WHITE DWARF · DECEMBER 2011
Beastmen binding scrolls, Blood in the Badlands siege, Apocalypse formations, a linked Necron campaign and extensive terrain and monster workshops.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
Andrew Kenrick reviews a year of new armies, monsters and the magazine’s complete Sisters of Battle Codex. December revisits those developments through binding scrolls, Apocalypse formations, a Necron campaign and large-model painting. Blood in the Badlands introduces the studio’s campaign and siege rules, while three battle reports test the year’s releases in different games.
The news page previews roleplaying supplements about Imperial law and First Founding Space Marines, alongside the separate Blood Bowl: Team Manager card game. A report names the winners of an Ultramarines film competition and describes another artwork contest. Dave Andrews and fellow historical re-enactors also appear taking a break with a copy of White Dwarf.
William King explains his return through Blood of Aenarion and a trilogy that follows Tyrion and Teclis from inexperienced youths to established heroes. High Elf glamour and epic history coexist with political intrigue, violence and dark humour. He also previews Angel of Fire, shifting to the human scale of an Imperial Guard tank crew caught in the Macharian Crusade.
Under a fictional commission from Boris Todbringer, Simon Grant describes the threat hidden inside the Empire’s forests. Beastmen resent human civilisation and organise warherds around strength, with Gors, Ungors, elite Bestigors, Minotaurs and protected Bray-Shamans occupying different places. The account challenges the Empire’s assumption that scattered forest creatures cannot threaten fortified settlements and introduces the immense monsters that follow their armies.
The monster discussion distinguishes a Jabberslythe’s Leadership-based madness, a Cygor’s hostility to magic and a Ghorgon’s increasingly destructive hunger. Rare allowances restrict how many can be taken in an ordinary army, but Savage Dominion can summon another creature during play. Their similar army-book costs make substitution easy: choose the Cygor against magic, the Jabberslythe against weak Leadership or the Ghorgon for direct violence.
A 3,000-point army combines Gar-Rak Blackhide’s Bestigors with paired Gor and Ungor units, Minotaurs, a Doombull, two Shamans and two monsters. The paired core units preserve the option of ambushing, while the Minotaurs and Ghorgon open a breach for the elite infantry. The Jabberslythe uses cover on the flank before flying behind the enemy to spread its madness across the main battleline.
Andy Hall introduces the studio campaign recorded in Blood in the Badlands, where rival empires pursue Fozzrik’s returning Flying Fastness across four seasons. Its Mighty Empires map system, underground battles and new siege rules support a narrative built from actual games. Seasonal multiplayer finales escalate the conflict, and the book records practical organisation, scenarios and hobby work alongside the betrayals and victories.
Andy Hall refights a failed 3,000-point siege against Kevin Chin’s Dwarfs, hoping his Skaven and enormous Warp-Doom Magma-Cannon can change the outcome. The gun explodes immediately again, but the Screaming Bell breaches walls and ratmen infiltrate the hold. Dwarf resistance, the arriving relief force and cannon fire defeat successive attempts to seize the objectives; even a final Skitterleap ends with the Warlock crushed, leaving the defenders victorious.
The siege explanation gives each army an equipment allowance equal to its battle points and combines pre-battle starvation and bombardment with assaults on individual castle sections. Players can agree race-specific equipment together: Kevin’s stonebread reduces Dwarf starvation losses, while Andy buys a siege tower and experimental cannon. Control of marked sections normally decides victory, but a relief force reaching the gate can win immediately.
The article contrasts a flying Jabberslythe’s indirect attacks with a Ghorgon that gains momentum from winning combats and a Cygor that can both throw stones and hunt magical enemies. It recommends using support units to help the Ghorgon keep accumulating attacks and exploiting low Leadership with madness. Three accompanying scrolls make these creatures available beyond Beastmen armies during Storm of Magic.
