White Dwarf in December

Following up on a few goodies in last month, Games Workshop put a couple of freebies into the last issue for 2019 - the december White Dwarf.

If you're issue looks different to mine, that's due to it being the subscription variant with a full artwork cover. Beside that you'll find it in a cardboard sleeve, with a campaign booklet and a strategy card for Necromunda, a profile card for using Gotrek in WarCry and a double sided poster, that covers a wizard mini game on one side and a Space Marine themed action scene on the other.

I really like the concept of the Mechanicus looted Kroot army. The hybrid / semi-mechanic units are a bit of a stretch fluff-wise, but they look pretty impressive. An interesting addition a few pages later is the official statement on pronouncing different names from both, the Age of Sigmar / Old World and Warhammer 40k. That will probably settle a few arguments out there.

The rules for the wizard duells are covered in the issue (otherwise the poster wouldn't be much of help 😀 ) and I really like the artwork for the Middlehammer edition among them. Then there are rules for battles in the sky, with several flying units. Interesting take, especially with the moving rules and maneuvers I felt reminded to the ship battles, that I recently dipped my toe into with Cruel Seas / Black Seas.

When I came to the Nurgle themed 40k army, my first thought was, oh nice new models by Maxime / Mörback, Les Kouzes (a few were shown in August White Dwarf and on Warhammer Fest last year). But these were done by Forge World's Mark Bedford.

Space Marines took up quite a bit of this issue, with an Index Astartes on the Flesh Tearers, and what I liked in that context was the painting tutorials on two levels of quality (battle ready and parade ready), especially that they build upon on eachother. Along with a large combined battle force of the Ultramarines, Blood Angels and the Adeptus Custodes.

A brief look into the custom terrain build for the conflict set up with the new Necromunda boxed set, covering the protein grinder, build from the Noctilith Crown, and few of the Sector Mechanicus and Munitorum. Even though the Rohan got quite a lot of love with the terrain kits and supplement, the White Dwarf only covers a few pages on Saruman. But the article is a good opportunity to introduce Rob Alderman further. If that name sounds familiar, Games Workshop hired the former co-founder of Hysterical Games and Prodos Games (Alien vs. Predator, Warzone) as the new manager of the Lord of the Rings product range.

Interesting to see, that after quite a lot of wargaming companies were founded by former Games Workshop employees (like Warlord Games, Mantic Games, Riverhorse and a few further smaller companies), the HR department now recruites people who gathered experience somewhere else within the business to bring some further "out of the box" input to the company. For example Lyle Lowery, the managing editor of White Dwarf, who used to be in charge of Privateer Press' magazine No Quarter.

Looking forward to see, if the additional material will be continued in January. Beyond that, a proper issue, very broad on content as you get coverage on the two main system, scenarios for Warcry and Blackstone Fortress, strategic input on Underworlds, just a bit low on the master painter showcase.