The Wyvern & The Codex – White Dwarf Weekly Issue 10

White Dwarf Title: Take Cover!

Me: It Ignores Cover!

Sorry. Had to get that out!

I found it rather funny that the latest issue, which tries very hard to sell you the latest Str. 4 Artillery Piece for the Imperial Guard Astra Militarum on the virtues of having Ignore Cover and Barrage (!) is filled with so many jokes of “take cover!” (the cover) and “my Tyranids are going to need their cover saves more than ever” (Jes  Editorial) and “he could often be found taking cover under his desk” (Miniature Designer of the Wyvern) kind.

Anyhow… the new White Dwarf. It’s all about the new Wyvern/Hydra dual kit, and the new Codex: Astra Militarum.

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#1 – The Wyvern Supression Tank

I have to say, this is probably the first issue of the new White Dwarf, where the design articles and miniature showcases brought me around to a miniature.

Sure, the Taurox might look odd, but it is new. When I first saw glimpses of the Wyvern/Hydra, I simply didn’t care. Just another vanilla Guard tank based on the Chimera.

The details, as viewed from the article, are fantastic however… cigar-chomping gunners, a rotating platform, a grumpy machine spirit with his own little shrine.

It might look like a Chimera-kit-bash at first glance, but there’s a lot of love in the details.

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#2 – Astra Militarum & Filler

Aside from the enjoyable read on the new Wyvern/Hyrda-kit, I though the issue was a bit bland, to be honest.

There are a few pages that “feel” (once again) a lot more sales-catalog…. the page of Forge World’s Horus Heresy Book 3, the pages on the Codex: Astra Militarum itself (which doesn’t give you a lot of information really), the Black Library advertisements, where they now release a few former ebooks – such as Andy Hoare’s Commissar – as physical books.

Also, Jeremy Vetock wrote a column about entries in his notebook that weren’t good enough for a column? Right…

And Jeremy Vetock comes back for the closing “Ask Grombrindal” entry. Feels like that is a feature we won’t be seeing for very much longer.

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#3 – The Wyvern Rules

As with all White Dwarf Weekly’s, there is a rules-preview. In this issue, it is the new Wyvern.

As I said above, it feels like a miniature with a lot of love given to the details by a Guard-enthusiast. At least the new Wyvern-variant, however, will also need to convince Imperial Guard players that they really, really, really need an open-topped Tank that fires two four small Str 4, AP 6 blasts in their army.

Not the easiest pitch, even if it ignores cover.

The White Dwarf team does their best to show you the potential application and uses. Still, it feels like an odd entry. And a weapon needing 4 (!) special rules just to justify its lower strength isn’t very elegant game-design either, if you ask me.

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#4 – Thoughts?

Overall, I wasn’t really feeling this White Dwarf. If is a week issue with a good miniature. The articles on the Wyvern/Hydra kit were informative. Everything else felt a bit strung out and hamstrung by a strong sales-catalog feeling of the old, large White Dwarf, which many previous issues White Dwarf Weekly managed to avoid (for the most part).

Still, with the odd assembly-tip and a decent paint splatter on painting simple cameo-patterns and simple-weathering-techniques for Astra Militarum-tanks, it might be an issue worth picking up if you look to expand your Imperial Guard force with a Wyvern (or Hydra).

Let me know what you think!

Z.