White Dwarf changes again, but will the logo?

Recently I got the email that White Dwarf was going back to monthly.

While this won't be a discussion about White Dwarf's content or quality or publishing schedule, something that has been bugging me is the current logo. The unexciting, usually orange logo that evokes no sense of...well, anything.
It's just a logo.
A font that evokes no sense of fantasy or sci-fi. It does not have a sense of power or purpose.
Or epicness.
That last one is important, as this was a company that literally created a logo for a game called EPIC 40,000.

Epic!

A good logo should convey some sense of what the meaning of the words implies in the context of the product it is supporting. In this example we have a bold block-capital font with a strong industrial and futuristic vibe. It's colored in such a way to suggest that the words are made of metal. It's also wrapped in a black star field, which again suggests a futuristic and/or space setting, and it's framed in the metallic wings which has been a staple in the Warhammer 40,000 logo design gestalt since the inception of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader back in 1987. This logo represents and communicates what it's about and does it so strongly. The first Epic game was Adeptus Titanicus in 1989, and you can see it in the image below:

Have you ever seen a more epic logo?

As you can see, a lot the same elements remain, and get similar results. Not sure if the wings work, but yet here they are in a sort of aquila with the double heads of the 40K eagle on either side of the word 'Adeptus'. The work TITAN in itself confers a sense of epic-ness and the logo designer chose to make the letters stand tall, yet bow inwards towards the middle before bowing back out. It's a powerful design, and it stood out powerfully on the shop shelf.

White Dwarf, often during it's lifetime, was sold on news stands as a real magazine. It needed a logo that could compete, stand out, and appeal to the people it needed to appeal to (mostly teenagers  and young adults) while standing out from the various other magazines in the shop that could otherwise entice the target reader. After all, this could be someone's first exposure to the wold of Games Workshop, and a good, immediate impression must be made.

This cover kicked the crap out of the other magazines on the shelf  during the month it was on sale. 

Instead of model on the cover, how about a powerful illustration under a wicked, all-cap, heavy metal-esque logo with a bold solid color frame? Yes, the solid color frame era of White Dwarf covers was strange but they worked as an eye-catching device to pull you into the central image. For many years the chrome look was the standard with White Dwarf and it was pretty much perfect. Occasionally they would use a gold or similar style color but the font itself didn't change.

Gold logo for Draco the Inquisitor. 

In time the White Dwarf cover style evolved and the font did as well, but it remained a bold logo that evoked fantasy and 40K and suited whichever image was on the cover.

Even during the 'Fat Dwarf' era with the red sidebar.

That logo was sometime customized to fit that month's theme. For example the Catachan Imperial Guard release they the metallic filler with a camouflage one. And during the Battlefleet Gothic launch they mirrored the cover of the BFG rulebook cover (probably my favorite look), and they really should have done more like this.

Gothic coming at YOU!

By this point the logo was rarely competing with other magazines. Dungeon and Dragon are sadly gone as print magazines and White Dwarf, now weekly, only sells primarily in game shops. But still, that damned logo persists. And it does so for unimaginative reasons: "it doesn't need to compete". Admitted, I liked it at first, It reminded me of the funky font that appeared on old Frank Herbert books, but there are have been times were it detracted from the cover. This isn't the first time that the magazine had a solid color logo, back in the '80s the White Dwarf often had solid colors in the logo, but outlined with a contrasting color to help the logo pop up against the central image. This often worked, and worked well.

Orange, but used right. Also note specific game logos!

So I want to see, when September rolls around, a new logo, if not a return to the older one, but that's lazy: Games Workshop, return to what you were once great at! This is the company, again, that excelled at logo design for games. Check out these examples:

Original prototype logo. Works like a charm!

Evil, forbidden, mysterious, dangerous, and all so enticing. 

'COMBAT' actually used weapons for some of it's letters!

Sporty, fantastic, epic and brutal.

A logo using two different fonts, yet married together in a perfect story.

The recent Warhammer: Age of Sigmar logo actually works very well and even evokes some of the characters that come in the starter box. Contrast that with the 'Warhammer' logo that they are using as a branding device for their stores now, and it's just stunning! You can see that one in the first image (...ultimate WARHAMMER magazine...). It's lame. The GW of the '80s , '90s and early '00s would never would have adopted that!

So GW, don't disappoint me this time! Fix the White Dwarf logo! And fix it right!

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Got a favorite GW logo? Let us know in the comments.

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All images in this post are (C) or (TM)s of Games Workshop and are used here for review purposes only and are not intended to be a challenge of the marks. 

