Battle report - Storm of Magic

So finally I managed to get a game of Storm of Magic in and the short version is it was absolutely fantastic. Even if you don't read the rest of this battle report rest assured it was one of the best games of Warhammer I have ever played and the most fun I have had with toy soldiers in a while. If you'd like to know why then read further! The last battle report I wrote was using battle chronicler. Whilst I enjoyed that it was a lot of work and the result was a very long winded report that could have done with being shorter for the average reader. So this time around I'm going to show off a few photos of the game and literally focus on the highlights (which after all are the best bit!) As a final caveat I'm not photographer so I apologise in advance for the quality of some of the images.

The game started out as pictured above with the Empire army and Tomb Kings facing off against each other in nice neat lines. Areas of note are mostly the bound monsters! The Tomb Kings are fielding Trolls, an Arachnarok Spider and a Giant whilst the Empire have somehow ensnared not one but two Black Dragons into their control! The Tomb Kings control the two fulcrums on their side of the table with both a level 1 in Death and Light magic whilst the Empire have a level 1 Fire Wizard and Level 1 Life Wizard protecting their fulcrums! The roll for first turn was won by the Tomb Kings and so battle commenced!

 


The first few turns saw plenty of action! With a winds of magic roll gifting them 24 the Tomb Kings wasted no time in dumping 6 dice into their Casket of Souls giving them irresistible force! The most impressive kill was a Black Dragon blasted into smithereens by a terrible leadership roll from the Empire. If that wasn't enough the Life Wizard also had his soul ripped from his body from the arcane warmachine gifting the Tomb Kings magical dominance early on! Despite these heavy blows much of the Empire lines remained unmolested and in particular their fabled artillery remained unsilenced which would have heavy consequences in the turns to come.

The Empire already reeling from their loses were met with despair upon receiving two successively poor magic phases. With the general cursing the wizards who had tricked him into believing they were up to the task he turned to his guns to readdress the balance. The artillery backed up by its Engineers remained true to form and were unerringly reliable much to the consternation of the advancing Tomb Kings! The mortars went to work and over the course of three turns blasted the Tomb King infantry to pieces. As the Liche priests turned to their incantations to raise their fallen warriors the forests surrounding them uprooted and began to attack them viscously! The Empire truly had some dark magic at work with an Arbonecromancer on the field turning the battlefield into an enemy that rivalled even the Empire guns in destructive power.

 

 

The battle had turned against the Tomb Kings although they still held their fulcrums defiantly against the enemy. Unable to support their units without the reprisal of the forests around them they began to fall back. The enemy would have to come to them and as long as they still held their fulcrums the prize would remain theirs for the taking. In retaliation the keeper of the Casket of Souls continued to bombard the enemy with flights of the tortured souls of the Tomb Kings long dead enemies. The Death Priest tapped into the Wild Magic surging around him and attempted to fell the Fire Wizard whom had moved opposite him only to lose control of his spell! Unbeknowst to him the Puzzlebox being used by his comrade had destabilised the winds around him with dire consequences. The denizens of Chaos dragged the priest of the mortuary cult kicking and screaming to a fate worse than the Undeath he already endured. Suddenly the battle had taken a very different downward turn for the Tomb Kings as this cost them their dominance of the field. As if roused by the flicker of magical energy the unit of trolls stopped picking their noses and looked upwards to see the remaining Black Dragon approaching. Ordinary a creature would think of self preservation but being the thick witted creatures they are the trolls merely rubbed their stomachs and shouted "Dinner!" to each other. The lumbering monsters crashed into the gargantuan beast vomiting their putrid acid and wounding the creature. As if surprised by the affront of actually being charged the Dragon failed to return any meaningful damage.

On the opposite flank the Empire artillery continued its chorus by felling the Arachnarok. An Empire captain on a pegasus finally cut through the remainder of a flock of carrion that had seemingly attacked him from nowhere and made his way towards the Light Wizard with all due speed. The Tomb Kings right flank collapsed when the chariots found themselves caught out of position and were annihilated as punishment for their error. The damage to the centre of the line held by the skelletons continued and they were forced to withdraw further into a building to protect their hierophant from the on coming army and their tree allies!


