Official April 2012 White Dwarf (USA 387, UK 388 etc) Feedback Thread

[Deff Mekz]

Rant/

Utterly and totally abysmal. I think this month's issue was close to the giant issue standard! Alright maybe not that bad , but reading through it I couldn't help but think that the magazine had some great potential but the writers just couldn't be bothered going into any detail what so ever. For eg;

The Battle Report; I jumped up and down in glee when I saw the non studio armies before being utterly shocked by the content. (or rather lack of)
TO4G; I find it kind of amusing that the best TO4G they've done in the past few years has been on their website. The two in WD have been horrendous to say the least.
Pictures; Dear GW I although I may only be the youthful age of 17 I'am not impressed by double page spreads of your latest big kit which looks inferior (imo) to the gorgeous smaller (take the hint) version of the Griffon in your starter yet.

/Rant Over

Wow don't think I've ever ranted as badly as that on this forum. Needless to say this issue left me rather riled, so I'll award it with a generous 1.

[violenceha]

This issue was a complete failure, if you want me to pay $870 for a set of paints it'll take something more impressive than tutorials on how to paint to a tabletop standard. Bring back Eavy Metal, show us what they can do with them and how and I'll consider it.

I give it a 0.

I should point out that I don't mean this to reflect on the hobby team as doing a bad job, they don't. It's marketing.

[Graeme]

How is supposed to be a good WD for you, guys? It should say on the cover "SCREW THE NEW RELEASES! How to build a Thunderhawk using only Gnoblars and Green Stuff" or what?)

Bonus contest: if you can really make a Thunderhawk using only Gnoblars, you're great.

OK, this made me do a little lol, but since you ask...

I think the top-level direction of content is OK (apart from the batrep which should have been in last month's, replaced by an empire one in this month's). The problem is in the execution:

News and New releases: This is generally pretty good. Would be nice if they always included prices.

Paint Stuff– A big thing this month, so it's only right that they include it in the WD. Also, like I said in my review, the charts and guides seem genuinely useful. They just went way overboard on pictures without adding any extra value - other people have made constructive suggestions of what could have filled some of this space, eg EM masterclasses, objectives of the relaunch, people’s armies...

Stuff about the latest army (Empire in this case) – This is WD’s bread and butter and they’ve already shown that it’s possible for them to do it well. We just need fewer pictures of the same new models and more content - stuff from the Games Dev chaps on what they are hoping to achieve with the new rules, stuff about tactics for use with the new book, articles on new units and what they bring to the table, stuff from the art dept about what they’ve been doing, likewise the sculptors. A BATTLE REPORT!

Gaming Content (in this case Civil War and Deathworlds): On the one hand it’s nice that they’re doing this at all, as for a long time they weren’t. For me, the Deathworld stuff is a good way to go about it. Sure it’s a bit too random-table heavy, but hey, it’s better than 6 pages of sprue pictures of the new popemobiles, right? Civil War has been the opposite though, 4 issues of minor iterations of the same 2d6 table is just lazy.

Battle Reports (eg this issue’s Wolves and Nids): Naturally, preferences can get a bit subjective on this subject, but I think nearly everyone agrees:
-Include maps
-Don’t combine turns
-get input from each General
-don’t use the same studio armies all the time
-Get the rules right
Now, for me personally, I’d add ‘don’t do so many enormous battles’, ‘include some fluff for every battle’, ‘give more detail about dice rolls’, ‘give more detail about what each player was thinking’, ‘take pictures from further away’, but I appreciate opinions may vary.

Painting guides – I tend to ignore these, so I won’t venture an opinion.

Tale of 4 gamers (and similar ongoing campaigns) – Done well, these are fantastic and I think pretty much everyone knows when they’re done well and done badly. Just give us some actual content!