An example of a good battle report

Recently I wrote a scathing post about the deterioration of quality in the battle reports presented by Games Workshop, particularly in White Dwarf. It was called  The-sad-sad-state-of-battle-reports. Well today I received the recent Warlord Games newsletter which had a link to a Bolt Action battle report that I decided to check out. I have been itching for over a year now to play, or even observe, a game of BA, as I have very much enjoyed reading the rules. I had hoped, unlike the sad sad "battle reports" White Dwarf presents these days, that this would be a good and educational read.

And it was! I was very impressed with the report! Read it here: bolt-action-battle-report

"Budda budda budda." -Or any gun-firing effect onomatopoeia from a Sgt. Rock comic! 

Why was this better than a current White Dwarf battle report? 

• Clean, step-by-step presentation
• An effort was made to clearly present rules. A teaching aid if you will, but not dumbed down.
• Nice, honest photographs. Yes, they are a miniature showcase, but not presented at the expense of the report itself. In more recent WD reports, it almost feels like the flashy, over-populated photos are made first, and the "report" is written around them! This Bolt Action report didn't feel nearly as staged and I could believe that these photos were of the actual game table (sans dice of course).
• The players explained why they did what they did and remarked at the end of the report. This occasionally still happens in WD, I just found this to be more believable I guess because neither player suggested a product that they wish they had purchased in order to get a different result! 
• I didn't have to pay $4 to be disappointed! In fact, you can read this report for FREE!

The stage is set, and very well presented!

Over all, a well done presentation. Not too long, not too short. Clearly written and presented. Well done Warlord, clearly the chaps there remember how battle reports should be written. Although you guys didn't use tactical maps, this was clearly a small game and the report reads fine without them. When you guys do write a report for a bigger battle, I would suggest incorporating a few maps as this does aid the narrative of following along with the course of the battle. But a complete image of the board that explained the scenario's objectives and deployment zone was presented in this report and was well done indeed! I look forward to reading more battle reports from Warlord, especially of their other game systems (Hint, Hint: Judge Dredd and the Gates of Antarres).

Images used are copywrite Warlord Games, and are from the Warlord Games website, and are presented here for review purposes, not as a challenge to copywrite, 

The sad sad state of battle reports

Battle Reports have been a feature in White Dwarf for decades now, and with the devolved state of the feature, I lament the aspects that made them popular in the first place. The earliest Battle Reports had very little in the way of photos and mostly consisted of drawings depicting the action along with maps and diagrams. They were well laid out and served to educate the reader in the many ways that the game being presented is played. Typically, they started off with one or two writers, who were usually also the players in the game being presented, selecting their army lists and telling us why they chose what they chose for their army. These players used to be members of the GW's Game Design Team, or writers of White Dwarf, each going after the other's guy's blood in 28mm heroic scale. 

The terrain-heavy '90s...

In the beginning their photography was limited somewhat, so you got true photos of the game in action, with dice, pencils, lists, templates, etc., present,  as well as the nicer 'staged' photos presenting the best in 'eavy Metal studio miniatures, along with the scenery pieces and a painted backdrop. I guess the old studio space was limited in how they could stage the entire board in a way where they could show turn-by-turn action, so they resorted to using diagrams with a unique key to indicate specific units. All of this worked to tell the story of the game. 

Vehicle rules so awesome that model's weren't required! 

I recall the battle reports in the latter days of Warhammer 40,000's 1st edition (by this point 'Rogue Trader' had quietly been dropped), as they sort of play-tested out for us the rules that would appear in the Vehicle Manual and Battle Manual which would further evolve into Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition. By that point, the Battle Report had become a key feature of White Dwarf, not just for filler, but as the photos became more prevalent, they became an alternate model showcase as well as helping players understand the rules. These early reports were fun and exciting to read, even if they probably played the game 2-3 times until they got the game they wanted to actually write about. It didn't matter: the guys who wrote the rules and background were showing us how they played this game! I remember we would sometimes settle rule disputes (albeit minor ones) by referring to some of these battle reports. As far back as 2nd edition, battle reports were used to show us how the new releases of that month worked in the game. Even back then players were suspicious that the new Codex/Army Book tended to win that month's game... 

A tactical review? Does the current WD team grasp this idea?

