New Releases - I'm not a Tyranid or Space Wolf model but I can definitely appreciate the excitement that those players must be feeling looking at these pages. Essentially There's a load of models that are long overdue released in one go. The Tervigon/Tyrannofex kit looks epic and looks to be based on the Forge World bio-titan. I love the Termagant emerging from the sac underneath the Tervigon.The Hive Tyrant/Swarmlord plastic kit also looks badass and appears to have a huge amount of options, and wings! I remember putting together my 2nd edition metal Tyrant and it being so heavy.
Hobby Essentials - Ooh look heres 2 pages all about our overpriced glue.
Devourer of Worlds - There's some 'Eavy Metal examples of Tyranids and a timeline of the most famous fleets. Interesting reading and Nids always look great in photos. Speaking of great looking nids, Phil Kelly's hive fleet Jormungandr is mind blowing. They look like wasps, especially the large models. Definitely inspiring.
There's some writing from Robin Cruddace and some extracts from his Codex which is cool, but nothing new which is a bit disappointing.
Painting Workshop: Tervigon - They've focused on the Behemoth scheme which doesn't appeal to me but apparently the tips can be used for any scheme you like, you just need to change the paints, really?!
A company of Wolves - Most of this looks like fairly bland background from the codex. And why would you call a character Harald? It just reminds he of Neighbours!
Painting Workshop: Thunder Wolves - I'm sure most of these techniques have been covered for other models in previous issues.
Standard Bearer - It's all about Jervis at Games Days, and I met him last year. Once again he skirts around the main questions people would love a straight answer to. We can't blame Jervis, I'm sure his hands are tied just like everyone else, but if you can't write about something. Please don't write about not being able to talk about it!
LotR: Ambush at Amon Sul - Great to see ideas for scenarios here, even if I'll probably never play this game.
Warhammer Civil War - Seriously, is this still going on?! It's been three issues now and there's still another to go next month. At least they put it in here and didn't release it as a book and charge £20 for it.
Citadel Hall of Fame - This month it's all about wizards. Maybe it's the Dwarf in me but they all look the same!
LotR Tale of Four Gamers - Anything that shows someone's personal hobby is a winner with me. I might not play this game but it's an interesting read. Unfortunately no one has chosen to do the Easterlings but I'll be reading this avidly each month.
Armies on Parade: Ogres - More sweet personal armies. I recently picked up the old Ogre Kingdom army book and these models look great.
Know Thy Enemy - The closing page of the issue shows all the miniatures in the Tyranid army and is a great idea, it's like a who's who of xenos awesomeness!
So there we have it. No mention of the 25th Anniversary, More balance between the 3 systems, no actual new exciting content but a pleasant read none the less. I still look forward to checking my letter box on the last Saturday of the month and seeing what Andrew and the gang have put together but I can't help feeling that they could push the boundaries so much further. So rather than just sitting here complaining I'm going to set about making my own 120 page magazine! It might take longer than a month and it might turn out to be total rubbish but I can't criticise other's if I can't do better. More news on this project soon!
I'm going to give this issue a 4/10. It's not awful but it's not quite average. It showed glimpses of greatness but not enough for my liking.
Sadly, I feel that even though the model releases should make this a great issue I probably agree with your 4/10. Where was the epic Bat Rep between Space Wolfs and Tyranids? Why was this Standard Bearer ever written? and Why no mention of the 40K 25th B'day that was going on the same time this WD came to our doors.
ReplyDeleteI liked a lot of what was there, the model reviews, tale of Four Gamers under any guise and the Civil War section. But this issue seems to have suffered from some bloat that left no space for a few vital articles.
Thanks for the review, I enjoy these chances to refine my view each month.
Good review. I'll probably still buy it... Damn you GW . Let me know if you're looking for contributors to your project!
ReplyDeletewww.theunrealisticartist.com
@Drake, glad I'm not the only one that is feeling quite down about the state of White Dwarf nowadays. I just got a load of old ones off ebay around issue 200 and they just have so much content! I'll be doing a review of some of them to see how they compare.
ReplyDelete@the unrealistic artist, I'm the same. It's a bit sad but I think I'll always try and buy it just in the hope that the next issue is going to be epic! That would be great thanks mate. I'll be putting together a plan for it once I've finished painting some more Knights.