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I dont normally have much to do with White Dwarf, but I put in an order with an online game shop yesterday in order to access this months issue of White Dwarf.

It arrived extremely swiftly from Willen Games and I didn't pay extra for shipping, just bought enough IG with the magazine for free shipment. It just changed the order I will buy things with my hobby budget, thats all. I weill remember Willen for the lightning fast service.
Anyway I digress, I wont tell you about the magazine contents , I havent looked through it much. Its bigger and glossier and has more content including minor chapters, short stories etc. It is however £5.99 and that is too much no matter how big and glossy its gets.

However this month has two additional gifts.

Munitorum Field Manual 2021 MKI

This is a 56 page booklet roughly A5 sized. The magazine says it "updates all the points values for every unit of every faction for use in Warhammer 40,000, including Forge World units". And this is what it does, it includes all factions including titans. However it is not immune from error, I noticed ommissions from the Leman Russ line, it didn't include many of the main weapons in the cost lists, even though the single entry included all Leman Russ variants. Maybe they will proofread it when they release a Mk2 later this year with 2021's new unit inclusions. It certainly doesnt include new units, we know the Sisters Palatine is coming, the model is showcased but she is not included in the sisters list.
Still once you are aware of its flaws its a handy list making tool, better in my opinion than thumbing back to the back of the codex, I will certainly be using it.

White Dwarf Warhammer PC Games Library

This is a small card in the magazine on one side showing the labels of fourteen game titles, and on the other a unique fifteen character steam code to unlock them all. These are not demos, these are the full games.
The steam codes are valid until August 31st 2021. The pre issue marketing lists twelve games, but there are fourteen on the card.

- Warhammer: Vermintide II
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Game of the Year edition
- Total War: Warhammer
- Total War: Warhammer Call of the Beastmen
- Warhammer Quest
- Warhammer Quest 2: The End Times
- Warhammer Underworlds Online
- Talisman: Digital Edition
- Warhammer Chaos & Conquest
- Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus
- Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach
- Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon – Da Orks
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf

Now some of the above titles are shovelware, but there are some games included.

- Total War: Warhammer
The first not the second one, with one of the DLC provided. The main draw here is for Total War Warhammer players who did not pick up the Beastman DLC. Unless uyou ar a rare Dakkaite who is into Warhammer yet never picked up this game.

- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
The second high budget title on the card. Mixed reviews but definitely worth a playthrough, I wasn't going to fork out for it, but liked what I saw of it and will play it.

- Warhammer: Vermintide II
The third major title on the card and a surprising entry. Its still a fairly recent game. i would have been expecting and would have been happy with the original, but Chaos too, count me in. This is a game I couldn't really afford. The magazine was worth it just for this.

There are some honourable mentions:

- 75% off voucher for Warhammer 40000 Gladius.
This is a good game if you don't have it.



- Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus
I am going to be kind and add this to the honourable mentions. Partly because it is done by two guys who are trying very hard to make the game though it is a shovelware licence, and partly because its not even fully released yet. This doesnt bode well to be a freebee on a magazine cover prior to full commercial release but, I played this game, it means well and has promise.
The titan animations are good, the gameplay is thin and clunky, but its alpha and listed as alpha and the devs are progressing quickly and well.



- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
This is the original with "they come at us in metal bawkses, the kowards, the fewls" and all that. It doesn't even have the IG expansion in it. I didnt have this game on steam. I wish it was Dark Crusade.


Most of the rest is shovelware, I haven't tried loading most, except for digital Talisman which I loaded for curiosity and was very slow in single player. Loaded some reviews:






I wont load them all, you get the idea. I wouldnt pay for most of those games, but am willing to give them a try. Vermintide 2 and Space Marine on the other hand will be eagerly played when I have room on my drive.

