Review: White Dwarf 189 (381)

A new month, a new review of Games Workshops one and only hobby magazine, the White Dwarf! Sure I know there is no one out there whose love to this periodical isn’t…  lukewarm at best, but then there are worse things to read, at least to me… I do even think that having a subscription for it isn’t a bad thing. It’s nice to get my magazine without having to go to some shabby newspaper kiosk or (heaven forbid) a Games Workshop store. Sure, it’s an early sign of brain decadence when I start to care about such things, but then I am growing old… I’m getting a soft spot for such amenities…

But back to this review… I will try to do things a little bit differently this time. Of course there will be the usual run-down of all the articles and news in the magazine – hey, I’ve read it all so I want to write it all – but I will post a quick run-down first of all, so it’s up to you if you want to read the thole thing…

So, let’s start this one with the one and only question: this September’s White Dwarf – is it a good one or a bad one? Winner or loser? We’ll see… I know I will have a hard time to be objective here… of all the armies you can play and collect in Warhammer Fantasy Battles, the Ogre Kingdoms are the only one I thoroughly dislike. I think the background is bad (and redundant – there are Orcs, you know? You just don’t need ogres…), the models are great as models but I dislike the style… I’d rather collect Vampire Counts, Daemons of Chaos or Beastmen, to be honest…

And, as always, remember that I am working with the german edition of the White Dwarf. Contentwise it’s (almost) the same as the english edition in these days, but sometimes I have to re-translate things back into english and, well, that might end up quite different from the original text as the translation is, to say the least, quite basic… You’ve been warned.

The précis

• Warhammer 40 000: One small article on the Dark Eldar Court of the Archons and the Army List for the Sisters of Battle. For a month with a focus on Fantasy, it’s a lot of content – A.
• Warhammer Fantasy Battles: One big fat article on the Ogre Kingdoms (including stats for the new monsters), one small article putting the new Saurus Oldblood against the Chaos General of Nurgle and one new scenario by Jervis Johnson. I would give an “A”, but the quality is not as I hoped… better than average, though – B.
• Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game: One (1) article of six pages telling you how to play with (or against) monsters. Not bad, but no, you didn’t need that – D.
• Hobby: One good Army Workshop for the Vampire Counts, one gallery of ‘Eavy Metal Ogres and another one of various fulcri. Average – C.
• Entertainment: Two battle reports – one pitting the Ogres against Tomb Kings, one Sisters of Battle versus Tyranids. Both are nice, the second one too short – still A.

All in all, it’s quite a good issue. There are some new rules, some new monsters, a lot of new stunning kits… I enjoyed this one, it’s a clear B.

The long tour

Well, let’s take this White Dwarf and find out what I think about all the bits and bites of it…