As time went on, and the games evolved, obviously they needed to show us something in White Dwarf other than Night Fight again, so they started to present unique scenarios and themes for their battle reports which led to such iconic presentations as "Last Stand at Glazer's Creek", "Massacre at Big Toof River", "Massacre at Sanctuary 101" and others. They would continue to do this after 40k's 3rd edition, but they started to loosen up a bit on the diagrams with the map keys but instead began to show us the full table (or bits of it) in a turn-by-turn manner. This was definitely a bit more exciting from a visual standpoint, but the battle reports started to lose their strategic value. 

White Dwarf 226. 

There are noted exceptions, particularly WD 226, the first 40k 3rd edition issue which stands out to me because it was very specific in teaching 40K players how the new edition worked and what made it different from the previous edition. This was so well done that it could have been packaged with that edition's starter set as a 'how to play a game' guide. I would say that what was done there should still be replicated every few months (December issue?) to help introduce new players to the game and hobby.

As time went on, the Battle Reports sort of became a bit more 'ho-hum' but still made for decent reading. Indeed, sometimes the battle report felt forced, as if the guys doing them were painfully slogging through the writing of them. Corners were obviously being cut, and written content was being reduced in favor of more pictures!

"You, intern! Want to prove your worth? You get to write this month's Battle Report!" -Random WD Editor

By this point, the battle report had evolved into platform to sell the latest product more so than showing us readers how the game should be properly played. 

Then came the new White Dwarf team and their funky yellow-orange logo, and we started to get Battle Reports that focused less on strategy, or even the rules of the game, and more on pushing the new product harder than it has ever been pushed before. But then, it seems in this dawning era of Unbound army selection, the whole game is now this 'BUY IT NOW' pseudo-ad campaign. *sigh* -Honestly, this whole topic has been pounded to death on other blogs and forums, and I'm loathe to bring that discussion here, but one can't discuss the current condition of the Battle Report concept without honestly pointing out what it has blatantly turned into. 

In 2014 the battle report is more pictures. Granted they're nice, high quality, over-scaled, super-staged, and presented at a size made more to fill page space than any other reason I can invent. With the tastiest reading usually reduced to a stupidly small font in a box or a sidebar. Regardless, you might get a write-up by a player telling us why they selected a given unit or model for their army ("..because it's new!"), a few game high-lights, and, that's it. Nothing to be excited about. No unique background or character, only the vaguest of themes. These games rarely stick to such concepts as a Force Organization Chart or "points" and they tended to have wonky objectives, goals or conditions that you just won't see your fellow gamers agreeing to in local pickup games. Now, in hindsight, and dare I say in their defense, I think this is because they were already play-testing the 7th edition and were attempting to warm the WD reader base to the concept (albeit loosely). Which from what I saw in various places around the 'net at the time it had the reverse effect ("The White Dwarf writers can't even be bothered to play a proper game!"). What did it for me was Warhammer Visions #1. This presented the worst idea for a "battle report" that I have yet to see, and it convinced me to never pick up another issue of that pointless publication (a rant for another time?).

My point to this whole post?  I miss the old Battle Reports. The style, the presentation, the care and the fun: all elements that made the battle report an essential read every month. And I see no reason why we can't have them back and still include the current amount of pics that show off all of the new models if that's what is required by the share holders or whatever, but damn it, I want to read a report, not scraps of one hidden in the captions and sidebars of the current pic-fest.  

My painting of a Squat...um, short viking guy with gun... 

Look, I understand how time-consuming these things can be to create. Before this blog, ok waaaay before this blog, back in the '90s a friend and I were working to put together our own 40K Fanzine and were going to feature battle reports. Looking back on it, we were fairly low tech to say the least, but what we did was design a grid, and we would draw out the map each round in an effort to mimic the diagrams that White Dwarf used at the time. We really wanted to push the games more complicated rules, wargear combos, etc, as well as show off other elements that were our own creations that we would present in the articles (Death Worlds as armies, Rattling PDFs, Squats, Pygmy Blood Bowl Teams, Etc.). So, I would take my notes and drawings, and write up a battle report, as well as a fictional story to go along with it, and since I didn't have a camera, I would draw the action in spot illustrations and paintings. These are far more involved than anything I have done for this blog and they took hours to complete. We never published a single issue of the fanzine, but I at least got to respect what it takes to write up one of these battle reports. 

It's sad when the battle reports I do for this blog (and they're really more like highlights commenting on what I recall vs. reading from detailed notes or making a comment on a pic I snapped, than my idea of true BR but still...) are more content-filled and readable than the stuff in the current GW periodicals. Sad indeed. 

All images taken from the web by people who stole the images from White Dwarf which is owned by Games Workshop. I do not challenge their ownership of these images, and use them here for review purposes only.

