Topic: White Dwarf February 2018

[Alienscar]

Score out of 5 to follow but I am finding this issue a struggle to read.
 
Including the front cover and the back side of the back cover this issue contains 156 pages. The page count and percentages don’t include the covers as they don’t fall into any category.

I think this is the least amount of AoS to be included in the magazine since the monthly White Dwarf was reintroduced.

At 25.5 pages long I think this is the highest page count yet for the new stuff.

Adeptus Custodes Munitorum Report, House Orlock info, tips on units to use in your undead Legion, advice on how to play the Chosen Axes and Spiteclaw’s Swarm in Warhammer Underworlds are just a few of the things that makes this section bearable.

MISCELLANEOUS: 49.0 pages 31.82%

1 page of meet the team

1 page of editorial

2 pages detailing the contents

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

2 pages of letters submitted to White Dwarf.

17.5 pages of adverts

WARHAMMER 40K: 26 pages 16.88%

A Host of Heroes: 6 pages of Designers’ notes on the new models and Codex for the Adeptus Custodes.
 
Battle Report: Mission: Xenopurge - 16 page Matched Play game between the Necrons and the Adeptus Custodes.

Tactica Hereticus: 4 pages of tactics for the Thousand Sons.

AGE OF SIGMAR 9 pages 5.85%

Malign Portents: Designers’ Notes – 4 pages of Malign Portents discussion with Phil Kelly.

A Tale of Four Warlords:  5 pages detailing how the Warlords have painted their models.

MIDDLE-EARTH: 7 pages 4.55%

New Rules: The Search For The Stone – Three new scenarios for evil warbands in the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game: Battle Companies.

SPECIALIST GAMES: 24 pages 15.58%

Getting Started With Blood Bowl: 2 pages of why you should play Blood Bowl.

Hands of the Emperor: 5 pages of chat with the designers of video game Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor.

Match Report: 10 pages of a Blood Bowl match Report between the Elven Union and Chaos Rengades.

New Rules: Return to Hammerhal (Part 3)- 5 pages of White Dwarf exclusive rules detailing a new dungeon (Darkhold Garrison) and new rules for Red Yugol’s Revelrie.

New Rules: Scenario: The Gauntlet – 2 pages of White Dwarf exclusive rules for a Necomunda scenario that uses the Necromunda Badzone Delta-7 tiles that aren't available until the 17th of Feb.

MODELLING AND PAINTING: 26 pages 16.88%

Golden Demon Classic 2017: 8 pages of winning entries from the Warhammer 40,000 Squad and Blood Bowl categories.

Battleforce Challenge: 4 pages showing off three armies painted as part of a Studio army challenge.

Realms of Battle: 4 pages of how to combine scenery kits and how to use vines, bracken and skulls.

Paint Splatter: 2 pages of how to use the Splatter guides.

Paint Splatter: 2 pages of painting guides for an Orlock Ganger and Underhive base.

Reader’s Models: 6 pages of photo’s featuring models painted by readers of White Dwarf.
 
OTHER: 13 pages 8.44%

Temporal Distort: 2 pages covering White Dwarf from August 2001. This issue is a reminder of how good White Dwarf could be. T’au preview, Night Lords Index Astartes, background for three Inquisitor characters, Dark Shadow Battle Reports, Scenery Workshop for Inquisitor, Warhammmer Fantasy RPG info, Giant-fighting minigame, Cursed Founding Index Astartes, rules and kit bash for Lizardmen Saurus. Awesome stuff.

The Pen is Mightier: 6 pages looking back at twenty years of the Black Library.

In The Bunker: 5 pages of goings on in the White Dwarf bunker.

NEXT MONTH: On sale Friday 2nd March 2018 - Battleground, new gang rules for Necromunda, Golden Demon, Four Warlords, Blanchitsu, Hall of Fame, Blood Omens and more.

[The GrimSqueaker]

Tau preview eh. I thought they'd be held off till March with Necrons next.

[Changeyname]

Tau preview eh. I thought they'd be held off till March with Necrons next.

Dude that was a look-back at the preview in an old WD for the 2001 dex

[Alienscar]

Tau preview eh. I thought they'd be held off till March with Necrons next.

T'au preview was in the Temporal Distort section which covers August 2001 so don't get your hopes up.

Saying that I am certain that there is a strange and yet to be discovered link between the Temporal Distort articles and future/recent releases.

This Temporal Distort covered Inquisitor and scenery making whilst in the here and now a new Inquisitor model has been released and scenery articles have made a welcome return. Even the Dark Shadows campaign from then has echoes in the here and now in Malign Portents.

If I am right look out for T'au info soon or something about the Cursed Founding.

[The GrimSqueaker]

A brief ray of happiness is extinguished into the void of despair. One saving grace is back then it was Tau (or tau even) and not T'au. GW have just started that apostrophe nonsense when talking about the empire rather than merely the planet.

[Saim-Dann]

G'day, Alienscar!
Another great report. Thanks for the effort, mate. 

[Alienscar]

I will score this issue 1.85 1.9 out of 5.

I don’t know about you but when  I read something I tend to read from the front page to the back page and as I said at the start of the this thread I was finding this issue a struggle to read.

A lot of the content of this issue was made up of interview style articles and there was also a Battle Report and a BB Match Report. Additionally there were the usual painting/pictures of models articles. From page 112 to the end of the magazine (page 148) the content is all about painting. For me it was the similarity of the articles that made this issue a bit of a struggle to read.

