White Dwarf is Getting a Makeover

Games Workshop have today announced a number of changes to White Dwarf magazine:

"White Dwarf reborn

In just over a week's time the pages of White Dwarf will change forever. Miniatures will be shown in a new light, battle reports will be reborn and new articles will be read for the first time. Even the classic logo that sat at the head of the magazine for the last 20 years will disappear into the Hall of Legends.

On September 22nd 2012, White Dwarf will be reborn; bigger, better and more exciting than ever before.

As news goes, that's pretty exciting stuff, I think you'll agree. For the last half-year a crack team of designers have been pulling White Dwarf apart at the seams, re-forging it into something incredibly exciting. Everything is new, nothing's the same. Even the paper is a higher quality, that's the degree to which the magazine has changed.

Suffice to say we're all very excited about our work on the magazine, and the select few people that we've revealed it to in the Studio were overjoyed. Yes, you read that right, most of the guys in the Studio haven't even seen it yet - we're keeping it very close to our chests. Jervis Johnson, one of the regular columnists in White Dwarf was allowed a quick glimpse of the first issue yesterday and almost shed a tear of hobby happiness."


Interesting! We'll hear more about the makeover next week.

Meanwhile, it looks like GW have also changed the name of their news blog from "What's New Today" to "White Dwarf Daily".

I see they're calling it a magazine didn't they stop doing that as it had just become a catalogue

Great to hear.

Hmm. They've destroyed White Dwarf, reduced it to a shadow filled only with pretty pictures of this month's releases.

Hopefully this will be something good. Even if they do actually restore some hobby content to the magazine, it reminds me of the whole "foundation" paints. Hey, look at these "new" paints with all the pigment put back in that we've slowly been removing over the years!

I actually got into this hobby after GW ruined the White Dwarf, so I have no frame of reference, but even a thick-head like me can tell that this used to be a magazine, but whatever made it that is no longer there.
Alright, what do I think about this new look. It's nothing but something to boost sales. The content will be the same load of junk. But sadly, I think it'll work.

Alright, what do I think about this new look. It's nothing but something to boost sales.

Perhaps it's best to wait and see what this all actually entails, no? They've even brought in an outside company for assistance with it all, so evidently they're quite serious.

All I want is the old style battle reports where the guys playing the game filled a page for each turn and used their own armies.

Now all reports are is the new army beating in an old army!

All I want is the old style battle reports where the guys playing the game filled a page for each turn and used their own armies.

Now all reports are is the new army beating in an old army!

This I totally agree with.  I do miss those old issues greatly back when orks were cartoony!

Absolutely! The battle reports of today all follow a set formula. The new/revised army ALWAYS wins the battle report. Also, I am so sick of staring at the studio armies! I miss White Dwarf issue 230. Now THOSE were the days! Hobbyists using their own armies, writing their own battle reports. I used to love the feel of those older issues, the cut-and-paste look of them. Now, no doubt, they'll have an excuse to up the price on the magazine. But yeah, I guess at this point we can only speculate.

This is probably too much to ask for but if they added this, I would be a subscriber:

A legit Fantasy battle report that is edited for rules correctness and actually go into detail about grey area rules that come up.  Possibly even leading to.. gasp.. faq updates?

The content will be the same load of junk. But sadly, I think it'll work.

I wish I too had the gift of foresight...

Alright, what do I think about this new look. It's nothing but something to boost sales.

Perhaps it's best to wait and see what this all actually entails, no? They've even brought in an outside company for assistance with it all, so evidently they're quite serious.

They need an outside company? Ask three gamers and you'll probably get the answers.

1) Rules content! New rules, campaign rules, etc.
2) Real battle reports with real armies and no pre-set outcome
3) Painting guides and showcase figures
4) Interviews on interesting subjects beyond "what are we releasing this week"
5) Articles about tactics, tournaments, player-submitted material? Remember those articles by Mike (I think?). They were funny and really useful. I doubt he got paid for them.

Not rocket science really. Stuff we want to read and not just a catalogue of this month's releases.

Yeah. It was Mike Walker, I think. That guy was a champion! He had that awesome battle report against Gareth Hamilton's outstanding skaven back in '98, I think it may have been. Inspiring stuff. Mike's army had three generations of dwarf rangers. Not like today where they only ever use the flavour of the month releases.

Yeah Mike Walker's How to lose at Warhammer article is one of my favourites!

I wonder if they will do anything as stupid as having Jervis talking about how rules developers are in a frame on mind that makes them terrible at games only to have on the next page a Necron 'tactica' by everyone's favourite games developer Matt Ward.

Most enjoyment I've had out a white dwarf in years.

I got my WD in the mail today and I must say it is everything they promised it would be. Ads are down to a minimum, it's beautifully laid out and it has plenty of articles I'm looking forward to reading. And it is over 150 pages!

I started with issue 139 and have read every issue since then. This is the best change I have ever seen in White Dwarf.

Sounds good Anton! What articles are in there?

Digital version coming too:

I'm excited to announce that very soon we will be releasing our first, and much anticipated, digital edition of White Dwarf, which will be available to download for your iPad via the Apple Newsstand on Saturday. The White Dwarf iPad edition will include all the articles and features of its paper counterpart, but with the added bonus of several unique features, including 360 degree images of miniatures, extra photos and a battle report video debrief in which Adam and Andrew discuss how their game played out.

Off the top of my head:

Big feature of new CSM models, each new kit gets 1-2 pages
Big feature of Horus Heresy, mostly FW stuff
Batrep with new CSM vs SM
Blanchitsu
Jeremy talks about whatever he likes
Jervis talks about whatever he likes
Army list and tactics debate with two tournament veterans (WFB)
Army of the Month (Ben Johnson's Skaven)
Some painting article
Kitbash article about Ork Bommas (some really nice ideas there)
Terrain article
CSM designer's notes with Phil Kelly and Jes Goodwin

And other stuff I don't remember right now.

Off the top of my head:

Big feature of new CSM models, each new kit gets 1-2 pages
Big feature of Horus Heresy, mostly FW stuff
Batrep with new CSM vs SM
Blanchitsu
Jeremy talks about whatever he likes
Jervis talks about whatever he likes
Army list and tactics debate with two tournament veterans (WFB)
Army of the Month (Ben Johnson's Skaven)
Some painting article
Kitbash article about Ork Bommas (some really nice ideas there)
Terrain article
CSM designer's notes with Phil Kelly and Jes Goodwin

And other stuff I don't remember right now.

Huh... Perhaps I was wrong.

Looks like a pleasant return to form for Whit Dwarf, at least partially. A vast improvement on recent years.

For me, the extra page count does kinda disguise the fact that there's still not an awful lot of actual literature on some of the pages, but I was really glad to see them properly embrace the gaming side of the hobby. There were some proper comments in the report other than 'Them Cultists shure look pritty' and the DE vs VC article actually ackowledged some of the horrific tactics both armies can put out. More of that stuff would be great.

Absolutely. Also, less of: in gaming terms these characters/units are largely redundant but we'll include them in the battle report and tactica article so you'll buy them on our recommendation anyway.