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.
In an attempt to procure more of this issue’s value-priced models (to be revealed shortly) I searched eBay for “Stormbringer 45” and instead found my way to vinyls of Deep Purple’s somewhat underappreciated 1974 album by the same name. It’s no Machine Head or even Perfect Strangers, but is better than any band’s ninth album has any right to be. If you take nothing else from this article – or this entire series for that matter – be it that Deep Purple rules and is more than just Smoke on the Water.
The Narrative Materials
As we’ve experienced a few times now, our narrative section begins with a recap of one of those splash release boxes – in this case Aether War, a conflict between the industrious Kharadron Overlords and the perfidious Arcanites of Tzeentch. I’m more team wizard van than team libertarian steampunk dwarf, but here we go. This story focuses around the Azure Crown, an area central to Chamon where Arcanites of Tzeentch just chill out, make plans within plans, and do Tzeentchy stuff. Endrinmaster Grolsson and his Kharadron force developed new technologies to let them venture into these magically protected skies and drive out the Tzeentchian cultists who lived there. This is unusual in that it’s a story about the forces of Order not necessarily being in the right – Grolsson just wants to mine for more aether-gold and drive these Arcanites out of their homes, and the plans of the Tzeentchian Magister Ab-Het are largely just to drive these stunties out. Things go the Kharadron way, and despite heavy losses, they send the forces of Tzeentch packing.
Next is a short story – The Gathering – which concerns our favorite little green guys, the Gloomspite Gitz. Loonboss Claggit Blacktongue is concerned at mounting pressure from Sylvaneth patrols, and goes to fetch reinforcements from Zarbag and his Gitz. To prove himself to this warband, Claggit duels a captive Fyreslayer to the death, interrupting the ginger dwarf’s previously frictionless journey through literal scores of grots. His might proven, Claggit earns the respect of Zarbag and his Gitz, and they drive back the oncoming Sylvaneth patrol. The final thought Claggit has is that he’ll need more grots, and I believe that particular shoe will find its way towards the floor in a future issue of Stormbringer.
Things get less fungal and more frightening in a foldout section on the armies of Shyish. The realm of death is home to the capital city of the Ossiarch Bonereapers empire, Gothizzar, and as you would expect quite a few of these bone golems live there. Lethis is the largest city of Order, and its seaside views attract a load of folks there to live out their final years. It’s basically Daytona Beach. Shadespire, the initial setting of Warhammer Underworlds resides here as well, with its hollowed residents trapped in endless cycles of death and rebirth. Most interesting is the Shyish Nadir, a vortex of death magic at the center of the realm. Where most Mortal Realms have more intense magic towards the edges, Shyish is flipped, with the realm becoming more stable the further you get from the center. This potentially makes space for the whole “every underworld ever conceived is real and in Shyish” since it can technically expand in every direction forever, but I’d caution one against trying to think too logically about this – or any – fantasy setting. They’re fantastical places, it’s in the name.
Lastly we get to learn about Loonsmasha Fanatics, the fungus-addled grot berserkers who get hopped up on mushrooms, swing a ball around, then invariably die in the process. These little dinguses hide in larger groups of gitz, coming forward when the time is right to go out in a tornado of violence. We’re in luck as we get a unit of these little blighters this issue, and with them is an incapacitated grot model puking on its side. Why is he yartzing? Well, let’s find out!
The last words Gabba spoke to his fellow gitz were “dese shrooms ain’t shit” before downing a second Madcap Mushroom brew. Those same words were looping in his head time after time, heave after heave, as foamy orange spittle continued to find its way up his esophagus and out towards the ground. Gyll’s Best Gitz would have to take the field without Gabba, carrying out their Fanatic penance after eating Griz Shiny-Steala’s favorite Squig.
The Hobby Materials
Our Goblinization continues this week as we get a group of five Loonsmasha Fanatics – shown above as their alternate Sporesplatta Fanatics build. These are one of those ideas that were so good that they carried over from Warhammer Fantasy entirely unchanged. The cartoonish momentum on these models is genuinely incredible, and I love the sharpness of their details and expressive, unhinged faces. Best of all is the passed out goblin puking on the ground and clutching his stomach, which, sheesh, been there pal. These are models where the biggest challenge – more than building their spindly connections or painting their various details – is simply storing them in any reasonable manner. The instructions are certainly thorough enough, outlining the various options we have while building them, and the paint guide gets a decent Night Goblin scheme done with minimal fuss.
The Gaming Materials
In a surprising omission, we don’t actually get rules for our Fanatics this issue. Considering the playthrough of the game’s mission at the end shows them being used, I believe this was likely an oversight. Instead, we just have tactics articles on the Lord-Aquilor on Gryph Charger and Knight-Judicator, both of which are cool but not the most pertinent things we could have gotten this week.
Our mission this week is Fungal Grotto, where a roving pack of Stormcast Eternals and their Sylvaneth guides have found their way into a forest and come across a pack of innocent mushroom-harvesting goblins. The Gloomspite Gitz deploy in the center while the forces of Order get to flank them on both short table edges. The psychoactive nature of the gobbo mushroom harvest is represented by Gitz and Sylvaneth models gaining a 6+ ward save when they’re contesting objectives. Since the Gitz start in the center on the objectives, I think that durability is actually a decent way to keep the player in the center here from getting absolutely mauled. That’s a common issue with missions like this and a 6+ ward is good enough to save the odd goblin, but not so reliable as to make them an unbreakable wall.
Final Verdict:
These bundles of joy would normally cost you an issue-appropriate $45, and are a genuine steal at this issue’s MSRP of $13.99. You may as well call me Krumbo Grot-Steala at that price, had I slightly less shame. This issue was an enjoyable one, and factoring in those Fanatics, will likely go down as one of the best in this magazine’s run.
See you next issue, warhams.
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