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Offline Alienscar

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White Dwarf April 2017
« on: April 11, 2017, 11:04:11 AM »


I thought I would try a different approach for this review and just detail the contents instead of offering my biased opinion.

I will give this issue 1.7 out of 5
 
Including the font cover and the back side of the back cover this issue contains 156 pages.

MISCELLANEOUS: 35 pages 22.73%

1 page of meet the team

1 page of editorial

2 pages detailing the contents

17 pages of stuff that is available to buy or available to pre-order in April

2 pages of letters submitted to White Dwarf.

12 pages of adverts

WARHAMMER 40K: 3.9%

A Tale of Four Warlords: Six pages detailing the efforts of the four Warlords building and painting their chosen armies. Black Templars, Astra Militarum, Iron Warriors and Craftworld Iybraesil are the armies of choice.
 
AGE OF SIGMAR 20.13%

Kharadron Overlords: 12 pages detailing the history and units of the Kharadron Overlords.

Kharadron Overlord Designer’s Notes: 6 pages of the miniatures designers and battletome writers providing  their insight on the Overlords.

Battle Report: “A Grudge to Settle” – 13 pages of the Kharadron Overlords versus the Flesh-Eater Courts.

LORD OF THE RINGS: 2.6%

New Rules: War On the Long Lake, White Dwarf Exclusive – 4 pages of new rules that allow you to interact with the boat, barrels, baskets of fish, slippery walkways and the outhouse bits that are part of the Lake-town House kit.

SPECIALIST GAMES: 16.23%

Shadow War: Armageddon Battle Report: 12 pages of a battle report between two kill teams of Orks versus a kill team of Blood Angel Scouts and a kill team Cadian Veterans. The battle report took place on an 8’ high (when placed on a table) tower called Ferro-Giant Alphus that had been built from the new Sector Mechanicus terrain pieces.

New Rules: 12 pages of new rules that allow you to include Skitarii Rangers and Genestealer Cult Hybrid kill teams in your games of Shadow War: Armageddon.

Spike Magazine:  1 page of a jocular article covering the “big guys” of a Blood Bowl team such as Ogres, Trolls and Rat Ogres.

MODELLING AND PAINTING: 20.78%

Golden Demon: 4 pages of world-class and award-winning miniature painting including the Slayer Sword winner with a theme of enemies of the Imperium.

Army Showcase: 4 pages of a Dark Eldar force called the Sky Serpents.

Realms of Battle: 8 pages detailing how to assemble and paint the new Sector Mechanicus terrain.

Paint Splatter: 6 pages on how to paint the Arkanaut Frigate and its crew in the colours of Barak-Nar plus colours schemes for Arkanauts of the Barak-Zilfin and Barak-Zon sky-ports.

Parade Ground: 6 pages of AoS monsters or constructs painted by members of Games Workshop HQ.

Reader’s Models: 4 pages of photo’s featuring models painted by readers of White Dwarf.

OTHER: 13.63%

Temporal Distort: 2 pages covering White Dwarf 196 from April 1996. Notable content includes the release of 2nd edition Space Hulk, the first appearance of Wood Elf Dryads, Warhammer Quest supplement Seaport and the release of the 5kg white metal Thunderhawk Gunship.

Destined Duel: 4 pages detailing a new minigame. A new minigame played by two players and their choice of one model from the Warhammer 40k range. The game is played in a space of 12” using a normal pack of cards. The cards determine your attack, defend and sidestep actions.

Illuminations: 8 pages of artwork with the theme of “Enemies of the Imperium”

Blanchitsu:  4 pages detailing the House Marguardt warband of Kari Hernesniemi’s that was
used in the Pilgrym project . Kari’s warband is at the very heart of the Pilgrym project as it includes the titular character.

In The Bunker: 3 pages of goings on in the White Dwarf bunker.
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Offline Irisado

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2017, 11:19:09 AM »
There's no harm with posting your opinion if you want to :).  If others disagree they will say so and discussion can develop from there.

All I will say is that there is nothing from that list of contents that makes me want to dip into my wallet to buy it.  The army choices for A Tale of Four Warlords are, sadly, rather disappointing.  Iron Warriors are, in my view, deadly dull and have been over featured in White Dwarf issues of years gone by (those of you who remember Pete Haines will understand what I mean) and Black Templars have never captured my imagination.  At least the choice of Eldar Craftworld is more unorthodox.

