Review: The new White Dwarf and Warhammer: Visions

Tabletop Maneuvers' first product review!

This past Saturday, Games Workshop released its brand new White Dwarf magazine in a new format, alongside a second, new magazine all together, Warhammer: Visions. This new direction ends the previous line of White Dwarf magazines and resets the counters all back to 1 this month.

The New GW Rags

New Beginnings or Hitting the Reset Button

The first of the two magazines, the White Dwarf, carries on the name of the familiar Games Workshop magazine of the past three decades. The difference now is that it’s a smaller, weekly magazine. Running in at 33 pages (not including the cover), it is considerably smaller, and selling for the price of a paint pot (in Canada that’s $5). It feels a bit condensed, which is understandable considering its size, but not in a bad way. It has several of the articles from the old White Dwarf: Jervis Johnson, Paint Splatter, Designers Notes and of course, New Releases. The new releases section is pages 2 to 13, a little over a third of the magazine. It is the usual large photos with close ups and captions (which will be a trend you'll see later in this article). This issue covered the upcoming release of the Dwarves for Warhammer Fantasy. I don't remember if the article "Sprues and Glue" is one that has appeared before, but it has the potential to be an interesting article if taken in the right direction. This issue's article related to how to work with plastic glue, and while most experienced hobbyists will be familiar with this topic, it is useful for new hobbyists.

The article that I was surprised to see was "the Rules." This article, actually had rules for a miniature yet to be released. Full rules; points, special rules, stats. Full rules. I don't think I've seen that done by Games Workshop in a long time. It was definitely nice to see and a step in a good direction.

The physical magazine, in my opinion though, could be improved. It felt, for lack of a better term, cheap. By this I don't mean that the paper quality is low or that the look was lack-luster. The magazine has good quality, heavy paper and the design is the same as the updated look we're used to with recent White Dwarfs. I mean, I feel like the cover is going to come off, as it's held on by two staples, and that with little effort the thing is going to fall apart.

However, overall, the new White Dwarf isn't bad. I'm not sold on paying $5 every week ($260/year vs. $132/year for the old monthly White Dwarf) for a ~35 page magazine. I, like many married hobbyists with children, have an allowance, and I'd prefer to spend it on actual models and paint. So, I might pick this up every once in a while.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Warhammer: Visions - Table of Contents

Now, Warhammer: Visions. "Visions" is an apt word.

The new GW monthly magazine is quite the magazine. At 228 pages, it's thick, though its format is smaller than the standard North American magazine size (it's a little larger than the Trade Paperback format). However, it's only $13 (Canadian), which isn't bad given its size. It's also, designwise, very asthetically pleasing. It contains lots of pictures of models, both on the awesome studio tables in dynamic, action-paused style photos and multi-angle, Golden Daemon posed photos. It even contains the highlights of the last Golden Daemon painting competition, whch is always one of my favourite sections in a Games Workshop magazine to look at.

But here in lies the problem: it's a picture book. It's 228 pages of pictures. Text is at a minimum, and it's usually only as captions for the photos. And even then, it's even further limited in that all the text is repeated in three languages: English, French and German. This magazine is clearly designed to be the new global magazine, cutting out regional translations, at least when it comes to Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. It technically even featured a Battle Report. I had issues in the last White Dwarfs, in that they cut so much of the "report" out of the Battle Report that you really couldn't learn from the designers what tactics were or were not useful. They had become Black Library style prose with pictures. Now it's pictures with Black Library style captions.

If you like Tyranids, this issue of Visions is probably for you. It featured about 100 pages of Tyranic photos, most of which was at the beginning in a prettier "catelogue" of new models. The catelogue of new models was the first 71 pages, then it was into the "articles." Army of the Month was next, which I must admit featured a very cool Vampire Counts army, done by two guys for a Battle Brothers event. I believe a few of the units were featured previously, but they had expanded on the army a lot.

An example of Golden Daemon goodness.

After the Army of the Month article came what was probably my favourite section: Parade Ground. This featured entries from the Memphis Golden Daemon. Next came the "Battle Report" (Grey Knights/Eldar vs Chaos Space Marines), followed by Kit Bash. This was a section I enjoyed the addition of previously, but now with the lack of text, explained less and was more just pictures of conversions. This was followed by the familiar Blanchitsu article, which is one that has always driven me nuts, since John Blanche only ever makes Inquisitorial Warbands, with the same models (theres always a Nurgle lord) and in the same colour palette as his art. After Blanche's piece was more pictures of Tyranids, and Paint Splatter which featured even more Tyranids.

So when it comes to Visions, as cool as lots of pictures of models are, it lacked substance. I feel I will rarely be picking this one up, unless it features an army I play prominently. At $13, I was really hoping for something I could spend a night reading, not flipping through it in 30 minutes to an hour, if that. I was distracted by a toddler through most of that time. She, however, loved the magazine! Which might say something...

The Verdict

I can see myself picking up the new weekly White Dwarf once a month or so, depending on the content. It was enjoyable and good for a quick read, though I would like to see more for $5, but considering they need content now for it weekly, instead of monthly, I don't see that happening. With Warhammer: Visions, I will only be picking it up from the look of it when an army I play (Space Marines, Grey Knights, Tau, Empire) is released, as that will probably be when they are featured heavily in the issue. I don't really feel the need to pay that much for a picture book that won't see much use. 

So, now that you know my thoughts, what are yours? Do you guys plan on picking up the new Games Workshop magazines? What do you like or not like about them? Let me know in the comments below.