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I was interested in subscribing to the magazine but it's a rather hefty subscription fee. I was wondering if anyone has a subscription and is able to give some word of mouth about it? I was also primarily interested in an average page count if anyone has a few back issues they could figure up a median for. Thanks in advance.

There's roughly 120 pages from what I can tell from my issues.

Personally I think it's an okay magazine, but I don't pay for it. This thread will probably become a warzone of Dakkaites hating on WD in a page's time.

It's mostly a catalog of their new products, but there's some nice pictures in it, and sometimes a good article or two.

WD has improved this year, with some good painting and tactics articles. It's not as good as the old days, but it's certainly been through patches that were a lot worse.

However, don't imagine for a moment that they'll deviate much from their current mission statement of pushing the month's big release like its their only product.

Do they do a direct debit subscription over in the US of A?
The direct debit subscription ismuch cheaper than the £40 for a year subscription
It is £5 for the first three issues and then after that you pay £9 every three months, you basically get every third issue free.

I find it enjoyable, it has some good articles every now and then. I found the how to paint faces article of this month really informative.

Even if things are improving somewhat (not that I'd know, I don't read it), it's still a waste of money at $9 an issue. I felt ripped off with my first issue and it was $6 (the one with the rules for Angron in them), it got boring after about an hour and I never picked it up again. I wouldn't pay $9 for any magazine, not even porn.

If you're new to the GW hobby, get a subscription: it will teach you a valuable lesson At 120 pages, it's realy nothing more than a glossy catalog. An expensive one at that. The first 20 pages are advertisements in the form of box art for whatever is newly released that month. Then you have the rest of the magazine split between three different systems. So, if you're only a fan of 40K, then you get about 30-40 pages of actual articles that might interest you. Subtract the obligatory Jervis Johnson article where he pats himself on the back, and you lose another 2-3 pages.

By anyone's normal standards, it's not worth the price. But this isn't normal, <yell>THIS IS GW!!!!</yell>

I think the White Dwarf is quite good. There's some good articles in it- especially some great painting tips.

As mentioned previously, if you're only a fan of one gaming system (40k for example) only a third of the magazine might actually draw you in.
White dwarf might be what draws you into other gaming systems though.

Cheers,

Jack.

Im going to echo previous opinions, White Dwarf is a decent magazine, but expensive. The articles on painting are solid, and the main reason I buy the magazine. It does serve as a marketing vehicle for GW, Black Library, and Forge World, but as a plus you will always know what is coming out. The battle reports are abit odd, always featuring the newest army. The neat part is, with the release of new product there is generally an in depth analysis of it, with an interview of the creator, a look into the production process, and, if it is a model, a clear breakdown of the kit. If you think 9 dollars a month is worth this (considering the articles are of various quality monthly and not necessarily about something you are interesting), go for it. I do.

I enjoy it, but I am single and have a high income, so I don't have to be careful about what I spend. If I were restricted on what I could spend, I'd save the money for minis.

If I didn't already know it was crap, I'd buy a few issues to determine if a subscription was the way to go.

Nice, bit blatantly "BUY OUR STUFF!", but with occasional nuggets of goodness.

Crazy_Carnifex wrote:Nice, bit blatantly "BUY OUR STUFF!", but with occasional nuggets of goodness.

The occasional "nuggets of goodness" seem to be few and far between,though honestly I havn't purchased an issue recently,the "BUY OUR STUFF!' catalog feel of the magazine just really put me off of it.
If it was 10 years ago,I would have highly recomended WD to you (the OP),but now,bleh,it's just not worth it,even at half the cover price.

Something I found informative: The U.S. postal system does not charge magazine rates to deliver White Dwarf... they charge catalog rates.

Do you want to spend $9 each month for a catalog? Spend your money on miniatures instead.




[Edit] For a worthwhile gaming magazine, try Wargames Illustrated.

fellblade wrote:Something I found informative: The U.S. postal system does not charge magazine rates to deliver White Dwarf... they charge catalog rates.

If true, that's LOL-worthy.