Standard bearer – Meh, I like it. I can fully appreciate a lot of people’s criticisms (jervis states the obvious, he repeats himself, he frequently poses a question and then ignores it...) but at the same time, the lack of any kind of polish gives it a bit of old-fashioned charm IMHO. And it’s only 2 sides that would otherwise be filled with photos of a new release.

The stuff at the back – Just get rid of this to make room for all the above.

[Morkash]

Pretty much what Graeme said. As you asked for a good WD, Phantom Dusclops'92, here's a short breakdown on one White Dwarf I quite enjoyed: German Issue 103 - June 2004 (Storm of Chaos):

- 2 pages Editorial with small adds of Dawn of War and Warhammer Online, as well as Warp Artefacts. (dunno if the latter still exists, they made hobby related items like a Slayer of Kings replica)
- 3,5 pages of new releases, but they managed to include 13 new items on these 4 pages. Compare to the current format to see the difference.
- 2,5 pages Warpzone (Events, club addresses, tournaments etc)
- 1 page for a new LotR release
- 6 pages of Tactica: Stop the Tide (Storm of Chaos, how to stop Archaon's horde, e.g. denied flank, concentration on few units...actual tactics basically, including battlemaps to show practically)
- Doublepage for Storm of Chaos roadshows
- 2 pages for LotR showing the army of one staffer, followed by 4 pages where Adrian Wood converts a dead Nazgul mount (don't know their English name...Winged Horror?), gives some painting tips and even mentioned that you can build another Winged horror with some Green Stuff and clever pinning.
- 4 pages of Games Day ads
- 18 pages of In Nomine Imperatoris: Tank Companies of the Imperial Guard - A full army list, including new tanks, regimental organisation, a short stoy and different formations
- 8 pages of a modelling workshop showing how to build and paint Leman Russ for the Tank companies, showing different stealth schemata and examples of converted tanks from different GW stores and describing in short how the tanks were converted.
- 4 pages of store locations
- 2 pages with a new scenario for LotR
- 2 pages showing conversions of LotR models
- 4 pages showing two guys building and painting their Hellcannons.
- 12 pages: battlereport: Hold the Line! 6500 points Lizardmen vs 6500 points Warriors of Chaos - Non-studio armies with full armylists, 2 pages of the players talking why they picked what, including maps for every turn, only a few key pictures and the players discussing the game in the end
- 6 pages of LotR, describing how to use Warbands in a campaign, giving some simple rule additions
- 4 pages of WHF, adding new rules for campaigns for heros to gather experience and a injury chart (similar to Mortheim)
- 4 pages of a the last part of a three part workshop how to build, assemble and paint a Imperial Semaphore tower, the painting this time.
- 6 pages of LotR, introducing the different regions of Gondor and their different troops.
- 2 pages for Storm of Chaos and events.
- 2 pages showing impressions from the first official Warhammer championship in Berlin.
- 4 pages for LotR, announcing and briefly discussing an upcoming supplement book.
- 16 pages of a 2500 points Storm of Chaos battle report: Slayers vs. Grimgor's Dead 'ard Horde (the SoC list) showing the armies of both players, their decision which troops to use, maps for each turn and a brief discussion fo the game afterwards.
- 8 pages of bitz available through the Mail Order, including new Fanatic (Mortheim, Necromunda & Epic) releases, SoC conversion sets and preorders for LotR.

I hope this (longer than expected) breakdown can show you how much changed in the last few years if compared to a recent issue.

[azhagmorglum]

I wonder why people still bother to buy WD.
I can still pick an old WD from 10+ years ago and have a good and enjoyable reading, but with a nowadays issue, there's nothing that can justify paying 7euros for advertisement. GW models are pricy enough that I don't need to pay even more just to see what I'm going to buy (and I don't need all that crap talk about how awesome is the lastest model/army book/rule to make me buy something)

[Graeme]

I got a sub for Christmas (didn't ask for it!), otherwise I'd have stopped buying.

