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Offline Alienscar

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White Dwarf January 2019
« on: January 10, 2019, 10:14:52 AM »
Including the front cover and the back side of the back cover this issue contains 148 pages. The page count and percentages don’t include the covers as they don’t fall into any category.

Note that this issue does not contain any pre-order/new models information.

Score out of five to follow after I have finished reading the magazine.

MISCELLANEOUS: 14 pages, 9.59%

1 page of meet the team

1 page of editorial

2 pages detailing the contents

2 pages of letters submitted to White Dwarf.

8 pages of adverts


WARHAMMER 40K: 44 pages 30.13%

40k Section Introduction: 2 pages to introduce the 40k section of the magazine. One photo, spread across two adjacent pages, of models artfully arranged to look as if they are battling each other.

The Herald of Doom: Fiction –  6 page short story set on Vigilus.

Echoes From the Warp: 4 pages – This is a new regular article that is to be about the rules, tactics and development of Warhammer 40,000. This month is about how 40k eight edition came into being.

Index Astartes: Crimson Fists8 pages detailing new background and rules for the Crimson Fists.

Codex Supplement: Crimson Fists – New Rules: 2 pages of new rules for the Crimson Fists.

Battle Report:Decapitation Strike – 22 pages detailing two tournament gamers playing a Matched Play battle between the Aeldari and the Imperiums.


AGE OF SIGMAR 10 pages 6.85%:

AOS Section Introduction: 2 pages to introduce the AOS section of the magazine. One photo, spread across two adjacent pages, of models artfully arranged to look as if they are battling each other.

Deadly Venture: Fiction  4 page short story featuring the Kharadron Overlords.

Rules of Engagement: 4 pages – This is a new regular article that is to be about the creation, design and evolution of the AOS rules. This month is about the FAQs.


SPECIALIST GAMES: 21 pages 14.38%
Warhammer AOS: Skirmish- 12 pages introducing new and updated rules for Warhammer AOS: Skirmish.

Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault - 1 page to introduce the Nightvault section of the magazine. One photo of models arranged on a board.

Glory Points: 4 pages – A new column dedicated to Nightvault. This month explains how to use and choose a board.

Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team – New Rules: 4 pages of new rules detailing how to use Kroot Mercenaries in your Kill Team games.


MODELLING AND PAINTING: 43 pages 29.45%

Reader’s Models: 2 pages of models painted by readers of White Dwarf.

The Realm of Fire: 8 pages detailing how to paint and model your models to suit a particular Realm.

Children of Chaos – Featured Army 9 pages of Skaven and Maggotkin of Nurgle models painted by Adam Elford.

The Pinnacle of Painting: 4 pages of Daren Latham chatting about entering the Golden Demon competition.

Golden Demon 2018: 8 pages of winning entries from the 40,000 vehicle and LoTR categories of the Forge World Open Day Golden Demon competition.

’Eavy Metal Challenge: 6 pages of photo’s featuring Wizards painted by the ‘Eavy Metal team.

 The New Sons of Dorn – Army Showcase 4 pages of a Primaris Marine Crimson Fist army painted by Studio painter Dan Hyams.

Paint Splatter – Painting Crimson Fists: 2 pages of a painting guide for the Crimson Fists.


OTHER: 14 pages 9.59%

Worlds of Warammer: 4 pages of Phil Kelly writing about what it is like writing a Warhammer short story.

Illuminations: 6 pages of Paul Dainton’s thoughts on the art for Blackstone Fortress.

Inside the Studio: 4 pages detailing what the Design Studio team are currently painting and playing.


NEXT MONTH:  The Tome Celestial: The Hammerhands

Give Away Item: A1 sized double sided poster.

One side shows a map of the War Zone Vigilus and the other side is art work depicting a battle between the Orcs, Ultramarines and the Imperial Guard.

« Last Edit: February 4, 2019, 09:53:13 AM by Alienscar »
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Offline Looshkin

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Re: White Dwarf January 2019
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2019, 01:57:29 PM »
I'm interested to see what you think Alien. I really like the changes that they've made to the magazine to start 2019. Of note to me (and I've only skimmed the mag and read a couple of the articles)

*No adverts other than the occasional double page spread. This makes a huge difference in the amount of content in the 148 page magazine compared to the past

*Competitive Battle Report: 2 tournament players playing representative tourney armies. This is huge and makes it far more worthwhile.

*Maps! Maps in the Bat Rep! Woo frigging Hoo! Seriously, you can tell what's going on a lot more clearly as a result. There are still way too many photos in the batter, but it's certainly a start.

