Official August 2012 White Dwarf (USA 391, UK 392 etc) Feedback Thread

[Wintermute]

Its time for yet another White Dwarf Feedback thread, this time for the August 2012 issue (US 391, UK 392 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

[Phantom Dusclops'92]

So I'm the first commenter. Huh, nice.

Well... Daemons issue. Every August issue inspires me to buy Daemons since 2010.

New releases... this time is takes less space than usual or it's just me? Look, a 2-in-1 kit description occupying only two pages rather than four as usual.

Notice how the Exalted Chariot is a "while stocks last" release. After that you have to buy two normal Chariots and combine them to form the big one. Although the single big kit's price tag is exactly the double of the normal chariot, so basically you pay the exact same amount of cash for the same thing, except that by this way you have only a 40k base and a Fantasy one, and different instruction sheets.

Plastic Plaguebearers are nice, but the Nurglings are the great thing. Look how much they are like the John Blanche art!

Screamers are almost the exact same as before, Flamers a bit different, Blue Scribes look funny.

Finecast releases for Daemons, Beastmen, HE+LOTR. Funny how they are rereleasing the older Teclis figure, rather than the newer one.

*Two-page splash for The Hobbit. I say, I actually was a bit skeptical about this one being really released, but I never saw rumours for it because I don't play LOTR. LOL*

Article about the Daemons. Two pages per god, two pics, painting suggestions, short details about how they work in both games. Short but nice. I know you will say it sucks because the pics occupy most of the pages, but still.

*predictable price listings for Daemons*

Nurgle related hobby article. Short but good to look at.

First Battle Report! Usual problems as usual: too much pics, turn descriptions too short, cover army wins, blah.

Article about alliances. Phil Kelly's converted IG is nice looking, I say.

Snippet about the rules of the Blue Scribes, with a brief snippet from the Liber Maleficus about them. Kinda nice.

Second Battle Report: Like the first, but in WHFB rather than 40k. Which uses the old point pricing for Screamers and Flamers, even if they have new ones in the booklet that cames with the issue.

Death battles between plastic kit heroes. Remember the one in the Ogre issue last year? Except double length.

No Stendard Bearer, John Blanche shows a gallery of various Plastic Nurgle Lords, which I say is actually filling categories at Golden Daemon since last year, when he was released.

*plastic heroes and FW ads*

Working with Finecast article, which is the exact same as the ones found in the Dreadfleet issue of last year, in How to Paint Citadel Miniatures and in the new Warhammer 40.000 rulebook. Seriously, how much time they have to explain us how Liquid Green Stuff works?

Finally, an Armies on Parade showcase. With an Ork-looted Stormraven. That made me laugh.

*phone listings and other stuff, as usual*

Than it comes the booklet with the Daemons updates. Soul Grinder in WHFB is weird but nice. Screamers are more powerful now. The Slaanesh Chariots are great.

This WD issue gets a 7 for me.

[MiyamatoMusashi]

This issue did not get off to a good start with me. Fair enough, a double page spread of a 40K Daemon army lets you know that it's going to be an issue about Daemons... but then OH LOOK! ANOTHER DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD! THIS TIME FOR WARHAMMER! DAEMONS ON SQUARE BASES INSTEAD OF ROUND! IT'S REVOLUTIONARY!!!

Things did get a bit better. Granted, it was an endless barrage of photographs covering over 60% of each double page, but there was at least slightly more text of slightly better quality than in recent issues. Page after page of new releases got old very quickly (and it's just possible that those new Plaguebearers are the worst models I've ever seen GW produce. Oh no wait - on the very next page, the new Nurglings) but at least there were a couple of meaty battle reports... even if they were almost completely devoid of tactics (I think "I'm going to form a line and let him come to me" was the only tactical comment I remember, and even then there was no comment on how that plan worked or not, and why).

The article on the Chaos Gods and their Daemons in 40K and Warhammer was quite interesting (by recent WD standards anyway) but perhaps the biggest shock for me was that they mentioned the C word... CONVERSION!!! Such things have been extremely notable by their absence lately, so even to see the very slight, very tentative mention of them was welcome. Still not much on how to do it though, and of course no 'Eavy Metal Masterclass - "I painted the skin with natural flesh tones" doesn't really help one learn how to become a better painter. Blanchitsu had in its favour at least the fact that it wasn't Standard Bearer, and there were some cool ideas in there; I'm not sure I'm that excited about the pretext though: pick one model and show it over and over again.