• [--] Front Cover (Kevin Chin): a cut-out from the title illustration for the new Ogre Kingdoms army book. I’ve read a number of negative comments on this one, but I actually happen to like it (unlike the Ogre Kingdoms themselves).
• [00] Editorial (Andrew Kenrick): Mr. Kenrick likes this issue. And he does Advertisement for Bugman’s Bar. And… no, no and… why am I still reading that?
• [02-16] Ogre Kingdoms (New Releases): well, I guess you know what the new releases of this month are all about…
  • [04-07] Ogre Kingdoms Thundertusk/Stonehorn (Seb Perbet): It’s the new “Big One” for the Ogre Kingdoms and they celebrate it with more pages than ever… a huge kit and one of the best of the new “two different units out of the same” kits I have seen in a long time. Even though the basic body of both the Thundertusk and the Stonehorn is the same, both head, rider(s) and accessoires are so different, that I could well imagine that if you put each of those two side by side in one army, they would look distinctive – something other kits (like the Skaven Screaming Bell / Plague Furnace) can’t deliver. Personally I like the Stonehorn better than the Thundertusk, but this is just my taste… I would never think about buying this kit, of course, but I wouldn’t mind picking up some of the accessoires should they show up on eBay…
    No such model without our austrian friends at w6-tabletop bringing you the unboxing video… and here it is:
  • [08-09] Ogre Kingdoms Mournfang Cavalry (Mike Anderson, Matt Holland): the new cavalry kit for the Ogre Kingdoms is quite expensive (you can only build two riders from it), but also quite impressive. One first has to get used to see the riders more or less standing on the back of their mournfangs instead of sitting on them, but I think it could make “sense” from the background. What can be judged from the various photos and the sprue pictures on the website, there are a lot of possibilities to create a wide array of riders… and that’s a good thing. Did you notice that the usual “look, this is the greatest model EVER” on the Games Workshop homepage features Jeremy Vetock for all these kits? I like that…
  • [10-11] Ogre Kingdoms Ironblaster/Scraplauncher (Martin Footit, Colin Grayson, design by Seb Perbet): Another “dual” kit that allows to build two different units. Not as versatile as the Thundertusk/Stonehorn kit (more on the line of theSkaven Warp Lightning Cannon/ Plagueclaw Catapult), but still a nice one. As a non-ogre-player I especially like the huge cannon of the Ironblaster. I could imagine a lot of projects where I could find use for it… so let us hope most players will go for the scraplauncher…
  • [12] Warhammer: Ogre Kingdoms (Jervis Johnson, Jeremy Vetock): the new army book. Actually, even though I dislike the ogres, I could imagine that an army with a book written by Mr. Johnson (rules) and Mr. Vetock (background) is something for me… I like those two old men and their crazyness… wish they would use those two for the next 40k codizes, too… or at least regularly
    The Total Wargamer Blog already has a nice short review of the book, which pretty much sums up everything I need to know…  perhaps I wouldn’t have given 9/10 points when I read sentences like “older units aren’t given much love and the artwork for them is mostly recycled from the unit packaging rather than the awesome artwork from the old book”, but then, the Total Wargamer Blog is connected to a Total Wargamer Store… having said that, I should point out again that their Blog does fine reviews – just pay more attention to their words than to their ratings…
  • [13] Ogre Kingdoms Battalion: you know, Games Workshop has discovered their battalion boxes as a place to maximize their gains, but this one isn’t bad. This one contains 6 Ogres (23 £), 6 Ironguts (normally 4 for 23 £) and 4 Leadbelchers(23 £) – at 60 £ you save 9 £ and get two Ironguts (£ 11.50) extra, that’s saving you almost a quarter of the money you would have had to spend if you bought those units separately.
  • [13] Warhammer Battle Magic: Ogre Kingdoms: the usual magic cards (this time seven ones) you don’t really need, but who do look nice. well, this one is a limited release but quite like the beastmen battle magic set I guess this one will be around for quite some time…
  • [14] Ogre Kingdoms Firebelly, Bragg the Gutsman, Golgfag Maneater (all by Seb Perbet): three new charakter models for the Ogres… I would bet that when Mr. Perbet designed those, he was expecting those to be released in metal… well, the time for GW pewters is over, so we have three new Finecast miniatures instead… in fact with this month all Ogre pewters were re-released in Finecast… no more metal for the heavy ones… Seb Perbet is one of the best designers for miniatures and he did a great job with every one of these three. Personally I like the Gutsman best, but in the internet most seem to favor the Firebelly… the fire effect is great, but I know I would be at a loss at painting that thing to look better than bad…
