I will give this issue 1.7 out of 5.
TL:DR: You will like this issue of White Dwarf if you like Aos and looking at photographs of models.
This issue contains:-
Twenty four pages of 40k content, nine pages of which are the items that can be pre-ordered or bought in March.
Thirty six pages of AoS, five pages of which are items that can be pre-ordered or bought in March.
Three pages of Blood Bowl, two pages of Forge World, two pages of LoTR, two pages of Total War: Warhammer, four pages of Dawn of War 3, two pages of Black Library releases and two pages of new rules for Gangs of Commorragh.
Personally I found this issue a bit of a chore to read as whilst there is some really good content it is spread very thinly amongst articles that are essentially nothing but pictures of models.
Including the front cover and backside of the back cover the magazine has 156 pages.
The magazine is split into twenty three sections and they are:-
Latest News, Titanicus, Contact, A Brand-New Dawn (
Dawn of War 3), Spike Magazine, What Lies Beneath (
Hammerhal Designers’ Notes), A Tale of Four Warlords,Temporal Distort (
White Dwarf Issue 296), The Saga of Guilliman (
Designers’ Notes), ‘Eavy Metal (
Guilliman Diorama), The Ultimate Guide (
Stormcast Eternals), Golden Demon (
Europe 2016), Illuminations, The General’s Almanac, Gathering The Hosts (
another name for Armies on Parade), Battle Report (
Freeguild, Aelves & Duardin versus Nurgle), Temporal Distort (
2003: Issue 296), New Rules (
Harlequins in Gangs of Commorragh), Sprues and Glue (
Fallen conversions), Paint Splatter (
Guilliman), Materials and Textures (
Masterclass), Blood for the Blood God (
photo’s of models), Readers’ Models (
more photo’s of models), In the Bunker.
One page of meet the team, one editorial page, two contents pages, fourteen pages of adverts and twenty two pages of stuff that you can buy or pre-order now. That is 26% of the mag.
Including the adverts and counting two half pages of pictures as one this issue has fifty three pages that are nothing but pictures/photographs. That’s 34%.
In my opinion the stand out articles in this issue is the Guilliman Designer’s Notes, Sprues and Glue and the Painting Masterclass on textures.
A Tale of Four Warlord is back and this time it is all about 40k. Space Marines, Astra Militarum, Chaos and Craftworld Eldar are the Armies of choice. Similar to the previous Warlords the participants have each been given a Start Collecting Box! This week is supposed to be about their goals, their inspiration and reasons why they chose the army that they did. Everyone’s inspiration seems to be similar in that they mostly all want to use Warlords as motivation to paint an army that they have always wanted to start but never quite found the time.
After the last Warlords I am not expecting great things of this one and true to form next month’s Warlords will be all about how they painted their chosen armies.
The Designer’s Notes for the Primarch Triumvirate didn’t disappoint and I really enjoyed the read but at four and a half pages of text out of the ten pages used for the article I thought it could have been better.
Sprues and Glue was a brilliant article on how to convert some Fallen and how to use the Citadel Drill. The Fallen part of the article included a list of all the items used in the conversions and which sprues they came off which is the kind of detail that I really appreciate. Some of you might consider an article on how to use a drill a bit basic but I really like to be reminded of basic hobby skills every now and again. It is a real shame that this article was only four pages long.
This month’s Battle Report was another half-way house sort of deal. It had all the trappings of a Battle Report (points, maps with movement arrows) but it didn’t quite read as a battle report. Most of the turns took up two pages but the words take up less than 1/6th of the available space. This is probably one of the most pictures driven Reports to date. This wouldn’t be so bad but the words are of the chatty nature again and offer nothing on the strength/weaknesses of the armies used or why some of the moves were made.
For example
Furious at his warriors’ lack of motivation, the lord of Nurgle commanded his sorcerers to set an example. Genitor Morvus, Harbringer of Decay, hurled a bolt of dark energy towards the Warpriest and brought him to his knees..
I think the idea behind this Battle Report is to inform you of how free form AoS can/should be and how forging a narrative and having fun is at the heart of the game. Each to their own but I am not a fan of this style of Battle Report.
The fun factor of AoS is also the subject of this month’s General’s Almanac. To be honest it comes across as both a bit forced and a bit preachy.
This Months Ultimate Guide on the Stormcast Eternals is a strange affair. From a personal point of view I find it to be the worst Ultimate Guide to date but I guess if you like AoS then you will love this article. It wasn't the fact that it was AoS that made me dislike it though but the content. I can't quite put my finger on it but there is something of a lack lustre sheen to the whole article. Overall I think that the manner in which Stormhosts are split into Chambers and how there are made from only the greatest of heroes is too reminiscent of the Space Marine background and on a subliminal level this pisses me off.
Temporal Distort covered issue 296 and had info about the release of the Mumak, the Storm of Chaos global campaign, Armoured Companies and the imminent release of a new edition of 40k.
The Painting Masterclass about how to paint different materials and textures is just brilliant and there is so much information in it that it bears reading more than once. The problem is that because the magazine includes so many pictures and painting related articles this brilliant article becomes a bit dull and gets lost amongst the chaff.
Six pages of Reader’s Models, four pages of Parade Ground, eight pages of Painting Masterclass, four pages of Paint Splatter, eight pages of Army Showcase, eight pages of Illuminations, eight pages of Golden Demon and four pages of ‘Eavy Metal. That adds up to 32% of the magazine given over to painting/pictures. That is too many in my humble opinion and I wish that they had dropped the Illuminations and Army Showcase so that we could have had a Guilliman battle report.