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.

I know we’re through Dwarf December and this could charitably be called Januardin if you really wanted it to, but Stormbringer is keeping the Kharadron khoming.

Ugh, forget I wrote any of that.

The Narrative Materials

The meat of our narrative this week concerns the Kharadron Code, the governing document of Kharadron Society. Its origins lie in the ships’ codes that governed life onboard Kharadron merchant vessels, with clear guidelines for each crew member’s role, their pay, their responsibilities, and what should happen if they’re injured or killed. I’ve got my problems with the profit-first culture of the Kharadron Overlords, but as someone with ADHD, having my role defined in airtight Duardin legalese probably wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Said roles are also broken down, with half a dozen different characters given little boxouts describing what they do. These range from the Codewrights who try and find legal loopholes to maximize profit, to the Aether-Khemists who process aether-gold into usable fuel for Kharadron technology.

With a new unit comes a new Battle Record, and this week’s concerns Thundrik’s Profiteers. Bjorgen Thundrik is an Aether-Khemist with an aethermatic atomiser that can spit out poisonous gas or suck the oxygen from the room, suffocating his enemies. I’ve met multiple people in multiple game stores who share both of these qualities.

“An allyship of convenience it is, then.” said Thundrik, signing the trade warrant. Knight-Questor Trinoveon Mordaihn nodded in agreement, understanding that Thundrik’s Profiteers would join his foray north through the Garagevale so long as they stayed on the trade route to Dusthole. Tronoveon spotted the gas-spewing death machine on Thundrik’s back and thought to negotiate further, banning its use and preserving the fields and glens from its toxic spray, but realized it was far too late. Thundrik fired his back-mounted warcrime machine ahead of them, blackening the earth and withering the grass, trees, and shrubs along the way. “No grots will ambush us now.” grunted the diminutive Duardin, his crew waddling forward into the dying earth.

The Hobby Materials

This week’s new models are Thundrik’s Profiteers, a veritable appetizer platter of Kharadron unit types in the form of a Warhammer Underworlds warband. Despite being your typical monopose easy to build models, they’ve got a load of depth and dimensionality. I honestly think a lot of that comes from them just being smaller than other models, so they can use more pieces to get that layering of detail. These also benefit from being a smidge chunkier in their aesthetic, so the pieces aren’t too fragile as you’re removing them from the frame, save for some predictable fiddliness on Kazgan Drakkskewer, the blimpy boi. The bulk of the magazine is dedicated to painting these models, and while the tutorial is thorough with some rock solid results, I’ll echo a previous point I’ve made: these models are a lot. There are so many overlapping metal textures that it can be a real challenge to paint them up and still have a model that reads clearly on the tabletop.

The Gaming Materials

We’ve got the typical arrangement of tutorials and tactics pages this week, telling us how to use our new little dudes as well as Loonsmasha Fanatics and Boingrot Bounderz. Those tactics pages are still more or less relevant, but they’re pretty surface level. Still, it’s good to set those expectations early so a newcomer doesn’t get too disappointed when their unsupported goblins die in the open. We get the opportunity to try these out in this week’s mission, Scent of Blood. Lord-Imperatant “Danny” Aello Bladeborn has sent out an Order patrol to clear a roadway, and sensing a chance for an ambush, some Destruction duders decide to cause a ruckus. This attempt to sabotage a Sigmarite public works project involves the Order player deploying in the center of the board while Destruction can catch them in a pincer deployment. I was hoping there would be some sort of mechanic simulating workers clearing the road, but instead there’s a frankly brutal special rule for the mission: If a unit has suffered any wounds that battle round, all attacks have +1 to wound them. It feels like a missed opportunity based on the mission narrative, but it’s not bad.

Final Verdict:

Honestly, I wish this came before any other Kharadron arrived in Stormbringer. These models are a better intro to the faction than anything else given their ease of assembly and variety of equipment, and that’s something Underworlds warbands are great for. At time of writing, the only way to get these little guys is in the Heroes and Hunters set of warbands, where as a quarter of a $100 set, they’d run you $25. Of course that also comes with cards and the like, but if you just wanted the minis, this $13.95 cover price is a handy little savings. The lore section is pretty foundational to the Kharadron Overlords, the paint guide is thorough, and the mission is alright. It’s workmanlike, but this is a solid issue.

See you next issue, warhams.

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