WHITE DWARF · MAY 2023
The Lion and Dante return, the Herald of Misery reaches its finale, and Warcry hunters, Blood Angels painting and the Charrwind Coast fill the issue.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
Tom Strutton turns painted miniatures into a photorealistic coloured-pencil still life, connecting his established art practice with a renewed enthusiasm for Warhammer. Readers also ask about a classic Iyanden Farseer and Nagash fiction. Grombrindal’s response to questions about his own temperament adds humour to a gallery of models from several games.
The studio translates the palette of an older Iyanden Farseer into the contemporary Citadel range. Separate recipes distinguish neutral black cloth from colder blue-highlighted black armour, while brown shading keeps yellow areas warm. Pale crystalline blades progress through blue-green shading to sharp white highlights, preserving the model’s striking contrast without claiming these were the original historical paints.
Leila Craven draws on organising a campaign for more than three hundred players to explain long-distance shared storytelling. Teams, capped submissions and manageable rounds let games, painting, fiction and art contribute without an early runaway winner. A common setting and broad motives create coherence, while narrative updates acknowledge army actions without taking control of other players’ characters. Plot-hook tables offer starting conflicts for either setting.
Duncan Waugh explains how early first-person-shooter levels informed Boarding Actions map design. Layouts should capture a setting’s feel while posing varied tactical problems, with movement flow revealing how doors and corners change the effective distance between positions. Meaningful alternative routes, purposeful focal points and testing the first three turns from every entry zone help prevent dead areas or funnels that remove player agency.
The returned Lion gains a datasheet built around powerful melee, forest-path deployment and support for nearby Dark Angels. Fealty can strike heavy targets or sweep infantry, while the Emperor’s Shield combines protection with a chance to punish melee attackers. Watchers offer limited psychic denial and the warlord trait extends another unit’s heroic intervention, making his presence matter beyond his own attacks.
Dante’s Primaris incarnation retains jump-pack mobility and command support while receiving a new weapon profile and abilities. His Perdition Pistol can threaten units along its line of fire, and the Death Mask makes him harder to hit. Chapter Master rerolls, an additional command point when chosen as warlord and a free Epic Deed stratagem reinforce his role as both fighter and leader.
Accounts from worlds cut off by the Great Rift turn the returned Lion into a wandering champion of almost mythic stature. A colony’s chronicler describes a sword-and-shield knight ending a monster’s tribute, while other reports tell of a tyrant overthrown and an impossible cult ritual broken. The fragments show both his protection of isolated humanity and the uncertainty of witnesses trying to identify their saviour.
The Lion’s return produces conflicting responses across Imperial institutions and his own successors. Ragnar welcomes another son of the Emperor to the fight, while a successor commander suppresses rumours until they can be verified. Blood Angels correspondence fears the cost of another Primarch’s demands, and an Interrogator-Chaplain questions his certainty after the Lion removes a prisoner from his cell without explanation.
Lume IV’s final counterattack cannot prevent the Iron Warriors recovering a fire-blackened cogitator marked with a winged sword. Czagra teleports the Key-fragment away and condemns the world to bombardment, then carries the prize through his Ark inside a biomechanical reliquary. Below, Leodas’s rearguard collapses the chamber supports to save the Librarians’ depleted spearhead.
Unstable Structure tiles represent holes in the deck and debris blocking corridors. Collapsed floors require dangerous leaps, while falling ceilings force evasive moves and can later be cleared through an action that risks Overwatch. Structural weak points and larger hazardous areas control where these problems appear, with additional pipe and terminal rules preparing the setting for the finale mission.
An external bombardment periodically drops ceilings at marked weak points during the fight. Patrols earn progressive points for multiple objectives and Alpha positions, then a final reward for the more stable Omega locations. The changing obstructions make it important to seize useful ground without becoming trapped away from the sanctuary areas at the finish.
Moving quickly through hazardous areas can collapse their structures, forcing scavengers to weigh speed against safer routes. Holding objectives may produce extra command points as well as the usual control score. Final bonuses for killing the opposing warlord and taking fewer losses connect territorial success to preserving a patrol capable of extracting its prizes.
A new floor collapse appears at a marked weak point each round after the first, progressively breaking up an already dilapidated passage network. Scoring favours holding paired objective types in addition to broader control. The mission makes alternative paths and coordinated occupation increasingly valuable as direct routes become lethal gaps.
Missed high-strength attacks in hazardous areas trigger fresh structural damage, making powerful weapons a danger to their surroundings. Objective values rise over successive rounds, so surviving in position can be worth more than rushing early points. Each player also nominates a priority enemy unit for a final destruction bonus, creating another reason to expose weapons despite the collapse risk.
