Official June 2012 White Dwarf (USA 389, UK 390 etc) Feedback Thread

[Wintermute]

Its time for yet another White Dwarf Feedback thread, this time for the June 2012 issue (US 389, UK 390 etc).

If any of you wish to make more general comments about WD, please will you make them in the General White Dwarf Feedback Thread.

I would like to make a couple of other requests. If you post the score you have given to the current WD on the thread, would you please explain why especially if you have voted 1 or 10. I think this is useful (and interesting) for other WarSeer members reading the thread, it also provides useful feedback for others who read the thread which may include GW Staffers.

The other request is related to the previous one. Do not criticise people for posting their score and views about WD, I believe we are all entitled to voice our opinions without the the fear of them being criticised.

As always, all off-topic posts and spam will be deleted without notice.

Wintermute
The WarSeer Inquisition

[librerian_samae]

I voted a five, utter average.

The info and various angled views and paint jobs of flyers was awesome.

BUT nearly half of the mag was a planetary war short story interspersed with photos of flyers and battle scenes.

Apart from that the paint guides and new rules were good.
I also liked the fantasy rikesgaurd chapterhouse scenery.

[SunTzu]

OK, so this is only first impressions, I've not finished reading it yet. But...

Opened the magazine to find a double-page spread of Space Marine and Ork flyers. OK, fair enough - it's a flyer-themed issue, if they want to show me that before even an editorial or anything, that's OK.

Turned the page to find... a double-page spread featuring the Necron flyers. Erm... right.

Next page... double-page spread of Orcs and Goblins. They've only got two models out this month! We're six pages into the magazine and we've only had 50 words!

Next page: editorial, and... a full-page advert for all the flyers we've already seen.

Double page picture of Stormtalon Gunship. Double page picture of Stormtalon Gunship. Double page picture of Stormtalon Gunship. Double page picture of Ork Bommer. Double page picture of Ork Bommer. Double page picture of Ork Bommer. Double page picture of Necron Doom Scythe. Double page picture of Necron Doom Scythe. Double page picture of Necron Doom Scythe. That's literally 18 pages in a row, of photos of three models, that had already featured in a double page spread and a full page advert! And that's just so far! I've not got to the rest of the magazine yet!

It takes until page 24 to actually get some content... which was a painting guide of the Stormtalon.

Working on White Dwarf must be the easiest job in the world. Email the photographers asking for a bunch of shots of the new models and take the rest of the day off - you've already done a quarter of the magazine!

Granted I've still got the rest of it to read, but so far... this is dreadful.

----

It didn't get much better.

The main feature of the magazine was The Battle for Cardrim, a story about a war between White Scars, Orks and Necrons. Yes, that's right - this actually involved text! It wasn't particularly interesting though, mainly being a long laundry list of "and then the Bommer shot the Stormtalon but the Night Scythe shot the Bommer..." repeat ad nauseum. Yawn. As predicted, last month's preview of "The White Scars Arrive!" or whatever, simply meant they mainly featured in photos opposite the new releases. Though they did have a painting guide which was OK, actually. But, still no Masterclass level painting guides - and no battle report.

Standard Bearer was pointless, but the fluff and rules for the flyers were alright. (It was all they needed though. Reading the fluff and seeing the model, I'm probably going to buy an Ork Bommer, assuming I'm not put off by the price, which strangely(?) isn't mentioned in the magazine, and incidentally neither is the annual price rise, obviously, because it's not like that is important... but the other 342 pictures of the Ork Bommer in the magazine had zero additional effect in influencing that decision and were just a waste of dead trees).

Then there were a few more painting guides (looks like GW are starting a policy of a painting guide for every new model) and a terrain article, following in the grand tradition of "hey look, if you buy TWO scenery kits from us, you can stick them together!". Great.

And... that's it. The new flyer rules were good, the White Scars painting guide was OK but the others weren't very interesting, and the rest was either double-page photos or that very long and boring 40K laundry list. Nothing at all for LOTR, and very little Warhammer content too, which almost entirely comprised of photos anyway. It's just... shocking. Take out the flyer rules and you could use this White Dwarf for toilet paper. 2/10.