The 275-point Jabberslythe combines flight, poison and Terror with an Aura of Madness that wounds nearby enemies for failed Leadership tests, excluding those immune to psychology. Its tongue provides a short-ranged attack and each close-combat wound inflicted on it returns a Strength 5 bile-blood hit. Optional tail and ambush upgrades broaden its ability to disturb weakly led or isolated targets.
The 250-point Cygor sees magic more clearly than ordinary reality, represented by re-rolls against Wizards and other magically marked opponents. It can hurl a stone-thrower attack after moving, though not marching, and a misfire harms the beast. Nearby enemy Wizards must test their nerve; a failed test makes their failed casting attempts become miscasts for that phase.
The 260-point Ghorgon begins as a frenzied, stubborn monster whose Bloodgreed adds attacks after won combats but limits pursuit. Instead of its ordinary attacks it can try Swallow Whole at low Initiative, with an unusually generous Killing Blow threshold. A successful swallow restores lost wounds, linking its battlefield endurance to the cannibal appetite described in the background.
Simon Grant and Andy Hall field Orcs & Goblins and Ogres against Matt Hutson and Tom Hutchings’ combined Chaos forces in a 4,000-point Storm of Magic grudge match. Monsters, a Dawnstar Sword Warboss and catastrophic magical miscasts repeatedly reverse the advantage. A surviving Lammasu preserves the designers’ final fulcrum and spirits a lone Bloodletter away from destruction; equal fulcrums and only 89 victory points between the armies leave the game a draw.
John Blanche describes giving himself permission to pursue his own impatient, painterly style rather than treating the studio’s precise finish as the only standard. Steve Buddle demonstrates rapid basecoat-and-wash painting, while Julian Bayliss follows an intuitive, conversion-heavy approach using restrained colours and repeated motifs. Their contrasting methods support Blanche’s argument that a distinctive visual signature enriches the hobby.
Steve Buddle reduces lengthy highlighting by beginning with lighter Foundation colours and applying repeated washes. His Wood Elf Lord receives varied brown leather, a two-sided green cloak and gold armour, then a custom sepia-based wash that deepens and unifies the whole figure. Small flesh highlights, hair drybrushing and tidying finish a model in a little over an hour, with the wash’s partly unpredictable result accepted as part of the method.
Julian Bayliss draws on dark monochrome illustrations, keeping his bases and figures within a related limited palette. He builds without a detailed plan, frequently cannibalising Chaos Knight parts to give other models imposing weapons and shoulders. Beginning with one figure can lead to a whole warband, and he regards differing tastes as a reason to keep his style individual rather than seek universal approval.
Mat Ward, Robin Cruddace and Phil Kelly introduce six formations for Apocalypse battles using whole collections and large combined forces. Each datasheet links a required group of models with deployment limits and a distinctive shared ability. Grey Knights amplify psychic fire or mark an enemy for destruction, the Sisters coordinate penitents or heavy weapons, and Dark Eldar concentrate arena violence and fast aerial attacks.
Garran Crowe leads three to ten full Purifier squads, which cannot split into combat squads or buy dedicated transports. Nearby squads strengthen a single Tide of Cleansing Flame psychic attack, increasing its power and improving its armour penetration as the formation concentrates. The strike-force deployment restriction keeps that destructive cooperation tied to an actual assembled brotherhood.
A heavy-psycannon Dreadknight begins on the table and marks a target with a special tracker round while three psybolt-equipped Stormravens wait in strategic reserve. Once marked, the target is hit automatically by those gunships, with blast scatter removed. Daemons suffer a further reduction in Toughness or armour against specified ammunition, making the formation a coordinated attack on a critical enemy leader.
A Canoness gathers at least three Repentia squads and three Penitent Engines into one formation. Her nearby followers ignore Rage and share a successful Passion without extra Faith expenditure. Improved Feel No Pain and Shield of Faith rolls reinforce the image of penitents refusing to fall before they have earned absolution.