 

 

A small crumb of comfort was gifted to the Tomb Kings when the Casket blasted apart the Fire Wizard removing the Empire presence from the fulcrums and gifting magical dominance to the Undead once more. However with the right flank now truly folded and the remainder of the Tomb King army suffering from continued artillery fire prospects looked bleak. The Tomb King's own artillery had thus far failed to achieve any damage at all throughout the entire game as if to add a final insult to injury. A glimmer of hope came when the Tomb Guard found themselves resurrected to a decent combat strength and smashed into a block of swordsmen. The humans fell like leaves in autumn to the skilled warriors of Khemri and promptly fled the fight giving some hope to the Tomb King left flank.

After such a long time in combat the Dragon finally grew bored of all the vomit that was continually being spewed across him by the Trolls. He stirred a rumble in his own belly breathing his own corrosive venom across them in reply. The stupidity of the last remaining troll finally lifted and he decided dinner could be had elsewhere. The Dragon gave chase but was unable to catch his quarry but instead smashed headlong into the Casket of Souls, surely now the war machine would be silenced? Despite the best efforts of the Dragon however the Casket remained on the field only to be brought down by a rampaging blood forest. In his last act the Keeper of the Casket smashed the lid of the hellish tomb releasing the souls of the damned in all directions. Still sticky with troll vomit the Black Dragon was swamped by the ethereal beings and brought down adding another impressive kill for the Casket in its swan song.

In the final turn the Tomb King army lay in tatters but still the Liche Priests would not surrender their claims. In a last act of desperation the Hierophant clambered atop of a nearby fulcrum risking himself so that victory might still be bought for his King. In a act that mirrored the rest of the battle the Empire artillery reliably stepped up having failed to miss a target for the entire battle. A single cannonball sailed into the fulcrum and when the rubble had cleared the Hierophant had fallen. The resultant magical shockwave unbound the remainder of the force holding the Tomb King army together and they crumbled from the field. The lone Light Priest remained ensuring the Empire could not wrestle magical control of the area leaving the conflict to be fought again on another day....

Conclusion

My army itself got well and truly smashed which if you revert to Victory Points means I lost the scenario...but only just! Since it was a draw on objectives I'm keen to claim this as a moral victory! Either way the game itself was immensely fun and far from just a series of random events. Yes a lot of things happened and for sure alot of death occured from spells and such forth but none of it felt game breaking. If anything it seemed to add a really rich and wonderful flavour that enhanced the game beautifully. 

What went wrong / what did my opponent do well?

As usual I found myself on the receiving end of cannonballs and mortar shells and as usual they proved to be the single most devastating thing I faced off against. During the game it felt like I was in a lot better position than I actually was as I held the fulcrums but this neglected to take into account the heavy toll the Empire artillery was having on me. In furtherance the use of the Blood forests by my opponent really locked down my magic phase and prevented me from healing my troops, which for Tomb Kings is huge. 

What could I have done better?

Kill the artillery! Its something I always struggle with and certainly think Empire are my hardest match up to play against with all my armies. I'm certainly learning and I think concentrating on them a little more might pay off. As for the Blood forests? Not much really! Beyond killing the character holding the wand controlling them you just have to take your lumps. Not casting magic in them helps.... Not risking my Death wizard would have made a huge impact on the game as it effectively gave away my advantage without making my opponent have to remove him.

What did I do well?

Casket of Souls! Well...technically I can't take the credit for that but it was certainly my man of the match for taking out 2 dragons, 2 wizards and an assortment of other things. I think I targeted the right units with it even if I could have perhaps tried to do more damage to the artillery. Other than that I did make a lot of mistakes which is reflected on how I lost the rest of the fight so badly. Never the less I did remain objective focused and forced the game to Victory Points with victory actually in my grasp on turn 6, so in terms of the scenario I didn't do too badly. As always when you lose a game its difficult to highlight the positives!