The painting of the Viking Guy with a Gun is mine however. 

White Dwarf vs. Data Slates

It has been a long time since I ranted/raved/bitched/bemoaned/celebrated, etc. White Dwarf magazine, the monthly full color fix that I have craved since 1989. Because I was kind of at peace with it. In my last discussion on this subject, White Dwarf now, I celebrated the change over from the previous incarnation that I believe I can be quoted as labeling it's design as "sterile" with it's over-abundance of white covers and white space throughout the magazine. Since the new format started, with it's semi-glossy covers and funky orange logo, it has focused a lot more on dynamic photos and really showing off the new releases. Yes, it's a catalog in that sense, but it's done well and I get a very good sense of what I can do with a given kit and I get a good sense of what the included components are. This is a vast jump from the early days when we were sometimes lucky to even get a list of the new releases!  Often it was an in-house ad or the catalog pages at the end of the issue that we relied on to figure out what was new. And there wasn't a web site back then. 

But what the older White Dwarfs had, that I have been ranting about since I started this blog, was the need for worthy content and a reduction of the disposable nature of the magazine, especially at the current price levels (see changes-coming-for-white-dwarf.). The new format was a welcome, however I welcomed it not as a final solution to my White Dwarf wants and needs, but a massive step towards them. After a while, I started to grow bored with this 'new' format. The format seems locked, and rarely changes much. There is NO game usable content, and hardly any new background material. Ironically, that was something the previous editorial team was actually making strides at improving (the flyers expansion for example) right up to it's end.

Fast forward to December 2013 and we are now seeing this much needed content becoming readily available from our friends (yes, they are quite friendly, and thank you!) at GamesWorkshopDigitalEditions, granted for a price. But let's look at this material, the 'data-slates' in particular included with this month's Advent Calendar event: (12/18/2013: The History of Captain Sicarius of the Ultramarines; 12/17/2013: Carnage: a 4-player scenario for Warhammer 40,000; etc.) This is the kind of thing that used to be in White Dwarf! Expanded background, additional rules for older models, unique scenarios, rules on conducting campaigns, etc. So much so that I scratch my head and wonder what the function of White Dwarf truly is at this point other than a massive new release ad campaign that the consumer pays for the privilege of consuming! Genius marketing tactic if this truly is the case!

The content that GWDE is selling outshines a lot of the page-filing drivel that is in the current White Dwarf. Jervis' column is just so...ugh... I don't even try to read it anymore. It's like advice about the simplest of game concepts that only game designers or marketing people think of when they're stuck in a porta-toliet at an event that they don't want to be at, and they end up day-dreaming about fair play and sportsmanship among the geriatric contestants on bingo night at the village hall is the only respite from the misery they're in. Only that he chose to write about it. And an editor chose to publish it. Vetock's column isn't much better. only that I rarely see a point to it whereas Jervis has a point with each article, it's just an irrelevant point. Sorry gents, it's just how the last year's worth of columns have felt to me. Jervis had some great columns back in the '90s edition of Citadel Journal. I fondly recall an experimental article regarding how vehicles worked in Warhammer 40,000 that was very interesting to read. I didn't care for the experimental rules at the time, but appreciated the sharing of the material and his request for input at the time.

And the battlereports... the battlereports have been.... sort of lame really. I like to see pics of a real game in play, but I really used to get a kick out of the staged photos presenting the newest army going up against an established army, if anything just to see the lavish boards and new models from different angles. The current BRs just don't feel very exciting, and I get really annoyed when they don't play with point-balanced armies, but instead just wing it. ("we just wanted to show off everything we had painted"). Battle-reports should be used to show us rule changes, to show us examples of game play especially regarding the more advanced and challenging aspects of the rules, and most importantly, to show new players how to play! Preferably without dumbing it down.

Why couldn't this have been an article in White Dwarf?! 

What I do like still about the 'new' format: The photography remains top-notch! The new product pages, although taking up a lot of pages, are very nicely done still. Blanchitsu is still awesome, the paint guides in the back are nicely done, Armies on Parade is still a thrill to look through, Kit-Bash remains interesting and the Hall of Fame is always a nice read.

Most of the preceding I would reduce for: A short story/comic (Don't tell me BL isn't sitting on a ton of material that WD couldn't exploit! I should be careful what I wish for, or else they might decide to bring back Obvious Tactics from Inferno!), gaming content (it you still want to sell it separately well I'm sure there will always be a specific audience for it vs. people who read White Dwarf anyway), well written articles about select armies and ranges that coincide with the newest releases (White Dwarf used to excel at this, and sometimes it still shines. The Codex Space Marines release had some good articles about the evolution of Space Marine army and designer thoughts on the creation of the Centurians),  FAQs, (cause why not?), background material on Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000 and anything else to justify the price tag.


