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When looking at whether or not Warhammer+ is worth the cost, there are two costs we need to weigh. The first is the dollar value, and the second is the personal cost as it relates to supporting Games Workshop at a time when so many people are calling for a boycott.

I’ve already written up my thoughts about that kind of moral cost here, but as for the dollar cost Games Workshop announced that if you subscribe before the end of August and stay subscribed for two months you’ll get a Games Workshop voucher worth £10. This essentially makes the first two months a free trial, so I had no problem paying it.

What did I think of it after the first day?

Angels of Death — Blood and Duty

Warhammer+ is coming not without controversy, and after a preview (Hammer and Bolter) which was mostly panned by viewers, they needed something good to launch this streaming service. I’m happy to say that Angels of Death — Blood and Duty does just that.

There is something about the life and experiences of a Space Marine that you can’t get from the game, and even the Black Library often fails to capture it, but this stunning animation which lacks in nothing–great visuals, great sound, great story–is a compelling look into the life of Space Marines who are not in the midst of war. They’re only antsy to get back into the midst of war, something which eventually comes for them at the end of the first episode.

Of course, there are some stunning flashbacks to a Blood Angel taking on Genestealers in a Space Hulk-type scenario, so we do see some combat. But what is more interesting, to me, at least, is the character dynamics that we see from the main character and his chaplain (who is magnificently realized in some top-notch animation and character design).

Everything from the floating servoskulls to the emaciated navigator are pitch-perfect. An extra star goes to the lighting, which could have been abused to hide poor animation, but is instead used to great effect to enhance the scenes aboard the Sword of Baal.

With the promise that the eleven lone Blood Angels are descending in their drop pods to the surface, the next episode is bound to have some killer combat.

For a starter episode and a great way to launch Warhammer+, I give Angels of Death — Blood and Duty 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Hammer and Bolter — Death’s Hand

Hammer and Bolter wasn’t quite as successful as Angels of Death, but it was still quite good. At first I was put off by the animation style, having come from such a realistic CGI art in Angels of Death, but that worry quickly slipped away as it became quite clear that although the animation style was less realistic, the content of the video was plenty thrilling (and plenty violent).

I am not sure what to make of Hammer and Bolter, however, as this episode wasn’t related to the preview episode released last week. It may very well be that the show is intended to be short stories, and I think that’s how this will work best: there was no one in this episode worth rooting for. I couldn’t root for the Inquisitor, and I couldn’t root for the Assassin. So leaving the episode as a standalone episode without a conclusion seems like the best course for the show to take.

If that’s the case, I’m excited to see more of Hammer and Bolter, so see what other small tales they tell.

Story-wise, a plot that I expected to be bland at the beginning turned out to have plenty of twists and deceptions, which were appreciated.

For the second starter episode, it was good, not excellent, and I give it 3 stars. (That ranking may go up or down depending on what the next episode brings.)

Citadel Colour Masterclass

I watched both of the Masterclass segments, the first on painting faces and the second on wet blending. I admit that going into this I wasn’t expecting anything more than what I get from the many, many painting channels that already exist on YouTube, and, in a sense, I didn’t. There’s nothing that I learned about wet blending today that I hadn’t already learned from Miniac or Squidmar.

But what sets it apart is the delivery and the production value. Don’t get me wrong–many of the painting YouTubers do a fantastic job of presenting their subjects and filming the process. But Games Workshop has the addition of a full team of producers, camera techs, editors–and Louise has a great tutorial personality. It lacks some of the fun of YouTube channels–we don’t get to see the personalities that come through from people like Guy and Penny, for example, or Ninjon’s skits–but the delivery is solid and approachable, clear and concise.

The production values shone through in the various graphics that were presented that accompanied the classes, including illustrations about the color areas of a face, or the color wheel on the wetblending episode.

I have always been a fan of Games Workshop’s painting tutorials, but this really kicked things up a notch for people like me who are good at the basics but struggle to raise the bar on my painting.

I’m going to give the Citadel Colour Masterclasses on faces 4 stars, because it explained a lot of things that had been mysteries to me, but didn’t elucidate everything. But I’m giving the wet blending class 4.5 stars. It really made the process look like something I could easily pick up and do, regardless of the bad motor skill I have in my hands.

Battle Reports

I watched the first battle report (I didn’t have time enough in the day to watch both Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar, so I chose Warhammer 40k.) It was easily the best produced battle report that I have ever watched. I think what it really comes down to is not so much that they have good editors and production designers (though they certainly do, and they made use of their good graphics in both their introduction shots and in their overheads) but in the fact that they have a director there in the room with them.

The evidence of the director was clear. This is not to say that the battles were scripted or that they faked the results, but when something interesting would happen, they had a talking-head shot showing what the players thought about the event. There is no doubt in my mind that these quick stops in the action to film dialogue–which is never flubbed, so it was probably done over and over–indicates that this battle report easily took six hours to film to get their one hour of end product.

Everything about the battle was clear–I loved the fact that they would have quick on-screen insets of the Command Abilities and Strategems. There was never downtime where the camera was rolling and the players were trying to decide what to do. It was sharp and clear and crisp all the way through.

I imagine that the Age of Sigmar report was similar.

This is also augmented by the fact that they’re using some of the best painted models around to play with, on some of the best terrain you’re ever going to find. Though most of the battle report was from an overhead camera (well, cameras plural, because I counted at least two) there were also great close-up shots on occasion.

I easily give the Warhammer 40k battle report a 4.5. I’m not sure what it would take to get it to a 5, but I’m saving my fives for something truly spectacular.

The Warhammer 40k App

I haven’t had much of a chance to play around with the Warhammer 40k app, but so far it seems like a really good resource. It is currently rated at a 2 stars out of 5 on the App Store, but I have to think that is partially because of all the people who went into Warhammer+ planning on hating it. That said, I’m not going to give a star review to the app until I’ve had more time to look through it.

Conclusion

Ultimately, I couldn’t really be happier with the $5.99 that I paid for the Warhammer+ app. The animations were good, the painting Masterclasses were good, and the battle reports were good. Considering that I might just as well be paying a YouTuber $6 a month for their Patreon to produce similar content, I think the price is pretty close to perfect.

I don’t think that this is going to up end the Warhammer YouTube community. If anything, people who currently don’t watching online painting tutorials will want to watch more of them after seeing the Masterclass, and people who don’t watch battle reports will want to watch more of them after watching these. For battle report creators like MiniWarGaming, this is probably just going to increase their business. The same goes for painting channels.

As for the animations on YouTube…. I’ve already talked about that in another article.

I think the investment seems well worth it, and with their current deal (subscribe for two months and get a free voucher for 10 pounds at their store), this is essentially a free trial anyway. Go for it.