8 replies to this topic

[hiredgun99]

Alright,the new White Dwarf is in with the preview for the new Storm of magic expansion.Let me be the first to say that EVERYTHING I've read is complete crap.You thought the magic phase was bad now,wait till you get a load of this.Flavor of the month at best,have fun trying to find a game with these rules Ron.Matt Ward truly needs to be strung up from a tree.

[Druchii Love]

So what you're saying is the rest of us will love it?

[El Nino]

hiredgun99, on 21 June 2011 - 01:39 PM, said:

Alright,the new White Dwarf is in with the preview for the new Storm of magic expansion.Let me be the first to say that EVERYTHING I've read is complete crap.You thought the magic phase was bad now,wait till you get a load of this.Flavor of the month at best,have fun trying to find a game with these rules Ron.Matt Ward truly needs to be strung up from a tree.

No need to hold back Allen. Tell us what you really think of it

[Druchii Love]

I read this months White Dwarf and to be honest I'm not sure what to think.  The new models looks great for the most part and the new terrain looks pretty well designed.  The descriptions of the Storm of Magic campaign though is bizzare.  Fulcrums (however that's supposed to be spelled) are an interesting idea but a 4D6 magic phase may break the system.  They seem to be concentrating on mages casting the really big spells but what's going to happen when a mage instead casts a bunch of piddly ones?  And by piddly I mean normal, regular spells and not the super-powered pick up your army spells I read about.  I thought Teclis was bad before...  At the same time the new scenarios sound like they *could* be fun but I really won't know until I try them.  I do have to give the GW monkeys an 'A' for effort but I think this is either going to be the best thing in a long time or potentially a game-killer.  I do think the tournament season this year will be a nightmare for everyone who plays...

Any other thoughts?

[Matt]

It's pretty simple.
If it sucks, don't use it.

I don't have access to the WD, care to break it down more?

-Matt

[Druchii Love]

There are two main aspects to the Storm of Magic expansion.  The first is the magic changes.  The magic phase is now 4D6 dice with the two highest being the dispel pool and pool limits are 24 dice each.  Mages can start on these magical focus terrain things and the goal is to control more of these foci than your opponent at the end of the game(sort of like the Watchtower scenario).  Only Wizard models can occupy these focus thingies and any wizard who does has a 4+ Ward Save, is considered in a building, and can only be assaulted by 1 model at a time.  New spells have been introduced that are castable only while on these focus things at three power levels - you control more foci than your opponent, you control the same number as your opponent, you control less than your opponent.  And these spells make Dwellers Below look tame.  We're talking 35+ to cast.  But the focus itself gives you various bonuses to cast.  Speaking of bonuses, there's a wheel of fortune in the book you spin every magic phase to determine which magic lore is in ascendance (hence the variable bonues).  So you're mage is standing on his focus thingy, he gets +4 to cast, his Lore is in acendence he gets +5 to cast, and whatever else.  There's some more to it but that's basically it.  The spells are heinous - I cast the summoning spell and summon a block of Swordmasters or a Hellcannon or a Nurgle mage even though I'm playing Skaven or Dwarves or whatever.  I cast the assault of earth and I drop that hill on your unit over there.  I cast the other spell and move two pieces of gaming board around so suddenly your opponent's army is on the wrong side of the field and facing the wrong way...  All that being said, if you miscast, you roll your regular miscast and if you're still alive you roll on another table that supposedly makes the regular miscast table look tame (all wisards on the table are turned into frogs, your focus explodes taking the mage with it and all units within so many inches take a LOT of hits, etc).

The other addition Storm of Magic adds is you get 25% of your army total as a bonus to spend exclusively on a new pile of monsters, characters, and epic magic items.  Any army can buy anything.  I think there's 47  monsters (Hydras, Dragons, Giants, Great Taurus is back, Chimera is back, Sabre Tusks, the Forgeworld War Mammoth, Fen Beasts, giant spiders, eagles, a pack of Cold Ones just to name a few...), 2 characters (Truthsayer and his opposite but I can't remember his name), and then 150+ point magic items of which you can only have 1.  Their power level is based on the number of foci you control so you really only need 1 (ie sword of dawn 200 points - double attacks, auto hit, auto wound, 2D6 wounds per swing if you control all the foci in the game).  So if you and your opponent set up to play a 2000 point game, you both are showing up with 2000 points of stuff from your army book plus 500 points of Storm of Magic stuff.

So mages sit on the focuses and blast with magic or to invoke some funky rule that knocks an opponent's wizard off his focus which your mage then occupies.  Monsters are in your army to crush the mages since only 1 model can attack the mage on his focus.  Ranked units are there to stop the monsters.  

So at 2250 points I can show up with *does the quick math* 5 Hydras.  Hmm, maybe I should just summon Teclis instead...?  My head hurts now.

[Mordante]

This actually sounds pretty cool if it is for a one off, story driven campaign type game.  It is Fantasy's version of Apoc, without needing 10,000 pts of models, which is a good way to do it I think.  I cant' see this being used in any type of competitive event, but it sounds fun for a megabattle or a few campaign games.

[Matt]

Mordante, on 24 June 2011 - 03:44 PM, said:

This actually sounds pretty cool if it is for a one off, story driven campaign type game.  It is Fantasy's version of Apoc, without needing 10,000 pts of models, which is a good way to do it I think.  I cant' see this being used in any type of competitive event, but it sounds fun for a megabattle or a few campaign games.

I got to start painting my scouting, ethereal vampire lords.  Ethereal wizard who kicks butt likes the 1 model attacking rule.

-Matt

[tmr]

also new monster stat lines - Hydra is now 220 Pt plus it gets a couple of buffs for 20pt you get poisoned chomp attckas and/or 15pts spit - auto hit shooting attacks at strenght "how many wounds are left" range 18". meh

having said that - love the new Dargon, Chaos manticor (ok wings not so sure about) and the new sorceress - guess i need to get my order in now...