  • [15] Dark Eldar Sslyth (Jes Goodwin), Lhamaean (Juan Diaz): the final two models needed for the rebirth of the Dark Eldars… if I can see this one correctly, now all units from the codex can be build and used. As Finecast models, they have few options, though the Sslyth (some kind of four-armed Snakeman) has interchangeable arms and can make use of other Dark Eldar arms, too, which makes it quite versatile (you can field up to three per Archon, so it would have been really boring else). On the other hand the Lhamaean has no options whatsoevery, even though you can field her twice… but then, Finecast is so soft that it should be easy to replace the head or perhaps the arms… as a collector of Dark Elves, I love the Lhamaean, I will probably buy the model to use her as a Dark Elfin noble or sorceress…
  • [16] Lizardmen Saurus Oldblood (Aly Morrison): unlike all the aforementioned Finecast miniatures, this one was designed to be a character model cast and delivered as a mini plastic kit. As such it replaces the old pewter Saurus Oldblood, which strangely enough is still available from the website… and as such he has (almost) the same armaments as his predecessor. There has been some hot discussions on the web as why this kit has no options (especially weapons), While they are right to some extent, if you look at the sprue, there simply was no space for that… modelwise I very much like this model, it is edgier, rougher than the other Lizardmen models, but that’s nice for a change. I wouldn’t like to see the whole line to develop into that direction, but for one hero… I especially like the base of the model, it is a lot better than most sculpted bases  that come with those new plastic heroes. Even though I already own the pewter oldblood twice, I will surely end up buying this one, too… or perhaps even two – one to use as is, one to just use the base…
  • [16] Nurgle Chaos Lord (Brian Nelson): another plastic hero and quite a new one, too. I am not too familiar with the Chaos armies, but it’s been some time since GW has brought out a Nurgle Chaos Lord for fantasy, I think. This one too comes with no options, though one could substitute a different head relatively easily. It is a finely sculpted miniature (albeit in very few parts), but personally it holds no appeal to me.
• [17-19] News: I won’t list all of those… there’s the usual page for the Black Library, ads for new products of Fantasy Flight Games and THQ and a large blurper announcing that all Ogre miniatures originally in pewter are now available in Finecast. On September 3rd there was a Givaway of Ogre posters in the shops… oh, and Games Workshop is opening its first store in China, which looks pretty stylish… I like the thought of so many new chinese customers that they will start printing chinese editions and finally doing that Cathay and Nippon armies that everyone would love to see…
• [20-29] Guts and Glory (Andy Hall): Well, a new month, a new army book and a new article discussing it. September is no difference and thus it’s again Andy Hall doing interviews with Jeremy Vetock, miniature designer Seb Perbet and Jervis Johnson. Unfortunately Mr. Vetock is presented only by a few lines that really don’t give a lot of information. Seb Perbet’s part is better, I like how he explains how he was trying (successfully) to give the Ogres a certain primeval style. But the best part is the interview with Jervis Johnson, mainly because they for once just printed the interview… as an interview. Just the questions, just the answers, no senseless write-up like it’s usual in the Dwarf – more of that please!
  Inset are (among the usual splash texts an various units) three one-page “special texts”, including rules for the new “Big Ones”:
  • [22] Stonehorn: one of the new units, the Stonehorn is one big primeval Yak with one evil Ogre rider. As far as I can tell from the special rules and stats, a fearsome beast and a living tank indeed.
  • [23] Thundertusk: Unlike the Stonehorn, the Thundertusk is less good at charging, but it’s some kind of moving ice-artillery that can be most annoying. Personally I prefer the Stonehorn, but probably this one is the choice most players will use – at least if they have to choose between the two.
  • [29] Sample Army (Kevin Chin): Mr. Chin (who among other things drew the title illustration for the army book) presents us with a 1.990 sample army list that mainly focusses on a few big units. I am not accustomed with the Ogres, so I can’t tell if this is a good one or not. It does look solid, but personally I would miss one or two big units of Gnoblars to serve as Cannon Fodder… I would leave out those Yhetees for them… but then, is there anyone who has ever used a sample army list from the Dwarf as it stands?
• [32-33] Arena of Death (Andrew Kenrick, Matt [Hutson?]): This little but nice article picks up a tradition that had already been up several times on Games Workshop’s  “What’s New Today?”. This time, Mr. Kenrick and “Matt” (probably Matt Hutson) take the new plastic releases of the Saurus Oldblood and the Nurgle Chaos Lord and have them face off each other three times at various locations and with different equipment each time. With 2:1 Mr. Saurus triumphs over Chaos…
