White Dwarf 361 Review

So I know that a lot of people have pretty much given up on white dwarf, but I haven't yet, and probably wont. Even in the face of more advertisements and such and the removal of some rules and such, I still think that there are some good things coming out of the monthly magazine.

The Good

Page 13, Black Library

While technically a type of ad, its one that I am ok with. The magazine devotes half a page to each Graham McNeill and Dan Abnett to talk about the next duo of Heresy books to come out. Gives some good insight into the books that will be hitting shelfs soon, and how the authors are going about writing the two books from different perspectives. Just Look at Abnett's first line, "Prospero Burns...and well it should!"

I love the Heresy series and this was a nice section to wet my appetite before the books come out.

Page 20-26, Insights into the Beast

So this section is always something that I look for when a new army comes out, whether Fantasy or 40k. It begins with a Q and A about the army and gives some insight into how they are designed and played. It's nice for me cause it lets me know what the army has in store without needing to shell out $25 for the codex that I won't use. It ends on page 27 with the one things that the newest white dwarves have in droves, and which I love, painting advice. On one page it gives you step by step instructions for fur, flesh, horns/bone, and metal. The skill level is easy enough for beginners to accomplish, but at the same time still nice for the more medium to advanced crowd.

Page 46-49, Liber Apocalyptica

For those who like the army lists of the past, this section is nice, and something to look over. Whatever your feelings about apocalypse, you have to admit it gives you some interesting ways to play and some interesting tactical positions. Apoc formations are always fun to read for me since they are going to be the crazy stuff that you would love to see in real games, but know that it wouldn't work.

Page 52-55, Striking a Balance

Perhaps only an interesting article since it using wood elves as its main example (an army I play), but does give some meager insight into list building and tactics with a more balanced list. Ultimately I think that it is a little bit more to promote the friendly fun play that GW seems to be pushing, but gives some things to think about.

Page 79-85, Ask 'eavy Metal

I was happy when I flipped through this section, hopefully something that White Dwarf will continue. These pages are covered in painting tutorials with things like Blending cloaks vs Line highlighting, marine hand painted decals, reflective metals, glass vial.hourglass tech, red armor and cloaks, a red magma effect, and some weathering techniques shown on orks. They finish it up with 2 different horn tutorials and a sculpted banner tut.

Page 98-103, 'eavy Metal Masterclass

Dealing with painting faces on monstrous creatures this was a nice file article to have. It covers a variety of things like LotR Ogres, Lizardmen, Beastmen, Giants, orks, and even deamons. A little something for everyone.

The Bad

Battle Reports:

Brettonians + Empire vs. Beastmen. Battle reports are always iffy for me. They rarely are a very interesting read and give only a cursory glance at any specific armies tactics or rules. If you are looking to play beastmen, you can probably get some decent information out of it, otherwise, I just leave the stuff alone.

Planetstrike Tactica:

I don't know about you guys but I don't really play planetstrike or really own the book. If you do, give it a look and there might be some interesting things.

LotR:

I don't play LotR so I will leave this section up to you, although there is a pretty nice painting tutorial about the Nazgul.

The Meh...

Standard bearer

The standard bearer articles are kinda like Jervis's Soapbox. He may say some interesting things, but really, is anyone listening? This months is about conversions.

Golden Deamons?

A far cry from the golden deamon articles of the past where you saw Gold silver and bronze in each category, but all said, it is some nice "eye candy"

Modelling Workshop

Not bad if you are looking for some terrain ideas. This months focuses on "Despoiling the Empire." There are a lot of pictures that will give you ideas, but it doesn't really show to many WIP or step by step.

So there was my review, hope it wasn't too boring. I haven't posted in awhile, so I figured I would do something, and this came to mind. If you guys like it, ill redo this one with some pictures and continue, if you don't I wont.

On another note, I am working on a Tzeentch Demon Prince, a Sorcerer for DnD, a squad of bloodletters for a contest, and painting a squad of fire warriors. Also I hope to have a test model done of a berzerker soon. Hopefully I'll get some pics up this week or so.

Out.