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What do the covers promise?
Hang on, wots this then? Two covers? One side showing a rather sad Frodo holding up the one ring and on the back a Kroot charging you with a knife. Hmm, this is one of the earlier tests at combining the standard GW fare with the new Lord of the Rings game. On the bright side this does keep the content nicely divided. Anyway the LotR cover doesn't promise a whole lot while the Kroot cover is packed with the awesome: info on Tai Crisis Suits, a Dark Elf city garrison army list, a grand tournament review, an Inquisitor battle report and Imperial Guard regiment army lists! By jove, we hit the mother lode here!
Editorial?
Ah, an editorial by Paul "Fat Bloke" Sawyer, these were always a treat as he'd ramble about his own projects instead of the monthly releases. This month he talks about painting, hinting at the Golden Daemon report further in the issue.
Monthly Releases
December 2002, what a year:We're treated to a few releases: the Tau Crisis suit, the stealth suit blister and the stealth suit command blister. Besides those we're told that Inferno! (sigh) issue 28 is out along with Warhammer Monthly, the novels Konrad and Malleus and the graphic novel Eternal War. There is also a plug for Battlegear (now Buckle Bulldog) that showcases a Dark Angels belt buckle, Aquila wallet and a fancy killboard.
News
A new Warhammer World is being built, the new Land Raider doors for the BT's, Ultras and Fists are being shown and the Index Astartes compilation books are announced.
Articles
We kick off with 22 pages of Games Day and Golden Daemon goodness. Not topnotch but fun to look at nonetheless, quite a few cosplaying ladies in bras walking around as well. There's also the picture of Adrian "the Great Warlord" Wood with a massive choppa. Ah, good times. The Golden Daemon coverage shows some of the best things out there at that moment.
40k: There is a Tau article, kicking off with a two page advertisement of their range followed by an article on Tau crisis suit configurations. Also Tau related a pleasant Index Xenos article on the Kroot, delving into their background. Next up is an Index Astartes article about the Ultra Marines, the complete article plus rules for Nid hunter teams followed by four pages of the Marine range. Capping things off at the 40k segment is a massive Chapter Approved article penned by Andy Chambers with rules on fielding different Guard regiments: the Armageddon Ork Hunters, the Death Korps of Krieg and Guard regiments caught up in city fights.
Fantasy has several items: a nice background story about Steam tanks, telling of the exploits of the renowned Deliverance and Old Reliable, a six pager on the Fantasy Grand tournament, a two-pager on High Elves, an Albion themed scenario and a complete army list for a Dark Elf city garrison army, written by Gav Thorpe.
In the miscellaneous section we have sixteen pages of Inquisitor goodness, which is a massive narrative battle report between the warbands of Gav and Phil, under the watchful eye of Graham McNeill. We're treated to a nicely written battle report with good narrative, plenty of pictures and a promise of more to come.
NEXT MONTH
I couldn't find a sneak peek of what would be coming the next issue. sweatdrop
Verdict?
This is how a White Dwarf should be. While the magazine still caters to the newly released army at the time (the Tau) it doesn't just dwell on that. It also shows how much GW has changed, as at that time we still had Chapter Approved and the Warhammer Chronicles, two semi-regular articles that gave the players new army lists and rules to play with. It also had a massive section dedicated to Specialist games and Inquisitor no less, a great narrative game that has really been done a lot of credit with so much page space.
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