Thanks for reading this rant, and feel free to contribute your thoughts in the comments section.

(All images from this post were taken from www.Games-Workshop.com or https://www.facebook.com/GamesWorkshopDigitalEditions without permission and are presented here for review purposes only and not as a challenge to copyright or ownership)

White Dwarf now

If you've been following my blog for a while you might have seen me rant about White Dwarf Magazine, but in a nostalgic 'yearning for the days of old' kind of way. You might've also seen me offer up some creative criticism as well, with hopes for a new direction for the old dwarf.

Since I wrote those articles, I got a fraction of what I had hoped for. Mainly a boost in usable content. New releases with rules support in White Dwarf, although inconsistent, was enough to make me feel a little bit better about it. In recent months they really wowed me with the Daemon booklet which was a double-sided rule addition for both army books for both Warhammer Fantasy and 40K. Short, but nicely done! Also we had that great flyer's issue which was just a tasty bit of fresh 40K goodness. Sadly there was a downside. It seemed that more good articles we got, we got 3Xs more photos to over compensate that content. In fact, there were some issues that were so focused on a particular release that the photo-spread abuse was just so blatantly over-whelming that it was clear that the magazine had more pages to fill then they had readable content to fill it with. The Dark Vengeance release issue was a clear example of this. Yes, it was cool to see these pretty pics of the flashy new miniatures, but you know, that glitter and glam wheres off, especially after I go out and buy whatever it is that's being show-cased.

OK, so as you see, I was somewhat, OK with White Dwarf, but still having some degree of disappointment with it. Usually every issue or two I felt 'meh' about it.

Then there was last month (Oct. 2012):

Bold new direction! In every aspect! Even the paper is different! The logo is different (reminds me of the logos that Paizo came up with for Dragon and Dungeon it those publication's final days) Only Blachitsu and Jervis Johnson's features remained.

The presentation of new releases, although a major feature of the magazine still was done in such a way that it feels oddly helpful and informative. It didn't feel like I was being talked down too by an editor who can't believe he's writing for a kid's magazine, but rather that the new team are fellow hobbyists who are 'coming from the same place' as us. Sure, they're still pitchmen of new product, duh, but they're pitching it right.

You can't talk about the new White Dwarf without saying something about the amazing photo-work within. Not that this magazine ever slacked on good photos, but the new team truly upped the ante on the presentation here. Never has this magazine looked, felt, or even smelt this professional.

Content? Well, no new rules were presented, but I didn't mind considering I felt like I was actually provided some true reading content this time around: I had something to read as opposed to a re-reading of the previous ad-copy on the new release pages, which many of the past few years WDs were guilty of committing. No, I felt really engaged with the articles. Feels to me that it has to do with the spin on the presentation. Another added source of content is that finally White Dwarf is show-casing Forge World and Black Library product with more than just a 3-4 page spread, but presenting actual featured articles! Still not to the point where we're getting a story (seriously, give us this! This magazine now costs more than a paper-back, surely you guys can spare something from Hammer & Bolter each month?)

I could rave on and on, However, I just want instead to talk about how I feel that this is a good progressive step in the right direction. Instead of throwing in the towel on this old institutionalized concept of a hard-copy magazine, like WotC chose to do (and, far as I can tell, fail) with Dragon and Dungeon, they revised it to make it worth it's price tag. Hell, they even had the balls to raise it an additional $1 and I still don't care! LOL! But I'm straying; the point is, they could've dumped this, and just gone to relying 100% on the web-site and mailing list. Instead, they made the printed product better and, in doing so, made the digital product. The people I know who are getting the White Dwarf digitally on the iPad have really been pleased with it! One added bonus that I am envious of is that they get it instantly as opposed to waiting impatiently for it to show up in their mailbox like I do each month. That could be a blog article itself actually, but again I'm straying: to sum up:  I'm thankful for all of this actually. The new team has done a fantastic job and I look forward to reading the Nov. 2012 issue (which I saw, not in my mailbox, but in the local Hobbytown USA today... grumble...)

I am also thankful that maybe, once again, we'll see White Dwarf used as a tool to attract new players/hobbyists. Case in point: I was quite pleased to see the Oct. 2012 issue on display with the hobby magazines in my local Barnes & Noble bookstore the other day. I haven't seen that happen in years!

