WHITE DWARF · NOVEMBER 2016
Burning of Prospero brings designer interviews, art and new Custodes and board-game rules, alongside Commorragh lore, a Blood Ravens collection and extensive basing instruction. Advertisements and store/product catalogues are excluded.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
The editorial introduces a month shared between the Burning of Prospero and Total War: Warhammer, with a cover code for Grombrindal and a visit from Creative Assembly. It also previews Ben Johnson’s new gaming column, a mapped battle report and more advanced painting instruction.
The Burning of Prospero introduces a separate board game about the Space Wolves’ assault on Tizca, with Thousand Sons sorcery opposed by overwhelming physical force. The preview describes its forty-seven miniatures, six scenarios, different sizes of combat dice and psychic cards, explaining how its mechanics differ from Betrayal at Calth.
Six heroes from Silver Tower become available as individual miniatures, ranging from the armoured Knight-Questor to the Tenebrael Shard. The notice identifies their different origins and points collectors towards the character models without printing additional game rules.
Geigor’s aggressive pose and wolf-claw express a warrior who prefers close combat to his bolter. His background places him among the Einherjar and gives his hatred of the Thousand Sons a personal intensity, making him the physical counterpart to Ahriman in the new boxed game.
This supplement collects city fighting, planetary invasions and siege warfare in one volume, combining Cities of Death, Planetstrike and Stronghold Assault material. Its preview presents the three modes as ways to give a conventional collection a more dramatic battlefield context.
New neoprene mats supply portable ruined-city and Khornate battlefields, designed to roll away and tolerate spills. Beside them, a key-ring repair tool combines small practical implements for preparing and maintaining miniatures away from a full hobby desk.
The new scenery kit turns the Imperium’s appetite for human sacrifice into a pair of industrial reactors, powered by blood and promethium. Its pipes and architectural details connect visually to existing Imperial scenery, while the release page also introduces wound-tracking dice.
Two returning scenery pieces offer very different places for a hero to stand: a dangerous elevated throne and a magical vortex. The notice emphasises how imposing scenery can contribute to a battle’s narrative as well as creating a prominent position on the table.
Ahriman’s career is traced from chief Librarian and seeker of a cure for the flesh-change to the architect of the disastrous Rubric. His efforts to protect the Legion become inseparable from betrayal, vengeance and the transformation of many brothers into dust-bound suits of armour.
Sculpted bases for both principal settings provide ruined masonry and battlefield debris sized for character models. The examples explain the different base sizes and show how scenery such as a broken tank turret or Shattered Dominion fragments can establish a miniature’s setting.
Vermintide reaches consoles with its five heroes fighting Clan Fester in Ubersreik, while Talisman: The Horus Heresy gains a Prospero expansion with new warlords and psychic abilities. The column also explains the magazine’s Grombrindal unlock for Total War: Warhammer.
David Annandale’s Grey Knights novel follows Castellan Crowe and the corrupting influence of Antwyr. The preview stresses the horror and temptation involved in bearing a Daemon weapon while fighting for the Imperium.
A series retrospective brings together the political failures, extraordinary Ork technology and desperate alliances of the war against the Beast. It recalls the origins of the Deathwatch, Vulkan’s involvement and the Last Wall, showing an Imperium whose divisions are almost as dangerous as its invaders.
Guy Haley’s final Beast Arises volume turns from military victory to its dangerous political aftermath. Drakan Vangorich’s schemes provide the focus as the series brings its many competing Imperial interests together.
Nick Kyme follows T’kell’s responsibility for concealing nine surviving artefacts of Vulkan during the Heresy. The novel preview connects the Salamanders’ shattered circumstances to the future importance of their Primarch’s relics.
Gav Thorpe’s audio drama sends the Space Wolves’ Thirteenth Company hunting a Thousand Sons sorcerer through Tizca and its portals. The notice highlights Geigor’s appearance and the increasingly dangerous consequences of pursuing the enemy.
Guy Haley describes the challenge of bringing a multi-author series to a satisfying ending while leaving his own mark on it. He discusses Vangorich as a character whose strength lies in intelligence, and recalls how other writers’ unsettling inventions helped shape the wider conflict.
An updated Age of Darkness army-list book consolidates corrections and new units for the Legions. The same page introduces Shar’tor the Executioner, whose towering bull-centaur body, axe and mask establish him as a brutal warrior-priest of Hashut.
