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Offline Alienscar

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White Dwarf December 2017
« on: December 28, 2017, 06:10:12 AM »


No score out of 5 yet as I haven't finished reading Dec's Dwarf yet. From what I have read so far it is shaping up to be one of the best I have read this year.

Yet another illustrated front cover is an immediate bonus for me. The back of the back cover which is just a photo of Blood Angels and Orcs just doesn't have the same impact.
   
Including the front cover and the back side of the back cover this issue contains 172 pages. The page count and percentages don’t include the covers as they don’t fall into any category.

MISCELLANEOUS: 43.0 pages 25.29%

1 page of meet the team

1 page of editorial

3 pages detailing the contents

22.5 pages of stuff that is available to buy or available to pre-order in December

2 pages of letters submitted to White Dwarf.

13.5 pages of adverts

WARHAMMER 40K: 12 pages 7.06%

Battle Report: Assault on Urdek - Planetstrike Battle Report featuring Craftworld Iyanden against the Dark Angels.
 
AGE OF SIGMAR 12 pages 7.06%

Battle Report: The Everwinter Curse - Beastclaw Raiders versus the Kharadron Overlords.

MIDDLE-EARTH: 10 pages 5.88%

Battle Report: The Battle for Erebor - Iron Hill Dwarves versus the Orcs of Gundabad.

SPECIALIST GAMES: 35 pages 20.59%

New Rules: Return to Hammerhal - 7 pages of White Dwarf exclusive rules detailing a new quest, activities and two new heroes for use in your games of Warhammer Quest: Shadows over Hammerhal.

Battle Report: Raid on Khott's Folly - 14 pages detailing a battle between House Goliath and Escher using the Necromunda Gang War 3D terrain rules.

Building Your Decks: 4 pages looking at how to build your Warhammer Underworlds objective and power decks.

New Rules: Space Hulk - 2 pages of White Dwarf exclusive rules for using Genestealer Cultists in Space Hulk and 1 page detailing a White Dwarf exclusive mission (Corruption’s Heat) that utilises the new rules.

This article actually takes up 4 pages but one of the 4 pages is just a photo of models on a Space Hulk tile.

Running a Successful League: 6 pages of how to organise a Blood Bowl league.

MODELLING AND PAINTING: 35 pages 20.59%

Armies on Parade: 8 pages of armies painted by people from White Dwarf Head Office for entry into Armies on Parade.

Golden Demon Classic 2017: 12 pages of winning entries from the Warhammer 40,000 Single Miniature, Vehicle and Duel categories.

Cegorach’s Revenge: 5 pages of Gavin Beardsmore’s Harlequins painted in the colours of the Masque of the Silent Shroud.

Paint Splatter: 4 pages of painting guides for Blood and Dark Angels.

Reader’s Models: 6 pages of photo’s featuring models painted by readers of White Dwarf.

OTHER: 23 pages 13.53%

Temporal Distort: 2 pages covering White Dwarf 285 from October 1999. Notable content includes the release of Mordheim: City of the Damned and the first instalment of the Town Cryer.

The Model Photograph: 6 pages of instructions on how to take decent pictures of your miniatures.

Illuminations: 6 pages looking at Paul Dainton’s cityscape pieces from Seasons of War: Firestorm.

Blanchitsu:  4 pages showing Jake Ozga’s Warhammer Age of Sigmar warband.

In The Bunker: 5 pages of goings on in the White Dwarf bunker.
« Last Edit: January 3, 2018, 05:53:36 AM by Alienscar »
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Offline Irisado

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2017, 06:22:37 AM »
It's pleasing to see quite a significant amount of specialist games content.  The Warhammer Quest adventure is a throw back to the days of Heroquest and Advanced Heroquest scenarios which used to be published in the magazine many years ago.  I think that this is a good concept to resurrect.

The entire issue looks very varied, which I think is important for White Dwarf, since the greater the variety, the more it's going to appeal to a wider audience.  White Dwarf sometimes loses sight of this rather obvious point in my opinion.  This issue does not fall into that trap, so it looks like one of the best reads for quite some time.
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Offline Saim-Dann

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2017, 07:08:14 AM »
Thanks, Alienscar!
As always, a very in-depth review. I buy or don't buy on your inspection... Be well and happy new year!

Offline Alienscar

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2017, 07:34:07 AM »
It's pleasing to see quite a significant amount of specialist games content.  The Warhammer Quest adventure is a throw back to the days of Heroquest and Advanced Heroquest scenarios which used to be published in the magazine many years ago.  I think that this is a good concept to resurrect.

In many ways the inclusion of new rules for Warhammer Quest and Blood Bowl and the inclusion of the Necromunda Battle Report definitely comes across as a bit of a throw back to previous White Dwarf issues and the magazine is the better off for it.

YMMV but I think that the best thing about this issue is that the Painting content has been kept to a reader friendly percentage of twenty. For me, I think that this reduced coverage of painting along with the varied content is what makes this issue the best of 2017.

Thanks, Alienscar!
As always, a very in-depth review. I buy or don't buy on your inspection... Be well and happy new year!

