WHITE DWARF · JANUARY 2021
Emperor’s Spears background and rules, the opening Charadon campaign and a giant-sized Sons of Behemat special.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
The editor frames this unusually crowded issue as a contest between Emperor’s Spears and Charadon material and a huge Sons of Behemat section. The new Four Warlords projects and David Guymer’s duardin serial add further starting points for hobby projects.
Readers share NHS tribute Marines, describe how painting has helped during isolation and submit converted Deathwatch and other models. The replies explain the Dark Mechanicum, offer miniature photography advice and discuss a sinister Mindstealer Sphiranx.
Chris Peach explains the White Warden’s marbled Knight armour by dappling successive greys over a metallic undercoat. White layers refine the pale patches while yellow creates the recognisable markings without replacing the mottled metal showing underneath.
David Halfpenny describes the Titan Owners Club’s spectacular gathering of sixty-one full-sized Titans and thirty-eight Knights. Adapted Titanicus rules, a very large bespoke battlefield and a shared narrative allow multiple teams to coordinate the engines and celebrate their explosive destruction.
Jordan Green journeys through the Mortal Realms’ godbeast legends, from Behemat and Dracothion to Vulcatrix and the Lode-Griffon. He explains how their physical remains, cults and uncertain stories give landscapes and factions a mythic past beyond the scale of ordinary battles.
The Death Guard exploit a system already weakened by Drukhari raids and cult activity, attacking Martyr’s Rest, Dyroch’s Reach and Okharium. Accounts of orbital batteries, industrial fighting and loyalist counterattacks show how individual defenders can achieve local victories during a much wider catastrophe.
Captain Venalia’s routine ore-barge escort on Okharium becomes a desperate defence when burning wreckage blocks the chem canal. Communications fail and corrupted attackers climb aboard, bringing the wider invasion into the claustrophobic struggle of soldiers who initially know little about their enemy.
Three planetary theatres translate the campaign into hazardous tabletop environments, including bombed streets and biological ordnance, haunted mausoleums and desert tunnels. Victories can also unlock planet-specific Crusade relics, linking an army’s growing collection of rewards to the locations where it has fought.
Damien Pedley presents Deathwatch veterans drawn from forty-three Chapters, united by turquoise-tinted black armour and personal heraldry. The army’s tournament deadline encouraged completion, while freehand insignia, individual conversions and an accompanying Inquisitor make its warriors feel like distinct characters.
Aaron Dembski-Bowden and Elliot Hamer trace the Emperor’s Spears’ defence of Elara’s Veil and their strained inheritance of the Adeptus Vaelarii oath. Nemeton’s clans, geases, funerary view of recruitment and distinctive warhost organisation explain a Chapter whose barbaric appearance conceals fierce loyalty and complicated relationships with its allies.
An Ultramarines-successor supplement turns the Spears’ aggressive traditions into a Chapter tactic, relics, Warlord traits and stratagems. Faster advances and charges combine with extra melee hits, while heroic interventions and mutual support reward a force fighting closely together.
Drew Palies establishes pale blue armour and white helmets over a black undercoat, balancing them with warm gold weapon casings. The classic recipe still uses a precisely chosen Contrast blue as a glaze, and separate Battle Ready and Parade Ready stages show where additional highlights improve the finish.
A cool Grey Seer foundation supports a mixed blue Contrast coat, followed by opaque layers that preserve shadows and create smoother gradients. The guide covers every main material and explains controlling pooling, using the brush edge for fine highlights and adding campaign grime with thin brown glazes.
Tangui Jollivet builds an Emperor’s Spears force inspired by the novel’s cover and the Chapter’s Celtic and classical influences. Crests, fur, individual shields and veteran tridents carry the story into his models, while weathered blue armour and contrasting plasma colours give the collection a distinctive visual identity.
The returning series introduces four hobbyists building Crusade forces and explains its initial fifty-Power target followed by regular additions. Narrative development matters alongside painting: the participants will name units, record battle histories and let their heroes’ achievements influence their collections.
Joel Martin chooses a bright green Iron Hands successor army with plentiful bionics and armoured transports. His test Intercessors establish a repeatable palette and weathering approach before the project expands into tanks and Dreadnoughts, with background and conversion opportunities helping shape the force.
Jonathan Stapleton awakens a Thokt Dynasty force built around icy blue energy and teal armour. Failed ceramic experiments lead to a more repeatable colour scheme, with higher-ranking Necrons receiving more coloured plating and a future Silent King providing a long-term narrative centrepiece.
