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.

In a rare instance of a poster advertising its own sequel, the cover of this issue features a classic Stormcast riding a Stardrake, while the actual focus is on Stormdrake Guard – essentially the streamlined, modernized version of the same concept.

The Narrative Materials

The only thing in this section is a conclusion to Spearhead, an ongoing story starring one Alyria Swiftwind. I had to Google my own work to see the last time she came up, and it’s looking like issue 37, so pardon me for not remembering this particular Stormcast Eternal. It’s been opposite a similar, more entertaining narrative where our respective factions (Order and Destruction) have a generic point of view character gathering up the sundry forces of their Grand Alliance throughout Stormbringer‘s run. Now, however, Alyria’s party is surrounded and attacked by Orruks, only to find themselves abandoned by their Sylvaneth allies. While the tree-spirits are busy minding their forest and never being seen again, a curiously erudite orruk impales themselves on Alyria’s spear and says the Sigmarite city in Ghur will fall, then dies. With this piece of information, Alyria leads her force through a realmgate to Ghur where a city is under siege, its walls soon to fall to a giant Orruk ballista. She charges it, gets shot, and dies, and the bolt of lightning that sends her soul back to Azyr destroys the ballista. The end. It’s fitting that a Stormcast story ends with them dying and being reforged, but despite spanning four pages, this still felt like a summary of a longer, more interesting journey. Alyria’s reforging strips her of her personality, leaving only the feelings of duty and certainty, but I don’t think there was much else there to begin with.

The Hobby Materials

This week we get the first of three parts that will make up a unit of Stormdrake Guard. I’ll freely admit I haven’t put mine together just yet – I’m not the biggest fan of their flight stands – but they are some of the coolest models in the entire range. Two bodies, four heads, two sets of wings, and a full suite of customization options for their Stormcast riders give you a load of flexibility in making them your own. The bullk of the magazine walks us through how to build a unique pair of them, even if we don’t yet have all the parts to do so. The instructions also tell us to build the Stormdrakes, riders, and bases separately, all the better to paint them in subassemblies. I’m almost always pro-subassembly, especially on models this big. Hell, leave the shields off too so you can get behind them. I’m still concerned with how we’re meant to hold them during painting, but that’s a next week problem I imagine.

The Gaming Materials

Our mission this week is A Test of Mettle. This dumb pun hinges around a unique metal from Chamon which has the ability to slow time. An Order party goes out to find more, while a Destruction warband gives chase. In an unusual move, this is reflected in a smaller game than normal – only two heroes and two troops make up each player’s army. I appreciate changing the scale of things up, especially this far into the magazine. While the mission has a pretty standard deployment and objective control scheme, units contesting an objective who don’t move, shoot, fight, or take damage during their turn can instead mine minerals for an extra point. The problem is that with just four units per player, it’s going to be extremely hard to justify doing this unless you’ve basically already tabled your opponent.

Final Verdict:

A pair of Stormdrake Guard is $127.50, and a trio of these $13.99 Stormbringer magazines will only set you back $41.97. Paying roughly a third the cost for these models is nuts, as Stormdrake Guard have continued to be staples in Stormcast armies since their introduction. The rest of the magazine is less notable – the conclusion to a narrative I’d forgotten plus a hinky mission don’t really do it for me. Still, if you want to complete your pack of Stormdrakes, you’ll need to pick this one up.

See you next issue, warhams.

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