I am glad that you enjoyed it Saim-dann. Have you bought a White Dwarf this year?
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Offline Alienscar

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #4 on: January 3, 2018, 05:49:16 AM »
I have finally finished reading Dec's White Dwarf and I think it has turned out to be one of the best I have read in 2017.

I will score this issue 2.2  3 out of 5.

I could quite easily have scored this issue 3 or nearly 4 out of 5 but decided not to as the magazine seems to be getting better and better. If I score these early issues to high then I will run out of room to score all the other improvements that are still to come.

Also I marked it down due to the presentation of the Battle Reports.

The Planet Warhammer/Latest News content is fast becoming one of my favourite items in the magazine. Whilst this section is mostly about the models you can buy or pre-order I really like the way they have started to add interesting little bits of information.

For instance the Chapter Approved pre-order section and the Blood and Dark Angel Codex pre-order section includes Designer's Notes which makes the release a lot more interesting to read. Also the Chapter Approved section includes information on how Matched Play influenced the content of Chapter Approved.

Additionally a simple release like the Dark and Blood Angles upgrade sprues is made more interesting by inclusion of a model built with some of the upgrade bits.

Sly Marbo's mission history, Munitorum Report & a bit about the background of the Red Scorpions are a few more examples of interesting snippets that are spread amongst the model releases. All that is needed now is a few small fiction pieces spread amongst the new releases and this section will be perfect.

I am still struggling to enjoy the Battle Reports which is a shame as this issue included four, or six if you include the two mini reports included in the In the Bunker section.

I couldn't say for why but I enjoyed the Middle-earth Battle Report more than the AoS, 40K or Necromunda Reports.

I was especially disappointed in the Necromunda Battle Report. I remember really enjoying Necromunda Battle Reports years ago and reading this Report I can't remember why.

To be honest due to the way that each of the Reports is written it is hard to tell were one Report finishes and the next starts. Other than the models themselves it is difficult to tell them apart.

I also think that the Battle Reports rely too much on photographs. The fourteen page Necromunda Report probably only has five maybe six pages of writing.

I have said it before but in my opinion the Reports presentation style of using mostly photographs with the written content spread about in little box-outs does not help the reader enjoy the Report. Due to the layout I find myself reading the Report in a non-linear fashion.

Also I have noticed that there is too much repeat information.

For instance the main write up for Round Eight & Nine states "Eager to deal with the interloping Zarann, Nox the Ripper charged and took her out of the fight."

On the same page the description for photograph 1 states " With Zarann out of the action following an especially brutal charge by Nox, Ben moves Olina to free the captive..."

This use of repeat information is used in every turn and makes reading the Report a bit dull.

It is the same for the 40K Report.

In my opinion the biggest failing of the Battle Reports is that without without including any tactical reasons for the moves each Report is just essentially I move, they move and I fire/assault and they fire/assault.

The best article of the magazine has nothing to do with Games Workshop and it is the article on how to take decent photographs of your models.

As ever the next best is Blanchitsu. For a change the models were for AoS and not 40K. If anything the resulting models were creepier than ever.
 
It is probably a redundant thing for me to say but I personally don't think that the use of a Greater Chaos Spawn as a mutated Treeman works.

Similarly it is probably redundant of me to say that I don't like the Illuminations article. Art is one of things that is very much down to personal taste. That said I really don't like the Mortal Realms artwork that is the subject of this Illuminations. I like the Tempest's Eye but for me the rest of them are just too vague in their detail and too colour saturated.

I note that January's issue is to include A Tale of Four Warlords again. I hope that this time around that it is not just a report on how the Warlords paint their models.
« Last Edit: January 7, 2018, 01:19:09 PM by Alienscar »
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Offline Looshkin

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #5 on: January 6, 2018, 02:56:42 PM »
I am still struggling to enjoy the Battle Reports which is a shame as this issue included four, or six if you include the two mini reports included in the In the Bunker section.

I couldn't say for why but I enjoyed the Middle-earth Battle Report more than the AoS, 40K or Necromunda Reports.

I was especially disappointed in the Necromunda Battle Report. I remember really enjoying Necromunda Battle Reports years ago and reading this Report I can't remember why.

To be honest due to the way that each of the Reports is written it is hard to tell were one Report finishes and the next starts. Other than the models themselves it is difficult to tell them apart.

I also think that the Battle Reports rely too much on photographs. The fourteen page Necromunda Report probably only has five maybe six pages of writing.

I have said it before but in my opinion the Reports presentation style of using mostly photographs with the written content spread about in little box-outs does not help the reader enjoy the Report. Due to the layout I find myself reading the Report in a non-linear fashion.

Also I have noticed that there is too much repeat information.

For instance the main write up for Round Eight & Nine states "Eager to deal with the interloping Zarann, Nox the Ripper charged and took her out of the fight."

On the same page the description for photograph 1 states " With Zarann out of the action following an especially brutal charge by Nox, Ben moves Olina to free the captive..."

This use of repeat information is used in every turn and makes reading the Report a bit dull.

It is the same for the 40K Report.

