Tuesday 5 February 2013

Thoughts on Buying White Dwarf

I was in my local Anonymous Supermarket the other day and saw the latest issue of White Dwarf winking seductively at me from behind a copy of Woman's Weekly in the magazine section; I couldn't resist the urge to buy it. I think it may be the first time I have bought it since around issue 195 or so - although I do vaguely remember the celebrations for issue 200. In any event, not since around 1996, when I was 15 years old. And because I haven't played Warhammer or 40k since I was about 16 or 17, I've been out of the loop for quite some time. (I was astonished to discover, for instance, a few years ago, that Chaos Dwarfs are no longer an army list.)

White Dwarf has changed a lot since the old days. I noticed that:


  • Although they still have battle reports, they are breathless, chaotic affairs where you don't have a clue what the fuck is going on - except that everybody is dying. In my day the battle reports were quite drawn out and considered. The players would describe their tactics in some detail, and although the reports were written with verve, they were relatively easy to follow and contained detailed maps showing the locations of the units each turn with their movements. Apparently they don't do that any more. The battle in the February issue is Chaos versus Night Goblins and a "slaughterbeast" was involved, but I couldn't tell you a great deal more than that. 
  • There is actually more than I expected on how to paint and customise the models and rules. Far more than in the old editions, at least as I remember them. I was surprised by this, because in my conception of things Games Workshop had gone down the route of Wizards of the Coast and increasingly frowned upon people doing anything remotely resembling DIY. Not so: it seems actively encouraged. (There is even an editorial from the still-active [and still alive!] Jervis Johnson explicitly telling you to do whatever the hell you want with the rules, the models, and everything else.) The how-to-paint articles are detailed, useful and extensive.
  • In the same vein, they've freed up Space Marines. In the old days everybody made up their own Space Marine Chapters, but that seemed not to be encouraged by GW: I remember all the codices and articles in WD being about the Space Wolves, Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Dark Angels or nothing. Now it appears having and designing Your Own Chapter is positively encouraged.
  • Far more ads - but I could just be misremembering the extent of ads in 'the old days' because I never paid attention to them.
  • I was surprised to discover a lengthy section detailing the model conversions carried out by the great John Blanche and his friends. One of their creations is called "Deposed Planetary Governor Daven Kel-Rosber, penitent and executioner". I love 40k sometimes. 
  • There is oodles more model porn. Particularly Space Marine porn. There are metric shit-tons of photos of people's Space Marine designs, conversions, kit-bashes and paint jobs. A lot of it is incredibly impressive. 
  • It's amazing that I was surprised to discover there is no longer a catalogue to order models from at the back of the magazine. Of course there isn't. In the years since I was reading White Dwarf, this thing called 'the internet' has come along. 
  • Warhammer, and 40k, remain brilliant, compelling, dark fantasy creations - among the greatest in the history of the genre, without question, despite their ruthless pilfering of ideas from elsewhere. This issue details a 40k chaos warrior called "Vilitch the Curseling" who is a weak, stunted child who forged a pact with the chaos gods: he now controls his big, strong older brother while attached to his shoulder, from which he sprouts like a hideous growth, and he has become a mighty chaos wizard. The dark creativity of Games Workshop is as strong as ever.
  • They have a girl working for them now, and she's actually kind of cute.  

I enjoyed reading the magazine and found myself getting genuinely excited about the thought of buying some of the new models and maybe even collecting an army. Then I looked at the prices. £30 for 10 plastic chaos warriors? Fuck me.

26 comments:

  1. sometimes things are not horrible

    ReplyDelete
  2. The new look magazine is only about 5 issues old, but at least 100000% better than the previous version, with no exaggeration. Great inspiration for buying the models off ebay or wherever you can find them cheap, or scratch building or modelling. Try £50 for 3 plastic, very poorly sculpted hobbit trolls though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shows how far out of the loop I am - I didn't even know there'd been a reboot.

      Delete
  3. ...controls his big, strong older brother while attached to his shoulder, from which he sprouts like a hideous growth [...] The dark creativity of Games Workshop is as strong as ever.

    Master/Blaster, is that you?

    And, yeah, GW's prices have no relation to reality any more. I long for the day when 3D printing finally guts the Evil Empire and surly gangs of starving artist biker/gamers squat in the ruins of its' downfall.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wonder if they're planning some sort of subscription-based model for downloading blueprints for 3D printing. I noticed on the website that you can subscribe and get all the back issues of WD online. (Or so it seems. Not all the articles may have been digitized yet.)

      Delete
    2. GW fired the first shots in the great global war between corporate manufacturers and 3d printer pirates last year, against someone printing cheap knock-off tank kits.

      5-10 years until it's an IP management company like the people who run the Star Wars Extended Universe rather than a strict minis business, IMO.

