White Dwarf - New Daemon Rules

I must say, I've been enjoying the new weekly white dwarf. It's a nice roundup of what's going on in the realms of Games Workshop for the week. The tone of the magazine seems slightly more casual, whilst obviously still trying to sell you all the things. There just seems a to be a tiiiiiny bit more whimsy in the editorial style, and it's lacking the fevered desperation to shift product that was sadly evident in the monthly. I really didn't like the blurb text on new models in the rebooted monthly. It was a little too heavy on the hard sell.

But I digress. White Dwarf weekly issue 7 contains something I'd been hoping to see for a while now. New rules not available elsewhere. Enter the exalted flamer.

Page 18-19 contain all new rules for using the exalted flamer as a new hero choice (or HQ, if you dig on the 40k) for daemons. No longer bound only to a chariot, the fellow can now be fielded on foot. Or, stump, I guess. Or whatever that flamey mouth thing is he has for feet.

Regardless of the usefulness of the new unit, it's a very good sign that this has appeared in the magazine. Granted, it's rules for an existing model that was essentially useless if you built the kit with the herald, but it's still a move in the right direction. I dearly hope it's not an anomaly, and we get more new rules in the weekly.

White Dwarf & Warhammer Visions #1

So White Dwarf and Warhammer Visions dropped last weekend to be scrutinised by the gaming public for any signs of weakness or deformity. It seems more than a few advocate they be abandoned on the side of Mount Taygetos already. I would not be among this group, and here's why.

It's certainly in vogue to bash GW products at any and every opportunity. Those that do so do it with a frothing zeal akin to a medieval flagellant. It's a special kind of hate. Not that such venom is without grounds, and there are also those who are less rabid and give negative yet considered opinions, but we won't go into that today. Today we talk about the new magazines from Games Workshop.

White Dwarf weekly
I found this to be an enjoyable read. It's 32 pages featuring new models, books and such, paint splatter, Jervis Johnson's delightful ramblings, a high view tyranid article, rules for Belegar Ironhammer, designer's notes on the new dwarves and various little tit-bits such as ask Grombrindal, paint tips and readers model of the week. The new 'Sprues and Glue' article, focuses on the assembly side of things and had some nice tips such as storing your plastic glue upside down to stop it drying out in the nozzle. There are no in-depth articles on the best strategies for tyranids in hardcore tournament play, and let's be frank, there never will be. White Dwarf is generally not aimed at the long-standing player or modeller. It's a light read about what's getting released this week and a few other bits and bobs, but I like the weekly format and it enables GW to be a little more agile with their releases.

I am fervently hoping we'll see new rules and scenarios in this magazine regularly. If Belegar is included in the dwarf book I would be most put out, but I have a feeling he will be. I'd love to see a new beastman unit one week, a new scenario the next, then maybe a vampire counts special character. That kind of thing would make me quite the happy gent. Fingers crossed, but so far, so good.

Warhammer Visions
I was a little perplexed at the reaction to this one. At a huge 230 pages it's a big momma. There are hobby articles, a battle report, the fantastic armies on parade, some ads it must be said, but mostly pages and pages of miniatures. This has provoked a storm of disappointment from the net. I chuckled pretty hard at one review. The commentator turned the pages like a man folding used toilet paper, disgust oozing out of every word. "Look!! Look at it!! It's all miniatures! Loads of photos of miniatures! I've seen this one before! See!! It's a zoom shot from two pages ago!!! (okay, that's a little lame, granted) This magazine is worse than Hitler!!! YeeaaaaaaaagggghhhH!!!" Okay, maybe he didn't use those EXACT words, but you get the jist.

I'm primarily a hobby guy, and a magazine that presents me with over 200 pages of minature porn every month is a good, good thing. All the deliciousness of the best GW miniatures from around the world without even having to trawl the net. I don't think we'll get a good feel for the magazine until next month though, as there is a lot of re-hash of the tyranids from last month. I do worry about the target audience too, it's appeal is primarily to the modellers and painters, many of whom already have access to the better miniature painting websites and may not feel the need to buy it.

But for me, as long as I keep seeing stuff I've not seen online already, I'm in, for now. I do like to pour over an actual magazine, call me old fashioned. It's a bit pricey, for sure, but I'll give it a go to see how it develops.

So there you have it. A tentative thumbs up from me on both counts. I may be an army of one.

New White Dwarf Official

It's official, Games Workshop have released information on the new White Dwarf Weekly & Warhammer Visions magazines here. I'm particularly intrigued by the mention of games rules in WD weekly. As for the visions magazine, it sounds sumptuous. Fingers crossed.

Here's the blurb:

White Dwarf magazine goes weekly!

Saturday 1 February sees the birth of the new, weekly, White Dwarf magazine.