They still managed to find space for pages and pages of shop listings just in case you've gone to Krasnoyark in Russia on holiday and desperately need to buy GW models but don't have an internet connection but do have your White Dwarf with you, though!

[Damien 1427]

Working on White Dwarf must be the easiest job in the world. Email the photographers asking for a bunch of shots of the new models and take the rest of the day off - you've already done a quarter of the magazine!

So no errors should creep through. But they do.

The painting guides and rules were nice. And that we got a big chunk of fiction was nice, regardless of the actual quality.

I'd give it a four. There's some actual meat in there, so it's not all bad.

Also, regarding the Store Finder! It's worse than you might think. I had a look at the Essex entry. At least three of those don't exist (Or have, by my reckoning, vanished), and they still keep spelling Westcliff on Sea wrong. I can't comment on outside the county, although when I last was in Broadstairs (Kent) Time & Space was just an empty unit. So not only is it seemingly an unnecessary addition, it's also innacurate too!

[ted1138]

If you remove the advertising, what's left? Rules for the new flyers(which should be included with the kits instead of here), a short story spread over far too many pages(that just happens to be about the stuff they're advertising all over the place), lots of painting guides that are so basic they're pretty useless, and Jervis, waffling on about stuff that bores me rigid(is it me or are they all the same?)... I gave it a 1.

[Damien 1427]

and Jervis, waffling on about stuff that bores me rigid(is it me or are they all the same?)...

He really should get himself a Blogger or Wordpress account.

[aku-chan]

I've only been reading White Dwarf 18 months, and it seems to have really gone downhill in that time.

I used to be able to get a decent evenings read out of an issue (although that hasn't been the case for a while), but this one I read over breakfast.
And I read everything, so it didn't have the same excuse other 'light' months have had (like the Dreadfleet or recent Lord of the Rings issues), where I skimmed through the bits that didn't interest me.

I'm also not a big fan of the new painting guide style, because I often can't see what they've done in each step (admittedly that's probably a problem at my end), or they seem to miss stuff out. For example, check out this month's Savage Orc guide, on the trophy skull how does a brown wash get you from step 1 to 2? (Although I think that one's down to a mistake)

And why no battle report this month? I know they're probably fixed and not very in-depth, but I like reading them as I don't actually play, couldn't they have based one around that White Scar, Ork and Necron narrative?

I might even look into cancelling my subscription, it was that disappointing, but I'll wait and see how I feel on Monday.

[sycopat]

/sigh I was particularly unimpressed this time around to be honest. Now there was some good stuff, specifically the relatively large number of painting guides and the presence of a long background piece. And the codex updates. And there's a scenario!

However I felt the bad pretty much totally outweighed it. The number of pages given to showing pictures of each flyer is unreal, the so called army projects which accompany the painting guides are bare bones, and look to be the contents of AoBR + 1 new plane and serve really no purpose other than to introduce the painting guides. And I wouldn't mind it so much but their talked up as seperate entities in the editorial and magazine itself, there is no battle report of any type whatsoever and the background piece is quite dull for something so long, following an "Orks>Marines>Necrons>Orks" pattern pretty consistently (And finally assuring me totally that cruddace can apparently only write well for armies he likes)

It's overall just dull and uninspiring.

[Lord Damocles]

Roll up, roll up! Place yer bets here. I've got odds on the Night/Doom Scythe being the most pictured flyer at 5/1. Place yer bets!


Editorial - Oh, wait, no, first we've got:

- Cover - Ork Flyers (2) -

- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD - Ork (3) and Marine (2) flyers -

- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD - Necron flyers (2) -

- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD - Orcs and Goblins -

Editorial - '...it's not every month that we get to include an exclusive update to not one but two codexes...' wait, what? Kenrick is the EDITOR. If he wanted to, he could have new rules in every issue.
Poor

