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.
A chill is in the air, the pumpkins are firmly spiced, and I’m getting an awful lot of ads for Shudder on Instagram. That’s right – it’s nearly Halloween! By some serendipity, this issue starts off with a bit of material around some of the mortal realms’ spookier denizens, so let’s see what they’re up to in this oddly seasonal issue of Stormbringer.
The Narrative Materials
Kicking off this mid-spooky season magazine is an article about the Nighthaunt. This ghost host with the most consists of the spirits of killers, criminals, and other ne’er do wells whose souls are consigned to endless ironic punishments by Nagash. This Homer Simpson Donut Hell manifests in a number of specific units who reflect the crimes they committed in life, such as the pictured Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief. The head of the Emerald Host murdered her family in life, and lied through crocodile tears to hide her guilt. Now she’s cursed to feel sorrow and grief forever, and radiates it outwards to all of her foes. Nighthaunt forces fight through fear, and only a blade wielded by a brave hand can truly harm them. I’m just going to say that’s why I get bodied by my wife every time she plays them against me.
We next explore Chamon, the realm of metal, and how it relates to both technology and magic. A realm of metal is an obvious place for forges, mines, metallurgy, and the more fantastical aether-gold that floats in the sky, waiting to be harvested by Kharadron airships. However, a realm with transmutation baked into its very essence is also a big draw for Tzeentch and other magical forces. There’s no map here, but little boxouts show floating islands, plains of rust, and ever-warping cities to inspire future battles and narratives. It’s kind of a hard realm to nail down on the tabletop since I imagine so much metallic texture would draw attention away from any miniatures on the board, but it’s a cool concept for a place.
It’s time for a story, and a lengthy one at that. Here is the first chapter of Nature’s Gambit, which expectedly focuses on the Sylvaneth. Myilanae Forest-Blessed leads a Sylvaneth host against a force of Gloomspite Gitz, the elegance and coordination of the tree spirits contrasting against the bouncing, colliding squigs and grots opposing them. Despite the battle going well, Myilanae and her treebros are recalled back to a clearing with the rest of their wargrove. It turns out she was being used as bait to gather the gitz in one place so the entire grove could assess the strength of the grot threat, and now she’s being recalled to defend the soulpod grove where the next generation of Sylvaneth is waiting to be born. It’s not a particularly satisfying story; about half of it consists of its main character being confused and wanting to go out and fight. I can only assume things are going to go wrong in part 2 onwards – gathering grots, orruks, or similar WAAAGH! enjoyers in one place tends to be a very bad idea, even if you think it means you can cut the head off the proverbial snake by doing so.
Our last bit of narrative content this week focuses around Branchwyches, who are wizardly commanders of Sylvaneth forces. They also serve a sort of spiritual guardian role, collecting the Lamentiri of fallen Sylvaneth. These are vessels that hold Sylvaneth souls, embedded in the bark of each one. On death, they’re removed and replanted to create new treekin. Think of them like Eldar soulstones if you’re a 40k person, or spiritual SD cards. Of course, we get a battle record for our humble soul gardener, so let’s see what we get:
Wychana of the Stony Vale sat on a stump in the Garagevale clearing, attempting to meditate and connect with the nature around her. The thorns growing from her greenwood scythe pricked her barkflesh, reminding her of her physical form and its intrinsic connection to both her magic and her wargrove. It also reminded her that the name tied to her physical form was “Wychana” and she wondered if it was always Alarielle’s plan to name her subjects so obviously for the roles they would play. Wychana would have to ask Sage Treeman the Treeman for his sage advice on the matter.
The Hobby Materials
The Branchwych model dates back to 2016, part of the initial wave of Sylvaneth releases and clearly owing a lot to the Dryads that came before her. It’s a simple model, being roughly a dozen varyingly spindly pieces, and with little in the way of extraneous detail. As a prototypical Sylvaneth foot hero, I think it’s a lovely miniature. The included paint guide gets the job done, though I think they should have gone for something higher contrast with the Bittergrub on her shoulder. Here they have it in orange and burgundy against brown, which all looks rather muddy together. I’m thinking that the more limited nature of factions in Imperium meant the folks putting the magazine together were able to work with more intentionality in choosing their colors, while the wider menagerie of armies here means they just have to work with what they’ve got.
The Gaming Materials
Along with rules and tutorials for our new Branchwych, we get a new mission: Strangle Glade. In this continuation from the previous week’s mission, our forces of Order have found a soulpod grove while a grot hunting party has them surrounded. This is represented by having the forces of Order deploy dead center on the board, while the Destruction army deploys on both short edges. To represent the dense vines and brush of the forest, any charge roll of a double is an automatic failure. This seems more frustrating than fun to be completely honest; a reversal of a mission a few weeks back where any double was an automatic 12″ charge. It’s otherwise a simple mission where you have to hold one, two, or more objectives than your opponent to score points every turn.
Final Verdict:
Curiously, the only way to procure a Branchwych on their own right now is to purchase this magazine, as she’s been locked in Spearhead Jail and can only be purchased alongside a group of her arboreal associates. For a time she was going for around the typical single character price of $25-$35, and this issue’s $13.99 cover price represents a typically good savings over that. She’s also a decent, cheap little support character, and I can see cause to take multiple in a list. The rest of this issue is pretty breezy, with some enjoyable lore and a pretty straightforward mission.
See you next issue, warhams.
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