White Dwarf Weekly Issue 9 – Jervis Johnson Talks Tournaments

White Dwarf Weekly Issue 9 arrives… obviously dedicated front-to-finish to the new Militarum Tempestus release. However, there’s also a short Apoc-Battle Report and a surprisingly thought-provoking column by Jervis Johnson.

Not the worst White Dwarf Weekly you could pick up.

---

#1 – Militarum Tempestus

The big release this week is the vanguard of – presumably – a larger Imperial Guard release. Reading Jes Bickham’s opening editorial salvo, it’s still okay to call them Imperial Guard too.

Unlike the Warhammer Fantasy Dwarves, the first army to be released under the weekly format (Imperial Knights being an a-typical addition, I suppose), the first wave of miniatures does come with a rulebook as well, the not-supplement, not-full-Codex: Militarum Tempestus, which allows playing a streamlined Storm-Trooper army, with Militarum Tempestus Scions as troops, the Taurox of course, as well as Valkyries and Commissars, it would seem,

It’s a neat concept, and – if done right – could well be the best format yet to approach “Codex: Supplements”. Given that it’s a printed 72 pages book, it hopefully gets more love than some of the lackluster digital Codexes.

---

#2 – Jervis Johnson on Gaming

Jervis Johnson’s column can be hit and miss. However, he is a big guy in GW’s game design. Reading his thoughts on the overarching ideas can be insightful.

The column starts with a bit of self-mockery, but continues on explaining Warhammer 40K, with all its supplements, allies, flyers, super-heavies, etc.., isn’t (in Jervis’ opinion) meant to be played with all of that all the time.

He even throws a bone to a “gaming group” of tournament players, who continuously tinker with 40K to “create the perfectly balanced tournament gaming weekend“, contrasting them against a different group that “only enjoy playing highly detailed narrative campaigns“.

There is an important truth there – which needs stressing – that having options, such as flyers or allies, doesn’t mean using all options at all times (at which point they’d cease to be options).

On the other hand, I think the idea of a closely knit gaming group questing for the “perfectly balanced tournament gaming weekend” doesn’t capture all of it. This may be an accurate depiction of highly organized “top-tournament players”, many who know each other.

It arguably doesn’t describe your local church-hall-tournament, which doesn’t (foolishly) quest for “perfect balance”. but for an easy-to-communicate-blue-print, which can serve as the basis for games among strangers who are not a closely knit gaming group.

Jervis Johnson’s argument for “not using all options all the time” is good.

Unfortunately, he himself seems to equate the unfavorable picture a few deluded “top-tournament-players” unfortunately paint of the hobby as representative of all run-of-the-mill tournaments organized-warhammer-40k-gaming-for-strangers.

---

#3 – Paint Splatter, Rules and More

The other parts of the White Dwarf are as we’ve come to know them by now.

A Paint Splatter for the blue Tempestus Scions paint-scheme, which looks quite fun to do, rule-previews for the Scions themselves, including their command squad (they can deep strike?), and the Taurox / Taurox Prime (which may take items from the Astra Militarum Vehicle Equipment list – I hope that one will be in the Codex: Militarum Tempestus too).

Also, on the final page, Tomáš Pekař’s amazing Tau army get’s another White Dwarf-feature with his Fireblade. Be sure to check it out (on Flickr, if you don’t wanna buy the White Dwarf).

Overall, I think this is a good issue. The Militarum Tempestus sound intriguing, though we will have to wait a week to see if the hopes I have for the new not-supplement/not-Codex format will be warranted. Jervis Johnson’s editorial is not irrelevant, and bound to stir some discussion. Oh, there’s a battle report too – Eldar vs. Tau, still haven’t read that one though.

Let me know what you think!

Z.