  They should do more of this kind, it’s nothing special, but I enjoyed it. Beats reading too many pages of advertisements…
• [34-39] Tactica: Monsters (Simon Grant): in August’s issue, the White Dwarf started a new series of articles for the Lord of the Rings game with Simon Grant discussing various types of units and how to use (or fight) them. This time it’s about big monsters like Ents, Mûmakils or the Balrog.
  I do think this is a good (albeit very basic) article, but I suspect that everything that is written here, is already in the various rulebooks, too… for myself I can say that it’s interesting to read about the Lord of the Rings game. I thoroughly dislike most of the aesthetics of it (coming from the movies rather than from the books), but from the rules, it does sound like a pretty good game… well, perhaps I will start it some day… after all, there are a few armies that are ok…
• [40-41] The Court of the Archon (Simon Grant): If I understand the various commentaries on the web correctly, the opinion on the “Court of the Archon” unit is divided at best, some seem to like it, many don’t. I don’t play Dark Eldar (though I often play against them if I play), but I think this is a nice little rundown of the four possible miniatures that can be included here (plus the Archon himself). Simon Grant surely is one of the best writers the Dwarf currently has…
  And, yes, I think the Lhamaean and the Archon miniature itself might become part of my collection, even though they would serve as Dark Elves then…
• [42-61] Bloodbath at the Bubbling Pits (Simon Grant, Robin Cruddace, Jeremy Vetock): the big battle report of this month has Robin Cruddace and 2.998 points of Tomb Kings face off Jeremy Vetock and his 2.999 points of Ogres. This one is (to my opinion) the best battle report I have read in a long time, mostly as Mr. Vetock (it surely cannot be Mr. Cruddace) provided a nice background story (having one of Golgfag Maneater‘s carrying a precious artifact of the Tomb Kings in his mouth) and some pretty scenario rules for the eponymous Bubbling Pits. Of course the Ogres include all the new units and of course they win, but somehow this doesn’t feel bad… besides, the Tomb Kings were fairly effective until their Liche Priest was dismembered and the army fell to dust…
  Yes, not a bad battle report at all… one could almost imagine to start…. but, no, not even with Mr. Vetock, sorry…
• [62-65] ‘Eavy Metal: Ogre Kingdoms: no White Dwarf without a photo series of stunning paintjobs from the ‘Eavy Metal team. This time, of course, it’s all about the Ogre Kingdoms. While I enjoyed this (especially when comparing different painting concepts as employed by the various painters), I dearly missed again any hint at the precise colours or techniques used.
• [68-73] Scenery Gallery: Tormented Earth: Another photo spread, this time about various fulcri for Storm of Magic and culminating in an impressive (and expensive) gaming table filled with scenery by Chris Peach. While some of the creations are quite stunning (and cleverly painted), this is most possibly the weakest article of this month – especially as they are using only GW Scenery kits. Not intending to offend the designers in Nottingham, but I think that the best scenery pieces – while they could (and sometimes should) employ parts from the plastic kits – always use hand-made stuff… and it is a pity that the White Dwarf only rarely shows such pieces nowadays… this is one thing I really miss…
• [74-75] Battlefield Challenge: Garden of Morr (Jervis Johnson): Instead of the usual Standard Bearer, the Old Man gives us a new scenario for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, which is a good thing. The scenario itself is all about both sides (preferably Vampire Counts and Empire, though that is not mentioned explicitely) trying to occupy a Garden of Morr (or cemetery). Even though it does serve as an (probably unnecessary) advertisement for the kit, I think this is a good one, as we have everything a good scenario need: a story, some special rules and a special character (a priest of Morr) that can serve as inspiration for a conversion (or used for other scenarios, I guess). I do wish Mr. Johnson would do that more often – the Standard Bearer is always nice to read, but more often than not cheap entertainment…
• [76-81] Army-Workshop: Return of the Bleak Legion (Chad Mierzwa): somehow Mr. Mierzwa is to the White Dwarf now what Chris Peach used to be all those years ago… the main hobby guy who explains us how to wield glue, knife and brushes… here, he is mainly showing how to paint a Terrorgheist and a Cairn Wraith. Also includes the 2.660 points army-list of Mr. Mierzwas Vampire Counts. I would have wished for more painting tips instead. Tremendously enjoyed those pages, though.
