Review Reminder: All White Dwarf reviews will only focus on Warhammer 40k content. Keep that in mind while you read.
Here is Blood of Kittens first White Dwarf review. I hope to review every issue until the inevitable cancellation of this publication. Each review will only focus on Warhammer 40k content presented, because who really cares about the Hobbit?
The reviews will try to stay objective; as we all know every Games Workshop player has a passionate opinion when it comes to White Dwarf. I fall right down the middle, sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad. Nostalgia freaks or GW sycophants each have serious issues when it comes to WD, so these reviews will attempt to stay clear of both camps.
Now, with that out-of-the-way let us move on to the actual review. If you have been living under a rock for the last few weeks or in a holiday food coma you should look up for the impending Tyranid Invasion! First, before we devour some biomass there is a WD staff change of note.
The WD staff is now down one guy and up another woman! This change doesn't have anything do with gender equality, but with sight impaired bias! As Andrew Kenrick was the only WD member with glasses he has decided to leave WD and join the small game design house Cubicle7. I guess being Jes Bickham's pallbearer finally took its toll. If folks remember Andrew was the chief editor of the magazine just a year ago, before Jes was brought in to clean the place up. Andrew is replaced by Rebecca Ferguson, now Production Lead having been promoted internally.
So, what about those pretty new Tyranids? The WD goes for the throat first with the Harpy/Hive Crone kit. This is one giant modelthat looks amazing, with the Hive Crone personally being more esthetically pleasing. My favorite detail is the "tentaclids" hiding underneath the Hive Crone's wings.
"Perhaps the most unusual aspects of the Hive Crone are the four tentaclids that nestle beneath its wings, living missiles spawned to seek and destroy enemy aircraft."
The next big kit is the Haruspex/Exocrine. The Haruspex has and oh so familiar look...I just cannot place it...if only I played other game systems...
Obviously, someone at GW is tapping into the Henti market with these sculpts. Tentacle maws aside, the Exorine is probability going to see more playing time on the board with its massive cannon and grinning head.
"As rank upon rank of Tyranid beasts storm forward, the Exorine unleashes deadly volleys of plasma fire into the distant enemy"
Next is the redesigned Hive Guard/Tyrant Guard. It is interesting to see an sculpt thrown to the wind so fast as the old the Hive Guard. The lure of combining kits must have been too cost effective to avoid. The one turkey for the new Tyranid release has to be the Tyrant Guard, these ugly models have so many things wrong with them. As the sculptor will explain later, intentions were well placed, but the execution is a bit lacking. The oversize shoulder pads are Dynasty bad and stubby arms only make things worse.
Tyrant Warriors are next up with a retooled kit, including lash whips and boneswords. There is still no wings included, which makes you wonder if flying warriors are gone? The biggest bonus with this improved kit are the extra parts to create Tyranid Primes, sadly the differences don't look too much different from a normal warrior. This is one of things were you having the model in your hands is a better judge.
Then the sneak peek of the Tyranid codex, with a focus on the super sick art inside.
"This new piece of art by Paul Dainton shows the Orks overwhelmed by Tyranids"
The over saturation of adjectives needed to describe how amazing this new Codex can be a bit tiresome, but using the images makes a compelling case for the desperate peril the galaxy is in. There is the obligatory Limited edition promo, which still doesn't sell the product. The preview of the Tyranid digital products look intriguing, as two new Dataslates will be coming for everyone to whine about.
The next section of the WD is the Black Library releases which has a few questions for Gav Thorpe's Eldar Omnibus. Gav makes the most out of trite questions, giving answers good enough to forcing one to consider picking up the book. We get more Horus Heresy audio and novels. with Chris Wraight throwing the White Scars a bone with a novella. Forge World displays their latest (Fire Raptor Gunship) offerings, which were introduced a month ago.
Finally, we move past the overtly advert portion of the magazine to Christian Byrne's Army of the Month showcase. Christian's "Angels of Death" is an ode to the old, old Blood Angels/Dark Angels single codex. The army is really impeccable if not bland, he doesn't use many conversions, but relies on color to unify the chapters.
