The December 2013 White Dwarf – A Review

I stared 2013 with a White Dwarf, so I thought I end it with a Dwarf too. For better or worse, blogging made me a semi-regular reader of the White Dwarf (and other Hobby Magazines).

That said, I found the “Christmas” White Dwarf to be… well… a bit lacking.

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#1 – New Hobbit Releases

I had a little rant about the lack of Smaug yesterday. I was really hoping to see a nice Dragon. That said, the new Mirkwood Rangers are fantastic. I don’t play the Hobbit… but I like those Elves.

As always, roughly the first half of the White Dwarf is dedicated to showcasing the new releases, starting with the Hobbit Miniature and followed by the various Warhammer (Sigmar’s Blood), Warhammer 40K (Escalation, Stronghold Assault), Black Library, Forge World, Digital, etc…

Unfortunately, the “Hobbit content” pretty much stops right there (a few Pain Splatter paint-tips aside). There is no Hobbit battle report, for example.

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#2 – 40K Escalation & Stronghold Assault

The Warhammer 40K releases of the month are two expansion books, Warhammer 40K Escalation (96 pages) and Warhammer 40K Stronghold Assault (48 pages), adding Superheavies and Fortifications to “regular” games of Warhammer 40K.

There is no battle report for these either, though there are 8 pages presenting 4 armies from the studio that added Superheavies (a Necron and an Imperial Guard army) or Fortifications (a Dark Angels and a Red Corsairs army) to their collection.

Funny enough, these showcases also show off the limitations of the current range. The Red Corsairs army (above) features some nice Imperial Eagles all over their Bastion. The corresponding Paint Splatter even shows you how to paint it.

Not even the Studio-Chaos-Armies in Nottingham can be bothered to take these off anymore?

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#3 – Sigmar’s Blood Campaign Report

The December Battle Report goes to the fantasy campaign book Sigmar’s Blood (64 pages). Except, it’s not a battle report, but a half-page write-up of each of the ~6 battles in the campaign.

I don’t think the format translates well into the White Dwarf. The campaign itself might be fun, but I think I would’ve preferred an “old-fashioned” battle report on just one of the battles in the campaign.

Even better, I would’ve loved to see those Mirkwood Rangers from The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game in action. Oh well…

On the upside, that Empire army was snow-based! The only “christmasy” thing I in this issue.

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#4 – Miniature Showcases

A huge part of the magazine (beyond the “new releases” section) is, as always, dedicated to showing off miniatures in one form or another. There was:

• Army of the Month (very colourful fantasy Chaos Army)
• Citadel Hall of Fame (Fantasy Nurgle Lord)
• Parade Ground (Riptides and Wraithknights)
• Blanchitsu (those weird, old-school miniatures)
• Kit Bash (Space Marine Dreadnoughts)
• Parade Ground again (Games Day USA Armies on Parade)
• Forge World Horus Heresy

They all are, without doubt, awesome miniatures. I was happy to see the Riptide by Tomáš Pekař, who was kind enough to let me use pictures of his awesome Tau for my Tau Codex Review.

In the end, that’s the White Dwarf: a showcase catalogue for GW miniatures: new releases by the ‘Eavy Metal team and other minis from GW-fans around the world.

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#5 – Inspiration?

Phil Kelly steps in for Jervis Johnson and talks about (waiting for) inspiration. An oddly ironic topic, I thought, for this month’s White Dwarf…

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#6 – Verdict

I tried to avoid ranting too much. It is (I thought) a somewhat lackluster White Dwarf, though I think it could’ve been a lot better with just a tiny weeny bit more effort.

The Imperial Eagle on Huron Blackheart’s Bastion seemed to be symptomatic for the whole issue. It felt a lot like the editorial team was merely going through the motion. The 40K Expansions? The Hobbit? The Warhammer Campaign? The “love for the hobby” simply didn’t come through for me in this issue (reader contributions aside).

I hope the new year sees the White Dwarf team return with more enthusiasm.

Z.