The Stormcast witch-hunter carries a lantern of abjuration into battle beside a Gryph-hound. The preview presents his judgement blade and aggressive bearing as signs of Sigmar’s determination to root out sorcery, with a full warscroll supplied later in the issue.
Reader correspondence considers ambitious collecting projects, including Jack Harris Ingram’s Crimson Fists veteran company and its imagined history on Rynn’s World. Other contributions celebrate recent models, discuss starting the hobby and ask about the elusive Custodians and Sisters of Silence.
The answer identifies the familiar marks of Space Marine armour and their alternative names, including Aquila and Errant patterns. The distinctions give readers a way to recognise the suits on their miniatures and connect them to the Imperium’s long military history.
Creative Assembly’s Al Bickham and Andy Hall join the magazine team for Total War: Warhammer battles. Warm-up matches and an ill-directed siege lead into a final team contest in which their Empire army defeats the staff’s Chaos and Greenskin alliance, making deployment and coordination recurring lessons.
Creative Assembly’s artists explain how concept work and three-dimensional modelling developed together to bring Grombrindal into Total War. References to his miniature and Adrian Smith’s art shaped the veteran wanderer, while packed belongings, quest equipment and practical animation constraints added further character.
The single-miniature gallery examines prize-winning Magi, Ulrik, a Legion Praetor, an Ultramarines captain, Badrukk and a Dark Eldar Sybarite. Commentary compares warm and cold contrasts, reflective armour, understated bases and carefully controlled focal points; Angelo Di Chello also gives named colours for the Magus’s purple clothing and pale highlights.
Phil Cowey adds a monster whose pale underside and dark spine frame the blue-armoured rider. Cork and stone build up its rocky base, with dusty pigment and small blood effects helping it sit within his growing Ironjawz force.
Andrew King accompanies a Mutalith with six Spawn so its transformative rules can be represented on the battlefield. Cool blue flesh, pale raised areas and vivid yellow-orange details make the collection read as one supernatural menagerie.
Matt Hutson expands the Sylvaneth into a Gnarlroot Wargrove with a Treelord Ancient and more Kurnoth Hunters. His discussion weighs the dependable damage of greatswords against scythes and explains how the new additions support the army rather than simply supplying a larger centrepiece.
James Karch paints a Terrorgheist and keeps its Ghoul King separate, giving the army several ways to use the models. Shared skin and bone colours maintain the Flesh-eater theme, while fresh blood in the exposed muscle heightens the gruesome appearance.
Matt’s Sylvaneth fight James’s undead in an informal annihilation game, with the collections judged by eye rather than equal points. A destructive Terrorgheist kills valuable units and eventually the Treelord, but the surviving Kurnoth Hunters and Branchwych secure Matt’s victory; forgotten abilities and the uneven totals become useful points for reflection.
March 1995 returns through Epic Tyranids, Valhallan infantry, a Deathroller and newly prominent undead characters. The retrospective also recalls linked battles at Talabheim, Andy Chambers’s Blood Bowl advice and Mike McVey’s Emperor-and-Horus diorama.
Jes Goodwin’s Land Raider joins the Hall of Fame as an example of convincing fictional engineering. The article examines its geared assault ramp, detailed interior, modular fittings and cleverly concealed joins, and recalls the independently fighting Crimson Fists tank that helped establish its legend.
Phil Kelly and Robin Cruddace explain the tragedy and design of Burning of Prospero, contrasting the Thousand Sons’ doomed intellectual ambition with the Wolves’ brutality. The physical and psychic systems make the factions feel different, while scenarios and changing powers reward replaying both sides of the assault.
Maxime Pastourel combines established Heresy imagery and Jes Goodwin’s later Ahriman design in a new miniature. Familiar horns and subtle Tzeentch references preserve the character’s identity without simply reproducing his future appearance.
John Michelbach explains the lighter, more open visual identity of the Prospero boards. Glass pyramids, ruined architecture and obstacles distinguish Tizca from Calth’s enclosed darkness while supplying readable spaces for play.
Nic Ho describes a mobile-looking Terminator design related visually to the Contemptor and Mk IV armour. Fitting the weapon options into plastic tooling required practical compromises while retaining the thinner armour’s distinctive silhouette.
Samir Battistotti develops the Sisters from a relatively small body of reference art. Topknots, gorgets, overlapping armour and pendants turn John Blanche’s concepts into a coherent plastic range with its own identity.
Dave Thomas distinguishes the Emperor’s guardians from ordinary Space Marines through height, bespoke armour and ornate Imperial imagery. Their fitted plate and concealed power systems convey advanced equipment intended for exceptional individual warriors.
