White Dwarf 515 - content concerns

[Nova-V]

36 minutes ago, Kenzaburo said:

You are absolutely right - I got that Slaughterpriest right here. Don't remember the Stormcast, but would make sense and sounds about right. I still miss this kind of freebie tho.

Considering GW seem to have a process that is cheap enough to churn out free marketing minis it does suprise me WD doesn't get any.  Considering they are used to drive footfall in stores a WD model works well.  Get it free on the mag and a page inside the mag saying pop in to store to learn how to build, paint and play.

[Xenith]

=][= As this is relating to a viewpoint on the direction and content of this dwarf instead of a specific piece of news or rumour, I'm moving to amicus =][=

[Frogian]

On 7/28/2025 at 3:03 AM, Evil Eye said:

Man, not a good choice of miniature to plaster on the cover for the Space Marine special. Cripes that Titus is such a horrible model. A shame, Space Marine 2 almost made me like Primaris. Almost.

the non illustrated covers they now do are rubbish compared to the old ones

Edited July 31 by Frogian

[Craig]

14 hours ago, Nova-V said:

Considering GW seem to have a process that is cheap enough to churn out free marketing minis it does suprise me WD doesn't get any.  Considering they are used to drive footfall in stores a WD model works well.  Get it free on the mag and a page inside the mag saying pop in to store to learn how to build, paint and play.

I would imagine logistics play a part in that decision. Shipping 10000 magazines costs less than shipping 10000 magazines plus 10000 sprues. 

[Joe]

Transfers are in the issue, despite what people were suggesting. Pretty much a miscellaneous greeblies sheet.

 

 

[OrkPlayer137]

Looks like chapter symbols for the Mentors, Celestial Lions, Relictors, and Imperial Talons at least. Anyone recognise any of the other symbols? Some of them look like they can be combined to make a custom symbol.

Edited August 2 by OrkPlayer137

[HeadlessCross]

On 7/27/2025 at 11:34 AM, ThePenitentOne said:

I think White Dwarf's job should be to cater to people who DON'T play Space Marines.

The job of White Dwarf is to be "Consoom GW Products: The Magazine". There's a relatively large Marines release that's going to happen, and I'm pretty sure next month they'll have more focus on the Squats. 

[Grotsmasha]

I'm going to get multiple issues for that transfer sheet. I see a lot of things I like.

[Marshal Rohr]

When does this hit stores

[Nephaston]

On 8/2/2025 at 12:19 PM, Joe said:

Transfers are in the issue, despite what people were suggesting. Pretty much a miscellaneous greeblies sheet.

 

 

Oh yeah, these will be insanely useful to make composite icons, accentuating, miscellaneous campaign icons. Especially the inclusion of regular skulls and red skulls for standard command and sergeant icons.

Combine this with any of the other chapter sheets and you can construct an insane amount of variation. 

 

[Urauloth]

Seeing a bunch of swords and wings, pretty useful to me. Red swords especially should be good for 1st Legion.

[MoriyaSchism]

2 hours ago, Urauloth said:

Seeing a bunch of swords and wings, pretty useful to me. Red swords especially should be good for 1st Legion.

The Dark Angels Lieutenant symbol is a red sword. 

[LameBeard]

If you are worried about the “marines only” direction of White Dwarf, you missed the bit in the magazine that says they want you to provide the content from now on. Maybe more redundancies than just Lyle in the future, or am I being cynical and this is a change to get the magazine back in touch with genuine hobby roots?

 

A chance for you to be the change you want to see in the world, whilst also, you know, doing work for free for a FTSE 100 company.

 

Nice to see ‘War of the False Primarch’ getting a reference - does that mean it’s canon now!?

Edited August 20 by LameBeard

[Karhedron]

16 minutes ago, LameBeard said:

Nice to see ‘War of the False Primarch’ getting a reference - does that mean it’s canon now!?

 

Everything is canon, not everything is necessarily true. 

[crimsondave]

Sorry for the necromancy, but if you are a Space Marine fan I highly recommend picking this one up.  This is my favorite issue in years.

[ThePenitentOne]

I ended up getting it; I was interested enough in the mini-game that I thought I'd take a chance. The minigame is okay. I think I like the bunker Kill Team mission version better. I could play it with Deathwatch or Grey Knights.

 

I thought the "Create your own Chapter" article revealed the weaknesses of 10th edition- with no subfaction mechanics available, creating your own chapter basically means coming up with a backstory. Paint scheme, heraldry. But nothing that actually impacts the game. I feel like a create your own chapter article would have been more impactful and interesting in an edition where some of the player choices had the ability to impact what happens on the table.

 

But then, that's not the space marine's issue or a White Drawrf issue, it's very specifically a 10th edition issue.

[N1SB]

4 hours ago, crimsondave said:

Sorry for the necromancy, but if you are a Space Marine fan I highly recommend picking this one up.  This is my favorite issue in years.

 

Nono, thanks for reminding us, Brothers.  That lead-lag has been so long I kinda forgot about the Sons of Ubiquity and Poster Childs.

[Sonder76]

The switch from actual artwork on the front covers to a picture of a model is a tragedy. 

 

I feel WD in general lacks focus. Its a sales platform but i can be a hobby magazine also.

I hate the card pull outs too but i can see how some people love em.

 

I think it must be really tough to make White Dwarf as I'm sure the legal team are constantly saying no to content ideas due to IP protection

and then the boardroom will be dictating a lot of the magazines direction as well as the current release schedule needing promoted.

 

However.... the most recent issue witht he transfers... I enjoyed it actually. 

Thats WD in a nutshell though... its totally hit or miss.... mostly a miss.

 

 

[ThePenitentOne]

Usually in a year there are three issues I love (almost always the ones with Crusade content for armies I play); there are usually six or seven issues I like (again, it will always be rules content that is the deciding factor), and 2-3 that are virtually useless to me as a player.

 

This issue wasn't useless- the minigame and the KT Mission might see some use- Tyranid NPO cards are useful, and as I mention, I CAN play space marine things with Deathwatch or Grey Knight... But it probably the closest to useless issue for me personally this year. I knew that when I bought it, so that's on me. Next issue might be more useless to me because its focus appears to be mostly AoS, which I can't afford to play in addition to 40k.

[crimsondave]

14 hours ago, Sonder76 said:

The switch from actual artwork on the front covers to a picture of a model is a tragedy. 

 

I feel WD in general lacks focus. Its a sales platform but i can be a hobby magazine also.

I hate the card pull outs too but i can see how some people love em.

 

I think it must be really tough to make White Dwarf as I'm sure the legal team are constantly saying no to content ideas due to IP protection

and then the boardroom will be dictating a lot of the magazines direction as well as the current release schedule needing promoted.

 

However.... the most recent issue witht he transfers... I enjoyed it actually. 

Thats WD in a nutshell though... its totally hit or miss.... mostly a miss.

 

 

I wish they’d just give us a poster every issue instead of the card pullouts.  I love the simple little armor mark poster in this issue.

[StraightSilver]

I actually really liked this issue and the transfers will come in very handy. And it wasn't 100% space marines (although almost).

 

Controversial - I liked that they had a section showing off the new Saturnine release, with lots of photos of the new models, which is something WD always used to do. people complained it just became a catalogue and those pics were available on the website, which is true, but when I'm painting and need reference pics, for me getting them physically is better than on a monitor screen. WD stopped showing off new releases a while ago, but I actually miss it. It's one of the reasons I loved Warhammer Visions, just beautiful photos of new models. I wish they still produced it.