Warhammer Conquest Magazine Review – Issue 01

Last Updated on April 23, 2021 by FauxHammer

I’ve Been Excited for this since May when I first heard of the magazine cancellation. I didn’t even know it existed and the first time I heard of it was on its cancellation. So now I am extremely pleased finally to present you with my Warhammer Conquest Magazine Review

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As it turns out cancellations are quite common with Part-Works Magazines, they do an initial release in certain areas to test the waters and garner the interest. Then pull it off the shelves so they can gear up and announce the full release later in the year.

This time I was prepared before release and made sure my local Newsagent’s held me a copy.

Like all part works, Issue 1 packs a punch! It’s clear that the publisher Hatchette is making a huge loss on this so Issue 1 will have a much greater draw than any of the future issues. But this level of value is off the charts.

I’m doing a UK comparison here as the magazine is only available in the UK. So let’s take a peek at the value vs RRP?

Warhammer Conquest Magazine Review – The Value

Warhammer Conquest Magazine – Issue 01 costs £1.99 and with this, you get the magazine, a poster, 3 paints (yes the full-size 12ml retail pots), 3 Primaris Space Marines and a “Starter” Brush – (More on this later). But the value of this gear at retail price is.

• Easy to Build Primaris Intercessors £9.99
• Abaddon Black £2.55
• Macragge Blue £2.55
• Retributor Armour £3.50
• “Starter Brush” £0 – £4.75

It’s worth noting that the Starter Brush is a difficult element to apply a cost to. You can’t actually buy the brush on it’s own, it comes from Games Workshop in their paint sets. Other sets which are difficult to apply values to, as the pots that come with them are small. So the brush is essentially free in those sets. The nearest Equivalent size brush is the M Layer Brush which is £4.75/ But the bristles on the M Layer Brush is pure Sable, the Starter brush “feels” More Synthetic.

• Total £18.59 – £23.34

In Summary, though, you are getting £18 – 23 worth of value for £1.99. I really should end the review right here because this issue is worth it just for that. So much so I’m worried about how many people will be buying this just to flip a profit online! Especially as it’s already begun with people selling this issue on eBay from £5.99 – 9.99! (but that’s still good value) and the prices will just go up. If anyone Remembers the issue of White Dwarf that came out last year with a Free Stormcast Eternal, it sold out within hours and was reaching prices greater than £30 on eBay. But that (at the time) was an exclusive mini.

Warhammer Conquest Magazine Review – The Magazine

I’ve had part-works magazines growing up, my dad would but me How my Body Works & Dinosaurs! every other week. And just like when I was growing up, I am less interested in the magazine and more interested in the stuff you get with it than the magazine itself.

But here, as this is a Warhammer Conquest Magazine Review,  I thought I’d at least give the Magazine a look;

It’s a bit odd that this is called Warhammer Conquest, especially as there is already the card game Warhammer Conquest. I’d have just though they’d have gone with something different when naming a magazine for collecting Miniatures specifically for wargames. I already confused it with that when it was first released earlier this year. I ignored all the news headlines about Warhammer Conquest as I thought it was a card game I was uninterested in. But now it’s also a magazine……

First of all, as expected with part-works, you get all the fluff you would expect. They are in your face with “Subscribe now!!”, “Subscribe now!!!”. It worked for me, I had already subscribed to this magazine last week (for me and the wife). I picked this one up today from the shop as mine hasn’t arrived yet (more on that later) and I wanted to get the review out there.

After the fluff we also get a poster, this is a fold out A0 (841 x 1189 mm) size poster. It’s some Nice Primaris artwork but the quality of the print and the paper is very poor. A decent quality fold-out can have the creases removed and be framed to become an amazing artwork. This however, is such poor quality, the folds have created white lines down the image. In addition, as I unfolded mine, I could see where it was already torn.

The back of the poster is again littered with the “Subscribe Now” call to action, but it does give us a decent look at what the planned 80 issue collection will award.

Previously this was the only image we had

But now (forgive my photography), we have a decent look at all the Miniatures and Scenery.

