I must admit it is with delight that I can report that The Ginger Fury is now over. Those little men with their flapping loin cloths are no longer the entire and all-consuming interest of the White Dwarf crew.
We can move onto other things - namely Chaos.
Chaos has an interesting place in White Dwarf, not only is it popular with the readers and varied enough not to get too repetitive (ignoring the 28,000 mentions of Nurgle last year), Chaos is also excellent filler, and that's what this issue of White Dwarf felt like. Maybe it's me - maybe it's Age of $igmar - but I was not enthralled.
Chaos does play a big part in this issue, but in reality, a large part of the Chaos range is pretty outdated now and in dire need of some new minis. Personally I think the Chaos Warriors are excellent and eternal, but the Marauders, for example, are pretty old hat now.
So was this issue any good? 
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You know its going to be a random White Dwraf issue when they have a long list on the front telling you what is in the issue, it's pretty easy to decode though:
- Brand-New Warscrolls (Like every week...)
- A Mighty Seraphon Army (A very cool fan army)
- Demons of Khorne (Out of place so must be an ad)
- Corvus Corax (There's a page of Forge World stuff)
- Raven Guard Dark Fury Assault Squad (maybe 2 pages)
It's not exactly earth shattering now is it, and really if that's the best they can offer, then you kind of get the feeling of this issue.
No talk of conversions or tutorials, no exciting new fluff, or even a short story - all of these used to be regular parts of White Dwarf. Admittedly it was monthly, but it would be really nice to have some of those things back, especially on a week when we're only getting two little ginger dudes.
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Age of $igmar took an interesting turn over the last few weeks with the Fyreslayers entering the fray as their own faction who can (for all intents and purposes) be used by any of the "Grand Alliances". The Grand Alliances is a larger grouping of how Races and Factions march to war.
They were always part of Age of $igmar, but now Games Workshop have updated their site to show this more explicitly, which certainly helps when you're trying to work out who goes where and why...
There has been talk of more factions, like the Fyreslayers, who could be used by all the Alliances if the price is right or some other form of inducement is made to join their army. It certainly opens up the idea of army building! In this new Age of $igmar, you could effectively have Beastmen units in the same army allied with Fyreslayers - IF the Beastmen had enough ur-gold that is... and knowing them they would be able to steal enough.
As far as alliances go that break these Grand Alliances, I wonder if you could have a Wood Elf and Beastmen alliance? I like the idea of these Guardians of the Forest against human encroachment or maybe Undead. How would these guys align considering Beastmen are Chaos?
As much as the Grand Alliances seem like a good idea, what's with the Dark Elf and Elf alliance? That seems really odd! They have been mortal enemies for ever and a day and now here they are holding hands. The Dark Elves seem more at home in the Death Grand Alliance to me, or like the Fyreslayers being guns for hire - pirates per se!

I Am Slaughter is the first novel in Black Library's new "series event" The Beast Arises.
The series takes place in the 32nd millennium, a time of relative peace after the events of the Horus Heresy - and by relative peace, it's a time of limited engagements with Xenos forces rather than all-out war amongst the worlds of Man.
This is a new timeline for Black Library and with Dan Abnett at the helm, you know that it's going to be involved, violent and dense with characters - and he certainly doesn't let us down.
The story opens on a Xenos world at as the Imperial Fists crush the non-compliant world of Ardamantua, but we aren't stuck on one world, in fact this story takes us to the Imperial Palace on Terra, into the space fleets and a tantalising glimpse inside the Adeptus Arbites.
As promised this review of the Audio Drama version of the novel has no spoilers (there are enough out there already) so read on if you're tempted...