- FULL PAGE of Marine (1), Ork (1), and Necron (1) flyers -

News/New Releases - Oh, boy, here we go...
- DOUBLEPAGE SPREAD of Marine flyers (3) -
- DOUBLEPAGE SPREAD of Marine flyers (4) - spectacularly missed opportunity for cut-away diagram(s), technical specifications etc.
- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD of Marine flyers (6 - 4 on the box, one on the sprue) -
- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD of Ork flyers (3) -
- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD of Ork flyers (3) - spectacularly missed opportunity for cut-away diagram(s), technical specifications etc.
- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD of Ork flyers (6 - 4 on box, one on sprue) -
- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD of Necron flyers (3) -
- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD of Necron flyers (5 - 3 on box) -

Damn! I'm just not sure I've seen enough DOUBLE PAGE SPREADS of the new flyers.
Poor

Ultramarines Stormtalon Gunship - Very brief painting guide, and a FULL PAGE advert for paint.
Poor

The Battle for Cardrim - Look at the FULL PAGE picture acting as the title page. Can you see the irony too?
Now, I know I always say, 'more background', and then moan about it; and I'm going to do it again! Not only is this a poorly written (this happened, and then that happened, and then after some purple prose, that happened again!') blatant excuse at cramming in as many references to the new Marine (3), Necron (6), and Ork (5) flyers into a story as possible, with a picture:word ratio of a little over 1:1, but it makes no sense and has to paint the Necrons as bumbling fools.
- Cardrim is an important staging post for the Ryzan war effort, but was largely devoid of surface structures?
- How many Techmarines does the 4th Company have following them around, anyway?!
- Tarekh wants the Necron presence to remain a secret; so obviously, he does this not by remaining in hiding (which has obviously worked so far), but by LAUNCHING AN ATTACK IN THE MIDDLE OF ANOTHER BATTLE
- if you're going to try the totally moronic 'reveal yourself to prevent people realizing that you're there' tactic, why not wait until the Orks have wiped out the Marines first?
- Why do the Necrons not activate the planet-wide comms blackout until AFTER launching their surprise attack?!?
- If the planet is largely devoid of habitation, and there is a major airfield (why?), why does Tarekh not think to attack this first?
- If the comms blackout stops the White Scars communicating with their Strike Cruiser, what's to stop the Strike Cruiser from simply looking at the planet and seeing that the poop has hit the fan, and launching a rescue mission without first waiting for the Marine on the ground get cut to pieces?
- Why can Necrons never defend their tomb complexes?
- If the Deathwatch were able to link up with the White Scars, there's even less reason for the Strike Cruiser not to have been able to do it earlier!
- Wait, so Joghaten Khan's plan wasn't just to escape the planet via the totally unnecessary Fellstorm Airfield, but to lure (all of!) the Necrons there so that he could nuke them from orbit?! [Insert obligatory Alien reference here]
- The war goes on for several months?! What were the Necrons doing all that time which prevented them from killing a limited number of enemies on their own turf, who don't have access to reinforcements? Where were the Marines getting ammo from?

And that's without re-reading the account!

The little (double page) overviews of the three armies are an OK idea, but the pictures of the models, we're either going to see again in a couple of pages, or have seen before (alright, we get it; someone in the studio painted Nihilakh Dynasty Necrons. Can we see something else now?)
Poor

Battle Missions: Scramble - Have fun not being able to play, Chaos Marine and Tyranid players! Also, have fun loosing, Dark Eldar players!
Special mention has to go to the two huge pictures of games in progress. There clearly aren't the required three launch pads on the board(s)!
OK

- FULL PAGE advert for 'go to store, buy new flyers (3 Ork, 1 marine) -

- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD of Imperial Guard, Dark Eldar, and Blood Angel/Grey Knights flyers -

- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD of White Scars and Orks -

Army Project: White Scars vs. Orks - There are some pictures of models we've already seen splashed all over the Battle for Cardrim, and some brief painting guides. Plus a full page picture of the Dakkajet.
Poor

- FULL PAGE advert for paint -

-FULL PAGE advert for Assault on Black Reach (lets not tell people that a new box is coming soon, and hope to shift our remaining stock of the old one) -

Standard Bearer - Go to 40K General, and you can see an illustration of how Jervis completely fails to look at the arguments for/against any particular style of hobby/play.
Poor