[The bearded one]

@ Morkash; that breakdown makes me sad how pathetic the magazine has become, with no signs of them even making any attempt whatsoever to improve. Just.. just abysmal. I'm no magazine editor, but I'm pretty damn sure I can make it better than this.

[eldargal]

I'm giving it 6.

I liked the new releases section, I enjoyed drooling over big pictures of the new griffon and the wizard altars.

The paint section actually had some rather good things in it, in my opinion. I'm rubbish at painting brown hair/fur and I think one of the little mini guides will be very useful, along with a few others for things I've never really had to paint before. In fact I'd give the issue a five for this section alone, I've never seen the younger chaps in my games club so enthused about painting as they are since they strted poring over this months WD. Something about the little four step guide things seem to have struck a chord.

The Empire section was a real let down, lots of pretty pictures but not much else.

The Civil War and Death World sections are a decent addition but the magazine may as well have finished after that.

An improvement over last months but decidedly lacklustre compared to some of the better issues inthe past 12 months.

(five for the paints, one for the civil war and death world sections)

[Torga_DW]

Personally, i think this issue is good for the paints. It has every paint listed with its colour, and a conversion chart listed for old to new colours. I think that alone is worth a 8 for utility.

The rest is about normal for a white dwarf. Other than the battle report was subpar and felt squeezed in.

[Sophet Drahas]

I wonder why people still bother to buy WD.
I can still pick an old WD from 10+ years ago and have a good and enjoyable reading, but with a nowadays issue, there's nothing that can justify paying 7euros for advertisement. GW models are pricy enough that I don't need to pay even more just to see what I'm going to buy (and I don't need all that crap talk about how awesome is the lastest model/army book/rule to make me buy something)

Agreed. Short of the last couple issues having the civil war rules and the Vampire Counts and Sisters issues for their rules, I've stopped buying WD. Used to subscribe back in the day and have a large collection of older issues (100s and 200s volumes) in storage back when it was a hobbyists magazine and not an ad flyer. Heck, I even saved the Black Gobbo issues we used to get.

[Lord Damocles]

Personally, i think this issue is good for the paints. It has every paint listed with its colour, and a conversion chart listed for old to new colours. I think that alone is worth a 8 for utility.

The conversion chart has been available online for about a week, and you can pick up a leaflet showing all of the new colours in any GW store (or just look online).

[Spider-pope]

I'm actually going to give it two separate ratings, i'll explain why below.

Pretty much the issue i was expecting, a heavy focus on the relaunch of their paint range. Nearly half the issue is about the paints. A battle report for 40k that was entertaining enough, and i'm a sucker for seeing people painting armies. Also a nice bit of additional rules for Deathworld terrain and a nice bit of background for the Empire.

Now this is where the two ratings come in. For a veteran hobbyist, the issue wasn't particularly great. The Tale of Four Gamers, unbelievably, has so far been even worse than the 40k version they did last time. Most of us know the Empire background back to front by now and which province has a history of what. And most of us know to use layers in painting and have been using washes for longer than GW have been making them. So from a veteran perspective, i'd give it a solid 5/10. Average all the way.

But for a new hobbyist, someone who thinks a drybrush is what you do when you run out of toothpaste, the issue is great. Multiple pages of step by step painting, tons of info about what the various paints are for. A load of pretty pictures and fluff for the new releases, a battle report. Absolutely great stuff - an 8/10 by far.

So in summary 5/10 for us old grognards, 8/10 for the Little Timmies.

[HereBeDragons]

@spider-pope: I quite enjoyed the 40k one... does this make me a Little Timmie? I had hope when they started this LotR one, we hadn't had one for a while and even if they only wanted to give a few pages over to it an issue it was an excuse to see peoples painted models and have a bit of fun. And then we had this issue's contribution: what utter rubbish. I don't even know what they added this month let alone why.