Three to five Retributor-and-Immolator teams can combine matching heavy bolters, flamers or meltas into a Wall of Fire across a marked line. A mixed set of all three weapon types has its own profile, and a successful Divine Guidance attempt adds Rending. Both the infantry and their vehicle must contribute, so the special attack rewards maintaining the full combined team.
A Succubus leads Bloodbrides, Wyches, Hellions, Reavers and Beastmasters in a large Wych Cult formation. Kills can pass an additional pain token to another nearby Dark Eldar unit, and enhanced combat-drug selection applies even to the gathered beasts. The accompanying story casts the raid as the lethal realspace finale of an extended arena competition.
Three or more Razorwing Jetfighters gather around a command craft and gain sicklewing fields. During movement, a fighter traces its route between markers and can inflict rending Strength 8 hits on one eligible unit beneath the line. A sufficiently effective pass allows one wound to be allocated to a chosen model, reflecting former arena pilots cutting through victims with their wings.
Mat Ward follows Imotekh’s invasion of a frozen mining world and Marshal Helbrecht’s attempt to interrupt the awakening of a buried tomb. Four linked scenarios carry injuries, surviving units and damage to Necron command into later games. The historical ending remains a Sautekh victory and Helbrecht’s humiliating loss of a hand, while the playable sequence allows opponents to contest each stage themselves.
A 3,000-point Black Templars drop assault must seize at least three of five objectives from 2,500 points of prepared Necrons. The defenders gain an opening twin-linked volley and improved Flayed One arrival, while controlling every objective can end the game early. Captured Templar characters suffer a memorable mutilation that persists through the campaign, with Helbrecht protected from the table’s fatal result.
Two 1,500-point forces meet along a narrow tomb antechamber, with the Templars trying to destroy a shielded, immobile Monolith representing the Tomb Nexus. Non-walker vehicles are excluded and the struggle lasts until the nexus falls or the attackers are gone. Destroying it lowers ordinary Necron Leadership in later campaign games, giving this raid consequences beyond its immediate victory.
A 500-point Necron assassination force teleports against 750 points of Black Templars defending Helbrecht amid refinery ruins. The Marshal begins in the centre and cannot hide in reserve, while the Necrons may arrive from the first turn. His survival and wounds determine the result and carry directly into the finale, with a slain Helbrecht returning on one wound to represent his underestimated resilience.
The final clash pits surviving Templars from earlier missions against a 2,000-point Necron army, or equal 2,000-point forces for a standalone game. Destroyed units score points and either commander’s death adds a substantial bonus. Unstable ice can kill models as they move, run or assault, and the underground setting removes Imotekh’s storm and restricts which units can Deep Strike.
Joe Tomaszewski describes a studio team whose figures must work as armies, individual models and enlarged photographs. Research with sculptors and writers gives a range its identity, while shared experimentation develops new techniques without individual egos dominating. Favourite models demonstrate freehand, colour theory, non-metallic metal and subtle lighting, and John Blanche recalls how the column’s name became the painters’ collective identity.
Chris Peach paints the observatory by working from its largest material towards the smallest details: sprayed stone, brickwork, wood, roof tiles and fittings. The separate dome receives weathered gold, while varied washes and selectively coloured tiles avoid a uniform new-building appearance. Final dirt, droppings and a reflective telescope lens turn the finished terrain into an occupied but neglected structure.
A granite foundation is drybrushed through two greys before individual stones receive sepia or flesh-toned washes. A very light bone drybrush then reunites the walls without erasing their colour variation. The method makes the broad masonry readable quickly while preserving the impression of a building repaired with mismatched materials.
Tin Bitz supports successive gold drybrushes and a fine silver highlight, while the comet motif is painted more carefully. A turquoise-and-dark-green wash creates verdigris, with excess wiped away before it dries. Reapplying a light silver stage restores worn raised metal above the corrosion.