Happy New Year from Necromunda! And another White Dwarf Rant

Here we are in 2012! Hey, only 1,000 years from 2112! ROCK!!!! Anyway, I spent New Years Eve with my old pal, the anonymous "Dr." and we played a 2nd game of Necromunda, the 1st one having been played around the 4th-of-july last year. Strangely enough, neither of us have ever painted our Necromunda models. The models seen in these pics he acquired in a trade from the old friend that he named his gang after. Above is Scottie and Mr. Hiser. He named his gang after friends and people we knew in High School, I named my gang after people in his current gaming circle. All in fun, and also in a 'wish you were here' spirit as well.

The scenario was the one where the two gangs have to collect loot counters. It was a pretty awesome set up, and although I got in the 1st shots, it was those two models in the top pic that won the game! See these two red shirts in the foreground? See those two on the bridge in the background? My Juv (the one on the right) shot and pinned his Gang Leader, who, in the next turn, got up and downed the Juv! While his juv, Scottie, downed the ganger with the shot gun! And, to make matters worse, I failed the 1st bottle test either of us had to make!

This left him with the field held as my gang bolted from the scene. He was already holding onto 2 loot counters to my... none. He racked in the dough in the post-game for sure! Oddly, most of my gangers received skill advances in the post game. The next game should be interesting as a result.

Good fun, but it really does make me want to get my own Van Sar gang more than ever so we can both have fully painted gangs for these encounters.

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A New Year's Resolution? Since every other gaming blog has at least one, why not? How about I resolve to get as many unfinished minis that are currently on my painting station done in 2012?

Heck, this alone could be a blog: just talking about the minis living out their existance on my table! Have fun picking out what they all are! And, before someone asks, this pic does not include the previously blogged about Land Raider and Drop Pods (but look closely and you might spot the Land Speeder Typhoon!) because there is is simply no room for them here! :)

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And on to a brief 'What is going on with White Dwarf!?' sorta rant. The above image was taken from the GW website where you can also find this statement: "January's White Dwarf will be released on Saturday, January 7th. Subscriptions should be expected within 10 days from that date."

This makes for the 1st time in my memory that I didn't have a shiny new White Dwarf to drool into around, or at, xmas! This is also the 2nd time in recent months that they played with White Dwarf's release schedule to accommodate an element of (what they think will be) surprise about a new release (they did this with the Dreadfleet launch also). Now, the content of WD, which followers of this blog have seen me rant about before, has improved. However there is a new problem:

I haven't received my subscription in the mail for 2 months in a row! In fact, I have had to make arrangements with Customer Service (who I have to state have been, and always have been, marvelous to work with) to receive my last two issues (way late I might add) which makes this whole jerky-rescheduling of the release date game they're playing even more annoying! I might not get the next issue until the 21st! Now, I'm like the only person I know who actually subscribes to this magazine any more (the others left when the content did), and this is somewhat begrudgingly considering they don't offer any real deals with it anymore. I think you get the approximation of a 'free issue' and the option to BUY a Limited edition model! Rewind this back to the '90s when you'd get a free small boxed set or, hell, at one point they were giving away Gorka Morka boxed sets! And it was significantly cheaper than buying it from the local game stores.

So, as a subscriber, I'm feeling a bit jaded. I'm thinking I will not re-subscribe but rather I will get it locally. This will allow me to get it before subscribers do (which isn't supposed to be the case BTW), but it won't be mangled by the post office, and if I really want the limited edition model, I can just get the near perfect knock-off from China after awhile... :/

An update, plus some Terminator basing.

First update: Concerning White Dwarf, GW announced on their website the other day the changes to the release schedule and when subscribers should expect their copies to arrive. And, true to their word, I walk down to the mailbox and pull out the latest issue! Which, although focused on the new Storm of Magic expansion for WHRB, did have some interesting changes: 1. Zero LOTR content! No, really! 2. Usable content in the way of City Fight stratagems and some fairly inspiring articles revolving around the Cities of Death Codex. Although not a 'return to form' I was pleased with this issue.

The picture below is a collection of old terminator marines that I decided to glue to the bigger style bases in preparation for a game I played to today with Warfrog. Ultimately I will use green-stuff to smooth out the base. I've found that gluing the original base to the bigger base, not only makes the model a tad taller, and more in line with the current size of the terminators, but also provides some cool opportunities with modeling.

