Tabletop Review: White Dwarf, Issue #82 (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Chaos Dreadhold, Warhammer: 40,000)

White Dwarf, Issue #82 (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Chaos Dreadhold, Warhammer: 40,000)
Publisher: Games Workshop
Page Count: 32
Cost: $3.99 (Physical)/$2.99 (Digital)
Release Date: 08/22/2015
Get it Here: The Black Library (Or your local Games Workshop store)

Well, the Summer of Sigmar is winding down and this week we have a doozy of an issue. I hope you like scenery because the bulk of this White Dwarf is devoted to the modular Chaos Castle. As I’ve said in the past, Chaos is the least interesting faction in ANY version of Warhammer to me, but my god are these castle sets amazing. They’re pricey but oh man do I want a few to make a giant castle for my figures. Now the castle isn’t the only thing in the issue, but it is the majority, so if you’re not interested in this thing, than this is a safe issue for you to skip. For everyone else though, read on.

White Dwarf almost always starts with the sales fluff and this is no exception. The first look is at the new ten pack of Blood Warriors of Khorne. I still think the helmets for these guys are silly, but you get a good price for the set, they are pretty customizable and I love the double bladed glaive.Too bad you only get one to a set. I also like that you can go with a double axe combo or an axe/bladed buckler choice. I prefer the latter in style, but as I don’t play Khorne, my opinion doesn’t matter much here. This is a nicely detailed look at the new figures and they ARE impressive.

After that, it’s castle time. Instead of covering the castle as one big article, White DwarfAge of Sigmar so far was the Ophidian Archway and that was a nightmare to put together as the pieces didn’t line up at all, so I’ve held off on purchasing any of the other, even though I love the design of the Dragonfate Dais and Numinous Occulum. I’mnot going to get burned again so I’ll wait for a sale, third party sellers on Ebay or reviews that state the pieces actually do go together well before I purchase any more Age of Sigmar scenery. Still, the pictures and descriptive text in these castle articles do a fantastic job of selling the new kits and I can’t deny I want to blow a few hundred dollars on making a giant castle.

There are few other sales pieces this week. One is for a new book that ties into the Chaos Castle. Battletome: Chaos Dreadhold is an eighty page volume containing warscrolls for the new Keep and other kits, while also providing some fluffy fiction. I might pick this up and review it. The physical copy is $33, so I’ll wait to see how much the digital version is. There is also a new Age of Sigmar fiction collection. The Realmgate Wars: Ghal Maraz contains two novellas (one of which was previous a set of digital Quick Reads). This will most likely just be a rehash of the last Age of Sigmar campaign book, just told by different authors, so there is no point in picking this up if you already got that oversized $75 tome. Finally, we have a look at the Forge World daemon Gor’bax Utterblight. Like most Forge World stuff, it’s very impressive but not something I would spend a crazy amount of money on. Forge World does have free shipping right now until the end of Sepetember though, so it is as good a time as any to purchase this if you are a Nurgle player.

At this point the sales articles KIND OF end. I say kind of because the next article is “Chaos Dreadhold,” which is a fantastic look at combining multiple castle kits into one giant amazing castle in the shape of the nine pointed star that is the symbol of Chaos in Warhammer. The pictures are jaw droppingly cool, the end result makes you want to create the same thing and the text is terrific at selling you on the idea of buying multiple kits, especially since you don’t have to mod a thing to make this. However, if you let reason and logic prevail, you’ll realize that building this totally cool and wicked looking centerpiece for a table…will cost you well over a thousand dollars. That’s enough to put your desire to make this to a complete halt unless you plan on slowly assembling this over a few years. Remember you have to glue and paint this in addition to you armies. Leave this to the people paid to do make cool scenery designs you’ll never play on or pay for unless you are foolishly bad with your monetary decisions. At least they give you a nice breakdown on how to paint this whole thing.

“The Grand Alliances” is a fluff article about the four sides in Age of Sigmar and the different, fragmented alliances that make each one up. It’s a rehash of what we’ve heard for many weeks now, but it is still a fun read. Another subtle hint that Arkhan the Black is no longer with Nagash as well…

“Armies on Parade 2015” continues to motif for another week. Once again, we a look at pieces for the Tau and Tomb Kings that have been featured for the past few issues. As a Tomb Kings player I like the information on how Dan Harden is painting his army, even though they aren’t color choices I’d make for mine.

“Warscrolls” is your free set of mechanics and rules. It always is and always will be. Instead of giving the rules for the Dreadhold kits, you get a look at the Blood Warriors, which you have probably already seen before thanks to the Age of Sigmar boxed set or the Age of Sigmar app. So this is essentially a rehash of figures you’ve already seen the stats for, now with their Gorefist and/or Goreglaive. It’s a bit disappointing we didn’t get a look at castle kits, but so much of the issue already focuses on that already. I guess Games Workshop didn’t want to burn you out.

This leaves the tail end of the magazine left aka “This Week in White Dwarf” aka “a lot of filler than could be spent on real articles.” God I wish they’d change this but eighty-two issues in, they’re still going with it. I’d really prefer but articles with depth and substance, but it’s easier to fill a few pages with sidebars and pictures I guess. The good news is that about half of what is here this week is really good instead of crap slapped together.

As you might imagine, there is a bit of fluff on the new Chaos Dreadhold. You get a reminder that the warscrolls for the Keep kits come in the new book or when you purchase a model. There’s also a quick bit of “Paint Splatter” where they give you another paint scheme for the castle (I really like this one actually). For once I also really like the Model of the Week with its Emperor’s Children Purple/Pink shading. Finally you get a look at a non-red(!) Khorne paint scheme, the “Ask Grombrindal” faux query column and a passing nod to some 40K fluff. That’s your issue this week.

I’ll admit, I’m very happy with this issue of White Dwarf. I loved reading about the Chaos Deadhold and I can’t deny how much I want to put one together. However, I have so many figures I have to paint and glue that scenery comes a distant second for me. Maybe someday I’ll put one of those together… Still, Issue #82 of White Dwarf was a terrific read and well worth the cover price if you’re at all curious about the new Chaos Castle kits.


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