*New rules. For 40k we get a section on Crimson Fists. 8 pages of background, 2 pages of rules and then a hobby section covering 6 pages including Paint Splatter. I think the section looks really good and is the first part that I've started looking at after finishing the Battle Report.

*Nightvault Section: This looks at the game boards specifically, with a view to the rules development, tactics and gameplay. Again, I've done the skinniest of skim reads but it seems very interesting.

*Fiction! 4 pages of AoS short story, 6 pages of a 40k story. My favourite memory of early WD (Apart from Issues 127 and 129 (Eldar Craftworld background and rules, Space Marine Armour background) was a story that spanned issues 155 and 156 (I think, the numbers may be off) about Gotrek and Felix stopping a Skaven threat. It was a treat and I really, really miss the fiction that was a part of every WD, Codex and Army Book. I welcome the return.

Those were the bits that really shouted for my attention, but tbh there seems to be a heck of a lot of content, so there are probably a few more articles that will really grab me too.

All in all, it looks very promising.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2019, 02:00:49 PM by Looshkin »
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Offline Alienscar

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Re: White Dwarf January 2019
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2019, 09:47:24 AM »
I haven't bought a White Dwarf since April 2018 due to the Visions like content.

The promise of 'the best White Dwarf ever' has drawn me back for another look.

Like you I have not had a chance to do anything other than skim through it, but like you I get a good feeling about the magazine just by skimming through it.

First impression is that compared to last years mag there would appear to be less pictures and more words. That can only be a good thing.

Woo hoo for the maps, but also Index Astartes has returned. I can't wait to read this article.




*Fiction! 4 pages of AoS short story, 6 pages of a 40k story. My favourite memory of early WD (Apart from Issues 127 and 129 was a story about Gotrek and Felix stopping a Skaven threat. It was a treat and I really, really miss the fiction that was a part of every WD, Codex and Army Book. I welcome the return.

If you will excuse me quoting myself

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.

As you can see I also missed the inclusion of fiction in the White Dwarf and I am stoked to see it return.

My only concern at the moment is that if you look at my page counts one category that has one of the largest counts is the painting and modelling category. This is a worry because if GW truly want to make the best White Dwarf ever then I believe they need to drop stuff that reminds me of Visions.

At the moment though, having just skimmed the mag, I agree with your assessment that it looks promising.
« Last Edit: February 4, 2019, 10:43:08 AM by Alienscar »
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Offline Looshkin

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Re: White Dwarf January 2019
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2019, 12:03:10 PM »

My only concern at the moment is that if you look at my page counts one category that has one of the largest counts is the painting and modelling category. This is a worry because if GW truly want to make the best White Dwarf ever then I believe they need to drop stuff that reminds me of Visions.

As always, each to his own.

I look at it this way. GW has always broken up the hobby as 'Build, Collect and Play'. Multiple articles over the year point to the fact that some people collect miniatures, or armies thereof. Some people play competitively, or for fun, whilst others convert or paint or both. 3 somewhat distinct thirds of a hobby.  The other part of the hobby that interests a lot of folk is the narrative background of the universes.

If you look at the breakdown of content, the painting section is just under 30%. Actually...that seems rather balanced when looked at by the 'build, collect, play' tenet.

Now, I will agree that the number of pictures in the other sections needs to reduce still further, but a third of the mag on how to make your army look as good as possible, with different approaches to that? Fine by me.

You've got to remember what forms the customer base. I barely if ever play the game, but I would never hold a grudge against GW for having new rules or tactica. It's still a part of the hobby and the fact that it forms over 50% of the magazine is fine in my books.

It's not where we want it to be, but it's a definite step forward. They're nearly there!
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Offline Alienscar

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Re: White Dwarf January 2019
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2019, 05:36:30 AM »
I will score this issue 2.85 out of 5

TL:DR – You will like this issue if you like looking at painted miniatures, receiving new rules, or reading explanations of how various aspects of Warhammer came to exist.
   
So, another New Year and yet another ‘the best White Dwarf yet’. It doesn’t seem that long ago that they were making similar claims for when they returned to the monthly format after going weekly for a while.

This ‘new’ monthly format brings the return of some old favourites and the introduction of four new regular articles.

The regular articles are Worlds of Warhammer, Rules of Engagement, Glory Points and Echoes from the Warp. This new White Dwarf also sees the return of New Rules, Index Astartes and short stories.

Worlds of Warhammer is the first of the new articles and it is written by Phil Kelly. Phil is a senior background writer. The banner for this article states the following: ‘Worlds of Warhammer is the first of four new regular columns in this month’s issue of White Dwarf. In this article, Phil Kelly delves into the background of the Worlds of Warhammer and what it’s like writing stories about the heroes and villains we use in our games’.
 