Saturday 1 February sees the birth of the new, monthly, Warhammer: Visions magazine.

Yes, that’s right. We’ll be launching two new magazines on the same day, Saturday 1 February.

White Dwarf, now weekly.

From Saturday 1 February, White Dwarf will be available each and every Saturday exclusively in your local Games Workshop store, Independent Stockist and at games-workshop.com

White Dwarf will contain everything that’s new and exciting in the hobby that week, from news and information on all the week’s other new releases, to new columnists, interviews, painting, modelling, game rules and much more. And the price? The same as a pot of your favourite Citadel paint.

Warhammer: Visions, now monthly.

Warhammer: Visions will be available on the first Saturday every month in your local Games Workshop store, Independent Stockist, games-workshop.com and local newsstands in the UK, Europe and Australia.

Warhammer: Visions is a completely new monthly magazine, also from the White Dwarf team. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever done before and this super high-quality visual feast weighs in at a whopping 236 pages, each and every month.

Just 17 days to go and counting.

After months of planning and hard work, we’re really excited to be able to share this news with you. We were overwhelmed by all the support and feedback you gave us last time we relaunched White Dwarf back in September 2012 (and by your emails and photos that you send us every day – please keep them coming), and we’re even more excited by what we’ve got coming up for you in 2014.

If you can’t wait for Saturday 1 February and want to know more, then your local Games Workshop store manager has more info…

White Dwarf - Favourite Article?

Since hearing about the demise of the dwarf, I've been trawling through some of my older issues in search of articles I found particularly entertaining. Much of my reading list hails from WDs from the 80s. There's a lot of back issues, so, in a moment of clarity I decided to throw it out to the community to ask what was your favourite article, or failing that, issue? I don't mean the most informative, or useful or pretty, just your favourite. This will also give us a handy shortlist for further nostalgic wallowing. I'll kick us off.

There are a lot of regular articles I could mention. Illuminations, Blanchitsu and Chapter Approved certainly being some notables, and of course, 'Eavy metal. I poured over those pages of painted miniatures for hours wondering how the hell Fraser Gray could paint like he did. There were plenty of great scenarios, the Grapes of Wrath and the Floating Gardens of Bahb Elonn being two favourites. I loved the new models pages (along with all their rules) such as Ruglud's armoured orcs, the plague cart and the gob lobber. This was primarily for the great miniature eye candy, but also for the humour in the back stories.

WD95 - p7

For me though, it has to be the 3rd edition release article from WD 95. It was my first issue, and those eight pages pretty much sealed the deal as regards my future hobby/obsession. Essentially a big advert for third edition, it worked on my young mind beyond the most optimistic dreams of Games Workshop central. There are better articles, for sure, but this is the one I keep coming back to when I think of my favourite. Pages of images of undead, elves, orcs, dwarves and more coupled with stories of heroic deeds and bloody carnage, all wrapped up in a hardback tome. What chance did I have to resist?

WD95 - p38

So what about ye? Is there an article, battle report or page of painted miniatures that makes a particular White Dwarf your favourite?

The White Dwarf Falls

After 37 years, White Dwarf appears on the stands for the final time this January. Still technically a rumour, but enough sources have confirmed it that it's pretty much a certainty. This one blindsided me, I can tell you. I've been reading White Dwarf since issue 95, so it's been a monthly staple of my gaming world for 27 years. It's like a pair of comfy slippers or your favourite mug. How White Dwarf has slipped in content over the years is old news to anyone reading this. But back in the day it was agog with great articles, scenarios, rules and other gamery info.

Even the odd freebie. I still have the outhouse from one magazine that gave away a free card stock building. Observe.

I declare this terrain piece re-named the White Dwarf memorial outhouse.

I don't hate White Dwarf now though. There's still a lot of very pretty pictures, and the odd interesting article or battle report, but admittedly it's not got a lot of meat on it's bones if I'm totally frank. That said, I'm a little choked up at the thought of it vanishing.

The Dwarf that started it all. The 3rd edition release issue. To say I was instantly hooked would be something of an understatment.

So, what will be filling the void left by the dwarf? Games Workshop are due to make some manner of announcement tomorrow, but according to those in the know we'll get a new monthly magazine called Warhammer Visions which will weigh in at a hefty 190 pages of predominantly hobby content, all for the princely sum on €9, and will be available much as White Dwarf was, in newsagents etc. That does sound good, but well, we'll see. The name Warhammer Visions conjures the image of airbrushed fantasy art rock album covers for me. It's not got the pathos of White Dwarf, that's for damn sure.

The second publication will be White Dwarf Weekly (probably), featuring new releases and what else I'm not sure. This will be €3.20. I'm kind of stumped as to what this magazine will be like, and weekly? In any case, it will be available only from independent retailers and GW stores. White Dwarf weekly kicks off February 1st.