Blocked corridors must be cleared to reach the deck’s resources, with successful clearance sometimes yielding a command point. A random objective category becomes Prime each round, rewarding patrols that can alter their route through the rubble. Final dominance adds another incentive to open the network and keep control of more than one isolated chamber.
Two allied Chaos patrols try to deliver a Key-fragment through a warp portal while two Imperial patrols seek its destination through psychic scrying. A fallen carrier drops the fragment for another Chaos model to retrieve, and the portal can devour nearby warriors as the battle progresses. The result matrix distinguishes delivery, successful intelligence gathering and survival of a nearby Imperial psyker, allowing partial success for both teams.
A four-player doubles battle recreates the pursuit of Czagra’s reliquary through the Herald of Misery. Jamie Farquhar and Dan Harden lead the Iron Warriors against Adam Barnes’s Blood Angels and Rich Butler’s Tome Keepers. Czagra falls early to the loyalist assault, but Mekranteer retrieves the fragment while Chosen and Terminators delay the Imperial force through cramped hatchway fights.
Three sets of conversions bring the finale’s fiction onto the battlefield. Mark Bedford builds three-dimensional warp hazards from base sections, monster parts and endless spells; Harvey Snape combines two Noctilith Crown rings with arcane scenery for the portal. Lyle Lowery’s reliquary beast transforms a Tech-Priest with mechatendrils, metal blades and sculpted tissue, then uses restrained dark highlights to make its fleshy maw stand out.
Rhalion’s few survivors carry the unconscious Bhakir towards saviour pods prepared by Chalmo’s scattered troops. Gatelo detonates charges at his own position rather than allow pursuers to stop the launch preparations, and Dantos hurls Mandrax into a pit after the executioner kills two more loyalists. The surviving force escapes into the void with its warning; at Leonus Stellarium, an operator recognises the distress signal and races to arrange recovery before Iron Warriors ships can intercept.
Guidance for a Blood Angels successor army begins with its name, Founding, response to inherited flaws and current war. Diagrams explain company symbols, knee-pad squad marks and role-specific helmet colours, while the Lamenters provide a distinctive example of altered heraldry. The approach encourages successors to adopt, adapt or reject familiar markings according to their own background.
Sam Pearson ties his Second Company to an ongoing war against Nick Horth’s Death Guard, making the fate of his invented Captain depend on the campaign finale. Traditional red armour and company markings keep the army recognisable, while classic components mix with Primaris bodies for personal Tactical and Assault units. His recipes cover red plate, black weapons and pale Baal bases.
Jamie Gordon combines Firstborn survivors of Baal with newly inducted Primaris Greyshields in a Flesh Tearers force begun after an earlier White Dwarf feature. Gravis and skull-masked Phobos troops suit its violent identity. Different undercoats support the red and black areas, with separate metallic recipes supplying gold ornament and silver equipment.
Daniel Rowley’s Strike Force Adaon performs rapid containment against Hive Fleet Leviathan. A dark undercoat, purple shading and white zenithal airbrushing establish a value gradient before transparent yellow and red create the plate colour. Dark brown on the undersides of gold armour and blue-green recesses give the Sanguinary Guard similar depth, with a related turquoise recipe for power swords.
Steve Harris builds a successor Chapter around protecting Corbulo’s search for a cure to the Red Thirst. Contrast red over gold creates warm metallic armour, with silver helmets marking veterans instead of the usual gold. White plate, dark metallic black and blond hair recipes give the force a coherent range while its chalice icon links it to the Red Grail.
Dirk Wehner celebrates the Chapter’s contrast between artistic beauty and tragic background through a large collection rich in freehand details. Yellow chequers recur on his Imperial vehicles, and tiny skulls hide inside blood-drop motifs. Red plate, blue undersuits and warm yellow details are supported by a bronze-to-gold metallic progression, giving ornament a strong role in the scheme.
Wade Pryce’s Third Company demi-company borrows angry scarred heads and blood-drop details from classic Flesh Tearers imagery. Converted human serfs carry equipment and serve as decorative wound markers for officers. A largely black Infiltrator unit nods to Rogue Trader artwork, while straightforward red, black and gold recipes keep the wider collection consistent.
Six projects personalise Sanguinius’s descendants through heraldry, weathering and conversion. Split-colour Angels Sanguine and a chipped Gladiator sit alongside a Captain based on John Blanche’s classic cover art. A Primaris-scale Lemartes, chalice-bearing Mephiston and battered Death Company Lieutenant show how component swaps and small sculpted changes can make familiar characters tell a specific story.
