It’s been three months since the launch of the latest Games Workshop venture, Warhammer+, a combination of four distinct offerings: Warhammer TV, Warhammer Vault, Warhammer 40,000 app and Age of Sigmar app. Both Warhammer TV and the Warhammer Vault can be accessed via My Warhammer. As of writing, Warhammer TV remains unavailable on streaming platforms.

I wanted to update my initial Hot Take after Warhammer+ had a bit of time to mature. These are no longer my initial thoughts on a days-old subscription service. It’s been three months of weekly releases and content updates. With that in mind, let’s dive in to a continued Chicago Dice Hot Take!

Hot

Early Subscriber Bonus – After three months, it’s still a great bonus for subscribing early. I’ve spent my $10 voucher (brushes) and am happy to wait for that glorious Megaboss.

Citadel Colour Masterclass – The library of in-depth painting classes continues to grow. There are ten episodes so far with each covering a specific painting topic.

Deep Strike – This is the type of content I was hoping to see. An informal, podcast-like, round-table discussion with Games Workshop folks. There is only one episode (a talk on the first half of Angels of Death) and I want more of these. Way more. Designer interviews, chats with the ‘Eavy Metal painters, a talk with the curators of Warhammer World, etc. Those more relaxed interviews provide the kind of insight this community loves.

Honorable Mention

Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar Apps – All Warhammer+ subscribers also gain access to both the Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar app. This apps are also available as a standalone subscription product (for those that do not want Warhammer+) but seeing them included as a part of Warhammer+ is a great bonus. As someone who is just now getting back into 40k, I’m thrilled to have full app access.

Not

Warhammer Vault – I was pretty dang excited for the Warhammer Vault, but the product thus far is lacking. The load times remain unbearably slow (tablet and PC) and the navigation while reading is terrible. I’m really hoping there is some optimization made to the experience. There is also no way to search or sort while in the Vault. Your only option is to scroll until you find what you are looking for. Unlike Warhammer TV, the Vault is not a standalone app, it’s just a website. A website that you cannot download or save content. Trying to flip through an issue of White Dwarf is damn near impossible if you have to wait for it to load every four pages.

Games Workshop has an absolute mountain of content they could dump into this thing. More issues of White Dwarf, old Citadel Catalogs, Black Library books, short stories, issues of Inferno!, the list goes on. The Vault continues to be disappointing, but I still hold out hope.

The Amount of Content – Let’s be honest, it’s still thin. Although there are new releases each week on Warhammer Wednesday, we really don’t have all that much after three months. Angles of Death has concluded (10 episodes total), Astartes (it’s been on YouTube for years), Hammer and Bolter (only 6 episodes) and…that’s it. The original trailers and previews gave us a peak at so many different shows and we have only seen three of them.

My concern about the slow drip feed of content turned out to be accurate.

Battle Report – I was excited for the potential. But thus far, it has failed to deliver. Sure the production value remains high but there is something missing from the these videos. Heart? Character? They don’t feel organic or genuine. Everything is so manufactured and produced. None of these battles feel like two players engaging in an actual game of Warhammer.

The Takeaway

After three months of content Warhammer+ is surprisingly underwhelming. I think we all expected more and the team has failed to deliver. I’m disappointed in my experience thus far. As it stands, I’m an not seeing a return on the $5 per month cost ($60 upfront annual). The potential remains but we need more than just one new Angels of Death episode a week. And my goodness do they need to get on the fixes for Warhammer Vault. It’s borderline unusable.

I’ll come back in a few months to see if the issues have been resolved.