Stormtalon/Dakkajet/Burna-Bommer/Blitza-Bommer Rules - New rules are good (although, Marines totally needed an update... ).
Why doesn't Hover Strike just say that the Stormtalon can't move? As it is, it changes from a Skimmer to a... Skimmer. Can a Stormtalon Outflank using Escort Craft?
The DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD of Stormtalons (3) and QUADRUPLE PAGE SPREAD of Ork flyers (6) are stupid and unnecessary.
OK

- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD for Black Library -

Armies on Parade (Blood Angels) - They're very nice (if we want to see more Marines), but are squashed onto two pages.
OK

- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD for Monstrous Arcanum -

- FULL PAGE of Orcs and Goblins (why not put them in the previous DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD?) -

News/New Releases - The Orcs must have fled here to escape all the noise from the flyers?

- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD of Finecast Orcs and Goblins -

Da Stone Tooth Tribe - Duncan Rhodes painted the new Orc character. For some reason, this equates to a full page picture of the Aracnarok. The brief painting guide is OK (meh), but the rest of the many pictures are needless filler.
Poor

- FULL PAGE advert for paint -

- FULL PAGE advert for Orcs and Goblins -

- DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD for Finecast -

Golden Demon Empire Gallery - And this gets half the page space of adverts for Finecast. Yeah...
More pictures needed here.
OK

Reiksguard Chapter House - 'How to stick GW plastic terrain kits to each other'. Also, wait, so the Reiksguard meet inside a mausoleum?
Poor

- FULL PAGE advert for terrain -

Stuff at the Back - store listings, how you can buy stuff at Gamesday etc.
Poor

Back Cover - Inside: 'In next month's issue: Assault on Fellstorm Airfieled' Why is this not in THIS MONTH'S ISSUE? Why does the picture bear little relation to the account of the battle in THIS MONTH'S ISSUE?
Outside: Necron Doom Scythe (2) - spectacularly missed opportunity for cut-away diagram(s), technical specifications etc.


----------------

The good:
+ New rules

The bad:
+ DOUBLE PAGE SPREADS
+ Pictures of Flyers
+ Wasted space
+ FULL PAGE adverts

The conspicuous by their absences:
+ The battle for Tanrak - if it wasn't stated outright (I forget), then it's continuation/conclusion this month was certainly implied last month
+ 'Eavy Metal painting guide(s)
+ Battle report
+ Lord of the Rings content


This is the dawn of a new age, people. No longer can the 'giant issue' be held in collective contempt as the height of White Dwarf advertising stupidity and lack of content.

A 1 from me this month.

[SlaughterSun]

Hi all

I usually lurk around the forums and don't usually post but i couldn't let this one pass.

First off, i would like to thank Lord Damocles for his monthly review. I always find these highly interesting and most importantly, quite acurate.

After reading this month's review, i couldn't agree more with the words written. This has possibly been the worst WD in a long time: just a glorified advertisment magazine.

While I have been collecting WD's for a long time, i really think that this issue has done it for me: no Battle Report, really generic hobby article (the knight's tower article could have been quite interesting) and page upon page of advertisments.

While I won't give it a 1 ( this being a total waste of paper), this month get's a 2 from me.

Cheers and keep up the good fight Lord Damocles.


P.S. I apologize for any mistakes in this post, as english is not my natural language.

[75hastings69]

What's with the new standard of painting in wd lately??? The stormtalon and bomma look like they've been painted by 7 year olds!!! It was like that last month too. Also the new painting by numbers looks like its been written for the hard of learning!!!! What happened to the inspiring paint jobs of 'eavy metal??? This new style is utter cack!!!

Other than fliers really very little content again 4/10.

[Finn Sourscowl]

Is this the WD that finally makes me cancel my subscription? I think it might be I just could not get over the 20-odd pages of double spread pictures of THE SAME MODELS!!

I gave it a 3 because there are new rules for said fliers and some background/fluff but I finished reading the WD more or less over one breakfast. Even for the DD price of about £3 an issue, this is pretty trashy.

Damn it, I've been reading WD since I was 11, so that's 22 years now. And yes, the current issue is very flashy, but where's the content, people (well, Kendrick)???