These models are all fairly old. The oldest being the models from the '89 range of terminators. The 2nd edition terminators tended to to be a bit more robust, and the finally the 2nd edition Space Hulk plastic terminators (pictured up front). But none of these guys freak out the kids at the local game-store quite like these guys:

These are the original Space Hulk terminators! LOL! I love 'em! So clunky, yet so much character. These miniatures were painted just before I truly came to grips with how I wanted their paint scheme to work for me, so they tend to be a bit muddy looking. Also, back then I never primed miniatures. I'm not sure why, I just didn't. For the most part, this worked out OK, but on these models, which were molded in a dark blue plastic, it really made a difference with the paint scheme. I intend to have all my terminators painted up to the standard that this Rune Priest Terminator (below) has been painted too, hopefully sooner than later:

Ha-ha,...damn, I just realized I'll have to fix his base too!
By the way, all the terminators above died at the hands of Warfrog's Eldar (accept for the the 2 that ran...I mean 'withdrew'... from the battle). We took pictures of the event which I think Warfrog plans on posting on his blog http://warfrog.blogspot.com/ so keep an eye out for that. Also, I got to see the roll-up 'rubber' battle mat that he recently reviewed; very cool products! If time, and my burning stomach ache, hadn't been against us we were hoping to paint it this evening.

Here was the army I used, lined up for pre-deployment.

The land raider crusader hasn't progressed much since the last write-up mainly due to some extra bits I've decided to order for it that I haven't managed to find yet at a price I can accept. (Why people will pay more money for a single piece off of a sprue than buying the entire sprue from GW directly is just a mystery I can't seem to solve). However I have made some progress on the landspeeder that appears in that series of articles, and I will be posting an update on that soon. That's all for updates that I have for now,
take care!
-Joel

Changes coming to White Dwarf (Part 2-What I would change)

If you read my last post, you might understand my current dissatisfaction level with the current format of White Dwarf and my love of 'formats past'. So, here are some content items or features I would adopt (in no particular order):

1. Background content. Articles like the Index Astartes articles were brilliant (and even included customization rules which were nice).
2. Fiction. One of the elements that kept some readers continuing to buy Dragon magazine for so many years was the short story you got with each issue. With the cessation of Inferno! magazine, White Dwarf should've picked up on this. In fact, now that I think about it, it would've been nice to have seen more Inferno! elements adopted by the Dwarf (comic features, diagrams, etc.)
3. Paint articles. The current painting articles aren't bad, indeed, I think they're quite good for introduction articles, but old 'eavy Metal / Blanchitso articles were extremely helpful and not afraid to speak to new gamers in such a way to encourage them to become experts.
4. Fanatic. Whatever became of that imprint? Anyway, it would be nice to have at least a few pages each month with some Specialist Games scraps.
5. Experimental/playtest content. Pre-releasing lists for greater trial and error and player feedback would be nice. We could perhaps nerf some cheese combos before particular books are published. It'll be interesting to see just how the upcoming Sisters of Battle list will be presented (hopefully not as disappointing as the WD Blood Angel list a few years back, granted the codex they got was arguably loaded with compensation for the BA players out there...)
6. FAQs. Seriously, why can't these be in WD? "We don't want people showing up to tourneys with a stack of White Dwarfs!" Fine, put them online after you publish them in White Dwarf. This was a valuable asset for WD, and used to be the first few pages we turned too went back when WD had this feature.
7. Chapter Approved. Granted, the #5 & 6 probably covers this, but the feature was often always different, and well worth the read. There was a WHFB version, but I don't recall it being around that long.

That's all that comes to mind at the moment, but I think I could definitely fix the 'content' issue the magazine has now if I could only get 1/3 of my wish. Big flashy pictures are great, and they still need to be in there, but not at the expense of reading material. Which makes the experience of reading through a White Dwarf seem so 'huh' right now. If this means they even go back to sneak-peak content from upcoming releases, hey, it's better than nothing.

So what would you include?

Changes coming for White Dwarf?

So according to a rumor picked up by BOLs from a release in Germany changes are finally coming to White Dwarf. You can read that stuff here (and watch as the conversation descends into rants about finecast etc.): http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?t=15873