In my opinion the biggest failing of the Battle Reports is that without without including any tactical reasons for the moves each Report is just essentially I move, they move and I fire/assault and they fire/assault.

The Battle reports were all too short and bereft of detail. I applaud the idea of doing 4 reports, but I think they would have been better served doing 2 in December and 2 in January. Double the content for each report means more depth and more useful information.

I have finally finished reading Dec's White Dwarf and I think it has turned out to be one of the best I have read in 2017.

I will score this issue 2.2 out of 5.

I could quite easily have scored this issue 3 or nearly 4 out of 5 but decided not to as the magazine seems to be getting better and better. If I score these early issues to high then I will run out of room to score all the other improvements that are still to come.

I've always thought that your scores were harsh. That said, it's all down to opinion; however I think that this score beggars belief. Even your description of why you scored it so low makes no real sense...if you could have scored it a 3 or a 4, then do so. Don't score it based on the (in all likelihood forlorn) hope of better things down the road.

If something is worth a 3.5, then it's worth a 3.5. If the next issue is better, then that one can still earn more. And if it isn't as good, then you look a bit odd when you profess to enjoying something and then saying that it's only 44% of it's potential.

It's a solid 4 from me. Room for improvement, but some very good articles.




On a separate note, I'm just leafing through January now....there's actual scratch-built terrain. Using plumbing pipes and everything. My jaw is on the floor. It's been well over a decade since they last told us we could just build amphetamine parrot from what is lying around!
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Offline Alienscar

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #6 on: January 7, 2018, 01:38:55 PM »
If something is worth a 3.5, then it's worth a 3.5. If the next issue is better, then that one can still earn more. And if it isn't as good, then you look a bit odd when you profess to enjoying something and then saying that it's only 44% of it's potential.

Thanks for the reality check Looshkin. I have changed my score to three.

On a separate note, I'm just leafing through January now....there's actual scratch-built terrain. Using plumbing pipes and everything. My jaw is on the floor.

Don't score it based on the (in all likelihood forlorn) hope of better things down the road.

Scratch built terrain is something that has been asked for since this new monthly White Dwarf has been issued so as you can see better things are coming and my idea not so forlorn.
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Offline Looshkin

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #7 on: January 7, 2018, 07:09:22 PM »

Scratch built terrain is something that has been asked for since this new monthly White Dwarf has been issued so as you can see better things are coming and my idea not so forlorn.

Yeah, but there's a lot of painting, sooooooo.... ::)
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Offline Lord of Winter and War

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #8 on: January 7, 2018, 07:48:08 PM »
I still don't get why you dislike painting articles so much. I really like the painting articles in white dwarf, and reference them all the time. The issues I buy, are entirely based on the painting articles. My Harlequins army I painted, I painted referencing the White Dwarf articles. For me, they are the most valuable part of the books.

Painting is a huge part of the hobby, and the guides are fantastic. The youtube videos are good too, but I prefer the printed version more then watching a video when I paint, as then I can follow at my own pace.
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Offline Alienscar

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #9 on: January 8, 2018, 12:26:58 PM »
Yeah, but there's a lot of painting, sooooooo.... ::)

Bugger if you think there is a lot of painting then that is saying something.

I still don't get why you dislike painting articles so much. I really like the painting articles in white dwarf, and reference them all the time. The issues I buy, are entirely based on the painting articles.

It is not so much painting articles that I dislike but the quantity of them. When the painting articles take up nearly half of the magazine then I just find that the whole reading experience becomes a bit dull.

Saying that I do actually dislike the Paint Splatter articles. This isn't because it is a painting article though it is because of how the material is presented. I remember saying in another post that in my opinion I consider the current Paint Splatter presentation to be one of the worst things I have seen in print

I like painting articles that educate you about technique and I have liked nearly all of the 'eavy metal articles.

The youtube videos are good too, but I prefer the printed version more then watching a video when I paint, as then I can follow at my own pace.

I like watching the YouTube videos and personally I find they work better than the printed version for learning a technique.
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Offline Looshkin

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #10 on: January 8, 2018, 04:56:43 PM »
Yeah, but there's a lot of painting, sooooooo.... ::)

Bugger if you think there is a lot of painting then that is saying something.

Nah, I'm kidding. It's not too bad. Paint Splatter (which is actually very good in January), Eavy Metal (which is superb) and then some Golden Demon coverage (when did they drop the 'a' from daemon?). So not too bad.

Although there are a lot of pictures, sooooooo.... ::)
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Offline Alienscar

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #11 on: January 9, 2018, 12:02:49 PM »
You are forgetting Battleforce Challenge, Let's Play Ball, Readers' Models and In The Bunker which are, in my opinion, painting based.

Although there are a lot of pictures, sooooooo.... ::)

Ha ha careful Looshkin people might think you don't like pictures. ;)
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Offline Saim-Dann

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Re: White Dwarf December 2017
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2018, 01:22:49 PM »
G'day Alienscar!
I also don't mind the painting guide. I like the Utube tutorials as well, however, the magazine is easier on the power bill.

Thanks for another great effort, mate. Was a hoot to read... Be well!
   

 


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