Overall... it wasn't bad. Better than the dreadful previous two issues, at least. But still... the battle reports were fairly vapid; no Masterclass; minimal hobby (lots of examples of other people's armies and models, which is cool, but don't just show us, SHOW US HOW); the articles, such as they were, were only thinly-veiled advertisements (though at least they were veiled this month, even if the veil was thin!) and without fail followed by a couple of pages of ACTUAL adverts... it's an issue that hints at what an interesting wargames magazine might contain, without ever actually becoming an interesting wargames magazine. So although my first instinct was to rate it higher because at least it wasn't as terrible as last month, I can't in all good conscience give it any better than a 5.

[Skaven13]

Working with Finecast article, which is the exact same as the ones found in the Dreadfleet issue of last year, in How to Paint Citadel Miniatures and in the new Warhammer 40.000 rulebook. Seriously, how much time they have to explain us how Liquid Green Stuff works?

Because the more they hammer out the message that "having to repair a product that we dub as premium is a normal thing", the more people will accept that fact instead of questioning why they are paying more for a shoddy product that needs repaired. That is pretty sad that they just keep repeating the same article though. Buuut, I guess if they need to do the same message over and over, why endanger the message by trying to spice it up a little?

Edit: Huh, messed up the quote tags somehow. Ah well, you all get the message.

[CaptainGallas]

I'll give it a 7.
I always start with going from page to page checking the whole magazine through.
Sometimes, sadly, that first time is the longest time I spend with that issue.

I think this issue was different, some parts was really good and made me go back to them over and over again.
¤ The different style of painting and other artist than usual that were shown in Blanchitsu. It's nice to see other painting styles than the Eavy Metal style in a WD.
¤ The Daemon updates, well I play Daemons so naturally that interested me as a gamer, but as a hobbyist I was pleasantly surprised by the way they did the update.
Not fluff in one WD and points and gear in the next one. Not pages in the middle of the magazine. A separate booklet, easy to bring with your codex. And not just models that already had entries in the codex (but no models), but some totally new units!
New plastic Plaugebearers (although I'm happy I own the old metal ones now) were bound to be released, and releasing a model for the blue scribes was expected sooner or later, but totally new units on top of that? That's great! I hope they do that more often in the future.

I do miss the older batreps. Turn1 player one... Turn1 player two.. detailed reports, and pictures to complement the written report, not the other way around as it has been lately, this issues 2 reports not going in the right direction. And who could have guessed an Daemon victory in a Daemon WD issue?

Overall I considder this issue to be more of an hobbymagazine than many of the recent issues that has had more full page pictures and ads than this one.

[Lord Damocles]

Hur hur. Daemons are cool and all, but Loyalist Marines still shoot them on the cover...


- Double page spread of (40K) Daemons -

- Double page spread of (Fantasy) Daemons -

Editorial - New Daemon models (who'd a' thunk it?) and rules. Nothing of interest here.
Poor

News/New Releases - Full page picture of Daemons, eight pages to show seven new (Daemons) releases.
Then a double page spread of Finecast Daemons, a double page spread of Finecast Daemons, a plastic goat man, a full page for Finecast Beastmen, a full page for Finecast High Elves, a full page for Finecast LoTR. Seven pages of adverts for Finecast which still don't actually say which models have been transferred to Finecast ; a single page with a list would have been much better (it's not like White Dwarf is fundamentally opposed to lists, given the inordinate amount of space taken up by store listings every month).
The extract from Priests of Mars is predictably pointless. I'm interested in the book, but I'm not going to spend £17.99 on it buy it without knowing who the enemy are.
Advert for audio dramas which aren't new releases.
Teaser for The Hobbit (who's the guy sixth from the left? My Hobbit memory is poor. He looks wierdly out of proportion compared to the Dwarves/gandalf).
Way too much wasted space overall. More useful information could have been presented in half the space.
Poor

Chaos Daemons - If you're absolutely clueless about what Daemons are about, this might be of some interest. But the background is very slim, and what's said of the rules pretty much boils down to 'they're great!' The painting guides/ideas/adverts are pointless - 'it's blue; I guess I'll use blue paints then...'
A nice in-depth Tactica would have been nice here, or recycle some extracts from Liber Chaotica or something.
Poor

- Double page spread of Daemons boxsets -

Modelling Workshop: The Warp Forge - The Souldrinder is sort of interesting, but doesn't require two pages worth of pictures to illustrate the technique. The chariots are... just unpainted chariots straight from the box(es)..? And I'm not sure sticking Nurglings on other models really counts as a 'modelling workshop'.
This is extremely light on content. The Greenstuff armour is worth showing, but the rest? Not so much.
Poor