• [82-93] Codex: Sisters of Battle Part 2 (Robin Cruddace): Well, with the first part of the new codex in august’s White Dwarf issue, it was clear that the second part would follow… and so here we have the new army list, wargear section and run-down table for the Adeptus Sororitas.
  I won’t go into details here, that’s what our competitive favorites over at Bell of Lost Souls are for (or you could also check out the appropriate Warseer section). All in all it’s only a new codification of rules for the existing line of miniatures – thus no new units, but the loss of several units that still were in the last (PDF) codex of the “Witchhunters”, that already removed allies and other stuff from the last printed edition. So no more inquisition or Imperial Guard, it’s just Sisters of Battle and the Ecclesiarchy now. They’ve gotten a bit more expensive here and there and of course they don’t really offer a lot of options now…
  It’s difficult to sum up my feelings for this one. Like all Sororitas players/collectors I had hoped for new units and especially plastic kits (the Sisters are the only army in Warhammer 40.00 that is almost exclusively made in pewter), but when that hope was dispersed last month, I felt sad, but not as enraged as many others on the web… and this army list (of course) only continues what already was in there last month, so my feelings haven’t changed much. I think I can cope with the higher costs of basic Sisters (I mean, have you seen the prices on the website for those pewters? The less you have to buy, the better, I guess) and I can cope with the lesser effectiveness of the Immolator and the Penitent Engine. I think the new faith system is less imaginative now, but easier to employ, so that’s an improvement. For the future, I think it is a good thing that the Imperial Guard and the Inquisition were dropped in favour of the Ecclesiarchy – that might provide a fine base for some great miniatures to come.
  For myself, I just have to decide how to go on with this army until that new codex comes (which may take years, think about the Blood Angels!). Probably I will continue to collect those pewters I like, but not aim at a full army… I can also see some great conversion projects coming from those units of Crusaders, Arco-Flagellants and Deathcult Assassins – but more on that a different time.
• [94-95] Forge World: Sisters of Battle: actually, this is just a huge advertisement with special attention to the Repressor and the Forge World Exorcist. I thought it interesting that they announced updated rules for the Repressor even though it did not became part of the new “mainstream” army list just some pages before. It might still well be that when the “real” Adeptus Sororitas codex will come out in a year or five, the Repressor will be part of it… this month saw no ad for Forge Worlds Warhammer Forge and the Tamurkhan book that still hasn’t been published.
• [96-103] Faith versus Instinct (Andy Hall, Robin Cruddace, Tom Hutchings): Second battle reports in a White Dwarf always have their difficulties… they are often too short, feature no real run.down of the used armies and pool various gaming rounds into one short text. Sometimes this is ok, but sometimes not. In this case we have have a game of 1.500 points, featuring Robin Cruddace and “his” newly codified Sisters of Battle battling Tyranids let by Tom Hutchings.
  I read this one with high attention as it’s the first (and so far only) time to see the new White Dwarf codex in action. Unfortunately, the write-down is so sketchy that one cannot tell much… One has to point out, though, that this might have been deliberate; the sisters win this fight, but it is a very narrow one. Without Uriah Jacobus, a well-functioning Exorcist and especially a lot of misfortune on the part of the Tyranids, the Sororitas, to my opinion, wouldn’t have stand a chance against a swarm army like the Tyranids. This would especially have been true had it been a battle for terminating the other army instead of “only” trying to get hold of mission goals.
  But then you didn’t really expect a White Dwarf codex without any new units (plus the removel of quite a number of old ones) to be effective? All in all, this could have ended up one of the highlights of the Dwarf (and in some ways it still is), but it lacks from too little space. Just compare the seven pages of this report with the 19 of the main one…
• [104-117] Directory: don’t tell me you expect that I write what to find here…. the usual bla-bla, 13 pages better used to make the 40K Battle Report a real one…
• [118] Preview: Unlike in other issues, instead of a “normal” preview for the next dwarf on the inside of the back cover, there is just this graphic, showing an undead pirate and proclaiming: “Wanted! // Count Noctilus // Whoever can give clues is asked to give notice to Captain Jago Roth of the ‘Herohammer’”. Well, I can give some clues…
• [120-121] Mail Order: advertising the Finecast recasts of the Ogre Kingdoms Maneaters.
• Back Cover: an army of Ogres attacking a barely visible High Elves army. Nice one…

And this is it for this month – see you next time!