I'll second that the 75% off Gladius is worth it. Whilst its not the most complex 4X game it does exactly what it aims to do really well - its a combat focused turn based game that really delivers. It's basically good solid fun in my view. Sure games like Crusader Kings have deeper political elements; games like Endless Legends have deeper build menus and such - but Gladius delivers that perpetual war of the 41st mellenium really well. IT also has some neat story telling alongside each faction


Also note that Warhammer Total War is a special game. It's a game made in 3 parts and each part carries over into the next. So all the Warhammer 1 factions and DLC carries over into Warhammer 2 and all of Warhammer 1 and 2 carry over into the forthcoming Warhammer 3. So you don't waste anything by getting it and then continuing on the series if you like it. And I will say that it is THE BEST Fantasy RTS game released since Warcraft 3. Perhaps even the best released of all time. No other fantasy game touches it for diversity of factions; for unit rosters; for visuals for, well, pretty much anything.

I'm not saying its the best RTS ever made, just the best Fantasy RTS ever made. You have to go way back to really old games or turn based games to get anywhere near the same number and diversity of factions on offer.

Are the games just on PC or are they available on other platfoms?

Also haven't heard anything about this Titanicus game, is it worth giving a go?

 Overread wrote:
I'll second that the 75% off Gladius is worth it. Whilst its not the most complex 4X game it does exactly what it aims to do really well - its a combat focused turn based game that really delivers. It's basically good solid fun in my view. Sure games like Crusader Kings have deeper political elements; games like Endless Legends have deeper build menus and such - but Gladius delivers that perpetual war of the 41st mellenium really well. IT also has some neat story telling alongside each faction


Also note that Warhammer Total War is a special game. It's a game made in 3 parts and each part carries over into the next. So all the Warhammer 1 factions and DLC carries over into Warhammer 2 and all of Warhammer 1 and 2 carry over into the forthcoming Warhammer 3. So you don't waste anything by getting it and then continuing on the series if you like it. And I will say that it is THE BEST Fantasy RTS game released since Warcraft 3. Perhaps even the best released of all time. No other fantasy game touches it for diversity of factions; for unit rosters; for visuals for, well, pretty much anything.

I'm not saying its the best RTS ever made, just the best Fantasy RTS ever made. You have to go way back to really old games or turn based games to get anywhere near the same number and diversity of factions on offer.

After Rome 1 I say its the best total war game as well.

 Valkyrie wrote:
Also haven't heard anything about this Titanicus game, is it worth giving a go?

It's not bad, but it's not finished - it's still an "Early Access Game".

 Valkyrie wrote:
Are the games just on PC or are they available on other platfoms?

It's for PC.

£6 is a lot, though if you look around you can get the mag for less. The Field Manual is useful, its a marginal buy for a non PC user depending on how much you will need the points cost manual, which I am frankly finding very convenient.
But no, if you dont have a PC this is not for you, but if you do, or know someone who would appreciate the code card as a gift, yep this issue is a steal.

 Orlanth wrote:
This is a small card in the magazine on one side showing the labels of fourteen game titles, and on the other a unique fifteen character steam code to unlock them all.

I want to emphasise this - it's one code for all the games. This means you can't split the games with someone else, and you don't get surplus of games you already own.

Yes, if you read carefully you either keep or give away the 'code card', its all or nothing.

If you have most/all of the games and want the points manual its one solution.

 Orlanth wrote:

 Valkyrie wrote:
Are the games just on PC or are they available on other platfoms?

It's for PC.

£6 is a lot, though if you look around you can get the mag for less. The Field Manual is useful, its a marginal buy for a non PC user depending on how much you will need the points cost manual, which I am frankly finding very convenient.
But no, if you dont have a PC this is not for you, but if you do, or know someone who would appreciate the code card as a gift, yep this issue is a steal.

Where can you get it for less?
(Also, delivered?)

I know that most of this set is shovelware, and I personally never liked Space Marine, so that's not a big get for me, but there are some fun things in there. The big part of this release is Vermintide 2, and that's fine for people who like that. If it'd included Dark Crusade, that'd be incredible.

The discount on Gladius is nice, but really they should have just included the full game. There's so much DLC for that game, that giving the base game away for free would have been a nice incentive to get it.

And I think that giving away Total War Warhammer on the cusp of Total War Warhammer III isn't great. TWWII would'a been better, as would perhaps including some more higher-profile games (Mechanicus, for example).

The overall problem isn't the games itself, and more the way that GW has thrown the license at everyone with a pulse, leading to massive gulfs in quality.

