I’m aware that most people probably think of me as some kind of Games Workshop hate machine, fuelled by rage and loathing for the venerable establishment that got me into wargaming. Let me just preface this by saying that’s not how I want to be, but the Sherriff et al are making it damn hard for me to be positive about the things they do.
I returned another Finecast model (my second every model) to the store recently as it was not in a fit state to be used. The face was not filled properly, there was mould in the mouth and both arms had casting issues.but that’s an aside. What I wanted to make comment on today is the latest edition of White Dwarf.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a planet being attacked by Tyranids you can’t have failed to notice that GW are celebrating a whopping 25 years of 40k this year. Now, I’m not a regular purchaser of White Dwarf, I’m one of those hate filled detractors that thinks the magazine has gone downhill massively since the glory days of the early nineties. I bought January’s issue for the new Vampire Counts stuff (which included possibly the worst battle report that I’ve ever seen in my life) and it advertised this month as a special 25th anniversary 40k issue. I thought that was an awesome thing so grabbed a copy from my local game store and went home to enjoy it.
So, imagine if you will my amazement that at least 80% of the issue is dedicated to crap for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game…. some new models and new army books… no 40k releases, no articles, nothing. At the back are a few pages that show how things have progressed since the days of Rogue Trader and what has been in the various editions. That’s it… no army showcases, nothing that anyone with a pen and a beermat could have come up with to make the issue something special. To say that I was horrified about how little 40k content there was in an issue billed as the 25th anniversary special is something of an understatement. I feel more cheated out of my money than I usually am. Maybe I should have twigged when the cover art was Gandalf but I bought it for one reason and feel like I was baited. That I was expected to go “ooooooooohh, look at all that nice new LOTR stuff, I think I’ll have to go out and get me some of those” and sadly, I am not fooled by the obvious, in your face, marketing at work here. It’s like being shanghaied without the mugger having the decency to cosh you from behind. they just marched right up to you, face to face and *bonk* you wake up at sea press-ganged.
So if you’re thinking of getting this month’s issue, save yourself a fiver or, if you absolutely need to get rid of your money, give it to a homeless person. It’ll do far more good than losing brain cells in an issue of White Dwarf you probably won’t read any of the articles from.
