Review Roundup: Storm of Magic

The awesome new Storm of Magic Chaos Sorcerer painted by Hawkins Miniatures.

Twitterific Talk:

The Storm of Magic is upon us!  Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to get in a game, but at this point have had a good read through the book, and have been closely following the online communities reaction to the latest Warhammer Fantasy Supplement.  And from what I've read Storm of Magic sounds like an awesome way to play Warhmmer, if you approach the game with the right attitude.  So as is usual for Fantasy Battle Roundup this post will be a summary of how the online community is reacting to the new supplement, and so if you haven't read the book, and are in need of an overview of what Storm of Magic is all about, I'd suggest you read Dan Byer's excellent overview of the supplement at Immaterium Press.  Then come on back and checkout this review roundup!

One Excuse I have for not getting in a game with the new supplement is I've actually been traveling across Canada visiting family.  Fortunately, with the help of my cell phone, and free wifi in airports I've managed to follow the reaction of the online community, and have been actively asking questions of those reporting their thoughts.  Fatolaf or Ol as some know him actually tweeted a complete Storm of Magic game using his Tomb Kings versus Empire.  After the game he suggested that he wouldn't recommend players taking a lot of artillery such as cannons because it can really ruin the monster mash fun! I think this is a great idea.  If your playing a large game your going to be dedicating a lot of time, and I think it is important to stop and think about what will make for a fun event!  

Fatolaf also suggested that games should be played at a minimum of 3500pts because some of the spells have the ability to end games early.  I like the idea of taking my normal 2500pts list, and adding in a few extra sorcerers to fill it out to 2800pts. Then finally adding in 700 points of monsters, magic items, and allies!  It keeps things pretty simple.  I did however get feedback from Amysrevenge that it would be a good idea to play a smaller test game just to get an understanding of the flow of the game and grasp of the rules.  I'm thinking this is great advice, and will hopefully be playing my first game at a smaller points level. 

Checkout how this Cockatrice was painted up on the Total Wargamer Blog.

Rare Reports:

There haven't been a ton of Storm of Magic battle reports put up on Youtube or posted to blogs, but I did manage to track down two.  The first report was written by a Swedish blogger Dennis, author of Troll Tales.  Unfortunately, the report was not a positive one, mostly due to the crazy mis-casts that took place. At one point all the wizards were turned into frogs, leaving both sides without magic for several turns, on top of that, later miscasts changed the wizards locations, so getting them off of the Fulcrums was pretty difficult.  I'm hoping Dennis gives the supplement another try as I can't really see this happening twice, or perhaps trying a group game with larger points levels would help avoid these troubles. 

Niclas, the author of Warpstoned wrote up a brief blog post on his initial thoughts of Storm of Magic.  He took a different approach to the game then Dennis, and played a massive 8000 point game with a few friends. He suggests one of the problems you're going to encounter with a game this size is how to deploy such massive armies.  Personally I like the idea of having a two minute time limit.  Both sides have only two minutes to deploy their armies.  This could help speed things along, plus it should add to the fun!  He also cautions in a game like this that there is a lot of different things to keep track of.  One of which would be all the new cantrips and cataclysm spells.  I think for my first few games I'll be taking all my sorcerers with the same mark, so that it cuts down on the amount of options I have, and so hopefully speeds up decision making!

Overall despite some challenges that come with playing larger games, and learning new rules there have been a lot of people really enjoying the new way to play Warhammer! You need to approach it as a good bit of fun, and not over analyse how your going to win the game, but have fun rolling tons of dice, and enjoying the company of good friends.  

The BadDice_Podcast twitter feed has been full of great Storm of Magic Tweets!

Thanks for reading, and please share your thoughts on Storm of Magic in the comments section!  

Mike