[Phantom Dusclops'92]

YADDA YADDA YADDA THIS WD HAVES PICTURES AND ADVERTS SO IT SUCKS GIVE ME BACK THE '80S ISSUES YADDA YADDA YADDA

Seriously, everyone always says the same things. You know, White dwarf is no more a magazine but a miniatures catalog sold monthly; so it is expected to feature those things.

I get that once it was better, but can I say "I liked it" without having fear that you will start insult me?

Am I the black sheep of GW games, the guy that likes modern WD and thinks Finecast is good?

Why I'm the only one who buys WD knowing that he will found a lot of photos and adverts, while you expect only other kinds of stuff everyone can find on the web?

Tl,dr: I give this WD a 10, I'm gonna buy an Ork Bommer and the Finecast reissue of the Goblin on Gigantic Spider, and you can't stop me.

(P.S.: No, I wasn't paid by Games Workshop to praise them, if you are thinking it. I'm just saying what I think of your excessively low reviews. GW is "Buy stuff, paint stuff, play with stuff", you shouldn't expect more than this.)

[Melkanador]

If I pay 7€ for a hobbymagazine (says so on the GW site) I can expect some hobby content e.g. battle reports, tactics for gaming, conversion and painting for painters and catalogue for collectors.

I´ve read the new WD in 5 minutes at the station shop and the only reason I give a 2 is that I can imagine that the WD might be even worse in the future.

[Phantom Dusclops'92]

If I pay 7€ for a hobbymagazine (says so on the GW site) I can expect some hobby content e.g. battle reports, tactics for gaming, conversion and painting for painters and catalogue for collectors.

I´ve read the new WD in 5 minutes at the station shop and the only reason I give a 2 is that I can imagine that the WD might be even worse in the future.

Ok, so it's just me with my low expectations, as if I pay 7€ for a hobby magazine I expect only new stuff, adverts for the new stuff and pics of the new stuff, so I can decide if I will buy the new stuff or not.

[Melkanador]

Ok, so it's just me with my low expectations, as if I pay 7€ for a hobby magazine I expect only new stuff, adverts for the new stuff and pics of the new stuff, so I can decide if I will buy the new stuff or not.

Isn´t than the GW site not enough? Plenty of large pictures there.

[EmperorNorton]

Ok, so it's just me with my low expectations, as if I pay 7€ for a hobby magazine I expect only new stuff, adverts for the new stuff and pics of the new stuff, so I can decide if I will buy the new stuff or not.

Why not look at the pictures in the online store and save yourself 7€ then?

[Morkash]

Tl,dr: I give this WD a 10, I'm gonna buy an Ork Bommer and the Finecast reissue of the Goblin on Gigantic Spider, and you can't stop me.

Good for you. I'm just assembling my metal Gigantic Spider as well, I wish you luck for yours.

On another note: I'll take a look at the WD these days, or as soon as I can buy the Savage Warboss.

[SunTzu]

Tl,dr: I give this WD a 10, I'm gonna buy an Ork Bommer and the Finecast reissue of the Goblin on Gigantic Spider, and you can't stop me.

Erm... nobody's trying to stop you, dude. I for one just think it's really sad that you have such low expectations of life.

"EVERYTHING SUCKS (even though we shouldn't be surprised by now)" is one thing. "EVERYTHING SUCKS BUT I'M GOING TO SAY I LIKE IT ANYWAY" is just... well... grow a spine, dude. I mean, you're entitled to your opinion, but you're not even trying to pretend you actually think it's good. You freely admit it's not good, then give it 10/10. Which, like... whatever, it's a meaningless internet poll, it really doesn't make any difference to anything. But then you're not achieving anything either. Just sad really.

[Mirbeau]

I gave this, and last month's edition a 6. Some context, my first issue was 203, and I felt white dwarf's nadir came during the Haley years.

Technically speaking, this issue, and the last had an awful lot of content people have been asking for. New rules, an expansion (for wfb), between the two issues an a lot of new fluff, ideas for campaigns, a large amount of painting articles, gamer's armies etc... Unfortunately, the majority of these were lacking in depth. So, a well done for trying, but they're not yet there