Drew Palies envisages battered Sisters enduring an endless crusade, using neutral silver, dirty robes and shrine-like vehicles. Individual heads, unique relics, names and flame effects will give the army personality, while weathered urban bases reinforce its exhausted but determined atmosphere.
Lydia Grant starts her Goff collection with a downtrodden grot uprising rather than an imposing Warboss. Pale skin, monochrome clothing and rusty scrap create the desired comic-book wasteland look, with experiments on terrain establishing techniques that can later be carried onto larger Ork machines.
Louis Aguilar explains the challenge of making an army with very few models contest objectives and offer varied builds. Objective counting, Battleline requirements and the three Mega-Gargant leaders give each tribe a recognisable role without demanding a large range of separate units.
The designers explain how a familiar Warhammer Giant became a much larger and more versatile plastic centrepiece. Separate discussions of the ancient Kraken-eater, belligerent Warstomper and sinister Gatebreaker show how posture, trophies and enormous improvised weapons communicate their different personalities.
Aidan Daly shares the mixed colours behind the studio Kraken-eater, with recipes for skin, ropes, jawbone, cloth, tentacles and weathered boat timber. He works from the deepest details outward, first modelling light and volume and then using glazes to bring the large surfaces together.
Mark Bedford transforms a Kraken-eater into a barnacle-covered sea monster with shipwreck weapons and a Leviadon-shell shield. Steve Wren takes the opposite route, merging a gargant with Mutalith tentacles and Tzeentch details to create a bizarre creature whose bright magical accents contrast with dark skin.
Nineteen material guides break the huge Warstomper into manageable stages, beginning with sub-assemblies and textured skin drybrushing. Cloth, armour, bone, ropes and a stolen Leviadon plate supply contrasting surfaces, while careful colour choices and small facial details keep the model readable rather than visually confused.
Ben’s Sons of Behemat meet Jes’s Boulderhead Ogor Mawtribes in an unconventional contest of boulder-kicking and brutal close combat. The gargants eventually win four Rumbles to none, with the post-battle discussion stressing early control of the boulders and how hard it is to recover once they are moving towards your own goal.
This bespoke battleplan turns mobile objectives into volatile boulders that must be kicked into the opposing goalmaw. Different monsters receive different kicking bonuses, fresh boulders arrive during the game and an unfortunate roll can cause the explosive rocks to detonate instead of scoring.
Nick Horth follows a destructive gargant contest around the doomed settlement of Thornwall. Brutal rivalries, scavenged weapons and gleefully foolish violence turn the town’s landmarks into implements of competition, leaving little distinction between an ordinary raid and an especially satisfying sporting achievement.
Two to four players control competing Mega-Gargants in a self-contained fight using stamina, damage dice and concealed attack choices. Charges, headbutts, rests and critical injuries create opportunities for bluffing and retaliation, with a different special benefit for each of the three gargant types.
Dave Sanders introduces the deeper reaches of Beastgrave and explains the new season’s aggressive themes. Hunger rewards dangerous accumulation, Primacy creates a contest for conspicuous achievements and the new boards and warbands give players fresh ways to explore the living mountain.
Jim and Bob recount the collapse of the NAF and the chaotic years that followed its missing fortune. Their commentary charts the survival of independent competitions and the rise of the RARG, turning a history of corruption and commercial improvisation into an affectionate account of the modern game.
Rob Crouchley and Stephanie Burton compare Titan maniples as building blocks for different battle plans. Reliable orders, mobile Reavers, close defensive formations and coordinated Warhound attacks each favour different selections, making the formation’s bonus as important as the individual engines chosen.
David Guymer discusses his route into writing, the appeal of dwarf characters and the challenge of returning Gotrek to a world without Felix. His new duardin serial follows a mysterious wanderer through different societies, using their shared legends and contrasting priorities to explore the Mortal Realms.
A naming ritual goes wrong when a Fyreslayer runeson falls into Mothirzharr and his mother Helka descends to recover him. The white-bearded Azkharn helps the rescuers confront a magmadroth and their own assumptions about vengeance, giving the child’s survival a significance beyond another inherited feud.
Lockdown projects include Blood Angels Outriders, Howling Griffons, colourful Wurmspat and a Nighthaunt Black Coach with a personal memorial. James Karch also explains the warm shadows and cool highlights of his latest Ragnar-themed Space Wolves army, showing how established favourites can inspire another collection.