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.
If you’ve noticed a falloff of my own models in these articles, it’s due to my own tryhard predilection towards painting nearly everything to the best of my ability at nearly every opportunity. This is great when I’m gunning for Warcom features with my beloved Black Templars or Stormcast Eternals, not so much when I want to get my Gloomspite Gitz army past the 200 point mark. Do not repeat my mistake of spending 8+ hours per goblin.
The Narrative Materials
Greeting us this month are the wide open wings of Gobsprakk, Mouth of Mork, and his big honkin’ bird. As a Kruleboy Swampcalla Shaman supreme, he’s far more on the kunnin’ side of the whole brutal-but-kunnin thing. He’s responsible for allying the Orruks with Kragnos, the Living Earthquake, and he claims to receive visions from Mork himself. A fun storytelling note that’s also represented on the model is that he collects bits of wizards to channel their magic power, including the claw of a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch on his staff. Even as someone who isn’t super into the Kruleboyz aesthetic, I do think he’s got some great imagery.
We’re back in the Realm of Fire, that box art-friendly realm of volcanoes and flames. Aqshy was the first stop on Sigmar’s reclamation of the realms, where they faced the Khornate legions of Korghos Khul. Last I checked was still alive as of the Dawnbringers books, even if Vandus Hammerhand exploded himself to kill him here. This bit of story comes from the Realmgate Wars and the lore accompanying the launch of Age of Sigmar, when its background was nascent and could mostly fit on the packaging for an action figure – something they weren’t even selling yet. These battles culminated in a Stormcast victory, establishing a foothold in Aqshy: the city of Hammerhal. From here came the first Dawnbringer Crusades, the Freeguild soldiery, and a whole lot of other stuff all but synonymous with modern Age of Sigmar. It’s cool to see this stuff develop in real time, fleshing out more and more and becoming a cohesive fantasy setting.
Lastly, we have a section on Skragrott, the Loonking, as well as a Battle Record for him. This self-proclaimed regent of the Gloomspite Gitz is, much like our earlier magazine-mate Gobsprakk, far more on the kunnin’ side of the Gorkamorka spectrum. He too claims to be a prophet, this time being spoken to by the Bad Moon via his personal stash of captive grot seers from his Fungal Asylum. I’m pretty sure I saw Fungal Asylum open for Badfish, Providence, Rhode Island’s tribute to Sublime.
It was terrible.
Skragrott lead from the front – not for bravery’s sake – though he’d never tell you that. Instead his reasons were far more selfish. While nominally an attempt to rally the Gloomspite clans, taking the charge merely meant Skragrott himself had a better angle to find new tenants for his Fungal Asylum.
The Hobby Materials
Skrgrott is our new model this week, and he’s an exceptionally fun one. There’s a wonderful use of curvature in the sculpt, as you can see from Bair’s paintjob above. Skragrott’s whole body and cloak form a moon sickle shape when viewed from the side, which is echoed on his staff, squigs, and chin decoration. It’s really a triumph of visual design, let alone sculpting. The model isn’t anything too complicated to put together, numbering less than 10 pieces, though some can be fiddly. Painting him is a more complicated affair, as there’s an absolute buttload of differing details and textures on this guy. Even going for a more subdued scheme, you’ll still be picking out dozens of little mushrooms and bits of jewelry. The cape squigs are also cute as hell, just adding that in here.
The Gaming Materials
We’re required to use the grot-king of the Everdank in this week’s mission: Bad Loon Rising. The forces of Order and Destruction have been fighting for a minute in this Flame and Fury battlepack, and word finally reached Skragrott of this ongoing conflict. With the forces of Order venturing out further from Aqshy and towards his own home in Chamon, Skragrott gathers up his best boyz and marches to war. This culminates in a simple scenario, where if a unit rolls a double on a charge roll, they take D3 mortal wounds. It’s meant to represent fighting under the light of the moon, tripping on rocks and the like, but I’m not really sold. It’d work for something like the magical minefields of our last few issues, but the noble golden Übermenschen of the Stormcast Eternals or graceful tree spirits of the Sylvaneth tripping over their own dicks to death just because it’s kinda dark out doesn’t really jive.
Final Verdict:
At $42, Skragrott is pretty expensive for a grot – even one so regal. At this issue’s cover price of $13.99 though? Hoowee, that’s an affordable Loonking. The lore sections this week are a bit narrow but enjoyable, but the painting tutorial is thorough as could be. I found the mission uninspired given what it’s meant to represent, but saving 66% off an extremely fun grot character does a lot to smooth over any misgivings I might have with the included scenario.
See you next issue, warhams.
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