White Dwarf #453 April 2020

While some of you may already the #454 issue, the April issue of White Dwarf arrived here last week. Due to the corona post hick-ups my subscription copy was lost, but the Games Workshop customer service took care of it, and send a replacement on its way.

Therefore we have the regular cover of White Dwarf #453 April 2020 (yet the month stated has to be taken rather loosely, as Grombrindal explains over here).

One of the main topics of this issue is founding a Space Marine chapter. Makes sense, the new edition if right around the corner and with Primaris more and more replacing the old Space Marines (so called Firstborns), why not create a whole new army instead of just adding them to your existing project. For that reason, they have a nice overview on different colour schemes along with a template, to create your own along with the information on different troops. That template has been around since 2017, and you can download it from Warhammer Community.

As Space Marines are the poster-boys of the Warhammer brand, Ghazghkull Mag Urak Thraka is the Ork, and they had a nice article with designer's notes on the development and history of the model, and even covered his grot sidekick Makari. Games Workshop updated / edited the banner of the miniature recently, to avoid any policital discussion.

I like these articles and overview on the progress of a design, I've done similar on Chaos, for example for the CSM Terminators or Khorne Berzerkers.

Speaking of Khorne, they did a really great painting and conversion article over multiple pages on themed projects for the bloodgod. Some older projects, like the Chaos Terminators converted with wild bits, using the Age of Sigmar Bloodwarriors as a base for more scale appropiate and recent sculpts for Khorne Berzerkers, and that amazing conversion of a demonprince using Eidolon of Mathlann from the Idoneth Deepkin range.

The issue has some very nice showcases and coverage on several army projects. I really like the Demigryph cavalry, and that amazing dedication to really pull off a Howling Griffons army. The Kill Team spotlight is ace, just look at those conversions.

Among the Golden Demon Showcase, I really like the Forge World miniatures. Pertubaro's Base is amazing as it the AdMech duo.

You remember the picture of "young" Jervis Johnson from My trip down memory lane... article? Mr. Johnson has his own column in the White Dwarf, where he speaks about several topics of wargaming, this time about iterative game design process. Sound a bit agile, much like many of the community editions work. Well, it's something that works well with digital copy, but I would rather be annoyed if print copies were obsolete after the next iteration (depending on how fast paced they are).

Other than that, the issue is quite broad. We have talked about the 40k part mostly above, there is a Tale of 4 Generals in Warcry, (has anybody a larger picture of the "White Dwarf Gaming Table Rules" that you can see in the background?), quite a bit on the Ossiarch Bonereapers incl. painting, lore and quite a bit on campaign gaming. Blackstone Fortress gets a new character, a Deathwatch Watch Master (Which switched witch watches which Swatch watch switch?), backed by a few pages of rules for the Deathwatch on them being Angels of Death, covering Stratagems and Litanies of Battles. And of course there is a bit on Underworld and Necromunda in here as well.

Rob Alderman plays a round of Lord of the Rings, and very prominent in that battle report is the Rohan Watchtower & Palisade. It confirms my conlusion from the review back then, that this kit is a great addition to your terrain collection.

The last page announces the Waaagh! of the Goff clan, but more prominently a trio of Eldar Wraithlords. Really interesting poses, and as I recently had my hands on the old 2nd edition metal kit, something that you can for sure make much easier with the "newer" plastic kit.

This issue is a broad selection across the whole board of rule sets and topics that Games Workshop offers. The big three are very well represented and you have slices of the sidekick games. So if you're into at least two of their active systems (beside Blood Bowl, Titanicus or Aeronautica in case of this issue) there are at least a few pages covering your interest.