Well it's been a while since we've done a White Dwarf review, but we actually got the issue a few days early here instead of a few days late, so we can take you through the April 2018 White Dwarf.
The current White Dwarf format is a bit of an odd one - where previously in the weekly version we were always guaranteed to only see new releases, now White Dwarf has this odd crossover where we get new releases and some previews. April's issue is a prime example.of this where we have most of April's releases, but only up until the 21st which means we only get to see part of the Idoneth Deepkin and no minis. So by the time the next White Dwarf comes out in May, we will have already seen the minis on the shelf before we see them in the magazine. It's all to do with pre-production etc etc, but really they should take a leap and if there's a major release that spans a month (say it goes into early May) then include those miniatures - they only need to do it once and then everything will line up from then on. Just a thought...
The current White Dwarf format is a bit of an odd one - where previously in the weekly version we were always guaranteed to only see new releases, now White Dwarf has this odd crossover where we get new releases and some previews. April's issue is a prime example.of this where we have most of April's releases, but only up until the 21st which means we only get to see part of the Idoneth Deepkin and no minis. So by the time the next White Dwarf comes out in May, we will have already seen the minis on the shelf before we see them in the magazine. It's all to do with pre-production etc etc, but really they should take a leap and if there's a major release that spans a month (say it goes into early May) then include those miniatures - they only need to do it once and then everything will line up from then on. Just a thought...
++ More of the April 2018 White Dwarf Review With A Tonne Of Pictures After The Jump ++
Planet Warhammer is where you find all the new stuff, and as we stated earlier this month also includes some March stuff - actually quite a lot of March stuff. We start off with the Forgebane boxed game, which included two brand new releases - the Knight Armiger Warglaives and the Necron Cryptek. Unusually, this section also includes the Designers Notes for Forgebane and Knight Armiger Warglaives which are always great to read, especially when Jes Goodwin is involved as he has the most amazing conceptual mind.. Next up are more already released products - the hotly anticipated Codex: Necrons and Codex: Drukhari, as well as their Datacards and the new Start Collecting Drukhari box.
There are two "new" releases for Shadespire - Magore's Fiends for Khorne and The Farstriders for the Stormcast. Neither of these boxes are particularly inspiring as they lack the individualism or dynamic posing of the previous Shadespire sets.
Also new, but only a partial preview are the very much talked about Idoneth Deepkin who seem to be sea Dark Elves. We get a small glimpse of the models here (there's more later) and a quick look at the Battletome and Warscroll that are released on the 21st April. This miniature range does look amazing, so it's a shame they didn't include the next week's minis in here too.
In the Latest from Forge World, the tiresome never-ending Custodes releases continue, with the Pyrithide Spears and Adrasite Spears upgrade sets and the new Shield-Captain release on show. Now all the Nazgul have been released for the Middle-Earth universe, we can see them in all their glory - also available from Forge World. These are very cool minis!
Licensed Games has news on the new Warhammer 40,000: Gladius game, Warthammer Quest 2: The End Times game, The Horus Heresy: Legions game and news that Freeblade is now compatible with Apple TV.
Of course what would Planet Warhammer be without a bevy of books and audio dramas - Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah by Gav Thorpe looks very cool, with a great cover. There are two new Omnibus - the Gaunt's Ghosts Omnibus The Lost and Champions of Chaos Omnibus, both massive tomes. Legacy of Dorn is another new one from Mike Lee, while we have already seen Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa and Agent of the Throne:Truth and Dreams released in the past few weeks.
There are two "new" releases for Shadespire - Magore's Fiends for Khorne and The Farstriders for the Stormcast. Neither of these boxes are particularly inspiring as they lack the individualism or dynamic posing of the previous Shadespire sets.
Also new, but only a partial preview are the very much talked about Idoneth Deepkin who seem to be sea Dark Elves. We get a small glimpse of the models here (there's more later) and a quick look at the Battletome and Warscroll that are released on the 21st April. This miniature range does look amazing, so it's a shame they didn't include the next week's minis in here too.
In the Latest from Forge World, the tiresome never-ending Custodes releases continue, with the Pyrithide Spears and Adrasite Spears upgrade sets and the new Shield-Captain release on show. Now all the Nazgul have been released for the Middle-Earth universe, we can see them in all their glory - also available from Forge World. These are very cool minis!
