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’ve had dwarfs on the cabeza for a hot minute since I played a game of The Old World and got absolutely plastered by my opponent’s Rangers and Organ Gun, despite sniping his Thane with a Great Cannon on turn 1. Clearly something happened between that game’s time and the AoS game happening on the table next to us, as the Kharadron over there fared far, far worse than the stunties of the Old World.
The Narrative Materials
We start up in the clouds, exploring the sky-ports of the Kharadron Overlords. If you’ve played like, half of the Finals Fantasy or Chrono Trigger you’re probably familiar with the concept of a floating city, and that’s more or less what these are. During the Age of Chaos, the Duardin got the hell out of Dodge and colonized the skies, using the same sort of aether-gold-powered technology they still use today. Some of these were reinforced mining outposts, others were fortresses built from scratch. Either way, these floating cities kept the little guys safe from the predations of Chaos during that period. We get to check out a few of them too, as each has their own culture and livery. Barak-Zon in the realm of Hysh is up so high that it’s hard to breathe, and is bedecked with monuments to past victories. Barak-Nar is the sort of template a lot of these are built around, the first permanent sky-port and a hub of commerce. Barak-Mhornar is in Ulgu, where subterfuge and trickery reign supreme. It basically sounds like Dwarf Flying Gotham. Last is Barak-Thryng is more devoted to the old ways, with statuary of ancient (IE: Old World) Dwarfs around, and a reliance on older, more dangerous mining technologies.
Our next article is on one of my favorite factions that I don’t actually play, the Hedonites of Slaanesh. Decadence, luxury, excess – all the typical adjectives apply here – as these are the mortal followers of Slaanesh who scour the realms for traces of their missing god. While Slaanesh is imprisoned in some Aelf shadow-realm (I could have sworn they busted out during the Broken Realms books but I clearly forget) each act of cruelty by their followers strengthens them further. Said followers are broken into a few categories – Godseekers fittingly are seeking their god, Pretenders hope to take Slaanesh’s place, and Invaders are just looking to cause a ruckus, same as any other Chaos barbarians. A final note is made here about the habits of these hedonites, which basically serve as a whistle-stop tour of the seven deadly sins. Mostly this is recognized in their models by having a bunch of trinkets and fine cloth textures, though I feel the gluttony aspect isn’t touched upon all too often. They usually look like JoJo’s characters; muscled and slightly androgynous, with the exception of Glutos Orscollion and that one daemon from the Thricefold Discord.
With a new model is a new Battle Record, and what do ya know, it’s an Arkanaut Admiral. While they’re as good at wielding the advanced technology of the Kharadron Overlords as any, they shine in a command role.
Her ship had gone down, and a pack of Orruk archers were closing in. Amongst the wreckage, Teodora Hvalman reassured her scattered compatriots. Majo Grunginvald’s Freelancers checked their aethershot rifles, prepared to sell their lives dearly. Just then, Teodora had an idea. “Aye, we used to do this to pirates who got their beards where they don’t belong” She directed Majo to hide half his grundcorps troopers in the rocks nearby, while she and the other half would hold the wreckage. She fired a few shots at the approaching Orruk raiders, bellowing a challenge to the most ostentatious of their number. The Orruks predictably closed on downed vessel, and Teodora’s duardin opened fire. As the Orruks took cover, Majo’s crew emerged from the nearby rocks, flanking the Orruk position and gunning down the entire crew where they hid. “Like clockwork” Teodora said to herself, a smug sense of satisfaction overcoming her ruddy features.
The Hobby Materials
As I’m a Space Marine player, this may be a case of the pot calling the kettle Black Templar, but I’m starting to have a very hard time telling these Kharadron units apart. This week we get an Arkanaut Admiral; a modestly more ostentatious than usual steampunk dwarf with a gun and a hammer. Ingvar Bjerke, a supposed exemplar of this role, is quoted as saying “I pity the poor wretch who survives my pistol shot, for they shall not survive my skalfhammer.” Well, he’s got both those things. It’s nicely detailed even if the pose is a nostalgically two-dimensional “just standing around” pose. There’s a cute little pressure valve on the back of his backpack that I like, but the model doesn’t speak to me or really do that much differently from your typical Kharadron Overlord. Assembly and painting guides take him from twelve pieces on a sprue to a finished and decent looking little foot hero, but I didn’t spot any techniques or notable details we hadn’t covered in previous issues, save maybe for the gemstones on his base.
The Gaming Materials
Along with the typical warscroll for our new little man, we also get a tactics article on how to use him. He’s a hardy little melee/shooting threat, but his stunty little legs don’t get him very far or very fast. He’s generally better as a support piece, boosting your other units’ shooting. Which units that specifically affects has since changed, and now he’s more of an actual “admiral”, mostly buffing your flying boats. Dirigible boats. Dirigiboats. Is that anything?
The forces of Order are establishing a beachhead in Aqshy in the area around the realmgate we’ve been battling over, and Lord-Imperatant “Danny” Aello Bladeborn is having trouble with logistics. Orruk raids are destroying their supply trains, so Order scouts are instead forging new trails that the Orruks won’t know about. A competing Orruk raid found some of the maps these scouts had drawn, and are now destroying forests, mountains and bridges to render those maps useless. Hence the setup for this mission, Muddled Maps. This is somehow reflected in the mission special rule, where if you control more objectives than your opponent at the end of the battle round, you can run and charge in the following battle round. I don’t really see how that reflects the backstory; I think having the armies arrive in a weird deployment would probably be more reflective of this. Maybe have to split your army between two zones, or have your opponent place some of your units, I don’t know. As is, it just seems like a scenario where the rich get richer, giving compounding bonuses to the army that’s already pulling ahead on points.
Final Verdict:
I think I’ve been pretty clear with my general ambivalence towards steampunk dwarves, but I do think that if you’re into them, you’ll be in a good place this issue. It’s $35 for the Arkanaut Admiral, so if you’re looking for this beardy boi at a bargain, the cover price of $13.99 will certainly get you there and then some. The model isn’t exactly the most exciting of their number, but the painting guide will get them to an above average finish. The lore section is pretty good this go around, even if I’d like to learn more about each of these sky-ports and what makes them different. The mission unfortunately doesn’t live up to its setup, and we’re left with an issue that’s all highs and lows – high as the sky-ports above Chamon, and low as the duardin who dwell there.
See you next issue, warhams.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
