Stormbringer is a weekly hobby magazine from Hachette Partworks introducing players to Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. In this 80-week series, our intrepid magazine-receiver will be reviewing each individual issue, its included models, and gaming materials. A Premium US subscription was provided to Goonhammer for review purposes. If you want to follow along at home, US Customers can check out Stormbringer here.

Did you know the silly little rod the Lord-Imperatant has is a shooting weapon? I played half a dozen games with the dude not knowing his little marching baton was a gun. It probably cost me a game at least once. That’s what I get for being Lord-Incompetent; Lord-Impertinent towards my Lord-Imperatant.

The Narrative Materials

If you couldn’t guess from my previous vamping, this issue’s focus is on the Lord-Imperatant and his Gryph-Hound. Lords-Imperatant are frontline commanders who see the big picture of the battle, leading entire Stormhosts with their loyal Gryph-Hounds at their sides. We wouldn’t get a new unit without a Battle Record though, so let’s get rolling:

Davin Strongheart was the eye of the storm. The fires of battle – both figurative and literal raged around him, and he read them like a map. Kruleboyz on Textbook Hill; direct ballista fire there. Hobgrots emerging from Foamcore burrow; have Andrax’s Defiants form a shield wall and stop their advance. Not being Garagehaven-born, Davin could still instantly ascertain the lay of the musty, dimly-lit land. Dauntless growled at his side; so lost was Davin in his strategy that he lost sight of the Stab-Grot sneaking up behind him! The Lord-Imperatant swung his Stormcaller Baton towards the diminutive greenskin and in a bolt of lightning, crisped the little fellow. Dauntless hungrily gnawed at the charred beast, enjoying a treat for being such a good boy.

The Hobby Materials

It’s the Stormcasts’ turn to get a character with a Little Guy, and this time it’s a Lord-Imperatant and Gryph-Hound. That’s a lot of hyphens! These models are simple to construct, with minimal mould lines and seams generally hidden by fur textures. The details on both are great, even if the Lord has the haircut and facial hair of a guy named Skylar who exclusively drinks hazy IPAs. The instructions want us to use this head instead of the helmet and I recommend it – Stormcast look better with as many bare heads as possible to me. Painting him and his companion is a little intimidating, as there’s a load of textures on there. His open pose makes getting a brush around him easy, although getting under his robes to paint his legs is tricky. I also could see where a few painters would get tripped up painting around his halo.

The other inclusion this week is an STC Medium Base brush, one of the recent-ish synthetic brushes put out by Citadel. It’s immediately evident that this is a higher quality brush than the Starter that came in our first issues, with firm but springy bristles and a comfortable handle. It reminds me a lot of Army Painter brushes. They won’t blow your mind, but are certainly worth what you pay for them. It’s a solid brush for applying basecoats and washes to your models – won’t help much with fine details though.

The Gaming Materials

We’ve covered normal moves and charges so far, and this week we get to expand our movement toolset with running, retreating, piling in, and remaining stationary. Combat range is defined, and well-illustrated guides show how different kinds of moves can be used and why. We get to put these to the test with Take and Hold, this week’s mission. A Killaboss and his mob of Hobgrots are taking on our new Lord-Imperatant and his 5 Vindictors in a battle to the death. One thing I find really nice is a separate boxout pointing to useful rules we’ll likely need this battle. Knowing what rules you do and don’t need to use in a game helps while learning, and can make the introductory experience far less intimidating. I feel like the Stormcast have a firm upper hand here, but by giving both sides units that can move, shoot, and charge, there’s a lot of learning potential.

Final Verdict:

The Lord-Imperatant isn’t available on his own, but similar Stormcast characters generally cost $35 or $40. The STC M Brush in here retails for $8, so at a minimum you’re looking at $43 of stuff for $13.99. If you’re following along one issue at a time with the rules this one is fairly important, but if you don’t want (or already have) a Lord-Imperatant, this one is a far harder sell. It doesn’t contain much else but our mustachioed friend and a pretty decent brush.

See you next issue, warhams.

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