White Dwarf #59 Review - New Warhammer! Full Details

The denizens of Chaos keep marching on in this weeks White Dwarf with the addition of an Uruk-hai to the ranks of Khorne. Go on, tell me this guy doesn't look like he's from Lord of the Rings? Okay, he has the bestial legs, but if Tolkien had thought of it, so would his Uruk-hai!
Skarr Bloodwrath is the only real new release this week, and apart from having two stupid hand weapons we can laugh at, this issue of White Dwarf is mainly about Warhammer, The End Times and how it is so very different.
More on that later in full, but I thought it was interesting the lack of leaks this week about this issue of White Dwarf. Usually we get some images leaked that gets everyone excited, and with nothing exciting (in terms of minis) this week it makes me wonder if GW are the source of the leaks all along just to purely whip up some chatter.
+ + More After The Jump + +

Khorne is my Chaos God of choice, but apart from the rather ominous Bloodthirster, the releases so far have been... well a tad crap! I include this meaty looking chap in with that lot too.
What's with those stupid axes? If you have a flail attached to an axe, every time you swing the axe back to you would get clobbered by the spiky chains. It is entirely impractical, PLUS the weight of the axes wouldn't give the flail enough momentum to do what it's meant to do. Urgh!
I do like the idea of the cloven hooves. This is an awesome part of the mini and great to see it.

More releases next week, the Blood Tide of Khorne set which is pretty damn cool if you want some daemons in your force.,.. or as your force indeed! There's another Kharn book - this one post-Heresy and a new audio adventure about infighting in the World Eaters.

With so many daemons around here's a look at some of the purely daemonic range of GW Khorne products. That packaging still looks so damn cool!
Plus a look at Seige of Vraks book covering the bloody 18 year conflict.

Forge World give us a look at two "new" miniatures - the Deredeo Dreadnought which gets a real mixed reception from people and the Castellex with Darkfire Cannon, which looks like a real pain in the butt to paint to me! Awesome, but annoying!

Hall of fame concentrates on some of the best Choas Space Marines ever released, the Dark Vengeance set's Chosen. Here's hoping the rumoured Chaos Space Marines look just a little bit like this.

Alrighty - here we go. The Warhammer world has, as they say here, "quite literally being torn apart". 
Here you get an idea of how the past End Times books have changed the way force organisation and alliances have changed and how you can utilise it. 
There's also some really nice examples all painted up to have a look at too.
But what has changed? Well here it is in a truncated version:

The End Times: Archaon enabled you to build the army of your dreams, Want an entire army of Empire Knightly Orders? You got it... etc etc
... This book also allows you to field entire armies of Heroes in battle against each other...
The End Times: Nagash introduces the Undead and combining Vampires and Tomb Kings into one force. It also introduces Lore of the Undead allowing Wizards to raise armies of the Undead.
The End Times: Glottkin adds new rules for summoning daemons, a great way to add new units to your Chaos Warriors army. It also presents rules for fighting in cities.
The End Times: Khaine includes three Elven army lists that show the race in an entirely new light... The alliance of Wood Elves and High Elves... etc etc
The End Times: Thanquol presents the Lords of Battle campaign system... etc etc

So there you have it - the four books have changed the way you can and will organise your forces in the new Warhammer world. We can assume (I hope) this will also be included in the new Warhammer 9th Edition due pretty soon, so there shouldn't be a rush to go and buy these books just top check it out.

Along with those changes there is also this great article on creating a campaign system. Games Workshop have tooled around with this idea for years and never really got it to work. Here they give you the ideas to do it yourself. There's also a handy little plug for Mighty Empires, a failed games system that they have reinvented to help you run large campaigns... or you could just write it down!
I love the idea of campaigns and they should use them more - even to determine real events in the WHFB and WH40K universes. Why not have Chaos emerge from the Warp and run games in store to see who wins. Keep a tally of each campaign and that becomes the narrative in the ongoing universe.
How cool would it be to have the Imperium having to flee and find places to regroup and hide, the Emperor's Golden Throne on board a huge battle cruiser from the Age of Darkness constantly being hunted by the agents of Chaos. THAT WOULD BE COOL!!

White Dwarf are really liking this head-to-head style article where might heroes/ villains face off...

Here's your Skarr Bloodwrath rules... with those silly axe/flails!

I thought this pic from the page cover was worth putting in, have a look at the scale of those monsters!! Sigh

Verdict

If you're into Warhammer then this issue really is a primer of what to expect in the next little while. Yes, one can assume ti will be rehashed in the upcoming 9th Edition, but getting a look at it really can't hurt.
Next week is supposed to be "Drown the Galaxy in the Blood of all who yet live" and some 40K datasheets, so looks like Khorne is going 40K next week!!