The magazine itself is a good introduction to the world of 40k. It introduces people easily with 1-2 page articles and is nice and easily digestible. Great for the younger reader. It has a rather simple language but these paragraphs are lifted almost verbatim from the booklets you get with First Strike & Know o Fear. It has chapters on the universe, the Space Marines and the Ultramarines themselves with specific detail on their squad and rank markings. It talks about the various chapters. It’s clear this whole collection will be geared toward the expectation that you will be building and painting a smurf army as opposed to converting them into wolves or some such.

The more interesting sections, (to me anyway) are the Modelling and painting sections. The first of which gives some good step-by-step on how to remove the marines from their sprue (with the clippers you don’t have) and build them. Again the build instructions are directly lifted from the guide you get in the push fit Intercessor box. Nothing to indicate removal of mould lines or drilling out barrels. But hey, the point of this magazine is really for people who have never owned any wargaming kit before. As someone experienced, it’s a bit painful and makes me cringe when I read. I want to scream at the book. MOULD LINES! DRILL YOUR BARRELS! That’s before we even get to the painting.

The painting bit kills me! It shows you how to paint step by step using the paints you have. Because of this, there’s no mention of primer, there’s no mention of a palette, no mention of thinning your paints or using 2 thin coats….. (nobody tells Duncan!)

It literally says, shake the pot, wet your brush and take the paint directly from the pot. All of this I have committed to my core belief system as plain wrong! But this guide isn’t for me, it’s for someone who just bought this magazine and wants to build and paint some cool space warriors, it’s for young-uns (see the image below). And with this in mind it’s not so bad, I took paint directly from the pot for years! I just hope they get to the point in this series where they teach you this better way.

To give it some credit though, the images in the guide do look like a decent painter has actually done these steps as shown. And achieved a decent result with only 3 colours and no primer. A show of credit for its honesty as they could have easily had a pro use some advanced techniques to take this far beyond the bodge job it generally is, just for the sake of looking good. It doesn’t stop here either, The magazine even advises we will see more on this next month where we can use the new paints to take this even further. Although next month we’re Getting Death Guard Green, I’m not sure how this will help with these minis, but the following 2 issues we get Leadbelcher & Bugmans Glow. So I’m intrigued enough just to see how this guide turns out… I may even have a go at this guide myself, even without Primer and just paint the mini’s as I get the magazines Each week.

Or I may Find Something more important to do.

In summary, the magazine itself is not aimed at experienced hobbyists, it’s filled with stuff we already know and stuff we hate people being told. I hope that this actually extends beyond the current style of painting and over the course of 80 issues will gradually introduce it’s audience into the more advanced painting techniques.

It says that in next weeks issue we can play our first game. This makes sense as we will have 2 opposing squads of Space and Plague Marines respectively, along with a set of dice. I have never been a player of games workshop games except one, once. I grew up in a small town (where Games Workshop’s head office was!) with very few interested friends. I hope that the magazine delves deep into the core game elements so that over the next year and 8 months we can be taken on a journey from Intrigue to competent wargamer. But “hope” doesn’t fit a Warhammer Conquest Magazine Review as it’s pure speculation. As someone who is getting their wife into the game, having played with the First Strike set. I’m looking forward to the Journey we can go on with this mag.

The best part of the magazine is that it comes with the binder holes already in, so if you have a ring binder or you’re a subscriber and get the free one, it’s ready to place inside. I remember collecting sonic the comic as a kid which I would hole punch and trim to fit in a binder. This ruined the artwork, which generally ruined the whole book. we all do dumb things as kids.

Warhammer Conquest Magazine Review – The Freebies

And now the meat of the article, the stuff you get.

First up, the intercessor Squad, you can pick these up from an independent stockist or on eBay for about £7.99 but the RRP is £9.99 so this is damn good value. It’s worth picking up a few of these issues just for them alone as they make great models for testing colours schemes with. I was able to get the copy I reserved and when my newsagent called his distributor to get more they said they were already sold out! They only had 1200 copies for the whole Nottinghamshire area and they are all gone. Unfortunately, that’s probably because of people doing this.