 Valkyrie wrote:
Also haven't heard anything about this Titanicus game, is it worth giving a go?

I played through the tutorials and did a skirmish mission.

The way the AI selects its forces reminds me of Final Liberation - buying the biggest units it can with no sense of composition or tactical balance, and then buys smaller and smaller units until it runs out of points. In my case it took 2 Banelord titans, 4 Warlords, and a single Reaver. I took 2 Warlords, 3 Reavers and 6 Warhounds. Walked away with two badly damaged Warlords, 2 Warhounds and 2 Reavers. Everything else was dead.

Battle felt like it took an hour-ish to play, and overall was satisfying but very slow. The animations are super janky, and there's no real sense that you're doing much damage until something falls off or the Titan explodes (the second Banelord I killed took me by surprise). The titans will also fire relentlessly at you, even if there's terrain blocking 100% of their shots. They just keep in firing.

Shots move slowly through the air, Titans hardly seem to turn to face (and I can't tell if you can set that), and overall it really does feel like the earliest of early access games. It works, it can be fun, but it is far from polished.

There are some fun details, like the buildings and things all being actual miniatures that GW sells, so you see bastions, drop pods, skyshields and so on. There are even little squads of tiny Marines running around engaging in fire fights. It's cute.

Danny76 wrote:

Where can you get it for less?
(Also, delivered?)

A few places, fewer if you wait.

Willen Games sold it for £4.49 it may still have copies, might not. I cant actually check because I am blocked from the particular subpage, a neat little bit of coding to make sure I couldn't scalp, were I a scalper.

A lot of places are sold out including GW webstore, if you like what you see on this thread don't be tardy about it.

So a word to the wise:

Q: Where can you get it for less?
(Also, delivered?)

A: Websearch now!

Warhammer 1 for those that don't own it is still worth owning, its the only way to get Bretonnia, Vampires, Empire, Dwarves, Orks and (if you get the DLC) Beastmen, Chaos, Wood Elves and Norsca. All those factions unlock in Warhammer 2 and Warhammer 3 but only if you own them through owning Warhammer 1 (and dlc) on the same steam account.



I figure its too soon for Warhammer 2 to appear on the front of the magazine for free, BUT at some point this year I'd expect to see it in a Humble Bundle like they did with Warhammer 1 before 2 dropped.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I know that most of this set is shovelware, and I personally never liked Space Marine, so that's not a big get for me, but there are some fun things in there. The big part of this release is Vermintide 2, and that's fine for people who like that. If it'd included Dark Crusade, that'd be incredible..

Yep 'H got to agree with every word of that. Space Marine is a big title and it is well presented. Now I have it at this price point I will play it, but its not high on my download list I might never get around to it, but its nice to know its there.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

The discount on Gladius is nice, but really they should have just included the full game. There's so much DLC for that game, that giving the base game away for free would have been a nice incentive to get it.

I think the Gladius guys are holding out for a payday, its slim pickings. 75% off is still substantial and the vast majority of free players do not commit, IIRC 95% never spend any money on a free game, so getting a player to commit some monies means they are more likely to buy DLC.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

And I think that giving away Total War Warhammer on the cusp of Total War Warhammer III isn't great. TWWII would'a been better, as would perhaps including some more higher-profile games (Mechanicus, for example).

The more I look at this the more I see it as a smart move. Though I would have added the Chaos Warrior race pack also. Hype for Warhammer 3 is growing, but for those who never invested buying 1 and 2 and DLC is a bit of a mountain. Giving new players the base foundation now is shrewd, it makes buying the rest of the prerequisites that much easier, and I am sure there will be discount options. Beastman DLC is also a shrewd call now I think on it as its one of the few DLC that includes a stand a lone game mode. You can play the Khazrak vs Boris Todbringer campaign with nothing lacking.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

The overall problem isn't the games itself, and more the way that GW has thrown the license at everyone with a pulse, leading to massive gulfs in quality.