It's clear to me that GW's focus, aside from the obvious need to dedicate pages to Shadow War Armageddon this month, remains on Age of Sigmar.  I do like how they are using White Dwarf to showcase it and to keep marketing it.  They have learnt from their failure when they changed the rules for Epic completely all those years ago and failed to explain or market the changes properly, resulting in the game failing to take off.

Finally, they still produce content for Lord of the Rings?  That's a surprise to me.  I'm really not sure that it's worthwhile, but hopefully it will be of value to some readers. 
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Offline Looshkin

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2017, 11:52:13 AM »
Bring back the biased opinions! Seriously, I think that it helps people decide whether to invest in an issue or not; if nothing else, I like to read your summary as it often lets me know if there's anything that I have decided not to read and is actually worth my time. That's definitely happened a couple of times in the past few months.

And who cares if people disagree with your opinion? I usually do, but that's not to say I don't value what you think! Far from it - I often have a blind spot for GW stuff that makes me something of a fanboy, but having your opinions in addition to others helps provide context.

So bring back the opinions!

My thoughts from the April edition are conflicted.

I wish that the Necromunda Shadow War content had a little more depth to it. A couple of pages of designer's notes, extra content in the Bat Rep highlighting differences from 40k. Maybe an insight into campaign play will work, given the lack of a trading post or gang turf. That said, it was great to see the rules for Skitarii and Genestealer Cult in the magazine. It was actually these pages that helped make me decide to get Shadow War, as I saw that the setting could work, as long as the players invest in it.

The new Dwarves got a lot of coverage, but nothing that has particularly grabbed my attention so far.

The tale of 4 warlords disappointed me slightly. It was interesting reading about the colour schemes and how they decided to do what they're doing....but seriously GW, I don't need to see such vanilla forces. I was really hoping we'd see something like Ad Mech (Still somewhat new, in the scheme of things), Genestealer Cult, Harlequins...you know, the niche type armies that are fairly new to the universe (Well, they're not, but they all have had rules within the last, what, 3 years?). Instead, we get 2 types of marines, Guard and Eldar. The last 40k Tale of 4 Warlords had 2 types of marines (Crimson Fists, Red Corsairs), Eldar and something else (Orks?).

Just because the new armies don't all have Start Collecting boxes (and why not? It's been long enough...), it shouldn't preclude them being featured in the new articles.

I thought the lack of an Eavy Metal guide really hurt the Arts and Crafts section of the magazine, as the paint Splatter, while good, isn't really anything new.

I haven't got my teeth into everything yet, but overall I think this is middle of the pack when compared to the others released. Probably a solid 5.5/10 for me. Just lacking in some areas.

Finally, they still produce content for Lord of the Rings?  That's a surprise to me.  I'm really not sure that it's worthwhile, but hopefully it will be of value to some readers. 

Actually, even though I don't and never have played LoTR, I actually find that the LoTR content is usually quite characterful and as such, is good hobby content. At least it's different; not just another showcase or feature about Space Marines/Stormcast Eternals*

*Delete as applicable.
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Offline Lord of Winter and War

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2017, 04:25:17 PM »
Finally, they still produce content for Lord of the Rings?  That's a surprise to me.  I'm really not sure that it's worthwhile, but hopefully it will be of value to some readers.

Yeah, Forgeworld has been knocking it out of the park with their miniatures based on the 3rd hobbit movie. I've heard nothing but good things about the mechanics of the game, I just wish I had someone to play against. The miniatures are phenomenal though, and I'll probably pick some up to turn into a frostgrave warband.
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Offline Alienscar

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2017, 11:25:28 AM »
Bring back the biased opinions! Seriously, I think that it helps people decide whether to invest in an issue or not

Okey-dokey biased and anti-painting opinions will make a return.  :D

I feel there is value in the other style of review though as I think the percentage breakdown can help people decide if an issue is worth buying.

The breakdown of this issue shows that nearly half of the magazine is taken up with articles related to painting and AoS it also shows that a quarter of the magazine is devoted to advert and new releases. This leaves just 38 pages of the magazine for everything else. This, to me, is the problem with this iteration of White Dwarf as the percentage breakdown has stayed roughly the same since this run of White Dwarf started.

