ARTICLE

THIS MONTH IN

Written by: Rodney Desjarlais

WHITE DWARF #296 SEPTEMBER 2004

Warhammer 40,000 4th Edition just hit stores, so a lot of attention in this issue is devoted to this huge new release.  There are some worthwhile Warhammer related goodies in this issue, however. 

Warhammer Warbands:

This article is worth the price of the magazine alone, especially if you either like smaller battles like Border Patrol or if you are starting a new army.  In this short series of articles, Games Workshop will be presenting a series of rules for smaller battles of several sizes.  There are rules for small warbands of less than 200 points up to large warbands of up to 500 points.  The rules for the large warbands are the same as those presented in "Warhammer in a Flash" (Lunch-hammer) but it's really nice to get this combined with rules for smaller armies.  There's even a really cool warband scenario called "A Little War" where each player rolls for the objective of his or her army and keeps it secret from the other player.  Because both players have hidden objectives, not only do you have to accomplish your objectives but you also have to figure out and thwart that of your opponent.  There's even a new victory conditions table to help figure out the battle result.  These new rules will be great for players starting a new army because you can scale up your army and battles as you get new units.  On one page of the article it demonstrates this by showing pictures of three Empire warbands where each builds upon the other.  One is 200 points, one is 350 points and the third one shows the warband at 500 points.  

Battle Report: Invasion of Nhemisis Manor:

To demonstrate the new warband rules, veteran Warhammer players Joe Sleboda, using a Dark Elf warband, and Rob Hawkins, using a Vampire Counts force, engage in battle using the "A Little War" scenario found in this magazine.  Both forces are 350 points. The battle report is beautifully illustrated, as usual for White Dwarf, and it's very interesting reading a battle report that is under 500 points.

The Art of Warhammer: Magic: Optimizing Magic in Warhammer:

Jeff Leong continues his fantastic series of articles on Warhammer tactics.  Seriously, I wish they'd combine these articles into a book of some kind when they are done.  Anyway, this one is about the Magic Phase.  In this article he breaks down how to recognize the types of spells in the game, advice on how to select the targets of your spells and which spells you should use your precious Dispel Dice against.  He demonstrates his thinking in determining how to use his Dispel Dice by showing you a "Risk Matrix", a table which as an example he uses to break down the threat of his opponent's spells to his own units and how he uses it to decide which spells to defend against.  As usual, this is a great article and shouldn't be missed.

Mengil's Manflayers: A New Dark Elf Regiment of Renown:

Written by Anthony Reynolds, the title of this article says it all.  In this article you will find complete rules for this unit as well as fluff, new artwork, and images of Games Workshop painted unit miniatures.  

Painting Workshop: Manflayers:

This article, written by Adi Wood, takes a look at how Neil Green from the 'Eavy Metal team painted the unit of Manflayers.  There are close-ups of details in the miniatures with painting tips throughout.  

Grudge Match: The White Dwarf Battles the Black Gobbo in a Savage All-Out Struggle to the Finish

This is a truly interesting battle report.  5 members from the White Dwarf magazine team, using Dwarves, take on 5 members from the Black Gobbo online publication team, who use Orcs and Goblins.  Before this battle was fought, some staffers played a series of Warhammer Skirmish scenarios (found in Black Gobbo 21 at us.games-workshop.com), with the results influencing this battle.  To make the battle even more interesting, they decided to use the "Two Battlefields" scenario found on p. 122 of the General's Compendium.  So this battle is actually two battles, one being "above ground" on one table, and another being fought "underground" on another table.  The story of both battles are told in parallel.  Each page is split in half, with the top half of each page showing what happened on one battlefield while the bottom half of the page is shown on the bottom.  As usual, the article is lavishly illustrated with images of the two armies in battle.  This is a very unique and interesting battle report!