The paints are up next, and some amazing value here, considering you get 3 and each one would cost you more than the whole magazine’s price alone. They could have easily done what they did for the paint Sets and given you the mini pots but instead, they went for the full 12m pots Games Workshop sell.

Abaddon Black! Who doesn’t need more black.

Mcragge Blue, I could take it or leave it to be honest, I already have it. I may personally flip this on eBay as I don’t use it for any of my models

But the real winner here is Retributor Armour. the most expensive paint in the Citadel range at £3.50 a bottle. Here you’re getting it for £1.51 cheaper and you get all the other stuff too.

This is insane value. I have friends who work at GW and get a considerable staff discount. But it doesn’t even come close to this. It almost feels like theft!

Finally the brush, this is the weakest part for me. the standard brush is terrible. I don’t know what it’s made of but it feels more like my synthetic brushes than the Sable I like to use.

Additionally, my review here is tainted because of the condition it came in. As you can see below the bristles are bent, even after wetting and twisting, it’s still ruined. This is likely because it wasn’t secured in the box and didn’t have a protector around the bristles.

I can use it as a spare for my alcohol based paints. Aynthetic brushes are easier to clean. And I can care less about it than Ivan Drago cared about Apollo Creed – If it dies, it dies…..

Warhammer Conquest Magazine Review – The Subscription Pitch

The value of this magazine is really more to do with how it’s trying to hook you than the clear and tangible value we who are already in the hobby can see.  What they are selling you here is the next 79 issues and I’ve done a bit of digging into what comes next………..

……And got kinda nowhere.

The big issue I could see here is the publishing house behind this magazine, specifically their customer service, it is terrible.

I considered uploading the chat transcript for you all to see just how bad it was, but it makes no sense to read. Halfway through I was so frustrated I got on the phone and wanted to speak to someone. I got the answer to the question but it was just as hard to do. I’ve seen reports of people trying to cancel their subscription from the trial release, only to be ignored. When they cancelled at the bank directly they were then sent letters telling them how they owed money! This is unfortunate as the target of this magazine is new people and if they have this awful taste of customer service then it could turn them away from Games Workshop actual who have the best customer service I have ever seen in my 34 years on earth.

Issue 2 at £5.99 gets you 3 plague marines and Death Guard Green, so you’re paying more next issue to get much less than you did here, and following this, all issues are £7.99 each and at least up to issue 4 you get a sprue of Minis and a pot of paint (both still good value). When I spoke to their customer service and asked what happens beyond this. Is this sprue and paint per issue indicative of the rest of the set? As I said above, things got really frustrating as they kept giving me the explanation of “with your 7th delivery you get brushes”. (FYI, Deliveries aren’t per Issue, more on this later).  When I nailed the guy down to the base logic that I was talking about contents per “issue” he openly admitted he is unable to disclose that information. They are intentionally cagey, but they want you to be drawn in by the mystery!

So we are still unclear on the paints, The artwork in this issue (below) suggests there will be more than the 6 we already know about, there are some washes in this image too. But what is also misleading is that there are 4 Abaddon Black,  4 Macragge Blue. 3 DeathGuard Green. But there are others here, Khorne Red, Mephiston Red, Ceramite White among others. so it’s not unreasonable at this point to expect that at least some of the future issues will come with paints. But will that be at the expense of models?

What we do know is that the full 80 issues will provide us with all the following. This has already been estimated in value on Millest’s Wargaming Blog – Long Story Short, the issues will cost you £631.20 and the value of all the models and terrain is estimated around £940. A Saving of £307 before you consider the paints we know we’re getting and the free gifts you get for subscribing online.

You also have the option of a Premium subscription which nets you the following for an extra £1.50 a month (or £120 in total over 80 issues). for what they are calling Premium Wargear. But they don’t openly tell you that this comes as one piece every 5 months and you don’t know what pieces come in what order. You need to dig into their FAQ for the detail of this being every 5 months.