Overall

A throughly enjoyable game. I think going forward I would make a few alterations to my list and try a couple of different tactics. The main thing is both I and my opponent had heaps of fun and it has left me hungry for a rematch!

Storm of Magic Review

Its been a while since I posted but I've been buried under casting projects (which I am happy to report are going well). I've got some painting progress done and I do indeed owe it to myself to get those pictures up here soon.

In any case the purpose of this post is the Storm of Magic! For those who have been living under a rock (or not on the Internet) Storm of Magic is a brand new expansion to Warhammer Fantasy Battles. In a nutshell the standard rules for Warhammer are turned topsy turvy by the addition of plenty of monsters, wizards, arcane fulcrums and of course magic. Having found a quiet couple of hours I've sat and picked through the tome cover to cover....here is what I found:

The book:

First off the book has been loving produced in the brand new Fantasy hard book format which I have already raved about like a Games Workshop groupie. We might have already been treated with the Tomb Kings and Orcs and Goblins in this fashion but wow factor hasn't worn off for me yet. As before the hardback book wins another big thumbs up from me. The full colour artwork is also little short of astounding. Here however introduces the perfect opportunity for a segway on perhaps my only negative about the book. As part of the game Storm of Magic uses a spinner which has been crafted into the front cover of the book. In essence this means the front of the book opens in two parts.

As you can see above the spinner appears to the right of the book whilst a thin strip remains on the left hand side. Now before I continue a quick note about construction. When doing something like this it is remarkably easy to come across as cheap or tacky. I am at least happy to report that GW seem to have avoided that pitfall. The spinner may be made out of plastic but it doesn't feel flimsy or too bulky. The actual spinning mechanism appears to work just fine. I'm also pleased they went with simple black plastic with a few patterns moulded into the spinner. By avoiding trying to make it look too fancy they've come up with something functional that doesn't look overdone and garish. I realise that's a lot of analysis to go into a spinner but since its an important functional aspect of Storm of Magic games (you need it to determine the ascendant winds each magic phase) I felt it was worth a little scrutiny.

In addition to the spinner itself the outlying paper (both across the back cover and front cover) feels of very high quality - almost some kind of expensive parchment. Perhaps that it just me but it seems a lot more durable and nicer to touch. That's not to say the paper inside the book is bad, it is the normal glossy finish you would expect, just a minor thing I picked up on. And that leads to the negative - at least for me. I actually like the spinner a lot as I think it is something different. It also prevents us throwing a D8 since this game is not D&D. The negative however is it robs what is a large book of a front cover when reading. Now perhaps I am being a bit nit picky there. After all I much prefer that the spinner was integrated into the book as if it had been sold separately it would have been a bit of a flop. Not to mention it means all you need is your rule book and you have everything you need for a game. But...there is a part of me that protects my books. I try to keep them as shiny and pretty as the day I bought them. I think it may well be that side of me which wonders if down the line this will lead to damage or what have you. In any case the fun news is that is the biggest gripe I have with the entire thing (and even I acknowledge why it was done). On the bright side the cover appears to be magnetised so when you fold the front cover back together it does snap into place quite neatly. This means it is only really a problem when you are reading the book and can be stored away as easily as any other hard back in your collection.

The content:

So that's the book itself out the way what about the content? The content itself reminds me of what makes Games Workshop the company they are today. And in light of the recent news surrounding price hikes and finecast its nice to see that phrase used in a positive way. After a little bit of a stuttering start on the background front the book swings in with a fantastic ruleset, some cracking items and spells as well as a glorious bestiary of monsterous regiments and creatures. Anyone who has been involved with Warhammer's sci fi cousin 40k will be familiar of the Apocalypse expansion which brought in huge super heavy tanks and critters along with data sheets of entire companies of worth of warriors and a myriad of special rules. Apocalypse was a great expansion but I really feel that Storm of Magic takes the best bits and refines it even further.

