If, however,you’re after a well-rounded, highly accessible faction – with just enough complexity and nuance to dip into if and when you fancy it – then these folksare for you. But who wants to play with models they know nothing about? Time to delve into the Stormcast Eternals’ lore, Stormhosts, characters, and tactics. It’s finally here! After 2 months and a few delays we finally get our hands on the first battletomes of 3.0, thanks to Games Workshop sending us review copies. A lot of excitement has been brewing as new (and returning) players wish to see Battletomes to properly support their Dominion/Starter Set armies and other players want an insight about what sort of things we can expect from other Battletomes going forward.

The last two are going to be rare to pull off. Pioneers of the Realm requires Cities of Sigmar units to capture objectives wholly within your opponent’s deployment, which of course is going to heavily rely on getting there and if the map has objectives in deployment zones at all. Lightning-shattered Morale requires you to make a model in a unit of Bravery 10 run. Possible if fighting undead or daemons, just depends which. As a bonus note, to my knowledge Games Workshop hasn’t announced this but the battletome has a code for redeeming the book in the Age of Sigmar App when it launches (hopefully in a few weeks) like the 40k books do. Great news for those who want a digital copy close at hand.Finally, the Hobgrot Slittaz are also available individually. These servile gitz are perfect for screening your more valuable orruks, and the kit comes with many options for musicians, standard-bearers, and leaders – or as we like to call them, bullies. Drakesworn Templar • Knight-Arcanum • Knight-Azyros • Knight-Draconis • Knight-Heraldor • Knight-Incantor • Knight-Judicator • Knight-Relictor • Knight-Venator • Knight-Vexillor • Lord-Aquilor • Lord-Arcanum • Lord-Castellant • Lord-Celestant • Lord-Exorcist • Lord-Imperatant • Lord-Ordinator • Lord-Relictor • Lord-Veritant • Praetor Speaking with a thunderous voice of authority second to only Sigmar himself, his commands ring out across the din of battle and are obeyed without a moment’s hesitation.

Knights Excelsior are for those of you who like your units large and in-charge. Annihilators, Decimators, Protectors, and Retributors all become battleline, letting you have an elite but tanky force. As you can see by the faction trait, it augments your smaller forces with better hit and wound. I’m not sure if it makes up Paladins being on the more mediocre side but it definitely will scratch an itch.I actually made life harder for myself to meet the Saturday 10am deadline by deciding to paint up more terrain. I only had a single Sigmar statue so I raided my Mortal Realms magazine sprues and dug out a second statue and some floor sections so I could take the photo I wanted. Not happy to let Sigmar’s shiny ’umies take all the glory, the Orruk Warclans are also sneaking some reinforcements onto the battlefield next week. Man-skewer Boltboyz Oh, and he’s got a 4+ ward now. So he might actually survive a whole turn of combat to fight again. Knight Draconis

