion box, there is no option to get core troops for less.

So no Dark elf army is in the offing, although I might keep an eye out for bitz that I like.

New style White Dwarf Review

I have been thinking about how to review the new style White Dwarf, and realized I need to get my thoughts out before a month has gone, and the next copy comes out... 

To recap, the quality of the Dwarf has been declining for a while, and about a year ago, I let my decade long subscription lapse.  Then in the summer, there were some rumors of a relaunched White Dwarf, with new styles and new contents.  The rumors turned out to be true, and I purchased a copy at the FLGS at the new price of $10.  They had a large stack on the counter, and handed out 3-4 while I was in line, so it was clearly something that interested more than just me.

Thoughts on the new model White Dwarf are a bit mixed.  On the one hand, the presentation is improved, and on the other, the actual content is reduced slightly.  Paper quality is improved, but the price has gone up to a level that it will not be just an impulse purchase.  Here are some positives and negatives in no particular order:

Positives:
Authorial voice - Gone is the bland advertising speak of articles past, and returned is obvious authorial interest in particular aspects of the magazine and new figures.  This was a welcome change, and one that I had not expected.
Prices - the North American version of the Dwarf had for years listed new products without the prices, partly due to their rapid increasing, and partly as a result of some major pricing errors (Realm of Battle and Battle of Five Armies)
Foldouts - having a multi page
Photography - Muddy backgrounds for the chaos figures aside, the photography does seem like it has stepped up a level, and the higher quality paper seems to show it off well.
Table of contents - Strange, but I was most impressed with this aspect of the magazine, which was almost an exploded view of the magazine itself.
Studio behind the scenes - Seeing what various things the studio is working on is always interesting... even if we do not see the end results for years.
Blanchitsu! - Bonkers Inquisitor conversions? yes please!
Reduced advertisements - While there were more catalog pages, there seemed to be fewer of the traditional advertisement pages scattered in the middle of the magazine.
Conversions - Converting is the part of the hobby I enjoy most, and has not featured as much as it used to.  The Ork flyer is a kit that interests me as well, so a conversion article on it was most welcome.

Negatives
More "catalog" pages - Seeing a new figure from 6 different sides and then having a separate price page later in the magazine seems excessive, particularly since sprue shots are not one of the featured pages.
Store listings - While it is fun to see where stores are in other countries and states, it seems a bit excessive to see all of the GW stores world wide (but not independent stockists, except in North America)
Reduced text content - the new fonts and spacing seem to mean less words per page.
Huge staff photos - I like that they have new pictures, but do they really need to be half a page in size?  Until they hire more attractive staff, there is not much gained from this "feature".
No 'Eavy Metal - A feature from the early days of the Dwarf, and one that should be back.  The painting section was a pale imitation of previous ones, and needs to be improved.
Numbering - White Dwarf has been numbered since it started, and this copy lacks that.  It may be intentional to equalize the numbers between the US and UK versions, as they were one off.  Either way, somewhat annoying for a collector. (and how will we know when it is issue 400?)

In conclusion, I quite enjoyed the magazine, and am looking forward to the next one coming out (next week!).  I was not however, induced to renew my subscription, as the $100 price seems a bit much.  Possibly after reviewing the next one I will be able to separate the nostalgia of reading the magazine again from the quality of its new incarnation, and can make a better determination.

White Dwarf Relaunch

Apologies for the gap in posts, but I have been particularly busy with work and planning a family vacation.

One news item that I could not resist posting on regards the Games Workshop house magazine White Dwarf.

I have had a long relationship with White Dwarf, stretching back almost 16 years, and I have about 15 years worth of issues in various boxes around my house.  I loved the magazine in the late 90's and early 00's in particular, when 40k 3rd edition was king, and the new Specialist games were coming out every year or so.  In my opinion the Dwarf declined after the introduction of the Lord of the Rings content, and the decline of both Chapter Approved and Specialist games.

At the end of 2011 I let my subscription lapse, and while I am "supposed" to be renewing it, that has not happened.  At its current price and content, it has seemed like a lower priority, although I do miss reading through it with my wife, the pictures of new models, and the occasional article of interest.

The news on White Dwarf is that there will be a relaunch, replete with new staff, pictured below, a change in the branding, and better paper.  The changes will take place in the next issue, published in time for the UK Games Day on 9/23/2012.

Here is the motley crew

There are also rumors of a £1.00 price increase (to £5.5) and a page increase. The price increase will bring it in line with the $9 US price, where as the page increase is very interesting indeed.

So I am cautiously optimistic about this, and will try to grab up a copy when it comes out at the end of the month.  Who knows, maybe the Dwarf of yore will be back, and I will plunk down my cash for a subscription.  Worth a look to see.

Words of Wisdom from the Family

My wife is a pretty smart person, as well as being generally tolerant and understanding about the hobby.  This weekend we finished going through the Wargames Illustrated that I got last weekend, and she said "did I remind you to renew your White Dwarf yet?"... not a vote of confidence in WI.  She finds the concept of historical gaming to be a bit more boring in general, and was not impressed with most of the photography in the magazine either. I liked it myself, but it does not seem to scratch the same itch that White Dwarf does.

