White Dwarf June 2013: Review

Here come the Eldar, I’m not going to hide it, I only care about this months magazine for the simple fact it has the new Eldar codex featured in it. It’s got me exited and that’s a rare thing for a white dwarf magazine. So let’s hope it lives up to its reputation, here is this months review. 

Lets start with the new releases, the thing I truly care about. It shows the new Eldar codex, just the front cover but at least we have a codex. I am very much in love with the picture on the front, I think it’s an amazing cover, so much better than the Daemon and Dark Angel codex cover, and just a little better than the Tau one. So I would list it as a good cover I guess would be what I want you to take from that section.

The big part of this release is the new WraithKnight, such a colossal monster, it is such a large model I pray they never release anything this size, it’s practically a titan. Well technically it is, as back in the old days of epic, knights where a mini titan. So yer, it’s a little overboard really but if it has good rules and a reasonable price in points, I welcome it. If nothing else it looks like an amazing centre piece model. Apparently 9 inches tall, it will be about the size of your average city building... I can’t want to see it in action. Staying with the wraith, we have new wraithguard models which can also be made into a new unit called wraithblades, a combat orientated wraith unit which right now I can’t see being too useful. But who knows, lets see what the codex brings. I would say these models are a great improvement on the old metal models I have, but they are on a bigger base, which irritates me a little. I refuse to change the base size of my old guys, especially now I have got them painted! Either way great looking models, not sure about the price though, £30 for 5? I guess it’s better than £9 each when they were metal. Other new units include the new eldar flyer kit which can be made into the Hemlock wraithfighter which is apparently a party wraith controlled bomber, meh, I don’t like the sound of it. The thing that really pisses me off is its name, they can’t just throw a gothic term onto it and ignore it. A heamlock is a space ship, not a tiny plane! Not happy about that, come up with something more original. The other plane that it can make is an aspect of flight, crimson hunter, an idea that I really like. In the white dwarf it states that it has an original helmet, pfft it just looks like a guardian one. But either way this one is armed with bright lances and a pulse laser, so 4 strength 8 shots if nothing has changed. It could potentially be quite devastating against vehicles. I also prefer the look of this model. We he a new HQ, the spirtseer which is what we need to make wraithguard troops, what else it does, I have no idea. Model looks gay though, I don’t like the wraith helmet, the spirtseer isn’t dead! He needs to be able to see, I don’t like the idea of having the same helmet for the sake of it. We also have a ranger special character, no idea what he does, but I like the model. We get a number of repacks for the eldar, 3 vypers in a box, 3 war walkers in a box (like when they came out in 4^th edition, but not limited edition) and bikes, for all races, 3 in a box. Quite a lot of choice, but not as much as the rumours suggested. I’m happy, just a shame no dragon riders, moving on...

The battle report was eldar vs necrons and it shows a few rules from the new codex. Also warlocks appear to be hqs now, that will be interesting to see how it goes. The wraithknight kills a load of the necron warriors but that’s about all, I suspect it wont be great now.

This months army of this month was a Fantasey Orc and Goblin army by Nick Bayton, so far it’s a good month for me. I like the paint scheme and the vast selection of models in his army. The army is themed around a Night goblin army, mainly with models from the old battle for skull pass, so a lot of night goblins. Throughout the army there are a fair few conversions, some big, such as converting a forgeworld squiggoth into a counts as aracnaork spider, and some smaller ones such as making a giant vomit by putting river troll vomit in his mouth. Other all it gives a very unique feel to his army, one which I would be proud to have as my own. It’s well worth displaying, unlike a few of the past armies.

Vettock, Johnson & Blanchistu articles this month are to be expected really. Vettock talks about how he and other gamers collect models for their collections. He talks about how everyone is crazy apart from him, and he is the only one who thinks clearly. I don’t know, he just says it’s never clear why people buy what they buy unless you ask them... waste of space. Johnson this month talks about the different personalities units end up having the more we play with them, such as that unit that never makes it leadership tests and runs every single time, or that rhino that can’t drive into terrain without crashing. This read was a little better than Vettocks but still not amazing. Blanchistu is same old same old, if you have seen one you have seen them all.

Armchair General this month goes with Dan Hardens and his tau, he explains how he uses his tau army and what he does to make it work. It was quite an interesting read and he tries to follow the teachings of commander puretide in his methods of warfair. If it works for him, great, and it’s quite fluffy. What stood out for me was that he said tau get promoted every 5 years, I don’t know how true that is, but lets go with it for now. Every game a model survives he markes it down and every 5 he ‘promotes it’ and makes a new model for it. I love that idea and it gives each individual model a story.  

Painting goes over how to paint all the new eldar models and its got a rather good gem tutorial which is quite different from past tutorials.

To finish off we have an article on the different craftworlds mythology and how they do battle. They then carry on to what they did in designing the new models and they fully admit that this codex bones Iyanden. So I just hope that other craftworlds are still able to be reasonably represented.

In conclusion, this was still an expensive magazine but I enjoyed it a little more than normal thanks to the Eldar. The normal issues with the 3 staples of the magazine continue into future, seriously they should just get dropped. Armchair general surprised me which was a welcome change. I think it was better purly because it focused on my army, which is pathetic, I really is.