Steve Party explains the heavily protected front and more exposed rear of Mk III armour. Modular fittings, slung chainswords and the underslung heavy bolter help translate the established pattern into a versatile plastic infantry kit.
The guide explores a dark metropolis of stolen suns, nested realms and enslaved populations, where suffering sustains the inhabitants against the hunger for their souls. Vect’s Kabals, Wych arenas, Haemonculus covens, sky gangs and mercenaries each occupy a place in a society whose conflicts are temporarily set aside to raid realspace for fresh captives.
Rik Turner’s Blood Ravens began with Dawn of War and grew from a familiar company into an immense, characterful collection. Converted Corvidae Guard and the secretive Ordo Psykana translate his own Chapter ideas into models, while Knights and Warhounds provide allies; regular small painting sessions and a preference for painted games keep the project advancing.
The profile presents a Chapter defined by uncertain origins, unusually prominent Librarians and a dangerous fascination with hidden knowledge. The losses at Kaurava and betrayal of Kyras deepen those uncertainties, while alliances with the Mechanicus and the traditions of Azariah Vidya help explain its survival.
Ben Johnson argues that matched play adds a useful shared language without displacing narrative or open games. He discusses building flexible forces for unknown opponents and missions, using heroes’ command abilities coherently, and planning for losing the initiative rather than relying on a fortunate double turn.
Ben Johnson’s Stormcast face James Ashbey’s mixed Destruction force in a three-thousand-point objective battle. James’s separated attacks and destructive Maw-krusha kill powerful Stormcast units, but Ben’s counterattacks and a crucial initiative win preserve the scoring infantry; Destruction is eventually destroyed, and the debrief considers concentration of force and planning for lost priority.
Chris Peach unites humans, aelves and duardin from Azyrheim with cream, blue and gold. Conversions borrow weapons, hoods and characters across ranges, while a golden griffon gives the mixed Order collection a suitably extravagant focal point.
Jason Lee uses an Armies on Parade deadline to finish an elite Grey Knights army. Airbrushed metallic foundations, dark grime and damage create a practical military finish, and conversions personalise Crowe and the Dreadknight pilot without losing the collection’s shared identity.
Roger Yates and his young son turn their enthusiasm for The Hobbit into a Goblin-town display. Foam and bark form playable rocks, lunch-break batch painting makes the horde manageable, and Bilbo and Gollum give the Goblins their few contrasting inhabitants.
Eddie Eccles contrasts brilliantly coloured Tyranids with harsh Imperial industry, drawing on mantis shrimp and peacock colours for the aliens. Cross-kit creatures and a blind Hive Tyrant heighten their disturbing appearance, while pools and growths let the display show an infestation advancing through the installation.
Artists explain the images that give the destruction of Prospero its contrasting identities: monumental glass architecture, battered Wolves, immaculate Thousand Sons and the Emperor’s ornate guardians. Neil Roberts links his opposing book covers to the new game’s battle scene, while other contributors discuss believable materials, orchestrated action and the opposed personalities of Ahriman and Geigor.
Joe Naber and Mick Cudworth build an enormous Khornate fortress around a captured Realmgate, using Chaos Dreadhold parts to suggest conquest over an older civilisation. Durability limits some early modular ambitions, but two separate tables retain flexibility; coherent rubble, subdued ground and a glossy river of blood make the fantastic scene convincing and usable.
Preview profiles let Loyalist players field the new Custodian and Sentinel Guard models as an allied detachment before Inferno appears. Shared rules describe their skill, mental defences and custom armour, while spear and shield equipment gives the two squads distinct ways of fighting; the editor explicitly identifies the entries as work in progress.
The Lord-Veritant combines spell unbinding with a prayer that harms nearby enemy Wizards. His bound Gryph-hound improves the lantern’s ability to counter sorcery and gains more attacks when supporting him in combat, making the pair an integrated witch-hunting team.
Rules add Contemptor Dreadnoughts to Burning of Prospero, either by giving both sides one or replacing an infantry squad. Tough armour, a damaged state and repeated attacks distinguish the machine from ordinary warriors, while psychic Thousand Sons and hard-hitting Space Wolves variants retain their Legion identities.
A Space Wolves tactical squad and Contemptor assault a Thousand Sons force supported by Tartaros Terminators. Deployment maps and a six-round limit frame the counterattack, with surviving Terminators and the Dreadnought weighted differently for victory; the mission can be inserted between the boxed campaign’s first two scenarios.
