Tuesday 8 October 2013

White Dwarf October 2013


October white dwarf, now I would say I was going to review it but I think that has long gone, I don’t think for the last few months I have done a proper ‘review’ of it for a while so instead of lying to you all I will say I am just going to give a general comment on the magazine in general. Plus I just makes this whole process easier for us both.


Now I know it’s a little late again as everything has already come out but shut up, it’s hard to keep on track some times. Anyway back on topic, the new release this month is re-release of the Dark Elves for warhammer fantasy. Now we have a big wave release with more to come next month apparently, not bad, but a little surprising considering GW’s trend over the last few months, releasing something new each and every month. Apparently November isn’t cool enough to get a new release. Anyway I digress, a lot has changed, and to be honest I didn’t feel like it had to. Granted the new models are pretty sweet but still, not necessary. Its like they have been given the Dark eldar treatment when they already had a good range of models and a reasonable rule set. Whatever makes money dude...

So the biggest thing that surprised me was a totally different dark elf warrior box set. For £20 you get 10 new dark elf dudes with either spear, hand weapon or repeater crossbow. Yes the diversity is actually surprisingly good for a GW kit, and the models look ok. But the big thing was the change of direction with the models, they have altered the 6th edition look that they came out with long ago and have gone back to the old 4th edition look but with a new updated feel (more like a purple high elf now, not some guy in chainmail).. The same can be said about the witch elves and cauldron of blood which so no longer an immovable model, but comes on wheels (just like the old old days).

4th edition warriors vs 8th edition


The hydra has once again had another change, so that's each edition the model has changed, and while it’s probably better now, I’m surprised how often it changes. Granted now you can make a crazy sea monster as well, which I still can’t get my head around, but still that’s what happens these days.  

Hydras though out the ages

Digital releases you all probably already know, with the Sisters of Battle getting a new updated rule set soon yet they call it codex sisters of battle yet on the GW site they have changed them to Adapta Sororitas, so yet another change in name for the Nuns with Guns. What I was surprised at was Blood angels getting an updated rule set as well, but looking at the white dwarf they are only adding in the FAQ’s and nothing else, not even adding in a warlord table like the sisters are getting. So does that mean that the blood angel book will stay the same? Probably so they can still sell hard copies to the masses.

Army of the month is a massive Smurf army by a guy called Gareth Etherington, and it consists of almost 3 whole companies, and none of them are the 2nd, good old Sicarius sits out and no yellow shoulder pads to be seen. It’s a very odd experience. The 4th, 1st and 10th make an appearance in his army. Green, white and scout, Green ultramarines... strange to see. Either way the army is quite well painted and VERY big, even gracing the board with a thunderhawk gunship. His models come from many editions and what impressed me the most was a veteran squad made up entirely of old suits of armour, mainly the metal mark 3 ‘Iron’ armour. Also a lot of apocalypse formations... well what else do you do when you have a few companies?

Battle report and the dark elves take on the Orcs and goblins, before anything else when I looked at the two armies I just knew how the battle report would turn out. Spoiler alert: the Orcs loose, just the army composition is bad with 2 large units of boar boys, which were never going to be able to break the massed blocks of the elves. Both lists are quite monster heavy but again I had to give the edge to the dark elves and that’s exactly how it played out. They orcs get obliterated and just fold under the power of the dark elves. If the orcs just had massed infantry instead of cavalry maybe they would have stood a chance at weathering the number of attacks but otherwise it would have ended the same.

Last month I enjoyed Jarvis Johnson’s article but this month it just was more of the same but was less interesting as he was trying to explain his decision for one of his scenarios. It just dragged for the whole read and was ultimately disappointing. The same can be said about Vetocks article. I don’t know what I want them to write about, but just something different each month or different people. It’s just a running theme of hate each month.

The rest of the mag is same old same old, just painting tips and why they did what they did with the dark elves. A few bits from forgeworld, but nothing new that you can’t already see on their site. Meh, nothing great.

Before I go I have one question that I couldn’t find an answer to in the white dwarf. Why are the Bloodwrack Medusa’s called that? While i will accept, coz it is, surely it should be called a Bloodwrack Gorgon? Medusa was the name of a Gorgon, not the species! It’s a little thing that bothered me.

Anyway that’s it for now. Hope the rant wasn’t too bad.   

1 comment:

  1. I think that the name Gorgon would've been too similar and thus confusing to the Beastman monster Ghorgon...

    ReplyDelete