Finally, in Astral Templars Vanguard-Palladors and Vanguard-Hunters become battleline. Their ability is very powerful, saving you from needing to use a Hunters of the Heartland battalion and focus those forces on other things. You can even have your Heroes and Monsters benefit, who usually can’t. While a “Monster Hunter” subfaction used to be dicey, in the new Monster heavy meta there is some value here. His face is wonderfully stern and expressive, and the detail of his armor frames it nicely. I found the detail in his beard to be a little shallow, hence the stippling. I do wish that beard was a little better defined. While I wasn’t crazy about the big halo around his head when I first saw the model, it grew on me while painting and I couldn’t imagine him without it now. If that isn’t enough Warhammer fiction for you, the MP3 audiobook of Sandy Mitchell’s Cain’s Last Stand is coming to reunite listeners with the outrageously self-centred and perhaps somewhat self-aware legend that some of you may know as Ciaphas Cain. RagnarokAngel: Overall I feel pretty good about the book. I think it’s a solid progression of the army, even if splitting up Warscrolls just further adds to the mess. Stormcast don’t feel radically new but they don’t need to. They appeal to people who want to wear big suits of armor and hit things and they can do that even better than before. End of story. Arkas Warbeast • Astreia Solbright • Aventis Firestrike • Balthas Arum • Cerrus Sentanus • Gardus Steel Soul • Gavriel Sureheart • Imperius ( Loxia) • Ionus Cryptborn • Jactos Goldenmane • Lynus Ghalmorian • Orius Adamantine • Ramus of the Shadowed Soul • Sylas Beastbane • Tarsus Bull-Heart • Thostos Bladestorm • Tyberain Vost • Vandus Hammerhand ( Calanax) • Victrian Cyrocco • Vorrus Starstrike • Zephacleas • Zenius the Dirge • Zeraphina HeldensdotterYou even have the choice of assembling this ghastly being with or without the Crown of Morgul, if you need him to go incognito. Ruins of Dol Guldur™ Well with this I think we got some confirmation about some future design decisions. Included in this book (And Orruk Warclans) is some new faction-exclusive Grand Strategies, Battle Tactics and Core Battalions. We saw some of these for Sons of Behemat and Slaves to Darkness in White Dwarf but now we know this is going to become a consistent thing. I will preface that I don’t think anything here is going to break the game but let’s explore each in depth. Grand Strategies The Warhammer Vault is updated once again, this time with White Dwarf issues from January, February, March, and April 2018, while the lore from Angel’s Blade continues on the story from last week’s addition of Traitor’s Hate – this time covering lots of lore for the Blood Angels. This Week on Warhammer Community As always there remains a lot of versatility in play, you want ranged? You got it. You want to run the tankiest guys you can as Battleline? That’s there. The addition of Dragons adds a new dimension with both two powerful Leader-Behemoths and Zippy riders who can just ruin someone’s day. If you like Stormcast as they were I think you’ll be very happy with this book. If you didn’t, and don’t care about Dragons perhaps our next review is more your speed. Orruk Warclans will be live shortly! He gets two gryph hounds, which are more useful than ever with the aura of their Warning Cry expanded a bit. Definitely an auto include in a ranged army. Knight-Relictor

Another big deal: once per battle, in your hero phase, this unit can make a move. After that, roll a dice and on a 2+ they can charge. The perfect unit to hunt foxes in the current Lumineth Meta. First up, Hammer and Bolter gives us a glimpse at Aeldari life in the mysterious In the Garden of Ghosts. At the same time, Citadel Colour Masterclass gives you all the tips you need to paint dazzlingly white armour.When I first saw this model I was expecting to leave him separate from his base, but after building him I really don’t think that’s necessary. There’s enough space between his basing details and the rest of him that it shouldn’t be hard to get a brush around. His cape also billows out nicely, so getting a brush in there shouldn’t be too difficult either. Now, onto my own experiences painting this Big Hammery Boi. In a rare move for a named character, Bastian has multiple build options. They’re subtle but a welcome way to make this guy your own. In addition to helmeted and bare heads, he can either be carrying his hammer casually in one hand or holding it in both. While the helmeted head is extremely cool, his bare head is even better. This is one of the rare times we have a BIPOC person as not only a named character, but a faction leader-level one, so taking advantage of that feels right. It also helps that it’s a damn good sculpt – all around this guy is brimming with well-realized detail and assembling him is a pretty seamless experience. And we certainly have – this has been such a good opportunity to help my son learn the core skills of this hobby. He enjoyed clipping out all the parts and fitting them together. He then sprayed the model with two primers to get a nice zenithal shade, and he tried his hand at washing with Citadel Shades and drybrushing simple highlights. He even got to discover the magic of Citadel Contrast paints. Next up, three units that you may recognise from the Dominion boxed set are on the way next week, all of which are being unleashed upon the realms as individual kits. Praetors Overall my problem is that while they are unique, they don’t really quite hit it as “great”. They’re super niche, two are dependent on which battle trait you’re running (meaning you only get 3 options). I like the idea of fewer, more interesting traits but when they’re not great it means that the power of a good Hero is reduced a lot. Big issue in a book where almost half of the roster is Heroes. Artefacts