Simply put anyone interested in 40k or anything other than AoS need not bother with White Dwarf and would be better off looking at articles on the Warhammer Community pages. 
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Offline Irisado

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2017, 11:57:24 AM »
What this suggests to me is that the new edition of 40K will receive a disproportionate percentage of coverage over multiple editions of White Dwarf once it comes out.  As a result, the content will balance itself up over time.  I agree though that 40K players are unlikely to be overly interested in this issue, especially given that A Tale of Four Warlords has been underwhelming thus far.
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Offline Saim-Dann

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #6 on: April 16, 2017, 08:38:19 AM »
G'day Al!

Fancy meeting you in here. Haven't read a White Dwarf in years. Are their battle reports still horse pucky, just to highlight the latest model they've released? Glad I stumbled upon this thread. From the sounds, GW have to many games going for just one magazine. I understand the marketing behind having all the games between the same covers, however, that's why I stopped reading the mag all those years ago. Am not paying good money for a dozen or so pages on 40K.

The number of games GW have now justifies a sister magazine. Have the painting comps and adds be the crossover where the reader of each mag is introduced to all the different range of models. Also it would double the content in your thread, mate. This was a hoot to read, Al. Looking forward to the next one... Cheers pointy ears!

Offline Alienscar

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #7 on: April 18, 2017, 09:35:35 AM »
Finally, they still produce content for Lord of the Rings?  That's a surprise to me.  I'm really not sure that it's worthwhile, but hopefully it will be of value to some readers.

Apologies Irisado I used the term Lord of the Rings as a generic term for all things Tolkien. The War on the Long Lake rules are actually for The Hobbit: Strategy Battle Game. LoTR is still for sale on GW website though.

Are their battle reports still horse pucky, just to highlight the latest model they've released?

Depending on your outlook the answer would have to be yes and no. Yes they are still used to highlight the latest release but as to whether the Battle Reports are any good depends on what you want from a Battle Report (the Duardin lost by the way).

Most of the recent Battle Reports have been of the narrative nature so the reader learns nothing about why a certain move was made or anything about the mechanics of the game. If the reader likes this sort of Battle Report then it is a good Battle Report if not then it is a waste of pages.

From the sounds, GW have to many games going for just one magazine. I understand the marketing behind having all the games between the same covers, however, that's why I stopped reading the mag all those years ago. Am not paying good money for a dozen or so pages on 40K.

The number of games GW have now justifies a sister magazine.

I don't think the problem is too many games for one magazine I think the problem is AoS and Paint Splatter.

I like reading about the different games that GW produces but so far they seem determined to make sure that 50% of each issue of White Dwarf is made up of AoS and painting articles. This leaves too few of the pages for all the other content. I would much prefer to see the return of the rotating content approach that they used to use. That is, AoS one month followed by 40K the next. At the moment they are barely paying lip service to 40K. I still can't get over how they introduced the Primarch and friends but didn't have a Battle Report for them.

As an example of how the mixed content can and used to work have a look at my review of white Dwarf 266.
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Offline Saim-Dann

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #8 on: April 18, 2017, 10:56:17 AM »
Yup! See what you mean, Al. The reason I called their battle reports horse pucky was that it seemed to my group that whatever new model came out won the day. It took away any credibility for us. By the way; The link I sent to you of the terrain maker was spelt wrong... Sorry!
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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2017, 03:17:38 AM »
I watched their video on the kharadron overlords on youtube, and that was just a dude repeating the same points over and over again with slight variations (Yes, I get it, they've given up on kings, get on with it already) in a terribly edited clip. The art shown was nice though.

Offline Alienscar

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #10 on: May 2, 2017, 11:00:18 AM »
White Dwarf April 2017

I have scored my impression of the White Dwarf and given the page breakdown in my previous post so the following is just my opinion of the issues content.

TL:DR White Dwarf is okay if you like AoS and pictures of models.

My one wish for the new edition of Warhammer 40000 is that it brings a more balanced content to the White Dwarf.

Due to the release of Shadow Wars I was really looking forward to this issue of White Dwarf as I was expecting great things. I don’t know why but I was thinking that I might have seen a Shadow War article that was similar to the old Inquisition or Necromunda articles. Sadly this wasn’t the case and, similar to Looshkin, I was left wanting more. Surely a release of this nature warranted more than just a Battle Report?

Thing is part of the problem was the Battle Report. Once again the Battle Report was of the narrative kind so written as if the models were real people and using their point of view to describe what is happening in the battle.