It's week two of the Dwarf Fyreslayers release window and this week White Dwarf has wheeled out the big gun - the Fyreslayers Magmadroth combi-kit - and it's cool!
(Well not technically "cool" because it's all flamey and stuff, but you get my drift!)
You may remember last week when the thought of flapping loin clothes revealing ginger fury to a horrified enemy became all-prevailing. Well you'll be happy to know that this week the introduction of the Magmadroth kit has brought a little respect back to the Fyreslayers.
Although most of this issue is taken up with this release, there are other features including a look at the new Forge World decals (including a surprise for Salamanders fans), and a pretty decent Paint Splatter which looks at the Magmadroth and how to paint flame style colours which do look amazing!
So - is this issue worth buying?
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With Forge World slowly rolling out new very colourful decal sheets for the Space Marine Legions, they are starting to delete the very cool old ones!
The Sons of Horus, Death Guard and World Eaters/ War Hounds decals are now listed as "no longer available" on the Forge World site - bad news as these were amazing value!
As a War Hounds hobbyist, I got so much use out of the limited number on the World Eaters decal sheet that I can imagine anyone using those decal sheets for one of the main Legions could use them for ages!

You might remember we did a some reviews about Master Crafted Miniatures and their Space Marine-compatible shoulder pads, especially the awesome spikey ones (Review Part 1 & Part 2).
Well some great news, Master Crafted will be re-releasing their Cogs, Cogs Veteran and Kraken Veteran (SO COOL!!) pads.
Not only will there be some old favourites back - there will be some brand new designs: Damaged Cogs Veteran and Damaged Veteran Pads, as well as a great looking crossed scimitar design perfect for Red Corsairs or pirates of any ilk!
As well as the Space Marine and Terminator-compatible sizes, there will also be 'small’ pads, designed to fit human-sized figures - and the first design will be my favourite too - the Small Spiked Veteran.
In other great news, the long out of stock Hellmask Heads are also back, having been rescaled slightly larger and printed at a much higher quality. These are very cool for Guard or any human infantry and like many people have long been on my list to get a hold of.
Now if you're a fan of the Mechanicum or Iron Hands you will want to get your hands on any of the Cogs shoulder pads pretty quick smart.
This is brilliant news! I've loved what Master Crafted have done in the past, so I have already ordered what I need before they run out of stock!

It's interesting getting back to buying White Dwarf from the local GW than one you don't usually go to.
One thing I discovered is that the North American WD is different from others. The Australian one, at least, is printed in the UK on thinner paper, where the US/ Canadian one is printed in the US on thicker paper so it was interesting to compare.
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Now what the frakk is going on? I go away for two weeks and I get back and Games Workshop bring out a bunch of pantless Dwarves! Seriously - all I can think of is their lioncloth lifting up in combat and some unsuspecting Orc getting a horrible eyeful of unkempt ginger fury! Eeeeeww...
~ You will never look at these minis the same way now ~
The release of the Fyreslayers takes up the bulk of this issue, but it also opens up a few interesting changes to the way Factions are used & glimpses of future releases.
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I must admit, I'm kind of surprised that Warhammer Visions has lasted two years.
I admit we've been pretty critical, and I don't think unfairly, about the content or lack there of at times.
Warhammer Visions was going to be the hobbyists magazine, a monthly read with lots of great photos and articles all about the hobby rather than the rules.
As we know, it didn't turn out that way and after many many months of trying to give constructive criticism, we gave up and just accepted it for what it was - a picture book that recycled images from White Dwarf with other (sometimes badly photographed) images from various competitions around (mainly) Europe.
Well happy birthday, Warhammer Visions.
As a picture book you include pictures in you.
As a magazine for hobbyists you've consistently let us down by actually delivering very little or nothing at all.
Has it had it's high points? Absolutely - BUT they are high points on a sloping scale. As they say, expect the worst...
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Greetings and salutations from the land of Degrassi High, Sarah McLachlan and bacon... I'm pretty sure Canadians have bacon on just a-boot everything!
Yes I am still in Canada,  so this review is a little bit different as I struggle to website build on a tablet. Who ever thought of tablets should be shot!!
Right, well after last weeks lack of review (which I will do on my return to Australia) I've actually got one for you this week - White Dwarf 101... how very Adeptus Mechanicus. It's binary! 101!!
In the last few reviews you would have noticed that GW were giving us actual content and not a catalogue of stuff to buy. WELL, it's  back to form, because this week the entire issue is either a catalogue or filler. *sigh*
This week sees the presale for the new Army Bundles and White Dwarf #101 is completely dominated with it... as is obvious when you see the length of this review...
Alrighty - and on with the show!​