- Full page of 'Go to GW store and ask them to sell you Daemos' -

- Full page of Daemons which serves no purpose at all -

Eye of the Warp Storm (Eldar/Dark Eldar vs Daemons battle report) - This is why players should use their own armies in battle reports instead of the studio armies. Those armies are just shocking.
'...and my two Venoms can unleash up to eight of these shots a turn' *cough* Splinter Cannons are Heavy 6 and always count as stationary on vehicles - that's twelve shots a turn *cough* Also, who takes Venoms without the extra Cannon?!
The actual report relies too heavily on huge pictures. Not enough detail of what's actually going on etc. no maps.
Mention is made of shooting Nurglings who are holding an objective; except Nurglings are Swarms, so can't hold or even contest objectives.
Poor

- Double page spread of 40K rulebook and templates etc. -

Battle Brothers (40K allies) - They did that extremely annoying thing where they show pictures of the models in the upcoming pictures on the title double page spread again
Last month's issue said (of this month): 'We take a closer look at Allied Detachments' (inside back cover). OK, so, technically this issue does look at allied detcahments more closely than last month, but the implication was certainly that it was going to be a good deal more involved than just showing pictures of non-studio (eh, sort of...) armies we've mostly seen before (all but Phil's Guardsmen have been in White Dwarf before).
I was actually awaiting this issue with some small degree of hope/interest (deluded, or an optimist? you decide) expecting some sort of discussion of what allied where included in the core rules to achieve; some justification for the allies matrix; some cool unusual converted allies. *sigh*
The models might be a nice change to the standard studio armies, but where's the content here? It takes 90 seconds to flip over the pictures - you learn nothing, and take nothing away from the article.
Poor

The Librarians of Tzeentch (Blue Scribes) - The following is a transcript of my thoughts while reading this article:
'Huh. Background. Into the Realm of Chaos through a mirror? tough break. Wonder if he'll meet Draigo. Squabling scribes... Why does the disk let them ride on it then? Pretty cool'
*turns page*
'Huh? Must have missed a page'
*turns pages back and forwards a couple of times*
'That was it? Really? To the internet!'

Was that really the best they could come up with? Three short paragraphs - well under half a page!
Poor

The Siege of Saphery (High Elves vs. Daemons battle report) - Wierd siege, what with there being no walls or anything.
There were no maps, little text, and multiple turns were compacted together - so I may be wrong - but was the High Elf plan pretty much just to sit there and take it?
poor

- Double page spread of Fantasy rulebook and templates etc. -

Arena of Death - I think I might have said this last time this happened, but wouldn't it have been better if rather than just fighting a single opponant in some aparently arbitrary way, there was a league style setup like the original Arena of Death in ye olden days?
I getb that is is a 'fun' article, but it just doesn't seem all that much 'fun' to me. I remember the Yarrick vs. Ghaz article which followed tha same format (1-on-1 (sort of...), three rounds etc.) - that was 'fun'. this just looks to me like 'buy plastic characters!'
Poor

Blanchitsu - See that picture of Blanche? That's the smug grin of a man who knows that whatever he sneezes onto a page, I'll say that it's good.
Blanche doesn't really answer the question he sets out, but the pictures are very nice indeed. I would have liked a little more information on some of the models (why is that guy flying?) but the quality and originality of the models make up for the deficiency in words in this instance.
Good (Show more of Blanche's models, GW!)

- Double page spread of plastic characters -

- Double page spread of Forgeworld Daemons (don't bother to mention that you've updated loads of units/rules for the new edition) -

Working With Citadel Finecast - they missed out the 'Call customer services and get a replacement' stage. Pretty much the same as we've had before,a nd not very enlightening anyway.
Poor

- Double page spread of modelling supplies -

Armies on Parade (Orks) - As usual, this deserves more, better, pictures. Like the last couple, the pictures seem very dark to me.
OK

Stuff Wot is at the Back - It's stuff wot is at the back.
Poo[r]

-----------

Daemons of Chaos/Chaos Daemons Official Rules Update booklet - Now, I like the idea of introducing new units/updating units (within certain limits); and I like the idea of doing it in a seperate booklet. What I would also have liked is:
- Some designers' notes or something explaining why changes have been made. Of all the units in Codex: Daemons, who decided Flamers need major buffing over, say, Furies?
- Some units which were actually needed. Not to begrudge Slaanesh players their combine-chariots, but of everything which could have been added to the list(s) why [only] combine-chariots? How about some sort of Exalted Daemon prince in HQ, and Gibbering Hoards in Troops to allow for un-aligned armies? More Daemon Engines beyond the Soulgrinder? Something with Skyfire?
- Rules which made a bit more sense. How come the combine-chariot(s) are Chariots, but the other chariots are... not Chariots Can a non-Skimmer Chariot even make Sweep Attacks?

