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’m gonna avoid making a joke about the sex number but I’m not gonna like it. You’re welcome, other editors. [Thank you! –Ed.]
Screw it. Horncast Erectals. [Sigh. –Ed.]
Eh, could be better.
The Narrative Materials
Things are getting hot in issue 69, and what’s hotter than Grimnir, war god of the Fyreslayers? I guess it depends on your definition of the word, but this doughty hottie (pretend those rhyme) found his home in Aqshy after the destruction of the World-That-Was. He found duardin already living there and crafted them into a civilization in his image: the Fyreslayers. Through one means or another, he and his brother Grungni were imprisoned in a mountain in Chamon, busted out by Sigmar, and they agreed to help Sigmar as thanks. Grungni went on to forge the Stormcast Eternals with Sigmar, while Grimnir went and got himself killed fighting Vulcatrix, Mother of Salamanders. Guess he died doing what he loved. Grungni, being the less hot-headed (and more alive) of the two, went into exile, then came out and helped Sigmar make the Thunderstrike armored Stormcast Eternals we now know and love. It sounds like the Kharadron Overlords sprung up independent of Grungni, not being quite so beholden to their patron Dwarf god as the Fyreslayers, but there’s not a whole lot of room for short king theology here.
The second bit of narrative content is a foldout about the Armies of Ghyran, the realm of life. Point of pride is given to the Sylvaneth here, which is fitting since Alarielle the Everqueen calls Ghyran her home. All Sylvaneth Glades have their figurative (and probably literal) roots in Ghyran, and from them come the smaller clans. While they can travel through the Realmroots to zip all over the place, they’re best at this in Ghyran. Their greatest opposition are the Maggotkin – Nurgle is a god of life, of sorts. Plagues and the ensuing life that sprouts up from death are at home here as much as anybody else, and they’ve been a persistent problem since the Age of Chaos. It’s not just these two though; Aelves of all flavors do just fine here, with the Idoneth Deepkin thriving in the underwater cities of the realm, traveling between them via magic portals called Whirlways. Of course Stormcast Eternals hang here too; Sigmar’s lightning bolts travel far, and any story without the poster faction of the game is definitely missing something. They’re responsible for driving Nurgle back at the beginning of the Age of Sigmar, with the Hallowed Knights maintaining keeps in the realm to maintain watch. Of course where there are Stormcast Eternals, there’s also the other servants of Sigmar, and numerous cities have sprouted up around the realm. Hammerhall Ghyra is likely the most famous of them, but Greywater Fastness and other, less well-defined cities also thrive in the one mortal realm that isn’t 90% different flavors of hell on earth. There’s also a map of the Everspring Swathe, a continent in Ghyran. It reminds us that nature is beautiful and not to be trifled with, and if you think it’s there to serve your interests, you’ll likely be eaten alive or swept away by a raging river. Food for thought.
The Hobby Materials
This issue contains a Domicile Shell; a late addition to our terrain collection but a welcome one. We last saw this residential friend in issue 55, and it remains a reliable and easy to construct piece of scenery. The tutorial to build and paint it is likely just a reprint from that previous issue, but if it differs it doesn’t do so in any way that makes itself obvious. Keeping that terrain train a-rollin’, the next few pages are dedicated to touching up our old Primal Lair and Azyrite Shattered Plaza sets with the new paints and techniques at our disposal. There’s a little blurb saying it’s up to you to choose whether you want to go with an easier or more challenging paint process, but either will get a good looking table of terrain ready to roll. I’d like more on that topic, since figuring out when a model is “good enough” is a skill in and of itself, but I doubt we’ll see anything so philosophical in the remaining pages of Stormbringer.
The Gaming Materials
We get a Sylvaneth Battle Trait this week, teaching us their special rules that don’t really apply anymore. Alongside this is a tactics article for the Loonboss on Giant Cave-Squig, which still rings more or less true – they’re fast, dangerous, helpful around other Squig-mounted units, and definitely on the squishy side. Skragrott the Loonking also gets a tactics article along the same lines, and he’s still good at controlling where the Bad Moon is.
The bulk of this section is this week’s mission, Flame and Fury: Arcane Ruins. The forces of Order have been getting shellacked, so are falling back to the ruins of a Sigmarite city to regroup, fortify, and strike out with renewed strength. The forces of Destruction don’t see the whole picture, but some of their shamans understand that the Sigmarites are regrouping, not retreating. What ensues is a battle over some ruins in the middle of the field to see if the forces of Order can hold on here. This is established by having units wholly within 6″ of the central Domicile Shell improve their save characteristic by 1; something cover already does, but I guess it works in all phases and probably stacks? It’s not exactly an inspired scenario, even if the four corners deployment might force players to split their armies up in an interesting way.
Final Verdict
I liked about half of this issue. The Ghyran piece was fun, giving a wide view of one of the more habitable realms out there, along with how various factions are thriving there. The rest of the lore was pretty slight, the hobby content was half useful and half recycled, and the mission felt pretty limp. It’s hard to argue about the value of the terrain piece though, which you can’t generally get at the moment. It’s $13.99 for this magazine, and I see Domicile Shells go for anywhere from $30 to $60, making this a good purchase for a would-be Sigmarite citybuilder. It’s a handy piece of terrain, and it goes together quickly. I wish the magazine had a stronger mission around it or taught some cool new ways to weather our scenery, but they can’t all be bangers.
See you next issue, warhams.
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