Scorched Brown wood and Chainmail braces share a black wash before their finishes diverge. Earth-coloured drybrushing picks out timber, thin brown ages the metal and a final silver touch marks its edges. The nearby skulls receive their own brown wash and white drybrush, separating bone from the darker structure.
Chris Peach leaves weathering until the building’s materials are finished so that dirt and ageing affect them consistently. A green-and-earth mixture is drybrushed into recesses across the model, then diluted Graveyard Earth deepens selected hollows. Applying the same environmental effect across different surfaces avoids the impression that each part aged separately.
Deep blue and a black wash establish the roof before a blue-grey drybrush defines the slates. Selective washes and pale layers then vary patches rather than covering every tile identically. A final blue wash on chosen areas completes an irregular roof whose changes in tone match the building’s ramshackle construction.
The telescope lens moves from dark blue through brighter blue and cold grey to a sharp white flare, with gloss varnish giving a glass finish. Small stippled patches of Rotting Flesh suggest bird droppings on the roof. Keeping the dome removable also leaves the option to substitute the crenellated platform without repainting the rest of the building.
Chad Mierzwa uses a Thundertusk to show how a large centrepiece can stand out while remaining part of its army. Repeated colours on riders and fittings provide that connection, freeing the beast itself for a distinctive treatment. Planned subassemblies, broad fur techniques, careful finishing and a rehearsed final assembly turn a complex model into manageable tasks that apply equally to other large creatures.
The kit is divided into a body, armour, saddles, riders, reins and decorative components so a brush can reach otherwise hidden areas. Once painted, Chad test-fits and joins the totem, seats, shoulder shields and riders in a deliberate sequence, adding the trap, reins and provisions last. Sparse superglue and clean hands protect the finished surfaces from blobs or lifted paint.
Overbrushed granite and earth colours build the coarse fur before pale bone mixtures and a sepia wash unify its texture. Dark metallic fittings are washed brown and picked out silver, while the tusks receive separate grey-earth stages and fine lines towards their points. The article explains overbrushing as a heavier, carefully controlled relation of drybrushing, suited to covering large textured surfaces quickly.
Keeping both Ogres separate prevents their backs and fronts from becoming inaccessible against one another. Tin Bitz, steel drybrushing and a brown wash age their metal before fine silver highlights. Flesh begins with Tallarn Flesh, deepens under a flesh wash and returns through successively lighter skin colours; the same method can cover the monster’s bare patches.
Red-stained hands connect the riders to the Bloodied Fist tribe, while green or blue trousers repeat colours elsewhere in the army. Brown leather, earth-coloured wood and pale bone distinguish the equipment, and blue-green verdigris gives the shields a brighter accent. The decorations are treated as repeated materials rather than requiring a different method for each small component.
The large base is planned around the model’s contact points, then sanded and painted before the monster is fixed in place. A washed brown foundation receives ochre and bone drybrushing with an earth-coloured rim. Additional rocks and remains can break up its expanse, while the mouth teeth and smaller tusks use simple pale bone stages distinct from the main grey horns.
Simon Grant’s Dwarfs seek to kill Duncan Rhodes’ flying Dragon before it can reach Dáin in a roughly 700-point Strategy Battle Game encounter. Duncan uses Goblins and Bat Swarms to support the monster, while Simon breaks that accompanying army through archery and fierce infantry fighting. Dáin survives a spell aimed at shattering his axe, and the Dragon makes a prolonged hilltop stand before being surrounded and slain. The reflections stress protecting the key hero and making an expensive monster’s supporting attacks count.
Neil Green recalls learning from Nottingham store staff, practising for three years and joining Mike McVey’s studio team before completing a Golden Demon entry. He favours small palettes and draws inspiration from manga, digital art and games, using controlled colour variation rather than a large number of unrelated hues. His collection illustrates that approach through transparent lenses, digital camouflage, freehand banners, aged surfaces and contrasting spot colours, without supplying named recipes.