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!"