It is one of the smartest decisions GW ever made, IP sales is free money and kept the company solvent while Kirby was burning down the house. Now post Kirby the new policy of offering IP to anyone who wants to develop has brought in a lot of cash and a lot of attention. Normally mishandled IP ruins a brand, but GW have gone for the shotgun approach, and customers know that a GW licence game might be crap or might be great. Many developers grew up on GW games and have a love for the title, so there are a lot of enthusiast amateur coders who want to do right by the property. This enthusiasm shows as while there is a lot of shovelware, there are gems amongst the poo, and I am not talking big budget stuff like Total War Warhammer, as that's the standard IP corporate sale category that can hit or miss, like Star Wars games have, and a lot depends on big corporate decisions GW has no control over post sale.
Its the small indies run by people who don't have to answer to a corporation, want to code their assets as well as they paint their own miniatures and love the franchise. This is how we got very good indie games like Mordheim and Armada and a plethora of passable titles like Mechanicus.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Valkyrie wrote:
Also haven't heard anything about this Titanicus game, is it worth giving a go?

I played through the tutorials and did a skirmish mission.

The way the AI selects its forces reminds me of Final Liberation - buying the biggest units it can with no sense of composition or tactical balance, and then buys smaller and smaller units until it runs out of points. In my case it took 2 Banelord titans, 4 Warlords, and a single Reaver. I took 2 Warlords, 3 Reavers and 6 Warhounds. Walked away with two badly damaged Warlords, 2 Warhounds and 2 Reavers. Everything else was dead.

I played four missions so far. Sometimes they do what you list above, I have faced exactly that army. Sometimes they force things in threes one Warlord, one Reaver one Warhound, repeat, and they also do the same cop out as Mordheim mirroring the players force org, though with randomised weapons. Frankly I wish Mordheim didnt mirror the players gang all rthe time but mixed it up a bit. Dominus is trying to make compositions, however its doesnt matter there is no teamwork in the AI.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Battle felt like it took an hour-ish to play, and overall was satisfying but very slow. The animations are super janky, and there's no real sense that you're doing much damage until something falls off or the Titan explodes (the second Banelord I killed took me by surprise). The titans will also fire relentlessly at you, even if there's terrain blocking 100% of their shots. They just keep in firing.

They also use full moves too much. Titanicus is naval combat, so 'attack effectively first', normally they AI deos very little shooting in the first two turns as it tries to position. It cant position however if I move slowly and fire, even at sub optimal ranges and am a Reaver up by the end of turn two.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Shots move slowly through the air, Titans hardly seem to turn to face (and I can't tell if you can set that), and overall it really does feel like the earliest of early access games. It works, it can be fun, but it is far from polished.

There are some fun details, like the buildings and things all being actual miniatures that GW sells, so you see bastions, drop pods, skyshields and so on. There are even little squads of tiny Marines running around engaging in fire fights. It's cute.

Game has promise, but it needs a lot of work, it also needs a lot of content. There is no point to a lot of the weapons if you only face Titans. They need to expand the licence to include other assets even if they are dumb assets. It would make sense if you earned victory points with fire support, and could only effectively fire support with non titan killing weapons. So you get far more VP firing vulcan mega bolters into squads or buildings than volcano cannon.

Actually far as I can tell the CA team really really wanted to do Warhammer Total War. For them it was a huge gamble because they've never done fantasy before - ever. Their market prior to Warhammer was 100% historical battles.

Their Warhammer game also pushed them to do things that they've never touched before. Magical effects, flying units, gargantuan creatures even animations of unhuman creatures and such. They also generally don't do huge variety within factions - lets face it a swordsman is a swordsman and many regular TW armies are reskins over existing meshes and animation packs. That isn't a bad thing, its just that humans are, well, pretty human and quite similar and whilst there are different styles of swordplay and the like its nothing like the difference between animating a human and a skaven or a dragon or a griffin.


CA also made some big changes, such as the shift from formation tactics to special ability tactics.




Warhammer TW was a huge gamble for them that they didn't need to make. They also then wanted to do the Lord of the Rings treatment and make not one but 3 full games. Even built on the same engine that's a huge amount of commitment.


It's basically WAY outside of their normal and not something they've even attempted to repeat elsewhere.


And honestly it paid off. The only other TW to outsell Warhammer is Three Kingdoms and no TW game beats Warhammer for its retention of active players.