For me this article is the weakest of the new stuff and I am struggling to see the point of it. I can’t say I learnt anything of value from it, or even found it interesting. Next month this article is to be about how to name your heroes.
 
The banner for the next new regular article reads:-

‘Rules of Engagement is our second new column, this time penned by veteran games designer Jervis Johnson. Each month, Rule of Engagement focuses on the creation, design and evolution of the rules for Warhammer Age of Sigmar – this time around, Jervis tackles FAQs’.

This article was well written and interesting, so I enjoyed reading it. If future articles in this series are to this standard then I will look forward to them.

The banner for the third of the new articles in White Dwarf has this to say:-

‘Glory Points is our column all about Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault. Curated by games developer  Dave Sanders, it delves into the development of the game, plus rules tactics and gameplay. This month, Dave explores the game boards.’

This, in my opinion, is the second best article in this month’s mag. This article on how to choose your Nightvault game board and the reasons for doing so is pure hobby brilliance and we need more of this. It doesn’t matter that I do not play Nightvault the quality and content of this article makes me feel that if I were to have a game then I wouldn’t be a complete novice. For me that is a sign of good writing.

The introduction to the last of the new columns has this to say:-

‘Echoes from the Warp is a regular column about the rules, tactics and ongoing development of Warhammer 40,000, hosted by games developer Robin Cruddace. This month, Robin shares some insights on how this edition of Warhammer 40,000 came into being.’

This is a solid article. Informative and interesting if you like this sort of thing, which I do. I think the only thing that lets it down is that the subject matter is too big for the allotted four pages. If it is not clear the article is all about how the eight edition of 40K came to life.
 
The only other thing wrong with this article is this White Dwarf. That is, the article is all about how one of the driving forces for 40k eight edition was ‘accessibility’. The end result of this drive for accessibility being that once a 40k player has read the Core Rules all they then need are the datasheets for their models and they have all the info they need to play a game. It seems to me that by including new rules in the White Dwarf that they have nullified three years of development work.

Index Astartes: Crimson Fists – what can I say about the return of such an iconic article? Nothing as there is no need to say anything, I suspect everyone reading this knows and loves Index Astartes. I applaud the return of this fantastic article. This is the best article in the mag this month.

Another article that I enjoyed is the 40k Battle Report. This was a Matched Play game between two tournament players using armies chosen, for the most part, from the Studies miniature collections.

One army was made up of two Blood Angel Captains, a Catachan Battalion Detachment and as many Imperial Knights as the remaining points would allow. The other army was a mixed Aeldari army and it contained a mix of eleven Jetbikes and flyers and a unit of eight Dark Reapers.

This Battle Report has got to be the best Report I have read in a long while. In my opinion the information provided in the army selection and deployment sections of the Report, coupled with the blow by blow account of each round makes for a more interesting Report than the narrative type.

Know your Stratagem’s is the overwhelming lesson I learnt reading this.

The only problem I have with this Report is that the maps are far too small to be useful.

Another welcome return is the inclusion of the two short stories. I thoroughly enjoyed reading both of these and they are a welcome inclusion as they break up the flow of the content quite nicely.

The articles that make up the remainder of the mag: Children of Chaos, Readers’ Models, Illuminations, The Pinnacle of Painting, The ‘Eavy Metal Challenge, Inside the Studio, The New Sons of Dorn, Painting Crimson Fists & Golden Demon – are, in one way or another painting articles. This is too much in my humble opinion and needs to be addressed if they truly want this run of White Dwarf to be the best yet.

This issue essentially has two Army of the Month articles and coupled with Readers’ Models that is just too much. I would like to see Golden Demon and Army of the Month dropped to be replaced by a decent conversion or terrain feature. To be clear that does not mean that I want to see the return of Battleground as that was just a painting article in disguise.

I forgot to mention the poster that was included with this issue. Whilst there is nothing wrong with a free poster I feel that this one was a bit of a let down.

If you are the type of person to frame your posters (which I have in the past - GEN13, Bone & Babylon 5 to mention a few) then you might not be a fan of the double sided nature of this poster.

If you are the type to just stick posters on your wall then I think you would think twice about this one due the crease marks. Whilst on some posters you can iron out any crease marks there would be little point on this one as the ink has come away at all of the crease lines leaving a white line. 
« Last Edit: February 4, 2019, 10:09:46 AM by Alienscar »
Quote from: Starrakatt
"Russ, get your work done or you won't see your damn console for the next month!"
Quote from: Cavalier
Honestly Alienscar, we get it... you dont like painting!

 


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