So, farewell oh White-Bearded one, you've given me a lot of joy down through the years. Safe journey to the halls of the ancestors. Now, if you'll excuse me I'm off to wallow in a pile of really old White Dwarf magazines.

Sniff. Excusemeivegotsomethinginmyeye.

White Dwarf - November 2013

I don't normally review White Dwarf, but this month there's so much in it that I'm looking forward to that I think it's worth it.

The dark elf second wave breaks this month, which has to be one of the most comprehensive race reboots GW have done since the dark eldar. I think the range look great, there's a lot of nods to the older ranges of dark elves, and the new units, especially the warlocks, look fantastic. I can see myself using those sisters of slaughter heads for something in the future too. Great cultist heads, methinks.

The thing that really gets me interested this month though, is the warhammer expansion, Triumph & Treachery. Multi-player, with a deck of back-stabby game event cards and an interesting victory mechanic in the form of  coin counters could be very good. There's also access to mercenaries, 100 points for every 500 points in your army, I believe. I do like that even if you're allied with another player, only the player with the most coins can win. Fingers crossed that this is a decent expansion to the game.

Another exciting release are the new Special Effects Paints. Two rust types, verdigris, gore, a type of crackle paint and a glossy pus paint are the choices. I'm quite eager to try these. At the moment I mix my own flavours of rust, gore and verdigris, so I'm pretty keen to see how these rate. I'm also interested in crackle paint, as I think it has a multitude of uses, from cracked paintwork to shattered armour.

There's a Triumph and Treachery battle report to show off the new expansion,and it does look a lot of fun. For the painters, there's a lot of eye candy in this issue, as well as an article on the new effects paints. All in all, a pretty good issue for the warhammer player and hobbyist.

Daemons - New Models and Rules Inbound

Well, looks like the rumours of warriors of chaos getting a new book in August were off the ball, or perhaps a victim of the GW release shuffle that's been going on.

Instead, a new host of daemons greet us, with new plaguebearers, nurglings, blue scribes, flamers and a big Slaaneshi chariot. The nurglings in particular look great. One hears a pamphlet will be released to update both the daemon army book and codex, exciting news for daemon players. Here's a video on the new update.

One thing that worries me a little, I hear the soul grinder is getting a fantasy release. Surely a new model would be required? It looks pretty 40k. Maybe someone is pulling my leg...

The images below are via Dice and Brush.

The Terrorgheist - A New Dawn for White Dwarf?

Today I picked up the August issue of White Dwarf, issue 380. I was rather excited to get this particular issue, as I am an avid vampire counts player and all the reports suggested we were in for a treat in this issue. The thing that really interested me though, was that by all accounts, official rules were being published in white dwarf. This was an eyebrow raiser. It's been years since GW have done that for fantasy.

I do remember a time when white dwarf was fairly full of new rules, scenarios and general gaming goodness. I've been reading the magazine since issue 95, so I've seen a lot of peaks and troughs. White Dwarf in recent times has been lambasted as a catalogue and little else. For my part, I like white dwarf, while simultaneously agreeing with the incensed rage-fiends and quite reasonable folks alike of various warhammer forums about the lack of gaming content in the magazine. But still, I like it, catalogue or no.

The new vampire count rules this month have given me the hope that white dwarf might get the same treatment that the orc & goblin and tomb kings books have been given. Excellent quality books, beautifully designed and illustrated with in-depth background sections and well balanced army lists. GW seem to have halted the destructive power creep of 7th edition. 8th edition is certainly the most fun version of warhammer I have played, and I hope we get a full set of army books for it.

Now, I'm a long-time fan of warhammer fantasy battle, not so much GW. It's a strange relationship. I'm no hater either, I just tend to wince and raise my eyes skyward when I hear of the newest GW gaff. I do however care that they maintain the warhammer fantasy game. With 8th and the subsequent army books, I have reasons to be cheerful. If the newest development along this new track is to start producing regular updates and such in white dwarf in the same balanced and considered manner, then I say yes please and more thanks.

Take the terrorgheist for example.

It's rules seem balanced, though it's quite pricey but has useful abilities. It slots into the army list as it doesn't replace the vargulf or abyssal terror. It adds variety. It's an option, as opposed to a must have or useless addition. Time will tell, as I've barely looked at it, but at first glance this is how it seems to me. It is also a fantastic miniature, but GW are the masters of plastic miniatures and get better with every kit they make.

All in all, a seminal issue.

That garden of Morr too. I'll be having that. I thought it assembled as a rather impassable piece of terrain, but it turns out it's usable in multiple sections as a variety of terrain pieces. Possibly the best terrain kit I've seen from GW yet.