IT was a huge gamble for them and it paid off big time, but in the end you can see that its far more a project they wanted to do than one that they needed to do.










And yes the Warhammer game licence works great for GW because any bad games just get dropped and forgotten and don't hurt the core IP nor market. Good ones like TW Warhammer and Vermintide, Dawn of War (1-2), Space Marine etc... instead go on to help promote, spread and gain new customers aware of the IP who might then dip into books, magazines, the physical game and heck the eventual TV series .

Founds a couple of reviews:







Both appear to be regular White Dwarf reviewers rather than opportunists

Plus this:

Any idea what the "value" would be in that Steam Code?

I ask, as I intend to get the magazine, but I have zero interest in PC games so wont need it.. and would like to trade it aware for .. something..

Well you can trade it to me for hugs and goodwill if you’d like.

Can’t find the issue anywhere local or online.

Yes you can.

I just did, right now.. Willen had stock this morning, they havent now, you could have gone there. But I have found two online shops stocking it.

You need to access google, type in 'white dwarf 462' and look for yourself, and the longer you wait the less places will have it.

I bought this because I thought I'd give Total War a go and have some nice glossy pics to look at, but I see that the pics aren't glossy at all, and they're now using a cheap rough paper for the magazine. How long has this been the case? (I ask because I thought I might buy a couple of back issues online, likely won't now).

Would totally recommend Talisman if anyone is looking for a casual, relaxing online boardgame to play with friends.

My gaming group and I, who would usually be getting together in person (to play Talisman!), have met up online to play instead and it's pretty good - exact copy of the boardgame in fact, so you'll either like it or not based on if you liked the physical game.

I just finished a solo six player game of Talisman. It was a mistake to play with six, it lasted 114 turns.

Same game as I remember though, with some minor fixes. I still dont like the expansions

Hard to find a copy now. Just managed to snag one from a Gaming store. Took two pages of google results!

I picked mine up in Sainsbury’s yesterday. The big Sainsbury’s and Tesco stores are usually a good place to check.

In Sainsbury’s they were out of stock in the usual White Dwarf spot but had a few copies in a separate “Hot off the press” box that was attached to one of the shelves.

Picked up two copies I preordered at my FLGS. Listening to the latest episode of Game Classy podcast as they're talking about each of the games.

Ah, another Game Classy fan,

managed to pick up one at WH Smiths, but the rest had gone so i'm glad I didn't leave it to later in the week

Game Classy is the only hobby podcast I care to listen to. I got to meet Joe at Adapticon. Solid podcast, solid people.

And again I'm still wating when (or if at all) this issue will arrive here. It seems as soon as you get a white dwarf subscription you wait longer to get the WD or have to bug the customer service that some issue is lost.

Griffin Gaming
Gaming Figures £5.03 and claims to have 5+ copies left
Firestorm Cards £5
WOW Art Supplies
Plaza Toys

All the above claim to have stock of this issue as of the time of this post. Though some might not have updated their website. All the big name gaming stockists are out though, so claim they are putting in a reorder but as GW are themselves out good luck with that.

I wonder if Danny has got his Google-fu sorted yet.

I have been playing some of the shovelware games. Some, not all.


Talisman: Digital Edition

It slow to play but a faithful recreation of the boardgame. The AI is reasonable and due to the random nature of the game gives a good challenge, it doesn't gank the player unless they are ahead, knows when to play cautiously or aggressively. This game has earned its place on my drive.

Warhammer Quest

Played it once, for a few hours, not a bad game but rather thin, Warhammer Quest has a lot of content but hides it behind a paywall, which will cost £12 to unlock. Decided to pass. Uninstalled.

Warhammer Quest: End Times

Much more polished game with 3d graphics and all the characters are unlocked in the game, as far as I can tell. I havent played much of it, and dont like End Times but am keeping this one.

Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus

Played it a fair amount the last two days, it is rather thin. Decided to uninstall but wont forget it, its a game I might batch play on occasion and come back to as and when I feel curious about its progress.

I played a bit of Space Marine, but wont review that here its a major title and nice addition to a magazine cover.

Put in my code yesterday and started playing Total war for the first time. I'm awful at that game, it's really hard!