Pre issue 300 was great. It really hit the skids around issue 315 when there was a big Tau release. It is getting better, but it isn't worth whatever they are charging for a subscription. it's better to buy the ones you want for reference than to have a pile full of LOTR scenarios you'll never look at. A lot of the articles about modelling and painting can be found here and at other mini oriented websites.

but as a plus you will always know what is coming out.

It just won't always be the same price listed (a la Realm of Battle), and in some cases it might not even be the same product (a la Blastscape).

It really hit the skids around issue 315 when there was a big Tau release.

I hope you're not implying the Tau ruined White Dwarf.

I heard it was the WHF giant issue that killed White Dwarf, that was when it became less about content and more about pushing product.

Save your money and use it to buy cocaine. Take all the cocaine at once and you'll get more useful hobby advice during your trip to the ER than you will from WD.

Sidstyler wrote:I hope you're not implying the Tau ruined White Dwarf.

Well it'd make sense wouldn't it? They are Tau after all.

Why? When there's Dakka?

FITZZ wrote:

Crazy_Carnifex wrote:Nice, bit blatantly "BUY OUR STUFF!", but with occasional nuggets of goodness.

The occasional "nuggets of goodness" seem to be few and far between,though honestly I havn't purchased an issue recently,the "BUY OUR STUFF!' catalog feel of the magazine just really put me off of it.
If it was 10 years ago,I would have highly recomended WD to you (the OP),but now,bleh,it's just not worth it,even at half the cover price.

QFT. Just avoid this cash wasting ad-fest at all costs, you can easily skim through the helpful parts at the local GW anytime you want. It won't take more than 10 minutes usually, a fantastic waste of money if I have ever seen one.

the one with the kustom stompa rules i bought, when it went to the sale rack at my LGS. 9 dollars, no way but 4 dollars, i can do that.

Sidstyler wrote:

but as a plus you will always know what is coming out.

It just won't always be the same price listed (a la Realm of Battle), and in some cases it might not even be the same product (a la Blastscape).

It really hit the skids around issue 315 when there was a big Tau release.

I hope you're not implying the Tau ruined White Dwarf.

I heard it was the WHF giant issue that killed White Dwarf, that was when it became less about content and more about pushing product.

I think it was the same issue. 316 or 315. The UK cover and the US and A cover might've been different. All I truely remember, and I've eaten my fair share of paint here, is the font was like twice as big and the margins twice as wide. In fact, I think after that issue they took the White Dwarf Forum off of the GW UK website because of all the personal attacks and general nerd hate-on the then editor, some guy Owen something. I remember the old WDs when it was like 85% text and had ads for games that weren't made by GW. Around issue 110 or so.

Not to play the "devil's advocate" but isn't the purpose of a first party industry magazine to promote its products? I was expecting that from the get go. Just a couple of questions left. Adverts or not, are the pictures good? I'm looking for something to take to work and "study" the paint jobs and such for inspiration. I'm looking for something similar to the back of a codex, just lots of pictures of models. Does white dwarf do that well? (I'd thumb through one at a GW but the closest hobby shop of any kind is 2.5 hours away)

I've been buying WD for 19 years now (Started about issue 140), and have back issues all the way down to issue 23.

The best parts are the eavy metal techniques, be they masterclass of batch painting to tabletop standard, there is always somethin to learn.
Some of the fluff articles but they need to go back to the way they did it back in the mid nineties and do more indepth fluff articles.

The only let down is the way they have been doing the battle reports for the last few years. 1 map and a couple of pics per player turn please. 1 large pic to cover 2 turns does not help visualise what is happening...

I dont know where you would get it bt there are monthly scans of white dwarf on the interweb. Thats the only way I read it now.

9 dollars for a monthly catalogue is a bit much.

bobert wrote:I'm looking for something similar to the back of a codex, just lots of pictures of models. Does white dwarf do that well?

If that's all you want then just look at your codex, it's pretty much the same thing. In fact I'm sure they use the exact same pictures for the website, codices, and White Dwarf. The only time you ever see anything different is the rare occasion where they have a painting article.

'm not sure if you should SUBSCRIBE to WD. I just buy it if it looks good THAT month. Sometimes whatever is in it will have absolutley no bearing on me, and be of little interest.