You get some dice, push out markers, data cards, a fold-out play mat and a box. for me, the only bit I care about is the Playmat (which I’ve had confirmed is made of card and folds out). But even this with all the other stuff is not worth £120

What they also don’t tell you very openly is that this “weekly” magazine will be delivered to you as a bulk of 4 issues “monthly” if you subscribe directly with them, which is disappointing as I was looking forward to the weekly delivery. It would be nice to have something new to look forward to each week. If you want it weekly, then you’re best off subscribing with your local newsagents. But then you need to make the trip there each week and you lose out on all the benefits you get from subscribing directly.

Again, this is really good for those early adopters who get a free issue and modelling kit with their first delivery. A binder and delivery with the second issue (great considering the issues come pre-hole-punched) a painting handle with delivery 4 a poster with delivery 5 and a set of 5 brushes with delivery 7. That’s damn good value again. But again, remember your deliveries are monthly not weekly. so when you read “delivery” read it as “month”

Another thing I was able to find out though is when your magazine will be sent. It took a long time to get this out of the guy on the phone, but it turns out that the magazine will first go to retailers and when the last issue of the month becomes available, that is when your 4 will be sent. So subscribing at your newsagent gets you 3 issues earlier than the subscribers will get them. Unlike White Dwarf where it normally arrives with you a day or two before it’s out in stores.

Warhammer Conquest Magazine Review – The Verdict

This Warhammer Conquest Magazine Review is really hard to score. On one hand, this issue is jam-packed and bursting at the seams with value. But the core element still seems quite empty at this point. A lot has gone into the bundled extras but you can see where they make savings. Terribly Poor Customer Service, Low-quality prints and generally bad advice when it comes to modelling and painting. It’s weird, as a child I only wanted the bits that come with the mag and had no interest in the magazine itself. Now I have an interest in the magazine and it’s not drawing me in at all (yet) so I’m buying it for the models and the hope.

But then again, I’m (like many of us are) not the target audience for this advice. But for the target audience (people aged between 10 & 15 presumably) the cost is a little hard to swallow. £32 a month is a steep ask for people in that age range (even their parents). The value you get from it looks great to us in the know, but for the average parent, they just see £32 a month! Surely this would have been better as a bi-weekly publication and at only £16 a month, it would be easier to swallow. I wonder who drove the decision to make it a weekly publication,  Hatchette or Games Workshop?

This is for you if you just want a huge discount on the models and some scenery. Maybe you collect these armies anyway which would make it a no-brainer. Maybe you could even split it with a friend or sell the army you don’t want on eBay?

This is for you if your new to Wargaming or have dabbled and want a weekly bump to keep you interested and educate you on how to play the game and paint the models. And if you have the £32 a month commitment you’ll need to make.

Unfortunately, this is for you if you want to buy something at a discount and flog it on eBay for a profit. Taking good magazines away from the new people who we could get into this great hobby.

This probably isn’t for you if you have no interest in Wargames or specifically these armies

So It’s amazing value with some glaring flaws. I’m excited to see what comes from my subscription. I’ll give this first issue a solid 4 out of 5 stars. The value alone would earn it a full 5 if it weren’t for the issues I’ve had with the Customer Service, Ripped Poster and Ruined Brush all of which could have been easily avoided.

What do you think of Warhammer Conquest? Have you subscribed? Will you. Please answer below in the comments

Warhammer Conquest Magazine Review – Giveaway

So, as I said above I had already subscribed to this magazine before I picked up this issue for review. So I have another copy on the way.

I’m going to be giving this away at random to one of my subscribers. all you need to do to be in with a chance to win is do one of the following (the more you do the greater your chance of winning).

• Like my Facebook Page
• Follow me on Twitter
• Follow me on Instagram
• Subscribe by Email to the news feed

On a computer, you can find the like button, follow button and email subscription link in the sidebar at the top. On mobile and tablets, you can find both below the article.

The winner will be picked on 29/09/18 and announced on Facebook & Twitter, I’ll also email you directly for postage details.

This giveaway is not just open to the UK, I will post globally, but please bear in mind that Warhammer 40,000Conquest Magazine is only available in the UK.

What did you think of this Review? Please let me know in the comments.

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Summary

Reviewer

FauxHammer

Review Date

Reviewed Item

Warhammer Conquest Magazine - Issue 01

Author Rating

4

Product Name

Warhammer Conquest Magazine - Issue 01