Licensed Games has news on the new Warhammer 40,000: Gladius game, Warthammer Quest 2: The End Times game, The Horus Heresy: Legions game and news that Freeblade is now compatible with Apple TV.
Of course what would Planet Warhammer be without a bevy of books and audio dramas - Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah by Gav Thorpe looks very cool, with a great cover. There are two new Omnibus - the Gaunt's Ghosts Omnibus The Lost and Champions of Chaos Omnibus, both massive tomes. Legacy of Dorn is another new one from Mike Lee, while we have already seen Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa and Agent of the Throne:Truth and Dreams released in the past few weeks.
Skipping over the splash page ads for Mechanicus and Necron sets and the Contact section we get to Temporal Distort which looks back at April 2013 and issue 400 of White Dwarf. We've already mentioned our issues with this section, how the pictures are too small and the information scant, so it's just filler unfortunately.
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The Getting Started With... section this month looks at Stormcast Eternals, those voluminous goldroids.
The Ultimate Guide To... is about the upcoming Idoneth Deepkin. Here we get a really good overview of the race, the various units and some really nice photgraphy of the miniatures in dioramas from lots of angles, giving a really good view of what they are about. The Namarti really stick out for us - a head swap and you have Slaanesh troops or Drukhari mercenaries. Lots of possibilities! Good little section this one!
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The Blackstone Extraction is a Battle Report pitting the forces of the Necrons against the Adeptus Mechanicus. Both sides are formidable and it's great to see such a big collection of miniatures on both sides. Love for the Necrons is unbound at Beardy Hammer HQ, so be warned...
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Striking A Pose is Matt Holland's take on what makes a good miniature. Essentially he's talking about dynamic posing and details. He then nominates his entry into the Citadel Hall Of Fame.
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A Tale of Four Wargamers continues with some nice forces for the Age of $igmar. This section seems never-ending as we go from one group of four to the next group of four over the life of this iteration of White Dwarf. It's a bit same-old same-old.
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Collecting looks at Middle Earth, the lands of Tolkien. This is a pretty good pitch to get on board, despite the lack of attention GW pays to the system. There are some lovely miniatures in here and it's a pity they don't get seen more. I heard GW are in a bit of a legal tussle at the moment over this system as the rights to use the licensed characters are coming to an end. I bet they wish they made these in the same scale as the rest of their range so they could just amalgamate them into the Age of $igmar universe!
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Honour and Loyalty focuses on the Kinights of House Makabius by Gavin Beardsmore. He's done a lovely job of the purple here and the minis (or not so mini) look great.
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Battleground features a guide of how to construct a large gaming board. This is great fun to see and really appreciate the work that goes into them, while at the same time helping us to try it at home.
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Now this is damn cool - Tactica Imperialis looking at purportedly the hardest army to play in the game of Warhammer 40,000, the Drukhari. These guys have had a major boost to their abilities and power in their latest Codex, so we're really looking forward to going over this. We then get a splash page of the Drukhari range (well some of it) but they accidentally put the old Start Collecting box on there.
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The Getting Started With... section this month looks at Stormcast Eternals, those voluminous goldroids.
The Ultimate Guide To... is about the upcoming Idoneth Deepkin. Here we get a really good overview of the race, the various units and some really nice photgraphy of the miniatures in dioramas from lots of angles, giving a really good view of what they are about. The Namarti really stick out for us - a head swap and you have Slaanesh troops or Drukhari mercenaries. Lots of possibilities! Good little section this one!
-
The Blackstone Extraction is a Battle Report pitting the forces of the Necrons against the Adeptus Mechanicus. Both sides are formidable and it's great to see such a big collection of miniatures on both sides. Love for the Necrons is unbound at Beardy Hammer HQ, so be warned...
-
Striking A Pose is Matt Holland's take on what makes a good miniature. Essentially he's talking about dynamic posing and details. He then nominates his entry into the Citadel Hall Of Fame.
-
A Tale of Four Wargamers continues with some nice forces for the Age of $igmar. This section seems never-ending as we go from one group of four to the next group of four over the life of this iteration of White Dwarf. It's a bit same-old same-old.