Jimbo Warth uses his Realms at War event experience to describe narrative play as shared army storytelling. Themed collections, roster progression and interactive terrain support that aim, but a conversation about expectations and power level matters just as much. He encourages naming a general, considering leadership succession and using agreed custom rules where they strengthen the story and both co-players’ enjoyment.
Freeguild tunnel troops still confront the beasts below Everquake City despite proclamations that divine intervention has removed Ka-rokk’s Waaagh! A tremor drops Jarba into a deeper cavern, where she discovers a golden apparatus above the city’s fault line. The operators identify her regiment, then murder her to protect the secret under Conclave orders. A Stormcast warning and propaganda about Kamahana frame the distance between public reassurance and private uncertainty.
Thomas Elliott explains why Sons of Behemat illustration demands special methods of showing scale. An upward viewpoint and human-sized opponents provide reference where the army has no smaller troops of its own. Enlarged anatomy, small accessories and unusually detailed skin or weathering let even a portrait communicate a Mega-Gargant’s immense, brutal physical presence.
Thomas Elliott walks through the composition of the Sons of Behemat battletome cover, using mirror photographs to establish a convincing low-angle pose. Skeletons and a foreground leg emphasise Brodd’s scale, while value blocking makes the focal areas readable before colour arrives. Most of the work then lies in fine textures and incidental details that make the vast figure convincing.
The Bloodgullet’s raw-blood rites turn desperate when a curse produces Gorgers and a scalding flood devastates Butcher’s Gorge. Their shamans blame Har Kuron for wasting spilled blood and lead a Mawpath against its food supply and Khainite defenders. The Daughters of Khaine recognise that sacrificing aelves in huge Mawpots is changing the land itself, leaving them to choose between stopping the raiders and attacking the guarded meat-priests behind the arcane threat.
A two-player campaign follows the Bloodgullet advance through three locations before a possible final stand at Heinstorm’s Pass. The Khainite defender secretly assigns forces of different sizes, while the ogor attacker chooses which territory and reward to contest. Region rules intensify charging and make terrain dangerous, with successive victories granting thematic bonuses and optional Path to Glory renown and artefacts.
A smaller Daughters of Khaine force tries to protect four supply positions from a stronger ogor army. Uncontested tokens can be consumed at the end of a turn, and the number eaten determines victory. Increasingly likely landslides damage a selected part of the battlefield, making the pass itself another obstacle to defending the route towards Har Kuron.
Two blood-obsessed warbands receive contrasting narrative expansions. The Claws of Karanak pursue victims with daemonic ferocity, while Askurgan Trueblades seek monstrous blood as a test of restraint. Each gains a set of quests, relics, heroic traits, an encampment and identity tables that turn its particular relationship with hunting into campaign progression.
The Claws abandon the remaining discipline of ordinary Khornate champions for the animal instincts of Flesh Hounds. Packs form around swollen Hounds of Wrath and brutal Packlords, hunting those they deem cowardly and adorning themselves like their daemon patrons. A prospective leader must beat a Flesh Hound to its prey and present the kill, risking death if the offering is rejected.
The Claws select an opposing battle group before each game and must bring down the enemy-designated prey over successive hunts to gain a chosen relic. Rewards encourage constant pursuit and aggression, including boots that punish inactivity and axes that sustain a fighter only when it attacks. Other treasures resist missile fire, inflict a distant strike or stir nearby warriors into greater violence.
A Packlord earns a heroic trait by killing an enemy leader or particularly tough quarry. The choices sharpen attacks against worthy prey, reward moving before striking, guarantee a critical when a roll produces none or deny an opponent’s escape. Other options turn a nearby death into a fresh pounce or reinforce the champion’s flesh, giving several expressions to Karanak’s favour.
Killing enemy heroes builds the sacrifice score needed to attempt a decisive encirclement. In its quest battle, defender battle groups must get enough fighters off an escape edge while the Claws try to reduce both Hammer and Shield below their survival thresholds. Victory unlocks the Skull-strewn Lair without the normal relocation cost.
The Claws’ cavern encampment improves heroic renown and provides hunts for lesser treasures. Trophies, vines, fangs and skull bolas support melee, movement and punishment of disengaging enemies. Shortened names, origins and leader traits define increasingly bestial identities, from former Sigmarites awakened by daemonic howls to hunters of sorcerers; photographs then contrast the pack with its Askurgan opponents.
Vampires seeking to withstand the Era of the Beast recover the martial traditions of the vanished Askurga Renkai and form the Askurgan Trueblades. They feed on powerful monsters, refuse to sire new vampires and pursue discipline outside Nagash’s political courts. Their rejection of mortal blood remains cruel: captured outsiders become instruments of prolonged temptation, revealing how self-restraint can coexist with a deeply predatory curse.
