Tuesday, August 28, 2012

White Dwarf Review - September 2012

Tale of Painters is one of the best Warhammer hobby blogs on the Internet.  They just published a review of the September 2012 White Dwarf, which features Dark Vengence.  So I reprint it here and hope you will check out their blog.


The Good Stuff:

A gallery of Duncan Rhode's and Chris Peach's Vampire Counts and Brets and a gallery of alternate paint schemes for the Chaos Dark Vengeance models.

What's In There For Painters and Modellers?
An 'Eavy Metal showcase of the Dark Vengeance models; a showcase of some painted 40k terrain (same paintjobs as a couple of years before); a showcase of some alternate Chaos Dark Vengeance paintjobs; a Space Marine modelling workshop (almost all of the models are from armies shown numerous times before); a Space Wolves Armies on Parade entry; Hall of Heroes with the Slann Mage Priest; Golden Demon gallery with some Daemons; a Forge World Red Scorpions showcase; a gallery of a Vampire Counts and Brets army.


About this issue:
When you read the list above, you must think this issue is packed with hobby stuff. Well, wrong. Most of the above articles are either too short or full of recyled material or both. For example, the Space Marine modelling workshop is full of models shown many times before, as is the terrain showcase. A real bummer was the army showcase with two awesomely painted and converted Vampire Counts and Brets armies - only 6 pages of only full-spread pictures with almost zero text. No talk about where the inspiration came from, no painting tips, just pictures. In fact, there isn't a single tutorial in this issue.


On the Dark Vengeance coverage, as expected, pictures of the box contents are repeated all over the issue. On page 6 and 7 are the Dark Angels, 8 and 9 has the Chaos models, page 22 and 23 has both armies in a single picture for a change, page 25 Dark Angels in a full page picture, 26 the same for Chaos, page 32 and 33 has the Dark Angels models again (this time with a little fluff), page 34 and 35 is the same for the Chaos models, and then there comes four pages of an 'Eavy Metal showcase with the same paintjobs again... Finally there is an 26 pages long playthrough through all of Dark Vengeance missions, again played with the same Dark Vengeance models like before... I mean the models are breathtaking, but this is even sillier than the Storm of Magic Chimera that was featured in over 40 pictures in a single magazine.


The Verdict:
The blandness and uninspiring articles in White Dwarf continue.. oh isn't this the same sentence I started the last month's verdict with? The whole purpose of this month's issue is to shove Dark Vengeance down your throat, the rest of the magazine is pretty uninspired as usually. The article I enjoyed most was the Vampire Counts army, sadly it got so little space. If they would have cut down the lengthy Dark Vengeance coverage there would have been definately more room for the more interesting bits.

Also I was disappointed that there were no free models coming with this issue like with Assault on Black Reach back in the days (but after Island of Blood not really surprising). So, only a 3/10 from me. Please GW, give WD more staff capacities or a new editor, I really don't like where the magazine is heading.


So make sure you check out Tale of Painters!

Loken

2 comments:

  1. I wholeheartedly agree with your assesment. My problem is that i have the illogical drive to keep my 18 year collection complete and thus still buy the drivvel WD has long since become.

    I was reagerly awaiting this release if only for the small rulebook. But then the models are so gorgeous (especially the CSM, a real improvement over past iterations) i even considered keeping the models. But now ive seen them in such detail so often im already over them so to speak. Now i also discovered a high quality pdf of the BYB i am keeping my money in my pocket for other miniatures. Eventhough the boxed set is great value... oh no here i go again.

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  2. The painting articles have been awesome in the past few issues (unfortunatley absent in this edition). The articles don't appear to be focused on gamers. They have become entirely too polished and lack the familiarity of a gamer to gamer enthusiastic conversation. The articles feel more like they are trying to convince you (or sell you) the idea of wargaming

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