
Look, you may have heard our whinging for some time that Nurgle gets way too much love (as did Khorne) and Slaanesh gets zero, but its true - from Skaven, to Death Guard, Blight Kings to the never ending 40K releases, Nurgle has had a fair run of it over the past two years. Yes, Tzeentch and Khorne also got some love - Tzeentch with some amazing releases and Khorne with some pretty poor ones - but what about Slaanesh?
Anyway, suffice to say that we have a look inside month's special Nurgle Edition of White Dwarf below! But before we do - have you seen the first episode of Malign Portents?
Away from Nurgle for a minute, there's three new minis for Middle-Earth (the title GW are now using to group Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit games systems together - more on that later) called the Nazgul of Dol Guldur. These guys look fantastic, especially the chainmail helm dude! No price on these guys yet!
From minis to games with the new Heroes of Black Reach board game and the Tomb Kings DLC for Warhammer II.If only Tomb Kings were a force in Age of $igmar again... still with Malign Portents and the rising of the Undead it could be a possibility.
Black Library, meanwhile, have a tonne of new stuff coming - Sons of Hydra by Rob Sanders about the Alpha Legion and their "apparent fall of Chaos". This is very tempting! The use of the word "apparent" is interesting! Castellan by David Annandale is the sequel to Warden of the Blade about Grey Knights. The Rogue Trader Omnibus is Andy Hoare's classic novels collected together for the first time. Warhammer Chronicles: Wampire Wars collects Steven Saville's tales of the vampiric Von Carstein dynasty. In more Rogue Trader action, the audio drama Corsair: The Face of the Void by James Swallow follows a Rogue Trader hunting pirates. Female protagonist in this one which is interesting!
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Temporal Distort is on August 2013, which was the release of the additions to the Lizardmen range.
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There are two Malign Portents short stories, both about the rise of the Undead. The second one revolves around Nurgle's Horticulous Slimux which is quite refreshing. Don't gold your breath for anything too exciting though!
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The Mighty Dan Abnett is next in quite a lengthy article about him and Gaunt's Ghosts plus more. It's actually nice he has so much to say about the universe and really shows how deeply into it he is, especially as he does write other stuff!
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Designer's Notes - our favourite section - goes all Nurgle, no real surprise there. The amount of detail in this article and the level of the paint jobs is really quite amazing. Even if it is Nurgle, this is a great section. There's also a really cute little bit on all the little Nurglings that have been popping up on many of the character models.
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The Year The Was takes a look back... as the title suggests. There is also a nice little box about Alan Bligh was died in May. He was for many the father of the modern version of the Horus Heresy. To be honest, White Dwarf has the room for more than a small box - maybe it would be nice to have a few pages on Alan and talk to those who worked with him.
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Miniature of the Year is the yearly poll which is usually just won by the biggest miniature but there;'s the odd out-of-the-box suggestion so who knows...!
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You're going to be hearing a lot about the Nightands of Shyish as Malign Portents kicks off, and this week's Battle Report is Nurgle vs Fyreslayers which some really great photography. Thankfully the blur seems to have disappeared and we're getting proper lighting! Hallelujah. Right off he back of the Battle Report is a look at the entire Maggotkin of Nurgle range out this month.
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We mentioned the Nightlands of Shyish before and here's The Ultimate Guide To.... Death. This encompasses the entire Faction basically - from Undead to Ghouls to Vampires - so a good primer of what is to come. This is then followed by a splash page on the entire range (so far) of the Death Faction.
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Golden Demon looks at the Classic 2017 category with some stunning models including this amazing Avatar by Timothe Bossard and Nurgle Dreadknight.by Steve Perry plus more.
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Now, lets be honest 'Eavy Metal can be quality sporadic - but this month is amazing. Yes, yes we said it! This month we look at the colours of Nurgle and apart from some really amazing minis, we get some bloody colour theory! This is some deep art thinking! Also, check out that awesome Plaguebearer second form the left in the dark colours... HOLY HELL - WE'RE IN LOVE WITH THAT SCHEME! Can I just say, THIS is the type of article that Warhammer Visions should have been doing but failed, consistently. Well done the the GW team on this.. but wait, there's more to come!
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A Tale of Four Warlords has four new warlords starting their Age of $igmar armies - formula, copy paset. formula, formula. BUT this does include our first look (courtesy of this ad at the bottom of the page) of some of the Malign Portents in store events.
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Modelling is a section we have championed and this month is a great one looking at Tau terrain - something GW does a small range of (and it's excellent and modular) but here's some ideas to break out the hobby bits and get building your own.
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Collecting looks at Iain Gonzalez's massive Waaagh! Holy moly that's a lot of mechanised Ork goodness!
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Blood Bowl, it's here, and instead of the usual section on rules, this one looks at a showcase of models in Painting and Collecting. Tell you what, if these miniatures made their way into Age of $igmar, they would be some of the nicest models out there!
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Battleforce Challenge, as opposed to Tale of Four Warlords, are members of the Design Studio and their armies for Warhammer 40,000. Custodes, Tau (in a really great scheme) and Space Wolves. They're actually all very well done and full of character so worth a look.
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The White Dwarf Guide is an overview of the different games systems if you're new to the hobby and where to get more information online - now why talk about this section? Well there's a few interesting things buried in here. As we mentioned earlier, the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit games now have an umbrella grouping as Middle-Earth Strategy Game, Warhammer 40k, people are now directed to go to the www.warhammer40000.com website, not games-workshop.com and similarly, if you're interested in Warhammer Age of $igmar, they now direct you not to games-workshop.com but the Malign Portents website. Thisnow takes both of the major Games Workshop properties away from the main GW website and onto their own, not only that, it shows us the Malign Portents COULD be as big a change ot the Warhammer universe as Age of $igmar was...! What's going on here?
Another curious entry is this, the Horus Heresy is given it's own little category here, and we're directed to the Forge World website - which being that the bulk of the Horus Heresy stuff is there makes sense - but it makes us wonder what the commitment of Games Workshop to their plastic line of Horus Heresy miniatures is. Does this mean there won't be any more? It's very curious...
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Reader's Models has some lovely work from some talented people, yet again!
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In The Bunker is really a bit of an in-house wank that belongs in the GW newsletter to staff at the end of the month, but it's here andif you like it - then this month it has some more on the Four Warlords and what other people have been doing plus the Firestorm Campaign continues. As we said, something for the internal newsletter!
Verdict

That being done and dusted - this issue in terms of content.
There's some perfunctory stuff; the Battle Report featuring he latest army, Tale of Four Warlords, the abysmal Letters Section, In The Bunker - all disposable stuff BUT there's also the great stuff.
The photography in the whole issue is amazing; clear, crisp and beautifully lit. Paint Splatter is amazing - as someone who doesn't give a fudge about Nurgle, the painting guide in there for skin and internal organs is something to buy, cut out and keep for reference. The amount of room given to Dan Abnett is nice considering his standing in the Community. The Blood Bowl section is cool, the Tau terrain is great fun and inspirational.
Overall this issue deserves an 80/100, and the level of detail on the Designer's Notes for Nurgle is both excellent and bloody annoying because now you've pipped out interest. Damn you!
This is a great issue! Whoever the new person who came in between now and the last issue needs to stay and keep going to this standard.
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MUST BUY!