-
Collecting looks at Middle Earth, the lands of Tolkien. This is a pretty good pitch to get on board, despite the lack of attention GW pays to the system. There are some lovely miniatures in here and it's a pity they don't get seen more. I heard GW are in a bit of a legal tussle at the moment over this system as the rights to use the licensed characters are coming to an end. I bet they wish they made these in the same scale as the rest of their range so they could just amalgamate them into the Age of $igmar universe!
-
Honour and Loyalty focuses on the Kinights of House Makabius by Gavin Beardsmore. He's done a lovely job of the purple here and the minis (or not so mini) look great.
-
Battleground features a guide of how to construct a large gaming board. This is great fun to see and really appreciate the work that goes into them, while at the same time helping us to try it at home.
-
Now this is damn cool - Tactica Imperialis looking at purportedly the hardest army to play in the game of Warhammer 40,000, the Drukhari. These guys have had a major boost to their abilities and power in their latest Codex, so we're really looking forward to going over this. We then get a splash page of the Drukhari range (well some of it) but they accidentally put the old Start Collecting box on there.
Gaming centres on a fun Shadespire tournament held by the GW teams.
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Maxime Pastourel then takes us through a really cool painting challenge where they all have to paint the same model in different ways. The results are awesome as you can see by the Tech-Preist below. Great to see alternate colour schemes done so well. This should be inspirational for many, especially the levels of weathering and different styles of highlights and shading.
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New Rules shows off Radagast the Brown (played in the Hobbit by Sylvester McCoy who was also an excellent Doctor Who) and then there are some new rules for Battle Companies in Middle-Earth as well. Necromunda has a new set of bad guys, with Chaos Cult Gangs entering the Underhive. This is quite expansive really and takes in not only Cultists and Favours of the Gods but also fielding Chaos Spawn and using Witch Powers.
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Readers Models has some... readers models in it.
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Then we get to Into The Bunker which in the past we have been very vocal about being a wanky navel-gazing waste of time. Well in surprising news - there's actually content this month! There's some nice models and an Armiger Warglavies vs (insert walker here) match up. Nice work GW!
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Maxime Pastourel then takes us through a really cool painting challenge where they all have to paint the same model in different ways. The results are awesome as you can see by the Tech-Preist below. Great to see alternate colour schemes done so well. This should be inspirational for many, especially the levels of weathering and different styles of highlights and shading.
-
New Rules shows off Radagast the Brown (played in the Hobbit by Sylvester McCoy who was also an excellent Doctor Who) and then there are some new rules for Battle Companies in Middle-Earth as well. Necromunda has a new set of bad guys, with Chaos Cult Gangs entering the Underhive. This is quite expansive really and takes in not only Cultists and Favours of the Gods but also fielding Chaos Spawn and using Witch Powers.
-
Readers Models has some... readers models in it.
-
Then we get to Into The Bunker which in the past we have been very vocal about being a wanky navel-gazing waste of time. Well in surprising news - there's actually content this month! There's some nice models and an Armiger Warglavies vs (insert walker here) match up. Nice work GW!
++ VERDICT ++
Maybe it's our new little positivity gremlin over here, maybe its' the thought that our Eldar Collection Sketchbooks by Jes Goodwin is one step closer to getting to our mail box - but this issue was actually pretty good. Of great improvement has been the photography (or maybe the person who makes the photography look so good) because it's steps ahead of the older stuff, even from a year ago. The frames are full of miniatures, the posing is excellent and the miniatures, even if they are old ones like the Drukhari ones, look great. Overall this issue has a nice balance of rules to fluff. It's heavier than normal on the splash page ads, but they don't detract. Maxime's painting challenge was really great to see with some nice old school colour schemes on the Space Marines (the green one with the red helmet is from one of the rare colour plates in Rogue Trader) and the Tech-Priests look incredible. The Chaos Gang info for Necromunda means you could field them right now which is generous addition to the game. The multiple Designers Notes were also great to go over too.
Reservations about the New Releases section of Planet Warhammer remain as we said right at the top, but they just need to sort that out. Ending the month on the 21st is crazy considering we've had the Battletome for those miniatures in this issue anyway!
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So overall - a thumbs up from the Beardy Hammer gremlin!
Reservations about the New Releases section of Planet Warhammer remain as we said right at the top, but they just need to sort that out. Ending the month on the 21st is crazy considering we've had the Battletome for those miniatures in this issue anyway!
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So overall - a thumbs up from the Beardy Hammer gremlin!
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