Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Firstly, let me put my hands up and admit to making such a bad mistake. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Anyway, having recently purchased Dreadfleet, and been impressed with it, I was in the local supermarket the other day, and spotted WD384 on the shelf. I gave up buying it 3-4 years ago, because quite frankly it was going downhill quicker than diarhoea from a cheetah's rectum . But 384 had what I believed to be a Dreadfleet campaign pack supplement.
A halo of light seemed to shine on the magazine, and I thought, maybe GW has changed.

So, for £4.50 what did I get? A steaming pile of brown stuff!!

Out of 115 pages, nearly 30, yes 30 are adverts or directory listings.

Then of course the universal battle report. Whoopee do, you're having a good time, so do thousands of people playing the game.
The dreadfleet thing turned out to be some people having a good time playing the campaign in the book.

Then my favourite, the old pals act or let's ask somebody what they're painting. Another boring waste of time. If they had passed on actual painting tips, then maybe, but to simply have somebody telling you they're painting an orc warlord.... Another 35 pages of this. Still, count your blessing, no Jervis this month.

Some rules on beastmen monsters padded out the rest, but this could have been done on the website. And no mention of VC in January.

What is the point of this magazine. For the money you spend, it needs to justify itself with unique stuff, not stuff that sites like this do 100 times better.

I have never been so disillusioned with the hobby. In fact, I won't be purchasing GW products ever again. FOW and Mantic all the way.

Rant over.

It seems that I am not the only one who has a lack of interest or not impressed by WD. The potential for a good magazine is there. Even Wizards of the Coast made a good mtg magazine, remember Duelest? That was a good magazine put out by the makers of that game.

Aside from some very occasional (and very small) rises in quality (e.g. the Space Hulk issue) WD has by and large got worse and worse over the last few years. I wont be buying it in 2012 (12 x £5 = £60 to spend elsewhere in the hobby )

I cant remember the last good WD. Years has it been?

Flashman wrote:Aside from some very occasional (and very small) rises in quality (e.g. the Space Hulk issue) WD has by and large got worse and worse over the last few years. I wont be buying it in 2012 (12 x £5 = £60 to spend elsewhere in the hobby )

The Flashman Beer Fund?

Have to say that I've not read a White Dwarf (more than picking it up in the supermarket to flick through it) in about 8-10 years and don't miss it

Just remember the lession you learned with that purchase, and think of it the next time you have a good idea about buying WD.

Go take that mag back to where ever you got it and get your money back. If not, drop it for a few bucks less, and recoupe your loss.


Not going to bust on you, but most everyone else already has learned about WD being garbage. This is the point where I'm supposed to say something witty, and clever, but I can see how you got jacked like that.

Happens to everyone now and again.

I honestly thought that I was getting brand new Dreadfleet scenarios or rules...Bear in mind that when I was in my prime, GW used to publish extra space hulk stuff all the time in white dwarf.

And finally, there were other people looking at magazines and I've still got this secret shame of not wanting people to know that i'm into miniature wargaming. It was panic buying at its worst just get it in the basket!!!

Believe it or not it's getting a wee smidge better. I mean at least it had the rules for the beastmen giants. A year or two back you wouldn't have even gotten that.

Frankly it's not been worth reading since 2004

Hide it in between the pages of Martha Stewarts Living.... that will surely hide the shame

Contribute $25 to dakka, become a DCM and consider that money better spent on content than a White Dwarf subscription.

Having never bought a WD in my life, i'm always happy to see I made the right decision about it.

I last bought #300 because it had a few things in it that I liked. Before that I was buying intermittently up to about #280, so it had been a while when I got that one even then.


My dad had it regularly from #110-140 and I took it regularly from #210-#250. I bought up a lot of back issues cheap to plug the gap. I have a fair chunk of the RT and 2nd edition stuff covered as well as Epic, Necromunda, Gorkamorka. Which is really where my interests are.

I've purchased only TWO white dwarf magazines. The Grey Knights one and the Necrons one, only to get sneak peaks at the models and to get painting inspiration... and even then there really werent that many good photos of the models :(

Howard A Treesong wrote:I last bought #300 because it had a few things in it that I liked. Before that I was buying intermittently up to about #280, so it had been a while when I got that one even then.

#300 was my last regular issue. After that I bought #303 for the Imperial Guard Doctrines. That was my last issue.

I have bought the last four and concur with Kid_K.

I actually thought that it started going down hill circa 1999 ala the red phase.

I have dipped back in on occasion in the last decade for special issues and been disappointed but there does seem to be improved content although this could be due to some of the releases they have made in this period.

In the past I would buy them before flights or long bus trips...then gaming podcasts were invented and I haven't looked back.

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

I have never been so disillusioned with the hobby. In fact, I won't be purchasing GW products ever again. FOW and Mantic all the way.

Rant over.

Please bear in mind that what is about to be said, is said by someone who has in every sense turned their back on GW and thier products! However, even I find the last line of your OP a little, well, extreme. OK, WD is a pile of rat droppings, but you've already stated that you enjoyed Dread-Fleet, and perhaps you enjoy a number of their other products as well? Why walk away from something you enjoy so much on the strength (or weakness) of a magazine that has by and large gone to the dogs anyway.

notprop wrote:I have bought the last four and concur with Kid_K.

I actually thought that it started going down hill circa 1999 ala the red phase.

The red period was over by 1999 (it ended with Gorka Morka IMO). IMO the red period was a good time for WD with its card inserts, rules supplements and battle reports that I have fond memories of; YMMV.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Believe it or not it's getting a wee smidge better. I mean at least it had the rules for the beastmen giants. A year or two back you wouldn't have even gotten that.