Overall it's good to have new rules, but so much more could have been done with the opportunity.
Good

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

In the actual White Dwarf proper, there is little of value. Lots of advert-pictures and not much else (except Blanche. I love you, John).

The seperate rules booklet is reasonably good for Daemon players, but not great, sadly.

Overall, a 4 from me this month, almost entirely for the rules.

[Orrinocco]

Things get poorer and poorer...
SO the painting guides are a list of colours now? And not even different lists to trhos provided previously. Oh look You do Mephiston Red base, Carroburg Crimson wash, Evil Suns Scarlet layer, and Wild Rider Red layer. Revolutionarily differetn to every red painting guide posted since they upgraded the paints.

4 Pages of Modelling Workshop that contain 2 pieces of advice (on the green stuff texturing). Telling me I can use pieces from other kits isnt exactly advice...

Then the piece de crappiness.. 6 more pages telling me how to fix finecast (well, 2 are the sales pitch). THis is the sort of thing that should be on the website with maybe a 2 line pointer to it in WD. AM I going to pay to be told the same thing every 3 or 4 months? Evidently so.. Makes me wonder - WD running short this month. Quick, bung in that Finecast repair stuff. Make sure you mention we sell items....

*8-(

[The Dire Troll]

Not had the chance to finish reading and my copy has, fallen apart the middle pages have left the building, well binding. Blanchitsu made me drool, made me look at my chaos lord and cry, the two page hobbit photo of all the dwarves made me smile. I enjoy reading arenas of death, I like the concept, and i am a sucker for pretty pictures of miniatures, am sure i will collect the other pages later. God it will be like playing slender i give it a five.

[Shandara]

I only bought this issue because of the Chaos Demons leaflet. The content in the actual magazine was so minimal you couldn't even spend 5 minutes browsing it in the shop..

[Alienfood]

This says it all..

Edit: quote didn't work, but post above ;p

[Yodhrin]

Because the more they hammer out the message that "having to repair a product that we dub as premium is a normal thing", the more people will accept that fact instead of questioning why they are paying more for a shoddy product that needs repaired. That is pretty sad that they just keep repeating the same article though. Buuut, I guess if they need to do the same message over and over, why endanger the message by trying to spice it up a little?

Edit: Huh, messed up the quote tags somehow. Ah well, you all get the message.

And is what they're doing any different than the people on these forums and elsewhere who keep hammering their message that expecting any sort of effort on the part of the customer to repair minor defects in a Finecast mini is monstrously unreasonable, despite the fact that this is something which has always been expected of us regardless of the material, and it was significantly harder to do with metal minis?

Some people have legitimate complaints about Finecast, having to return the same model a half-dozen times just to get an acceptable one is not on that's self-evident, but the way some present such cases as being near-universal is dishonest and petty.

As to this months WD, it was as vacant as it normally is these days, and that shouldn't surprise me but each time I bother to pick one up to see how it's doing I am for some reason.

[tiger g]

So only 25 votes on this issue. Has it finally happened that all of the subs have run out and no one is renewing? Is this the least response ever to one of these polls?

[Finnigan2004]

I gave it a four. This is probably the best White Dwarf in a while, having the daemon insert. The reason for the low mark is twofold. The first is pretty straightforward-- I skimmed pretty much all of what I thought was valuable in ten minutes. The rest was advertising. The second reason for the relatively low mark is that I have to dock them a couple of points because it only arrived the day before yesterday, due to GW's stupid (relatively) new shipping policy. The silly delay is simply unacceptable. When my subscription runs out, it will not be renewed and I will likely just pick up the issues that I want at my LGS.

[Lord Damocles]

Is this the least response ever to one of these polls?

My massively in-depth scientific research* shows that, so far, this is indeed the least responded to White Dwarf Feedback Thread poll of all those I have ever voted in.



*Lies! I just used Advanced Search

[violenceha]

No instant tens or ones, well done people!