"The colour scheme I have used on my Dark Angels is intended to enable them to integrate seamlessly with my Blood Angels. That way, no matter which units are near each other they look right together. So, my Dark Angels have reds trim and robes, so they can fight shoulder to should with the Blood Angels," Christian says.
Jervis Johnson's article is a nostalgia romp back to the good old days of massive random item tables! Jervis admits to how silly most those massive tables were, but in the right setting can bring fun and depth to a campaign or narrative setting. The best part is him providing a few tables he used in a campaign recently.
Now on to the worst part of this issue the Battle Report. This slapdash job of a Batrep is the worse I have seen from the current WD era. It does everything wrong; a blatant stab in the dark, trying to get kids buying large kits. A game of monster mash where Forge Org is thrown out the door, including points totals. Basically the game is 6 Riptides vs. big bugs. The battle board is terrible with no LoS blocking terrain and the mission has something to do with objectives spawning more big bugs and Tau trying to kill Tyranid HQ units. The most appalling, though is the unfinished army of one of the Tau players.
It gets better, because you can tell, after the first turn the Tyranids were going to get tabled, so instead of letting that bad narrative play out, the Tau players thought assaulting Riptides would even things out! The game mercifully ended in a Draw. Of course, coming down to one die roll, with pictures to prove it...believable...right. You don't get any feeling for how the new bugs play, nor really any idea what is going on, leaving you with one of the saddest spectacles in WD history.
After that bad taste, it is time to move on to the Citadel Hall of Fame where Juan Diaz's Techmarine is honored. Steve Whitehead from Forge World dissects the model and Neil Green talks about the challenges with painting it. Blanchitsu has John Blanche showcasing more Inquisitor models from a companion spirit John Egerkrans. John has a slightly cleaner look than John, but still truly beautiful models. My favorite part is John personal insight into his own artistic style of "northern European", dirty, gritty, and muted" -- much like Rembrandt and artists of that ilk.
We move on to Parade Ground where we glimpse Armies on Parade entries from Games Day: Memphis. The highlight here, is seeing Dave Taylors's Adeptus Mechanicus with his giant scratch build arch over the amazing army he is famous for. Another favorite is Yancy Walden's Chaos Space Marines and his super metal Heldrakes and Land Raiders.
Paint Splatter is all about Tyranids, as GW patented painting recipes are in full effect. The only interesting part of this section is batch painting tips for mass bug production, always handy for anyone moving from low to high model count armies. Then we get to Chuckles, I mean Jeremy Vetock and his typical ra-ra article. This time he goes into how collecting and spending your money on GW will make you happier and live longer, but only if you can survive the strange looks some people will give you when they gaze into your miniature lairs.
We then have an actual compelling advertisement for making pilgrimage to Warhammer World in England, followed by what the WD staff we could care less about are working on. The Design Studio (favorite section) has Mark Harrison and Matt Holland talk about designing the new Tyranid models. Their is really some great insights here, as they both talk about expanding and building on the various evolutionary forms of Tyranids. They explain how each Tyranid is related to one another and how "biology" plays into the design.
It all comes together with an illustration of Tyranid model scale, from the small Ripper to the massive Tyrannofex.
This leads us to Robin Cruddace author of the new Tyranid book telling us absolutely nothing new about Tyranids. At least, we get more amazing pictures of what we can find inside the book.
Inside the Forge World studio, we get a look at the Legion Sicaran Venator Tank and its massive Neutron Laser barrel, along with Mechanicum Myrmidons, making us all wonder when will GW get to making a full Mechanicus army.
The final section is Black Library interviewing my favorite illustrator Raymond Swanland, artist for all the 6th edition codexes covers. Turns out Raymond is a tried and true Warhammer fanboi, having grown up playing Ultramarines, still the questions are pretty pedestrian, and would have rather read insights into the Warhammer art design process.
Parting Shot...
Overall, this White Dwarf is held back by a piss poor battle report and Vetock useless insights. The highlights are the new Tyranids, of course, but Blanchitsu and The Design Studio sections are real standouts. This issue isn't a must buy, but you will find a hefty amount of content that isn't just regurgitated by the GW website this time around.