And I'm talking about this on my hobby blog because...?
Ah, well, if it wasn't for White Dwarf Magazine I can say with honestly I would not be in this hobby. When I was introduced to Warhammer 40,000 it was during it's 1st edition, before Kirby, before the corporatization. At this point, late '88 early '89, White Dwarf played a vital support role for all of it's games. It was prior to this point a general hobby magazine, with RPG reviews and support. It even had a book review section (Critical Mass) by a great reviewer that rated Sci-Fi and Fantasy genre books that they thought would appeal to gamers (in fact, for the sake of trivia, the last Critical Mass reviewed a book by David Zindell titled 'Neverness'- read it if you can find it!). And let's not forget Thrud! But, even at this point, GW was concentrating on their games and support for them. And we were NOT complaining! Back then we were living in the growth and evolution of 40K. The game was truly young, and each month the 40K universe grew a little with each White Dwarf. Tony Cottrel's amazing conversion kits for the modeler who wanted more variety out of their Rhino and Landraider kits (in the case of the Spartan, a hybrid of each!) or instructions for scrap building Ork tanks and in one issue a Baneblade were just amazing. These issues of White Dwarf introduced a wealth of background material that continued to evolve the game and the game's iconic back-story. Hive Worlds were explored in great depth with the experimental rules for Confrontation (this later became a stream-lined, less RPG-oriented product known as Necromunda). This was an exciting time to be following this hobby for sure, and I was hooked.

Even back then White Dwarf had sections (literal pages) straight out of new releases, as sort of a teaser sample. Pages from Realm of Chaos, Waaagh The Orks, Freebooters, etc. And still they premiered unique lists (The Eldar) and experimental rules (the rules that would become the Vehicle Manual and the Battle Manual). This show-case of pages out of new releases continued really strong with the launch of 2nd edition, with pages pulled straight our of rulebooks and codex releases forming the foundation of each issue, end-capped by a battle-report, which had become quite popular by this point. Unique rules exclusive to WD started to lesson, but it still existed. Although background material certainly began to decline.

With a change of editors (Robin Dews for Jake Thorton) saw the introduction to the FAT Dwarf! White Dwarf magazine ballooned in size and practically dripped with content. I would say that this period was certainly White Dwarf's most appealing era. The Battle reports were even more exciting, the content was unique and useful, the painting and scenery article remained useful as well, even the collecting articles were pleasant to read (usually). Back then both 40k and WHFB games (and even the specialist games) used a lot of card stock for templates, spell cards, psychic cards, vehicle cards, wargear, treasure, etc., and the Fat White Dwarf was providing pre-perforated card stock components for these games. White Dwarf may have been calling itself a catalogue at this point, but you HAD to have it to play these games! Also during this time, another reason to have it was the FAQ support.

I think the generosity of this product began to be cost prohibitive, and the 'Dwarf shrunk back down in size by the time 40K 3rd edition was launched. However we still saw a lot content, and even experimental rules (BFG, Mordheim, the retro editioned Necron rules (I interviewed Rick Priestly at Games Day '99 where he told us that the Necrons were created for 3rd edition, and that it was a real challenge to retro-fit them back into 2nd edition for those articles, but I digress). During the 3rd edition period White Dwarf continued to evolve, but continued to be useful. The 3rd edtion FAQs (now Chapter Approved articles, which made the old vets like me swoon with pride!) continued to be vital. Just ask anyone who messed around with the VDR and you'll hear some fun stories! Eventually White Dwarf was used as a support vehicle for GW's LotR line, and it was harshly divided into three sections. Lord of the Rinds, Warhammer, and Warhammer 40,000. Specialist game support disappeared entirely, but these games had their own support magazines (which were quite nice! I loved Town Cryer for Mordheim the most!). Lots of painting and hobby articles usually with content unique to the content that it was now being printed on (GW US, GW Australia, etc) with some of it unique to that country.

GW reeled all this in right around 4th edition (2004) and to be quite honest, White Dwarf has remained a sort of sterile entity ever since. The new releases are very much heavily featured (the sprue break-downs are nice to reference) but there is little in the way of tangible content. In 2011, not much has changed. White Dwarf doesn't even pull pages from new releases any more! It's even unfair to call it a catalog, since even they don't put prices anymore (probably due to it being published in pretty much one country and circulated throughout the English-speaking world, but this is just my guess). The writers comments on new product are OK to read, and the occasional tasty rules article comes out, but for the most part, I just look at the pretty pictures before nodding off to sleep at night. White Dwarf is no longer vital.

I hope I illustrated why people tend to complain about the current state of White Dwarf: it's because the older issues truly had content and at one point you had to have White Dwarf. And those of us who remember it, miss that. I cling to it more out of hope that it will improve, but I still enjoy it. But I don't thirst for it like I did just a few years ago.

This went on longer than I thought, so next time I will plot out what White Dwarf would be like if I could control it. it's a fantasy, sure, but if my hopes and these 'changes' are anywhere close to similar, than I'll be a happy guy!

-Joel