White Dwarf Weekly #16 – The New Warhammer 40K

The latest White Dwarf Weekly – the second in a row without new miniatures – is all about the new Edition of Warhammer 40K, which went up for pre-orders last night. Indeed, it is probably the most-leaked Weekly White Dwarf yet. Pictures and scans from this issue kept a lot of blogs – including mine – busy last week.

In many ways, this makes this White Dwarf a must-have for the impatient, who want information on the new Edition now.

It will also be one of the most useless White Dwarfs to own after next week.

---

#1 – The New Edition of Warhammer 40K

Predictably, the White Dwarf starts with the presentation (or “ads”) for the new products. A 4-page introduction of the new “regular edition” boxed set for Warhammer 40K, consisting of…

1. 144 page “Galaxy of War“-book on how to collect Warhammer 40K miniatures,
2. 128 page “Dark Millennium“-book on the Warhammer 40K background, and
3. 208 page “Rules“-book for the actual game rules.

Note the order of how they are arranged and presented.

There are a further 2 pages on the limited, 200-quid Munitorum Edition, and another 2 pages on the smaller bits like the “Visions of the Dark Millenium”-book (“a dazling showcase of artwork and imagery”), the Tactical Objectives and the Psychic Power cards.

---

#2 – Introducing the New Edition

After the look at the product, the White Dwarf goes into the meat of the new Edition, starting with an “interview” (more an article) with (by) the rule designers.

The interview is followed by three separate 4-page articles on the (it appears) three big/main changes of this new edition (which also guided the three Jervis Johnson videos).

• An article on the new Tactical Objectives, including a few samples from the new Tactical Objectives cards, also seen here.

• An article on the new Psychic Phase and Daemonology, including a splendid, newly “fluffy” picture of Cotaez leading a band of Bloodletters into the fray (see above).

• An article on new forms of army organisation, notably unbound armies, with a sample 263 miniatures at 1500 Tyranid Army by Phil Kelly.

---

#3 – The Lonely Dryad

Finally, after all the 40K-madness, an unexpected 2-page paint splatter for a Wood Elves Dryad, and the final pages with the usual titbits, including a little add-on for 40K-7th Edition that describes how wounds from a challenge among characters are now carried over into the unit … well, it’s more about background-justifications for this rule.

---

#4 – Thoughts?

Well, all in all I must admit that GW’s presentation of the new Edition, and of the changes we will see, was well done throughout.

The three-part structure covering (1) Unbound Armies, (2) Psychic Phase/Daemonology and (3) Tactical Objectives seems to be recurring in all marketing materials and, presumably, reflects the structure that rules-writers went about tinkering with the rules from the start.

Now we’re counting down the days to the new Edition, as well as to the Orks and Space Wolves Codexes following hot on the new edition’s heels, to see how the new 7th Edition Codex-books will pick up on all these new concepts.

Z.