Frankly it's not been worth reading since 2004

Was that the time of 'the giant issue' when White Dwarf's low quality led to the closing of the GW forums?

I_Do_Not_Like_That wrote:I have never been so disillusioned with the hobby... ...FOW and Mantic all the way.

Sounds to me like you're on a high with this hobby. Maybe you'rev talking about some other hobby you're disillusioned with.

My missus got me a 12 month subscription last Christmas, so I've read the last 12, and I did of course demand she doesn't get me one this year.

But as always, I'm not as vitriolic as most, it certainly isn't worth the money, but it isn't absolute dog toffee.

I enjoy the batreps and the painting stuff, but it has far too many adverts, and far too few pages and hobbyist articles, I really enjoy the army profiles where committed blokes talk us through their own projects, and big 40k batreps, and both have been few and far between this year.

Its not worth buying, but it's not total gak. I will be nipping into WH Smiths every month to read it. But yeah, its not getting bought unless its a special occasion.

mattyrm wrote: I will be nipping into WH Smiths every month to read it.

Not in Smiths you won't. They stopped stocking it

(unless they have since reversed said decision of course!)

George Spiggott wrote:
Was that the time of 'the giant issue' when White Dwarf's low quality led to the closing of the GW forums?

UK WD 316 (May 2006). Complete with "Giant O'meter" IIRC.

Matty Tescos have it and are big enough that you can find a quiet corner to sit down and read it in.

notprop wrote:Matty Tescos have it and are big enough that you can find a quiet corner to sit down and read it in.

Who are "Tescos"? There is no Mr Tesco. There is no second "S"!

The one I work at stocks it very randomly. Sometimes we won't have it some months. A better place to get it more consistently is the Co-op, though finding a place to read it there will prove to be more difficult.

Dreadfleet was one of the few GW things I bought in 2011. Bottom line is I can get 1000 points in FOW with just one £15 box set.
If I'm spending £5 I need to be seduced, I need to be tickled!
Matty, how did you get away with being a miniature wargamer in your unit? My brother told me a story about trying to introducing white dwarf to his RA battery. It goes without saying that he wasn't short of potatoes to peel!!
The entire company needs an overall from top to bottom starting with this magazine!!

i still like White Dwarf...
i have every issue from #75 on up...
it makes great bathroom reading (cue the jokes about using the mag as toilet paper)...

i don't expect much from the mag except pretty pictures of toy soldiers and a fun bat rep...
being a painter, and not a gamer, frees me from much expectations toward the "GW Hobby"...
whatever changes at GW HQ doesn't really matter to me, as i'm not forced to buy something just to keep an army up to date...

i do feel for the gamers, and the plethora of woes...
White Dwarf used to be a whole different beast...
it is still full of great photos, though, and it's nice to sit back in a chair and look at cool minis...
yes, there are better mags out there, like Game Forces (which is a great mag for painters), but none of them are going to give me my monthly Space Marine fix...

maybe i'm simple, or just naive, but i still get just as excited now, 25 years later, as i did when i was twelve years old and the end of the month rolls around, because i can't wait to get the next issue...

cheers
jah

The main issue for me is the lack of hobby content. The trouble is "the hobby" in GW's eyes is to buy a plastic kit, glue it together and paint it.

No conversions (beyond kitbashing), no making scenery and no innovation = no magazine content

I... Um...

Am I going to get e-lynched for mentioning that I've had a subscription to White Dwarf for the past 2-3 years, since I got back into WH40k?

Though, I'm starting to enjoy it less and less, especially after some nice Dakkites pointed out that stuff they do with the WD Battle Reports - mentions of "practice" games, utterly silly unit choices for the opposing side to the current month's army, etc. etc. Really made me enjoy the battle reports a lot less.

I don't think I'll be renewing my subscription. But I'll admit that it made for some nice bathroom reading for a while.

Pouncey wrote:I... Um...

Am I going to get e-lynched for mentioning that I've had a subscription to White Dwarf for the past 2-3 years, since I got back into WH40k?

Everyone's allowed one mistake

Seriously, I've been buying it more or less constantly since I got into Warhammer which was a very long time ago. This was mostly through force of habit and I've made all sorts of excuses for it on here over the years ("it does have some good painting articles occasionally").

No more though. The Necron issue was the last straw, an entire magazine devoted to "Buy Necrons!" finally shattered the last remanants of any illusion that it was worth buying.

Flashman wrote:

Pouncey wrote:I... Um...

Am I going to get e-lynched for mentioning that I've had a subscription to White Dwarf for the past 2-3 years, since I got back into WH40k?

Everyone's allowed one mistake

Seriously, I've been buying it more or less constantly since I got into Warhammer which was a very long time ago. This was mostly through force of habit and I've made all sorts of excuses for it on here over the years ("it does have some good painting articles occasionally").

No more though. The Necron issue was the last straw, an entire magazine devoted to "Buy Necrons!" finally shattered the last remanants of any illusion that it was worth buying.

:: nods ::

Mostly I was reading the battle reports and articles - and of course checking out the shiny new releases. I just can't enjoy the battle reports anymore. Same for the articles, as they seemed to be designed to push the latest releases more and more.

So now when I go to the bathroom, I crack open the magazine, and end up flicking between pages, finding nothing I want to read... Admittedly, it has been the November 2011 issue ever since I found it under a pile of stuff a few days ago, but meh. I've still got my subscription till March or April or something like that, so I may as well see if any of the upcoming ones are any better, or if I just need to abandon it altogether.

Judging by this thread's original post and the usual comments about how it's been constantly going downhill - which I do agree with - it's not likely to get better.

I haven't bought it for 15 years now, doesnt sound like im missing much!

Are there any good miniature painting, modelling mags in the uk?