WHITE DWARF · NOVEMBER 2019
Inquisition lore and rules, desert armies, Ogor Mawpath campaign, Beastgrave tactics and Sons of Fulgrim.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
Reader conversions, hive-fleet adaptations and questions about Blackstone Fortresses open the issue. Painting explanations accompany the submitted models, while discussion of an unaligned Ambull points toward this month’s new way to interrupt an otherwise conventional Kill Team mission.
A selection from Mark van Aarde’s larger Dark Angels army combines familiar Primaris units with Chapter-specific additions. Azrael’s backpack and banner lend a Librarian a distinctive identity, demonstrating how a few inherited parts connect newer miniatures to an established collection.
Andy Clark explores a setting defined by extreme imagery, desperate faith and morally compromised protagonists. Believable motives and unsettling technological uncertainty make its inhabitants more compelling than simple villains, while new releases and unresolved corners of the galaxy continually offer room for fresh stories.
James Gallagher explains which Kill Team expansions suit open, narrative, matched and competitive games. Flexible command rosters and clear agreement about missions make it easier to combine products, while campaign adaptation and reinforcement can preserve an enjoyable story when the original balance proves uneven.
Inquisitor Valir’s investigation of a feudal knightly order uncovers Genestealer infiltration and an unexpectedly separate Chaos conspiracy. A confrontation with another Inquisitor reveals that rival Imperial investigations have been obstructing one another, forcing the hunters to consider an unusual partnership as further enemies close in.
The Inquisition’s immense authority conceals a deeply divided institution of rival Ordos, philosophies and personal agendas. Puritans, radicals and their varied servants pursue threats by incompatible methods, with biographies and intercepted reports showing how the Imperium’s protectors can become dangerous even to one another.
A complete rules package provides Inquisitors and their retinues with Ordo-specific quarry abilities, stratagems, psychic powers and relics. Named and generic leaders, Acolytes, Daemonhosts and Jokaero receive profiles and points, supporting small specialist additions to Imperial armies as well as dedicated Inquisitorial forces.
Studio hobbyists combine Imperial, fantasy and alien components into individual Inquisitors and their entourages. Xeno-biologists, radical daemon-blade wielders and improvised servitors demonstrate the freedom of the faction, with each conversion using equipment and pose to suggest its owner’s methods and questionable loyalties.
Guilliman’s counter-offensive requires a vast logistical foundation as well as victorious fleets. Torchbearer missions distribute the Primarch’s Gift to distant Chapters, including those expected to resist it, while fleet records and redacted reports reveal the scale and administrative strain behind the public image of liberation.
Desert armies need not all resemble the same yellow dunes. Colour choices, environmental equipment and narrative scenery distinguish ash plains, hostile mineral wastes and familiar sand, with examples explaining how bases can either conceal a force or deliberately contrast with its armour.
Examples compare camouflage with deliberately contrasting colours, showing how desert bases support the figures above them. A Tallarn Baneblade uses broken brown patches and dusty drybrushing, while an Alaitoc Autarch repeats warm yellow details against blue armour to connect character and environment.
Airbrushed ochre establishes the aircraft’s mid-tone before lighter and darker patches form its desert camouflage. Keeping each patch in contact with several different neighbours avoids a repetitive pattern, while white sept markings retain the craft’s identity within the environmental scheme.
Rolled stowage, gas masks and altered transport compartments make troops look prepared for long desert missions. A modified Taurox combines industrial and military parts, with stippled dark camouflage and dusty highlights reinforcing the story already told by spare fuel and travel gear.
A converted grot rides an iron-jawed squig assembled with parts from an Ork bike and a Blood Bowl team. Skeleton Horde supplies the shading across the miniature, showing how a simple common treatment can unify very different materials in a compact desert project.
Bright blue armour is developed through a Contrast layer and pale highlights, while the camouflage cape matches the sandy base. The contrast preserves the Chapter’s identity without making the stealth equipment seem unrelated to the environment it is meant to conceal.
A raised plaster base partially buries the creature’s feet in sand. Pale Contrast-shaded skin and a dark carapace create strong texture differences, with Bone Dust weathering powder collecting on the shell to suggest movement through the surrounding dunes.
Escaped resistance fighters turn a stolen Ridgerunner into a fast supply-raiding vehicle. Fuel containers fill its rear compartments, while a foam dune covered with texture and sand gives the small scene a sense of speed and a clear reason for the vehicle’s improvised cargo.
Adam Cooper builds an abandoned Mechanicus mining outpost from industrial scenery and raised ash-waste bases. Removed batteries, spare tools and specialised machinery imply the workers’ interrupted routine, while dusty paint treatments and a large combined plasma generator keep the collection visually coherent.
An Ambull and its Borewyrm offspring become an independent hazard during ordinary Kill Team battles. Location markers and behaviour rules introduce a third party that neither side fully controls, rewarding careful distance management and concentrated damage before the creature can heal or tear apart an isolated operative.
Jervis Johnson explains the prototype’s dice-combination abilities and quest-led campaign before Sam Pearson describes developing it into a finished game. Fast movement over scenery, vivid skirmishes and narrative rewards keep a small group’s journey dynamic while giving every fighter’s actions immediate importance.