In the end I found the best way to enjoy the magazine was to read the articles as I liked. So reading all of the Blood Bowl stuff or all of the 40k stuff in one go rather than trying to read the magazine in a linear fashion.

Overall there was a lot to like about this issue and there is something for everyone one I would say but, in my mind, it was dragged down by the number of interview style articles.

So you will like this issue if you like reading interview style articles and looking at pictures of miniatures.

My favourite items this month are the 40k Battle Report, the Blood Bowl Match Report, the Thousand Sons tactica and the scenery modification article.

The Battle Report was a really enjoyable read but makes me think of all of the old “fixed” complaints that used to be aimed at Battle Reports.

I am no expert but the whole thing seemed skewed towards the Custodes. They played an objective based game were more points were given for each turn the objective was held. There was a known lack of assaulting units in the Necrons. From reading the article I think there was a lack of Mortal Wound causing units in the Necrons.   I wonder also if the 3,400 points used helped the Custodes or is it a common point’s value for Matched Play games.

Even if the game was skewed to the Custodes I don’t really care as it takes nothing away from the enjoyment of the article.

I liked the layout of this Report as well. Instead of one large photo spread across two pages it had a large photo that took up half a page along with smaller photo’s on the opposite page.  It is a subtle change but for me it made reading the Report a much better experience.

The Blood Bowl Match Report was also an enjoyable and interesting read. I don’t know if it is because I have never read the rules for BB but I always find the BB Reports informative and I find the Reports more interesting because of this trait.

I thought that this month’s Getting Started with Blood Bowl was better than last month’s Orks article but overall the light hearted nature of these articles to date means you don’t seem to actually learn anything about getting started.

Another example of how the layout of the magazine and the order in which you read can make a difference is the Tale of Four Warlords. The Warlords article follows all of the “interview” articles and because of this the content of the Warlords is a welcome relief from that style of article. So even though this month’s Warlords is just about how the Warlords painted their models I still enjoyed it.

Also, similar to the Battle Report, the written content isn’t overshadowed by the pictures for a change and this makes the whole article a bit more bearable. It is a shame that the Warlords is still just about painting but I hope that a battle report is on the way.   

The article on how to add vines, bracken and skulls to scenery is a good article but I think it would have been better if it had been longer.

I have no idea how effective the information given in Tactica Hereticus would be in a game but I love informative articles such as this one. Information on how to use Magnus, how to use stratagems and how to maximise mortal wound units and flamers I find really interesting to read as it makes me feel that if I ever wanted to start a Thousand Sons army then the information provided here would be helpful. 

[Irisado]

It sounds much better than the score than you gave.  I think that you could probably round it up to two .

To me it does seems like a tale of two halves in terms of enjoying or not enjoying this month's content.  I'd definitely be selective about which articles I would read, but at least the reasonably broad nature of the topics covered ought to a people to a reasonably wide array of gamers.

Regarding the Thousand Sons content, it would be interesting to see how it differs from the tactical articles posted on the website a while back.  I hope that there will be a battle report featuring the Thousand Sons soon, even if it may be skewed in their favour, as used to be the case with the newest army, especially given that there probably was an element of that going on with the battle report featuring the Custodes.  It wouldn't be right for Chaos to be less favoured than the Imperials .

The vines, bracken, and skulls article sounds as though it was a very interesting read.  It's a shame if it was a bit rushed, but so long as all the critical information was included that's the main thing.

[Lord of Winter and War]

It sounds much better than the score than you gave.  I think that you could probably round it up to two .

To me it does seems like a tale of two halves in terms of enjoying or not enjoying this month's content.  I'd definitely be selective about which articles I would read, but at least the reasonably broad nature of the topics covered ought to a people to a reasonably wide array of gamers.

Regarding the Thousand Sons content, it would be interesting to see how it differs from the tactical articles posted on the website a while back.  I hope that there will be a battle report featuring the Thousand Sons soon, even if it may be skewed in their favour, as used to be the case with the newest army, especially given that there probably was an element of that going on with the battle report featuring the Custodes.  It wouldn't be right for Chaos to be less favoured than the Imperials .

The vines, bracken, and skulls article sounds as though it was a very interesting read.  It's a shame if it was a bit rushed, but so long as all the critical information was included that's the main thing.

On the official games workshop twitch stream, they had a thousand sons vs custodes game before either book dropped, and the thousand sons pulled out a decisive victory over the boys in gold!

[Alienscar]

It sounds much better than the score than you gave.  I think that you could probably round it up to two .

From my point of view I enjoyed January's issue more than February's. As I scored Jan's issue 2 and because, in my opinion, Feb's issue is not the equal of Jan's it follows that I can't give Feb's issue the same score as Jan's.

How does 1.9 sound?
Post Merge: February 23, 2018, 03:35:05 PM
In the future, please use the modify button. Double posting is against the forum rules, and for that reason, the system merged your posts.

Tau preview eh. I thought they'd be held off till March with Necrons next.

T'au preview was in the Temporal Distort section which covers August 2001 so don't get your hopes up.

Saying that I am certain that there is a strange and yet to be discovered link between the Temporal Distort articles and future/recent releases.

This Temporal Distort covered Inquisitor and scenery making whilst in the here and now a new Inquisitor model has been released and scenery articles have made a welcome return. Even the Dark Shadows campaign from then has echoes in the here and now in Malign Portents.

If I am right look out for T'au info soon or something about the Cursed Founding.

Well does this info about the Tau on Warhammer Community prove my vague theory or not.

In addition to this month's Temporal Distort covering the Tau which are now getting released it also had info about scenery and strangely battlefield scenery is also due to be released.