Winning battles and securing objectives or treasure build progress towards a chosen Askurgan relic. The artefacts support flight, exploration, improved blade work and protection against enemy attacks. Some carry constraints: the Eternal Burden improves toughness but restricts the bearer’s available abilities, reflecting a warrior deliberately balancing power against the risk of losing restraint.
An Askurgan Exemplar tracks kills and critical hits to demonstrate mastery of its martial craft. Earned traits can develop duelling counterattacks, concealment from distant enemies, escalating offence or a stronger Moment of Savagery. Another option converts a sufficiently glorious battle into protection from campaign injury, linking disciplined excellence to the champion’s survival between games.
Battles and encampment moves advance the search for a foe worthy of the Trueblades. The resulting four-round quest battle rewards individual kills and extra points for eliminating entire battle groups. Victory permits a free move to an Askurgan Monastery, turning the successful hunt into a permanent base for further discipline and exploration.
A sanctuary built from slain monsters offers improved heroic renown and a table of discovered treasures. Bestial blood, incense, familiar creatures and charms provide healing, combat support or protection from lethal injuries. Background and naming tables distinguish repentant former predators, fanatics, hunters of fallen kin and seekers of the old order’s lost knowledge.
Rob Crouchley follows the Gorvos twins defending Two Tunnels after the Great Darkness lets cultists surge through the underhive. A ring of burning gunk protects their factorum and provides the setting for the studio’s second campaign cycle. Van Saar face the Anathema Helot cult in a costly defeat: even the winners struggle to afford treatment, while Tribune reports record similarly bitter results elsewhere.
Stephen May revisits the old Brat Gang idea through the Outcast gang framework. Wealthy alienated nobles adopt Aeldari-inspired fashions alongside Imperial equipment, riding exotic jetbikes and wielding unusual weapons. Their leader’s ambition to carve out an independent principality gives the flamboyant collection a campaign motive beyond simply terrorising the underhive.
Justec the Thirty-First survives captivity in his ancestral hall by singing to the ghoul court of King Osgek. When captured duardin are brought before the throne, he uses the court’s mistaken acceptance of him to delay their deaths. Rigo arrives and retells the family’s history, repeatedly evading the ghouls while revealing how a stolen shadeglass relic trapped the Aranthine son’s soul in a cycle of rebirth.
The studio’s Underworlds league ends after hundreds of games with a drawn final, while contributor accounts show favoured warbands and painting methods. Hobby bingo follows a planned Middle-earth Battle Company campaign, kitbashed Space Marines and ongoing armies. The closing gallery adds a Blanche-inspired Black Templars Dreadnought, triangular camouflage on Eliminators and spectral-looking Shadeborn robes.
John Bracken carries a dark blue-green recipe across cloaks and hair, using a deep wash followed by progressively brighter highlights. Armour and shields receive six layers of grey chips and battle-damage marks. Repeating the same blue family and carefully varied greys gives the heavily worn warband coherence without a uniform clean finish.
Leigh Tomlinson shades green skin over a pale base, then drybrushes a brighter yellow-green mix before final bone highlights. Tiger pelts use transparent flesh and orange that fade towards their lower edge through extra medium. Brown stripes complete the natural pattern, making fur a different texture and colour from the orruks themselves.
Grant Ellis concentrates detail on the central ogor, practising cloth texture, leather weathering and strong light-dark contrast. A brown Contrast wash over silver provides his gold effect. The face progresses from warm base colour through a red shade and increasingly pale flesh highlights, giving Blackpowder the strongest character within the group.
Dan Harden adapts the warband naturally to his existing winter-themed Soulblight army. Blue robes and silver equipment over a pale undercoat receive an overall cold wash before highlights. Black helmets and shoulder plates distinguish King Velmorn and his sons from the wider collection without abandoning its established palette.
Matthew Rose builds ghoul skin through pale base colour and drybrushing, then divides the shading by anatomy and material. Red around sores, hands and eyes differs from the brown feet and clothing or greenish belly. Sharp white highlights and splashed blood finish the horror effect while keeping the flesh readable.
Studio hobbyists update their bingo cards with Battle Companies, kitbashed Marines, Blood Angels and Heresy projects. Matt Hutson’s Black Templars Redemptor recalls classic John Blanche artwork through its yellow weapon casing, while Ben Humber gives Meridian Shields Eliminators subdued weapons and angular camouflage. Lyle Lowery explains the purple-to-black blends and green highlights that make the Shadeborn appear to dissolve into shadow.