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I've seen it around a bunch but not really sure that it is, and what it is for?

Is it worth picking up, or even getting a subscription for?

Used to be pure quality with constant terrain building tuts, painting tuts and other random goodness.

Now its simply an advertising mag that pits new armies against older ones to help promote them and other new products.

does still contain some nice painting tips, but you can get better advice here on dakka.

WD is a magazine that used to be great for its hobby articles.

Now it's a $9.00 ad rag.

I was looking at the painting tips they have. They leave out A LOT of steps in between the steps they tell you to do.

You won't find much White Dwarf love here. I bought issues for years, but stopped when the price outpaced the content. I'd save your money and buy more minis.

used to be a great mag with occasional freebies/supplements.

now as people say its an overpriced catalogue/advertising rag.


Such a shame :(

Ok, so the general census is that I shouldn't pick it up. Thanks for the advice

In answer to the OP...


If it was free in the letterbox, would wind up with the rest of the junkmail...in the Bin.

Back in the 80's, we used to be jealous when our friends had the copy before us/anyone else(A friends dad had a newsagency - so he got the 2000AD's , WD's etc before us - (BASTARD!!!)

Cool rule additions, painting showcases, modelling/conversion tips, and heaps of other cool stuff.

Now it's just glossy toilet paper.

To the contrary (and because I can't stand a one-sided thread), it has great painting articles, army and miniature showcases, some casual (non-powergaming) tactics sections and probably the world's best presented battle reports with the studio armies!

I stopped buying it for a while when it became less of a 'national community' oriented publication (in Australia at least), but began to get it again anyway (mostly for the battle reports)... I'm not missing out because my gaming community is in real life, and there are articles and tutorials for just about everything online. Hell, most of what isn't in WD these days is on the GW website anyway.

There are some real cool painting sections and masterclasses sometimes- one of the issues I picked up for free had a really cool section, among many other tips, on how to paint details onto capes, and how to freehand. They were really good tips.

However, the battle reports, and most of the rest of the magazine (sometimes "standard bearer", Jervis Johnson's column, is good) are pretty crappy.

Actually it started as an independent RPG magazine, discussing several miniature companies and providing D&D scenarios.
Then it concentrated on their own products, with relevant content like rules and background.
Today it is mostly nice pics of the models released in the given month, so advertising you have to pay for (they don't do free advertising).

Kroothawk wrote:Actually it started as an independent RPG magazine, discussing several miniature companies and providing D&D scenarios.
Then it concentrated on their own products, with relevant content like rules and background.
Today it is mostly nice pics of the models released in the given month, so advertising you have to pay for (they don't do free advertising).

Yes they do - they email you free advertising...

I actually like to have my mag of new hobby stuff coming out to read on the train even though I know what's going to be in it anyway. I guess I've just been reading it for so long. I picked up War of the Ring because of a WD article and it's now one of my favourite game mechanics (I'm not even a huge LOTR fluff fan) - if I'd listened to Dakka for that one I never would have touched it! Yeah... ok... so they advertised something and I got it. I don't see it that way because I'm a fan anyway. It was always a promotional rag, no matter the content - it's just that so much of the community and other stuff is online through various sources that I barely notice it isn't there.

I've complained about WD in a fair few threads in the past, but it still has value for me. I always managed to scrape up $10 a month to buy it when I was a kid - I sure as hell don't miss $12 now that I'm making my own cash.

I've been reading a lot of older White Dwarfs looking for various articles and it just makes me sad that GW doesn't offer the same today. It's just junk now. I don't know what their budget is to produce it but it seems to me like all the creativity and love that used to go into it and could go into it again has been replaced with a singular need to advertise their latest products. It used to be an essential read for many gamers, only noobs and fanboys must be left regularly buying it now.

White Dwarf?

Never heard of it.....

Out of interest, how many people on here first got into GW because they saw a WD sat on a shelf in a shop and had a leaf through it? My first few issues of the mag look like they are a 100 years old they were read so many times.

Although it's got a little better of late, IMO it's firmly in 'toilet read' territory now, and is only in the magazine rack for the briefest period.

I used to buy White Dwarf for the RPG articles. Yes, that does show how long ago that was - back in the 80's I think!

I did buy the Dark Eldar issue a few motnhs back and, well, read the comments above. Nothing more than a GW advert now.

In the early 80s, WD was a great magazine (though it was rpg based and concentrated largely on D&D, Runequest, Traveller and Call of Cthulhu). It always had two or three rpg adventures, most of which were okay, and some of which were great. Dave Langford used to do a great book review covering fantasy and sci-fi... best magazine of its day for rpgs (okay, not huge competition there, but...). When GW went entirely to Warhammer and stopped stocking other wargames and rpgs, WD changed forever.

Strange, looking back, to think the heyday of anything was the early/mid-ish 80s, but there you go. As a postman, I deliver the magazines now, and all (as far as I can tell) are going to schoolkids. The average delivery of about 500 houses in middle class areas probably sees 3 or 4 WDs a month.