To explain this analogy take myself as a prime example. I currently have Ogres, Orcs & Goblins and Tomb Kings active in Fantasy. I could take my Ogres into a Storm of Magic game with my Arachnarok Spider, Stone Trolls and Giant as elements bound to my army. In addition I could field whole units of Tomb Kings under the 'pacts' system. Already Storm of Magic is opening access to a normal game pretty much my entire collection of Fantasy models and says "Yep use those if you like!". That is nothing short of fantastic. Sure enough GW has released new monster models and is sure to come out with quite a few more but you don't need any of these things if you don't want them. Apocalypse was similar in this regard but had more restrictive "data sheets" which meant you already had to possess X number of units to use them as an effective formation and gain their special rules. Storm of Magic does away with this notion and keeps thing simple and clean. If its a monster in the bestiary you can bind it to your army for the points indicated. If its a unit from an army book you can summon it into the game. The size of the unit will be dictated by how many of the arcane fulcrums you control. If its an Undead or Daemon army then you can make a pact with it which basically allows you to take the entire army list in addition to your own (with some minor restrictions). Its a really clean and effective way to let people tap into their entire model collection to create some cracking combinations that will lead to epic play.

Lastly we come to the wizards themselves. As you might expect from a game called Storm of Magic the game contains lots of spells! I'm a real sucker from the magic cards GW has produced and grabbed the nifty little grimoire pictured above. There's 64 new spells in Storm of Magic ranging across the 8 rulebook lores, high magic, dark magic and the secondary lores of the particular races. All in all it works out at about 2 or 3 spells per lore. All of the new spells are powerful and tag high casting values to justify it! The spells themselves tend to come in different grades of power from presence through to equilibrium and lastly to dominance. You can achieve these things by having your wizard control the arcane fulcrums on the battlefield which represents your control of the winds of magic throughout the game. If you possess a fulcrum then you are said to have a presence. If you are on even footing with your opponent then you are at equilibrium. And lastly as the name suggests dominance means you're in control of more of the arcane fulcrums than your opponent. This affects many different spells and magic items with your magic as a whole becoming much more powerful as you dominate these sites so there is plenty of incentive to go out there and capture them!

Beyond just the boon they present to your magic the fulcrums also form the objectives for the game. The person holding the most fulcrums at the end of the match wins. This is a nice touch as the games are not going to be decided on pure victory point terms and actually forces all style of armies to fight over the focal points of the game. Wizards are the only unit that can occupy a fulcrum which is ample enough reason to bring plenty along even if you're not a fan of all the shiny new spells! Whilst placing a frail caster ontop of a big perch would normally scream "shoot me" the fulcrums happily grant a wizard a 3+ ward and immunity to multiple wounds. In addition only 1 model can assault at fulcrum at any one time so you're not just going to be able to throw a 50 man block at that wizard and hope to break him on combat res. Your best bet will be a tooled up character or perhaps one of all those monsters you're allowed to take now? This shifts the role of the rest of the army to protecting the wizard to prevent him from being knocked off his magical perch while he rains down super nasty spells on your opponent. But even if you do all this perfectly...magic being magic..sooner or later something will go wrong, especially with 4D6 power dice a turn! A wizard on a fulcrum rolls once on the normal miscast table before rolling on a new miscast table that contains all sorts of weird and wonderful events. Thus the question will also be can you risk casting spells with those wizards who are holding what are the objectives set to win you the game? Not lending the magical support however will likely see your opponent open up big holes in your line with spells of his own. Happily as with any good war game there are bound to be many layers of tactics within this new mechanic!

Overall I am incredibly excited to get a game of Storm of Magic in. As soon as I do I'll be sure to post up my thoughts here. On the modelling side I'm already planning on making my own fulcrums to spice up the game and give me some good objectives to fight over. There is still plenty about the book that I have left untouched but I have rambled on enough at this point! If I had to end on a parting note that summed up how wacky and fun Storm of Magic sounds it would be this: 

"An amazing transformation has occurred. All wizards on the table (friend or enemy) are immediately transformed into frogs!"