The basing workshop starts with safely removing slot tabs and attaching models to modern sculpted bases. It then arranges compatible pieces from detail kits, using Drycha’s ruined Arcanabulum as an example and filling the surrounding joins to integrate the scenery.
A Maleceptor’s replacement base combines paving, chopped sprue, ruined walls and an Imperial Knight helmet. Marking the feet’s contact points prevents later rubble from obstructing assembly, and the article explains how putty, filler or tufts can disguise joins.
Existing square sculpted bases can be adapted to round bases while retaining their characterful details. Examples file an Unforged’s statue flat and trim the rim from a Black Ark Fleetmaster’s rocky base, with masked contact points and gap filling keeping the final assembly strong and tidy.
The guide removes an old base in controlled sections rather than pulling fragile feet away from it. A companion method applies sand with PVA, shakes off the surplus and leaves it overnight before painting, helping rubble-covered scenic bases acquire finer connecting texture.
Two demonstrations establish the shared apply-wash-drybrush method for granular Armageddon Dust and cracking Martian Ironearth. The surrounding advice covers brush care, drying, thinning washes to preserve colour and finishing the rim, while explaining how older formulations can still be used.
Ten examples pair the thin and thick cracked-earth textures with different washes and drybrushes. Warm yellow, sepia and brown treatments suggest dry landscapes, with pale finishing colours picking out the raised flakes.
The two granular desert paints are shown with ten combinations of warm washes and drybrushes. The thicker Dunes creates more pronounced ground texture, while successive yellow and pale highlights provide alternatives to a single uniform sand colour.
Ten grey-ground examples range from pale dusty rubble to darker brown- or blue-shaded surfaces. Matching treatments on the smooth and heavily textured formulations show how the same palette can suggest ruined cities, barren moons or ash wastes.
The red cracked-earth examples compare simple highlights with brown and yellow washes. Layered warm drybrushing creates several variations on Martian soil, from brilliant orange-red to subdued clay.
Ten earthy recipes demonstrate how strongly washes and highlights can change the two Stirland textures. The examples include dark woodland soil, pale dusty mud and a warm orange treatment suggested as an alternative for collections previously based with Blackfire Earth.
Combined textures produce pools, cracked patches and uneven mud, while tufts and snow finish a base without overwhelming it. A separate scenic-topper recipe and batch-painting method show how to carry the approach across a collection; the guide repeatedly recommends testing a base against the model so scenery supports its focal point.
Concentrated tints alter existing paints while preserving more of their coverage and intensity than ordinary mixtures. Worked examples strengthen reds, enrich black, shift turquoise or orange, and create subtler pale or earthy variations, presenting the set as an experimental extension to the familiar paint system.
Max Faleij demonstrates worn black leather and a red satin lining on a Genestealer Primus. Translucent feathered layers build soft reflected light, controlled paint shades define the folds, and small cracks, glazes and final bright dots distinguish used leather from the smoother lining; the explanations connect each technique to how real materials catch light.
Tom Winstone explains the bright matte red of the Heresy-era Thousand Sons, using crisp orange and pale corner highlights rather than extensive blending. Warm gold and red are balanced by cool black weapons, with a glossy wash and dark recesses giving the metallic decoration additional depth.
Reader submissions range from Legion Terminators and Imperial flyers to Tyranids, Stormcast heroes and an Orruk Maw-krusha. The photography sidebar explains how a plain white background, balanced lighting, a useful angle and accurate focus help miniature painting reproduce clearly.
Patrick List describes blending dark brown into Dorghar’s pale skin while the basecoat is wet, then deepening it with washes. The darker flesh is drybrushed from black through greys, while a red-to-yellow tail supplies a vivid contrast to the monstrous mount’s neutral tones.
A newcomer’s guide distinguishes the historical civil war, Black Library’s sprawling novels, the self-contained Calth and Prospero games, and Forge World’s larger Age of Darkness battles. It offers starting points appropriate to each interest rather than treating the many uses of the Heresy name as a single game.
The guide directs interested readers from the Commorragh feature to the faction’s codex, Raiders of Commorragh painting book and relevant video tutorials. A companion introduction explains how stores and official community channels can help a new or returning hobbyist find further advice.
Dan paints unusually bright Flash Gitz for his otherwise sombre Goffs, while Ben begins his duardin collection with a favourite Gyrocopter. Max Faleij’s visit shows how little equipment an expert needs beyond brushes and good light, and the final preview points towards John Blanche’s new Inquisitorial warbands.