My biggest gripe was, along with everyone else, the new empire release article. Why oh why not tell us what has changed!? I want a quick summary of what they've changed so I at least have a feel for the new force, other than look at our new massive models! Something along the lines of unit x has gone up/down a point. The army special rule does this etc. Are the WD team no longer allowed near the rules writers? You've added new units to the army, please tell me what they are, what they do, a hint as to the rules.

Battle report. Im thinking they've made the decision to put the new releases into a battle report in next months issue. I think this would annoy me if I actually played the army for whom the new releases are for, but otherwise its not too important to me, and it might mean the battle reports become less about "how many large new kits can a squeeze into a battle report", Thats kind of what happened this month anyway. I totally agree that they need to improve the style.

I still approve of the civil war tables. Its good that each army gets a slightly more characterful selection of options and descriptions than just a couple of generic tables could have given you. I would also point out to some people who mentioned it, that unless you happen to take 14 armies with you when you go play, you will only ever have to carry 2 issues with you (general rules and the army specific rules).

Death world rules are great. I know people complain about D6 tables but its hardly an effort and. having played a game with them, were great fun! Despite the fact that my leman russ was taken out the game by the seeker lightning (we played the 3rd scenario). The tables added a little bit of tension to the start of each turn. The mission itself was actuallly rather good. I feel like it is how annihilation should have been. Came right down to the last turn when a couple of dice rolls swung it in my opponents favour. So stop moaning and start playing

[Torga_DW]

The conversion chart has been available online for about a week, and you can pick up a leaflet showing all of the new colours in any GW store (or just look online).

Being online doesn't help me, i don't want to go to my computer every time i want to check out what colours are available. As for the leaflets, no GW stores where i live, and my flgs didn't receive anything like that (i asked to be sure). So magazine it is.

[shelfunit.]

Being online doesn't help me, i don't want to go to my computer every time i want to check out what colours are available. As for the leaflets, no GW stores where i live, and my flgs didn't receive anything like that (i asked to be sure). So magazine it is.

You could print out the PDF...

[Torga_DW]

You could print out the PDF...

Heh, i thought someone might say that. We have 2 printers at home, and several at work including one that cost about $12k. Each one prints colour slightly different to each other, and there are differences again from whats on the computer. Even the big expensive printer comes out with slight differences to whats on the screen. Then you have to take paper type and quality into account.

The white dwarf magazine will have the same issues, but i think its going to be as close to whats intended as we're likely to get.

[shelfunit.]

Heh, i thought someone might say that. We have 2 printers at home, and several at work including one that cost about $12k. Each one prints colour slightly different to each other, and there are differences again from whats on the computer. Even the big expensive printer comes out with slight differences to whats on the screen. Then you have to take paper type and quality into account.

The white dwarf magazine will have the same issues, but i think its going to be as close to whats intended as we're likely to get.

Well, if spending £4.50 on a colour chart floats your boat. Either way you won't know exactly what the colours are truely like until you actually have the paint in your hands, so why not print off the chart and just just go by the "best fit" suggestion?

[Torga_DW]

I generally buy a white dwarf each month, this particular month the colour chart made it worth mentioning and keeping. Otherwise i tend to give them away when i'm finished reading them. For something like paint colours i prefer the most accurate source i can get, otherwise why go to the effort if its likely wrong anyways? Then on top of that i got the rest of the magazine, for what thats worth. All for less than the cost of a packet of smokes. Seems decent to me, although at the end of the day i guess its something everyone will have to decide for themselves.

[Tarliyn]

I actually really enjoyed this issue. I found the painting stuff really interesting and cool to see. The empire stuff while sparser than I would like was interesting to read. I also hadnt seen good pictures of all the new empire minis.

This issue kinda made me excited for the paints actually and after reading and looking at the white dwarf I am considering getting the complete paint set when it comes out.

So I was happy I guess. Could there have been more, sure. But that is true of everything.


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[zerodemon]

White Dwarf has been awful for many years and has become little more than a catalogue. I have stopped buying it. You all should too.