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.
It’s a new week in a new year and you know what that means: a new fugue state to enter and a new column to write! Let’s see what the Stormbringer is bringing us this time. My money’s on storm.
The Narrative Materials
We open in Hysh, the Realm of Light. This realm consists of The Ten Paradises, consisting of one large central continent, eight evenly sized islands in a ring around it, and an even larger donut-shaped continent surrounding the whole shebang. Half of these continents are pledged to Teclis, and the rest to Tyrion, the two High Elf brothers of old who’ve ascended to godhood in the Age of Sigmar. The two were reunited in the Age of Myth after their whole dang planet blew up, and represent the two halves of elven culture. Teclis is all about wisdom, magic, and learning, while Tyrion is more concerned with the art of war. The two kept experimenting, making weird little freaks until they made sufficiently elfy aelves in the form of the Lumineth Realm-Lords. The first attempt at new elfdom was the discarded Idoneth Deepkin, who scuttled into hiding from their mean dads. I’m wondering when we’ll see Tyrion show up in Age of Sigmar, undoubtedly heralding some big new expansion for the faction.
Our focus turns downward, down into the dirty streets of a Sigmarite city. This article, entitled The Terrible Wastes, concerns safety when daemons are at the door. It’s written from the mad perspective of a street preacher, and has a very Mordheimy flavor, replete with some old Dave Gallagher artwork. The gist is that you shouldn’t go outside because monsters and daemons are out there, and the only way to purify sin and corruption is with fire. In other words: burn ’em all and let Sigmar sort ’em out. I appreciate this stuff to act as a counter to the more noble and heroic Stormcast perspective. Warhams is a world of multitudes.
Keeping that grounded perspective, we learn about Domicile Shells next. These are some of the first structures erected during a Dawnbringer Crusade, standard-issue stone and metal buildings that are built around a foundling city’s Nexus Syphon. They’re sturdy enough that they can be used as fortifications before proper walls get put up, while also serving as the homes of the people who live there. It’s cool to have a plausible explanation for why these are such beefy pieces of wargaming terrain, and adds a touch of realism to this world of gods and monsters.
Following this is a naming table for our Kharadron Overlords models to come, but a quick roll gave me the name Beatrix Bjorksson and her regiment, the Contractors. I think we’re gonna do just fine.
The Hobby Materials
This issue contains a rather meaty piece of scenery, the Domicile Shell. This represents an in-progress Sigmarite structure, so has scaffolding, winches, and pieces of stone getting hoisted up. It’s interesting to see 40k terrain, which is always ruins, to this terrain at the absolute opposite end of a building’s lifecycle. The kit goes together easily, sharing the same sort of tongue and groove system that the push-fit 40k terrain has. Similarly, it’s hefty, with nice chunky pieces that have large connection points. Depending how much time you spend on cleanup, you can build this in no time. I haven’t had time to paint mine, unfortunately, but the included painting instructions will get an above average looking piece of scenery ready to go. I haven’t kvetched too much lately about the whole “I really wish they’d address that spray primer exists” thing, but on a piece of terrain like this, it really bears repeating. Hell, my plan is to prime it black, spray it again with Grey Seer, drybrush it white, then go to town with some washes and weathering.
The Gaming Materials
While the pair of tactica articles on Tree-Revenants and Spite-Revenants aren’t anything too special, they do contain a typo, where “Martial Memories” is written as “Marital Memories”, an ability that gives them a free usage of All-out Attack or All-out Defence. If that’s your reaction to thinking about your spouse, I urge you to see a couples counselor immediately.
Our mission this week is Arcane Calamity. A Sigmarite storehouse of aetherquartz has exploded, scattering trinkets and baubles around the map. A cute little inventory sheet says it contained “1x Salt Cellar, Suspiciously Heavy (Takes four to lift)” and “Cursed Chair (Caution! Very dangerous)” which made me chuckle. The forces of Order are running around trying to gather these scattered doodads while the explosion has grabbed the attention of a nearby Destruction raiding party. This plays out in a mission with a trio of objectives where on each player’s turn, they roll to see what Mysterious Terrain effect is in play on all terrain features of the table. I like this more than picking different effects for each piece of terrain since it’s a load less bookkeeping, and with it changing each player turn, it could make for a fun, chaotic little battle.
Final Verdict:
The Domicile Shell was available on its own early in 3rd edition, as well as in the higher end Extremis starter set or Realmscape Expansion Set. On their own, they seem to have sold for anywhere between $30 and $60, but any which way you slice it, this piece of highly usable terrain is pretty great for $13.95. It’s the kind of quick to assemble and paint terrain that really lets you get a table going quickly, and at a price where filling out a good chunk of a board won’t break the bank. The rest of the issue is a good time, with a fun mission, and lore spanning the most mythic and foundational stories to the dirtiest, grimiest, boots on the ground stuff you can think of.
See you next issue, warhams.
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