She also reviewed with dismay the array of figures I got for the D&D game, and said "Isn't one of the nice things about D&D that you don't NEED figures for it?".  She is completely correct of course, and at this point it is obvious that I got a bit carried away, and have bitten off more than I can chew... not enough time to paint what I have in time for the game etc. At this point I think I am going to essentially pre-generate most of the encounters that they may have, and paint to that, rather than painting to the possibility of what could be encountered.  I have based and prepared most of the miniatures, and will prime them sometime this week... then the real adventure begins.

Also, my son, who is now 1.5 years old saw some miniatures out on the table (NPCs for the D&D game), and kept point at them and saying "man!".  He was pretty excited by them, and wanted to play with them... too early to get him a set of green army men or 1/72 figures? I am guessing yes. Maybe next year.

White Dwarf - renew or no?

My White Dwarf subscription comes to an end next issue (382 in the US), and I am seriously considering not renewing it. The usual reason is the cost of the magazine, and the new reason is my annoyance with their new delivery schedule, which means I get the magazine nearly a week after the stores do. 

A year of White Dwarf costs $75 which comes out to $6.25 per issue.  Pretty costly per issue, particularly considering that 1/3 of the magazine is advertisements for various Games Workshop products, most of which I am already aware of, and therefore do not need to see again.  GW used to give out "free" miniatures with a subscription, and include cardstock inserts in the magazine, but neither of those seem to be the case any more.  (although I could buy a non-useful White Dwarf miniature for more money... in Finecast too)

On the positive side, I do look through the magazine with my wife before bed sometimes, and it is the one bit of "hobby time" that we can share easily. I do like some of the content lately, as it seems to be shifting back to the "useful" side of things after a year of declining content.  I have been subscribing, and collecting, the magazine for 15 years now (since issue 200!), and it would seem strange to end that.

If I did not renew my subscription to WD, I could get a subscription to Wargames Illustrated, and get either 14 issues or 12 issues and miniatures for $96.  Slightly more than White Dwarf per issue if I go with the 14 issues.  I have not read an issue yet, but it looks promising.  The FLGS always seems to be sold out of the newest issue, so it makes it hard to get, and possibly indicates its popularity.  Seems to be fairly solidly oriented at historical games, which is not a bad thing, but might lack some of the appeal of fantasy/sci fi games.

Alternately, I could just not spend the money, and either save it or spend it more directly on miniatures.  Neither of these seems as exciting as getting a magazine in the mail for some reason.

So, decision time.  Status quo, or something new?

Long Weekend

This past weekend was a long one here in the US, due to the Labor day holiday. Typically this would have meant some work on miniatures, or painting, or possibly work on the house, but the family and I went to Santa Cruz to visit some relatives of my wife.

While visiting, we did get three games of Settlers of Catan in. Two regular games, and one with the multi player expansion to allow for six players. There was talk of Cities and Knights, but we did not get around to it. In any case, I did not win, but I was not doing too poorly either. Settlers is a great game, but it can be a little frustrating if your initial placement does not work out as well as you planned, or if the dice turn on you... much like a wargame in that regard.

I also had the opportunity to drop in on the local game store, Game-a-Lot Hobby, which is a fairly even mix of RPGs, miniatures, and board games. I like to browse "local" stores, because they often have slightly different games than you read about online, and there are fewer surprises when you hold a box in your hand. They had the issues of White Dwarf that I did not get, and had an advance copy of the Castle Ravenloft board game, which seems pretty large. The cashier said that it was something like Descent, which she did not really like, but was willing to play again. The store also had a selection of Heavy Gear rules and miniatures, which was completely surprising, considering its comparative obscurity once they shifted to 1/144.

So that is how I spent my long weekend. How about you?

White Dwarf

I got my first issue of the new subscription to White Dwarf this week. White Dwarf, for those few of you not in the know, is the Games Workshop house magazine, which features their three main game systems (WH40k, WHFB, LotR), and some hobby content (mostly painting and simple conversions). For some reason, I got a 14 month subscription, which is a nice bonus, probably due to the conversation I had with the mail order troll, in which it was revealed that they had lost my account information, and thus had never contacted me for renewal. (they sent me some back issues also)

In any case, I have been getting WD for the past 10 years at least, and have every issue back to fall of 1996 or so, which is pretty good. The magazine has certainly changed in that period, mostly as GW itself has changed. The hobby content has waxed and waned, and the number of game systems has changed too, as the various specialist games were introduced, faded, and were replaced, and as LotR was added. Rules in the magazine were banished for years, to only just now make a reappearance. It is also a fairly costly subscription, with yearly subscriptions now up to $80, and "freebies" now long gone.

Still, I like the magazine, and its high quality glossy photography. My wife and I thumb through it together at bed time, and then I read it, and set it aside, mostly forgotten. I still remember some articles though, and with my stack of past issues, I can track down a number of useful hobby/painting guides if needed. So for now, the subscription continues. I will try and post a bit about this issue sometime soon.