Games Workshop Product Review 2012 - The Best of Hobby Products

As far as hobby products went, I don't think GW missed with anything this year (with one caveat to be explained later).

Rather than order the winners I'm going to just mark them all as "Success".

The Best of GW Hobby Products

Re-Launched White Dwarf

Starting with the October issue, Games Workshop re-launched White Dwarf magazine. They brought in a professional magazine editor and radically improved the design, layout and content of the offering. It was printed on better quality paper, had a more squat format and was considerably thicker (or so it seemed).

The October issue covered the release of Chaos Space Marines, November Dark Vengence and in December we had The Hobbit. The general consensus was that the first two issues were much better, however some of the accolades slipped with the December edition. now some of this would be a general lack of interest in The Hobbit as a game system. I'm willing to see how we go in  2013 but at the moment I see this as a success.

At the time of the re-launch, White Dwarf was also presented in an electronic form which brings me to my second success.....

Games Workshop/iBooks

This year saw GW finally embrace the internet age and deliver products in electronic format. There was one caveat to this - you couldn't get the products if your iTunes account resided in New Zealand or Finland (copyright laws in those countries intravened).

Luckily I have a UK account and so I was able to enjoy the Codex:CSM and Empire Army Book in electronic format on my iPad. I also downloaded a painting guide for Daemons and have the opportunity to get my White Dwarf delivered via cyberspace rather than Postman Pat (my postman isn't really called Pat, his name is Hristo).

One of the great things about the electronic Codex and Army Book format is that all special rules etc are cross-referenced so at a click of a button, glossary and rulebook definitions pop-up. On top of this all FAQs are automatically updated to the respective books, advising an updated (free) version of the book is now available for download.

Black Library Audiobooks

Following on the electronic theme, during 2012 Black Library started releasing their Horus Heresy books in an unabridged audio format. Previously I would buya physical copy but not I can download a MP3 file on the day of release.

And these are not amateur productions. The typical HH novel is 17 hours of high quality audio presentation.

I love these offerings. Great for commuting, painting etc .

New Citadel Paints

And a review of the hobby year wouldn't be complete without the overhaul of the Citadel Paint range. Not only is the colour range expanded but also a system put in place whereby you have Base, Layer, Wash, Drybrush, Edge, Glaze and Textured Paints.

I have slowly started to replace my existing GW paints and Vallejo Game Colour with the new range. The system makes it easy to paint something and I used the linear progression to paint the red on 60 metal Bloodletters. It was straightforward, fast and I was happy with the result.

I'd love to have the boxed Mega Set (pictured above) but it is just a bit expensive at $1000 locally.

So GW have done a great job in the hobby this year. if 2013 is half as good I'll be happy.