WD has unfortunately suffer the fate of the entire magazine indutry.
There is very little if any content published in it that can't be had on the internet for free! Not only for free but several weeks before the magazine hits the stands! Subscriptions drop off, causing the budget to drop off and all of the good writers to find better jobs .

I honestly can't say that there is a single thing in WD that can't be had for free on GW's own website! And hell... if I I want to knopw about something GW is doing all I have to do is open my email

I originally got into the hobby because of WD. We were on holiday staying at a friend of a friends house and there were stacks and stacks of them in the room i was sleeping in. needless to say, i didnt go outside much that holiday....
but they were the old classics, i bought one last month and its just nowhere near the same. Its such a shame

if they still gave away the occasion freebee people would buy it.

The cardboard cut outs and extras were great!

also if they actually offered you something cool for subscribing that would work to BUT if you want the subscription model you actually have to pay for it ontop which is laughable!

redeyed wrote:if they still gave away the occasion freebee people would buy it.

The cardboard cut outs and extras were great!

also if they actually offered you something cool for subscribing that would work to BUT if you want the subscription model you actually have to pay for it ontop which is laughable!

Sinister even! Wasn't there a point where they were giving out Gorkamorka Boxed games /w subscriptions??

Slight thread hijack,
I was wandering if the magazine Wargames Illustrated is good, has anyone bought it? If so, how is it?

I cant remember about gorkamorka, but I do remember you used to get some decent goodies for subscribing and a decent price reduction...

rather than them trying to push you onto direct debit now for a couple of issues free!

Arctik_Firangi wrote:probably the world's best presented battle reports with the studio armies!

I will admit, the paint job on the armies WD uses is top-notch that is true and they do take good pictures. However, I find their battle reports too predictable.... heck, if I recall, even Jervis came out in one of his articles admitting that they fix a dice roll here and there and control the outcome. The Battle reports used to be what drew me to the magazine. To join the voices of several others, back in the 90s it seemed like battle reports involved random armies and missions and the staff used to come up with new and interesting scenarios. In other words, reading them was exciting. These days it's generally the same "Newest army predictably obliterates opponent army that is built to lose." I gotta admit though, they still can come up with something enjoyable like the hugh High Elf / Skaven battle or where they put the WD staff against the Development staff. If only those weren't so few and far between......
More power to anybody that has an interest in the magazine. I might start buying it again if the direction ever changes. I stopped buying them (especially for US$9) about 6 months ago because I don't play Blood Angels or Dark Eldar; thus, I don't need a hundred articles on how to use/paint the newest dreadnaught. Each issue seems completely cookie cutter; a battle report, token LOTR article, token painting article, Jervis's rant all of which is surrounded by articles only describing the latest and the greatest which GW wants us all to buy.

Jackal wrote:Used to be pure quality with constant terrain building tuts, painting tuts and other random goodness.

Now its simply an advertising mag that pits new armies against older ones to help promote them and other new products.

does still contain some nice painting tips, but you can get better advice here on dakka.

+1

White Dwarf is to Gamesworshop enthusiats as Vogue is to fashion guru's. = its in the ballpark of your interests, but the inundation of advertisement/propaganda overwhelms any sustenance the magazine might have had :(

redeyed wrote:if they still gave away the occasion freebee people would buy it.

The cardboard cut outs and extras were great!

If they did give out freebies, like card buildings or blast markers, then it could entice me to buy it. Even 40K stickers or posters or something. Doctor Who Adventures manages to give away stickers & toys every two weeks for half the price.

On another note, has White Dwarf ever published a battle report from a new army that has lost?

Ugavine wrote:

redeyed wrote:if they still gave away the occasion freebee people would buy it.

The cardboard cut outs and extras were great!

If they did give out freebies, like card buildings or blast markers, then it could entice me to buy it. Even 40K stickers or posters or something. Doctor Who Adventures manages to give away stickers & toys every two weeks for half the price.

On another note, has White Dwarf ever published a battle report from a new army that has lost?

its not a new army as such, but when they did the focus on the new BA dread kit, the army list had all 3 dreads in, Astorath and a StormRaven and lost pretty badly against DE

I got Block Mania for free when I subscribed some time ago. That's a full boardgame, for the convenience of getting WD by post.

I don't remember anything on the cover apart from a single by Sabbat, but it was decades ago.

Kroothawk wrote:Actually it started as an independent RPG magazine, discussing several miniature companies and providing D&D scenarios.

Not strictly true. It was still published by GW, who at the time were a major RPG importer, distributor, & retailer, so it was never truly independent -- it printed scenarios and articles about the games that GW sold. If GW fell out with a games company and stopped selling their stuff, WD stopped printing material for their games. ISTR some scandal about reviewers being sacked if they didn't give GW-distributed games good reviews, too...

If GW fell out with a games company and stopped selling their stuff, WD stopped printing material for their games.

Example? You may well be correct, but I don't recall that. It concentrated largely on TSR, Chaosium and GDW, as I recall, but they made the most popular rpgs in the UK at the time (early-mid 80s).

And as far as the reviews went, whilst most were at least reasonably favourable, they weren't afraid to pan supplements that were sub-standard. A few of the AD&D adventures god frightful reviews as I recall.