STORM OF MAGIC - Sweet Sweet Shabbadoo

Sounds fabulous

I need to preface this game description with the following:
This was my first STORM OF MAGIC game, and I played Turns 1 and 2 as a “Fair Game” (i.e. small ball). Turns 3 and 4 were transitory. Turns 5 and 6 quickly became about the “World Changing” (i.e. home runs).
You could maybe say I was foolish to ever play this game fairly – as a straight-ahead brawl. Why bother even caring about combat? All that matters is the 6 fulcrums and who controls them at the end of turn 6. Turn 1 is important, as is turn 0 (rolling for spells and deployment).

Let’s bring it back a step further, before turn 1, before turn 0 even… turn -1, I guess. Army composition. I went into this game knowing it was a STORM OF MAGIC game and fit 2 Level 4s and a Level 1 into my army. It still wasn’t enough. My level 1 blew up around turn 3.5. I kept both of my Level 4’s safe for turns 1 through 4, but the first Level 4 (using Lore of Light) got sniped off a tower by a lunatic Gobbo wearing a funny hat. I had one last Level 4 (Nehekharan) remaining at the end of the day and he got bumped off of his tower by a fat ogre holding an oversized meatstick on Turn 6.5. Sad panda. More on all of this later. The point is, I didn’t bring a knife to a gun fight. I knew this was STORM OF MAGIC and I brought 9 levels worth of casters and I still felt severely underequipped. I brought a gun to a gun fight… I really should have brought a Las-Cannon to a gunfight.

If I could do it over again, I would take a Level 4 and a bunch of level 1’s. Well, that’s for any army - really. Keep in mind, my army is special. We are the Tomb Kings. First off, I need a caster using the Lore of Nehekhara as my army Hierophant. The Lore of Nehekhara has a signature spell that lets units move again during the Magic phase. No charges. The spell is kid of sort of intended to let our army “March” as fast as other living armies. But that signature spell is really really useful in STORM OF MAGIC. It lets your wizards move into unoccupied towers. Factor in a Level 1 Liche on a Skeletal Steed and you can actually pull off some useful tricks. Teleport, move, etc. These are all small ball spells.

My experience with Tomb Kings is to build a mass of skeletal units, hide the Level 4 casters (1 Light, 1 Nehekhara) in these units for protection, and keep both (1) the casters in range of a Hierotitan to get +D3 on each spell and (2) keep the casters behind and yet in range of really good fighty stuff – typically either a 40’ish horde of Tomb Guard or a block (15+) of Ushabti with Great Weapons. This makes a great core and my goal is to grind my fighty units using buff spells. The Lore of Light has some amazing augment spells (that sadly don’t bring back fallen warriors). The Lore of Nehekhara has some good augment spells that DO bring back fallen warriors. My magic phase, if I get lucky, involves trying to cast 3 or 4 or 5 buff spells and getting 2 to stick. Small ball.

Rich (my teammate for this game) put it best. We (the Good Guys) were on the bottom half of each turn, and in our second magic phase I was debating using 2 dice or 3 dice from our pool to cast a hex spell on an enemy unit. Well, normally, -1S and -1T is good on an opposing unit of Chaos Warriors. And when said minions of Chaos are lined up against Tomb Guard, in my experience, it is huge. Now they need 5+s to wound you and your dudes keep a one better armor save. Plus, you only need 3+’s to wound them. But I was thinking small ball. This hex might take a combat that the Warriors would win by 2 or 3 and push it a bit closer to a tie… maybe even have the Tomb Guards win by 2 or 3 if I roll pretty good. Rich put it best (and I am paraphrasing) “What are you going to do with those dice? It is world changing?” with the unspoken subtext of “If it isn’t world changing, why even bother doing it”.

The bad guys had, so far, (1) teleported a 500-point Chaos War Mammoth behind our war machine batteries, they had (2) rolled out a crushing killing Purple Sun, and (3) sacrificed about 27 goblins to the evil needs of their own casters. They are swinging for the fences and I’m over here getting a base hit then laying down a bunt to advance the runners. If nothing else, this game challenged my perceptions. Yes, maybe I would win a combat against a key block of troops. And yes, maybe it would take 5 full rounds of combat over 2-1/2 turns. But does that combat even matter?

I guess it doesn’t. This game wasn’t about victory points. Instead of hordes winning massive combats, it would be incredibly cool to have a few squads of smaller units that can run around and avoid big brawls while maintaining ability to assault casters in towers. Seriously, the dozens of skeletons who died (well, do you call it dying?) and the dozens of Chaos Warriors who died and the dozens of Goblins who died all mattered very little. Your core troops just don’t matter, brah. It’s like the entirety of the game is a scenario in and of itself – just control the fulcrums. It was a most excellent change of pace.

I love Storm of Magic. I've played a handful of them throughout the years and every one has had some kind "LOL Wow" moment, so much more than a normal game. They really are a ton of fun.

I once had an exalted Bloodthirster banished because someone rolled the exact number they needed on a D6 on that unbinding cantrip.

I once had a Daemon Prince Destroy 3/4 of a lizardmen army with a single boosted purple sun and then subsequently die himself with the miscast.

I've myself been, and have firestormed enemy mages off of a fulcrum (that new fire spell is fun, it generates a LOT of hits that reroll rolls to wound if the enemy is on a fulcrum)

I've seen VERY large blocks of goblins/skaven whittled down to barely a handful because of those crazy magic items that require you to sacrifice models in the casters unit (or lose the caster)


So.much.fun.

----------I gave a Night Goblin Great Shaman the Black Book of Ibn Naggazar. This 150-point mythical artifact, gives the caster Lore Master for both Death and Shadow magic. He must attempt to cast a spell each turn or else be devoured by the book. Each time he castes a spell he must make a blood sacrifice which can be D6, 2D6, or 3D6 models from his unit depending on fulcrum control. In our game, most of these sacrifices were 2D6 and 3D6. The shaman was in a unit of 80 Night Goblins, and I sacrificed approximately 50 Goblins to the Black Book!!!