      Delete
  4. Chaos Dwarfs are back, sort of, although you have to get them from GW's weird boutique offshoot Forge World. Or Mantic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, what is that Forge World thing? Just a nicer, more expensive version of Citadel Miniatures?

      Delete
    2. It's sort of more experimental? It used to be models that they felt like making that didn't really have an in-Codex purpose; that's shifted somewhat, but it's still fundamentally the case. It's more about cool models that anything else.

      They are more expensive, but they're excellent sculpts in a resin that's lightyears better than their mass-produced Finecast material.

      Delete
    3. user@example.com5 February 2013 at 21:39

      Not sure how it's set up now, but in some cases and ranges they used to be the same price as GW equivalents, or even cheaper. The Battlefleet Gothic Tau ships used to be cheaper than the GW ones, and the ship designs were much nicer.

      Delete
  5. White Dwarf has improved in the last few issues since the reboot, although it still lacks some of what people want from the magazine (namely rules and prose).

    If you liked the Blanch-esque conversions, you should really look into the Inqusitor 28 movement. (Inq28 being a handy clearing house of information for that, other links here in my blog) it is a great way to put together a warband of figures to bash around, and with online bitz ordering, not too costly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very cool. What actually is Inquisitor, though?

      Delete
    2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisitor_(game)

      54mm squad-based game. RPG-ish.

      Delete
    3. quasi-roleplaying/skirmish game set in the warhammer 40k universe, primarily setup to allow you to run battles between Inqusitors of various types and their supporting retinues.

      As an RPG and as a skirmish game it is lacking, but it has some interesting ideas, and being free to download from Games Workshop, it is worth a look.

      Delete
  6. IMHO I always thought it was summin of a myth that WD "became" full of ads. Back in the day (mid 80s)you'd buy a 68+ page mag with 30+ pages of ads and half the articles would be for some game you didn't play or own. GW might be guilty of a multitude of sins but not providing hobby support ain't one of them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You may be right about that. Like I said, I might just be misremembering the number of ads in older WDs because I didn't really use to look at them.

      Delete
  7. Forge World is a very popular offshoot of GW that produces resin kits for specialist tanks, and now more and more infantry stuff - expensive, but they explore the universe in greater detail than GW itself. Inquisitor was an rpg/mini's game that is now oop, but the inquisitor theme is another way they (and fans) are getting into the more creative details of the 40k universe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One thing that I think is undeniable is that the 40k universe is incredibly rich. I've not played any of the 40k RPGs but I'm becoming tempted to (especially Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader).

      Delete
    2. My nephew plays/runs Dark Heresy a lot and seems to enjoy it. It sounds like there is lots of crunch to the rules.

      Delete
  8. Yeah, they're still hot for DIY, which is great: it's one of the things that makes GW better than its competitors like Privateer Press.

    That they've gotten into the habit of producing rules-- but not models-- for pretty effective choices is excellent motivation for folks to convert up their own. I hope that never, ever changes.

    ReplyDelete
  9. user@example.com5 February 2013 at 21:44

    Have you had a heart attack over the price of the rulebooks yet?

    That's not really fair, heh. The starter boxes come with a mini-rulebook with all the rules (still no army lists, mind) and two damn nice little forces. It's usually trivial to find someone to take the half you don't want off your hands in exchange for the half they don't want, too - Dark Angels and Chaos in the new 40K one, and the Chaos force has some brand new cultists and a "Hellbrute" Dreadnought.

    The full hardback rulebooks are still expensive as hell, even though they are ever so pretty...

    ReplyDelete
  10. On the battle reports, they have even recently taken the step of no longer including how many points each side has. Each player just picks out what he thinks is fair (or what models they want to highlight) and then go at it. What stunned me was that the Chaos army lost (spoiler alert) given that it was the army they were pushing that month.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. user@example.com5 February 2013 at 22:56

      I'm all in favour of battles & battle reports with armies picked this way. I'm not sure the GW games are the best games for it, but it's more fun than fiddly list-building.

      Delete
    2. Yeah, I was also surprised Chaos lost, given the way they were talking up all the new models at the start of the issue. (The new models also performed poorly, which was even more surprising.)

      Delete
  11. The new battle reports are a mistake IMO. I learned WH and 40k rules exclusively from those battle reports (and a few battles at the GW stores) without ever touching a rulebook. That's the way to get cash-strapped, low attention span teens into your game, not a weighty tome of rules and numbers.

    Unfortunately I was too young to ever see the Chaos Dwarves, but I remember wishing to all the Chaos gods for their return. Evil babylonian techno-dwarves with braided hair, centaurs and Mongolian Hobgoblin slaves? Never mind the ridiculous fluffy coolness there, the look of an army on the table would have sold me alone.

    It sounds like the new look WD might have struck a nice balance between what used to get my money and what eventually turned me away. Will have to pick one up.

    ReplyDelete