My thoughts on the new White Dwarf and Warhammer: Visions

White Dwarf has always been a big part of the hobby for me.  I even remember it including RPG games from other companies back in my teens.  Of course, it has long been a GW-only publication.  Even with it becoming increasingly a marketing tool, I have kept a subscription for a few years now.

Despite a re-launched format only 18 months ago, this month there is an even more radical change, with a now weekly White Dwarf and a monthly called Warhammer: Visions.  As a subscriber I got both today with a letter saying I will just be getting the monthly in future, with the weekly not currently on a subscription basis.  I have no idea without trawling through the GW website how much the subs will be, but the cover price is £2.40 for the weekly and £7.50 for the monthly.  It seems they want me to pay a lot more than my previous £9 per quarter.  Is it worth it?

Visions is 230 smaller pages, slightly wider than A5 size.  As the name implies it is mainly pictures.  The only text is short flavour descriptions on most pages in English, French and German.  The first 70 pages are given to new releases, with quite a range of colour schemes, angles and detail shots. A further 70 pages roughly are for Army of the Month and Golden Demon pictures, again with multiple shots of different units.  Apart from the Store Finder (do we really need that in print?) the last 40 pages are for a useful Paint Splatter, this one showing various hive fleets, including some variant splinter fleets.  In between those sections are Blanchitsu (never grabbed me), Kit Bash (pretty good conversions of various Trukks) and a very disappointing battle report. It's mainly pictures of  models crammed together on a dark table, presumably for atmosphere, with no reference to the mission, points values or any kind of tactics, strategy or dice rolls.  No fun at all.

I think the small format doesn't help with a visual magazine.  Double-page spreads are dominated by the centrefold, which ruins any wow-factor.  Single pages are confusing, with a random mix of multiple shots or full pages of different orientations, either landscape or portrait.  It's not easy to flick through, as the eye constantly needs to re-adjust.  I suppose we are supposed to study each page for inspiration, but Visions does not inspire me.

White Dwarf weekly at 32 pages has more of the feel of a disposable flyer- certainly not something I would have to get regularly.  There is obviously more writing in this mag, with the new release dwarfs featured mostly.  There are some actual rules for one of their special characters.  For 40K players the 4 pages on the different types of Nid army are probably most interesting.

I would say White Dwarf is now more of a pocket money purchase for kids or would be more useful for beginners.   For example there are two pages on glues.  Casual players might like Jervis' mini-game alternative to rolling for the first turn.

Visions seems to be aimed at more experienced painters and modellers, but seems to lack visual impact.

Where is the strategy or tactics for the older gamers?  The advice for tackling Hive Crones? "Shoot them down as quickly as possible." Thanks for that.

I don't just want to see other people's armies.  I want a bit of personal interest. How they have evolved, which units they love playing and how have they fared on the battlefield?

The new mags deserve a bit of a chance.  Things change and we all moan.  But decent battle reports and tactica are a lot cheaper online.