Mawtribes combine Gutbuster and Beastclaw traditions under rulers whose authority depends on feeding their followers. Circular Mawpaths, strange feasting grounds and the Butchers’ magical cookery explain how the ogors’ endless hunger shapes their society, with naming tables providing a starting point for a personal Tyrant.
A six-battle Mawpath records conquests, encounters and a growing larder of unusual meats. Butchers mix those ingredients into battlebroth before each game, balancing desirable bonuses against dangerous combinations, while campaign points and a printable roster measure whether the tribe finishes satisfied or ready to overthrow its leader.
Hungry Klobb Bloodbelly agrees to defend a human settlement against flesh-eating attackers in return for provisions. His enthusiastic artillery destroys the enemy and the food stores together, leaving the survivors to realise that their well-armed allies now need to find a replacement meal.
The four collectors return with larger armies and their first gaming experiences. Their different priorities reveal how character models, repeated units and scenery compete for painting time, with a shared Stormvault quest keeping those varied projects connected to the same challenge.
Matt finishes more of the Soul Wars collection and adds Shadespire fighters to his shadowy Stormhost. An increasing number of casters supports a damage-focused battlefield plan, while further Stormvault scenery and simultaneous hobby projects keep his personal ambitions larger than the challenge’s minimum targets.
Putrid Blightkings and a Beast of Nurgle bring durable threats to Alex’s growing army. Experiments in basing and paint schemes continue alongside them, with individually imagined details giving the latest few models as much attention as a much larger batch of infantry.
Twenty more Boingrot Bounderz make Ben’s squig contingent a major attacking force. A trip to play in the United States tests the collection away from the painting desk, while plans for even larger squigs show how gaming experience and enthusiasm keep the project expanding.
More heroes and sea creatures distract Steve from the Namarti he intended to paint. A king and a trio of endless spells increase his options, with metallic foundations, blue washes and a final clear coat giving the magic a distinctive sparkling aquatic finish.
Dave Sanders’s Grashrak’s Despoilers fight John Bracken’s Skaeth’s Wild Hunt with the core-set decks. Early trades inspire both bands, but careful pushes, lethal hexes and upgraded attacks let the Kurnothi dismantle the remaining beastmen and build a decisive lead in the final round.
A murderous spirit passes between fighters through the Ur-Predator upgrade. Players must keep its current host alive at the end of the game while continuing to attack, creating a variant in which killing the strongest opponent can transfer both a valuable prize and an immediate new responsibility.
Dave Sanders examines each beastman’s purpose and the cards that amplify it. Ritual support, sudden attacks and expendable ungors enable flexible plans, with objective control, lethal hex tricks and aggressive scoring offering several routes beyond simply sending Draknar toward the nearest enemy.
Accurate attacks and fast movement reward a careful approach to the Kurnothi. Protecting support fighters, timing inspiration and using pushes or upgrades to create favourable fights keep the fragile band effective, with several objective packages allowing a player to choose when aggression is worthwhile.
A Harlequin Solitaire enters the fortress as a single exceptionally dangerous explorer. Special events, a dedicated character card and distinctive weapons adapt the usual expedition structure, turning the Chaos hostiles into quarry for a warrior whose speed and evasive abilities support a true solo campaign.
Dan Abnett discusses an expanded Sabbat Worlds Crusade book and the growth of Gaunt’s Ghosts from individual stories into a vast campaign. Maps, character portraits and regimental details make the setting tangible, while the army’s changing place in the war preserves room for personal stories within the larger military history.
Andy Hoare’s six years of lunchtime painting produce a vast Emperor’s Children Legion shaped by successive narrative campaigns. Loyalists become traitors, different Rites of War invite new detachments and an old Epic aesthetic informs later choices, while dusty metallic finishes tie infantry, automata and black vehicles into the same history.
A metallic base with thinned violet washes creates Andy’s restrained purple, later replaced by a single Contrast mixture for better coverage. Clear purple works across a large Dreadnought, while weathered black vehicles recall older Epic imagery and preserve variation within the Legion’s shared appearance.
Jay Clare explains why Bard works best as a leader positioned among his people and family. Nearby children improve his fighting and create free heroic opportunities, while his great bow offers a powerful alternative to combat; protecting those support relationships keeps the army’s central hero effective.
The studio paints Broadsides, distinctively coloured Space Marines and a collection of desert vehicles. Stowage and personal markings distinguish otherwise familiar kits, while a look at the issue’s enclosed extras connects the finished projects to the new rules and challenges available to readers.
James adds character to several Astra Militarum vehicles through individual crew and extra stowage. Masked brown-and-tan areas provide the shared camouflage, while brush-painted pale stripes create the last layer of contrast across tanks built to look ready for prolonged desert service.
Andy Horsley adds autocannon turrets and a large gatling weapon to his Valkyrie. A warm purple-red foundation sits beneath salt-masked tan armour, with removal of the salt revealing irregular corrosion that makes the aircraft belong to the same dusty war zone as the issue’s other vehicles.