Quote from: White Dwarf April 2017
Waving his troopers forward, Jadrell and his kill team approached the promethium rig along a narrow causeway form the north. The Orks, oblivious to the ten Guardsmen below, were being characteristically raucous, firing their crude guns at oil barrels….

There is nothing wrong with this approach once in a while but I wish they had used a different approach for this Battle Report. The main reason I think they should have used a different approach is that the other Battle Report for the new Kharadron was written in exactly the same manner and this led to the Battle Reports reading as one long Report. Personally I found that the narrative nature of both Reports meant that apart from names and weapons you could hardly tell were one Report ended and the other began.

It is time they put A Tale of Four Warlords out of it misery this poor article is limping along a mere shadow of its self.

Last month was about which Faction the Warlords had chosen and a preview of their chosen colour schemes and this month was how they painted their chosen colour schemes. I mean come on how many times do we need to be told that Black Templars will be painted black and then told how to paint black?

Make no mistake this is a Tale of Four Painters not a tale of Warlords.

The only saving grace is that instead of the tedious paint splatter approach they displayed the colour schemes in what they called colour swatches. The swatches barely take up 1/6th of one page and give you all the colours and techniques needed to copy the colour scheme shown. I much prefer this to paint splatter which would have taken up a page or more for each scheme and I hope I see more of this approach.
 
The Designer’s Notes for the Kharadron Overlords suffered from the same thing I complained about when I read the Stormcast Guide last month, That is, there is something of a lacklustre sheen to the writing and personally I find the whole premise of mining clouds laughable. It is hard to describe but I don’t get a feeling of nuance or depth to the writing.

Also similar to how the Stormcast felt like a reimaging of the Space Marines the Kharadron read a bit like the Eldar. That is, there are six major sky-ports (Craftworlds) and the Kharadron of these ports have certain characteristics. So the Barak-Zon are militaristic (Biel-Tan) and the Barak-Mhornar are regarded as scoundrels/pirates (Saim-Hann).

Realms of Battle is five pages of how to assemble the new Sector Mechanicus scenery kits. It is an okay article but I would have preferred to have had more information on how the new kits combine with existing kits and more information on conversion possibilities. I say this because if you have got one of these kits then I would imagine they already come with assembly instructions and I thought it would have been cool to see conversions and possible combinations rather than a repeat of what you might already have.

Blanchitsu is beyond description. This month is focused on another of the participating Warbands that took part in the Pilgrym narrative project that was organised by John Blanche. The amount of time that participants must have spent on this campaign and the level of immersion into the hobby that this project details is truly staggering.

The Pilgrym is about a monstrously powerful infant pysker that is believed to be powerful enough to replace the Emperor on his throne. It is funny but every time I read an article about the Pilgrym I get a feeling that it is somehow going to affect the Warhammer 40000 story arc.
 
Temporal Distort covered issue 196 from April 1996 and one of its articles is something that I think is sadly missing from this run of White Dwarf so far and that is a real hobby article. The old Modelling Workshop had details of how to make various types of bridges using balsa wood, lollipop sticks and cardboard.

Four pages of Reader’s Models, six pages of Parade Ground, six pages of Paint Splatter, four pages of Army Showcase, eight pages of Illuminations and four pages of Golden Demon. That adds up one fifth of the magazine given over to painting/pictures. I personally feel that that is too much and I wish that they had dropped the Illuminations, Readers Models and Golden Demon to bring us more coverage of Armageddon. Do we really need Illuminations every month?
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Offline Saim-Dann

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #11 on: May 2, 2017, 12:15:01 PM »
G'day Alienscar! Soooo; this is the biased opinions that you and everyone have been talking about. "Tale of four painters". Bwahaha! That was blessed funny. I remember the terrain tutorials with Popsicle sticks and cardboard as well. They were a great introduction to diy modelling. Thanks for the rant, mate. It was a hoot.

Offline The GrimSqueaker

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #12 on: May 2, 2017, 01:31:59 PM »
The Pilgrym is starting to sound like someone at GW is getting their Foundation on with some Mule fanfic.
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Offline Alienscar

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Re: White Dwarf April 2017
« Reply #13 on: May 4, 2017, 11:00:45 AM »
I didn't get that vibe to be honest and funnily enough I have just finished rereading the Foundation three weeks ago.

The Mule was a powerful telepath driven by low self esteem and I don't see any echoes of that in the Pilgrym.
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